ARCHAEOLOGY, THEORY AND THE MIDDLE AGES Fine

Duckworth Archaeology; 192 pages; This volume of collected essays is intended as a demonstration of the ways in which a theoretically informed archaeology significantly enhances our understanding of the early middle ages (indeed of the past more generally). It begins from the premise that theory must be worked though in data (abstract theorising conjures up only ahistorical pictures of the past) and applies a consistent and contemporary body of theory (broadly characterised as 'post-processual') in a series of case-studies. These essays, which address some of the key issues in contemporary archaeology (identity, the appropriation/destruction of the past, gift exchange, object biographies, the influence of our present on the construction of the past, the impact of texts on past societies), are linked by a series of discussions which serve both to update the arguments and to create a continuous and coherent narrative. The result is therefore much more than the sum of the parts and will be of interest not just to scholars of the early middle ages, but to archaeologists and historians more generally.