ANT 1425 FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE

Gigantopithecus

A gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape that existed from two million years to as recently as one hundred thousand years ago. This is a Miocene Ape that live **10 million years ago and is the largest primate to have existed to our knowledge. Being at least 10 feet tall, these apes were mainly situated in Asia and at a tooth fibrous diet (most likely bamboo). Most of what were know about the ape is from their teeth.

Oxford 4

A group of four archaeologists from Oxford that participated in British Intelligence. CLASS NOTES: These three people formed the basis of British Intelligence in the Middle East during WW1 and they all worked primarily in Egypt. T.E Lawrence: He was a British spy that inspired the movie, "Lawrence of Arabia". Lawrence is more renowned today for being a spy than for being an archaeologist. The maps of Palestine that he made for his dissertation was actually declared classified by the British Government. Wolley: His was one of the Oxford four. His excavations were funded by the British Intelligence but masked by the British Museum. Gertrude Bell: After WW1, she found the antiquities department in Iraq.

Looting

A key factor in whether terrorist and insurgent groups can sustain and survive is whether they can develop internal sources of funding (Keatinge, 2014). While large, immovable items may be destroyed by the Islamic State for their propaganda value, the sale of small, movable antiquities can be used to finance the costs of running the organization. Looting is estimated to be the Islamic State's second largest revenue source after oil sales. Operating in one of the richest archaeological regions in the world, IS has transformed the looting of archaeological sites into a business model. It is estimated that they made about $200 million in 2018 from illegal antiquities selling BAGHDAD'S IRAQ MUSEUM: All the looting at Baghdad's Iraq Museum had taken place by the time U.S. troops—engaged in toppling Saddam Hussein—arrived to protect it, on April 16, 2003. Between April 8, when the museum was vacated, and April 12, when the first of the staff returned, clubs in hand, thieves had plundered an estimated 15,000 items, many of them choice antiquities: ritual vessels, heads from sculptures, amulets, Assyrian ivories and more than 5,000 cylinder seals. Over the next few weeks, stolen goods began to trickle back, including a 6000 B.C. pot wrapped in a 21st-century garbage bag and the Sacred Vase of Warka (c. 3200 B.C.), in the trunk of a car. Objects were unearthed from backyards, fished out of a cesspool, recovered in pre-dawn raids. Some simply reappeared on museum shelves. Other treasures were seized from international antiquities markets in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and New York. A scholar returning from the war zone was collared at John F. Kennedy International Airport and convicted of smuggling three 4,000-year-old cylinder seals from the museum's collection. George estimates that about half of the 15,000 looted treasures have either been returned or secured in other countries until they can be safely repatriated. CLASS NOTES: After the USA entered Baghdad, the museum was left unguarded for 36 hours. 15,000 artifacts were stolen however 7,000 artifacts were returned (The museum had a don't ask don't tell policy). EXAMPLES: Looting: Iraq -Aerial photo located at a site in Iraq. The red circles are areas that have been looted. A lot of people are looking for full vessel ceramics, metals, and textiles. Looting: Maya -LIDAR imagery: upon realization that this site existed, the area had already been looted. The red arrows indicate the caves that people have looted. Looting: South America -Has been looted since the time of European conquest -The Spanish realized that the easiest way to obtain Gold was to go to the Huacas and dig for Gold and Silver

Palmyra

An oasis in the Syrian desert, north-east of Damascus, Palmyra contains the monumental ruins of a great city that was one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world. From the 1st to the 2nd century, the art and architecture of Palmyra, standing at the crossroads of several civilizations, married Graeco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences. Following the capture of Palmyra in Syria, ISIS was reported as not intending to demolish the city's World Heritage Site (while still intending to destroy any statues deemed 'polytheistic'). On 27 May 2015, ISIS released an 87-second video showing parts of the apparently undamaged ancient colonnades, the Temple of Bel and the Roman theatre. On 27 June 2015, however, ISIS demolished the ancient Lion of Al-lāt statue in Palmyra. Several other statues from Palmyra reportedly confiscated from a smuggler were also destroyed by ISIS.On 23 August 2015, it was reported that ISIS had blown up the 1st-century Temple of Baalshamin. On 30 August 2015, ISIS demolished the Temple of Bel with explosives. Satellite imagery of the site taken shortly after showed almost nothing remained. According to the report issued on September 3, 2015 by ASOR Syrian Heritage initiative, ISIS also destroyed seven ancient tower tombs in Palmyra since the end of June over two phases. The last phase of destruction occurred between August 27 and September 2, 2015, including the destruction of the 2nd-century AD Tower of Elahbel, called "the most prominent example of Palmyra's distinct funerary monuments".Earlier, the ancient tombs of Iamliku and Atenaten were also destroyed.The Monumental Arch was also blown up in October. When Palmyra was recaptured by Syrian government forces in March 2016, retreating ISIS fighters blew up parts of the 13th-century Palmyra Castle, causing extensive damage.ISIS has also looted and demolished the Parthian/Roman city of Dura-Europos in east of Syria.Nicknamed "the Pompeii of the desert", the city was of particular archaeological significance. It was reported on 1 January 2019 that Syrian authorities recovered two Roman-era funerary busts smuggled from Palmyra from an abandoned ISIS site in the Al-Sukhnah countryside. CLASS NOTES: This city was captured by ISIS and subsequently destroyed. The demonstration of the destruction of idols showcased their power and also displayed that iconoclasm wasn't just limited to religious ideology. Upon the demolition of the site, about 20-30% of archaeological sites were destroyed, with only the arches remaining. The head of antiquities in Palmyra was captured and executed when he refused to tell them where an important statue was located. There was also destruction at a museum, where statues were smashed. They are essentially being glued back together now. The goal was that by 2019, they were going to rebuild Palmyra. To showcase unity and recovery, a 3D print of the famous arch has been placed around the world. A picture that we observed in class was taken in London.

Archaeologists as Spies

Archaeologists would be good spies because: -Good at spotting details -Provides a good excuse as to why they are in a country -Familiarity with the culture and the regional surroundings (geography), and the language -Know current political climate -They can mask spy tools with archaeology tools -As archaeologists, they can gain the trust of the community that they're working in -If you work in an area for a long time, you can gather connections -They have experience w/ writing reports -They know how to "rough it" and bare the conditions of the environment EXAMPLE: John Lloyd Stephens was the US ambassador to most of Central America. He would spend most of his time checking in with various people and communicating with government officials, and then he would go off and do archaeological searching. He used his position as an excuse to do exploring. CLASS NOTES: The United States Agency of International Development (USAID) has been known to fund archaeological projects. They fund a lot of them in Guatemala in order to control smuggling. They have the idea that an increase in people in that area will decrease drug issues.

Adventure Films

Archaeology films are typically congruent with that of adventure films. Films with archaeological basis display a great sense of danger and expedition. Interestingly, these two genres can be synonymous. Example: -Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail) -National Treasure -Tomb Raider -Night at the Museum -Davinci Code -Stargate -The Mummy -Road to El Dorado -Atlantis -Desert Queen -Lawrence of Arabia

Biskipun, Poland

Biskipun is home to Hill Fort; an Iron Age Fort found by Polish archaeologists. The archaeological open air museum Biskupin is an archaeological site and a life-size model of an Iron Age fortified settlement in north-central (Wielkopolska) Poland.When first discovered it was thought to be early evidence of Slavic settlement but archaeologists later confirmed it belonged to the Biskupin group of the Lusatian culture. The excavation and the reconstruction of the prehistoric settlement has played an instrumental part in Polish historical consciousness. In 1933, Polish archaeologists discovered remains of a Bronze Age fort/settlement in Wielkopolska (Greater Poland), the discovery became famous overnight. The site was excavated from 1934 onwards by the team from Poznań University. The first report was published in 1936. Biskupin soon became famous, attracting numerous distinguished guests, including officials of the Piłsudski government, members of the military, and high churchmen such as the primate of Poland. The site soon became part of Polish national consciousness, the symbol of achievements of the Slavonic forebears in prehistoric times. It was called the "Polish Pompeii" or "Polish Herculaneum". The existence of a prehistoric fortress, 70 km from the German border, was used to show that the prehistoric "Poles" had held their own against foreign invaders and plunderers as early as the Iron Age. Biskupin came to feature in paintings and popular novels. When the Germans occupied parts of Poland in the autumn of 1939, Biskupin became part of the Warthegau, an area that German Nationalists claimed to have been "Germanic" since at least the Iron Age (. Biskupin was renamed "Urstädt". In 1940, excavations were resumed under the patronage of Heinrich Himmler by the SS-Ahnenerbe under the supervision of Hauptsturmführer Hans Schleiff, a classical archaeologist who was to excavate in Olympia, Greece as well. Schleiff published only two short popular accounts that describe how Germanic tribes overran the 'small Lusatian settlement'. The excavations were continued till 1942. When the Germans retreated, the site was flooded, which ironically led to the good preservation of the ancient timbers. Excavations were resumed by Polish archaeologists after the war and continued until 1974.

