Abstract
Archaeology vs. Archaeological Science: Do we have a case?
Highlights
From an archaeological-science perspective, this is a positive statement, but is it really true? Do all archaeologists really think that archaeometry is indispensable to archaeology? To be honest – no
We have to ask ourselves: Why is it that natural science in the service of archaeology is so provocative or even threatening to some archaeologists? This question has, often come to our minds, so when we were invited to write a keynote article on this topic by one of the editors of Current Swedish Archaeology, we thought we should try to understand why we encounter this reaction every and
Our understanding is that the appearance of this filter is usually triggered by either of two lines of reasoning: (i) “as an archaeologist, I don’t understand these natural science things, so I don’t need to listen”, or (ii) “the archaeological scientist by definition does not understand archaeology, so I don’t need to listen”
Summary
The last three decades have seen a steady growth of application of natural scientific methods to archaeology. It is obvious that they believe that it is only by collaboration in the form of interdisciplinary work that it is possible to fully utilize scientific methods to study archaeological material. They seem to regard this as totally uncontroversial – something which we empirically know it is not. A reaction to archaeological science that we occasionally encounter is what we informally refer to as “the filter” When this happens, a mental shield is held up against us, effectively preventing any communication, because everything we say has to pass through this filter, and once it is in position, very little seeps through. We feel that this behaviour is both unprofessional and unfair, perhaps there lies some truth in all types of justification? We will consider the evidence here, and make a decision
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