Intro to European Archaeology

The Post Hole--a monthly archaeology journal--describes archaeological theory in the following manner.

Map found at: http://www.icty.org/x/image/ABOUTimagery/Yugoslavia%20maps/3_%20yugoslavia_map_1991_sml_en.png

"Archaeological theory deals with the way in which material culture is interpreted: interpretation allows the archaeologist to make inferences on past societies from simple objects which otherwise would be nothing else than mute finds.  As a consequence, the study of past civilizations depends on archaeologists' methods and approaches to material culture."

Fundamentally, archaeology is the study of our physical environment to gain a great understanding of human history.  By investigating the "evidence" left behind by former groups, we as travelers can greater consider the background of the modern areas we visit.  However, in this consideration how does our interpretation effect the conclusion we come to?

Politics and archaeology are married in outcome to an extent--nationalism that shades results of findings.  There are two eras to Yugoslavia archaeology corresponding to political phases.  The following article excerpt explains in greater detail:

"After each republic became independent, archaeology was employed for the identification of ethnic-specific elements in the archaeological landscape; at the same time, however, ethnic group started identifying themselves with non-Slav cultures and symbols, seeking elements which could radically distinguish them from the other Slavs including, for example, the adoption of a different alphabet. To this respect, two cases are particularly relevant. The first one deals again with Slovenia and its development since the mid-1980s of autochthonous theories on the origin of Slovenians, supposedly to be either Etruscan or Venetian (Novakovic and Slapšak 1996, 289). The second example comes from the Republic of Macedonia: both the name and the flag of this new country caused a major dispute with Greece. Macedonia is indeed the name of an ancient civilisation and of three modern Greek regions, and the naming of the Republic after them was seen as an appropriation of present and past Greek cultural elements, or even as a possible claim of land. As for the flag, the sixteen-pointed star of Vergina, identifiable on many archaeological finds, was adopted, stressing the aspiration to identify with Alexander's Macedonia."

These two instances exemplify the interplay between politics and archaeological outcomes.  While not ancient, such considerations drastically effect the modern perspective on human history.  In Slovenia and Croatia, where conflict has been less drastic, the development of research has been greater fleshed out to reach full concepts unbiased by previous experience.  To see the whole article visit: http://www.theposthole.org/read/article/98.