Santorini/Thera

Greek Island that used to be home of Minoan settlement. Huge volcanic eruption occurred on island approx. 1600 BCE, wiping out Minoan civilization. The site is very well preserved and is said to have served as an inspiration for Plato's Atlantis.

Ancient Aliens

Carl Sagan was one of the first people to talk about/introduce the idea of Ancient Aliens. He published an article asserting the notion that aliens might've had a hand in the creation of our civilizations. A number of respected researchers in the Soviet Union had proposed much the same thing in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1959, Russian mathematician Matest Agrest maintained that certain biblical passages-especially those n the Old Testament regarding the Nephilim "falling" from the sky - might represent eyewitness accounts of aliens landing on Earth, filtered through the interpretation fo a technologically primitive people. Agrest further proposed that the biblical account of the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah might actually describe a nuclear attack in antiquity. Von Daniken and Giorgio Tsoukalos are more popular and widely known proponents of the idea. Von Daniken wrote the Chariot of the Gods and Giogio Tsoukalos is the host of Ancient Aliens. Science Fiction was one of the first sources to propose the idea of alien invasions -War of The Worlds by H.G Wells -Introduced the idea that aliens could've come to Earth Call of Cthulhu ( H.P Lovecraft 1926) -He was inspired by archaeologists during the time when they were discovering tut utcomons tomb -He was also reading things about the Maya and the discovery of their sites -Some of the main characters in this book are archaeologists/anthropologists who interact with aliens -Proposed that the Gods of the ruined city were aliens who came down to Earth in his book ( this was a topic in the Ancient Aliens episode that we watched) Scientology -L Ron Hubbard based the ideas of scientology from science fiction books INKBLOT HYPOTHESIS: The first implicit claim in the ancient astronauts/ancient aliens hypothesis asserts the existence of prehistoric drawings or sculptures of aliens from outer space and early writings about their visits. The ancient aliens approach in regards to these drawings is analogous to that of an inkblot test. Without an understanding of the religious, artistic, or historical context of the drawings or images within the culture that produced them, von Daniken's or Tsoukalos/s descriptions of the images tell us more about what is going on in their mind's rather than what was going on in the mind's of ancient artists. For example, an image identified as an astronaut with a radio antenna might be more easily explained as a shaman or priest with an antler headdress or similar a mythical creature. Purveyors of the ancient aliens hypothesis see spacemen because they want to, not because they really are there.

Cryptozoology

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience that aims to prove the existence of entities from the folklore record, such as Bigfoot or chupacabras, as well as undetected animals otherwise considered extinct, such as dinosaurs. It is defined as the search for and study of animals whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the Loch Ness monster and the yeti. CLASS NOTES: The study of animals is zoology Cryptozoology is the study of hidden animals (cryptids are things that are not recognized by the scientific community) Ex: unicorns, phoenixes, loch ness monster

Egyptomania

Egyptomania is the fascination with the culture of ancient Egypt. This ideology can be found in the Mummy trilogies. In these movies, a lot of theses movies center around Tutukomen's tomb. His tomb was discovered in the 1920s, where it was found that the tomb was relatively untouched. The discovery of this tomb really sparked a newfound obsession with Egypt in film. In fact, this popularity with mummies isn't new, for people used to crush up mummies for medicinal purposes. There also used to be mummy unwrapping ceremonies in public. In the 1920s/1930s, there was an Egyptian revival period where Egyptian architecture became popular. These mummy films draw on colonialism; a lot of the archaeologists are usually foreigners that come to Egypt during a period in which Egypt is not in control of their own country. These movies also draw on the idea of curses and adventures. Another depiction of Egyptomania can be found in the film 10 Commandements (1923). The movie was divided into 2 parts: the exodus of Egypt and the 10 commandments. The producers even built a massive set in a desert in California to resemble Egypt - in total they had 500 tons of statues.

Externsteine

Externsteine, is a series of pillar-like rock formations that jut up from the surrounding Teutoburg forest. Externsteine is also reputed to be an ancient and sacred palaeolithic worshiping ground, an astronomical calendar, and the location of a sacred pagan pillar known as an "Irminsul." Externsteine is a current mecca for Neo-pagans, Neo-Nazis and neo-pagan-Nazis. Little is known about the early history of Externsteine, and its precise origin and significance has baffled generations of scholars. It is relatively clear, at least, that it was an important shrine for Germanic paganism. One large room is believed to have been used to initiate priests in the cult. Some maintain, however, that the site was used for sacred purposes beginning in the 12th century, and was intended as a re-creation fo the Holy Land inspired by Crusader's tales.In 782 AD, Emperor Charlemagne prohibited the practice of paganism in his lands. Shortly thereafter, hermit monks settled into caves in the base of the rocks at Externsteine, probably to Christianize the site and drive out its evil powers. The monks carved staircases and beautiful reliefs in the walls, and used a spectacular roofless chapel atop a high pillar for prayer.After the Middle Ages, Externsteine passed to the local counts and served successively as a fortress, a pleasure palace and a prison, undergoing many alterations in the process. It was restored to its original form early in the 19th century. The lack of evidence as to the ancient importance of the Externsteine rocks didn't stop Heinrich Himmler from declaring otherwise. Himmler was the head of the Nazi's occult division "Ahnenerbe," a Nazi think tank that promoted itself as a "study society for Intellectual Ancient History." In reality, it was a pseudo-scientific organization devoted to finding, or fabricating, a glorious Germanic past. One of the sites the society identified as an important location of ancient Teutonic activity was Externsteine and the "Externsteine Foundation" was set up to "investigate." The carvings of the monks were incorporated by Nazi pseudo-historian Himmler, with one in particular said to depict Christianity crushing a Teutonic pagan God-pillar known as an "Irminsul." So far invested into this pseudo-history was Nazi Germany that according to author Gary R. Varner, the Nazi Youth gathered at Externsteine to sing pagan hymns during the solstice and on Hitler's birthday. CLASS NOTES: Extersteine is a sandstone rock formation in Germany. The Nazis proposed that it was a sacred site to the Saxtons, thu making it national propaganda because it showed German history. There was a monastery built as the foot of the rock. Today, it is now visited by contemporary Neo-Nazis and it's also a commonplace for Neo-Drewidic people.

Archaeology and Film

Film has portrayed archaeology in a rather adventurous and heroic light. Films of this topic like to showcase a typically white male lead and a pretty female damsel in distress. These movies like to embark on a journey of discovery and exploration, hoping to break a curse or find buried treasure. Examples of archaeology in film can be found in none other than Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones was influenced by various archaeologists at the time. Now, we see archaeologists influenced by Indiana Jones movies. The films themselves have cultivated a culture. Recently, at National Geographic's exhibition space, they hosted an exhibit about Indiana Jones and the archaeologist who influenced the character. EXAMPLES OF ARCHAEOLOGY AND FILM: -Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail) -National Treasure -Tomb Raider -Night at the Museum -Davinci Code -Stargate -The Mummy -Road to El Dorado -Atlantis -Desert Queen -Lawrence of Arabia All of these examples are very particular to specific objects and the main protagonists is always an expert in everything.

10 Commandments Excavation

Hidden for more than 90 years beneath the rolling sand dunes of Guadalupe, California, an enormous, plaster sphinx from the 1923 blockbuster movie "The Ten Commandments" has been rediscovered and is now above ground. "[The 1923 film] was one of the largest movie sets ever made, because they didn't have special effects," Jenzen told Live Science. "So anything that they wanted to look large, they had to build large." The facade to Pharaoh's City stood an estimated 12 stories tall and about 720 feet (219 meters) across. "It's giant," Jenzen said. Legend has it that after filming ended, the movie crew dynamited the set and buried the sphinxes in a trench, but Jenzen has found little evidence of such a dramatic end. Instead, the wind, rain and sand likely collapsed and buried a large part of the set under the ever-shifting dunes. The sphinxes are in roughly the same place they were during filming, he said. The first excavation took place in the 1990s, when the Dunes Center, then a part of the Nature Conservancy, had archaeologists comb through the abandoned movie site. They found dozens of small artifacts, including tobacco tins and cough syrup bottles — likely holding a substitute for alcohol during the Prohibition Era, which lasted from 1920 to 1933, Jenzen said. In 2012, the Dunes Center invited an archaeology group to survey the set again. This time, the archaeologists found the head of a sphinx about "the size of a pool table" buried in the dunes, Jenzen said. The archaeologists excavated the fragile plaster of Paris head, now on display at the Dunes Center, but they didn't have time to exhume its body. Now, two years later, Applied EarthWorks returnedwith the goal of finishing the project. "The site is basically being destroyed through erosion," Hamilton said. "It's become more critical to try to salvage some materials before they disappear."

