The principal aim of this dictionary is to provide readers with a reference tool for the terms, techniques and major sites in archaeology, but it is also intended to reflect the constant state of flux in the discipline. This is a difficult balancing act in a concise volume. Presenting archaeology as a process rather than as a body of knowledge implies that particular sites, cultures, methodologies and conceptual models must also be described in a way that is in some sense ‘provisional’ and open to change.