Theory for the Sake of Theory

Or Towards a Narrativistic Archaeology

Abstract

This article focuses on the problem of writing archaeological texts. When the archaeologist has collected his material, done his chronology, and typology and found some theories and methods to get a image of the past, the task of writing still remains. This poses the question of how the past should be presented and even what the past is. The author discusses different poetics of writing archaeological and historical texts and how the past can be constituted in different ways. The main sources are Aristotle, Ricœur and White. There is a clear linguistic turn. This has been obvious in the philosophy of history since the late 1960s. In archaeological theory, this kind of thinking is rather new. The author is also influenced by existential philosophers and hermeneutics such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Nietzsche. This leads to the conclusion that archaeological and historical writing is ultimately a moral issue.