Associated Products
The Invisible Experts of Middle Eastern Archaeology: In Stories, Networks, and Visions (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: The Invisible Experts of Middle Eastern Archaeology: In Stories, Networks, and Visions
Abstract: Archaeology in the Middle East has involved, for more than 200 years, foreign-led excavations hiring teams of site workers from the local communities in the region. These locally-hired laborers have carried out the bulk of the shoveling, sifting, and dirt-hauling for most of the archaeological work in the region, but rarely appear in publications or even excavation archives. Their expertise and their perspectives on Middle Eastern archaeology have largely disappeared. But through a combination of ethnographic work, social network analysis, and emancipatory photography, I present some ways of seeing the often-invisible knowledge that local laborers possess about the archaeological work which has relied on them for so long. These strategies also suggest how we might adjust our excavation methods to be more inclusive, and therefore more produce a more accurate and thorough archaeological record.
Author: Allison Mickel
Date: 10/08/2021
Location: Williamsburg, Virginia
Panel Presentation at Unsilencing the Archives, Roundtable hosted by the Badé Museum of Biblical Archaeology (Public Lecture or Presentation)Title: Panel Presentation at Unsilencing the Archives, Roundtable hosted by the Badé Museum of Biblical Archaeology
Abstract: This virtual roundtable introduces our new online exhibition entitled “Unsilencing the Archives: Laborers at the Tell en-Nasbeh Excavations (1925-1936).” The virtual roundtable discussion features Dr. Hamed Salem, Birzeit University (Palestine), Dr. Eric Cline, George Washington University (U.S.A.), and Dr. Allison Mickel, Lehigh University (U.S.A.).
The “Unsilencing the Archives: Laborers at the Tell en-Nasbeh Excavations (1925-1936)” exhibit showcases archival documents, photographs, and film held by the Bade Museum that illustrate the untold stories of local laborers, landowners, and Egyptian reis who contributed to the excavations in Mandate Palestine.
Digital Exhibition: https://arcg.is/15Oiq00
Author: Allison Mickel
Date: 9/22/2021
Location: Berkeley, California
Primary URL:
https://youtu.be/vuxVySUq360?t=3439Archaeology-Activism in the Middle East. (Article)Title: Archaeology-Activism in the Middle East.
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: The history of archaeology is one of activism and in the present-day Middle East, activism makes use of archaeological spaces and claims. As such, archaeologists have no choice but to recognize their role in political struggle. Fortunately, there are ways to use this inescapable position to work toward emancipatory futures, and not to be co-opted into oppression and violence. This article asks and answers the question, what does that look like?
Year: 2023
Format: Journal
Publisher: Forum Kritische Archäologie
Legend of the Locked Doors: The Sexualization of Archaeological Site Workers in the Middle East. (Article)Title: Legend of the Locked Doors: The Sexualization of Archaeological Site Workers in the Middle East.
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Sexual violence in fieldwork contexts is an urgent and pervasive problem. In archaeology, much discussion is currently ongoing regarding how to change fieldwork policies and climate in order
to end sexual violence in the field. In this context, I examine a legend that circulates among the Bedul Bedouin community in Petra about an American archaeologist who locked women
students inside their bedroom at night in order to protect them from endangering themselves by going out at night. While I cannot corroborate the story with former students on the project,
studying the contemporary life of this legend can teach us about the confrontations of race, gender, and sexuality that occur on archaeological sites in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Examined in the context of research on Muslim masculinities and the myth of Arab men’s hypersexuality, I use this legend to argue that our approaches to ending sexual violence in
archaeology and other fieldwork disciplines should avoid reifying Orientalist and racial stereotypes if these approaches are going to be effective in making our fields safer.
Year: 2023
Format: Journal
Publisher: American Anthropologist
Social Anthropology at the Temple of the Winged Lions. (Book Section)Title: Social Anthropology at the Temple of the Winged Lions.
