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The Twilight of Tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2026
Abstract
During the early twentieth century the rise of professional archaeology pushed the study of deep-time oral tradition into the fringes of historiography. The development of evidence-based archaeological chronologies displaced oral tradition, relying on the assumption that transmission processes include short-term limits on durability. By the end of the century, sporadic innovative partnership experiments brought together archaeological chronology and oral tradition, suggesting the need for further research. This article advances the narrative merging of oral tradition, archaeology, and genomic analysis. After surveying research on archery technology, it explores how the integrative aligning of oral tradition and archaeology can expand meaningful insights into antiquity worldwide. Although twenty-first century inquiry into deep-time oral literature unfolds in the shadowy academic fringes, perhaps such research is on the verge of professionalizing into new scholarship and a mutual enrichment of knowledge systems. Academic scholarship may someday see “prehistory” replaced by ancient human history.
Resumen
A principios del siglo XX, el auge de la arqueología profesional desplazó el estudio de la tradición oral en tiempos profundos a los márgenes de la historiografía. El desarrollo de cronologías arqueológicas basadas en pruebas desplazó a la tradición oral, al parecer asumiendo que la durabilidad a corto plazo pone límites a los procesos de transmisión oral. A finales de siglo, esporádicos experimentos innovadores de asociación unieron la cronología arqueológica y la tradición oral, sugiriendo la necesidad de nuevas investigaciones. Este artículo avanza en la fusión narrativa de la tradición oral, la arqueología y el análisis genómico. Analizando brevemente la investigación sobre la tecnología del tiro con arco, explora cómo la alineación integradora de la tradición oral y la arqueología puede ampliar los conocimientos significativos sobre la antigüedad en todo el mundo. Ahora en el siglo XXI, la investigación sobre la literatura oral en tiempos profundos permanece en la sombra de los márgenes académicos. Pero quizá este tipo de investigación esté a punto de profesionalizarse y convertirse en una nueva ciencia, un enriquecimiento mutuo de los sistemas de conocimiento; quizá algún día la ciencia académica vea sustituida la “prehistoria” por la historia de la humanidad antigua.
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- © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for American Archaeology.
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