It might seem obvious that time lies at the heart of archaeology, since archaeology is about the past. However, the issue of time is complicated and often problematic, and although we take it very much for granted, our understanding of time affects the way we do archaeology.
This book is an introduction not just to the issues of chronology and dating, but time as a theoretical concept and how this is understood and employed in contemporary archaeology. It provides a full discussion of chronology and change, time and the nature of the archaeological record, and the perception of time and history in past societies.
Drawing on a wide range of archaeological examples from a variety of regions and periods, The Archaeology of Time provides students with a crucial source book on one of the key themes of archaeology.

There has been a profound shift in the direction of archaeological activity in the last fifteen years, a change reflected in this volume. While excavation remains a professional priority, the interpretation of archaeological evidence is now attracting increasing critical study. In part this is stemmed from the public demand for explanation of archaeological evidence, which moves beyond the more restricted academic debate among archaeologists. But it also follows from a desire among archaeologists to come to terms with their own subjective approaches to the material they study, and a recognition of how past researchers have also imposed their own value systems on the evidence which they presented.
This volume provides a forum for debate between varied approaches to the past from leading archaeologists in Europe, North America, Asia and Australasia. It addresses the philosophical issues involved in interpretation, and the origins of meaning in the evolution and emergence of 'mind' in early hominids. It covers the ways in which material culture is understood and presented in museums, and how the nature of history is itself in flux.

Rather than seeing theory as something worked from the outside in, this book explores theory from the inside out, which means it focuses on specific archaeological practices rather than specific theories. It starts from the kinds of situations that students find themselves in and learn about in other archaeology courses, avoiding the gap between practice and theory from the very beginning. It shows students the theoretical implications of almost everything they engage in as archaeologists, from fieldwork, recording, writing-up and making and assessing an argument, to exploring the very nature of archaeology and justifying its relevance. Essentially, it adopts a structure which attempts to pre-empt one of the most common complaints of student's taking theory courses: how is this applicable? Aimed primarily at undergraduates, this book is the ideal way to engage students with archaeological theory.

This book includes discussions on the nature of change and time in the archaeological record, the relation between the present and past, the connection between time and the goals of archaeology and the relevance of the Anthropocene to disciplinary practice. Situated in how the authors own views on the topic of time have developed over their careers, the conversation offers an intimate and personal insight into how two leading scholars think and debate a topic of central importance to the discipline. All archaeologists with an interest in contemporary theory and the topic of time will find this book of relevance, but also the student who wants to a front row seat onto a live debate on this topic will find it an invaluable complement to the more traditional textbook.

This book includes discussions on the nature of change and time in the archaeological record, the relation between the present and past, the connection between time and the goals of archaeology and the relevance of the Anthropocene to disciplinary practice. Situated in how the authors own views on the topic of time have developed over their careers, the conversation offers an intimate and personal insight into how two leading scholars think and debate a topic of central importance to the discipline. All archaeologists with an interest in contemporary theory and the topic of time will find this book of relevance, but also the student who wants to a front row seat onto a live debate on this topic will find it an invaluable complement to the more traditional textbook.

Making Time grapples with a range of issues that have crystallized in the wake of 15 years of discussion on time in archaeology, since the author's seminal volume The Archaeology of Time, synthesizing them for a new generation of scholars. The general understanding of time held by both archaeologists and non-archaeologists is often very simple: a linear notion where time flows along a single path from the past into the future. This book sets out to complicate this image, to draw out the key problems and issues with time that impact archaeological interpretation. Using concrete examples drawn from different periods and places, the book challenges the reader to think again. Ultimately, the book will suggest that if we want to understand what archaeological time is, then we need to accept that things do not exist in time, they make time. The crucial question then becomes: what kinds of time do archaeological materialities produce? Written for upper level undergraduates and researchers in archaeology, the book is also accessible to non-academics with an interest in the topic. The book is relevant for cognate disciplines, especially history, heritage studies and philosophy.

This work takes as its starting point, the role of fieldwork and how this has changed over the past 150 years. The author argues against progressive accounts of fieldwork and instead places it in its broader intellectual context to critically examine the relationship between theoretical paradigms and everyday archaeological practice.
In providing a much-needed historical and critical evaluation of current practice in archaeology, this book opens up a topic of debate which affects all archaeologists, whatever their particular interests.

Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past turns what is usually seen as a method for investigating the distant past onto the present. In doing so, it reveals fresh ways of looking both at ourselves and modern society as well as the discipline of archaeology.
This volume represents the most recent research in this area and examines a variety of contexts including:
* Art Deco
* landfills
* miner strikes
* college fraternities
* an abandoned council house.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203185102

Archaeologies of the Contemporary Past turns what is usually seen as a method for investigating the distant past onto the present. In doing so, it reveals fresh ways of looking both at ourselves and modern society as well as the discipline of archaeology.
This volume represents the most recent research in this area and examines a variety of contexts including:
* Art Deco
* landfills
* miner strikes
* college fraternities
* an abandoned council house.

This work takes as its starting point the role of fieldwork and how this has changed over the past 150 years. The author argues against progressive accounts of fieldwork and instead places it in its broader intellectual context to critically examine the relationship between theoretical paradigms and everyday archaeological practice.
In providing a much-needed historical and critical evaluation of current practice in archaeology, this book opens up a topic of debate which affects all archaeologists, whatever their particular interests.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203132254

There has been a profound shift in the direction of archaeological activity in the last 15 years. While excavation remains a professional priority, the interpretation of archaeological evidence is now attracting increasing critical study. In part, this stems from the public demand for explanation of archaeological evidence, which moves beyond the more restricted academic debate among archaeologists. But it also follows from a desire among archaeologists to come to terms with their own subjective approaches to the material they study, and a recognition of how past researchers have also imposed their own value systems on the evidence which they presented. This volume provides a forum for debate between varied approaches to the past. The authors, drawn from Europe, North America, Aisa and Australasia, represent many different strands of archaeology. It addresses the philosophical issues involved in interpretation, and the origins of meaning in the evolution and emergence of "mind" in early hominids. It covers the ways in which material culture is understood, and presented in museums, and how the nature of history is itself in flux.

Making Time grapples with a range of issues that have crystallized in the wake of 15 years of discussion on time in archaeology, since the author's seminal volume The Archaeology of Time, synthesizing them for a new generation of scholars. The general understanding of time held by both archaeologists and non-archaeologists is often very simple: a linear notion where time flows along a single path from the past into the future. This book sets out to complicate this image, to draw out the key problems and issues with time that impact archaeological interpretation. Using concrete examples drawn from different periods and places, the book challenges the reader to think again. Ultimately, the book will suggest that if we want to understand what archaeological time is, then we need to accept that things do not exist in time, they make time. The crucial question then becomes: what kinds of time do archaeological materialities produce? Written for upper level undergraduates and researchers in archaeology, the book is also accessible to non-academics with an interest in the topic. The book is relevant for cognate disciplines, especially history, heritage studies and philosophy.

How do archaeologists make knowledge? Debates in the latter half of the twentieth century revolved around broad, abstract philosophies and theories such as positivism and hermeneutics which have all but vanished today. By contrast, in recent years there has been a great deal of attention given to more concrete, practice-based study, such as fieldwork. But where one was too abstract, the other has become too descriptive and commonly evades issues of epistemic judgement. Writing the Past attempts to reintroduce a normative dimension to knowledge practices in archaeology, especially in relation to archaeological practice further down the 'assembly line' in the production of published texts, where archaeological knowledge becomes most stabilized and is widely disseminated. By exploring the composition of texts in archaeology and the relation between their structural, performative characteristics and key epistemic virtues, this book aims to move debate in both knowledge and writing practices in a new direction. Although this book will be of particular interest to archaeologists, the argument offered has relevance for all academic disciplines concerned with how knowledge production and textual composition intertwine.

This book is the based on the work of many people, and while I discuss many of them in the general context of this book in Chapter 1,1 would like to emphasize here the contribution of all those people involved. My apologies in advance to any I have omitted to mention. The backbone of the book is based on a project, 'Farm Lives' conducted between 1999 and 2002, funded exclusively by the McDonald Institute for Archaeolog- ical Research at the University of Cambridge; without their essential financial support, this would not have been possible. The project involved three components: archaeological fieldwork, archive research and oral history interviews. For the fieldwork, spe- cial thanks goes to Marcus Abbott, Jenny Bredenberg, Glenda Cox, Olivia Cyster, Andy Hall, Odile Peterson, and Sarah Winter; for po- excavation analysis of materials, I thank Duncan Miller (University of Cape Town), Peter Nilsson (South African Museum) and Jane Klose (University of Cape Town). For the archive research, I would like to thank J. Malherbe (Huguenot Museum) and Harriet Clift (South African Heritage Resources Agency), but most of all, Jaline de Villiers (Paarl Museum). For the oral history, my thanks go to Sarah Winter, Rowena Peterson and Jaline de Villiers for conducting interviews, and to the informants, Johanna Dressier, Louisa Adams, Geoffrey Leslie Hendricks, William Davids, Absolom David Lackay, John Cyster November and Lillian Aubrey Idas.

