Archeologists Are Storytellers

Architectural Representations

Nailu Chen

As a scientific discipline, archaeology deals with the factual, with rational arguments and identifiable sources. But archaeology is at its most relevant and interesting when it transcends factual description and engages speculation and imagination.
Out of 30 boreholes that go down to 30m on the site of King’s Cross, we have chosen the borehole “I” to study the components of ground and the description of each component. Importantly, we focused not only the “official” definition of the material, but on the colloquial usage of the language that describes it, the folk sayings. So, as they are translated into colloquial language, the hard, solid materials become narrative and start to talk about the culture, the history, gathering layers and layers of information buried underground. This procedure of gathering material evidence and translating it into imaginary and real narratives through different uses of language is what informs the project.