Post processual archaeology Research Papers (original) (raw)

SUMMARY: Chapter 12, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers early explanations using migrations and diffusion to explain change, and more recent approaches and explanations such as processual archaeology, Marxist archaeology, and evolutionary archaeology, providing explanations for change (e.g., monocausal versus multivariate explanations), post-processual approaches (interpretive explanations), cognitive archaeology, agency, and other attempts to explain change in the past. In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record. UPDATED April 2021: Various edits.

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- Ancient History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Cognitive archaeology

NEWLY UPLOADED: Antiquity, vol 91: 520-529, 2017

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- by Dr Mark Jonathan Beech
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- Archaeology, Art, Archaeological Theory, Czech Republic

Evidence from house structures, artifacts and fauna are used to infer political and economic changes at the Benson site, a late sixteenth century Huron village near Balsam Lake, Ontario. It is suggested that one household acquired trade links to Europeans in the St. Lawrence valley, and as a result became the largest and most prestigious household in the community. Subsequently, a second household expanded to a comparable size, but did so in opposition to the first house, and represented the “traditionalist” faction. Ultimately, the traditionalist faction prevailed, and the more progressive house was dismantled, and its inhabitants moved elsewhere.

Eighteen complete ceramic vessels form the exceptional Protocogotas deposit from the archaeological site of Llano las Peñas in Modúbar de la Cuesta (Burgos). This deposit was a premeditated concealment with the intention of being recovered at a future time, but that did not happen. This discovery, together with the abundant juxtaposition of pit structures, allows the site to be interpreted as an episodic and recursive settlement in the pattern of many sites in the central Iberian Bronze Age, where other types of habitat structures are often not recognized. Apropos of the discovery, the formative cycle of the archaeological record is discussed, considering the views of it as simple dumps or as authentic models ruled by social conduct.

- by Carmen Alonso Fernández and +1
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- Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Edad Del Bronce, Hoard finds, Bronze Age Pottery
- by Nikita Katharina Hellwig
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Grammatology, Cognition

Jimmy McIntyre spiega come utilizzare le maschere di luminosità, per realizzare splendide immagini che utilizzino al meglio la gamma dinamica di una fotografia. Nell’articolo il link per scaricare gratuitamente le azioni di Photoshop che... more

- by Cultor College
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- Photography, Post processual archaeology, Fotografia, TONI

采访者于2015年6月9日中午在斯坦福大学人类学系，就后过程考古学的理论方法与实践、霍德教授的个人经历、对过程考古学的看法、与宾福德之间的关系、考古学理论的发展及中西考古学的走向等问题，对霍德教授进行了一次专访。本文根据采访录音整理而成。

Con este trabajo queremos presentar un análisis del recorrido de la denominada arqueología del paisaje, comenzando por sus orígenes dentro de las ciencias naturales para acabar con las últimas teorías postprocesuales y su redefinición del... more

- by Martin T Bale
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- Critical Theory, Asian Studies, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology

We start with a vignette describing the movement of Pacific Rim, continental shelf peoples along the glaciated Northwest Coast, probably for generations, never seeing to the east anything but towering sheets of ice. Moving along the Olympic Peninsula ice fields, all of a sudden, no ice to the southeast. We reflect on what might have happened next, as a new species, human beings, first enter and begin to occupy the Second Earth—the American Continent. Our specific entry hypothesis is relatively new, following author Croes’ remembering Northwest Archaeologist Alan Bryan, who suggested we look to the Chehalis River for evidence of first peoples. We also look at the still meager evidence of Clovis peoples movements into the Southern Salish Sea.

