New behavioral and scientific directions in studying the human past, and more socially responsible objectives in museum and historic preservation work, point the way for industrial archaeologists to go beyond simply sampling industrial and engineering relics. Specifically, industrial archaeology inventories routinely approach physical objects as interesting only in themselves. This approach underestimates the potential of sites and artifacts to serve as evidence, for example, of past human behavior. With a systematic and explicitly behavioral approach to classification, however, investigators can begin exploring the dynamic spatial and historical context of industrial archaeology materials, using these materials to examine important questions about the human past.