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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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antiquarianism vs archaeology
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Spaceship mark
Spaceship mark
1686 posts

Re: antiquarianism vs archaeology
Oct 24, 2002, 16:03
Well that's the whole thing isn't it. Traditional archaeology was all about digging a whole, surveying and recording what was in it and then filling it in.
If anything was prehistoric, interpretation was frowned upon. No account was taken of setting, location, nearby sites etc.
The situation is getting better but the malaise is far from cured. You only have to watch 'Time Team', whenever they find something a little odd they say it probably had a 'ritual' use then all have a giggle about how that phrase, of course, means fuck all.
And yet it's us, the Modern Antiquarians, who gave the archaeologists a lot of their newer ideas. If someone had said 20 years ago that a psychodelic rock n' roller with a perchant for urban camo would be working closely with some one like Aubrey Burl they would have been laughed at.
Archaeology and Antiquarianism need no longer be mutually exclusive.
The Archaeologists need us. After all most (of course not all) of the digging's been done. If they want to progress they have to interpret. And we are the Interpreters.
New ideas about the functions of sacred sites are creeping into orthodox Archaeology and it's largely thanks to the Copes, the Deverauxs, the Mitchells, the Burls etc of this world who arn't affraid to stick their necks out and say what they believe in.
So, as Canned Heat once said, lets work together...
In reply to:
Re: antiquarianism vs archaeology (FourWinds)		 Replies:
And what about anthropology? (BrigantesNation)
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