Editorial.

Editorial. "I enter the church choked with the cares of the world. The glorious colours attract my sight like a flowering meadow, and the glory of God steals imperceptibly into my soul" St John of Damascus; 8th century A.D. Washington Cathedral, DC, otherwise the National Shrine, is amagnificent building 517 feet long, constructed (by privatesubscriptions) between 1907 and 1990, and dedicated to SS Peter andPaul. It is thoroughly medieval as well as thoroughly modern--a truecelebration of past and present. It has black and white marble floors,lofty columns, stained glass windows and bright blue, red and goldmosaics on the walls; it also features a Space Window containing a pieceof rock from the moon, and an effigy EFFIGY, crim. law. The figure or representation of a person. 2. To make the effigy of a person with an intent to make him the object of ridicule, is a libel. (q.v.) Hawk. b. 1, c. 7 3, s. 2 14 East, 227; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 866. 3. of Darth Vader on the north-westtower (children being among its designers). Walking into this cathedralhas no ersatz er��satz?adj.Being an imitation or a substitute, usually an inferior one; artificial: ersatz coffee made mostly of chicory.See Synonyms at artificial. feel--it is more like paying a visit to the springtime ofChristianity, entering a brand new duomo duo��mo?n. pl. duo��mosA cathedral, especially one in Italy.[Italian; see dome.]Noun 1. in 6th century Rome, Ravenna orConstantinople, and--at 7 am on a Sunday morning--full of incense andchant and more worshippers than tourists. Surrounding the cathedral is the campus of the Catholic Universitywhere another great celebration of past and present--and future--theFifth World Archaeology Congress was held in June 2003. Attended by 1300participants from 75 countries, the conference featured 560 papers givenin 20 parallel sessions (--sometimes too many to attract a quorum). Mostspeakers concerned themselves with solving the puzzles of the past, butmany pitched at the problems of defining and understanding"heritage"--the appreciation and use of the material pasttoday. Some even looked to the future: the possibility of archaeologicalsurveys on Mars--(something that has always appealed to me, I confess,since reading C S Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet). Like UNESCO UNESCO:see United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. UNESCOin full United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization , WAC WAC(Women's Army Corps), U.S. army organization created (1942) during World War II to enlist women as auxiliaries for noncombatant duty in the U.S. army. Before 1943 it was known as the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). Its first director was Oveta Culp Hobby. has a reputation for favouring the disadvantagedand dispossessed which can make reactionaries nervous. Old codgersleafing through the voluminous programme could be heard muttering"yes, yes, very worthy, but is it archaeology?" The prospectafforded by the titles of some talks might well allow codgerly feelingsto rise to the surface, but they are often disarmed in delivery, even inthat most academically vulnerable of topics, cultural resourcemanagement. Take Johannes Franz's interpretation and presentationof a pre-Columbian cemetery at Malacatoya in Nicaragua. Building amuseum there to house artefacts and stimulate tourism had brought littlesustenance to the very poor (who had lived by looting the cemetery), andprompted Franz to observe that "in Third World countries, the veryappreciation of the old itself is another product, imported bycultivated strangers for cultivated strangers". In a new venture ofsome ingenuity, enormous replicas of the objects found in the graveswere erected in a sculpture park next to the museum and local childrensubsequently took possession of their own inheritance by climbing on thesculptures--and at the same time provided a guarantee of protectionbetter than any police. In another example Tom King showed how assessingthe value of cultural resources in native American territories nowincludes intangibles like the purity of water or the protection ofcertain vistas. Isn't this really about planning?--of course; butit is also shows how a landscape is valued by people, in prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to , asnow. Native American George Horse Capture explained how such values areto be incorporated into the Smithsonian's National Museum for theAmerican Indian, and other native American, African American African AmericanMulticulture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.See Race. and nativeAustralian speakers showed how rich an archaeology is made from takinginterpretation beyond analogy into personal experience. Politics maysurface from time to time (as also in British archaeology), but can befirmly harnessed to the objective of understanding better what thingsmight mean. This broader archaeology can be said to open one's eyesto a deeper past through a deeper reading of the present. This conference put paid, finally one hopes, to the old-fashionednotion that Heritage is not real archaeology, but some sort of fringeactivity for people not clever enough to do Science or Classics. On agood day, heritage studies can claim to be the core subject ofarchaeological theory Archaeological theory covers the debates over the practice of archaeology and the interpretation of archaeological results. There is no single theory of archaeology, and even definitions are disputed. , not just because it is where past meets present,but because it is where all interpretations of the past ultimately meetand are tested; the place where the future of the subject is negotiated.Most of the papers I heard were not only "real archaeology",they showed with unusual clarity that archaeology is about real life. Itwould be hard to envisage a more exhilarating or colourful conferencethan WAC5. The predominant atmosphere was akin to joy, a gathering inwhich people found each other more fascinating than threatening.Conferences are meant to change the way we think, and this one did. Butdon't take my word for it: in this quarter's "ProjectGallery" we offer a variety of views from a broad spectrum ofparticipants about what the event meant to them. It was startling to hear Margaret Beckett Margaret Mary Beckett (n��e Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British Labour politician and Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South. She served in government under Tony Blair, in the office of Foreign Secretary. the British Minister ofRural Affairs announce on 29 June that the looting of the Iraqi Museumwas now considered to be "a pack of lies: things thought to bestolen were there all the time or had been taken away by the people whowere in charge of them before the war began" (BBC BBCin full British Broadcasting Corp.Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. Radio 4 The Worldthis Weekend). Since the anxious days of April (Antiquity 77, 221-225) aBritish television British television broadcasting has a range of different broadcasters, broadcasting multiple channels over a variety of distribution media. Major broadcastersThere are six major broadcasters: Free-to-air analogue terrestrial networks programme compered by Dan Cruikshank had attempted topersuade us that the looting had been greatly exaggerated. If lies dohunt in packs, it may be that here we are nevertheless smelling thewrong rat. Certainly WAC audiences were given plenty of reasons forthinking that there was still cause for concern and much to try and putright. On 22 June, Selma al Radi, Research Fellow at New York UniversityInstitute of Fine Arts The Institute of Fine Arts is one of the 14 divisions of New York University (NYU). It offers a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy, the Advanced Certificate in Conservation of Works of Art and the Certificate in Curatorial Studies (issued jointly with the Metropolitan Museum of , gave a blow by blow account of the events from 8April when Museum staff left the building until 16 April when it cameunder the protection of coalition forces. Although the audit stillcontinues, at this point 6-10 000 objects were thought to be missingwith many more damaged. The US commander in charge, Colonel Bogdanos,had astutely declared an amnesty on the return of objects and 2300 hadfound their way back to the museum by the end of June, including 207brought back in a single box. Reporting to the Assyriology Meeting atthe British Museum British Museum,the national repository in London for treasures in science and art. Located in the Bloomsbury section of the city, it has departments of antiquities, prints and drawings, coins and medals, and ethnography. on 5 July, Colonel Bogdanos updated to the tally to2935 objects returned, 1344 through the local amnesty and 1591 throughraids and seizures in Iraq and internationally. But some 10 500 objectswere still missing. Forty of the museum's most famous artefacts hadbeen taken, of which ten (including the Uruk (Warka) vase) had beenreturned. It is odd that so many commentators were enraged by thisimproved turn of events, which would seem to be only typical of agradual clearing of the confusion of war. Thirty objects would still beconsidered rather a lot if they had been lifted from the Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo(sŭt`ən h), archaeological site near Woodbridge, East Suffolk, E England, containing 11 barrows. Excavations here in 1938–39 revealed remains of a Saxon ship (c. gallery in the British Museum. With archaeologists entering Iraq in the aftermath of the war, thespotlight was also falling on the fate of its famous sites andmonuments, for example at Umma, Larsa, Umm al Aqarib and Adab wherelarge scale damage and looting had been extensive. At Umma (whichextends to 7 sq km) pits had been dug at intervals coming or happening with intervals between; now and then.See also: Interval as far as the eyecould see; the upstanding walls of palaces had been dismantled anddecorated plaques removed. In June, Joanne Farchakh, Lebanese journalistand archaeologist (also speaking at WAC) had interviewed looters campedon site at Umm al Aqarib. They said that before the war they had beenemployed at the same site for the Iraq state archaeology service; nowthey were to be paid for their findings and traders had encouraged themto dig vigorously while the war lasted Farchakh was in no doubt thatthis kind of looting was being caused directly by the fact that there isa market for the objects. There was looting, there was damage, and apportioning or avoidingblame is probably less important than this reality. Perhaps, aspoliticians say, we should now move on. Iraq's material past is alarge part of the world's historical assets; it is time for theworld to chip in to help save them, conserve them, evaluate them,enhance them and use them in the task of renewing their homeland. PeterStone, Director of the Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies atNewcastle, who was co-opted by the Ministry of Defence before the war,said that mistakes were admitted and there was now a real desire to seehow cultural heritage can be better served "in any futureconflict"; an encouraging, if sobering thought. Readers will be excited to know we are grasping the nettle nettle,common name for the Urticaceae, a family of fibrous herbs, small shrubs, and trees found chiefly in the tropics and subtropics. Several genera of nettles are covered with small stinging hairs that on contact emit an irritant (formic acid) which produces a ofdigitising Antiquity and are in discussions with various providers.Whatever the e-character of the eventual e-world, we plan to go onproducing our printed journal, which will continue to be distributed,ever more widely we hope, world-wide. But there advantages in digitisingin parallel, especially for the management of subscriptions andaccessing back-numbers. 76 years of previous issues, an invaluableresearch resource, can be much more useful, and much more accessible toindividuals and libraries, if searchable on-line. Some of our seniorreaders turn out to be the most trendy in this respect--retiring to alittle cottage means that shelf-space is at a premium, and an electronicAntiquity fits more snugly in the inglenook. We also feel that oursubscriptions could be better managed and offer more options if they toowere on-line. The current plan is to have on-line management of subscriptions by2004, and by 2005 to have the whole of Antiquity back to 1927 accessibleelectronically. The digitised back-numbers will be searchable by anyword you fancy. For a modest fee, payable by credit-card, any visitor tothe web-site can buy access to any article and down-load it. There willbe special offers for subscribers of all ages, and we will be sellingoff most of the hard copy stock of back-numbers over the next twelvemonths, dirt cheap. For these, and many other desirable opportunities,watch our web-site. Readers are invited to help us to design the bestservice by writing to the editor by e-mail or letter. How importantwould an electronic version of Antiquity be to you? And what method ofaccess and purchase would you find most useful? Please let us know. Martin Carver York, 1 September 2003