How do archaeologists interpret a site?
Site supervisors and excavators develop their opinions about a site as the
dig goes on. When the excavation is over a final interpretation can be
made. This involves putting together all the evidence found on site,
including structures, finds, scientific analysis and dating evidence. From
this jigsaw puzzle of different bits of evidence archaeologists try to
piece together the sequence of events on the site and how that contributes
to the story of the city as a whole.
What do they do with the information?
Archaeologists write reports for the client who commissioned them, but they
also have a responsibility to make their findings more widely known. Some
of them publish their findings in books. The Museum of London holds
exhibitions about recent discoveries. The 'High Street Londinium'
exhibition in 2001 showed a reconstructed Roman street based on evidence
from an archaeological site.
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