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Christopher Witmore

Texas Tech University, Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures, Faculty Member

Material Culture Studies +29

Photo Credit: Ron Jautz 2015

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Books

Old Lands: A Chorography of the Eastern Peloponnese, 2020

Old Lands takes readers on an epic journey through the legion spaces and times of the Eastern Pel... more Old Lands takes readers on an epic journey through the legion spaces and times of the Eastern Peloponnese, trailing in the footsteps of a Roman periegete, an Ottoman traveler, antiquarians, and anonymous agrarians. Following waters in search of rest through the lens of Lucretian poetics, Christopher Witmore reconstitutes an untimely mode of ambulatory writing, chorography, mindful of the challenges we all face in these precarious times. Turning on pressing concerns that arise out of object-oriented encounters, Old Lands ponders the disappearance of an agrarian world rooted in the Neolithic, the transition to urban styles of living, and changes in communication, movement , and metabolism, while opening fresh perspectives on long-term inhabitation, changing mobilities, and appropriation through pollution. Carefully composed with those objects encountered along its varied paths, this book offers an original and wondrous account of a region in twenty-seven segments, and fulfills a longstanding ambition within archaeology to generate a polychronic narrative that stands as a complement and alternative to diachronic history.

Old Lands will be of interest to historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and scholars of the Eastern Peloponnese. Those interested in the long-term changes in society, technology, and culture in this region will find this book captivating.

Archaeology in the Making: Conversations through a Discipline

by Kristian Kristiansen, Christopher Witmore, and Michael Shanks

Archaeology in the Making is a collection of bold statements about archaeology, its history, how ... more Archaeology in the Making is a collection of bold statements about archaeology, its history, how it works, and why it is more important than ever. This book comprises conversations about archaeology among some of its notable contemporary figures. They delve deeply into the questions that have come to fascinate archaeologists over the last forty years or so, those that concern major events in human history such as the origins of agriculture and the state, and questions about the way archaeologists go about their work. Many of the conversations highlight quite intensely held personal insight into what motivates us to pursue archaeology; some may even be termed outrageous in the light they shed on the way archaeological institutions operate – excavation teams, professional associations, university departments.

Archaeology in the Making is a unique document detailing the history of archaeology in second half of the 20th century to the present day through the words of some of its key proponents. It will be invaluable for anybody who wants to understand the theory and practice of this ever developing discipline.

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things

by Michael Shanks, Christopher Witmore, and Timothy Webmoor

University of California Press, 2012

Archaeology takes us into the heart of contemporary concerns about our relationships with goods, ... more Archaeology takes us into the heart of contemporary concerns about our relationships with goods, making and manufacture, science and technology, culture and design, memory and senses of history and belonging. The actuality of archaeology is a vital component of our human being in the world.

Literally the “science of old things,” archaeology does not discover the past as it was but works with what remains. Such work involves the mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us, just as we are part of the world of things that we may seek to understand.

This book ranges through debates in science studies, including actor network theory and object oriented ontology, process-relational philosophy, material culture and design studies, and offers case studies from prehistoric, classical and historical archaeology.

Chapters:
Introduction: Caring about Things
2. The Ambiguity of Things: Contempt and Desire
3. Engagements with Things: The Making of Archaeology
4. Digging Deep: Archaeology and Fieldwork
5. Things in Translation: Documents and Imagery
6. Futures for Things: Memory Practices and
Digital Translation
7. Timely Things: From Argos to Mycenae and Beyond
8. Making and the Design of Things: Human Being
and the Shape of History
9. Getting on with Things: A Material Metaphysics of Care

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things

by Christopher Witmore, Michael Shanks, and Timothy Webmoor

"Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. Wh... more "Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past.

Literally the “science of old things,” archaeology does not discover the past as it was but must work with what remains. Such work involves the tangible mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us. This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline of archaeology. Rather, it aims to understand precisely what archaeologists do and to urge practitioners toward a renewed focus on and care for things."

Archaeology The Discipline of Things

by Bjørnar J . Olsen, Timothy Webmoor, Christopher Witmore, and Michael Shanks

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. University of Calfornia Press., 2012

This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline ... more

Archaeology: The discipline of things

by Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, and Christopher Witmore

"Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. Wh... more "Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past.

Literally the “science of old things,” archaeology does not discover the past as it was but must work with what remains. Such work involves the tangible mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us. This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline of archaeology. Rather, it aims to understand precisely what archaeologists do and to urge practitioners toward a renewed focus on and care for things."

