Earth and Stone- archaeology as memory

In this chapter, I examine how material objects give substance to memory and how their meanings change across different social and political contexts. Drawing on the encounters between the German philologist Wilhelm Bleek and the /Xam narrator //Kabbo, I contrast Bleek’s attempt to preserve San knowledge in written form with //Kabbo’s use of objects, landscapes and journeys to communicate memory. I argue that artefacts—from beads and photographs to statues, buildings and museum displays—cannot be confined to a single interpretation. Their material presence allows them to carry competing memories of domination, suffering and resistance. Through an analysis of colonial Cape Town and the controversial 1996 exhibition Miscast, I show that archaeology is not simply the recovery of the past. It is an engagement with the continuing relationship between words, objects, power and memory.