Daniël van Helden (editor) - Researching the Archaeological Past through Imagined Narratives: A Necessary Fiction

For both readers and writers of archaeological fiction, this volume discusses in depth the relationship between archaeological scientific writing and narratives based on archaeological discoveries. Between the opening chapter laying out the pitfalls, as well as the value of historical fiction, and the concluding summary, essays by authors of archaeological tales provide first-hand perspectives. I recommend this book to both producers and consumers of archaeological fiction.

Sarah Milledge Nelson, Distinguished University Professor, University of Denver

Archaeological interpretation is an imaginative act. Stratigraphy and artefacts do not tell us what the past was like; that is the task of the archaeologist. The diverse group of contributors to this volume address the relationship between archaeology and imagination through the medium of historical fiction and fictive techniques, both as consumers and as producers. The fictionalisation of archaeological research is often used to disseminate the results of scholarly or commercial archaeology projects for wider public outreach. Here, instead, the authors focus on the question of what benefits fiction and fictive techniques, as inspiration and method, can bring to the practice of archaeological research.

The contributors, a mix of archaeologists, novelists and other artists, present a variety of theoretical arguments and examples to advance the case for the value of a reflexive engagement between archaeology and fiction. Themes include the similarities and differences in the motives and methods of archaeologists and novelists, translation, empathy, and the need to humanise the past and diversify archaeological narratives. The authors discuss the epistemological and ethical issues surrounding the influence of fiction on researchers and the incorporation of fictive techniques in their work. Sometimes dismissed as distracting just-so stories, or even as dangerously relativistic narratives, the use of fictive techniques has a long history in archaeological research, and examples from the scholarly literature on many varied periods and regions are considered.

The volume sets out to bring together examples of these disparate applications and to focus attention on the need for explicit recognition of the problems and possibilities of such approaches, and on the value of further research about them.

Danil van Helden is a doctoral student at the University of Leicester, UK. His research focuses on the theory, method and nature of archaeological thinking, specifically the concept of identity, as well as the potential of Fuzzy Set Theory and ontological database approaches for archaeology.

Robert Witcher is Associate Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, UK, and the editor of the world archaeology journal Antiquity. His research interests include landscape archaeology with a particular focus on the pre-Roman and Roman periods in Italy and the Mediterranean, where he has explored aspects of ancient settlement, agriculture and demography.

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For more information on this series, please visit https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Studies-in-Archaeology/book-series/RSTARCH

Edited by
Danil van Helden and Robert Witcher

First published 2020

by Routledge

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2020 selection and editorial matter, Danil van Helden and Robert Witcher; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Danil van Helden and Robert Witcher to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Halden, Daniel van, editor. | Witcher, Robert, editor.

Title: Researching the archaeological past through

imagined narratives : a necessary fiction / [edited by]

Daniel van Halden and Robert Witcher.

Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :

Routledge, 2020. | Series: Routledge studies in archaeology |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019029160 (print) |

LCCN 2019029161 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138303638 (hardback) |

ISBN 9780203730904 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Archaeology and literature. |

Archaeology in literature. |

ArchaeologyMethodology.

Classification: LCC PN56.A717 R47 2020 (print) |

LCC PN56.A717 (ebook) | DDC 809/.93358301dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029160

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029161

ISBN: 978-1-138-30363-8 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-73090-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon

by Newgen Publishing UK

To our children
Let us never stop telling stories

Danil van Helden and Robert Witcher

Caroline Wickham-Jones

Margaret Elphinstone

Mark Patton

Donald Henson

Danil van Helden and Robert Witcher

Francesco Ripanti and Giulia Osti

James G. Gibb

Michael Given

Erin Kavanagh

Giacomo Savani and Victoria Thompson

Fiona Hobden

Joanna Paul

Andrew B.R. Elliott

Adrian Praetzellis

Andrew B.R. Elliott