REVIEWS:

"It is engagingly concerned with the archaeology of the present. It has a rich and up-to-date bibliography, well versed in archaeological theory. It invites us, in an informed way, to reexamine the nature and substance of archaeology. So, despite its lapses, it stands on the side of angels."
- Colin Renfrew, University of Cambridge

"A broad, illuminating, and well-researched overview of theoretical problems pertaining to archaeology. The authors make a calm defense of the role of objects against tedious claims of 'fetishism.'"
-Graham Harman, author of The Quadruple Object

"This book exhorts the reader to embrace the materiality of archaeology by recognizing how every step in the discipline's scientific processes involves interaction with myriad physical artifacts, ranging from the camel-hair brush to profile drawings to virtual reality imaging. At the same time, the reader is taken on a phenomenological journey into various pasts, immersed in the lives of peoples from other times, compelled to engage their senses with the sights, smells, and noises of the publics and places whose remains they study. This is a refreshingly original and provocative look at the meaning of the material culture that lies at the foundation of the archaeological discipline."
-Michael Brian Schiffer, author of The Material Life of Human Beings

“This volume is a radical call to fundamentally rethink the ontology, profession, and practice of archaeology. The authors present a closely reasoned, epistemologically sound argument for why archaeology should be considered the discipline of things, rather than its more commonplace definition as the study of the human past through material traces. All scholars and students of archaeology will need to read and contemplate this thought-provoking book.”
-Wendy Ashmore, Professor of Anthropology, UC Riverside

Papers

EXCAVATING WAR AND IDLENESS: THE CASE OF SVAERHOLT

by Bjørnar J . Olsen, Stein Farstadvoll, Ingar Olsborg Figenschau, and Christopher Witmore

Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 2022

For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in pre- senting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or a ected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide a ective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.

Theory Above theory Alongside. Response online version

by Gavin Lucas and Christopher Witmore

Paradigm Lost What Is a Commitment to Theory in Contemporary Archaeology online version

by Gavin Lucas and Christopher Witmore

Excavating War and Idleness: The Case of Sværholt

by Stein Farstadvoll, Ingar Olsborg Figenschau, and Christopher Witmore

Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 2022

For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in presenting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or affected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide affective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.

Reviewing Christopher Witmore's Old Lands: A Chorography of the Eastern Peloponnese (London: Routledge, 2020) A Journey to A Chorography

Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 2021

a) A Journey to A Chorography: Christopher Witmore b) Old Ways in Old Lands: William Caraher c)... more

"Will the real materialisms please step forward?"

Journal of Material Culture, 2021

New Materialisms, as we learn from Govier and Steel, bear but a peripheral resemblance to what re... more New Materialisms, as we learn from Govier and Steel, bear but a peripheral resemblance to what readers find in the article, Archaeology and the New Materialisms (henceforth "ArchaNeMs"). If one remains convinced that ontologies in the style of Jane Bennett's vibrant materialism or, as the authors champion, Karen Barad's agential realism are the only materialisms worthy of this label (Cipolla 2018, 66n2; Govier 2019; Harris and Cipolla 2017, 191n74), then they are not mistaken in this assertion. As Govier and Steel suggest, there is much to these materialisms for archaeologists to contemplate. The compelling and sophisticated ontologies of Bennett and Barad admirably bid farewell to half-hearted renderings of the material world as "a recalcitrant context for human action" (Bennett 2010, 111) and shatter the flagrant dualism of a passive, inert matter and an active, creative human mind. However, by subscribing to a heterogeneous world of ceaselessly quivering material configurations traversing one matter-energy (Bennett 2010) or a dynamic relational ontology rooted in performatively intra-active phenomena (Barad 2007), such ontologies appeal to a reductive hierarchy of existence that leaves little room for things as autonomous entities. It was in seeking an alternative to these New Materialisms that ArchaNeMs was written.

When defense is not enough. On things, archaeological theory, and the politics of misrepresentation

by Bjørnar J . Olsen and Christopher Witmore

Forum Kritische Archäologie 10, 2021

This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.

When Defense Is Not Enough: On things, archaeological theory, and the politics of misrepresentation.

Forum Kritische Archäologie, 2021

This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.

"Through the Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine"

In B. Olsen, M. Burström, C. DeSilvey, & Þ. Péturdóttir (eds) After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. , 2021

Note to reader Moving in the company of Curtis L. Francisco, this chapter documents the partially... more Note to reader Moving in the company of Curtis L. Francisco, this chapter documents the partially remediated Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine, registering how radioactive reservoirs, eroding slopes, or radon-emitting walls both weigh upon pueblo communities, plants, and animal others, and shape engagement, mood, conversation. To encompass an erstwhile uranium mine from a comfortable distance with maps or satellite photography (as if that were even possible) seems to me to ignore or dismiss the debt that all who live in zones of nuclear-energized comfort owe to those humans and nonhumans who struggle with the radioactive consequences of our lifestyles. Therefore, the mode of writing embraced here is chosen for how it confronts this dark object, opening an intimate path through that which dwarves us, allowing it to suggest something of itself over the course of the encounter, while witnessing how others live with it. What is here presented as a single journey was recorded and compiled over three separate outings at the invitation of Francisco, an indigenous geologist and resident of the Laguna Pueblo, for the purpose of bringing this story to people's attention.

