Back to top: The nature of the record – 2
Globality – revised
The “global” record is such primarily with regard to emplacement. Once the elements are extracted from their locational context in the matrix of the soil they are be studied according to criteria that are not properly archaeological, but are of course indispensable to achieve a full semiotic and hermeneutic understanding of the data.
At that point, “globality” takes on a different quality: every single element that has been extracted from its emplacement must be identified typologically, however small and seemingly insignificant. It is what we called the “dignity of the fragment” (article). Accordingly, we may distinguish three stages in the study of the elements.
Back to top: The nature of the record – 2