Indiana Jones: Myth, Reality And 21st Century Archaeology

Two trends in contemporary archaeology will forever change the direction of the field. First, the reduction in pure research funding is forcing the profession out of the academy and into the domain cultural heritage management. Second, development and expansion projects are reducing the pristine landscapes that have been the focus of traditional survey and excavation. We no longer work where we want but apply our skills to where development occurs. What happens when our professional interests run counter to the timelines and financial constraints imposed by developers? Are we witnessing a move towards methodological advancement at the expense of growth and creativity in archaeological theory? Is this a bad development and does it even matter? Can we, or must we, find common ground with development interests? Public relations will assume greater influence as development interests and the heritage preservation ethic form a symbiotic dynamic whose ultimate resolution remains uncertain.

How do archaeologists know what they do about life thousands of years ago? One way is by studying the diseases our ancestors had. This has much to teach us about not only people’s state of health, but also their diet and lifestyle. The study of paleopathology also has much to contribute to our understanding of diseases that are common today, and has corrected many modern misconceptions about ancient peoples, such as the belief that their lives were much shorter than ours. Dr. Kate Pechenkina studies how changes through time in human behavior transform patterns of disease distribution and severity and affect community health in different populations. In this context, technological innovations affecting diet are of particular importance – for example, agricultural societies tend to exhibit different diseases than their hunter-gather counterparts. Join Dr. Pechenkina and host Dr. Joe Schuldenrein as they discuss the study of paleopathology, what it brings to the table in an archaeological discussion, and wh

This Friday, Americans celebrate the independence of their nation and what it means to be American. Join our host as he explores the ways in which archaeology has informed and been informed by national identities, not only in North America but in other parts of the world as well. Think of the objects that embody the values of a particular society – the liberty bell for the US, the Stone of Scone for Scotland, etc. Dr. Schuldenrein also considers the historical tendency of nationalism to influence research questions and interpretations of finds and how modern nationalistic agendas influence the teaching of history and archaeology in primary schools. Finally, we wrap up with a discussion of the role nationalism plays in popularizing archaeology, and the question of whether making archaeology relevant to society might compromise its scholarly value.

In our series on ancient civilizations we have highlighted the sophisticated methodologies and novel discoveries emerging in the Mesoamerican heartland. Significantly, major discoveries and interpretive perspectives are generated by native-born Mexican archaeologists. However, the infrastructure of Mexican archaeology is slow to adapt to the changing platforms of archaeological research and exploration in the developing world. Additionally, political turmoil, associated with the ongoing drug-wars, has placed a serious damper on the ability of Mexicans to design survey and excavation programs in certain parts of the country. Today’s interview with Dr. Sandra Lopez Varela, previews the more progressive thinking currently emerging in Mexico’s archaeological community. She discusses the potential for CRM to gain a foothold in the country as the Mexican government faces the challenges brought on by the needs to balance heritage preservation with economic development and national security.

As an archaeologist and father to Becky, a teenager who was diagnosed with autism as a child, Tom Penders was well-positioned to realize the connection between archaeology and people on the autism spectrum. Out of the desire to help Becky and other children on the autism spectrum improve the quality of their lives as much as possible and have fun in the process, Tom founded Archaeologists for Autism, which is currently based in Titusville, Florida. Through free events that feature fun activities related to archaeology, AFA aims to spread awareness about autism, promote research, and encourage the children to develop their potential and show their families what they’re capable of. Tom hopes AFA will one day expand to include nation-wide events that allow children and families struggling with autism to experience archaeology in a fun and low-stress environment. Find out more about the program and how you can help on tonight’s episode!

In this episode, Dr. Schuldenrein and special guest Dr. Kenneth Feder deal with an assumption that underpins a lot of pseudoarchaeology: the notion that the archaeological record is full of evidence of technological achievements that “primitive” people would not have been capable of on their own. By this reckoning, the native people of North America were not capable of constructing the burial and temple mounds that are found in the American midwest and mid-south, and the pyramids were too big an achievement for the ancient people of Egypt or Mexico. Therefore, they must have been taught the requisite technology by folks from Atlantis…or maybe it was an extraterrestrial peace corps that visited Earth and taught ancient people how to build them. Again, the underlying libel is that ancient people (almost always non-white, non-Europeans) were too dumb to progress without some outside help. Why do these assumptions lead to bad archaeology? How does pseudoarchaeology effect the perception of archaeology as a field

On a fundamental level, the decision to try and preserve a historically-important site is a public one. And yet, the recent discovery and excavation of a Tequesta village in downtown Miami led to a controversy that pitted the developer and the public against each other in a drawn-out argument over the question of its preservation – or so it appeared. As it turns out, a variety of misunderstandings contributed to this unnecessary controversy that would have been an easy and routine process elsewhere in the United States. Join our host and special guest Dr. Christopher Dore, who was hired as an expert by MDM Group, and explore what factors led to the situation getting out of hand. Were these events really the good vs. evil story we read about in the media?

