- Department of Anthropology
San Francisco State University
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, California 94132
United States - +1 415 338 1427
Doug Bailey
San Francisco State University, Anthropology, Faculty Member
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Visual Culture, Visual Anthropology, Figurines, Neolithic Archaeology, Prehistoric Art, Bulgarian archaeology, and 16 moreArchitecture, Romanian Archaeology, Balkan archaeology, Japanese archaeology, Jomon Culture, ORLAN, Neolithic, Prehistoric Figurines, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Prehistoric Archaeology, Critical Heritage Studies, Archaeological Method & Theory, Archaeological Theory, Anthropology, Archives, and Art History edit
This chapter explores the fundamental question of why we do archaeology and why do we value the past. One answer gains inspiration from the work of Sigmund Freud and the concepts of the pleasure principle and the death drive. Working... more
This chapter explores the fundamental question of why we do archaeology and why do we value the past. One answer gains inspiration from the work of Sigmund Freud and the concepts of the pleasure principle and the death drive. Working through these ideas leads to unusual conclusions, one of which suggests that there is much shared between antiquities traders, collectors, and archaeologists.
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In H. Barnard (ed.) Archaeology Outside the Box, pp. 9-18. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute. In this chapter Doug Bailey describes and discusses his controversial destruction of an amphora at the Theoretical Archaeology Group (USA)... more
In H. Barnard (ed.) Archaeology Outside the Box, pp. 9-18. Los Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute. In this chapter Doug Bailey describes and discusses his controversial destruction of an amphora at the Theoretical Archaeology Group (USA) sessions in 2019 at Syracuse University (with apologies to Ai Weiwei). Issues of interest include the following: the creative power of destruction, art/archaeology, visual archaeology, and questioning the basis of archaeology and historical conservation. In addition, Doug discusses his "Ineligible" project exhibited in Portugal at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture (Santo Tirso) and Carpintarias de São Lázaro (Lisbon) in 2020 and 2021.
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Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Museum Studies, and 13 morePerformance Studies, Material Culture Studies, Visual Culture, Historic Preservation, Archaeological Method & Theory, Heritage Conservation, Archives, History of Archives, Archaeological Theory, Amphorae, Classics: Ancient History and Archaeology, Archaeology and Art History, and Critical Heritage Studies
In C. Watts and C. Knappett (eds). Ancient Art Revisited: Global Perspectives from Archaeology and Art History, pp. 112-25. New York: Routledge. This chapter describes Doug Bailey's art/archaeological project in which he destroyed an... more
In C. Watts and C. Knappett (eds). Ancient Art Revisited: Global Perspectives from Archaeology and Art History, pp. 112-25. New York: Routledge. This chapter describes Doug Bailey's art/archaeological project in which he destroyed an amphora from an archaeological excavation. Key issues explored include the following: the assumptions of archaeological preservation and conservation; art/archaeology as performance; destruction of material culture; and Frantz Fanon's writings on violence and revolution.
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Archaeology, Artificial Intelligence, Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Violence, and 12 moreMaterial Culture Studies, Performance Management, Archaeological Method & Theory, Taverns, and the archaelogy of casual and non-sympotic wine drinking in Classical Greece, Material Culture, Amphorae, Art and Archaeology, Artifacts, Archaeology and Art History, Franz Fanon, Classical Archaeology, History and Archaelogy, History of Greek and Roman Art, and Social Interpretation of Archaeology and Artefacts
This wonderful catalogue was produced by the creative team at Carpintarias de São Lázaro in Lisbon as part of the 2021 exhibition of Releasing the Archive.
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Archaeology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Photography, Heritage Studies, and 12 moreContemporary Art, Visual Culture, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Collections Management, Archives, History of Archives, Museums and Identity, History of photography, Visual Arts, Exhibitions, Museology (Study of Collections), and Records Management in the Public Sector
In this book chapter, Doug Bailey describes the intentional destruction of 35mm slides from an ethnographic archive held at his home institution. Faced with the ethical dilemma of what to do with images, the subjects of which (human,... more
In this book chapter, Doug Bailey describes the intentional destruction of 35mm slides from an ethnographic archive held at his home institution. Faced with the ethical dilemma of what to do with images, the subjects of which (human, animal, and object), are untraceable, Bailey reviewed professional guidelines for visual repatriation and investigated the problematic dimensions of the archive (in Derrida's sense). The only course of action that was justified was to release the individuals trapped in the slide images back into the world; release was by using bleach to liberate the dyes and pigments from the slides. The process of release raised difficult conundra for museums and other keepers of archives.
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Archaeology, Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Photography, Museum Studies, and 11 moreVisual Culture, Museum Anthropology, Archives, Photography Theory, History of Collections, History of Archives, Documentary Photography, Cultural Heritage Management, History of Collections (Archaeology), Archaeological Method and Theory, and Archives and Records Managment
In this chapter Professor Bailey provides a detailed description of the origins, aims, processes, and outcomes of an early phase of the Ineligible project: the installation at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Portgual... more
In this chapter Professor Bailey provides a detailed description of the origins, aims, processes, and outcomes of an early phase of the Ineligible project: the installation at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Portgual that was part of the exhibition Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology.
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In this short, summary essay from the exhibition catalogue for "Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology" at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, Santo Tirso, Portugal, Professor Bailey briefly introduces the... more
In this short, summary essay from the exhibition catalogue for "Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology" at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, Santo Tirso, Portugal, Professor Bailey briefly introduces the Releasing the Archive project. (Readers interested in a longer, more detailed description and discussion of that project should see "Releasing the visual archive: on the ethics of destruction." In B. Olsen, M. Burstrøm, C. DeSilvey, and Þ. Pétursdóttir (eds) After Discourse: Things, Affects, Ethics, edited by, pp. 232-56. London: Routledge.)