Svaerholt: Recovered memories from a POW camp in the far north

by Bjørnar J . Olsen and Christopher Witmore

In B. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds), Ruin memories: Materialities, aesthetics and the archaeology of the recent past, pp. 162-190. London: Routledge, 2014

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2021

Matter is unruly as a concept. No matter where one dips in along its historical trajectory, a var... more Matter is unruly as a concept. No matter where one dips in along its historical trajectory, a variant meaning is readily available. The word is both a convenient catch-all for the ultimate stuff of existence and a specific ingredient lodged in the substratum of the real. Matter is regarded both as an inert basal layer embedded in a hierarchy of bodies and a quivering multitude obscured by a taxonomic distinction between the animate and inanimate. Materialism holds no monopoly over matter, as it also comes in idealist strains. Matter, it is safe to say, is a boundary object (Star and Griesemer 1989)—that is, something that provides common semantic ground in choice circles, yet permits but a precarious purchase as to any shared definition among broader audiences. Given this situation, one might consider it advisable to begin at the roots of the matter, and yet the etymology of the term reveals an equally varied array of meanings. “Matter” stems from the Latin materia or materies, which means wood, lumber, construction material, or substance. Equally, these terms pertain to subject matter, a topic, or an object of relevance or concern. Materia and materies derive from mater, mother, which suggests a character both primordial and engendering. Materia and materies are closely connected to the Greek hyle, translated as “matter,” which is usually distinguished from morphe, “form”—this is an important association to which this entry will return. Whatever its semantic legacies, any confrontation with the matter of matter should be about more than comprehending the diverse meanings of the term, for matter cannot be limited to abstractions—it also refers to something raw, tactile, weighty, in possession of mass, that exists out in the world. Given this extraordinary range of meanings and associations—and it is no wonder that matter should find a haven within academic discourse—it is advisable to briefly indulge some of our oldest ideas concerning matter before we move on to its varieties and associations within anthropology, and questions as to its futures.

A Cultural History of Objects: Modern Period, 1900 to Present, Edited by Laurie Wilkie and John Chenoweth, London: Bloomsbury, 2020

Scholars of the twentieth century, with rare exception, were less than generous in their concepti... more Scholars of the twentieth century, with rare exception, were less than generous in their conception of objects (cf. Latour 2005, 72-73; Olsen 2010, 1-3). Whether out of anxiety or indifference, under the inexorable onslaught of automobiles, high-rise buildings, paved surfaces, motorized drills, refrigerators, portable radios, Rubik’s cubes, spray cleaners, and whatever else that happened to flood onto the scene, humans concerned with the human condition managed to insulate human being and thus sever a partial and limited image of society from nonhuman objects including animal and vegetal others, which were all maintained at a distance behind an insurmountable wall of incommensurability (Latour 1993). Of course, this firm separation had deeper roots. Through its various extensions the Cartesian project, which held objects to be passive and inert as opposed to the dynamic and creative human subject, proved to be tenacious (Olsen et al. 2012). And yet, with the century having run its course, whether or not scholars are willing to concede this legacy is now of less concern than how it is that coal-fired power plants, permafrost, abandoned uranium mines, smart phones, hurricanes, or pacemakers have refused to comply with their expectations.

Symmetrical Archaeology (Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology version)

Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2020

This essay constitutes an introduction to symmetrical archaeology. It discusses concepts of symme... more

Hypanthropos: On Apprehending and Approaching That Which is in Excess of Monstrosity, with Special Consideration given to the Photography of Edward Burtynsky

Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2019

Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the label of the “Anthropocene”,... more Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the label of the “Anthropocene”, this article trains its lens on some of the more-than-monstrous things that have revealed themselves in our calamitous times. It raises questions about how archaeologists are to apprehend and approach objects that differ in scale, speed, makeup, and efficacy from anything our field has ever dealt with. But rather than honing its analytical edge exclusively with the latest science, it also ventures in another direction to explore some of the powers of art by considering the work of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynksy. Finally, it makes a few closing remarks on the role of our profession in this new archaeological era.

