Archaeology ≠ object as history ≠ text: nudging the special relationship into the post-ironic 1.

While interdisciplinarity may be an admirable goal many still doubt its benefits. The paper seeks to articulate the methods used to work across disciplines and considers the obstacles that stand in the way of inter- rather than multi-disciplinarity. Sauer's volume is used as a starting point to highlight key concerns in integrating archaeology and ancient history: the assumption that disciplines are determined by evidence type; the encouragement of specialisms to be discipline specific; the lack of differentiation between Mode One and Mode Two collaborative projects. Briefly tracing the development of the two subjects, suggestions are made as to why history is associated with text and archaeology with object. This is followed by proposals for two key areas of integration beyond concerns of evidence type: the struggle of the two disciplines to deal with accessing the past while being products of the present, and explaining patterns of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]