11th May 2007, 02:45 PM
The two should be used together:
E.g. Battle of the Little Bighorn, an iconic event in US history with a very definite image (Custer's Last Stand). Archaeology suggests a totally different interpretation, with no Last stand taking place as the troopers were rapidly squished by a massive attack.
On the other hand, the defence of britain project has shown a vast network of defensive lines across Britain - how many large undated ditches have been wrongly interpreted as medieval or earlier over the years when a study of historical sources may have shown them to be anti-tank ditches (a class of archaeological feature not even thought of by archaeologist before DoB)?
E.g. Battle of the Little Bighorn, an iconic event in US history with a very definite image (Custer's Last Stand). Archaeology suggests a totally different interpretation, with no Last stand taking place as the troopers were rapidly squished by a massive attack.
On the other hand, the defence of britain project has shown a vast network of defensive lines across Britain - how many large undated ditches have been wrongly interpreted as medieval or earlier over the years when a study of historical sources may have shown them to be anti-tank ditches (a class of archaeological feature not even thought of by archaeologist before DoB)?