archaeology

by Robin H. Rutherfoord

Old Pueblo Archaeology Center has recently offered a variety of courses for certification credit through the Arizona Archaeology Society. These classes provide basic knowledge and field skills in archaeology allowing the student to become a valuable member of an archaeological research team. Currently Allen Dart, Old Pueblo’s Director, is teaching AAS’s Survey Techniques course.

Until the 1980’s very few Hohokam sites in the Tucson Basin had been excavated and analyzed. Why then have hundreds of sites been unearthed in the 1990s? How have these sites been discovered? Fortunately for archaeologists, Pima County enacted an ordinance stating that in order to change the zoning status or start construction on private lands in the county, the land must be surveyed by a state-approved archaeologist before development or rezoning can occur.

SURVEY? What is an archaeological survey and how are sites found? Jeanne Neal, Susan Eastman and I, Robin Rutherfoord, have been attempting to master the skills of archaeological surveying these last three months. So far, we have explored three various sized parcels of land, and in doing so improved our ability to use compasses and maps. We marched back and forth along a metered line to determine our own measurable pace, and we were determined to engrave into our minds the concept of 10-meter spacing while developing the skill of walking in a precise North-South direction.

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Two Years Later: Some Lobbying Successes But the Devastation of Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Continues

By Dr. Francis Deblauwe
The 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology Project, August 2005

After the conquest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad in April 2003, the world witnessed in astonishment and shock as the National Museum was looted and vandalized for several days while the US military did not lift a finger to protect it. This museum is the premier repository of Mesopotamian artifacts of which it holds the largest collection in the world. Even more importantly though, these are mostly excavated and documented pieces, indispensable for true archaeological research, unlike many in other museums that are without clear provenance or context. In the end, the Museum was secured and through the efforts of Iraqi police, US and Coalition law enforcement, and international efforts some of the stolen artifacts were recovered. Especially noteworthy was the return of the Lady of Warka sculpture, the Warka Vase, and the Bassetki statue. An estimated 13,000 pieces are still missing. The many tens of thousands of archaeological sites throughout Iraq have not been so lucky: their looting and destruction has not even begun to abate since 2003. The Sumerian heartland in southern Iraq has been hit the hardest. Whole "tells" or ruin mounds have been reduced to pockmarked moon landscapes due to the frantic digging activities of looters, e.g., Tell Jokha (ancient Umma), Ishan Bakhriyyat (ancient Isin), etc.

>The reaction in the US to the events of 2003 has been mired in controversy. After the intial confusion in the media during which it was feared the National Museum had been robbed bare, a number of conservative, pro-Iraq War political commentators falsely claimed that hardly anything had been taken. In other words, the museum theft story supposedly had been just a ploy by Ba’athists to make the Bush administration look bad. Western archaeologists and scholars had been either willing or naïve participants in this fraud, so it was said. It is hard to believe but this myth is still being repeated every so often. In general, the US academic community reacted with horror and anger. Notwithstanding serious pre-war efforts to educate both the Pentagon and the State Department about their responsibilities toward the heritage of Iraq once the war would begin, it was apparent that the commanders on the battlefield had not been instructed to safeguard archaeological and cultural sites. The one positive effect from the consultations was that Coalition airplanes did manage to avoid bombing sensitive heritage sites.

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