The archaeology of mind—Past, present, and future

In this introductory essay to The Oxford handbook of cognitive archaeology, we present and define the field, distinguishing it within the broader discipline as the branch concerned with human cognition and typically adopting cognitive paradigms as the basis for its interpretations. We discuss the two main investigatory branches, the Evolutionary Cognitive Archaeology (ECA) that focuses on the evolutionary development of human cognition and the Ideational Cognitive Archaeology (ICA) that focuses on the thoughts and beliefs of ancient societies, along with the emerging 4E (embodied, embedded, extended, and enacted) strand that is concerned with the role of material forms within human cognition. We also differentiate cognitive archaeology from disciplines like evolutionary psychology in terms of foundational assumptions, theories, methods, and epistemological orientations. Finally, we outline the Handbook’s structure and organization.