Giorgio Buccellati, A Critical Theory of Excavation and Inference
Notes to the preface

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  1. «two parallel paths, that have conditioned over the years my own personal itinerary»
         The autobiographical notes refer to two distinct aspects of my academic life. The first relates to the excavations I almost yearly took part in, in Iraq, Syria and Turkey, and the second to the establishment of the Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. For both one may refer to the entries in my personal website (www.giorgiobuccellati.net) under Archaeology

  2. «the new conceptualization made possible by the growing availability of the digital medium.»
          The digital turning point came early in my intellectual itinerary, in 1966. It was also at an early date, 1978, that I brought the first computer to our excavations in Terqa. The effort progressed uninterruptedly and while being exposed to earth-shaking transformations in the realm of hard- and software, a constant that remained unshaken was the centrality of the conceptual dimension.

  3. «the structural cohesiveness of the whole is an integral part of a linguistic research»
         Linguistics has been for me more than a metaphor. The direct involvement with Babylonian grammar and with Mesopotamian literature has refined greatly my sensitivity for overall patterns and their conduciveness to a deeper understanding of the documents.

  4. «an underlying sensitivity for the philosophical dimension»
         A philosophical interest has been present in my research since the very beginning, and it has grown in recent years as a result of my current research, in archaeology and beyond.

  5. «A fuller coverage will be found in a separate dedicated website.»
           This is the website to which the book refers. It will be apparent even from a cursory look at its structure how vastly more informative this apparatus is than anything that could have been included in the book. It is an alternative to the conundrum that M. B. Schiffer, for instance, voices in The Archaeology of Science (2013), p. vi: Instead of trying to survey all previous work, a patent impossibility that would result only in strings of 'drive-by' citations, I present extended examples and lengthy case studies."