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A History of Archaeological Thought
... Antikvarstvo je termin kojim se označuje djelatnost bliska današnjem poimanju arheologije prije nego što se arheologija formirala kao samostalna znanstvena disciplina. Početke antikvarstva tradicionalno se smješta u vrijeme prosvjetiteljstva (Mihajlović 2017), pa u renesansu (Acciarino 2017(Acciarino : 2022, da bi se danas povjesničari znanosti manje-više složili da antikvarske djelatnosti, u različitim oblicima, možemo pratiti tijekom cijele pisane povijesti na području Europe i Bliskog istoka (Trigger 2006;Schnapp 2012). Pojam je to, dakle, koji se proteže duboko u prošlost, gotovo do prvih pisanih izvora, a definiciju i antikvara i arheologa donosi Jacob Spon u 17. stoljeću u djelu Miscellanea eruditae antiquitati: "Arheologija je tako znanje o svemu što ima veze s običajima i moralom drevnih ljudi. ...
... On u svojim opisima ceraunija navodi da neki dovode u sumnju njihovo nebesko podrijetlo zbog sličnosti s postojećim metalnim oruđem, ali da postoje i pouzdani svjedoci koji su ih vidjeli kako padaju s neba ili se zabijaju u drvo (Johanson 2009). Tako da je vjerovanje u opažanje pouzdanoga svjedoka bilo važnije od izravnog opažanja pa Worm ostaje pri nebeskoj interpretaciji (Trigger 2006). ...
... P. M. d`Anghiera u 16. st. implicite iznosi mogućnost da su nekad u Europi živjeli ljudi koji nisu poznavali metal uspoređujući autohtono stanovništvo Zapadne Indi-je (Amerike) s opisima klasičnih autora primordijalnog Zlatnog doba (Trigger 2006). To je bilo još više nezamislivo jer su primitivci mogli biti primitivni u svojim zabitima, ali ne i Europljani. ...
Knjiga „Ni na nebu ni u zemlji. Procesi stjecanja znanja o dalekoj prošlosti“ bavi se dugotrajnim procesima koji su doveli do formiranja arheologije kao znanstvene discipline. Iako arheologija kao znanstvena samostalna disciplina postoji od 19. stoljeća, interes za prošlost je inherentan čovjeku pa možemo reći da interes za prošlost postoji otkada postoji svijest. Prošlost se percipirala, upotrebljavala, bilježila i prenosila na mnogo načina dio kojih se pokušalo ocrtati u ovoj knjizi. To su procesi spoznaje, zabluda, maštanja, zaborava, pričanja, prepričavanja, zapisivanja, prepisivanja, preobličivanja. Istaknula sam procese, koji često izostaju iz uobičajenih pregleda povijesti discipline, a imali su važnu ulogu u oblikovanju društvene zbilje, odnosa prema prošlosti i selekcije predmeta i događaja iz prošlosti koji su nam poznati i danas. Namjera ove knjige nije donijeti cjelovit prikaz razvoja pojedinog razdoblja ili arheologije nego na primjerima upozoriti na ključne aspekte i događaje, istaknuti da razvoj arheologije traje koliko i cijela čovjekova (pisana) povijest, uputiti na opsežnije publikacije i problematizirati neke teme koje, po autoričinom mišljenju, najbolje opisuju okolnosti i promjene u kojima neki istraživački interes nastaje, raste i gubi se.
... Американські дослідники, як, наприклад, Брюс Тріггер [3], підкреслювали небезпеку «вбудованого колоніалізму» в археології, коли археологічні інтерпретації підпорядковувались імперським або експансіоністським цілям. ...
... На початку розвитку археології у XIX ст. була поширеною практика автоматичного ототожнення матеріальної культури із конкретною етнічною групою, що з часом виявилося надто спрощеним підходом [3]. ...
... The "New Archaeology" was a conceptual approach from the 1960s through the 1980s whose adherents promoted rigorous scientific research using a narrow, positivist approach [50]. Works that dealt with states and cities had little room for the agency of nonelites. ...
... Postprocessual Archaeology was a postmodern-derived theoretical approach that developed in the 1980s in opposition to the New Archaeology [50]. Its anti-scientific orientation, linked to the humanities, quickly spread among archaeologists working on early cities and states, particularly in Britain, where it remains popular. ...
The concept of urban order is important for research in urban sustainability science. I review the concepts and methods used by archaeologists to address the question of what holds early cities together. Archaeologists are starting to come around to the standard interpretation of urban order in the social sciences: urban order is created and maintained by the operation of two types of social forces: institutions (top-down forces) and generative processes (bottom-up forces). I review the changes in archaeological thinking that led from obsolete and inadequate models of social order (statism and agency) to the emerging current understanding. I discuss the concept of institutions and provide a new archaeologically-useful definition, and I describe five types of early urban institutions (political, economic, political economy, social, and religious). I then discuss three types of generative process: population/demography, self-governance, and self-coordination. These developments in the archaeology of urbanism have two benefits. They help archaeologists produce better models and interpretations of past cities; and, they help other urban scientists understand the deep history of cities and urban life. This approach allows new research findings on ancient cities to contribute to urban sustainability science today. What holds cities together? That is, how do city residents create and maintain a level of security, predictability, and cohesion that permits a city to flourish and persist through time? These are crucial questions for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” and for the New Urban Agenda [1,2,3]. A recent United Nations report notes that progress on the Sustainable Development Goals needs to be based on solid scientific and social scientific data. Furthermore, progress requires input from countries in the developing world and data from cities in those countries [4]. I argue that this broader urban perspective will remain incomplete without input from the growing body of scientific findings on past cities and early urban development. In this paper I pursue this approach through a focus on urban order. If archaeologists and historians can determine the nature and sources of social order in early cities, this knowledge has the potential to illuminate a number of issues in urban sustainability science today.
