The 30th EAA Annual Meeting will be in Rome, Italy, 28–31 August 2024.
Abstract
The history of archaeology is a growing field of investigations which provides a range of studies and insights based on rigorous historical methodologies, drawing on archival materials, and organised into a veritable community with its research programs and widespread publications. Besides providing new knowledge on the practices and theories of archaeology worldwide, these empirical (archive-based) investigations have also focused attention on the production, conservation, dissemination and re-use of a range of documents produced by past archaeologists in the course of their excavation or collection activities. In turn, this has generated renewed interest in the archives of archaeology, be it in order to better understand the scientific, cultural and social implications of the discipline, or to make practical use of archival materials as a source of evidence and interpretations about the past.
This session aims to address both these conceptual and pragmatic dimensions of the archives-based history of archaeology. Contributors are invited to address issues such as:
- the scientific use of archival information: how, in our age of open science and (digital) data-reuse, are the results of past research integrated in the current production of knowledge?
- the organisation of archive-based research projects: who leads such projects, and what division of labour between archaeologists, historians or archivists are at stake?
- publication policy: to which audiences (scientific, laypeople) and in what publications are presented the results of projects combining new and old archaeological data?
More generally, we welcome papers addressing broader methodological or theoretical issues concerning the use of archives for the history of archaeology.
Keywords: history of archaeology, history of knowledge, archaeological archives, data management
Session associated with: UISPP Commission for the history of archaeology
Location: Sapienza, University of Rome. CU-006 Maths Building, Room 50.
Date: August, 31, 2024. 8:30-16:00
This abstract on:
Organisers
Program
- Kerstin P. Hofmann, Katja Rösler. Combining the old with the new for a more reflective future
- Chloë Ward. Knowledge construction in and with the archaeological archive
- Mikael Eboskog, Roger Nyqvist. Lilla Jored a chieftain burial? Reconstruction an early 19th century excavation
- Jenny Elisabeth Wallensten, Ulf R. Hansson, Axel Frejman. Creating Common Ground. Swedish Archive Research on the Past for the Future
- Janusz Budziszewski, Michał Szubski. Raw materials circulation during the EBA in the Sandomierz Upland. Data of the “PAR” program in the new technological reality
- Pin-Wen Chen, Chi-Lin Lee Lee. Archival Research on Shipwrecks in Taiwan’s Waters: Its Contribution to Underwater Archaeology Surveys
- Sara Bozza, Μarco Galli, Tommaso Ismaelli. The Basilica Iulia Project and the archive of Laura Fabbrini (1960-1964): questions of workflow, method, and data transparency
- Francesca Meneghetti. Browsing legacy material: the case of the archives of the French mission at Enkomi (Cyprus)
- Thomas Lebée, Alexandra Kardianou. Investigating Elaeus, from the Trenches to Press
- Aneta Skalec, Wojciech Ejsmond. Ancient, archival, and modern sources combined within the Ptolemaic Pathyris Project (Egypt)
- Katarzyna Anna Kasprzycka. Archives tell the truth – reconstructing the history of archaeological and conservation work at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt
- Vincent Delvigne, Bruno Bosselin, Jacques Virmont, Jean-Paul Raynal. Le Blot 40 Years Later: An Example of Fuzzy Logic in Archaeology
- Angelica Gabrielli. De Stefani’s Archive as a portrait of the European history of archaeology in the second half of the XIX century
- Julie Bessenay, Julien Vieugué. Back to the sixties! New investigations on Jean Perrot’s excavations at the Neolithic site of Munhata (8th-6th millennia BC)
- Chloé Rosner. Administrating and shaping archaeology in British Mandate Palestine in light of the archives of the Department of Antiquities archives
- Caitlin Clerkin. Whose Work? Telling New Stories with Archaeological Archives at the Harvard Art Museums
- Mustafa Kemal Baran. Archaeological Archives and Local Communities: How Can History of Archaeology Inform Heritage Practices
Abstracts
K. P. Hofmann, K. Rösler. Combining the old with the new for a more reflective future
