The Yenikapı 12 Shipwreck,a 9th‐Century Merchantman from the Theodosian Harbour in Istanbul,Turkey: construction and reconstruction

Shipwreck Yenikap? 12 was discovered in Yenikap?, Istanbul, Turkey in 2007 during rescue excavations carried out by Istanbul Archaeological Museums. The majority of the bottom of the shipwreck, found within the sediment‐filled Theodosian Harbour, is intact and part of the cargo was found in situ. According to the results of reconstruction studies, YK12 was a small merchantman working coastal waters, approximately 9.24m in length and 2.64m in breadth. The shipwreck is dated to the 9th century AD and was built with a mixed construction using the shell‐based method for the lower hull.     

Framing the past: situating the archaeological in photographs

Archaeology continually reproduces its own images. Speaking archaeology’s visual language is one way we prove membership in the discipline. Many aspects of this visual language have become so naturalized within archaeological representation as to be almost unquestionable: the cleaning of the site, the use of scale, and particular framings and perspectives. How, then, is the production of particular photographic images of archaeology related to the practice of archaeology? Does archaeology look a certain way (in photographs) or are archaeologists reproducing an archaeology according to the way it is thought it should look? Using examples of early photographs from Latin American archaeological expeditions, this article investigates not only photography as an applied technology for scientific recording, but also its power to situate archaeological knowledge. Drawing on recent reflective and critical developments in both the history of archaeology and visual anthropology, it uses five focal points – trace, objectivity and authenticity, sight/site, still lifes, and still lives – to argue that early-twentieth-century archaeological photographs of Latin America participated in the generation of an ‘authentic’ past rather than simply paid testament to it.     

Archaeology from below

Abstract

This paper identifies and discusses two contrasting approaches to field archaeology in contemporary Britain. The dominant approach is that of ‘official archaeology’ rooted in professional rescue (or contract) work and represented by bodies such as English Heritage, county archaeology units and the Institute of Field Archaeologists. This ‘archaeology from above’ threatens alternative approaches to fieldwork, since state legislation and other bureaucratic controls are being used to restrict access to archaeology to an elite of self-accredited practitioners, and a persuasive and sophisticated ideology of heritage ‘protection’ and professional ‘standards’ is being deployed to legitimize this policy. This attempt to universalize the practices of professional rescue archaeology is academically incoherent and politically undemocratic. An alternative ‘archaeology from below’ is proposed in which fieldwork is rooted in the community, open to volunteer contributions, organised in a non-exclusive, non-hierarchical way, and dedicated to a research agenda in which material, methods and interpretation are allowed to interact. These points are illustrated with detailed references to the experience of ‘democratic archaeology’ on the author's project at Sedgeford in northwest Norfolk in 1996–98.     

From Masada to the Little Bighorn: The role of archaeological site interpretation in the shaping of national myths

Abstract

This paper describes the changing commemoration, political meaning and archaeological presentation of Masada and the Little Bighorn National Battlefield in an attempt to understand the role that each has played in the crystallization of national consciousness. In examining official efforts to preserve the site of ‘Custer's Last Stand’ – from its establishment as a US military cemetery in the late nineteenth century through recent archaeological exploration by the National Park Service – the paper analyses the theme of heroic death of ‘the few against the many’ as symbolic legitimation of frontier conquest. In tracing the history of the commemoration of Masada – from its initial identification by Edward Robinson in 1838, through its adoption as a Zionist symbol in the 1930s, to the large-scale excavations of the 1960s – the paper discusses archaeological attempts to verify Josephus' account of the mass suicide of the Jewish rebels and the site's use as a symbolic legitimation of territorial sovereignty. Finally, changes in the ‘official’ interpretations of the two sites (and emergence of dissenting viewpoints) are placed in political and intellectual context. This cross-cultural comparison is the basis for general observations on the role of archaeology, patriotic mythology and tourism in the development of modern nation states.     

