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In 2014, the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient
World organized an international writing competition calling for
accessible and engaging essays about any aspect of archaeology.
Nearly 150 submissions from over two dozen countries were received.
Archaeology for the People gathers the best of those entries. Their
diverse topics-from the destruction of historic, urban gardens in
contemporary Istanbul to the fall of the ancient Maya city- offer a
taste of the global reach and relevance of archaeology. Their main
common trait, however, is that they prove that archaeology can
offer much more to a general audience than Indiana Jones or aliens
building pyramids. All of the articles collected in this book
combine sophisticated analysis of an exciting archeological problem
with prose geared at a non-specialized audience. This book also
offers a series of reflections on how and why to engage in
dialogues about archaeology with people who are not specialists.
These include a stunning photo-essay that captures the challenges
of life at an archaeological site in northern Sudan, interviews
with a number of leading archaeologists who have successfully
written about archaeology for a broad public or who are actively
engaged in practicing archaeology beyond academia, and a discussion
of the experience of teaching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
about archaeology to over 40,000 students. This book should be of
interest to anyone who has wondered how and why to write about
archaeology for people other than archaeologists.
Antiquarianism and collecting have been associated intimately with
European imperial and colonial enterprises, although both existed
long before the early modern period and both were (and continue to
be) practiced in places other than Europe. Scholars have made
significant progress in the documentation and analysis of
indigenous antiquarian traditions, but the clear-cut distinction
between "indigenous" and "colonial" archaeologies has obscured the
intense and dynamic interaction between these seemingly different
endeavours. This book concerns the divide between local and foreign
antiquarianisms focusing on case studies drawn primarily from the
Mediterranean and the Americas. Both regions host robust pre-modern
antiquarian traditions that have continued to develop during
periods of colonialism. In both regions, moreover, colonial
encounters have been mediated by the antiquarian practices and
preferences of European elites. The two regions also exhibit
salient differences. For example, Europeans claimed the
"antiquities" of the eastern Mediterranean as part of their own,
"classical," heritage, whereas they perceived those of the Americas
as essentially alien, even as they attempted to understand them by
analogy to the classical world. These basic points of comparison
and contrast provide a framework for conjoint analysis of the
emergence of hybrid or cross-bred antiquarianisms. Rather than
assuming that interest in antiquity is a human universal, this book
explores the circumstances under which the past itself is produced
and transformed through encounters between antiquarian traditions
over common objects of interpretation.
In this volume, Felipe Rojas examines how the inhabitants of Roman
Anatolia interacted with the physical traces of earlier
civilizations in their midst. Combining material and textual
evidence, he shows that interest in and knowledge about
pre-classical remains was deep and widespread. Indeed, ancient
interaction with the remnants of even more ancient pasts was a
vital part of life for many and diverse people in Roman Anatolia.
Such interaction ranged from the purported translation of Bronze
and Iron Age inscriptions to the physical manipulation of monuments
and objects, including prehistoric earthen mounds and archaic
statues. Occasionally, it even involved the production of fake
antiquities. Offering new insights into both the archaeology and
history of the Roman Mediterranean, Rojas's book is also an
innovative contribution to the archaeology and anthropology of
memory.
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