The Practice of Writing and the Archaeological Process: Exploring the Ineffable and the Fable as Means to Create Knowledge Through Past Materials

Abstract

This article approaches the role of writing in the archaeological process. I revisit some earlier literature focusing on this topic within which is argued that the practice of writing participates in the shaping of the knowledge we produce about the past. This is so because writing entails a dialogue between the limits of the way we experience past materials and the limits of the languages we use to translate such experiences. In order to understand this dialogue, by following Michel de Certeau, we may ask what kind of subject are we while writing about past materials? And, how does such a practice entail a transformation of our subjectivity by seeking to create the conditions to express the difference of the past? I will discuss how this concern about the process of writing, and the exploration of different styles of narrative, help me to expand the study of late prehistory deposition contexts. By analysing the emplotment used in the study of these contexts, I will argue that deposition needs to be understood as an individual character, and not as just something resulting from practices of deposition. In arguing this, I present fable as a narrative style exploring alternative plots highlighting the irreducibility of archaeological evidences.