Material Evidence : Learning From Archaeological Practice

__How do archaeologists make effective use of physical traces and material culture as repositories of evidence?__ __Material Evidence__ takes a resolutely case-based approach to this question, exploring instances of exemplary practice, key challenges, instructive failures, and innovative developments in the use of archaeological data as evidence. The goal is to bring to the surface the wisdom of practice, teasing out norms of archaeological reasoning from evidence. Archaeologists make compelling use of an enormously diverse range of material evidence, from garbage dumps to monuments, from finely crafted artifacts rich with cultural significance to the detritus of everyday life and the inadvertent transformation of landscapes over the long term. Each contributor to __Material Evidence__ identifies a particular type of evidence with which they grapple and considers, with reference to concrete examples, how archaeologists construct evidential claims, critically assess them, and bring them to bear on pivotal questions about the cultural past. Historians, cultural anthropologists, philosophers, and science studies scholars are increasingly interested in working with material things as objects of inquiry and as evidence – and they acknowledge on all sides just how challenging this is. One of the central messages of the book is that close analysis of archaeological best practice can yield constructive guidelines for practice that have much to offer archaeologists and those in related fields. Material Evidence: Learning From Archaeological Practice / Alison Wylie And Robert Chapman -- Part I. Fieldwork And Recording Conventions -- Repeating The Unrepeatable Experiment / Richard Bradley -- Experimental Archaeology At The Cross Roads: A Contribution To Interpretation Or Evidence Of Xeroxing / Martin Bell -- Proportional Representation: Multiple Voices In Archaeological Interpretation At çatalhöyük / Shahina Farid -- Integrating Database Design And Use Into Recording Methodologies / Michael J. Rains -- The Tyranny Of Typologies: Evidential Reasoning In Romano-egyptian Domestic Archaeology / Anna Lucille Boozer -- Part Ii. Cross-field Trade: Archaeological Applications Of External Expertise And Technologies -- The Archaeological Bazaar: Scientific Methods For Sale? Or: Putting The Arch Back Into Archaeometry / A. M. Pollard And P. Bray -- Radiocarbon Dating And Archaeology: History, Progress And Present Status / Sturt W. Manning --^ Using Evidence From Natural Sciences In Archaeology / David Killick -- Working The Digital: Some Thoughts From Landscape Archaeology / Marcos Llobera -- Crafting Knowledge With (digital) Visual Media In Archaeology / Sara Perry -- Part Iii. Multiple Working Hypotheses, Strategies Of Elimination, And Triangulation -- Uncertain On Principle: Combining Lines Of Archaeological Evidence To Create Chronologies / Alex Bayliss And Alasdair Whittle -- Lessons From Modelling Neolithic Farming Practice: Methods Of Elimination / Amy Bogaard -- Evidence, Archaeology And Law: An Initial Exploration / Roger M. Thomas -- Law And Archaeology: Modified Wigmorean Analysis / Terence Anderson And William Twining -- Traditional Knowledge, Archaeological Evidence, And Other Ways Of Knowing / George Nicholas And Nola Markey -- Part Iv. Broader Perspectives: Material Culture As Object And Evidence -- Evidence Of What? On The Possibilities Of Archaeological Interpretation / Gavin Lucas --^ Meeting Pasts Halfway: A Consideration Of The Ontology Of Material Evidence In Archaeology / Andrew Meirion Jones -- Matter And Facts: Material Culture And The History Of Science / Simon Werrett. Edited By Robert Chapman And Alison Wylie. Includes Index. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Material Evidence takes a resolutely case-based approach to this question, exploring instances of exemplary practice, key challenges, instructive failures, and innovative developments in the use of archaeological data as evidence. The goal is to bring to the surface the wisdom of practice, teasing out norms of archaeological reasoning from evidence. Archaeologists make compelling use of an enormously diverse range of material evidence, from garbage dumps to monuments, from finely crafted artifacts rich with cultural significance to the detritus of everyday life and the inadvertent transformation of landscapes over the long term. Each contributor to Material Evidence identifies a particular type of evidence with which they grapple and considers, with reference to concrete examples, how archaeologists construct evidential claims, critically assess them, and bring them to bear on pivotal questions about the cultural past. Historians, cultural anthropologists, philosophers, and science studies scholars are increasingly interested in working with material things as objects of inquiry and as evidence - and they acknowledge on all sides just how challenging this is. One of the central messages of the book is that close analysis of archaeological best practice can yield constructive guidelines for practice that have much to offer archaeologists and those in related fields. Bob Chapman is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading, UK. Alison Wylie is Professor of Philosophy and Anthropology at the University of Washington, and of Philosophy at Durham University. Publisher's note Material Evidence takes a resolutely case-based approach, exploring key instances of exemplary practice, critical turning points, and innovative developments in the use of archaeological data as evidence. In doing so, it identifies norms of evidential reasoning that underpin judgments of epistemic credibility in archaeology.