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.

New Exhibit Opening: Armenia, the treasures of a millenary culture

The Caucasus and EurasiaLeave a Comment on New Exhibit Opening: Armenia, the treasures of a millenary culture

Venice hosts a multi-venue exhibition on the history and civilization of this Eurasian country from the dawn of Christianity to the 19th century. The exhibition kicks off the celebrations for the 500-year anniversary of the first book to be printed in the Armenian language

16 December 2011 – 10 April 2011

On the 500-year anniversary of the printing of the first book in the Armenian language in Venice (1512), the Correr Museum, the National Archaeological Museum and the monumental halls of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice will host, from 16 December 2011 to 10 April 2012, an exhibition titled “Armenia. Footsteps of a civilization”. The event, which enjoys the high patronage of the Presidents of the Italian and Armenian Republic, will kick of the celebrations for the anniversary, which will continue with a rich bill of cultural events in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, which was recently named World Book Capital 2012 by UNESCO.

The exhibition displays over 200 works from prestigious museums and libraries, arranged according to chronology and themes, and exploring the spirituality, art, architecture, economy, and thought of the Armenian people from the dawn of Christianity to the 19th century. Visitors will be able to admire ancient steles with engraved crosses, miniatures, sacred art documents, and precious reliquaries held for centuries in the Mother See of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Etchmiadzin.

Full story is here.

Gobeckli Tepe

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DEPT. OF ARCHEOLOGY

THE SANCTUARY

The world’s oldest temple and the dawn of civilization.

by Elif Batuman

DECEMBER 19, 2011

Subscribers can read this article on our iPad app or in our online archive. (Others can pay for access.)

ABSTRACT: DEPT. OF ARCHEOLOGY about the Göbekli Tepe. Late one October evening, the writer flew to Urfa, the city believed by Turkish Muslims to be the Ur of the Chaldeans, the birthplace of the prophet Abraham. The writer was in town to visit a site that predates Abraham and Job and monotheism by some eight millennia: a vast complex of Stonehenge-style megalithic circles in the Urfa countryside. For thousands of years, this Early Neolithic structure lay buried under multiple strata of prehistoric trash. Its Turkish name is Göbekli Tepe. It’s estimated to be eleven thousand years old—six and a half thousand years older than the Great Pyramid, about a half thousand years older than the walls of Jericho. The site comprises more than sixty multi-ton T-shaped limestone pillars, most of them engraved with bas-reliefs of dangerous animals.

via G : The New Yorker.

Cuneiform script in Malta

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Wow!

“Italian archaeologists working in Malta have made a sensational discovery: an agate carved with cuneiform script dating back to the 2nd millennium BC, but whose votive nature can be traced to the city of Nippur, in Mesopotamia. The finding took place during an excavation campaign conducted by an archaeological mission from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”,  led by palaeontology professor Alberto Cazzella, in collaboration with the University of Foggia, represented by Giulia Recchia, and in agreement with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage in Malta, directed by Anthony Pace.”  See full story: http://www.culturaitalia.it/pico/modules/focus/it/focus_1071.html?tema=key.language.archeology&T=1323717630353

 

Looted Dishes Used in Art Project Returned to Iraq – NYTimes.com

Archaeology, Things and ObjectsLeave a Comment on Looted Dishes Used in Art Project Returned to Iraq – NYTimes.com

 

 

 

 

Looted Dishes Used in Art Project Returned to Iraq – NYTimes.com.

It is interesting that the artist does not appear to reflect upon his own role as a buyer of looted goods in the article or the accompanying short film.  20th century dinner plates may not elicit the same sense of despoliation of heritage that more ancient artifacts do, but it is interesting to contemplate why not?

Is it a quality intrinsic to an object that gives it, over time, an appearance of timelessness, a patina?  Or is the difference extrinsic to the thing, located in the social relationships within which the plates circulated?

From a legal perspective, it appears that the federal marshals regard the plates to be equivalent to any kind of looted artifact.  However, if the objects had been seized from a dealer in antiquities, I doubt that person would have been brought to the Iraqi embassy and interviewed by an art reporter for the Times.

