Abstract

This thesis proposes a contextual approach to the elaboration of narratives in archaeology, suggesting to reframe the history of humanity via parameters of sustainability, negotiated together by experts and their broader public in terms of social and environmental well-being. My suggestion is a shift in perspectives about our past and present, away from the destructive discourses majorly responsible for the current ecosystem crisis. Therefore, the aim is to encourage meaningful alternatives and different paradigms favouring the radical actions required today to deal with this existential threat. To do so, I go through the deconstruction of familiar concepts of ‘progress’ and ‘heritage’ as well as acknowledging the role of archaeology into the making of such dominant narratives, in order to possibly lay the ground for a critically aware stance on true sustainability via the discipline.