Археология

Archeology is the science of antiquities. This word was first used by Plato, who meant by Archeology the history of past times. In the same sense, Dionysius of Halicarnassus uses this term and, following his example, the Jewish historian Josephus Flavius, who entitled his history of the Jewish people “Ιουδαική Αρχαιολογία”, which is usually translated in our country: “Antiquities of the Jews.” Among the Romans, the term Αρχαιολογία corresponded to the word Antiquitates. To denote ancient history, Cicero and Pliny use it, and Terence Varro also titles his essay “On Human and Divine Things” with it. Of the Christian writers, the term Antiquitates is used in the same meaning. Augustine – “On the City of God.” 6, 3 and bl. Jerome - “Against Jovine.” From the 16th century both expressions take on a more specific meaning, being used to denote the life and state of past times, as opposed to history, which studies the deeds of the past. But even now, neither in foreign nor in Russian literature, one strictly scientific definition of Archeology has been developed. The main reason for this is the lack of unity in views on its subject, tasks and method. So, according to some, for example, Count Uvarov and prof. N.V. Pokrovsky (“Newest views on the subject and tasks of Archeology” p. 26. Collection of the Archaeological Institute, book 4), the subject of A. coincides with the subject of history, since both study the remains of ancient life. Others narrow the scope of Archives so much that it is left to the study of either religious and artistic monuments alone, or church rituals. Further, some are of the opinion that Arch. should examine only material monuments, others add written monuments to them. Disagreement in views on the subject of Arch. finally, it is strengthened by the fact that scientists cannot come to an agreement on the question of what period of time it covers, what should be understood by antiquity, the monuments of which it studies. Thus, Augustine notes “that ancient and medieval times could be united under the general concept of antiquity.” Consequently, he considers the age of the Reformation to be the boundary of antiquity. Rosencrantz and Pieper, on the contrary, push the border back to the present time, Walch limits himself to the first three centuries of our era, Bingham and Reivald consider the death of Gregory the Great (604) to be the border. Rossi, Garucci, Le Blanc and Martigny understand by Christian antiquity the time when Christianity was influenced and within the framework of Greco-Roman culture. But since, for example, in Gaul the ancient culture was active for a whole century longer than in Italy, then with such a view there is a significant difference in time. Because of this, Rossi ends his collection of inscriptions from the 7th century, and Le Blanc - from the 8th century. According to Kraus, 604 represents the real border, and to capture the Middle Ages and even modern times is to confuse antiquity with antiquity. Therefore, under the Christian Arch. he means a comprehensive study of Christian life within the framework of ancient culture. Views on the tasks of Arch. are also varied. In Russian literature they were expressed for the first time by I. E. Zabelin in the article “On the main tasks of architecture.” According to him, all the remains of ancient life are the creation of a double kind of human creative power: individual creativity, depending on the will of each person, and generic, unconscious creativity, belonging to the entire people and dependent on it. Generic creativity constitutes the domain of history, and the individual subject of Arch. N.V. Pokrovsky holds a completely different view. In his opinion, the center of gravity of Arch. constitute generic phenomena, although this does not exclude phenomena of an individual nature from its range of jurisdiction. And as for the first, the task of Arch. lies not only in observing them, but also in determining their genesis. “The task of Arch.,” he says, should be to determine types and indicate historical genesis, but not at all to analyze trifles of an individual and arbitrary nature” (Ibid. p. 24). “It is not enough,” he notes in explanation of his words, to point out that the image of the symbols of the Good Shepherd and the fish was known to Christians in the 2nd-3rd centuries. The duty of the archaeologist is to determine where these symbols originated, what historical circumstances brought them into being, and what determined their form” (p. 23). Thus, the term Arch. since the time of Plato it has been and is understood differently; the subject, task and method have not yet been determined; Arch. can be considered as a collection of diverse information about ancient monuments. Theologically, Archeology is divided into two independent departments, namely 1) Biblical Archeology and 2) Church or Christian Archeology.