This episode is the third (final) installment of a three-part series produced by Eleanor Neil, contributing editor at American Anthropologist and Anthropological Airwaves. From the African American Burial Ground in New York City to the memorialization of violence in Northern Ireland to professional archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean, Eleanor asks archaeologists with different regional and methodological specialties to choose a single object or site, and, in their own words describe how this this site or artefact speaks to the interaction between archaeology and political or social identity across time and place. Here, Eleanor, an archaeologist herself, takes up the very prompt she posed to Dr. Cheryl Janifer LaRoche and Dr. Laura McAtackney in first two episodes of the series: to consider the role archaeology plays in the creation of contemporary political social discourses in the context of her own research on community archaeology on the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. 

Episode Transcript

Closed-Captioning

Further Reading: 

Counts, Derek B., and Elisabetta Cova, P. Nick Kardulias, Michael K. Toumazou. “Fitting In: Archaeology and Community in Athienou, Cyprus.” Near Eastern Archaeology 76, no. 3 (2013): 166-177. 

Counts, D.B. “A History of Archaeological Activity in the Athienou Region.” In Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, Annual of ASOR 65, edited by M. K. Toumazou, P. N. Kardulias, and D. B. Counts, 45–54. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2012.  

The Kallinikeo Museum 

Credits: 

Writing, Production & Editing: Eleanor Neil Editorial 

Production Support: Anar Parikh 

Thumbnail Image: Eleanor Neil 

Featured  Music: “Westlin’ Winds” by Eoin O’Donnell 

Intro/Outro Music: "Waiting" by Crowander