HARN Weblog

Hi everyone

HARN member Sam Holley-Kline sends us the following details of his latest publication:

I write to share news of my book’s publication, which may be of interest to HARN members. In the Shadow of El Tajín: The Political Economy of Archaeology in Modern Mexico is now available from the University of Nebraska Press. A brief description of the book follows: Located in the Papantla municipality of the Mexican state of Veracruz, El Tajín is a UNESCO World Heritage site but a lesser-known tourist destination and national symbol. The Indigenous Totonac residents of the region know well that the site’s relative absence from discussions of global archaeology and heritage belies a century of wide-ranging labor, extractive industries, and commodity exchange. In the Shadow of El Tajin tells the story of how a landscape of ancient mounds and ruins became an archaeological site, brings to light the network of actors who made it happen, and reveals the Indigenous histories silenced in the process. By drawing on the insights of Indigenous Totonac peoples who have lived and worked in El Tajín for more than a century, Sam Holley-Kline explores historical processes that made both the archaeological site and regional historical memory. In the Shadow of El Tajín decenters discussions of the state and tourism industry by focusing on the industries and workers who are integral to the functioning of the site but who have historically been overlooked by studies of the ancient past. Holley-Kline recovers local Indigenous histories in dialogue with broader trends in scholarship to demonstrate the rich recent past of El Tajín, a place better known for its ancient history. The book is available at https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496234629/in-the-shadow-of-el-tajin/ with a 40% discount with code 6AF25.

Thanks for passing on this information, Sam. If other HARN members wish to publicise their latest publications, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us!

Best wishes

Jon Trigg

Hi all,

HARN has a new member!

Lisa Randisi is the Curatorial Assistant at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, and a doctoral researcher in public archaeology at University College London. She runs the Petrie Museum’s Archaeological Ephemera project, to shed light on the social history of early archaeology and museum practices though its material traces: historic packaging, notes, receipts, and other ephemera at the intersection between objects and archives. Lisa is now expanding this project to include ephemera from early Levantine archaeology through a PEF/Albright Fellowship, and is working to develop a Community of Practice for historic collections and researchers working with similar material worldwide.

Welcome to our community Lisa!

With regards,

Jonathan Trigg

HARN’s latest new member is Caitlin Clerkin. Dr Clerkin is the assistant research curator for ancient art at the Harvard Art Museums and is an archaeologist who specializes in the Hellenistic and Roman periods of the Mediterranean and west Asia. Her doctoral dissertation (University of Michigan) focused on the history of the 1920s/30s American excavations at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris, Iraq, during the British Mandate over Iraq, with a particular focus on archaeological labor in the field and in post-excavation activities in the context of the Works Progress Adminstration (WPA). She’s broadly interested in histories of archaeological and museological practice, archaeological labor, archaeological archives and legacy collections, and object biographies (including provenance) and collection histories. As a curator, she’s interested in public-facing narratives about all these topics.

Welcome to our community Caitlin.

Here’s wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and a peaceful 2026

Jonty

Dear Colleagues,

HARN is pleased to welcome a new member: Natalija Ćosić. Natalija writes:

I am an interdisciplinary heritage researcher, holding a PhD on the epistemological implications of archaeological heritage formation across disciplines. My research falls at the intersection of history of ideas, philosophy of science and critical heritage studies, exploring heritage-making through conservation and museology practices. As a senior preventive conservator, I hold the role of Lead Specialist for Conservation and Development at MuHo’s Shared Conservation Department, Norway. I advocate for a critical, participatory, equitable, and sustainable approach to heritage use and preservation.

Welcome to our community Natalija!

With best regards,

Jonty

Dear all,

HARN’s latest member is Natalija Ćosić. Natalija writes:

“I am an interdisciplinary heritage researcher, holding a PhD on the epistemological implications of archaeological heritage formation across disciplines. My research falls at the intersection of history of ideas, philosophy of science and critical heritage studies, exploring heritage-making through conservation and museology practices. As a senior preventive conservator, I hold the role of Lead Specialist for Conservation and Development at MuHo’s Shared Conservation Department, Norway. I advocate for a critical, participatory, equitable, and sustainable approach to heritage use and preservation.”

Welcome to our community Natalija!

Thanks to all and kind regards,

Jonathan

Today’s post comes courtesy of Susan Dixon. Please feel free to share your publications with our community!

Thanks Susan!

