Repeating the Unrepeatable Experiment Richard Bradley
The results of two British field projects allow me to discuss whether excavation represents an unrepeatable experiment. South Lodge Camp is a prehistoric enclosed settlement first examined by General Pitt-Rivers in 1893, and Croftmoraig is a stone circle that was first excavated in 1965. The original reports have been treated as an objective record of what was found, but in each case, the field observations had been influenced by the assumptions of the excavators (respectively, nineteenth century evolutionary theory and the distinction between nature and culture). Repeating the unrepeatable experiment has allowed both sites to be interpreted in new ways.
