Controversy Over Diggers TV Shows

Dear Colleagues,

Late last week the Society for American Archaeology Board was informed that there are two TV series planned that promote and glorify the looting and destruction of archaeological sites. They are American Diggers and Diggers. The first is scheduled for Spike TV and the other for National Geographic TV. As past SAA President Bob Kelly wrote in a recent e-mail in response to American Diggers, "This shameless and shameful program will glorify and promote the mindless destruction of archaeological sites in the U.S."

SAA and other groups, such as SHA, have already prepared and sent strong letters condemning both of these programs to the production companies, networks, and others. Copies of the SAA letters can be found on the SAA website (http://bit.ly/w2MHJM, and http://bit.ly/wzT7IA). The letters provide details on why we are so concerned. Up to this point Spike TV has not responded to the public outcry. Leadership of National Geographic, however, has indicated that, while they are unable to stop the showing tomorrow on such short notice, they will place a disclaimer into the show that speaks to laws protecting archaeological and historic sites. They are also willing to enter into discussions with the archaeological community to determine how to raise awareness of the impacts of the use of metal detectors for treasure hunting. We will advise you of developments in this area.

We are also in conversations with SHA, RPA, AIA, NASA and others to develop a coordinated response and next steps.

BUT for the Spike TV program we need your help. We ask you to individually send letters and/or e-mails to the companies involved—or take advantage of social media outlets (see below)—urging them as strongly as possible to stop this show. The contact points that we have identified so far for the Spike TV project are provided below.

Spike TV
Scott Gurney and Deirdre Gurney
Gurney Productions, Inc.
8929 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 510
Los Angeles, California 90045
http://www.gurneyproductions.com/contact

Kevin Kay
President, Spike TV
1633 Broadway
New York, New York 10019
http://www.spike.com/about/feedback/

Stephen K. Friedman
President, MTV
c/o MTV Studios
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
Shana Tepper
shana.tepper@mtvstaff.com

Philippe Dauman
President and Chief Executive Officer
Viacom Inc.
1515 Broadway
New York, New York 10036
http://www.viacom.com/contact/Pages/default.aspx

There are also Facebook pages where you can comment

One is a "People against American Diggers" facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/People-against-Spike-TVs-American-Digger/193110227460512

If you would like to add comments to the Spike website, please visit the comments section at the bottom of the following page:
http://bit.ly/yQjlXP

The Spike TV announcement is available at
http://bit.ly/xm2QyI

From the website:
In the US, there are millions of historical relics buried in backyards just waiting to be discovered and turned into profit. "American Digger" hopes to claim a piece of that pie as the series travels to a different city each week, including Detroit, MI, Brooklyn, NY, Chicago, IL and Jamestown, VA searching for high-value artifacts and relics, some of which have been untouched for centuries. After pinpointing historical locations such as Civil War and Revolutionary War battlefields, Savage’s first task is to convince reluctant homeowners to let his team dig up their property using state-of-the-art metal detectors and heavy-duty excavation equipment.

Sincerely,
Fred Limp, RPA
SAA President

More Presidential Appointments

President Barak Obama appointed museum anthropologist Dorothy Lippert to the Advisory Council on Historic Preserrvation, and archaeologist Rosemary Joyce to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee.

Dorothy T. Lippert, Appointee for Member, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Dorothy Lippert is currently a Case Officer in the Repatriation Office of the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. In her current position, Ms. Lippert responds to repatriation requests from Native American tribes for human remains and sacred material. Following graduate school, Ms. Lippert worked as the Education Coordinator for the John P. McGovern Hall of the Americas at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. She currently serves on the Executive of the World Archaeological Congress and is a past member of the Board of Directors for the Society for American Archaeology. Her research interests include the development of indigenous archaeology, repatriation, ethics, and the archaeology and bioarchaeology of the southeastern United States. Ms. Lippert received her B.A. from Rice University and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Rosemary A. Joyce, Appointee for Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee Rosemary Joyce is a professor of anthropology and former chair of the Anthropology Department at the University of California at Berkeley. She is one of the world's leading experts on Honduran archaeology and once served as an Assistant Director of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University and Director of the Hearst Museum at Berkeley. She has served as an officer of the Archaeology Division of the American Anthropological Association, on committees of the Society for American Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of America, and is a member of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Her research includes comparative study of collections of Honduran archaeological materials in museums in Europe, the United States, and Central America, and historical research on the origins of museums in systematic collecting of objects beginning in the sixteenth century. Professor Joyce received her A.B. from Cornell University and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois-Urbana.