The Sociopolitics of Archaeology in Quebec: Regional Developments within Global Trends

In the 1960s, archaeology was a newcomer to Quebec’s cultural francophone scene, and commercial archaeology made its first appearance at the end of the 1970s. Today, in a context of global chronic economic crisis, we intend to examine the effects of provincial and federal ideological and economic trends on the praxis of archaeology in Quebec. These include a progressive deregulation of the public sector by weakening the institutions through the termination of archaeological posts or/and non-replacement of retired archaeologists, and a progressive disengagement of the public sector through conditional regulation, accompanied by a lax attitude towards entrepreneurs, and stickler regulations for archaeologists. We present a series of current issues and examples in Quebec archaeology which illustrate these trends, in particular two case studies occurring in Montreal and Northern Quebec, respectively.     

The Past is Tomorrow. Towards an Archaeology of the Vanishing Present

This paper arises from a dissatisfaction with the ‘Great Divides’ created between past and present, self and others, people and material culture in the context of ethnoarchaeology. While conducting ethnoarchaeological research in Spain, Ethiopia and Brazil, I have been faced with the theoretical and practical shortcomings of this field, which is too deeply rooted in modernist concerns and prejudices. I propose a reconsideration of ethnoarchaeology as archaeology tout court – an archaeology of the present – which has to be symmetrical in character. This means that present and past must not be hierarchically conceived – the former in the service of the latter or vice versa – nor strictly separated ontologically, and the relations between humans and things have to be properly problematized.     

Herbivorous livestock dung: formation,taphonomy, methods for identification,and archaeological significance

Herbivore livestock dung has been identified in archaeological sites around the world. Focusing on dung from the ubiquitous Old World herbivorous domesticates – sheep, goats and cattle – this review deals with the materials found within dung that have relevance to archaeology. The natural and anthropogenic/cultural taphonomic processes that affect the preservation and identification of livestock dung, and the archaeological information that can be extracted through detailed studies of the context and content of identified livestock dung in archaeological sites is modeled and discussed.     

The Hull Construction of Yenikapı 14 (YK 14), a Middle Byzantine Shipwreck from Constantinople's Theodosian Harbour,Istanbul, Turkey

Yenikap? 14 (YK 14) is one of 37 shipwrecks discovered by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums during the Marmaray Project excavations in Istanbul's Yenikap? neighbourhood, the site of Constantinople's Theodosian Harbour. Dated to the 9th century AD, YK 14 is one of a group of Yenikap? round ships constructed using similar methods: it was a flat‐floored, shallow‐draught vessel built primarily of oak using a distinctive combination of shell‐ and skeleton‐based construction methods. Regularly spaced pegs called coaks were used to assemble the hull planking edge‐to‐edge from the keel to the first wale, above which planks were fastened exclusively to frames.     

PEGGY PIGGOTT: WOMEN AND BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY (1930–1945)

The 2021 film, The Dig, stimulated much interest in discovering more about Peggy Piggott, the archaeologist who first ‘struck gold’ at Sutton Hoo. Piggott was a leading British prehistorian, who produced over sixty published works for the field. Here we examine her early life and career, her training with the Curwens and the Wheelers, her marriage to Stuart Piggott, and her recognized expertise that led to her joining the Sutton Hoo team in 1939. During WWII, she established the modern standard for barrow excavation, and in 1944 was recognized by the Society of Antiquaries for her ‘devotion to the study of archaeology’. Piggott provides a lens through which we consider the careers of 1930s women archaeologists – those factors enabling access to archaeology (class, wartime opportunity) and factors that limited progress (lack of a degree, marriage).     

Mooring subjects of heritage: proprioceptive emplacement at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

This article examines how visitors to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (HSIBJ) in Fort Macleod, Alberta, are physically and affectively situated within an immersive heritage landscape. A designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, HSIBJ is inextricably tied to regional Blackfoot and settler-colonial histories, as well as the tensions that emerge between the two. HSIBJ’s Interpretive Centre is organised to plunge audiences inside the ‘live’ archaeological scene and an evocative heritage landscape. It does so through technologies, including motion-triggered projections, which locate and secure visitors within official national – and universal – heritage narratives. The central argument of this article is that HSIBJ’s Interpretive Centre beckons subjects of heritage through proprioception, the awareness of the body’s position in and movement through space. Extending beyond the physiological sensation of one’s own body, proprioception also works alongside the two other substantiating buttresses of archaeology and heritage to provide a gravitational ground upon which the visitor is located and their subjectivity confirmed. Proprioceptive grounding emplaces a body within an expanded and ‘ancient’ narratology of nation, and in this way, also becomes the mechanism through which exogenous settlers assuage anxieties about their latecoming status.     

