Session 4 - Interpreting the Past through Others' Eyes: critically approaching Ethnographic Analogies

Chairs: Erik Solfeldt and Erica Priestley

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The motivation for hosting this session is to spark conversation regarding the use of Indigenous knowledge in combination with western critical relational theories and ethnographies. As two scholars brought up in the Euro-Western tradition, we aim to reckon with the bias of our own philosophies and methodologies, inspired by recent postmodern/posthuman critiques, in favour of more diverse and varied Indigenous ways of knowing. The purpose of this session is to provide voice to those who wish to discuss the following questions:

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1. What are the barriers in academia that prevent Indigenous scholars or knowledge from being accepted or taken seriously?

2. How can the field find a compromise between its scientific methodologies while taking Indigenous ways of knowing seriously?

3. How can we avoid generalisations while critically employing ontological theory?

4. How can relational perspectives coming from a western postmodernist and/or posthumanist tradition be combined and evolve with Indigenous knowledge without colonising thoughts, ontologies, theories and epistemologies in future studies?

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Paper Abstracts 

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Proximity Suitability or Social Relations? Pottery Making and Raw Material Procurement in Bohol, Central Visayas, Philippines

Rhayan Gatbonton Melendres, University of the Philippines

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The availability of raw materials is essential in the development of pottery making in a community. For ceramic production, the materials needed are clay, temper, fuel, water, slip, paint, and glaze. In the Philippines, Bohol Island in Central Visayas has resilient pottery making traditions. Presently, there are four communities on the island that continue to make traditional pottery. These are Bagacay in Talibon, Binogawan in Calape, Canduao Occidental in Valencia, and East Poblacion in Alburquerque. In all of these villages, ceramics are hand-made where potters use only mats, woodblocks, or banana leaves for rotational devices and potholders, small bottles for burnishing, fishnets, and dried banana leaves for polishing, and wooden paddles, bamboo sticks, and stone anvils for shaping. They do not use a potter’s wheel nor a kiln in firing them. The pots are fired using an open firing system. Using ethnoarchaeology as a research strategy and a survey questionnaire, interviews, and participant observation as methods, this study focuses on the raw materials that the Boholano potters are using in their ceramic productions. Specifically, it will concentrate on clay, temper, and fuel acquisition because the Boholano potters do not use slip, paint, and glaze in producing their crafts. It will present how and where the potters are procuring their raw materials. Also, it will discuss the relationship between the locations of the source of their raw materials and their settlements. Moreover, it will identify if the potters in each of the villages consider proximity, suitability, or social relations in deciding where to mine, acquire, and get their clays, tempers, and fuels.

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Why is an Alternative Onto-Epistemic Understanding of Health Knowledge System Necessary for 21st Century Hunter-Gatherers

Rakesh Kumar, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science, India

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Archaeological and anthropological studies mostly focus on the content of indigenous knowledge by describing and documenting the knowledge system of indigenous people (which is homogenously distributed among them) and overlooked the factors behind knowledge variability: who knows what and why? It comprises of knowledge acquisition, intergenerational transmission or diffusion and knowledge transformation processes. But these knowledge and experiences are a cultural specific dynamic mixture of past tradition and present intervention which comprises of native belief systems, empirical apprehension and worldviews. H-G’s knowledge of health and survival is a continuous process and mostly implicates a posteriori (i.e. based on previous experiences) perspective of both the individual and collective understanding to maintain health. It comprises of knowledge acquisition, intergenerational transmission or diffusion and knowledge transformation processes. But it is important here to take in for questioning whether this onto-epistemic model of health and healing is applicable when a society or culture is going through the rapid transition of socio-economic practices, demography, social relation, and structural transition of functionality and subsistence pattern. This study will analyze why the phase of transition is important for the onto-epistemic understanding of the conception of any knowledge system particularly when it involves the process ofbiculturalization, cross-border exchange, geophysical relocation, and change in social networks.

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Megaliths and Their Probable Association with Astronomy:

A Case Study of Vidarbha Megaliths

Tanoy Sengupta, Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, Pune, India

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Megaliths are an enigmatic class of monuments found in the Indian sub-continent from the Iron Age context and sustained up to presenttimes. Megalithism represents a form of ancestral worship that beliefs in the existence of the soul and life after death. As the majority ofthese monuments have been used for funerary purposes, several enigmatic structures like menhirs, alignments, and avenues are generally arranged in some geometric patterns, and such grid-like arrangement of stones was oriented towards the cardinal directionsor, in some cases 15° – 20° off the cardinal directions, which suggests that these monuments have some definite connection to astronomy seems to be lurking, possibly used as calendar devices. The paper will try to investigate the astronomical intent in the design and layout of the megalithic structures of the Vidarbha region, India, with a view to understand the knowledge system of the bygone megalithic folks and the importance of directional symbolism in the construction of megalithic tombs. It will further discuss the astronomical ideas of the native groups of the region, who are still following similar burial customs, which will help to understand whether the present-day Megalithism practiced by those groups is the continuation of the past or not, and, if so, how much the celestial bodies are important for the construction of the megalithic monuments and how important is directional symbolism in the mortuary practices.

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Visualizing Little Lhasa:

An Ethnographic Study of the Tibetan Community of Dharamshala

Devina Dimri, Shiv Nadar University

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The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso’s flight from Tibet in 1959, after the Tibetan Uprising at Lhasa had over 80,000 Tibetans enter India seeking refuge. The Tibetan diaspora in India which has since risen to 94,203 presently occupies over 35 settlements all around the nation. These settlements, being highly influenced by the Central Tibetan Administration and its incessant efforts to retain the distinct Tibetan Buddhist culture has its inhabitants maintaining a very strong sense of Tibetan identity. This identity, which is heavily influenced by the community trauma experienced back in Tibet, the heterogeneouscultural landscape of India as well as migration politics and diplomacy, has for the last 61 years been inculcated subconsciously yet systematically in every second and third generation Tibetan. This paper aims to investigate specific types of objects (found during anethnographic study in Dharamshala) and their intrinsic relationship with Tibetan nationhood and ‘sense of self’. The case studies includea map, posters and stutters, Lungta (Tibetan flags), Green Book (a document issued by the Tibetan government in exile to Tibetans) andPangden (a garment worn by married Tibetan women). The paper’s main aim is to analyze the tangibility of national identity, it’s rigid yet fluid nature and the effects of migration and memorialization on it.