In: The Five-Minute Archaeologist (ed. by Cynthia Shafer-Elliott)

According to Sebastian Brather, "ethnic identity" is beyond the reach of archaeology. He wants to separate archaeology from history in order to exorcise from German archaeology (especially, medieval archaeology) the demons of Kossinnian culture history. At stake seems to be an explicit discussion of archaeological theory, and more particularly, the nature of the archaeological record and its interpretation. At a closer look, Brather's claim that "archaeology cannot apprehend and explain individuals" is remarkably similar to Lewis Binford's fifty-year old observation that "we cannot excavate a kinship terminology or a philosophy."According to him, material culture is not directly tied to social, economic, or cultural processes (Prozesse), but instead reflects them indirectly. This is a plainly processualist claim that change happens within the entire system and not just within one of its components. However, despite some clear similarities between his mode of thinking and the agenda of New Archaeology, Brather's attempt to bring cultural process into focus is neither consistent, nor explicit -a direct consequence of the traditional reticence towards New Archaeology among German archaeologists. Rather, Brather's processualist inclinations do not allow for any actor perspective in order to understand how change comes about. To Brather, what the individual in the past thought or desired has nothing to do with "culture, power, and representation." Agency is thus effectively eliminated from any "objective" discussion of ethnicity. Moreover, ethnicity may be a form of social representation, but it is also "something (else)" that has apparently nothing to do with common origin.

- by Dave Thomas
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- Archaeology, Experimental Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Musicology

A series of systematic field surveys conducted at the banks of the artificial Lake Plastiras (Karditsa, western Thessaly, central Greece), at an elevation of 800m a.s.l., produced finds of the Middle Palaeolithic period (scattered stone tools), as well as a Middle Neolithic site. This Thesis deals with the practical and theoretical aspects concerning the use of such high-altitude sites both during the Middle Palaeolithic and the Middle Neolithic, and the implications they bring about towards traditional notions of archaeological theory.

Many varieties of contemporary Paganism share common methodologies and interests with the academic subfield of landscape archaeology, in particular with regard to their interpretation of megalithic architecture. While there are differences in the range of evidence considered, and the relative value placed on certain methodologies, there are more parallels than dissimilarities. In particular, reliance on intuition as a source of knowledge and a concern with reconstructing the sensory conditions of prehistoric built environments are shared. Space and place in many varieties of archaeology are viewed through a phenomenological perspective that is individual and not necessarily inter-subjective. Despite the tensions between archaeologists and Pagans over access to and proper custodianship of megalithic architectural sites in Britain and elsewhere, opportunities exist for fruitful intellectual and social exchange between the two vocations.

- by Jess Beck and +1
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- Archaeological Method & Theory, Paganism, Megalithic Monuments, Post processual archaeology

This study suggests that it is possible to apply "practice theory" to shed light on spatial patterns of the Chahai settlement. Through contextual analysis of the characteristics of habitus, this study demonstrates that habitus is intimately related to residential modes, sexual division of labor, ritual activities, and cultural traditions. It was habitus and its association with social contexts that created a stable sense of order among Chahai society, against various social risks and uncertainties. It also reveals a duality as regards cultural structure and behavioral norms. Thus, social order might be maintained through internalizing behavioral norms in human bodies in the form of infl uencing practice, social relations, the meanings of material culture, and the spatial patterns of daily life.

- by Yan Liu
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- Practice theory, Neolithic Archaeology, Social Archaeology, Habitus

This thesis argues for a different view on the past, time and archaeology itself. It argues that the nature of archaeology itself has something more to reveal about us and human nature in general than about the past. Archaeologists are focused on deciphering the lives of past people and their societies, but they routinely forget themselves in this equation. Because of this forgetfulness, they miss out on the chance of a true philosophical reflection which has the potential to relate themselves as human beings to their own ancestors. This kind of relation is not dependent on material data, which is scarce and fragmentary, but on the inner human nature that causes the material patterns themselves.
This relation to the past must be sought in archaeology itself. In other words, this is an excavation of the meaning of archaeology itself. Searching for the "archè" - the beginning - of something, whether through science, mythology or religion, is essential to human nature. But what we today are lacking in this domain is not only the recognition of its importance, as something that gives life meaning, but also of the passion which is involved in it.
This passion, for which there is no real place in a world dictated by intellectual Logos, finds its natural course when the "Archè" can be married to something different than Logos, namely Sophia or wisdom. The Tao or way of archaeology, then, does not merely lead us to an imaginary past, it can lead us to greater self-knowledge, a precondition for any true wisdom. Archaeology and philosophy become two partners in this proces, strengthening each other as well as overcoming their own limitations: archaeology is lifted into the realm of higher thinking, as philosophy becomes rooted in the earth. Both are activities that define human nature through which they have an implicate relevance for all scientific domains. The awareness of this field of archeosophy should lead to a more profound thinking and a meaningful relation with ourselves and peoples of the past and the future.

