Theory and practice

Giorgio Buccellati – March 2026

Premise

The ditinction between a manual and a grammar seems to suggests a dichotomy between practice and theory – the manual being a how-to handbook, the grammar being a description of the underlying principles.

In point of fact, a grammar addresses both theory and practice. That is so, for example, for the grammar of a language: it cannot but be based on theory, since it must deal with the language as a whole, but it is also, at the same time, practical in that it articulates the rules that govern the ability to express oneself.

Theory

The theoretical underpinnings of this Grammar are given in the volume A Critique of Archaeological Reason for which there is a companion website (CAR). It deals, in a discursive and linear fashion, with broader theoretical issues, and is not, as such, incorporated in the Urkesh system.

The theory presented there serves, however, as the backdrop for the whole UGR system, and in particular for the grammatical approach described here. In this section, I will highlight some of the key theoretical points that are particularly relevant for this Grammar website, and in particular for the section on epistemics.

Practice

The section on the elements identifies the building blocks of the system. The notion of “system” implies that its boundaries and articulation must be defined according to specfic and precise criteria – and in this sense the system is a theoretical construct.

The system constitutes, at the same time, a body of definitions and rules that govern the endeavor of creating the documentary record out of the physical record. In this regard, the grammar serves an eminently practical purpose, and it is the yardstick by which the entrie documentary and interpetive record is created.