Evaluating and Establishing Ethnoarchaeological Theory for Anatolia

Abstract

Even though the archaeology in Anatolia is quite rich and covers a long period, from prehistory to classical times, theoretical approaches surrounding it are rarely discussed. Moreover, an endeavour to interpret the data that has come about as a result of numerous excavations has not been the primary focus during the development of the discipline. Ethnoarchaeology should be undertaken within a theoretical framework, as has been debated for years by many colleagues. In Turkey, it is hard to talk about an ethnoarchaeological tradition; rather, we speak of ethnography. In this article, I will summarize the ethnographic background and discuss the problems of using a “direct ethnography” to interpret the archaeological data from a context such as Anatolia, which has a very active social geography in itself.