ABSTRACT
The Iron Age, like all prehistoric periods, has been subject to changing fashions in explanation. Each generation of scholars has imposed its own views and prejudices on the evidence in an attempt to explain the inanimate scraps, which are so carefully rescued from the soil, in terms of human activity and the dynamics of society. This is, after all, what archaeology is about. Inevitably, as the database increases, new generations of archaeologists improve upon, and sometimes reject, the views of their elders. In this way all sciences advance. But for the general reader, unused to following detailed debates in obscure journals, all this can be confusing. With this in mind, in the first chapter we have traced the development of the discipline over the last century or so. In this concluding chapter we must attempt to put our current prejudices in perspective and consider possible future directions.
