Archaeological Representation Research Articles

Of robots and ancient mysteries: Representations of Jōmon figurines as cultural heritage and popular culture

Final Jōmon ceramic figurines known as shakōki dogū have been incorporated into popular culture for decades in Japan, but few studies have examined how these sources represent shakōki dogū or how they contribute to public meaning making about the past. Using perspectives from archaeological representation studies, this paper explores trends in when, where, and how shakōki dogū appear in Japanese media, such as anime, manga, and games. In didactic sources, shakōki dogū are predominantly characterized as female figurines connected to Jōmon ritual and Japanese cultural origins. While the dogū observed here were often depicted as ancient and magical, they were more likely to be masculine, antagonistic, and generic symbols of a distant past, rather than references to the Jōmon or Japanese heritage. This departure from a divine feminine interpretation is discussed in relation to the video game industry, science fiction and fantasy genres, and Arahabaki in the popular mind.

The archaeology of 19th century oyster consumption in Melbourne

ABSTRACTThis paper presents comparative research on marine shell from four 19th century historical archaeological sites in Melbourne. The shell derives predominantly from Mud Oyster (Ostrea angasi) and Sydney Rock Oyster (Saccostrea glomerata) commercially harvested from natural reefs along the south‐east Australian coastline. The research collects quantitative data that informs on the 19th century oyster industry and investigates inter‐site shell variability and its implications for processing, consumption and discard. Dredging of subtidal reefs provides an explanation for the numerical dominance of oyster, the presence of subfossil cultch (Anadara) and the wide range of minor shellfish. Mud oyster and Sydney rock oyster comparisons in valve size, sided counts and preservation record significant differences within and between sites due to the origins, depositional conditions and the processing of the shell. These data form the basis of two models. The first predicts the archaeological representation of reef dredging and ranks shellfish according to categories, from live oysters to dead shell sampled from the reef substrate. Based on oyster shell anatomy and the separate uses of the right (lid) and left (dish) valves, the second model considers how oyster processing and consumption is characterised archaeologically in differential valve counts and pairing rates.

Signs of prehistory. A Peircian semiotic approach to lithics

AbstractHow can we understand prehistoric lithic objects? What meaning should we give them and what view should we adopt to claim access to their significance? How can we reduce and clarify our biases? This article is a proposal to introduce Peircian semiotics to review lithic objects. For a long time, these were apprehended as types, sometimes within evolutionary lineages; however, in this research, knapped stone objects will be perceived through a semio-pragmatic grid and reviewed as signs. The proposed approach is a new way of accessing the fields of technical phenomena of prehistoric communities. This new perception aims at a quest for objectivity, by clarifying the affective, analytical and interpretative a priori as an answer to the sometimes very personal view of the prehistorian on lithic objects. Charles Sanders Peirce’s logical theory of signs or semiotics is contextualized within an ‘artisanal’ reading of prehistoric tools as initiated by Éric Boëda and further developed by Michel Lepot. Through this phaneroscopic/phenomenological vision, the technical object, now a sign-object, is placed in action (semiosis) within a system of signs. This new trajectory is positioned both as a methodological tool and as an innovative milestone in the construction of a more logical episteme in Prehistory, taking lithics both as signs of past human activity and of archaeological representations.

Addressing the Alien in the Room: Why Public Perception is Imperative to the Field of Archaeology

Pseudoscience in archaeology, or pseudoarchaeology, are ideas formed by distrust, with minimal observable evidence that explain the human past. In a world of widespread, accessible misinformation, researchers often dismiss the ideas presented within pseudoscientific theory as laughable or irrelevant. On the contrary, many of these thoughts are supported by and for colonialist or racist agendas. With popular media throughout North America now supporting pseudoarchaeology, misinformation is beginning to take a hold on public perception of the field of archaeology. To explore this influence further, this paper summarizes the origins and thoughts presented within popular pseudoarchaeology, current public understanding of archaeology, and why this matters to archaeologists. This paper primarily considers how archaeology is portrayed in Canada and the United States, although I use additional international examples to underscore the importance of global public engagement and media influences within the field of archaeology. Stressing the lack of accurate representation of archaeology, especially regarding the representation of Indigenous peoples, provides an invitation to strive for public engagement and honest discourse about the field.

