Role Of Archaeology Research Articles

The Role of Archaeology in Forming Greek National Identity and its Embodiment in European identity

The murder of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, for many the ‘founder of archaeology’, in 1768 in a Trieste inn, did not mean the end for his work, which could be said to have been the key to understanding ancient Greece, which Europe was re-discovering at the time. In the late Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, followed by Romanticism, elevated classical, Hellenistic and Roman antiquity, and archaeological research, to the centre of academic quests, while the inclusion of archaeological sites in the era’s Grand Tours fed into a belief in the ‘Regeneration’/‘Wiedergeburt’ of Greece. The Modern Greek Enlightenment flourished during this same period, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with a concomitant classicizing turn. Ancient Greek texts were republished by Greek scholars, especially in the European centres of the Greek diaspora. An admiration for antiquity was intertwined into the Neohellenic national identity, and the first rulers of the free Greek State undertook to take care of the nation’s archaeological monuments. In 1837, under ‘Bavarian rule’, the first Greek University and the ‘Archaeological Society of Greece in Athens’ were set up. Archaeologists flocked to Greece and those parts of the ancient Greek world that were still part of the Ottoman Empire. The showcasing of classical monuments, at the expense of the Byzantine past, would remain the rule until the latter half of the nineteenth century. Modern Greek national identity was primarily underpinned by admiration for antiquity, which was viewed as a source of modern Hellenism, and for ‘enlightened, savant, good-governed Europe’. Today, the ‘new archaeology’ is striving to call these foundations into question.

A versatile mechanized setup for controlled experiments in archeology

ABSTRACT Experimentation has always played an important role in archeology, in particular to create reference collections for use-wear studies. Different types of experiments can answer different questions; all types should therefore be combined to obtain a holistic view. In controlled experiments, some factors are tested, while the other factors are kept constant to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. Yet, controlled experiments have been conducted with variable degrees of control. Although they seem decoupled from archeological applications, mechanized experiments and the robust causal relationships they measure are critical to answer archeological questions like understanding the processes of use-wear formation. Here we introduce the concept behind using the SMARTTESTER®, a modular material tester, and we present four different setups (linear, rotary, percussion and oscillating) and their potential archeological applications. Such experiments will contribute to our understanding of causality in human tool use.

Historical heritage, archaeological ethics and the social role of archaeology

Historical heritage, archaeological ethics and the social role of archaeology

USING GEOMATICS TO UNDERSTAND AND VALORIZE HERITAGE, THREE DIFFERENT CONTEXTS OF STUDY: SYRIA, ITALY, AND FRANCE

Abstract. Such innovative meeting dedicated to Cultural Heritage: challenges, new perspectives, and technological innovation are ‘vital’ in order to exchange different experiences, needs, opportunities, and, above all, to find new approaches to preserve, at least, the memory of heritage for further generations. This paper includes some experiences accumulated throughout several topographic projects concerning Christianity during the Late Antiquity and Early Medieval Ages in northern Syria, in Liguria in Italy, and in Provence in France. Geospatial and Geomatics data have been used in these investigations, since 2007, thanks to the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology of Rome, the National Institute for Art History in Paris, Nino Lamboglia Foundation, and Marc de Montalembert Foundation. The Geospatial data highlighted for the first time, after about a century of research, much un- published data about Syrian monasteries. One of our goals was to understand what the exact differences are from all points of view: time, results, and economic costs between Agisoft Photoscan and MicMac. The models of the two applications are well made, but we noticed that the model created by MicMac software is excellent, despite being an open source application. In 2017, due to the positive geomathic results during the last three seasons of our excavations on the site of Capo Don, the first Multimedial Exhibition Space (SEM) of the town Riva Ligure was inaugurated, thanks to Comune of Riva Ligure, and all research team members guided by professor Philippe Pergola. Geomatics is a powerful tool not only for preserving memories, but it is ideal for dissemination heritage on the public levels, exactly like the role of archaeology.

Empowering Tribal Youth in Cultural Heritage Management: A Case Study from the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

This paper explores a collaborative program focused on identifying the role of archaeology in heritage education and management delivered under cultural leadership. The method of delivery and teaching is reflexive and adaptive, via on-ground conservation projects that have tangible social outcomes focused on empowering Alaskan Native youth. A case study from the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska examines how action-oriented education, via conservation, is critical to the development of a more socially relevant archaeology. At the same time, the program ensures the archaeological process links with the transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and the incorporation of local cultural structures for practical landscape management.

