Performing the archive — a study in theatre/archaeology In July I posted a response to Nolan’s Odyssey [Link] — an old story, I argued, but not the one that was being talked about. The movie faithfully restages not Homer but a nineteenth-century grand narrative of civilization and its fall. A month of reviews and a…
archaeologists
Some archaeological notes on futures studies
The Janus Maneuver Hindsight, foresight, and futures studies Everyone, it seems, is a futurist now. Here are some loosely gathered thoughts on why an archaeology of design may be a missing foundation. These are notes – so expect inaccuracies and mistakes of memory (hopefully minor). After Janus – the divine principle of looking both back…
phenomenology — making place one’s property
I have been visiting the island of Bornholm in the Baltic south of Sweden over the last few years — another exploration through an archaeological sensibility of the archipelago of the North Sea [Link]. This year has involved something of a virtual conversation with the ghost of Chris Tilley. I heard that at the time…
Mike Rowlands 1944 – 2025
Another loss to anthropology and archaeology. Mike Rowlands died on July 19. He was there at the funeral and at the tribute to Chris Tilley last November [Link] and I recalled first meeting him in 1979. It was at a conference about social theory that I helped organize with Keith Ray and Mark Gregson at…
Binford — telling stories with the past
The new book Creative Pragmatics for Active Learning in STEM Education (edited with Connie Svabo, Tamara Carleton, Chungfang Zhou) prompted a memory today. The title indicates the collection is about STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education. And so it is. But this is not a book about regular science education. We come at the topic…
Colin Renfrew, Mark Leone, John Barrett — passing through archaeology
I have been bringing to mind again three archaeological colleagues, friends of long-standing. No longer with us. Passing on. Mundanities in the life of ideas. So much loss in the fleeting ephemeral. Of Colin Renfrew. A sympathy of interest and concern, from when we first got to know each other. We met regularly but not…