The article explores archaeology’s intimate connection with epistemology, emphasizing how scientific knowledge of the past depends not simply on accumulating raw data but on the theoretical frameworks researchers bring to bear. Drawing on Western philosophical traditions—from Francis Bacon's inductive empiricism, which champions observation and classification, to Comte’s positivist stress on hypothesis testing and general law—it argues that archaeology has historically oscillated between naive empiricism (trusting direct observation of material remains) and postprocessual relativism (recognizing the inescapable influence of researchers’ subjective values). While New Archaeology sought to eliminate bias by adopting deductive methods and materialist determinism, later postprocessual scholars pointed to the vital role of ideology, cognition, and individual agency in shaping the archaeological record. Tracing the challenges Chinese archaeology faces—from its attachment to text-driven verification to a lingering suspicion of abstract theory—the article urges a broader embrace of rigorous scientific reasoning and a deeper awareness of how social milieu, personal bias, and disciplinary tradition inevitably shape archaeological interpretation.