Using evidence from natural sciences in archaeology

The task of the archaeologist involves evaluating how materials intra-acted with human live in the past and how materials enabled the propagation of these past human lives. The relationship between archaeologists and the object of their study is summed up neatly in Chris Tilley’s statement that ‘without the interpretative work of the archaeologist the past would remain dead and gone’. The rocks also impinged upon, and intra-acted with, other aspects of the project. The bulk of artefacts recovered at the Kilmartin rock art sites were of quartz and struck flint and pitchstone. As discussed above, there have been few excavations around rock art sites in Britain. The work of Conneller on archaeological materials and that of Edgeworth on excavations are therefore united by their recognition of the significant role materials play in human interactions. Contextual analysis places materials in a ‘passive’ role, as materials are mainly evaluated according to their contextual associations and arrangements.