In this chapter I discuss the importance of the link between the mechanics of conviction and the methodological and conceptual parameters of archaeology. I do this via an extended analysis of the eighteenth century foundations of archaeology stressing the importance of notions of progress, the meaning of human mental and physical variety, and the conflict between conjectural history and historicism. This analysis supports a view that antinomies which arose from the investigation of these issues were, to play a central role in establishing what were acceptable criteria of plausible and reliable archaeological knowledge. Critically those antinomies, in conjunction with the fact that the development of archaeology succeeded the development of ethnology and changes in the goals of history-writing, to play a critical role in the development of what were thought to be viable and significant archaeological problems.