The Archaeology of Copán, Honduras

Copán, a major Classic Maya center in western Honduras, has been the focus of archaeological investigation for over a century. An intense period of research since 1975, involving projects and scholars from many institutions, has resulted in a comprehensive understanding of the origin, maturation, and decline of this major Maya polity.     

Seven Interventions with the Flatlands: Archaeology and its Modes of Engagement Contributions from the WAC-6 Session, “Experience, Modes of Engagement, Archaeology”

This volume is the product of the WAC-6 session, “Experience, Modes of Engagement, Archaeology”, which was part of the conference theme, “Archaeological Theory? Legacies, Burdens, and Futures.” The following contributions embrace emergent, analog, and paper-based media and move on from the worn observation that these media can be important tools towards active interventions that demonstrate how they affect practice and theory when employed critically and reflexively. This introduction orients the focus of the volume through a discussion and case study that place theoretical emphasis on experiences documented through multimedia. Important questions are raised throughout concerning: archaeology and digital representation, the creation and destruction of archaeological information, authenticity in representations, the construction of archaeologists’ identities, and the non-linearity of archaeological practice. The studies in this volume approach archaeology through the lens of experience and multimedia engagement. In doing so they blend or altogether question the traditionally divided realms of theory and practice. Consequently, these contributions work with the interrelated agendas of the present between media ecologies and archaeology, and the changing pace and character of archaeology in the 21st century.     

An Archaeology of Community Life: Appalachia, 1865–1920

Archaeology has the potential to contribute significant information about community building in the lives of former enslaved laborers. In this article, I consider the role of race and racism in the creation, maintenance and material manifestation of community in post-emancipation Appalachia.     

Tracing the Roots of Municipal Archaeology in St Augustine,Florida: The Story of How ‘The Oldest City’ Connected Archaeology,Local Government,and the Public

Abstract

This article explores the history of public archaeology in St Augustine, Florida, and identi?es lessons that may be useful for archaeologists looking to develop a stronger relationship with the public. The City of St Augustine has developed an archaeology ordinance, it keeps an archaeologist on staff, and it boasts a grassroots non-pro?t organization dedicated to supporting archaeology in the city. This framework is the result of a conversation that has been taking place within the community since the 1930s. As public archaeologists seek new ways of establishing long-term relationships with community groups, this exceptional programme, which only exists because of community support, provides insights into how to build those relationships on a solid foundation.     

Archaeology in Gabon, 1886–1988

This is the first attempt at synthesis of archaeological research conducted in Gabon between 1982 and 1988. Middle Stone Age, Late Stone Age, Neolithic, Early and Late Iron Age data are discussed in the context of earlier discoveries and of current research in Central Africa as a whole.Though the Middle Stone Age remains undated, its earliest component clearly preceded 40,000 bp. The Late Stone Age is datedca 9000–2500 bp, with an early Neolithic perhaps as old as 5000–3000 bp. A late Neolithic is firmly dated to 2600–2200 bp. Iron smelting is shown to have begunca 2500 bp in inland areas of Gabon andca 2000 bp near the coast.

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Résumé On présente ici une première synthèse des données scientifiques obtenues au cours des travaux de 1982–1988 au Gabon. Les éléments relatifs au Middle Stone Age, au Late Stone Age, au Néolithique, aux Ages du Fer ancien et récent sont présentés. A chaque fois une discussion s'engage les mettant en relation avec le contexte global de l'Afrique Centrale ainsi qu'avec les découvertes antérieures.Quoique le MSA reste mal daté, il peut être démontré que les plus vieux outils ont au moins 40,000 ans d'âge. Le LSA quant à lui est circonscrit à la périodeca 9000–2500 bp, alors qu'un Néolithique ancien est peut-être situé vers 5000–3000 bp. Un Néolithique final est, lui, correctement daté vers 2600–2200 bp. Enfin, la fonte du fer est attestée à l'intérieur des terres dès 2500 bp alors que le littoral ne semble pas connaitre cette technologie avant 2000 bp.

     

Landscapes, Houses, Bodies, Things: “Place” and the Archaeology of Inuit Imaginaries

Although the dichotomization of space and place has spawned a lively archaeological discussion, it threatens to devolve into a troublesome binary like sex/gender. Local place-making and universalizing spatial science are not so neatly segregated. Rather than dividing and bounding the notion of an investment of locations with meaning, it can be extended to describe the intricate topologies of bodies and things, as well as landscapes. Places emerge as sites of the hybrid articulation of representations, practices, and things, as spatialized imaginaries. The notion of imaginaries and the rethinking of place are illustrated with Inuit archaeological and ethnographic examples.     

