ABSTRACT
In reflecting on what has been written so far, I would like to try and reiterate the directions in which this book has travelled. I began by establishing the theme as an investigation into several key historical and conceptual issues in archaeological practice. The development of practice was studied initially through the changes in fieldwork, and three major conceptual trends were identified: a focus on finds or artefacts, a focus on assemblages of finds and finally the concern for the social or behavioural context of finds/assemblages. It was argued that these foci are not necessarily exclusive to any one particular point in the history of archaeology but rather that, as foci, they provided a major orientation on the nature of the archaeological record and one which was linked in to the ways in which archaeological fieldwork was conducted. These foci in turn became the basis for discussion in subsequent chapters – on finds analysis, culture classification and middle range theory. From the discussion of these foci, both from a historical and conceptual perspective, it was seen that they exhibited a practical dimension in the form of disciplinary specialisations. In the case of finds analysis, such issues were tied back into finds specialisms; similarly, in the case of culture classification, the issue of area/period specialisms was questioned; and finally for middle range theory, the status of archaeology itself as a ‘specialised’ discipline distinct from others such as anthropology or history was highlighted.