- by Kevin Vanhaelewijn
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- Archaeology, Philosophy, Autopoiesis, Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics

For over a century, the archaeology of the Land of Israel went hand in hand with the Bible. Biblical Archaeology, the outcome of this interaction, has been normally conceived as the handmaiden of the biblical texts, authenticating and illustrating them. Whether motivated by theological or secular agenda, the main tenet of Biblical Archaeology was political history. In spite of recent claims for the emancipation of archaeology from the tyranny of the biblical texts, the archaeological agenda is still biblical, pursuing questions related to biblical historiography. Paradoxically, however, due to its problematic nature, the use of the Bible in archaeological discourse is considered today almost illegitimate.
We envision a different integration between archaeology and the Bible. On the one hand, an archaeological agenda, independent of the biblical text, will open a much wider range of social and cultural questions. On the other, using the Bible as a cultural document to answer these questions will restore its central place in the archaeological discourse of the biblical period. Conceiving of both biblical texts and ancient material artifacts as cultural documents, we believe that their inspection will be fruitful and enlightening. Words and artifacts can give us access to the mindset of the people of the biblical period. Encapsulated in both are the worldviews, cosmology, perceptions of landscape, ideology, symbolism, etc. of the people who produced them. The insights gained by this approach will eventually result in a better understanding of biblical political history.

- by Avraham Faust and +1
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- History, Archaeology, Near Eastern Archaeology, Anthropology

Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to record and analyse the ways in which the
representation of the past has been constructed by large groups of
specialists or laymen, from Renaissance Humanism to the Posthumanist
digital present, when contemporary technological developments and
capabilities have opened new directions for archaeological research,
turning digital creators and new scientific experts into administrators of
archaeological images. We are therefore going to compare the analogic
and the three-dimensional images as archaeological tools and also as
humanistic (New Archaeology) and postmodern/posthumanistic (Post-
Processual Archaeology) media beginning from virtual archaeology.
“Virtual archaeology” is a developing scientific area using the
capabilities of computers to concentrate, catalogue, group and promote
archaeological material in a range of different ways and media for a wide
spectrum of applications. Virtual archaeology substantially rehabilitates
the geometric relationship between archaeological and architectural data
and describes in visual language the researcher’s verbal descriptions and
theories (Reilly, 1992, 147; Higgins, Main & Lang, 1996; Forte, Siliotti,
1997). The digital image, static or animated, is the final result of the
research and interpretative procedure in the theoretical framework of Post-
Processual Archaeology.

- by Yannis Kourtzellis and +1
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- Virtual Reality (Computer Graphics), Virtual Archaeology, Digital Representation, Archaelogy

