THE ARCHAEOREADER
WHERE A LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND READING MEET
WHERE A LOVE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND READING MEET
"So much was lost--names, faces, ages, ethnic identities--that African Americans must do what no other ethnic group writ large must do: take a completely shattered vessel and piece it together, knowing that some pieces will never be recovered...I liken it to the Japanese art of kintsugi...The scars of the object are not concealed, but highlighted and embraced, thus giving them their own dignity and power. The brokenness and its subsequent repair are a recognized part of the story of the journey of the vessel, not to be obscured...transformation are seen as important as honoring the original structure and its traditional meaning and beauty. The food is in many cases all we have, all we can go to in order to feel our way into our past."--Michael W. Twitty Is there any other expression more true of identity, values, and culture than food? Do you identify yourself as vegetarian, vegan, omnivorous? Do you practice dietary rules such as kasrut (kosher) or halal? Maybe you've tried a popular diet or two (Atkins, South Beach, Paleo?). Perhaps fasting is an important part of your religious beliefs. Perhaps you have to watch what you eat because of allergies or struggle with a disorder. Maybe your New Years' resolutions include reducing your consumption of sugar, meat, or alcohol? What we eat consumes us, metaphorically and literally. Its Orsinio's famous opening line in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "If music be the food of love, play on." Its Gertrude Stein's literary cubist poems using food as an allegory for how men and women interact with each other. It's the subject of endless conversations: books, tv, film, blogs, and health campaigns (milk for healthy teeth and bones). Are you like me and constantly watch food documentaries and cooking shows?! We all know the act of preparing a meal however meager or lazy, or even "pull-out all the stops" feasts can be a reaffirmation of who we are or want to be. And, as its the holiday season, it's as much a social act as it is nourishing. My own family is obsessed with food. It's not uncommon to text pictures of juicing pomegranates from the garden (mom), meal prepped lunches in a given week (me), or what we had at a restaurant lately (typically a brother) so that we still feel connected. My Dad's sole hobby is some serious grilling and our phone conversations can last an hour on the preparation of various meat. Enter, Michael Twitty. While cruising seriouseats's website I came across this book review for The Cooking Gene and knew I had to pick it up. As soon as I reached the above quote in Twitty's 1st chapter, "No More Whistling Walk for Me", I immediately began to feel this was an important book for archaeologists. To describe what a healing process could look like for generationally-affected descendants of slavery with an artistry like ceramic repair is a transformative perspective in its own right. Given how much material culture studies in archaeology focus on ceramics, this is a natural hook for someone like me. Something less tangible in the archaeological record is also being presented here that I want to highlight and that's culinary heritage. My fellow colleagues might be thinking: uh, hello, food is a MAJOR form of archaeological inquiry. What about Zooarchaeology? Pollen analysis? Protein or organic residue analysis? Absolutely. These research avenues are critical to understanding diet and nutrition in the past. Less tangible is a sense of connection for how people in the past interacted with their food let alone how this connection carries on in living descendant communities. I can link to a lot of super cool research that's been done on these topics alone and end this post with, see...look how awesome archaeology is at showing us past foodways! But even as Twitty explores DNA testing (this is one aspect of the "gene" to his aptly titled memoir) as an avenue to uncover his ancestral roots his message isn't that its all down to science, nor is mine. More importantly is his humanistic approach. Twitty brings us on his "Southern Discomfort tour" where he combines a very personal journey to understanding his identity as a chef and a black, Jewish, gay man with the culinary history of how Southern food came to be. We learn the significance of corn, yams, rice or wheat go beyond mere subsistence strategies to African culture; there are creation stories here. There is also the disturbing connection between food supply and enslavement. For example, we learn how poor rations of corn meal were adapted into the well-known Southern soul food staples like hominy, ashcake, and hoecake while inedible parts of corn such as stalks were used to keep fires going, and husks were repurposed for cooking utensils. This fare was nothing like its comforting