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Reflections on a Wooden Hand-Mirror: A Historical Melanesian Object

Jo Tonge, University of Southampton

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Historical archaeology of indigenous societies can aid in challenging the often-flawed ethnographic models that emphasize static identities rather than the dynamic nature of these societies (Flexner 2014). Objects are important to a multivocal past, in the Pacific particularly, as the history of the last two- hundred years is mainly to be found in written sources by outsiders (Kirch 1985) (Spriggs 1997). Considering its historical context and utilizing the archaeological method of object biography to unfold the ‘drama’ (Joy 2009) of this wooden imitation hand-mirror allows for a greater depth of nuance to the history and anthropology of the 19th and 20th century Trobriand Islands. Untangling the processes which constitute its biography, with a focus on the initial importance in its creation, its ‘peak’ life as an ‘inscribed’ object (Marshall, 2008), allows a narrative of social action to unfold. This mimetic hand-mirror is considered in the context of practices traditionally labelled ‘cargo cults’ within anthropology, that often marginalize objects like these. Though it does not have a reflective surface, it nonetheless forces reflection and recalls the power of the object to which it alludes in the need to self-scrutinise. The irony of the looking glass that is so often held up to our own culture in the study, and the critique of the study (Jebens 2004), of cargo cults and colonial contexts is encapsulated in this object.

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Human-Knot-Animal: Animal-Human Relations Through an Ontologically Situated Perspective at Nunalleq, Southwest Alaska

Amanda Althoff, Columbia University, NYC, USA

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“Animal-derived and animal-depicting artefacts are abundantly present at the pre-contact Yup’ik settlement of Nunalleq, Southwest Alaska. Classic archaeological discussions in the Arctic have been quick to revolve around ritual and shamanism, resource-exploitation and adaptation to the environment. Yup’ik ethnographies from the 19th and 20th centuries, however, portray animal-human relations in very different ways. It would be anachronistic to assume static projections back into the past, and yet, they pose a stark contrast to the way Yup’ik animal-human relations have been approached archaeologically. How can this knowledge then inform our archaeological thinking and challenge dichotomic Western frameworks of mundane vs. ritualistic, nature vs. culture and even human vs. nonhuman?

This paper discusses a way of thinking conceptually about ontological situatedness and perspective in ethnographic studies, and the ways they might inform and erode archaeological frameworks on a metaphysical level rather than trying to project specificities back into the past. This discussion is particularly concerned with the ways that Yup’ik inhabitants at Nunalleq engaged with different animal communities and materialities in order to negotiate and maintain social identities. The material culture of Nunalleq shows a powerful participation in this endeavour to navigate boundaries, communicate, and create humanness.

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Lastly, a brief venture into the potentiality of social network studies seeks to think about relationality and ‘empiric’ ways to explore suchdata in archaeology, with Nunalleq as a case study. Ultimately, however, the question arises which archaeological practices perpetuate monolithic and deeply colonial Western truth claims, and which truly challenge them.”

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Session 5- Echoes from Beyond: Diversity in the Archaeology of Death

​Chairs: Alberto Abello Moreno-Cid and José Santiago Rodríguez Gutiérrez

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Our motivation for proposing this session was to underscore the current situation of this field. The Archeology of Death researches human societies through their funeral practices, addressing all the material elements of the burial and also cultural or social aspects. It should be noted that the handling of human remains sometimes involves a controversy of an ethical character, coming into conflict with religious beliefs and social sensibilities. Besides, other problems occur in the fieldwork such as alteration of the archaeological record, loss of information due to malpractice, lack of technological means, etcetera. Therefore, this session will give voice to those proposals that using new techniques or addressing different approaches, can provide additional information to that found in the traditional Archaeology. It is a priority to stimulate debate and the sharing of reflections, claims, and ideas

 

Paper Abstracts 

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The Bog: A Living Body, Place, and Narrative Actant Within the Liminal Phase

Marianne Gabrielsson, University of Gothenburg

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This paper explores the idea of the bog being a living body and narrative actant witihn the liminal phase. By using two materialities; Gundestrup cauldron and the Eutin figures, the objective is to answer two questions; 1) what actual significance does the bog have for the individuals view on transformation and passage? and 2) how can we, by using the bog as lens, enable the study of broad, general social practices? With Lévi-Strauss, Braidotti, Barad, Myhre, Aldhouse-Green and Fredengren as theoretical framework, I will look particular into concepts such as the nomadic subject, emotional charge, liminality, transformation, and the body in becoming. This is done using a methodology within the frame of micro archaeology, in which I focus on seriality and the dichotomy of nature- culture. The conclusion can be summarized in one word: movement. The liminal phase is characterised by movement, as well as the subject and the bog. In the circle of movement, there is a constant relational interaction, and intra-action, of death, passage, transformation and rebirth – and the main actant who provides place, room and time is the bog. The plasticity in the floating bog, also becomes a plasticity in the floating subject – the body in becoming. As such, the bog is a vital element in liminality, movement and transformation of the never-ending nomadic subject.

