One archaeologist has a bold plan to take back his profession from Hollywood and The History Channel: The ghost of Indy is hard to stamp out. Everywhere archaeologists gather, we complain about how archaeology is portrayed in pop culture: it’s sensationalistic, cheesy, misleading, schlocky! It gives people the wrong impression of what archaeology is. This…Continue Reading…
An archaeologist discovers a very curious thing: It appears that electronic buying and selling has actually hurt the antiquities trade. How can this be? The short answer is that many of the primary “producers” of the objects have shifted from looting sites to faking antiquities. I’ve been tracking eBay antiquities for years now, and from…Continue Reading…
It happens every summer when tourists pass through the ancient burial caves on their way to Mt. Pulag in the Philippines: they can’t keep their hands off the mummies. According to the Philippine Inquirer, local officials are still promoting the popular trek this year, but they “have a piece of advice for visitors: respect the…Continue Reading…
This thoughtful essay argues for reconciling the institutional divide between history and archaeology. Daniel Lord Smail, a professor of history at Harvard, writes that The discovery of “˜deep time’ during the middle of the 19th century has long been understood as a transforming moment in the histories of biology, archaeology and geology. We are only…Continue Reading…
You don’t hear this often coming out of an archaeological dig in the American southeast: It’s some of the oldest stuff in the country. We definitely have a major find. As reported by The State, a newspaper in South Carolina, The site, about a mile below the Lake Murray dams, apparently was a longtime meeting…Continue Reading…
As I discussed here, the economic downturn is impacting archaeologists who work in the private sector. But not everyone is hurting, apparently. This guy, who sounds like an Indian Jones knock-off, says his business is booming, thanks to the government stimulus.
How’s this for a bewitching paradox: the global economic meltdown is good for archaeology, bad for archaeologists. Huh? Consider this truism, as stated in a recent article in Antiquity, a UK journal: The principal threat to the archaeological resource is and has been land use change through development, primarily for housing and infrastructure. So it…Continue Reading…
Remember the good old days? Well, according to Current Archaeology, The perception that much of prehistory was relatively peaceful is changing. I happen to think that Stanley Kubrick, in one indelible scene 40 years ago, already dispensed with that perception.
Just what you want, pothunters made more effecient by meth. Jeez, archaeology can’t catch a break.
Who knew there was a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Southern Alberta, named Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump? (Hat tip, Heather Pringle.) Who knew there was a recently published book on this extraordinary site, which you can download for free, courtesy of Athabasca University Press? (Hat tip, prairiemary.) As Pringle notes, Jack Brink, the book’s author, spent…Continue Reading…