Resumen
Islamic archaeology is about Them. Islamic archaeology is about Us.In a period of time where Europeans feel anxious about their identity, maybe it is the time for them to accept that the best part of them is not what makes them special, but what makes them like the rest. Islamic archaeology is one of the disciplines that can help Europeans to find that better part of themselves.In this talk I want to introduce an Islamic archaeology that does not affirm any identity, --European or Islamic—but that celebrates doubt, ambiguity and paradox, and uses them as the building blocks for interpretation. The aim of this Islamic archaeology is not to explain the past – ours or theirs –, but to find alternative ways of looking at the world to relieve us of the weight of Europeanness. In this Islamic archaeology I want to see ways of problematising the ideas of connectivity and identity that we have inherited from our European vision of history and to fit them to address themes in Islamic archaeology.
Palabras clave
Islamic archaeology. Theory. Memory.