7th March 2006, 05:24 PM
I would argue (not the full half-hour though) that no site is objective. For one thing, it is a subjective decision to define a site in the first place. Then everything you record, or more importantly select not to record, is the result of a theoretical decision. Certainly the concept of stratigraphy altered the theoretical approach to fieldwork, and I suggest that the concept of commercial archaeology has also. As a completely different set of judgements is made, by a different process to that previously, as to whether to excavate, where and how much to excavate.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.