Old Lands: A Chorography of the Eastern Peloponnese, 2020

Old Lands takes readers on an epic journey through the legion spaces and times of the Eastern Pel... more Old Lands takes readers on an epic journey through the legion spaces and times of the Eastern Peloponnese, trailing in the footsteps of a Roman periegete, an Ottoman traveler, antiquarians, and anonymous agrarians. Following waters in search of rest through the lens of Lucretian poetics, Christopher Witmore reconstitutes an untimely mode of ambulatory writing, chorography, mindful of the challenges we all face in these precarious times. Turning on pressing concerns that arise out of object-oriented encounters, Old Lands ponders the disappearance of an agrarian world rooted in the Neolithic, the transition to urban styles of living, and changes in communication, movement , and metabolism, while opening fresh perspectives on long-term inhabitation, changing mobilities, and appropriation through pollution. Carefully composed with those objects encountered along its varied paths, this book offers an original and wondrous account of a region in twenty-seven segments, and fulfills a longstanding ambition within archaeology to generate a polychronic narrative that stands as a complement and alternative to diachronic history.

Old Lands will be of interest to historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and scholars of the Eastern Peloponnese. Those interested in the long-term changes in society, technology, and culture in this region will find this book captivating.

Archaeology in the Making: Conversations through a Discipline

by Kristian Kristiansen, Christopher Witmore, and Michael Shanks

Archaeology in the Making is a collection of bold statements about archaeology, its history, how ... more Archaeology in the Making is a collection of bold statements about archaeology, its history, how it works, and why it is more important than ever. This book comprises conversations about archaeology among some of its notable contemporary figures. They delve deeply into the questions that have come to fascinate archaeologists over the last forty years or so, those that concern major events in human history such as the origins of agriculture and the state, and questions about the way archaeologists go about their work. Many of the conversations highlight quite intensely held personal insight into what motivates us to pursue archaeology; some may even be termed outrageous in the light they shed on the way archaeological institutions operate – excavation teams, professional associations, university departments.

Archaeology in the Making is a unique document detailing the history of archaeology in second half of the 20th century to the present day through the words of some of its key proponents. It will be invaluable for anybody who wants to understand the theory and practice of this ever developing discipline.

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things

by Michael Shanks, Christopher Witmore, and Timothy Webmoor

University of California Press, 2012

Archaeology takes us into the heart of contemporary concerns about our relationships with goods, ... more Archaeology takes us into the heart of contemporary concerns about our relationships with goods, making and manufacture, science and technology, culture and design, memory and senses of history and belonging. The actuality of archaeology is a vital component of our human being in the world.

Literally the “science of old things,” archaeology does not discover the past as it was but works with what remains. Such work involves the mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us, just as we are part of the world of things that we may seek to understand.

This book ranges through debates in science studies, including actor network theory and object oriented ontology, process-relational philosophy, material culture and design studies, and offers case studies from prehistoric, classical and historical archaeology.

Chapters:
Introduction: Caring about Things
2. The Ambiguity of Things: Contempt and Desire
3. Engagements with Things: The Making of Archaeology
4. Digging Deep: Archaeology and Fieldwork
5. Things in Translation: Documents and Imagery
6. Futures for Things: Memory Practices and
Digital Translation
7. Timely Things: From Argos to Mycenae and Beyond
8. Making and the Design of Things: Human Being
and the Shape of History
9. Getting on with Things: A Material Metaphysics of Care

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things

by Christopher Witmore, Michael Shanks, and Timothy Webmoor

"Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. Wh... more "Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past.

Literally the “science of old things,” archaeology does not discover the past as it was but must work with what remains. Such work involves the tangible mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us. This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline of archaeology. Rather, it aims to understand precisely what archaeologists do and to urge practitioners toward a renewed focus on and care for things."

Archaeology The Discipline of Things

by Bjørnar J . Olsen, Timothy Webmoor, Christopher Witmore, and Michael Shanks

Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. University of Calfornia Press., 2012

This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline ... more

Archaeology: The discipline of things

by Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, and Christopher Witmore

"Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. Wh... more "Archaeology has always been marked by its particular care, obligation, and loyalty to things. While archaeologists may not share similar perspectives or practices, they find common ground in their concern for objects monumental and mundane. This book considers the myriad ways that archaeologists engage with things in order to craft stories, both big and small, concerning our relations with materials and the nature of the past.

Literally the “science of old things,” archaeology does not discover the past as it was but must work with what remains. Such work involves the tangible mediation of past and present, of people and their cultural fabric, for things cannot be separated from society. Things are us. This book does not set forth a sweeping new theory. It does not seek to transform the discipline of archaeology. Rather, it aims to understand precisely what archaeologists do and to urge practitioners toward a renewed focus on and care for things."

