Punk Archaeology

University of North Dakota
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Digital Press Books The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota
10-2-2014
Punk Archaeology
William Caraher
Kostis Kourelis
Andrew Reinhard
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PUNK ARCHAEOLOGY
Punk Archaeology is a irreverent and relevant movement in archaeology, and these papers
provide a comprehensive anti-manifesto.
“Archaeologists are at home in the dirt. When an archaeologist needs to get a wheelbarrow
of backfill across a trench, they build a bridge out of whatever’s lying around; they do it
this way because they’re in the middle of nowhere and they know the swiftest way between
point A and point B is to do it yourself ... This DIY attitude is how they manage to trans-
port & house two faculty members and five grad students in Syria for three months for
less than one lab in the med school’s spent on glassware during the same time period.
Archaeologists rely on themselves because they have to. They are the cassette tapes of
academics; played through one speaker, loudly, and full of passion, blasting a song that so
many people can’t understand the words to, but are moved by experiencing. PUNK ARCHAE-
OLOGY is filled with this music ”
Kyle Cassidy, Author and Photographer
“The <Punk> of Punk Archaeology exists as acipher, an empty signifier. The value of this
volume lies in its commitment to variously loading <punk> with meaning based on the epis-
temic uncertainties that mark human civilization and its study. This volume traverses the
supposed rules of theory and praxis, of art and science, of conservation and change, of
information and meaning by way of the unruly <punk>. <punk> helps these authors locate
their work and our world, not because it functions as a particular concept but instead be-
cause it refuses any particular mode of divination. As such, PUNK ARCHAEOLOGY offers all
academic fields a lesson for utilizing the anarchy of the cipher to negotiate the perils of
disciplinary rigidity.”
Brett Ommen, hobo academic
William Caraher is an Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota.

Kostis Kourelis is an Assistant Professor at Franklin and Marshall College.
Andrew Reinhard is a punk archaeologist without borders.
The Digital Press @

The University of North Dakota
Punk Archaeology
Edited By
William Caraher
Kostis Kourelis
Andrew Reinhard
The Digital Press @

2014
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND
This license allows others to download share this work with others as long as they
credit the source. This work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.
2014 The Digital Press @ The University of North Dakota
Book and Cover Design

Joel Jonientz
ISBN-13: 978-0692281024 (The Digital Press at The University of North Dakota)
ISBN-10: 0692281029
In Memory of
Joel Jonientz
Friend, Collaborator,
Conspirator, Colleague
C on t en t s
Introduction Chapter 7:
Bill Caraher 9 Nobody Wants Their Mom in Their Mosh
Pit: Some Local Archaeology, Fargo 1991-
PART ONE 1997
Kris Groberg 53
Punk Archaeology Conference
Chapter 1: Chapter 8:
Collingwood’s Goo The Young Lions of Archaeology
Colleen Morgan 63
Peter Schultz 15
Chapter 9:
Chapter 2:
Confessions of a Punk-Rock Archaeologist
The Punk Universal in World History Michael H. Laughy, Jr. 71
Aaron L. Barth 21
Chapter 10:
Chapter 3:
Memoirs from an Archaeologist Punk
Punk Provocation Andrew Reinhard 75
Joshua Samuels 29
Chapter 11:
Chapter 4:
How to Draw Punk . . . Archaeology
Punk Archaeoseismology
Joel Jonientz 79
Richard Rothaus 35

Don’t Stop Pottery Reading The Sound of Archaeology
Kostis Kourelis 83
R. Scott Moore 43

Punks and Antiquity: Reflections of a Reflections on the Punk Archaeology
Wannabe Archaeologist Un-Conference
Timothy J. Pasch 93
Heather Waddell Gruber 47
PART TWO Chapter 23:
Punk Archaeology from Caraher Trench Sounds
Bill Caraher 147
and Kourelis
Chapter 24:
Chapter 14: It’s Only a Matter of Time
Toward a Definition of Punk Archaeology Kostis Kourelis 151
Bill Caraher 99
Chapter 25:
Chapter 15: Woodstock, Landscape, and Archaeology
101’ers Bill Caraher 155
Kostis Kourelis 103
Chapter 26:
Chapter 16: Performing the Margins: Punk and Place
Athens Street Art Bill Caraher 159
Kostis Kourelis 109
Chapter 27:
Chapter 17: London Calling
House of the Rising Sun Kostis Kourelis 163
Kostis Kourelis 119
Chapter 28:
Chapter 18: Patti Smith: Life as Narrative
Punk, Nostalgia, and the Archaeology of Kostis Kourelis 167
Musical Utopia
Bill Caraher 125
Chapter 29:
Camden: Whitman, Smith, Vergara
Chapter 19: Kostis Kourelis 171
Punk and Place
Bill Caraher 129
Chapter 30:
Punk Archaeology, Squatting, and
Chapter 20: Abandonment
Metal Machine Music Bill Caraher 175
Kostis Kourelis 133
Chapter 31:
Chapter 21: Punk and Spolia
Bowie’s Philadelphia Sound Bill Caraher 181
Kostis Kourelis 139
Chapter 32:
Chapter 22: More Punk and Nostalgia
The Magnetic Age Bill Caraher 185
Kostis Kourelis 143
Chapter 33:
Rock in Athens
Kostis Kourelis 189
Chapter 34:
Punk Rock, Materiality, and Time
Bill Caraher 193
Chapter 35:
Broken Spider
Kostis Kourelis 197
Chapter 36:
Sonic Archaeology
Kostis Kourelis 203
Chapter 37:
Zeppelin Archaeology
Kostis Kourelis 209
APPENDIX
Punk Archaeology Lyrics 215
About the Authors 229

