Archaeological Organizations Research Articles

Setting the standard: the 1970 standard and ethical codes of archaeological organizations

Many archaeological organizations have adopted policies that prohibit being the place of first publication, or announcement, of archaeological artefacts that do not comply with the 1970 standard. Compliant objects are those documented outside their country of origin before 1970 or are documented as being legally exported. This paper argues that continued use of the 1970 standard fails to establish an ethical standard of conduct that exceeds that required by law and perpetuates the legacy of colonialism and imperialism that failed to recognize the rights of countries, societies and communities of origin to adopt their own regulations for the disposition of archaeological artefacts.

Communicating and Disseminating Rock Art Research on Facebook: The ERC Artsoundscapes Project Goes Public

ABSTRACT This article explores the potential of social media in disseminating and communicating archaeological knowledge and the ways in which their impact on the public can be enhanced through marketing plans. It examines the implementation of such a plan in the context of the Facebook page of the ERC Advanced Grant project “The sound of special places: exploring rock art soundscapes and the sacred” (acronym: Artsoundscapes). Using quantitative and qualitative data provided by the Facebook Insights altmetrics tool, the article evaluates the general performance of the Artsoundscapes page and measures the effectiveness of the marketing plan. It discusses the components of marketing plans with emphasis on a carefully designed content strategy that, in the case of the Artsoundscapes Facebook page, in only 19 months of existence has resulted in the organic development of an active online community of 757 fans and 787 followers from 45 countries. The marketing plan has contributed to raising awareness of the Artsoundscapes project and an emerging, highly specialized and little-known branch of archaeology – the archaeoacoustics of rock art sites. It rapidly and engagingly disseminates the project’s activities and outcomes among both specialist and non-specialist audiences, and informs the non-specialist public about relevant advances in the multiple fields – rock art studies, acoustics, music archaeology and ethnomusicology – that intersect in it. The article concludes that social media are effective means for archaeologists and archaeological organizations and projects to reach various audiences, and that marketing plans significantly augment this process.

Digital Dutch Archaeology: Future perspectives

Digital archaeology in the Netherlands is connected with investments in a new large-scale and innovative Dutch research infrastructure for the next 10 years. Priorities are set to combine forces at a national level in order to contribute to the international position of the Netherlands as a 'knowledge country'. Researchers need to coordinate and collaborate even more to set up a FAIR enabling data infrastructure with limited resources. Regarding the archaeological discipline, the use of formal quality standards and legislation that certifies archaeological organisations to carry out archaeological work improves national collaboration and stimulates the digital workflow. DANS is the dedicated national repository for archaeology in the Netherlands and is launching the Data Station Archaeology, a repository meeting the latest technological standards. Finding and sharing data of high quality facilitates knowledge of archaeological discoveries; a flourishing open access trend in Dutch archaeology stimulates a strong growth in the use of data. To keep up with innovative developments, a growing community of archaeologists and other specialists are working together in international projects to secure the future of European Archaeology.

Peculiarities of Periodization in the Modern National Historiography of Underwater Archeology

The article deals with the historiographical review of various materials describing the recent outcomes of national underwater archaeological organizations activity. Attention is given to the periodization issues caused by the key influence exerted on underwater archaeological work on technological advances. It gives a brief description of scientific papers that use underwater archaeology conclusions and characterize research methods applied in dating, reconstruction and museumification. The main part of the work is determined by the characteristics of the scientific and practical heritage and biographical data of individual scientists, whose name is associated with the development of the national school of underwater archaeology in space and time. Professor R. A. Orbeli and Professor V. D. Blavatsky are traditionally considered to be the ideological inspirers and the first organizers of the systematic study of the underwater cultural and historical heritage of our country. The assessment of the activities of these scientists, as well as the existing bibliographic base, on the basis of which the historiography of the issue under consideration is formed, organically forms the main part of this article. This article pays sufficient attention to the history of studying underwater archaeological research from the first practical attempts based on empirical methods to the current state of Affairs in the discipline, using a wide range of scientific research: GPS navigation, magnetometers, side-view sonars, unguided underwater vehicles, etc. The article conclusion is the conditional birth of historiography along with the emergence of unrelated collections of specialized literature, where indirect references to underwater landmarks are presented firstly, and, with the development of archaeological science, separate analytical and methodological works devoted entirely to underwater historical landmarks research appear. Keywords: periodization, historiography, underwater archaeology, research on underwater historical landmarks, materials analysis, desk research methods

The Context and Consequences of Sexual Harassment in Southeastern Archaeology

ABSTRACTIn 2014, the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC) conducted a sexual harassment survey of its membership. The survey's goal was to investigate whether sexual harassment had occurred among its members, and if so, to document the rate and demographics of harassment. Our findings include a high (66%) level of harassment, primarily among women, with an additional 13% of respondents reporting sexual assault. This article provides an overview of the survey and responses. Additionally, we analyze survey data aimed at capturing change over time in harassment and assault, correlation between field and non-field tasks and harassment and assault, and correlation between gender of supervisor and harassment and assault. We also discuss the effects of harassment and assault on careers. We conclude with suggestions for decreasing the rate of harassment and assault and urge professional archaeological organizations to document sexual harassment and assault to mitigate the effects on their members and on the discipline as a whole.

