Nationalism, Local Histories and the Making of Data in Archaeology

Abstract

The last twenty years have witnessed animated debates in archaeology about the influence of context on the production of archaeological knowledge. This article argues that social and historical context affects archaeology not only at the level of interpretation but also at that of basic practice. I illustrate this claim about the historical nature of data through a comparison of two Palaeolithic central European sites, Willendorf and Dolní Věstonice, examining the way in which particularities of each context affected the collection, analysis, and subsequent circulation of their lithic collections in regional reconstructions. Beyond a concern for more overt ideological forms of nationalism, I conclude that we need to pay greater attention to the local histories of archaeology, and their influence in transforming facts into data.