Iconoclasm

Iconoclasm is defined as is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. Essentially, this is the destruction of things that violate your own beliefs. The word literally translates to "image-breaking". Iconoclasm is done by terrorist organizations to sensationalize their behavior through the destruction of religiously/historically important items. The destruction of monuments invokes a certain type of power (especially in conjunction with the public display/spread of the demolitions). Iconoclasm is an old ideal that has carried into modern times and is actively used by terrorist organizations. Deliberate destruction and theft of cultural heritage has been conducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant since 2014 in Iraq, Syria, and to a lesser extent in Libya. The destruction targets various places of worship under ISIL control and ancient historical artifacts.

Cardiff Giant

In 1869, a farmer named Stub Newell hired some men to dig a well behind the barn on his farm in Cardiff, New York, just south of Syracuse. While digging, the workers came across an enormously sized man (nearly 10ft) whose whole body appeared to have been turned to stone (petrified). Just days after his "discovery", Stub Newell forgot about farming, erected a tent over the giant petrified man, and began charging people fifty cents to view its remains. From all over New York State, the Northeast, and beyond, 300 to 500 people daily flocked to the Newell farm. The entire farm was transformed virtually overnight into a highly profitable tourist enterprise; the Cardiff Giant became a major fact in the economy of that city.Pilgrims streamed into town to pay homage to the Giant and, at the same time, to pay their dollars for the services such a tourist attraction demanded. The economic impact of the Giant on Syracuse cannot be underestimated and was enough to convince two syndicates of Syracuse businessmen and professional people to initiate a bidding war, each in an effort to make Stub an offer he couldn't refuse. The group successfully paid Newell $37,000 for a 3/4 interest in the Giant. By purchasing a controlling share in the Giant, these businessmen were ensuring that it would stay near Syracuse, where it could continue to boost the local economy. Unfortunately, slowly but surely, rumors began to surface that Giant was a fake. A local resident, Daniel Luce, provided a detailed report, recounted an extremely large wagon, carrying a sizable and heavy load, that he remembered traveling toward Cardiff the previous year. A well known sculptor, Eratus Dow Palmer, had examined the Giant, identifying the existence of tool marks on the alleged petrified man (indicating that it was nothing more than a sculpture). In December 1869, George Hull, a distant relative to Stub Newell, told the truth and denoted the man as just a slightly worn chunk of gypsum. He had the statue made after getting in a heated argument with a Methodist priest regarding the ancient race of giant men (which Hull did not believe to be true). In conjunction with Newell, they buried the newly built man and unearthed him after one year to avoid suspicion; they were motivated by money and fame. Today, the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, New York, displays the Cardiff Giant in its welcome center. The banner behind him replicates an actual sign that accompanied the Giant on his regular sojourns to local fairs. CLASS NOTES: discovered in Cardiff NY, the nearly 10ft tall human who is said to have been petrified or turned to stone. Syracuse paid for a share of the giant ((¾ interest in the giant and had it sent to Syracuse to show off). Unfortunately, it turns out this this was a fake. The farmer, Newell, paid for someone to sculpt it and then pretended to find it while plowing. The sculpture was delivered to their farm a year prior to its "discovery". Scientists thought it was a fraud upon seeing it because the stone was carved out of a sedimentary rock. When a person is petrified, the stone is made out of silica, so it would never have a sedimentary rock in it.

Don Miller

In April 2014, the FBI — complete with a command vehicle, tents, ATVs and squad cars — surrounded the home of a popular community member on his Rush County farm. TV helicopters flew above the scene, which was about 35 miles southeast of Indianapolis. Don Miller, who was 91 at the time, had stored on his property thousands of cultural artifacts — a collection that stunned even scholars — from Native Americans and countries around the world. So the FBI's Art Crime Team, which deals with cultural property crime, was deployed to rural Indiana. The FBI repatriated 361 Chinese cultural artifacts to China on Thursday at the Eiteljorg Museum. It was the biggest return of items of this type from the U.S. to China, according to the FBI. Don Miller died at age 91 in March 2015, nearly a year after the FBI came to his home. He did not face charges in connection with his collection at the time of his death. Since then, the FBI has not made any charges or arrests in connection with his collection, according to Tim Carpenter, the FBI's Art Crime Team Supervisory Special Agent. ndyStar archives note China, Russia and New Guinea as places where the artifacts were from. The size of Miller's holdings stunned those working on the project. The FBI took more than 7,000 of the artifacts that it found to violate state, federal and international treaties. "I have never seen a collection like this in my life except in some of the largest museums," Larry Zimmerman, a professor of anthropology and museum studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, told IndyStar when the story broke in 2014. Miller was happy to show his artifacts to those who were interested, and he welcomed visitors by playing a 1927 Wurlitzer pipe organ. He agreed to interviews for a series of stories by Elizabeth Dykes, who in the 2000s was a reporter for the Rushville Republican. Dykes said she saw a Nazi helmet and shrunken head as part of his collection. Other visitor accounts included seeing Ming Dynasty jade and a 60-foot anaconda skin. In the summer of 2014, Miller loaned arrowheads, pottery and tools to the Shelby County Historical Society's Grover Museum. The exhibit had been in the works before the FBI investigation, according to an Associated Press story at the time. CLASS NOTES: Don Miller was 91 when the FBI showed up to raid his home in 2014. Miller had a huge collection of artifacts from around the world, a majority of which had been illegally obtained. The FBI seized 5,000 artifacts from him and he also possessed 2,000 bones from Native American burial sites.

Bigfoot

In North American folklore, Bigfoot or Sasquatch are said to be hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness and leave footprints. Depictions often portray them as a missing link between humans and human ancestors or other great apes. They are strongly associated with the Pacific Northwest (particularly Oregon, Washington and British Columbia), and individuals claim to see the creatures across North America. Over the years, these creatures have inspired numerous commercial ventures and hoaxes. A majority of mainstream scientists have historically discounted the existence of Bigfoot, considering it to be a combination of folklore, misidentification, and hoax, rather than living animals. Western NC is a hotbed for Bigfoot sightings and even has generated a culture of Bigfoot enthusiast. CLASS NOTES: Many pseudoarchaeologists and bigfoot enthusiasts utilize footprints as evidence of bigfoot. People have even sold bigfoot "hair". People have even stated that dark spots on rocks are the blood of bigfoot. An elderly bigfoot hunter submitted hair that he believed to be from bigfoot to the FBI. The FBI recently tested it and stated that it was not from bigfoot. In class, we discussed Painted Rock, which was used to prove the existence of Bigfoot. Rock art is a common form of art in the past (literally painting or carving into a rock). The site is named after rocks that have been painted on. The rock has a painting of a big beast. Enthusiast use it as evidence of indigenous contact/sightings of Bigfoot. They claim that it is a family of Bigfeet. Indigenous populations from that area say that the figures are just people crying and it's about a creation story (not Bigfoot). This is kinda like Pacal's sarcophagus lid. Just because it looks like something, does not mean that it is that thing (Inkblot hypothesis)

LiDAR

LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, is an active remote sensing system that can be used to measure vegetation height across wide areas. LiDAR is a surveying method (employed to look for archaeological sites) that measures distance to a target by illuminating the target with a laser light and measuring the reflected light with a sensor. CLASS NOTES: Airplanes with lasers will fly over areas of suspected archaelogical importance. The lasers will help them see through the canopy and measure the ground surface ; it gives point cloud that can show structures. The LiDAR will take out trees/vegetation to show what is underneath. FINDING THE CIUDAD BLANCA: LiDAR flow over the vally and identified a large site. At the site, grinding stones for corn, vessels, and Earthen Mounds were found.

Nationalism

Nationalism, ideology based on the idea that the individual's loyalty and devotion to the nation-state surpass other individual or group interests. This is a strong feeling of pride and devotion to one's country; it shows a shared history. Over the years, archaeology has been used as a means to increase nationalism and promote (unfortunately) ideals based on superiority. Examples of Nationalism and Archaeology: -Bosnian Pyramids -Great Zimbabwe: The bird on the flag of Zimbabwe was modeled after a sculpture of a bird found in the Great Zimbabwe site - Teotihuacan: Pyramids from that area were printed on stamps and coins Popular Representations of Nationalism and Archaeology (in film) -Indiana Jones fighting Nazis -Indiana Jones defeating Russians during the cold war --These examples showcased and promoted an ideal of American superiority over our (then) enemies Archaeology can also be used as a means to prove legitimate rule over nations. An example of this can be found within the Soviet's rule over Prague. The Soviets placed a large Soviet statue in the middle of a busy city square in Prague. This was done in an attempt to legitimize their rule over Prague, especially when one takes into account how important and historical the square in Prague is. Archaeology can also establish and reinforce ties to one's identity. Unfortunately, certain groups have taken to promoting white nationalists ideals with this method. For example, there was are march generated by people who believe vikings to be there first settlers of America. This argument is laced with racism and white supremacy. In today's media, we see the solutrean hypothesis continue to be a notion perpetuated by white nationalist groups in an effort to tie their ancestry to just that of Europeans.

