Bulletin of the History of Archaeology

I helped edit this super cool story of a dude from India who wrote his name on Egyptian tombs 2,000 years ago! 🏺🧪

📣 New issue is out now! As Women’s History Month begins, this issue brings attention to gender bias in #archaeology. These articles examine persistent inequities in visibility, citation, and leadership, and offer concrete strategies for change.
Explore more here:
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

How inclusive is archaeological data? Carrie Heitman’s latest digital review examines #feminist data science. She highlights how power and bias shape everything from collection to interpretation, outlining approaches for more transparent and equitable #research. 🏺
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🏺🗃️ The #Historians of #Archaeology group website launches soon!

historiansofarchaeology.wordpress.com

We welcome submissions for the blog from everyone working on any aspect of the history of archaeology (excavations, object provenance, community, popular histories, histories of science...)
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Can't wait to dig into this one! Sandra Rozental's work is top-notch—check out the documentary she did with Jesse Lerner here: vimeo.com/154258509

Via @sarahebond.bsky.social and Pasts Imperfect, the 🌟 Heba Abd el-Gawad speaking Saturday afternoon (Pacific time) - online as well, details and registration in link below. #Egypt #museums🏺📜🗃️

In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico (intro) Located in the Papantla municipality of the Mexican state of Veracruz, El Tajín is a UNESCO World Heritage site but a lesser-known tourist destination and national symbol. The Indigenous Totonac resid...

Given... everything, I especially appreciate folks' interest in my work. In case you're curious, I've shared the introduction to my book, In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico, here: works.hcommons.org/records/hv9r... 🗃️📚🏺🇲🇽

Ancestors’ dignity cannot wait for repatriation - Museums Association The Horniman's Heba Abd el Gawad on the ethics of storing human remains

Including a link to this recent piece by Heba Abd el-Gawad, senior curator of anthropology at the Horniman Museum. How museums store, treat, and enable 'non-invasive' (ahem) research on ancient Egyptian human remains is a surprise only if you've never worked in a museum or read up on the subject.📜🏺🗃️

New article! "Changing the Landscape of Archaeological Publishing" in Current Anthropology, by a giant collaborative group of coauthors fearlessly led by Jess Beck and including @bridgetalex.bsky.social @benmarwick.bsky.social @christinawarinner.bsky.social www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10....

Black-and-white scientific illustration of the Neanderthal 1 fossil skullcap from the Neander Valley discovery, shown in two views. The top drawing shows a side (profile) view of the elongated, low cranial vault with a sloping forehead and thick brow ridge area. Below it, a frontal view shows the broad, arched brow ridges and wide, low shape of the skull. The bone surface is cracked and incomplete along the edges, indicating the specimen is a partial cranium.

The original Neanderthal fossils were first presented to the scientific world #OnThisDay in 1857, at a meeting in Bonn. The partial skull was then thought to be Homo sapiens; it would be another six years before it was designated Homo neanderthalensis. 🏺🧪

“Unnamed, uncaptioned: archaeological photography and colonialism at Jericho, as seen in the Kenyon Archive” by Elianna Ausdahl, open access in Archaeology International from @uclpress.bsky.social :

journals.uclpress.co.uk/ai/article/i...

Who Are Museums Really For? And Can We Change Our Minds? The film Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient Zapotec People) asks the questions: Who are the rightful custodians of artifacts, and what is the responsibility of museums to local communities?

Who are the rightful #custodians of artifacts, and what is the responsibility of museums to local #communities?

The film "Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient #Zapotec People)" asks pressing questions:

🏺🎬 hyperallergic.com/jorge-angel-... by @hrag.bsky.social for @hyperallergic.com

The Absent Stone: Mexican Patrimony and the Aftershocks of State Theft

Looking forward to the February release of Sandra Rozental's The Absent Stone: Mexican Patrimony and the Aftershocks of State Theft. Check out the introduction here: www.dukeupress.edu/the-absent-s.... Thanks, @dukepress.bsky.social! 🗃️📚🇲🇽🏺

Flooded Pasts by William Carruthers | Hardcover | Cornell University Press Flooded Pasts examines a world famous yet critically underexamined event—UNESCO's International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia (1960–80)—to show how the project, its genealogy, and its...

In better news my book is coming out in paperback next March (pre-orders now available)! www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...

