CHAPTER 11

WHOSE PAST?
ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE
PUBLIC
THE MEANING OF THE PAST: THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF IDENTITY
• Collectively our cultural inheritance is rooted in a
deeper past: the origins of our language, our faith, and
our customs. Increasingly archaeology plays an
important role in the definition of national identity.
• The national emblems of many recently emerged
nations are taken from artifacts seen as typical of some
special and early local golden age.
THE MEANING OF THE PAST: THE
ARCHAEOLOGY OF IDENTITY CONTINUED

• Yet sometimes the use of archaeology and of images

recovered from the past to focus and enhance national
identity can lead to conflict.
• The legacy of the past goes beyond sentiments of
nationalism and ethnicity. Sectarian sentiments often find
expression in major monuments.
• Religious extremism is responsible for many acts of
destruction.
•
DESTRUCTION OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL
RECORD
• Archaeological destruction and appropriation of objects is prevalent worldwide.
There are many reasons for this loss of humanity’s inheritance. Many have to do
with profit, ethnic political and religious conflicts, irresponsible and unethical
collectors and museums among others.
• Legitimate claims of groups of people, particularly those whose past was
entangled with colonialism, can also contribute to loss of information.
• Tourism, lack of resources to protect important sites also contribute to destruction.
Tourism and public interest can often have negative impacts on the preservation of
sites.
• Looting for profit is likely to have been and continue to be one of the major causes
of destruction and loss of information. New technologies have made selling of
objects easier and more anonymous, while the same technologies have also helped
publicizing and sometimes retrieving looted objects.
DESTRUCTION OF THE ARCHEOLOGICAL
RECORD

• Keep in mind that sometimes the motives behind appropriation or even looting
of archaeological objects are not black and white. Sometimes looting of an
object and the profit thereof can represent life or death for an individual.
Likewise objects purchased or obtained by a museum can in themselves call
into question how the object was obtained, at what time, the resources available
to conserve and preserve that object – these can be the result of complex
historical events that are also part of a past to be dealt with and unraveled.
• DO NOT be quick to judge, but consider the evidence and make your own
assessment.
 DECORATED GOLD CASKET
• Either Philip II of Macedon, father of
Alexander the Great, or Philip III,
Alexander’s half-brother, was buried in a
gold casket decorated with an impressive
star.

This star was adopted as the national symbol of the Former

Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as seen on one of their
stamps.This stamp caused political frictions with Greece that
saw the use of the star motif as infringing on their own past.
 BEFORE AND AFTER: COLOSSAAL
BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN
• The larger of the colossal Buddhas of
Bamiyan carved from the cliff face in
perhaps the third century CE (left), and
now destroyed (right).
• Wanton destruction of the Buddhas was
caused by ethnic/religious conflict
•
THE TEMPLE OF BEL, PALMYRA, SYRIA

•
The Temple of Bel at Palmyra, Syria,
before and after being blown up by IS
forces. This substantial building,
completed in 32 CE, was almost entirely
destroyed—only its entrance arch remains.
Syrian forces retook Palmyra in March
2017, and while there are various plans to
restore the site, clearly much has been lost
forever.
• This and many other irreplaceable
monuments were destroyed by ISIS.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL ETHICS

• Ethics is the science of morals—i.e. what it is right

or wrong—and increasingly most branches of
archaeology are seen to have an ethical dimension,
precisely because archaeology relates to identity and
to the existence of communities, nations, and indeed
humankind itself.
•
ARCHAEOLOGICAL ETHICS CONTINUED

• The entire field of human experience should be our study.

Such sentiments encourage the study of fossil hominins,
for instance. But, on the other hand, it is usual to have a
decent respect for the earthly remains of our own relatives
and ancestors. This then is a second principle, which has
led to the reburial (and consequent destruction) of ancient
human remains whose further study could have been of
benefit to science.
•
THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS
(SAA)

https://www.saa.org/career-practice/ethics-in-professional-archaeology
•
ARCHAEOLOGICAL ETHICS CONTINUED

• The right to property is another such principle. But the

legitimate rights of the individual property owner
(including the collector) can come into conflict with the
very evident rights of wider communities.
• Similar difficulties arise when the purchasing power of
the private collector of antiquities leads to the
destruction of archaeological sites through illicit
excavation (looting).
•
ARCHAEOLOGICAL ETHICS CONTINUED

• Increasingly the importance of material culture as

something with significant social meaning is
appreciated in our society.
• That is why archaeological ethics is now a growth
subject.
•
POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY VS
PSEUDOARCHAEOLOGY
• Archaeology is not just for archaeologists. For that reason it is crucially
important that we communicate effectively with the wider public. But there are
several ways in which this important mission can be subverted.
• The development of pseudoarchaeology, often for commercial purposes—that
is to say the formulation of extravagant but ill-founded stories about the past.
The need to justify the intervention of aliens or other beings is
another form of devaluating the human capacity for invention and
achievement. We should all see that for what it is – a fraudulent
attempt to attain profit by preying on the gullibility of people.
• Again, new technologies and ways of communicating increase the
audience for those sorts of claims.
•

•
POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY VS
PSEUDOARCHAEOLOGY CONTINUED
•

