Pages: 8-25

Is archaeological theory necessary? The answer is expected from the theoretical archaeology. Strange as it is, works devoted to this issue are nearly absent in archaeological literature. In this article various stages of full empirical archaeological inquiry are considered in order to detect whether in each of them archaeological theory plays any role, and if it does, which namely. There are the following functions analysed: 1) identificative; 2) integrative; 3) selective; 4) descriptive; 5) systematising; 6) explanative; 7) predictive; 8) instrumental; 9) heuristic; 10) controlling; 11) synthesising; 12) enlightening. Every of them is connected with difficulties, especially the explanative and predictive functions. So the sections devoted to these two functions are entitled not simply with the designation of the function but as «The problem of explanative function» or «The problem of predictive function». Properly speaking the explanative functions is expressed in archaeology as interpretative one (not in the sense which this word has in hermeneutics but rather which it has in translation practice). The predictive function (some theorists speak on retrodiction instead of prediction in archaeology) is expressed as reconstructive one.

Information about author:

Leo Klejn (St.-Petersburg, Russia). Professor. European University at Saint-Petersburg.
Е-mail: [email protected]