ABSTRACT
Archaeology has a conundrum: day by day it accumulates data on a vast scale; but when we seek to tackle any specific problem, or even to present a representative picture, there are usually vast gaps in our evidence. High definition in archaeology can be found over a long period, at least from the nineteenth century. It was encouraged sometimes by exceptional preservation, because the damage done is more obvious if care is not taken. Elsewhere, ideas of focusing on stratigraphic columns, at the expense of spatial extent and of contemporaneous variability, were commonly an impediment. The use of statistics can be seen as reflecting a basic uncertainty or incompleteness of evidence and theory. To measure pattern, and to validate its existence, was possible, but often it was impossible to get to grips with behavioural questions convincingly. Hearths are features indicating a focus, and analysis centred on them is one of the most promising ways to evaluate and disentangle key elements.