The Future of American Archaeology

ABSTRACTOver the past several years, we have seen many attacks on publicly funded and mandated archaeology in the United States. These attacks occur at the state level, where governors and state legislatures try to defund or outright eliminate state archaeological programs and institutions. We have also seen several attacks at the federal level. Some members of Congress showcase archaeology as a waste of public tax dollars, and others propose legislation to move federally funded or permitted projects forward without consideration of impacts on archaeological resources. These attacks continue to occur, and we expect them to increase in the future. In the past, a vigilant network of historic preservation and archaeological organizations was able to thwart such attacks. The public, however, largely remains an untapped ally. As a discipline, we have not built a strong public support network. We have not demonstrated the value of archaeology to the public, beyond a scattering of educational and informational programs. In this article, we—a group of archaeologists whose work has focused on public engagement—provide a number of specific recommendations on how to build a strong public constituency for the preservation of our nation's archaeological heritage.

‘An Awfully Nice Job’. Kathleen Kenyon as Secretary and Acting Director of the University of London Institute of Archaeology, 1935–1948

This article presents an assessment of the administrative career of Kathleen Kenyon. It examines her involvement in the new Institute and wider British archaeological community as well as assessing her working life within the context of the increasing professionalisation of archaeological organisations between the wars, and the role played in this by female administrators. The behaviours and actions of Kenyon and those around her are also evaluated within the context of wider contemporary attitudes to and about women. Finally, Kenyon’s role in women’s archaeological practice and women’s contributions to archaeological culture between the wars is considered.

A Tale of Two Yusifs: Recovering Arab Agency in Palestine Exploration Fund Excavations 1890–1924

The scholarly literature on the history of archaeology and archaeological organisations in late nineteenth/early twentieth century Palestine focuses almost exclusively on the Western excavators and scholars who headed this work. But Arab workers did the bulk of the actual digging, and on a daily basis they were often overseen by fellow Arabs as foremen and gang leaders. This paper applies lessons from relational history as it has been used in Levantine intellectual and labour contexts to understand the roles of two particular men, Yusif ‘abu Selim' Khazin and Yusif Khattar Kanaan, who worked for the Palestine Exploration Fund between 1890 and World War One, acting as foremen, researchers, site directors and many other roles for Frederick Bliss, R.A.S Macalister, and Duncan Mackenzie. Despite their often slim and ghostly presence in the records, in which both men are often referred to only by their shared first name, the writings of Bliss and Macalister reveal them to have been indispensable on-site and as offering insights and knowledge which influenced how both archaeological finds and indigenous life in Palestine was understood.

Archaeology Fairs and Community-Based Approaches to Heritage Education

AbstractSince hosting its first archaeology fair in 2001, the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) has organized 23 more fairs and informed thousands of people through this popular outreach activity. The AIA fair model brings together independent archaeological organizations representing a rich array of archaeological subfields to present their programs and resources to a local community in an interactive and engaging manner. The goals of AIA archaeology fairs are to promote a greater public understanding of archaeology, raise awareness of local archaeological resources, and bring together proximate archaeological groups with a shared outreach goal. In this article, the authors discuss how the AIA fair model was developed through feedback cycles that include evaluation, data analysis, reflection, and trial and error; how it evolved; and how it is spreading to other groups around the world. To date, 26 AIA local societies have hosted fairs, and the popularity of this program as an outreach event is increasing among other archaeological groups across the United States, as well as in Belize, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Iran, and Myanmar. This growth in popularity and implementation presents us with unique opportunities to collect and reflect upon data essential to conducting archaeological outreach around the globe.

