In an Instant: Thoughts on an archaeological philosophy of time
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2019-05-08

This paper is an attempt at developing a philosophy of time, formulated from an explicitly archaeological point of view. In recent years, archaeological literature has seen a revival in the number of studies dealing with time in archaeological interpretation. Work by Gavin Lucas (2005; 2015) has, largely, set the tone of debate, with interesting contributions on the case for ‘time perspectivism’ from Geoff Bailey (2007; 2008); and Simon Holdaway and LuAnn Wandsnider (2008). These studies have focused on the manner time is used or presented by the archaeological interpreter – either as a time of experience of the human subject; as a system that both structures and is structured by our categorisation of data; or as a range of scalar differentiation allowing different types of analysis. However, what the majority of these studies share is an assumption that time, at its most basic, is a thing that exists for us to study in the physical deposits of the past. Surprisingly though, the nature of time as we encounter it in the archaeological record is highly under-theorised. Most studies analyse our approach to time in the ‘interpretative space’ of post-excavation discussion, but surely our philosophy of time must begin before this – at our encounter with our object of study, either in the ground, on the shelf, in the drawer, or in the field. In order to formulate an archaeological philosophy of time, this paper will advance four propositions, based upon time as it is encountered through the excavation and interpretation of archaeological deposits. The propositions are formed as the basis for debate, as are the corollaries provided at the end of the paper based upon the acceptance of these propositions. 

Ben Edwards (Manchester Metropolitan University)