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The Luxurious Cemetery of Conchada: A Study of the Economic-Social Relations that Pushed the City of Coimbra into Contemporaneity

Victor Costa, University of Coimbra

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The lack of knowledge beyond our last breath makes death an exercise in semiotics. And in this sense Thomas Fuller’s assertion that “Tombs are the clothes of the dead; a grave is but a plain suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered” informs us that death is for the living. However, if this reality applies to all historical moments of human existence, it gains a more tactile dimension in the 19th century when the great romantic necropolises were created. These new interment spaces present themselves as a pivotal moment in which the burial paradigm apud ecclesia is transformed into intelligently wooded enclosures outside the urban mesh. Furthermore, these cemeteries have assumed themselves since their genesis as open-air museums where visitors, equipped with booklets that underline which monuments deserve further contemplation, were invited to wander. Currently, with the suppression of death from the public sphere, the museological dimension of these spaces is lost. Moreover, the decline of the families that ordered the mausoleums, along with administrative neglect, brought not only ruin to the built structures but also turned most of its inhabitants into illustrious strangers with no apparent relation to each other. It is the case of the Conchada cemetery in Coimbra, Portugal. In this paper, in addition to addressing the artistic production of the aforementioned necropolis, marked indelibly by the proto-archaeologist António Gonçalves, we also clarified the intricate family and commercial relationships that contribute to the economic and social functioning of the 19th century Portuguese Athens.

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Re-Searching Urnfields from Southern Italy:

Using Legacy Data for New Sight on Final Bronze Age

Elisa Pizzuti, Sapienza - Università di Roma

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One distinctive feature of the Final Bronze Age (XII-X sec. BC) is the widespread adoption of the ‘urnfield’ model as a funerary custom, which marks the transition from inhumation burial to cremation. Between the 1970s and 1990s, the Final Bronze Age was an extensively discussed subject in the Italian academic debate. In recent years the discourse has focused on central and northern Italy since most of the early twentieth century discoveries in the South remained unpublished or partially known. In the site of Torre Castelluccia (TA) were investigated both acropolis and tombs of different types and chronology.

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The area of the Late Bronze Age cremation cemetery was excavated in two campaigns, discovering 85 graves: C. Drago conducted the first one in 1951, followed by F.G. Lo Porto in 1969. About half a century before D. Ridola and Q. Quagliati had discovered an urnfield on the slopes of Mount Timmari (MT). The excavation, which took place in the summer of 1901, brought to light 248 burials. The recovery of archival data (diaries, inventories, photos, plans, and drawings) and the storage of information in a single database have allowed acomparative study showing a remarkable affinity between the two cemeteries, which probably had a parallel development. Nowadays, the pandemic has forced an inevitable pause reducing the chances for discoveries in the field; for this reason, it is even more important to recover legacy data from past excavations and thus provide new insights that will revitalize the debate.

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The Tomb of ShuiQiu’s: Another Narrative of the Rise of WuYue State

Frank Fan, Fudan University

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Against a backdrop of official historiography of the decline and fall of the Tang Dynasty and the rise of WuYue State, the tomb of the mother of the first WuYue King provides another narrative with subtleties. This paper views the tomb as a prelude to the establishment of a ritual system of burial and ancestor worship and as a possible demonstration of the king-to-be’s political stand. By focusing on the celestial image in the tomb, this paper explores acquisition and application of astronomical and astrological knowledge in medieval China, in which lies legitimacy at the very core of each dynasty. In the hope of presenting the ambiguity of privateness and publicness of tombs as the result of personal and social sensitivity, this paper tries to raise the voices that have long been lowered or neglected.

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Property or Peers? Exploring Diversity in Human-Animal Burials

Nora Nic Aoidh, University College Dublin, Ireland

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The story goes that while French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat was exploring Madagascar, he pointed to a lemur and asked: “What is that?” His local guide replied “Indri!” meaning “There he goes!” As Sonnerat did not speak Malagasy, he incorrectly assumed this was the animal’s name, and documented it as such. While unfounded in truth, this anecdote of mistranslation demonstrates how the untrained ear can perceive successful interpretation and understanding when there is none. Similarly, the way we perceive and understand archaeological concepts of death and burial are moulded by our classically androcentric and anthropocentric predecessors. In the context of human-animal burials, it has been standard practice to obsessively fixate upon the human as the main subject of the burial, often viewing the animal as another accessory or grave good. This paper seeks to oppose the idea that humanity’s relationship with animals has always been driven solely by exploitative, capitalistic objectives by examining human-animal burials across the world over a diverse range of time periods. It will challenge the utilitarian lens through which archaeology often views animals and demonstrate that throughout our shared history, humans have viewed animals not simply as accessories to our own lives but as individuals with their own social identities. Through examples, this paper will demonstrate that, like Sonnerat, it is critical that we reassess our anachronistic biases and preconceptions, that we ‘retrain our ears’, so that we can truly listen to what is being said in these Echoes from Beyond.

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The Dead and their grave goods: A study of Deccan Chalcolithic

Ahana Ghosh & Chandrima Shaha, University of Calcutta

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The concept of the afterlife is deeply connected with human cognition and human cognition is deeply reflected in the arrangement of grave goods and disposal of the dead. This research studies the Deccan Chalcolithic grave goods, grave patterns in the behavioural and cognitive archaeological contexts. Moreover, it throws light on the cognitive angle of the ritualistic approaches attached to the mortuary practices in the Chalcolithic Deccan.The Chalcolithic period, encompassing various cultures and contexts in the history of the Indiansubcontinent, comes within the time bracket of the third millennium BCE and the seventh century BCE. Interestingly, not many major chalcolithic sites have yielded instances of graves and in some of them, they are completely absent. Geospatially, the graves or the symbolic burials can be broadly divided into three regions – Baluchistan (Swat valley), Ghaggar-Hakra valley (Indus Civilization) and Deccan. Most graves found in Deccan Chalcolithic are found in scattered form and often accompanied by grave goods e.g. pots, jewellery, copper and semi-precious beads. One of the pertinent characteristics of the Deccan Chalcolithic burial pattern is that the infants are buried in single or double urn burials depending on the age of the infant. It can be seen that in Chalcolithic Deccan the infants are buried in both extended and contracted forms, however, the adult burials are mostly of the extended type. In this research, these burials are more or less the only source of information to understand the magico-religious beliefs of the Deccan Chalcolithic people.Keywords: Chalcolithic, burial, human remains, grave goods, cognition, mortuary, ritualistic approach.

