ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that the notion of 'death of archaeological theory' has something important to tell about the recent history of the discipline and the way in which it has been interpreted. The term, 'the death of theory', originated in the context of literary studies, and it is important to realize the very particular significance that theory took on in relation to literary criticism during the later twentieth century. The form of theory that had the greatest impact within literary studies was post-structuralism, to the extent that for a while 'deconstruction' and 'theory' became synonymous. It is arguable that both literary criticism and archaeology are hermeneutic exercises concerned with the relationship between cultural phenomena and their contexts. If one argues that what distinguished the archaeology of the 1960s to 1990s is the assimilation of a plethora of ideas drawn from other fields of inquiry, it is easy to understand why there is presently be something of a feeling of anti-climax.
