Innholdsfortegnelse for July/August 2020 i ARCHAEOLOGY

As those of you who visit archaeology.org know, since the day we sent the May/June issue of ARCHAEOLOGY to the printer, our offices in New York have been temporarily closed due to the pandemic, and we have been working at home to create this current issue for you. In extraordinarily challenging times such as these, I am reminded that it is always people, their dedication, and their resilience that matter most. I would like to take this moment to recognize and introduce you to the people who craft ARCHAEOLOGY and to express my heartfelt gratitude for everything they do, and especially for what they have accomplished over the last few months. For me, this issue represents the best of who we are as editors and writers. With each issue, we…

IN HIS ACCOUNT OF the extensive building program undertaken by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, the sixth-century A.D. Greek historian Procopius describes the architectural splendor of Hagia Sophia, the towering cathedral of the capital city of Constantinople: The church has become a spectacle of marvelous beauty, overwhelming to those who see it, but to those who know it by hearsay altogether incredible. For it soars to a height to match the sky, and as if surging up from amongst the other buildings, it stands on high and looks down upon the remainder of the city. Completed in 537, Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) is, in both style and scale, an architectural marvel. As a physical manifestation of the emperor’s personal authority, it also signified an increasingly close relationship between the state…

HOW PEOPLE DRESS and adorn themselves has long been a primary way of showcasing their identity and communicating it to others. The ancient Maya, whose world was one of vivid cultural practices and strict hierarchy, with rulers playing an essential role mediating between the gods and mere mortals, developed a deep interest in status and display. One of the ways this manifested itself was in their rich array of clothing and personal ornamentation. “For the Classic Maya, in many ways, clothing defined personhood,” says Alyce de Carteret, a fellow in Art of the Ancient Americas at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Numerous aspects of an individual’s identity—from their political position, to their trade, to their gender—were communicated through adornment, and depictions of clothed bodies encode this vital information.…

The coronavirus has challenged us all, but the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is meeting those challenges with the help of committed professionals, dedicated staff, and inspired enthusiasts in creative ways. Advocacy for archaeology, cultural heritage, and the protection of sites is needed now more than ever. The AIA was founded in 1879 to help preserve sites in the southwestern United States that were being looted at an alarming rate. In 2020, the AIA’s advocacy for American archaeology continues with our recent support of increased funding for cultural resources and National Conservation Lands under the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This funding aims to continue BLM’s collaboration with State Historic Preservation Offices in the western part of the country to inventory and monitor cultural resources within the more than 35…

When some of the first British farmers to live in the Lake District needed to gather at a central location, they may have chosen Castlerigg Stone Circle, a Neolithic monument built some 5,000 years ago. The circle measures almost 100 feet in diameter and consists of 38 stones varying in height from 3.5 to 7.5 feet. Later Bronze Age stone monuments often contain burials, but no human remains have been discovered at Castlerigg. Rather than serving as a memorial to the dead, the circle likely hosted a mix of community functions. “A helpful analogy is the medieval parish church, which was a religious center, but also often the site of social gathering and the marketplace,” says archaeologist Tom Clare, emeritus of Liverpool John Moores University. At the time Castlerigg was…

AFTER DEFEATING THE FORCES of Atahualpa, the last Inca emperor, in 1533, Francisco Pizarro dispatched his brother Hernando to a vast religious center on Peru’s central coast called Pachacamac. Just south of modern-day Lima, Pachacamac spanned nearly 1,500 acres and had, by that time, been a place of worship for at least 1,000 years. There, in front of an assembled crowd of locals and priests, Hernando Pizarro is said to have smashed an idol representing one of Pachacamac’s primary deities. The Spanish had introduced a sweeping proscription against indigenous religious practice and forced the local population to convert to Christianity. Pachacamac was soon abandoned, ending a centuries-long tradition of venerating cults at the site under the rule of elites of multiple Andean cultures. These various cultures, evidence suggests, shared spiritual…

WHEN ARCHAEOLOGIST Brian Hayden of Simon Fraser University started working at the Keatley Creek site in British Columbia more than three decades ago, he was intrigued by nine small structures that had been clearly set apart from the main settlement. Located on a terrace above the Fraser River Gorge in the traditional territory of the Ts’kw’aylaxw (pronounced Tskwai-lah) First Nation, Keatley Creek was once one of the largest prehistoric settlements in what is now Canada. As many as 1,000 residents, who survived by hunting, gathering, and fishing, lived there at its peak around 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. Millennia of occupation left behind more than 115 depressions in the main settle-ment, evidence of partially underground wooden dwellings called pit houses that were inhabited in the winter. The nine structures that…

MEDIEVAL IRISH ENTERTAINERS I very much enjoyed “Inside a Medieval Gaelic Castle” (March/April 2020). However, the most amusing aspect of the article was not even mentioned. In the woodcut by John Derricke there are two gentlemen to the far right who appear to be airing their backsides to the assembled lords. I hope you will provide an explanation, and I’m betting it will be a doozy! Joe FeldmanCorrales, NM There was, in fact, a professional class of jesters in medieval Ireland called Braigetóir whose specialty was, indeed, farting for lords’ and ladies’ entertainment.—The Editors LIVING THE HIGH LIFE I enjoyed reading “Villages in the Sky” in your May/June 2020 issue. It did, however, arouse my curiosity. A map in the article shows four widely separate ranges in the western United…

FLORIDA: The Calusa Indians, who ruled much of southern Florida in the pre-Columbian era, are known for their sophisticated engineering projects. These included artificial islands and canals at their capital of Mound Key. They also created large lagoons called watercourts out of shells and sediments. These enclosures, which date to the 14th century, acted as holding tanks, allowing the Calusa to trap and store large numbers of fish in the subtropical climate. MEXICO: An inscribed stone tablet unearthed by a cattle rancher in Lacanja Tzeltal, Chiapas, has led to the discovery of a long-lost Maya city that was founded around 750 B.C. The existence of an important regional capital called Sak Tz’i’ was known from previously discovered inscriptions, but its exact location had eluded archaeologists for decades. When researchers explored…

THE SILK ROAD, the vast network of trade routes that connected China to the rest of Eurasia from roughly the first century B.C. to A.D. 1400, was justly famous in the West for the rich silk textiles it carried to the Mediterranean world. “But it could just as easily have been called the Jade Road, the Glass Road, or even the Rhubarb Road,” says art historian Judith Lerner of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. Such was the variety of commodities—raw silk, glass, spices, finished metalwork, ceramics, and much more—that any one of dozens of goods could have given the route its name. The Sacred Road, too, might once have been a fitting appellation. Christian and Buddhist missionaries, among others, used Silk Road…

United States Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. William J. McGowan was 23 years old when he died near the village of Moon-sur-Elle in northern France. McGowan had grown up in the small town of Benson in western Minnesota, where he loved to ski. He attended Benson High School, St. Thomas Military Academy, and then the Missouri School of Journalism, where he received his degree in 1942. He worked as a journalist and editor, first for the United Press news service in Madison, Wisconsin, and then for his hometown paper, the Swift County Monitor-News, of which his father was the editor and publisher. In 1943, McGowan was called to Eagle Pass Army Airfield in southern Texas for training. In December, he earned his pilot’s silver wings and his commission. A month later,…