Palaeodietary reconstruction using stable isotope analysis is becoming increasingly common, as is the practice of using mixing models to quantify ancient dietary compositions. However, many ...archaeologists may be unaware of the complexities and pitfalls of stable isotope mixing models (SIMMs). This study serves to provide an overview of the basic principles of SIMMs, evaluates the performances of several of the most commonly used SIMM software packages, and offers some field-specific guidelines for the application of SIMMs in archaeological contexts. We present a series of simulated and published archaeological data to demonstrate and evaluate the different types of SIMMs. We compared the outputs of linear mixing models, simple probabilistic models (IsoSource), and conditional probabilistic models (FRUITS and MixSIAR). Our results show that each mixing model has its pros and cons, and archaeologists should select the best model based on a number of factors, including familiarity with coding languages, sample characteristics (
i.e.
sample size and normality) of the consumer groups, and research questions.
Stressing the interdisciplinary, public-policy oriented
character of Cultural Resource Management (CRM), which is not
merely "applied archaeology," this short, relatively uncomplicated
introduction ...is aimed at emerging archaeologists. Drawing on
fifty-plus years' experience, and augmented by the advice of
fourteen collaborators, Cultural Resource Management
explains what "CRM archaeologists" do, and explores the public
policy, ethical, and pragmatic implications of doing it for a
living.
Unseeing the Past Smith, Adam T.
Current anthropology,
12/2022, Volume:
63, Issue:
S25
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Archaeology has recently been described as a means of “bearing witness” through the recuperation of pasts forgotten and dismissed. But archaeology is also a tool for unseeing, creating voids in the ...historical record easily filled by state-sponsored polemics. In few places is this as clear as the Armenian Highland of eastern Turkey. The year 2020 marked the 105th anniversary of the Armenian genocide, a program of mass murder enacted by the collapsing Ottoman Empire that resulted in the deaths of up to 1.5 million people and the dislocation of almost the entire Armenian population of Anatolia. The genocide continues to define regional politics as a century of denial by the Turkish government strains international relations. Even as an increasingly vocal cadre of historians has grappled with the legacies of collective violence in the region, foreign archaeologists working in Turkey have increasingly avoided the material remains of the Armenian past and the evidence of its erasure, etching genocide denial into the authoritative discourse of the discipline. The disappearance of Armenians from international archaeological accounts of the region effectively co-opts the discipline as a functionary of the Turkish government’s historical revisionism. This study combines close readings of works from international archaeology’s archive with interviews with foreign archaeologists to better understand the discipline’s understudied practices of unseeing.
The question of ethics and their role in archaeology has stimulated one of the discipline's liveliest debates. In this collection of essays, first published in 2006, an international team of ...archaeologists, anthropologists and philosophers explore the ethical issues archaeology needs to address. Marrying the skills and expertise of practitioners from different disciplines, the collection produces interesting insights into many of the ethical dilemmas facing archaeology today. Topics discussed include relations with indigenous peoples; the professional standards and responsibilities of researchers; the role of ethical codes; the notion of value in archaeology; concepts of stewardship and custodianship; the meaning and moral implications of 'heritage'; the question of who 'owns' the past or the interpretation of it; the trade in antiquities; the repatriation of skeletal material; and treatment of the dead. This important collection is essential reading for all those working in the field of archaeology, be they scholar or practitioner.
Girl Archaeologist recounts Alice Kehoe's life, begun
in an era very different from the twenty-first century in which she
retired as an honored elder archaeologist. She persisted against
entrenched ...patriarchy in her childhood, at Harvard University, and
as she did fieldwork with her husband in the northern plains. A
senior male professor attempted to quash Kehoe's career by raping
her. Her Harvard professors refused to allow her to write a
dissertation in archaeology. Universities paid her less than her
male counterparts. Her husband refused to participate in housework
or childcare. Working in archaeology and in the histories of
American First Nations, Kehoe published a series of groundbreaking
books and articles. Although she was denied a conventional career,
through her unconventional breadth of research and her empathy with
First Nations people she gained a wide circle of collaborators and
colleagues. Throughout her career Kehoe found and fostered a
sisterhood of feminists-strong, bright women archaeologists,
anthropologists, and ethnohistorians who have been essential to the
field. Girl Archaeologist is the story of how one woman
pursued a professional career in a male-dominated field during a
time of great change in American middle-class expectations for
women.
Heritage as liberation Fryer, Tiffany C.
American anthropologist,
June 2023, 2023-06-00, 20230601, Volume:
125, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Why aren't archaeologists engaging in more substantive heritage work, and how might we do so? This article offers a conceptual framework for mobilizing our praxis toward the achievement of collective ...emancipation—what I am calling heritage as liberation. Heritage as liberation provides a mechanism for reckoning. It asks us to reevaluate our motivations and more clearly articulate what we stand for as archaeologists and heritage practitioners. I offer reflections on recent attempts by archaeologists to organize toward a just future, sketch what I think a practice of heritage as liberation offers that agenda, and then analyze the Equal Justice Initiative's (EJI) heritage work as an example of what is possible when we practice heritage as liberation. I close the article with thoughts on where archaeology stands in attempts to repair and redress past wrongs and on the range of contexts that might see an emancipatory heritage praxis enacted.
Resumen
¿Por qué los arqueólogos no se están involucrando en trabajo más sustancioso de patrimonio, y cómo pudiéramos hacerlo? Este artículo ofrece un marco conceptual para movilizar nuestra praxis hacia el logro de la emancipación colectiva –lo que llamo patrimonio como liberación–. El patrimonio como liberación provee un mecanismo de confrontación. Nos llama a reevaluar nuestras motivaciones y más claramente a articular lo que representamos como arqueólogos o profesionales del patrimonio. Ofrezco reflexiones sobre intentos recientes por arqueólogos para organizarse hacia un futuro justo; delineo lo que pienso que una práctica de patrimonio como liberación ofrece esa agenda, y luego analizo la Iniciativa de Justicia Igualitaria (EJI) de trabajo patrimonial como un ejemplo de lo que es posible cuando practicamos patrimonio como liberación. Cierro el artículo con pensamientos sobre dónde la arqueología está en relación con intentos de reparar y recorregir los errores pasados y el rango de contextos en que podría verse puesta en práctica una táctica de patrimonio emancipatorio. teoría arqueológica, patrimonio, liberación, praxis, Iniciativa de Justicia Igualitaria
