Michael Coe on Small Favors

I notice that archaeologists who come up with neat models for prehistoric cultural events seem to feel that they are presenting us with some sort of reality. It is lucky for these scholars that the long-dead subjects of their study cannot now contradict them.

Michael Coe. 1978. The churches on the green: A cautionary tale. In Archaeological Essays in Honor of Irving B. Rouse, edited by Robert C.Dunnell and Edwin S. Hall, pp. 75-88. Mouton, the Hague.