Andrew Jones. 2002. Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice. Cambridge University Press, London. 182 pages, a bibliography and an index.
Like many of my colleagues, since I left graduate school and started working in cultural resource management, I hardly ever read books on theory. This book by Andrew Jones may change all that. The reason so few CRM archaeologists never actually read theoretical texts after graduate school, is precisely why this book written--or at least one of the reasons. Theory is fun to think about, we believe, but never really applicable to the "real world" of stones and bones. What Jones has done is a real application of so-called middle range theory. Middle range theory, for those that are not archaeology geeks, is supposed to be the intersection of theory and data. Instead of using an intersection to try to define middle range theory, Jones uses another transportation image--the sailing metaphor called tacking, to explain that to truly apply theory to data, you should continually go back and forth between the two.
Jones starts with the idea that artifacts have biographies worth researching. What that means is that not only the use-life of an artifact (that is, an artifact is made, used, broken, mended, broken again and discarded) is of interest but the way people think of an artifact is also of interest--(is it useful or decorative or both; was it used by a man, a woman, a child, etc.). Then Jones uses the idea of Neolithic period--actually this is such an interesting idea that I used it as a Quote of the Week--to describe how an artifact's biography might be used to flesh out the truly revolutionary nature of the Neolithic period. You gotta read the book; there's no way I can explain it in 500 words or less.
I liked this book a lot; it made me think about the way I conduct CRM archaeology, and how I might do so in the future. Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice is probably best suited to graduate students, academics, and professional archaeologists, although an enthusiastic armchair archaeologist might find the inner workings of the professional quite enthralling.
I liked this book a lot; it made me think about the way I conduct CRM archaeology, and how I might do so in the future. Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice is probably best suited to graduate students, academics, and professional archaeologists, although an enthusiastic armchair archaeologist might find the inner workings of the professional quite enthralling.
