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The Archaeology Channel Newsletter |  |
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Greetings! Welcome to The Archaeology Channel Newsletter! We're very excited about getting this first TAC Newsletter edition prepared for you. We extend our deepest appreciation to volunteer Newsletter Editor Woodeene Koenig-Bricker and to our volunteer writers, Amy Diaz and Matt Piscitelli, whose contributions are included in this edition. The TAC Newsletter itself is a way to express our gratitude to our generous Members of The Archaeology Channel. and to show others the value they can help create by becoming supporting Members themselves. Our newsletter will keep you informed about our activities and share with you news and experiences relating to archaeology and indigenous peoples that you may not get from any other source. We intend to build on this very modest first edition to create an increasingly valued quarterly on-line publication that you will eagerly anticipate. We also invite your input. Take advantage of the feedback feature to let us know what you like and what you want to see in future editions. Thank you for your support. The Archaeology Channel could not exist without it. Rick Pettigrew, President and Executive Director, Archaeological Legacy Institute
The second edition of The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival took place during 13-17 July 2004. Producers from 21 countries around the world submitted 54 films to the competition and we presented 19 of the finest on the big screen at the McDonald Theatre in Eugene, Oregon, USA. Designed to bring together the world's best films and videos in front of a live audience (as distinct from our cyberspace audience on TAC!), the Festival ran smoothly with only a few technical glitches. Two highly regarded professional archaeologists delivered keynote addresses. Dr. Jane Waldbaum, President of the Archaeological Institute of America, spoke on July 13 about the looting and trafficking of antiquities around the world, especially in Iraq, and what she and her organization are doing about it. Dr. David Hurst Thomas of the American Museum of Natural History on July 17 shared his perspectives on the Kennewick Man controversy and America's history of relating to its native peoples, the subject of his recent book, Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity. During the daytime hours, participants took advantage of heritage tours into the Cascade Range led by archaeologists from the Willamette National Forest, a children's program in a local city park, and our video bar in the Theatre lobby, where ticket- holders could view any of the films submitted to the Festival. Instructors from the Bureau of Land Management's Project Archaeology led a Teacher Workshop in which the Festival films played an important role. And film makers, archaeologists and interested members of the public shared their experiences and views in our Symposium on Heritage Film. The Festival award selections are posted on TAC. The most highly regarded films were Secrets of the Dead: Search for the First Human (JWM Productions; distributed by WNET/PBS/Ch4; USA), Sastun: My Apprenticeship with a Maya Healer (Guido Verweyen and Eva Langsdorff; distributed by Documentary Educational Resources; USA), and The Mummies of Taklamakan (Gedeon Programmes; distributed by Terranoa; France). These three films together with four other entries took the top 15 award positions. Overall, the quality of the entries was extremely high, probably even better than that of the 2003 Festival. Take a look at some of the film clips we've posted in the TAC Festival 2004 area! In our exit questionnaire, audience members expressed great enthusiasm and support for the event. Many people signed up to become supporting Members and volunteer for next year's Festival.
Our concept for The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival has expanded by a quantum leap. No longer are we content to limit ourselves to a single venue, a single calendar slot, and just one audience. TAC Festival is now a year- round event by virtue of going on the road! We have packaged together the ten best films from TAC Festival 2003 and are making arrangements to show this series at many more venues in Oregon and beyond. Our Best of ArchaeologyFest 2003 series, divided into four two-hour programs, was shown on four consecutive Tuesdays in June 2004 at the Kiggins Theatre in Vancouver, Washington, and on four consecutive weekend dates in August- September 2004 at the Bijou Art Cinemas in Eugene, Oregon. If you think the Best of ArchaeologyFest would be a nice fit with your location and are willing to help make it happen, contact us with your suggestions and information about the venue you have in mind. As time moves on, we'll modify the content of the series to include films from TAC Festival 2004.
We designed and produced TAC Festival with some important help from archaeology film festival organizers in Europe, where such events have growing in number and popularity over the past 20 years or so. Our closest connection is with the ICRONOS International Festival of Archaeological Film in Bordeaux, France. Now the ICRONOS Festival has invited ALI President and Executive Director Rick Pettigrew to serve as a juror for their 2004 edition, to take place 25-30 October 2004. Not only is this all-expenses-paid trip a pleasure and an honor for Rick, but it's also a developmental milestone for ALI and an exciting promotional and networking opportunity for TAC Festival. In Bordeaux, Rick will represent the United States among the circle of international archaeology film festivals that includes Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey. He also will have an unprecedented opportunity to witness an established Festival in action, view the latest top films in the genre and solicit them for TAC Festival and get to know personally the principal European film makers and distributors and festival organizers. This trip is likely to produce positive results including a higher volume of first-rate content for TAC and TAC Festival and an expanded array of international partners for ALI. We'll tell you how it went in our next TAC Newsletter!