Non-destructive screening methodology based on ED-XRF for the classification of medieval and post-medieval archaeological ceramics

Compositional analysis of ceramics plays a crucial role in Archaeology because following the proper methodology, it enables to obtain knowledge about past human behavior. In this regard, X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (XRF) involves promising possibilities on the non-destructive analysis of pottery. Nonetheless, in comparison to traditionally employed techniques such as ICP-MS or NAA, there are several limitations to overcome (e.g. limits of detection, precision, accuracy, etc.). The goal of this work was to develop a non-destructive multi-point strategy based on ED-XRF and, subsequently, assess to what extent a destructively obtained classification by ICP-MS can be reproduced by the one obtained non-destructively. The experiment was applied to a set of 47 representative Medieval and post-Medieval ceramics from the Iberian Peninsula corresponding to 4 archaeological sites. The results from both methods were explored statistically (HCA and PCA) and showed that the classification obtained non-destructively achieved a high-level of correspondence with the one obtained by ICP-MS. Thus, the screening potential of the methodology was demonstrated. Likewise, factors involved in the geochemical characterization such as instrumental parameters, concentration ranges of these ceramics typologies, their heterogeneity and the role of the ubiquitous lead glazes were addressed.

Conducting Archaeogaming & Protecting Digital Heritage: Does the Future for Archaeology Lie in The Immaterial

Digital games have become considerable and influential cultural transmitters throughout the past years. As social sciences had grasped the importance of this medium as an object of study, the field of archaeology has increasingly taken notice of the digital leisure worlds of millions of players. Studying games as artefacts or archaeological sites have been therefore pioneering research programmes by scholars like Andrew Reinhard in order to test the boundaries of the archaeological framework, as also to generate important insight on our society by applying archaeological methodology on digital games. The aim of this paper is to discuss the possible role of archaeology in its conjunction with video games and tries to establish a critical perspective towards the enthusiastic first wave of the archaeology of video games.

Antiquarianism as a Vital Historiography for the Twenty-First Century

Antiquarianism as a Vital Historiography for the Twenty-First Century

Archeologie in musea: een passend verleden voor de Sami?

A Sami past. 
 The Sami are still struggling for general acceptance of their identity and cultural expression. They are the indigenous population of Fennoscandia, and although now mostly associated with reindeer herding, historically their subsistence was based mostly on fishing, hunting, agriculture, animal husbandry, and only small-scale reindeer herding. In this paper it is probed how contemporary majority and Sami museums convey information about the Sami and their past, with a special focus on the role of archaeology. This is important because museums have an active role in the creation of knowledge and identity. There are several discrepancies between what archaeology is and can present, and how the Sami see their culture and past. Archaeology works with linear time, and focuses on material culture that is, landscape-wise, taken out of context. By contrast, Sami culture emphasizes the importance of material culture within the landscape, feels affiliated with circular time and nature, and does not accept all material culture that archaeology classifies as Sami. In the case of the Sami, archaeology is a less-than-ideal way to communicate about their past and culture.

Where Is the Archeological Evidence of the Existence of a Khazar State?

The role of archeology in solving issues of Khazar history is evident. Khazar cultural heritage in Eastern Europe should be discussed through reliance on archaeological material of reliably established Khazar cultural attribution. While searching for such material one sometimes is faced with curious cases far from science, as well as scientific guesswork. Such free interpretations of the archaeological sources, ignoring known methodical procedures and attributing Saltovo archaeological culture and its variants too loosely has resulted in discrediting the very existence of Khazar cultural heritage in Eastern Europe. This particularly relates to the attribution of certain tribal entities to the Khazars. Khazar antiquities do exist in South Russia, but they are not represented by Saltovo culture in any strict classical meaning of the term. The territory of the Khazar domain may be archeologically marked by meticulous analysis and historical interpretation of three categories of archeological sources dated from the second half of the 8 th - first half of the 10 th centuries: 1) spatial distribution of fortresses of the Byzantine type that guarded the Khazar borders; 2) three directions of migrations marked by catacomb burial rites of Alan tribes settled along the Khazar frontier for its protection; 3) geographical spread of burial sites displaying kurgan burials encircled with square-shaped ditches - the monuments left by the Khazar tribes proper.