“Bill Caraher”
Sketch Richard Rothaus
Used by permission
Introduction
Punk Archaeology
Bill Caraher
Punk Archaeology always requires a bit of explanation. This little volume is meant to be a
step in that direction. My hope is that the book will serve as a prompt to spur reflection on
the coincidence of punk rock music (or rock music more broadly) and the study of the past.
The idea of a Punk Archaeology developed from a series of blog posts by both my-
self and Kostis Kourelis, prepared from 2008 to 2011. These posts mostly appeared at the
blog Punk Archaeology (http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com), and the best of those posts
have been collated as Part 2 of this book. If you want a manifesto, check out Chapter 14
after this introduction, but it’s not necessary. We began with the observation that quite a
few archaeologists had some interest in punk rock music. This coincidence prompted us to
think about how punk rock music and the larger aesthetic and lifestyle associated with that
musical form influenced archaeology. We followed these thoughts in direction ranging from
the archaeology of rock music to parallels between the Punk and archaeology as practical
and creative processes. The result was a kaleidoscopic manifesto called Punk Archaeology.
Encouragement from friends and colleagues prompted us to consider turning the blog into
something more. It felt vaguely like being asked to turn our live shows into a record.
This is where Aaron Barth, a Ph.D. candidate in history at North Dakota State Uni-
versity and an archaeologist, stepped in. He and I had conversations about Punk Archaeolo-
gy over the course of some collaborative fieldwork, and he finally persuaded us to take Punk
Archaeology from the provisional space of the blog to more tangible space of a colloquium in
Fargo. This happened on February 2, 2013.
When we started to spread the word about this colloquium, a great group of scholars
stepped forward to contribute. Richard Rothaus signed on to talk about his experiences of
visiting Turkey in the immediate aftermath of devastating earthquakes. Josh Samuels probed
the limits of archaeological responsibility when the studying fascist architecture in Sicily.
Peter Schultz presented a challenging epistemological intervention that connected punk rock
to European intellectual movements. Kris Groberg anchored our Punk-inspired musings in
the very local and intimate setting of Fargo/Moorhead, while Aaron Barth took the local in
universal directions. Andrew Reinhard concluded the spoken word section of the program
with a reminder that this is also about the music. The papers here offer some of the flavor
of the night.
We combined these eager contributors with an intriguing group of bands including
one fronted by archaeologist Andrew Reinhard and locked down by drummer Aaron Barth
and Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Music and electronic music revolutionary Mike
Wittgraf. The chaos of the night was urged along by musicians from the Fargo Punk band
Les Dirty Frenchmen and What Kingswood Needs. Local indie-music icon and philosophical
10
ruminator, June Panic, gave depth to the evening with a brilliant acoustic set. Panic’s cover
of the Ex Pistols’ “Revolution in the Classroom” brings to mind questions of authenticity
and authority. “Power is the order of the day,” right? Andrew Reinhard’s archaeologically
themed set showed that punk rock could express the anxieties of archaeology as a discipline,
a profession, and as practice just as well as it could express suburban, urban, political, or
class dissent. What Kingswood Needs returned to the core product of Punk by blending en-
tertainment and challenges.
In keeping with the broadly popular attitudes of punk rock, we presented our papers
at a public venue, the Sidestreet Grille & Pub in Fargo. The presenters sat in the audience,
were introduced by a bullhorn, and the papers and music were recorded (as Tim Pasch de-
tails in this volume). As the papers collected here attest, the first Punk Archaeology uncon-
ference provided everyone in attendance with an opportunity to interrogate the borders of
the academy, popular culture, and loud, chaotic, and confused social critique. We asked that
the papers be kept short—in the spirit of Punk— and we even encouraged our contributors to
present their ideas in as raw a way as they felt comfortable. We also invited a few papers
from veteran punk archaeologists, and a few overcame their skepticism to contribute to our
modest volume: Mike Laughy, Colleen Morgan, Heather Waddell Gruber, and R. Scott Moore.
Any venture like this requires significant gestures of appreciation. First and fore-
most, Aaron Barth did most of the footwork required to organize the unconference, arrange
for music, and shepherd the receipts through proper channels. The North Dakota Humani-
ties Council and Tom Isern’s Center for Heritage Renewal at North Dakota State University
served as our patrons of Punk and provided funding and logistical support. Additional fund-
ing was also given by the Laughing Sun Brewing Company in Bismarck. Joel Jonientz from
the University of North Dakota’s Department of Art and Design (an individual of deeply
Punk leanings) provided the artwork and moral support. Tim Pasch (of the University of
North Dakota’s Department of English and Communication Program), Caleb Holthusen, and
Chad Bushy from the University of North Dakota took time out of their weekend to provide
expert sound and technical support. The bands that entertained us, and my colleagues who
presented papers and came out to support our adventure, gave me hope that what we were
trying to do could make sense. Thanks also go to the management and staff of the Sidestreet
Grille & Pub in Fargo for hosting our event.
Andrew Reinhard deserves special thanks. He and Aaron Barth were the only two
people to bridge the gap between Punk as performance and as bundle of ideas, influences,
and inspirations. Just as at the unconference, he’s provided a healthy dose of Punk in his
embrace of this book’s Open Access, DIY process, but at the same time, he’s been an effi-
cient professional as he shepherded this volume through the editing and publication process.
Like an editorial Rick Rubin (or John Cale), Andrew managed to bring these papers and
11
blog posts together without weakening their spontaneous character.
He is also to thank for posting the music and talks from the night to Soundcloud. I
hope that these communicate the exuberant spirit of that cold February night in Fargo and
serve as a perfect accompaniment to these essays.
Finally, this book would not be in its current state without careful readings by Dan-
iel Pett, Susan Caraher, and Joel Jonientz. Their careful and attentive eyes caught many a
mistake.
Note
Listen to/download the Punk Archaeology album here:
https://soundcloud.com/charinos/sets/punk-archaeology
Listen to/download the Punk Archaeology unconference:
Spoken Word:
https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks
Andrew Reinhard/Aaron Barth:

https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/punk-archaeology-andrew
Les Filthy Trenchmen:

https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/punk-archaeology-the-filthy
June Panic:
https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/june-panic-live-and-unplugged
What Kingswood Needs:

https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/punk-archaeology-what
12
PA RT One
Punk Archaeology Unconference
C hap t er One
Collingwood’s Goo
Peter Schultz
For Richard Gilmore, friend, mentor, hero.

Problem, problem, problem, the problem is you, what you gonna do
—Sex Pistols, “Problems”
I was gonna call this short essay “Collingwood’s (S)punk.” Then I would’ve had a hip par-
enthetical mixed with a topical pun mixed with a spurt of sexual irreverence. But “goo” is
better. Collingwood liked goo. Goo is good.
R. G. Collingwood is the patron saint of Punk Archaeology. That’s why his goo is rel-
evant here. We punks are his daughters and sons, his progeny unknown. Collingwood and his
goo made us possible. Or, rather, he helped make the celebration of the metacritical dialectic
possible— before it was hip. Because we Punk Archaeologists are all meta-critical, dialectical
hipsters. We punks revel in the self-conscious study of historical processes. As did Colling-
wood. We revel in archaeologies that are archaeologies of human actions. As did Collingwood.
And we punks see our body of evidence as being composed of dynamic, reflective detritus,
the detritus of dynamic human minds and human intentions. As did Collingwood. As emotion-
al and subjective entities, we punks never study the “unfiltered past” (whatever the fuck
that’s supposed to mean). Rather, we read and create our histories through our own— known
and unknown —presuppositions. The proto-punk, Collingwood, called this the “second degree of
reflective philosophy,” and we punks dig it. We dig thinking about our own thoughts about
our own histories. We like the eternal regress created therein, the mirror within a mirror
within a mirror, the infinite reflection of process, a mind studying itself. And we revel in
the fact that the colors of our mirrors are tinted by the political, philosophical, social, ideo-
logical, and cultural frames that hold them. Goo is good.
“But why not just invoke Nietzsche here?” you might be asking yourself. (Maybe be-
cause you remember that Michael Hinz has demonstrated some important similarities between
Nietzsche’s and Collingwood’s views of history, specifically their entwined views of agency
and transformation; or maybe because Mark Sinclair has shown that Nietzsche conceived the
practice of history as being both fundamentally creative —as did Collingwood —and partially
subjective—, as did Collingwood.) But Nietzsche won’t do. He wasn’t an archaeologist, he was
half-mad, and Germans don’t know shit about Punk. You ever try listening to German punk?
Big Balls and the Great White Idiots? A bunch of pseudo-Nazis screaming Sex Pistols cov-
ers? Pathetic. The patron saint of Punk Archaeology has gotta be an archaeologist. He’s
gotta be at least half-sane. And he’s gotta be British. (That Collingwood was heavily influ-
enced by both Kant and Hegel doesn’t disqualify him.) Triple-check. Goo is good.
16
“Robin G. Collingwood”
Wikimedia Commons, CC0
Oh God save history, God save your mad parade, oh Lord God have mercy,
All crimes are paid
—Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen”
As a goo-loving, goo-spewing proto-punk, Collingwood rejected the flaccid inductive gener-

