This is a little more esoteric post. It is a short
film by Errol Morris called “The Umbrella Man”, posted by the New York Times.
It is surprisingly relevant to archaeology, and it’s also a pleasure to
watch.
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| Click the umbrella to watch the video. |
The most obvious thing for archaeologists to take away from
this is the hazard of building assumptions on top of assumptions on top of
anomalies – to be careful of what kind of story one creates around that unusual
artifact, for instance.
What
struck me even more, however, was that the Umbrella Man represents the
potential and even probable reality of seemly nonsensical factors behind any
historical circumstance. Once you look too close - when you really
attempt to read each detail - probability, predictability, and indeed
Occam's Razor itself may fall apart. That smoking pipe or that broken teacup
can reflect a world of circumstances, histories, habits, or choices….. Or, the
pipe is just a pipe and the cup is just a cup. It seems instructive, however.
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