In recent decades, the history of science has shown that scientific knowledge can be dependent on socio-political conditions, personal networks, technical innovations, research practices and places etc. Due to these insights, research on the history of archaeology is thriving and archaeological research is becoming more reflexive. At the same time, the digital turn and the WWW encourage transdisciplinary research as well as new forms of access to and presentation of information. In several collaborative projects, the RGK is accessing archives with different research questions and uses new digital technologies for this purpose. In addition to the traditional history of research, the research on knowledge production is becoming increasingly important. After a brief overview, we would like to illustrate this with the newly approved long-term academy project disiecta membra. It aims to identify, catalogue, link and evaluate a corpus of dislocated building elements of roman stone architecture in Germany as well as research related historical and praxeological topics. The long project duration of 24 years offers the rare opportunity to develop tools for the digital linking of newly collected object data with old archive information, but also to reflect on changing knowledge practices. A positive side effect will be the indexing and analysis of the content of selected holdings from the archives of the RGK and other institutions. This is of particular relevance, as the archives of archaeology are often scattered and difficult to access. Our research data on actors and practices will be published in the dynamic biographic information system Propylaeum-VITAE to promote further research in the history of archaeology. Using case studies, we will present our work with and on archival material. Furthermore, we would like to discuss whether the combined consideration of old and new data, practices and analyses can contribute to a more reflective future.
C. Ward. Knowledge construction in and with the archaeological archive
The aim of this paper is to consider the construction of archaeological knowledge within, and using, archives. Using case studies derived from fieldwork in Sudan and Egypt, and drawing upon archival theory and interdisciplinary approaches to archival research, this paper will consider how the processes of archival documentation produce, transform, and construct archaeological knowledge. A major focus will be the ERC DiverseNile project in northern Sudan, where past research is being integrated with ongoing archaeological fieldwork; in particular, a survey conducted between 1970 and 1975 which was published as a series of reports. While invaluable, these reports hint at extensive additional information which remains unpublished. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, this material is not currently accessible; however, we can still consider its role in the production and publication of archaeological knowledge. This includes the way information was initially collected, which drew upon previous archaeological research while simultaneously developing a bespoke recording style and methodology. By attempting to apply methods developed as part of my previous experience of archival research — primarily archival records from a 1921–1922 excavation in Egypt — I explore the ways in which we can still engage with, and integrate, information from what is effectively an archival ghost but remains an important source of evidence and interpretation nonetheless. By looking at the archive as a subject in its own right, rather than merely a source of information, it is possible to engage with fundamental aspects of both the production of archaeological knowledge and the history of archaeological research, thereby also facilitating a reflexive exercise on current practices. A crucial consideration is also how to effectively integrate the results of past archaeological research with new data while ensuring these are accessible to future researchers.
M. Eboskog, R. Nyqvist. Lilla Jored a chieftain burial? – Reconstruction an early 19th century excavation
The presence of gold almost always affects the narrative that we call history. One example is Lilla Jored’s grave in Bohuslän from 4th century AD and which was excavated in 1816. Several gold objects were found that came to dominate the image of the tomb and its story, that of a burial of a prince influenced by the Roman Empire. The other findings and the actual circumstances of the investigation in 1816 fell into oblivion. The official story conveyed today via an exhibition at the National Historical Museum and on national television is still focused on the same interpretation. In our project, we want to understand both why and how the grave was dug, but also the connection between the different finds recorded at the site. Interestingly, despite the gold finds, the actual place become lost (rediscovered 1925). Our investigation shows that the official picture has major flaws. The archival material shows, for example, that the gold finds used in the main narratives were submitted two years after the investigation and cannot be linked with certainty to the grave. Around the excavated grave there are also several over-ploughed graves and possibly some of the gold may come from one of these. The Lilla Jored project is both a history of archaeology and of knowledge that clearly shows how a passed down narrative and the dissemination of knowledge about a place can be changed by critically processing the various archived documents. Unfortunately, the tendency for our archives and repositories to be largely unused is within the current knowledge production in Sweden, regardless of the age of the archive material. Which affects how we can access the older documents in the future, but also how our contemporary archived material will be accessible and, above all, do we save sufficient documentation?
