The full citation, if anybody is still looking is:

James Deetz, "Archaeological Evidence of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Encounters," in Historical Archaeology in Global Perspective, ed. Lisa Falk (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), 1.


He wrote the intro and conclusion to the book, and this is from the first page of the intro (if memory serves, first paragraph).  As I recall, the context was that he had been giving a public lecture somewhere, and he had been challenged by an audience member claiming that what he was doing was “the most expensive way in the world…”  It was, of course, his straw man for setting up the justification for doing historical archaeology that followed!

Hope this helps!

Best,
Elizabeth

Elizabeth Terese Newman, PhD
Associate Professor of History, Stony Brook University
www.elizabethnewman.org

Check out my book, Biography of a Hacienda  <http://www.elizabethnewman.org/biography-of-a-hacienda.html>(University of Arizona Press 2014).



> On Jun 29, 2017, at 5:53 PM, Schuyler, Robert L <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Source:  100,000 prehistorians and most historians assuming they have ever heard of Historical Archaeology. A few historians have recently done much better - e.g. Simon Shama (2005) ROUGH CROSSING: BRITAIN, THE SLAVES AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION and David Hackett Fisher (2008) CHAMPLAIN'S DREAM.
> 
> 
> Your quote is from Deetz but I am not sure of the source. It reminds me of when I was asked to read Ivor Noel Hume's full site report ms. on Martin's Hundred for possible publication by U of Penn Press. It is a spectacular site report and, as usual, very well written about an amazing 17th century site. However, at the end Hume  says why bother ever doing such an excavation again!!. I urged its publication and do not remember if we got the author to take out that statement. It is amazing how historical archaeologists manage to shoot themselves in the foot with such statements or even define their specialization out of existence.
> 
> 
> Robert L. Schuyler
> University of Pennsylvania Museum
> 3260 South Street
> Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Barbara Voss <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2017 1:07 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: looking for source for Deetz quote
> 
> Dear colleagues:
> 
> I'm trying to track down the source of a quote often attributed to Jim Deet=
> z -
> 
> "Historical archaeology is the most expensive way in the world to learn som=
> ething we already know."
> 
> Wikipedia's Historical Archaeology page attributes this to Deetz 1991:1, bu=
> t the webpage does not list a Deetz 1991 citation. Wikipedia lists a longer=
> quote than the one I remember:
> 
> "Historical archaeology has several definitions. One of the more unfortunat=
> e ones -- which is certainly not true... is that historical archaeology is =
> the most expensive way in the world to learn something we already know."
> 
> Google failed me, so I'm turning to something better - the HistArch hive-mi=
> nd. Any leads?
> 
> Thanks!
> Barb
> 
> -----------------------------------------------
> Barbara L. Voss, Associate Professor
> Department of Anthropology
> 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 50, Main Quad
> Stanford University
> Stanford CA 94305-2034
> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
> https://web.stanford.edu/dept/anthropology/cgi-bin/web/?q=3Dnode/75
> https://stanford.academia.edu/BarbaraVoss