Not Exactly: Tracing vagueness in the archaeological record

Lecture by Dr. Tim Flohr Sørensen, assistant professor at the Saxo Institute

Tim Flohr Sørensen

The pursuit of exact data
This lecture challenges the current archaeological optimism based on advances in natural science, arguing that we are on the way to a 'new empiricism'. Tim Flohr Sørensen contends that the current climate of empiricist archaeology once again forces the discipline into a pursuit of absolute, exact and quantifiable data, whose authority results in vague and ambiguous phenomena being exorcised from archaeological studies. However, vagueness is a socially important aspect of human interaction with the world.

Aiming for vagueness
Vagueness and vague experiences can structure material categorisations of the world; it can contribute to the shaping of social relations, and it can nurture the appreciation of difficult experiences. Vagueness and ambiguity can even be the very objective of particular activities, drawing on mortuary evidence from the South Scandinavian Neolithic Tim Flohr Sørensen will demonstrate this condition, arguing that archaeology is in dire need of more radical methodologies grounded in the humanities.

The lecture is organized by the Department of Archaeology at the Saxo Institute and will take place in room 12.0.37, KUA 2, Karen Blixens Vej 4, October 9^th at 2.15 pm. All
interested are welcome.