A page from an archaeological survey field notebook August 13, 1979.

In archaeology media can be taken as "the modes of articulation through which knowledge is mobilized, manifested, and materialized" (Witmore 2004. We use the term ‘media’ to mainly refer to two-dimensional, fungible, and superimposable inscriptions such as text, plans, maps, illustrations, etc (Latour 1986; 1999). Here the term inscription ‘refers to all the types of transformations through which an entity becomes materialized into a sign, an archive, a document, a piece of paper, a trace’ (Latour 1999, 306). However, in the archaeology media also extends to both archives and collections (after Witmore 2004).

We regard media as modes of engagement.

For examples of how we forefront media as modes of engagement visit the MetaMedia Laboratory.

Michael Shanks has written extensively on media matters [link]

Return to Key Themes

Go to symmetrical archaeology Home