In this article, I shall introduce some core ideas from my research on the character of photographic representations published in archaeological journals during the mid-twentieth century. The aim of this study is to show the connection between the employment of certain scientific visual aesthetics in site photography at a time when the discipline of archaeology wanted to be seen as more scientific. Using the rod scale as a key visual metaphor for the identity of the discipline, I will argue that the increasing presence of the rod scale in published site photographs played a key part in the development of a specific scientific visual vocabulary which was driven by the contemporary culture-historical context.