interpretation today. When food supply for a chattal workforce was thought no different from feeding any other work animal and in many cases the scant rations and kinds of provisions provided were a means to dehuminize, these foods represent survival and resistance. Twitty shares a visceral memory of his grandmother eating cornbread with buttermilk. Remembering with distaste he once asked her why she did this and her explanation, "At least I didn't have to eat it in a trough." Twitty reminds us (Southern) cooking carries its own residual impact. And is further damaging when appropriated. Make no mistake, Twitty clearly states this book is not about taking cultural ownership of Southern cuisine away from one group and giving it (back) to another but rather "food being a tool for repair within the walls of black identities." Historic Preservation and Food heritageThis gets at the heart of what I took away from Twitty's book, the cultural significance of foods. A lot of what Twitty highlights in this book kept me thinking about how archaeologists assess the significance of agricultural and horticultural landscapes, farmsteads, homesteads, and other domestic site types. Most of us are quick to connect these properties to the larger context they manifested out of and this may be supported by artifact, faunal, and other analyses to sufficiently argue for (or against) their significance. But what about the cultural significance of the crops being cultivated themselves? When I read Twitty put himself to work in a cotton field--experiencing both a physical and spiritual connection to his ancestors--as he listens to folk music recordings of chain gangs and slave work songs, I was struck by parallels in the way hunting, fishing, and plant gathering sites are important to the cultural continuity of Native American communities. Rice Bay in Michigan is the first Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places for being a place significant for its (American Indian) food tradition and not just as a sacred site. Its listing only occurred five years ago (2015). Why has it taken this long to have a historic property listed for its cultural significance to foodways? And why isn't the eligibility of sites being considered more for their role in food traditions?* My sense is that:
While numerous studies exist on food culture and foodways, how are archaeologists, anthropologists, and other historic preservation professionals applying this information to protect, preserve, and enhance food traditions? There are a lot of great resources that bring food and public archaeology together. Some of my favorite ways to teach archaeology principles to a young audience are with cookie excavations and peanut butter and jelly stratigraphy. But I will admit I've only recently started thinking about food in management recommendations or in public outreach. "Natural resources are cultural resources" is something archaeologists pick up early on in the cultural resource management industry but if I'm honest, I haven't truly felt the impact of this in my work experience until I began working for a tribal government with a first foods mission. The Cooking Gene has heightened my awareness. I can't recommend this book enough. "It is not enough to know the past of people you interpret. You must know your own past. I'm in clothes that call to mind what the enslaved made for themselves and their slaveholders. I am in plantation kitchens that are haunted to the rafters in places that few African Americans dare to tread. I watch ghosts walk by, and among them is me. I am seeing myself at seven, at thirteen, twenty-one, thirty, now. I am stirring the pot wondering, How exactly did I get here?" --Michael Twitty Learn MoreCheck out this video of Michael Twitty discussing the food of the enslaved on Townsends YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwkRWIwZ43A&t=4s Preservation Maryland features recipes in their culinary heritage spotlights on their blog. Farrell Monaco's Edible Archaeology blog Tavola Mediterranea Share the knowledge! Comment below if you know about historic preservation efforts supporting culinary traditions! *Footnote for the peanut gallery: I am well aware not all properties eligible for listing on the National Register need or should be listed. I'm not arguing to flood the National Register with a bunch of corn fields. My discussion here is to encourage us to give a bit more consideration to food traditions than just something ancillary to the assessment of certain site types.
I have hyper-linked to sources where appropriate/available. All links and sources were electronically accessed between December 26-30, 2019. **If you like the information in this post please consider donating to the non-profits mentioned**
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"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".*
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.