Towards an Archaeology of the Welfare State in Britain, 1945–2009

In this paper I develop an argument for the specific contribution which archaeology might make to the study of the ‘classic’ welfare state in Britain (c. 1945–1975) and its aftermath (c. 1976 to present). This period saw massive state investment in infrastructure which transformed both the material and social worlds of its citizens, through new state policies, new networks of political and social control, the centralisation and nationalisation of a range of existing aspects of civilian life and the construction of housing on a monumental scale. While this is a topic which has been studied in detail by historians and sociologists, despite the massive investment in construction and the accompanying effects on the physical landscape of Britain, there has been relatively little work on the ‘material worlds’ of the welfare state. In developing this argument I focus particularly on public housing, an area which has been the subject of some previous archaeological comment and which provides a clear case study in the contribution which such an approach might make. State subsidised housing policy developed as a brave utopian socialist experiment during the interwar period in Britain, reaching its zenith in the mid-1970s, at which time the state supplied almost a third of the nation’s housing. Public housing projects became an area of experimentation in the realisation of modernist ideals of high density private accommodation and in the use of new building technologies and materials. However, following the demise of the classic welfare state, for various reasons high density public housing has come to be viewed as part of a dystopian social cycle, the buildings and associated landscapes themselves becoming a symbol of poverty, substance abuse and violence. From an early history associated with slum clearance and the development of idealised homes for the nation’s poor, many high rise/high density public housing developments from the classic welfare state are now more often viewed themselves as slums, their design and ‘materiality’ perceived as contributing to, or even creating, a series of social problems. I suggest, following earlier work by Miller (Man (New Series) 23(2):353–372, 1988), Buchli (The Archaeology of Socialism, Berg, New York, 1999) and Buchli and Lucas (Archaeologies of the contemporary past. Routledge, London, 2001) that an archaeological approach to the material world of public housing has the potential to reveal not only the ways in which changing state ideologies are expressed through their design, but also the ways in which individuals have (and continue to) engage with their spaces and material culture to manage the conditions of everyday life, and how such places exist within counter-discursive urban and suburban worlds. I also suggest that part of the role of an archaeology of the welfare state is to consider the circumstances under which the welfare state fails through a focus on the archaeology of poverty and homelessness.     

Archaeology of Trade in the Western Indian Ocean, 300 BC–AD 700

In the millennium after 300 BC, the western Indian Ocean emerged as a main hub of Old World exchange. Study of this commerce long depended on separate regional archaeologies and a handful of literary sources with Western/Roman bias. A recent surge in scholarly interest has led to a vast increase in data that has fostered a more balanced understanding of the commercial, human, and material aspects of ancient Indian Ocean trade. This review summarizes recent research on the topic and assesses its significance to wider scholarly debates on scale, organization, connectivity, agency, and social cohesion in ancient trade and exchange.     

Translational Public Archaeology? Archaeology,Social Benefit,and Working with offenders in Wales (Part 2)

This article reports on a second case study in the relationship between archaeology and social benefit through working with young offenders in Wales. Whereas a previous article (Pudney, 2018), focused on the MORTARIA project — an archaeological education project engaging adult offenders in South Wales — this study explores the distinctive methods and challenges faced by the subsequent Heritage Graffiti Project (HGP). This project encountered similar, but also different, experiences to MORTARIA, involving different skills and technologies, as well as specific artistic engagement with place. The article considers the effectiveness of the HGP before reflecting on the two projects’ shared implications for future, translational public archaeology projects that wish to work with offenders.     

The Archaeology of Jerusalem — Between Post-Modernism and Delegitimization

Abstract

The study of the motivations, influences, and agendas of Israeli archaeology has always been the centre of heated debate, the profession today finding itself under the full, and usually highly critical, glare of modern archaeological theory and/or political polemics. This paper addresses the motivations of some these critics and from under the mesh of often over-stated argumentation, tries to provide a more level appreciation of current archaeological work in Jerusalem. Quite contrary to the impression given by some of the recent scholarship, it is argued that the great majority of the published and excavated archaeology of Jerusalem of the past decades presents the finds of the multiplicity of periods of the city’s history, quite divorced from overt and even covert influence of the surrounding volatile political situation.     

Archaeology advances?

