Archaeology and text

I managed to visit briefly a three-day conference at the Classics at Cambridge on archaeology and text. The organizers Sara Owen and Henry Hurst had done their utmost to create a friendly atmosphere so that the different parties, the historians, classicists and archaeologists, would not confront each other but discuss with each other. As Sara was commenting, some of the earlier meetings on the matter had been much frostier events.

Sadly, I could not attend on Wednesday when the full day was discussing the theme due to having attending an informal prehistoric Central Mediterranean conference on that day and having to do other things the following day. Luckily, I managed to squeeze two entertaining papers to my Friday schedule. Two female scholars kept me interested in merging textual evidence and material culture studies in their very different papers.

Susan Sherratt from Sheffield had a run through the trade and gift references in the Iliad and Odyssey but then went on to discuss the distribution of Middle Eastern faïence and other early Orientalising exotica in Greece. In the end she also discussed the possibility that the northern Aegean distribution of early wine amphorae with concentric circular decorations and that they presented a sign of early trade in the area. The involvement of the Phoenicians naturally is based on literature and circumstantial evidence.

Lin Foxhall from Leicester presented some ideas from the wider Tracing Networks Project and discussed her own research on the indigenous and Greek loom weights in the Megaponto area. This was interesting both as a critique of maintaining strict disciplinary boundaries in the network research and as a presentation of very interesting case study on cultural interaction and the selection of influences according to one's own cultural preferences. It was puzzling to hear that different scholars in archaeology and ancient history ended up writing two books on network analysis without any connection in their actual material and apparently being totally unaware of each other writing on prehistory (Knappett 2011) on one hand and on ancient history (Malkin 2011) on another

Even if these papers partly discussed more abstract topics, trade and female networks, they still had a landscape dimension. Ancient trade involved large areas across the Mediterranean from its part. Weaving is very localised activity but when the weavers were located in neighbouring communities but presented a distinctive material culture the research has its spatial dimension by default.

Reusing Olympic landscapes

The previous week saw the Olympic flame arriving to England in a golden airplane. The Olympics are one of the events that were recreated in the late 19th century during the aftermath of the Age of Romanticism. The modern Olympics make a full use of the past site of Olympia, the site of the ancient, original Olympics. The Olympic flame is lit in Olympia and a series of modern rituals have been created in order to celebrate the event. We could see a glimpse of these a few weeks back.

The fire was reintroduced as a symbol of the games for the Amsterdam Games in 1928. The torch relay that transports the flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the country where the games take place has no ancient precedent and was introduced at the 1936 Berlin Olympics – a detail nobody probably wants to remember. Nevertheless, there was a religious procession leading to Olympia before the ancient game, so there is a precedent for a preparatory event that passes a landscape related to the Olympics.

The flame is lit using a parabolic mirror from the rays of sun at the temple of Zeus in the holy area of Olympia. The modern reenactment of the events includes not-very-flatterning dresses and frankly bizarre dance routings beamed all over the world from the ancient ruins of Olympia. Considering the amount of good news coming from Greece in the recent times this is currently a rare reminder of the cultural heritage we owe to this country.

Even if there is no continuity between the Games, since these were discontinued as a pagan event by the Christian Roman Empire, the use of the holy area brings the use of this heritage area closer to its earlier function than is normally the case. The Stadium is used as a place to follow the modern presentations and may be for a fleeting moment feel some kind of attachment with the Real Thing in the past.

Free access and paywalls

When the top university in the world starts to complain about something, you have to take it seriously. Harvard has started to complain about the high cost of the subscriptions of scientific journals. They say their library cannot afford these anymore. I did not know that the major scientific publications could cost libraries thousands of pounds. Even if some journals come out monthly, it is still a very high price for an issue. Since most of the work is done by the academics and peer reviewers, the publishing houses probably get their money with less of an effort than is the case with the other types of publishing. When any books are published the publishers have to review and edit them, but this is not true with the established journals.

