ABSTRACT
In this brief statement I wish to address the problems surrounding the interpretation of material culture in one area of archaeological practice which, to all intents and purposes, has remained virtually untouched by recent re-orientations in archaeological theory. Despite discussion of the nature of an 'archaeological record', the practice of excavation, perhaps the closest form of past culture contact that archaeologists experience, maintains some form of immunity. Fieldwork methodology has, in fact, remained the last bastion of the 'New Archaeology'. This, as far as I can see, constitutes a major failing of a postprocessual archaeology.