REVIEWS:

"It is engagingly concerned with the archaeology of the present. It has a rich and up-to-date bibliography, well versed in archaeological theory. It invites us, in an informed way, to reexamine the nature and substance of archaeology. So, despite its lapses, it stands on the side of angels."
- Colin Renfrew, University of Cambridge

"A broad, illuminating, and well-researched overview of theoretical problems pertaining to archaeology. The authors make a calm defense of the role of objects against tedious claims of 'fetishism.'"
-Graham Harman, author of The Quadruple Object

"This book exhorts the reader to embrace the materiality of archaeology by recognizing how every step in the discipline's scientific processes involves interaction with myriad physical artifacts, ranging from the camel-hair brush to profile drawings to virtual reality imaging. At the same time, the reader is taken on a phenomenological journey into various pasts, immersed in the lives of peoples from other times, compelled to engage their senses with the sights, smells, and noises of the publics and places whose remains they study. This is a refreshingly original and provocative look at the meaning of the material culture that lies at the foundation of the archaeological discipline."
-Michael Brian Schiffer, author of The Material Life of Human Beings

“This volume is a radical call to fundamentally rethink the ontology, profession, and practice of archaeology. The authors present a closely reasoned, epistemologically sound argument for why archaeology should be considered the discipline of things, rather than its more commonplace definition as the study of the human past through material traces. All scholars and students of archaeology will need to read and contemplate this thought-provoking book.”
-Wendy Ashmore, Professor of Anthropology, UC Riverside

EXCAVATING WAR AND IDLENESS: THE CASE OF SVAERHOLT

by Bjørnar J . Olsen, Stein Farstadvoll, Ingar Olsborg Figenschau, and Christopher Witmore

Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 2022

For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in pre- senting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or a ected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide a ective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.

Theory Above theory Alongside. Response online version

by Gavin Lucas and Christopher Witmore

Paradigm Lost What Is a Commitment to Theory in Contemporary Archaeology online version

by Gavin Lucas and Christopher Witmore

Excavating War and Idleness: The Case of Sværholt

by Stein Farstadvoll, Ingar Olsborg Figenschau, and Christopher Witmore

Journal of Conflict Archaeology, 2022

For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmos... more For the last decade, the World War II prisoner-of-war camp and battery at Sværholt in northernmost Norway have been objects of archaeological investigation. This article presents the results from excavations and associated studies, including new descriptions of extant structures and found artefacts, comparative osteological analyses of middens, and their implications. Our purpose in presenting these results is to: 1) explore what an extraordinary array of unearthed material can reveal about the conditions and fates of those involved in, or affected by, the German occupation during the war; 2) to show how the archaeology of Sværholt, with all its heterogeneity, leads us in a direction at variance with historical generalizations and expectations; 3) to convey how the extant ruins and remains provide affective glimpses into their formative causes: the abandonment and near-complete destruction of the battery, garrison, hamlet, and POW camp, during a few intense days of evacuation in November 1944.

Reviewing Christopher Witmore's Old Lands: A Chorography of the Eastern Peloponnese (London: Routledge, 2020) A Journey to A Chorography

Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology, 2021

a) A Journey to A Chorography: Christopher Witmore b) Old Ways in Old Lands: William Caraher c)... more

"Will the real materialisms please step forward?"

Journal of Material Culture, 2021

New Materialisms, as we learn from Govier and Steel, bear but a peripheral resemblance to what re... more New Materialisms, as we learn from Govier and Steel, bear but a peripheral resemblance to what readers find in the article, Archaeology and the New Materialisms (henceforth "ArchaNeMs"). If one remains convinced that ontologies in the style of Jane Bennett's vibrant materialism or, as the authors champion, Karen Barad's agential realism are the only materialisms worthy of this label (Cipolla 2018, 66n2; Govier 2019; Harris and Cipolla 2017, 191n74), then they are not mistaken in this assertion. As Govier and Steel suggest, there is much to these materialisms for archaeologists to contemplate. The compelling and sophisticated ontologies of Bennett and Barad admirably bid farewell to half-hearted renderings of the material world as "a recalcitrant context for human action" (Bennett 2010, 111) and shatter the flagrant dualism of a passive, inert matter and an active, creative human mind. However, by subscribing to a heterogeneous world of ceaselessly quivering material configurations traversing one matter-energy (Bennett 2010) or a dynamic relational ontology rooted in performatively intra-active phenomena (Barad 2007), such ontologies appeal to a reductive hierarchy of existence that leaves little room for things as autonomous entities. It was in seeking an alternative to these New Materialisms that ArchaNeMs was written.

When defense is not enough. On things, archaeological theory, and the politics of misrepresentation

by Bjørnar J . Olsen and Christopher Witmore

Forum Kritische Archäologie 10, 2021

This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.

When Defense Is Not Enough: On things, archaeological theory, and the politics of misrepresentation.