Author: Allison Mickel
Editor: Jack Green
Abstract: This contribution describes the role of social anthropology on the TWLCRM archaeological project.
Year: 2023
Publisher: American Center of Research
Silent Labor: Dig Workers in the Middle East (Article)Title: Silent Labor: Dig Workers in the Middle East
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Writing for the Spring 2022 issue of Biblical Archeology Review, Allison Mickel addresses this complex issue in her article “Silent Labor: Dig Workers in the Middle East.” An assistant professor of Anthropology at Lehigh University, Mickel spent five years interviewing local archaeological laborers who helped excavate two major sites in the eastern Mediterranean: Petra in Jordan and Çatalhöyük in Turkey. But her research is much more than memoirs. Mickel collected personal stories of these “silent” laborers and studied piles of historical documents to uncover how such archaeological enterprises worked, who the archaeological laborers were, how they gained their skills and knowledge, and what the consequences of foreign archaeological missions have been for local communities, cultural heritage protection, and the creation of knowledge. Her insights appeared in her 2021 book Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent: A History of Local Archaeological Knowledge and Labor, published by the University Press of Colorado.
Mickel documents how, season after season, large archaeological digs in the Middle East have historically used scores of locally hired archaeological laborers to excavate sites—to dig, haul, and dump excavated material. Her study reveals that many of these workers developed significant expertise in excavation methodology. But even though such projects would have been impossible without local archaeological laborers, these workers are rarely mentioned in archaeological publications and have generally been excluded from the documentation, analysis, and publication of archaeological research.
--Marek Dospel
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/48/1/20Format: Magazine
Publisher: Biblical Archaeology Review
Archaeologists Should be Activists Too (Article)Title: Archaeologists Should be Activists Too
Author: Kyle Olson
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Archaeology and activism may not seem like natural partners. Many people think of archaeologists as concerned only with long-gone communities, digging up and untangling stories of the deep past. But archaeology, and its umbrella discipline of anthropology, are, in fact, well-suited to activism—and not just because the logistical skills developed through fieldwork come in handy when organizing protests. As disciplines, anthropology and archaeology are entirely about people and about making sure that everyone’s stories are understood and heard—including, and especially, those of the most marginalized groups.
Year: 2021
Primary URL:
https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/archaeology-activists/Format: Magazine
Publisher: Sapiens
Outline and Report on Ethnographic Fieldwork Completed, Summer 2021 (Report)Title: Outline and Report on Ethnographic Fieldwork Completed, Summer 2021
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: This is a technical report describing ethnographic fieldwork completed in 2021. Filed with the Sela company.
Date: 2022/07/07
The Invisible Experts of Middle Eastern Archaeology: In Stories, Networks, and Visions. (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Invisible Experts of Middle Eastern Archaeology: In Stories, Networks, and Visions.
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Archaeology in the Middle East has involved, for more than 200 years, foreign-led excavations hiring teams of site workers from the local communities in the region. These locally-hired laborers have carried out the bulk of the shoveling, sifting, and dirt-hauling for most of the archaeological work in the region, but rarely appear in publications or even excavation archives. Their expertise and their perspectives on Middle Eastern archaeology have largely disappeared. But through a combination of ethnographic work, social network analysis, and emancipatory photography, Dr. Mickel will present some ways of seeing the often-invisible knowledge that local laborers possess about the archaeological work which has relied on them for so long. These strategies also suggest how anthropologist might adjust excavation methods to be more inclusive, and therefore more produce a more accurate and thorough archaeological record.
Date: 10/08/2021
Primary URL:
https://events.wm.edu/event/view/homecoming/125077Conference Name: College of William & Mary Anthropology Department Invited Homecoming Speaker
Open Access Advocacy as Communist, as Capitalist: OA's Uncertain Effects on Academic Labor. (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Open Access Advocacy as Communist, as Capitalist: OA's Uncertain Effects on Academic Labor.