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In this brief essay from the 2020 catalogue for the exhibition "Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology" at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, in Santo Tirso, Portugal, Professor Bailey introduces the... more
In this brief essay from the 2020 catalogue for the exhibition "Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology" at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture, in Santo Tirso, Portugal, Professor Bailey introduces the "Ineligible" project and discusses each of the works installed in the show. (Readers interested in the "Ineligible" project should also read the much fuller account: Bailey, D.W. 2020. Art/archaeology: the Ineligible project. In D.W. Bailey, S. Navarro, and Á. Moreira (eds) "Ineligible: A Disruption of Artefacts and Artistic Practice", pp. 11-26. Santo Tirso: International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture.)
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This volume of essays derives from the conference held in March 2020 at the International Museum of Contemporary in Portugal in association with the exhibition, "Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology". Archaeology normally... more
This volume of essays derives from the conference held in March 2020 at the International Museum of Contemporary in Portugal in association with the exhibition, "Creative (un)makings: Disruptions in Art/Archaeology". Archaeology normally sees artifacts as art objects for us to examine and interpret. Conference participants asked if there is any fresh territory available to work in beyond the well-worn paths taken either by contemporary artists who play with archaeological materials to make their museum and gallery installations, or by archaeologists who look to modern artists for new ways to explain behavior and patterns in the past. This book suggests that one way forward is to explore the potentials of an art/archaeology. The proposal is that we should move beyond traditional efforts to explain or interpret the past, and that we do this in a creative way that has impact on contemporary societies.
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Art/archaeology, a new transdisciplinary practice has fractured traditional perspectives on the relationships of art and archaeology, and the exhibition "Creative (un)makings" brings that disruption to the museum world for the first time.... more
Art/archaeology, a new transdisciplinary practice has fractured traditional perspectives on the relationships of art and archaeology, and the exhibition "Creative (un)makings" brings that disruption to the museum world for the first time. This book is the catalogue from the exhibition at the International Museum of Contemporary Sculpture in Portugal (March-September 2020) Seen from the standard perspective of traditional academic and cultural subjects, art and archaeology have comfortable relationships: collaboration, co-inspiration, shared aims to advance knowledge of human behavior and thought. Art/archaeology argues that writing and thinking about the past should move beyond existing boundaries of both disciplines, and that creative work should replace written texts and lectures. Art/archaeology opens a new space where creative work, thought, and debate expand in unexpected directions, and where we find innovative potentials for objects from the past.
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This project sees archaeology and art as a political tool for disrupting conventional, politically loaded narratives of the past. Rather than producing institutionally safe narratives conventionally certified as truth, archaeologists... more
This project sees archaeology and art as a political tool for disrupting conventional, politically loaded narratives of the past. Rather than producing institutionally safe narratives conventionally certified as truth, archaeologists should follow the lead of artists who use the past as a source of materials to be reconfigured in new ways to help people see in new ways. Using as an example the works of the Canadian artist Ken Monkman, who subverts nineteenth-century landscape painting to reinsert the missing critiques of Anglo-American colonialism, dominance of nature, and heteronormativity, this paper advocates disarticulat-ing materials from the past by severing them from their context, repurposing them to bring contemporary concerns to the fore and creating new, disruptive visions from them. The article proposes the practice of an art/archaeology.
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Prehistoric Archaeology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, Visual Culture, and 15 moreIndigenous Politics, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Archaeological Theory, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Activist Art, Figurines, Prehistoric Figurines, Terracotta Figurines, Anthropomorphic Figurines, History of Art and archaeology, Art/archaeology, Political Archaeology, Female Figurines, Kent Monkman, and Political Art and Activist Art
This project sees archaeology and art as a political tool for disrupting conventional, politically loaded narratives of the past. Rather than producing institutionally safe narratives conventionally certified as truth, archaeologists... more
This project sees archaeology and art as a political tool for disrupting conventional, politically loaded narratives of the past. Rather than producing institutionally safe narratives conventionally certified as truth, archaeologists should follow the lead of artists who use the past as a source of materials to be reconfigured in new ways to help people see in new ways. Using as an example the works of the Canadian artist Ken Monkman, who subverts nineteenth-century landscape painting to reinsert the missing critiques of Anglo-American colonialism, dominance of nature, and heteronormativity, this paper advocates disarticulat-ing materials from the past by severing them from their context, repurposing them to bring contemporary concerns to the fore and creating new, disruptive visions from them. The article proposes the practice of an art/archaeology.
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Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Visual Culture, and 9 moreArchaeological Theory, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Visual Arts, History of Art and archaeology, Activist Archaeology, Art/archaeology, Archaeology and Art History, Political Archaeology, and Virgil Ortiz
In Breaking the Surface, Doug Bailey offers a radical alternative for understanding Neolithic houses, providing much-needed insight not just into prehistoric practice, but into another way of doing archaeology. Using his years of... more
In Breaking the Surface, Doug Bailey offers a radical alternative for understanding Neolithic houses, providing much-needed insight not just into prehistoric practice, but into another way of doing archaeology. Using his years of fieldwork experience excavating the early Neolithic pit-houses of southeastern Europe, Bailey exposes and elucidates a previously under-theorized aspect of prehistoric pit construction: the actions and consequences of digging defined as breaking the surface of the ground. Breaking the Surface works through the consequences of this redefinition in order to redirect scholarship on the excavation and interpretation of pit-houses in Neolithic Europe, offering detailed critiques of current interpretations of these earliest European architectural constructions.