J. E. Wallensten, U. R. Hansson, A. Frejman. Creating Common Ground. Swedish Archive Research on the Past for the Future
In 2019, the Swedish research institutes at Athens, Rome and Istanbul initiated a project to create a digital platform gathering archive material from over 100 years of Swedish archaeological research in the Mediterranean area. The platform, named Common Ground, initially aimed at being a powerful tool in an early research phase for scholars wishing to locate archaeological material in local museums and storerooms, has underway developed into a digital archive of great interest in itself. It provides not only information about where to find certain objects, and a smooth way of gathering quantitative information about material categories, but researchers can also access field diaries, plans, sketches letters and photographs, thus allowing studies in the history of archaeological research and ideas, for example. Non-official participants in fieldwork become visible, for example the wives of the main excavators, who also contributed to the success of a field campaign, but who were not necessarily mentioned in official documents. Furthermore, the archives of the institutes have become accessible in a way that assures the safety of original documentation. In this paper, we address the importance of making legacy data otherwise kept at several places and in different countries coming together to enrich current research and the interesting perspective that opens when non-Swedish scholars study Swedish research in an historical perspective. Moreover, we discuss choices made as regards the intended audience (our platform will have different layers of access, going from detailed storage information for a few targeted specialists to information of interest on a general level), as well as the potentially difficult collaboration between archaeologists and IT- specialists and its potential backsets.
J. Budziszewski, M. Szubski. Raw materials circulation during the EBA in the Sandomierz Upland. Data of the “PAR” program in the new technological reality
In the late 1970s, the Polish archaeological community launched a program for the comprehensive documentation of archaeological sites called the “Polish Archaeological Record” (PAR). The implementation was based on a standardized method carried out by small teams conducting field surveys within artificially designated spatial units (37×41 km²). The country’s territory was divided into approximately 8,500 units, referred to as the PAR Areas. The recording of information was formalized on specially designed cards, which became a mandatory form of documentation. Fieldwork was conducted using maps at a 1:25,000 scale. The culmination of the program occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Over the course of two decades, work was conducted on nearly 90% of Poland, documenting around 500,000 archaeological sites. These results serve the heritage authorities well in their daily practice. From the beginning, attempts were made to use the obtained data in settlement research. However, after initial fascination, it became apparent that the huge amount of data and methodical problems during fieldwork significantly limited analytical possibilities. Currently, PAR data is being digitized by the National Heritage Institute and partially made available to researchers. By focusing on selected, well-surveyed areas, one can ask specific research questions. The presented case study is limited to the loess-covered area of the Sandomierz Upland, covering an area of approximately 1140 km². This area includes 35 PAR sheets and was investigated in the years 1987-1999 mostly by one research team. With basic knowledge about the reliability of past work, we investigate the circulation of a Turonian flint, known as the “Ożarów flint” among the early Bronze Age communities. Settlement information and findings of loose artifacts allow GIS spatial analyses regarding the likely paths of people’s movement and distribution of specific flint in the specific microregion during the specific time frame.
P. Chen, C. Lee Lee. Archival Research on Shipwrecks in Taiwan’s Waters: Its Contribution to Underwater Archaeology Surveys
Archival research plays a crucial role in underwater archaeology and the study of underwater cultural heritage. This process involves essential historical research work, such as collecting, sorting, verifying, and analyzing, and find out the priority research area. This article based on practice these methods in different projects in searching of 17th-century Dutch East India Company vessels, 19th-century Sino-French War and updating previous 16th to 18th centuries shipwrecks database in the waters around Taiwan and generate into hot Spot map. Taiwan’s strategic location makes it a significant shipping route. The waters near Penghu Island are notably dangerous, as indicated by numerous recorded shipwrecks. To date, 101 underwater targets have been discovered near Taiwan, with twenty identified as underwater archaeological sites. Six of these are recognized as important shipwrecks. Historical research results on shipwrecks are categorized and analyzed based on location, cause, and ship type. This method aids in identifying the shipwreck and its historical era, situating it within a broader historical context. Drawing from experiences in various projects using archival research as desk-based assessment methods, this article compares and reviews their advantages and disadvantages. It also discusses the potential for open database access for academic researchers and the public.