Nazi Archaeology

Nazi archaeology was the movement led by various Nazi leaders, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, archaeologists and other scholars to research the German past in order to strengthen nationalism. The search for a strongly nationalistic, Aryan-centric national prehistory began after Germany's loss in World War I in 1918. At this point, the country faced a severe economic crisis due in part to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Later on, Hitler was behind the Nazi Party's funding for German pre-historical research. The first influential academic engaging in such research is said to be Gustaf Kossinna. His ideas and theories were picked up by the Nazi organisations Amt Rosenberg and Ahnenerbe. Presenting Germany as the place where civilization began, the Nazis added pseudoarchaeology as part of its extensive propagandizing of the German people. Archaeological evidence under the auspices of the National Socialist regime was exaggerated, misrepresented and otherwise abused in various ways to support contemporary military and social agendas, ranging from invasion to genocide. The Nordic peoples were represented as simultaneously the most superior and the most vulnerable of the world's races, and in the absence of an understanding of the role of genetic mutation in human morphological variation, light-skinned, light-haired, light-eyed people were perceived as having necessarily had an evolutionary trajectory separate from the "ugly, dark peoples" of the rest of the world. To National Socialist ideologues the German people were a race at risk, in the throes of what Otto Ammon, a physical anthropologist known for his nineteenth-century craniometric studies, first referred to as an "Arierdammerung". Internally, the threat was presented as originating from assimilated Jews and other undesirable racial elements The task of archaeology was preeminently expedient: 'to preserve the treasures of German prehistory and lift them out of the shaft of the past to make that past relevant for our life today. In the Third Reich, race was intended to replace class as the primary organizing principle of society, with no place afforded for lesser races or those deemed biologically unfit. JUSTIFICATION OF CONQUEST: The Nazis believed that civilians to the East were hunters and gathers, and therefore, inferior to Germany; one's inferiority was used as justification of conquest. The excavation of Hill Fort, in Poland, is a prime example of Nazi lies and use of pseudoarchaeology as a means to propagate their supposed superiority. The Iron Age Hill Forts in Poland are a great source of pride in Poland, as it showcases what their ancestors once did (and they were excavated by Polish archaeologists). Unfortunately, the Nazis re-excavated the site during WW2 and attempted to claim that the Hill Forts were actually apart of their German identity, as Poland was once their land. The Germans used the fact that they conquered Poland once in the past as a means to assert their superiority. When the Germans were forced to retreat at the conclusion of WW2, they flooded the site (which actually aided in the site's preservation) and they destroyed the reconstruction of the site that the Polish did prior to WW2. CLASS NOTES: German unification was based upon three ideas: Sprachnation, Kulturnation, Erinnerungsgemeinschaft; meaning the unification of language, cultural unification( plays into cultural identity), and a shared since of history. The Nazi part used national identity as an excuse to colonize and conquer various places. They shared the belief that a national identity needs to first be created in order to expand their nationality/empire. Gustaf Kossinna looked at identity by drawing circles around things; he drew a circle around the past cultural identity of Germany and tried to correlate ethnicity and identity together. He assumed that the material records of ethnicity remains unchanging over time and he used the idea that German identity is spread around Europe, which was a notion adopted by the Nazis; Nazis said that these countries used to be German, and therefore should be apart of Germany. Comte de Gobineau said that some races are biologically inferior to others which is the basis of Nazi beliefs. He asserted the idea that Germanic features are superior to that of the Greek and Romans; stating that Greece and Rome were too close to Africa and therefore less superior. It was determined that the superior race was that of the Arian race; a notion perpetrated by Gobineau and adopted by the Nazis. The Nazis were using archaeology as a means to support their ideology. In terms of conquering Poland, their reasoning was: "We already conquered poland once, therefore we can conquer them again". The archaeology was used to say "look at what your ancestors did"; thus creating nationalism and identity. Ideology is related to Nazi identiy and how they think about themselves, which can be dereived from archaeology.

Ahnenerbe

Nazi group that looked for anthropological and cultural history of the Aryan race. Usually they exaggerated data to accomplish this. The Ahnenerbe, which translates as "ancestral heritage," was founded in 1935 by Heinrich Himmler, and Hermann Wirth (Dutch historian obsessed with Atlantis) and Richard Walter Darre. By 1940, Himmler had incorporated the Ahnenerbe into the Schutzstaffel (SS), an elite paramilitary organization founded by Hitler. Himmler, the head of the SS, was a voracious proponent of occult research, who saw himself as a reincarnation of medieval King Henry the Fowler. Some sources claim he developed the SS into an order of knights, a perverted form of the Knights of the Round Table, that used Wewelsburg castle in Westphalia as the new Camelot and the center of a new pagan religion. To give this new religion and Aryan ancestry credence, the Ahnenerbe became key in establishing a new interpretation of the past. The basis of their research stemmed from the theories of German occultists. The most popular was the World Ice Theory, which proposed that numerous moons made of ice had at one stage orbited the Earth. One by one they crashed into the Earth causing separate cataclysmic events, one of which caused the destruction of Atlantis.According to various occultists God-like beings called Aryans, described as a "Nordic" race, escaped Atlantis and spread across the Earth. German occultists believed the German people were the purest representatives of this master race, which Himmler would use as an excuse for Nazis to exterminate and rule over "lower races." As such only Aryan peoples were capable of civilization and Himmler manipulated scientific research through the Ahnenerbe to prop up this pseudoscientific claptrap. Initially, studies were confined to ancient texts, rock art, runes and folk studies. Folk studies were behind one of the early expeditions to find evidence of witchcraft. Bizarre research followed, when prominent German archaeologists, anthropologists, musicologists, and linguists were sent on various expeditions throughout Germany, occupied Europe, and further afield to the Middle East, North Africa, South America, and the Himalayas. Artifacts and ruins were found all over, and if they appeared advanced they were automatically attributed to the supremacy of the Aryans. In the search for evidence of Germanic origins of civilization, Ahnenerbe co-founder Hermann Wirth frantically combed academic literature for signs that the earliest writing system was developed by the Nordics. Ahnenerbe was meant to play a central part in wiping Christianity from Germany and replacing it with its own pagan religion supported by their own so-called archaeological, pseudoscientific and pseudohistorical fabrications. But it never got the chance. Once the Allies had taken the Waischenfeld in April 1945, many Ahnenerbe documents had been destroyed. But a large number were also recovered which aided in the trial of key Ahnenerbe personnel at Nuremberg. However, many of Ahnenerbe's academics managed to escape punishment. Some changed their names and quietly went back into academia. CLASS NOTES: Ahnenerbe was an Archaeology division created by the Nazis. The goal was to study the territory, ideas and achievements of the Germanic people and bring that research to the present. They wanted to say: "Here's the archaeological past of Germany and here's how it ties into our present". If you were asked to enter into archaeological proceedings by the Nazi party, you either agreed or you endured consequences (most archaeologists fled the country). A big goal of the party was to find the Holy Grail in an attempt to intertwined Germanic culture and religion. THE HOLY GRAIL: Himlar thought that Christianity wasn't good because it was widely influenced by non-arian people. Instead, he wanted to create a new religion that was based on old Germanic culture/folk traditions- a religion that ties into the Cathars. The Cathars questioned the authority of the Catholic Church because they thought that the Church had too much wealth. They believed in the equal treatment of people, which they preseved the Church to be in direct opposition of the notion. Cathars were reported to be hiding a lot of treasures in their castles, and one of the things that they were said to have possessed was the holy grail. Himlar favors the Cathars because they were persecuted by the church, and therefore good in his eyes (an enemy of the Church is a friend of the Nazis). A lot of Himlar's archaeological quests involved trying to find the Holy Grail; They were trying to use their archaeological power to justify their present rule.

ONI/OSS

The ONI stands for Office of Naval Intelligence and served as a precursor for the CIA. ONI is the oldest member of the United States Intelligence Community and serves as the nation's premier source of maritime intelligence. Since the First World War, its mission has broadened to include real-time reporting on the developments and activities of foreign navies; protecting maritime resources and interests; monitoring and countering transnational maritime threats; providing technical, operational, and tactical support to the U.S. Navy and its partners; and surveying the global maritime environment. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a wartime intelligence agency of the United States during World War II, and a predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning. Many archaeologists worked with the OSS (more so than with the CIA). For example, Julia Child (chef) and Samual Kirchland Lothrop (he used to write his memos back to US in hieroglyphs and his job was to look for German-symphithizers in Peru).