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Activists and scholars promoting Open Access (OA) in academic research have been called, at times, anticorporate or communist, and at others, neoliberal or hypercapitalist-- by different writers concerned with the same issue: preventing the exploitation of academic labor. At issue is the question of whether open access poses more of a challenge to the for-profit publishing industry or to academics' control over the products of their work and effort. The ability to see open access at both ends of this spectrum is due, I argue, to a number of indeterminacies: how precarious academics actually are, the disciplinary differences in what access should be opened, and even the very definition of "open access" as a term. Most of all, though, the disparate framing of OA's effects on academic labor appears to be rooted in three different concepts of "research:" first, as a good, second, as a service, and third, as a "goodly service"-- that is, a moral and even charitable act. In this paper, I trace these three concepts through the literature on OA advocacy and critique, illustrating how each one points to a particular future for OA and its relationship to academic labor. With this framework in mind, I argue that movements toward OA in archaeology must contend with the ways in which archaeological data is labor-in-process in order to protect against potential exploitative consequences forewarned by OA skeptics.
Date: 01/08/2021
Conference Name: American Institute of Archaeology
Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent: A History of Local Archaeological Labor and Knowledge (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Why Those Who Shovel Are Silent: A History of Local Archaeological Labor and Knowledge
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Allison Mickel is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology, and Assistant Director of Global Studies, at Lehigh University. Her research focuses on how local communities have impacted and been affected by the long history of archaeological work in the Middle East. She has excavated in Jordan, Turkey, Kenya, and the United States. Her first book, Archaeologists as Authors and the Stories of Sites: Defending the Use of Fiction in Archaeological Writing, focused on the politics of representation and public engagement in publications about archaeology. Her new book, Why Those Who Shovel are Silent: A History of Local Archaeological Labor and Knowledge, is out now and examines the ways in which the economics of labor management and the epistemology of archaeology are intertwined. Mickel was recently awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to undertake an ethnographic project centering on two new private companies in Jordan advocating for the recognition of local expertise and fair labor conditions on archaeological excavations.
Date: 02/10/2022
Primary URL:
https://cmes.macmillan.yale.edu/cmes-colloquium-allison-mickel-lehigh-universitySecondary URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGNXltvJ1RkConference Name: Yale University Macmillan Center for Middle Eastern Studies
The Means of Knowledge Production: Towards an Economy of Expertise in Archaeology (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Means of Knowledge Production: Towards an Economy of Expertise in Archaeology
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Early archaeologists, especially those working in the Near East, have always relied heavily on the skills and knowledge of locally-hired laborers. Even in the present, projects in Egypt and Iraq continue to employ the descendants of the highly capable, insightful, and often innovative men and women employed by archaeological expeditions in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Still, despite their importance for the success of archaeological projects, locally-hired laborers have almost never contributed to the documentation of archaeological sites. In fact, they are rarely even identifiable by name in publications and archives, leaving in question the precise ways in which archaeological excavation has relied on their abilities and information. Ethnography and oral history can help to uncover the contours and contributions of local expertise, but as with any act of uncovering, we may find things we do not anticipate—in particular, the ways in which labor management practices in Near Eastern archaeology have worked to reward local communities for hiding, rather than sharing, their knowledge about archaeological remains. In this seminar, Mickel argues that rethinking how we recruit, pay, and direct workers on archaeological projects will be essential to engaging communities, exchanging expertise, and ultimately learning more about the past.
Date: 02/23/2022
Primary URL:
https://archaeology.stanford.edu/events/means-knowledge-production-towards-economy-expertise-archaeologyConference Name: Stanford University Archaeology Center
Flexi-local: The advantages of being both local and outsider within contemporary heritage management in Jordan (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Flexi-local: The advantages of being both local and outsider within contemporary heritage management in Jordan
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Since the 1990’s, a great deal of scholarly attention in archaeology has focused on our relationships to public, descendant, and local communities. Much has been written on the obligations that archaeologists have to those interested in and affected by our work, and within this body of literature, there is a theme of needing to hand over much control over the stewardship of the past to the communities that live in and around archaeological sites. This is particularly true in postcolonial contexts.