Cultural Property Advistory Committee Appointments

US President Barak Obama makes new appointments to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee:

Patty Gerstenblith, Appointee for Chairman, Cultural Property Advisory Committee Patty Gerstenblith is a Distinguished Research Professor and Director of the Center for Art, Museum and Cultural Heritage Law at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. She is founding president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation and is a director of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield. Professor Gerstenblith has served as Chair, Senior Advisor, and Vice Chair of the Art and Cultural Heritage Law committee of the American Bar Association Section on International Law. From 1995 until 2002, she served as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Cultural Property and from 2000 until 2003 as a member of the United States Cultural Property Advisory Committee. Her publications include the casebook Art, Cultural Heritage and the Law. Professor Gerstenblith received an A.B. in Classical and Near Eastern Archeology from Bryn Mawr College, a Ph.D. in Fine Arts and Anthropology from Harvard University and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.

Nancy C. Wilkie, Appointee for Member, Cultural Property Advisory Committee Nancy Wilkie is the William H. Laird Professor of Classics, Anthropology and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota and a former president of the Archaeological Institute of America. She has conducted archaeological research in Greece, Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Nepal where she served as Senior Fulbright Lecturer. Currently she is the Secretary of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield and a member of the Executive Board of the Register of Professional Archaeologists, the Advisory Board of Heritage Watch International, and the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. She was first appointed to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee in 2003 by former President George W. Bush. Professor Wilkie received her A.B. from Stanford University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

True's Inconclusive End

Her side of the story ...

The trial of Marion True, the former antiquities curator of the Getty Museum (which for many years has been one of the leading collectors of world-class antiquities), for conspiring to receive antiquities that had been illegally excavated and exported from Italy, began on 16 November 2005. The Art Newspaper has been covering the trial since its outset. Until March 2009, the prosecution worked through its case, and then the defence began cross-examining witnesses, but True has had no opportunity to present her case directly. Here, she tells The Art Newspaper about the trial and its outcome. [Read more here.]

Social Sciences and Human Decency

An interesting article on the recent dialogue about the AAA code of ethics, including a quote from our own Council for Museum Anthropology President, Alex Barker:

A researcher doing fieldwork in the southwestern U.S. happened upon something close to the anthropological Holy Grail: a small group of Native Americans who had never been exhaustively studied.

While master's-level research conducted decades ago had made some inroads with the group, this work reflected the long-held, and mistaken, view that this group was the same as another, larger one nearby. Not so. The researcher amassed a trove of ethnographic notes and could see that the group's distinctive culture was rapidly disappearing after waves of westernization. She (the gender of the researcher is not clear in the anonymous account, but Inside Higher Ed had to pick a pronoun) hoped her scholarship would preserve the record of a civilization that was about to vanish.

But, then, a hitch emerged: the group objected strongly to her publishing an account of certain beliefs and practices -- how they worshiped and related to the supernatural -- because they said such things do not rightly belong to non-natives.

[Read more here]

AAA Ethics Task Force

The AAA Ethics Task Force has begun to report on its work. Check it out and join the dialogue here.

NAGPRA Nearing 20

As we near the 20th anniversary of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), on November 16, there's more in news on repatriation (of course, aside from our special issue of Museum Anthropology!).

Check out this set of articles in Science magazine. The articles are accessible if you sign up for the website (at no cost).

An interesting review of NAGPRA in Nebraska here.

If you're interested in these issues and want to be part of the discussion, try to make the "NAGPRA at 20" conference to be held in Washington, DC, on November 15-16, 2010. More information here.