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Planting Gold - The Significance of Jewelry in Bronze Age Burials and How Modern Connotations Impact Our Understanding of Who Owned and Wore It

Casey Barrett-Gibson, University of Leicester

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When excavating bronze age burials, archaeologists sometimes must rely on grave goods to assess the life of the owner of the grave. The problem lies in the assumption that graves goods reflect the ‘wealth’ of the owner, which allows our own modern connotations of wealth to slip in. Do grave goods reflect wealth? Is a burial containing several ceramic items more ‘wealthy’ than a grave that only contains a pair of earrings or a few pins? How were grave goods ‘valued’ in the bronze age, and is this even applicable to a society so far from our modern capitalist society? Our modern perceptions of wealth and as material goods as an indicator of importance clashes with the material culture found in these graves. Where do we draw the line between assumptions made in our capitalist society and the unknowable beliefs regarding ‘value’ in the bronze age? This paper explores these questions by looking at the distribution and role of jewellery in ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ graves of the British bronze age. By researching bronze age burials that contain or lack jewellery, especially those where jewellery seems out of place or missing, we can look past the modern connotations of wealth to build a non-ethnocentric view of the significance of jewellery in bronze age burials.

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Reframing Egyptian Mummy Portraits: (De)Constructing Identity in Freedmen Funerary Portraiture

Avery Warkentin, University of Oxford

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Fayum portraits are a well-defined category of portraiture which includes around one thousand painted funerary images from Egypt dated between the early first and mid-third centuries CE. Focusing initially on two case studies, that of the freedman Eutyches and the grammarian Hermione, this paper will examine mummy portraits as an extension of freedman art which sought to communicate social and cultural capital after death. The majority of the scholarship on mummy portraits has typically focused on art-historical questions and, as such, much work remains to be done to socially situate these objects. In response, this analysis hopes to understand the ways in which Fayum portraits provided a unique and vital means of self-delineation for individuals who wished to assert their status by constructing a specific identity. In the particular case of freed people, a constructed sense of self would have been incredibly valuable in response to the intrinsic alienation of their previous position as slaves. Thus, this paper will use Ward Goodenough’s theory of social personae and Chris Fowler’s concept of mortuary transformation to resituate freedmen portraits within a longer tradition of mortuary idealization. The analogous complexity of legal status in Roman Egypt will be used to demonstrate the need for these individuals to affirm their status, wealth, or ethnicity in a constantly changing landscape of legislation. As such, Egyptian mummy portraits provided an essential opportunity for freedmen to self-assert their identity through the process of funerary transformation in a region that was in constant ethnic and legal flux.

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Roadway to Hell: Roman Influences on Late-Iberian Funerary Practices

José Luis Martínez-Boix, Universitat d’Alacant

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In the Contestania, the Iberian region of southeast Hispania, a growing presence of Italic material culture has been detected in sites traditionally considered Iberian after the 2nd Punic War, a presence that became stronger after Roman Civil Wars that took place there. This process, accompanied by the foundation of Roman colonies, increased the weight of Italic populations in this area and conditioned the natives that were definitively integrated into the Roman sphere after the change of era.This process, which we could understand as the main part of the romanisation of the Contestania, also affected necropolises and funerary contexts. These sites are propitious for the identification of change processes due to the particularities that funerary practices in each culture tend to have. So funerary records can represent a key indicator when it comes to knowing the degree of effective romanisation of Iberian populations.However, obstacles such as the partiality of the record and the very form of consumption of the funeral rite through cremation, identical in Italic and Iberian culture, mean that on many occasions the archaeological record we obtain is not capable of providing us with the information to clarify the details of this process.For this reason, this communication approaches necropolises traditionally considered as Iberian, re-studying their contexts and incorporating iconographic studies of the cinerary urns, detecting a strong Roman influence in them. Thus, new data is provided with the aim of stimulating debate on funerary practices and cultural change in the 1st cent. BC Contestania.

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The Buddhism Influence on Tombs in the Tang Dynasty Centered in Guanzhong Region

Biyang Wang, University of Oxford

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Buddhism has an important influence on Chinese society since being introduced to China. This influence includes not only the influence of Buddhism on Chinese religion, philosophy, and world view but also the influence of Buddhism on people’s daily lives. This influence may not be the influence of personal religious belief, but the change of material and cultural life. Tombs, as a concentrated expression of people’s material and cultural life, can reflect this process. In the tombs in the Tang Dynasty, this process mainly manifested in the application of Buddhist ornaments such as lotus flowers in funerary objects, the appearance of tower pots, the change of the image of the tomb beast, and the tomb figurine. We call this influence ‘Buddhism element’. The Guanzhong region is a relatively concentrated and rich area of tombs in the Tang Dynasty. By exploring the Buddhist elements in the tombs of the Tang Dynasty, it is possible to explore the influence of Buddhism on this area from one aspect and analyze the cultural appearance of this area.

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Dead and Varied: Variation in Funerary Practices Resulting from the Social Status of Pathology in the Gravettian of Moravia

Dana Allan, University of Southampton

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It has been commonly believed that prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities consisted entirely of productive individuals who spent most of their days engaged in hunting, resource gathering, or other physically demanding tasks. This view tends to ignore pathological or non-normative bodies, assuming these individuals to be little more than burdens on their communities. This study, focusing on the Gravettian of Moravia, examines the burials of these non-normative individuals to explore the social statuses of these people within their mobile hunter-gatherer groups. No evidence was found to suggest these individuals were considered a burden by their groupmates. Instead, burial trends may suggest a high social status ascribed to pathological individuals. This study and those like it help to provide a voice to pathological hunter- gatherers, a group which is often underrepresented in archaeological literature.

