Processual archaeology

The New Archaeology [ nju ː ɑ ː kiɒlədʒi ] (also Processual Archaeology ) is developed in the 1960's approach to research prehistoric archeology, which has been discussed mainly in the U.S. and the UK and was confined mainly to the English-speaking world. The protagonists include Lewis Binford and David Leonard Clarke. As the beginning of the New Archaeology of the essay Archaeology as Anthropology of Lewis Binford in 1962 is considered. The demand that the ( American ) archeology construed primarily as a branch of anthropology, cultural studies, and less than was previously charged by Gordon Willey and Phillip Phillips.

The New Archaeology of the 1960s sat critically with the archaeologists of the older generation work apart and calls for a scientific nature and objectivity of research. Characteristic thus were an explicit modeling and a clear formulation of questions. Typical approaches include the "spatial archeology", the "site catchment analysis", the method of " carrying capacity ", the use of computerized systems ( including early GIS applications ). The archeology of the story moved so increasingly in the direction of cultural anthropology.

The New Archaeology has been found in varying degrees worldwide resonance. The discussion of the New Archaeology in German-speaking in 1978 was triggered by the prehistorians Manfred Eggert. Eggert criticized the discrepancy between the New Archaeology methodological approach ( " Explanatory research design" ) and actual paths of knowledge discovery, beyond a purely scientific argument usually. As a result, emerged in the 1980s in German-speaking a theory discussion.

A younger generation of researchers, such as Ian Hodder, but also many traditional archaeologists these approaches appeared to functionalist, too schematic and ahistorical. You would too little, the spirit world and the symbolic nature of the artifacts taken into account ( see post processual archeology).