Christina Luke

Valuing the past Perceptions of archaeological practice in Lydia and the Levant

In both western Turkey and the Levant, archaeology has a long history, with the rise in interest and discovery beginning in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While many have focused on the history of excavations in both of these areas, we approach historical analyses from a different perspective. Utilizing the voices of local actors, this article aims to understand the social reactions of local communities to the increasingly prominent role of people practicing archaeology — archaeologists, diplomats, explorers — through the lens of the antiquities trade over the last two centuries. Interlacing examples from Lydia and the Levant, we provide an overview of archaeological praxis and then offer the positions of the participants, gathered from archival and published materials as well as more recent interviews, conversations, and correspondences.

Diplomats, Banana Cowboys, and Archaeologists in Western Honduras: A History of the Trade in Pre-Columbian Materials

This paper explores access to the Honduran past with a focus on northwestern Honduras, particularly the Ulua Valley. The foundations of national patrimony legislation and the practice of collecting antiquities are used to explore whether the disassociation of the archaeological community from the collecting sphere over the last several decades has better protected the archaeological record. I argue that early field expeditions led by U.S. archaeologists, the shipment of their finds to U.S. institutions, and subsequent massive looting galvanized Honduran efforts aimed at national patrimony legislation. The roles of the U.S. government and U.S.-based businesses as negotiating bodies in the early days of Honduran expeditions from 1890 to 1940 are explored in detail, particularly in the sphere of opening up the region to collectors and the role of the U.S. antiquities market. We can understand the early days of collecting in Honduras precisely because of the close relationships once forged between collectors, museums, and archaeologists, networks that have now disappeared because of current conceptions of archaeological ethics. The changing definition of a collector represents a key point throughout this analysis; at one time archaeologists, museums, and businesses were the primary collectors. The shift from the label collector to archaeologist is explored through the lens of the development of archaeology as a discipline, with a particular emphasis on context, and the contemporary legislative efforts aimed at cultural heritage projection. The essay concludes with a look at recent archaeological work in the region and the increasingly strict cultural patrimony legislation, specifically the 2004 U.S.–Honduran Memorandum of Understanding.

CELEBRATING PLACE THROUGH LUXURY CRAFT PRODUCTION

Abstract This paper explores the production of Late to Terminal Classic Ulua marble vases (ca. 600/650–800/850 a.d.), the hallmark luxury good from the lower Ulua Valley of northwestern Honduras. Unlike other areas of the greater Maya world, no one center appears to have held political sway in the valley. Yet marble-vase production at Travesia indicates that, through the patronization of this specific artifact, the site was able to celebrate its identity at home as well as abroad. Here the long-term production of the vases is investigated through a detailed analysis of stylistic groups and corresponding stable-isotope signatures from vases and potential procurement zones. The stylistic data suggest centralized production, which is confirmed through chemical signatures of vases and one specific procurement site. We argue that longstanding traditions of carving vases from marble in the Ulua Valley guided Travesian artisans in their procurement choices. The stylistic and chemical data augment settlement and ceramic data to situate vase production in its local social and political environment. In this case, luxury production corresponds not to a rise in central political authority but, rather, to a centrally located social center. The prestige granted to these luxury vases, then, stems from local histories of social and political networks that linked, rather than fragmented, communities. The results indicate that studies of material-cultural remains should consider the relationships between distinctive local social relations and the organization of craft production as integrative, not separate, processes.

A Retrospective and a Look Forward

Abstract For 20 years (1974–1993), the “Antiquities Market” section of the Journal of Field Archaeology provided news and commentary on the illicit traffic in antiquities and on issues of cultural heritage relevant to field archaeologists from around the world. Much has happened in more recent years; military conflict, natural disaster;development, political or religious extremism, calculated looting, and the illicit sale of antiquities all combine to jeopardize the very existence of archaeology. The commodification of material culture is among the most pressing issues on the archaeological agenda. Links between collecting and looting continue to be hotly debated, and recent investigations illustrate how archaeological research may also unintentionally spur looting. Legislative efforts attempt to curb the plunder of sites and the illicit sale of antiquities. What is clear from the various efforts and questions is that globalization is bringing us closer together,and that we need a concentrated international initiative to document and preserve the archaeological record. Concrete proposals for such an initiative are required. The restoration of the “Antiquities Market” section is intended to reopen dialogue on these pressing issues by discussing specific sites in jeopardy and instances of looting, highlighting current trends, and encouraging all those who value the past to protect cultural heritage.

