The Image of ArchaeologyAnd Archaeologists

Nazi Archaeology

Ownership of the Past

“Whoever controls the past

controls the future”

--Lenin

Appropriation of symbols

Ancient symbol of unity and purity.

Who owns the past?

What is meant by “owning” the past? How can the past be owned? What is gained by controlling knowledge

about the past? Who benefits from controlling such

knowledge? How do symbols invoke the past?

“The past” answers to issues of heritage and legacy, and to legitimacy.

Archaeology can be used to support or deny claims of heritage, sovereignty, and identity.

Archaeology and politics are inseparable.

Epistemology

The basic issue is: who has the authority to define the past and describe how or which events shaped the present? How is this authority granted?

Archaeology in service of the State

Racism and Ideology

Nazi propaganda to support compulsory euthanasia program.

Translation: 60,000 Reichsmarks is the lifetime cost (to the State) for this hereditarily diseased man. Fellow Germans ,that is your money too!

Nazi Party Archaeology

Ahnenerbe founded in 1935 and a wing of the SS in 1940, giving significant rank to archaeologists and scholars

Ahnenerbe - SS founded by Heinrich Himler and Hermann Wirth in 1935. The “Ancestral Heritage Society” may have existed as early as 1928.

Occult a key element.

Himmler

Principle: archaeology will prove Germanic superiority and primogeniture.

Objective was the systematic creation of a idealized “Germanic” culture.

Most research of the Ahnenerbe was based on the worst form of racist pseudoscience.

Ahnenerbe was a politically motivated academic institution.

Transformed theory of “Aryans” to superior race concept as nationalist tool.

Aryan doctrine

Based on the faulty theory of “Aryan race migration” theories made popular during the 19th century.– Fundamentals: A pure race from the northern

regions (Indo-Europeans) invaded India around 4500 years ago and displaced lesser peoples; spread language roots; changed racial character of ancient civilizations.

Chief administrator of the Ahnenerbe was Dr. Wolfram Sievers.

Sievers conducted medical experiments on prisoners in concentration camps.

Sievers

Executed for war crimes in 1948. However, most other academics involved

were unpunished and returned to their teaching positions in post war Germany. Several immigrated to the US to teach in American Universities. Many remained in universities until the 1980s.

Relics of Anenerbe Society

Double victory rune

Sievers

Nazi archaeologists and anthropologists in Tibet.

Iran

Tibet expedition. Ernst Schafer

Shafer with Tibetan leaders

Expedition mixed science with espionage and the occult.

Craniometrics for racial typing

Eugenics study

Objective to revive Germanic traditions based on volkish beliefs.

Combined folk tales with legends, social Darwinism, and biology.

Anenerbe had fifty different research branches named “institutes”.

Some research directly involved expeditions in search of clues to a Germanic past.

Combined neo-social Darwinism with Aryan superiority.

Important book detailing archaeological relics and discoveries associated with ancient Germanic past

Note insertion of swastika

Search for Aryan ideal in Germanic form became objective of SS archaeology.

Prehistoric “Nordic runes” discovered by Nazi archaeologists confirming Nordic origins of the Romans.

Excavations in Czechoslovakia. The goal was to prove earlier Germanic culture in order to justify “retaking” traditional lands.

Tiwanaku. Gateway of the Sun. Claim was made that it had stylistic similarities to Nordic construction and rune markers. Evidence in Bolivia “supported” the two moon theory.

Expeditions

Archaeological investigations were sent to Iceland, Tibet, Kafiristan, North Africa, Russia, the Far East, Egypt, and to South America. Others expeditions traveled to the Arctic.

The occult figured as a key feature in many of these “research” efforts.

Odd theories

World Ice --Multiple Moon theory Atlantis and Iceland as mythical homelands

of Nordic races Musicology used as evidence of Germanic

roots and tonal discordance among races Yeti Sanskrit texts as keys to Nordic roots to

Ancient Indian civilization

Persian pottery

Notorious

Institute for Scientific Research conducted experiments at Dachau prison camp.

Another wartime activity was collecting artifacts considered “Germanic” for return to Germany as a rightful patrimony.

Academics who contradicted or criticized the SS-Anenerbe were carted off to concentration camps in many cases.

Nazis are an easy target

Similar attitudes and “research” can be found throughout the history of archaeology.

The political aspect of archaeology is pervasive even today.

Less obvious but equally perverse tactics continue to serve governments.

Archaeology as “truth” paradigm.

Framework of knowledge and misconceptions: – Documents more trustworthy than oral history. – Archaeology more trustworthy than documents.– Archaeology doesn’t lie…the artifacts speak for

themselves.– Science reveals objective truth.

Archaeology as political tool

What is to be gained by archeologists in Israel or Palestine competing in research of the past?

Why has Greek archaeology ignored the layers dated between 1458 and 1912?

What has the history of the study of Mounds in the Ohio valley revealed about archaeology as apolitical tool?

Why are native Americans distrustful of archaeologists?

Image of Archaeologists

Part II

Who is an archaeologist?

A survey of undergraduates conducted in 1994 found that the majority believed archeologists: Work in remote and

exotic places. Hunt for treasures Carry weapons Hire people to steal

artifacts. Teach in colleges

when not stealing artifacts.

Are all white males. Are sexy. Are experts on all

ancient civilizations Work for museums. They compete for loot.

Some reality

Most archaeologists work for the government, NPS, State Parks, BLM, or Hwy Departments (such as CalTrans).

Many work for private contact and environmental companies.

Women make up close to 30% of active archaeologists with numbers increasing every year.

Archaeologists are more likely to work in an urban environment than a jungle.

Almost none carry a weapon. Archaeologists spend more time in the

library than in the field. Most are specialists. No one keeps artifacts for themselves.