Forum Kritische Archäologie, 2021

This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-o... more This article responds to a growing tide of critique targeting select new materialist and object-oriented approaches in archaeology. Here we take a stand against this critical discourse not so much to counter actual and legitimate differences in how we conceive of archaeology and its role, but to target the exaggerations, excesses, and errors by which it increasingly is articulated and which restrict communication to the impoverishment of the field as whole. While also embracing an opportunity to clarify matters of politics and archaeological theory in light of object-oriented approaches and the material turn at large, we address a number of concerns raised by this critical discourse, which are, we contend, of relevance to all archaeologists: 1) the importance of ontology; 2) working with theory; 3) politics as first philosophy; 4) the concept of the subaltern; 5) binaries and the rhetorical desire for an enemy; and 6) the matter of misrepresentation.

"Through the Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine"

In B. Olsen, M. Burström, C. DeSilvey, & Þ. Péturdóttir (eds) After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. , 2021

Note to reader Moving in the company of Curtis L. Francisco, this chapter documents the partially... more Note to reader Moving in the company of Curtis L. Francisco, this chapter documents the partially remediated Jackpile-Paguate Uranium Mine, registering how radioactive reservoirs, eroding slopes, or radon-emitting walls both weigh upon pueblo communities, plants, and animal others, and shape engagement, mood, conversation. To encompass an erstwhile uranium mine from a comfortable distance with maps or satellite photography (as if that were even possible) seems to me to ignore or dismiss the debt that all who live in zones of nuclear-energized comfort owe to those humans and nonhumans who struggle with the radioactive consequences of our lifestyles. Therefore, the mode of writing embraced here is chosen for how it confronts this dark object, opening an intimate path through that which dwarves us, allowing it to suggest something of itself over the course of the encounter, while witnessing how others live with it. What is here presented as a single journey was recorded and compiled over three separate outings at the invitation of Francisco, an indigenous geologist and resident of the Laguna Pueblo, for the purpose of bringing this story to people's attention.

Svaerholt: Recovered memories from a POW camp in the far north

by Bjørnar J . Olsen and Christopher Witmore

In B. Olsen and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds), Ruin memories: Materialities, aesthetics and the archaeology of the recent past, pp. 162-190. London: Routledge, 2014

The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology, 2021

Matter is unruly as a concept. No matter where one dips in along its historical trajectory, a var... more Matter is unruly as a concept. No matter where one dips in along its historical trajectory, a variant meaning is readily available. The word is both a convenient catch-all for the ultimate stuff of existence and a specific ingredient lodged in the substratum of the real. Matter is regarded both as an inert basal layer embedded in a hierarchy of bodies and a quivering multitude obscured by a taxonomic distinction between the animate and inanimate. Materialism holds no monopoly over matter, as it also comes in idealist strains. Matter, it is safe to say, is a boundary object (Star and Griesemer 1989)—that is, something that provides common semantic ground in choice circles, yet permits but a precarious purchase as to any shared definition among broader audiences. Given this situation, one might consider it advisable to begin at the roots of the matter, and yet the etymology of the term reveals an equally varied array of meanings. “Matter” stems from the Latin materia or materies, which means wood, lumber, construction material, or substance. Equally, these terms pertain to subject matter, a topic, or an object of relevance or concern. Materia and materies derive from mater, mother, which suggests a character both primordial and engendering. Materia and materies are closely connected to the Greek hyle, translated as “matter,” which is usually distinguished from morphe, “form”—this is an important association to which this entry will return. Whatever its semantic legacies, any confrontation with the matter of matter should be about more than comprehending the diverse meanings of the term, for matter cannot be limited to abstractions—it also refers to something raw, tactile, weighty, in possession of mass, that exists out in the world. Given this extraordinary range of meanings and associations—and it is no wonder that matter should find a haven within academic discourse—it is advisable to briefly indulge some of our oldest ideas concerning matter before we move on to its varieties and associations within anthropology, and questions as to its futures.

A Cultural History of Objects: Modern Period, 1900 to Present, Edited by Laurie Wilkie and John Chenoweth, London: Bloomsbury, 2020

Scholars of the twentieth century, with rare exception, were less than generous in their concepti... more Scholars of the twentieth century, with rare exception, were less than generous in their conception of objects (cf. Latour 2005, 72-73; Olsen 2010, 1-3). Whether out of anxiety or indifference, under the inexorable onslaught of automobiles, high-rise buildings, paved surfaces, motorized drills, refrigerators, portable radios, Rubik’s cubes, spray cleaners, and whatever else that happened to flood onto the scene, humans concerned with the human condition managed to insulate human being and thus sever a partial and limited image of society from nonhuman objects including animal and vegetal others, which were all maintained at a distance behind an insurmountable wall of incommensurability (Latour 1993). Of course, this firm separation had deeper roots. Through its various extensions the Cartesian project, which held objects to be passive and inert as opposed to the dynamic and creative human subject, proved to be tenacious (Olsen et al. 2012). And yet, with the century having run its course, whether or not scholars are willing to concede this legacy is now of less concern than how it is that coal-fired power plants, permafrost, abandoned uranium mines, smart phones, hurricanes, or pacemakers have refused to comply with their expectations.

