belong to a diVerent sort of undertaking. My initial aim was to include in this
book the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, but I subsequently realized
that I could not cover all the issues in a single volume. However, chapters
relating to twentieth-century archaeology have already been written and will
hopefully form part of a future volume that will most probably take a fair deal
of eVort to complete. This is a work of synthesis. Nevertheless, it is a more in-
depth study than initially intended. To a considerable extent the research
conducted for this project is based on three major types of readings. In the
Wrst place, I have explored a narrow selection of contemporaneous writings by
antiquarians, archaeologists, and other scientists and thinkers. Secondly, this
work has greatly beneWted from analyses of the history of science carried out
by anthropologists, historians, and philologists. Finally and most importantly,
I have drawn on many studies on the history of archaeology in several
languages, including English, German (to the extent that my knowledge of
the language has allowed me), and several Romance tongues (French, Italian,
and Spanish), which have helped my work tremendously and of which the
bibliography at the end of the book is, I hope, good reXection. Nonetheless,
I cannot pretend to have covered the entire literature of the subject. I am
constrained by my limited mastery of most of the world’s languages, in which
a lot of interesting information is no doubt to be found.
While I alone am responsible for what has been written, I would like to
acknowledge the great debt I owe to institutions and colleagues for providing
essential support. A small—but extremely helpful—dean’s fund in the sum-
mer of 2004 made it easier for me to use the British Library to access
information diYcult to obtain otherwise. An invaluable grant from the
AHRC allowed me extra time for research during October to December
2004, in addition to the two sabbatical terms provided by the university. This
made it possible for me to have a good,Wrst draft of the volume ready by the
time I returned to my teaching commitments. The research committee in my
department also provided me withWnancial help to pay for the editing of the
English of the original text and later helped to alleviate my administrative
commitments at the time when the volume had to be revised in light of
the readers’ comments in summer 2006. As a non-native English speaker,
for the successful completion of the project a team of English editors was
needed: I am most grateful to Anwen CaVell, Gary Campbell, Jaime
Jennings, Anne O’Connor, Megan Price, Kate Sharpe, and Angel Smith.
I am also indebted to the large number of people who, over many years,
have assisted with the writing of this project. My greatest debt is to Suzanne
Marchand and to two other anonymous readers for Oxford University Press,
who oVered insightful critiques of my manuscript. My response to their
many comments has greatly improved the quality of the book. The following
viii Preface