“The Age of Innocence”: Personal Histories of the 1960s “Digging Circuit” in Britain

Cooper, A.; Yarrow, T.

Abstract

There is a substantial literature on the use of oral history in archaeology, but there has been little consideration of the kinds of oral history and memory produced by the practice of archaeology. Through the personal narratives of a range of people involved in excavation during the 1960s in Britain, this paper explores understandings of what has been described as an archaeological “sub-culture”. It examines the ideas and interests that motivated peoples’ engagement in the “digging circuit” at this time, and looks at how these were implicated in the archaeology that was produced. We argue that such accounts do not simply expose the “subjective” context in which archaeological knowledge of these sites emerged but constitute an explicit and vital challenge to established accounts of archaeology in Britain at this time.

Citation

Cooper, A., & Yarrow, T. (2012). “The Age of Innocence”: Personal Histories of the 1960s “Digging Circuit” in Britain. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 16(2), 300-318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-012-0176-z

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2012-06
• Deposit Date: Oct 26, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 3, 2012
• Journal: International Journal of Historical Archaeology
• Print ISSN: 1092-7697
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-7748
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 300-318
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-012-0176-z
• Keywords: Excavation, Memory, Sub-culture, Professionalization.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1514720