This is my unpublished take home exam for my minor field of critical theory written over a couple of weeks in 1990. It attempts to answer the question: What is 'post-processual' archaeology? In doing so, it also addresses the question of what is processual archaeology. I have made no attempt to update it, but thought some might find it of use. If you do, please cite it appropriately as an unpublished paper. What did PPA begin as a response to, how has it changed, and what does it stand for today? "Archaeology exists only as text." Bjornar Olsen "All meanings come from us." Lewis Binford As Christopher Tilley (1990:viii) has stated with regard to post-structuralism, the use of the prefix 'post' implies something developing out of structuralism with a highly ambiguous relationship to 'it.' The same holds true for post-processual archaeology [hereafter PPA], at least in its initial stages. However, as it stands today, post-processualism in many ways has become anti-thetical to processual archaeology, positioning itself on, and beyond the margins of processual archaeology. As a result, it has become closely intertwined with, and borrowed heavily from, post-structuralism, applying post-structuralist thought to the interdisciplinary 'discipline' of archaeology. In order to understand what PPA is, it is necessary to undertake an 'archaeology' of recent developments in archaeological method and theory including a discussion of the development and significance of: processual archaeology; the structuralist 'phase' of PPA; the notion of history in PPA; and the relationship between PPA and the post-structuralist critique as it has developed over the last several years. The literature on all of these subjects is immense, making it difficult to discuss in a detailed fashion. In consequence, this paper will concentrate on a limited number of representative works, some of which can only be discussed in a cursory fashion. The discussion will also include the practical problems of applying archaeological theory to material culture. Because all of the theoretical positions discussed here overlap, intertwine and refer back to each other, one might say that we are dealing with a "mixed strata" of archaeological practice. As a result, it was attempted, but not always possible within this paper to confine the discussion to discrete categories of archaeological practice.

- by Luis Symanski
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- Historical Archaeology, Archaeology of Gender, Immigration Studies, Fascism

5-page review of a cool book. Published in European Journal of Archaeology (2012).

No Val Camônica (Brescia, Itália) há o maior sítio de arte rupestre da Europa, cuja investigação começou na primeira metade do século XX. Desde então a área se tornou cada vez mais importante para o estudo da (assim chamada) pré-história europeia e desempenhou um papel altamente representativo na busca das antigas raízes das comunidades do vale e, mais em geral, da própria Itália do norte. No final da década de 1980 foi criado o partido da Lega Nord (hoje o partido da Lega), promotor da instituição de um estado independente: a Padania. A partir desse momento, os temas das gravuras rupestres foram adotados, usados e abusados para divulgar ideologias e justificar intenções políticas. O presente texto visa ilustrar brevemente a dinâmica que está por trás do movimento civil e político da então Lega Nord e o esforço das instituições que se apelam à arqueologia para reconstruir o percurso da formação de uma identidade europeia comum a partir da história da Lombardia.

- by Roland Betancourt
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- History, Cultural History, Archaeology, Ethics

后过程考古学是 20 世纪 80 年代兴起于英国及斯堪的纳维亚半岛的一个考古学流派，这一流派受到社会人类学理论的影响，最初以对过程考古学的批判所著称来发展出了一系列的理论分支。正如马修·约翰逊（Mathew Johnson）在其著作《考古学理论导论》（Archaeological Theory：An Introduction）中所说的那样，“并不存在后过程考古学家这样一种说法”，可见后过程考古学理论之多样。本文是伊安·霍德教授为《世
界考古学百科全书》所编纂的一个词条，文章简明扼要地介绍了后过程考古学的定义、
所涉及到的理论分支、自身的发展历程，并在考古学三大主要流派的背景下，比较了后过程考古学同过程考古学在理论分支、所关注的问题以及认识论上所存在的分歧。国内对后过程考古学的了解并不多，相关著作也较少，这样一篇语言精练、脉络清晰的文章无疑为我们提供了一把全面了解后过程考古学历史与现状的钥匙。除了对过程考古学的批判外，后过程考古学的理论与方法还包括了受结构主义影响的阐释考古学、现象学的考古学、反身的方法、考古科学的利用、能动性、历史记忆的构建、物质性研究、后殖民考古与本土考古、文化遗产等。与过程考古学的实证主义认识论不同，后过程考古学主张的是阐释学的螺旋式认识论，强调人们头脑中既有的观念以及所处情境的重要性。后过程考古学的重要意义是对人本身以的关注，对社会现实问题的参与，强调人的能动
性以及主动运用物质文化实现自身发展、解决现实问题的能力。现如今，文化遗产以及公众考古在中国越来受到关注，考古学正在引起更多的社会关注与参与，后过程考古学的相关视角可以为我们提供一些思考与借鉴。著名历史哲学家克罗齐（Bendetto Croce）主张 “一切历史都是当代史 ”，只有我们对人本身以及我们所生活的现实社会有
了深入了解，才能更好地去理解古人、去复原历史，这篇文章正好提出了很多我们不曾关注的理论与现实问题，让我们对人、人认识世界的方式、现实社会及历史做进一步的思考，这无疑为我们解释考古材料、了解古代社会提供了更多的视角。

