ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that returning to an ontological understanding of the world is not enough to solve the problematic relationship between material and culture. It is not the lack of appreciation of the actual empirical qualities of materiality that poses the real problem for archaeology, but what this archaeological materiality implies. The recurring stumbling block is the relation between time and materiality. The material significance of an archaeological artefact is somewhat paradoxical: as an object of the past, its value and authenticity lie in its potential to represent something other than the present. In symmetrical archaeology, the post-modern perspective has been extended to include a critique of the anthropocentric character of history, which has been identified as the cause of the neglect of things. History, it is maintained, needs to be revised to include things on premises equal to humans: required is an approach that might be called a non-anthropocentric history or post-human history.
