Epistemics

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The concept

Epistemics refers to how knowledge is acquired, articulated and conveyed.

In the case of archaeology, it refers to the way in which the data extracted from the soil (the physical record) become part of a logically coherent system (the referential record). We may refer to this as a process of “grammaticalization.” In and of itself, the physical record is inert and opaque, a mass of bits and pieces that do not emerge from the ground in any meaningful configuration. They become properly “known” when they are inserted into a grammatical system.

Since, unlike a language, the physical archaeological record is not a coherent whole, an archaeological grammar must deal with the processes through which the data are gathered and “known.” They may be summarized under three main aspects of epistemics:

• Organizing knowledge: this entails the articulation of the data according to a well defined set of paradigms.
• Acquiring knowledge: in the case of archaeology this concerns the confrontation with the disaggregated mass of data as found in the ground.
• Conveying knowledge: publication requires very special procedures which must also be integrated in the grammar.

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Overview

The chart below offers a synopsis of the epistemics section. The area highlighted in green refers to the material that is covered in detail in this grammar. The other topics are dealt here briefley from a theoretical point of view; they are covered in full in the websites to which a link is given.

Titles that are here highlighted in yellow, appear in yellow on the left hand side bar

A full description of each topic will be found at the appropriate section in the website.

1. Organizing knowledge (see also DOM)
			Constituents
			Categorization
			Archive structure

	PROCESS	CONTEXT	METHOD
2. Acquiring knowledge	Disentangling	the matrix	Stratigraphy
				Space:    Emplacement    Volumetry
				Time:    Deposition    Chronometry
	Structuring	wholes	Typology
			Integrative
3. Conveying knowledge	Re-structuring	selected wholes	Conservation	MCV
			Presentation	MPR
	Re-configuring	the record	Digital	UGR
			Print	MEL

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Three venues: process, context, method

Archaeological data require a complex set of processes. Through these processes, data acquire their full status as knowable data. These processes deal each with a correlative and distinct context and method.

The notion of context refers to the setting in which the data are seen, originally in the ground (the matrix) and then in their identity independent from the excavation moment.

The method is the actual procedure used in defining the data precisely as grammatically identifiable entities.

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The major epistemic processes

• Disentangling. – The matrix of the soil must be first confronted and its contents must be extracted through a documentary process (stratigraphic analysis) that accounts for all the data so retrieved.
• Structuring. – The data can then be structured into assemblages that are based on formal coccurrences of patterns (typology) and on pertinent information from other contexts (integrative).
• Re-structuring. – A unique aspect of archaeological publishing is the need to preserve selectyed portions of the physical record (conservation) and to make it accessible (presentation).
• Re-configuring. – Even the standard “publication” process requires a special approach that may make the record available in its globality (the digital global record) in addition to the printed venue which is by necessity highly selective.

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Theory and its implementation

The theoretical framework I am describing is closely reflected in the digital unit books. The two images on the right show how the unit books mirror the theoretical scheme of the Grammar: the Grammar displays the description of the data in terms of the process, the context and the method, while the unit book displays the data in terms of the method only.      In other words, the left sidebar in the Grammar highights the theoretical orientation that governs the system, as explained above, while the A16 unit book sidebar is in the section on Overviews within the Synthetic section, and it highlights the orientation one would expect when dealing with the materials from the excavation.