Cultural sovereignty in the Balkans and Turkey: The politics of preservation and rehabilitation

This article explores preservation and restoration projects in the Balkans and Turkey in light of current Turkish and American foreign policy initiatives. Of specific interest are the political goals of the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TİKA) and the United States Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The focus on the rehabilitation of Islamic heritage in the Balkans by the Republic of Turkey illustrates a strategic decision to weave cultural heritage programs into foreign policy as part of a larger agenda to increase its presence (and thus influence) abroad, notably under the arc of former Ottoman territories. This targeted approach in the Balkans differs in critical ways from the rhetoric of the United States and their partners in Europe and Turkey, which promote idealized notions of diversity, pluralism, and tolerance through a mosaic of heritage projects (Islamic, Jewish, Christian, museum displays, archaeological research, etc.). The Ambassadors Fund projects are staged in moral terms as part of reconciliation and EU integration. These patterns demonstrate the ability of cultural heritage projects to affect symbolic geographies of power; in so doing, heritage programs continue to offer viable and successful platforms in shaping claims of cultural sovereignty beyond the boundaries of nation-states.

Ulua Marble Vases Abroad: Contextualizing Social Networks Between the Maya World and Lower Central America

Long referred to as the Mesoamerican Frontier, the Ulua Valley of northwestern Honduras bridges the Maya Lowlands and Lower Central America. This study explores presenting the Ulua region in these foreign lands through the transfer of a luxury good: Late Classic marble vases. Rare in antiquity, these vases were produced in the heart of the Ulua Valley. Yet their importance as ambassadors of Uluan life in two very different spheres — central Maya and Nicoya-Guanacaste — suggests very diverse perceptions of what it meant to participate in a social network with the Ulua Valley. The multidimensionality of transferring a luxury good set within the context of a place and its people allows for a more nuanced understanding of the exotic.

Composing communities: Chalcolithic through Iron Age survey ceramics in the Marmara Lake basin, western Turkey

Abstract Diachronic survey in the Marmara Lake basin of western Turkey confirms long-term settlement activity from the 5th millennium b.c. to the present. Here we present the results from a study of ceramics and settlement distribution pertaining to the Chalcolithic through the Iron Age periods (ca. 5th/4th–1st millennium b.c.). Our dataset confirms the value of a multi-pronged approach when establishing ceramic typologies from survey datasets, incorporating distribution in the landscape with macroscopic, microscopic (petrographic), and chemical (Instrumental Neutron Activation) analyses. Our results offer valuable insights into continuity as well as change of ceramic recipes in western Anatolia during the rise of urbanism in the Middle to Late Bronze Age followed by the establishment of an imperial realm in the Iron Age. From a methodological perspective, our results illustrate the value of macroscopic and chemical approaches, including principal component, distribution, density, and discriminant analyses that can be refined further by petrography, for the interpretation of surface survey ceramics.

Archaeo-tectural Translations: New Roles for the Field Architect

This article examines the field architect’s evolving role in interdisciplinary archaeology projects when equipped with new technologies for reconstructing ancient history. The research analyzes how digital technologies facilitate the architect’s extrapolation of embedded knowledge from archaeological datasets, especially those contained in a shared interoperable modeling domain, to enhance understanding of ancient building traditions. The outcomes from this research illuminate how people in the second millennium BCE lived and engaged with the environment through constructed systems, offering new technology-enhanced methods to reveal the architectural knowledge that resides within archaeological sites.

Cup-Marks and Citadels: Evidence for Libation in 2nd-Millennium B.C.E. Western Anatolia

Shallow conical depressions hewn into bedrock, known as cup-marks, have been documented at and around 2nd-millennium B.C.E. citadels in the Marmara Lake basin of the Gediz Valley, western Anatolia. These rupestral features are among the best indications of the presence of libation ceremonies in the region and provide evidence that local communities shared in cultural traditions spread over western and central Anatolia. Libation rituals in the basin were probably intended to summon the divine for protection, stewardship of the dead, and/or assurance of agricultural prosperity through maintenance of stable environmental conditions. Periodic catastrophes, resulting from massive inundations and/or droughts typical to the region, weigh in favor of an environmental interpretation. We frame our discussion of the topography and archaeology of the Gediz Valley and the evidence for Middle to Late Bronze Age cup-marks within the context of historical geography and the archaeology of Anatolia.

Archaeological Heritage and the Turkish War of Independence in Central Lydia

Abstract Here research from the last five seasons of the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey is presented. I argue that a future management plan for central Lydia should approach the concept of preservation from a dynamic perspective of living landscapes in a liminal zone between east and west. I demonstrate that central Lydia has always had a balanced, multi‐ethnic population. These contested landscapes offer innovative ways of seeing multiple narratives of history.