Ireland and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage

Ratification by Ireland of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage will not be able to take place until after enactment of additional domestic legislation. The reasons for this are examined in the context of Ireland’s legal system. Since 1987 Ireland has had extensive legal protection for underwater cultural heritage, but the jurisdictional aspects of the Convention are key to understanding why additional legislation is necessary. Issues relating to salvage law are also considered. The 2001 Convention is placed in the context of development of Irish policy on underwater cultural heritage.     

In the Trenches Around the Ivory Tower: Introduction to Black-and-White Issues About the Grey Literature

The “grey literature problem” is a common phrase because technical reports produced by the majority of practitioners are perceived to be inaccessible, not peer-reviewed, and of low quality. These issues, however, are as much cultural as they are about indexing and databases, review procedures, and content. Unconventional, non-university-based publication venues and alternative forms of literature constitute an opportunity for bringing fresh ideas and new perspectives to the discipline, for reporting state-of-the-art research, and engaging a wider pool of participants. Nontraditional publication venues have a range of benefits including speedy distribution, presentation of abundant amounts of data, inclusion of in-depth analyses, consideration of a range of methodological and theoretical issues using sizable datasets, often rigorous multi-tiered peer review, and avoidance of many of the stifling political hurdles and time delays of traditional publishing. Honest pursuit of knowledge and effective communication begin with citation of this alternative form of publication, objective assessment of its content absent a double standard, and acknowledgement of the scholars who produce it.     

Portugal’s Declaration During the Negotiation of the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: International Protection and Cooperation versus Possession

Portugal was the second country in Western Europe to ratify the 2001 UNESCO Convention, a pivotal step that occurred on September 21, 2006. In 2000 the Portuguese delegation presented a statement in the UNESCO meeting for the draft Convention, the substance of which emphasises the protection and cooperation principles concerning the underwater cultural heritage rather than the issue of its possession. In 2008, the discovery of a sixteenth century Portuguese shipwreck near Oranjemund, Namibia, confirmed that the referred statement opened a premonitory strategic window for the conciliation of interests of States around such examples of common heritage.     

Public and Private Lives in Iran: An Introduction to the Archaeology of the 2003 Bam Earthquake

Bam, Iran, was destroyed by a powerful earthquake in December 2003. In what is perhaps Iran’s greatest tragedy in living memory, the majority of the mud brick houses and concrete buildings were completely flattened and more than half of the city’s population was killed. Five years after the disaster, a team of Iranian archaeologists and ethnographers excavated the remains of six houses destroyed in the earthquake. The excavated material culture demonstrates the stark contrasts between the residents’ public lives lived outside of their homes, and their private lives lived inside of their homes.     

Historical Archaeo-Geographies of Scaled Statehood: American Federalism and Material Practices of National Prohibition in California, 1917–1933

This paper discusses the ways that a more explicit engagement with the discipline of historical geography could contribute to archaeologies of the recent and contemporary past. Scholars working in this time period must consider multiple scales of connectivity between people and places through time and would benefit from political geography’s recent theorizing on scale and the state. We present a preliminary case study of what we term a historical archeo-geography drawing upon archaeological materials from late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century sites to demonstrate how state and federal legislation is enacted at the household level.     

The Public’s Archaeology: Utilizing Ethnographic Methods to Link Public Education with Accountability in Archaeological Practice

This paper discusses exploratory PhD research which utilized ethnographic methods in an attempt to understand the myriad connections to archaeology, history, and heritage in a small Indiana town. I rejected an initial hypothesis that archaeological resources are an integral part of collective cultural identities and, instead, discovered that talking with living people can facilitate more effective communication and collaboration between archaeologists and local communities by making research and educational efforts contextualized and community-based. Through discussions with local stakeholders, I believe all archaeologists have better opportunities to link the professional ethics of accountability, public education, and stewardship in their research.     

Grey Literature,Academic Engagement,and Preservation by Understanding

Archaeological practice in the UK produces considerable amounts of reportage that is never intended for formal publication. This grey literature forms a resource which has, historically, been poorly used by academic archaeologists, and problems of access have been blamed for this. This paper argues that this problem does not lie with accessing the resource, but has been of awareness, attitude, and understanding. Structures are now in place which can allow the comprehensive interpretation and reinterpretation of fieldwork results by any archaeologists who choose to do so.     

Ancient Egypt in Brazil: A Theoretical Approach to Contemporary Uses of the Past

In this paper we consider archaeology as a product of social interaction, and discuss how ancient Egyptian materiality has been an important part of identity building in Brazil. We begin by reviewing our theoretical setting, and suggest that a postmodern approach is most helpful to our goal of understanding the social context of the public uses of archaeology. The paper then turns to the trajectory of “Egyptomania” in Brazil, from the 19th century onwards, highlighting the importance of cultural movements such as Kardecism and Masonry in this trend. We argue that the use of Egyptian subjects in Brazil has connections with social inequality, racism, and gender biases. Finally, we present a case study on positive recent trends in the presentation of ancient Egypt in school textbooks which highlights critical approaches to the use of ancient Egyptian subjects in contemporary Brazil.