Archaeology at Home; Notes on Things, Life and Time; Bjerck

Hein B. Bjerck [+–]

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Hein B. Bjerck is professor in archaeology (research and teaching) at the NTNU University Museum in Trondheim. His research is focussed on early marine foraging (Marine Ventures project), and large scale excavation projects (Ormen Lange project). Bjerck is also involved in research on the recent past, and project member in Ruin Memories, After Discourse and Objects Matter.

Archaeology at Home takes a deep dive into the entanglements between humans and their things, exploring the notion that things themselves “remember” when left by “their” people and illustrating how the integration of humans and things things involves connections running all the way from the present into deep time.

Combining methods from contemporary and deep-time archaeology and balancing scholarly archaeology with personal narrative, the author presents three case studies of homes all intimately known to him — the home of his father after his abrupt passing, the home of his uncle that was lost in a fire, and a Stone Age home he excavated many years ago. This evocative approach to archaeologies of memory will be appreciated by professional archaeologists as well as members of the general public who are drawn to the study of the past and things that connect us with it.

Prelims

Acknowledgements

Humans and Non-humans that Found their Way into this Book

Chapter 1

When does the Past Begin? [+–]

The chapter introduces the thematic scope, objectives, and the build-up of contents. The text is closely related to my career and scholarly experiences as an archaeologist, but also subjective, revealing personal thoughts on humans, time and things that are mostly left out in scientific texts. Perhaps the traditional frames for scientific publications are too restrictive?

Chapter 2

My Father’s Things [+–]

The Chapter elaborates on things and memories, how things emit memories, things and individual remembering, things on the move to the faceless archaeological record. The arena is the process of dealing with my father’s home after his abrupt passing in 2009 – that turned into some kind of field study that revealed the ‘insides’ of a home, his times, his life, and this peculiar entanglement of things, humans and happenings.

Chapter 3

Scorched Memories from My Uncle’s Burnt Home [+–]

In 2013, the next house to my father’s home was severely damaged by fire. It was the home of my uncle, he was living in what previously was my grandmother’s home – also a home I have wandered in and out of in my lifetime. The situation was the exact opposite from the home of my father. He left his things exactly as they were – as they were in a ‘live’ home. My uncle survived (barely), but lost his realm of things. His things were still recognizable, but useless … half-burned, stinking and damp. As a consequence, the telling from my uncle’s home are quite different.

Chapter 4

A Home from the Deep Past [+–]

In the 1980’s, as a newly educated archaeologist, we discovered a large Stone Age settlement that contained some 20 dwelling foundations at Vega, Northern Norway. The site is very old, close to 9500 years, and the permanent houses at the site are among the oldest in Norway. We excavated the remains of one of these – also apparently a home to a group of humans that have long since vanished. The island still remembers many things about how it was at the time, and the settlement, the excavated home and the abundant artifacts still remember their people. A ‘presentistic’ perspective entangle past and present, the place, the encampment, the dwelling, and lithic artifacts, and produces a narrative rarely included in traditional ‘scientific’ reporting. Perhaps the Stone Age home and the homes of my father and uncle are not as distant as they appear?

Chapter 5

Archaeology at Home – Things, Memories, Life and Time [+–]

Homes – this peculiar constellation of humans, places and things seem to reach wide and deep into humans’ lives. Even distant stoneagers had homes, perhaps many – even the homeless in our time have homes. Rich or poor, temporal or stable, however different – they rarely last for long. As individuals come and go in an ever-changing world, homes with their things are in constant flux. Things may spill from one home to another, but seem to be gradually pushed towards the peripheries as their memories and fade. As part of active memoryscapes, some of these memories have faces and names for a brief time – others have to rely on archaeological skills to be recognised.

Reviews

A majestic work, full of experiment and sensuous detail. Equally haunting, melancholic, and amusing: a narrative tour-de-force. Hein Bjerck writes with a unique voice, evoking place, people, and emotion with affect seldom, if ever, found in archaeological or historic text. Part love-letter to his father, uncle, and his own past, part meditation on objects, things, memory, humanity, relationships, and the passage of time, Archaeology at Home exceeds the boundaries of any one discipline. An instant classic.
Professor Doug Bailey, Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University

Archaeology

Books and Journals in Humanities, Social Science and Performing Arts

Archaeology at Home

Notes on Things, Life and Time

Hein B. Bjerck [+–]

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

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