alizations so common in the lamest of histories and archaeologies. And we punks follow him.
Part of our Punk project is to try to recover potential meanings, to battle against entropy,
to both create and reflect cultures and the minds that generated and reflected them. Our
project is not to prove claims “true” or “false” or “wrong” or “right,” or to look for mere
facts. Epistemologies and motivations are held by all past, present, and future people s—even
when they are poorly understood by themselves, by ourselves, or by other historical agents.
There is, then, the possibility of historical and archaeological understanding, for Colling-
wood and for punks, insofar as a we can (dare to) step behind the eyes and into the shoes
of our subjects of study and (dare to) debate, approximate, and synthesize within the ever-
shifting boundaries of the evidence. An archaeological understanding is possible by way of
the archaeological imagination. Does this mean that we punks somehow mystically channel
or magically commune with past agents? Hardly. (Jean Rudhardt’s famous remark regard-
ing ancient Greek religion—“Le difficulté principale de l’étude des religions me paraît être celle de
la compréhension d’autrui”—can apply with equal force to the study of all archaeologies.) Does
it mean that we just make shit up? Hell no. It just means that Collingwood and us punks
believe that all human-historians share some conceptual common ground that we often (self-
consciously or not) evoke when we try to understand each other. We punks, following our
patron saint, simply own this reality that we believe to be inherent in our processes. Of
course, we know that this common ground was gooey. This was why Punk Archaeologists
love the recovery, description, and analysis of physical evidence. Whatever common human
goo might exist across time and space, physical data can provide a boundary and a means
by which we can explore this goo’s meanings without letting the archaeological imagination
completely off the chain. We punks share Collingwood’s passion for the concrete. But the
concrete both generates and reflects its meanings in juxtaposition with goo. And goo is good.
Action— both for punks and for Collingwood —is key. Action —both for punks and for
Collingwood— is a necessary mode of being and the subject of the historico-archaeological
project. Punk Archaeology rejects the traditional academy insofar as it is committed to a
culture of privileged, solipsistic navel-gazing. (Privileged, solipsistic navel-gazing is “ac-
tion,” to be sure, but it is the limp action of a castrated intelligentsia rendered incompetent
by their own limp habits.) Punk Archaeologists embody theory in deed. Punk Archaeologists
18
merge idea with praxis. Punks make history. Punks are history. Punks act. Punks do. Punks
kick ass. There is little doubt that Collingwood was a doer, a man of action, but he also
believed that we are all historical agents, that we all make things happen. (And by “all,” I
mean all humans, past, present, and future.) “When we think of history as merely a trade or
profession, a craft or calling, we find it hard to justify our existence as historians,” Collin-
gwood writes in The Philosophy of History (1930).
What can the historian do for people except turn them into historians like himself?
And what is the good of doing that? It is not simply a vicious circle, whose tendency is to
overcrowd the ranks of the profession and to produce an underpaid “intellectual proletariat”
of sweated teachers. This may be a valid argument against the multiplication of historians,
if history is merely a profession, but it cannot be if history is a universal human interest;
for in that case there are already as many historians as there are human beings, and the
question is not “Shall I be an historian or not?” but “How good an historian shall I be?”
To be human is to be a historian. To be human is to act, to both make and record and
frolic in the goo of history. Goo is good.
Don’t be told what you want, don’t be told what you need
—Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen”
Bibliography
All Sex Pistols lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/s/sexpistols.html
Browning, G., 2004. Rethinking R. G. Collingwood. Basingstoke.
Collingwood, R. G. 1930. The Philosophy of History. London Historical Association.
. 1999. The Principles of History, W. H. Dray and Jan Van der Dussen (eds.). Oxford
University Press.
Dray, W. H. 1994. “Was Collingwood an Historical Constructionist?” Collingwood Studies, 1:

59–75.
—. 1995. History as Re-enactment: R. G. Collingwood’s Idea of History. Clarendon Press.
D’Oro, G. 2002. Collingwood and the Metaphysics of Experience. Routledge.

19
Helgeby, 2004. Action as History: The Historical Thought of R. G. Collingwood. Imprint
Academic.
Hinz, M. 1993. Self-Creation and History: Collingwood and Nietzsche on Conceptual Change.
University Press of America.
Hughes-Warrington, M. T. E. 1996. “‘How Good an Historian Shall I Be?’: R. G. Collingwood

