After Interpretation: Remembering Archaeology

11 In the light of some significant anniversaries, this paper discusses the fate of archaeological theory after the heyday of postprocessualism. While once considered a radical and revolutionary alternative, postprocessual or interpretative archaeology remarkably soon became normalized, mainstream and hegemonic, leading to the theoretical lull that has characterized its aftermath. Recently, however, this consensual pause has been disrupted by new materialist perspectives that radically depart from the postprocessual orthodoxy. Some outcomes of these perspectives are proposed and discussed, the most significant being a return to archaeology – an archaeology that sacri fices the imperatives of historical narratives, sociologies, and hermeneutics in favour of a trust in the soiled and ruined things themselves and the memories they afford.

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