What type of archaeological error is this called?

Question

I was watching a documentary about an archaeological dig, by an archaeologist. The woman thought that she found a site that she assumed clearly represented the signs of a certain layout of an ancient tribe. She was very confident with her findings. Later it was learned that she was wrong. The way it was explained it was that she fit the site to match her scenario.

So what is this called? Does this happen often in digs? How do archaeologists avoid this mishap?

Please state if you have experience in the field.

Answer 1

Having a pre-conceived notion!

Answer 2

The question is very important & interesting from the scientific views. There are Uncertainty in scientific phenomena in all branches of sciences including medical sciences. As pointed out by the questioner,there should not be any surprising events as given by the questioner. For Uncertainty free Phenomena see,http://www.datorannonser.se/annons.php?1... & 11,Wanted.......,Sigapore etc. Such errors are always possible and we cannot blame to any one. However,we can name such error as " Random Errors". At present,there is a challange to the scientific community to provide error free phenomena as some one written in their book(2006)" Science That is Still In Its Initial Stage And Its Applications". I hope that the questioner can be satisfied to some stage about such errors etc. Thanks & a great day.

Answer 3

I'm a field archaeologist.  This sort of thing can happen all the time, in any of the sciences.  In the social sciences, it can be more dangerous, just because people stuff is always open to interpretation.  But, yeah, you've got to be careful about your preconceived notions.  If you _expect_ to find something, you generally will, just because your mind will filter out everything that doesn't fit and emphasize the things that do.

I suspect this sort of thing is behind a lot of the big debates in archaeology.  For instance, while Clovis First was still the accepted theory (it says that people crossed the Bering Land Bridge into the Americas at about 11,000 BCE), no one really looked for anything earlier than that.  Why would they?  Once that theory was smashed, people did start digging deeper at sites they had previously excavated and, in fact, occasionally finding things at older layers.

The best ways to avoid this are to be aware of your own prejudices and to always get the opinions of others.  That's why scientists submit things to peer-reviewed journals.

Answer 4

I doubt it has a particular name.

The way to avoid it would be to be complete, accurate, and not jump to conclusions -- or at least not ignore what's actually there when it suggests your conclusion is questionable or wrong.