"They Ought to Know the Achievements of the Ancient Greeks": the Views of Greek Prospective Teachers on the Educational Role of Archaeology

"They Ought to Know the Achievements of the Ancient Greeks": the Views of Greek Prospective Teachers on the Educational Role of Archaeology

Introduction

Introduction

A Mere Addition to Someone Else's Genealogy? Perceptions of Ancient Cultural Heritage, Public Policy, and Collective Memory in Portugal

Debates on cultural heritage and collective memory emphasize the contested role of archaeology in national narratives to the exclusion of other parameters. Yet, cultural heritage can be made visible or remain invisible for reasons other than (un)conscious ideological preoccupations. The representation of the Phoenician archaeological record in Portugal is used to demonstrate that, despite its detachment from collective memory, the ancient cultural heritage can transcend its distance from the past, attaining significance within the contemporary social milieu. The Portuguese embrace their links with Phoenician cultural heritage, investing in academic research and cultural heritage. The corresponding ancient culture remains an adjunct of the archaeological evidence, researched and publicized, but not as an extension of the ‘collective self’ of modern society. Shifting this devoid-of-symbolic-meaning archaeological record onto the level of contemporary reality accords it visibility, even as the long-forgotten Phoenician origins of some still practiced traditions remain an unacknowledged, ‘invisible’ heritage.

Heritage spectacles: the case of Amphipolis excavations during the Greek economic crisis

This article explores the ways in which the archaeological excavations at Amphipolis, Northern Greece, were transformed into a ‘heritage spectacle’ during the summer of 2014. The article argues that the spectacularisation of Amphipolis excavations constituted a powerful, political medium for dis-orientating the wider Greek public from issues related to the severe economic crisis of the country. Although the practice of heritage spectacularisation is not new, the media spectacle of Amphipolis introduced an advanced mechanism for spectacularizing archaeological research and the past. The article deconstructs this mechanism through a thematic content analysis of about 100 newspaper articles published in the Greek press, filtered through the lenses of spectacle theory. As it is demonstrated, the spectacularisation process of Amphipolis excavations is embodied by emotive dramatisation, banal cultural symbols, escapism and power imbalances. The article concludes with an interpretive framework for heritage spectacles while highlighting ethical and practical implications regarding the role of archaeologists and heritage practitioners towards political ‘abuse’ of heritage in times of socio-economic and political crises.

A theory of regime change on the Texas Coastal Plain

The adaptive cycle, a seminal component of resilience theory, is a powerful model that archaeologists use to understand the persistence and transformation of prehistoric societies. In this paper, we argue that resilience theory will have a more enduring explanatory role in archaeology if scholars can build on the initial insights of the adaptive cycle model and create more contextualized hypotheses of social-ecological change. By contextualized hypotheses we mean testable hypotheses that specify: (1) the form of the connections among people and ecological elements and how those connections change; and (2) the resilience-vulnerability tradeoffs associated with changes in the networks and institutions that link social and ecological processes. To develop such a contextualized hypothesis, we combine our knowledge of the prehistory of the Texas Coastal Plain (TCP), mathematical modeling, and the concept of panarchy to study why human societies successfully cope with the interrelated forces of globalization, population growth, and climate change, and, sometimes, fail to cope with these interrelated forces. Our hypothesis is that, in response to population growth, hunter-gatherers on the TCP created increasingly dense social networks that allowed individuals to maintain residual access to important sources of food. While this was a good strategy for individuals to maintain a reliable supply of food in a variable environment, increasingly elaborate social networks created a panarchy of reachable forager-resource systems. The panarchy of forager-resource systems on the TCP created a hidden fragility: The potential for the failure of resources in one system to cascade from system-to-system across the entire TCP. We propose that this occurred around 700 years BP, causing a 6000 year old ritual and mortuary complex to reorganize.

