Capta and Data: On the True Nature of Archaeological Information

Title: Capta and Data: On the True Nature of Archaeological Information
Creator(s): Chippindale, Christopher
Date: 2000
Is Part Of: American Antiquity
Volume: 65
Issue: 4
Pages: 605-612
Language: eng
ISSN: 0002-7316
Short Title: Capta and Data
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2694418
URI: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2694418
Zotero BiDiAr: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5293298/bidiar/items/XPG42G6L/item-list
Abstract: Is the customary word "data" a good name for archaeological records and facts? "Data" means the things that are "given," but archaeological observations and facts are never given at all. Rather, they are captured by the researcher, who seeks to grasp from the material record the essentials of some complex and little-known phenomenon, often remote in time and usually ambiguous in material expression. We should prefer to use the better word "capta," the things that have been captured, and to realize that this word captures the essence of what we do.

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