5.2: Archaeological Excavation Reading List


There are a number of resources that help to understand how responsibly to interact with stratified sites, apart from taking part in a fieldwork course (maybe as part of adult education), and online courses, there are also a large number of available books.

One of the amazing things about British archaeology (compared to much of the rest of the world) is the enormous number of 'how-to' (or 'why-we') books on various aspects of the discipline, far in excess of what is available anywhere else. These explain the methodology of archaeology in considerable detail. Probably there are several dozen books on archaeological fieldwork and excavation that are worth reading (and some which are not), the list below is by no means exhaustive. The Time Team webpage used to have an online reading list which included references to books about archaeological methodology, but this has disappeaered. The PAS has never produced such a list.  

 Tony Robinson and Mick Aston's 2002 book "Archaeology is Rubbish: A Beginners Guide" (Channel 4 Books) however is well worth a read, and not just for beginners.

For a more advanced understanding, I'd say the non-specialist reader need go not much further than Renfrew and Bahn's (2000) 'Archaeology: theory, methods and practice' (Thames and Hudson). 

 Martin Carver is always worth reading, so his (2009) "Archaeological Investigation" (Routledge ISBN-13: 978-0415489195) is a thought-provoking journey through various types of archaeological project. I'll include Peter Drewett's, (1999), 'Field Archaeology: an introduction', (UCL Press) out of sympathy to one of my old lecturers, but it's mostly about excavation and surface survey figures [in the book] mainly as a way of "finding sites". Back in the old days, Kevin Greene's 'Archaeology: An Introduction ' was an old favourite of mine, and it had an online resource in the form of a linked website. I admit I do not know what the newer editions are like though. John Schofield, John Carmen and Paul Belford's 2011 'Archaeological Practice in Great Britain: A Heritage Handbook' (Springer ISBN-13: 978-0387094526) might be useful for context, but is overpriced.

I'd suggest the British reader exercising a bit of caution reading US textbooks (and vice versa), there is a different approach to several aspects of fieldwork which do not always sit well with the English literature.    

Tamara Kroftova comments:
"There is no excuse for the exhibition of ignorance that we see on the previous page given the large selection of books that are readily available in Britain to 'teach yourself archaeology'. There are few - if any - countries that offer its citizens such an opportunity. The question is why so few people, wanting to 'do artefact hunting responsibly' seem to have read any of them. So often one sees some metal detectorist holding forth on 'what archaeologists do/don't do' on the basis of having merely seen some episodes of the 1990s archaeology reality show 'Time Team'. In the same way as in the collecting of portable antiquities the advice is to 'first buy the book' before attempting to acquire antiquities, the responsible artefact hunter must first have not only bought the book(s), but read them and asked questions from somebody qualified to answer them of what they don't understand, BEFORE they even take their first steps onto any search area. Can't read? Don't dig". 



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