The efforts of archaeologists today are invaluable. While Howard Carter went down in history for his extraordinary discovery of King Tut's tomb, monetary value aside, the historical importance of his discovery is arguably no more valuable than the work of Tim Perttula in the western reaches of the American Southeast, for example. While the magnificent artifacts unearthed in a tomb which has been sealed for millennia grab the headlines, the majority of archaeology is carried out on a daily basis by hard- rking people whose efforts to preserve our heritage solidify what we know about ancient cultures. Archeological & Environmental Consultants, LLC, is a small, Texas-based archaeology firm whose efforts to preserve our past exemplify the often overlooked but critically important research which today gives us valuable information about our past. Founded in 1997 and headed by Tim Perttula, Archeological & Environmental Consultants has excavated for clients primarily in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana and specializes in Caddo archaeology. This research deals with the material remains of the Caddo Indians of Oklahoma. The Caddo Indians lived in prehistoric times in northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana, southwest Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma. After about 1840 they lived primarily in Oklahoma Small independent archaeology firms such as Archeological & Environmental Consultants seek to preserve the past of various peoples who, without current archaeological excavations and historical preservation, would be lost to history. Tim Perttula and his company work with the modern descendants of the ancient Caddo, namely the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Perttula founded his firm in order to promote a greater knowledge and awareness of the Caddo peoples past and present. Revealing their prehistoric past sheds light on the issues the Caddo face presently. Archeological & Environmental Consultants has recently finished up a project in conjunction with the Caddo Nation at the Hatchel Site, a Caddo sacred mound center located on the Red River. The company is currently working on a data recovery project in Nacogdoches County, Texas, on 5 prehistoric Caddo sites. The key value of archaeology lies not in the amount of gold and silver in the artifacts, but rather in the information about the human past. This information is often gained through site excavation and the documentation of artifacts and features in the context of what is already known. This creates a kind of picture of what things were like in the past. Archaeology firms such as Archeological & Environmental Consultants perform such extraordinary tasks. Without their efforts, the past may be truly lost from history.
But even as the volcanic gasses and ash of Mt. Vesuvius asphyxiated the unprepared residents and closed a chapter in the history of Pompeii, there is an earlier chapter that is just now coming to light. The Samnites lived there for three centuries before the Romans did, and their homes, marketplaces, brothels, baths and temples are still buried beneath Pompeii. The Samnites are not as well known as the Romans, but should be remembered for how they forced the Roman army to make changes in its organization. The Samnites were an egalitarian tribe of shepherds and farmers who lived in central southern Italy and conquered Pompeii around the 6th century BC, succeeding the Opics and the Etruscans. Beginning in 343 BC, three wars were fought with the Romans, who had decided to expand their territory. The Samnites proved to be formidable fighters, at one point forcing a Roman army to surrender. In order to defeat the Samnites, the Romans built the Appian Way from Rome to Naples and adopted the Samnites' checkerboard offensive troop formation. In 290 BC, the Samnites formed an alliance with the Romans, who let them maintain an autonomy for 200 years. During this period, Pompeii became a wealthy city and ambitious architectural projects were undertaken, many of which were not completed by the time the Samnites decided to rebel against the Romans in the 1st century BC. Pompeii was under Roman rule by 80 BC and soon became the resort it's known for today. Digging down in Pompeii rather than out also has a practical side: it has simply become too costly to maintain and guard the 115 acres of the city that's been excavated. Hundreds of artifacts have been taken from the site since its discovery in 1748, many by the Prince of Elboeuf and the King and Queen of Naples, who funded excavations in order to obtain works of art for their collections. In the past thirty years alone, more then 600 artifacts have been stolen and include everything from tourists taking chunks of marble to thieves cutting at least 16 frescoes from the walls. Most artifacts, whether obtained for collections or stolen by tourists, have been taken without a record of their provenience. An artifact's provenience is the context in which it is found and includes the artifacts surrounding it as well as its vertical and horizontal position in the matrix. When an artifact's provenience is intact, archaeologists can make associations between artifacts and the contexts in which they were created and used. Valuable inferences can be made regarding how ancient people lived. When that provenience is lost, archaeologists cannot easily discern what context an object was used in, and many times that context is lost forever. It is tragic to think that a work of art taken for a royal palace could have made sense of another artifact whose use is now unclear. That is why it is so critical that when excavating a site, the context of an artifact must be recorded before it is moved. Archaeology may have at one time been about simply digging up treasures for the public to see, but it is now about reconstructing the cultures of those that lived before us. Leaving the unexcavated portion of Pompeii encased in ash will ensure that future generations have the opportunity to enjoy this magnificent archaeological find as those before us have since the 18th century. Digging underneath Pompeii helps us rediscover and understand the people who lived there for centuries before the Romans
Many people contact us to find out where they can get involved as a volunteer on an archaeological project. We always point them to two places where they can get updated information on volunteer fieldwork opportunities: (1) the Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities page on the official Web site of the Archaeological Institute of America and (2) ArchaeologyFieldwork.com The AIA's Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities page allows you to search the world by geographic region to find what you're looking for. You can select the region of interest and even search by program type and date. You'll get a list satisfying your search criteria. Click on each title in the search results list to get information about each opportunity. You'll find information about program type, applicant qualifications, costs, housing, contact information, bibliography, and more about each project. ArchaeologyFieldwork.com offers a message board where you can find posted volunteer opportunities or post your request to find one of interest. If you are energetic and have the time, do a Google search on "archaeological fieldwork opportunities" and you'll find other sites from around the world with information on volunteering in archaeology. Good luck!
