Archaeology Actually

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 widesprea...

Kia ora, A couple of posts back I talked about what pseudoarchaeology was. As the combining form 'pseudo-' implies, it is essentially 'false archaeology'.  Pseudoarchaeological interpretations of the past are based on data that has been 'cherry-picked' (i.e. selectively sampled) to support a particular pre-determined conclusion. What's the harm in a bit of pseudoarchaeology?  The fact that pseudoarchaeology is intellectually dishonest, and widely perpetuates inaccurate information about the past is in itself a reason to challenge it.  The Ancient Astronaut 'theory', discussed in my earlier post , is one prominent example of pseudoarchaeology. It has gained a strong foothold in popular culture thanks to the hugely successful TV show Ancient Aliens, which in turn was inspired by an earlier outlet for the idea - Erich von Däniken's bestselling book, Chariots of the Gods? While these may just be a bit of a ( meme-worthy ) laugh to some, t...

Kia ora, In light of the heightened profile of pseudoarchaeology in the popular media recently, I thought I would write a bit on this blog about what pseudoarchaeology actually is and why it's a bad thing.    What is pseudoarchaeology? Archaeology (as I have previously discussed in this blog ), is the study of past human societies through the material remains that those societies left behind. I have previously alluded to some of the careful  data gathering practices and analytical methods that have become widely established in the discipline  for very good reasons . Pseudo is a combining form meaning "false", "pretended", or "unreal", used in the formation of compound words such as pseudoarchaeology.   Pseudoarchaeological interpretations of the past are not based on these widely accepted data gathering practices and analytical methods, yet give the false impression of being so.    As noted by archaeologist  David S. Anderson ...