Also, some news from Canada: Nearly 300 historically significant Nisga'a artifacts collected in northwestern B.C. in the early 20th century -- some described as "masterpieces" of native art -- are to be repatriated next week by officials from two major Canadian museums. [Read more here.]

H.R. 725: Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments

The following summary was written by the Congressional Research Service, a well-respected nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress.

1/19/2010--Passed House amended. Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act of 2010 - Amends the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 to expand the authority of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board to bring criminal and civil actions for offenses under such Act involving the sale of misrepresented Indian-produced goods or products. Authorizes: (1) any federal law enforcement officer to conduct an investigation of an alleged violation of this Act occurring within the jurisdiction of the United States; and (2) the Board to refer an alleged violation to any such officer (currently, only to the Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]) for investigation. Permits such an officer to investigate an alleged violation regardless of whether such officer receives such a referral from the Board. Requires the findings of any investigation of an alleged violation to be submitted to a federal or state prosecuting authority or the Board. Authorizes the Board, upon receiving the findings of such an investigation, to: (1) recommend to the Attorney General that criminal proceedings be initiated (current law); (2) provide such support to the Attorney General relating to the criminal proceedings as the Attorney General determines to be appropriate; or (3) recommend, in lieu of or in addition to any such criminal proceeding, that the Attorney General initiate a civil action. Allows the Attorney General, an Indian tribe, an Indian, or an Indian arts and crafts organization to initiate a civil action under this Act. Amends the federal criminal code to revise penalties for the sale of misrepresented Indian-produced goods and products.

AAA Arizona Resolution

American Anthropological Association Arizona Resolution

Adopted by the AAA Executive Board May 22, 2010

Whereas, the American Anthropological Association has historically supported policies that prohibit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, and sexual orientation; and

Whereas, the American Anthropological Association has a membership of more than 10,500 people, and an annual meeting that draws more than 4,000 members; and

Whereas, the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association takes notice of Arizona Senate Bill 1070 requiring all local law enforcement to investigate a person's immigration status when there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the United States unlawfully, regardless of whether that person is suspected of a crime; and

Whereas, the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association takes notice of Arizona House Bill 2162 that stipulates that person's immigration status must be investigated only during a lawful stop, detention, or arrest; and

Whereas, there exists more than a century of anthropological findings on the crucial social and political impact of discrimination based on race, national origin and ethnicity and a long history of anthropological concern for the well-being of immigrant populations, the American Anthropological Association considers these laws and the ways they may be implemented to be discriminatory.

Now, therefore be it resolved that the American Anthropological Association resolves not to hold a scholarly conference in the State of Arizona until such time that Senate Bill 1070 is either repealed or struck down as constitutionally invalid and thus unenforceable by a court; and

Be it further resolved that this boycott of Arizona as a place to hold meetings of the American Anthropological Association does not apply to Indian Reservations within the State of Arizona.

Threats to World Heritage Sites

A release of the 2010 World Monuments Fund list of global architectural treasures at risk from urban development, tourism, neglect and bad planning. The latest list comprises 93 sites in 47 countries, including ancient structures but also 15 that were built in the 20th century and are already deemed endangered classics.

What's in a Name?

What’s in a Name? Some thoughts on fakes, forgeries, replicas, the real thing, and archaeological experience by Stephen E. Nash.

Authentic. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary offers several definitions: “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to fact or reality”; “trustworthy”; “not imaginary, false, or imitation”; “conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features.”

Visitors to museums, national parks, and world heritage sites seek authentic objects, features, and structures as a matter of course—why would one want to travel to see fakes, replicas, or forgeries, particularly in a digital age and perpetual connectivity when (doctored?) images are but a few clicks away?

Just as we take it for granted that the gallon of gasoline we pay for is, in fact, a gallon, many of us take it for granted that the “authorities,”—whether they be museum curators, park superintendents, or government agencies—present for our enjoyment and edification the “real” artifacts and “real” archaeological sites, unless otherwise noted. The recent reconstruction, construction, and even “Extreme Makeover” of the Akapana Pyramid, “in order to make it more attractive to tourists” has justifiably upset those in the heritage preservation community. The Akapana Pyramid’s status as a World Heritage Site is now threatened, perhaps justifiably, because (among other things) adobe, not stone, was used as construction material. That said, the episode begs the questions of what is, and is not, deemed “authentic” in our world. A few thought-provoking examples will suffice.