The work of the book is performed by juxtaposing richly detailed discussions of archaeological sites (Etton and The Wilsford Shaft in the UK, and Magura in Romania), with the work of three artists-who-cut (Ron Athey, Gordon Matta-Clark, Lucio Fontana), with deep and detailed examinations of the philosophy of holes, the perceptual psychology of shapes, and the linguistic anthropology of cutting and breaking words, as well as with cultural diversity in framing spatial reference and through an examination of pre-modern ungrounded ways of living. Breaking the Surface is as much a creative act on its own-in its mixture of work from disparate periods and regions, its use of radical text interruption, and its juxtaposition of text and imagery-as it is an interpretive statement about prehistoric architecture. Unflinching and exhilarating, it is a major development in the growing subdiscipline of art/archaeology.
To buy this book, please go to the OUP site (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/breaking-the-surface-9780190611873?cc=us&lang=en&#) or Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Surface-Archaeology-Prehistoric-Architecture-ebook/dp/B07CZKYR6T/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529527889&sr=8-1&keywords=breaking+the+surface+bailey)
For readers who would like to receive the modified artist's version (as the volume was originally intended), please send their purchased book to Professor Bailey and he will intervene in your copy and return it to you. Send books to Professor Doug Bailey, Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Road, San Francisco, California 9413, United States.
The work of the book is performed by juxtaposing richly detailed discussions of archaeological sites (Etton and The Wilsford Shaft in the UK, and Magura in Romania), with the work of three artists-who-cut (Ron Athey, Gordon Matta-Clark, Lucio Fontana), with deep and detailed examinations of the philosophy of holes, the perceptual psychology of shapes, and the linguistic anthropology of cutting and breaking words, as well as with cultural diversity in framing spatial reference and through an examination of pre-modern ungrounded ways of living. Breaking the Surface is as much a creative act on its own-in its mixture of work from disparate periods and regions, its use of radical text interruption, and its juxtaposition of text and imagery-as it is an interpretive statement about prehistoric architecture. Unflinching and exhilarating, it is a major development in the growing subdiscipline of art/archaeology.
To buy this book, please go to the OUP site (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/breaking-the-surface-9780190611873?cc=us&lang=en&#) or Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Surface-Archaeology-Prehistoric-Architecture-ebook/dp/B07CZKYR6T/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529527889&sr=8-1&keywords=breaking+the+surface+bailey)
For readers who would like to receive the modified artist's version (as the volume was originally intended), please send their purchased book to Professor Bailey and he will intervene in your copy and return it to you. Send books to Professor Doug Bailey, Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Road, San Francisco, California 9413, United States.
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Languages and Linguistics, and 19 moreLinguistic Anthropology, Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, Archaeological Method & Theory, Visual perception, Neolithic Archaeology, British Prehistory (Archaeology), Balkan prehistory, Prehistoric Europe (Archaeology), Neolithic Europe, Anthropology of Architecture, Tim Ingold, Structural holes, Lucio Fontana, Gordon Matta- Clark, Prehistoric architecture, household archaeology and use of space, Pit Houses, Ron Athey, and Open Pit and Underground mining systems
In this text chapter, Professor Bailey investigates the articulations of art and archaeology. He argues that while recent influences of contemporary art have expanded archaeological interpretations of the past, more provocative and... more
In this text chapter, Professor Bailey investigates the articulations of art and archaeology. He argues that while recent influences of contemporary art have expanded archaeological interpretations of the past, more provocative and substantial work remains to be done. The most exciting current output is pushing hard against the boundaries of art as well as
of archaeology. Bailey’s proposal is for archaeologists to take greater risks in their
work, and to cut loose the restraints of their traditional subject boundaries and institutional expectations. The potential result of such work will rest neatly within neither
art nor archaeology, but will emerge as something else altogether. The new work will
move the study of human nature into uncharted and exciting new territories.
of archaeology. Bailey’s proposal is for archaeologists to take greater risks in their
work, and to cut loose the restraints of their traditional subject boundaries and institutional expectations. The potential result of such work will rest neatly within neither
art nor archaeology, but will emerge as something else altogether. The new work will
move the study of human nature into uncharted and exciting new territories.
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In this text chapter for OUP's recent edited volume, The Tiny and the Fragmented Miniature, Broken, or Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World (Edited be S. Rebecca Martin and Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper), Bailey examined the... more
In this text chapter for OUP's recent edited volume, The Tiny and the Fragmented Miniature, Broken, or Otherwise Incomplete Objects in the Ancient World (Edited be S. Rebecca Martin and Stephanie M. Langin-Hooper), Bailey examined the excavation of Neolithic pit-houses in Southeastern Europe. His conclusion is that we need to step back from our search for functional explanations of use or abandonment and filling. The alternative proposed is that we look at the process, definition, and consequences of digging holes, particularly as defined by "breaking the surface". Interested readers are directed to the publisher's website to purchase the book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-tiny-and-the-fragmented-9780190614812?cc=us&lang=en&
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A montage chapter that uses the juxtapositioning of image and text to provoke thought about the ways that we perceive time and temporal world views.