Archaeology, Emotional Storytelling, and Performance

Archaeologists tell stories about the past through the interpretation of material remains, frequently an emotional pursuit. Even so, the profession is often represented simplistically, dispassionately, or problematically, according to perspectives on practice that have little to do with the actuality. The South Korean stage musical Return: The Promise of the Day is an example of how the representation of archaeology and archaeological fieldwork specifically have been incorporated into staging and storytelling to tell difficult stories about the past to both domestic and international audiences. The practice of conflict archaeology is represented as a means of facilitating the understanding of violent conflict across generations. This paper accounts for how Return makes use of archaeology, further showcasing the potential for representations of archaeology and archaeological practice to tell emotional stories and expand heritage audiences.

Graphic representation of the degree of historical-archaeological evidence: the 3D reconstruction of the \u201cBaker\u2019s House\u201d

Over the years, the methodologies used for graphic representation in archaeology have evolved. The substantial change in representation was achieved with the use of computer software. Currently, 3D sketch scanning and photogrammetry are predominating tools used in this field. A new methodology, i.e., the use of the historical-archaeological evidence level scale, has entered this discipline to show the veracity of archaeological studies, as well as that of the vestiges found. The present study is focused on the virtual reconstruction of the ‘Baker’s House’ in the archaeological site of Torreparedones (Córdoba, Spain). The main aim of this study was to show and identify the veracity of the obtained reconstruction, through the use of the historical-archaeological evidence scale and the elaboration of a typological rank. The methodology used shows the evidence level employed by experts in the creation of virtual representations. The dissemination of the proposed historical-archaeological evidence scale entails the graphical identification of the veracity of reconstructions in this type of representations, always complying with the scientific quality criteria established by the Seville Letter.

Getting Your Feet Wet

AbstractThere is a lack of broad representation in archaeology generally, and in a specialized field such as underwater archaeology, this issue is only exacerbated. Underwater archaeological sites are often “out of sight, out of mind,“” creating a general lack of awareness of underwater cultural heritage and career prospects in many communities. Coupled with a lack of education and the additional demands of working in a submerged environment (e.g., scuba diving), there is a striking lack of diversity in underwater archaeology. Overall, underwater archaeologists are a largely homogeneous group, particularly along the lines of race and wealth—categories that often overlap. In the context of asking broader questions such as “Why are there so few underwater archaeologists of color?” and “How can we do better?” this article outlines the barriers to inclusivity writ large in underwater archaeology and provides solutions for increasing diversity and accessibility in the field, including specific opportunities and resources for underrepresented groups to “get their feet wet.”

Ambiguous Boeslunde Figure

This article presents a unique female figure found in Boeslunde, Zealand, Denmark. It stands at just 1.5 cm and is made of gilded silver with remarkably refined details. The date of the figure is discussed based on details of her garments, accessories, and hairstyle and she is compared to other archaeological representations and finds. Based on these criteria, a dating to the Late Iron Age/Early Viking Age is proposed. Her function is likewise discussed. By means of an examination of parallel finds, the figure’s function as a gaming piece or garment accessory has been ruled out. It is argued that she functioned as an amulet and her features are evaluated and discussed. Contemplating the figure from a ritual perspective, her necklace appears to be a significant attribute, an observation which has great implications for other representations such as the Odin-from-Lejre figure. It is, further considered whether her necklace is a representation of Freyja´s Brisingamen, and the little figure thus a depiction of Freyja, herself. Lastly, the intentionally differentiated shape and size of her eyes and their symbolic meaning is evaluated, and parallels are examined and discussed.

Beyond Tomb and Relic

The representation of archaeology and archaeologists in video games is notoriously flawed, having been deeply influenced by other popular cultural media. This representation is perpetuated by both video game designers who create artificial environments in which players “do” archaeology, and the players who occupy these digital environments. Rather than turn away from video games as lowbrow culture, video game cultures, both digital and real, are fertile fields for exploring anthropological and archaeological method and theory, cultural heritage, and historical realism. This article explores the intersection of video games, anthropological theory, and popular and academic pedagogy.

Representation and materiality in archaeology: A semiotic reconciliation

ABSTRACT In this introduction to the special edition, we argue that the theories of philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce have the potential to bridge some of the deepest divides in archaeology. We also demonstrate that the adoption of an extreme ‘anti-representational’ position in thing-centred turns in the discipline is misguided, as scholars recognize diverse modalities of representation beyond symbols and immaterial signifiers. By combining the insights of Peircean semiotics, assemblage theory, and new approaches inspired by the ontological turn, we rehabilitate representation as a fundamental material process in the exercise of agency and the making and transformation of ‘meaningfully constituted worlds.’ Mobilizing theories on semiotic ideologies in particular, we further contend that the material worlds assembled through representational processes can often be harmful, unjust, contradictory, challenged and potentially reconfigured. Ultimately, as a semiotic science in its own right, archaeology must devise new ways to analyse the mediated representations of the past subjects they study. The diverse articles of this issue have made an important contribution exploring this central problem in archaeological research.