Nineveh

Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire from 705 to 612 B.C.E., is well-known not only because of its important role in ancient history but also because of its "press." The city and the empire for which it stands feature prominently in entertaining biblical stories such as Jonah, and major museums around the world proudly display larger-than-life Assyrian sculpture, feeding our knowledge—and imagination—about this ancient foe of biblical Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom). Perhaps founded as early as 6000 B.C.E., Nineveh was located on the Tigris River near modern-day Mosul in northern Iraq. At its peak, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was a formidable force, dominating populations from eastern Egypt to the Persian Gulf, demanding agricultural goods and other resources as tribute. Large amounts of Assyrian sculpture and other artifacts have been excavated and are now located in museums around the world. ISIS occupied the site during the mid-2010s, during which time they bulldozed several of the monuments there and caused considerable damage to the others. Iraqi forces recaptured the area in January 2017. On 8 January 2015, a threat by IS to destroy the ancient walls of Ninevah was reported widely in the international news and on 28 January 2015 the Iraqi News stated that large sections of the walls had been blown up by IS. Using the real-time responsiveness of social media, however, this claim was countered 2 days later by a tweet from Eleanor Robson, Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London, revealing the first to be illusory. The use of smoke and mirrors tactics is not all empty posturing, since the strength of a claim is part of its power, regardless of whether or not the destruction is realized. Satellite imagery confirms that the Adad Gate was destroyed, in addition to a large portion of Nineveh's fortification wall.

Nazca Lines

On the desert southern coast of Peru, prehistoric people called the Nazca constructed a spectacular complex of shapes. Most are long lines, etched not the desert surface, criss-crossing each other at all angles. The most interesting however, are about three hundred actual drawings, rendered on an enormous scale of animals such as fish, monkeys, birds, snakes, and a spider. The figures and lines were made by clearing away the darker surface rocks, exposing the lighter desert soil beneath. They are remarkable achievements because of their great size but certainly were not beyond the capabilities of prehistoric people. They were in an essence, "swept" into existence. Archaeological excavations have revealed the presence of raised platforms and tall posts at the endpoints of some of the Nazca lines, providing all the likelihood high points from which construction of the patterns could have been directed and also from which the images could have been viewed. Beyond this, excavation has also revealed the presence of what appear to be ceremonial activities such as animal sacrifice and offerings including seashells, guinea pigs, crayfish, and maize kernels. They were most likely part of local cultural tradition of ceremony and worship. The drawings are called "geoglyphs" and this kind of art is seen all over the world, including in California, where they are examples called the Blythe Intaglios. Von Daniken admits that the Nazca lines "could have been laid out on their gigantic scale by working from a model and using a system of coordinations". However he prefers the notion that "they could also have been built according to instructions from an aircraft"Relying on the inkblot approach, he says 'seen from the air, the clear-cut impression that the 37-mile long plain of Nazca made on me was that of an airfield" CLASS NOTES: Van Daniken suggests that the Nazca lines are airport terminals/runways. In the deserts of Peru there is very dark topsoil and underneath that is a lighter-colored soil. They took the top layer of soil off and formed shapes (which is why the lighter soil is shown). It isn't too time consuming compared to that of building pyramids. You could see these lines from mountains/hills, fueling the the idea that they made these lines to communicate with gods/deities in the sky.There have been theories that people used to walk the shape of the Nazca lines in a ritualistic manner (pilgrimage). The overarching claim that Van Daniken is trying to portray is that the Nazca lines must've been made by aliens because the natives couldn't have done it themselves. However, in class, we mentioned that this wouldn't have taken a lot of effort to make. There was an unfortunate case of site destruction: A truck driver got impatient and tried to go around traffic and accidentally drove onto the nazca line archaeological site to go around. This shows how susceptible the site is to destruction (because you only remove the top layer of soil to create it).

Examples of Iconoclasm

PROTESTANT REFORMATION: In class we observed an image depicting the purge of all religious images from churches during the protestant reformation (1524). This public demonstration played into the idea of public performance and shock-factor. They actively destroyed things that the Catholic church identified with in order to send a clear message. BYZANTINE EMPIRE: There was the mass destruction of idols in churches. This notion derived from the Catholic belief that you shouldn't worship idols, or paintings/statues of religious figures. PROTESTANT REFORMATION: Lutherans thought that the images of religious people should be destroyed SPANISH CONQUEST OF THE AMERICAS: At the center of the Aztec's capital, there was a twin building complex. When the Spanish conquered the Aztec, the first thing they did was push big statues of deities that were in the buildings down the stairs, destroying them. They then replaced those statues with a big cross. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXAMPLES: Iconoclasm was done in the past to erase past rulers names when they didn't like them. Additionally, the Catholic Church built on top of an Inca Temple upon Spanish conquest. The Spanish would steal deity statues and keeping them at the Corti Concha in order to intimidate the population and showcase their power.

Plato

Plato was born in 429 or 428 BC. He became a disciple of Socrates in about 410 BC and established his own academy in 387 BC. Plato believed that the best way to teach was to engage his students in dialogues. He wrote many of his philosophical treaties in a dialogue format as well. The dialogues were largely imaginary conversations between Socrates and his students; the actual discussions never took place. He is denoted with having invented the the idea of Atlantis with the use of his many dialogues and allegories.

Dead Sea Scrolls

Quite shockingly, the Green family (owners of Hobby Lobby) were involved in another scandal regarding the purchase of illegally obtain goods. In 1947 in an obscure cave west of the Dead Sea, Bedouin shepherds discovered some scrolls carefully placed in ten tall jars. They did not know what they had come upon, but they sold the scrolls to a nearby dealer. This was the opening chapter to an astonishing archeological find; eventually some 800 different manuscripts would be found in eleven caves near the valley called Wadi Qumran. In all, some 60,000 fragments, portions, or complete scrolls of these 800 manuscripts were retrieved, covering many subjects. Many of the documents contained biblical texts. Either fragments or complete copies were found of every book in the Old Testament except Esther. The Museum of the Bible claimed to have obtained fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls. However, on October 22, 2018, the Museum of the Bible announced that five of its 16 Dead Sea Scrolls fragments are probably modern forgeries, based on analyses conducted by Germany's Federal Institute for Materials Research. The report corroborates concerns raised by biblical scholars in 2017, just before the Museum of the Bible opened. The museum's founder Steve Green, who owns the Hobby Lobby craft chain, has faced intense public scrutiny for his company's antiquities purchases, including 5,500 ancient clay tablets that U.S. authorities claim were illegally smuggled into the country. In July, Hobby Lobby reached a settlement on the tablets with the Department of Justice. The company has returned the artifacts to Iraq. CLASS NOTES: The dead sea scrolls are ancient texts that were found along the dead sea. The scrolls are about 800 different documents. The museum said that they had 13 fragments of these scrolls, which immediately piqued the interest of scholars. At least 7 of them were determined to be frauds (the rest are still under debate). They knew that they were false due to inaccurate linguistics (the language was too contemporary)

Reality TV Shows

Reality shows based in archaeology can often be dubbed as "infotainment". The main premise of these TV shows attempt to be informational and entertaining. They typically will pertain to a specific job that the host work on a daily basis (EX: Duck Dynasty and Deadliest Catch). These shows are commonly scripted and most of the main characters are not actually archaeologists.

Sylvanus Morley

Sylvanus Morley was a well-known archaeologists who worked for the Carnegie Institute in Washington. Morley is known for his immense interest in the Maya, even writing the first edition of a book called, The Maya. In 1917, ONI approached Morley with an intriguing proposal. After sounding out some of his colleagues, Morley submitted to ONI a "list of available anthropologists". These people, like Morley himself, were specialists in Mexico and Central America who were prepared to become intelligence agents using their professional activities as cover. Naval Intelligence assigned Morley to Central America. His mission was to search for rumored German submarine bases, to combat pro-German activities generally, and to organize an intelligence network to cover the coast. Morley's communications would be forward to ONI headquarters in Washington. While in Central America, he was digging in the Yucatan. The Mexican government gave him a 25-year permit to excavate. This was done because Yucatan wanted to be independent from Mexico, and even wanted the US to adopt it as a territory (the Mexicans wanted to do anything they could to stop this from happening). His job was to do a survey. He was looking around the coastline to search for German Submarine Bases (and "suspicious German people). He wandered around the coast to look for "archaeological" things, but really he was searching for these German bases. Additionally, USA wanted to develop a better relationship with Central America in order to prevent them from siding with Germany in WW1. The US Government had a blacklist of German companies that the US didn't want people to use. Morley would report back to America if/who he saw using said "banned" products (He reported if he saw "anti-American" activity). During the First World War (1914-1918), Morley gathered intelligence about and reported on the movements of German operatives in the region, information in which the U.S. Government had a keen interest. According to subsequent investigations,[15] Morley was one of a number of ONI operatives working in the region under the guise of conducting scholarly research. Their mission was to seek out evidence of pro-German and anti-American agitation in the Mexico-Central America region and to look for secret German submarine bases (which proved non-existent). Morley's archaeological work provided a ready excuse to travel the countryside armed with photographic equipment, and he himself traveled more than 2,000 miles along the coastlines of Central America in search of evidence for German bases.