... The six anthropomorph attributes included in this study could be temporal markers. As discussed in Chapter II, Grieder (1966), Newcomb (1996[1967]), and Gebhard (1965) (Boas 1955;Leroi-Gourhan 1968:189;Trigger 1989;Layton 1991). ...
This thesis examines six prominent Pecos River Style rock art
anthropomorph attributes to determine if they are found in limited geographic
districts of the Lower Pecos Region. Both Boyd (2003) and Turpin (2004) have
suggested that spatially-segregated motif distributions exist in the rock art and
that these patterns are important in understanding regional prehistoric huntergatherer
lifeways during the Archaic Period. This study verifies that the feather
hip cluster motif is geographically limited, identified only in the neighboring
Seminole and Painted Canyon systems. As part of this spatial analysis, the
previously undocumented principle of intersite stylistic traditions is
introduced. Possible explanations for these anthropomorph attributes are also
discussed. Finally, structural analyses of the six attributes are presented.
... ciência era conduzida principalmente por homens; e era centrada neles, particularmente nos homens brancos (Conkey & Spector, 1984). A derrota de Napoleão no início do século XIX levou a uma reação nacionalista e ao estabelecimento de regimes conservadores na Europa; nesse contexto, os intelectuais explicavam as diferenças físicas e comportamentais que observavam entre os indivíduos por fatores biológicos (Trigger, 1989). ...
O estudo de resquícios humanos começou no XIX, quando os trabalhos publicados reforçavam os preconceitos de etnia e de gênero comuns na sociedade da época. Desde então houve muitas transformações nos objetivos e nas metodologias da disciplina, devido aos avanços na Ciência, mas também à participação de mulheres e de pessoas negras e indígenas na produção do conhecimento. Durante esse processo surgiu uma nova abordagem, a bioarqueologia, que integra elementos da arqueologia, da antropologia biológica e de outras áreas do conhecimento. A bioarqueologia nos permite fazer um estudo mais detalhado sobre as condições de vida em sociedades do passado. Diversos elementos vão determinar o acesso de indivíduos a recursos em quantidade e qualidade suficientes para a sobrevivência, dentre eles o gênero e a religião. Nesse artigo discutimos como os conceitos de gênero e de religião eram tratados desde o início da disciplina até o período atual, e como eles podem ser empregados como elementos da análise interseccional em bioarqueologia.
... Si se rastrean los orígenes de la noción de herencia humana que puede percibirse desde una visión cosmopolita, estos orígenes están sin duda arraigados en todo el proyecto político de los nacionalismos decimonónicos (Anderson, 2020). La noción de nación alimentó las emergentes ciencias sociales, especialmente la antropología, que extrapoló el concepto al estudio de la alteridad de tal manera que quedó definida por un conjunto de rasgos discrecionales que definirían los límites entre una cultura y otra (Trigger, 1989). Por ello, las primeras teorías antropológicas fueron aquellas que se opusieron al evolucionismo clásico y definieron el papel de la antropología como la descripción de rasgos culturales que fueron transformados por los procesos de difusión y migración (Verdon, 2007). ...
El principal argumento de este manuscrito es que la antropología de Estados Unidos es la dimensión cultural del colonialismo de ese país; por lo tanto, es imposible que la antropología en esa nación se descolonice sin antes reconfigurar ese mismo proyecto colonial. En este sentido, la única posibilidad de salir del carácter colonial de la antropología en Estados Unidos es una reorganización de esa disciplina en un instrumento político que pueda elevar la noción de cultura a rango constitucional, reubicándola de su lugar como herramienta de análisis y posicionarla como un instrumento político. Esto desplazaría la idea de que la principal labor de la antropología es la representación y comprensión de la diversidad cultural, para dar paso a una idea más iconoclasta que definiría la antropología como un campo de comprensión de las maneras que el colonialismo usa la cultura para su legitimación.
... Существенные изменения произошли в подходах к исследованиям прошлого археологической науки: изучение практик, институализированных структур, биографий способствовали переходу истории археологии на уровень субдисциплины. При этом, широкое применение получил историко-антропологический подход, позволивший фокусировать внимание на деталях биографий археологов прошлых лет [11,16,20;23,Trigger,. ...
... Notably, the corpus of archaeological sources that have been used is relatively limited, with special emphasis on exceptional finds that probably tell us little about widespread usage. Although not discussed in Trigger 2006, Talmudic archaeology should be considered a text-based archaeology. orange-brown in color, and typically measures about 9.1 cm long, 6.6 cm wide, and 4.4 cm high. ...
This article seeks to contribute to the growing scholarship on object-focused Roman histories by expanding the conversation to previously overlooked archaeological finds from Roman Palestine. This case study focuses on “Northern Collar-Neck Lamps,” which have been found throughout Roman Galilee and date to the first two centuries CE. I argue that their distinctive high collar, perhaps designed to reduce spillage, also served as an affordance that invited additional modes of interaction, namely placing a supplemental reservoir for oil – such as a pierced eggshell – over the filling hole. Once set up, this would allow for a slow drip of oil to prolong illumination time without human intervention. This usage is suggested from chronologically and geographically proximate sources, namely early rabbinic literature: Hebrew and Aramaic writings from the first centuries that reference physical details and uses of hundreds of objects and could prove helpful for future material histories of the Roman era.
... According to the Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist, and ethnohistorian Bruce Trigger, the emphasis on progress reflected a European perspective on history and humanity that dominated but did not survive the nineteenth century (Trigger, 1989, cited by Hoffecker, 2011. But it was only after the turn of the 20th century that the necessary rewriting of human history began to have considerable influence, and slowly but surely, the air was let out of the self-inflated Eurocentric air castle. ...
Ars Memoriae, The Art to Remember analyzes the role of art within the larger history and evolution of external memory devices. It looks at material traces of remembering and the invention of an ever-changing body of language expressions, like signs and symbols, to enhance communication capabilities. I followed the process of externalizing emotions, knowledge, and information, starting in the Palaeolithic Stone Age about 3 million years ago, until, in a speculative future, it will be internalized again using artificial wetware, neuro-computers, and DNA coding. > Click on the image to download the PDF.