**If you like the information in this post please consider donating to the non-profits mentioned** *This post contains affiliate links. "...what we think of when we envision the human past is partly a myth that tells more about where we think we're going wrong with our own lives today than anything that happened thousands and thousands of years ago...But what we're interested in here isn't just a takedown of some ridiculous celebrity-fueled diet or fashion trend [i.e. the paleodiet]. What we want to know is: what happened to Spear Guy and Raquel? Why did they decide to give up the big savanna and start spending their time over at the river's edge, swapping a never-ending horizon for the manageable commute associated with settled life? And what did that decision do to his leg muscles or her baby-juggling skills. Because we can look at the couple eating fast food in their car in a nameless city, success stories and paragons of human achievement in terms of the race to urban living that has characterized the last 15,000 or so years of human history, and we can look at the legions and legions of our ancestors who died along the way to that fast food parking lot, and see, locked away in the cells and structures of bones and teeth and hair and skin, that we haven't just built cities. Cities have built us."---Brenna Hassett If you read the (admittedly, excessively long BUT totally necessary!) quote above and, like me, it left you wanting more, then Research Associate and bioarchaeologist Dr. Brenna Hassett's Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death is for you! The 2nd read off TheArchaeoReader TBR, is one helluva nonfiction, popular science, book on the development of cities and how, not only have we shaped them but how cities have shaped us. I absolutely loved the way Hassett balanced a dense topic with wit and humor. From her catchy, oft musically-theme titled, chapters like 'Papa Was A Rolling Stone' (Chapter 1), 'What's New Pussycat?' (Chapter 3), and 'Under Pressure' (Chapter 9)--incidentally publisher, Bloomsbury has actually made a Spotify playlist, and though it hasn't included any of the songs the chapter names are taken from, I may or may not be listening to it while I work on this post--to her jocular voice (many of her footnotes are hilarious), Hassett certainly keeps your interest peaked. Within two pages I could tell this was going to be a great archaeology read. Right out the gate, Built on Bones takes on our 'paleo-fantasies' of humankind's first family and the popular lifestyle trend that gives every archaeologist and anthropologist heartburn: the Paleo Diet. I'll spare you my own rant on how absurd the Paleo Diet is, as any kind of representation of what our pre-agricultural ancestors were eating, in lieu of Dr. Christina Warriner's well-known 2012 TED talk. Which is far more eloquent than I could be on the subject. Personally, if I had to promote a diet that considered our early hominid ancestors it would be Michael Pollen's Cooked. Have you seen the Netflix special?! So good. But I digress and as Hassett says above, her book isn't just about debunking myths. Bone by bone, tooth, and even historical documents, a fascinating discussion on the Neolithic Revolution, human migration and plant and animal domestication, what bioarchaeology, genetics, and Ancient DNA (aka aDNA) can tell us about violence and inequality, and our responses to infectious disease, all unfolds to answer her questions: why cities have been built the way they have, and what this has done to human populations.
Digging Deeper: How Long 'til Black Future Month?, Homegoing, and African Diaspora Archaeology2/14/2019 "We believe the one who has power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you get a clearer, yet still imperfect, picture.” ― Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing I've been reading N. K. Jemisin's recently published short story collection How Long 'til Black Future Month? lately and one particular story, 'Red Dirt Witch,' blew me away for flipping the script on stories of the past. In this deeply affecting magical tale, where a mother and daughter living in 1950s Alabama dream prophecies and battle (of the wits variety) with a fey 'White Lady' for the fate of all African Americans, Jemisin shows history as future. It conveys all at once, power and hope in the very face of an oppressive history enduring the generational impact of slavery and institutional racism. And it got me thinking about Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing again--a compelling, epic family saga unfurling two different branches of a family tree beginning with half sisters, Effia and Esi, in mid-18th century Gold Coast Africa and ending with Marjorie and Marcus, their sixth generation descendants, in present-day America. Gyasi skillfully tells a story of family, heritage, and destiny through vignettes; propelling the reader through time and unforgettable historical narratives. Uncovering hidden stories of the past are an important part of archaeology if not THE most important part (bones, stones, and fill in the blank with your favorite human made object are cool and all but how it all can tell us more about who we are is cooler!). To speak to Yaa Gyasi's quote above, a lot of historical archaeologists (myself included) like doing archaeology because it’s an opportunity to explore the lives of “those of little note.” As an example, some historical archaeologists study underrepresented populations including the African Diaspora or Hispanic and Asian communities (check out the archaeology of Japanese internment camps in another post on here); tying together the intersection between gender, biological sex, sexual orientation, race, and class. And as its Black History Month, I want to highlight some of the amazing archaeological research that has amplified what would otherwise be missing voices among the African Diaspora