Symmetrical Archaeology (Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology version)

Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, 2020

This essay constitutes an introduction to symmetrical archaeology. It discusses concepts of symme... more

Hypanthropos: On Apprehending and Approaching That Which is in Excess of Monstrosity, with Special Consideration given to the Photography of Edward Burtynsky

Journal of Contemporary Archaeology, 2019

Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the label of the “Anthropocene”,... more Offering a more precise epithet for that which has emerged under the label of the “Anthropocene”, this article trains its lens on some of the more-than-monstrous things that have revealed themselves in our calamitous times. It raises questions about how archaeologists are to apprehend and approach objects that differ in scale, speed, makeup, and efficacy from anything our field has ever dealt with. But rather than honing its analytical edge exclusively with the latest science, it also ventures in another direction to explore some of the powers of art by considering the work of the Canadian photographer Edward Burtynksy. Finally, it makes a few closing remarks on the role of our profession in this new archaeological era.

Symmetrical Archaeology

The SAS Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, 2019

This article sketches the project and aims of symmetrical archaeology. It begins with a brief his... more This article sketches the project and aims of symmetrical archaeology. It begins with a brief history and moves on to discuss the principle of symmetry and the definition of things in contrast to common misconceptions. Overall, this article explores symmetrical archaeology with respect to three questions: 1) what does archaeology study; 2) what does archaeology achieve; and 3) how does archaeology study and achieve?

For the objects, archaeology and the archaeological

Archaeological Dialogues, 2018

Archaeology turns round its objects as much as it turns them out. This is partially an artefact o... more Archaeology turns round its objects as much as it turns them out. This is partially an artefact of its reflection, which is not always linear; it is sometimes cyclic. The cyclic is not a perfect circle. Our objects open themselves in new ways to archaeological engagement, but this new relevance surfaces through creative inspiration triangulated off previous orientations. In revolving around our objects, inevitably we return to a familiar place, even though it is where we have never been (González-Ruibal 2014). The linear orientation, by contrast, is progressive. It fashions its every step anew. Thus its movement is supersessive – it pushes forward by violently casting overboard what is considered to be of less value (often on misconstrued grounds) and assuming its position. Whereas the former oscillates with various degrees of awareness, the latter strikes out with inevitable levels of amnesia. To attain a genuinely novel position one must struggle against forgetting former orientations, for to eliminate is to run the risk of repetition – blind to whether or not one ever truly invents – and even redundancy – with multiple copies the impact of our work is diminished. Still, if true improvement constitutes progress, then archaeology, when properly executed, moves in spirals, and our objects move with us.

Assaf Nativ’s article moves in circles and reasons with lines . . .

Describing Hermion/Ermioni. Between Pausanias and Digital Maps, a Topology

by Christopher Witmore and Caleb Lightfoot

In M. Gillings, P. Hacigüzeller & G. Lock (eds.) Re-mapping Archaeology. London: Routledge., 2018

An experiment in archaeological description with five aspirations. One, through the juxtaposition... more An experiment in archaeological description with five aspirations. One, through the juxtaposition and comparison of two very different descriptions of a peninsula known successively as Hermion, Kastri, and Ermioni, Pausanias’s Periegesis, and a collage of maps and other images, we hope to reveal not so much a common space, but a diversity of spaces. Two, in attempting to suggest something of these spaces, we push our descriptions to the edge of oversaturation and disruption, where too much information teeters on the verge of noise—and, thus, calling our attention to some of the most basic characteristics of both texts and maps (legibility, organization, consistency, fungibility, etc.) as modes of manifestation—we aim to challenge these forms, shift our bearings, and open up other descriptions for archaeologists and architects. Three, in designing our text and imagery as a topology we aim to accentuate pleats and rifts where different connections may be formed and for other spaces to emerge. Four, we aim to make the reader aware of the book, aware of the map, and aware of the difference digital media make. This difference arises out of designed difficulties; without the aid of a magnifying glass or digital translation, the text is almost too small to read in the form of a printed book; the map and aerial imagery disrupts the notion of homogeneous space across the whole and, as such, sparks heterogeneity. Five, our project lends itself to two very different engagements. As a reader, you may follow along page by page, through depth in a book, so that portions of the description are revealed in step with the progression; or, through another form of participation, you may photocopy each page, blow them up and print as 11x17 pages, and assemble them on an open, flat surface, a floor or a wall. Here, you may choose to engage with information as you wish. Forge associations. Rework the arrangement of narratives. Enter into the work as a participant observer and different spaces will emerge.