S. Bozza, M. Galli, T. Ismaelli. The Basilica Iulia Project and the archive of Laura Fabbrini (1960-1964): questions of workflow, method, and data transparency
The discovery of the Basilica Iulia in 1851-1852 was the starting point of the modern archaeological research in the Forum Romanum; however, after its complete excavation by P. Rosa (1870-1871), the monument remained aside from the main research interests, till the extensive investigations carried out by Laura Fabbrini (1960-1964). Her significant archive, composed of plans, hundreds of photos, and many excavation diaries, is the object of a multidisciplinary project, aimed at enhancing the information potential of the old excavations, which had remained unpublished. The in-depth analysis of textual, graphic and photographic records together with new architectural and geophysical survey and the multidisciplinary study of archaeological materials allowed a significant improvement of our understanding of the context as well as a thorough reconstruction of its chronological phases. First, the contribution focuses on the archive documentation as a primary source for the history of archaeology, in order to reconstruct the research interests and approach of Fabbrini, a neglected figure of the Italian post World War II archaeology, whose method appears significantly aligned to the most up-to-date stratigraphic experience of that time. Secondly, the paper presents the workflow developed within the Basilica Iulia Project as a case study to reflect on the best practice in the re-use, actualization and dissemination of archaeological legacy data. The developed workflow aimed at connecting the 1960-1964 information on stratigraphic units, architectural structures, and archaeological materials to the current research method, based on multidisciplinary approach and digital techniques, such as the 3D model of the excavation areas. Finally, crucial methodological questions related to the recognizability of sources, the authorship of old and new data and interpretations, thus the transparency of the archaeological research, are discussed.
F. Meneghetti. Browsing legacy material: the case of the archives of the French mission at Enkomi (Cyprus)
Thanks to its archaeological riches, Cyprus has been the target of archaeological explorations since the end of the 19th century. The first half of the 20th century, in particular, saw an increase in the number of foreign archaeological missions working on the island. Dug by British, Swedish, French and Cypriot missions, the Late Bronze Age site of Enkomi is an example of this phenomenon. The archaeological discoveries of the four expeditions brought to light a key site for studying the Late Bronze Age Cypriot economy, society and material culture. Since Enkomi lies in the northern, occupied part of the island, it is inaccessible to further field investigations. Thus, scholars are left to work with legacy data from previous archaeological missions that are mainly poorly published or unedited. The paper focuses on the work of the French mission initiated in 1934 by C.F.A. Schaeffer. The French worked at Enkomi until 1973, unearthing large parts of the site and large quantities of material. Despite the best efforts of the missions’ members, the results of the French excavations at Enkomi remain largely unpublished. As part of a larger, long-term project aimed at investigating and publishing the material of the French mission at Enkomi, the paper presents the challenges and the preliminary results of the study of the archives of C.F.A. Schaeffer and related legacy material.
T. Lebée, A. Kardianou. Investigating Elaeus, from the Trenches to Press
The necropolis of Elaeus, at the tip of the Thracian Chersonese, was fortuitously excavated by French troops under fire during the 1915 Gallipoli campaign. Despite these peculiar premises, qualified archaeologists were affected to the improvised dig, while operating along military actions and with the minimal amount of resource. Finds were sent by the army to Paris and despite the publicity of the excavations, their subsequent thorough reports and a few campaigns in the following years, the Elaeus material draw little attention afterwards. During the next stage of their life, as museum pieces, these artefacts were exposed to the risk of invisibilization inside a tremendous collection, but digital tools used for collections management contribute currently to their analysis and ultimately to their dissemination among both scholars and the general public. Moreover, the study of unpublished documentation sheds new lights on this corpus excavated in extraordinary circumstances. A publication will soon make available these additional insights to the public, benefiting from the result of years of documentary work and previously unknown materials. The intended communication aims to use this project in order to illustrate the variety of data that can be gathered from archives, but also the difficulties to identify a documentation scattered beyond ordinary sources for Antiquity scholarship. It will also address how such first-hand documentation, now objects of study in their own rights, may enhance further study on archaeological materials and their lost immediate context.
