The Technopolitics of Ancient Infrastructures

Technopolitics rejects any essential division between technological phenomena and political phenomena as subjects for analysis. Realizing political goals is always a technological problem and vice versa. Traditionally, however, archaeology has tended to separate out the investigation of ancient politics from ancient technologies, and so it is this divide that this session seeks to challenge. And while infrastructure frequently does appear in narratives of ancient states – its analysis is often overdetermined by the abstract political goals and ideological frameworks for which it is a “vehicle”. Yet, the politics of any infrastructural project is far from exhausted in the initial moment of its design and construction. Infrastructure can endure for centuries, during which time it can undergo degradation, re-appropriation, renovation or collapse. Studying such phenomena requires a deep engagement with the material and technological fundaments of all infrastructure, fully integrated with, rather than artificially extracted from, its political context. Papers are therefore sought which will engage with past infrastructural projects from a broadly technopolitical perspective – and so seek to undo the long-running relegation of technological problems to a space outside the realm of politics within archaeological theory.