A Phenomenological Turn in Archaeological Explanation: is it Possible?

Archaeology borrows some ideas from semiotics which, in its reductionist variant, tends to see symbolic features as passive signs that only through the acts of human mind can acquire social value. As a consequence this confines research to strictly regional and time defined cultural entities characterized by linear evolution. My understanding of how to improve archaeological explanation, relative to the outlined above conceptual limitations, is that there is certain logic of how individuals and communities get to know human and natural worlds (establish epistemic relations) and on this base how past communities were able to create their own ontologies through which they symbolically represent and exchange their accumulated bodies of knowledge. This study reveals the intricate ways of interaction of modernist views on social evolution and points to the means through which the dichotomies raised by traditional archaeological knowledge can be deconstructed.

Keywords: 3^rd person account of experiences of archaeologists; 1^st person account of experiences of archaeologists, separation of archaeologists from their subject-matter, sense and sensibility in archaeological research