Towards a History of Preservation Practices: Archaeology, Heritage, and the History of Science

My roundtable contribution inevitably starts with a critique of the field the scholarly utility of which we as contributors wish to defend. The study of the antique sciences (including the history of archaeology and heritage) still has marginal standing in science studies. So does the Middle East as a geographical region, which until recently enjoyed little scholarly interest in the field. The persistent Eurocentric research agenda of science studies has been questioned, however, with the recent call for a global history of science. This ambiguous term has triggered new methodological challenges, but it has also created new trenches.