isn't it ultimately all a reflection of the fact that no one really thought 
archaeology through very carefully? the histories keep talking about the 
role "uniformitarianism" played, but then british archaeology especially 
jumped onto the prehistoric bandwagon without seriously considering what 
that means: "the present is the key to the past" implies first off knowledge 
about the present: ethnographic analogy, experimental archaeology, site 
formation processes, etc.; then going "from the known to the unknown" should 
have put more stress on historical archaeology, then start making bigger 
jumps to "classical antiquity" then prehistoric, but...
lord avebury & the boys, when they wrote up the relevant legislation, tried 
to ignore medieval remains in part because of some popular, egalitarian 
associations which seemed to threaten the social hierarchy...
is there maybe a list on the history of archaeology?