Reconsidering Archaeological Fieldwork Exploring On-Site Relationships Between Theory and Practice

Digging, recording, and writing are the three main processes that archaeologists undertake to analyze a site, yet the relationships between these processes is rarely considered critically. Reconsidering Archaeological Fieldwork asserts that each of these processes involves at least a bit of subjective interpretation. As a group of archaeologists work together to reconstruct an objective view of the past, at a particular time, at a particular site, their field methods and subjective interpretations affect the final analysis.

This volume explores the important nature of the relationship between fieldwork, analysis, and interpretation. Containing contributions from a diverse group of archaeologists, both academic and professional, from Europe and the Americas, it critically analyzes accepted practices in field archaeology, and provide thoughtful and innovative analysis of these procedures. By combining the experiences of both academic and professional archaeologists, Reconsidering Archaeological Fieldwork highlights key differences and key similarities in their concerns, theories, and techniques. This volume will incite discussion on fundamental questions for all archaeologists, both old and new to the field.

Chapter 1: Reconsidering Fieldwork, an Introduction: Confronting Tensions in Fieldwork and Theory, by Hannah Cobb, Oliver Harris, Cara Jones and Phil Richardson

Chapter 2: How to archaeologize with a hammer, by Geoff Carver

Chapter 3: Often Fun, Usually Messy: fieldwork, recording and higher orders of things, by Reuben Thorpe

Chapter 4: Where the rubber hits the road: a critical understanding of Archaeological Decision Making on Highways Projects in Ireland, by Brendon Wilkins

Chapter 5: An archaeology of many steps, by Marianne Lönn

Chapter 6: Stepping into Comfortable Old Shoes: ‘The Consequence of Archaeological Comfortability’, by Cara Jones and Phil Richardson

Chapter 7: Walking the Line Between Past and Present: ‘Doing’ Phenomenology on Historic Battlefields, by John Carman and Patricia Carman

Chapter 8: The Struggle Within: Challenging the subject/object relationship on a shoestring, by members of the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project

Chapter 9: Through Many Eyes: A Non-Hierarchical Approach to Interpreting a Site In New Brunswick, New Jersey, by Rebecca Yamin

Chapter 10: The Archaeology of the Aesthetic, by Mark Leone, Amelia Chisholm, Karen Engelke, Amelia Harris, Genevieve Kaplan, Jessica Mundt and Wendi Perry

Chapter 11: Commentary, by Sarah May