great flowering of British theoretical archaeology in the latter part of the twentieth century was underwritten by the clear demonstration that interpretive frameworks could no longer satisfactorily explain prehistoric Britain. Archaeologists had once spent their lives elaborating typologies (largely for the purpose of establishing relative chronologies); now, radiometric dating provided a release from all that and an opportunity to take up Gordon Childe’s challenge to seek an understanding of the nature of prehistoric societies and their particular histories. The challenge was being experienced by archaeologists all over the world, and what was happening in Britain influenced and was in turn influenced by what was happening elsewhere (particularly in the United States). This expansion of interpretive and explanatory horizons (in terms of both the sense of problem and the community of scholars working on it) quickly demonstrated that archaeologists could disagree about almost all of the issues involved in understanding prehistoric societies. The pathway that eventually led through all of the varieties of archaeology that have since been explored in an effort to resolve those disagreements (occasionally referred to by an alphabet soup of adjectives—analytical, behavioral, cultural ecological, demographic, economic ... processual and postprocessual, etc.) was opened up in the process.

British prehistoric archaeologists have also played a major role in the development of scientific applications to archaeology. Reference has already been made to the early work of the Fenland Research Committee and its impact on the development of Clark’s economic archaeology, and the period since 1960 has seen a massive development in this aspect of British prehistoric archaeology. From eric higgs’s development of paleoeconomy through the British Academy Major Research Project on the Early History of Agriculture (1967–1976)—in which faunal analysis and environmental reconstruction played a vital role in understanding prehistoric resources—to new methodologies for surveying and sampling sites, new analyses of artifacts, and new approaches to forensic archaeology, British prehistoric archaeology has made a valuable contribution to world archaeology (see Brothwell and Higgs 1962 as a very early example of this). It is worth noting that the Science Based Archaeology Committee (1975–1995) both promoted and underwrote much of this research, which will stand as one of the major legacies of British prehistoric archaeology during this period.

The social and cultural context of British archaeology also underwent massive changes after the 1960s. In Britain, as in other countries, the “applied” side of archaeology has since risen to prominence—archaeological heritage management, the interpretation of sites for cultural tourism (Jorvik is just one of a great many examples), the rapid growth in popular archaeological publishing, and specialist television coverage on programs such as Meet the Ancestors and The Time Team, which are broadcast all over the world. By the same token, the global reach of British prehistoric archaeology in professional circles is most closely associated with the activities of major British publishers, such as Cambridge University Press and Routledge, which have made it possible for the post-1960s generations of British archaeologists to be heard. Many of the archaeologists produced in this phase—as university archaeology departments grew in size and number (there are now about thirty)—found work in the heritage-management industry, which is by far the biggest source of funds for excavation and analysis in Britain, just as it is elsewhere. Others staffed the new and expanded university departments or left to fill academic posts in other countries (see Clark 1989), and the remainder swelled the ranks of a British public already strongly committed to supporting British prehistoric archaeology by participating in amateur societies, visiting sites, and maintaining a knowledgeable interest in the past.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century British prehistoric archaeologists continue to train budding professionals from all over the world. British journals such as Antiquity, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, and World Archaeology continue to assist in perpetuating the idea of world prehistory, and organizations such as the Theoretical Archaeology Group and the world archaeological congress (both founded in Britain during this period) play a valuable part