in America. African Diaspora ArchaeologyA considerable body of archaeological research into African Diaspora communities, especially in the U.S., is devoted to plantation life. These studies explore a wide-range of evidence for instance: the spatial distribution of artifacts in order to better understand plantation functionality (pre-and post-emancipation) as a whole or singularly as with the case of excavations at slave cabins, yard areas, and even surveillance spaces that comprise plantation sites. The (archaeo)reader might be gratified to learn historic plantations like Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and James Madison's Montpelier have dedicated archaeology programs focused on their roles as sites of slavery. Monticello hosts the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery (DAACS), where anyone interested in learning about excavations and architectural and material remains recovered from Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia sites can. Teachers of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders looking to incorporate plantation archaeology into their history classes might check out Project Archaeology and their curriculum guide, Investigating a Tabby Slave Cabin. Its an incredible resource (meeting Common Core Standards) for engaging young students in this important aspect of American history. For those who'd like to consider a critical look at how American heritage has been constructed at Antebellum era plantations including Friendfield (where Michelle Obama's enslaved ancestors have been traced), Antoinette T. Jackson's Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Tourism and Community is a must read. For a sample of archaeological scholarship, the Society for Historical Archaeology compiled 20 articles in their Perspectives series, The Archaeology of Plantation Life while archaeologist and professor, Theresa Singleton has put together The Archaeology of Slavery and Plantation Life. A Future after FreedomAs I think about Jemisin's commentary on Black history and a Black future, what her stories say about history as a future, (side note, Jemisin is without a doubt my favorite Science Fiction author and if you haven't read the 3-time Hugo award-winning Broken Earth Trilogy, stop what your're doing and go get The Fifth Season!) and the historical narratives in Homegoing I'm once more struck by archaeology's role in storytelling. Inspired by the findings from a cultural resource management transportation project, Professor Lu Ann De Cunzo published the journal article 'A Future after Freedom' (De Cunzo 2008)-- which can be found in the Society for Historical Archaeology's compiled Perspectives in African Diaspora Archaeology. In it she sheds the typical journal article format for fictional short stories about material representations of spirituality and celebration with two turn-of-the 20th century Delaware African American families, the Stumps and Walmsleys. De Cunzo points out in her abstract, "The Stumps and Walmseys drew on their pasts and looked to the future as they created a distinctive cultural style framed by racism and constrained opportunities." In her story of the Stumps we learn about Rachel's belief in the spiritual protection of iron or how wearing her best summer cotton dress at the Big Quarterly was a way to remember the suffering of her enslaved ancestors who had worked the fields. The story of David Walmsey is a rumination of African beliefs and American consumerism over the shattered fragments of a glass vase. More research into U.S. African Diaspora archaeology is considering places representing Black heritage from post-Civil War, on up through the mid-20th century. In the last few years historical archaeologist William White has examined a multi-racial urban neighborhood on River Street in Boise, Idaho and in my own state (Washington), a survey of historic African American sites is currently underway in the City of Pasco. Extensive investigations at Illinois' New Philadelphia, a community of previously enslaved and free-born African Americans living alongside European Americans, reveal lifeways of a town founded decades before the Civil War (in 1838). History in the Making- African American Burial Ground ProtectionJust yesterday (2/13/2019), it was announced that the Adams-McEachin African American Burial Grounds Network Act was introduced to Congress. This crucial piece of legislation would establish federal support, through the National Park Service, to help document and protect African American grave sites. Head over to this blog post at Succinct Research to learn more about why African American Burial Grounds needs protection and please write to your State Representatives to show your support of the bill. Learn MoreI have hyper-linked to sources where appropriate/available. All links and sources were electronically accessed between February 7 and February 14, 2019. I've barely scratched the surface on this subject. An incredible wealth of information can be found at: African Burial Ground National Monument The African Diaspora Archaeology Network The African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter Society of Black Archaeologists The National Museum of African American History and Culture *If you like any of the information in this post please consider donating to any of the organizations mentioned. * References CitedDe Cunzo, Lu Ann
