Notepads to Laptops: Archaeology Grows Up

Page 4 of 7

• 1. What is archaeology?
• 2. Age of antiquarians
• 3. Three-age system
• 4. The legacy of General Pitt Rivers
• 5. Controlled destruction
• 6. New techniques
• 7. Modern archaeology
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The legacy of General Pitt Rivers

Later in the 19th century General Augustus Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, often described as the father of modern archaeology, applied the skills he acquired during his military career, and an enquiring and ordered mind, to campaigns of excavation.

His investigations were carried out in order to find the answers to specific questions. His sites were mapped and photographed with great precision. He understood the principles of stratigraphy - the sequence of layers and deposits that make up an archaeological site.

'... Pitt Rivers even had his estate carpenter make detailed scale models of his sites ...'

Pitt Rivers collected objects systematically and consistently, recognising the importance of fragments that would have been ignored by earlier archaeologists as being of little intrinsic or artistic value. The location of all these objects was precisely recorded and they were then carefully described and catalogued.

On the basis of these truly scientific archaeological investigations, detailed reports were written and promptly published. A wealthy man, Pitt Rivers even had his estate carpenter make detailed scale models of his sites as an additional permanent record, in many cases showing them before and after excavation.

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Published: 2005-01-24