God Save the Archaeological Record with Bill Caraher - Ep 14

Tristan Boyle

July 29, 2020

It's your lucky day, punk. It's time to tear down walls and explore what the meaning of Punk Archaeology is and see what its perspective has to offer archaeology as a whole. I talk to Bill Caraher, who maintains the blog, Archaeology of the Mediterranean World and was also involved in the Archaeology Un-conference that spawned the book Punk Archaeology.

We begin with his journey into archaeological through latin classes and then Classics, then after doing exams, decided to be an archaeologist. Bill has studied and worked in Greece at sites like Isthmia and led projects in Cyprus. We discuss working in different parts of the world and how archaeology can have a profound affect on local communities, especially if they feel part of the history making. Bill talks about working with temporary workers during and after the North Dakota oil boom, where resources were extracted from the Bakken formation. Hours of video, interviews and paper documentation were made in order to understand temporary living places and people's relation to place.

Perhaps archaeology should be more open and encouraging, but in what ways can it develop if the same people are at the forefront?

Bill also mentions that if anyone is interested in publishing that they should contact him or https://ndquarterly.org/