Revistas de JAS Arqueología
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Collaboratory through Crises: Researching Linear Monuments in 2021
No full textThis article introduces the third volume of the Offa's Dyke Journal (ODJ). As well as reviewing ODJ 3's contents, I present reviews of the journal received to date, notable new publications on linear monuments, and the Collaboratory's key activities during 2021. The context and significance of the research network's ongoing endeavours are presented set against intersecting academic and public crises affecting the study and public's engagement with past frontiers and borderlands
When divulgation reaches us
No full textIn 2018, Mexico held its presidential election; its results soon clearly indicated that the left-wing candidate, with a degree in political science and a fierce critic of the ruling political system, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, would become President. Following his triumph, many cultural organizations, unions and employees of the field jubilantly celebrated what they thought would mean a strengthening of cultural policies and a kind of return to the years of President Lázaro Cárdenas del RÃo who put archeology, indigenism and culture at the heart of his government policies
Editorial: A big thank you and a new era ahead
No full textIt seems like it was only yesterday that the Spanish government was giving away domains and Jaime got arqueologiapublica.es without really knowing what to do with it yet. A couple of years later, this domain became the home of a new journal and a dream came true. Today, after much hard work, a lot of perseverance and having overcome many challenges, we are pleased to announce the publication of the tenth volume and getting ready to embrace a new era for the journal that will hopefully bring about further improvements
For a solidary and activist [public] archaeology in the Amazon
Full text linkTo think about public archaeology in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic is a task which forces us to deal with frustrations and challenges imposed, by the current moment, on all of us. One of the most profound effects of the pandemic is the social isolation and the prohibition to our most human relations of closeness. Distancing rules have created a ‘pandemic sociability’ (Toledo and Souza Junior 2020) in which fear of the virus, of contact, of death, of the very possibility of being vector of the disease dictate the movement of bodies and, at the same time, dislocate our view towards other realities around us
Exploring Linear Earthworks across Time and Space - Introducing the 'Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain' Project
No full textLinear earthworks of a monumental character are an enigmatic part of the British landscape. Research in Britain suggests that such features range in date from the early 1st millennium BC to the Early Middle Ages. While the roles of these monuments in past societies cannot be understated, they remain a relatively under-researched phenomenon. This article introduces the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain’ project, which aims to provide a comparative study of linear earthworks focusing on those dating to the Iron Age and early medieval period. This contribution reviews our approach and shares preliminary results from the project’s first year, identifying wider implications for the study of linear earthworks
Rethinking Wat's Dyke: A Monument's Flow in a Hydraulic Frontier Zone
No full textBritain’s second-longest early medieval monument – Wat’s Dyke – was a component of an early medieval hydraulic frontier zone rather than primarily serving as a symbol of power, a fixed territorial border or a military stop-line. Wat’s Dyke was not only created to monitor and control mobility over land, but specifically did so through its careful and strategic placement by linking, blocking and overlooking a range of watercourses and wetlands. By creating simplified comparative topographical maps of the key fluvial intersections and interactions of Wat’s Dyke for the first time, this article shows how the monument should not be understood as a discrete human-made entity, but as part of a landscape of flow over land and water, manipulating and managing anthropogenic and natural elements. Understanding Wat’s Dyke as part of a hydraulic frontier zone not only enhances appreciation of its integrated military, territorial, socio-economic and ideological functionality and significance, most likely the construction of the middle Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, it also theorises Wat’s Dyke as built to constitute and maintain control both across and along its line, and operating on multiple scales. Wat’s Dyke was built to manage localised, middle-range as well as long-distance mobilities via land and water through western Britain and beyond
Offa's Dyke: A Continuing Journey of Discovery
No full textNew observations concerning the Mercian/Welsh frontier, principally on Offa’s Dyke (but also on Wat’s Dyke and in the Vale of Clwyd), were made each winter between 2016/17 and 2019/20 by the lead author with, at one time or another, each of the collaborators in this article. The prime focus here is upon Offa’s Dyke in west Gloucestershire and in Flintshire, in both of which areas fieldwork is adding incrementally to our stock of knowledge about the extent and nature of the monument. However, observations elsewhere on its course, such as in west-central Herefordshire, at Hem (Montgomeryshire), and near Trefonen (Shropshire) are also noted in brief descriptive sections. The identification of ‘new’ lengths of Offa’s Dyke in Tutshill (near Chepstow) and between Lower Redbrook and Lower Lydbrook south-east of Monmouth indicates that the linear earthwork was built as a near-continuous or continuous monument in these southerly areas. Meanwhile, the discovery of lengths of linear earthwork in Flintshire that could have formed part of a continuous course reaching the sea near Gronant east of Prestatyn has also raised important questions about the relationship of Wat’s Dyke to Offa’s Dyke
Archaeology for the public in Greece minus/plus ten
No full textIt must have been around ten years ago, when I was invited to present my -shaky then but promising- progress of PhD thesis at the University of Athens, on social and economic trends in heritage management, discussing island cultural resources and the role of the interested communities. I remember myself at the end of my talk, standing in front of a bewildered and intrigued (in equal doses) audience, only to experience the -somehow- apologetic comment of the organising professor to the audience: “I see that we need to look into these things now, that all became scienceâ€. I have talked about this memory elsewhere in detail (Lekakis 2015) mainly to pinpoint that even though 40 years of concrete bibliography have then lapsed -McGimsey, for example, produced his seminal volume in 1972- there was still a lack of information about the concept and practices of public archaeology, at least in the Greek academic context
Dealing with a hangover of Public Archaeology: Scattered thoughts on the Italian ‘Archeologia Pubblica’
Full text linkPublic Archaeology is a young discipline, we all know that. It’s even younger in Italy, where public archaeology has not even reached ‘adulthood’. Cited for the first time by Armando De Guio in 2000 (De Guio and Bressan 2000), it was only a decade later that Public Archaeology has started to become ‘a thing’, thanks to some pioneering experiences at the University of Florence (Bonacchi 2009; Vannini 2011), and especially after a national conference in 2012 (in Florence: see Zuanni 2013 for a summary). Italian archaeologists’ first reaction was to overlap the new discipline with the experiences already in place, which in Italy were under the category of ‘valorizzazione’ (enhancement). They were not exactly the same: while Public Archaeology is characterised by a reflection on the objectives of the research from the very start, a focus on having a reliable methodology, and a strong element linked to evaluation, ‘enhancement’ experiences – while often valuable and successful – lacked the same structure and reliability. This is probably due to an underestimation of these practices as a scientific topic, thus deserving the same structure required for any other type of research. Often this resulted in a mere description of the activities carried out, with a generic objective like ‘increasing the knowledge of archaeology in the public sphere’ without really evaluating if the activities worked or not. Public Archaeology became a sort of a trendy subject, outdating the term ‘valorizzazione’, at least in most of the university milieu, and creating confusion on the subject and the methodology. This sometimes has led to a sort of ‘hangover’ effect, similar to what happens with summer songs: they sound fun when you first hear them, but after months you just want to move on! Few doctoral theses awarded in Archaeology have been devoted to topics related to Public Archaeology up to the present date and the risk is that after this ‘hangover’ the subject will be penalised in comparison to others
From present to future. An academic perspective of Public Archaeology in Spain
Full text linkTen years seems little time to assess the future of such a relatively young topic as Public Archaeology (PA) is, in special in Spain and in the academic arena. I divide my answer in two classic parts: present and future. By understanding the present (based on the past) we can try to guess (more or less) the future… Even if we think in the context of a pandemic, predicting the future of anything becomes really uncertain and reckless. If I may write, there is a high level of uncertainty and luck in getting it right