Urban Archaeology and Historical Archaeology in the cities, a controversy still present in Latin America

Summary

Historical archeology emerged during the 80&

180;s on the cities, not on the field. It was a path opposite to the U.S. that began excavating historic sites. The difference between those who wanted to do urban archeology and not archaeology of historic sites, that means to dig “sites” in the old sense of the uniqueness of place, was urban archeology conceived as diggings in places separated in time (of excavation) of a single surface of ground covered by the city at different times.Traditional archeology, operating as a corporation interested in the prehistoric times, for reasons ranging from ideology to politics, from the heaviness of tradition on old institutions to the rejection to read documents, held even city in the theory of site and isolated projects. It was dif-ficult to establish systematic continous excavations throughout the year for twenty or more years in one city. The idea of digging a city harboring different projects, in topics, methods, techniques and aspects of material culture was not easy to manage. The paper attempts to analyze the current state of urban ar-cheology in Latin America based on its development and theoretical and meth-odological positioning.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Las preguntas que cuentan: Ideas and interpretations in Latin American Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-33,21