The Fourth Conference on Eurasian Archaeology
October 12-13, 2012
Cornell University
Fitful Histories and Unruly Publics:
Rethinking Community and Temporality in Eurasian Archaeology
The full CFP is available here.
Author: Adam Smith
I am a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the Archaeology Program. My research and writing are focused on issues of power, authority, and sovereignty in early complex societies and my fieldwork is located in the the South Caucasus. I've been conducting archaeological investigations in Armenia since 1992 and am particularly interested in how the material world of landscapes and objects shaped--and continue to shape--our political lives.
Remains Of Ancient Race Of Job Creators Found In Rust Belt | The Onion – Americas Finest News Source
Resources for an historical archaeology, or, with apologies to Robert Chambers. The Vestiges of the Economic History of Creation:
WASHINGTON—A team of leading archaeologists announced Monday they had uncovered the remains of an ancient job-creating race that, at the peak of its civilization, may have provided occupations for hundreds of thousands of humans in the American Northeast and Midwest.
via Remains Of Ancient Race Of Job Creators Found In Rust Belt | The Onion – Americas Finest News Source.
‘History of the World in 100 Objects’
Monday marks the US publication of The British Museum’s list of the 100 objects that narrate world history (including the Aztec double-headed serpent above). Details of the original project below.
IT was a project so audacious that it took 100 curators four years to complete it. The goal: to tell the history of the world through 100 objects culled from the British Museum’s sprawling collections. The result of endless scholarly debates was unveiled, object by chronological object, on aBBC Radio 4 program in early 2010, narrated by Neil MacGregor, director of the museum. Millions of listeners tuned in to hear his colorful stories — so many listeners that the BBC, together with the British Museum, published a hit book of the series, “A History of the World in 100 Objects,” which is being published in the United States on Monday.
Via: ‘History of the World in 100 Objects,’ From British Museum – NYTimes.com.
So what did they leave out? Well, from a Eurasian perspective, most everything since there is nothing in the 100 to represent the vast landmass (over 1/8 of inhabited land) until the Russian Revolution.
I was surprised that the Babylonian map of the word was not included. What better companion artifact to an ambitious material history of the world than one of the oldest remains of a similar ambition to map the world?
So what else did they leave out, keeping in mind that the objects can only come from the British Museum’s collections?
Archaeologists Worldwide Urge Halt to “Museum of Tolerance” Construction on Ancient Muslim Cemetery | Center for Constitutional Rights
October 20, 2011, New York; Jerusalem – In a letter submitted today, 84 leading archaeologists worldwide, with support from the Center for Constitutional Rights CCR and the Campaign to Preserve Mamilla Jerusalem Cemetery, urged Board Members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the mayor of Jerusalem, Mr. Nir Barkat, and the Head of the Israeli Antiquities Authority IAA to immediately halt current and future construction of the “Museum of Tolerance” on the site of Mamilla, a historically renowned Muslim cemetery. This plea comes as the Israeli architects commissioned to build the museum are threatening to resign from the project, as did Frank Gehry before them. The appeal is added to those of a growing number of cultural preservation and rights groups who have vocally opposed the project since 2010. Over this time, CCR has acted as legal counsel in appeals to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteurs on Religion and Racial Discrimination, the Independent Expert on Cultural Rights, and the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UNESCO to halt construction of the museum.
To see the petition go here:
Chicken or the Egg?
Looks like the age old question has been settled: 8000 year old chickens but no eggs. So I guess we now know which came first.
Archaeologists find earliest domestication of chickens in China
SHIJIAZHUANG, Oct. 16 Xinhua — Chickens began being domesticated in China about 8,000 years ago, far earlier than in the rest of the world,according to a recent study on fossils uncovered in north Chinas Hebei Province.
via Archaeologists find earliest domestication of chickens in China.
Forum Topic: Privatizing the Past
New matter for discussion in the Assemblages forum: Privatization and Nationalization.
Over the last decade, a primary thread of archaeological criticism has been to deplore the appropriation of various pasts by contemporary politics. These criticisms tended to focus almost exclusively nationalism and claims made by institutionalized political actors upon archaeological materials. So what are we to make of the move in Israel to privatize national parks, including archaeological and historical sites? In a quintessentially neo-liberal moment, the outsourcing of the past promises to lash interpretation not to governmental institutions that at least aspire to present a contemporary citizenry, but to corporations driven by private rather than public interests. How can archaeology simultaneously critique the insertion of the past into the political domain and decry its removal from the political domain without appearing hopelessly confused?
Research vs Tourism in Turkey
The pleasure of ruins supersedes the pedagogy of sites.
ANKARA. Turkey’s ability to manage its vast cultural heritage may be at crisis point, experts warn. The recent decision to transfer the excavation permits from three well-known classical sites from non-Turkish to Turkish universities—a practice almost unheard of in the protocol-laden world of archaeology—is a cracking of the whip over foreign scholars regarded as not working fast enough to transform the country’s extensive array of antiquities into tourist attractions.“The threats are direct and indirect and the atmosphere is just that much more difficult,” says Stephen Mitchell, the honorary secretary of the British Institute in Ankara. “Getting a permit is now a process of negotiation and academic concerns are not always the first priority,” he says.
via Turkish tourism drive threatens ancient sites | The Art Newspaper.
Anthropologists: Our work here is done.
Under the Republican governor’s agenda, the winners would include programs in mathematics and science, but at the cost of supporting the humanities, the newspaper reports. “If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education, then I’m going to take that money to create jobs,” Mr. Scott told the paper. “So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state. Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so.”
UPDATE: Say it ain’t so Vladimir!
Putin’s Diving Exploit Was a Setup, Aide Says – NYTimes.com
MOSCOW — Vladimir V. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitri S. Peskov, says now-famous television video of the Russian prime minister diving to the bottom of a bay and discovering ceramic jugs from the sixth century was, in fact, a setup.
via Putin’s Diving Exploit Was a Setup, Aide Says – NYTimes.com.
BBC Drops B.C./A.D.
BBC adopts BCE/CE, until they don’t….
LONDON RNS British Christians are incensed after the state-funded BBC decided to jettison the terms B.C. and A.D. in favor of B.C.E. and C.E. in historical date references.The broadcaster has directed that the traditional B.C. Before Christ and A.D. Anno Domini, or Year of the Lord be replaced by B.C.E. Before Common Era and C.E. Common Era in its television and radio broadcasts.
…
UPDATE:
On Wednesday (Sept. 28), a BBC spokeswoman addressed the controversy, saying: “Whilst the BBC uses B.C. and A.D. like most people as standard terminology, it is also possible for individuals to use different terminology if they wish to, particularly as it is now commonly used in historical research.”
via BBC Drops B.C./A.D. Dating Method: Christians Outraged UPDATE.
Next up for the BBC: PYT and OPP.