Assembling inferences in material analysis
This chapter seeks to model a method of material analysis that begins with an artefact, then moves outward from it and returns again and again, each time modifying the description and account of the object. As more and more comparative material is assembled, a greater sense of history and context takes shape about the object. The procedure is called 'reverberation' inasmuch as an echo is a repetition of the original sound that carries with it information about the original thrown into relief by difference. The method relies on assembling an archive based on resemblance or likeness. The items of the archive are gradually articulated by a taxonomy that works towards specifying the object. The thing under consideration, however, is not a class or category, but an assemblage of many different agents that are slowly revealed by reverberation.
