Life musings + following the dead to Ottawa.

Well hello again. My apologies for the long absence, but like every time that you might think I've vanished or decided to stop blogging: fear not! I have just entered hibernation mode or taken an unavoidable break due to the nearly overwhelming load of lab work, writing, science outreach (e.g. today in Natural History's Q'Rius space to an unfortunately rambunctious group of middle schoolers), or just wading full throttle into the onset of job application season.

All of the above combined takes a lot of time. I like to imagine that I'm fishing in the stream of life with a hook baited with stable isotopes and bone collagen. Not only am I applying to every relevant academic job in the US I can find, but also two grants in Australia, a government job here, three separate grants or jobs at the Smithsonian that would keep me around through 2016, a possibility at the Field Museum, etc. Whatever I can think of.

So, with all that on there's been precious little time to think new profound thoughts or create and share novel research beyond my current efforts to finish postdoctoral data collection and begin to write it up. And just survive, really; working to find interesting things to do each day to keep my spirits and energy up. Not to say that I've gone totally quiet on the illicit trade front. I'll share below two things of note.

Firstly, I was honored to be invited to chair a panel at the 16th annual Central Eurasian Studies conference, just held here at George Washington University in DC. The conference was hosted by GWU's Central Asia program and the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. Speakers were asked to think about the means by which new archeological data and databases from excavations can and should be used to aid in understanding the growing threats to Mongolia's cultural heritage and where current legal and CRM (cultural resource management) efforts can be strengthened.

You can view the final program here; full of great talks on numerous topics, but most not archeology related. It was a pleasure to host speakers from Yale's Anthropology department, and importantly, Mongolia itself (Institute of Archeology, Mongolian Academy of Sciences).  Just as I'd hoped, I was able to learn from experts, a thorough summary discussion was provided, and everyone was very comprehensively updated on the still-urgent situation in the country. Mongolia and Central Asia as a whole has been rather overlooked in global discussions of the antiquities trade, so this is long overdue, I say.

Secondly, I am very pleased to announce that tomorrow morning I am off to Ottawa (photo at left) for four days of a "working" vacation. Due to the good graces and hard work of my colleague and friend Dr. Shawn Graham (originally a Twitter contact, or "tweep"), I am being flown up to Carleton University to present a guest lecture on my and colleague's ongoing research into the online trade in human remains. My colleagues and I (Prof. Duncan Chappell, U. Sydney; Dr. Nathan Charlton, U. Technology, Sydney; and Mr. Brian Spatola, National Museum of Health and Medicine) are actively working to update Huffer and Chappell 2014 and expand upon what I presented at this year's SAA conference in San Francisco. Sharing with hopefully eager undergrads and grads, and having other informal chats with them about grad life and beyond will be great! I will be realistic but fair.

As this research continues and we work on a book chapter, we look forward to following more leads down the various "rabbit holes" that this trade represents. Where are grey areas between licit and illicit? How can or should social media platforms be held accountable for their role in facilitating this trade? How can the legitimate reasons for the acquisition of genuine teaching specimens be separated from private and collection of the dead? What about the trade in War dead? Watch this space.

For now, following the dead will take me to Canada and I can't wait. Haven't had a vacation of any sort for awhile now, so I revel in the opportunity. Perhaps the election of a new Prime Minister the other day will bode well for my trip? Now to finishing packing and get some sleep. Poutine, a beaver tail, and good maple syrup awaits me. Catch you soon!

On the road from the SAAs

Just a quick check in from the road, the road that's led to San Francisco. This, the 80th Annual SAA conference, is proving to be just as exciting and hectic as I suspected. I have enjoyed staying with family, getting some opportunity to explore locations inside and outside of San Francisco proper, reunite with old friends and colleagues (if only in passing), and learn a fair amount.

My first talk is tomorrow, in the long-awaited illicit antiquities trade panel hosted by Dr. Donna Yates and featuring a number of leaders in the field. I will provide what I hope to be an informative update on the research that Prof. Chappell and I have been doing on the global online trade in human remains which we began in Huffer and Chappell 2014.

My second talk will introduce preliminary results of the isotopic work I've been doing on some Bronze Age Mongolian faunal remains, in the context of provious/ongoing studies of human remains from the numerous khirigsuurs (burial mounds), in light of Smithsonian Anthropology dept. colleague's larger efforts to understand the origins of pastoral nomadism on the Central Asian steppe. I look forward to meeting in person some individuals I only know from their published work, and hope I do the cause some sort of justice.

So, wish me luck and good tidings. Fun (if tiring) times had, and more to come!

New human remains trade research in the SAA 2015 illicit antiquities panel

Its been awhile, so here's wishing everyone well! I am still brainstorming new ideas and directions for this blog in among the continued deluge of post-doctoral research and writing obligations, plus the added bonus of having family and future in-laws in town (tour guiding around DC...feeling like a local now). Life is good, but oh so hectic.

Therefore, this is just a quick place holder post to announce the excellent panel on illicit antiquities trade issues put together by Dr. Donna Yates for next year's Society for American Archaeology conference. San Francisco!! I am really looking forward to participating; working once again with my friend and mentor Prof. Duncan Chappell to present an update of the ongoing research into the online trade in human remains that we began with this paper and continued discussing here. Several new cases have come to light, and more undoubtedly will before April, thus providing new angles to explore, legal scenarios to examine, and further our ability to discus how better to achieve transparency. There promises to be plenty of pictures for sure.

The panel itself will be very hard hitting; covering diverse regions, numerous high-profile cases, grounded in comparative theory, and cutting-edge in focus. If you will be attending the conference (or will be in the San Fran area and want to crash the world's preeminent gathering of archaeologists), then come on by. More details of exact day, time, and place to come.

