Archaeology and Cultural/National Memory

Abstract

This article discusses the relations between archaeology and memory. Its starting point is Maurice Halbwachs' argument that memory is a social construction. Subsequently discussed are Pierre Nora's concept of ‘sites of memory’ in France and Jan Assmann's concept of ‘cultural memory,’ and how both relate to archaeological sites and archaeology as a discipline. In the second part, the relationship between archaeology and collective memories is discussed. While some emphasise the objective character of academic disciplines and the unreliability of memory, others prefer living memory traditions to ‘fabricated’ history. Recently, it has also been argued that academic archaeology (like history) is simply another form of collective memory. All this becomes particularly disputed and controversial when archaeology and collective memories are connected with nationalist agendas and this political dimension is also discussed.