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Archaeology Center |In the news...
Posted at Nov 03/2007 09:56AM:
Repatriation blocked by French courts
cori fenwick: A French museum wants to return the mummified head of a Maori warrior (acquired in 1875) to New Zealand but a French court has blocked this move: "Today it's a Maori head, but tomorrow it could be a mummy in the Louvre," See the BBC article here (25/10/07)
"Army recuits anthropologists in war zones"
An experimental Pentagon program has been recently established which assigns anthropologists and other social scientists to American combat units in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has met with considerable opposition from US anthropologists who denounce the program as a 'mercenary anthropology' which uses social science for political gain. See the NY Times article (05/10/07)
Alumni Group Seeks to Deny Tenure to Middle Eastern Scholar at Barnard College
Controversial research on Israel and the Palestinian territories has become the basis of yet another campaign to prevent a professor from winning tenure. A group of Barnard College alumni has drafted an online petition asking their alma mater to deny tenure to Nadia Abu El-Haj, an assistant professor of anthropology whose scholarship, they say, is flawed and skewed against Israel. read more
response
Desert Solitaire
The U.S. Department of Defense is distributing decks of playing cards with archaeological messages to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan link
The CEO of Odyssey Marine Exploration, John Morris, claims to "have treated this site with kid gloves and the archaeological work done by our team out there is unsurpassed...We are thoroughly documenting and recording the site, which we believe will have immense historical significance." BUT the coins will be sold on the open market to collectors and investors.
*Is the U.S. Protecting Foreign Artifacts? Don’t Ask (nytimes.com/2007/04/08)
Posted at Mar 26 2007 3:46PM (Lidewijde de Jong):
The NASA Space Archaeology Program
The NASA Space Archaeology Program has the scientific objective to use the unique vantage point of space to improve our understanding of past human settlement patterns
and the relationships between the natural environment and cultural adaptations as functions of time and space. The Program solicits proposals that incorporate remote sensing observations in the following focus areas:
• Regional landscape analysis and modeling relating human settlement patterns and subsistence strategies to environmental factors derived from remote sensing (i.e.,
climate, topography, hydrology, vegetation cover, etc.); and
• Protection and preservation of cultural heritage sites and/or planning for the sustainable development of cultural resources.
More [link]
Posted at Mar 13 2007 10:15PM (Lidewijde de Jong):
Iranian anger at Hollywood 'assault' The latest issue to grip Iranian expatriates is the Hollywood blockbuster 300. According to the protesters, it projects an "irresponsible" and "distorted" image of ancient Persia. more: [link]
Posted at Mar 13/2007 03:10PM:
cori fenwick: Starbucks controversy in Forbidden City
The Starbucks coffee shop inside Beijing's Forbidden City, a World Heritage site, has been the subject of controversy since its opening in 2000. A massive online campaign supported by over half a million people is causing palace officials to consider forcing Starbucks to relocate the shop outside the palace's walls.
Rui Chenggang, the tv anchorman spearheading the campaign, has this to say: 'The Forbidden City is a symbol of China's cultural heritage. Starbucks in a symbol of lower middle class culture in the west. We need to embrace the world, but we also need to preserve our cultural identity. There is a fine line between globalisation and contamination'.
Starbucks has no plans to move, claiming that they respect the history and culture of the Forbidden City. 'We have provided a welcome place of rest for thousands of tourists, both Chinese and foreign, for more than six years.'
Up until now, the palace museum has ignored the protests, but is now working with Starbucks to find a solution.
Fascinating stuff, particularly since American fastfood joints can be found in or close to so many World Heritage sites. Let's hope Starbucks loses this one and that this starts a trend.
Posted at Mar 06/2007 09:32PM:
cori fenwick: The French government has agreed to build (but not pay for) a branch of the Louvre in Abu Dhabi (UAE) which will house loaned works from French museums. The controversy centres on the fact that France will make hundreds of millions of euros from the deal. There is an online petition against the move signed by archaeologists, curators, conservators and the public, which says 'our museums are not for sale'. The international art/ museum world has mixed reactions to the decision. Interestingly, the protest has little to do with the fact that the art is being loaned to an Arab state - they're just as angry about the Louvre loaning stuff to the High Museum in Atlanta.
Posted at Feb 17/2007 02:21PM:
trinidad rico: There is a Tourism Studies Working Group in Berkeley if anyone is interested:
[link]
Posted at Feb 28/2007 23:56PM:
Corisande Fenwick: The Israeli antiquities authority is providing a live feed to film the controversial excavations on Haram al-Sharif/ Temple Mount in order to calm fears amongst Muslim communities that the site is being destroyed.
It'll be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks - and whether it is successful...
Link to Israeli Antiquities live feed
In the news...
UPDATE A UNESCO report is calling for an immediate halt to the Jerusalem excavations by the Israeli authorities (BBC report (13/02/07)
Posted at Jan 09/2007 01:18PM:
Ulrike Krotscheck: I wanted to forward a note I got from Naomi Kaloudis, who sat
in on the Committee for Cultural Property and Legislation at the annual meeting
of the AIA/APA in San Diego last weekend. This concerns cultural property
legislation in Cyprus and may be of interest to some of you.
Over the weekend at the AIA I sat in on the Cultural Property Legislation and Policy Committee and I was asked to forward information about some upcoming legislation on the support for import restrictions on Cyprus. I know I have already talked to Mark Hammond (who is also a SAIG member) about this, but if anyone has ever worked or visited Cyprus a short letter answering a) is there any looting going on? b) is the country taking internal steps to protect the material? c) any examples of interchange (i.e. if the people were friendly and if they helped with the digs or survey and so on...would be nice).
If you are interested you may visit the site at "exchanges.state.gov/culprop" and then click on "What's New?" next to the first picture and in the right side column will be a link to the January 25th meeting where you can read all about the legislation. A short letter is due soon on Jan. 11th and it can be faxed to (202) 453-8803 and may be addressed to the Cultural Property and Advisory Committee. I know this is short notice but I only just found out and today had access to email. I think it's important and worth the few minutes.
Thanks for your attention, Naomi Kaloudis
Posted on Jan 26/2007 06:55AM:
Afghan who had statues destroyed killed,
By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
KABUL, Afghanistan
A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday. Separately, an assailant gunned down an Afghan lawmaker who, under the former Taliban regime, oversaw the destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff.
Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief. Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province of Samangan in Afghanistan's parliament.
After he was elected, Mohammadi said he should not be held responsible for the destruction of the statues, which the Taliban considered to be idolatrous and anti-Muslim. "It was foreigners like Chechens and Arabs with the Taliban who made the decision. They were crazy people," Mohammadi told The Associated Press at the time. "Even though I was governor, I had no power."
International outcry followed the destruction of the giant Buddhas, which were chiseled into a cliff and famed for their size and location along the ancient Silk Road linking Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists in Bamiyan have been painstakingly collecting the stone remains of the two statues _ and are considering rebuilding them...(article continues on second topic)
Posted at Jan 21/2007 10:31AM:
LMM: One thing I would say is that there is a WAC ethics meeting at Stanford soon and we can find out more about 2008. WAC congresses are notoriously all over the place, huge and international. The only way to get anything out of them is to run a session. Back in 2002 I ran one on ethics/tourism and heritage which had global representation of speakers, big crowd (Renfrew sat through the whole thing) so I felt it was worth it. If there are concrete plans for a 2008 congress then Im keen we organize some sessions and make them high profile, with you as students are presenting and making those connections. Then those papers could be published after obviously.
LMM