The crusaders who launched a bloody holy war against the pagan societies of the Eastern Baltic left a profound legacy – the construction of spectacular castles that still exist today as ruins or preserved as historical monuments, and the development of towns that reorganized the region into a uniquely European society and brought it under Christendom. But the effect that these crusading armies had on the landscape goes even further than architectural changes. Dr. Aleks Pluskowski and Dr. Alex Brown are members of a project team using zooarchaeological, palaeobotanical, geoarchaeological and historical data to study the environmental impacts of the Baltic Crusades and the role they played in this transformative time in history. What effect would these have had on the pre-Christian tribes whose belief systems were tied closely into the natural landscape? Tune in tonight, and find out how the ecological transformations that took place as a result of the Crusades were closely tied with the cultural changes th

With the advent of online markets such as eBay and Craigslist, the antiquities market has entered a whole new playing field in the past few decades. One unexpected side effect is a marked increase in the number of forgeries being made and sold across the world - to tourists, dealers, collectors, and experts alike. What effects do these fake artifacts have on the antiquities market? We can all think of negative ones, such as an increased tendency of fakes turning up in museum collections. However, it may surprise you to learn that there are quite a few positive ones too! Join our host and special guest Dr. Charles Stanish, who will recount his experiences in South America with forgers and his thoughts on the circulation of fake artifacts in online forums.

Ever notice the sheer number of archaeologists who are into punk rock music? What effect has this had on the practice of archaeology? It turns out that when you think about it, there exists a surprising amount of similarities between punk rock and archaeology as both practical and creative processes! Join us with special guest and co-founder of the “Punk Archaeology” movement Dr. William Caraher and explore the dialogue between these two fields – one a musical form, the other an academic discipline. Find out how what began initially as an inside joke among archaeologists developed into a neat summation of a series of methods, approaches, and commitments in the discipline. In the spirit of punk, discover the appeal of the movement not as a neatly bounded box, but a swirl of DIY methods, cultural criticism, and subversive questioning of traditional practices.

Have you ever wondered how an archaeologist knows where to dig? Traditional methods include surveying, which involves combing entire landscapes for indications of past habitation and a good deal of difficult work. Some archaeologists, like tonight’s special guest Dr. Jason Ur, are making life a little easier by consulting satellite imagery and aerial photographs for clues of ancient civilizations. Find out what role these recently developed techniques may have in cultural heritage management, and learn how scholars are using these tools not only to pinpoint site locations, but to answer big questions about the relationship between ancient humans and their environment.

Gold, Gucci handbags, a Malibu beach house – all are examples of what we value as a society. Ever step back and wonder, rules of economics aside, what the social reasons are for ascribing such value to these objects in the first place? What is the place of these items in the wider context of our modern social rituals? Join our host Dr. Schuldenrein and special guest Dr. Rowan Flad, who looks for the answer at an ancient salt production site in the eastern Sichuan Basin of China. It turns out that this narrow industry has much to tell us about how effective the standard models of economic anthropology are in understanding specialization at the emergence of complex societies. Explore the significance of this and other specialized industries in a broader economic and social context and learn how specialized craft production, ritual activity such as divination, and the social construction of value in ancient China were all closely intertwined.

Conflict Archaeology or the Archaeology of Battlefields is a sub-discipline that has risen to the forefront since the 1980s. Despite a growing national fascination with wartime chronicles and military strategies the archaeology of the actual sites of conflicts remains fairly unknown to the public. What can we learn from site excavations that are not documented by written accounts and broadly researched academic studies? What types of material remains are characteristic of battlefield sites and do they inform on events in ways that research and eyewitness accounts cannot? This week's guest, Dr. Douglas Scott, a renowned expert in the field, whose work on the Little Big Horn (“Custer’s Last Stand”) revolutionized formerly accepted interpretations of that dark chapter in American history. Dr. Scott explains how archaeological method and theory can be applied to battlefield excavation sites and considers how we can apply archaeological perspectives to modern and current world conflicts.

More and more archaeologists these days are catching on to the idea of using social media as a tool for public engagement. Major archaeological organizations like the Society for Historical Archaeology use it to promote their events and court the interest of amateurs and professionals alike, while students and academics find it useful for their own personal fieldwork and research. Why use social media for public engagement and what are its benefits and drawbacks? If the idea of creating a blog or using other social media platforms to promote your archaeological research appeals to you, join our host with special guests Terry Brock and Doug Rocks-Macqueen to find out what you should consider before designing your own social media strategy! As we come up on the SAA session on Blogging in Archaeology, discover how social media and blogging can be used for heritage awareness and activism, and learn how our guests have used these tools effectively.

