Modern World: Historical Archaeology

Introduction

Beginning in the 1990s, a number of historical archaeologists began using the term “the historical archaeology of the modern world” to define their research. Their use of this term was designed to refine the meaning of “historical archaeology” to refer to a specific topic of investigation, the archaeology of post-Columbian history, or sites dating to after about 1500 CE. Since then, the term has been used in at least two ways, as the archaeology of a particular period of history, and as an archaeology specifically designed to constitute a critique of modernity.

Definition

Scholars in diverse fields disagree about the precise meaning of “modernity,” but when historical archaeologists write about it they typically mean the post-Columbian, or post-1500 CE world. Many historical archaeologists equate modernity with European expansionism beginning with the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of conquest and terminating at the present. This understanding, however, does not preclude...