on Education.” Oxford Review of Education 22. 2:217–235.
Sinclair, M. 2004. “Nietzsche and the Problem of History.” Richmond Journal of Philosophy
8 (Winter 2004): 1–6.
20
C hap t er T wo
Considering the Universal Punk
in World History
Aaron L. Barth
“Diogenes of Sinope”
Wikimedia Commons, public domain
This line of thought came to me in the autumn of 2012 while organizing a global Punk Ar-
chaeology un-conference in Fargo, North Dakota; while assisting in an introductory Western
Civilization survey course; while revisiting the works of Samuel Johnson; and while giving
two lectures in a course on historic preservation that started with Alexander the Great and
ended with Iggy Pop. Everything culminated in the idea of the Universal Punk, or a Punk
Universal in world history.1
To be Punk, at its root, is to defy convention, or perceived convention. Punk spills
in and out of one generation and into the next, and thus the idea of a Universal Punk is
created. Sure, when Punk is mentioned, the conversation eventually leads to remarks about
what is or is not Punk. Statements such as “That guy is a poseur!” or “That girl dresses
Punk, but she’s really a hipster!” do just as much to define Punk as they do to describe
what someone is not.2 So if someone says, “That is not Punk,” they are saying just as much
about themselves as they are about others. Certainly there is an aesthetic to Punk, but this
is similar to the way there was an aesthetic to Ancient Greek philosophers, monastic monks,
or today’s professoriate.
To draw out this abstract idea of Punk through the generations and ages, from an-
tiquity and up to the present, requires some points of reference. A first point of Punk to
consider, in the sense that it is defined as unconventional, is that of a cynic, which comes
to us in Latin as cynicus, and in Greek as kunikos. It is popularly connected with the
phrase “doglike” or “churlish.” One of the earliest punk ethos practitioners was Diogenes of
Sinope, a Hellenistic Greek philosopher who purportedly had his sleeping quarters in an am-
phora, a large vase typically used for storing commodities such as wine, olives, and olive oil.
1 While this opening paragraph is personal, it obliges Julian Thomas’s call for reform within the archaeological
discipline. This is a post-Processual line of thinking that is sometimes referred to as “counter-modern,” where
archaeological methods and theories are considered as outgrowths of political, moral, rhetorical and aesthetic
concerns. See Julian Thomas, Archaeology and Modernity (London & New York: Routledge, 2004). Thus, the
personal and professional experiences have bearing on what is otherwise thought of as an “objective” science.
Additional pathfinders in this line of thinking come by way of Ian Hodder and, prior to that, Michel Foucault.
See Hodder, “Interpretive Archaeology and Its Role” in American Antiquity, Vol. 56, No. 1, 1991; and Foucault,
The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969). For the Punk Archaeology un-conference, see John Lamb, “Lamb: Is rock
conference punk or bunk?” in The Fargo Forum, January 29, 2013; Kris Kerzman, “Punk archaeology. Yes, it’s
a thing” in The Arts Partnership, January 23, 2013, Link: http://theartspartnership.net/artspulse/punk-archeol-
ogy-yes-its-a-thing/; Kayleigh Johnson, “Long live Red River Valley punk” in The High Plains Reader (January
2013); and the punk archaeology radio interview between Fargo-Moorhead KFGO’s Bob Harris and Aaron Barth
on the evening of January 21, 2013.
2 For the body of literature on the hipster, see What Was the Hipster: A Sociological Investigation (Brooklyn,
New York: n+1 Foundation, 2010), and Anatole Broyard, “Portrait of a Hipster” (Partisan Review, June 1948).
23
“Samuel Johnson”
He lived with dogs, questioned everyone and anything, and ate bags of onions.3
Diogenes was said to have hung out with Antisthenes, and they both influenced
Crates, and Crates was said to have influenced Zeno of Citium (of Cyprus). Zeno eventu-
ally made his way to Athens and fashioned his thoughts into the school of Stoicism, and we
know early Christianity appropriated a lot of ethos from the school of Stoicism. So when I
think of Diogenes of Sinope, I think of the first Punk in recorded history, and how that rip-
pled through time. In this, Punk is at once contrarian, and throughout history these minor-
ity and contrarian viewpoints have often grown into majority movements, only to have Punk
contrarians react to it once again. Thus, Punk is contrarian and anti-establishment.
Within the English-speaking world, the specific word “Punk” appears in the 18th-
century writings of Samuel Johnson. Samuel was a conversational F5 hurricane and a Brit-
ish Tory who, in conversational polemics, would spew food bits and boozy spittle from his
bulldog-like head as he hurled masterly insults toward one and all.4 In his book of insults,
Samuel defines a punk as “a whore; a common prostitute; a strumpet,” or someone who was
not a maid, widow or wife.5 In this way we see Punk as being a kind of alternative culture
of the times, since to be without a vocation or a spouse invariably meant one was defying
cultural norms, and this again blends with the ethos of Diogenes of Sinope, that early cynic.
In 1969, Iggy Pop and The Stooges used the dog-punk metaphor in “I Wanna Be Your
Dog.” The song is typical of Punk, a kind of cynical self-reflexivity that captures a type
of societal angst, a blue-collar reaction to the tedium of factory, assembly line jobs (Iggy
was born into a trailer park in the Michigan factory town of Ypsilanti).6 And finally, Joe
Strummer of The Clash laid out his definition of punk, saying it was a do-it-yourself atti-
tude. This is another variety of cynicism, a constructive type—after all, if a person is going
to complain about the way something is done, before doing it they might want to consider
exactly what they want to replace it with. In the documentary The Future is Unwritten,
Strummer, speaking of putting together one of his first gigs, said,
We had the nerve to rent a room above a pub, and charge people 10p (pence) to get
in. That’s how we learned to play, by doing it for ourselves, which is like a punk
3 In Diogenes Laertius, “Bias,” Lives of Eminent Philosophers, the phrase “to make his diet of onions” is akin
to weeping. See Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,
1972), 87.
4 James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (New York: The Modern Library, 1952; originally published in
1791), 15. Boswell said Samuel Johnson had qualities of “a vile melancholy” that “made him mad all his life, at
least not sober.”
5 Jack Lynch (editor), Samuel Johnson’s Insults (New York: Levenger Press, 2004), 71.
6 See Kostis Kourelis September 7, 2012 blogpost on the archaeology of Iggy Pop’s boyhood trailer park here:
http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/09/iggys-trailer-park.html
25
“Iggy Pop, October 25, 1977 at the State Theatre,
Minneapolis, MN”
Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY, Photo Michael Markos
ethos. I mean, you gotta be able to go out there and do it yourself, because no one
is going to give it to you.
When Diogenes of Sinope or Samuel Johnson or Iggy Pop or Joe Strummer speak of Punk,
dogs, whores, or cynics, they are effectively defining what they do not want from the
broader culture and, in the words of Strummer, they essentially went out and did something
else for themselves. Eventually, of course, these sub-alternative points of view get appro-
priated, and pretty soon huge corporate record labels are backing and profiting from Punk.
But that just sets the stage for future generations of punks—perhaps punks that are so Punk
that they do not want to be called “Punk”. The universal Punk is about individuals through-
out time raising counterpoints that upset established perceptions of truth. Just the other
day I learned of unktomi, the Dakota spirit that plays jokes on humans and animals.7 The
Punk universal is global, no matter where we look. Punks require us to refortify our posi-
tions, modify or abandon outmoded ways, or reject something marketed to us as new and
improved. This, one can argue, is healthy for any culture and civilization.
7 Clifford Canku, Beginning Dakota: Tokaheya Dakota Iapi Kin (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press,
2011), 40.
27
Chapter T h ree
Punk Provocation
Joshua Samuels
“American Digger”
Spike TV
Several papers in this volume note that provocation and an improvisational DIY ethic char-
acterize punk music, and therefore might serve as the bedrock for a provisional definition
of Punk Archaeology. At the risk of being a wet blanket—, the clichéed disapproving parent,
school administrator, or local politician—, I intend to raise two provocations of my own in the
realm of methodological ethics.
Punk provocation seems most successful when applied to archaeological publishing.
Online journals and blogs are slowly chipping away at the publishing “establishment” of rar-
efied peer-reviewed journals. Blogs by Kourelis, Caraher, and Barth amply show how a Punk
ethic can be of profound value, making the dissemination of ideas and results quick, direct,
and democratic. Most importantly these digital forums are redefining how academic output
is valued: reaching the widest audience and maintaining mainstream relevance might soon
replace having the most articles in peer-reviewed journals as the benchmark for academic
worth.
While Punk provocation offers an important challenge to academic publishing, it can
less easily be incorporated into archaeological methodology. Archaeological methods, from
survey and excavation to lab analysis and conservation, have been characterized by rigor
and discipline since Sir Mortimer Wheeler. While we may disagree on whether to dig strati-
graphic or mechanical layers, we can agree that sinking pits willy-nilly is bad practice.
Furthermore, bad archaeology is often seen as a moral transgression against the past and
our responsibility to curate it. These sentiments are clearly expressed in letters written last
year by Paul Mullins, president of the Society for Historical Archaeology, to Spike TV and
National Geographic Television in response to their recent program additions, American
Diggers and Diggers. They are also echoed in Andrew Reinhard’s song “American Looters,”
recorded in preparation for the Punk Archaeology unconference upon which this volume is
based:
I’m a robber!
I steal treasure!
Pot hunter!
Treasure stealer!
I sneak into the burial grounds and dig throughout the night
to find some jewelry or beads for when the price is right
31
But if Punk is about provocation, then shouldn’t Punk Archaeologists be celebrating
the anti-establishmentarianism and DIY gumption of amateur diggers? Don’t they truly em-
body the ideals espoused by punk rock? Amateur and subsistence diggers conduct their work
on their own terms, without recourse to contaminating institutional oversight. They are
typically untrained in conventional archaeological methods (or ignore them in the interest of
expediency); their practice is creative and improvisational, hallmarks of the DIY ethic/aes-
thetic. Maybe they collect because of a deep love of history, and the personal connection that
physically handling its material remains transmits. How can we deny this embodied connec-
tion with the past to non-archaeologists, maintaining it jealously for ourselves alone? And as
for diggers who are only in it for the money, perhaps they’re the most honestly punk rock of
all, at least according to Johnny Rotten’s metric.
I intend this as a provocation. Like most archaeologists, I believe that the past is a
resource that should be managed with care. I also believe that local stakeholders and com-
munities should play a dominant role in determining how (or whether) the material remains
of their past ought to be managed. However, I believe this should be an open and public
negotiation; diggers working on their own recognizance— while Punk— deny broader communi-
ties, however defined, access to their own history. So why bring it up? If we are going to
champion provocation and DIY ethic/aesthetics in archaeological publication, we have to be
prepared for a backlash from amateur archaeologists. Their methods and motivations are in
line with Punk ideals, but are beyond the purview of what all archaeologists would deem ac-
ceptable practice.
A methodological arena where the Punk ethic might have greater purchase is in the
realm of provocation itself. Archaeological evidence is often marshaled to counteract domi-
nant historical narratives: material remains from trash-pits and privies often complicate,
contradict, or subvert the stories we are told about the past. Look no further than the
recent archaeological evidence that Jamestown’s colonists resorted to cannibalism during the
starving winter of 1609–10. In addition to the results we uncover, the act of doing archaeol-
ogy can itself be a provocation. For example, my dissertation research investigated a series
of rural villages and farmhouses built in Sicily, from scratch, by the Fascist government
in the late 1930s. Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator, hoped to radically restructure the
way agriculture was practiced on the island by resettling peasant farmers from the hilltop
towns where they had traditionally lived, and installing them in brand new farmhouses in
the middle of the countryside. The logic was that farmers would be more productive if they
lived alongside the fields that they worked. The task I set myself was to map out the spa-
tial relationships between the old towns where farmers lived, the new farmhouses where
they were resettled, and these new villages, which served as resource centers with a school,
church, medic, small shop, etc., to make life in the middle of the countryside possible.
32
“Benito Mussolini standing upon
a Catepillar”
There are two ways to look at Fascist agricultural reform and the building programs
it engendered. One is to see these new agricultural landscapes as a genuine attempt on the
part of the regime to improve both agricultural production in Sicily, and the quality of life
of its peasant farmers. Another approach views these landscapes as a nefarious attempt by
the government to control Sicily’s agricultural populations by isolating them in farmhouses,
controlling what and how they planted, and molding them into ideal Fascists through archi-
tecture and agricultural propaganda. The government’s supposed beneficence can be read as
an attempt to buy the consent of Sicilian farmers by giving them a piece of land and place
to live to call their own.
Today, many of the farmhouses and villages built under Fascism are abandoned. How-
ever, in 2010 I spent two months at one that is still occupied, and has turned into something
of a summer destination resort. I was interested in how the material remains of the Fascist
past—the buildings, symbols, and landscapes—are understood in popular memory. What I learned
is that although people recognize Fascism’s problematic legacy, ranging from political repres-
sion to colonial wars in Ethiopia and Libya to the Nazi alliance and state-mandated persecu-
tion of Jews, they are able to separate it out from the land reforms of the 1930s; the vil-
lages and farmhouses are unencumbered by their Fascist origins.
I believe that I have an ethical duty to insist that the inhabitants of villages like
the one where I conducted my research confront its Fascist origins. In the spirit of Punk,
I want to provoke them into seeing the links between agricultural productivity and colonial
