Introduction
The “Speculative Phase” is so named due to the nature of speculation that was involved in archaeology before it was formed as an academic discipline and established professional practice and training. Archaeology was speculative in every way: financial, individual, exploratory, for publicity, and to aggrandize nationhood. (Unfortunately financial speculation has never left the practice of collecting antiquities.) Many of these factors continued beyond the “Speculative Phase” and played a part before it. This entry covers the move from the collection of antiquities to archaeological excavation during the nineteenth century and also considers how archaeology was sponsored as well as the role of the “explorer-archaeologist.” It argues that a shift to classificatory systems and detailed observation was informed by developments in the natural sciences. Further, it contends that “informal imperialism” in Europe and North America was crucial to the development of archaeology in...
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Challis, D. (2014). “Speculative Phase” of Archaeology. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_997
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