I am myself an editor-in-chief for an open access peer reviewed online publication, the Monographs of the Archaeological Society of Finland. Since there is no subscription revenue and the Archaeological Society of Finland is not a rich society, this post is honorary and the society pays only any small fees for extra web storage space. However, the peer review guarantees the standard and the open web access guarantees the widest potential audience worldwide. Naturally, not all web users are interested in archaeology or northern areas, but the potential is there. Any reader can access the scientific articles published, in the case of the first volume a selection of highly interesting articles about Mesolithic lithic technologies in the northern Europe.

The free nature of the enterprise means that the workload has to be passed lower down the food chain. This means that the authors have to prepare their manuscripts digitally as far as they can, optimize and set the figures and create print/photoready files. With the modern word processing technology this is not a problem but requires the people preparing the volume to define the look and the settings of their publication at an early stage. If the authors are going to do the work, they have to know the page settings and the styles. This leaves the editors (if not the author of the monograph) with collating the files and checking that they have been created in a correct manner. In the case of edited volumes the editors also have to prepare any material from the less computer skilled academics. The editor-in-chief makes sure that the peer review is organized correctly and in a reasonable time with the help of the editorial board.

This all means that there is a lot of free work done at every level – or work that is covered by grants or salaries from the main job of the editors and authors. Nevertheless, the free access allows everybody, also those without a university affiliation to read high quality research and get up-to-date correct information. Free access means that the research potentially can reach the largest audience possible. Essential in the current academic landscape!

The importance of geology

The mortaria workshop in Lincoln was very interesting and reminded one of a few basic realities in archaeology. First of all, the history of early mortarium production is little known. Mostly because the early production took place in the area were the castle and the cathedral stand and that naturally are off limits of most of invasive archaeology. This is a common problem in archaeology since later Medieval towns often cover the Roman and earlier centres in central and southern Europe.

One of the later kiln sites lie in the area where there were also kilns during the 10th, 12th and 14th century. The reason for this longevity became clear from the presentation of the local geological map where there was a narrow strip of a clay formation poking to the surface by the river valley. This outcrop was used for millennia. This reminds us of longevity of the exploitation sites of key resources. This has its implications on the knowledge of the earlier use since often the signs of earlier exploitation have disappeared or are in danger due to modern extraction.

The geology presentation

The type of clay available at any of the mortaria sources defined the outer appearance of the products of different mortarium workshops. Some of them have orangey tint due to the iron in the clay whereas the white clays that lacked the iron resulted with whitish vessels. This was also the difference between the local deposits at Harthill on one hand and Nene valley and Oxford on the other and helps to recognize the products of these most important workshops.

The later industries, copying the appearance of the Nene valley types can be separated from each others by observing their temper. Some areas are flint-poor whereas some had peat iron ore and this iron production fed to the related pottery production as well. The careful analysis of minerals and rocks used may allow a more detailed characterization and actually outdo the expensive scientific methods that promise much but cost a lot.

Geology defines other productions as well. The stones used to erect Stonehenge have been the object of study for a long time and may continue still even if Dr Bevins, keeper of geology at National Museum Wales, and Dr Rob Ixer of Leicester University, suggested the area in Pembrokeshire as the source of sarsens.

During even earlier times it was the occurrence of flint that was the defining feature. In the areas without flint the lack of the best source material for stone tools often resulted with brisk trade at some point with other regions with this material. Similarly, the circulation of obsidian in the Mediterranean is well-documented.

What a difference 20 years make!

The last time I attended the Nordic TAG was in 1992 in Helsinki when the conference was small and Michael Shanks was giving a key note speech. After the conference the main question in the pub between the organisers was the name of the culprit for the dwindling audience in the conference. If I remember correctly there was a hiatus before the Nordic TAG took off again but I was then off living in Britain and visiting Italy regularly. In any case, I and one of members of the Helsinki NTAG organizing committee had a trip down the memory lane during the conference dinner.

After 20 years and a mandate as the editor-in-chief of a new web based peer reviewed monograph series I headed to the Oulu NTAG where I also hold an honorary post of a docent. I had my joint paper on a memory stick and newly Oulu based relatives to visit so I had plenty to experience and manifold tasks to perform. The spring was late with huge piles of snow laying in the woods next to the University pushed back from the parking lots with weather alternating between glorious sunshine and cold rain on different days. I had arrived to the conference a day late and after travelling over 12 hours. It only takes three hours to Helsinki but it is all connecting travel adds to the travel time.

