Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (182 page)

Not a methodology or body of theory as such but more an attitude which focuses on the social construction of knowledge and is thus very relevant to a self-reflective discipline such as archaeology. At its simplest, critique refers to the questioning element of liberal and academic debate focusing on the open criticism of the opinions and work of others. Critique is also a powerful tradition within western philosophy that focuses on the rational reconstruction of the conditions which make language, cognition, and action possible. As such, critique aims to subject everything to scrutiny, attempting to unveil and debunk while reflecting on the constraints to which people succumb in the process of constructing knowledge.

 
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See
CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
.

 
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A private field; a small close associated with cottages and usually adjacent to them.

 
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A general and rarely used term that refers in a collective way to modern humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, of the period 35000 to 10000 years ago. The name comes from the type-site of Cro-Magnon in France where, in ad 1868, fossil human remains with
AURIGNACIAN
material culture were discovered.

 
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A group of deposits representing a geostratigraphic stage within the
PLEISTOCENE
series of the British
QUATERNARY
system, named after the site of West Runton near Cromer, Norfolk, and dating to the period 700000 to 450000 years ago. The Cromerian is usually interpreted as an interglacial warm period, some Cromerian deposits being stratified below
ANGLIAN
glacial deposits.

 
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An obsolete term formerly used to describe
MEGALITHIC TOMBS
. It is derived from the Welsh
crom meaning ‘bent’ and
llech meaning ‘flagstone’.

 
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