Abstract
In this lecture, one can find an abbreviated historical trajectory of the appearance and development of archaeology as a science. The aim is to demonstrate the perceptions and biases, which have influenced and still influence the archaeological theory and practice in negative or positive ways. The lecture was prepared for the participants of the program on “Classics and Philosophy” of Novosibirsk State University (October 2018).
Highlights
The discipline of Archaeology has to do with the study of the human being, its life and activities
Archaeology belongs to the broader area of humanities as well as to social sciences, this is why in the USA it is a sub-field of anthropology, while in Europe it is a discipline in its own right or a sub-field of other disciplines
The epicenter of the research is always the human being from prehistory until the recent decades. This is why archaeology must not be confused with the field of paleontology, that studies extinct animals and fossil remains
Summary
The discipline of Archaeology has to do with the study of the human being, its life and activities. The following period, known as the Age of Enlightenment or the Age of Reason, is the great philosophical movement in Europe during the 18th century, that focused more on the human being and on reason, and on the right on liberty, progress, separation of church and state etc People started in this time to free spirit and research, and gave a new start to scientific methodology. Later on the evolutionary theories has offered a basic instrument to the science of Archaeology in the interpretation of human life and culture According to this approach, the process of evolution gives the explanation of how nature, animals and humans evolved, changed over time, from a common ancestor. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) and Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) argued about species and their way of existence, but the development of the science of geology has been crucial for archaeology
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