- by Justin Mann and +1
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- Landscape Archaeology, Mediterranean prehistory, Survey (Archaeological Method & Theory), History of Cyprus

مطالعه گورستان‌ها و شیوه‌های تدفین جوامع گذشته و کنونی، در شناخت بهتر ساختارها و سنت‌های اجتماعی-فرهنگی گروه‌های انسانی مؤثر است و نقش مهمی در پژوهش‌های باستان‌شناختی و انسان‌شناختی دارد. در میان جوامع کوچنده برخی سنت‌های آیینی وجود دارد که با سنت‌های آیینی جوامع یکجانشین اندکی متفاوت است. یکی از این سنت‌های آیینی، امانت‌گذاری متوفی در یک گورستان یا یک محل به صورت موقت و سپس جابجا کردن آن به محل نهایی دفن است. این نوع تدفین که در مطالعات باستان‌شناختی جزو یکی از انواع تدفین ثانویه در نظر گرفته می‌شود، در میان کوچندگان بختیاری به طور متداول دیده شده است. مطالعه موردی حاضر با محوریت طایفه بهداروند و مصاحبه با افراد محلی در اتحادیه طایفه‌ای بختیاری و بکارگیری روش کتابخانه‌ای، به بررسی چگونگی انجام سنت آیینی امانت‌گذاری متوفی در بین کوچندگان بختیاری و عوامل آن می‌پردازد و نشان می‌دهد که گروهای کوچنده مذکور، بر اساس چه معیارها و عواملی به این سنت آیینی اقدام می‌کردند.

Abstract: The present paper proposes an approach that embraces the consequences of Europe being at the same time a vaguely defined
geographical entity and a particular part of the global space with its own unique features. The approach is among other things inspired
by geopolitical analyses and international relations theory. It aims at pointing to a potential contribution of European archaeology
to the understanding of Europe as a particular part of the global space through deep time analyses of the interaction of cultures with
space. By including geopolitics and international relations theory into our horizon, we as archaeologist will find help asking questions
and establishing perspectives that will strengthen our capacity to put some of the big questions of our own time into a perspective that
reaches further in time and space. History has never stopped, and there are some logics and lines that have never been broken; these
are logics and lines that link the distant past with our own present. It is my hope that this brief introduction to some key contributions
by the two disciplines will help the reader appreciate this.

- by Carsten Paludan-Müller
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- History, Archaeology, International Relations Theory, Geopolitics

In archaeology, the effort of imposing a universal function to the objects of which images are the same, is a subject interpretative archaeology opposes. That the objects in private and the "things" in general are stereotyped, is seen... more

- by Bartu Dinç
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- Critical Theory, Archaeology, Human Evolution, Social and Cultural Anthropology

The scent of citrus and of brittle pine suffused the island. Inside [Calypso] was singing and weaving with a shuttle made of gold.