What is interesting is that although the plates were looted, like thousand of other things stolen from Iraq during the last decade, they were rediscovered acting not like commodities but like art.  The plates were performing differently than the typical looted antiquity.  If they had been seized from the person who sold them on eBay, the reaction of governmental agents and the Iraqi authorities would have been quite different.  So their movement from the commodity field to the art field engenders quite distinct legal and presumably public responses.

But what if after the close of the performance art exhibition, the artist offered to sell the plates as art objects?

ARISC Collaborative Heritage Management in the Republic of Armenia Grant

Archaeology, Things and ObjectsLeave a Comment on ARISC Collaborative Heritage Management in the Republic of Armenia Grant
The American Research Institute of the South Caucasus invites proposals from collaborative teams in support of the preservation and conservation of the Republic of Armenia’s archaeological and historical heritage.  This ARISC program, generously funded by Project Discovery!, seeks to foster joint work between American and Armenian scholars and institutions dedicated to the proper curation and preservation of heritage materials such as artifacts, sites, and manuscripts. Successful applications will demonstrate substantive collaborations that not only contribute to heritage conservation but also demonstrate efforts to build capacity and enhance local knowledge of current techniques and approaches to heritage management.
Proposals are submitted jointly by a team of two or more scholars and/or specialists.  At least one must be a citizen of the U.S. and one a citizen of the Republic of Armenia.  Proposals must show evidence of endorsement from all relevant institutions in Armenia in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the undertaking.  These grants are not intended for primary research.  The participants must demonstrate that project requires true collaboration to complete the project.  Late, incomplete, or ineligible applications will not be reviewed.
Awards are usually made for a period of 12 months during which the work described in the proposal must be completed. Extensions will be granted only with the explicit approval of ARISC.  Grants will typically not exceed $3000.
Application requirements: Please send a complete application including the application form, narrative description of the project, supporting documents, budget and curriculum vitae by February 17, 2012 to info “at” arisc. org.  All information must be received by February 17, 2012 in order for the proposal to be considered for the fellowship.

CORONA Satellite Imagery-based Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Near East | Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies

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An update on the CORONA Atlas of the Near East initiative.

January 2011 Project Update – Approximately 1200 images have had the necessary ground control information collected and readied for final processing. Of these over 200 are ready for publication – as orthorectified images – through an ArcGIS Imager Server service.  This service will enable a variety of access methods including a WMS, KML files for viewing Google Earth, ArcGIS.com and a dedicated mapping website. Each image will be available in the National Imagery Transformation Format (NITF) with embedded RPC information enabling a full range of photogrammetric processing including DEM generation from overlapping images, 3D feature mensuration and orthorectification against any available DEM. The RPC coefficients can also be adjusted against user-supplied ground control to the position and orientation properties of the image before orthorectification.

via CORONA Satellite Imagery-based Digital Archaeological Atlas of the Near East | Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies.

On Occupy Wall Street: People’s Mic

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My colleague Chris Garces has contributed this insightful post to the somatosphere blog on his ethnographic study of the Occupy Wall Street movement: http://somatosphere.net/2011/10/preamble-to-an-ethnography-of-the-people’s-mic.html.  I’m fascinated by the echolalic character of the “people’s microphone”–a phenomenon that in other settings (church, court, presidential swearing in ceremonies) is less an expression of popular heterodoxy than ingrained orthodoxy.

This strange, effervescent and recently discovered mode of address is actually part-in-parcel with a much longer-standing American tradition of hallowed political speech—actively cultivating a sense of deep horizontal community and democratic process not felt on the Left in this country for what seems like generations.

Read more on Chris’s post.  For me, the aesthetics of the people’s mic recalls two distinct experiences of the material world: the natural sublime of the echo (e.g., standing on the rim of a daunting canyon) and the technological sublime of the outdoor rock concert (e.g., Hello, Cleveland….leveland….eveland…eland…and…).

Arslantepe Conference Live Stream: 12/5-12/7, 2011

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Follow the convention in livestreaming!

From 5th to7th december it willbepossible follow the convention “Fifty years of Excavations and Researches at Arslantepe-Malatya (Turkey)” in livestreaming.

You can see the convention from the partner web site LiveStreaming and from the Sapienza University’s portal.

 

Watch live streaming video from uniroma1 at livestream.com
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