THE ARCHAEOREADER
WHERE A LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND READING MEET
WHERE A LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND READING MEET
"Dr. Jones," he said thoughtfully. "Yeah." I sighed. "At least you're not an archaeologist," he said, smiling". --Artifact, Gigi Pandian The 3rd book off TheArchaeoReader TBR is the entertaining, lighthearted mystery, Artifact by Gigi Pandian. Artifact introduces historian Dr. Jaya Jones, a scholar on the British East India Company--their trade routes and military skirmishes--at a university in San Francisco by day and tabla player by night. In this first installment of the five-book Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery series, Jaya finds herself mixed up in an adventure involving an "Indian treasure wrapped up in a Scottish legend." With the handsome UC Berkeley grad student Lane Peters Jaya discovers the armlet that her deceased ex, who was an archaeologist with pseudo leanings, sent her before his untimely death is part of an apocryphal Rajasthan ruby collection. Jaya may have some questionable taste in men (since her love interest, Lane Peters, turns out to be a retired jewel thief!) but her moral compass is not as she unravels the mystery behind her ex's demise and how an Indian treasure could be found at a Pictish archaeological site. I enjoyed Pandian's historian take on a Dr. Jones, Jaya's voice, and the landscape from Berkeley to the hallowed halls of the British Library and on to the lower Highlands of Scotland. Pandian shows she's no stranger to academia with commentary about proper research and quips like: "You have a lot of contemporary biases for a historian." Its fun without being too trope-y (fair-warning this contains a fedora wearing archaeologist ;D) and informative without bogging the narrative down with facts. This is not to say I didn't go on my own Indian history fact-finding expedition! I hardly know a thing about the East India Company or British rule in India besides what's in movies so I most enjoyed getting a little history lesson in Artifact on the Mughal Empire and the 1857 Sepoy Uprising that lead to creating the British Raj. When Jaya and Lane hit up the British Library's Asian and African Studies Reading Room I had to check out the website and explore its online archives where I discovered the East India Company at Home, 1757-1857 blog. Here, researchers with the University of Warwick and University College London ran a project looking at how colonial expansion into Asia influenced material consumption among British families. And since part of the story in Artifact involves an East India Company merchant who leaves India on the heels of the Sepoy uprising and sets up his estate in Scotland with his Indian-born daughter from an interracial marriage, exploring this blog was a great way to visualize the fictitious grand manor's museum displays from the monumental (e.g. the attar casket of Tipu Sultan) to the small (see the India Seal of Sir Francis Sykes). The V & A's South Asia Room website is a whole other rabbit hole to explore. I'm kinda obsessed with Tipu's Tiger. The resistance symbolism this man-sized musical object conveys as a tiger mauling a British colonial soldier is visceral. Watch this musician play the ca. 1780/1790s musical object; as he plays 'Rule Britannia' the irony is not lost. On Treasure Hunting
"Treasure" isn't really in an American archaeologist's vocabulary unless its maybe to be funny when describing something that is definitely not treasure, like when on survey coming across a can dump (lol, of which I am wholly guilty of, but I also happen to like recording can dumps anyway!). With "treasure hunt" in the title I was curious what kind of treasure seeking narrative would be in Artifact and am happy to see Pandian use treasure hunting less as an archaeology trope and more of a means to highlight issues of colonialism in India and put it in a legal context (as with the quote above). I won't say I wasn't a little uneasy that professional academics were doing the treasure hunting (and possibly for research funding no less) but there's more to the story and I don't want to give away any spoilers so you can read it for yourself! The book does open up the conversation about what is "treasure" and what is the legal framework for it in the UK, and how in the heck can it be possible for a professional archaeologist to get money from a government for finding said treasure. Its a foreign concept to me because treasure is not singled out for special treatment as an archaeological resource in the States. Whether its "treasure" or not, in the States, if an object(s) found meets the age threshold (typically 50 years or older but in some states the threshold can be higher--also depends on if its found on federal land) then its an archaeological resource and state or federal historic preservation laws kick in. But also, discussing artifacts in terms of monetary value is the quickest way to make most American archaeologists uneasy. If you're an archaeologist who works in the UK or know of one, I'd love to learn more about attitudes towards treasure and preservation, and how this system works! Drop me a comment below or email me at [email protected]! (P.S. I'd love to come back to this topic in another post and would welcome a guest post from a professional about it here.) There is a ton of sources online on the subject of treasure in the UK so I'm just going to focus on a summary on the legal framework for "treasure" and my question about archaeologists getting financial incentives. At the bottom of this post are links to sources that go in greater depth. Treatment of Treasure in the UK In 1996, the Treasure Act was implemented in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. "Treasure" is legally defined specifically to types of objects and age (typically those made of metal and generally at least 300 years old) but there are exceptions and anyone interested should head over to the Portable Antiquities Scheme website here. Interestingly enough in these countries, if treasure is found on an archaeological excavation or by an archaeologist there is no monetary reward. In Artifact, the story's excavation takes place in Scotland. The Treasure Act does not apply to Scotland, where the Treasure Trove exists. Here, the Treasure Trove unit defines objects, regardless of age or if they're made of metal, that hold archaeological significance in Scotland to be under their jurisdiction. Which means archaeologists work closely with the Treasure Trove