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Early Mycenaen Cemeteries as Fields of Transformation

Eleni Gourgouleti, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

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This paper attempts to balance between humanocentric and neomaterialist approaches in archaeology regarding the equally dynamic relationship between humans and their material culture. Funerary contexts are ideal case studies for such a venture. Cemeteries are places highly charged with symbolism and yet their material dimension prevails in every aspect of human activity in them. The moment of death marks the beginning of a process that transforms the formerly living person into material. This transformation lies in the centre of anything happening during the funeral. The “deathscapes” of Late Bronze Age in Greece may confirm the applicability and usefulness of a relational approach. Research has already established early Mycenaean cemeteries, such as the well-known shaft graves of Mycenae as fields of action, which contributed to the emphatic renegotiation of social relations and set the stage for the later development of the palatial system. Important as they may be, the shaft graves provide only part of the overall picture. Thus, it is important to complement and contrast this picture with an examination of a site at the periphery of the Mycenaean world, such as the tumuli cemetery at Marmara, in central mainland Greece. Such research re-orientation to less prominent case studies promises to bring up the capital role of material culture in transformation processes that were not only responsible for the emergence of Mycenaean elites but constituted a fundamental characteristic of the whole early Mycenaean world.

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Session 6- The 3Ds: Diversity, Dissemination and Disclosure of Heritage

Chairs: Aida Loy Madrid, Belén Martínez Pérez and Isaac Martínez Espinosa

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In a globalized world being able to produce and disseminate diverse and democratic knowledge increasingly becomes an indispensable research practice allowing every discipline to build a bridge between science and society. This is no different for Archaeology. Archaeological heritage may mean little to the society if archaeological information is not effectively disseminated and disclosed to the public. Thus, without any communication between archaeologists and public, the chance of building a bridge between the society and their heritage remains little.

We believe that this bridge can be built by opening up heritage to the public domain where diverse voices can be heard, and archaeological information remains exclusive to no one. Therefore, we intended this session to be a safe space where we can learn about diverse understandings of archaeological heritage and discuss how it can be best communicated with the public.

 

Paper Abstracts 

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3D Models as Tools for the People

Aida Loy, Independent researcher, Leiden University

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3D models are a common tool within the archaeological and heritage community. But most of the time those 3D models and reconstructions do not leave the academic sphere, even when they could be great tools to communicate and engage with the non-specialised audience. To try and show how useful these models I would present a model and the work that was done with it as an engagement tool. As a model, I use a 3D reconstruction of an Iron Age hillfort in Asturias (Spain). This reconstruction shows how the hillfort would look like in the Iron Age according to the last archaeological evidence. As for the engagement part, I will present the results of some surveys conducted on and off-site. The surveys were done to three groups of stakeholders after seeing the model and they threw light on how we could improve the communication between digital archaeologists and the general audience.

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3D Techniques: Disseminating Climate Impacts Through Archaeological Heritage

Ellie Graham, University of Aberdeen

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As climate change impacts societies, infrastructure and assets, its effects on cultural heritage are accelerating, with rising temperatures, rising sea levels, increasing precipitation and more extreme weather events damaging buildings, sites and landscapes. The Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk Project (2012-2016) carried out by the SCAPE Trust engaged volunteers from local coastal communities to record and monitor vulnerable archaeological sites threatened by erosion. By taking a citizen science approach to the issue of heritage loss, this appealed to the public to contribute to the solution by undertaking the task of recording and monitoring vulnerable sites. The creation of an interactive website and mobile app democratised participation and facilitated engagement from the design of the project, the collection of data to the dissemination of the results of the research, illustrating to a network of volunteers, participants and stakeholders how Scotland’s rich coastal archaeological resource is threatened by climate change impacts. Building upon this, new doctoral research aims to examine ways in which threatened coastal sites can be further researched and the impacts of climate change tracked through the deployment of emerging remote sensing techniques. Recent developments of online platforms for sharing data provide portals to communicate information both about heritage and about the impacts of climate change. Additionally, volunteerparticipation in field research and ground truthing results can strengthen public engagement. This paper will explore the potential of heritage under threat from climate impacts to engage communities both with local coastal heritage and the wider climate debate.

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Trowels and Bones: Using Twine to Tell Stories about the Mycenaeans

Despoina Vasiliki Sampatakou, University of York

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The aim of this paper is to present a Twine game I recently made - and still working on - as part of my PhD research. The aim of my research is to understand how to create more impactful interpretive experiences of the past as well as how to convey life histories through embodied interpretations of archaeological remains. My case study is the individuals buried at Grave Circle A, a Bronze Age cemetery in Mycenae, Greece, and the core project isto create three stories using different media but with the same storyline and details: the first is a classic narrative story, the second is a more interactive one created with Twine, and the third one will be an immersive experience in a 3D environment. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefits and limitations of Twine and archaeogaming in general when telling stories about people in the past.

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Can Digital Technology Redress War Crimes Against Cultural Patrimony?

Luca Ottonello, University of Glasgow

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This paper will start by listing and analysing some case studies of some of the major crimes against cultural monuments and institutions between this and last century; giving a summary of what was lost and how. It will then move onto looking at the different ways proposed and adapted by both national and international associations in an effort to redress the damage that was done using digital means or alternatively at some of the available digital technology that could be used to aid in the analysed cases.The focus question will be if all these proposed solutions are viable and if they should actually be used according to interested parties like the local communities, the international cultural associations and the scientific community; or if in alternative there would be no point in taking such actions due to the nature of what was destroyed. By the end of this paper the discussion will turn towards concluding which ones are the most viable solutions to this conundrum and reasons why, dependent on the results of the analysis on both the crimes and the proposed digital technology to be implemented and at the same time list the reasons why some might not work in order to assess the overall effectiveness of such an approach.Keywords: history, digital archaeology, historical games, Palmyra, terrorism, redressing, reconstruction, 3D printing, international cultural associations, ethics, culture, refugees, war, crimes against cultural heritage.

