The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

British archaeology since 1945
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The gap in the currently available overviews that this book was designed to address was for a
single volume that provided a panorama of the archaeology of Britain from the Stone Age
through to the nineteenth century. This was devised as a team effort to reflect the number of
fields of expertise now essential to the study of British archaeology. No single archaeologist
could realistically hope to master the entirety of the record to be considered, and the volume
additionally demonstrates the range of sub-disciplines involved, the approaches taken, and the
results obtained, both regionally and by period, by environmentalists, documentary historians
and other specialists in their areas of major interest. The book also provides the opportunity for
archaeologists to achieve the necessary awareness of data types, problems and approaches taken
in periods and geographical areas other than those in which their own interests are focused.
Any overview also requires some definition of the word ‘British’ in its title, particularly given
recent concerns on the impacts of nationalism and imperialism, as experienced in Britain during
the time of archaeology’s evolution, on the discipline’s form and the way in which its discourses
are framed (Champion 1996; Atkinson et al. 1996). This volume is intended to address the record
for Britain as a geographical region, rather than as the ‘archaeology of a nation’. In some respects
this also runs counter to differences in the practices and approaches of the various state agencies
concerned with archaeological matters, despite the fact that the primary archaeological legislation,
the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, applies universally.
The emphasis of this book is on Britain (rather than on England, but excluding Ireland) and
on a definition of archaeology that spans the full range of contemporary studies. It includes
those more modern periods for which a substantial historical record is also available, excepting
those military remains (above) now being collated in the Defence of Britain project and which will
undoubtedly appear in any future edition. Pressure of space means that there has been one
conspicuous casualty: the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods are omitted, in part because the
remains from these periods were not produced by Homo sapiens sapiens, and in part because of the
hugely long timescales of their records. Their absence also allows adequate space for medieval
and more recent times. Consideration of the record in this account thus begins with the Upper
Palaeolithic evidence from the terminal stages of the last glaciation.
Ireland, too, has its own traditions of archaeological research, often and logically embracing
both Eire and the counties of Ulster. For some periods, Irish comparanda demonstrate that links
across the Irish Sea, or along the western seaways to both Britain and Ireland, were important;
and selective instances of such features are mentioned here. A multiperiod archaeological account
of the British Isles in their north-west European setting remains a task for the future; perhaps the
current work, and recent syntheses of Irish material, will encourage such a development, which
will be made easier by the inclusion from 1997 of Irish literature in what is now British and Irish
Archaeological Bibliography.
This volume is intended as a readable introduction to British archaeology written by contributors
who not only have a formidable grasp of their own subject areas, but who also have first-hand
experience of teaching students and developing teaching from their personal research and that
of their colleagues. Their brief was to provide an attractive, readable volume rather than a clinical
textbook, one that would reflect their own enthusiasms and not be overburdened with
methodological debates and considerations of techniques. They are also all familiar with the
changes that have occurred in, and continue to impact on, teaching practices and learning strategies
in higher education, and with pressure on library resources, the need for suitable basic texts, and
the declining purchasing power of current students, particularly those entering the tertiary system
later in life.
The substantial rise in student numbers in university departments over recent years has increased
the demand for books but has also caused a shift in the types of book required. Student-centred