Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:57:12.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Leaping to conclusions: archaeology, gender and digital news media

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2015

Lucy Shipley
Lucy Shipley*
Affiliation:
Archaeology Department, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK (Email: [email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the autumn of 2013, a discovery was made in the Doganaccia necropolis close to the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinia. A sepulchre was uncovered, mercifully and unusually unlooted. Inside were the remains of two individuals and a range of grave goods, allowing the tomb to be typologically dated to the late seventh or early sixth century BC. One of the individuals had been cremated, while the other was laid out in a supine position. Both were placed on funeral benches similar to those known from Etruscan tombs across the region (Steingräber 2009). This excavation was as unusual as it was spectacular—the equally vigorous efforts of nineteenth-century enthusiasts (Leighton 2004: 12) and twentieth-century tomb robbers (van Velzen 1999: 180) have left little of the Etruscan burial record undisturbed. Unsurprisingly, there was a great deal of media excitement over the burial, as its excavator, distinguished Etruscan scholar Alessandro Mandolesi, spoke with the press of his impressions of the remains and their relationship to the artefacts found in the tomb. Little of his exact words remain in the public sphere, but the impression he provided to the press was clear in the flurry of media reports that followed his statement. The ensuing media interest and archaeological developments present a number of serious issues for the practice of archaeology in an age in which digital media can magnify the impact of any major discovery. In addition, the interpretation put forward exposed the continued androcentrism inherent in many sub-disciplines of archaeology, which, 30 years on from Conkey and Spector's (1984) transformative publication, remain locked in deeply problematic interpretative patterns. This interpretation of the Tarquinia burial is emblematic of a far wider phenomenon, both within and beyond Italy, which has serious implications for future archaeological practice. This article unpicks both the media storm and interpretative paradigms that characterised this case study, and queries archaeological responsibility and visibility in an age of 24-hour news.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 89 , Issue 344 , April 2015 , pp. 472 - 477
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd., 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, B. 1991. The deposed princess of Vix: the need for an engendered European prehistory, in Walde, D. & Willows, N. (ed.) The archaeology of gender: proceedings of the twenty-second annual conference of the Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary: 366–74. Calgary: University of Calgary Archaeological Association.Google Scholar
Arnold, B. 1995. ‘Honorary males’ or women of substance? Gender, status, and power in Iron Age Europe. Journal of European Archaeology 3: 153–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/096576695800703757 Google Scholar
Arnold, B. 2001. The limits of agency in the analysis of elite Iron Age Celtic burials. Journal of Social Archaeology 1: 210–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/146960530100100204 Google Scholar
Bartolini, G. & Grotanelli, C.. 1989. I carri a due ruote nelle tombe femminili del Lazio e dell’Etruria, in Rallo, A. (ed.) Le Donne in Etruria: 55–68. Roma: L’Erma di Bretschneider.Google Scholar
Bonfante, L. 2009. Gender benders, in Herring, E. & Lomas, K. (ed.) Gender identities in Italy in the first millennium BC (British Archaeological Reports international series 1983): 109–16. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Conkey, M. & Spector, J.. 1984. Archaeology and the study of gender. Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 7: 1–38.Google Scholar
Cougle, L. 2009. Expressions of gender through dress in Latial Iron Age mortuary contexts: the case of Osteria dell’Osa, in Herring, E. & Lomas, K. (ed.) Gender identities in Italy in the first millennium BC (British Archaeological Reports international series 1983): 55–67. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Gasperetti, M. 2013a. Tarquinia, scoperta tomba inviolata. Corriere della Sera, 21 September 2013. Available at: http://www.corriere.it/cultura/13_settembre_21/tomba-tarquinia-scoperta-archeologia_2088432e-22a2-11e3-b502-24e91794bc4d.shtml (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Gasperetti, M. 2013b. Tarquinia, il risveglio del principe etrusco. Corriere della Sera, 22 September 2013. Available at: http://roma.corriere.it/roma/notizie/cronaca/13_settembre_22/scoperti-tesori-etruschi-archeologia-2223235710733.shtml (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Ghose, T. 2013a. Oops! Etruscan warrior prince really a princess! Live Science, 18 October 2013. Available at: http://www.livescience.com/40530-etruscan-warrior-prince-is-a-princess.html (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Ghose, T. 2013b. Etruscan prince is actually a princess, bone analysis reveals. Huffington Post, 20 October 2013. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/20/etruscan-prince-princess-bone-analysis_n_4131828.html (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Ghose, T. 2013c. Skeleton thought to be Etruscan prince is actually a princess. CBS News, 21 October 2013. Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/skeleton-thought-to-be-etruscan-prince-is-actually-a-princess/ (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Hencken, H. 1968. Tarquinia, Villanovans and early Etruscans. Cambridge (MA): Peabody Museum Press.Google Scholar
Herring, E. & Lomas, K. (ed.). Gender identities in Italy in the first millennium BC (British Archaeological Reports international series 1983). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 1999. The archaeological process: an introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Izzet, V. 2007. The archaeology of Etruscan society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511735189 Google Scholar
James, S. 1993. Exploring the world of the Celts. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Knüsel, C.J. 2002. More Circe than Cassandra: the princess of Vix in ritualised social context. European Journal of Archaeology 5: 275–307.Google Scholar
Kreindler, K. 2012. Warrior princesses and weaving warriors: re-examining constructions of early Etruscan gender. Paper presented at the American Institute of Archaeology annual meeting, Philadelphia, 5–8 January 2012.Google Scholar
Leighton, R. 2004. Tarquinia: an Etruscan city. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Lorenzi, R. 2013. Skeleton of ancient prince reveals Etruscan life. Discovery News, 20 September 2014. Available at: http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/estruscan-prince-skeleton-rome-130920.htm (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Pinna, A. 2013. È di una donna lo scheletro trova alla Doganaccia. Viterbo News, 26 September 2013. Available at: http://www.viterbonews24.it/news/e-di-una-donna-lo-scheletro-trovato-tomba-etrusca-nviolata-_30573.htm (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Pope, R. & Ralston, I.. 2011. Approaching sex and status in Iron Age Britain with reference to the nearer continent, in Moore, T. & Armada, X.L. (ed.) Atlantic Europe in the first millennium BC: crossing the divide: 375–416. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rathje, A. 2000. ‘Princesses’ in Etruria and Latium Vetus? in Ridgway, D., Serra-Ridgway, F., Pearce, M., Herring, E., Whitehouse, R. & Wilkins, J. (ed.) Ancient Italy in its Mediterranean setting: studies in honour of Ellen Macnamara: 295–300. London: Accordia Research Institute.Google Scholar
Spindler, K. 1983. Die frühen Kelten. Stuttgart: Reclam.Google Scholar
Squires, N. 2013. Italian archaeologists hail discovery of Etruscan warrior prince's tomb. The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2013. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10328047/Italian-archaeologists-hail-discovery-of-Etruscan-warrior-princes-tomb.html (accessed 1 December 2014).Google Scholar
Steingräber, S. 2009. Etruscan rock-cut tombs: origins, characteristics, local and foreign elements, in Swaddling, J. & Perkins, P. (ed.) Etruscans by definition: the cultural, regional and personal identity of the Etruscans (British Museum Research Publication 173): 64–68. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Toms, J. 1998. The construction of gender in early Iron Age Etruria, in Whitehouse, R. (ed.) Gender and Italian archaeology: challenging the stereotypes: 157–80. London: Accordia Research Institute.Google Scholar
van Velzen, D.T. 1999. The continuing reinvention of the Etruscan myth, in Gazin-Schwartz, A. & Holtorf, C. (ed.) Archaeology and folklore: 175–95. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, R. (ed.). 1998. Gender and Italian archaeology: challenging the stereotypes. London: Accordia Research Institute.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, R. 2001. Exploring gender in prehistoric Italy. Papers of the British School at Rome 69: 49–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0068246200001768 Google Scholar
Winther, H.C. 1997. Princely tombs of the orientalizing period in Etruria and Latium Vetus , in Andersen, H., Houby-Nielsen, S. & Rathje, A. (ed.) Urbanization in the Mediterranean in the 9th to 6th centuries BC: 423–46. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.Google Scholar