On arrival I shared my late status with my former student friend who now works for the Forestry governing body and after that we headed to the different session according to our respective preferences. I was going to learn about the dissemination of archaeology – until I entered the lecture theatre and was encountering a session on Things. I had no problem with the change of topic. What followed was both useful and thought provoking about the possibility for Things to have separate rights to be preserved despite of their importance and human-defined value. The session suggested that our approach to archaeology and heritage is very anthropocentric and value-laden. Especially in postmodern thinking Things could not exist without human definition and construction.

The emphasis of this NTAG was on the study of northern areas, Sami, raindeer economy and soundscapes were popular topics and fit for a host city near the Arctic circle. However, there were odd presentations on the Medierranean and even more remote landscapes, such as Iran and central America. I went to hear my friend’s talk about Pompei and heard a well-established argument about the location of high-status residential buildings among the liveliest neighbourhoods in town. Personally, I presented ceramiscene and convinced a colleague to plan to apply the concept to one of his site with pottery kilns. Soon we will be able to have a session of our own!

The audience was much more multinational than 20 years ago. The common language was English, which meant that Swedish and other Scandinavian languages – not to mention Finnish – were not used in academic discourse. In a way this was a pity but on the other hand it guaranteed that the delegates from Russia, Estonia, England, Spain and the States could properly understand the proceedings. The multinationality fits both theoretical and arctic archaeology and the wide breadth of the papers and topic gave something to everyone.

From Monte Testaccio to Roman Britain – landscapes of food

Monte Testaccio in Rome

There are many ways to assess past landscapes from the view point of food production. One of the ways is indirect, looking at the vessels used in transporting, storing and circulating food stuffs. The Romans were not the first to move food long distances but their trade routes served all areas around the Mediterranean and provided the city of Rome with grain and other produce that kept the population of this first mega-city alive. One needed only to view the new miniseries of Mary Beard, Meet the Romans and see her sitting near the top of Monte Testaccio, the artificial mound of amphora sherds still standing south from the old centre of the city of Rome. This hill is a tangible evidence of the huge quantities of food that reached the river port of Rome. Due to a discussion I had last week in the coffee room I look at mortaria, a type of large bowl the Romans used widely and which are found in large quantities.

In May I am heading to a mortarium workshop in order to learn how to record and study this type of vessel. The wide distribution of mortaria in Britain contrasts with the few sherds we had from the Nepi survey. Another example of an Italian site with an incidence of an occurance of mortarium is Cetamura del Chianti (Hargis 2007). Even if mortaria were produced in the Mediterranean – most notably along the Syrian coast in the Middle East (see Heyes 1967) – they are relatively scarce in many areas. This either means that they were not needed or that something else was used as a replacement.

A mortarium from Warwickshire (photo from the Colehill online exhibition)

Mortaria as a vessel type represents a continuum from Etruscan and other earlier grinding vessels and pestles (see e.g. Hargis 2007 for the full story). They were being produced in Italy by the Roman brick yards and exported across the Roman Empire. They have been found in about ten shipwrecks as cargo, most commonly along the coast of Spain and France (based on Parker 1990). Many Roman mortaria bear stamps and thus much of the study of Roman mortaria has focused on the evidence they give instead of discussing the general vessel form. By the second century AD, mortaria production centred outside Italy. Apart from the important workshops in Syria mortaria were made also in Gaul but they were the most widespread in Britain.

Production centres (from potsherd.net)

Lucy Cramp from the University of Bristol studied mortaria and their food residues in her PhD. She extracted and analyzed absorbed and surface residues from c. 600 Roman pot sherds via HTGC, GC/MS and GC-C-IRMS in order to reconstruct and compare culinary patterns. She found out that it was possible to distinguish different vessel groups based upon the organic residue data that showed that these vessels were used differently in antiquity. Her research also indicated continuity of food processing and consuption from the Iron Age into the Roman period despite the use of ‘Roman’ style material culture.