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Visual Culture, and 12 moreArchaeological Method & Theory, Prehistory, Chronology, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), 14C dating, absolute chronology, Biblical History, Human Perception, Bayesian chronological modelling, Perception of animals, Varves (archaeology), Archaeological Seriation, and Archaeological Chronology
In this montage chapter, Professor Bailey uses found image and text to interrogate the ways that we select and elevate particular components of past (and present) societies. The example explored here is Romania in the immediate post-WW II... more
In this montage chapter, Professor Bailey uses found image and text to interrogate the ways that we select and elevate particular components of past (and present) societies. The example explored here is Romania in the immediate post-WW II socialist and totalitarian socialist periods. The montage is structured to mirror the outline format of a book length publication of an archaeological excavation.
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History, Archaeology, Visual Studies, Art History, Romanian History, and 10 moreMaterial Culture Studies, Visual Culture, Archaeological Method & Theory, Eastern European history, Theoretical Archaeology, Montage, Collage, Visual and Cultural Studies, Representation, and Collage, Montage, & Assemblage
In this montage chapter, Professor Bailey uses found image and texts to examine the different ways that people perceive, value, fear, and regulate our intrusions into the surface and the ground and the surface of the skin. Have humans... more
In this montage chapter, Professor Bailey uses found image and texts to examine the different ways that people perceive, value, fear, and regulate our intrusions into the surface and the ground and the surface of the skin. Have humans always feared cutting the skin? Was there a time and are there places today when and where people have similar fears about cutting the surface of the ground.
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In this montage chapter, Bailey asks the critical question, "do archaeologists work at the appropriate timescale?". The work presented in this chapter asks that question and is part of a longer, broader, multimedia output that focuses on... more
In this montage chapter, Bailey asks the critical question, "do archaeologists work at the appropriate timescale?". The work presented in this chapter asks that question and is part of a longer, broader, multimedia output that focuses on the present and past of the rural village of Măgura in south-central Romania (Jasmin 2011; Mills 2010). A core theme is the opening up of action, people, and behavior in the past and the ways archaeology represents, responds to, and constructs those pasts. The work in this chapter is linked to a film (Twenty Minutes Inside Out: Landscape Transformation in Neolithic Southcentral Romania), which the lead author made in the summer of 2010 with the help of Peter Biella and Ivan Drufovka and which was shown at the Society for American Archaeology 2011 session from which the current book has emerged (Biella and Drufovka 2010).
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Archaeology, Anthropology, Visual Studies, Art History, Visual Anthropology, and 9 moreArchaeological Graphics & Illustration, Visual Culture, Romanian Studies, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Montage, Archaeological Method and Theory, Archaeology and Art History, and Theory of Montage
Use this link to see the original four-frame film that I made in Magura and which served as the source data for the montage-chapter (downloadable from this Academia.edu page) titled: "Eleven minutes and forty seconds in the Neolithic:... more
Use this link to see the original four-frame film that I made in Magura and which served as the source data for the montage-chapter (downloadable from this Academia.edu page) titled: "Eleven minutes and forty seconds in the Neolithic: underneath archaeological time" published in Ruth Van Dyke and Reinhard Bernbeck's book Subjects and Narratives in Archaeology (Colorado). That chapter includes a short discussion of what the film was attempting. The film originally had the title "Forty minutes inside out". Watching tip: let the video run in the background...and make yourself a martini or get out your consumable of choice....the film is not intended as a thriller or a "this is what you should think" narrative.
https://vimeo.com/12698378
Filmed, edited, and produced by Peter Biella.
https://vimeo.com/12698378
Filmed, edited, and produced by Peter Biella.
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Visual Anthropology, Visual Culture, Social and Cultural Anthropology, and 13 moreArchaeological Method & Theory, Metaphysics of Time, Romanian Studies, Neolithic Archaeology, Neolithic & Chalcolithic Archaeology, Theoretical Archaeology, Philosophy of Time, Alternative Media, Time Perception, Cultural Anthropology, Visual Cultures of Science (Visual Studies), Philosophy of Mind, Space and Time, and Real Time
This is a video of the conference paper entitled "Going beyond and letting go: non-archaeological art and non-artistic archaeology" that Professor Bailey gave at the 2013 Theoretical Archaeology Group in Chicago (in the session called The... more
This is a video of the conference paper entitled "Going beyond and letting go: non-archaeological art and non-artistic archaeology" that Professor Bailey gave at the 2013 Theoretical Archaeology Group in Chicago (in the session called The Way of the Shovel: On the Archaeological Imagination in Art, organized by Ian Russell.
Almost without exception workers at the interfaces of art and archaeology have restricted themselves to the boundaries of their respective discipline and discourse. Whether it is an archaeological investigation of ancient art and artefacts or an artistic recreation of past places, peoples and events, we have not grasped firmly enough the accompanying opportunities for transformative thinking and practice. In this paper, I argue that artists and archaeologists will benefit from moving beyond the current restrictions and limitations. The result will be a lack of discipline (in every sense of that phrase) that will have innovative and transformative things to say, show, do, and make around key issues of modern thinking in the humanities and social sciences. This paper will draw examples from prehistoric and contemporary art as well as from recent work by colleagues who have broken through and broken free.
Almost without exception workers at the interfaces of art and archaeology have restricted themselves to the boundaries of their respective discipline and discourse. Whether it is an archaeological investigation of ancient art and artefacts or an artistic recreation of past places, peoples and events, we have not grasped firmly enough the accompanying opportunities for transformative thinking and practice. In this paper, I argue that artists and archaeologists will benefit from moving beyond the current restrictions and limitations. The result will be a lack of discipline (in every sense of that phrase) that will have innovative and transformative things to say, show, do, and make around key issues of modern thinking in the humanities and social sciences. This paper will draw examples from prehistoric and contemporary art as well as from recent work by colleagues who have broken through and broken free.