warfare, or between land reform and social re-education. I should complicate and trouble
their relationship not just to their own past, but their current sense of place. Burstoröm and
Gelberblom reach a similar conclusion in their 2011 article describing the former site of the
Nazi Harvest Festival at Buückeburg. But is this kind of provocation ethical? Is it appro-
priate to come in as a foreign researcher and tell people how they ought to relate to their
surroundings and their past? A Punk approach to ethics exposes a deep hypocrisy: why do I
get the authority to judge?
34
C hap t er Four
Punk Archaeoseismology
Richard Rothaus
36
Deirmendere
Richard Rothaus
Used by permission
38
39
40
41
42
Chapt er Fiv e
Don’t Stop Pottery Reading
R. Scott Moore
D uring the summer of 2011 I was working in the apotheke of the Polis Excavations ana-
lyzing the Late Roman ceramics when I needed to get a new context box, so I decided to
take a quick break. I took out my earbuds and went to get the tray I needed. As I walked
through the apotheke, I was struck by the deafening silence, and was sort of freaked out.
There were nine different people in the building, and all of them had had earphones on and
were listening to music. It started me thinking about the relationship between music and
archaeology, and in particular the way I listen to, use, and depend on music.
In the summer of 1996, on my first project in Cyprus (the Sydney Cyprus Survey
Project), I spent five weeks sitting behind a house in the small village of Mitsero learning
how to identify Late Roman ceramics with my adviser. He had brought with him to Cyprus
a small, portable radio that was constantly tuned to a local Cypriot radio station, so we
always had music on as we worked. I think because of this, I associated analyzing ceramics
with music, and in fact the following summer I showed up in Cyprus with a Sony Discman
and a collection of CDs.
Eventually I made the transition to a MP3 player and soon made the brilliant decision
to buy a Zune. I realized this was a bad decision after about a year later when I recognized
that I had yet to meet anyone else who owned a Zune. My Zune soon became well-known on
our archaeological project (PKAP), and not because of my inspired decision to ignore the
herd of iPod sheep and purchase the iPod-killer, the Zune. No, I became known for the myr-
iad of problems I ran into because of my Zune to the amusement of my colleagues. The very
first year I brought it to Cyprus, the charger died, and I was unable to charge it. I have to
admit I freaked out and insisted on scouring the island for a charger, which soon involved
a day trip to Nicosia where I finally found one. Nobody on the project seemed to understand
that I really could not face working with the pottery without my music, ignorant of the
fact that this was the way I had originally learned to process ceramics. To me, the two go
hand in hand. A year later, two months after my warranty expired, my Zune’s screen would
stay so dim I could not see what was playing forcing me to purchase a new one. I was so
paranoid about having another Zune breakdown during the field season that I carried the
broken Zune to Cyprus, as a backup for my new one.
I soon abandoned the Zune train and now have an iPod like everyone else. My one
foible is that I do not like to discuss my playlists for fear of people laughing at me. My
“Pottery” playlist is mainly composed of groups from the ’80s when I was in high school and
college, with a few more recent groups tossed in. On one of our first seasons at PKAP, a
young graduate student asked me what I was listening to and I told him Guns N’ Roses. He
44
“Microsoft Zune”
said, “My parents loved them when they were in high school,” crushing me. While I do try
to keep the list below the radar, I spend time each year tweaking my pottery reading music.
It has to be music I like that I can listen to without being distracted. A good pottery playl-
ist can be playing, and all of a sudden I realize that an hour or two has passed without me
noticing. It has to be upbeat and not slow. The only exception to these rules is the Village
People’s “YMCA.” I have that one on my list for two reasons: 1) I use it as a break; and 2) I
like spelling out the YMCA parts to freak out the people around me.
My 2012 “Pottery” playlist included (and the order is oldest on the playlist to the most
recent additions): Journey, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, Queen, Poison, Mö]tley Cr\üe, Eurythmics,
Aerosmith, Asia, Van Halen, Prince, Anna Vissi, Notis Sfakianakis, Little River Band, Du-
ran Duran, Pat Benatar, Roxette, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Kelly Clarkson, Kid Rock,
Pink, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Muse.
46
Chapt er s ix
Punks and Antiquity:
Reflections of a Wannabe Archaeologist
Heather Waddell Gruber
“Electric Fetus music and head shop in St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA”
Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY, Photo Michael Hicks
M usic —particularly live music, local music, loud music —has always had a hold on me. The
music of one’s teenage years is truly formative, and for me that music was Jane’s Addic-
tion, Sonic Youth, the Ramones, and Nirvana. A good Saturday night meant moshing to my
friends’ bands in the empty loft above the Electric Fetus record store in Duluth. Inevitably
the music was bad, but it was loud, it was ours, and it allowed a measure of individuality,
rebellion against mass-produced corporate group-think, and rejection of mainstream bubble-
gum pop.
Ironically, and perhaps misguidedly, the Academy (and specifically, Classical Studies)
seemed the perfect fit for this Punk spirit. Punk is more than a musical genre; it can be a
lifestyle, a fashion trend, a philosophy. The Punk ethos promotes individuality and eschews
conformity. It prizes thinking for oneself, a willingness to question authority and rattle the
cage. Punks may be amateurs who follow their passions regardless of lacking expertise, or
avid do-it-yourselfers who operate outside traditional systems and forge their own paths.
Not knowing how to play bass never stopped Sid Vicious from getting on stage. Why should
not knowing Greek stop me from moving to Greece? Why should never having heard of Her-
mogenes stop me from writing a dissertation on him? Sid’s courage (if I dare call it that)
was infectious, even if it was drug-fueled.
The university and its promise of academic freedom meant to me that I could juxta-
pose tattoos with bookishness. I could be a professor of esoteric authors without ever having
to wear pantyhose. Perhaps I was attracted to Classics because it was perceived to be dif-
ficult, or because there weren’t many who did it, and fewer of them women. Maybe it was
because I was told I could never get a job doing it. Or maybe it allowed me to indulge my
myriad intellectual curiosities, following each like so many shiny baubles. Within the realm
of Classics a person can work in such divergent areas as archaeology and poetry, ancient
medicine and religion, or philosophy and drama. Gender studies, oral traditions, art history,
rhetoric, mythology, political theory —almost any field in the liberal arts could be a focus
within the scope of the ancient Mediterranean.
The ancient world is full of punks. Greece’s punk-in-chief was naturally Socrates.
Self-described as Athens’ gadfly, he famously claimed that “the unexamined life is not worth
living.” He was put on trial for corrupting the youth, a reputation he got from his habit of
questioning so-called experts and determining that they didn’t know any of the things they
were supposed to know. This ultimate cage-rattler told a hostile jury that his penalty for be-
ing a punk ought to be free meals for life, and when he was ordered to drink the hemlock he
still refused to back down from his convictions.
49
“Caesarea Maritima”
Johnny Rotten’s iconic line, “I am an anti-Christ, I am an anarchist,” might de-
scribe the cultural role assumed by another ancient punk, Diogenes the Cynic. He behaved
outrageously to shock people into questioning the conventions of everyday life. He lived in
an enormous jar in the Athenian marketplace. He masturbated in public, urinated on heck-
lers, sabotaged Plato’s lectures, and mocked Alexander the Great to his face. He supposedly
walked around carrying a lit lamp during the day, claiming he was searching (unsuccess-
fully) for an honest man. These stunts were acts of protest against societal norms, meant
to shake the Athenians out of their complacent acceptance of what was considered “proper”
behavior. Morality, happiness, virtue, these were attainable only for those who rejected the
constraints of the artifices and hypocrisy of society and devoted themselves to asceticism.
To borrow a Punk term, with respect to archaeology, I am a mere poseur. I am a fan
with some experience, more experience than the average person, but an outsider nonethe-
less. Understanding the Classical world is impossible without studying archaeology. To get
a hands-on perspective, I spent the summer of 1997 digging at Caesarea Maritima, King
Herod’s port city in Israel. I woke up every morning at 4:30 and worked in the trench until
noon, when the desert sun made hard physical labor outside too difficult. I swung a pick-
axe, lifted heavy boulders, dug with a shovel, performed delicate tasks with brushes and
trowels, sifted dirt, pushed wheelbarrows I never felt more alive, nor a greater connection
to the past. I was a grunt, not the brains behind the project, and couldn’t be happier about
it.
Archaeologists, like classicists, are fascinated by historical cultures. They unearth
them, they reconstruct them, and they do so by destroying their own evidence the further
they dig. The work entails a great deal of technical expertise as well as physical labor.
While archaeologists are as bound to their paperwork and office desks as the next academic,
their work gets them out into the field. They combine the cerebral and the physical. They
read ancient texts and dig in the dirt. They shake philologists such as myself out of their
complacent acceptance of traditional understanding of the way the ancient world worked,
one based myopically on literature. A theory based on literary evidence can be disproved by
the archaeological record, or as is more often true, complicated and nuanced in fascinating
ways. Archaeologists, thus, are themselves cultural critics, who question all they find. Any
new discovery can change the prevailing theory. Some of the most fascinating cultures are
known to us only through archaeology, having left us no literary record whatsoever, such
as the Minoans, the Mycenaeans (Linear B may be “literary,” but it is not “literature”), and
the Etruscans. Without archaeology we would never know that the homes of Priam at Troy
or Agamemnon at Mycenae truly existed in history. Archaeologists hold the mirror up to a
culture, like Socrates or Diogenes, and demand that we assess our assumptions honestly and
in the face of material facts.
51
My old site, Caesarea, is no longer an operational archaeological dig. All work has
come to a halt, and not because the work is done. Like so many sites, it fell prey to diffi-
cult political tensions and lack of funding. Traditional lines of funding may be drying up,
and yet archaeology will always have a grip on public imagination. This leads me to my
final point. Cultivating a Punk ethos will hopefully serve archaeologists well. Archaeological
punks have evolved past the early years of amateur garage jams into new wave virtuosity.
They know how to play their instruments well, and have become technical masters. Even
musicians whose music can’t be described as Punk have embraced the Punk ethos. Do-it-
yourselfers in the music industry no longer rely on record companies but can record and
broadcast their performances for free on the Internet. Radiohead famously released its al-
bum In Rainbows for download from its website, asking fans to pay whatever they thought
it was worth. Other musicians, like Ani DiFranco, start their own record companies. Being
Punk, no matter the area, means to go one’s own way and operate outside convention, and to
do so, a person must be willing to get his or her hands dirty. No wonder archaeologists are
so habitually Punk. Getting their hands dirty is their specialty.
52
Chapter s ev en
Nobody Wants Their Mom in Their Mosh Pit:
Some Local Archaeology, Fargo 1991–1997
Kris Groberg
This is just a slice, a view from the edge, written by someone privileged to witness her el-
dest’s world, and that of his friends and their music, when they were in high school and for
a few years after that. Not every band was Punk (at least not for someone who remembers
Sid Vicious shows). It is an archaeological layer, seemingly ephemeral —but rich in memory
for everyone who was involved —in a local scene. Adventures, seldom risky and almost always
hilarious. I watched it. I bought a ton of groceries, hosted bands, made thousands (accurate
number) of casseroles and loaves of bread, washed a butt-load of towels, cleaned the swim-
ming pool, hid my own Diet Coke, and watched. And I listened. I am the richer for it. All I
had to do for a dose of what seemed normal and good— and relief from my work as a profes-
sor —was to open the laundry chute in the kitchen or on the second floor hallway and listen to
the laughter and the noise. Yes, there was cigarette smoke, black walls and ceiling— the con-
tractor told me I was insane to let the kids have a black basement —and the steady production
of zines from The Pee Couch Review to Burnt Toast. The zine Team Fargo came along after
the exodus. I’m pretty sure there were others. Some seriously well-conceived pranking oc-
curred. I usually heard about it, but never witnessed it because it’s unfair to step that far
into the Progeny Zone.
The venues available to all ages for concerts in Fargo in 1991–92 were the Elks Club
(no longer extant),1 the Moose Lodge’s upper-story ballroom (with its wretchedly sagging
floor that eventually prevented further concerts), the Bowler, the downtown VFW, Exit 99,2
and the Grape Garage. Later, Moorhead State University in our sister-city Moorhead, Minne-
sota (across the Red River from Fargo) rented out its ballroom and Club Underground in the
Student Union. These are the ones my son, Bjorn Christianson (b. 1974), was involved with.
He kept it up until he moved to Eugene, Oregon and then Minneapolis. Then he moved to
Portland, Oregon, soon had his fill of Portlandia, and came back. After that he and Amy Jo
1 This is particularly funny to me because my dad (d. 1982), who had to belong to the Elks Club for business
purposes in the mid-1960s, thought it was a bunch of hooey and made merciless fun of the all the oaths and
secret handshakes, and my mom (d. 2007) made a regular practice of mixing up the rows of winter galoshes that
were lined up on the steps at the entrance to the Club. I went to boringly “civilized” and adult-controlled dances
there when I was a teenager. So it’s only fitting that the next generation stomped the Elks Club.
2 Exit 99 was on Feichtner Drive, near the junction of I-29 and 13th Avenue South. Set up for all-ages shows,
it closed in 1992. “It acted as the breeding-ground for the current generation of local artists.” Chuck Klosterman,
Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Dangerous People and Dangerous Ideas (New York, Scribner’s, 2006), “To
Be Scene, or Not to Be Seen: Underground Rock is Alive and Loud in Fargo-Moorhead . . . But Who’s Listening”
(September 1995), p. 217.