An Integrated Approach to 3D Web Visualization of Cultural Heritage Heterogeneous Datasets

The evolution of the high-quality 3D archaeological representations from niche products to integrated online media has not yet been completed. Digital archives of the field often lack multimodal data interoperability, user interaction and intelligibility. A web-based cultural heritage archive that compensates for these issues is presented in this paper. The multi-resolution 3D models constitute the core of the visualization on top of which supportive documentation data and multimedia content are spatial and logical connected. Our holistic approach focuses on the dynamic manipulation of the 3D scene through the development of advanced navigation mechanisms and information retrieval tools. Users parse the multi-modal content in a geo-referenced way through interactive annotation systems over cultural points of interest and automatic narrative tours. Multiple 3D and 2D viewpoints are enabled in real-time to support data inspection. The implementation exploits front-end programming languages, 3D graphic libraries and visualization frameworks to handle efficiently the asynchronous operations and preserve the initial assets’ accuracy. The choice of Greece’s Meteora, UNESCO world site, as a case study accounts for the platform’s applicability to complex geometries and large-scale historical environments.

‘What a Wonderful Past’! Material Culture and Archaeological Representations in Greek Primary History Textbooks (1974–2020)

This paper explores the impact of archaeology in Greek formal education based on a research of the primary history textbooks of three different periods (1974–86, 1986–2006, 2006–20). The sample data was analysed using quantitative and qualitative methodologies in order to examine representations, perceptions, and attitudes concerning archaeology and material culture imprinted within their textual content. The research revealed a significant presence of archaeological information and a plurality of meanings with which archaeology is invested, reflecting the dominant role of textbooks as teaching tools and agents of official historical knowledge and the multifaceted impact of archaeology on Greek society.

Past continuous: archaeological representations on Israeli banknotes and coins

ABSTRACTThis article analyzes the special role of archaeological representations on the legal tender in Israel. Money is one of the most pervasive symbolic instruments in daily life, frequently used for nation-building and carrying a political agenda. The use of archaeological representations on Israeli money has a clear political role: to revalidate the national Jewish-Zionist resurrection, to justify the nation’s claim for its historical land, and to draw the state’s borders through archaeological findings. This article sheds light on the centrality given to archaeology by members of the Bank of Israel Banknotes and Coinage Planning Committee and is based on its proceedings and correspondence from its inception in late 1955 to 2012.

Junk Drawer Project

In “The Junk Drawer Project”, I rely on assemblage photographs I created at a Caribbean archaeological site and in contemporary American homes, to interrogate how aesthetic mediation enters archaeological interpretations through such methodological practices as field photography, and how the visual media produced for field analyses themselves become sites upon which the archaeological imagination is constituted. By presenting the outcome of the Junk Drawer Project as a photo essay, I aim to offer a critical engagement with artifact photography based in the deliberate and attentive application to contemporary contexts of methodological practices developed for the study of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, in order to reveal the tensions between the sensorial properties of artifacts, the specific bearings of my technical training as an archaeologist, and the field of possible interpretations afforded by evidentiary regimes within which my work typically unfolds. Through the application of this methodology to my own scholarship and in-field practice, I also explore how archaeology’s unique contribution to our understanding of human experience in the context of transdisciplinary scholarship might contribute to a critical engagement with the “creative turn” in the humanities and social sciences. I argue that the practice of assemblage photography throws into relief how the tensions between archaeological scholarship, fieldwork and representation shape not only the constitution of “assemblages” into meaningfully discrete bundles of evidence, but also the very recording process through which traces of the past are made visible, and through which archaeologists are made visible to each-other and themselves as practitioners.