A. Skalec, W. Ejsmond. Ancient, archival, and modern sources combined within the Ptolemaic Pathyris Project (Egypt)
Three kinds of data, that is ancient, 19th-20th century, and modern ones, form a unique case of complementary sources allowing a reconstruction of an Egyptian provincial town in the 2nd century BCE. The town of Per-Hathor, known in Greek as Pathyris, was located 28 kilometres south of Luxor, in the Gebelein micro-region. The town is very important for papyrologists as it played the role of a district capital from approximately 186 BCE to 88 BCE. About 1300 Greek and Demotic documents were found in the ruins of the town in the 19th-20th centuries, making it a unique site to understand life in provincial Upper Egypt in Ptolemaic times (305-30 BCE). Despite significant visibility in the papyrological source material Pathyris is very little known from an archaeological perspective since the remains of the town mostly vanished during the 20th century. The town was explored in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by numerous scholars, but the results of their field activities were never published to a satisfying extent. The importance of Pathyris for understanding Ptolemaic Egypt became apparent much later when the texts were published. Current archival surveys revealed unpublished documentation from excavations in the form of sketches and photographs, which can be paired with the results of current field prospection to fill the gap in our knowledge. The available sources allow for very-needed research on the urban layout and domestic architecture of Pathyris. During the presentation, we will discuss how archaeological and geospatial data from old and current fieldwork can be combined with topographical information contained in Greek and Demotic papyri, to reconstruct the appearance and functioning of the town. We will also present how we are planning to link all those sources within a 3D town visualisation which will be available both for a scientific and laypeople audience.
K. A. Kasprzycka. Archives tell the truth – reconstructing the history of archaeological and conservation work at the Temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt
The temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari in Egypt is an object of constant interest of many scholars since 1893, when Édouard Naville on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund unearthed the northern part of the temple, which was under debris from ancient times. In the excavated part of the temple he first found the so-called Northern Chamber of Amun. In later years the temple was examined by various institution, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Service des antiquités de l’Égypte, and Polish-Egyptian Archaeological and Conservation Mission. Despite of this uninterrupted period of research, many myths and questions have grown up around the temple, especially around The Northern Chamber of Amun, which have not been solved until today. Archive documentation has helped to change this. Some problems to be dealt with were: do all the blocks from the fully reconstructed entrance to this chamber truly come from it, who was responsible for building them into the wall and when, what was the original type of roof of this chamber – flat or barrel- vaulted ? The archive material was extremely useful in finding answers to these questions. These included excavation journals kept in Archives of Édouard Naville in Société d‘Égyptologie Genève, photographs stored in the archives of Musées d’art et d’histoire de Genève, or the archives of the Egypt Exploration Society. A careful examination of this whole material as well as additional various photographs allowed to find good answer to the above-mentioned questions, so this paper aims to share the results achieved through the analysis of archival material remaining from the former work at the temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
V. Delvigne, B. Bosselin, J. Virmont, J.-P. Raynal. Le Blot 40 Years Later: An Example of Fuzzy Logic in Archaeology
Unearthed in 1934, the Blot site (Cerzat, Haute-Loire, France) stretches discontinuously over more than 100 meters at the foot of a tall basalt cliff. Informed of its existence by Prof. Mayet, J. Combier conducted a six-meter-deep survey from 1956 to 1958, before H. Delporte, J.