- by Caroline J . Tully and +1
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- Ancient Egyptian Religion, Cultural Geography, Landscape Archaeology, Ideology

后过程考古学是 20 世纪 80 年代兴起于英国及斯堪的纳维亚半岛的一个考古学
流派，这一流派受到社会人类学理论的影响，最初以对过程考古学的批判所著称，后
域外视野
- - 251来发展出了一系列的理论分支。正如马修·约翰逊（Mathew Johnson）在其著作《考古学
理论导论》（Archaeological Theory：An Introduction）中所说的那样，“并不存在后过程
考古学家这样一种说法”，可见后过程考古学理论之多样。本文是伊安·霍德教授为《世
界考古学百科全书》所编纂的一个词条，文章简明扼要地介绍了后过程考古学的定义、
所涉及到的理论分支、自身的发展历程，并在考古学三大主要流派的背景下，比较了后
过程考古学同过程考古学在理论分支、所关注的问题以及认识论上所存在的分歧。国内
对后过程考古学的了解并不多，相关著作也较少，这样一篇语言精练、脉络清晰的文章
无疑为我们提供了一把全面了解后过程考古学历史与现状的钥匙。除了对过程考古学
的批判外，后过程考古学的理论与方法还包括了受结构主义影响的阐释考古学、现象学
的考古学、反身的方法、考古科学的利用、能动性、历史记忆的构建、物质性研究、后殖
民考古与本土考古、文化遗产等。与过程考古学的实证主义认识论不同，后过程考古学
主张的是阐释学的螺旋式认识论，强调人们头脑中既有的观念以及所处情境的重要性。
后过程考古学的重要意义是对人本身以的关注，对社会现实问题的参与，强调人的能动
性以及主动运用物质文化实现自身发展、解决现实问题的能力。现如今，文化遗产以及
公众考古在中国越来受到关注，考古学正在引起更多的社会关注与参与，后过程考古学
的相关视角可以为我们提供一些思考与借鉴。著名历史哲学家克罗齐（Bendetto
Croce）主张 “一切历史都是当代史 ”，只有我们对人本身以及我们所生活的现实社会有
了深入了解，才能更好地去理解古人、去复原历史，这篇文章正好提出了很多我们不曾
关注的理论与现实问题，让我们对人、人认识世界的方式、现实社会及历史做进一步的
思考，这无疑为我们解释考古材料、了解古代社会提供了更多的视角。

- by Yan Liu
- •
- Archaeological Theory, Post processual archaeology, Ian Hodder
- by Pratomo Aji
- •
- Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Urbanism (Archaeology)

Drawing on examples from the West (Flanders) and developing East (Siberia, Russia), this paper investigates the subtle and often overlooked entanglements between the nation state and archaeology. Drawing on careful ethnographic assessments mapping the impact of the state on archaeological practice in Russia and Flanders, this paper illustrates that we need to transcend our traditional focus on nationalism and also look at the impact of bureaucratic procedures and documents. These at first sight benign systems of government greatly enmesh archaeologists with the nation state and its myriad of agendas, ultimately impacting both heritage management and academic research.

- by Gertjan Plets
- •
- Cultural History, Cultural Policy, Cultural Heritage, Heritage Studies

Collection-based research has often been overlooked as a means to pursue research questions and goals designed by anthropologists and archaeologists. I provide an example of how using collection-based research conducted from The Garrett Allen Site archaeological collection, stored at the University of Wyoming Archaeological Repository, can be an effective means to provide insight to relevant archaeological questions. Excavations done by George Frison and Garrett Allen between 1968 and 1980 revealed hundreds of projectile points, several ceramic fragments, ground stone, bone tools, shell beads, faunal remains, and thousands of pieces of debitage. Preliminary macro-analysis studies of the debitage have shown extreme geomorphic and geological differences in the raw material assemblage (Eckles and Guinard 2014). Further research isolated a temporal setting of the site (510 +- 110 BP) and examined debitage, formal tools, and projectile points collected during previous field investigations in order to establish how specific raw materials were entering the site (Guinard 2013). I show that data obtained from collection-based research of this site could be used to not only examine single aspects of an assemblage, but also to facilitate several avenues of research. I also attempt to connect collection based research to the development of archaeological theory: how old data can help shed new light on current theoretical perspectives. Finally, I address the importance of collection-based research and the impact it could have on the fields of Anthropology and Archaeology as a whole.

- by Adam Guinard
- •
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, Research Methodology