Ian Hodder
Ian Hodder is a British archaeologist who developed post-processual archaeology and directed excavations at the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük.
Lewis Binford: An American archaeologist who developed processual archaeology, emphasizing scientific explanation and cultural adaptation. Binford’s processual approach became the main intellectual foil for Hodder’s post-processual critique.
Post-processual archaeology: An archaeological movement that emphasizes meaning, agency, power, and the situated interpretation of material evidence. Hodder is a central developer of this approach to archaeological interpretation.
Çatalhöyük: A large Neolithic settlement in central Anatolia, occupied for much of the seventh and sixth millennia BCE. Hodder’s excavations there shaped his later interpretations of households, images, and memory.
Archaeological theory: The concepts and arguments used to explain archaeological evidence and the human past. Hodder’s work helped make theory an explicit, contested part of archaeological practice.
Michael Shanks: A British archaeologist known for interpretive approaches to archaeological theory and practice. Shanks collaborated with Hodder on influential accounts of archaeology as interpretation.
Processual archaeology: An archaeological approach that uses scientific methods to explain cultural systems and their adaptation to environments. Hodder’s work challenged its emphasis on general laws and systems.
Neolithic architecture: The buildings and settlement designs created by communities during the Neolithic period. Hodder’s Çatalhöyük research examined how houses structured daily and ritual life.
Interpretive archaeology: An approach that treats archaeological accounts as interpretations shaped by evidence, theory, and social context. Hodder helped establish interpretation as a central problem in archaeological explanation.
Christopher Tilley: A British archaeologist known for interpretive, phenomenological, and post-processual approaches. Tilley helped develop the theoretical movement Hodder helped establish.
Contextual archaeology: Hodder’s approach to interpreting artifacts through their archaeological, social, and symbolic contexts. This framework gives a name to Hodder’s distinctive interpretive method.