Michael Rostovtzeff — Ukrainian Historian born on November 10, 1870, died on October 20, 1952

Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev was an ancient historian whose career straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and who produced important works on ancient Roman and Greek history. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Science... (wikipedia)

For me archaeology is not a source of illustrations for written texts, but an independent source of historical information, with no less value and importance, sometimes more importance, that the written sources.
For long, history was mainly political history, and historical narrative was confined to an account of the most important crises in political life, or to an account of wars and great generals.