Archaeology and Interdisciplinary Research in Present-Day Romania (I): A Look at Domains
Archaeology and Interdisciplinary Research in Present-Day Romania (I): A Look at Domains

Summary/Abstract: This paper argues that what is presently considered normal practice in Romanian archaeology is too narrow with respect to the variety of data that can potentially be collected from the fieldwork as well as later, in the laboratory, from the archaeological material, and that this is caused by the dominance of the culture-historical paradigm, which is ultimately limited to the identification of social groups and does not provide the theoretical tools necessary for the meaningful integration of these new categories of data (i.e., it cannot use them to explain how societies work). Further, it argues that the scope of what is presently seen as standard knowledge in Romanian archaeology should be very much widened to include whatever domain of the social and natural sciences is necessary in order to provide better archaeological results. It also draws attention to the consequences of the delay of such a change in archaeology: the risk of losing precious information in the field, in a period when expanding infrastructure works and construction of residential areas are destroying archaeological sites at a quicker rate than in earlier times. At the same time, the paper highlights that the changes needed in Romanian archaeology cannot be left to archaeologists at the individual level alone, and that an extensive process of institutional development is absolutely necessary.

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