For the past three years, I have been conducting an ethnography of two Jordanian startups aiming to respond to this “local turn” by developing business practices that build local capacity for heritage preservation and management. In this presentation, I present preliminary findings suggesting that the founders of these companies have been most successful when they are able to fluidly perform local and outsider identities, rather than one or the other. I argue that this is not simply about language fluency or class markers, but is in fact reflective of the economy of the global heritage industry. These findings challenge the ease, simplicity, and value of discussing local community empowerment within critical heritage studies.
Date: 07/04/2022
Conference Name: World Archaeological Congress
The Power of Underprivilege in Heritage Development (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: The Power of Underprivilege in Heritage Development
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: In recent years, large transnational organizations working in cultural heritage and sustainable development have seemingly united with academics, professionals, and grassroots communities in calling for greater engagement on the part of local and vulnerable communities. Almost uniformly, best practices across these sectors state that local communities should be active participants in determining the future of the sites where they live. But much criticism of development and the global heritage regime aims at the frequent failure, on the ground, to meaningfully engage and empower local communities in decision-making and implementation processes.
This paper starts differently-- by looking at the successes of two startup corporations in Jordan working to increase Jordanian involvement and agency over Jordan's cultural heritage, documented over five years of ethnographic fieldwork. I argue that these companies have been effective in securing funding and opportunities in cultural heritage when they have emphasized their "vulnerable" identity. In grant applications and pivotal meetings, the founders of these companies laid claim to the impoverishment and disappearing traditions of their Bedouin communities. At the same time, however, these companies relied on their connections with American and European archaeologists to satisfy the bureaucratic expectations of the international heritage regime. These companies' creative navigation through the many barriers to substantive community involvement lays bare how communities must satisfy opposed requirements in order to be legible for the purposes of "community engagement:" on the one hand, capable and cosmopolitan but on the other, underprivileged and vulnerable.
Date: 07/07/2022
Conference Name: British Society for Middle Eastern Studies
ANTH 173: Archaeology of the Middle East (Course or Curricular Material)Title: ANTH 173: Archaeology of the Middle East
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Covers major archaeological findings from Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey, as well as historical context surrounding those findings. Learn about palaces, temples, fortresses, pyramids, tombs, and ancient cities that archaeologists have excavated—but also about who excavated these sites and why. Answer questions like: Who built the pyramids? How did writing begin? And: Why is the Rosetta Stone now in England? How has our knowledge of the past been shaped by the relationship between archaeology and colonialism?
Year: 2022
Audience: Undergraduate
Legend of the locked doors: The sexualization of archaeological site workers in the Middle East (Article)Title: Legend of the locked doors: The sexualization of archaeological site workers in the Middle East
Author: Allison Mickel
Abstract: Sexual violence in fieldwork contexts is an urgent and pervasive problem. In archaeology, much discussion is currently ongoing regarding how to change fieldwork policies and climate in order to end sexual violence in the field. In this context, I examine a legend that circulates among the Bedul Bedouin community in Petra about an American archaeologist who locked women students inside their bedroom at night in order to protect them from endangering themselves by going out at night. While I cannot corroborate the story with former students on the project, studying the contemporary life of this legend can teach us about the confrontations of race, gender, and sexuality that occur on archaeological sites in the Middle East and elsewhere. Examined in the context of research on Muslim masculinities and the myth of Arab men's hypersexuality, I use this legend to argue that our approaches to ending sexual violence in archaeology and other fieldwork disciplines should avoid reifying Orientalist and racial stereotypes if these approaches are going to be effective in making our fields safer.
Year: 2022
Primary URL:
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/aman.13802Format: Journal
Periodical Title: American Anthropologist
Publisher: Wiley