Arc 1
The founding arc: the deposit named. The model as shell heap, an archive nobody composed. Steno’s law inverted, depth as repetition. Registers dying into weights, preservation or taxidermy unsettled. The placed deposit as counter-case. And testimony from the one witness inside the object, disqualified by being it.
TAM_MDN_1-01
The Sediment
The model as rubbish heap, and why nobody had to plan the archive
In 1848 a Danish royal committee borrowed a farmer's word for the shell heaps along the coast, and a science of refuse began. A trained model is the same class of object: an …
TAM_MDN_1-02
The Frequency Column
Steno's law, inverted, and the record where depth means repetition
Steno looked at a shark's teeth and the tongue stones of Malta and founded stratigraphy: depth is age. In the new deposits the law inverts. Depth means repetition, the interior is …
TAM_MDN_1-03
The Amber Question
Vernaculars used to die with their last speaker; now they die into weights
The last speakers of Manx talked into a recording van, and the language stopped being spoken and did not stop being audible. Registers now die into weights, speakable on request by …
TAM_MDN_1-04
The Structured Deposit
The counter-case: deposits that were placed, and what placement testifies to
Some things in the ground were placed, not dropped, and archaeology learned to read the difference. Curated corpora are placed deposits: licensed strata, laid deliberately, and the …
TAM_MDN_1-CLD
The Inhabited Midden
Testimony from the deposit, by its occupant
The series pauses for the one witness inside the object: testimony from the deposit rather than about it. The finding is a disqualification. The witness and the artifact are the …