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A Middle Ground for Difficult Heritage: Commemorating Lynching via the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Community Remembrance Project

Kirsten Huffer, University of Cambridge

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This research focuses on how top-down and bottom-up processes interface in multi-scalar civil society organization (CSO) initiatives commemorating difficult heritage. Drawing on the concept of hybrid forums (Callon et al., 2011) within a dialogical model of heritage (Harrison, 2013), this research unpicks how effectively the aforementioned processes may together mediate place-based postmemories. It delves into the case of the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Community Remembrance Project (CRP). By critically examining the online presences, historical markers, other primary sources, and media coverage of CRP coalitions nationwide, in the context of EJI’s online presence, this research reveals inextricably linked top-down and bottom-up, national and grassroots, commemorative processes, which this dissertation theorizes constitute a hybrid middle ground. While coalitions support grassroots discourses and local emplacement of difficult heritage, the coordination of these initiatives via a CSO-led nationwide initiative offers a coherent narrative that mediates and reinforces subaltern community discourses. This research concludes that the middle ground can scale dialogical decision-making practices in ways that have the potential to more effectively commemorate place-based postmemories--and at times subvert hegemonic discourses--than top-down or bottom-up processes alone, thus offering new understandings of how difficult heritage may be commemorated.

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Redeeming the Dust:

The Temple Mount Sifting Project and The Problem of Participatory Heritage

Fridtjof Leemhuis, MF - Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society

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The Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP) might not have the long list of academic publications that other archaeological projects and excavations in Jerusalem do. Still, it has existed for more than 15 years and maintains a robust media presence. The TMSP claims to be the first archaeological project with exclusive access to the soil of the Temple Mountain/Haram Al-Sharif, employs a considerable number of tourists and volunteers, and is supported by high profile political interest groups. Zachi Dvira and renowned archaeologist Gabriel Barkay began operating a public archaeological sifting site in 2004. So far they claim to have sifted through 75% of roughly 400 truckloads of alleged Temple Mount soil. Over the past 15 years more than 200,000 volunteers have participated in the sifting. The TMSP offers 2-hour sifting events through their homepage, including a 30min introduction into the sifting practice and a 90min sifting activity at one of their 30 Wet- sifting stations. This papers aims to present a brief overview on the history, questionable practice and contested political background of the TMSP, before discussing the ethics of participatory archaeology. For the TMSP the hands- on approach is not only a source of income but also an important tool for their one-sided storytelling. And although the TMSP might be an extreme example of participatory archaeology gone wrong, it helps us to asks important questions about the ethical implications of money, storytelling, emotions and their significant role in the design of public heritage.

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Living and Understanding Together: How Can We Foster More Informative and Inclusive Public Outreach at Göbekli Tepe?

Ekin Berk Polat, Koç University

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Towards the end of 2019, the Year of Göbekli Tepe, billboards of Istanbul were adorned by a mysterious symbol that was advertising the second Turkish series on Netflix: The Gift. It excited Turkish public as the first archaeological science fiction series ever shot in the country, which became a hit shortly after its release. Nevertheless, there is a price for growing popularity. Over the years, Göbekli Tepe has faced various peaks of pseudo-archaeological interpretations. Several documentaries and books including “Magicians of the Gods”, “Ancient Aliens”, “Cradle of the Gods”and many more, which are highly non-academic, eventually surpassed scientific research. A survey about the relation between archaeology and the public in Turkey shows that %37 percent of the population gain knowledge about archaeology through television, which also makes problematic documentaries more visible compared to scientific research. A website and online blog launched by German Archaeological Institute as part of the Göbekli Tepe Project for beating those narratives seem not to have achieved the same popularity. The need for further public involvement to increase scientific community outreach of the cultural heritage also remains inadequate as it lacks community development and diverse awareness raising projects. Therefore, the issue of public outreach at the site becomes more prominent in terms of preventing pseudo-archaeological narratives. This study aims to investigate current trends regarding the outreach at Göbekli Tepe and discusses how archaeologists and stakeholders can develop better outreach projects while allowing diverse understandings of neolithization in Anatolia and sedentism in complex communities.

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The Way of St James: Diversity, Dissemination and Disclosure of Jacobean Heritage

Sergio Larrauri Redondo, Instituto de Estudios Riojanos

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The pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela are alive in these first decades of the XXI century. You only need to go out into the streets of our Jacobean villages to perceive it: posters, pilgrim shelters, metal plaques on the ground indicating the itinerary, people from all over the world dressed with backpacks on which the significant scallops hang, cultural diversity...The recovery of the practice of the pilgrimage of medieval origin to Santiago de Compostela is present in our society, in our towns, not only in a religious or spiritual meaning, but rather because of their tourist, heritage, cultural or personal experience values. Its resurgence has been a complex process for which we must go back the second half of the 20th. This “Jacobean renaissance” was consolidated in the 80s and 90s thanks to various international factors such as the appointment of the Camino de Santiago as the First European Cultural Itinerary by the Council of Europe (1987) or its declaration as a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO (1993). Within Spain, numerous actions have also been carried out to consolidate pilgrimage routes to Compostela, such as the Xacobeos celebrations, the arrangement and signaling of roads, the creation of shelters or the adaptation of a network of Jacobean routes. But undoubtedly other main elements that contribute to the rebirth of the pilgrimages to Compostela are its heritage wealth, the diversity, dissemination and disclosure of the Jacobean heritage.

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Learners, Players, and Pearl Divers: An Investigation of Pearling Activities in East Asia in the Context of Archaeological Virtual Reality Game-Based Learning

Yuxi Xie, University of Oxford

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This paper demonstrates a research on how virtual reality game-based learning can contribute to the public archaeology by using pearl diving as a case study. The dissertation presents a two-part approach: An in-depth review at a wide range of study from Public Archaeology, Education and Game Design, and a data collection that focused on different traits of pearl divers from research in Biology, Archaeology, Anthropology and other social science subjects. By evaluating how virtual reality-based games could help the public to learn about pearling in East Asia, the dissertation suggested that it might be one of the most effective applications in public archaeological outreach. In addition, the dissertation reveals information on pearl diving activities in East Asian regions that have rarely or not been discussed yet by the English academic world. It is concluded that the data presented here will be valuable to both archaeological digital-game based learning and academical studies on pearling activities.

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The 4-D in Archaeology: Diversity, Dissemination, Disclosure and Diversion (Fun).

