S. Graham Brade-Birks (1887–1982)

The continuous story of our nation we call its history: that, too, belongs to the past, but it is a narrative of events, whereas archaeology is mainly, though not entirely, the study of the things Man has employed to express himself; such are the surviving evidence of Man's past activity. Thus in archaeology we are concerned with tools and implements, with art and architecture; we investigate burial mounds, monuments and earthworks and are interested in all kinds of written records including, for example, ancient characters and parish registers, Coins, coats of arms and place-names are among the things that may claim our attention, and because all these are things invented and used by Man in the march of events which chronicled as history, archaeology is the handmaid of history. So, historians draw upon archaeology for some of the evidence which helps them to write the story of human progress down the centuries.… (altro)