ABSTRACT
We have now seen that there is nothing self-evident about the past. The enterprise of archaeology is not simply confined to the things of the past but, more importantly, deals with questions, approach and interpretation. Archaeological debates and disagreements are not just about the dates of this pot and that city, but are far more fundamental. They concern the ways in which we gain knowledge about human action in the past, which in turn produce expectations about what is known, and can be known, of activities in the past. Because such activity is invisible, objects and materials are crucial to all our debates. In this chapter I will consider these two topics along with the archaeological preoccupation with style and identity. I will finish with an example of a biography of an everyday object, pottery.
