In the course of four decades Australian Historical Archaeology has achieved active academic departments with teaching and research in at least six states and territories, with heritage legislation and cultural resource management established in almost all states. There are national and state site registers, and professional expertise in rescue archaeology is widespread. Rescue projects involving industrial complexes, regional surveys, and large urban excavations in many cities have produced significant new information, although the physical storage of excavated material remains a problem to be solved.
The scope for future development is encouraging. First, academic funding can increasingly be sought for large integrative archeological projects - surveys of whaling and sealing sites, of transcontinental contact sites, and inter-colonial urban archaeology - which add significantly to the synthesis of earlier projects.
Second, digital technology is increasingly easing the earlier problems of gray literature - the inaccessibility of many rescue dig reports and bodies of data. Archaeologists now not only put reports but also find databases online. Digital technology continues to transform most technical aspects of the discipline - data entry, statistical results, mapping, and survey. Of particular interest is its role in interpretation of archaeological results to the public with immediate association of images, tables, maps, and text.
Third, digital technology also means changes in how this information is presented that is, changes in the nature of delivery. Time-mapping and interactive displays developed at the Archaeology Computing Laboratory are increasingly relevant in museum and on-site displays, while computer games offer new opportunities. In these interpretations, digital technology can present sites, artifacts, and historical texts with complex interactive dialog that may challenge the long-standing dominance of the written word. Places, structures, and objects in many phases and from new angles interact on the screen suggesting alternative interpretations.
Historical archaeology continues to bring its own perspective on Australian life. The questions raised by new archaeological finds become more interesting as the probability of additional historical texts recedes. Archaeological discoveries can trigger reassessment of earlier text-based interpretations, and offer today’s archaeologists and historians new evidence. It is characteristic of archaeological data to be physical and specific and this imparts a curiously sharp edge to its arguments that is not to be blunted by the current trend toward the writing of blended historical
Narrative. Genuine conflict between physical evidence and historical interpretations is a key arena for historical archaeology to make its own contribution to understanding Australia’s past.
See also: Africa, Historical Archaeology; Americas, Central: Historical Archaeology in Mexico; Americas, North: Historical Archaeology in the United States; Americas, South: Historical Archaeology; Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Legislation; Asia, East: Historical Archaeology; Europe, South: Medieval and Post-Medieval; Europe, West: Historical Archaeology in Britain; Historical Archaeology in Ireland; Historical Archaeology: As a Discipline; Future; Methods; Industrial Archaeology; Maritime Archaeology; Urban Archaeology.
World History