... En el panorama internacional, las primeras síntesis sobre la historia de la arqueología -producidas por Müller y Stark en el siglo XIX-han sido consideradas "fenomenologías del arte" (Schnapp, 2002, p. 134) y, en cierto modo, reducidas a labores recopilatorias de tradición anticuaria. Entrado el siglo XX surgieron nuevos intentos de abordar una historia intelectual de la arqueología bajo un enfoque teleológico (Daniel, 1976;Trigger, 1989). Y tras estas primeras tentativas han ido viendo la luz nuevas contribuciones que han dejado atrás ortodoxias propias de las décadas precedentes (Schnapp, 1996;Schlanger y Nordbladh, 2008;Delley et al., 2016;Murray, 2021). ...
En este artículo se analiza correspondencia inédita entre el arqueólogo José Ramón Mélida y el historiador del arte José Gestoso en el período comprendido entre 1884 y 1916. Ambos fueron miembros del Cuerpo Facultativo de Archive-ros, Bibliotecarios y Arqueólogos, si bien sus carreras describieron trayectorias distintas. El encuentro entre ambos motiva ciertas reflexiones sobre la complejidad e importancia de las redes de contacto informales y las dinámicas institucionales en un período turbulento de la arqueología española
This paper focuses on the unpublished correspondence between archaeologist José Ramón Mélida and art histo-rian José Gestoso during 1884-1916. Albeit both being members of the Faculty of Archivists, Librarians and Archaeologists, their careers followed different paths. The relationship between them two highlights the complexity and importance of non-formal networks and institutional dynamics during a turbulent period in Spanish archaeology
... This tradition (Volkerkunde) offered what the Chilean project needed: to overcome the Catholic Hispanicism of the earlier writers of ancient history, secularizing it; and to reproduce through scientific means a particular form of identity that differed from the enlightened French liberalism of the creoleélite. Indeed, German anthropology was characterized by a dual commitment to inductive science-an empirical methodology centered on gathering information before theorizing claims-and to the Herderian concept of Volksgeist, the "spirit of the people," with its romantic form of nationalism (Gänger, 2006(Gänger, , 2014Penny and Bunzl, 2003a;Stocking, 1996;Trigger, 2006;Vermeulen et al., 2019;Zimmerman, 1999). For example, in the founding of the EMB, the first of its class in the world, Bastian imagined an archive of civilization and a new discipline with the capacity to use the methods of the natural sciences for the study of humans. ...
The discovery of the “ruins” of Guatacondo, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, made the news in 1963. It was the pinnacle of a process of scientific colonization of this territory that had begun in the 19th century and connected multiple experts with the desert and its history. This paper explores the context of discovery of an archaeological site in the Atacama to show how archaeology—as a field of knowledge and a scientific practice—emerged in the interstices of projects of colonial expansion and capitalist modernization, often merging public and private interests. Weaving together histories of scientific explorations, museum operations, and extractivist enterprises, it highlights deep connections between geopolitics and ideology with the seemingly apolitical and objective nature of archaeology. Starting with the peripheral figure of Emil de Bruyne—an engineer employed by one of the biggest mining operations in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile—we explore the role of different actors within a network of well-connected people whose personal histories, intellectual backgrounds, and personal positions gave shape to the practice of archaeology in this part of the Atacama Desert.
... Одна глава посвя щена его поездке в Корею [Edgington Brown, 2016]. В качестве второстепенной библиографии выступают книги по истории археологии Брюса Триггера [Trigger, 2006], Л.С. Клейна [Клейн, 2011] и корейские работы, связанные со становлени ем археологии в Корее и раскопками в Кимхэ. ...
В статье представлена краткая биография Уильяма Гоуланда (1842— 1922) с упором на его публикацию 1895 г., где была описана его поездка в Корею в 1884 г. Деятельность У. Гоуланда в Корее рассмотрена через влияние британской общественной и политической мысли на археологию и антропологию того времени. Также проанализирован вклад самого Гоуланда на последующие японские археологические исследования в Корее, а именно: методы использования археологии для оправдания колониальной политики через сравнительный анализ археологических предметов, на основании которого строятся расовые теории о превосходстве одной нации над другой. Гоуланд упомянул археологическое место Кимхэ, впоследствии раскопанное японцами одним из самых первых в Корее в 1907 г. Также Гоуланда можно считать первым европейцем, который довольно подробно изучил корейские дольмены и разработал их классификацию по трем типам, используемую и в наши дни.
This article provides a concise biography of William Gowland (1842—1922) based on his 1895 publication recounting his 1884 journey to Korea. It explores Gowland’s activities in Korea within the context of British public and political thought's impact on archaeology and anthropology during that era. Additionally, it examines Gowland's contributions to subsequent Japanese archaeological endeavors in Korea. The article delves into the methods employed in using archaeology to justify colonial policies, drawing from comparative analyses of archaeological artifacts which formed the basis of racial theories regarding national superiority. Notably, Gowland referenced the archaeological site of Gimhae, subsequently excavated by the Japanese in 1907, marking one of the earliest such endeavors in Korea. Furthermore, Gowland, as the first European to extensively study Korean dolmens, developed a classification system comprising three types, which remains in use to this day.
... The classification of the data collected from each archaeological site can be very complicated, as we are not dealing with one incident in the chronology line but many and other affecting agents that we may not be aware of (Benjamin & Hale 2012;Trigger 1989;Bailey et al. 2020). Therefore, the site selection had to be limited chronologically, stratigraphically, geologically and topographically, while comparable criteria that affected the site formation process (factors, excavation process and issues that occur during the excavation) were also considered as challenges that could affect the integrated data. ...