54
“Fugazi”
Wikimedia Commons,
GNU Free Documentation License,
Photo Whalen647
Hendrickson picked up with Team Fargo and began to bring in more bands.
For anyone old enough to drink alcohol, Ralph’s Corner Bar was, and remained until
it was torn down in 2004, the purveyor of all things good and bad in the music scene. The
story of Ralph’s deserves to be collected and written, but it’s not my story. I went to shows
as often as I cared to until it closed. I’m just glad that the renowned grill was relocated to
the Crowbar in Sabin, Minnesota, where occasionally one of the former cooks from Ralph’s
prepares liver and onions and dishes it out at no charge on a Wednesday afternoon.
It started in the usual way, with a bunch of friends who put bands together, some of
which went on to greater heights and some that still occasionally get together to make mu-
sic. When I talked with my son Bjorn, J. Earl Miller, and some of their assorted friends, all
remarked that this time period was, as J. said, “very precious to us.” Bjorn said, “we put a
lot of time and work into it, but just for fun.” They did not particularly care if they made
money beyond covering their costs. At the time, Bjorn was modest about it all, and still is.
In the early ’90s, he was a teenaged entrepreneur, or “rival promoter” (the rival was Jade
Nielson) as Chuck Klosterman called him.3 Klosterman also wrote that Bjorn “was really
blond and snarky.”4 Snarky, sometimes—; blond, never. From 1994–1997 things were just as
interesting, but he wasn’t a teenager anymore and our house wasn’t full to capacity with his
friends. In earlier years, my husband used to come home from work and ask me what per-
centage of the people who ate with us were ours.
Bjorn’s first big coup, accomplished with the help of godheadSilo drummer Dan
Haugh, was bringing the Washington, DC band Fugazi to Fargo for a show on August 13,
1991 at the Elks Club. As per usual, Fugazi gave an all-ages concert at $5 a pop.5 Bjorn is
quoted as having said, “I think we had about five hundred people (actually it was 550) at
that show, which was a surprise to both of us. I know a lot of people seem to consider that
a starting point for what has happened since, but I don’t. I think this whole situation pre-
dates the Fugazi show, and by quite a bit. Things around here really started with bands like
Floored and Hammerhead and Buttchuck.”6 Bikini Kill played that night with The Nation of
Ulysses (a punk, post-hardcore band from DC, disbanded in 1992) and Watermelon Sandwich.
In 1995, Klosterman noted that this concert was “consistently mentioned as the primary
catalyst for the subsequent prolification (sic) of F-M hardcore interest.”7 I dropped in for a
while, but let’s face it, nobody wants their mom in their mosh pit (and nobody’s mom wanted
to be in one). Amazing to watch though— big noise, stellar energy, and even better self-deco-
3 Ibid., p. 216.
4 Ibid., p. 216, n. 14
5 A tape of this show is available for $5 at |FCO|#Internet http://www.dischord.fugazi_live_series/fargo-nd-
usa-81391
6 Bjorn Christianson interview, Klosterman, Klosterman IV, p. 217.
7 Ibid., p. 216 n. 13.
56
“Final night at Ralph’s Corner Bar”
Photo Phil Leitch, CC-BY
“Bill for Ralph’s Corner Bar featuring Grant Hart,

