Even as a General in the British Army during the mid 19th Century, Pitt Rivers was interested in budding discipline of archaeology. After retirement, he began excavating several sites on his extensive estates, establishing a new, revolutionary methodology for archaeological fieldwork in the 1880's through his highly organized and systematic methodology (partly borrowed from his military career). He was extraordinary for his time in insisting on saving and analysing everything, even the mundane, at a time when most archaeologists focused on spectacular finds and ignored the everyday remains of ancient life.