Editorial - Archaeology

Hello Dear Reader, and a warm welcome to this archaeology-themed special issue of Consilience.

Archaeology is a diverse field of study that explores the breadth and depth of the human past through material culture. As the poems and artworks in this issue skilfully and tenderly demonstrate, this not only helps us to understand where we have come from, but prompts us to reflect on what it is to be part of the world, and our individual positioning in the human story…

We are particularly excited to introduce this special issue with an editorial in the form of a poem, authored  by Abigail Flint, one of our co-editors:

Archaeology

is anthropology, materiality,
environmental, experimental,
is pot-sherds and pollen and DNA,
comes after bio- and zoo-, is soil

and rock, the purposeful placing of stones,
palace and posthole, midden and fireplace,
coprolite to coliseum, life’s bones
re-imagined from physical traces.

Are these not our footprints frozen in ash,
our hands shadowed on cave-walls in firelight,
or cradled by peat? Heavy with time, they ask
only for your touch, your heart – that you might

listen to the past sing through the present.
Archaeology is re-enchantment. 

We are hugely grateful to all of our contributors for trusting us with their wonderful work, and special thanks to Rose Ferraby for kind permission to use ‘Dark Peak’ as the cover art for this issue. We hope you enjoy these archaeological poems and artworks, and perhaps you may feel inspired to forge your own creative response - excavating your own experiences, research, artistic works or writing.

The Consilience Team