Introduction

Abstract

This chapter begins with an epistemological critique of the ways archaeological hypotheses are formulated, developed, and then defended. It is pointed out that most interpretations in the discipline’s history have been false or are likely to be false, and that all major improvements were rejected for many years, having generally been proposed by non-archaeologists. These points are illustrated with several examples, such as those concerning the discovery of the Ice Age existence of humans; the discovery of fossil man and “missing links”; and of Ice Age cave art. It is shown that the treatment of heretics in Pleistocene archaeology resembles that of religious heretics.

Keywords: Epistemology, Pleistocene archaeology, human evolution, random sample, taphonomy, heretics, Boucher de Perthes, Fuhlrott, Sautuola, Dubois, Dart.