The running sands of time: archaeology and the short-term

Abstract

Social archaeology encounters a fundamental theoretical dilemma. The dynamic flow of social life is speedy. As the study of the past has increasingly shifted away from the elites, towards unravelling the ordinary patterns of everyday living, we are increasingly forced to confront the short-term time scales of lived reality. The aim of this paper is to address the gap between the short-term time scales of lived life and the traditional interpretation of ‘the archaeological record'. Time scales for the generation of archaeological data for three historical Greek contexts will be examined: sanctuary sites, permanent structures in rural landscapes and houses. The short-term patterns which led to the formation of these archaeological settings will be contrasted with the long-term patterns which archaeologists have frequently perceived. In conclusion I will outline interpretative strategies by which we might access the past in terms of the temporal processes through which archaeological contexts have originated.