Marxist archaeology is an
archaeological theory that interprets archaeological information within the framework of
Marxism. Although neither
Karl Marx nor
Friedrich Engels described how archaeology could be understood in a Marxist conception of history, it was developed by archaeologists in the
Soviet Union during the early twentieth century. Becoming the dominant archaeological theory in that country, it was subsequently adopted by archaeologists in other nations, particularly the
United Kingdom, where it was propagated by influential archaeologist
Gordon Childe. With the rise of
post-processual archaeology in the 1980s and 1990s, forms of Marxist archaeology were once more popularised amongst the archaeological community.