ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The History of Archaeology on the Margins: Knowledge-Making and Boundary Objects in Fin-de-Siècle Europe

• In Event: Histories of Archaeology 1

English Abstract

The History of Archaeology is still a marginal field within both Archaeology and the History of Science. This paper has two aims: (1) to bring the field into conversation with broader HoS debates and demonstrate the value of integrating humanities-adjacent disciplines into HoS frameworks, and (2) to offer an empirical case that shows how archaelogical knowledge was created, circulated, and stabilised in the late nineteenth century.
Drawing on STS approaches—particularly the concept of boundary objects—I examine how archaeological publications, museums, and international congresses operated as intermediaries across heterogeneous communities: travelling scholars, local informants, emerging professional archaeologists, politicians, and royal patrons. Archaeological knowledge practices intersected with scientific infrastructures, national political agendas, and shifting epistemic norms.
My case study follows the travelling Swedish research couple Agda and Oscar Montelius. Their research routines, logistics, and documentation practices reveal how archaeological knowledge emerged through negotiations across multiple social and institutional worlds. This micro-level analysis shows how archaeological places, materials, and practices functioned as boundary objects: flexible enough to connect museums, field sites, state institutions, and transnational scholarly networks, yet robust enough to anchor claims of scientific legitimacy. The study also highlights the often-overlooked contributions of women whose labour made knowledge creation possible.
Archaeology is deeply entangled with the scientific infrastructures of its formative era. Incorporating the history of the discipline into HoS expands our understanding of plural scientific worlds and research practices in the fin de siècle, and challenges enduring disciplinary boundaries, especially the long-standing separation between the sciences and the humanities.

Author

• Anna Charlotta Gustavsson, Gothenburg University