Romans and Reducing Recidivism: Archaeology,Social Benefit,and Working with Offenders in Wales (Part 1)

Claims that public and community archaeology can help ‘change lives’ have recently come under criticism. Challenging these critiques, this article explores how archaeology can be socially beneficial in the rehabilitation of offenders. Using a case study from South Wales, this article demonstrates how a prison-based outreach project can offer an innovative trajectory for public archaeology, highlighting the links between archaeology and political agendas. The article challenges the concept of ‘archaeologist-as-social-worker’ and considers the successes and limitations of such an approach, including the challenges of measuring impact. Ultimately, it demonstrates that archaeology-based activities can provide positive life experiences for offenders, but only through a successful partnership between heritage and offender management specialists, as part of a wider programme of support and intervention.     

Orphan Heritage: Issues in Managing the Heritage of the Great War in Northern France and Belgium

Abstract

This paper summarises recent developments in the field of Great War archaeology and examines solutions to the issues raised. The Great War is recent enough to be modern, but far enough back to be beyond living memory. As such, its material remains have become the province of archaeology, which raises two issues. Firstly, that the heritage is "owned" by people distant from the territories that contain the material, an issue exacerbated by modernity and derivation through conflict of the material. Secondly, the issue of what kind of archaeology is suitable for dealing with this material, and which archaeologists should do it.     

The role of research and education in site management at the Lemba Experimental Village,Cyprus

Abstract

The project developed at the Lemba Experimental Village in Cyprus seeks to explain some aspects of the workings of archaeology through the medium of an ongoing and dynamic research project. The Lemba Experimental Village was established in 1988 with a view to understanding site formation processes through the construction of full-scale experimental buildings of the Chalcolithic period (3500–2800 BC). Experiments have been carried out with mud construction, lime plaster making and building construction. Monitoring and recording of construction and erosion processes provides a long-term history of events on the site which can be related to the deposits and features encountered when excavation is undertaken. Comparative information has been obtained from the structural analysis and excavation of buildings abandoned 25–30 years ago in the village of Souskiou, where similar deposits are encountered. The results of the work at Lemba and Souskiou are used as a comparative database for understanding deposits on prehistoric archaeological sites. The juxtaposition of the experimental building constructions with completed excavations at Lemba has led to the emergence of a policy of site presentation in which the methods of a particular form of archaeological research – experimental archaeology – constitute the main focus of interest on the site. This has been encouraged in the development of the site as a visitor centre, with an annually changing programme of new buildings being constructed and older ones being destroyed.     

Archaeological Ethnography,Heritage Management,and Community Archaeology: A Pragmatic Approach from Crete

This article examines the introduction of archaeological ethnography as an approach to establish positioned research and bring context-specific and reflexive considerations into community archaeology projects. It considers recent critiques of heritage management in archaeology and the role of archaeologists as experts in it, contending that smaller and less prominent sites exist in different contexts and pose different problems than large-scale projects usually addressed in the literature. We describe how the ‘Three Peak Sanctuaries of Central Crete’ project, investigating prehistoric Minoan ritual sites, involves communities and stakeholders and what demands the latter pose on experts in the field. Archaeological work is always already implicated in local development projects which create and reproduce power hierarchies. It is therefore important that archaeologists maintain their critical distance from official heritage discourses, as they are materialized in development programmes, while at the same time engaging with local expectations and power struggles; they also have to critically address and position their own assumptions. We use examples from our community archaeology project to propose that these goals can be reached through archaeological ethnographic fieldwork that should precede any archaeological project to inform its methodological decisions, engage stakeholders, and collaboratively shape heritage management strategies.     

Curious archaeology: the process of assembling a fringe prehistory

Abstract

This paper compiles an interview with Preston Peet, editor of the recent popularaudience archaeology book Underground – the Disinlormation Guide to Ancient Civilizations, Astonishing Archaeology and Hidden History (The Disinformation Company, New York,2005). The volume positions itself unashamedly at the fringes of archaeology. This interview serves as primary, qualitative data for archaeologists to understand how they communicate with the public, how archaeology on the fringes operates and how editors act as conduits between professional and public spheres.     

