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REVIEW BY SHERRIE-LEE EVANS
Archaeology in Antarctica is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of archaeological practice in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. The authors have researched published, unpublished, and oral accounts of all past archaeological work in Antarctica to present a detailed history that replaces and expands on the previous summary of historical archaeology in Antarctica produced by David Harrowfield in 2005.
The book is divided into four parts, with the first providing essential historical and geographical background, unpacking the relationship between historical and archaeological evidence, and exploring the challenges of working in a unique geopolitical environment.
The second part covers the history of archaeological investigations in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic, challenging notions of a ‘pristine wilderness’, which are often applied to the Antarctic, by tracing the history of research into the material remains that survive from over 200 years of human encounters with the continent and surrounding islands. Encounters motivated by resource-exploitation, heroic exploration, and scientific endeavour, as evidenced in a wide variety of sites from sealers’ and whalers’ camps and iconic explorers’ huts and shipwrecks to the historic and current scientific bases of today. It also details how that research has concentrated primarily on documenting these archaeological resources for management purposes – for example, for building- and site-conservation works at Scott’s, Shackleton’s, and Mawson’s Huts.
This section demonstrates the influence Antarctic archaeology is having, too, in broadening an understanding of ‘rubbish’ as ‘artefacts’ that, rather than being cleaned up and removed, should be studied. An emerging consideration, identified by the authors, is the idea that studying archaeological evidence within a cultural landscape context can uncover hitherto unexamined relationships between human material evidence and its locality.
This concept is further explored in the third and fourth sections, which cover a history of archaeological research in the South Shetland Islands and subsequent reflections on sealers’ practices and experiences. As a case study, this material evidence demonstrates the role archaeology can play as a democratising process in ‘giving voice to anonymous and forgotten actors.’
While the focus on the archaeology of the South Shetland Islands, taking up more than half of the book, may appear unbalanced, the reality of the financial and logistical problems associated with conducting archaeological research in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands is a significant constraint on when and how archaeology has been conducted. Importantly, the authors have been able to identify, review, and make accessible non-English accounts of archaeological work, including extensive published works associated with researchers based in South America, as well as French archaeologists. What is not clear from the book is the extent of any limitations to historical coverage. Are we to assume there has been no Russian archaeology conducted in Antarctica, for example?
The book is a stand-alone publication and reference tool outlining the history of Antarctic archaeology over a 40-year period. However, it is also a useful companion piece to Susan Barr’s 2018 review of the protection of historic values in Antarctica over the last 20 years. It does this by placing Antarctic archaeology within a geopolitical context that will assist the reader with understanding the history of the governance and uses of cultural heritage sites within the Antarctic Treaty System.
Archaeology in Antarctica
Andrés Zarankin, Michael Pearson, and Melisa A Salerno
Routledge, £34.99
ISBN 978-0367192396