The End of the Neolithic? At the emergence of the Anthropocene

S.E. Pilaar Birch (ed.) Multispecies Archaeology. London: Routledge, 2018

Things are the Grounds of All Archaeology: Notes on the Arvanitia Xenia

In J.M. Blaising, J. Driessen, J.P. Legendre, and L. Olivier (eds.) Clashes of Times: The Contemporary Past as a Challenge for Archaeology, Louvain: Louvain University Press. , 2017

Written for the workshop Un passé factice? Les vestiges contemporains comme outil critique de l’a... more Written for the workshop Un passé factice? Les vestiges contemporains comme outil critique de l’archéologie—The contrived past: Contemporary remains as a challenge to archaeology—(October 2014) these notes work through a case study of the former Arvanitia Xenia Hotel in Nafplion, Greece with an aim to explore the proposition that “things are the grounds of all archaeology.”

Complexities and Emergence: The Case of Argos.

Regional Approaches to Society and Complexity Studies in Honor of John F. Cherry. , 2017

This article reconsiders the notion of complexity through a condensed case study of the Argive po... more This article reconsiders the notion of complexity through a condensed case study of the Argive polis. Rather than begin with a formative entity towards a particular end, it sets out the conditions that make the democratic polis possible at the beginning of the third century BC when Argive statecraft had come to be experienced as tenuous and in need of protection. Argos, moreover, is a heterogeneous assemblage that self-defines its components retroactively. Understanding the polis as a whole that exceeds the sum of its parts affords some secondary considerations of the emergence and endurance of such socio-political complexities. Ultimately, alternative definitions of both complexity and emergence are revealed by way of conclusion.

Archaeological Description and Doubt

The principle of symmetry according to Tim Ingold: An occasion for more clarification

Innovation, future(s) making and archaeology

The realities of the past: archaeology, object-orientations, pragmatology

Symmetrical archaeology: Two clarifications

‘Popular culture’ and the archaeological imagination: A commentary on Cornelius Holtorf’s Archaeology is a Brand! (2007)

Load up the pantry? Or, load up the landfill?

Between Media Archaeology and Memory Practices: Two Recent Excavations

A comment on “What comes after Post-processualism???”

Id quod facimus sumus! (We are what we do!) A commentary on Ethnographies of Archaeological Practice: Cultural Encounters, Material Transformations

“BEIJING 10/2003 AI WEIWEI”

Deprivation through ‘dialectics’: Why some archaeologist’s are hamstrung by things and why things are hamstrung by some archaeologists

Archaeology: A stratigraphic profile by Google.

Tim Ingold on categories of material against materiality

Unpacking a thing: a map from “Ten things – science, technology and design” February 23, 2006

Archaeology and modernity

Traces of the Past: Classics between history & archaeology, by Karen Bassi, 2016. Ann Arbor (MI): University of Michigan Press. ISBN 9780472119929, 246 pp., $70.00.

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2017

Special Reviews Section: Archaeology on the Ground: the Memory Practices of David Webb: Diggers Alternative Archive, Website and Photography by David Webb: …

European Journal of Archaeology, Jan 1, 2007

Special Reviews Section: Archaeology on the Ground: the Memory Practices of David Webb: Diggers Alternative Archive, Website and Photography by …

European Journal of Archaeology, Jan 1, 2007

'Archaeology and Modernity'-: Or Archaeology and a Modernist Amnesia? Commentary and Authors' Reply

Norwegian …, Jan 1, 2006

WITMORE Christopher (Auteur de la réponse)(1); GLØRSTAD Hakon (Auteur de la réponse)(2); KJØRUP S... more

Comments on Julian Thomas (2004): Archaeology and Modernity. New York: Routledge.

Norwegian …, Jan 1, 2006

Archaeology and the Media, Edited by Timothy Clack & Marcus Brittain, 2007. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast Press; ISBN 978-1-59874-233-6 Hardback£ 40 & US 89; …

Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Jan 1, 2009

Archaeology 2.0? Review of Archaeology 2.0: New Approaches to Communication and Collaboration

Archaeology of the Anthropocene: forum

by zoe crossland, Christopher Witmore, Bruce Clarke, Matt Edgeworth, and Alice Gorman

Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 1(1), 2014

Multiple Field Approaches In the Mediterranean: Revisiting the Argolid Exploration Project (Greece)

Related Authors

Ingar Olsborg Figenschau

University of Tromsø, Tromsø University Museum, Department of Cultural Sciences, Faculty Member

Stein Farstadvoll

University of Tromsø, Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology, Faculty Member

Bjørnar J . Olsen

UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology, Faculty Member