The beginning of wisdom

It is the best of times and it is the worst of times. On one hand, there are more resources and people involved in archaeology than ever before; there is considerable public and media interest in the subject; and there have been exciting developments in archaeologists’ uses of social theory. On the other, competition is intense for locally scarce funding; most field research is constrained by non-archaeological considerations; and fragmentation, insecurity and disenchantment are rife. The split between theory and practice has certainly widened since David Clarke’s day, whilst theory has become not so much Clarke’s unifier within the morass of empirical detail but its own basis for division and often bitter disagreement within the profession.