Overview

Sometimes, archaeological work is a performance practice entangled with a still embedded sensory presence. This book is but one point of articulation along the movement of fieldwork that traces a particular path of haunting sensory entanglements. Contextual cultural performances are meant to be archaeologically effective without imposing modernist boundaries. As archaeologists, we must be interested in the persistence of these uncanny materializing sensory entanglements. Fieldwork becomes a process of extending the 'artifact' assemblages of movement, experience, memory, and temporality to a more active presence of the past in the contemporary reality of archaeological excavation and survey. Fieldwork at Burnside bridge on the Antietam Battlefield near Sharpsburg, Maryland was meant to expand archaeological fieldwork from an emphasis on turning material culture into history by processing objects into battlefield action to one of adding a sensory-embedded 'culture of war' that remains on the surface of an unbound 'warscape' setting. Such materializing sensory elements show that the past is not a series of historical narratives or archaeological moments in time. Rather, some of those moments remain as movements that may materialize the presence of the past in particular battlefield spaces.

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9781523787760

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John Sabol is an archaeologist, cultural anthropologist, actor, and author. As an archaeologist, he has unearthed past material remains in excavations and site surveys in England, Mexico, and at various sites in the United States (including Eastern South Dakota, the Tennessee River Valleys, and in Pennsylvania). His anthropological fieldwork includes the studies of spirits in the religious beliefs of the afterlife among various cultural groups in Mexico (Mixtec, Zapotec, Lacandon, Nahuatl, and Otomi). His acting career includes ghosting performances of various characters and scenarios in more than 35 movies, TV shows, and documentaries. He has appeared in the A&E TV series, Paranormal State as an investigative consultant. His recent speaking engagements include the T.A.G. (Theoretical Archaeology Group) Conference at the University of California, Berkeley, at the Space and Place Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, the TAG Conference at the University in Buffalo, New York, Exploring the Extraordinary Conference in York, England, the C.H.A.T. archaeological conference also in York, and the GHost Conference at the University of London, London, England. His investigative reports have been published in such diverse venues as Haunted Times Magazine, Tennessee Anthropologist, and the online journal, ParaAnthropology. He has been a frequent guest on numerous radio and internet talk shows. He was a university professor in Mexico for 11 years, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on the anthropology of tourism. He has also been featured on public educational TV for U.S. and foreign markets, and has worked on international educational documentaries (in Spain). He has a M.A. in Anthropology/Archaeology (University of Tennessee), and a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology (Bloomsburg University). He has also attended Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of the Americas (Cholula, Puebla, Mexico), and has studied theatre and method acting in Mexico City.

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