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Box 1.2 From Excavation to Publication

This chart pivots around the interpretations of the active archaeologist (Frommer 2oo7), given that this individual is exclusively involved in the entire "archaeological process'. During the first stage, interpretation governs the process of planning and excavation (light green), taking the form of preliminary interpretation, which at this stage is unable to take fully into account the archaeological record. The archaeologist's interpretation further controls the evaluation of the documen­tation resulting from the excavation (green) and, ultimately, inftuences the structure and content of the final publication (dark green).
Fig 1: The "archaeolocical process", ibid., p. 41
Fig 1: The "archaeolocical process", ibid., p. 41

Since the intrusive access to the archaeological context is unique (represented by rhe narrow bars in the graph in contrast to the repeatable processes represented by the thick bars), the initial phase of planning and excavation plays a fundamental role. The common separation between the plan­ning and excavation phases, on the one hand, and the subsequent evaluation of the results on the other, with regard to the staff as well as to its design, directly affects the quality and adequacy of this stage of the interpretative process. The web of interactions during the interpre­tive evaluation takes up a large part of the archaceologist's work. Just like the overall chart, this web represents a non-linear hermeneutic process of perception. It is, however, strongly oriented by the data. Quantitative-deductivist procedures that determine the individual steps are thereby integrated into an overall hermeneutic frame­work. Within such an integrating approach, hermeneutics and deductivism are not dichoto­mous, but fruitfully compatible (Kosso 1991; Patrick 1985; Hodder & Hudson 2003, 239-42). The sequence of the representations (coloured boxes) of the archaeological record used here follows in part the `Archaeological Method' of Evžen Neustupný (1993); the term `archaeologi­cal structures' has likewise been adapted from this work. Within archaeological practice, the docu­mentation resulting from excavation is meaning­fully transcended by phenomenological access, as well as by conversion into data for processing. The potential of `Life', `Analogues', `Hypotheses' and `History' (small boxes), as sources of com­parative knowledge, has been widely used ever since. These factors - understood as unrecog­nised influences - cannot anyway be avoided, a fact that has been stressed by both processual and post-processual archaeologists, from their distinct perspectives.

By Sören Frommer

 

Aarhus University Press

Frommer, Sören: Historische Archäologie. Ein Versuch der methodologischen Grundlegung der Archäologie als Geschichtswissenschaft. Tübinger Forschungen zur historischen Archäologie Band 2. Hrsg. von Barbara Scholkmann. Büchenbach: Verlag Dr. Faustus 2007.
Frommer, Sören: Historische Archäologie. Ein Versuch der methodologischen Grundlegung der Archäologie als Geschichtswissenschaft. Tübinger Forschungen zur historischen Archäologie Band 2. Hrsg. von Barbara Scholkmann. Büchenbach: Verlag Dr. Faustus 2007.