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In this article, I review recent work on figurines from Neolithic southeastern Europe and suggest an alternative approach. I argue that we should abandon searches for explanation and for meanings of figurines as pieces of the past. The... more
In this article, I review recent work on figurines from Neolithic southeastern Europe and suggest an alternative approach. I argue that we should abandon searches for explanation and for meanings of figurines as pieces of the past. The alternative is to work with figurine material in the present, disarticulated from prehistory, and to make new work that recognizes figurines’ position in the present.
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Gender Studies, Art History, Material Culture Studies, and 12 moreVisual Culture, Neolithic Archaeology, Prehistoric Europe (Archaeology), Prehistoric Art, Prehistoric Figurines, Anthropomorphic Figurines, Neolithic of the Balkans, Mother Goddess, European Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age, European Neolithic, Archaeomythology, and The Great Mother Goddess and Goddesses
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Visual Studies, Art History, Art, and 12 moreArt Theory, Material culture of religion, Visual Culture, Archaeological Method & Theory, Archaeology of Religion, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Visual and Cultural Studies, Material Culture, Theory of Art, Archaeology and Art History, and Anthropology of Religion
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Gender Studies, Art History, Material Culture Studies, and 9 moreVisual Culture, Anthropology of the Body, Gender and Sexuality, Anthropology Of Art, Archaeology of Religion, Neolithic Archaeology, Prehistoric Art, Terracotta Figurines, and Anthropomorphic Figurines
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Phenomenology, Neolithic Archaeology, and 8 moreArchaeoastronomy, Megalithic Monuments, Heritage interpretation, Black Sea Region Archaeology, Belief Systems, Black Sea ancient history and archaeology, The Uses of Archaeology, and History of Archaeological Theory
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The site of Măgura-Buduiasca on the left bank of the River Teleorman in southern Romania is composed of pit complexes dating to the Early and Middle Neolithic Period (Starčevo-Criş, Dudeşti and Vădastra cultures, the 6th millennium BC).... more
The site of Măgura-Buduiasca on the left bank of the River Teleorman in southern Romania is composed of pit complexes dating to the Early and Middle Neolithic Period (Starčevo-Criş, Dudeşti and Vădastra cultures, the 6th millennium BC). An integrated archaeological and palaeo-environmental study was carried out. Local soils are Mollisols formed in middle-upper Pleistocene loess that is present over similarly dated freshwater marls. A detailed soil micromorphology investigation of twenty-six thin sections (including microprobe analysis) was carried out in order to attempt to understand these pit complexes in terms of their exact origins, function and abandonment history. The combined study found that pits were dug through the loess into the underlying marl, and that fire was employed as a landscape management tool. Human activities included the processing of monocotyledonous plants, including probable wetland plants, the ashed waste of which became part of the pit fills; burned daub, unburned daub, melted phytoliths, aggregates of possible burned dung origin, bone, coprolites and strongly burned soil, all became incorporated into the fills. Pits were re-excavated and back-filled, rather than simply becoming mixed by biological processes, which implies re-visiting and re-use of the pit-complexes. The exact original function and suggested re-use of these pit complexes (pit houses, quarry/storage pits) remains enigmatic, however.
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Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancientDNA... more
Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancientDNA (aDNA) research also indicates the incorporation of European wild boar into domestic stock during the Neolithization process. In order to establish the timing of the arrival of domestic pigs into Europe, and to test hypotheses regarding the role European wild boar played in the domestication process, we combined a geometric morphometric analysis (allowing us to combine tooth size and shape) of 449 Romanian ancient teeth with aDNA analysis. Our results firstly substantiate claims that the first domestic pigs in Romania possessed the same mtDNA signatures found in Neolithic pigs in west and central Anatolia. Second, we identified a significant proportion of individuals with large molars whose tooth shape matched that of archaeological (likely) domestic pigs. These large ‘domestic shape’ specimens were present from the outset of the Romanian Neolithic (6100–5500 cal BC) through to later prehistory, suggesting a long history of admixture between introduced domestic pigs and local wild boar. Finally, we confirmed a turnover in
mitochondrial lineages found in domestic pigs, possibly coincident with human migration into Anatolia and the Levant that occurred in later prehistory.
mitochondrial lineages found in domestic pigs, possibly coincident with human migration into Anatolia and the Levant that occurred in later prehistory.
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History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, Art, and 3 moreArchitecture, Prehistory, and Anthropological
This chapter discusses the diverse approaches to fired clay figurines from the Neolithic of southeastern Europe (6500–3500 bp) and suggests that although significant progress has been made in recent work, there remain significant... more
This chapter discusses the diverse approaches to fired clay figurines from the Neolithic of southeastern Europe (6500–3500 bp) and suggests that although significant progress has been made in recent work, there remain significant limitations to our understanding of how these objects were used and what they meant to people in the Neolithic. Critical discussion focuses on the most significant (even if misguided) approaches: archaeomythology, cult, and religion; fragmentation and breakage; corporeality and materiality; communication; identity, status, and social structure; and formal description and comparison. The chapter concludes with a radical proposal: an art/archaeology approach that disarticulates the figurines from their original prehistoric contexts, uses, and meanings, and exploits them to make new evocative work.
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A montage chapter that uses the juxtapositioning of image and text to provoke thought about the ways that we perceive time and temporal world views.
