An archaeology of the contemporary era

This chapter offers an overview of the archaeology of the contemporary past, with a specific emphasis on some forgotten schools. It follows with an analysis of the concepts that have been used in social theory to define the contemporary era (late modernity, postmodernity, the Anthropocene) and then defends the use of the concept of supermodernity and the idea of modernity more generally. The chapter also explains why defining an era archaeologically is important and ends reflecting on the nature of archaeological knowledge when applied to the contemporary past.