Processual Archaeology

Processual Archaeology was and is about “scientification” and “process”. It is the framework in which much of the worldwide archaeology is done. Developing from the optimistic rationalism of the post-WWII era, it added “how and why” to the traditional archaeological questions of “what, when, and where”. It requires the use of systematic and certified knowledge to test explicit theories, ideas, and hypotheses. Archaeology must be problem oriented, multi-disciplinary, and methodologically innovative. This entry discusses the philosophical underpinnings, the tenets and the roles of classical, historical, and experimental archaeology, the importance of ethnography, the roles of systems theory, statistics, simulation, mathematics, databases, environmental, ecological, and demographic studies. Since archaeometry is the hard edge of processual archaeology, the contributions that dating, material science, conservation, sampling, prospecting, biological, palynological, paleogenetic, geoarchaeological and cognitive research provided are reviewed.