From Virtual Globes to ArcheoGIS: Determining the Technical and Practical Feasibilities

Web mapping and virtual globes are increasingly used to communicate 3D geospatial results to fellow researchers and the public. The lack of analytical functionality nonetheless restricts their utility in research, including archaeology. Integrating both 3D and analytical functionalities should result in a 4D archaeological GIS that can be used throughout the archaeological workflow. This paper investigates the feasibility of extending a virtual globe to such a user-friendly system. This involves a technical assessment by comparing the characteristics of virtual globes with user, data, functional, and organizational requirements. The prototypical implementation consequently uses Cesium® as basis. This prototype served for the practical feasibility evaluation. The usability test with two Flemish archaeological organizations has shown broad support for a low-threshold 4D ArcheoGIS from its potential end-users. Although public activities, analyses, and fieldwork preparations were mentioned as application domains, extending the system to fit archaeological workflows or a cyberinfrastructure is necessary.

From Virtual Globes to ArcheoGIS: Determining the Technical and Practical Feasibilities

Web mapping and virtual globes are increasingly used to communicate 3D geospatial results to fellow researchers and the public. The lack of analytical functionality nonetheless restricts their utility in research, including archaeology. Integrating both 3D and analytical functionalities should result in a 4D archaeological GIS that can be used throughout the archaeological workflow. This paper investigates the feasibility of extending a virtual globe to such a user-friendly system. This involves a technical assessment by comparing the characteristics of virtual globes with user, data, functional, and organizational requirements. The prototypical implementation consequently uses Cesium® as basis. This prototype served for the practical feasibility evaluation. The usability test with two Flemish archaeological organizations has shown broad support for a low-threshold 4D ArcheoGIS from its potential end-users. Although public activities, analyses, and fieldwork preparations were mentioned as application domains, extending the system to fit archaeological workflows or a cyberinfrastructure is necessary.

Qualitative and Quantitative Data on the Use of the Internet for Archaeological Information

These survey results are from an online survey of 577 UK-based archaeological volunteers, professional archaeologists and archaeological organisations. These data cover a variety of topics related to how and why people access the Internet for information about archaeology, including demographic information, activity relating to accessing information on archaeological topics, archaeological sharing and networking and the use of mobile phone apps and QR codes for public engagement. There is wide scope for further qualitative and quantitative analysis of these data.

Antisocial media in archaeology?

AbstractAn increasing number of individual archaeologists, archaeological organizations and institutions are using social media platforms for professional discussion and networking, research, public outreach and community archaeology. Proponents of social media have particularly pointed towards their potential for transforming the means of networking and communication in archaeology, and challenging traditional disciplinary expertise as archaeologists engage with more diverse and active online publics. This article provides a theoretically informed critical discussion, pointing towards the complex barriers to equal Internet access and usage, which challenge the ability of archaeologists to use social media as a tool to democratize the discipline. It concludes that, in many cases, social media appear to have reinforced archaeological authority at the expense of genuinely decentred engagement or collaboration. The article acts as a challenge to encourage further debate and empirically informed research in this emerging area of archaeological practice.

Understanding Archaeological Authority in a Digital Context

...with the increasing spread of social media and mobile communication, the social networks of knowledge construction are becoming not only vastly bigger and quicker and less limited by space and time constraints than they have been before, but also more of a threat to established authorities. (Hofheinz 2011, 1426) This article considers the issues of archaeological authority, expertise and organisational reputation in the UK from an online perspective, and questions whether the participatory promise of social media technologies can, and should, challenge archaeological authority. It explores how these issues are approached and mediated online, the issues of digital literacy for audience reception, and the approaches used by archaeological organisations to address the challenges of undertaking digital public archaeology projects whilst maintaining archaeological rigour and the visible performance of expertise. It discusses how the concepts of archaeological authority and expertise are demonstrated and practised online, using data from my doctoral research, undertaken from 2011 to 2013. This article questions if the presence of websites dedicated to the promulgation of alternative archaeologies on the Internet can present challenges for the performance of archaeological expertise online, and how organisations monitor and respond to alternative archaeological interpretations and news stories.

A Digital Public Archaeology?

<p class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;" align="JUSTIFY"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif;">Digital Public Archaeology is a very new label for a contemporary practice, and as such has been subject to a limited amount of theoretical scrutiny. The rapid pace of change within Internet technologies has significantly expanded potential for this ‘digital’ form of Public Archaeology practice. Internet technologies can be used to gather contributions of ‘crowd-sourced’ archaeological content; to share and discuss archaeological news and discoveries; foster online community identity, situated around the topic of archaeology and wider heritage issues, or to elicit financial support. Expectations of and opportunities for social, collaborative and individual participation and interaction with cultural heritage have grown accordingly. Professional archaeological organisations are increasingly encouraged, if not required, to disseminate their grey literature reports, publications, educational resources, data-sets, images and other archaeological informatics through digital means, frequently as mandatory outputs for impact assessment and public accountability. Real-time sharing, comment and feedback of archaeological information online and via mobile technologies stand in contrast to lengthy waits for publication and wider dissemination. This paper will explore the literature on the practice of Public Archaeology in the UK, and issues associated with the development of digital public engagement in the heritage sector.</span>

