INTRODUCTION

Representation is defined as an image, model or a depiction of something. Most representations aim to present what they stand for as accurately as possible. Scientific representations in particular aim for a degree of ‘truth’ in their reference to the original. According to Danto (1985), the link between the world (the audience that a representation is aimed towards) and a representation, is the truth within a representation and not the truth in the world. The truth of a representation is established in the manner in which analogy is carried out and not necessarily in the re-presentation itself. A representation is thus liable to present to the world a certain perspective that will determine the ‘truth’ of its reference.

Nevertheless, the process of representation always involves a certain loss or reduction in reference to the original. What is left out of any particular representation and what is emphasised is dependent on the overall theoretical paradigm. Similar to paradigms, which are socially situated frameworks of understanding the world, the technique of representation carries with it social and political value. The process of emphasising certain elements of a representation and leaving out others thus needs to be understood from a paradigm's social and political milieu. In this view, ‘truth’ is specific to a paradigm, which is also subject to change.

A paradigm is a set of values, concepts, assumptions and practices that constitute a way of understanding reality for a particular community (Chalmers 1982). In his Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn (1962) describes revolutions that occur within the scientific community as non-cumulative developmental incidents in which older paradigms are replaced partially or completely by incompatible new ones. Although aspects of Kuhn's work have been questioned (for example Machamer & Osbeck 2003), his ideas about scientific revolutions are useful in considering the history of archaeology, a field that has seen paradigms proliferating and then partly or entirely abandoned because of crises they could not solve.

Representations and archaeology

Archaeology is a field that may be called a study of traces and reconstructions of the past (Molino 1992). In doing so, archaeologists often make a representation. These representations vary from textual descriptions and graphic recordings to pictorial renderings (Leibhammer 2001). Representations are specific to a paradigm; they are subject to influence from social and political factors.