Environmental Archaeology: The End of the Road?

Abstract

Despite attempts made in the last 15 years to revitalise it in a new light, environmental archaeology no longer has a valid interpretative value and should be left confined to the history of research. In this commentary, I discuss some of the reasons why I regard the concept to be more confusing than helpful and compare it with the state of discussion in 2001, at the time of the publication of Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose.