Archaeology Is a Brand!: The Meaning of Archaeology in Contemporary Popular Culture

197 Pages·2009·7.58 MB·English

by  Cornelius Holtorf

ARCHAEOLOGY IS A BRAND!

THE MEANING OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN

CONTEMPORARY POPULAR CULTURE
Cornelius Holtorf
ILLUSTRATED BY
Quentin Drew
Published in the rest of the world by: Archaeopress.
First published 2007 by Left Coast Press, Inc.
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © C Holtorf, Q Drew, Archaeopress 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holtorf, Cornelius, 1968-
Archaeology is a brand : the meaning of archaeology in contemporary popular culture /
Cornelius Holtorf ; illustrated by Quentin Drew.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59874-178-0 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-59874-179-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Archaeology--Social aspects. 2. Popular cul-
ture--Great Britain. 3. Popular culture--Germany.
4. Popular culture--Sweden. 5. Popular culture--
United States. 6. Mass media--Social aspects. 7.
Archaeology--Public opinion. 8. Archaeologists--
Public opinion. I. Title.
CC175.H65 2007 930.1--dc22
2007001955
ISBN-13: 978-1-59874-178-0 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59874-179-7 (pbk)
“Insofar as archaeology enhances
people’s lives and society in
general, its major impact might
be said to lie in popular culture
rather than any noble vision of
improving self-awareness.”
Gavin Lucas (2004: 119)
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Table of contents
Preface v
Acknowledgements vi
1 Investigating the meaning of archaeology in popular culture 1
Archaeology: a trendy subject 3
Approaching the field 12
2 A travel log 16
3 Archaeology in the mass media 29
Archaeology on TV 30
Germany: Gisela Graichen’s adventure archaeology 34
Sweden: Göran Burenhult’s exotic explorations 37
Great Britain: Time team’s digging detectives 39
Archaeology in Newspapers 45
4 What people are thinking about archaeology 51
The single most significant source of information about archaeology is TV 52
The most common association people have with “archaeology” is
digging up things 55
People enjoy “doing” archaeology themselves 58
Discussion 60
5 The archaeologist in popular culture: key themes 62
The A theme: the archaeologist as Adventurer 63
The D theme: the archaeologist as Detective 75
The R theme: the archaeologist making profound revelations 84
The C theme: the archaeologist taking care of ancient sites and finds 91
The archaeologist’s clothes 95
Alternative themes 100
Conclusions 103
6 Strategies of engagement 105
The Education Model 108
The Public Relations Model 114
The Democratic Model 119
Time Team and the three models 126
iii
7 Public archaeology reconsidered 130
Archaeology as a brand 133
Outlook: reconfiguring public archaeology 139
Ending 147
Appendix: Main Popular Culture References 149
References 155
Index 173
Note on the Author 182
iv
Preface
This book is about the meaning of archaeology in contemporary popular culture. It is not
a manual for improving the public understanding of the discipline of archaeology. There
will be important lessons for professional archaeology to be learned, but these lie on a
more general level than specific methods and approaches applicable to individual public
education initiatives.
Many archaeologists use the term “archaeology” indiscriminately to refer both to their
own field or subject and to the past being studied, for example in the book title The
Archaeology of Britain: An Introduction from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution
and in the magazine title Archäologie in Deutschland. I do not. This book is concerned with
the meaning of the field or subject of archaeology only. I am not disputing the great
significance of popular representations of the past but they have not been the topic of
my research.
I will be presenting important facts, analyses and interpretations and a few potentially
controversial arguments about the social role of archaeology. My intended audience is
professional archaeologists and others working in the (broadly defined) heritage sector as
well as students studying fields such as archaeology, heritage, cultural studies or science
studies. The book will also be relevant to all those interested in the field that has become
known as the “public understanding of science” and in studies of the depiction of science
and scientists in popular culture.
v
It’s not just archaeology,
its an adventure!
Acknowledgments
The research presented in this work was conducted while I held a Marie Curie Fellowship of
the European Commission at the Swedish National Heritage Board (Riksantikvarieämbetet)
in Stockholm, Sweden. All views presented and not directly attributed to others are mine
alone and I bear sole responsibility for the content of this work.
A very large number of people have assisted me during my research with various queries,
made many valuable suggestions, and some permitted me also to cite from their email
messages to me. I would like to thank them all:
Peter Alexander-Fitzgerald, Morintz Alexandru, Stefan Altekamp, Tanya Armbrüster,
Karin Arvastson, Neal Ascherson, Cissi Askwall, Håkan Aspeborg, Rainer Atzbach,
Michele C. Aubry, Kirsty Ayling, Josep Ballart, Paul Barford, Laszlo Bartosiewicz,
Jane E. Baxter, Mary Beaudry, Colleen Beck, Marion Benz, Ewa Bergdahl, Diane
Bjorklund, Rui Boaventura, René Bräunig, Mats Burström, Günter Buuck, Deborah
Cannon, Tom Carlsson, Geoff Carver, Alejandro Chu, Anita Cohen-Williams, Marvin
Cohodas, Cerridwen Connelly, Michael A. Cremo, Sarah Cross, Anton Cruysheer, Chris
Cumberpatch, Linda Scott Cummings, Anka Dawid, Tim Darvill, Eric Deetz, Kathryn
Denning, Heidrun Derks, Kurt D’Haens, Erik Dobat, Marcia-Anne Dobres, David Ebert,
Ernestine Elster, Corinna Endlich, Chris Evans, Graham Fairlough, Jason Fancher, Harald
Fäth, Kathrin Felder, Svante Fischer, Adam Fish, Lena Flodin, Meredith Fraser, Ingrid
Fuglestvedt, Amy Gazin-Schwartz, Duane Gehlsen, Björn Gesemann, Joel Gilman, Anne
Katrine Gjerløff, Alice Gorman, Roman Grabolle, Göran Gruber, Jonas Grundberg, Mirko
Gutjahr, Alejandro Haber, Per Hærnes, Graham Hancock, Meredith Hardy, David
Harris, David Haskiya, Henning Haßmann, Christoph Heiermann, Regina Heilmann,
Heather Henderson, Suzanne Hendriks, Don Henson, Carl Heron, Mike Heyworth,
Matthew Hill, Louise Hitchcock, Ian Hodder, Jan Hoff, Anders Högberg, Ingunn Holm,
Nadia Z. Iacono, Gyles Iannone, Ulf Ickerodt, Malin Ideland, Sarah Jennings, Gerson
Jeute, Matthew Johnson, Sarah Johnson, Desmond Johnston, Catarina Karlsson, Jean
Kelly, Renee Kennedy-Martin, Marco Kirchner, Ingela Kishonti, Ivan Kisjes, Kerstin
Kowarik, Troels Myrup Kristensen, Karol Kulik, Nicola Laneri, Josara de Lange, Maia
Marie Langley, Joseph I. Lauer, Cherry Lavell, Garry Law, Joanne Lea, Juliane Lippok,
Barbara Little, Johannes Litzel, Lilia Lizama, Troy Lovata, Gavin Lucas, Leanne Mallory,
Hans Manneby, Ingo Marzahn, Thomas Mathis, Carol McDavid, David Meadows, Krissy
vii