Archaeology at the Crossroads between the Humanities and Natural Sciences

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In this study archaeological sites are defined as objects comprised of two major components. One of them is regarded as culturological, and the other one — as natural-historical. The first component is mainly represented by the artefacts, and thus it supplies cultural-historical information, examination and interpretation of which is one of the primary tasks of archaeology as a discipline of the humanities. The second component includes eco-facts, nature-facts and so-called cultural-natural objects. All оf them have natural origin or were shaped under a strong influence of the natural environment, which makes it reasonable to deem this second component the basis for natural-scientific repository of archaeology. It provides materials for geological, palaeobotanical, palaeozoological, chemical and other researches. It must be strongly emphasized that such knowledge without a cultural-historical context has no purpose or focus. This article demonstrates that the natural-historical component is an integral part of any archaeological site. It is inseparable from the culturological component. A vivid material embodiment of the link between the two is provided by the cultural layer. Essentially, it is impossible to meaningfully examine the two components in isolation — independently of each other. As a result, the actual material archeologists work with, its content and character place archaeology at the crossroads between the humanities and natural sciences. It is hoped that in the future it will develop as a multi-disciplinary subject with a prevalence of the humanitarian dimension.