Artwork Photography in Hungary: The Early Years (1859–1885)

This study presents an overview of the historical photography collections in Hungary documenting artworks from the late 1850s through the mid‐1880s. Initially, photographs were acquired by museums, art educational institutions, archaeological and historic preservation organizations either through purchase or as donations. Soon curators, librarians, and cultural administrators recognized the value of documenting Hungary’s important artistic and cultural treasures. By using photographs as the bases for engravings and later photomechanical processes in publications, they could very effectively record and promote Hungary’s collections outside the country. Over the years, photography was also used to record artworks exhibited in temporary exhibitions. The curators, backed with financial support from the cultural ministry, hired the most qualified artwork photographers to create records of the collections as well as exhibitions, such as the Book Exhibition of Budapest in 1882 and the Goldsmith’s Exhibition of 1884. Many photographers (summarized in the appendix at the end of this article) were involved in these early documentation efforts and their legacies remain in Hungarian libraries, museums, and cultural organizations. This article reveals how these artwork photography collections began and where they are today.

Managing Oman's Archaeological Resource: Historical Perspectives

This article examines the history of the development of archaeological resource management in the Sultanate of Oman. It provides an overview of past and present practices and investigates the relevance of current management to the present state of Omani society. Although archaeological resource management in Oman started only three decades ago, the government has made enormous progress in establishing archaeological organizations and in creating their administrative and legislative tools. Nevertheless, it is also evident that the national system of archaeological resource management is facing a number of challenges that need to be addressed. The significance of this study lies in the fact that it is the first attempt to review this resource management historically. It aims to fill an obvious lacuna left by the many researchers who, since starting their activities in the 1950s, have only focused on the archaeology of the resource without evaluating the system through which this resource has been managed.

The Current Decline in Archaeological Society Memberships in Connecticut: Causes, Effects, and Possible Solutions

The archaeological community is composed of professionals and amateurs who want to learn more about the past. Since both segments use information collected by the other, spreading information becomes part of the learning. People write about what they find, others read these reports, and everyone benefits. However, this is happening less and less. The system has broken down and needs to be fixed. We will attempt to find solutions for strengthening the structure of the various archaeological societies and organizations, encouraging new members by broadening the appeal, and exploring an improved system for transferring archaeological information. At the same time we must expand the places receiving archaeological information to include schools and historical societies now only concerned with recent American history. As part of this new program, a statewide research database available any time, anywhere to anyone is being suggested.

Contract archaeology in Scotland

IntroductionThe subject matter for this article is a large one and could be approached in a number of different ways. I have chosen to focus on some of the more distinctive characteristics of contract archaeology as it is currently practised in Scotland. This may encourage comparison with the situation elsewhere but it is not my intention to ‘compare and contrast’. I will leave it up to the reader, if they wish, to set their own experiences against the Scottish situation.I define contract archaeology as all types of archaeological work undertaken through a commercial contract. Scotland is a small country with a small economy and it has a commercial archaeological sector to scale. The nuniber of commercial archaeological organizations working regularly in Scotland is somewhere between 10 and 20 depending on your point of view. Only five of these organizations have permanent staff numbers in double figures; some of the others are effectively sole traders who may take on staff with project-specific contracts.

Maritime Archaeology: A Reader of Substantive and Theoretical Contributions. L. E. Babits and H. van Tilburg.

The Field: Underwater Archaeology: The Fos Underwater Excavations R. Baucaire. The Secular Debate: Underwater Archaeology, European Versus American J.L. Shiner. Ethics and the Great Debate: The World's Worst Investment: The Economics of Treasure Hunting with Real-Life Comparisons P. Throckmorton. Areal Studies: The Mediterranean: Bibliography. Northern Europe: Bibliography. The Caribbean: Bibliography. The Pacific Rim: Current Status of Underwater Archaeology in Malaysia A.H. Taha. The Arabic World: Bibliography. Africa: Bibliography. Research Design: Hypotheses Building: Theory: Finding Sites: Site Location Factors: Site Formation Processes: Survey Methodology: High Technology: History of Going Underwater: Magnetometer: Sonar: Mapping and Recording: Remote Operating Vehicle (ROV): Site Significance: Significance: Specific Criteria: Data Recovery: Pre-Excavation Recording: Sampling: Extreme Date Recovery Conditions: Conservation: Interpretation and Exhibition: Interpretation: Exhibition: 44 Additional Articles. Appendices: Archaeological Organizations and Journals. General Bibliographical Sources for 17th Through 19th Centuries. Index.