June Panic, and Nic Garcia, January 17, 2003”
Poster Ralph’s Corner Bar, Moorhead, MN
ration. The best part for me was having Fugazi roll into the kitchen at 3:00 a.m. and unload
their vegetarian food into the fridge. For a while after that, the kitchen was mildly famous
for having once housed Ian MacKaye’s soy milk. Just a side note on The Nation of Ulysses:
the Wikipedia article on the band notes that they snubbed ’60s and ’70s music “by reject-
ing drug use and advocating that punk youth dress nicely and sensibly.”8 The liner notes
to their CD 13-Point Program to Destroy America states their goal: “To dress well, as cloth-
ing and fashion are the only things which we—the kids—being utterly disenfranchised, have
any control over.”9 At that point, I’m sure Sid and Nancy rolled over in their already nasty
graves.
In Fargo, Orange 17 was and remains a favorite —“a punk metal tour de force.”10
Asks Phil Leitch, “Does hellfire, damnation mean anything to you?”11 Band members JP
(John Peterson on drums), Karl Qualey (guitar, vocals), and Randy Dever (bass) remain
friends who sometimes perform together. Phil wrote, “ . . . if they didn’t have short hair
I could mistake these boys for Poison.”12 JP was known for setting his cymbals on fire
(http://blip.tv/mindwar/orange-17–23nov2007–100-proof-510220) with lighter fluid and, once
(I heard) he sprayed ethanol from his mouth as someone touched a match to the mist. He is
now a committed international Marxist. He recently lectured to my Art Theory & Criticism
class on Marxist art theory. No kidding. Among other things, Orange 17 is remembered for
a rock opera tribute to Galileo when they opened for Karp (1994) and another that honored
Robinson Crusoe at the Grape Garage. One summer there was a city softball team, which
provided a lot of insanity, especially when Bjorn and JP and everybody’s little sisters beat
the Fargo Police team. I watched that game, and it was high comedy with 12-year-old Ash
Hamilton at bat and JP in an enormous foam rubber cowboy hat.
Ah, godheadSilo. Mike Kunka (bass), Dan Haugh (drums), and originally, Phil Leitch
(guitar). Their first gig was at the Moose Lodge. Phil described godheadSilo as a “noise
rock” band known for its “wall of sound full of raging drums, screaming and a gigantic
heavy bass sound.”13 Amps and pedals, BMX biking, and Mountain Dew. Together from
1992–98, they first played in Fargo and then went to Olympia, Washington. Their discogra-
phy is available at the Sub Pop website: (http://subpop.com/godheadSilo/godheadSilo.html)
Dan often ate all the bread in our house. I’m fairly certain they played every venue
8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The-Nation-of-Ulysses, p. 3/5.
9 Daniel Morris, THE NATION HAS SPOKEN, http://citybelt.typepad.com/citybelt/2006/10/thenationhas.html
10 Phil Leitch, Yahtzeen (n.d.), http://fargobands.yahtzeen.com/index.php?title=Orange_17
11 Ibid.
12 Carother’s Bros. #5, “The Definitive Guide to Punk Rock in the Moorhead/Fargo Area,” http://yz.philleitch.
com/cb.html
13 Phil Leitch, “godheadSilo,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GodheadSilo Leitch’s Fargo Band Family Tree is a
great source for ephemera.
58
“Les Dirty Frenchmen”
Courtesy Les Dirty Frenchmen
in town. Later, the band went on to record with Sub Pop and Kill Rock Stars. Klosterman
wrote that “with the exception of Kid Jonny Lang, I suppose this makes them the most suc-
cessful North Dakota rock act of the past twenty-five years.”14
Other local bands from the high school years were Dan Mahli’s Camel Paw, Sean
Stewart’s Art Seizure (thrash-punk, 1991–92), Isaac Kobrinsky’s Apathy Earthworm, and
Joe Vesel’s Pathos. There are almost too many to round up, and they played in each others
bands and changed band names. Joe’s dad was the butt of some infamous pranks. I have
been sworn to silence about those. Isaac was my teaching assistant in 2007, and I’m still in
touch with everybody but Joe.
When Bjorn and Amy Jo returned to Fargo in 1994, they established Team Fargo (Oc-
tober 1994-summer 1997) and brought in some amazing bands, including Hammerhead, Karp,
and Bikini Kill. Hammerhead, originally a Fargo band in the early ’90s, became a Minneap-
olis-based noise-rock band that recorded with Amphetamine Reptile Records. Members Paul
Erickson, Jeff Mooridian, Jr., and Paul Sanders “garnered critical acclaim.”15 Karp (post-
hardcore), from Tumwater, Washington, “managed to mix the terror of hardcore, The Mel-
vins, and Black Sabbath with an ear for pop-influenced song assembly.”16 A decent docu-
mentary on the band, Kill All Redneck Pricks was produced by photographer Bill Badgley
in 2009.17 Karp brought down the house in Fargo. In October of 1994, Bjorn and Amy Jo
brought in the punk band Bikini Kill from Olympia, Washington. Its members were pioneers
in the Riot Grrrl movement and brought fierce performances, feminist lyrics, and abrasive
hard-core-influenced sound to the floor. The show was at the Elks Club. “Bikini Kill gave me
a place in the world to be,” wrote Amy Perna, and Joe Vesel, whose band Pathos played at
the Grape Garage on the same night, made sure to play first so they could get to the Bikini
Kill concert.18
Exposing the layers of this scene would take some time. People have conflicting
memories, and frankly, so do I. What I saw and heard, and what is documented, sometimes
clash. I’m not sure that Chuck Klosterman is an entirely reliable source on these years —no-
body could have been everywhere, and I doubt that anybody kept a diary or a bunch of lists.
I never have liked his snide remarks about how many high school kids hung around all-ages
shows; where else were they supposed to listen to what they wanted to hear— the high school
gym? Bjorn has all of the posters and we’ve discussed archiving them and at least putting
14 Klosterman, Chuck Klosterman IV, p. 216, n. 13
15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerhead-(band)
16 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karp-(band)
17 Karp’s biography/discography at http://ihrtn.com/2009/08/13/karp/ and Badgley’s documentary at “Official
Karp Documentary Website” (http://karplives.com)
18 http://bikinikillarchive.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/October-14–1994-elks-lodge-in-fargo/|FCC|

