La fotografía en la historia de la Arqueología española (1860-1960). Aplicación y usos de la imagen en el discurso histórico

Abstract

The present work is aimed to think about the presence of photography in the archaeological research in Spain, between 1860 and 1939. We begin acknowledging the value of the photographic image as a document, and assessing its possibilities and shortcomings. We then analyze the different uses it was given, and the consequences of its application to the archaeological speech, its influence in processes such as the elaboration of hypothesis, the distinction of styles and typologies, the generalization of the comparison as a method, the diffusionism, the widespread diffusion of their findings, the creation of a worldwide frame of archaeological discussion or the gradual awareness of a Spanish archaeological and monumental historical heritage. All that, in a period that meant the own institutionalization of the Spanish archaeology. A dialectical process that took place between 1860 and 1939 and was marked fundamentally by discontinuities and heterogeneity.