WAC 10 Darwin, Australia 22-28 June 2025

Independent Session 19: Revolution: The Contemporary Archaeology of Mark P. Leone FORMAT: PAPER PRESENTATIONS WITH DISCUSSION Chairs: Dan Hicks, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK Laura McAtackney, University College Cork, Ireland Randall H. McGuire, Binghamton University, USA Mark Leone (1940-2024) quietly revolutionised the project of anthropological archaeology. He did so by continually reflecting on the nature of and potential for revolutions in our understanding of the past. With his passing those twin tasks of revolution and reflection remain unfinished and more urgent than ever.

Outlawing the Sale of Human Remains in the UK Dan Hicks, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK This paper takes stock of the progress of attempts to outlaw the sale of human remains in the UK, and places them in historical perspective. In doing so it introduces the "Laying our Ancestors to Rest" policy brief, published by the UK's The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Afrikan Reparations in March 2025. The paper offers one example of the history of dehumanisation - the 'necrography' of a skull-cup in London and Oxford, a story outlined in Hicks (2025). In conclusion it takes stock of the reception of the recommendations of the report among British archaeologists, reading that reception against the example of the skull cup to interrogate ongoing disciplinary resistance to regulation, transparency, and humanity. References All-Party Parliamentary Group on Afrikan Reparations 2025. Laying our Ancestors to Rest Policy Brief. London: Afford. https://afford-uk.org/wpcontent/ uploads/2025/03/AFFORDLayingAncestorsto Rest Policy-BriefFINAL 11.03.2025.pdf Hicks, D. 2025 Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and forgetting. London: Penguin

Invisible America Remembered: A Contribution to MAGA Studies Dan Hicks, School of Archaeology, Oxford University, UK This paper revisits Invisible America - a 1995 volume that Mark Leone edited with Neil A. Silberman in the Henry Holt Reference book series. It re-reads Leone's project of, as the book's subtitle put it, "unearthing our hidden history" through the lens of the multiple challenges laid down in the second half of the 2020s through Trump-Musk-MAGA-sponsored attempts to re-ignite the right's war on culture under headings like "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History". Returning, thirty years on, to the book's theme of what Leone called "the implicit ideology of traditional archaeological interpretation" in relation to landscapes, the historic built environment, and material culture, the paper considers ways of resisting new hard-right attacks on museums, monuments and wider spaces of public memory: reclaiming them as what Leone once called "places for thinking". References Hicks, D. 2005 'Places for thinking' from Annapolis to Bristol: Situations and symmetries in "world historical archaeologies". . World Archaeology 37(3): 373-391. Hicks, D. 2025 Every Monument Will Fall: A Story of Remembering and Forgetting. London: Hutchinson Heinemann. Tenth World Archaeological Congress

☀️Hello from Darwin, Australia where I’m co-running a session remembering the late great Mark Leone’s Marxist archaeology—and giving papers about banning the sale of human remains and archaeology as MAGA studies #wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress

World Archaeological Congress Excludes Scholar Affiliated With Illegal Israeli Settlement University From Congress Following outrage from archaeologists, WAC announced it would excludes a scholar from illegal Israeli settlement-based Ariel University from its WAC 10 congress. Palestinians call on WAC to institute ...

#wac10 #wacwithoutapartheid #worldarchaeologicalcongress #archaeology #🏺

We continue to call on WAC to implement an ethical strategy, avoiding further risk of complicity in Israel’s war crimes, for the organisation, its members, and attendees of the congress. We urge WAC respond to our March 31st demands in full #wacwithoutapartheid #wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #🏺

This decision is in line with international law, and WAC’s own ethical commitments, principles and resolutions (i.e. the bare minimum). #wacwithoutapartheid #wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #🏺

A red background with white writing in capital letters that reads: WAC Without Apartheid

AAA welcomes @worldarch.bsky.social’s decision to exclude from participation at WAC-10 Darwin an archaeologist affiliated with Ariel University, an illegal institute built on illegally occupied Palestinian land, and therefore a war crime.
#wacwithoutapartheid #wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #🏺

Through their cooperation with the military, all Israeli universities are complicit in genocide. All Israeli universities also carry out excavations of archaeological sites on Palestinian land, celebrated in government and military sponsored conferences. Furthermore, all Israeli universities carry out excavations in cooperation with illegal Jewish settler organisations or their regional councils. We have already discussed here in previous posts how Israeli archaeology has, since its inception, been essential to the apartheid state’s system of oppression against indigenous Palestinians. Here we are stressing, in the most unambiguous terms, the illegality of those archaeology departments and those archaeologists who occupy and operate on Palestinian land internationally recognised as illegally taken by Israel and those settler organisations. We reiterate again the need for the global archaeological community to refuse complicity. Do not recognise, legitimise or normalise the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Do not collaborate, cooperate or associate with those Israeli archaeologists who are confirmed war criminals.

References BDS (2025) ICC Arrest Warrants: No Platforming of Suspected Israeli War Criminals in Academic or Cultural Settings (bdsmovement.net) Maya Wind (2024) Towers of Ivory and Steel: How Israeli Universities Deny Palestinian Freedom NoArielTies.org Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees and Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (2024) Palestinian Academic Unions Commend Global Universities for Ending Ties With Complicit Israeli Universities, Urge Action From Others (bdsmovement.net)

🚨
#wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid #wacwelcomeswarcriminals #archaeology #🏺 #Archaeology🏺

The Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University has departments just like any other institute: prehistory, classical archaeology, Ancient Near East, biblical..... There is one crucial difference, the Institute is based on the Scopus Campus, on illegally occupied Palestinian territory. All archaeological research carried out by the institute is illegal. That doesn’t just apply to excavations on illegally occupied land. All research carried out at the institute, in its labs and offices, is illegal. Any archaeologist associated with research with the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, or with its staff, is involved in the normalisation and legitimisation of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, and of its oppression of Palestinian people and denial of their basic human rights. Any archaeologist cooperating in research with the Institute or its staff is knowingly cooperating in apartheid and genocide. Any archaeologist collaborating with the Institute or with its staff is complicit in war crimes.

Ariel University

The Institute of Archaeology at Ariel University is affiliated with the Department of Land of Israel Studies and carries out excavations in the Jordan Valley among other regions. The Institute accepts participants from all around the world in their projects—Malta, Switzerand, the UK, Finland, Italy, Germany. As an institute built at the heart of an illegal Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian territory, its very existence is illegal. All archaeological research carried out by the institute is illegal. Any archaeologist associated with research at the Institute of Archaeology at Ariel University, either collaborating with its staff, or participating in its excavations. is involved in the recognition, maintenance and expansion of illegally occupied settlements, and therefore complicit in war crimes.

Israeli Academia, Archaeology, and War Crimes

🚨
#wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid #wacwelcomeswarcriminals #archaeology #🏺 #Archaeology🏺

Working with war criminals?—illegal Israeli universities and archaeology

In the Occupied Palestinian Territories (both Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem), Israel continues to appropriate the past in service of its settler-colonial narrative. At the same time, Israel is also building an infrastructure which is meant to secure and serve a future for the illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. This includes universities. Some of those universities have archaeology departments, and those archaeologists are war criminals Israel’s illegal settlements have been described by experts as an ongoing war crime (under the Rome Statute and article 49 of the 4th Geneva convention). An ICC case regarding this is ongoing. Even countries that are equal actors in Israel’s genocide in Gaza (e.g. The US, The UK) are imposing sanctions on illegal settlers. The BDS movement have reaffirmed that, to avoid recognising, maintaining or expanding illegal Israeli settlements, all ties should be severed with anyone residing or working there. This includes universities and their staff.

All Israeli universities are complicit in Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and denial of their rights. Israeli universities are not just tied to Israel’s apartheid state and country-wide system of oppression against all Palestinian voices, they are embedded in and essential to upholding this system. This includes universities with archaeology departments. For a comprehensive list of each Israeli university, and the ways in which they directly contribute to the dehumanisation and deaths of Palestinians, you can read the PFUUPE and PalAST statement on the BDS website (see References). Here we want to highlight the universities with archaeology departments that are on stolen Palestinian land, namely the Hebrew University, and Ariel University. The former’s Mount Scopus campus in occupied East Jerusalem sits on land illegally taken from Palestinian owners, while the latter is at the heart of an illegal Israeli settlement of the same name (Ariel), in the West Bank. Both of these universities were therefore built in violation of international law, and both have archaeology departments.

The Hebrew University

🚨
#wac10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid #wacwelcomeswarcriminals #archaeology #🏺 #Archaeology🏺

WAC THINK THAT “DISCUSSING” WHAT IS HAPPENING IN GAZA IS THE SAME THING AS DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT. WE THOUGHT WAC WAS FOUNDED TO GO BEYOND MERELY DISCUSSING CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, BEYOND MERELY OBSERVING INJUSTICE, BUT WAS INSTEAD COMMITTED TO TAKING ACTION TO STOP IT. ACADEMICS CANNOT CONTINUE TO HIDE BEHIND FALSE NOTIONS OF SUPPOSED NEUTRALITY, CANNOT CONTINUE THEIR INTELLECTUALISATION OF PALESTINIANS’ SUFFERING, CANNOT CONTINUE TO CLAIM THEIR CONCERN IS WITH “DIALOGUE”. THE CURRENT SITUATION HAS SHOWN US THAT ZIONISM DOESN’T DEAL IN “DIALOGUE” AND DIPLOMACY. ISRAEL MUST BE ISOLATED.

WAC ALSO CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON ISRAEL’S ONGOING GENOCIDE IN GAZA, AS IF IT IS SEPARATE FROM ITS ENTIRE SYSTEM OF DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PALESTINIANS. EVEN IF ISRAEL WERE TO STOP ITS ANNIHILATION OF GAZANS TODAY, WE WOULD STILL DEMAND WAC RESPECT THE PALESTINIAN-LED CALL TO BOYCOTT THE APARTHEID STATE. THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA IS AN EXTENSION AND ESCALATION OF ISRAEL’S SYSTEM OF APARTHEID, HERITAGE CRIMES & CULTURAL GENOCIDE, POGROMS, SETTLEMENTS & ETHNIC CLEANSING... AGAINST PALESTINIANS ACROSS PALESTINE, IN GAZA BUT ALSO IN THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM.

IF WAC WON’T DISRUPT ISRAEL’S IMPUNITY, AND SUSPEND THEIR ONGOING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE APARTHEID STATE AND ITS COMPLICIT INSTITUTIONS, WE WILL BE DISRUPTING WAC. WE’RE ASKING YOU TO JOIN IN OUR LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN. IT’S NOT TOO LATE FOR WAC TO MAKE WAC-10 DARWIN APARTHEID- AND GENOCIDE-FREE. THERE IS AN EMAIL TEMPLATE AT THE LINK IN OUR BIO. FEEL FREE TO PERSONALISE IT, OR WRITE YOUR OWN EMAIL. DO MENTION IF YOU ARE A WAC MEMBER OR PLANNING TO ATTEND THE CONGRESS.

#WAC10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid #🏺 #Archaeology🏺

Also, write to us if you’re planning to be on the ground at the upcoming congress!
#WAC10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid #🏺 #Archaeology🏺

WAC Letter Template Send to: mizog@scs.kyushu-u.ac.jp ; claire.smith@flinders.edu.au CC: archaeologistsagainstapartheid@gmail.com Subject: Make WAC apartheid- and genocide-free!Dear Professors Mizoguchi and Smith, ...

No business as usual! Join our letter writing campaign. It’s not too late to make #WAC10 apartheid- and genocide-free
docs.google.com/document/d/1... #WAC10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid #🏺 #Archaeology🏺

The response by WAC’s current direction is a betrayal of WAC’s own principles, of the values of the founders, of its responsibility to its members, of our Palestinian colleagues, of Palestinians and their human rights, of international law. #WAC10 #worldarchaeologicalcongress #wacwithoutapartheid

We would remind WAC that their language is seen as a downplaying and denying of atrocities, at a time when, conversely, urgency is needed.
#Nakba #archaeology #wacwithoutapartheid #wac #worldarchaeologicalcongress #WAC10 #wacaustralia #worldarchaeology

My subscription to the #WorldArchaeologicalCongress list isn't working, but I dug a message out of spam from @mizog88 that I don’t fully understand. Has #wac9 in #prague in 2022 been cancelled / is it going to be a virtual conference?