From its antiquarian origins, the development of field method in Britain reflects attempts by archaeologists to balance the merits of survey against excavation, research against rescue, and empiricism against theorized interpretation. While early methods lacked consistency, most were based on a modified form of empiricism known as inductivism: observations in the field gathered together to create interpretative statements (Marsden 1983). Richard Colt Hoare (1758–1838), excavator of more than 500 sites in the early 1800s, memorably summed up the position by declaring that “We speak from facts not theory” as the epigraph to Ancient Wiltshire published between 1812 and 1820. Importantly, a community of practice emerged to foster a network of amenity societies.
The late nineteenth century was a watershed in the development of archaeological fieldwork. Positivism strengthened as the preferred philosophy, suiting archaeology well by perpetuating distinctions between “facts” as things that...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
References
Aitchison, K. 2010. United Kingdom archaeology in economic crisis. In Archaeology and the global economic crisis. Multiple impacts and possible solutions, ed. N. Schlanger and K. Aitchinson, 25–30. Tervuren: Culture Lab Editions. http://ace-archaeology.eu/fichiers/25Archaeology-and-the-crisis.pdf. Accessed 10 Jan 2012.
Atkinson, R.J.C. 1946. Field archaeology. London: Methuen.
Barker, P. 1977. Techniques of archaeological excavation. London: Batsford.
Carver, M. 2009. Archaeological investigation. London: Routledge.
Coles, J. 1972. Field archaeology. London: Methuen.
Crawford, O.G.S. 1960. Archaeology in the field. London: Phoenix.
Darvill, T. 2001. Traditions of landscape archaeology in Britain: Issues of time and scale. In One land, many landscapes. Papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists Fifth Annual Meeting in Bournemouth 1999, BAR International Series 987, ed. T. Darvill and M. Gojda, 33–46. Oxford: Archaeopress.
Darvill, T., K. Barrass, B. Russell, and E. Milner. 2018. Archaeology in the PPG16 Era: Investigations in England 1990–2010. Oxford: Oxbow Books & Historic England.
Hodder, I. 1999. The archaeological process. An introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.
Marsden, B. 1983. Pioneers of prehistory. Leaders and landmarks in English archaeology (1500–1900). Ormskirk: Hesketh.
Roskams, S. 2001. Excavation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Manuals in Archaeology.
Wheeler, M. 1954. Archaeology from the Earth. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Darvill, T. (2018). British Pioneers and Fieldwork Traditions. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_1536-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_1536-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities