ARCHAEOLOGY IS RUBBISH is a manual to encourage those with an interest in digging, but equally it should amuse and engage those whose archaeological ambitions are limited to turning the pages of our book.

The book is the story of a fantasy dig the readers undertake in their back garden. Eventually they come down on the remains of a Roman villa. What began as a piece of keyhole archaeology is, by the end of the book, a massive site complete with mechanical diggers and dumper trucks.

Intervening chapters highlight various aspects of our dig in order to tell the history of the discipline of archaeology from the earliest looters of pyramids to the present day. Later chapters explore modern archaeological techniques like geophysics, DNA testing, osteo-archaeology, tree-dating and environmental technology.