Historical Archaeology: A Half Century Critique

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Reflections, Practice, and Ethics in Historical Archaeology" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Historical Archaeology had a slow and difficult birth across three decades. Even as late as 1967, the foundation year for the SHA, many archaeologists dismissed the field and opposed its establishment. The basic critique was "why excavate if you are dealing with documented history?" Fifty years later Historical Archaeology is one of the most successful specializations in general archaeology. Powerful support comes from the fact it is only one of two types of archaeology with an interconnected global subject matter and the only one with a continuously forming subject matter. Professional grounding comes from its trinity of employment: the academic world, governmental agencies, and CRM.  Nevertheless 2019 see the same objections to excavating recent historic sites. Ironically the very success of the field has also made it a target for external exploitation. Anyone can do Historical Archaeology since the recent past is merely an extension of earlier more important periods

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Reflections, Practice, and Ethics in Historical Archaeology

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 105