• Fraud in archaeology is nothing new and takes many

forms. It has been suggested that more than 1200 fake
antiquities are displayed in some of the world’s
leading museums.
• Excavators often regard members of the public as a
hindrance to work on-site. More enlightened
archaeologists, however, realize the financial and other
support to be gained from encouraging public interest.
•
FRAUDULENCE: CLUSTER OF HAND-AXES
AT KAMITAKAMOR
• A cluster of hand-axes at
Kamitakamori faked by Japanese
archaeologist Shinichi Fujimura.
POPULAR ARCHAEOLOGY VS
PSEUDOARCHAEOLOGY CONTINUED
• Clearly, there is an avid popular appetite for archaeology.
In a sense, the past has been a form of entertainment
since the early digging of burial mounds and the public
unwrapping of mummies in the nineteenth century. The
entertainment may now take a more scientific and
educational form, but it still needs to compete with rival
popular attractions if archaeology is to thrive.
•
 ORIGINS AND MEANINGS: STONEHENGE
• Stonehenge has generated
innumerable theories about its
origins and meaning. Several
groups, including Druids and New
Agers, claim it as a monument
central to their beliefs.
WHO OWNS THE PAST?
• Until recently, most archaeologists came from Western,
industrialized societies, the economic and political
domination of which seemed to give an almost automatic
right to acquire antiquities and excavate sites around the
world. Since World War II, however, former colonies
have grown into independent states eager to uncover
their own past and assert control over their own heritage.
•
WHO OWNS THE PAST? CONTINUED

• The question of excavating burials can be equally complex.

For prehistoric burials the problem is not so great, because
we have no direct written knowledge of the relevant culture’s
beliefs and wishes.
• For some Native Americans in North America, archaeology
has become a focal point for complaints about wrongdoings
of the past. They have expressed their grievances strongly in
recent years, and their political influence has resulted in legal
mechanisms.
•

•
 RECONSTRUCTION: KENNEWICK MAN
•

• Facial features of Kennewick Man during

reconstruction, with muscles added in clay.
• NAGPRA legislation has changed how
archaeologists deal with and investigate Native
Americans’ remains and cultural objects associated
with burials.
•

• https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/index.htm
•
SEMINOLE ANCESTRAL
REMAINS, FLORIDA

• Seminole bones from Florida were

reburied in 1989 by archaeologists and
Native Americans at Wounded Knee.
WHO OWNS THE PAST? CONTINUED

•
As in Australia, there is no single, unified indigenous tradition.
Native Americans have wide-ranging attitudes toward the dead and
the soul. Nonetheless demands for reburial of ancestral remains are
common.
•
Diversity of traditions is a problem but Australia is a long way from
addressing Indigenous burial rights.
•
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-16/burial-bill-criminalises-aboriginal-traditional-ceremoni
es-nt/11604590
•

•
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COLLECTORS
AND MUSEUMS
• It has become clear in recent years that private
collectors and even public museums, for centuries
regarded as guardians and conservators of the past,
have become (in some cases) major causative agents of
destruction.
• The market in illegal antiquities—excavated illegally
and clandestinely with no published record—has
become a major incentive for the looting of
archaeological sites.
 THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COLLECTORS
AND MUSEUMS CONTINUED
•

•
The looting is funded, whether directly or indirectly, by unscrupulous private
collectors and by unethical museums.
•
There are signs that things may be improving, however. The Dealing in
Cultural Objects (Offences) Act was approved by the United Kingdom
Parliament in 2003. For the first time it is now a criminal offence in the UK
knowingly to deal in illicitly excavated antiquities, whether from the UK or
overseas. Likewise the USA has the 1906 Antiquities Act, though is often lax
in its enforcement
•
https://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/c.php?g=419385&p=2859467
•

•
 “ELGIN MARBLES” IN THE BRITISH
MUSEUM
• The notorious case of the Lord Elgin’s
marbles…
• Part of the “Elgin Marbles” in the British
Museum: a horseman from the frieze of the
Parthenon in Athens, c. 440 BCE.
 NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM, ATHENS

• The New Acropolis Museum in

Athens, built to house the
Parthenon marbles that are still in
Athens and, one day (it is hoped),
the “Elgin Marbles” too.
•
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF COLLECTORS
AND MUSEUMS CONTINUED
• It is ironic that a love and respect for the past and for the
antiquities that have come down to us should lead to
such destructive and acquisitive behavior.
• “Who owns the past?” is indeed the key issue if the work
of archaeology is to continue, and to provide us with new
information about our shared heritage and about the
processes by which we have become who we are.
•
MIMBRES BOWL FROM THE CLASSIC
PERIOD
• Mimbres bowl from the Classic period,
showing a ritual decapitation.
 MIMBRES BOWL: ANIMALIAN
•
FORM
Animalian forms were a popular
Mimbres subject. The “kill” hole allowed
the object’s spirit to be released.
•
THE “WEARY HERAKLES”, EXCAVATED IN
TURKEY
•

• The “Weary Herakles”: the lower part,

excavated in Turkey in 1980, and the upper
part, which was exhibited in the Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, are now reunited in
Turkey.
 LOOTED: SILVER DISH FROM SEVSO
TREASURE
•

• A splendid silver dish from the looted

Sevso Treasure, one of the major scandals
in the recent story of illicit antiquities.
•
 ARAMAIC INCANTATION BOWL

• Aramaic incantation bowl from the sixth

to seventh century CE with a text,
written in black ink, intended to bind
demons, deities, and other hostile forces
who might harm the owner.
STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Who owns the past?

2. What are some ways in which symbols from the
past have led to conflict?
3. What are ethics? What sorts of ethical issues do
archaeologists encounter?
4.
STUDY QUESTIONS
CONTINUED
1. Why are many archaeologists critical of
“pseudoarchaeology”?
2. What are illicit antiquities?
3.