Exploring the Real Nature of Environmental Archaeology

Abstract

The idea for this book originates from a practical concern: how can I persuade an excavation director that the choice of a particular sieving strategy is an important issue of the project design and not just my personal whim? Everyone involved with the nitty-gritty of archaeology knows that the much talked about integration of the different archaeological sub-disciplines is still an unfulfilled dream. The way we approach archaeology has still as much to do with the variety of cultures that characterise the discipline as it has with financial and logistic limitations. This interdisciplinarity is a strength, but perhaps inevitably it has also led to fragmentation and to the creation of different camps. Field archaeologists and finds specialists, practitioners and theoreticians, classicists and prehistorians are often content to remain entrenched in their own areas of investigation and avoid dialogue with colleagues working in complementary (yet sometimes perceived as rival) areas. The separation between environmental archaeologists and other archaeologists is not a unique phenomenon within our field, but it is one that requires its own explanations and investigations. To these this volume intends to contribute.

“Mine is not this tree, but my power to use it as I like ” Max Stirner Der Einzige und sein Eigentum (1844)