In Madagascar today, and in the recent past, the dead are understood to inhabit the world alongside the living. Accounts of the 19th century tell of people possessed by the dead, of ghosts roaming abroad, and of the care that must be taken around them. How can archaeologists and anthropologists provide space in historical narrative for entities that we might consider to be imaginary or nonexistent? How do we acknowledge the agency of the dead for people in the past? For Columbia University’s Dr. Zoë Crossland, this means attending to the material signs of the dead – whether tombs and standing stones, or the patterns of inhabitation that people left behind in the landscape. Archaeology is often called the discipline of things, but Dr. Crossland argues that our work is semiotic in nature – that is, it is primarily concerned with material signs, and with the interpretation of those signs. Archaeology is a fascinating discipline for the way in which it pulls together empirical data with the enlivening inter

Mesopotamia, known as the cradle of civilization, has long been the focus of archaeologists studying the origins of domestication and farming. The latest in food based studies in this area (contemporary southern Iraq), centers on a unique project that merges some of the earliest Bronze Age texts with advanced geochemical techniques and residue studies to examine the origins of beer brewing. The project was initiated by several graduate students at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, together with the owner of the Great Lakes Brewing Company in Cleveland. While this study is sure to capture the attention of the beer drinking public, it also has ramifications bearing on patterned changes in food and drink production, consumption, and distribution through time. Our special guest is PhD student Tate Paulette, one of the chief architects of this study who offers a unique perspective on the evolution of a key recreational libation that is much older than many of us ever imagined.

Enjoy the Winter Olympics this year? Join us and special guest Dr. Thomas Scanlon to learn about the Games’ ancient roots! Peer into the history of the ancient Olympics and the events surrounding them, as well as the religious and cultic aspects of the games and how they related to sport. Of particular interest will be the topic of sport and gender in Greek athletics – learn about the women’s Games for Hera at ancient Olympia that took place at the same stadium as the men’s games, with its own special running events and its own ideology for women. Hear about Dr. Scanlon’s latest theory regarding the site at Olympia, how the religious space related to the athletic space, and how athletes lived the legend of Homeric heroes and were boosted by Homer’s epic. And of course, find out how the ancient Games compare to the Olympics we now celebrate today, in terms of the economics and politics behind them, the role of gender in both, professionalism vs. amateurism, and more!

Recently, archaeologists have felt pressured to prove that their discipline is not just a purely academic pursuit, but rather a practically relevant and useful profession. As it happens, during the Depression Era archaeology did prove to be just that. New Deal work relief programs were designed to spend more funds on labor than equipment, to provide minimal competition with businesses in a normal economy, and, for the most part, to invest in American culture. All of these criteria made archaeology a perfect candidate for inclusion in work relief programs, and the field would gradually transform from a hobby into a profession. During this time, archaeology was done on a scale unprecedented in the US and rivaled some of the larger excavations in the Old World, such as those in Egypt, the Near East or Europe. Join our host and special guest Dr. Bernard Means and find out how New Deal archaeology set changes in motion that affected the way we do archaeology in the US – from the development of standardized pr

Can the archaeological record be summoned to verify the stories of the Bible? Religious faith remains strong in many parts of the world and the foundations of Judeo-Christian theology are arguably gaining steam in many parts of the West (and East) as the economic downturn leaves many segments of the populations looking for answers to their economic woes. Does religion as refuge obfuscate the lessons of science and evolutionary thought? Are there grounds for overlap? Is there a logical foundation for Biblical tales that can be supported by scientific examination of archaeological sites and remains? We propose that there is a nexus between the two---faith and science---that is considerably more complex than extreme proponents of either side care to admit.

Fed up with the outbreaks of Arctic weather lately? Imagine that you are an archaeologist carrying your equipment to site only to meet a polar bear along the way! Once you’ve arrived at site, weather conditions may mean the ground is too frozen to dig or you have a chance of getting hypothermia if you try waterscreening. While Indiana Jones is well known for his travels to far off places and harrowing recovery of artifacts, what are the dangers of archaeology in less desirable destinations? Our guest, Dr. Anne Jensen, has over 30 years experience working in Barrow, Alaska, the ninth northernmost city in the world! Although remote, the climate of Alaska’s north coast allows for the recovery of some remarkable items including ivory harpoons, plank floors, and even seal oil. Join our guest, Dr. Anne Jensen, and us as we discuss her archaeological work in this far-flung part of the world and how her findings challenge the idea that such environments are inhospitable for human occupation.