Additive Archaeology: An Alternative Framework for Recontextualising Archaeological Entities

• Published in: Open archaeology (Berlin, Germany) Vol. 1; no. 1
• Main Author: Reilly, Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter Open 06-10-2015; De Gruyter
• Subjects: 3D printing; additive manufacturing; archaeological record; digital archaeology; extended assemblages; ontology
• ISSN: 2300-6560; 2300-6560
• DOI: 10.1515/opar-2015-0013

Additive manufacturing poses a number of challenges to conventional understandings of
materiality, including the so-called archaeological record. In particular, concepts such as real, virtual,
and authentic are becoming increasingly unstable, as archaeological artefacts and assemblages can be
digitalised, reiterated, extended and distributed through time and space as 3D printable entities. This paper
argues that additive manufacturing represents a ‘grand disciplinary challenge’ to archaeological practice
by offering a radical new generative framework within which to recontextualise and reconsider the nature
of archaeological entities specifically within the domain of digital archaeology.