The analysis of GC-MS chromatograms of lipid extraction from mortarium samples and cooking vessels from Roman Britain was carried out by a research group Lucy Cramp made part of the discovery that even if the mortaria was introduced by the Romans they were used in Britain not to grind foodstuff for pounding and mixing commodities to make highly flavoured Roman sauces, rissoles and stews. Alternative, use as a dairying vessel has also been suggested. The rapid adoption of the vessel type at more rural and unromanised sites as well as more romanised urban and military sites has been explained to demonstrate the extent and speed of the transition from native to romanised diet. The samples included material from sites as varied as Fishbourne and Wroxeter and had comparative samples from Xanten in ancient Germania Inferior. Recently published results suggest that it was not the diet that changed. The British just applied a new method of preparing certain products. Plants were being ground in the vessels as well as cooked in the pot. These vessels also contained animal fats, including dairy products.

These results suggest that the distribution and use of mortaria in ancient Roman empire reflect different cultures of food making. In this way the distribution of ceramics reveals us the past landscapes of food production (c.f. ceramiscene in my earlier blog).

References

Hargis, M. 2007. A mortarium at Cetamura del Chianti in context at the Florida State University.
Hayes, J. W. 1967. North Syrian Mortaria. Hesperia 36, 337-347.
Parker, A. J. 1990. Ancient shipwrecks of the Mediterranean and the Roman Provinces. BAR International series 580.

Nothing beats the real thing

A very grey and rainy Easter resulted with a visit to the New Walk Museum in Leicester in order to take our son somewhere indoors where he could run around in an environment more interesting and inspiring than the nearest shopping centre. Apart from the usual displays the museum had two special exhibitions that made me think. Actually there are more special exhibitions on than these two but they are the ones that made me consider deeper questions. The first exhibition is the touring Hallaton treasure exhibition and the second a Gujarati Dress The World: Suits and Saris. I have mentioned the Hallaton treasure in my blog before and later made a brief comment on the arrival of the restored Roman helmet to the Market Harborough museum in my other weekly blog. Due to the number of local Leicestershire events related to this treasure it is likely that Hallaton is to feature in this blogs in the future as well.

One of the information banners

The touring Hallaton exhibition was very bijou but it covered the essentials about the find. However, most of the exhibits were copies and at least for me thus they were a let-down – especially since I have visited the Market Harborough museum and seen the real ones. There is something appealing and alluring in the real objects that show signs of degradation and corrosion but have been preserved for the future generations. The small collection of original Iron Age and Roman coins were the centre piece of the exhibition and at least a professional could feel the charm of the original. Naturally, the display also had ‘shiny, precious’ objects so the primeval greed probably rose its head inside me when I saw them.

It is not that there was anything wrong with the reproductions. They were very good and an exceptionally good way to share this nationally important discovery with a wider audience than the one that can visit the local museum. In addition, the replica of the Roman helmet the visitors could try on was a real hit with the younger visitors. Even if it was heavy, I could not resist trying it on on my son.

Leicester as a truly multicultural town managed to present the different strands of its history at the same time in the museum. On one hand there was the exhibition on the distant Roman past shared with the continent and on the other a display of the shared modern history with the Asian subcontinent. I have previously been unsure how the city’s inhabitants of Gujarati origin feel about the attempts of inclusion and diversity by the Museum services but the Suits and Saris exhibition is one example that they are doing something right. I saw more visitors with saris than ever before in the museum and some of the fashion was truly dashing. The exhibition had a lot of Indian and Indian-inspired clothing to be tried on in a series of special changing booths so it was truly interactive. I am not convinced that the youngsters of Indian origin necessarily are interested in the original clothing from Gujarat collected in the 1980s when this museum’s collecting of Gujarati clothing begun with the sincere hope to introduce the youth of Gujarati origin their culture in the land of their forefathers. Nevertheless, the young gentlemen and misses can be assumed to be fashion-conscious and enjoy the fusion clothing on display. In this latter case it may be that the old original is not as appealing for the intended audience as in the Hallaton case. However, as a crowd pleaser it is effective.