Histarchers:
Is one objective of historical archaeology to determine the
function of a structure located by that archaeology?
Architectural theorists have generally discarded the idea of
structural function as a meaningful enquiry, because a) it frequently
is unknown, and b) the function frequently changed through time (how
you could know the second if the first is true is not explained, nor
is it stated why such changes are not part of the enquiry of
architectural historians). But the rejection of functionalism by
architectural historians puts me in a bad spot when I try to talk
about why I'm examining a building in such close detail. Anybody want
to help me out?
Jake.