Brief Note: New Zealand Archaeology Week 2022

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Kia ora,

New Zealand Archaeology Week 2022 is underway! New Zealand Archaeology Week, now into its sixth year, is an annual week of nation-wide public talks, exhibits, and other events aimed at increasing public awareness and appreciation of archaeology and of New Zealand's own archaeological record. Events are run by a range of amazing individuals and organizations and coordinated by the New Zealand Archaeological Association (NZAA). Over the last couple of years New Zealand Archaeology Week has been forced to adapt to the present pandemic world. In 2020 it was forced entirely online as New Zealand experienced its highest level of COVID-19 related restrictions. Thanks to the success of those earlier restrictions, New Zealand was enjoying a pre-Delta variant respite this time last year and New Zealand Archaeology Week 2021 saw the return of several in-person events alongside original online content from the NZAA and various content partners. With the Omicron variant now widespread in New Zealand this year's event has had to adapt again. While there are still some in-person events being run (with relevant COVID-19 restrictions in place), this year's lineup includes some free online talks (accessible from anywhere in the world), as well as other original online content. This content will include profiles of a selection of people who work in archaeology and related professions in New Zealand. 
 
As noted above, the aim of New Zealand Archaeology Week is to increase the public's awareness and appreciation of archaeology and of New Zealand's own archaeological record. I have mentioned more than once on this blog how this record is often under appreciated by the wider public. 
 
Opportunities to engage the public and promote public awareness and appreciation are taking on increasing importance in today's world, and not only for archaeology and the humanities, which seem to be increasingly fighting to justify their existence. As we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific misinformation is rife and undermining efforts to bring an end to the pandemic.
 
As part of this wider "pandemic of misinformation", archaeological misinformation, or pseudoarchaeology, has been gaining a higher profile. This has no doubt been helped by high profile TV shows such as Ancient Aliens and the UnXplained with William Shatner (because you have to include the name of such a high profile host to draw in viewers, right?). New Zealand archaeology is certainly not immune to this. As discussed much further in a good article in the Spinoff, claims that New Zealand was settled by (amongst others) Celts, Phoenicians, or Greeks before the Polynesian ancestors of the Māori lack any credible archaeological evidence to back them up and are in fact rooted in racist beliefs. Other (non-archaeological) "evidence" typically consists of questionable interpretations of cherry-picked Māori traditional histories by Pākehā (New Zealanders of European descent). This brings to mind another infamous example of pseudoarchaeology - the claim that engravings on the sarcophagus of the Maya king K’inich Janaab Pakal at Palenque in southern Mexico depict a space ship. Examples such as this should serve as a warning of the folly of interpretation in the absence of a detailed understanding of cultural context.  
 
I believe that there is little doubt that the academic system must bear some of the blame for this present situation. Much research sits behind paywalls, practically inaccessible to those outside of academic institutions, and there is typically limited recognition within the academy of the importance of public engagement. 
 
New Zealand Archaeology Week presents a great opportunity to raise awareness of New Zealand's REAL archaeological record. This record as fascinating and, as it happens, quite important globally. While its lack of time depth has contributed to its under appreciation by the wider public it is this very lack of time depth that contributes to its importance. New Zealand's archaeological record presents an extremely rare opportunity globally for archaeologists to study an instance of human settlement of a pristine landscape that occurred within the last one thousand years. Don't take just my word for it though! Check out the following video from Archaeology Week last year, and then check out the new content for this year - links provided below.
 
 

   
To keep up with events and content this week, check out the Archaeology Week 2022 webpage and NZAA's accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, and follow the hashtag #NZArchWeek2022 on these platforms.
 
 
Thanks for reading,
Nick
 
       

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