Archaeology is the science of aggregates
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-04-20

The archaeological inquiry proceede to dismantle a singular entity, entirely spatial, and therefore viewable in many ways, with some cohesion, and structured from various material elements, which we call aggregate. As an aggregate, it could not be covered by any subject, even if it has at least a part, itself part of an artifact (and not only as constituent), suggesting intentionality in this location, that can be old or very recent. In contrast to other documents (picture, text), the aggregate reveals no point of view, nor imposed framework. From the disposition of these things (Ontology of substance) in it, the archaeologist deduces the existence of other things ("what?"), people ("who?") and events ("why ?"), answering incompletely this question: "what happened here?" (Ontology of time). We consider in this paper all the epistemological consequences of the disassembly operation at several scales (from mesoscopic towards the infra and supra ones), which limits the use of certain concepts of Social Sciences, while providing unmistakable facts. This limitation, it is the decoupling between space and time, as well as the weakening of certain criteria of identity, in the absence of language and / or direct observation of the agents. For these reasons, it may not be the best discipline to handle the material culture in all its generality, neither "the discipline of things".

Philippe Boissinot, EHESS, Toulouse-Paris, France