Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2015
It is initially flattering to receive an invitation to be retrospective in ANTIQUITY. The moment of truth comes soon, however, as thought about writing begins. Was the growth of one's career and ideas about archaeology so smoothly flowing and well reasoned as casual and doubtless fatuous fancy first recalls? How fairly have earlier attempts at retrospection (and I've attempted several: 1972a, 1972b, 1974) corresponded to reality, and what, if anything, remains to be said? What follows, therefore, is offered most diffidently. My old teacher, Henri Frankfort, claimed the most important element in the formation of a career was good luck: I have certainly had my share of it.