ABSTRACT
Interpreting spatial and material patterns as consequences of the movement of objects and bodies is fundamental to archaeological analysis. Explicitly or not, archaeologists use their own sensory experience of movement directly or analogically to consider the material traces and experiences of movements in the past. Sensory analyses in particular ask archaeologists to strive for a degree of embodied intersubjectivity with people in the past, i.e. a mutual familiarity with the practical and sensory affordances of bodily interactions with materials. Application of new scientific techniques, consultation with descent communities, participation in traditional tasks within experimental archaeology, and consideration of relevant historic sources can guide and constrain archaeologists’ analyses of past sensory experiences of movement, the creation of intersubjectivity, and the latter’s social and political consequences. This chapter offers five premises as guides to a sensory archaeology of movement. I illustrate these premises using examples from archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork on the islands of Inishark and Inishbofin in the west of Ireland.