2008 [1998] A Future after Freedom. In Perspectives from Historical Archaeology: African Diaspora Archaeology. The Society for Historical Archaeology. "Professor Slade said, ah well, after all, authenticity was impossible and not really the goal anyway, the point was to have a flavour of Iron Age life and perhaps some insight into particular processes or technologies." --Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss First up off the ArchaeoReader TBR is Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall. It follows 17-year old Silvie, on a summer holiday, as she sleeps in a roundhouse with her parents on splintery deerskin-lined bunks, wears a scratchy tunic and moccasins, eats a kind of gruel porridge for breakfast and fish and rabbit caught for dinner, helps gather wild roots and berries, and even attempts her hand at basket weaving. The obvious archaeological aspect to the story is experimental archaeology--a branch devoted to participating in manufacturing techniques to better understand how past people lived (like this cool project that experimented with stone tools and abalone shell to better grasp fishing techniques among prehistoric peoples off the coast of today's California). It all sounds innocuous enough, if not even a little boring to Silvie since she's there not for her own interest but to live out some fantasy of her father's who has a passion for early British history. We quickly perceive Silvie's father, a middle class bus driver, is controlling and even violent (Trigger Warning: this story addresses the effects of domestic abuse) towards women. A man that feels slighted by missed opportunities in education and social mobility, that feels out of his time you might say, and desires the idea of one before the Romans and other "foreigners" began invading England. Silvie's own name, short for Sulevia (a Celtic goddess), is another example of her father's desire to uphold some kind of model for Britishness. As the story progresses we see just what kind of toll her father's behavior and his disturbing fascination with bog burial rites takes on Silvie; from her own dark thoughts frequently reflecting upon a notion of just what an innate sense of violence Iron Age Britons would have held to her anxious interactions among fellow participants. With her father and Professor Slade becoming steadily more invested in re-enacting aspects of Iron Age life, an alarming event unfolds that challenges how far is too far in a scientific experiment. Ghost Wall was my most anticipated read for 2019 (a tall order considering its only January!) and it did not disappoint. Moss manages to intertwine nationalism, classism, androcentric ideas of prehistoric divisions of labor, and domestic abuse that proves this short story is so much more than a campfire tale of experimental archaeology gone wrong. To me Ghost Wall is a bit of a love letter, albeit a dark one, to my archaeologist heart for touching on two important dialogues in archaeological scholarship: gender and critical theory. In a nut shell, a critical theory lens applied to archaeology recognizes how ideology influences our interpretation of the past and acknowledges that studying the past is not neutral or an objective science. Intentional or not, there have been lots of ways archaeology has been used to promote some religious, economic, or political beliefs over others, legitimize one group over another, or uphold contemporary societal viewpoints. "[As archaeologists, we] can properly be accused of being acolytes...to our culture, unaware of what we have been doing, and whom we serve" (Leone 1973:132). Since the 1970s many archaeologists, like Mark Leone, have applied critical theory to their research--leading to a common understanding in the field that writing about the past cannot be separated from the context of the present. In Ghost Wall, more than once the professor is caught by Silvie's father's opinion that early Britons excelled over others: "Aye, said Dad, maybe so, you're thinking of the carnyes, but they had their horses and swords as well, didn't they, put up quite a fight and after all sent them packing in the end, there weren't dark faces in these parts for nigh on two millennia after that, were there?"--Sarah Moss, Ghost Wall (page 36) Archaeology of GenderMoss doesn't just toss around an idealized national myth but goes further in spotlighting gender myth (roles) too. Assumptions about gender roles in the past, especially the deep past, have been problematic for archaeology. These assumptions run the gamut and we've all heard 'em: that men are naturally dominant and women passive, men's place is the public sphere and women's is in the private (domestic), and of course, Man-the-hunter. It comes as no surprise to find stereotypical assumptions in the division of labor playing out among the group in Ghost Wall. Silvie's father, unsurprisingly, is the primary agent but luckily Moss contrasts him with Molly, the only other female participant besides Silvie (and her mother) and the only female college student. Numerous studies criticizing gender stereotypes and an androcentric view of human development arose in the 1980s and 1990s. This has led to fascinating research into gender since then, exploring female and male identity more fully and reconsidering gender-specific features and material remains as it relates to division of labor, power and social hierarchies, and even gender ideologies themselves (Mother Goddess anyone?). Check out these six foundational scholarly reads if you want to get into the marrow of Gender Archaeology: The Archaeology of Gender: Separating the Spheres in Urban America by Diana diZerega Wall Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory by Joan Gero and Margaret Conkey Reader in Gender Archaeology Kelley Hays-Gilpin and David S. Whitley (Eds). Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives: Sex, Gender, and Archaeology by Rosemary A. Joyce Historical Archaeology of Gendered Lives by Deborah Rotman Historical and Archaeological Perspectives on Gender Transformations Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood (Ed.) Needless to say, Ghost Wall is utterly brilliant. References CitedLeone, M. P. (1972) Issues in Anthropological Archaeology. In Contemporary Archaeology, edited by M. Leone. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press.
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