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<P>Table of contents</P><P></P><P>Acknowledgements</P><P>Introduction</P><P>Outline of the book</P><P>1. An archaeology of the contemporary era</P><P>Archaeologies of the contemporary past</P><P>What is "contemporary"?</P><P>Supermodernity, Postmodernity, the Anthropocene</P><P>Reasserting the modern divide</P><P>Defining an archaeological era</P><P>Archaeological knowledge and the contemporary past</P><P>Summary</P><P>2. Ruins</P><P>Systemic collapse</P><P>Systemic operation</P><P>Autophagy</P><P>Failure</P><P>Catastrophe</P><P>Annihilation</P><P>Summary</P><P>3. Politics</P><P>The soft politics of contemporary archaeology</P><P>A radical politics for contemporary archaeology</P><P>Summary</P><P>4. Ethics</P><P>The hegemony of ethics</P><P>The ethics of witnessing</P><P>The temporality of ethics</P><P>Ethics and affect</P><P>Summary</P><P>5. Aesthetics</P><P>The aesthetic regimes of art and archaeology</P><P>The politics of the sensible</P><P>A poetics of things</P><P>Making the mud and crops speak: an archaeological rhetoric</P><P>Summary</P><P>6. Time</P><P>Presentism</P><P>Annihilation</P><P>Acceleration</P><P>Heterochrony</P><P>The time of tragedy and hope</P><P>Summary</P><P>7. Space</P><P>Expansion</P><P>Impoverishment</P><P>Ephemerality</P><P>Division and confinement</P><P>Waste</P><P>Deep mapping</P><P>Summary</P><P>8. Materiality</P><P>Proliferation and deprivation</P><P>Monsters</P><P>Waste</P><P>Atmospheres</P><P>Summary</P><P>9. Concluding remarks: beyond the Anthropocene</P><P>References</P><P>Index</P>

An Archaeology of the Contemporary Era approaches the contemporary age, between the late nineteenth and twenty-first centuries, as an archaeological period defined by specific material processes. It reflects on the theory and practice of the archaeology of the contemporary past from epistemological, political, ethical and aesthetic viewpoints, and characterises the present based on archaeological traces from the spatial, temporal and material excesses that define it. The materiality of our era, the book argues, and particularly its ruins and rubbish, reveals something profound, original and disturbing about humanity.

Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Dedication; Table of Contents; List of figures; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Outline of the book; CHAPTER 1: An archaeology of the contemporary era; Archaeologies of the contemporary past; What is "contemporary"?; Supermodernity, postmodernity, the Anthropocene; Reasserting the modern divide; Defining an archaeological era; Archaeological knowledge and the contemporary past; Summary; CHAPTER 2: Ruins; Systemic collapse; Systemic operation; Autophagy; Failure; Catastrophe; Annihilation; Summary; CHAPTER 3: Politics

The soft politics of contemporary archaeologyA radical politics for contemporary archaeology; Summary; CHAPTER 4: Ethics; The hegemony of ethics; The ethics of witnessing; The temporality of ethics; Ethics and affect; Summary; CHAPTER 5: Aesthetics; The aesthetic regimes of art and archaeology; The politics of the sensible; A poetics of things; Making the mud and crops speak: an archaeological rhetoric; Summary; CHAPTER 6: Time; Presentism; Annihilation; Acceleration; Heterochrony; The time of tragedy and hope; Summary; CHAPTER 7: Space; Expansion; Impoverishment; Ephemerality

Division and confinementWaste; Deep mapping; Summary; CHAPTER 8: Materiality; Proliferation and deprivation; Monsters; Waste; Atmospheres; Summary; CHAPTER 9: Concluding remarks: beyond the Anthropocene; References; Index

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