Amazing photo of Ludovic Mann - in plus fours - and ‘assistant’ - wearing a kilt - standing in a reconstructed element of Mann’s Druid Temple excavation in Clydebank in 1937. (The Bulletin, 2 August 1937)

Amazing photo of Ludovic Mann - in plus fours - and ‘assistant’ - wearing a kilt - standing in a reconstructed element of Mann’s Druid Temple excavation in Clydebank in 1937.
(The Bulletin, 2 August 1937)

Untangling the Many Faces of Edgar James Banks: Archaeologist, Lecturer, and Film Producer | Bulletin of the History of Archaeology

Popping back in after 7 months to share my latest on the multifaceted career of Edgar Banks and his efforts to carefully control his image throughout it all. @bhajournal.bsky.social has the open access article here: archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10....

Just out! In this piece, I argue that the United Fruit Company served as a conduit through which political economies of racialized labor were brought to bear on archaeological practice. This one was three years in the making and it's available #OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.1017/S001...

🗃️📚🏺🇬🇹

The black and white photo shows the Sphinx covered up to the chest with sand. The pyramids of Giza can be seen in the background

The Sphinx and the Pyramids of #Giza, photographed by Maxime du Camp in 1849. The chest area of the Sphinx had only recently been uncovered, previously the statue was covered with sand up to the shoulders.

Photo of tag talk w front slide title you get what you pay for, or: the sad slow death of TrowelBlazers data activism

Hellloooo wow how do people find time for social media these days. And welcome to my TAG talk! Which was in fact about just that “the existential panic of keeping a social media based project like @trowelblazers.bsky.social alive when we can barely keep our heads above water: a DEI Story”

Happy New Year from the BHA! Check out the five articles we published this year, available #OpenAccess (as always!) 🗃️📚🏺🧵👇 on 🇬🇧🇯🇲🇪🇬🇪🇹🇧🇦

For 2026, we've got a few articles in the pipeline and a planned special issue on heritage justice, co-edited by @artemis-p.bsky.social and Robbie Vigar.

Thanks for following us and keep an eye on this space for more!

Austria-Hungary ruled Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had previously been under the Ottomans, from 1878 to 1918, under circumstances often described as ‘colonial.’ Austro-Hungarian rule was accompanied by extensive archaeological activities. This paper investigates how that archaeology was colonial in its purpose and practice. The Austro-Hungarians regarded Bosnia-Herzegovina as an archaeological ‘El Dorado,’ largely inaccessible in Ottoman times. While their occupation opened it up, archaeological remains now had to be saved from modernisation works as well as the ‘ignorance’ and ‘vandalism’ of local inhabitants. The new government emphatically supported the collection and excavation of archaeological objects across Bosnia-Herzegovina. It decreed their protection, while encouraging subordinate authorities and private citizens to make and report discoveries. Moreover, it established a Provincial Museum in the capital of Sarajevo, which exhibited and published prehistoric and Roman remains, and medieval tombstones. The objects were to teach the population their supposed Bosnian, pro-Habsburg identity, legitimise the Austro-Hungarian rulers as the new Romans, and demonstrate to Europe and the world the success of Austria-Hungary’s ‘civilising mission’ in an ‘oriental’ country. This ‘civilising mission’ under military occupation was the strongest indicator of an Austro-Hungarian colonialism. The individual archaeologists, most of whom came from other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, worked in that colonial situation, whether they supported it or not. Although their finds were not exported to the imperial capital of Vienna, and their archaeology openly relied on local assistance, the science of archaeology served the government as one of the non-violent tools for its soft-power style of rule.

Maximilian Georg on "The ‘New Romans,’ a Prestigious Museum, and a ‘Bosnian’ Identity: Archaeology and Colonialism in Austro-Hungarian Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1878–1918"

archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10....

Ethiopia is known to have immense archaeological resources. The central highlands of Ethiopia were one of the regions known to be home to diverse archaeological sites. The area served as a hub for religious and political dynamics during the medieval period, which attracted travelers since the 15th century. Nevertheless, archaeological research began very recently in the 1990s. Since then, most archaeological research has been multi-disciplinary undertakings. This paper aims to synthesize the major archaeological research undertaken so far to define trends and identify aspects left unexplored that are worth future consideration. Over a decade of research engagement of the author in the region, coupled with an understanding of the state of the field from previous works, provides the data set for this paper. The genesis of archaeological research in the region is presented in three major phases: Travelers and early archaeological plotting, major archaeological projects, and the current developments. The cases presented in phase two particularly focus on a cross-cultural reconstruction of the three cultural groups that occupied the region during the medieval period. The findings from one of these projects served as a foundation for the others. Nevertheless, the case of the Shay culture, identified for the first time as a pre-Christian tradition, remains far from complete and warrants further archaeological research. Thus, this article provides an overview of the archaeological resources in the region and research works so far undertaken, while reflecting on the need for further research, conservation, and valorization.

