Dissertation Research: Archaeology and Artifacts: Unearthing Identity

摘要本项目通过对在意大利庞贝城工作的考古学家的民族志研究，关注考古遗址的科学和文化知识生产。考古学严谨的“科学”性质在文化和民族认同的构建中发挥了关键作用。该项目旨在了解人工制品成为科学对象的微观过程，以及人工制品如何成为有意义的对象：“意大利性”，“欧洲性”，最终“世界遗产”。 意大利是一个充满了持续的文化和/或民族认同危机的国家，但共同的罗马祖先的叙述在试图产生“意大利性”方面变得重要。历史上，考古学帮助建立和合法化这种“共同”的身份。智力价值拟议研究的智力价值是研究考古学目前如何被纳入身份形成项目。作为意大利最重要的遗址之一，庞贝提供了最好的机会来研究这些工作过程。1997年，庞贝古城被联合国教科文组织列入“世界遗产”名录。因此，它是一个特别有趣的地方，可能找到一个新的尚未完全定义的欧洲或世界身份的形成。这个项目不仅关注考古学在社会和政治竞技场中的用途，而且还关注考古学本身的实践，以及这些实践如何构建科学对象，然后用于更大的真理主张。虽然考古学作为国家建设工具的工作已经得到了一般性的结论，但本项目旨在了解考古学作为科学是如何“产生符号”的活动，以及考古符号是如何形成和传播的，以产生遗产，身份和国家的叙述。更广泛的影响联合国教科文组织宣布庞贝为“世界遗产”遗址，指出了本研究的更广泛影响。长期以来，考古文物一直被卷入关于这些物品处置的重要而有争议的政策辩论中：不仅仅是谁拥有它们，而是谁可以将它们用于专有和叙事项目。这项研究将有助于这些政策辩论，以及欧洲政策界更广泛的讨论：欧洲理事会在其2001年前瞻性规划项目中明确指出，考古遗产将用于“欧洲化”欧洲。因此，该项目将对解决新欧洲考古学的科学与政治之间的界面的政策和科学辩论产生更广泛的影响。最后，意大利最近通过了允许庞贝城私有化的立法。私有化如何与教科文组织和欧洲理事会（它们本身可能存在分歧）更大的集体项目协调一致？通过拟议的研究收集的数据将有助于学者和政策制定者试图驾驭这一日益令人担忧的法律的和专有领域。该奖项由国际科学与工程办公室共同资助

Abstract This project focuses on the scientific and cultural production of knowledge at archaeological sitesthrough an ethnography of archaeologists working in Pompeii, Italy. The exacting "scientific" nature ofarchaeology has played a pivotal role in the construction of cultural and national identities. This projectseeks to understand the micro-processes by which artifacts become scientific objects and how, asscientific objects, artifacts become objects of signification: of "Italian-ness", "European-ness" and finally"World Heritage". Italy is a country fraught with a continual crisis of cultural and/or national identitybut the narrative of a shared Roman ancestry became important in attempts to generate "Italian-ness". Historically archaeology helped establish and legitimize this "common" identity. Intellectual Merits The intellectual merit of the proposed research is to examine how archaeology is currently being enrolled in the project of identity formation. As one of the most important sites in Italy, Pompeii offers the best opportunity to examine these processes at work. In 1997 Pompeii was "inscribed" by UNESCO and designated a "World Heritage" site. As such it is a particularly interesting place to potentially locate theformation of a new yet not fully defined European or world identity. This project not solely concerns the uses that archaeology has been put to in the social and political arena, but also with the practice of archaeology itself and how these practices construct scientific objects that are then employed to make larger truth claims. While general conclusions have been offered as to the work of archaeology as a nation-building tool, this project seeks to understand how archaeology as science is a "sign producing" activity and exactly how it is that the archaeological sign comes into being and circulates to producenarratives of heritage, identity and nation.Broader Impacts UNESCO's declaration of Pompeii as a "World Heritage" site points to the broader impacts ofthis study. Archaeological artifacts have long been caught up in important and contentious policy debatesover the disposition of such objects: not just who owns them, but who can use them for proprietary andnarrative projects. This study will contribute to those policy debates, as well as the broader discussion inpolicy circles in Europe: the Council of Europe explicitly stated in its Forward Planning Project of 2001that archaeological heritage would be used to "Europeanize" Europe. This project will thus have broaderimpacts in addressing the policy and scientific debate about the interface between the science and thepolitics of archaeology in the new Europe. Finally, Italy has recently passed legislation allowing theprivatization of Pompeii. How can privatization be reconciled with the larger collective projects ofUNESCO and the Council of Europe (which themselves may be at odds)? The data collected through theproposed research will be useful to scholars and policy makers attempting to navigate this increasinglyfraught legal and proprietary terrain.This award is being co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering