The development of Spanish archaeology in the 20th century

Abstract

The long history of state unity and archaeology’s strong dependence on the state explain how archaeological practice became institutionalized in Spain. The intellectual currents that marked Spanish archaeology’s development – antiquarianism, Enlightenment interest in human antiquity, the definition of national identity – are analogous to those in other European countries: foreign models always were influential. Largely due to traditional, institutionalized links to German and French archaeology, cultural historical positivism was the only theoretical and methodological framework until the 1970s. Since then, due to British, US, Latin American and Italian influence, Marxist, functionalist, and structuralist approaches have developed. The advent of democracy, the decentralization of state institutions, and improvements in the standard of living and in education have favored this pluralism. Spanish archaeology shares with the rest of the world the task of meeting present-day social needs without diluting its commitment to understanding the past.