Urban Archaeology for non-archaeologists

in Bristol (UK); stencil from the well-known british artist Bansky.

Archeaologists find dinosaur bones and not graffitis, I would have said a couple of years ago, but since I found out I’m more a city tourist than a nature tourist, the idea of an urban archaeology became more clear.

I love the chaos and the “ugliness” of the big urban centers, crowded with all kinds of visual interventions from advertising to urban art. To find something particular within the excessive visual stimulus of urban landscapes is for me kind of a hobby, and my ideal sightseeing is all about walking around the streets, especially through non-touristical neighborhoods.

I understand my so-called amateur Urban Archeology as this act of finding & registering those elements in the cities, which are hidden among their own excess, making  it “appears” somehow. A sticker on a wall outside of Düsseldorf’s main train station or a stencil at the entrance of a viennese museum may not look meaningful at first sight, but they all have a history.

And those being condemned to disappear, because they’re not “official” or the State does not protect and preserves them as part of urban landscape, make them look even more interesting to me. The academic field of Urban Archeology already exists though, and are concerned about further things in cities as well.

Give those “chaotic” landscapes a chance! You may find something you like. In anthropology we talk about “training the eye” to get the details more accurately, and the cities are a huge laboratory for that  (and registering those “findings” is even more easy nowadays with all our portable gadgets!).