Abstract

Scientists that rely on excavation for studying the past tend to conceptualize the passage of time vertically as a trajectory that moves from bottom to top. In the history of knowledge this has not been an exclusive property of sciences that excavate the past. Geological time had an impact on many other sciences some of which are far from the original source. By looking at the visual language of different sciences, I trace some key ramifications of this stratigraphic understanding of time, revealing important tensions that emerge as it moves from one discipline to the next. The analysis will provide insights on the corporeal and historical nature of disciplinary knowledge.