A Grammar of the Archaeological Record (Version 2, Beta release)

Introduction

Website overview

Giorgio Buccellati – January 2025

The chart brings out the structure of the website. Titles in yellow on the left hand side bar are highlighted. Detailed explanations are given under each heading. The links in rightmost column refer to dedicated websites relating to the respective topics.

Preliminaries
Introduction
Epistemics articulating
knowledge
1. Organization DOM
2. Process 2.1. Disentangling stratigraphy
2.2. Structuring typology
integrative
2.3. Re-structuring conservation MCV
presentation MPR
conveying
knowledge
3. Publication UGR
Hermeneutics appropriating
knowledge
Heritage MHR
References

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Preliminaries

     The contents of this section follow a format that is similar for all websites in the system, described in UGR website:
  • utilities,
  • editorial,

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Introduction

A general presentation of the contents of the website.

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Epistemics

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1. Organization

The constituents are the building blocks of the system, and they are defined by sets of reciprocal oppositions.

The specifics of what each constituent actually is are found in a categorization system that defines variables and variants.

A particular aspect of the archaeological record is the close interaction between the constituents and the archive structure.

The details for a hands-on operation of the system are given in the Digital Operation Manual.

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2. Process

The archaeological referential record, i. e., the record as grammaticalized, is establshed through three consecutive steps:

  • the disentangling of the data from the matrix of the soil, as they are found in their disaggregated state;
  • the structuring of the data into assemblages independently of the excavation process;
  • the re-structuring of some selected wholes that are preserved and presented.

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3. Publication

The relationship between the grammar and the final output as given in the UGR system.

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Hermeneutics

Hermeneutics may be seen as the search for meaning and for values: the knowledge which epistemics has articulated and conveyed is now received as a springboard for the appropriation of what stands behind the known, what triggered originally a response and can do so again for us today.

The role of hermeneutics at the time of excavation is limited, but important, and attention for the “inheritors” must be inscribed, however briefly, already at the level of grammatical analysis.

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References

A list of the bibliographical references used in the text, with links to the places where they occur.

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