A Splendid Idiosyncrasy: Prehistory at Cambridge 1915-50

It is often assumed that, in Britain, archaeology has always been a university-inspired course. However, the identification of qualified scientific archaeology with a formal education is a twentieth-century phenomenon. Archaeology as a waged, educated, vocational pursuit is a recent development. At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were no degree courses in archaeology, no profession or professionals, no formal controls over recruitment, nor institutionalised avenues of entry, n...