ABSTRACT
Part 1 considered some of the answers archaeologists might be expected to give in answering the question of what archaeologists do. I want to stay with the question but delve deeper and present some images which are suggested when thinking of archaeology and its practices. These contain for me some of the aspirations, feelings and desires which may take us to archaeology. They are a field of erotic reference, where by erotic I mean the play of desire and attachment, energies and figurations which condense and displace the archaeological into other fields and arenas. These are root metaphors which barbed and snagging bind archaeology within its cultural medium. Teasing out mythologies. It is a wider field than archaeology the discipline; I am trying to get to some of what makes archaeology popular with more than those for whom it is a line of work. It will be clear that this is a personal pallet.