Can't get enough archaeology? For those of you in North America, we have just the place for you to go! The Archaeological Institute of America has a place on their Web site for television listings of such programs in the coming week. We can't guarantee the quality of all the programs listed, but at least the page has descriptions of the program so you can choose what to view.
We have begun offering a new and exciting program: tours to fascinating archaeological sites around the world! In collaboration with experience touring professionals, we now are offering tours to Egypt and Turkey. These tours are a great way to experience the richness of the human cultural heritage and become better acquainted with archaeology. These are also fund-raising programs for ALI, so your participation helps us pursue our nonprofit public mission. A $250 share of each price is a tax- deductible contribution to ALI. Egypt Called "Ancient Empires: Egypt," this tour will take place January 29 - February 12, 2004, and will be led by Ron Fellows (Heritage of the Americas Museum, El Cajon, California) and Tom Mudloff (Field Museum, Chicago). All the details, including the itinerary, are available via a link on TAC's home page or go to Ancient Empires. The price, including air fare from Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York, is $3889. Turkey The name of this tour, arranged through our professional partner Terra Vista, is "Archaeology Channel Cradle of Civilization," which will take place April 17-26, 2005. Dr. Richard Pettigrew, ALI's President and Executive Director, is the group leader. This tour, which leaves from Chicago, will visit many exciting sites in southern and western Anatolia, including Ephesus, Aphrodisias, Termessos, Pergamum, Gallipoli, and Istanbul. All the details, including the itinerary, are available via link on TAC's home page or go to Terravista.. The price, including air fare from Chicago, is $2689. A $200 deposit is required by January 17, 2005, and full payment is required by February 6, 2005.
Upcoming Video: They Were Here: Ice Age Humans in South Carolina Just because you're reading this newsletter, you are hearing first about an upcoming TAC video feature. In fact, you can go right now and watch it, even before it officially goes up on TAC! This new video is called They Were Here: Ice Age Humans in South Carolina. It's about archaeological studies at the Topper Site, where Dr. Albert C. Goodyear has found evidence that he believes will push the age of early human occupation in North America back to 25,000 years ago. The Topper Site is a very hot topic of conversation among North American archaeologists right now, so this video is very timely. Here is the abstract of the video that will appear on TAC soon: It was a time when our climate was cooler, and great ice sheets covered the northern areas of what was to become the United States. At the Topper Site in what is now Allendale County, South Carolina, artifacts have been found that show early humans were coming to ancient chert quarries, making rudimentary knives and other tools. This South Carolina Educational TV documentary covers the careful study and analysis of artifacts, let by Dr. Albert C. Goodyear, leading to evidence of early humans that dates back 15,000-20,000 years ago. To see the video, select one of the following options:
TAC achieved a long-awaited milestone in July 2004 with a new Web site traffic record of over 1.1 million hits, breaking our monthly old record of 700,000 hits! To put this in perspective, our traffic in the entire year of 2003 amounted to about 5 million hits. Of course, we won't reach one million hits every month-our monthly count is normally only about half of that-but this is a good indication that TAC is becoming more visible and more popular on the Web as time goes on. One million hits represents about 60,000 unique visitors, which means that 60,000 different computers accessed TAC during the month of July. That's about the same as the regular monthly traffic of the top archaeology-related site on the Web, which is the Archaeology Magazine Web site. Another good indication of TAC's prominence on the Web is our position in the Google search results. A Google search on the keyword "archaeology" now results in TAC placed in the number ten position out of 3,600,000 sites! Since we first put TAC up on the Web in its present form in 2000, we've been looking forward to the day when our Web site would be on the first page of a Google search. And now we've done it! Now a reasonable goal is to move into the top five. With persistence and hard work, we can do that, too. You can help: visit TAC as often as possible and ask your favorite Web sites to link to TAC.
Please let us know what you think of the newsletter. We welcome any suggestions for improvement. Contact us at: arlegin@aol.com
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