Pamela Jane Smith
Personal histories
Personal histories is a series of seminars concerned with the history of archaeology. They are organised by Pamela Jane Smith of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. The next seminar, to be held on Monday 12th October 2009, is Sir David Attenborough talking about `Animal, vegetable, or mineral?'. The last seminar, on 16th December 2008 was Personal histories of TAG. The seminars held so far are: Personal histories of TAG; Personal/oral histories of human origins research; Personal histories retrospect; and Personal histories in archaeological theory and method: Processualism and the New Archaeology in the 1960s
The Personal Histories Project
A short report of the project's raison d'etre and on past and future oral-history events.
No more elegant tool exists to describe the human condition than the personal narrative. Oral recordings can capture the tone, volume, silence, emotion and personal meaning of events, the ethos and etiquette. Attitudes can be rediscovered and descriptions made colourful. A primary merit of oral recollections is that they can help to recreate the complexity and uniqueness of past experiences. History becomes enriched and more complete.
My personal-histories project hopes to introduce students and researchers to the enjoyable experience of listening to life histories in archaeology as I create aural and visual sources. These can then be combined with published literature and unpublished archives to enhance our understanding of twentieth-century archaeology.
The film of the first personal-histories of archaeological method and theory discussion, Memories of the New Archaeology, with Ezra Zubrow, Mike Schiffer, Colin Renfrew, Graeme Barker, Rob Foley and Paul Mellars, held at Cambridge University, UK, in 2006, is available online. This film has been widely distributed and used as a teaching aid. The second film, from 2007, with Henrietta Moore, Meg Conkey, Ruth Tringham and Alison Wylie examining their recollections of the emergence of gendered approaches to archaeological interpretation, is also available online. Perhaps the most popular retrospective was held 3 November 2008, in Cambridge with Meave Leakey, David Pilbeam, Leslie Aiello, Chris Stringer and Adam Kuper remembering their lives as researchers involved in the study of human origins. This occasion drew a huge and enthusiastic crowd. A volunteer group of media students, led by Silas Michalakas from Goldsmiths, University of London, U.K. is producing the film of these memories. This will soon be available to be used in teaching.
On 16 December 2008, at Southampton University, U.K., Andrew Fleming, Richard Bradley, Clive Gamble, Tim Darvill, Colin Renfrew, Duncan Brown and Tim Champion gathered to create the first history of TAG, (Theoretical Archaeology Group). The Chair, Tim Champion, introduced this session `an exercise and experiment in the oral history of archaeology'. Richard Bradley then made a salient point. He reminded the audience that when he came to archaeology as a law student in the 1970s, there were no venues in Britain to meet `one's own contemporaries, engage in theoretical debate, try out new ideas before a live audience.' Inspired by American social and intellectual influences and the Society of American Archaeology's meetings and by Lewis Binford and Kent Flannery's work, Colin Renfrew and Andrew Fleming started TAG as a meeting place at which `all speakers in a session could attend on equal terms rather employed, unemployed, new comers or ancestors to discuss new ideas.' Bradley concluded that, `TAG has succeeded in Britain by bringing together those two strands, the professional and the amateur/student, all interested in theoretical debate.' The film of this discussion is being edited by Emily Walker from UCLA and Sam Wakeford from Cambridge University. Once approved by the narrators, it will be available on the TAG web site.
And, you are invited to several future events. Stephen Shennan, Director of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, and I are organising an oral-historical retrospective of the Institute. This discussion will be held at the Institute in London on 11 November 2009. The panellists will include two 95 year olds, Beatrice de Cardi and Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop, who worked with Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler as they created the Institute during the 1930s. Peter Gathercole and John Alexander, graduate students during the early 1950s, Ian Hodder, one of the first undergraduates from the late 1960s, and three Directors, John Evans, David Harris and Stephen Shennan who will contribute their memories. The resulting film will be used during orientation for new students and as a reference source on the Institute's web site. It will augment Lydia Carr's research on the Wheelers.
And, Sir David Attenborough has accepted our invitation to speak about his experiences as Assistant to the Producer during the early 1950s of Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?, the most influential and pioneering television archaeology show in British history. Sir David writes, `I have many vivid memories of Glyn Daniel, Mortimer Wheeler and many others as well as having something to do with Buried Treasure, Chronicle and the Sidbury Hill excavation. It would be a pleasure to talk about this.'
Lastly, memories of excavating is planned for late 2009 with the Editor of Antiquity, Martin Carver, speaking on his life in the Army and at Sutton Hoo. Mike Pitts, Editor of British Archaeology, will discuss his restaurant at Stonehenge and will also act as Chair. I would be grateful for further suggestions from the readers of the Bulletin.
The project is supported by volunteers from many universities and a generous financial grant from the Africanist, Thurstan Shaw.