Michael B. Schiffer, ed. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, New York: Academic Press, 1981, 1982, 1983. Vol. IV, xii + 443 pp., $38.00; Vol. V, xiii + 478 pp., $42.00; Vol. VI, xiii + 359 pp., $37.50; Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory: Selections for Students from Volumes 1 through 4, New York: Academic Press, 1982, xiv + 690 pp., $19.95     

Archaeology of the Border Fort Achiras,Córdoba (1832–1869)

During the nineteenth century, the existence of a southern border in the Córdoba province resulted from a complex situation where an expanding national state was inserted into a global economic system and into an environment occupied by various Indian groups. This situation created a mixed society on the borderlands. The military line was defended by forts, with one of them being the Achiras Fort (1832–1869). The fort was situated at the end of the mountain range of Comechingones. This paper considers the archaeological investigation of this fort. The most important and consistent part of the archaeological record is the Command. The Command was formed by two rooms. This work also presents the results of the excavations into the fort and describes the archaeological remains found. Finally, a general model for archaeology in the South Córdoba Border is presented.     

“Making Us Uneasy”: Clarke, Wobst, and Their Critique of Archaeology Put into Practice

Both David Clarke and Martin Wobst have had a significant impact on archaeological theory and practice through their critical insights into the nature of archaeological inquiry and their respective challenges to assumptions about what we know and how we know it. This paper examines the development and historical context of some of their ideas, and highlights how their notions of responsibility, self-awareness, and relevance influence or intersect with contemporary archaeological practice.     

The Origins and Ethics of Maritime Archaeology – Part I

Abstract

For archaeologists, the principal value of prehistoric figurines is that they offer a means – however limited – into the cultures and lives of prehistoric peoples. There is a long tradition of archaeologists assuming that the figurines they unearth had a religious significance for the people who created them (since anthropomorphic figurines have a religious use in many cultures with which we are familiar). However, just as archaeologists began questioning their attribution of divine status to prehistoric figurines in the 1960s, practitioners of neopagan and goddess spiritualities – particularly those in the feminist spirituality movement – were adopting it. Moreover, in addition to describing prehistoric figurines as images of a Great Goddess who dominated prehistoric religious life, these contemporary feminist neopagans use reproductions of prehistoric figurines to inspire and enact their own spirituality. Feminist neopagan appropriation of prehistoric figurines has been problematic for many archaeologists, who quarrel – legitimately – with the conclusions feminist neopagans make about prehistory based on these artefacts. Yet, as this article argues, the contemporary religious use of prehistoric figurines should not be a matter for archaeologists to decide.     

Working Borders: The Contexts of Copán Archaeology

The work of archaeologists and the knowledge they produce both help create, and are conditioned by, a variety of kinds of borders, including political, academic, and cultural. In this article I review a series of borders that shape and determine the social conditions in which archaeology at the well-known site of Copán in western Honduras takes place and takes on meaning. I argue that the histories of these borders, their construction, and their crossings reveal structural tensions in the overlapping registers of academia, public history and popular discourse, in which archaeological knowledge circulates. These histories must be consciously interrogated in order to be negotiated. I suggest that by becoming fluent in the cultural conversations ongoing in a place, archaeologists are best able to begin productive collaborations and make informed choices about how they participate in the border-making processes of their work.     

The Research Laboratory for Conservation and Archaeology, Shanghai Meseum

Thelaboratorywasfoundedin1960.Asaresearchinstituteforscientificconservation.itisthefirstoneestablishedinChina.Intherecent30years,ithasdevelopedintoaspecializedagencyinthesciencesofconservationandarchaeology,andactedasaShanghaiTestCenterof相似文献   

Unearthing Barrow Island’s Past: The Historical Archaeology of Colonial-Era Exploitation,Northwest Australia

The “modern world” of recent centuries is characterized by colonialism and imperialism, greater instances of cultural encounter and competition, increasing global connectivity, and the enhanced movement of resources and people especially for their labor (Falk 1991; Orser 1996). Northwest Australia provides important insight into these elements of modernity, as a region where the capitalist production of resources for international markets followed British colonization and relied on forms of non-European labor, both Indigenous Australian and Asian. This paper describes Barrow Island in the Northwest Australian maritime desert where archaeological research at recently discovered historic settlements indicates the deliberate translocation of Aboriginal people to the island presumably by white pearlers. The sites provide new information regarding commercial extractive industries, particularly the colonial pearl fisheries and their multicultural and exploitative nature.     

The Origins and Ethics of Maritime Archaeology – Part II

Abstract

The institution of maritime archaeology in 2007 stands in a privileged position, uniquely placed to comment upon and engage in 'live' contemporary debates such as the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery, and particularly responsible for comment upon the broader cultural impact of pending global risks such as climate change. With reference to such debates, this paper considers some possible short- and medium-term priorities for maritime archaeology.