The 1970 UNESCO ‘Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property’ addressed the issue of “the illicit import, export and transfer of ownership of cultural property”. This was followed by the 1973 Archaeological Institute of America declaration “The Archaeological Institute of America believes that…
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Once upon a time: Truth as an Expression
Tim Neal (The University of Sheffield) This photo essay was presented at the Association of Social Anthropologist’s conference in London in 2007. It was part of a panel organised around the theme of “Modernising archaeological tourism: from image conflict to archaeological expressionism” convened by Ian Russell and Andrew Cochrane. Taking up the theme of mentality/materiality,…
Celtic Iron Age Sword Deposits and Arthur’s Lady of the Lake
Fig. 1 N. C. Wyeth, “Sword Excalibur Rises From the Lake” (c. early 20th c.) Malory tells in his Morte d’Arthur epic (c. 1450) that just before the mortally-wounded Arthur passes from this world to Avalon, Arthur instructs Sir Bedivere (Bedwyr) to throw his sword Excalibur into the nearby water. Bedivere does not wish to…
Imagination to Interpretation
Christa M. Beranek (Boston University, Journal of Field Archaeology) <fontcolor=yellow>Recently, archaeologists have been incorporating fictional narratives into their scholarly texts or even writing stand-alone fictional pieces (see Joyce 2006; Wilkie 2003 for reviews of works in this form). Archaeologists use fictional or narrative writing for a number of reasons—as an alternative to/ critique of traditional…
Dov’e il Colosseo? (Where is the Colosseum?)
An enquiry into the multiplicity of relations with an “emblem of imperial Rome” Cecelia Feldman Weiss (Google earth image) Where is the Colosseum? The answer to this question seems obvious: it is a structure that stands prominently in Rome, in the valley between the Palatine and Esqueline Hills, and here it has stood for nearly…
Reflections on the 2008 SHA Conference
Brent Fortenberry, Boston University Travis Parno, Boston University This year’s meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology in Albuquerque, New Mexico examined the interface between the archaeological community and the various publics with whom we interact. Papers explored the logistics, methodologies, and theories behind public archaeologies, a subject which has recently gained much attention. While…