Appropriating the Past: Philosophical Perspectives on the Practice of Archaeology ed. by Geoffrey Scarre and Robin Coningham (review)

Nineteen scholars, not all of them primarily archaeologists, join to offer essays about our view of the past, as it is, as it might be, and in some cases, as it should be. Much here is very thought provoking and might worry any student embarking on the subject and beginning to hone the skills of observation and the weighing of primary evidence, mainly physical, that the discipline requires. Neither archaeology nor any other field of study has been made easier by modern science or necessarily more accurate (I think of some quagmires of statistics), and even our sources need philosophical scrutiny sometimes (“wikiality” being mainly excusable). Such scrutiny tends to demonstrate that archaeology is by now perhaps the prime historical discipline, and for more than its attention to the material character of the human past. Given this formidable responsibility, archaeology should form a part, though not the major part, of instruction in historical studies. “Should ruins be preserved?,” like problems of ownership and the views of contemporary people about their past, raises questions that need facing but that should not deter attention to physical detail and recording. It is perhaps time now for a concerted review of publishing procedures, one that tries to do at least some justice to some of the issues raised here, without getting in the way of presenting what might be an agreed “truth.”