Archaeology Actually

Kia ora, During a trip to the Republic of Korea (aka South Korea) in 2017 I came across a piece of the Berlin Wall standing in a small square in Seoul.  The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier that once physically and ideologically divided the city of Berlin in Germany. It came to symbolize the wider division of Western and Eastern Europe during the post-World War II conflict  between "western Capitalism" (the USA and allies) and "eastern Communism" (the Soviet Union and allies) known as   the Cold War .  The piece of this monument in Seoul had been gifted by the Berlin State Senate in 2005 to stand as a memorial and as a sign of hope for the future reunification of the divided Korean peninsula. November 9 2019 marked the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (or more precisely, the lifting of restrictions on movement between the east and west). This anniversary had me thinking a bit about a developing interest of mine - the archaeology of the...

Kia ora, The University of Otago in New Zealand is presently engaged in a number of capital development works across its Dunedin campus and part of my present employment at Southern Pacific Archaeological Research (SPAR), a research and consultancy unit in the University's archaeology programme, has been to monitor many of these works and record any archaeological evidence that is uncovered. Yours truly investigating a cobbled surface uncovered during the archaeological monitoring of capital development works on the University of Otago campus (Photo: Karen Greig). These capital development works have included the construction of a new facility for the University's School of Dentistry, which was preceded by a large open-area archaeological excavation undertaken by SPAR in early 2016. This excavation uncovered extensive archaeological deposits dating back to the 1860s, a period during which the young settlement of Dunedin was developing and expanding rapidly followin...

Kia ora, In December 2017 I wrote a post looking back at some of the highlights of that year in New Zealand archaeology. In that earlier post I noted that the archaeological record in New Zealand was something that often people in New Zealand were either not aware of, or tended to dismiss the importance of (despite it presenting unique opportunities on a global scale). "Real" archaeology is often perceived as something done overseas and not here in our little country in the corner of the South Pacific. A little later than last time, but with 2019 still in its infancy, here is a look back at some of the very "real" highlights of 2018 in New Zealand archaeology (in no particular order):   Significant piece of early European history unearthed in Wellington   Back in January 2018, OneNews reported on the discovery of significant infrastructure from the early European colonial period during the Lombard Laneway upgrade in Central Wellington, including the remai...

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 my last post to this blog , I noted that one of the key differences between archaeological and pseudoarchaeological interpretations of the past is that established archaeological interpretations are the result of inductive reasoning  (i.e. conclusions are built from the 'bottom-up', based on (all) the available data), while pseudoarchaeological interpretations rely on data that has been selectively sampled to support the claims that are being made.  That's not to claim that archaeological interpretations are never wrong! But there is an important distinction that needs to be made between blatantly biased data selection and/or manipulation leading to incorrect interpretations (that is, pseudoarchaeology) and an interpretation that proves to be incorrect as a result of additional research and new data. Many areas of Oceania, for instance, are largely archaeological ' terra incognita ' (unknown land) and it is expected that as these areas are explored...

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 ...

Kia ora, Today (25th April) is ANZAC Day (ANZAC is an acronym for Australian & New Zealand Army Corps), an official day of commemoration in New Zealand and Australia of the sacrifices made by our servicemen and women (past and present). The day itself is the anniversary of landings by the allied forces of the First World War on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, in 1915.  As noted elsewhere :  "In the wider story of the First World War, the Gallipoli campaign made no large mark. The number of dead, although horrific, pales in comparison with the death toll in France and Belgium during the war. However, for New Zealand, along with Australia and Turkey, the Gallipoli campaign is often claimed to have played an important part in fostering a sense of national identity." It may surprise many to hear that archaeologists have been actively involved in the investigation of the campaigns of twentieth century wars. For example, some World War II archaeology that I...