New techniques in Archaeology

Abstract

This paper is concerned with new, post-war, techniques being developed for archaeological dating, exploration, and interpretation. The acceleration in scientific technology, particularly since the last war, seems to me a new order of development which is without precedent. It affects not only the way we live, but the way we think because it provides new tools for basic scientific research. The application of accelerators in the study of fundamental particles, the radio telescope and space vehicles in astronomy, and the electron microscope in biology are perhaps the most familiar examples of technical apparatus which dramatically affect our knowledge and theories about the nature of our environment. They ex- pand the horizons of thought in ways which we do not yet fully understand. Technological tools for scientific investigation may well turn out to be this generation's principal contribution to learning.