Alebachew Birru on "Archaeology in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia: Research Trends and Prospects"

archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10....

This article explores the entanglement of archaeology and the antiquities trade in Egypt and Sudan during the antiquities rush of the British colonial period. I argue that the buying and selling of archaeological objects played a central role in the business of archaeology, which relied on the cyclical extraction and transfer of financial and archaeological capital. This cycle operated through distinct production stages of funding, acquisition, export, and distribution, each essential to sustaining the business. Archival evidence highlighted here demonstrates that archaeology in Egypt and Sudan was shaped by the economy of supply and demand, and the monetisation of archaeological objects. The article focuses on the roles and transactions of three excavator-suppliers who were involved in British-led excavations: Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, John Garstang and Charles Trick Currelly.

Dan Potter on "An ‘Antiquity-Dealing-Business on a Large Scale’: The Business of Egyptian Archaeology and Capital, 1880s–1930s"

archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10....

In 1984, archaeologist Bruce Trigger published his tripartite framework for understanding the history of archaeology, citing three main research modes: colonialist, imperialist and nationalist. This article uses Trigger’s framework to examine the history of archaeology in Jamaica, as an example of a recently independent former slave colony. The author finds that while archaeology on the island worked to reinforce first colonialist, and later imperialist epistemologies until at least the mid-twentieth century, the development of a nationalist archaeology in Jamaica has faltered since then, in favor of foreign-backed research. Furthermore, the legacy of the hierarchical British racial system in Jamaica, together with the exceptional marginalization of Indigenous Taíno culture on the island (compared to other nearby islands in the Caribbean), has resulted in relatively little domestic investment into the island’s pre-colonial archaeology. Instead, much of the highest-profile domestic archeology in Jamaica in the six decades since the country’s independence has tended to focus on the origins of the island’s maroon communities.

Sebastian Wang Gaouette on "Land of Wood and Water: Empire, Nation-building and a History of Archaeology on the Island of Jamaica"

archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10....

The nineteenth century was a pivotal time for archaeology which aimed to distance itself from its antiquarian roots through the establishment of national bodies, its own methodology and by striving for academic credibility. This was also the time when Britain experienced an explosion of print, with about 125,000 newspaper and periodical titles being published.1 In response, the review journal became a popular and pervasive genre. Although reviews have been used in single-author studies, they have received little attention outside of the literary fields. A recent issue of the Victorian Periodicals Review has, however, demonstrated the potential of reviews as a source for the history of other disciplines.2 This paper will focus on reviews of books on Romano-British archaeology published between 1840 and 1860 to show how they can illuminate the development of archaeology during this formative period. It will reveal that book reviews played a crucial role in shaping and maintaining the scholarly community, helping to determine membership, aims and objectives. Reviews also affected subject methodology, by promoting how to conduct research and disseminate findings. Reviewers found themselves in a powerful position, with a platform to reach and influence the general public and the ability to support or undermine authors and their projects.

Heather Keeble on "The Formation and Maintenance of Communities of Practice: The Role of Book Reviews in British Archaeology 1840–1860"

archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10....

Happy New Year from the BHA! Check out the five articles we published this year, available #OpenAccess (as always!) 🗃️📚🏺🧵👇 on 🇬🇧🇯🇲🇪🇬🇪🇹🇧🇦

This is an important conversation to start here in Canadian archaeology 🇨🇦🏺

The discussion has started down south with @flintdibble.bsky.social, @miniminuteman.bsky.social, and others.

But Canada has its own challenges to address, its own history of archaeology being abused, erasure, and denialism.

Editorial | Antiquity | Cambridge Core Editorial - Volume 99 Issue 408

📷 is a frontispiece from the latest issue of Antiquity © Nathan Schlanger 🏺 #Archaeology 2/2

🆓 in our latest #AntiquityEditorial on the peer-review crisis doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Mound builders, mound blunders: mythmaking in nineteenth century American archaeology - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences In this paper, I critically examine and overturn a narrative from the history of American archaeology wherein historians have classified the overthrowing of the Mound Builders mythology in the late 19...

Was the overturning of the Mound Builders mythology in the late 19th century a "triumph for science?" I argue, no, it wasn't, and that this narrative framing should be abandoned in my latest in the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...