Archaeological survey and digital representation: an interactive platform for the dissemination of the project Baratti in 3D

Archaeological survey and digital representation: an interactive platform for the dissemination of the project Baratti in 3D

Thracology and Nationalism in Bulgaria. Deconstructing Contemporaneous Historical and Archaeological Representations

It is now widely acknowledged that Bulgarian academic discourses of the country’s so-called communist era (1945-1989) were heavily politicized with the aim of nationalizing and ethnicizing the history of the Bulgarian people. This communist era phenomenon subscribes to a chronologically vaster process of nationalist continuum recognized to have spanned from the middle-end of the nineteenth century to at least the early 1990s. Despite this trend, Bulgarian academics, especially in the field of archaeology, have more recently presented their post-communist, transition period disciplines as ideology-free, objective, scientific research.
 In this paper, we provide examples of recent theoretical developments and interpretations in the sub-field of thracology – studies of ancient Thracian culture – that indicate that this claim to objectivity is unfounded. Based on the examples provided we argue that not only have Bulgarian academic discourses in the fields in question not severed with the ethnicizing practices of the so-called nationalist continuum of the pre-communist and communist eras, but they are now flourishing on the nationalist foundation of the preceding century and a half. As such discourses are reproduced unquestioningly in specialized publications, their influence on right wing populism is incontestable as they provide the latter, wittingly or not, with the scientific authority it needs to justify its ethnicizing of “historical” tenets of racial and social discrimination.

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.

Archaeological Building Information Modeling: beyond scalable representation of architecture and archaeology

The widespread use of technologies and processes aimed at information management is one of the main trends in today’s building industry. Collaboration, coordination and validation of design results are fostered by software and workflows that involve many disciplines. Taking into account these premises, this paper deals with the application of such a paradigm to the archaeological and architectural fields. The application to the particular case study of the Etruscan town of Kainua aspires to be exemplary, since it is referred to different metric scales, from the building to the urban settlement. The digital reconstruction of the whole town, which can be explored and studied by means of Virtual Reality, was validated from a philological point of view using an original interdisciplinary approach called ArchaeoBIM, i.e. a methodology that encompasses the information flow among different disciplines with the same interest in understanding, and virtually reconstructing, lost realities. Using this method, architectural proportions brought by existing literature, physical behaviours of materials and components, layouts of rooms and spaces regulated by rituals or historic traditions are collected in a model that is able to represent morphologies, analysis and functions. This model, basically a geometric database linking heterogeneous documents, can be used in many different ways, from analytic abstractions to static simulations, from solar analysis to visual renderings. It becomes a common language for information exchange among scholars and users interested in the dissemination and study of the cultural heritage.

L’uso della tecnologia DEM nella documentazione archeologica. Alcune applicazioni in casi di scavo stratigrafico e nello studio dell’edilizia storica

This paper describes a procedure of archaeological interpretation and representation based on DEM technology. Through different contexts of application the aim is to describe the potential of this procedure, useful for recreating all the stratigraphic complexity of an archaeological site. After an introduction and a short history of studies about the use of DEM in archaeological documentation, the Author illustrates two examples of archaeological excavation and two of archaeology of architecture. The first case study is the Castle of Castelpizigolo (Toano, RE): the DEM documentation was used for the production of automatic profile lines of every archaeological stratification. A similar result was obtained in the documentation of the second archaeological context, the site of Capo Don (Riva Ligure, IM). The subject of this investigation was a fireplace dating from Late Antiquity to the early medieval period. The second part was focused on the use of DEM in the archaeological analysis of buildings. A preliminary investigation was focused on an example of household architecture from the island of Rab (Croatia). The DEM was used for the interpretation of the origins of some architectural instabilities, caused by stratigraphic changes which occurred in the original building. The last case study was the rural church of S. Giusto in Marlia (LU), where DEM analysis gave a new interpretation about the archaeological evolution of this building. The procedure described in this paper is an innovative method for producing a faster and more accurate archaeological documentation and for giving a new archaeological tool for the stratigraphic interpretation of historical buildings.

Re-Envisioning Tarascan Temporalities and Landscapes: Historical Being, Archaeological Representation, and Futurity in Past Social Processes

We apply a phenomenological perspective on landscape and geographic information system (GIS) applications in order to theorize how human perception and agency were likely implicated in processes of the formation of the late pre-Hispanic Tarascan State of West Central Mexico. The relatedness of landscape features in space or place-based perception has been well theorized; here, we further consider the relationality of places through time. In the changing landscape of the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin, the demographic and political core of the Tarascan State, temporality must have been vitally important to inhabitants of the basin. Utilizing GIS, we construct not only map-based analyses of the changing environment but also create viewsheds of past landscapes in order to see what past inhabitants of the basin would have seen in order to demonstrate that temporality would have been easily mapped in the landscape and its features. Finally, we discuss the role of temporality and cultural memory in an embodied landscape to model the various lake levels that past peoples could have anticipated through time based on their perceptions and memories.