Mesa Verde National Park is a World Heritage Site, and it has enjoyed more than a century of professional (according to the standards of any given era, of course) archaeological research. It has also borne the brunt, arguably, of one of the longest and most sustained looting efforts of any archaeological region in North American. It has also suffered from nearly a century’s worth of well-intended, if at times misguided, reconstruction efforts, the results of which are not always obvious to the visitor. Sun Temple, for instance, was “reconstructed” in 1916 by Jesse Walter Fewkes of the Smithsonian Institution, and his “reconstruction” is still visible today, with Portland cement capping the stone masonry walls. Recent tree-ring dates from samples I collected in the western half of the site range from A.D. 1560 to 1909, indicating merely that Fewkes used deadwood in his reconstruction. (Or should we call it “construction”?) In short, the site as currently constructed may have little or no bearing on what the site looked like during thirteenth century. Should we be outraged, as people seem to be with the Akapana Pyramid?

Colorado is home to another, more egregious example—the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings near Colorado Springs. These are “authentic” cliff dwellings in that the stones and (supposedly) the wooden beams used in their construction were taken from a real cliff dwelling in an undisclosed location in the 1930s. These construction materials were driven to a suitable looking cliff and reconstructed (again, constructed?) in a location closer to Denver and Colorado Springs, thereby relieving all but the most dedicated of tourists the then-arduous and still-long drive to Mesa Verde National Park. Should we be outraged?

Ten years ago, archaeologists and flint-knappers John Whittaker and Michael Stafford made the astonishing claim that “based on our knowledge of the knapping world and its history, we do not consider any non-archaeological [e.g. not professionally excavated] collection made after the 1930s to be surely uncontaminated” (see Replicas, Fakes, and Art: The Twentieth Century Stone Age and Its Affects on Archaeology” American Antiquity 64(2):203-214). If they are correct, collections in many, if not most, museums in North America are therefore tainted to an unknown, and unknowable, degree. To make matters worse, they calculate that flint knappers in North America alone make 1,500,000 new points each year. These have to go somewhere; many will one day be offered to museums as “authentic.” Where is the outrage?

In a counter-intuitive twist, it appears that internet technology may have led to diminished looting of archaeological sites and a vast increase in the production of fakes, including high-quality fakes. Charles Stanish recently made this case in Archaeology and cites an example from La Paz, Bolivia, in which one of the potters ingeniously uses well-preserved ancient grass as temper for the pottery, such that a radiocarbon date on organic residue in the newly manufactured vessel would yield an ancient date! He also makes the terrifying assertion that the fakes are so prevalent that supposed experts may now, in fact, be receiving their training on fakes! Where is the outrage?

Back to Akapana. The reconstruction (construction?) of the pyramid was initiated in a poorly conceived, poorly planned, and poorly executed, effort to make the site more attractive to tourists. Its status as a World Heritage Site should be reevaluated, but even if it is stripped of that status, will it really affect visitation to the site? We may hope that it will, but diminished visitation may have the unintended consequences of economic sanctions, decimating the local economy further and perhaps, we might guess, lead people to looting or manufacturing fakes.

We need to be careful not to cast stones too far. I am reminded of the recent reconstruction (construction?) of Soldier Field, in Chicago, which used to be on the National Register of Historical Places. The Chicago Bears football team, a private corporation, used millions in tax dollars to renovate the park. In essence, a completely new stadium, which looks like a flying saucer, was built (landed?) in the middle of the old stadium. In an appropriate if belated fit of pique, and in front of far fewer television cameras than are present on a normal game day (of which there are only 10 per year, sans playoffs) the National Park Service stripped the National Register plaque off the old stadium shortly after the new stadium was dedicated. Did anyone care? Where is the outrage? The point is that designations such as the National Register and World Heritage Sites are honorifics. Like merit badges on a boy scout who cannot afford shoes, they may miss the most important points.