Det andra påseendet. [D. 1], En studie av övergångar i den arkeologiska disciplinens historia

Sammanfattning: The subject of this thesis is the transition in the early 19th century Scandinavian view of the past, from a "poetic" or mythological past to the empirical and reified past. In early 19th century, the first antiquarian journals primarly contained poems and the world of imagination and empirical reality were considered of equal merit. Scientifically-oriented archaeology, on the other hand, aims from the very beginning to divide the speculative from the scientific. The historical relationship between romanticism/the power of imagination and science/reason is discussed. The formation of archaeology as a discipline is also discussed and formulated as a "second glance" within a critical confrontation with the romantic abandonment. Different diagnostic classifications and concepts (such as the three-age system and typology) are analysed as created in order to master the past. The honoured empiristic ideals, however, are also backed up by values in which the secrets of authority is enclosed. The commitment to a system of liabilities and responsibilities is discussed as a morality, vital for the development of the discipline. The consequences of this unity between morals and science are then discussed as a historical relation. It is argued that the scientific character itself is a historical burden, where the subjective desires and the institutional demands constitute each other on a negative level. This negative character of archaeology is discussed in relation to the human dimension, archaeology's possibilities to embrace a cultural concept, and in terms of irregularities which in itself could be irrational, since it counteracts the insight in to the consequences of knowledge.