The philosophy of archaeology and the "end of history"

This quote from John Gray's book Straw Dogs has put me in mind of archaeology and of "the end of history" concept:

Science promises that the most ancient of human fantasies will at last be realized.  Sickness and ageing will be abolished; scarcity and poverty will be no more; the species will become immortal (p. 123).

This puts me in mind of the theory of archaeology.  Why do we pull specimens out of the ground as opposed to leaving them buried?  Is this addressed anywhere in the archaeological literature?  Any cries to leave objects in the round?  Any apologia - perhaps a "salvage dig" argument that may lie beneath all of archaeology.  For sure it is hubris that we exhume objects, sure in our cataloging, sure in our methodology.  We admonish the forebears of modern archaeology, sometimes congratulate them when their antiquated techniques had approximated contemporary ones. 

The methodology today must be reflexive - has it been asked whether or not all objects should be left interred until as yet unforeseeable advances are made, our unearthing techniques now causing damage that we are currently not capable of understanding: we will be admonished one day as we have admonished our predecessors.  We are the future's Victorian gentlemen haphazardly digging up the past or tomorrow's Wetherills, cowboys digging up bones, ruining some things, getting some things right.  Maybe keeping things in the ground is the mark of true sophistication.

I've thought of collectors in ancient Roman times - did they too dig up and admire artifacts of other cultures?  We are so much more sophisticated with our dating techniques (we actually have dating techniques: ancient Rome not aware of isotopes and radioactive decay), with our ability to let brilliant minds examine finds: at least we have a narrative of the past.  I feel good knowing the depth of our knowledge.  I enjoy books about archaeological investigations.  I will have to track down more theory about archaeology, "dig deeper" than simply the Wikipedia entry.

Scary to think that we may stand at the apex of knowledge.  Will we be able to maintain our collections in the future?  Will all the information we have accumulated be lost?  I feel that we may as well have dug up all we have since the ability and the know-how may not exist in the future.  All of archaeology is a salvage job in this case.  We exist now in a window period of money and access and have amassed knowledge - our ability to understand this knowledge may be an artifact of our time.  Hold on to that info and celebrate it while we can.

Every age stands as a bulwark against oblivion and should feel good about itself.  History is always ending.