Erich Becker and Malta Sotteranea - exposing the achievements of a dark horse of Christian archaeology

Becker's 1913 publication Malta Sotterranea, Studien zur altchristlichen und jiidischen Sepulkralkunst- studies of Malta's early Christian and Jewish sepulchral art- is a work often quoted and sometimes even copied by authors writing on Malta's catacombs and Late Antiquity. Its value was recognised by many scholars, but to date very few have managed to fully grasp and understand it. Certainly, one does not need to understand much German to realise that his study was exceptionally thorough and methodical. But one needs to master German and German grammar perfectly in order to follow his line of reasoning - which is why many remarkable conclusions and discoveries in Malta Sotterranea were at best ignored, or at worst wrongly quoted or totally misunderstood. Ironically, it is thanks to the latter that his book never slipped into oblivion.peer-reviewe

Beyond Marble, Medicants & Myth: Epidaurus' History, Material Culture, Purpose and Place in the Greater Mediterranean Area

'The most famous of sanctuaries of Asclepius had their origin from Epidaurus’, Pausanias writes in his Hellados Periegesis (‘Description of Greece’). All across the Aegean and beyond, word of the salutary reputation of Epidaurian divinity had spread. And as tales of Epidaurus’ sanctuary of Asclepius travelled the lands and crossed the seas, so did the urge to ensure that the Epidaurian success formula was, as we say, coming soon to a place near you. So we know Epidaurus had managed to make a name for itself: all the way from the Argolid Peninsula to Asia Minor and the shores of Northern Africa. But what exactly had led to its rise in prominence? What about Epidaurus allowed for it to transcend its local cult-status? And how did its celebrated reputation and meaning change across places and time? What, in other words, is the story of what is often simply referred to as the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus

In Search of Atlantis: Underwater Tourism between Myth and Reality

In post-modernity, the millenarian search for mythical sites has become a tourist attraction and the process of culturalization of consumption has created and is creating a new global heritage. Places already celebrated for leisure have been reinvented as mythical and archaeological sites. A good example is the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island, in the Bahamas. Here, Plato’s mythical Atlantis has inspired an underwater pseudo-archaeological reconstruction of a civilization that most likely had never existed. The myth-making force of the sea transforms the false ruins and affects how they are perceived. This is quite consistent with a tourism where authenticity has lost its traditional value and sensory gratifications have replaced it. A more recent Atlantis Hotel in Dubai and another one under construction in China show the vitality of this myth and the strength of the thematization of consumption. Other examples confirm this tendency in even more grotesque ways. At the core of this process there is the body: the tourist’s and the consumer’s body. The post-modernity has enhanced its use as tool and icon of consumption

The apparatus of digital archaeology

Digital Archaeology is predicated upon an ever-changing set of apparatuses – technological, methodological, software, hardware, material, immaterial – which in their own ways and to varying degrees shape the nature of Digital Archaeology. Our attention, however, is perhaps inevitably more closely focussed on research questions, choice of data, and the kinds of analyses and outputs. In the process we tend to overlook the effects the tools themselves have on the archaeology we do beyond the immediate consequences of the digital. This paper introduces cognitive artefacts as a means of addressing the apparatus more directly within the context of the developing archaeological digital ecosystem. It argues that a critical appreciation of our computational cognitive artefacts is key to understanding their effects on both our own cognition and on the creation of archaeological knowledge. In the process, it defines a form of cognitive digital archaeology in terms of four distinct methods for extracting cognition from the digital apparatus layer by layer

Postcolonial Theory

Rather than agreeing to any one meaning or referent, most critics these days speak of ‘post-colonialisms’ to refer principally to ‘historical, social and economic material conditions’ and at other times to ‘historically-situated imaginative products’ and ‘aesthetic practices: representations, discourses and values’ (McLeod 2000: 254). Arising from subaltern studies, its theorists embrace hybridity, indict alterity, analyze colonial discourse, and employ strategic essentialism to promote identity politics. Under its influence, a strain of self-interrogation has for decades run as an undercurrent through much of anthropology and archaeology. Topics including looting, repatriation, stewardship, and the transformation of disciplinary identity are now persistent tropes in the field. Indigenous archaeology, emergent cosmopolitanisms, building up knowledge from below—these now occupy ongoing archaeological work. Limiting its applicability, though, are charges against its homogenization of colonial experience, its perpetuation of academic imperialism, and its relative neglect, until recently, of regions such as Latin America

The myths and realities of Bayesian chronological modeling revealed

We review the history of Bayesian chronological modeling in archaeology and demonstrate that there has been a surge over the past several years in American archaeological applications. Most of these applications have been performed by archaeologists who are self-taught in this method because formal training opportunities in Bayesian chronological modeling are infrequently provided. We define and address misconceptions about Bayesian chronological modeling that we have encountered in conversations with colleagues and in anonymous reviews, some of which have been expressed in the published literature. Objectivity and scientific rigor is inherent in the Bayesian chronological modeling process. Each stage of this process is described in detail, and we present examples of this process in practice. Our concluding discussion focuses on the potential that Bayesian chronological modeling has for enhancing understandings of important topics