Research on underwater archaeological sites has been adversely affected by various socioeconomic (specialized equipment, lack of know-how, legal framework, etc.) and environmental (weather conditions, site formation processes, etc.) challenges. Interdisciplinary approaches, especially technology integration, can help introduce a methodology to evaluate these factors and mitigate limitations to enhance the information retrieved and assist the interpretation process. One such approach may be predictive modelling while developing methodologies based on predictive models can be assets in research. The work presented in this article is based on this approach and assesses the use of predictive models based on six case studies. It is an effort to evaluate whether targeting sub-areas when excavating on limited time and budget can help clarify the interpretation of the information collected from these areas.
... With the exceptions of Omer C. Stewart, Henry T. Lewis, and Henry F. Dobyns, cultural anthropologists have rarely studied the ecological and economic effects of anthropogenic fire (however, see Coughlan, 2013;Fowler and Welch, 2018). A significant consequence of this inattention is that archaeologists have been hard pressed to develop testable hypotheses and interpretive analogies -a grand tradition in American anthropological archaeology (Gibbon, 1984;Trigger, 2006)-about the antiquity, diverse practices, and food-production potential of human-ignited fire (Mellars, 1976). ...
Despite convincing archaeological arguments about the global effects of human pyrogeography and their evolutionary significance, many of the implicated data sources are unavailable in research contexts that lack significant accumulations of charcoal or stands of fire-scarred trees. In view of the strong likelihood that hominins routinely ignited small, low-intensity landscape fires for millennia, we explore the role of cultural burning for food-production in an area of the American Southwest where anthropogenic fire has not been considered. To illustrate the virtues of a multidisciplinary approach, informed by Formation Theory and time perspectivism, we focus on the returns from macrobotanical and palynological analyses of samples recovered from a variety of archaeological and geoarchaeological contexts in the Upper Basin, a landform located south of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. Previous archaeobotanical studies of samples recovered from archaeological sites (ca. AD 500–1500) in the basin's pinyon-juniper woodlands are dominated by amaranth, chenopodium, and other economic ruderals. These findings support the “fire foodway” model that posits prehistoric Indigenous populations of the Upper Basin depended on these fire-following wild plants, rather than maize, by harvesting their abundant seeds and leaves from production locations that were created by low-intensity understory fires. In this paper, we present the results of new studies of archaeobotanical remains recovered from cut-back terraces and sedimentary contexts that (i) expand the evidence base for the fire-foodway model, (ii) provide a basis for proposing several types of prehistoric cultural burning practices, and (iii) introduce the outlines of the ruderal seed-bed hypothesis. Combined, these findings provide a new archaeological perspective on upland subsistence practices in the northern American Southwest. Our study also highlights biases of modern vegetation surveys that do not include archaeological data, and contributes to an appreciation of the extent to which biodiversity has declined because of widespread fire exclusion.
... Small numbers of individuals explore a new territory, a type of activity that can be linked with the concept of "landscape learning" (Rockman and Steele 2003). Drawing on Trigger (1989), Rockman (2003) highlighted the importance of "effective adaptation" in landscape learning, the acquisition of knowledge necessary for human survival within various landscapes, and noting how this knowledge is accumulated and used. She concludes that, "there is a need for archaeology to consider deeply how it studies, understands, and interrelates the topics of colonization, behavior, and environmental knowledge" (Rockman 2003, 3). ...
... There is a fusion between narrative parameters from historic-culturalism and processual methodologies that difficult the visualization of a delimited distinction between classical archaeological schools, as is proposed by Trigger (1989) to European and North American context. In such places, the breakage of Eurocentric paradigm promoted by postprocessual (or postmodern) archaeology has brought to its agenda the political feminist movement and the critics of a parameter of heterosexual and white masculinity as a "neutral gender" of pre-and postcolonial past. ...
... The history of museums and heritage illustrates that these histories have been changing over time themselves (e.g. Trigger, 2014;Kuper, 2023). This illustration of human and cultural variability over time is one important way of how Museum Studies and Heritage Studies can contribute to Futures Studies (Sandford, 2019;Holtorf & Högberg, 2021a). ...
... Of course, the use of analogy, and its related subject of homology, before being applied to archaeology, first appeared in disciplines such as philosophy, mathematics, and evolutionary biology. These disciplines, as is widely known, have, to varying degrees, influenced and shaped, both in the past and in modern times, tendencies in archaeological science (Trigger, 1989). Concerning analogy, it is now accepted that there is no single kind of analogy but that it can be categorized according to the needs it serves. ...
The attempt to reproduce objects related to the material culture of past societies or even practices that took place in them through experimental processes is a field that has contrib- uted significantly to archaeological thinking. The initial origins of experimental studies can be traced back to the 19th and early decades of the 20th century, while the first attempts to focus on the importance of experimental archaeology date back to shortly after the mid- 20th century. Nowadays, current research activity, within the framework of interdiscipli- narity, considers experimental protocols an integral part of its work, as they can provide further evidence on various archaeological issues but also reconstruct, to a certain extent, phenomena belonging to past societies. It is worth noting that the application of experi- mental methods is inextricably linked to both archaeological theory and ethnography.
Settlement archaeology, emerging in mid-20 century as a response to the limitation of artifact-based culture-historical approach, providing a powerful framework for understanding how socio-cultural changes manifest in the spatial distribution of human activities. Settlement analysis showed that layout and hierarchy of settlements----ranging from small hamlets to large urban centers----can reveal key insights into resource use, social stratification, and political organization. Chinese archaeologists have preferred to use wall as the evidence to define a city, but foreign colleagues emphasized population density, occupational specialization, and integrative institutions as defining criteria. In light of global findings that societies may adopt distinctive urban trajectories----even without defensive walls or explicit evidence of markets----archaeologists now use a variety of quantative and qualitative indicators, including settlement size, function, and inter-site relationships, to identify urbanism in the archaeological record. In China, debates around sites such as Xishan, Erlitou, and Liangzhu highlight the importance of this perspective: walls alone may not suffice to classify a settlement as city, and more comprehensive information about economic specialization, population aggregation, and administrative or ceremonial functions must be collected. Ultimately, settlement archaeology, with its multi-scalar analysis of communities and their interactions, is essential for reconstructing the emergence of urban life as a core facet of early civilization.