This book is the based on the work of many people, and while I discuss many of them in the general context of this book in Chapter 1,1 would like to emphasize here the contribution of all those people involved. My apologies in advance to any I have omitted to mention. The backbone of the book is based on a project, 'Farm Lives' conducted between 1999 and 2002, funded exclusively by the McDonald Institute for Archaeolog- ical Research at the University of Cambridge; without their essential financial support, this would not have been possible. The project involved three components: archaeological fieldwork, archive research and oral history interviews. For the fieldwork, spe- cial thanks goes to Marcus Abbott, Jenny Bredenberg, Glenda Cox, Olivia Cyster, Andy Hall, Odile Peterson, and Sarah Winter; for po- excavation analysis of materials, I thank Duncan Miller (University of Cape Town), Peter Nilsson (South African Museum) and Jane Klose (University of Cape Town). For the archive research, I would like to thank J. Malherbe (Huguenot Museum) and Harriet Clift (South African Heritage Resources Agency), but most of all, Jaline de Villiers (Paarl Museum). For the oral history, my thanks go to Sarah Winter, Rowena Peterson and Jaline de Villiers for conducting interviews, and to the informants, Johanna Dressier, Louisa Adams, Geoffrey Leslie Hendricks, William Davids, Absolom David Lackay, John Cyster November and Lillian Aubrey Idas.

How do archaeologists make knowledge? Debates in the latter half of the twentieth century revolved around broad, abstract philosophies and theories such as positivism and hermeneutics which have all but vanished today. By contrast, in recent years there has been a great deal of attention given to more concrete, practice-based study, such as fieldwork. But where one was too abstract, the other has become too descriptive and commonly evades issues of epistemic judgement. Writing the Past attempts to reintroduce a normative dimension to knowledge practices in archaeology, especially in relation to archaeological practice further down the 'assembly line' in the production of published texts, where archaeological knowledge becomes most stabilized and is widely disseminated. By exploring the composition of texts in archaeology and the relation between their structural, performative characteristics and key epistemic virtues, this book aims to move debate in both knowledge and writing practices in a new direction. Although this book will be of particular interest to archaeologists, the argument offered has relevance for all academic disciplines concerned with how knowledge production and textual composition intertwine.

It might seem obvious that time lies at the heart of archaeology, since archaeology is about the past. However, the issue of time is complicated and often problematic, and although we take it very much for granted, our understanding of time affects the way we do archaeology.
This book is an introduction not just to the issues of chronology and dating, but time as a theoretical concept and how this is understood and employed in contemporary archaeology. It provides a full discussion of chronology and change, time and the nature of the archaeological record, and the perception of time and history in past societies.
Drawing on a wide range of archaeological examples from a variety of regions and periods, The Archaeology of Time provides students with a crucial source book on one of the key themes of archaeology.

This book explores the diverse understandings of the archaeological record in both historical and contemporary perspective, while also serving as a guide to reassessing current views. Gavin Lucas argues that archaeological theory has become both too fragmented and disconnected from the particular nature of archaeological evidence. The book examines three ways of understanding the archaeological record - as historical sources, through formation theory and as material culture - then reveals ways to connect these three domains through a reconsideration of archaeological entities and archaeological practice. Ultimately, Lucas calls for a rethinking of the nature of the archaeological record and the kind of history and narratives written from it.

This book explores the diverse understandings of the archaeological record in both historical and contemporary perspective, while also serving as a guide to reassessing current views. Gavin Lucas argues that archaeological theory has become both too fragmented and disconnected from the particular nature of archaeological evidence. The book examines three ways of understanding the archaeological record - as historical sources, through formation theory and as material culture - then reveals ways to connect these three domains through a reconsideration of archaeological entities and archaeological practice. Ultimately, Lucas calls for a rethinking of the nature of the archaeological record and the kind of history and narratives written from it.

Rather than seeing theory as something worked from the outside in, this book explores theory from the inside out, which means it focuses on specific archaeological practices rather than specific theories. It starts from the kinds of situations that students find themselves in and learn about in other archaeology courses, avoiding the gap between practice and theory from the very beginning. It shows students the theoretical implications of almost everything they engage in as archaeologists, from fieldwork, recording, writing-up and making and assessing an argument, to exploring the very nature of archaeology and justifying its relevance. Essentially, it adopts a structure which attempts to pre-empt one of the most common complaints of student's taking theory courses: how is this applicable? Aimed primarily at undergraduates, this book is the ideal way to engage students with archaeological theory.