Paper short abstract:

This paper intends to examine the conditions that made possible the transformation of the world into an object of observation, including the creation of the discipline of archaeology in westerm world's modernity. In this context, the object(s) of archaeology appear as a particularly meaningful symptom of our society.

Paper long abstract:

This paper intends to examine the conditions that made possible the transformation of the world into an object of observation, including the creation of the discipline of archaeology in westerm world's modernity.

Concerned with the deep and the occult, the material versus the immaterial, the presence versus the absence, the present versus the past, the object(s) of archaeology appear as (a) particularly meaningful symptom(s) of our society.

More precisely, the intention is to focus on some case studies to exemplify how archaeology is connected to an overwhelming ideology of management, in order to fill the gaps of traditional history, to integrate the territory into a rational order of meaning, transparency and planning, and to unearth and expose the "past" to people in order to improve the heritage/touristic industry.

It is important to discuss critically the "philosophy" and of course the political economy that underpins all this activity in order to understand he reasons for a growing movement towards the "past" in our everyday life - the transformation of the world into a museum and a commodity. Archaeology and its increased attraction to people is, paradoxically, an appeal for a timeless history.