Abstract

In this article, we present a brief examination of the overall lack of concern with archaeological theory in Australian archaeology and consider the privileging of ‘doing’ archaeology, i.e. conducting fieldwork, collecting data and dates, over developing interpretation and deeper understanding. This article also introduces a small collection of papers that derive from the AusTAG session held at the 2016 Australian Archaeological Association conference in Terrigal, NSW, one of a handful of AusTAG sessions that have taken place in Australia since 2012. The papers featured in this section reflect a sense of growth and potential of theory and high-level interpretation in Australian archaeology. The refreshing aspect of this particular collection is the way these authors have been able to ground often quite complex theoretical ideas in the practices of archaeology. We look with anticipation towards the future of Australian archaeology, one which we hope continues to develop in interesting, innovative, and theoretically informed directions.

摘要

在本文中，我们对澳大利亚考古学中整体上对考古学理论的整体缺乏关注进行了简要检查，并考虑了“做”考古学的特权，即进行实地考察，收集数据和日期，发展解释和加深理解。本文还介绍了少量论文，这些论文取材于在新南威尔士州特里格尔（Terrigal）举行的2016年澳大利亚考古学会会议上举行的AusTAG会议，这是自2012年以来在澳大利亚举行的少数AusTAG会议之一。本节中的论文反映出澳大利亚考古学的发展意识和理论及高级解释的潜力。这些特定收藏的令人耳目一新的方面是这些作者能够在考古实践中经常运用非常复杂的理论思想的方式。我们对澳大利亚考古学的未来充满期待，我们希望该考古学能够继续朝着有趣，创新和理论渊博的方向发展。