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

Hermeneutics

Introductory

Giorgio Buccellati – March 2026

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Meaning and values

Semiotics

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Grammar and beyond

There is an immediate relationship to the data in what we may call their raw state. But there must also be a mediated relatioship, mediated, that is, through an appropriation process which must depend on the competence of the archaeologist. This is not as such part of the grammar, but it depends wholly on it.

There are three levels where this happens.

  1. Native inheritors. – Archaeological data present a unique claim vis-à-vis the awareness of the people in whose territory the data are located. They are part of the cultural landscape which nourishes them since their birth: just as they are “native” speakers of a given languages, so they are “natively” linked to the past history of their territory.
  2. Adopted inheritors. – But the notion of “heritage” extends beyond the territory: it has a wider human resonance which must be made explicit.

see UGR

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1. The ancients

It is at this stage that grammar plays an indisputable role.

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2. Native inheritors

The limits of native carriers knowledge courage of competence

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3. Adopted inheritors

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References

Cipolla 2025

Wylie 2023

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