The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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• 6 • Ian Ralston and John Hunter<br />
<strong>The</strong> latter was a legacy <strong>of</strong>, amongst others, Mortimer Wheeler, and <strong>of</strong> Gerhard Bersu. Bersu’s<br />
ex<strong>ca</strong>vations, most celebratedly at Little Woodbury, Wiltshire (discussed in Chapter 7), allowed the<br />
import <strong>of</strong> the best <strong>of</strong> contemporary continental practice, including techniques appropriate to the<br />
recovery <strong>of</strong> the stances <strong>of</strong> former earthfast timber structures, as well as furnishing new<br />
interpretations. Wheeler’s <strong>ca</strong>mpaigns at Maiden Castle, Dorset, published mid-way through the<br />
Second World War (1943), were a demonstration <strong>of</strong> other techni<strong>ca</strong>l innovations, and provided<br />
the archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l support for Wheeler’s vision <strong>of</strong> British Iron Age developments, as well as<br />
showing the potential for public involvement in what was then a distinctly minority interest. In<br />
the 1950s, larger-s<strong>ca</strong>le open-area ex<strong>ca</strong>vations, as at Yeavering, Northumberland (Hope-Taylor<br />
1977), be<strong>ca</strong>me feasible and, particularly in subsequent de<strong>ca</strong>des, were much more numerous in the<br />
countryside. Some sites were ex<strong>ca</strong>vated at a s<strong>ca</strong>le that made them ‘laboratories’ for their own<br />
period <strong>of</strong> use, such as West Heslerton or Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire (see Chapters 10<br />
and 14 respectively); others, like Jarlsh<strong>of</strong> in Shetland (Hamilton 1956), be<strong>ca</strong>me used as a regional<br />
control for predicting structural change in multiperiod settlements. Much <strong>of</strong> the best field<br />
archaeology be<strong>ca</strong>me avowedly multidisciplinary, as the potential contribution <strong>of</strong> physi<strong>ca</strong>l and<br />
biologi<strong>ca</strong>l scientists was increasingly recognized; Grahame Clark’s promptly published project at<br />
Star Carr, Yorkshire, considered in Chapter 3, was particularly influential in this regard.<br />
Much <strong>of</strong> the pattern <strong>of</strong> cultural developments recognized, described and refined during this<br />
period, has survived into later usage. What has since changed, in some instances substantially, are<br />
the modes <strong>of</strong> explanation favoured to account for changes seen in the archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l record. <strong>The</strong><br />
use <strong>of</strong> invasion theory found much favour, particularly in periods involving recorded Germanic<br />
or S<strong>ca</strong>ndinavian movement. Although still important for some horizons and periods, its use as<br />
the primary means to account for change <strong>ca</strong>me under sustained, and <strong>of</strong>ten successful, attack<br />
(Clark 1966).<br />
From the late 1960s, a change in emphasis marked the way in which the archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l record<br />
was interpreted by a number <strong>of</strong> influential figures in the discipline. Radio<strong>ca</strong>rbon dating had<br />
already pointed towards errors in the chronology <strong>of</strong> British prehistory, and the writing <strong>of</strong> culture<br />
history was no longer the primary focus. <strong>Archaeology</strong>, in some views at least, ‘lost its innocence’<br />
(Clarke 1973) during this period, but as with the other realignments noted here, the new agenda<br />
and approaches were far <strong>from</strong> universally accepted. Important manifestos, like David L.Clarke’s<br />
<strong>An</strong>alyti<strong>ca</strong>l <strong>Archaeology</strong> (1968), drew on Ameri<strong>ca</strong>n practice more closely to link archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l<br />
interpretation to dominant perspectives within cultural anthropology, borrowing its vo<strong>ca</strong>bulary<br />
in the process. Primary aims now included the study <strong>of</strong> archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>lly recognizable changes in<br />
cultural systems, <strong>of</strong>ten interpreted <strong>from</strong> changing spatial patterns in the data, and attention was<br />
paid to those sub-systems considered most detectable <strong>from</strong> archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l evidence. Particular<br />
targets were subsistence economics and the recognition <strong>of</strong> social change; as a result, the recovery<br />
and analyses <strong>of</strong> appropriate datasets immediately be<strong>ca</strong>me <strong>of</strong> high priority. A distinctly positivist<br />
attitude to reading the archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l record is characteristic <strong>of</strong> some writing, <strong>of</strong>ten <strong>ca</strong>lled the<br />
‘New <strong>Archaeology</strong>’, during this period.<br />
<strong>The</strong> period since 1980 has seen major developments in the consideration <strong>of</strong> fresh ways <strong>of</strong><br />
approaching the archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l record, and <strong>of</strong> conveying its meanings. In contradistinction to<br />
the New <strong>Archaeology</strong> <strong>of</strong> the 1960s and 1970s, frequently termed ‘processual’, subsequent<br />
archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l theorizing <strong>ca</strong>n be labelled ‘post-processual’—a term that obscures a burgeoning<br />
range <strong>of</strong> post-modern theoreti<strong>ca</strong>l stances and agendas. Included amongst external strands that<br />
have contributed are social theory, ethnoarchaeologi<strong>ca</strong>l studies, certain kinds <strong>of</strong> histori<strong>ca</strong>l practice<br />
(particularly that concerned with long-term evolutionary rhythms and <strong>of</strong>ten associated with the<br />
<strong>An</strong>nales school in France), feminism and gender studies, and attempts to analyse material culture<br />
recovered archaeologi<strong>ca</strong>lly as encoded messages, akin to literary texts (e.g. Hodder 1986; Shanks