The Storyteller and the Archaeologist

The scientific monograph and the journal article - standard elements of scholarly production for centuries - are only two of many genres through which humans bring the past out of things and into words. Another variety, certainly much older, is the ‘story,’ produced by actors as diverse as local entertainers and international journalists, but considered in scholarly production (if at all) by students of folklore and anthropology. Yet the firm division between ‘the storyteller’ and ‘the archaeologist’ obscures the deep and continuing connections between different ways of accessing the past through objects. Archaeologists working in the field have always encountered (and almost always dismissed) local storytellers; while storytellers have incorporated archaeologists as characters in their own tales. We will explore these exchanges through a series of conversations; details forthcoming.