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, Visual Anthropology, Visual Culture, and 11 morePrehistory, Archaeological Method and Theory, Chronology, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), Biblical History, Human Perception, Bayesian chronological modelling, Perception of animals, Varves (archaeology), Archaeological Seriation, and Archaeological Chronology
This chapter presents a detailed description of Gordon Matta-Clark’s 1975 art work Conical Intersect, its interpretation in art history, and the position that it occupies in Matta-Clark’s oeuvre and in late twentieth-century Paris (esp.... more
This chapter presents a detailed description of Gordon Matta-Clark’s 1975 art work Conical Intersect, its interpretation in art history, and the position that it occupies in Matta-Clark’s oeuvre and in late twentieth-century Paris (esp. the destruction of Les Halles and the building of the Centre Pompidou). Discussion examines Matta-Clark’s architectural cutting art in terms of action and performance, and the spectation of the cut. The chapter concludes with an extended discussion of the relevance that Conical Intersect has for the reader’s understanding of the pit-houses at Măgura and other sites like it in terms of cutting as destroying, as participation, as knowing (and opening), as part of the visual field, and as an object within a political context.
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History, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Visual Studies, Art History, and 15 moreArt, Art Theory, Material culture of religion, Visual Culture, Archaeology of Religion, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Visual and Cultural Studies, Material Culture, Archaeological Method and Theory, Theory of Art, Archaeology and Art History, Sculpture and touch, Anthropology of Religion, and Routledge
This chapter presents the work of cultural anthropologist Tim Ingold (on grounded and ungrounded being) and of linguistic anthropologist Stephen Levinson (on spatial frames of reference). Both authors provide the reader with new ways to... more
This chapter presents the work of cultural anthropologist Tim Ingold (on grounded and ungrounded being) and of linguistic anthropologist Stephen Levinson (on spatial frames of reference). Both authors provide the reader with new ways to think about the object being cut at Măgura: the ground. Discussion of Ingold’s work examines his thinking on the shift from a groundless existence in modernity (imposed by shoes, roads, cars, etc., which separate us form the ground), and comment on Levinson’s investigation of the distinction among three ways that people understand where they are in the world (relative, intrinsic, and absolute frames of spatial referencing). The chapter concludes with a proposal that the reader will benefit from thinking about the Măgura pit-houses in terms of an absolute grounded existence.
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In the last decade new archaeological and geomorphological research in the lower Danube catchment (LDC) has transformed our understanding of prehistoric river-society interactions, particularly with respect to the environmental context in... more
In the last decade new archaeological and geomorphological research in the lower Danube catchment (LDC) has transformed our understanding of prehistoric river-society interactions, particularly with respect to the environmental context in which farming first developed in Southeast Europe at around 6100 cal. BC. This paper critically reviews these recent developments and using a new Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluvial chronology from the Teleorman Valley (TV), southern Romania, examines the interplay between river dynamics and the Neolithic archaeological record.
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Recent work by artists and archaeologists has explored the potential for collaboration between the two disciplines. While much aesthetically pleasing and intellectually stimulating work has emerged, most output remains limited in its... more
Recent work by artists and archaeologists has explored the potential for collaboration between the two disciplines. While much aesthetically pleasing and intellectually stimulating work has emerged, most output remains limited in its extramural impact. This short note argues for a more robust practice though an art/archaeology, a practice that goes beyond the limits of the archaeological study of prehistoric, ancient or historic art, but engages modern and contemporary political and social action. At the core of an art/archaeology are three successive processes: disarticulation, repurposing, and disruption. The article works through the example of an anthropomorphic figurine and a ceramic vessel, and it concludes with a call for a more-applied output.
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Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Art, and 12 moreVisual Culture, Contemporary Archaeology, Archaeological Theory, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Visual Arts, Material Culture, History of Art and archaeology, Activist Archaeology, Archaeology and Art History, Political Archaeology, Art Archaeology, and Virgil Ortiz
This paper focuses on the 5th-millennium BC shift from short-term habitations to permanent tell settlements in southern Romania: from the Criş, Dudeşti and Boian to the Gumelniţa Cultures. Archaeological and geomorphologic data suggest... more
This paper focuses on the 5th-millennium BC shift from short-term habitations to permanent tell settlements in southern Romania: from the Criş, Dudeşti and Boian to the Gumelniţa Cultures. Archaeological and geomorphologic data suggest that changes in river stability conditioned shifts in settlement and economies.
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... 217 concerned with connecting types of tools such as spears to hunting and men nor grinding stones and grain processing to women. ... In Vigdis Brach-Due, Ingrid Rudie, and Tone Bleie (eds), Carved Flesh/Cast Selves: Gendered Symbols... more
... 217 concerned with connecting types of tools such as spears to hunting and men nor grinding stones and grain processing to women. ... In Vigdis Brach-Due, Ingrid Rudie, and Tone Bleie (eds), Carved Flesh/Cast Selves: Gendered Symbols and Social Practices:257-278. ...