-P. Daugas, and J. Virmont began extensive excavations in 1966 until 1982. They uncovered several deposits containing Upper Paleolithic artifacts, divided into about a hundred levels. The archaeological corpus includes an exceptional set attributed to the Protomagdalenian (cf. final Gravettian), divided into sevral phases and structured in such a way that the existence of a “hut” was proposed. On the occasion of the monographic publication work on the site, more than 40 years after the end of the excavations (2020-2024), we digitized the entire collection of field notebooks, allowing for the visualization and spatial processing of objects (n = 48810 points) through a GIS (QGIS v3.14). Beyond its cartographic aspect – and in the tradition of the work carried out at the Blot in the 1970s – this tool enabled the automated construction of object profiles (sagittal and frontal) which, in turn, allowed for a reconsideration of the archaeological value of the level subdivisions. Considering the geometry of the nappe de vestiges – understood as areas of object concentration – and their comparison with observations recorded in the excavation archives, shows that at the Blot 1) the recognition of levels is based on subjective characteristics forcing us to think through “fuzzy logic” and 2) that the interpretation of the deposits is fundamentally linked to the school of thought in which the excavators are enrolled. Following the presentation of the (re)construction work of the archaeo- stratigraphy, this communication will present the epistemological consequences of our approach by discussing the notion of “level” in archaeology
A. Gabrielli. De Stefani’s Archive as a portrait of the European history of archaeology in the second half of the XIX century
Stefano De Stefani was a ministerial excavations inspector in the Verona area during the second half of the 19th century, and his private archive has been recently donated to the city’s State Archive. De Stefani’s archival documentation includes correspondences, notebooks, iconographic and topographic tables, and photographs related to significant archaeological discoveries of the era. The ongoing investigation employs a methodological approach encompassing archival, historical, and archaeological analyses. The research methodology commences with a comprehensive examination and transcription of archival material, contextualizing them within the scientific research milieu of the time and drawing parallels with contemporary investigations. This paper concentrates explicitly on the preliminary analysis of correspondences, exploring their connections to influential figures in historical archaeology and their relevance to major archaeological excavations during that period. In the first part, the methodology involves a geographical and chronological analysis of the extensive network of over 157 correspondents. The correspondence includes autograph letters from renowned authorities such as Evans, De Mortillet, Cartailhac, Wollaston Franks, Hirschfeld, Munro, De Nadaillac, Pauli, Schreiber, and Wilson. It also features letters from leading Italian archaeologists and palethnologists, including Pigorini, Castelfranco, Orsi, and Chierici. Instead, the second part explicitly focuses on reusing archival materials to supplement current excavations. Finally, the paper aims to exploit the archival sources in the history of archaeology by studying De Stefani’s documentation as a reflective portrayal of the scientific and academic landscape in Italy and Europe during the second half of the 19th century and as a source for actual research projects.
J. Bessenay, J. Vieugué. Back to the sixties! New investigations on Jean Perrot’s excavations at the Neolithic site of Munhata (8th-6th millennia BC)
Excavated from 1962 to 1967 under the supervision of Jean Perrot (1920-2012), Munhata is considered as a major settlement for better understanding the late stages of the Neolithisation process in the southern Levant. Despite its importance, this site remains largely unpublished. Since 2020, new investigations have been carried out on Jean Perrot’s excavation archives as part of two successive projects respectively funded by the French National Agency for Research (https://cerastone.cnrs.fr/) and the Shelby White and Leon Levy foundation (https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/munhata-and-second- neolithic-revolution-near-east). We first gathered, sorted and described the field documentation in close collaboration with the archivists of the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme Mondes (Nanterre, France) before digitalizing it in order to put it online. We then started to analyse the stratigraphic data from these documents (photographs, plans, notebooks, locus and catalogue files…) with the aim of reconstructing the long- term occupation sequence at the site of Munhata. This archives-based approach is combined with a re-examination of the artefacts discovered in the 1960’s and an achievement of new radiocarbon dates. Such an integrated study will allow us to track the history of the Neolithic village of Munhata that will be published in a comprehensive monograph and, beyond, to contribute to various debates about the Neolithisation process in the Near East.
