The Glastonbury Lake Village: Models and Source Criticism

Abstract

The procedures for critically assessing an excavation report are not widely discussed. Using the example of D.L. Clarke's model of the Glastonbury Lake Village, it is argued here that reinterpretation of a report on internal evidence alone is not possible. However in an adequately constructed report it should be possible to evaluate the logic by which observational data are handled, and to place the report within the context of those contemporary expectations within which the excavator worked. By this means the competence of the excavator may be assessed and the report accommodated within a more recently constructed understanding of the past.