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ABSTRACT
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As archaeologists we have become very good at studying Neolithic houses. We have perfected the application and extrapolation of geophysical methods to the point where we can locate Neolithic buildings beneath the soil and accurately... more
As archaeologists we have become very good at studying Neolithic houses. We have perfected the application and extrapolation of geophysical methods to the point where we can locate Neolithic buildings beneath the soil and accurately predict their sizes and depths. We can uncover these structures with precise excavation, pick them apart, peeling back extra-ordinarily thin layers and fragmentary traces of activities, rubbish, debris and fragments of floors, ceilings, ovens and hearths. We can produce excavation records and floor-plans to millimetric precision and we can reconstruct highly intricate and often truncated patterns of long extinct human behaviour. We can rebuild structures on paper (and at full size on land) and manipulate complex stratigraphic matrices, inventories of artifacts and refuse, positions of grinding stones, storage bins, and looms in order to produce authoritative reconstructions of household living in 8000 year old houses. As material scientists we can recreate the recipes with which house walls and roofs were made; we can determine the relative proportions of each constituent element of plaster or paint. We can identify the season in which the grass, clay and mud daub was mixed. We can reveal the method by which a particular tree was split and from what distance the wood had to be transported before it was placed in the foundation trench that had been dug for it. We can reconstruct the processes and order in which these foundation trenches and post-holes were dug, infilled, redug, shored up and covered over through series of repairs and reconstructions. We can identify and count sequences of wall and floor replasterings and create genealogies for buildings long dead. We can measure soils, sediments and patterns of artifact fragmentation and erosion in order to reconstruct alterations in building usage from human to animal and back to human. We can track subtle sequences of construction, extension and abandonment of buildings and building complexes. As forensic experts we can recreate the sequences, causes and consequences of house destruction and decay. We are very good at using the evidence of Neolithic architecture, floorplans, investments of labour, patterns of construction, reconstruction, destruction and neglect as proxies for social structures, hierarchies, conflicts and intra-community political dynamics. We speak with confidence of unequal access to private space as well as of the social value of shared, communal, open space. We recreate household units and their ceremonies of membership, incorporation and exclusion. We use floor-plans and intra-mural spatial organization in order to extrapolate entire structures of community relations and metaphors for living. We are terribly confident about our progress in improving archaeological techniques and experience, our strategies of fieldwork, our interpretive inspiration and philosophic complexity. But is this enough? Are these the right sorts of tools and methods? Are these the right kinds of knowledge we should be eager to accumulate? Does any of it really get at the meaning of Neolithic buildings?
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Geography, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Gender Studies, Art History, and 12 moreArt, Material Culture Studies, Visual Culture, Anthropology of the Body, Gender and Sexuality, Anthropology Of Art, Archaeology of Religion, Neolithic Archaeology, Prehistoric Art, Prehistory, Terracotta Figurines, and Anthropomorphic Figurines
ABSTRACT
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Anthropology, Art History, Art, and 15 moreSocial and Cultural Anthropology, Metaphysics of Time, Romanian Studies, Neolithic Archaeology, Philosophy of Time, Alternative Media, Archaeological Theory, Montage, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Cultural Anthropology, Romania, Archaeological Method and Theory, History of Art and archaeology, Real Time, and Archaeology and Art History
Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancient DNA... more
Current evidence suggests that pigs were first domesticated in Eastern Anatolia during the ninth millennium cal BC before dispersing into Europe with Early Neolithic farmers from the beginning of the seventh millennium. Recent ancient DNA (aDNA) research also indicates the incorporation of European wild boar into domestic stock during the Neolithization process. In order to establish the timing of the arrival of domestic pigs into Europe, and to test hypotheses regarding the role European wild boar played in the domestication process, we combined a geometric morphometric analysis (allowing us to combine tooth size and shape) of 449 Romanian ancient teeth with aDNA analysis. Our results firstly substantiate claims that the first domestic pigs in Romania possessed the same mtDNA signatures found in Neolithic pigs in west and central Anatolia. Second, we identified a significant proportion of individuals with large molars whose tooth shape matched that of archaeological (likely) domest...
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Ancient History, Archaeology, Morphometrics, Biology, Neolithic Archaeology, and 15 moreMedicine, Neolithic, Animal domestication, Biological Sciences, DNA, Archaelogy, Humans, aDNA Analysis, Fossils, Animals, Ancient DNA, Domestication, Biological evolution, Neolithization, and Medical and Health Sciences
... goddesses and functioned in rituals intended to secure fertility (Gimbutas 1974; 1982; 1989). ... facts Gimbutas' suggestions of fertility cults and manifestations of the Great Mother archetype remain ... life in preagricultural... more
... goddesses and functioned in rituals intended to secure fertility (Gimbutas 1974; 1982; 1989). ... facts Gimbutas' suggestions of fertility cults and manifestations of the Great Mother archetype remain ... life in preagricultural Europe was not bound to a continuous search for sustenance ...
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Religion, History, Archaeology, Art, Material Culture Studies, and 15 moreVisual Culture, Anthropology of the Body, Anthropology Of Art, Archaeology of Religion, Ethnology, Neolithic Archaeology, Sculpture, Prehistoric Art, Representation, Terracotta Figurines, Social Structure, Society, Anthropomorphic Figurines, South Eastern Europe, and Chalcolithic
Chronotypes are the models through which time takes on practical or conceptual significance. This paper explores the tensions between two different chronotypes in the prehistoric archaeology of Bulgaria, one essentially linear and the... more
Chronotypes are the models through which time takes on practical or conceptual significance. This paper explores the tensions between two different chronotypes in the prehistoric archaeology of Bulgaria, one essentially linear and the other cyclical. Their development is traced in relation to the pattern of settlement, the subsistence economy, social organization, the treatment of the dead and development of calenders
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The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and... more
The domestication of cattle, sheep and goats had already taken place in the Near East by the eighth millennium bc. Although there would have been considerable economic and nutritional gains from using these animals for their milk and other products from living animals-that is, traction and wool-the first clear evidence for these appears much later, from the late fifth and fourth millennia bc. Hence, the timing and region in which milking was first practised remain unknown. Organic residues preserved in archaeological pottery have provided direct evidence for the use of milk in the fourth millennium in Britain, and in the sixth millennium in eastern Europe, based on the delta(13)C values of the major fatty acids of milk fat. Here we apply this approach to more than 2,200 pottery vessels from sites in the Near East and southeastern Europe dating from the fifth to the seventh millennia bc. We show that milk was in use by the seventh millennium; this is the earliest direct evidence to d...
