Ontology of archaeological sources and the possibilities of archive
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-02-08

In this paper I want to develop a very simple linear line of thought about the significance of the archives and archaeological documentation. In one of his papers James Deetz proposed that archaeological documentation, field reports and similar works should be treated as archaeography seeing that they stand in a similar relation to archaeology as ethnography does to ethnology. One could push this idea even further and claim that archaeography, description of the artifacts, and not the artifact itself is the source of archaeological research. During fieldworks artifacts are collected, measured, described and interpreted, and only the result of this process and not the excavated object could be called an archaeological source. Site and artifact documentation published in various reports and papers is then applied to other papers and the process is repeated indefinitely. Adopting this notion should switch scientific attention to the archives as they hold not only the aforementioned sources, but also artifacts-objects, and thus they provide the only context for reconstructing excavation process and reference point for the discourse. The nature of archaeological site allows full contact with the artifacts in its context, but as a price of being confined to the excavated area, so that the view upon explored culture or community is restricted only to the actual size of the site. Any additional information is obtained via archaeographical sources, which makes properly maintained archives one of the most important factors for conducting studies. In my paper I will explore this inductive nature of the research by presenting the possibilities enabled by the introduction of joined archives for Greek painted pottery. Focusing on their main features like standardization of documentation, accessibility and others I will discuss benefits and drawbacks of archive-based research.

Author - MA Miścicki, Wawrzyniec, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Kraków, Poland (Presenting author)