Archaeology and TV

TV in archaeology can also be referred to as "docudramas". These TV show pull in a sense of exploration and dramatic effect, while also attempting to push an informative narrative; there's always something to uncover. The lead protagonists of these shows are depicted as being essentially experts of everything. EXAMPLES OF TV IN ARCHAEOLOGY: -Bones -Ancient Aliens -Time Team (and USA) -Megan Fox -Expeditions Unknown -Vikings -Dr. Who -Librarians -Diggers -America Unearthed

Terrorism

Terrorism is defined by the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims. In terms of archaeology, terrorist organizations wanted to destroy historical landmarks and archaeological sites to create mass hysteria. Socially mediated terrorism is defined as 'the use of social and net- worked media to increase the impact of violent acts undertaken to further a social, political and/or religious cause with the aim of creating physical, emotional or psycho- logical suffering that extends beyond the immediate audience. There are three identifiable strategies involving cultural heritage: The first is smoke, mirrors and mock destruction, which exaggerates perceptions of power and tests the impact of potential destruction. The Islamic State has developed this strategy through a sophisticated combination of smoke and mirrors, which draws upon an illusion of power to obtain real power, and mock destruction, which tests the impact of potential acts and responds according to this impact. One clear example of this sophisticated com- bination of military strategies concerns the ancient walls of Ninevah in Iraq. On 8 January 2015, a threat by IS to destroy the ancient walls of Ninevah was reported widely in the international news and on 28 January 2015 the Iraqi News stated that large sections of the walls had been blown up by IS. Using the real-time responsiveness of social media, however, this claim was countered 2 days later by a tweet from Eleanor Robson, Professor of Ancient Near Eastern History at University College London, revealing the first to be illusory. The use of smoke and mirrors tactics is not all empty posturing, since the strength of a claim is part of its power, regardless of whether or not the destruction is realized. The second is shock, awe and censure, which uses international outrage to cloak the Islamic State with an aura of invincibility and highlight the impotence of its opponents. The Islamic States uses a strategy of shock, awe and censure to garner maximum publicity from the destruction of cultural heritage - whether real or not - to subjugate the will of the opponent and elicit responses, including direct intervention, that can be used to further its goals - with the military strategy of provoking the enemy to over-react. The third is financing the Kaliphate, which has transformed the looting of archaeological sites into a business model. A key factor in whether terrorist and insurgent groups can sustain and survive is whether they can develop internal sources of funding. While large, immovable items may be destroyed by the Islamic State for their propaganda value, the sale of small, movable antiquities can be used to finance the costs of running the organisation. Looting is estimated to be the Islamic State's second largest revenue source after oil sales. Operating in one of the richest archaeological regions in the world, IS has transformed the ad hoc looting of archaeological sites into a business model.

Bamiyan Buddhas

The Buddhas of Bamyan were two 6th century monumental statues of Guautama Buddha carved into the side of a cliff the Bamyan valley in central Afghanistan. Disturbingly, the statues were dynamited and destroyed in March 2001 by the Taliban after the Taliban government declared that they were idols (example of iconoclasm). When the Taliban first expressed their intent to demolish the Buddhas of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan they began probing international reaction to this destruction. In 2001, drawing upon the mass media communication capabilities of the time, the Taliban leadership issued a press release to provide advance notice that the Buddhas would be demolished and, in contrast to normal protocols, gave permission for international journalists to document their destruction. Consequent media coverage permeated global memories. The global impact of this destruction lay with two intertwined factors that continue to underpin modern perceptions of conflict: the symbolic power of visual imagery and the communicative capacity of modern media.The global reaction to the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas coalesced two years later in the inscribing of the Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley on the World Heritage in Danger list, providing belated protection for the landscape in which the Buddhas once stood. Reminiscent of the creation of cultural heritage value for the World Trade Center after its destruction, the Outstanding Universal Value of the Bamiyan Buddhas was ascertained through their destruction. Moreover the global reaction against the demolition of the Bamiyan Buddhas was partly because this destruction "went against all of the emotional values associated by Western people with the concept of human civilization itself". CLASS NOTES: The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas is a contemporary example of iconoclasm, and particularly, the only example of iconoclasm with the Taliban. These Buddhas were carved in cliffs in Afghanistan during the 6th century. Built along the Silk Road, the Taliban threaten to destroy them in 2001, even inviting the media to record them doing so. In March 2001, they blew up the entire statues. The public manner was done to sensationalize it and involve the public. One of the local leaders of the Taliban wanted them to be destroyed, declaring that they were "idols" and examples of "icons". Later the Taliban states that the statues were destroyed as a form of protest of the lack of humanitarian aid work in the region; "there's international interest in these statues, but not the people living there."A series of caves were discovered behind the statues, which were contemporaneous with the creation of the statues. Murals/paintings were found within them.

Hobby Lobby

The Green family, evangelical owners of Hobby Lobby crafts stores and collectors of biblical artifacts, were a driving force behind the opening of Washington's Museum of the Bible. Unfortunately, they got themselves into quite the scandal - one that took over seven years to resolve. In 2010, Hobby Lobby was offered a trove of items from ancient Mesopotamia in a deal that "was fraught with red flags," said Richard Donoghue, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "Hobby Lobby's expert advised them to be careful about acquiring Iraqi cultural property because hundreds of thousands of objects had been looted from Iraqi archaeological sites." However, company officials ignored the warnings and went ahead and bought the artifacts for $1.6 million. The Greens began collecting biblical material in 2009, and have amassed about 40,000 items, the family says. A few hundred are on display in the Washington museum. Specifically, they wanted to put clay bullae and Cuneiform tablets in their museum. many of these artifacts are in poor condition and almost certainly came from illicit excavations in Iraq in the wake of the 2003 invasion by U.S.-led forces. The 3,800 artifacts — including cuneiform tablets, cylinder seals and inscribed clay bullae once used in commercial transactions, dating back to the third millennium B.C. — will be turned over to Iraq's Ministry of Culture and to museums and universities for study and exhibition. Hobby Lobby was forced to forfeit the artifacts, pay a $3 million fine and submit to federal oversight for 18 months. The items recovered and repatriated tell the history of life from more than 4,000 years ago, explained Yale University professor Eckart Frahm, one of two experts authorities asked to review the artifacts. Most of the cuneiform tablets Frahm looked at in late 2016 were administrative and legal documents, and most date to 2300-1600 B.C. Frahm was able to trace some to Irisagrig, an ancient city on the Tigris River. When you buy illegal goods, you are essentially removing the artifact from the context in which it was found. In turn, it remains quite difficult to obtain the full history of the artifact and its source.

Mosul Museum

The Mosul Museum is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It was heavily looted during the 2003 Iraq War. In 2014, ISIS occupied the Museum as it was about to reopen after years of rebuilding. ISIS said that its statues were against Islam and threatened to destroy the museum's contents. On 26 February 2015, a day after burning books from Mosul libraries, the group released a video showing the destruction of artifacts in the museum and at the archaeological site at Nimrud, claiming the sites promoted "Idolatry". ISIS stated that they also intend to destroy the historic walls of Nineveh. In late February, UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council "on the protection of Iraq's cultural heritage as an integral element for the country's security" CLASS NOTES: The Mosul Museum just reopened after famous sculptures were destroyed by ISIS. ISIS claimed that the sculptures were forbidden under Islamic law (form of iconoclasm).