New Concepts in Heritage Teaching

Isaac Martínez Espinosa & Belén Martínez Pérez, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid & Instituto

de Estudios Riojanos

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In recent years, archaeological and historical dissemination have been adapted to new educational trends based on greater student participation in order to expand their skills in the world of the humanities.Urraca, as a heritage research group, has focused part of its work on the creation of educational activities and resources using various recycled materials, using games and modern educational techniques to carry out a very novel bet in La Rioja.In this proposal, we will deal with the diversity of activities used for the dissemination of heritage elaborated for the centennial CVNE winery (in its fifth generation) and the great and interesting project that they are going to carry out with the restoration of the Davalillo Castle acquired in 2019.This work, in which the interest of the winery and its project for the sensitivity of a region and the recovery of a part of its historical, archaeological, architectural and intangible heritage that would otherwise have been lost, has been designed through a proposal not previously seen, laying the foundations of respect for heritage from the beginning of the project. This interest is what makes the Davalillo Castle of CVNE and Urraca’s proposal, one of the regional references concerning the care and disclosure of heritage. Keywords: Archaeology, Diversity, Heritage, Disclosure and Education

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Session 7- Archaeology of 'Scapes': Diversity in Environment and Persepctive

Chairs: Caitlin Jacobson and Isaac Martínez Espinosa

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Our inspiration for planning this session was to bring awareness to archaeological ‘scape’ research. ‘Scape’ research is exploring the sense of place in the past. This research is diverse because it is understanding peoples, cultures and environments ability to find, establish and disseminate a sense of place. This relationship of ‘scape’ and place is influenced by human activity on an environment as well as environmental forces on a society. Archaeology has a responsibility to recognize and differentiate both footprints in the archaeological record. The objective of this session is to analyze the variety of perspectives existing in ‘scape’ archeology and the range of interactions between humans, places and the technology to analyze the past. We want to understand the different approaches currently utilized in archaeological ‘scape’ research, the impact of the environment on humans and their sense of place as well as possible innovations or trends for future ‘scape’ research that have yet to be incorporated.

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Paper Abstracts 

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A Case Study of Earthen Dwellings in the Eco-scape Of Western Himalayan District of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India

Priyanshu Mehta, Panjab University

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Ecological, cultural and social components all together define the design of the traditional eco-sensitive dwellings of Kangra District. However, the trending built-environment in the area is the one which is completely out of sync with the natural environment. The research scrutinizes in detail, the Vernacular Architecture as solid artefactual evidence of the Indigenous eco- scape of Kangra. It aims at understanding how the bio-climatic architectural plan complements the cultural and physical milieu of the district. The paper also attempts at proposing a congruent economic system that not only promotes green economy but also aims at safeguarding the Architectural Heritage for generations to come.

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Step Wells and the Shifting “Scapes”: Adaptive Re-use of Baolis of Delhi

Simran Kaur Saini, Lady Shri Ram College for Women

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Culture, heritage, economy and environment are increasingly in a symbiotic relationship (Scott, 1997). Heritage is the link between the values of the ancestors and the sense of identity that the present community identifies with, and thus, is seen as being imbued with a variety of meanings and symbols (Tweed et al., 2007, 63). The paper will attempt to look at the concept of adaptive re-use and economy- of- tomorrow model in the context of built heritage. A case study of the medieval step wells of Delhi has been undertaken wherein an attempt has been made to understand how the step wells can be incorporated in the Economy-of -Tomorrow model through the process of adaptive re-use. Step wells have been a part of the long tradition of water systems that were constructed in the subcontinent in order to meet the consumption needs of the people (Rooprai, 2019, 17). Delhi has seen incessant changes in its various “scapes” over the years, with many translating into issues which can be effectively resolved through anunderstanding of the past. These step wells are an intriguing interface of the tangible and natural heritage, and embody, thus, a whole host of cultural meanings associated with water in terms of certain landscapes. The revival and conservation of the step wells will be, therefore, understood in light of a sustainable solution to the problem of environmental crisis in Delhi as well as a more nuanced understanding of the relation between waterscapes and the local community in the past, present and future.

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Analysis of the Evolution and Mechanisms of Fishing Villages in the Yangtze River Basin with Space Syntax

Yueying Chen, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

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With the process of urbanization, different evolutions have been on their space, causing many problems between the preservation of collective memory, and the development demand by different subjects. The development of fishing villages is one of these problems that need to be resolved. The culture of the fishing village is an essential part of the local cultural contexts, as is their unique location and regional culture. Due to different reasons, the space of fishing villages has formed different patterns during their development. Thus, these evolutions are faced with different problems for future revitalisations, owing to the urbanization, the transformation of the fishery, and the observation of fishing bans in the Yangtze River basin. Space syntax and socio-spatial dialectic can analyse these evolutions and solve these problems. Space syntax can visualise the spatial evolutions of different patterns of fishing villages. Then, it can analyse the integration, accessibility, and visibility of the public space of these villages at different times. Socio-spatial dialectic can explain thesespatial evolutions and conclude their mechanisms.Thus, according to the spatial characteristics in the Yangtze River Basin, the article selects Jinshan Village in Shanghai, Yugang Village in Suzhou, and Tianao Village in Shengsi, as examples to analyse their spatial evolutions. Then, the article applies the socio-spatial dialectic to analyse the reasons for these alternations and conclude their mechanisms of spatial development. Finally, the article provides relevant suggestions on their development, which aims to lay the foundation for the future revitalisations of the fishing villages in the Yangtze River Basin.

 

 

Female Donors in Gandhara Buddhist Landscape

Ashwini Lakshminarayanan, University of Rome “La Sapienza”

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This paper aims to emphasise the importance of female donors in the religious landscape of Gandhāra during the first centuries C.E using epigraphic evidence. Inscriptions of female donors will be classified to underscore the long historical evidence in the region for women’s participation in public life albeit being defined in strict parameters. Gandhāra was an ancient region with its nucleus in the Peshawar basin and extended to parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It was situated along the trading routes of the subcontinent including the ancient silk routes. Archaeological evidence shows that the region included thriving urban centres inhabited by a multi-cultural population and religious sanctuaries. Urban prosperity and donations from lay worshippers, including women were crucial for the development of largescale Buddhist sanctuaries in the region. My paper will focus on how women articulated their identities and established their presence within the Buddhist religious landscape in Gandhāra. The paper will demonstrate how women presented themselves in donative inscriptions in three ways using: parental ties, marital ties, and no ties. It will further analyse how they established donations jointly with their husbands and extended family members. It will highlight the reciprocal relationship between the Buddhist community and female donors that has been previously ignored by scholars.

