ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses in the mid twentieth century, archaeology came under the spell of theory as Gordon Childe urged his contemporaries. It offers considerable potential in overcoming artificial barriers between the disciplines, as evidenced, for example, in the work on early imperial formations. Childe proceeds to argue that archaeologists attempt to recover artefacts that can conveniently be divided into relics and monuments. A large majority of archaeologists would accept that the collection and studying of artefacts cannot be an end in itself. As Childe argued, they are of value only in what they reveal about the nature of human cultures. Equally importantly, in a move away from the determination of broad universal patterns of human development, archaeologists were drawn to what historians described as regional studies, and thus foundations were laid for the archaeology of Mayan, Peruvian, Egyptian, Amerindian, Mesopotamian and Minoan civilizations.
