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Bad Archaeology

This section looks at the techniques used by Bad Archaeologists, to expose the rhetorical tricks, the suppression of contradictory evidence, the wilful misuse of genuine data and the invention of non-existent data. We also justify why it is necessary to spend time on this exercise, rather than simply leaving it alone.

Introducing Bad Archaeology

Bad Archaeology is all around us: many of its ideas are pervasive in popular culture; its publications sell more than Good Archaeology publications; its web presence is much stronger than that of Good Archaeology. What we are trying to do with this site is to show the utter vacuity of most Bad Archaeology and provide a reference point for Good (or at least, Better) Archaeology.

At the same time, we hope that this site will be a useful resource to people puzzled by various claims about the past, about apparently anomalous artefacts, about religious claims to knowledge that are in conflict with those of science and about assertions that just seem a bit dubious.

Above all, we hope that this site will entertain and amuse you!

This page was last updated on 17 August 2007
Written by: Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews and James Doeser