This paper explores the development of theories and methods in the study of the origin of early civilizations and states, highlighting the shift in focus from the “when” to “why” in understanding societal change. The concept of cultural evolution, particularly during the Enlightenment, laid the foundation for modern archaeology and social sciences. However, the unilinear approach was later challenged by the historical particularism of the Boasian school, which emphasized cultural uniqueness and rejected evolutionary models. In the 20th century, neoevolutionism and cultural ecology sought to understand societal complexity through ecological, technological, and demorgraphic factors. The concept “chiefdom” became central to explaining the origin of early states. The paper discusses the limitation of traditional Chinese historigraphy and the potential for integrating Western theories with Chinese scholars to adopt new approaches, combining historigraphy, archaeology, and anthropology. Finally, the paper appeals to make an endeavor to use a multidisciplinary approach to explore the origin of Chinese civilization.
The article examines how Chinese archaeology has long operated under a culture-historical paradigm that privileges classification, typology, and artifact-based chronology, yet struggles to generate systematic explanations of cultural change. Drawing on Kuhn's notion of paradigm revolution, the author observes that archaeology in the West has moved from culture-historical toward processual and postprocessual approaches, underpinned by new concepts such as functionism, systemic thinking, and positivist methods. By contrast, Chinese archaeology, introduced as a tool for reconstructing national history, remains centered on meticulous excavations whose data often lack clear problem orientation. The result is a tendency to rely on inductive empiricism—classifying and describing artifacts without adequately linking them to broad social, economic, or ideological contexts. The article highlights that embracing more advanced theoretical models—whether functional-ecological, systemic, or evolutionary—demands not simply new techniques but a shift in how archaeologists define research questions and interpret material remains. Also critiqued is the inconsistent or nationalistic use of key concepts, e.g. chiefdom or archaic state, without properly grounding them in anthropological theory, creating further obstacles to global dialogue. Concluding, the author calls for a more rigorous approach that integrates deductive methods, systematic comparative analyses, and an openness to global archaeological theory, so that salvage excavations become genuine scientific inquiries rather than routine, rote projects. Through conceptual reconfiguration and an expanded theoretical toolkit, Chinese archaeology can better meet its stated aim of explaining, rather than merely enumerating, the national rich prehistoric record.
This article highlights how Gordon Willey's study of prehistoric settlement patterns in the Veru Valley marked a groundbreaking shift in mid-20 century archaeology away from mere chronological description toward exploring how ancient societies functioned and changed over time. By tracing distributions of dwellings, ceremonial buildings, fortified sites, and cemeteries across different periods, Willey illuminated social organization and subsistence strategies and the cultural change over time. His approach—analyzing four types of sites within a single valley—created a framework for interpreting large-scale dynamic such as population growth, conflict, and shift in political or religious center. Settlement archaeology thus emerged as a crucial method for understanding cultural evolution: it allowed archaeologists to see "people behind objects" by examining how communities adapted to their environments and how internal factors, rather than just external diffusion, shaped cultural change. The paper clarified some critics made by some Chinese scholars caused by their misunderstanding of the term “settlement” (usually “village” in Chinese meaning) and maintains that Willey’s study remains a methodologica milestone that laid the foundation for more complex explorations of social, economic, and political structures. By moving beyond culture-historical concerns, Willey’s work demonstrated how archaeology could address broader anthropological questions about human organization and social change through systematic analysis of settlement patterns and site functions.
This article argues that the concept of “chiefdom”, largely derived from cultural anthropology, is crucial to understanding the formation of early Chinese states but is often misunderstood or ignored in Chinese archaeology and historiography. By highlighting China's strong tradition of textual study and its tendency to rely on historical records over theoretical models, the author contends that progress in exploring the origin of Chinese civilization requires an open embrace of modern social-science theory. Surveying Western scholarship on chiefdoms, the article demonstrates that “chiefdom” can matifest great diversity, with cycles of growth, fragmentation, and varied forms of inequality. Yet many Chinese interpretations conflate this stage of social evolution either with Morgan's tribal confederation or with quasi-states, leading to confusion about the nature and timing of political centralization. The author critiques such misunderstandings, insisting that without a fuller grasp of anthropological theory, Chinese scholars risk shoehorning archaeological data into preconceived categories. Chiefdom theory, on the other hand, when applied correctly, clarified how complex societies bridge egalitarian tribes and early states, and helps identify the dynamic processes that sometimes culminate in stable polities and sometimes unravel. The article ends by calling on China’s scholarly community to adopt a global perspective and rigorously test universal social principles against China's vast archaeological data, thereby advancing our knowledge of early Chinese states.
This article introduces the sixth edition of Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn's Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice to highlight the interplay between “general” and “particular” approaches in archaeology, urging Chinese scholars to balance general laws of cultural change with unique historical reconstructions. Building on Renfrew's point that archaeological methods should transcend borders, the author notes how Western scholarship—represented by figures like Morgan, Childe and Binford—has often pursued sweeping theoretical models to explain recurrent papperns such as the origins of agriculture and civilization. Conversely, China's rich historiographic tradition has cultivated a strong focus on specific, text-driven, and empirically grounded inquiries, sometimes dismissing general frameworks like “chiefdom” as inapplicable to Chinese data. The author argues that this dichotomy can lead to confusion, since abstract scientific terminology—aimed at discovering broad laws—differs in both purpose and language from historically particular studies. Citing Boasian historical particularism and Ranke's archive-centered methods, the article underscores tht neither universal generalizations nor localized historical facts alone can illuminate social change: they must be integrated. Ultimately, the author calls for a more open-minded adoption of theoretical and methodological innovation—exemplified by Renfrew and Bahn’s global perspective—so tht Chinese archaeology may enrich, rather than sidestep, international debates on cultural development.
