What is an archaeological "fact"? The basic building block for archaeological interpretation is that a certain object was found in a certain context or stratum. But we ourselves cannot be present at every find. Even if we find it ourselves, can we always be sure that we have observed it correctly, or that someone has not played a trick on us and buried it the night before, or that it is not in a secondary position, having been redeposited by some human or natural process such as erosion? Immediately we are having to make value judgments. What, and whom, can we trust?
Source
Graeme Barker. 1999 Companion Encyclopedia of Archaeology, p 87-88. Routledge, London.
via: Hirst, KK. 2009. An Archaeologist's Book of Quotations. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek California.