Human Remains Repatriated to Namibia

This is a quick post to report on the successful repatriation case of 20 human skulls to Namibia, after more than a century of storage at the Charite teaching hospital in Berlin (see the photo above left for an example). Namibia, then known as German Southwest Africa, was the site of Germany's brief attempt at colonial rule of foreign lands; a chapter in its history which ended rather badly. These skulls were taken from those who died in German prison camps during a retaliatory campaign of genocide against the Harero (Herero) and Nama (Namaqua) tribes from 1904-1907. This "first genocide of the 20th century," according to the article, was in response to a Harero uprising in January 1904 over alleged theft of land, cattle and women which killed 123 newly settled German civilians. The skulls were kept in a medical hospital to inform later eugenics-themed "research" intended to lend scientific credibility to Nazi claims of racial superiority.

It is great news, then, that these skulls will finally be returned on October 4th, with a reburial memorial and traditional mortuary rights being held on the 5th in the capital, Windhoek. As Namibia's former ambassador to Germany noted in 2008 (quoted in the article), the return of the skulls is "a question of retaining our dignity." I couldn't agree more. As this additional article points out, this repatriation is the tip of the iceberg, with the Charite museum allegedly having at least 7,000 skulls in its collections, as well as a variety of other bones, and several other museums in Germany the same; acquired under equally dubious circumstances. In their year of remaining funding, it is my hope that the physical anthropologists and historians involved will be able to collaboratively identify the most likely origin events that brought these skulls to Germany and arrange for their repatriation, after making sure that all relevant data that can be collected from them is. The injustices of the past should always be acknowledged and remedied as much as possible, but in my opinion, this does not excuse collecting all relevant information.

Grim Discoveries...

Exploration of side streets and back alleys in search of those scattered shops that still openely sell genuine antiquities has been occurring at a decent pace, whenever I can squeeze it in between my "day job" and those times that it's not pouring down rain. My investigations see me posing as a potential "buyer"/tourist off the street, to see who shows me what, for how much etc. Of the three shops visited so far, one only offered clear and freely admitted replicas of prehistoric artifacts (Dong Son drums, for example), but genuine historic period ceramics and 18th-19th c. statuary. A second shop sells a wide variety of genuin historic period pieces (mostly Han-Ly/Tran Dynasties) with some admitted by the owner to derive from shipwrecks off the central coast, but deliberately avoids handling prehistoric objects.

The very first shop I entered, however, was the most open about their activities. Located in the heart of the central Old Quarter district by Hoan Kiem lake, the "Van Hoa Viet" (Viet Culture) shop displayes two to three glass cases full of genuine prehistoric-historic ceramics (Neolithic period to Han), as well as Dong Son spear heads, axe heads, bangles (with human remains!), bracelets, a few beads, and several late Palaeolithic ("Da But" period c. 6-5,000BP) shouldered adzes, crafted from a variety of stone. I asked about price while pretending to comparison shop. It seems that, at least at this store, antiquities are also able to be bargained down if one can manage it. At all such shops I've visited to date, I was told that "friends" (middlemen or genuine friends of the family or both?) would call them personally when new items were found, or else go from shop to shop to sell what they could. It is my opinion that those who deal openely in antiquities here are probably aware of local heritage laws (which dictate that nothing real over 100 years old is allowed out of the country), but ignore them anyway. This matter will be investigated further-with caution.

In my remaining time here, I will search out as many other shops as I can; both in Hanoi and in Saigon when there. I readily admit to a lingering language barrier between me and my informants, but I can only do my best. Further thoughts and findings, and many photos, to come. Stay tuned.

Another Repatriation Case

It appears there has been another successful thwarting of human remains smuggling from Southeast Asia to the West, according to an article that has come to my attention today (courtesy of Museum Security Network). Additional coverage is here. ICE and Homeland Security authorities in New York investigated the suspicious origins of a package shipped from Bali, Indonesia (declared customs value of $5!), found to contain five carved and decorated "head-hunting" trophy skulls, believed to ethnographically originate with one of the many Dayak tribes in Borneo (Kalimantan). The skulls are believed to have been collected sometime during the 18th-19th centuries, although it is highly unlikely that any specific written records would tie these particular skulls to a specific location or time period; instead, appraisers would be required to rely on decorative motif analysis.

Because the total price exceeded $20,000 after a local appraiser "evaluated" what are acknowledged by the authorities, rightly in my opinion, to be priceless human remains, Customs could stop shipment at port in New Jersey. Amidst the usual speeches by officials of both nations, consultants etc. when repatriations are made, I find it unfortunate that these specifically Dayak ethnological artifacts (read stolen ancestral remains/heirlooms) were glossed as the "heritage of the Indonesian people" in this article. I have yet to find any information on whether or not community officials or leaders from one or more Dayak villages (i.e. longhouses) were on hand to witness the repatriation or claim the remains? I suspect not... The article merely suggests that they will be conserved in Indonesia...somewhere.

No information is given on the original shipper or intended destination, so perhaps that is still under investigation as part of prosecutory efforts. From what I can gather, this has yet to receive any independent press in Indonesia itself (the skull returned on the 16th May). Unfortunately, gallery webpages like this (the source of the photo above left) strongly suggest that a market for human remains still exists, with or without the participation of "independent," individual below-boards dealers on e-commerce sites like eBay. At least the above represents one more apprehension and, hopefully, ensures the conservation of these skulls for both future study and perhaps even eventual return to the appropriate community(s).