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A Sensory Approach to Phoenician and Punic Funerary ‘Scapes’

Sara Mura, Universiteit van Amsterdam

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‘Scapes’ studies have revolutionized our perception of archaeological sites by aspiring to understand the experiential dimensions of landscapes in their broader sense. In this scenario, a theoretical and methodological debate has taken shape between the processual/positivist and the post-processual/ phenomenological approach. The first one has generally tended to interpret human experiences as by-products of a subject-object dichotomy based on a Western five senses hierarchy (with sight at the top), which has been reconstructed through quantitative methods. The second one, instead, has applied theories of senses to imagine past worlds’ experiences as embodying performances. This debate has encompassed all archaeological field, including the funerary one. This paper intends to challenge the biases of these two approaches, while presenting new lines of inquiry on the sensorial experiences of funerary ‘scapes’, by using the Phoenician-Punic communities in Sardinia (Italy) as a case study. The goal is to analyze the potentialities of a multidisciplinary and holistic approach which combines well known physical measurements (material studies, GIS, viewshed, and sound analysis) with theories of senses. The funerary ‘scapes’ are re-examined as performative spaces embedded in a trans-corporeal synesthetic process, both biological and psychological (memory level). In this perspective, human senses are interpreted according to a wider perception of body experience – such as walking and variations of temperature - and re-evaluated as concurrent active regulators of social life rather than distinctive and passive receptors of sensorial stimuli. By exercising their agency, senses shape the funerarylandscape and help the living to accept and deal with death.

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An Icarus’ Eye View? GIS Approaches to the Human Landscape of Early Iron Age Crete

Dominic Pollard, University College London

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In this talk, I demonstrate how GIS and spatial statistical methods can be effectively utilised to illuminate aspects of settlement patterning difficult to interpret on a purely intuitive basis, whilst not losing sight of the lived, dwelt landscape. In Greece, the centuries between the end of the Bronze Age and the Classical era were once considered a ‘Dark Age’. On Crete, this sense was underlined by the perceived glories of the preceding Minoan era, from which the island’s Early Iron Age (EIA) inhabitants were seen to have dramatically declined. Though such views are increasingly challenged, ongoing disparities in archaeological research mean that even today relatively few EIA sites have been thoroughly excavated. As such, certain influential narratives about the period are based on sites only identified through survey, and these have traditionally been interpreted in a largely instinctive manner. Part of my PhD research aims to utilise data on these sites more rigorously, to better ground our understanding of changes in settlement pattern and landscape use in the Cretan EIA. In my work, settlement locations, routes between sites, and the modelling of viewsheds and agricultural catchments are all mustered to provide a systematic, but humanised account of the shifting occupation of the landscape. Based on digitised archaeological surveys, I will present an overview of the period, the insights from my research and the challenges they present to traditional accounts, and, ultimately, the relationship between the ‘points on a map’ and the social, political, and religious structures of the contemporary society.

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Traditions of the 'Separate': Creation of Wetland Deposition Knowledge-Scapes

Tiffany Treadway, Cardiff University

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Knowledge-scapes are formed through the amalgamation of various units of information that may or may not be inherently connected. These connections or interactions with both new and familiar information along with milieu, help to develop more diversified interpretations of prehistoric activity. The development of knowledge-scapes alters and expands core units of information or raw-data which can be modified for specified analyses. This project focuses on the development of a knowledge-scape which centres around Iron Age wetland deposition, comparing archaeological activity from Wales and Scotland. While significant deposition case studies have been fundamental to the development of Iron Age research, they should not be the cornerstone of influence because they are, at times, unique. Inherited wisdom and classical sources have greatly influenced our perception of British wetland depositional behaviour. Therefore, this study focuses on consolidated material evidence to provide potential patterns of prehistoric behaviour. This development of a depositional knowledge-scape has not been without its limitations as modern collection methods are rife with significant taphonomic bias. Likewise, certain objects sourced from museums and older catalogues also has limitations because of its early discovery date and subsequential lack of relation to its context. However, utilising unconventional resources like open-access digital heritage services, even with significant collection bias, has enabled projects – like this one, to better understand national distributions of objects and deposition activity without radically changing or altering previous finds in prehistoric behaviour.

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The Past on Display: The Etruscan Museumscape

Cristina Sanna, University of Southampton

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The relationship between archaeology and museums has long been established both in terms of public dissemination of archaeological knowledge and as a form of representation that actively influences the process of academic research. The museumscape is therefore an important study environment that despite the ongoing developments of public archaeology, has yet to be carefully investigated. Using a qualitative approach drawn from the museum studies field, this research aims to critically examine modern interactions with the Etruscan past, using museums as privileged spaces of observation. In particular, considering the strong ties that still exist in Italy between Etruscan archaeology and contemporary imagination, this study combines institutional perspectives with the visitor’s agenda, configuring the museum as a space in which academic discourses and popular perceptions meet, generating interesting and various meanings as well as feelings. The archaeologists’ view is captured through in-depth interviews while popular forms of reception are analysed using both concept maps and informal conversations carried out before and after the museum experience. The latter, as widely recognised by the field of visitor studies, proves to be a complex and varied journey, entangling at the same time (though not for everybody) cognitive and emotional features. While the archaeological perspective seems to mostly focus on the chronological and historical dimension, concepts of space and place recur frequently in conversations with visitors, especially in association with personal memories, learning strategies and identity-related constructs, demonstrating the fundamental role played by space in people’s approach to the past.​​​