Thoughts about the history and organization of the discipline of Classical archaeology. A thorough treatment of my proposition that archaeologists don't discover the past, they work on what is left. Archaeology - relationships between the past and the present - mediating pasts and presents.
Main point - Classical Archaeologists have seen their task as one of uncovering the great (material/artistic/cultural) achievements of Graeco-Roman antiquity - actually they have been complicit in constructing a particular relationship with Graeco-Roman antiquity that privileges a particular value set- one associated with western European high-cultural ideals. Unexceptional argument really, but many of my colleagues don't like the demotion of Greeks and Romans from their supposed pinacle of human achievement.
The book does outline in some detail how Classical Archaeology might reconfigure itself as a social archaeology that can develop an open relationship with antiquity, one that doesn't prejudge or predetermine what it is studying. Here it connects directly with my book Art and the Early Greek State which exemplifies in considerable detail what I mean. The two books were written as a pair.
For once, this book has been very well received and reviewed. James Whitley (recently Director, British School at Athens), a long-term critic of mine, gave it a glowing review -
"A necessary book ... a classic ... a real step forward ...an essential book. There is simply nothing else like it, nothing else that explores the history, theories and practices of Classical Archaeology with any degree of critical distance and understanding. It is well written, and often a pleasure to read ... Anyone with even a passing interest in the subject should read this book." (Antiquity 70 1996)
Here are the chapters of the book in editable PDF (this means that there are a few mistakes as a result of OCR)
Figures-and-Acknowledgements.pdf
03-Myths-and-Metanarratives.pdf
04-Scholarship-and-Discourse.pdf