There are two recent articles in Papers of the British School in Rome which treat archaeology in Rome in the late 19th/early 20th century. They are:

Dixon, Susan M. ETHEL ANN BURTON-BROWN WITH BONI IN THE FORUM, 1898–1904. Papers of the British School at Rome. 2024;92:279-309. doi:10.1017/S0068246224000023

and

Brennan, Brian. RODOLFO LANCIANI AND THE SOUTHWEST QUIRINAL: FROM EXCAVATION TO THE FORMA URBIS ROMAE. Papers of the British School at Rome. 2023;91:241-271. doi:10.1017/S0068246223000077

Dear Histories of Archaeology Community,

The following comes via HARN member Ceren Abi:

Hello, I would like to share the publication of a new book titled “Constantinople through the Ages. The Visible City from Its Foundation to Contemporary Istanbul” to which I contributed. It might be of interest to the members of HARN.

Here is the reference and the link: Burgersdijk, Diederik, Fokke Gerritsen, and Willemijn Waal, eds. Constantinople through the Ages, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 09 Dec. 2024) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004710986

More information can be retrieved at the publisher’s site, Brill-De Gruyter: https://brill.com/display/title/71027?rskey=xIfGFp&result=3

Thank you. Best regards, Ceren Abi

Thanks Ceren; please feel free to get in touch if you have a new publication which you feel will be of interest to our community!

Many thanks,

Jon

Dear all

Dear all

The following information comes courtesy of Ceren Abi. If you have a publication you would like to share among the HARN members, please feel free to get in touch!

I would like to share the publication of a new book titled “Constantinople through the Ages. The Visible City from Its Foundation to Contemporary Istanbul” to which I contributed. It might be of interest to the members of HARN. Here is the reference and the link:

Burgersdijk, Diederik, Fokke Gerritsen, and Willemijn Waal, eds. Constantinople through the Ages, (Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 09 Dec. 2024) doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004710986

More information can be retrieved at the publisher’s site, Brill-De Gruyter:
https://brill.com/display/title/71027?rskey=xIfGFp&result=3

Best wishes, Jonty

Today’s post comes courtesy of the Society of Antiquaries of London and Ian Mursel.

When my Mexican wife Graciela and I recently enjoyed an ‘Open Friday’ visit to the SAL, we were delighted not only at being so well hosted (special thanks to Michelle Johansen, Learning and Outreach Manager…) but also to hear of a Mexican manuscript in the Library’s collections, catalogued as ‘Facsimile of Aztec manuscript’, no. BAA 39, presented to the British Archaeological Association on May 20th 1846 by Thomas Joseph Pettigrew. After identifying it through photographs, armed with our own hand-drawn, modern facsimile and a detailed 2007 study of the Codex by Patrick Johansson (Arqueología Mexicana), with the help of Librarian Becky Loughead and Archivist Kat Petersen we were privileged, on a follow-up visit, to have laid out specially for us (the exact 5.5m length of the library’s main reading table!) a copy of the early C16 Codex Boturini (also known as the Tira de la Peregrinación, or Pilgrimage Roll), the original of which is held in Mexico City’s Biblioteca Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

The Codex Boturini is treasured in Mexico as a key manuscript for scholars researching the Aztec migration from Aztlan, their pictographic writing system and cosmovision. First mentioned in 1746, the original was collected by Italian historian Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci, and brought to London 80 years later by English traveller and collector William Bullock, to be displayed as part of ‘the first exhibition of Pre-Columbian antiquities anywhere in the world’ in the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, in 1824.

Far from being just ‘any old copy’, thanks to faint numbers added to the SAL copy we’ve been able to identify it specifically as a lithographic copy made by Italian painter Agostino Aglio, the same artist who created a large-scale copy round the entire entablature of the 1824 exhibition… Quite a find!

Images: Graciela and Ian Mursell examine the Codex Boturini

Would you like to contribute a blog post? Please feel free to get in touch.

Jon Trigg

Dear HARNers,

Today’s blog features notification of a new publication; we are always happy to publicise relevant publications, and also have a page dedicated to member publications. Please feel free to send details in!

I would like to share that “The Long March of Archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean: Political and Cultural Entanglements,” edited by Björn Forsén, Giovanni Salmeri, and David Shankland, and recently published by Edizioni Quasar.

“The main theme that pervades this volume is the centuries-long ‘march’ starting from the middle of the fifteenth century and finding its conclusion in the archaeological practice of today, with all its facets, in countries around the eastern Mediterranean such as Greece and Turkey. However, the purpose of the volume is not that of providing a chronologically organized grand narrative. Through a series of microhistories and general pictures it aims to contribute to the formation of an articulated view of a complex, and long-lasting, phenomenon such as that of the (re)discovery and investigation of antiquities, not only classical, in the Eastern Mediterranean area, united not only by geographical location, but also by virtue of having been part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.”

For more information and to order the book, visit: https://edizioniquasar.it/products/the-long-march-of-archaeology-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-political-and-cultural-entanglements

I hope you will find it an interesting read!

Best wishes,
Artemis Papatheodorou

Thanks Artemis!

All best,

Jonathan