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".*
0 Comments
|
The ArchaeoReaderDigging deeper into a love of fiction and bringing a whole new meaning to armchair archaeologist. Archives
December 2019
Categories
All
Find and connect with The ArchaeoReader here
Instagram
|