A History of Archaeological Thought

In its original edition, Bruce Trigger's book was the first ever to examine the history of archaeological thought from medieval times to the present in world-wide perspective.Now, in this new edition, he both updates the original work and introduces new archaeological perspectives and concerns.At once stimulating and even-handed, it places the development of archaeological thought and theory throughout within a broad social and intellectual framework.The successive but interacting trends apparent in archaeological thought are defined and the author seeks to determine the extent to which these trends were a reflection of the personal and collective interests of archaeologists as these relate - in the West at least - to the fluctuating fortunes of the middle classes.While subjective influences have been powerful, Professor Trigger argues that the gradual accumulation of archaeological data has exercised a growing constraint on interpretation.In turn, this has increased the objectivity of