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AJ HOWARD,1* MG MACKLIN,2 DW BAILEY,3 S. MILLS3 and R. ANDREESCU4 1 School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, England 2 Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of... more
AJ HOWARD,1* MG MACKLIN,2 DW BAILEY,3 S. MILLS3 and R. ANDREESCU4 1 School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, The University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, England 2 Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Wales ...
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology, Geomorphology, Climate Change, and 14 moreLandscape Archaeology, Phenomenology, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy, Megalithic Monuments, Heritage interpretation, Belief Systems, Quaternary Science, Radiocarbon Dating, Late Glacial, Human Activity, The Uses of Archaeology, History of Archaeological Theory, and Alluvial fan
Introduction In 1995, the Podgoritsa Archaeological Project carried out excavation, geophysical, palaeoenvironmental, and GIS research at the Eneolithic (5th millennium BC) settlement tell at Podgoritsa, NE Bulgaria (FIGS. 1, 2). The aims... more
Introduction In 1995, the Podgoritsa Archaeological Project carried out excavation, geophysical, palaeoenvironmental, and GIS research at the Eneolithic (5th millennium BC) settlement tell at Podgoritsa, NE Bulgaria (FIGS. 1, 2). The aims of the research were four-fold: 1) to ...
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology, Hydrography, Hydraulics, and 15 moreLandscape Archaeology, Phenomenology, Agriculture, Neolithic Archaeology, Archaeoastronomy, Archaeology of Architecture, Megalithic Monuments, Heritage interpretation, Field Archaeology, Belief Systems, Settlement, Habitat, Chalcolithic, Field, and History of Archaeological Theory
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This paper documents the alluvial development of the Teleorman river system, a major north bank tributary of the lower Danube in southern Romania. The temporal and spatial complexity of the archaeological data in the Teleorman valley can... more
This paper documents the alluvial development of the Teleorman river system, a major north bank tributary of the lower Danube in southern Romania. The temporal and spatial complexity of the archaeological data in the Teleorman valley can only be fully understood when set within a historical framework of geomorphic process, particularly alluvial erosion and sedimentation.
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This book is the first monograph-length attempt at a new way to engage the past: art/archaeology. Taking as its focus the excavation and interpretation of pit-houses in Neolithic Europe, the book critiques current thinking on these early... more
This book is the first monograph-length attempt at a new way to engage the past: art/archaeology. Taking as its focus the excavation and interpretation of pit-houses in Neolithic Europe, the book critiques current thinking on these early architectural constructions and then provides an original and provocative exploration of the critical element that previous work has neglected: the actions and consequences of digging as defined as breaking the surface of the ground. The work of the book is performed by juxtaposing richly detailed discussions of archaeological sites (Etton and The Wilsford Shaft in the UK, and Măgura in Romania) with the work of three artists-who-cut (Ron Athey, Gordon Matta-Clark, Lucio Fontana), with deep and detailed examinations of the philosophy of holes, the perceptual psychology of shapes, and the linguistic anthropology of cutting and breaking words, as well as with the diversity of frames of spatial reference used by different communities and an understandi...
This project sees archaeology and art as a political tool for disrupting conventional, politically loaded narratives of the past. Rather than producing institutionally safe narratives conventionally certified as truth, archaeologists... more
This project sees archaeology and art as a political tool for disrupting conventional, politically loaded narratives of the past. Rather than producing institutionally safe narratives conventionally certified as truth, archaeologists should follow the lead of artists who use the past as a source of materials to be reconfigured in new ways to help people see in new ways. Using as an example the works of the Canadian artist Ken Monkman, who subverts nineteenth- century landscape painting to reinsert the missing critiques of Anglo-American colonialism, dominance of nature, and heteronormativity, this paper advocates disarticulating materials from the past by severing them from their context, repurposing them to bring contemporary concerns to the fore and creating new, disruptive visions from them. The article proposes the practice of an art/archaeology.
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Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Art History, Visual Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, and 14 moreVisual Culture, Indigenous Politics, Indigenous Peoples Rights, Archaeological Theory, Archaeology of the Contemporary Past, Figurines, Prehistoric Figurines, Terracotta Figurines, Anthropomorphic Figurines, History of Art and archaeology, Political Archaeology, Female Figurines, Kent Monkman, and Art Archaeology
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For many years archaeologists have struggled with the problem of addressing prehistoric worlds that may have been experienced and understood in ways that are remote from those of the modern west, and yet are only accessible to us through... more
For many years archaeologists have struggled with the problem of addressing prehistoric worlds that may have been experienced and understood in ways that are remote from those of the modern west, and yet are only accessible to us through their material traces. The observations of social anthropologists have provided a perennial source of insights that help to challenge our contemporary prejudices and expectations, but the danger of imposing an ‘ethnographic present’ on the past is ever-present. Many prehistorians presently engage with various forms of philosophical thought as a way of looking at their evidence in fresh and counter-intuitive ways, but in this book Doug Bailey adopts a different and novel strategy. Bailey presents Breaking the Surface as a work of ‘art/archaeology’, a practice that emerges from the encounter between two disciplines, in which archaeological materials are removed from their normal context and deployed in artistic ways to create unfamiliar perspectives. However, in practice the book works in the opposite direction, drawing on the work of artists, psychologists and linguistic anthropologists in order to shed new light on a supremely archaeological phenomenon: holes in the ground.