Paper short abstract:

This presentation explores the bearing upon the session´s aims of revisiting archaeologies of public buildings from perspectives offered by recent explorations of Dewey´s (1927) insights of the making of things public (Latour and Weibel 2005).

Paper long abstract:

The emergence of 'public buildings' and 'public spaces' have long figured centrally in archaeological research on the social aspects of agriculture, the emergence of village life ways, and the independent development of cities in very diverse parts of the ancient world. Debates over whether cities are causes or effects of social change have a much longer history. But perhaps the longest histories - maybe even dating to the earliest urban life-ways has been that of the emergence of collectivities (publics) around issues that the hitherto predominant institutions cannot or do not address; and expressions in the form of narrative of these collectivities experience of discrepancies between how things ought to be and actually existential conditions.

This presentation explores the bearing upon the session's aims of revisiting archaeologies of public buildings from perspectives offered by recent explorations of Dewey's (1927) insights of the making of things public (Latour and Weibel 2005).