Mekân, Bağlam ve Arkeolog (original) (raw)

Context reveals the role that objects, events, and/or spaces play within a given conjec- ture or a conjectural sequence. Archaeological excavations allow us to investigate the pre- served contexts of the past. Archaeology, unfortunately, does not have the chance to examine the objects, spaces, or phenomena by leaving them intact; in order to reach deeper layers, the current finds and structures need to be removed. During the process, archaeologists who undertake the excavation, specialists who analyze and interpret the excavated material, scholars who share the results with their colleagues all become a part of the context. All those who play an active role within the chain of events that unfold from the moment an object is found are the people who hold the key to unlock the context. For this reason, especially since 1960s, archaeology in the Western world has questioned not just the context of excavation but also that of the discipline, developing new approaches and methodologies. This is because the better we understand the context of a find, the deeper and more thoroughly we begin to understand the people, the commu- nity, the behaviours, the beliefs, the environment, the climate and other dynamics that have collaborated in the formation of that particular find. A space and/or a settlement is a place where a two-way relationship between people and objects develop and where a contextual sequence emerges as a result. Space is an impor- tant component of context. In order to recreate the context that the archaeologist destroys through the excavation, all the components of space must be recorded as metic- ulously as possible. This allows us, in the post-excavation process, to analyze the spaces and the objects found within those spaces. Results of such analyses provide the opportu- nity to understand the social organization and the reasons for spatial differentiation within a settlement. This essay focuses on the relation between the archaeologist and the space and context, the obstacles of the “Contextual Archaeology” in Turkey, as well as the reasons for the existence those obstacles. The last section of the essay introduces the new excavation methodology and approaches at Aşıklı Höyük that differ from the past methodologies.