Which Archaeology? A Question of Chronopolitics (original) (raw)

Archaeology and contemporaneity

This paper discusses the concept of contemporaneity as it is used in archaeology. In particular, two general usages are examined. The first concerns the idea of contemporaneity in the context of archaeological dating and chronology, the second relates to the characterization of the archaeological record as a contemporary phenomenon. In both cases, related concepts are explored, namely synchronism and anachronism respectively. The paper offers a critique of these conventional usages of the idea of contemporaneity and argues for an alternative, linking this with the concept of consociation, a term coined by the phenomenologist Alfred Schutz in the early 20th century.

Archaeology, anthropology and the stuff of time

Archaeological Dialogues, 2015

Lucas's discussion of contemporaneity makes an important contribution to archaeological understandings of chronology and dating and to broader debates about temporality. Extending his earlier work on time (Buchli and Lucas 2001; Lucas 2001; 2005), Lucas's central insight is that contemporaneity is not a function of a shared unit of time but of the specific relations through which objects are imbricated. The approach is likely to have profound implications for archaeological approaches to chronology. Whether or not it undermines the current preoccupation with absolute dating, it should certainly give renewed impetus to those branches of archaeology that make it possible to examine time as a matter of the specific material properties of artefacts. This is important, first, because it opens up the possibility of more nuanced empirical understanding of the very stuff of time (literally how it is materially manifest) and, second, because such empirical understandings enable conce...

Time and Archaeological Event

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2008

This paper re-examines the concept of the archaeological event as a means to avoid dual or multiple levels for historical phenomena, which a scalar view of time creates. Central to this procedure is an examination of the nature of residuality in relation to the archaeological record; it is argued that our concept of residuality needs to be broadened to encompass a more general view of material organization where the property of reversibility is foregrounded. In doing so, a different conception of the event is generated which defines itself not in terms of particularity but reversibility.

Between the vertical and the horizontal: Time and space in archaeology

History of the Human Sciences, 2013

Archaeology, like most sciences that rely on stratigraphic excavation for studying the past, tends to conceptualize this past as lying deep underneath the ground. Accordingly, chronologies tend to be depicted as a movement from bottom to top, which contrast with sciences that illustrate the passage of time horizontally. By paying attention to the development of the visual language of disciplines that follow stratigraphy, I show how chronologies get entangled with other temporalities, particularly those of writing. Relying on recent ethnographic work with archaeologists, the analysis reveals that excavation emerges as a double vertical movement of downward destruction and upward reconstruction that coincides with a systematic dissociation of time and space that has important effects for the understanding of the formation of sites. I conclude by looking at some of the implications of this dissociation for contemporary theoretical discussions, particularly those that emerged after the phenomenological push to hor- izontalize the discipline. Challenging this dissociation, I argue that the conceptualization of time in science should be understood as a process that depends on the body and unfolds in movement.

Preserving the Past, Building the Future? Concepts of Time and Prehistoric Monumental Architecture

Furholt, F., Hinz, M. Mischka, D.,, “As time goes by ? ” Monumentality, Landscapes and the Temporal Perspective. Proceedings of the International Workshop “Socio-Environmental Dynamics over the Last 12,000 Years: The Creation of Landscapes II (14 th –18 th March 2011)” in Kiel. Volume 2, 2012

Temporality and the different concepts of time are closely connected to the investigation of monumentality. In the archaeological literature a dichotomy between a cyclic and linear notion of time seems to be prevalent. Also the general notion that these concepts are present seems to be valid; they represent two aspects of a dialectic relationship rather than a total phenomenon that guides the actions of past and present societies. This mainly theoretical article tries to explore the different levels of temporality, on the one hand as part of a cognitive framework in which ancient societies acted and the link between action and time, but on the other hand also the tension that exists between the perspective ancient societies could have held and the perspective of the present investigators of past processes. It tries to illustrate the fact that in order to interpret the meaning of things and events, archaeologists have to consider that actions are mainly guided and directed by the present necessities, and that an interpretation can only be made from the present perspective of the past individual. A consequence of this is that the importance of material remains of rituals, for example, may be overvalued by scientists today.

ARC4ICA Essay: 'Time Perspectivism': Time as a Methodological Tool in Archaeology

This paper examines the use of time as a methodological tool in archaeology, focussing on the feasibility of Geoff Bailey's time perspectivisim approach. The history of time theories will be explored, touching on the Pompeii Premise, Braudel and the Annales School, and time-averaging. Alternative approaches to the use of timescales for identifying patterns of human action in the archaeological record will also be briefly discussed. The idea of the archaeological palimpsest and how time perspectivism relates to this concept will also be considered. Although time perspectivism shows promise, it will be argued that further work is required before it can be a viable solution to the problems archaeologists face regarding time and human behaviour.