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Traces of the Past: Material Memory in Archaeology
by Matthias Hoernes
Traces are all that endure. In archaeology, the past seems to reveal itself through fragments: a pottery sherd, a metal nail, charred seeds, animal bones, or a discolored patch of soil. These materials and materialities are not testimonies but traces forming contemporary, untimely material presences of the past in the present. They are not intentional signals left behind but residual effects of past events or entities, both materially and ontologically. As indexes pointing back to a time long gone, traces embody the central tension of archaeology: the interplay between what remains in the present and the effort to reconstruct the past from it.
Traces are not self-evident. They do not passively archive information waiting to be uncovered. Instead, they demand active engagement and epistemic intervention. Archaeologists mu…
Press Release
Traces of the Past: Material Memory in Archaeology
by Matthias Hoernes
Traces are all that endure. In archaeology, the past seems to reveal itself through fragments: a pottery sherd, a metal nail, charred seeds, animal bones, or a discolored patch of soil. These materials and materialities are not testimonies but traces forming contemporary, untimely material presences of the past in the present. They are not intentional signals left behind but residual effects of past events or entities, both materially and ontologically. As indexes pointing back to a time long gone, traces embody the central tension of archaeology: the interplay between what remains in the present and the effort to reconstruct the past from it.
Traces are not self-evident. They do not passively archive information waiting to be uncovered. Instead, they demand active engagement and epistemic intervention. Archaeologists mu…