Titanic

The Titanic was discovered in 1985, during a secret Cold War Navy Mission. The US government used the search for the Titanic as a cover-up to locate two nuclear submarines that had been lost by US Government. They knew the general area of where the vessels should be, which coincidentally coordinated with where the Titanic should be, however the US Government did not want the Russians to discover that they were looking for them. They were able to find the two lost submarines AND the Titanic within their allotted timeframe. The Navy funded the search and provided equipment for the exploration. This information was declassified in 2018. Robert Ballard, who discovered the Titanic, said that the expedition was part of a secret US military mission to recover two sunken nuclear submarines on the bottom of the ocean. Ballard was a commander in the US Navy and a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The Navy offered him the funding and opportunity to search for the Titanic, but only if he first explored the USS Thresher and the USS Scorpion, two American nuclear subs that sank in the 1960s. "We knew where the subs were," Ballard said. "What they wanted me to do was go back and not have the Russians follow me, because we were interested in the nuclear weapons that were on the Scorpion and also what the nuclear reactors (were) doing to the environment." The search for the Titanic served as a great cover story, and the press was "totally oblivious to what I was doing," he said. When his team finished exploring the Scorpion and Thresher, they had just 12 days left in their trip to search for the Titanic. The famed ship that sank on its maiden voyage was found on the ocean floor at a depth of more than 12,000 feet in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Antiquities Trade

The antiquities trade is the exchange of antiquities and archaeological artifacts from around the world. This trade may be illicit or completely legal. The illicit antiquities trade involves non-scientific extraction that ignores the archaeological and anthropological context from the artifacts. Looting and spoliation of archaeological sites represent a known crisis in many parts of the world, and it is widely acknowledged that despite what we know about the scale of site destruction, the reality is worse. Available evidence suggests that the scale and severity of looting are increasing. Legal and ethical remedies exist but have not proven adequate to reduce the impact of looting and antiquities trafficking. This reflects, in part, inadequate resources and uneven enforcement, and also the pressures of rising prices for antiquities, growing market demand, severe economic depression, and lawlessness, particularly in conflict zones. But it also reflects expanding ideological causes for site destruction by others. While art stolen from extant collections is difficult to cash in on, illegally excavated antiquities provide a far easier way for crime syndicates to profit. These objects have never been seen by modern eyes and will not be on any stolen art databases, and can therefore be sold openly, at full value, if accompanied by a false paper trail suggesting that they were legally excavated and exported. Speaking at a 2014 ARCA conference, Paolo Giorgio Ferri, a former Italian state prosecutor who led the case against the infamous antiquities smuggler Giacomo Medici, estimated that 90% of all antiquities looting is undertaken by groups involved in organized crime as opposed to individuals or smaller groups interested in short-term profit only. The loss of archaeological context then becomes one among many problems, since the profits from these illicit sales go on to fund all manner of other activities in which these syndicates are involved. (It's worth noting that many terrorist groups, including ISIS, also rely on the illegal sale of art and antiquities to fund their activities.) Why would you buy illegal antiquities/collect objects? -Status symbol -Some people might feel like they're helping the preservation of the object (it's better off in my hands) -It's cool -Resale -Medicinal (early 1800 europeans used to grind up mummies and use them for medicinal reasons) THOUGHTFUL QUESTIONS: Are the laws for enforcing these trade rules working? How are people able to obtain these illegal artifacts? What can be done to prevent these issues from occurring?

Painted Rock

The example of painted rock has been used by bigfoot enthusiasts to prove the existence of bigfeet. Rock art is a common form of art in the past (literally painting or carving into a rock) The site is named after rocks that have been painted on. The rock has a painting of a big beast. Enthusiast use it as evidence of indiginous contact/sightings of bigfoot. They claim that it is a family of bigfeet. However, Indigenous populations from that area say that the figures are just people crying and it's about a creation story (not bigfoot). This is kinda like Pacal's sarcophagus lid. Just because it looks like something, does not mean that it is that thing (inkblot hypothesis).

UNESCO

UNESCO stands for United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. UNESCO is the overarching organization that manages international laws in regards to antiquities and monuments; they are also in charge of World Heritage Sites. World Heritage Sites are deemed to be culturally significant to the world.

Lost City of Monkey God (Honduras)

The legend of the Ciudad Blanca (White City), a lost city in the jungles of the Mosquito Coast of easter Honduras, exists in many forms, from indigenous myths with a long history to recent interactions that seem to conflate a number of legends into a single story. This "lost" city however, has been "discovered" by several people over the centuries. The discourse surrounding that of a "lost" city plays into earlier archaeological discourse, especially the trope of "discovery", effectively severing the relationship between the contemporary residents of the region and the archaeology; it diminishes the contribution of local residents and erodes the ability of archaeologists to understand and analyze both the Ciudad Blanca myth and the archaeology. Despite the Mosquito region being commonly described as "unexplored", archaeologists have worked in the area since the 1920s. The White City legend is known to most Hondurans living in the eastern part of the country. The legend may have begun in 1544, with a letter sent from a priest, Friar Pedraza, to Spain, in which he mentions a sizable, deathly civilization he observed in a large valley from a hilltop east of Trujillo, on the north coast of Honduras. Two local indigenous groups, the Pech and the Tawahka, inhabit the forests of the Mosquito coast and have legends about the lost city. The Pech refer to the White City as Wahia-Patatahua, or Koa Kamasa. The Pech explained to Begley that "you can't see it (White City) if you don't speak Pech and know about Pech, because this is where the gods glad after the Spanish came", one of the guides explained that if you can't speak to the gods, they won't let you leave. There are a series of large sites in the Mosquito regions, and local informants in the area would repeatedly refer to the White City as being one of the small sites (as if everyone had their own idea of what/where the city was). Archaeologists hypothesize that the White city isn't just one site, but rather a composite legend that reflected the vast amounts of large settlements in the rain forest. The author states that "the lost city was not lost in the jungle. It was lost in the oral histories of the Pech and Tawahka. And most important, it was only lost to us".

Mu

The lost continent of Mu-Plongeon was proposed by Augustus Le Pongeon, a 19th century traveler and writer. He went to the Maya region and stated that there was no way the Maya could've built the pyramids and that the writing of the Maya must've been much older than the Maya. So, he attributed their creations to the lost continent of Mu (unclear how he came up with this continent). According to Plongeon, the lost continent existed 12,000 years ago. He stated that is was located in the Atlantic ocean. Le Plongeon first introduced the idea of Mu in his works after his extensive exploration of the Mayan ruins in the Yucatan region. He claimed to have translated ancient Mayan writings at the site, but unfortunately his translations were based on a misinterpreted version of the Troano Codex, an ancient pre-Columbian Mayan Book. The original translator, Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, attempted to decode the glyphs contained in the book, but achieved only limited success with the endeavor. De Bourbourg had allegedly translated a word in the codex as Mu, a reference to a land which was submerged by a natural disaster. The idea of Mu was popularized by James Churchward who wrote a series of novels about the lost continent. In these novels, he talks about the continents and he claims that they are true based upon a collection of stone tablets found in Mexico. James Churchward, an author, engineer and inventor (1851-1936) was the next devotee beguiled by the enigma of Mu. He too had an interest in spiritualism and the occult, even believing he had a preternatural ability to read symbols from ancient cultures. He continued the notion of the lost continent in his writings on the subject from 1926 to 1933 including his work The Lost Continent of Mu, postulating its location in the Pacific Ocean. Churchward's fascination with the subject was engendered by a chance meeting with a high-ranking temple priest in India where he was stationed as a soldier. The priest showed him clay tablets which allegedly came from Mu. The writing on the tablets were considered to be in the "Naga-Maya" language, the language of an ancient people from Tibet. With the knowledge bestowed on him by the religious elder, Churchward went on to describe the people of Mu as an advanced civilization called the Naacal who existed between 50 000 and 12 000 years ago. At the height of their civilization they were said to have 64 million inhabitants living in large cities. His interpretations of the Indian tablets suggested that Mu was formed when underground volcanic gasses expanded and pushed the landmass above sea-level. Churchward claimed the continent was finally destroyed in only one night by a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. LOST TABLETS OF MU It is unclear how they were created but it is hypothesized that the collection of the tablets was a hoax (either made by the founder or by the workers who knew that they would get paid for finding artifacts). A bunch of these tablets ended up in museums around the country and they are the only evidence that were have of Mu. Churchwood's novel is being used to propagate this story, similar to Atlantis.

