Times the Living Make the Dead Live
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-03-22

The concept of Time has often been (over)looked at through the narrow spectrum of processual and positivist approaches to the archaeological science. Researchers are still oblivious to the many vectors and planes of existence that different experiences of Time are being placed on. Furthermore, they are not taking into consideration time’s phenomenological quality, through which it is experienced, lived, and not simply calculated and placed. This represents an in-motion feature of the Living, mutually shaped by each other, in every present lived. Consequently, the directions and strata in which Time can be exposed and addressed are many and not necessarily metaphorical. When several identities, temporalities, and spatial experiences happen to meet at once along the researcher´s personal and professional activity, the resulting ‘image’ of time and temporal frames ranges within the several theoretical backgrounds of the discipline. This paper will delve into the many biases involved in the process of phenomenologically approaching the notion of simultaneous, distinct time experiences for archaeologists and in archaeology, in order to explore how these contribute to shape the construction of different temporalities in the past. 

Ana G. San-Martin (Complutense University of Madrid):