The Archaeological Process: An Introduction

This provocative introduction examines the most important new school of archaeological thought and practice to have emerged over the last two decades and provides students with an assessment of the impact and importance of recent theoretical debates. Written by a leading figure in the field of theoretically–informed archaeology, the book provides an interpretation of the archaeological process, reassessing the origins and aims of archaeology, and setting forth an innovative agenda for the future. In particular the author argues for a plural and diverse perspective and for a new "reflexive" methodology: one that opens archaeology up to critique and interaction between different communities. This approach has implications not only for the interpretation of evidence, but for the kind of evidence that is sought in excavating, and the manner of its recovering and recording. It has implications too for the role of archaeology and heritage within new global environments and in the context of new information technologies.

List of Illustrations. Preface: Digging Outside the Shelter. Acknowledgements. 1. Crises in Global Archaeology. 2. Archaeology – Bridging Humanity and Science. 3. How do Archaeologists Reason?. 4. Interpreting Material Culture. 5. Towards a Reflexive Method. 6. The Natural Sciences in Archaeology. 7. Using the New Information Technologies. 8. Windows into Deep Time: Towards a Multiscalar Approach. 9. Archaeology and Globalism. 10. Can the New Technologies Deliver a Reflexive Methodology?. 11. Conclusion: Towards Non–dichotomous Thinking in Archaeology. Bibliography. Index.

Ian Hodder is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of the British Academy. He is general editor of the Blackwell Social Archaeology series, author of Reading the Past (1986), Symbolic and Structural Archaeology (1982), The Domestication of Europe (Blackwell, 1990) and co–editor with Robert Preucel of Contemporary Archaeology in Theory: A Reader (Blackwell, 1996).

"The most important study of its kind to have appeared since Wheeler′s Archaeology from the Earth in 1954...Prof. Hodder has issued a clear and cogent challenge to which our profession should respond." Antiquity.