on field investigations so this would be the authority Pandian is referring to in her book. It does appear that excavators on organized investigations are exempt from receiving a reward or ex gratia payment (good!) which means it doesn't look like Jaya's ex or the dig's principal investigator would have actually benefited financially from reporting a Rajasthan ruby collection to the Treasure Trove. Overall, a good read that offers an opportunity for educators or archaeologists to broach the subject of treasure hunting. I'll definitely be picking up the next book in the series, Pirate Vishnu, and recommend this well-paced mystery as an excellent summer/beach read--especially for crime caper fans, lovers of Agatha Christie, and Philip Pullman's Sally Lockhart series! Learn MorePortable Antiquities Scheme Treasure Trove in Scotland Treasure Act and antiquities law in Northern Ireland Charted Institute for Archaeologists Historic Environment Scotland Council for British Archaeology The CBA has an amazing advocacy community. If you want to get in on the digging action in Britain, please reach out with the CBA who can connect you with like-minded individuals! *Treasure hunting and looting is not a victim less crime. Please get involved with the myriad of archaeological organizations or regional institutions in your area by becoming members and finding out how you can respectfully, responsibly, and legally "dig deeper".*
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After reading Brenna Hassett's Built on Bones where she frequently talked about her archaeological excursions into Turkey, Syria, and Jordan, I was in the mood for my own literary adventure into the Levant. I hadn't read an Agatha Christie since December (for The ABC Murders adaptation with John Malkovich, did you see it?) and since reading about pioneering paleontologist Mary Anning last Fall, I've been wanting to learn about another TrowelBlazer, Gertrude Bell, and then what with March being Women's History Month and all, well, two books seemed the perfect pairing: They Came to Baghdad and A Woman in Arabia. "Are you the persecuted heroine or the wicked adventuress." --Richard Baker in They Came to Baghdad
Spies? Political intrigue? Savvy ladies? Exotic travel? Archaeology? And even a little romance? Can it be possible to find all of these things and more not just in an Agatha Christie novel but in real life? The answer is yes, yes you can, if you're Gertrude Bell. "We had...a most delicious camp in the top of a mountain, Jebel Rakham. I climbed the rocks and found flowers in the crevices--not a great bounty, but in this barren land a feast to the eyes..." Gertrude Bell, February 24, 1914 Part travelogue, part diary, and part poli-sci history, Georgina Howell's edited biography, A Woman in Arabia: the Writings of the Queen of the Desert encapsulates the life of one of THE most influential women in the last 100 years (her own death centennial is coming up in seven years (2026)). Using letters, diary entries, accounts from contemporaries, and white papers written on the British administration of Iraq, Syria, and India, Howell structures Bell's journey to becoming 'Queen of the Desert' in an unusual way. Rather than presenting Gertrude Bell's life chronologically she does so by the many roles and personalities Bell takes on throughout her life so what we see is is Bell as: The Linguist, The Poet, The Person, The Mountaineer, the Archaeologist, the Desert Traveler, The Lover, The Prisoner, The War Worker, The Intrusives, The Nation Builder, The King Maker, and The Courtier. Having read Michelle Obama's Becoming as my last biography/memoir not too long ago, where she describes 'being oneself' a constantly evolving process, I really liked this way of contextualizing a person's identity. Though, this framework might not be for everyone. If you crave linear story lines, this might not be for you. As a Nation Builder, Bell is notable for her role in creating modern Iraq. But don't be too quick to call her the female "Laurence of Arabia." This mountain-climbing, polyglot, was the first woman to receive first-class honors in history from Oxford AND an accomplished archaeologist in her own right. I found T.H. Lawrence and Bell's interactions with each other during WWI absorbing. Though they were never close friends I liked learning that they had a strong bond. Lawrence wrote of Gertrude to her sister (after her death) saying: "She stood out as the one person who, thinking clearly, saw the true work with the Arabs and, daunted by nothing, worked unsparing of herself toward it." In her role as an archaeologist, Bell is best known for founding the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad (1923), establishing excavation permits requiring standards, introducing early antiquity law that limited archaeological investigations and that a percentage of an investigations findings (i.e. artifacts) be curated with the Museum, as well as documenting such world treasures as the Palace of Ukhaidir and Tur Abdin. Of which you can read about in her reports: Palace and Mosque Ukhaidir (1914) Churches and Monasteries of Tur Abdin and Neighboring Districts (1913) As for romance, Bell's relationship with Dick Doughty-Wylie is the stuff of (dare I say it?) Downtown Abbey. A wealthy, intelligent, headstrong woman born in County Durham, England, making her place in the world (in this case Mesopotamia) meets her match in a married, British Army Lieutenant. Passionate letters and a tragic-ending at the Battle of Gallipoli had me all at once, smitten, crushed, and as a glutton for punishment, thinking about re-watching the 1981 film Gallipoli with Mel Gibson. At times, I did struggle keeping my interest in "A Woman in Arabia" (especially during the later chapters when some of the government documents were excerpted verbatim) and found the audio book a great way to keep me going. In fact, if it wasn't for the audio book I would have missed out on an amazing listening experience while getting lost in the Gertrude Bell Archive at Newcastle University. I definitely recommend listening to Bell travel from Aleppo to Istanbul via Baghdad, Mosul, and Konya while clicking your way through her photography collection!
Learn MoreThe Gertrude Bell Society British Museum's changing role in Iraqi Archaeology U.S. Dept of Defense Cultural Property Training: Iraq I have hyper-linked to sources where appropriate/available. All links and sources were electronically accessed between March 11-16, 2019.
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