Landscapes of Desire: Tourists, Touts and Sexual Encounters at the World Heritage Site of Thebes

Cultural tourism capitalises on archaeological sites with World Heritage status on a global scale. The encounters of visitors from all over the world with local residents and other stakeholder groups, like local and international entrepreneurs, set off complex processes of interaction in which the physical and social space of the heritage site is negotiated, shaped and consumed. In a case study from Luxor/Egypt, this paper investigates a particular facet of these interactions, namely sexual encounters between tourists and members of the local community. It delineates the economic and social conditions of this phenomenon and discusses the role it takes in the production, perception and use of the World Heritage site of Thebes. © 2013 World Archaeological Congress

Archaeology, Development and Conflict: A Case Study from the African Continent

Apart from wars, other contexts of social conflict have recently become a setting in which archaeologists are faced with acute, sometimes armed, violence. On the African continent, a region often overlooked in discussions of "archaeology in conflict", rapid economic development has led to several such scenes. The paper discusses a particularly poignant example from the Middle Nile valley in Sudan, where large dam projects have been met with various levels of opposition by affected populations. Local communities opposing the construction of further planned dams on the Nile are increasingly stressing 'cultural survival' and fear of 'developmental genocide' as two of their major motivations for fighting these projects. Assuming a close link between the developer and archaeological salvage missions, affected people have started to use the expulsion of salvage teams from their territory as a strategy of resistance-posing an ethical dilemma for the archaeologists who struggle to find a position in the increasingly violent controversies accompanying these contested development projects. © 2013 World Archaeological Congress

Dialogues in the making: Collaborative archaeology in Sudan

In this paper we introduce the Mograt Island Collaborative Project. Launched in 2014, this project aims to share archaeological narratives with members of a local community in Sudan, and with other stakeholders engaged with the area’s past, building on a collaborative process which investigates how archaeological outputs can be explored together in a meaningful way. We discuss the wider context in which the project takes place, its individual steps, the factual outcome of its first phase, and its evaluation in spring 2018. We share this case study to promote collaborative practice in postcolonial, present-day majority Muslim contexts, such as the Nile valley countries, where the approach is thus far underrepresented. Reflecting on the project’s trajectory and its results, we also present critical thoughts on its potentials and challenges which can be helpful for readers working in similar contexts

Exploring attitudes towards the archaeological past: Two case studies from majority Muslim communities in the Nile valley

There is a dearth of studies on intercultural dynamics in Southwest Asian and North African archaeology, not least since conventional narratives assert that present-day majority Muslim communities in these regions are not interested in the pre-Islamic past. In this paper I argue that, despite seemingly overcoming such positions, collaborative projects may actually exacerbate them through perceiving local communities as deficient, in need of being taught and re-united with “their” heritage. Using data from two current projects in Sudan, I explore actual motivations of local publics to engage with the archaeologically approachable past and the interests they voice vis-à-vis archaeological heritage. I suggest that emphasizing these dimensions effects a shift in how nonarchaeological partners in collaborative projects are conceptualized. This opens new ground for engagement, as changing perceptions impact on interactions and, in consequence, power relations between protagonists

Hugging the wall. New insights into the building history and the uselife of the Great Enclosure at Musawwarat

Rehabilitation measures conducted at the on-site museum at Musawwarat in the spring season 2015 incidentally led to the exposure of archaeological evidence which proved interesting for exploring hitherto little understood aspects of the chronology and the uselife of the Great Enclosure. The evidence and its analysis are presented here in order to conclude the series of papers detailing the archaeological work conducted at the Great Enclosure from 2013 to 2015

Shalfak Archaeological Mission (SAM): The 2017 Field Season

This report details the activities of the first field season of the Shalfak Archaeological Mission in April 2017. It presents the framework of the project, the results of the mapping survey, the discoveries in three excavations areas – including a hitherto unidentified Middle Kingdom extra muros storage and/or workshop complex – as well as a reconnaissance of the fortress’s surroundings. The article also includes a short discussion of the find material recovered in this season

Type-3 Secretion System-induced pyroptosis protects Pseudomonas against cell-autonomous immunity

Inflammasome-induced pyroptosis comprises a key cell-autonomous immune process against intracellular bacteria, namely the generation of dying cell structures. These so-called pore-induced intracellular traps (PITs) entrap and weaken intracellular microbes. However, the immune importance of pyroptosis against extracellular pathogens remains unclear. Here, we report that Type-3 secretion system (T3SS)-expressing Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) escaped PIT immunity by inducing a NLRC4 inflammasome-dependent macrophage pyroptosis response in the extracellular environment. To the contrary, phagocytosis of Salmonella Typhimurium promoted NLRC4-dependent PIT formation and the subsequent bacterial caging. Remarkably, T3SS-deficient Pseudomonas were efficiently sequestered within PIT-dependent caging, which favored exposure to neutrophils. Conversely, both NLRC4 and caspase-11 deficient mice presented increased susceptibility to T3SS-deficient P. aeruginosa challenge, but not to T3SS-expressing P. aeruginosa. Overall, our results uncovered that P. aeruginosa uses its T3SS to overcome inflammasome-triggered pyroptosis, which is primarily effective against intracellular invaders. Importance Although innate immune components confer host protection against infections, the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa ( P. aeruginosa ) exploits the inflammatory reaction to thrive. Specifically the NLRC4 inflammasome, a crucial immune complex, triggers an Interleukin (IL)-1β and -18 deleterious host response to P. aeruginosa . Here, we provide evidence that, in addition to IL-1 cytokines, P. aeruginosa also exploits the NLRC4 inflammasome-induced pro-inflammatory cell death, namely pyroptosis, to avoid efficient uptake and killing by macrophages. Therefore, our study reveals that pyroptosis-driven immune effectiveness mainly depends on P. aeruginosa localization. This paves the way toward our comprehension of the mechanistic requirements for pyroptosis effectiveness upon microbial infections and may initiate targeted approaches in order to ameliorate the innate immune functions to infections. Graphical abstract Macrophages infected with T3SS-expressing P. aeruginosa die in a NLRC4-dependent manner, which allows bacterial escape from PIT-mediated cell-autonomous immunity and neutrophil efferocytosis. However, T3SS-deficient P. aeruginosa is detected by both NLRC4 and caspase-11 inflammasomes, which promotes bacterial trapping and subsequent efferocytosis of P. aeruginosa -containing-PITs by neutrophils