This paper presents an analysis of how the national monument of Great Zimbabwe has been politically used during the period 2000-2025, and it examines how archaeology and the cultural heritage of Great Zimbabwe have been used by political organizations for different purposes within the framework of nationalism, during the period studied. Thus, the paper focuses on the use of Great Zimbabwe during the economic downturn in Zimbabwe. The article applies a theoretical perspective based in Critical Heritage Studies, and it is stressed that during the period examined the national monument was used in the creation of a Zimbabwean identity, an identity built on the ideals of the governing ZANU-PF party, its leader President Robert Mugabe, and his successor President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The paper presents a detailed analysis of the on-site use of the monument by ZANU-PF, Mugabe, and Mnangagwa during this period in the form of case studies presenting and examining four political and public events that took place at the monument. It is argued that the monument was actively used for strengthening the party through nationalism, as well as promoting the hegemony of the party and its leader during a period of economic problems.
After enjoying a growing popularity during the 1990s, the history of archaeology seems to have reached an impasse marked by a scarcity of historical syntheses, a decreasing number of works on the disciplinary past and, more generally, a widespread sense of disorientation. In this chapter, we argue that this impasse can be regarded as the consequence of a certain disconnection the history of archaeology is suffering from the developments that are currently transforming archaeological research. In short, during the last 20 years, archaeology has shifted from being considered as a science largely restricted to academic debates to becoming a public-oriented discipline. Old matters of contention (such as the processual/post-processual debate) have been replaced by new issues mainly related to archaeologists’ greater involvement with contemporary communities (including recent debates concerning globalisation, Indigenous ways of knowing and heritage). While historians of archaeology occasionally discuss these questions, the history of archaeology as a discipline seems somewhat trapped in traditional ways of thinking. To overcome this situation, we suggest in this chapter a number of strategies oriented to rethink the disciplinary past through the lens of our changing present and emerging futures.
We provide the description of goals and techniques of surveying and drawing of fossils in the 2001–2006 excavation campaigns in the Lower Pleistocene deposits of Senèze (Haute-Loire, France). After a detailed survey at 1:1000 scale of each targeted parcel, a new topographic map of the whole site was established. During the excavations a total station was employed as the main topographic instrument. Detailed drawing and positioning of each fossil concentration was accomplished mainly by digital photographs followed by GIS treatment. From these images we have drawn each fossil on the general site map, linking it to the database. We illustrate here the three main fossil concentrations, consisting of partial skeletons of Dicerorhinus etruscus, Eucladoceros ctenoides and Allohippus senezensis. Finally, we provide an evaluation of different spatial data recording techniques in unconsolidated fossiliferous deposits.
Provenance has been one of the major scientific applications in archaeology for a hundred years. The 'Golden Age' began in the 1950s, when large programmes were initiated focussing on bronzes, ceramics, and lithics. However, these had varying impact, ranging from wide acceptance to outright rejection. This Element reviews some of these programmes, mainly in Eurasia and North America, focussing on how the complexity of the material, and the effects of human behaviour, can impact on such studies. The conclusion is that provenance studies of lithic materials and obsidian are likely to be reliable, but those on ceramics and metals are increasingly complicated, especially in the light of mixing and recycling. An alternative is suggested, which focusses more on using scientific studies to understand the relationship between human selectivity and processing and the wider resources available, rather than on the simple question of 'where does this object come from'.
This article analyses the practical experience of the formation and functioning of regional public structures in the field of the cultural heritage protection in Russia in the late nineteenth — early twentieth centuries. The author focuses on the activity of the Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers (Ekaterinburg) and its special commissions (protection of archaeological and natural sites). The relevance of the study is due to the growing role of public organisations in cultural heritage protection. The works of the Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers provide valuable experience in organising a public initiative for the preservation of ancient heritage in regions that do not have a high concentration of scientific and higher education institutions. To analyse the material, the author uses procedural and historical-anthropological methods. The research refers to unpublished office documents (minutes of meetings, official correspondence) from the collection of the State Archive of Sverdlovsk Region and printed materials (minutes of meetings, reports) from Zapiski Ural’skogo Obshchestva Lyubiteley Yestestvoznaniya. An analysis of historiography and sources demonstrates that until the end of the nineteenth century, the main efforts of the Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers in the field of archaeological heritage protection of the Ural region were associated with the identification and museumification of such objects. The activities significantly changed in the 1890s–1910s. Specialised commissions were created within the structure of the society. They focused on the implementation of measures to preserve archaeological sites. At the same time, the Commission for the Protection of Natural Monuments paid considerable attention to the protection of natural objects with cultural layers (Kamennye Palatki in Shartash, etc.). An important condition for effective heritage protection was the interaction of the Ural Society of Natural History Lovers with state (central and local) and municipal bodies, and private individuals. A special relationship developed with the Imperial Archaeological Commission, which often directed the society’s activities in the field of cultural heritage protection.
This article examines the articulation between archaeology and ideology in Nazi Germany, specifically the ideological content in archaeological narratives. We analyze German archaeology of this period in light of 19th century pan-Germanism and the German thinkers who helped shape the notion of a German national identity. Archaeology was utilized to strengthen Nazi ideology, with a particular focus on promoting ideas related to ancestry, homeland, militarism, and nationalistic fervor. The idea of Nordicism, whether pertaining to spirituality or geography, had a substantial influence on the interpretation of archaeological findings and the development of ideological narratives. The approach of Gustaf Kossinna can be viewed as the culmination of this archaeological connection to Nordicism, and it can be better understood by examining the scholars who shaped the contemporary understanding of the German national identity. Kossinna’s version of prehistory—a convoluted story of a Germanic origin—gained dominance and exerted influence over official publications and archaeological methodologies at the time. In this perspective, German was the mix of two Nordic races. This idea of a mix helped explain certain differences among populations in the Third Reich, making them part of the origin story itself. Although archaeology was not a central component of Nazi ideology, officials still showed a preference for it and employed it in many ways. Valuable knowledge obtained through a deep analysis of the Nazi case regarding the connection between ideology, warfare, and archaeological methods can help in future studies on the articulations between archaeology, ideology, and warfare.
