Book Review
ARNAUD HUREL & NOËL COYE (ed.). Dans l'épaisseur du temps: archéologues et géologues inventent la préhistoire. 442 pages, 132 colour & b&w illustrations. 2011. Paris: Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle; 978-2-85653-666-7 paperback €35.
Review by Oscar Moro Abadia
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Canada
(Email: oscar_moro_abadia@yahoo.es)
In the last thirty years, the history of archaeology has passed from being considered an innocuous pastime to being perceived as an essential field for understanding the meaning of archaeological research. In a word, the field has been 'professionalised'. Today a new generation of archaeologists is publishing and creating projects on the history of archaeology, promoting contacts with historians and sociologists of science and enriching the discipline with their analyses of the historical foundations of archaeological knowledge. We can distinguish two main traditions that, from different perspectives, have fuelled this current interest in the history of archaeology. In Anglo-Saxon countries, historiographical studies have been stimulated by the emergence of the 'socio-politics of the past' in the 1980s. It was at that time that archaeologists became increasingly interested in the history of their own discipline, a history that contained significant examples concerning the social biases influencing the interpretation of archaeological evidence. As a result, the Anglo-Saxon world has witnessed, since the 1990s, a veritable 'explosion' of works about how archaeology has been used to legitimate nationalism, how colonialism has determined archaeological practices and how gender prejudices have oriented archaeological research.
The French case is, however, a bit different. In France, the history of archaeology has been conditioned by the fact that some of the most important specialists are historians and historians of science (for example Noël Coye, Nathalie Richard, Arnaud Hurel, Marc-Antoine Kaeser, Wiktor Stoczkoswki). This starting point has determined historiographical reflections in a number of ways. First, whereas the Anglo-Saxon disciplinary history has been mostly written by archaeologists and for archaeologists, the French history of archaeology has been written by a number of diverse specialists (including archaeologists, historians, historians of science and historians of anthropology) and for a wider audience. Second, and related to this interdisciplinarity, French historiography is firmly rooted in the field of the history of ideas and in 'l'histoire des mentalités'. Finally, and as a result of this background, French historians have generally developed a more critical attitude towards a number of theoretical problems, such as presentism, internalism/externalism and so on.
Hurel and Coye's Dans l'épaisseur du temps is a good example of some of the traits that define the new French history of archaeology. The book was published on the occasion of the one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of three foundational events in the history of prehistoric archaeology: the publication of Darwin's On the origin of species, the recognition of the prehistoric antiquity of humankind, and the foundation of the Société d'Anthropologie de Paris. Focusing on the French case, a number of archaeologists (François Sémah, Jean-Pierre Mohen), historians (Nathalie Richard, Noël Coye, Arnaud Hurel), historians of anthropology (Claude Blanckaert) and historians and epistemologists of science (Stéphane Tirard) examine the main processes involved in the emergence of 'prehistory' in the twofold sense of this term (i.e. as 'the period before history' and as a scientific discipline). From the viewpoint of the history of ideas, this group of specialists analyse the work of scientists involved in the recognition of prehistory (see the articles devoted to Tournal, Lartet and Boucher de Perthes), the relationships between religions and science (see chapters by Defrance-Jublot and Pizanias), the role of certain institutions — such as museums and sociétés savantes — in the institutionalisation of prehistory (see Richard's and Sémah et al.'s chapters) and the impact of prehistoric research in a number of French regions (see Remy-Watté's and Antoine et al.'s papers). The book also includes an essay on evolutionism (Stéphane Tirard) and an excellent chapter on the conceptualisation of time in the work of the first French prehistorians (Claude Blanckaert). While the interest of the different chapters varies depending on the author and the subject, this book brings new and interesting perspectives about the constitution of prehistoric archaeology in France at the end of the nineteenth century. Dans l'épaisseur du temps successfully explores the establishment of prehistory as a multi-faceted process related to a number of social and cultural developments. In particular, the volume rightly contextualises the rise of prehistory in the wider framework defined by other human and natural sciences such as palaeontology, geology and geography.
At the same time, the book pays little attention to the international context in which prehistoric research emerged. In particular, the linkages between French scientists and other European scholars are only vaguely explored. This omission is hard to understand since many authors in this volume insist on the international roots of prehistory. In sum, while greater attention might have been given to the international context of archaeological research, Dans l'épaisseur du temps is a valuable and interesting attempt to reconstruct the origins of French prehistory. Well edited and richly illustrated, this book brings fresh perspectives, ideas and images to our knowledge concerning the historical foundations of the discipline.
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