The empty sarcophagus: an essay on the limits of the archaelogical knowledge

Abstract

In this paper, we start off with the supposition that history and archeology possess a common theory. This theory is defined, not by the materials which the historian and archeologist analyze-the texts and remains from material culture- but rather, by the common reality which serves as a reference for them, the human past. Beginning from that point, we establish that the two bodies of knowledge, the historical and the archeological, possess limits, which are analyzed. In this sense, we emphasize the idea that ignorance of the languages of the past establishes a sort of specific limitation on archeological knowledge.

Keywords

• theory of history
• theory of archeology
• knowledge
• limitations on knowledge
• language