commercial archaeology

Nature 464 p826-7 (2010) April 8th … an explosion in commercial archaeology in Britain, ahead of construction projects, has led to a wealth of information that is not necessarily in the public view. Richard Bradley, a professor at Reading University and the author of various books on British prehistory, travelled around the country visiting the offices of contract archaeological teams and local planning officials. He unearthed dozens of reported that showed, for example, that settlement in England had remained constant during the Bronze Age and had not suffered a population crash as academics had long held.