ABSTRACT
If we agree with the Annaliste historian Lucien Febvre (1973: 35) that “the concept of prehistory is one of the most ridiculous that can be imagined”, it still remains to be shown how alternative conceptions of the nature of archaeology can be figured, and to establish alternative approaches routinely in the discipline. This chapter argues that, armed with time of the middling sort, at timescales of human lifetimes and generations (Bayliss 2009; Bayliss et al. 2016), we are increasingly able to write more and more detailed narratives of the remote, Neolithic past. Such robust chronological resolution enables a realignment of archaeology with the broad and varied practices of history, and especially with its focus on narratives at varying scales, even though it would be absurd to claim that historians only create narratives. That proposed refiguring is underpinned by the shared challenge of inevitably incomplete evidence, which we believe is a more profitable starting point for the interpretation of sequence and the creation of narrative than the alternative of simply underlining the presence or absence of written records. We also argue, following Gaddis (2002), that an archaeology framed by detailed, rigorously constructed narratives could and should emulate the particularization of history, and can now begin to wean itself from its long-dominant reliance on generalization.
The argument is illustrated by three case studies, drawn from recent projects (Bayliss and Whittle 2007; Whittle et al. 2011; Whittle 2018), which indicate the scope and resolution of what is now possible. From more precise timing can come all manner of insights into contemporary human agency, as we show from a walk across central-southern England in a specific decade: the 3630s cal BCE (Box 8.1). Finer chronological resolution also enables much more specific comparison of durations, as we demonstrate in the study of house lives in varying contexts across Neolithic Europe (Box 8.2). More robust time control also sets up the opportunity to examine the tempo of change, sketched here in the case of the major aggregation at Alsónyék, south-west Hungary, especially in the generations around 4700 cal BCE (Box 8.3).
