The Archaeologist as Writer

This essay explores the epistemological underpinnings of what is considered valid knowledge in archaeological writing, science vs. scientism, literary techniques in archaeological narratives, and the possibility of thick description (sensu Geertz) in the interpretation of the past through the use of multiple viewpoints.

‘If you want to understand what a science is, you should look in the first instance not at its theories or its findings, and certainly not at what its apologists say about it; you should look at what the practitioners of it do.” — Clifford Geertz (1973)