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The Dark Abyss of Time

Archaeology and Memory

Laurent Olivier

The field of archaeology continues to face a major crisis of interpretation. The traditional view is that the basic business of archaeology is to reconstruct the history of cultures and civilizations through their material productions. Olivier challenges this view with a new approach to archaeological remains based on the works of French theorists such as Foucault, de Certeaux, and Derrida, with insight from Darwin and Freud. His thesis is that archaeology does not study the past itself but rather what materially remains of the past in our present. Olivier also develops an interpretation of material culture based on Aby Warburg’s and Walter Benjamin’s work in the anthropology of art. With wider implications for history and all social sciences, The Dark Abyss of Time is a major contribution to the theory of time, memory, heritage, and archaeology. This flawless translation makes Olivier’s elegantly written work available in English for the first time.
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 230 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
978-0-7591-2045-7 • Hardback • November 2011 • $119.00 • (£92.00)
978-0-7591-2046-4 • Paperback • March 2015 • $56.00 • (£43.00)
978-1-4930-8345-9 • eBook • January 2024 • $52.00 • (£40.00)
Series: Archaeology in Society
Subjects: Social Science / Archaeology
Laurent Olivier is curator of the Department of Celtic and Gaulish archaeology at the National Museum of Archaeology in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris. He teaches at the École du Louvre and the École pratique des hautes études. He is working on a dig on the site of Iron Age salt marshes in Marsal (northeastern France).
Arthur Greenspan is a professor of French at Colby College.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: In the Beginning
Chapter 2: When Once There Was a Once Upon a Time
Chapter 3: Pages Written in Earth
Chapter 4: An Archaeology of the Present
Chapter 5: A Field of Ruins
Chapter 6: Ragmen of the Past
Chapter 7: Palimpsests and Memory-Objects
Chapter 8: A Biology of Forms
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
The Dark Abyssof Time is … one of the most important works published in archaeology during my lifetime. It fundamentally questions the purpose and practice of the discipline as it is today, and successfully tries to move us beyond the sterile debates that have marred the history of archaeology for the last thirty or so years. It is the result of a wide and deep immersion in the roots of our current culture, and it is, to boot, beautiful to read!
— Sander van der Leeuw Ph.D, Arizona State University


This is a wonderful work, a rich and very human treatment of how we experience time and history in our relationships with vestiges of the past. It is an inspiring read in the critical tradition of Bergson and Benjamin that will appeal to everyone interested in our contemporary and archaeological fascination with old things.
— Michael Shanks, Omar and Althea Hoskins Professor of Archaeology, Stanford University


The Dark Abyss of Time

Archaeology and Memory

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • The field of archaeology continues to face a major crisis of interpretation. The traditional view is that the basic business of archaeology is to reconstruct the history of cultures and civilizations through their material productions. Olivier challenges this view with a new approach to archaeological remains based on the works of French theorists such as Foucault, de Certeaux, and Derrida, with insight from Darwin and Freud. His thesis is that archaeology does not study the past itself but rather what materially remains of the past in our present. Olivier also develops an interpretation of material culture based on Aby Warburg’s and Walter Benjamin’s work in the anthropology of art. With wider implications for history and all social sciences, The Dark Abyss of Time is a major contribution to the theory of time, memory, heritage, and archaeology. This flawless translation makes Olivier’s elegantly written work available in English for the first time.
Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
    Pages: 230 • Trim: 6⅜ x 9½
    978-0-7591-2045-7 • Hardback • November 2011 • $119.00 • (£92.00)
    978-0-7591-2046-4 • Paperback • March 2015 • $56.00 • (£43.00)
    978-1-4930-8345-9 • eBook • January 2024 • $52.00 • (£40.00)
    Series: Archaeology in Society
    Subjects: Social Science / Archaeology
Author
Author
  • Laurent Olivier is curator of the Department of Celtic and Gaulish archaeology at the National Museum of Archaeology in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris. He teaches at the École du Louvre and the École pratique des hautes études. He is working on a dig on the site of Iron Age salt marshes in Marsal (northeastern France).
    Arthur Greenspan is a professor of French at Colby College.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Contents
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction
    Chapter 1: In the Beginning
    Chapter 2: When Once There Was a Once Upon a Time
    Chapter 3: Pages Written in Earth
    Chapter 4: An Archaeology of the Present
    Chapter 5: A Field of Ruins
    Chapter 6: Ragmen of the Past
    Chapter 7: Palimpsests and Memory-Objects
    Chapter 8: A Biology of Forms
    Conclusion
    Bibliography
    Index
Reviews
Reviews
  • The Dark Abyssof Time is … one of the most important works published in archaeology during my lifetime. It fundamentally questions the purpose and practice of the discipline as it is today, and successfully tries to move us beyond the sterile debates that have marred the history of archaeology for the last thirty or so years. It is the result of a wide and deep immersion in the roots of our current culture, and it is, to boot, beautiful to read!
    — Sander van der Leeuw Ph.D, Arizona State University


    This is a wonderful work, a rich and very human treatment of how we experience time and history in our relationships with vestiges of the past. It is an inspiring read in the critical tradition of Bergson and Benjamin that will appeal to everyone interested in our contemporary and archaeological fascination with old things.
    — Michael Shanks, Omar and Althea Hoskins Professor of Archaeology, Stanford University


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