Some Reflections on Heritage and Archaeology in the Anthropocene

Abstract

Are we now living in a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene? Geo-scientists discuss whether there is a need for a new concept covering the last 250 years' immense human impact on the earth. How are we going to understand and define `heritage¿ and archaeology in a rapidly changing global environment? The `linguistic turn¿ in humanities and social sciences has had a huge impact on both archaeology and heritage studies since c. 1980. A critique is raised against the anti-essentialist view that heritage is constructed, not discovered. Furthermore, the paper discusses the legacy of `the linguistic turn¿, post-processualism and environmental archaeology.