Multiple fields & archaeological practice: reiterative practice

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Christopher Witmore |
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Archive |
Scenographies |
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Symmetrical Archaeology |
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the Metamedia Laboratory |
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Mediating Archaeology

Reiteration begins in tracing the chain of references through the media of an archive. Reiteration has to do with the in depth negotiation of materials and inscriptions produced through previous archaeological engagements and their mediation in the production of new archaeological knowledge concerning that same site or landscape. No project once published should be thought of as a closed project (pace Webmoor 2005) rather it provides the momentum for an ongoing series of transformations. The event of archaeological practice remains an ongoing event. We continue to transform the material past and are, as a result, part of its ongoing life-cycle (Lucas 2001a; Shanks 1998).

In this dissertation I suggest potential reiterative practices for revisiting the features and landscapes and reworking the materials of the AEP through other modes of engagement (writing, documentation, and recording). There are of course modes of reiteration which might involve more detailed and nuanced scientific practices that have developed in the interim such as geophysical prospection, chemical analyses of particular sites, and so on. However, this dissertation seeks to demonstrate how instead of sieving away the ambiguity of the material world through our most necessary inscriptions, scenographies, and paper work we may hold on to the complexity through new digital modes of engagement and mediation. Through new acts of delegation, new skill sets, and new modes of knowledge production we may hold on to something of the complexity of the material world a bit longer. We may manifest something of the countryside of the Southern Argolid, which the AEP did not attend to.

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