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‘A HOARY ANTIQUITY OF UNIMAGINED REMOTENESS’: A Historiography of Archaeological Investigations at the Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, UK.
- Katie Davenport-Mackey
- Dr Paul Richard Preston
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Description: For the most part, histories of the archaeological discoveries in Cheddar Gorge have been based on anecdotal or oral accounts. Such evidence is unreliable and if accepted uncritically may result in the spreading of inaccurate information and the perpetuation of myths that distort our knowledge of the past and ultimately obfuscate future research. Indeed, most histories of the investigations at Cheddar Gorge have been simple uncritical narratives that fail to evaluate the veracity of sources of information as well as the quality of the archaeological information obtained. Therefore, to verify the claims of archaeological discoveries in Cheddar Gorge, the aims of this paper are to undertake a historiographical analysis of archaeological studies and excavation reports and to undertake a resource assessment of the actual archaeology recovered and recorded. This paper, therefore, not only demonstrates that historical documents can provide archaeologically relevant information about past investigations at Cheddar Gorge, but also outlines a more relevant, verifiable, and unbiased history for use by current and future researchers.