Hardy and the Developing Science of Archaeology

Abstract

The science of archaeology came into its own during the second half of the nineteenth century; this essay evaluates Thomas Hardy’s interest in the developing science. It may be that Hardy’s concern with the pagan and Roman past of England has been treated somewhat cavalierly, even dismissed by the all-embracing term ‘antiquarianism’, as if Hardy’s investigations of that past required no more than an intermittent focusing of attention on his part. Hardy’s concern was far more than that of an antiquarian. Moreover, English archaeology was grossly amateurish in the years before General Pitt-Rivers defined what was needed if digs were to reveal the truth about man’s past; Hardy knew well the General and his work. Another look at the primary documents is worth the trouble if we are to appreciate fully the reasons why Hardy brooded so often about the past. Indeed, we can hardly assess the full power of the penultimate scene of Tess of the d’Urbervilles unless we know what generations of Englishmen thought they knew about Stonehenge.