Archaeological philosophics

One of my views on the ‘living landscpaes’ section in the ‘Handbook of Landscape  Archaeology’

“The work on offer is not simply an engagement with or application of philosophy but instead, a creation and dissemination of the contributors own philosophy. In many ways a positive act for archaeology. A positive act because twelve years ago, as well as before and since, Thomas’ ‘Time, Culture and Identity’ was heralded by some authors in ‘Archaeological Dialogues’ as mis-appropriating Heidegger, or of creating an application for Heideggerian thought. The same has often been said of Tilley and Karlsson. The point I make here is that by offering chapters that reference only archaeologists, and present a mature thought structure for each approach, the move from applying philosophy to actively creating it has become more apparent.”

 

Representation, Archaeology and Interpretation of the past

Photos are about context. When you photograph an artefact, it is presented as an object from the past, an object which only exists with a ‘modern’ interpretation of it being an artefact from the past – in most archaeology it is an object and only this. The photo objectifies the artefact and dislocates it from its context and network of meaning.

If however we are presented with an artefact that is ‘clothed’ and put into a context, the scene around the artefact is seen as only existing in the photo or presentation to illustrate it’s use.  An example is that if the uniform of an English civil war soldier is presented on its own then it is only a collection of artefacts. Whereas if it is ‘clothed’ by being put on a body and put into a ‘world’ , then the scene is said to only illustrate the uniform.

But it is this very putting it into a ‘world’ that stops the uniform being only an artefact. Something happens and the objectification breaks down.