Archaeology is the study of past cultures through artifacts, their relationships, and their contexts, allowing archaeologists to learn the age of materials, the seasons when people were present, the animals they hunted, the kinds of houses they made, how they structured their lives, and how they interacted with each other. Archaeological evidence indicates that people lived in Graham Cave for about 10,000 years, moving with the seasons to take advantage of available resources rather than staying in one place throughout the year. During most of its use, the cave probably served not as a year-round base camp but as a fall gathering camp, a wintering station, or a spring hunting camp. Archaeologists divide the long span of time from the first peoples in the Americas until contact with Europeans into periods based on changes in tool styles, which reflect visible changes in the archaeological record rather than tribes. Over the course of Graham Cave's occupancy, the tools left behind changed in form over time in response to different uses of the environment, helping scientists determine their age, how people used the environment, and how tools changed through time.
