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Often Fun, Usually Messy: Fieldwork, Recording and Higher Orders of Things

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Reconsidering Archaeological Fieldwork

Abstract

This paper has had a long gestation which began in 1997 as an article Chris Cumberpatch and I (Cumberpatch and Thorpe 1997) began to put together where we questioned the focus of the debate, played out in the pages of Antiquity, between Fekri Hassan and Ian Hodder (Hassan 1997; Hodder 1997, 1998). Later, in 2004, I was fortunate enough to be asked to contribute an overview paper to the proceedings of the Stratigraphy Conference held at York in 2001. Unfortunately the first paper was never completely finished and the publication of the Stratigraphy Conference proceedings has been cancelled. This chapter then draws together aspects of both papers, as the debate is still one with relevance today and includes an expansion of my thinking (up to June 2010) on other areas addressed by my original paper given in the Reconsidering the on-site relationship between subject, object, theory and practice session of the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference in at York in 2007.

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Acknowledgements

I owe many people in archaeology debts of inspiration, ours really is a collaborative adventure!. I am indebted to the archaeological units who let me experiment with welding together differing recording traditions on (some of) the sites I excavated for them, notably the Leicestershire Archaeology Unit and the Central Excavation Unit/Central Archaeology Service. I am also indebted to various individuals who have helped shape, either through agreement, disagreement, alternative takes, or inspiration my views about archaeology, excavation and recording over the last 25 years, among many Soughit Kouly-Abdel Nour, Max Adams, Bill Barkle, Dave Bartlett, Adam Bennison, Dr. Adrian Chadwick, Prof John Collis, Dr. Chris Cumberpatch, Jon Dunkley, Tony Howe, Dom Latham, Mike Luke, Prof. Dominic Powlesland, Sarah Reilly, Pete Sheehan, Bob Sydes, Johnny Taylor, Jo Hambly, Sarah Jennings, Dr. Pete Wilson, Tony Wilmott, Tim Williams, Richard Wooley. Chris Cumberpatch, Adrian Chadwick, and Tim Williams all commented on versions of this paper, while I am indebted to them for their comments, all and any mistakes are, of course, my own.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, c/o British Embassy, Skarpögatan 6-8, 27819, 115 93, Stockholm, Sweden

    Reuben Thorpe

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  1. Reuben Thorpe
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Correspondence to Reuben Thorpe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Art History & Archaeology, Manchester University, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom

    Hannah Cobb

  2. University of Leicester, Leicester, CB2 3DZ, United Kingdom

    Oliver J. T. Harris

  3. CFA Archaeology Ltd., Eskmills Park, Musselburgh, EH21 7PQ, United Kingdom

    Cara Jones

  4. CFA Archaeology Ltd., Eskmills Park, Musselburgh, EH21 7PQ, United Kingdom

    Philip Richardson

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Thorpe, R. (2012). Often Fun, Usually Messy: Fieldwork, Recording and Higher Orders of Things. In: Cobb, H., Harris, O., Jones, C., Richardson, P. (eds) Reconsidering Archaeological Fieldwork. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2338-6_3

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