Letting skeletons out of the closet: the ethics of displaying ancient Mexican human remains

In the wake of Native North American activism and moves to decolonize archaeology, some academics have begun to avoid displaying human remains. Though recent World Archaeological Congress accords detail a consent process for ethical display, some journals, museums, and individual scholars have blanket policies covering even those remains whose descendants favour display. This article examines one context affected by these policies: the central Mexican town of Xaltocan. Here, Indigenous residents advocate for archaeological study and exhibition of ancient human remains, yet they have been criticised and censored by North American audiences. We consider two factors behind their desire to display the dead as part of efforts to reclaim Indigenous identities: long-standing Mesoamerican relationships with the dead and the materiality and symbolic capital of bones. We argue that an academic reluctance to display any human remains is problematic – even if it is a well-intentioned acknowledgement of respect for their sensitive nature – because it imposes the wishes of one Indigenous group on another, and may thereby lead to the unwitting perpetuation of colonial practice. We suggest that decolonizing archaeology may sometimes necessitate allowing the exhibition of skeletal remains; ethnographic research in individual communities is needed to ensure respect for descendant perspectives.     

Light and Darkness in an Edwardian Institution for the Insane Poor—Illuminating the Material Practices of the Asylum age

Natural light and its provision within asylum and other buildings is a neglected aspect of the historical archaeology of institutions. An Edwardian asylum in the north of Ireland is analysed for the management of natural light through the siting of buildings, window design and placement of interior glazing. A close reading of selected contemporary literature relating to natural light is employed to assess the significance of light provision within institutions of this period and contemporary discourses are in turn illuminated by the material practices recorded in the case study.     

Strategies for Teaching Maritime Archaeology in the Twenty First Century

Maritime archaeology is a multi-faceted discipline that requires both theoretical learning and practical skills training. In the past most universities have approached the teaching of maritime archaeology as a full-time on-campus activity designed for ‘traditional’ graduate students; primarily those in their early twenties who have recently come from full-time undergraduate study and who are able to study on-campus. The needs of mature-age and other students who work and live in different places (or countries) and therefore cannot attend lectures on a regular basis (or at all) have largely been ignored. This paper provides a case study in the teaching of maritime archaeology from Australia that, in addition to ‘traditional’ on-campus teaching, includes four main components: (1) learning field methods through field schools; (2) skills training through the AIMA/NAS avocational training program; (3) distance learning topics available through CD-ROM and using the Internet; and (4) practicums, internships and fellowships. The author argues that programs to teach maritime archaeology in the twenty first century need to be flexible and to address the diverse needs of students who do not fit the ‘traditional’ model. This involves collaborative partnerships with other universities as well as government underwater cultural heritage management agencies and museums, primarily through field schools, practicums and internships.     

Alchemy or Science? Compromising Archaeology in the Deep Sea

In the torrid debate between archaeology and treasure hunting, compromise is often suggested as the pragmatic solution, especially for archaeology carried out either in deep water or beyond the constraints that commonly regulate such activities in territorial seas. Both the wisdom and the need for such compromise have even been advocated by some archaeologists, particularly in forums such as the internet and conferences. This paper argues that such a compromise is impossible, not in order to fuel confrontation but simply because of the nature of any academic discipline. We can define what archaeology is in terms of its aims, theories, methods and ethics, so combining it with an activity founded on opposing principles must transform it into something else. The way forward for archaeology in the deep sea does not lie in a contradictory realignment of archaeology’s goals but in collaborative research designed to mesh with emerging national and regional research and management plans.     

土墩墓考古:新收获,新思考——在江苏句容、金坛土墩墓群抢救性发掘考古成果汇报会上的讲话

2005年江苏句容、金坛土墩墓群抢救性发掘考古成果在一墩一墓、一墩多墓、向心结构等土墩墓重大学术问题上取得了突破性进展,并为田野考古科学操作提供了典范。从方法论和考古学理论角度思考,土墩墓的发掘和研究还需进一步深化。