Ao longo do século XX um debate marcou a arqueologia, sobretudo a norte-americana, deveriam os arqueólogos se ater a uma produção de conhecimento histórico, restringindo suas explicações às particularidades de cada caso? Ou almejar a uma meta mais ampla, buscando extrair dos eventos únicos regularidades mais gerais sobre o comportamento humano, gerando, assim, uma produção de conhecimento tida como verdadeiramente antropológica? Embora tal debate seja mais comumente relacionado à emergência da nova arqueologia dos anos 60, ele foi recorrente na antropologia e arqueologia norte-americanas desde, pelo menos, o segundo terço daquele século. De fato, o movimento pendular entre metas particularistas e generalizantes marcou não somente a arqueologia, mas a própria antropologia ao longo do século XX. Este trabalho tem por propósito, por um lado, analisar as origens e o desenvolvimento deste debate, cujas posições se traduzem na polarização entre explanação e interpretação, e, por outro, discutir as abordagens teóricas mais recentes, que buscam superar essa dicotomia com base, sobretudo, no relacionismo metodológico das teorias da prática.
This article synthesizes ethnographic and archaeological information from Alaska and the Eastern North American Arctic to reconstruct Thule Inuit patterns of trade, travel, and interaction.
The paper deals with the concept of archaeological culture and the structure of archaeological knowledge in archaeological theory today. It aims to reconsider these basic concepts in light of the actor-network theory and integrate Ukrainian archaeological theorising into the global discourse by mobilising the theoretical advances around archaeological cultures. By doing that, we also want to contribute to the ethical and anthropocentric aspect of archaeological research and to create a provocation for bringing life to archaeological theorising in Ukraine.
First part of the paper is focused on the brief overview of the history of archaeological culture as a concept. Given that it was very different in various parts of the world, we separate the rise and fall of archaeological cultures in continental and Anglo-American studies and the history of archaeological theory in Soviet and post-Soviet countries. We compare these processes when relevant, but aim to describe the state of the art and its preconditions rather than provide a detailed historiographic overview. We then emphasise archaeological culture as a “strong theory,” highlighting its problematic status based on its strength. Therefore, the second part of the contribution deals with the perspectives of the actor-network theory to enrich the concept of archaeological cultures by making it weaker and more adequate to the modern archaeological studies. We describe the history and the main agenda of the actor-network theory with the particular focus on the ways it can solve the problematic status of the archaeological culture.
In the last part of the paper we suggest a scheme to describe the structure of archaeological knowledge from the perspective of the actor-network theory. We explain the ways this new scheme “weakens” archaeological cultures and enables avoiding the positivistic dead end. Moreover, we link specific practices of archaeological research to the particular stage of the study and explain the ways archaeological cultures can remain the crucial category of archaeological studies without being a “toxic” and “strong” theory. This forms a strong basis for integrating the culture-grounded theorising in Ukraine with the advances of the Western archaeological theory today.
This chapter addresses the concept of “intersectionality” and its uses in archaeological analysis and practice. Intersectionality is broadly understood to encompass approaches that consider the complexity of human experience, particularly oppression and privilege, along multiple axes of identity simultaneously. Consistent with its development from Black feminism, much intersectional archaeological research has focused on race and gender in recent times; however, an increasing number of explicitly intersectional approaches are also addressing class, status, sexuality, age, dis/ability, and other aspects of identity. Intersectional investigation of the discipline is also growing, investigating the demographics of archaeology and knowledge production, and supporting social justice activism in academia.
This chapter, and the volume that it introduces, situates gender in current archaeological debates. The central argument is that gender archaeology as a field of study is in crisis, although some research communities are better positioned than others. This predicament not only affects the relevance and credibility of the field before the larger archaeological community, but also the circumstances in which gender-concerned archaeologists conduct their research. First, we assess the state of gender archaeology in Europe and North America, attempting to find explanations and propose solutions for the field’s decline. We then review the place of gender within the major theoretical and methodological debates which have influenced archaeology in the past decade, especially in Western research traditions, such as the Third Science Revolution, posthumanism, new materialism, intersectionality, mobility, and violence. We argue that although gender has largely been absent from these debates, this should be an inseparable component of research and narratives on the human past. Finally, we explore the impact of present global tensions and online trends in the dissemination, visibility and accessibility of archaeological gender research.
The Center for Interdisciplinary Research of Ancient History of the Institute of Croatian History at the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, initiated the international scientific symposium "Contextualizing 'Oriental' Cults. New Lights on the Evidence between the Danube and the Adriatic," held in Zagreb and Ptuj from September 15 to 17, 2022. The co-organizing institutions were the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the Cultural Heritage Research Center "Cvetan Grozdanov" of the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb, and the Regional Museum Ptuj – Ormož. The aims of the symposium were to explore and discuss how "Oriental" cults manifested in the Danubian and Balkan provinces, based on epigraphic and material evidence. Attention was given to the spread and development of these cults in various contexts – historical, political, topographical, civil, economic, and military. Presentations and discussions yielded valuable new insights and conclusions. The international character of the symposium, with participants from several countries (Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, North Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, and Romania), enabled an exceptionally cohesive and dynamic academic and cultural exchange. Two years after the symposium, we have gathered scientific contributions from most participants. The publication is intended for both the domestic and international scientific community, as it presents the latest findings and conclusions on the so-called "Oriental" cults.
