Session: #181

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
4. People of the Present – Peopling the Past
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
Science, not Scientism, in Experimental Archaeology
Content:
Experimental archaeology has long relied on methodological ideals of the natural sciences. Some have gone as far as to state that the ideal experimental methodology should be based on experimental physics (P. Reynolds "The nature of experiment in archaeology" 1999). As scientific techniques have exploded onto the archaeological scene, experimental archaeologists seem to increasingly strive for variable control and quantified results. But how does this trend affect experimental results in a larger, archaeological context?

Natural sciences founded on positivist ideals opens a vast tool box for experimental archaeologists. However, those sciences do not necessarily mesh with current archaeological epistemologies. This leads to a dichotomy of ideals, and how we connect positivist results to the actual people of the past is crucial. For scientific results to have any validity in the archaeological discourse, results have to comply both with the archaeological record and link to what it is to be an embodied human. Still, many controlled experimental studies stop at their results without further contextualisation, thus falling into the trap of scientism. Additionally, experimenters look less to other forms of scientific experimentation that have humans at the centre, such as psychological experiments, as an alternative way to conduct an experimental protocol.

We suggest that all these scientific techniques are invaluable tools for experimental archaeology that can be taken into a human context, providing a synergy effect that can give innovative new results. This session seeks to explore how experimental archaeologists can apply science in a thoughtful way, without sacrificing the connection to people who lived, their bodies, minds, and knowledge of the world.

We invite speakers to present:
- Experimental studies that display thoughtful application of scientific results to a human context
- Theoretical/methodological approaches to the application of science in experimental archaeology
- the use of alternative, scientific experiment protocols
Keywords:
Experimental archaeology, Scientism, Method and Theory, Natural sciences, Epistemology
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Tine Schenck (Norway) 1,2
Co-organisers:
Fredrik Lundström (Sweden) 3
Affiliations:
1. Mesolithic Resource Group
2. ArchaeologistsEngage
3. Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies, Stockholm University