[tanuki]

Aren't there lots of testible hypotheses in archaeology though? I get that you're saying that a lot of explanations feel speculative, but it feels a bit far to say the field itself is incompatible with the scientific method.

[RecycledEle]

The Scientific Method is: "Scientists (and other people) can then secure, or discard, their hypotheses by conducting suitable experiments." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method

If my hypothesis is that pottery will look like this after being buried for 2,000 years, how do I test that? I don't have 2,000 years before I need to publish.