The disciplines of archives and archaeology are each about the power of context: they both preserve the context wherein objects and records are found and created to aid in their interpretation and take those materials as evidence of context. As context-based disciplines, archives and archaeology foreground the concept of provenance and construct meanings about objects and records from contextual relationships. Context, which is related to but also distinct from provenance, is difficult to disentangle from the latter. While sometimes conflated and used interchangeably, subtle differences distinguish the two concepts. This article explores the ways that archives and archaeology employ the concepts of provenance and context, and the messiness with which they do. Fundamentally, this exercise aims to understand where they might share common ground while enriching discussion and fostering introspection and cross-disciplinary exchange and suggest ways these fields might rethink and extend their own uses of these concepts.
There is a well-known fact that there is always a relationship between the physical setting of the environment and the humans, and the interaction between the two components somehow always leaves a significant remark. Each piece of land may it be water bodies, is deeply embedded with culture specific symbolism, understanding these meanings helps one understand nature-human processes and relationships. In every society, may it be great or little, there is often a myth or oral history related with places that surrounds us. The objective of the study is to reconstruct past human life-ways through both the material and non-material remains of a particular landscape.
This paper discusses the evidence for “corpse roads” in early modern Britain. Corpse roads were route ways used by funeral parties to transport the deceased from the place of death to the place of final interment. In some cases, some routes took on localised symbolic or folkloric significance, and in a few cases, this is preserved in the present day in contemporary route names, tourism and on modern maps. This paper reviews the evidence for corpse roads, and the methodologies needed to interrogate that evidence. These methodologies are drawn from folklore, ethnology, archaeology and history. The case of one corpse path, in Swaledale in northern England, is presented as a case study.
In this doctoral dissertation I examine how and why mid-to late-Holocene societies in SE Uruguay carried out practices that resulted in the elevation of earthen mounds in lowland environments, and the effects those practices had on both the landscape and human experiences. I present an innovative contribution which merges aspects of Historical Ecology and Materiality frameworks not regularly mingled to understand the ways humans over time have shaped themselves and their world.
Excavations carried out in the earth mound complex “Colina Da Monte” (SE of Uruguay) revealed different site formation aspects, anthropological processes, and temporalities. The evidence recorded suggests that the peripheral mounds grew broadly contemporaneously since 1500 years BP and grew as a product of the deposition of materials associated with daily domestic practices (burning, lithic knapping, refuse disposal, food preparation, and sediment deposition). The central platform mound preceded the peripheral mounds (ca. 2500 years BP), although its earliest chronology is not clear. Its centrality in the site, its far visual reach of its surroundings, its distinct platform morphology and large size, the almost complete absence of recorded ceramics and faunal remains, its complex chronology, along with the presence of an accumulation of rocks in the interior and base of the mound, all suggests that this mound possessed a central and dominant character, meaning, and material centrality in the region. Later peripheral mounds grew while the central platform mound remained active and growing until ca. 1200 cal years BP, when deposition and cultural activity ceased on this central mound, while activity on the peripheral mounds continued until the pre-conquest period (ca. 500 cal years BP).
Chemical, granulometric, spatial, and archaeological data show that long-term cultural practices took place in CDM and impacted the soils in all the mound locations. CDM’s mound complex is the anthropological product of continuities and discontinuities in different depositional practices spatially and temporally differentiated but which have ultimately contributed to the emergence of a cultural and ecologically complex place within a larger cultural landscape.
The twenty-first century has drastically changed many aspects of our lives, including the use of terms and labels. The term “refugee” recently grew popular in academia, policies, practices, and media. However, it has been changed from a term to a label and a concept, impacting how we perceive the humans around us and interact with them. There is an ongoing discussion regarding this term and its value, and it was even suggested to provide a theoretical justification to broaden this debate. This paper discusses the term “refugee” through the humanistic approach, indicating that this term is selected unilaterally, potentially affecting the resilience of the people we are dealing with. It also shows a necessity to use more neutral or positive terms to mitigate any racism and discrimination as all people have the right to live free and equal without prejudice based on terms, labels, or concepts.
Indigenous communities and people direct and participate in archaeological research in diverse ways. Consequently, the development and growth of Indigenous archaeology, collaborative archaeology, and incorporation of community-based participatory research and community-engaged research protocols have also led to the development of diverse Indigenous archaeologies. This chapter outlines two Indigenous archaeology approaches initiated by the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe conducted collaboratively with non-tribal researchers. Several commonalities in research goals and practices exist within these distinct archaeological projects. For example, shared interests in the use of archaeology to support Indigenous natural resource stewardship, recognition of tribal sovereignty and rights to traditional lands and resources, emphasis on tribal health and wellness, and understanding Indigenous foodways in support of Indigenous food sovereignty, among others, exist. Archaeological research of ancestral sites provides further information that can support these initiatives.
The Neolithic Revolution, occurring approximately 10,000 years ago, marks a pivotal period in human history characterized by significant advancements in language, tools, and societal structures. This transformative epoch saw the transition from nomadic hunter-gatherer societies to settled agricultural communities, laying the foundation for modern civilization. Understanding the causes and implications of these changes is essential for comprehending the trajectory of human development. This paper examines the Neolithic Revolution through two distinct lenses: scientific explanations and Young Earth Creationist (YEC) perspectives. Scientific viewpoints attribute the advancements to gradual adaptations driven by climatic changes, technological innovations, and social factors over an extended timeline. In contrast, YEC perspectives interpret these developments through a biblical framework, suggesting rapid advancements post-flood and attributing key events to divine intervention within a condensed timeline. By presenting and analyzing both perspectives without bias, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Neolithic Revolution and its profound impact on human history.
Keywords: Neolithic Revolution, human advancement, agriculture, climate change, Young Earth Creationism, scientific perspectives, technological innovation, societal structures, biblical events, early human history, hunter-gatherer, settled communities, language development, toolmaking, cultural evolution.
