The Bioarchaeological Investigation of Childhood and Social Age: Problems and Prospects

Recently, the value of the study of children and childhood from archaeological contexts has become more recognized. Childhood is both a biological and a social phenomenon. However, because of specialization in research fields within anthropology, subadults from the archaeological record are usually studied from the biological perspective (bioarchaeology) or, more predominantly, the social perspective (social archaeology), with little research that incorporates both approaches. These polarized approaches to childhood and age highlight the dualistic way in which “biological” and “social” aspects of the body are viewed. Some recent literature criticizes bioarchaeological approaches, and calls for the incorporation of childhood social theory, including social age categories, into subadult health analysis. However, few studies have explicitly addressed the practicalities or theoretical issues that need to be considered when attempting this. This paper critically examines these issues, including terminology used for defining subadulthood and age divisions within it, and approaches to identify “social age” in past populations. The important contribution that bioarchaeology can make to the study of social aspects of childhood is outlined. Recent theoretical approaches for understanding the body offer exciting opportunities to incorporate skeletal remains into research, and develop a more biologically and socially integrated understanding of childhood and age.

Cultural Imperialism and Heritage Politics in the Event of Armed Conflict: Prospects for an ‘Activist Archaeology’

The production of archaeological knowledge is embedded in a long-standing tradition of colonial encounters. This paper asks how political-economic interests impinge on archaeological work, specifically in the event of armed conflict. To answer this question I discuss commodification of cultural heritage and analyze it as a form of structural violence. I argue that the attitude that allows treatment of archaeological artifacts as saleable items with international owners is part of a strategy of global cultural imperialism. Exemplified by the case of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, this paper shows how the clash of global ‘heritage’ politics with local practices of memorializing the past results in a tension: because capitalist governments consider the locales whose glorious pasts are studied by archaeologists to be culturally inferior, the nexus between (trans-)national actors and local communities is an asymmetrical one. In order to overcome the hegemonic role of archaeology within these dynamics, I propose an ‘activist archaeology’ that enables a political activism grounded in recursivity.     

Tracing the Busy Gap Rogues

Busy Gap is one of the earliest attested place names located along the line of the central sector of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, yet in Newcastle during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was a term of abuse, applied collectively to those who came from upland Tynedale and was synonymous with the Border Reivers. Archaeological and historical sources indicate that throughout the Middle Ages the place was located in a zone of seasonal settlement, characterized by groups of shielings probably associated with townships located in the valley of the South Tyne. The question is how to understand the role of Busy Gap, a place identified with a triangular earthwork on the north side of the Roman Wall. This paper will consider the results of recent archaeological investigations carried out by the author on the site and will investigate the place and its setting within the archaeological and historical context of early-modern Northumberland.     

Mombasa Island: A Maritime Perspective

Mombasa’s strategic position on the Swahili Coast and fine harbours were key factors in its emergence as a prosperous city state during the early second millennium AD. These same attributes drew the attention of rival powers in the struggle to control the lucrative Indian Ocean trade network, particularly during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing from a rich legacy of cartographic and documentary sources created in the course of Mombasa’s turbulent history, this paper presents the results of a coastal archaeological survey undertaken in 2001 as part of a wider collaborative maritime project.     

A Syndetic Approach to Identification of the Historic Mission Site of San Cayetano del Tumacácori

This article explores the methodological considerations of a syndetic approach to archaeological inquiry. This multi-evidential approach involves crossing interdisciplinary boundaries to exploit data that reside with other specialists. The material evidence of a historically referenced place is sought in the archaeological record and evaluated using historical documentary data, ethnographic information, as well as data from other sources including assessment of occupational duration, intensity of residence, erosional patterns, and chronological placement. The case study involves location and verification of the 1690s through 1750s Sobaípuri-O’odham village of San Cayetano del Tumacácori in southern Arizona.     

On the Edge of Improvement: Rathlin Island and the Modern World

This paper focuses on the archaeology of an island off the north coast of Ireland as a case study of the processes affecting rural life in the country in the Age of Improvement. The nature of changes to management of the landscape and architectural modes is discussed and an attempt is made to identify the agents of reform. The response and negotiation of the islanders to emergent commercialisation is discerned by changes to traditional houses and the material emerging from recent excavation work.