Palenque Sarcophagus Lid

The most infamous example of inkblot hypothesis is von Daniken's interpretation of the sarcophagus lid from the Maya site of Palenque. For von Daniken, the coffin lid is a clear representation of a space-suited alien piloting a spacecraft. When you are unfamiliar with the culture, you can make just about anything you want to out of these images, but you are most decidedly not practicing science. Von Daniken does not understand the cultural context of the Palenque artifact. He doesn't recognize the Maya symbols in the carving of the Ceiba Tree and the Earth Monster. What are mysterious devices for von Daniken are simply common artistic representations of Maya jewelry, including ear and nose plugs. Again, not understanding the context the artifact, von Daniken apparently does not thing it important or even relevant that the person depicted on the sarcophagus lid was a dead Maya king represented in a position between life, the Ceiba Tree above him, and death, the Earth Monster below. As for the individual depicted on the lid and buried in the tomb, he was Pacal, ruler of the ancient city of Palenque from AD 615 until his death and placement in the tomb at the base of an impressive pyramid in AD 683. Fortunately for students of Maya history, Pacal had a detailed king list inscribed in the temple atop his pyramid tomb and an additional listing placed on his sarcophagus. We know the names of his ancestors and the names of his descendants. We know what he accomplished during his reign as ruler of Palenque. And were have his physical remains in the coffin. Although he as once the all-powerful ruler of a splendid society, nothing is left of pacal save his very human bones. Pacal's story needs no tired speculation about exterrestrail visitors to Earth. Pacal was a dynamic and vibrant historical personage, a real human being who lived, ruled a great city, and died more than 1,300 years ago, and whose story have been revealed by archaeology and history. ***Using the inkblot approach, von Daniken interprets the image on the sarcophagus lid from the Temple of Inscriptions at the Maya site of Palenque as depicting an astronaut with antennae and oxygen mask peering through a telescope and manipulating the controls of a rocket. Maya archaeologists prefer to interpret this science within the context of Maya cosmogony- a king posed between life and death in his journey to the afterlife CLASS NOTES: Because the lid looks vaguely like an astronaut, some believe that they are one of the same. The sarcophagus is from the burial site of Palenque, which is a very large place in Chiapas, Mexico (there's a palace where rulers once lived). The temple of the inscriptions is where Pacal's lid was. The temple was built to be the burial monument for rulers. Pacal's mother is also buried there. The temple has hieroglyphs talking about Pacal and his relationship with the Gods is one of their rooms. ON THE LID: World Tree: Basically the hypothetical center of the universe. With the Maya, it represents the 13 heavens and 7 underworlds. So with the center of the universe, it is easy to transition between the heavens, underworld, and earth. They are usually represented as Ceiba trees. It's a tree that has spines on them; ants usually live in the spikes.The clay incense burner is supposed to represent the Ceiba tree, or the world tree Principle Bird Deity (PBD): In the Maya world, there are depictions of the PBD dating back to the early days of the Maya. They are related to rulers/ruling. Relates to the heavens and the tasks that rulers would do. -Next picture shows PBD on top of the world tree. Depicts a ruler performing an auto-sacrifice ritual activity. The auto-sacrifice in the male, is called penis perfitration w/thorns from the ceiba tree Earth Monster: The jaws of the Earth monster (Earth). Caves are a symbolic image of this. -Earth monster doorway in Mexico, with teeth on either side of the professor in one picture and teeth on the bottom in the other picture Falling into death: Falling down the world tree into the underworld to be reborn into a divine king (entering the jaws of the earth monster)

Atlantis

The only written document that talks about Atlantis is written by Plato (360 BC). Every other piece of work since then is just in reference to Plato. According to Greek philosopher Plato, the lost civilization of Atlantis was located on a continent-size land mass positioned outside of the straits of Gibraltar (Pillars of Hercules), in the Atlantic Ocean, and was destroyed in a natural cataclysm about 11,600 years ago. Plato employed the use of an allegory (stories with moral teachings) to convey a lesson about the political, social, and economic organization of a well-run society. The story of Atlantis was presented in two of Plato's dialogues: Timaeus and Critics, named respectively, after the major participant in each conversation. This story is anti-imperialist (story about how we shouldn't go and conquer other people). Atlantis is written to have besieged that Athenians, and as a result, Athenians defeat the imperialist Atlantis. The story was supposed to show that if you are morally superior state, then you can conquer the imperialist-minded people. After Athens defeats Atlantis, Atlantis loses favor with the Gods due to their imperialist/conquering nature. As a result of their constant invasions of other nations, the Gods destroyed Atlantis (went undersea due to many natural disasters). The story is about what you should do as a state. The founders/occupants were supposed to be half-god and half-human (demi-god) and founded by Posidean. Atlantis was described as having a good Navy and a fancy agricultural system with nice buildings. There's an air of exoticness that is associated with Atlantis and it is described with their exotic animals and use of metals. INSPIRATION: In 1909, historian K.T Frost suggested a connection between Atlantis and the Minoan civilization discovered on the island of Crete by archaeologists Sir Arthur Evans. Evans excavated a spectacular palace at the Minioan capital of Knossos, which was built 3,800 years ago. The Greeks of Plato's time were certainly aware of the ancient and impressive culture. A Greek archaeologists suggested that the Minion civilization had been destroyed by the eruption of Thera; it was proposed that Plato's Atlantis was based on Minoan Crete and, therefore, Plato's description of the demise of Atlantis was based on the destruction of the Minoan civilization. Indeed, there had been a massive volcanic eruption of the the island today called Santorini ( the Greeks called it Thera), located 72 miles north of Crete. The eruption produced enough global climate by blocking out the sun's rays; evidence indicates that as a result of this eruption, there was frost damage to trees in places like Ireland. Doubtlessly, the obliteration of Thera did have a significant impact on the Minoan civilization. The eruption itself, accompanied by severe earthquakes, badly damaged many settlements on Crete (although it was not destroyed) - Most of the attempts to directly correlate a historical place with Atlantis are afflicted by the same problem; large chunks of Plato's story must be entirely altered or throughly ignored to make a reasonable fit. IN CLASS NOTES: The Island of Thera/Santorini Santorini/Thera was plagued by earthquake. On the site, there is evidence that vases/goods were placed in locations where they wouldn't fall over in the event of an earthquake. The site was covered in a thick layer of volcanic ash ( there were no bodies like Pompei, so it can be assumed that the people had time to escape). The site is very well preserved - vases still in places were they were once left and walls are still standing. The volcanic ash preserved everything very well (murals and signs of plumbing can still be observed). It is entirely possible that this island inspired Plato to come up with Atlantis due to its extensive risk of earthquakes (although the island didn't sink) Plato wouldn't have had any first hand knowledge, so if Thera did influence Plato, it would've had to have come from the accounts of the Egyptians who recorded these events when this happened.

Stone Age Depictions

The popularity of these films began in the early 1900s, after depicting the prehistoric past of man (10,00 BC). These movies give commentary on what humanity used to be and how it is now; often seen as a reflection on our contemporary way of being. These films often feed into tropes: cavemen and their supposed lack of intelligence. STONE AGE DEPICITIONS: Early Man - the Bronze age vs the Stone age Early Human: His Prehistoric Past (Charlie Chaplin Short Film - 1914) The Flitstones

Skunk Ape

The skunk ape, also known as the swamp cabbage man, swamp ape, stink ape, Florida Bigfoot, Louisiana Bigfoot, myakka ape, swampsquatch, and myakka skunk ape, is a humanoid creature said to inhabit the U.S. states of Florida, North Carolina, and Arkansas, although reports from Florida are most common. It is named for its appearance and for the unpleasant odor that is said to accompany it.The skunk ape is an example of cryptozoology. It supposedly lives in swamps (near LA and FL in everglades) and has a bad odor. The skunk ape, similar to Bigfoot, is an example of cryptozoology.

Von Daniken

Von Daniken is a very well known proponent of ancient aliens. He is the author of Chariot of the Gods. The Swiss author of the book, Erich von Daniken, proposed that there was indisputable and copious archaeological support for his claim that extraterrestrial aliens had visited Earth in prehistory and had played a significant role in the development of humanity. There appear to be three implicit hypotheses behind von Daniken's ideas as he presented them: 1. All over the world there are prehistoric pictorial and three-dimensional representations- drawings on cave walls, pottery, and sculptures-as well as early written accounts that most reasonably can interpreted as the drawings, sculptures, or literary descriptions by primitive people of actual extraterrestrial visitors to Earth. 2. The biological evolution of the human species cannot be understood unless we assume the direct- and rather personal - involvement of a scientifically advanced extraterrestrial civilization. 3. Some ancient artifacts and inventions are far too advanced and complex to have resulted from simple, prehistoric human intelligence and ingenuity.These advanced artifacts and great inventions must instead be the direct result of purposeful introduction by extraterrestrial aliens. CLASS NOTES: Von Daniken asserts the idea that aliens visited Earth to build things (or teach us how to build things) and introduce new technology/information. He maintains the notion that archaeologists are wrong. His evidence is: Nazca lines, Tiwanaka, Map technology, Distortion of the maps (bc you're flattening a spherical shape),Sumerians (they have math), etc. - He says that other people couldn't have done this (and it's sus that he only mentions non-Europeans. He doesn't mention that humans couldn't have made cathedrals, despite roman cathedrals being built around the same time as Tiwanaka) CRISTISM: Von Daniken chooses to evaluate non-europeans places, inexplicably portraying the idea that latin populations couldn't have built their structures because they are too primitive. He also chose a lot of places that many people haven't heard of. He's probably choosing examples that people don't know a lot about in order to introduce a new theory without too much pushback. He also utilizes a lot of general information, a little bit of information about a lot of different places that possess no relation to one another. **Ethnocentrism: the belief in the inherent superiority of one's own ethnic group or culture