Johann Gottfried Herder and Archaeology: The Overlooked Origin of Culture-Historical Archaeology?

This paper examines the possible intellectual relationship between Johann Gottfried Herder’s historical philosophy and the development of culture-historical archaeology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rather than proposing a direct or linear line of influence, the study situates Herder within the broader Enlightenment and early Romantic context in which concepts of culture, historicism, and collective identity were reformulated. Attention is given to Herder’s conception of historically continuous peoples, the connection between language, tradition, and communal identity, and his rejection of fixed racial categories. The paper explores how similar structural assumptions later appear in archaeological thought, especially in the works of Gustaf Kossinna and Oswald Menghin. Their treatment of archaeological cultures as expressions of historically bounded and territorially anchored peoples resonates with patterns of reasoning already articulated in Herder’s philosophy, even as their frameworks diverged significantly in their view on race. By analysing these conceptual parallels, the study argues that Herder may be understood as part of the intellectual foundation of culture-historical archaeology. In doing so, it seeks to contribute to a more historically grounded understanding of the archaeological interpretation and the enduring role of concepts such as culture, peoplehood, and continuity within the discipline.