Bruce Trigger in World Archaeology

Abstract

Bruce Trigger was one of the few scholars whose work had a huge impact on the direction of world archaeology. However, he was not a leader, but more of a model, a kind of human landmark. As a result of Bruce Trigger’s work, it became possible to establish what was good archaeology and what was good in archaeology. Yet his work often took him outside the limits of archaeology. He was a prehistorian, an anthropologist-ethnologist and an archaeologist. Like his idol Gordon Childe, Bruce Trigger did not leave a school of archaeology, rather he developed, defined and promoted not only a whole direction in archaeology, but also, perhaps, many different directions. And of course, he influenced the career paths of many archaeologists.