Some classicists still deal with the ancient world as if archaeological evidence is of little relevance to their work. This can mean that territories or subjects for which there is little textual evidence can be marginalised or not studied at all. Similarly, many historical archaeologists, dissatisfied with their ancillary role, assert that material evidence for the ancient world can and should be studied independently.
This collection of pieces from international range of contributors explores in detail the seperation of the human past into history, archaeology and their related sub-disciplines. Each piece challenges the validity of this seperation and asks how we can move to a more holistic approach. While the focus is on the ancient world, particularly Greece and Rome, the lessons that emerge are significant for the study of any time and place.

Author Biography:
Eberhard Sauer is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at Keble College and the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, as well as an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

Aves Ditch is one of the best-preserved and yet most enigmatic of the ancient monuments in Oxfordshire, and it has remained a landmark to the present day. For over three centuries scholars have wondered whether it is of pre-Roman, Roman or Anglo-Saxon origin, whether it was a road or a linear earthwork and, in the latter case, what function it may have served. It is also one of the least known of the county's visible archaeological features and is seldom referred to in popular or scholarly work on the history or archaeology of the region. Previously unpublished excavations of the 1930s and further work in the 1990s have contributed much to solving this enigma, and the present book provides the final report on these excavations. With contributions by Paul Booth, Patrick Erwin, Peter Hacking, Birgitta Hoffmann, Stephanie Knight and Mark Robinson.