4.1 Objectivity as calibration of perception
4.2 The record: stratification and stratigraphy
4.3 The objectivity of grammar
4.4 Emplacement and deposition: a basic antinomy
4.5 Operational aspects of stratigraphic analysis
4.6 Observation as the foundation of objectivity
4.6.1 Primacy of atomistic observations
4.6.2 Irreplaceability and explicitness of original observations
4.6.3 Precision and accuracy
4.6.4 The merit of minimalism
4.7 The nature of strategy
4.7.1 The fluidity of observation
4.7.2 Strategy and tactics
4.1 Objectivity as calibration of perception
For the history and objectivity of science, see e.g. Kuhn 1962 Scientific Revolutions. This was an influential work that left a mark in the scientific environment of its era. It must be stressed however that Kuhn relies on an immense amount of narrative information lacking largely other types of illustrations which would make the reading and understanding easier. Attention is constantly given to natural science and the many achievements of this field. Science in itself is viewed within the constraints of the tested result at the time. This emphasis is rather hard to adapt to that degree of ambiguity that both humanities and social sciences impose. An additional matter regards the concept of revolution. It remains rather unclear why the gradual progress and development in science is seen as a revolutionary process.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, July 2014]
For application of hermeneutics in archaeology, see e.g. Johnsen & Olsen 1992 Hermeneutics And Archaeology.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, August 2014]
For Foucault’s archaeology on knowledge, see especially Foucault 1972 Archaeology Of Knowledge.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, September 2014]
Binford 2001 Research Problems: how to create the research query, the importance of the subject matter.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, September 2014]
For an overview on the analogical inference and its scientific and objective usage in archaeology see e.g. Wylie 1985 Reaction Against Analogy.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, September 2014]
Childe 1946 Archaeology Anthropology: A sucessful marriage between Archaeology and Anthropology mixed with some Marxist salience.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, September 2014]
For the blurring of the subject-object opposition in excavation, see Yarrow 2003 Artefactual Persons.
– [ Laerke Recht, September 2014]
See Lucas 2001 Destruction for discussion on the detrimental effect of a rhetoric of destruction in archaeological discourse.
– [ Laerke Recht, September 2014]
For a parable for the archaeology of the 1980’s see Flannery 1982 Golden Marshalltown, Renfrew 1980 Archaeology As Anthropology.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, October 2014]
Read & Leblanc 1978 Descriptive Statements: How to achieve scientific results on deductive and inductive level.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, October 2014]
Trigger 1984 Alternative Archaeologies: Exterior factors in Archaeology.
– [ Esmeralda Agolli, October 2014]
Note here the difference between stratigraphy and seriation as methods of measuring time: seriation is a procedure that can be replicated, whereas stratigraphic excavation is not Obrien & Lyman 2002 Epistemological Nature Archaeological Units.
– [ Laerke Recht, October 2015]
Arguing for the possibility of objectivity, if understood correctly, see O Meara 2001 Objectivity.
– [ Laerke Recht, April 2016]
Observers relating to data, e.g. Gero 1996 Gendered Encounters; Shanks & Tilley 1992 Re- Constructing.
– [ Laerke Recht, July 2016]
4.2 The record: stratification and stratigraphy
Compare stratification to superposition in Obrien & Lyman 2002 Epistemological Nature Archaeological Units.
– [ Laerke Recht, October 2015]
Stratification and stratigraphy, Eggert 2001 Prähistorische; Harris 1975 Stratigraphic Sequence, Harris 1989 Principles Archaeological Stratigraphy.
– [ Laerke Recht, July 2016]
Cf. Mc Anany & Hodder 2009 Social Stratigraphic; Schiffer 1987 Formation.
– [ Laerke Recht, August 2016]
Cf. the definition of “archaeological record” in Lucas 2012 Archaeological Record.
– [ Laerke Recht, March 2017]
The “record” - what we record as what is created and what is repeatable, made into text and image: Lucas 2001 Fieldwork.
– [ Laerke Recht, March 2017]
4.4 Emplacement and deposition: a basic antinomy
See Tani 1995 Formation Processes.
– [August 2016]
4.6.1 Primacy of atomistic observations
Excavation reports: Joukowsky 1980 Manual, pp. 457-466.
– [ Laerke Recht, July 2016]
4.6.3 Precision and accuracy
On excavation strategies, see Carver M 2005 Key Ideas Excavation.
– [ Laerke Recht, July 2016]