Abstract

Context n.Parts that precede or follow a passage and fix its meaning (out of-, without these and hence misleading); ambient conditions; in this- (connection); hence contextual. a. [ME, f.L contextus f. con (texture text- weave] -The Concise Oxford Dictionary, New Edition (1976) From our earliest introduction to archaeology, we are often told that we destroy the context of artifacts during the course of excavating them. While this is often used as an intimidation tactic at field schools to make the student excavators take better notes, it could give us pause for reflection about what do we mean when we refer to 'the context of archaeological objects'. We are all familiar with archaeological context in terms of stratigraphy and culture-history. For this reason, I will begin by taking one step away from the field and look at other archaeological contexts in museums outside these areas. In continuing to explore this process, and to try to come to an understanding of the essence of 'context in archaeology, I will take an even larger step away from the rarefied atmosphere of museums to examine archaeology inside the world of the computer, or archaeology in Cyberspace.