Archaeology's Place in Modernity

It is widely acknowledged that the practice of archaeology emerged in the modern period. However, this article makes the more radical claim that modernity represents the ground of the possibility of archaeology. Archaeology is deeply connected with modes of thought, forms of organization, and social practices that are distinctively modern. So ironically, archaeology studies past worlds through an intellectual apparatus that is thoroughly embedded in the present. In this essay, the various strands of archaeologyÕs debt to modernity are investigated, and it is suggested that the discipline can aspire to a ÒcountermodernÓ position by embracing considerations of meaning, ethics, politics, and rhetoric.