C. Rosner. Administrating and shaping archaeology in British Mandate Palestine in light of the archives of the Department of Antiquities archives
Les archives détiennent aujourd’hui une place de choix dans les travaux des archéologues et des historiens de la discipline. C’est à ce dernier usage que cette présentation est consacrée. Toutefois, il s’agit moins de se concentrer sur le contenu des archives et davantage sur leur histoire depuis leur production jusqu’à leur archivage. Cette présentation vise à souligner les apports d’une appréhension des archives de l’archéologie comme objet et moins comme source pour retracer l’histoire de la discipline. Elle cherche également à souligner que les archives de l’archéologie doivent être appréhendées dans leur plus large définition. En effet, cette approche permet de retracer l’histoire des pratiques et gestions de la discipline autrement. A cet effet, cette présentation se concentra sur l’histoire des archives de l’administration mandataire des antiquités fondée officiellement en Palestine en 1920. On se penchera sur les documents produits par ce département mais aussi les multiples étapes de leur archivage, les différents acteurs que ces étapes engagent et les enjeux que cela implique. Ceci permettra d’interroger la manière dont ce département fonctionne, administre et façonne la pratique archéologie en Palestine mais aussi le patrimoine qu’il exhume. Démêler ces questionnements a pour objectif plus large de contribuer à l’histoire de l’archéologie en Palestine et notamment de ses facettes politiques et sociales.
C. Clerkin. Whose Work? Telling New Stories with Archaeological Archives at the Harvard Art Museums
What role can archaeological archives play in the galleries of art museums? This paper offers a case study, presenting a recent temporary display at the Harvard Art Museums that brought archival material into the galleries in order to offer a new, humanized narrative about archaeological excavation and heritage to public audiences. On view from December 2022 to June 2023 as part of the museums’ regular program of rotating displays, “Whose Work? The Modern Workers of Ancient Samaria-Sebaste” presented the excavation of ancient Samaria-Sebaste (modern Sebastiyeh, occupied West Bank, Palestine) as the story of early 20th century Palestinian and Egyptian archaeological workers, who are typically uncredited in Western archaeological and art histories, through display of archival photographs, payroll records, and excavated finds. The installation drew on the excavated finds from the 1930s Joint Expedition to Samaria- Sebaste stewarded by the Harvard Art Museums and the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (HMANE) and on the excavation archives from the 1908-1910 Harvard Expedition to Samaria held by the latter museum. This installation was one of several recent gallery interventions that centered people, both ancient and modern, in interpretating ancient objects, in lieu of a primarily art historical message. Excavation archives (and the research potential therein) allowed us to tell a story “peopled” by real, named individuals. We hoped this installation would prompt visitors to ask who (and whose work) lies behind other objects they see in museum galleries—whether ancient craftspeople, modern artists’ workshops, or excavators—and in what context they played a role. As museums seek to tell more equitable stories about the inequitable past of both archaeological and museum practice, this case study suggests that archaeological archives have a role to play in “reframing” narratives for public audiences.
M. Kemal Baran. Archaeological Archives and Local Communities: How Can History of Archaeology Inform Heritage Practices
While there has been a growing scholarly interest in the history of archaeology, this has typically been confined to understanding the socio-political history surrounding the discipline or addressing practical questions of archaeologists regarding their fieldwork. By aiming to open up new research directions for archival work in the history of archaeology, this paper will explore how research in archaeological archives can inform contemporary heritage management and public archaeology practices which often prioritize present and future planning without engaging in critical historical research. It will do so by investigating the role and contributions of local communities in the history of archaeology in Turkey drawing on archival documents authored specifically by these communities. These documents are currently housed in various archives in Germany, US, and Turkey. This paper aims to shift the perspective and construct a narrative primarily based on documents authored by local communities, in contrast to the historiography of archaeology, where local communities are often contextualized through archaeologists’ field notes and voices. Furthermore, this paper will scrutinize the voices and personalities found in these archives within the context of historiography of archaeology in Turkey, and it will re- examine the politics of archives, archiving, and archival research in archaeology and heritage from a critical perspective. Additionally, it will evaluate the potential of a wide range of methodologies that can integrate the history of archaeology into contemporary heritage practices in Turkey. It will explore collaborative approaches to historical research and producing knowledge with local communities as part of a broader public engagement scheme in heritage sites.