The Role of Archeology on Earth Buildings and Earth Architecture in the World

Many archeologists have carried out many excavations to investigate many archeological sites in various parts of the world. The current paper is aimed at investigating the role of archeology on earth buildings and earth architecture in the world. The current study provides a review of many archaeological studies in collaboration with analyses of the construction techniques applied in various archaeological sites. In fact, in order to draw a conclusion regarding to the role of archeology on earth architecture, diverse investigations which have studied into archeological and structural aspects of vernacular buildings have been presented. Many of these researches put emphasis on archeological aspects of various sites, but none concentrated on the role of archeological sites on earth buildings. According to different investigations, results signify that utilization of the past construction methods applied in construction of ancient vernacular buildings can be developed, and utilized in modern structures. Also, archeologists deemed that further devastating effects such as humid and rain should be considered in order to hamper the deconstruction of vernacular buildings. Prospects for further developments of earth architecture are so bright if engineers augment the quality of earthen materials, and earth construction techniques using the methods which are founded on ancient methods.

The significant past and insignificant archaeologists. Who informs the public about their ‘national’ past? The case of Romania

AbstractThis paper addresses the role of archaeologists in informing the public about a fundamental component of contemporary Romanian identity: the Dacian heritage. I start by exploring how the Dacians and Romanians came to be connected, a process that resulted from a combination of nationalistic zeal on behalf of archaeologists and the nationalist propaganda of the Ceauşescu regime during the 1970s and 1980s. I then move to the present-day situation, where I argue that archaeologists have reduced themselves to having a minor role in the public sphere, while discussions about the Dacians are dominated by two main players: pseudoarchaeologists and re-enactors. This state of affairs delegitimizes Romanian archaeology and places self-declared specialists and enthusiasts in the position of experts. Some of the Dacian narratives produced in this environment are infused with strong nationalist messages and have the potential to fuel extreme right-wing and even xenophobic movements. Consequently, in the final part of the paper, I recommend that Romanian archaeologists should challenge the representations and interpretations of pseudoarchaeologists and re-enactors. Moreover, academics should make it a priority to re-engage with the public and disseminate their work to a broad audience in a convincing manner.

Archaeological Ethnography, Heritage Management, and Community Archaeology: A Pragmatic Approach from Crete

This article examines the introduction of archaeological ethnography as an approach to establish positioned research and bring context-specific and reflexive considerations into community archaeology projects. It considers recent critiques of heritage management in archaeology and the role of archaeologists as experts in it, contending that smaller and less prominent sites exist in different contexts and pose different problems than large-scale projects usually addressed in the literature. We describe how the ‘Three Peak Sanctuaries of Central Crete’ project, investigating prehistoric Minoan ritual sites, involves communities and stakeholders and what demands the latter pose on experts in the field. Archaeological work is always already implicated in local development projects which create and reproduce power hierarchies. It is therefore important that archaeologists maintain their critical distance from official heritage discourses, as they are materialized in development programmes, while at the same time engaging with local expectations and power struggles; they also have to critically address and position their own assumptions. We use examples from our community archaeology project to propose that these goals can be reached through archaeological ethnographic fieldwork that should precede any archaeological project to inform its methodological decisions, engage stakeholders, and collaboratively shape heritage management strategies.

At that Edge: Archaeology, Heritage Education, and Human Rights in the Brazilian Amazon

I herein discuss contract archaeology in the Brazilian Amazon and its relation with heritage and local communities. I deal with the asymmetries produced by large-scale development projects, legitimized by the State and reified by archaeology. By examining a heritage education project I conclude that these initiatives instead of promoting social inclusion through heritage may in fact deepen inequality. This case study discusses the impacts of these activities at Serra Pelada, a village of gold miners where the dramatic violation of human rights demonstrates that the role of archaeology goes far beyond its epistemic goals.

Surveying New Sites

This study examines how an archaeological approach can be applied to the analysis of online spaces and websites as a mode of critical inquiry. With a nascent “digital archaeology”, which has emerged within media studies, the role of archaeology can be regarded as being reduced to a convenient metaphor in these discussions as scholars seek to “unearth” and “excavate” connections between technology and society. To counter such limiting and one-dimensional assessments of the discipline, this research highlights how archaeology as a study concerned with space, place and materiality can be mobilised to investigate the digital realm. Therefore, using theories derived from critical code studies, this article highlights the potential of an archaeological survey of the internet by examining the site of Stonehenge within the online landscape.