Opinion Opinion

Rumsfeldian Archaeology
“ As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know
we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say

”
we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also
unknown unknowns, The ones we don’t know we don’t know.
D H Rumsfeld, 12 February 2002

A
ccording to The Urban
Dictionary, a neologasm (a
combination of neologism
and orgasm) is the intensely
pleasurable feeling gained from having
coined a new word. If so, George W Bush,
the most misunderestimated President
in American history, just finished a very
enjoyable second term.
If it weren’t for the weapons grade
wit of his one-time henchman Donald
Rumsfeld, we’d never have taken Bush
seriously. Take, for example, Rumsfeld’s
theory of known knowns, known
unknowns and unknown unknowns.
This eloquent piece of existential poetry
was first speechified (speech + mystified)
to describe the elusive hunt for Weapons
of Mass Destruction. But try hard enough
and it can also be applied to commercial
archaeology.
In order to justify vast public
expenditure on development-led
archaeology projects, how do we
purposely find the unkown unknowns,
when we don’t even know what they
are? And, in addition to the things we
don’t know we’re looking for, what also
of the nature and integrity of the things
we do find (our known knowns), and of
the things we expect to find (our known
unknowns)?
In the beginning, it all seemed so
simple. Archaeology emerged from
an antiquarian dilettantism and
crystallised in the 19th century into
a science. General Pitt Rivers argued from many adjacent disciplines. The
for an empirical focus on the known consequence of this specialisation is
knowns of typology and stratigraphy to that field teams have lost touch with
distinguish from myth and folklore. The the latest interpretive ideas whilst
chief objective of this young discipline academics remain unaware of the latest
was to study and catalogue the finds excavation results. With no structure
from each successive digging season. to realise the potential of commercially
Through objective description of the generated information, and no
material remains, known unknowns mechanism to disseminate this widely
were transformed into known knowns. as new knowledge about the past, these
But the post-war construction frenzy unknown knowns (that is to say, things
jeopardized the status quo. Haunted some people know, that other people
by the spectre of unknown unknowns, don’t) have left us mired in Donald
innocence was lost and two distinct Rumsfeld’s existential nightmare.
cultures of archaeology were spawned. Regime change anyone? ca
The ‘Rescue Revolution’ heralded Brendon Wilkins, Site Director
the birth of a new breed of specialist Headland Archaeology (Ireland) Ltd
excavator. Their job was to box, bag, label
and record the data for a future time
of learning and leisure. A symmetrical
trend was the development in academia
of archaeological theory, conceiving a
new breed of specialist interpreter. Their
job was to construct and test ideas in
a transparent manner, predicting the
known unknowns likely to be found in
support of their theories. Despite great
advances made by each sector, there are
still huge gaps in our knowledge and this
is undermining attempts to grasp the
bigger picture.
Rescue archaeology has developed
into a commercial industry embedded
with environmental risk management, Above Brendon Wilkins presents at
while academic archaeology draws on the 2007 English Heritage Presentation
an increasingly diverse range of ideas of Heritage Research Awards.

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