ABSTRACT
As far as excavation is concerned the ideal situation from an archaeological point of view would be to extract and record as much historical information as possible from a site. In practice, this is rarely achieved. The natural effects of erosion and chemical action can destroy a lot of information, but human actions both past and present have been equally if not more damaging. The Victorian period is often thought of as being particularly destructive of archaeology but many recent buildings have been just as bad. Those constructed during and since the 1960s with basements and pile foundations will undoubtedly have destroyed much of what lay beneath the ground.
