Back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, when building restoration was popular, historical archaeology was primarily a tool of architectural
reconstruction. The role of archaeologists was to find the foundations of historic buildings and then take a back seat to architects.
The mania for reconstruction had largely subsided by the 1950’s and 1960’s. Most people entering historical archaeology during this
period came out of university anthropology departments, where they had studied prehistoric cultures. They were, by training, social
scientists, not historians, and their work tended to reflect this bias. The questions they framed and the techniques they used were designed
to help them understand, as scientists, how people behaved. But because they were treading on historical ground for which there was often
extensive written documentation, and because their own knowledge of these periods was usually limited, their contributions to American
history remained circumscribed. Their reports, highly technical and sometimes poorly written, went unread.
More recently, professional archaeologists have taken over. These researchers have sought to demonstrate that their work can be a
valuable tool not only of science but also of history, providing fresh insights into the daily lives of ordinary people whose existences might
not otherwise be so well documented. This newer emphasis on archaeology as social history has shown a great promise, and indeed work
done in this area has led to a reinterpretation of the United States past.
In Kingston, New York, for example, evidence has been uncovered that indicates that English goods were being smuggled into that city
at a time when the Dutch supposedly controlled trading in the area. And in Sacramento an excavation at the site of a fashionable
nineteenth-century hotel revealed that garbage had been stashed in the building’s basement despite sanitation laws to the contrary.
【題組】37. According to the passage, what is a relatively new focus in archaeology?
(A) investigating the recent past
(B) studying prehistoric cultures
(C) excavating ancient sites in what is now the United States
(D) comparing findings made in North America and in Europe
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