Between Artifacts and Texts - Andrén, Anders

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Résumé :
This book is about historical archaeologies all over the world; about their history, their methods, and their raison d'etre. The focus is on an existential question for archaeology: whether investigations of mate? rial culture are necessary at all when studying societies with writing. Is it not sufficient to read and interpret texts if we wish to understand and explain historical periods? This book has been written out of a conviction that archaeology is important, even in the study of literate societies. Yet the book has also been written out of a conviction that the importance of the historical archaeologies is not obvious to everyone. The disciplines have a tendency to be marginalized in relation both to history and to archaeology and anthropology, because the archaeologi? cal results are sometimes perceived as unnecessary confirmations of what is already known. Although I regard theoretical considerations as crucial for all scholarly work, I do not think that the solution to this marginalization can be found in any definitive theory that might raise the disciplines above the threatened tautology. Instead, I have found it more important to examine different methodological approaches in the historical archaeologies, to investigate how material culture and writ? ing can and could be integrated. I am convinced that the tautological threat should be averted in the actual encounter of artifact and text. By problematizing this encounter, I believe that it is possible to create favorable methodological conditions for new perspectives on the past.

Sommaire:
1. The Paradox of the Historical Archaeologies.- 2. Historical Archaeologies in Europe.- 3. Historical Archaeologies in the Middle East and Asia.- 4. Historical Archaeologies in Africa and America.- 5. The Field of Historical Archaeology.- 6. The Dialogue of Historical Archaeology.- 7. Conclusion: Historical Archaeology as a Methodological Perspective.- References.

This is an excellent book for use as a text to provide students with a view of historical archaeology in global perspective or, as it was in my case, a very interesting book to be enjoyed for the pleasure of reading and for the information it presents. (Journal of Anthropological Research (November 1999) ... an ambitious text in the scope of information that is incorporated into the text, and ultimately it is successful ... a significant contribution to the discipline. Not only ... an expansive international exploration of historical archaeology, but it also is a provocative new commentary on the discipline's most central relationship - that of the interplay between artifact and text. (Historical Archaeology, 34:2) This is an excellent text for students of the history of archaeology and for anyone interested in the interplay between artifacts and texts. (Religious Studies Review, 29:3 (July 2003)