Comparative Archaeologies

Abstract

This chapter addresses a highly challenging task – reflection on the development of archaeology in southeastern Europe (wider Balkan area) in the cultural, infrastructural, epistemological, and also political settings during the last few centuries. For outsiders this task may not seem very different from similar attempts to present other regional developmental trajectories of European archaeology. For insiders, however, such task may seem extremely difficult, if not impossible. The extreme complexity of history of this region, which requires extensive knowledge and mastering of a number of linguistic, cultural, religious, and political intricacies to understand historical and cultural trajectories and contingencies in this area, demands great caution and critical reflection to avoid simplifications and superficial conclusions. Thus far, I know of only one similar attempt in the archaeological literature (Enzyklopädisches Handbuch zur Ur- und Frühgeschichte Europas, 1966 (vol. 1) and 1969 (vol.2)), but the aim and nature of this text substantially differs from this chapter. Although Filip’s Handbuch attempted to provide concise information on archaeology in Europe in an encyclopedic form, the present study faces much greater challenge – to put forward a coherent perspective and criteria for reflecting on the national archaeological schools in the area of Europe, which exhibit great differences in a number of fundamental cultural traits (e.g., language, religion, highly diverse courses of history, etc.), and consequently, also in the ways how their archaeologies and traditions developed within such differing contexts and circumstances.