60
together an oral history specific to the time and place. The Punk Archaeology (un)Confer-
ence brought us June Panic and Les Dirty Frenchman, among others who played in Fargo in
the years 1991–97, and it’s good to talk with, see, and hear them again, and to be— one more
time —introduced as just “Bjorn’s Mom.”
61
Chapter eig h t
The Young Lions of Archaeology
Colleen Morgan
“Colleen Morgan”
Photo Daniel Eddisford, CC-BY
“T his . . . hon . . . here.” I kneel in the trench, scraping away at the dirt with my trowel.
Teaching digging, teaching how to see. “Tamam? Okay?” But I realize that my students and/
or workmen are not looking at the dirt; they are not looking at the texture changes; they
are not trying to discern the transition from the Byzantine to the Mamluk. One of the dirty,
ragged cuffs of my long-sleeved shirt has ridden up, revealing faint swirls of color on my
skin. My tattoos are faded, obscured by a salty rime of evaporated sweat. Later, when they
are more comfortable with me, I expect questions about the tattoos:
“How many do you have?”

“How long have you had them?”
“How long did they take?”
“But . . . you are a woman!”
Over the years my answers to these questions have changed in tenor, but I have
settled on the explanation that has the most resonance: they’re traditional in my culture.
I need a second skin

something to hold me up
— - The Gits, “Second Skin”
Fictive kinship, or kinship that does not rely on marital or blood ties, is a classic,
though dated and thoroughly critiqued concept in anthropology. Kinship is obviously rela-
tive— if you will forgive the wordplay— and ties of love and obligation can bind through a
near-infinite amount of variables. I think of kinship in the active tense; I kin to people, I
understand, empathize and appreciate some people more than other people. My kin tend to
have a lot of tattoos, drink cheap lager, and share a deep reverence for live music, though
they’d surely find the exception to any such proposed definition. I learned a sense of kinship
through Punk; I learned to find others who participated fully and passionately, who were
politically minded, vocal, contrarian, who spoke plainly through microphones, records and
zines.
I want you to know people who laugh too loud

And have to get drunk to find the right words
And can’t sleep ’til the colors are just right.
— - The Waitresses, “They’re All Out of Liquor, Let’s Find Another Party”
65
“I Am A Clicheé”
Virgin Records, 1977
I carried this sense of urgency and community with me, nearly 2,000 miles away to
graduate school, ready to shake the world. I very quickly learned to stick my nose in a book
and to hide my tattoos. I missed my kin horribly. I had colleagues now, and they were not
interested in listening to records or going to shows and even if they were it was something
to do, not something you were. I did not have imposter syndrome, I had infiltrator syndrome.
Before my MA exam I slid my headphones over my ears, locked myself in the department
bathroom and listened to the irreverent roar of the X-Ray Spex and told myself that no mat-
ter what happened, academics could not take this away from me. No matter how they saw
my work, my aptitude, my ability to theorize and categorize, this piece of me would stay
strong and true.
I know I’m artificial

But don’t put the blame on me
I was reared with appliances
In a consumer society
— - X-Ray Specs, “Art-I-Ficial”
This is still true. Graduate school provided fire and forge and I came out very differ-
ent on the other side. The conservatism of Punk, the inflexibility and strident nihilism was
no longer feasible. My tattoos faded under the hot sun of excavations, and I met a whole
phantasmagoria of people who took life in their teeth.
I am the animal
With no pockets in my pants.
— - The Peechees, “The Animal”
Still, I kept the possibly quaint ideal of kin and kept practicing what I felt was the
best practices for a punk archaeologist. Membership in a community and participation in
this community. Building things —interpretations, sites, bonfires, earth ovens, Harris Matrices
—together. Foregrounding political action and integrity in our work.
Think about the kind of revolution you want to live and work in. What do
you need to know to start that revolution? Demand that your teachers teach
you that.
— - Big Daddy Soul
67
The Young Lions Conspiracy, led by Big Daddy Soul (neé Tim Kerr), was éa minor
movement in the garage punk/Austin scene that called for “integrity, soul, attitude” in
every aspect of life. He asked, “What are YOU doing to participate?” I have not been to a
punk rock show in a while, and my tribe of tattooed drinking punks have changed, moved
on, and do not need to be used to typify an attitude or remain static in their decades-old
resistance. They, too, have forged their own lives: they own homes, have children, even
changed political allegiances, but we have the same scrawls on our skin, even if I’m half a
world away. And I still have my Young Lions membership card.
68
“Colleen Morgan’s Young Lions Cub Card”
Photo Colleen Morgan, CC-BY
“Excavations in the Athenian Agora, 2010”
Photo courtesy Trustees of the American School of
Classical Studies at Athens
C hap t er Ni ne
Confessions of a Punk rock Archaeologist
Michael H. Laughy, Jr.
To see us on stage was to see a bank of fog yes, we owned a fog machine–through which
burst a wall of guitars, waves of bass fuzz, driving drums, and the flashing silhouettes of
musicians playing with their entire bodies. The visual fit the music: loud, upbeat, glorious
energy.
We played as hard in practice as we did on stage. We filled our small room with ener-
getic, howling, high-five havoc. Songs arose organically, with choruses, bridges, and verses
cobbled together from disparate pieces of music we had stumbled upon during free-form
punk rock jamming. Our songs were stories, our jams the source material.
I was also a Ph.D. student and archaeologist. I thought it best to keep these two lives
separate. If my advisers discovered that I was a drummer in a punk rock band or that I
was perhaps headlining a show in Oakland the night before my qualifying exams well, let’s
just say that this was a door best left unopened. Equally horrifying was the thought of any
of my undergraduate students finding out about our shows. Teacher and rocker, archaeolo-
gist and drummer seemed distinct, irreconcilable personae.
And so I maintained them as such. For years, I was a part of two different social
scenes, and maintained two different sets of responsibilities and goals. I confessed this
double life only to a handful of fellow Punk-loving graduate students, and even then only on
the condition that they kept the secret.
When I moved to Greece to write my dissertation, I broke up with punk rock and
became a “full-time” archaeologist. Or so it felt. From afar, I watched my bandmates join or
form new bands, go on world tours, release albums, and upload their latest music videos. I,
meanwhile, was excavating ancient buildings and deciphering inscriptions in Athens. These
worlds seemed unconnected and inhabited by people with completely different interests and
stories to tell.
But wait a second. I began archaeological fieldwork in 1992, the same year that I
joined my first real punk rock band. For each of my first ten seasons excavating in Athens,
I was either in, or had just left, a band. Punk rock and archaeology have always been com-
panions to me. How could this not mean something?
What do I find so punk rock about archaeology?
Let’s begin with the physical. Excavating in the Athenian sun is as punk rock as
field archaeology gets. It involves friends working together in a sweat-drenched immediacy
with the world, ancient and modern. The harmony of the “chords of archaeological strata,”
to quote my colleague in Classics, Kevin Crotty, has been disturbed by 7,000 years of buri-
als, cisterns, wars, cultural upheavals, elevator shafts, and other intrusions of the “sounds”
72
of the lived history of Athens. The result is a dirty, fuzzy, and challenging music of strata,
artifacts, sherds, and features. Field archaeology in Athens is dirt punk to me.
Field archaeology is also destruction. Once we excavate a layer or a road or a wall or
a floor, it is gone forever. Excavations that produce no public reports of results have oblit-
erated lives past. Just as punk rock is open to all people, and belongs to all people, so should
archaeology be. The study of archaeology is the study of us . . . then. The principal respon-
sibility of an archaeologist is to tell the world stories about these past lives. Archaeological
narratives on how we lived in a certain time and place are too often cloaked in pretension,
or hidden within a jargon or format incomprehensible to the wider public.
The punk rocker in me loves the chance to perform these stories of lives past before
live audiences. Once, before I was about to take the stage and give an invited lecture to
an audience of 250, my host asked if I was nervous. “No, excited. I feel like we need a fog
machine and a laser light show.” We both laughed, though for different reasons. I give talks
with the goal of making the material itself electrify the room, and the narrative fire up the
curiosity of the audience. Similarly, the punk rocker in me lives for those teaching moments
that lead to a mental form of high-five havoc, when a visceral energy is shared among the
students as the mysteries and possibilities of archaeology are unpacked.
Finally, just as punk rock reacts against hegemony and blind adherence to a one and
only Truth, so too does my punk rock archaeology assume there is no one final story or
theoretical approach that can give the full account of a site or collection of objects. In the
words of Henry Rollins, “questioning anything and everything to me is punk rock.” A punk
rock approach to archaeology looks not for better answers, but for better questions about
the material and about our field itself.
Punk rock, in other words, goes hand-in-hand with archaeology. Both share a desire
to express and accept the complexity and contradictions of the human experience, an em-
brace of physicality, a rejection of the hegemony of the Truth, and a belief that our work is
conducted on behalf of the world, to be shared with the world.
73
Chapt er t en
Memoirs from an Archaeologist Punk
Andrew Reinhard
“Andrew Reinhard plays the Punk Archaeology un-conference”
Photo Bill Caraher, CC-BY
Being an archaeologist means that although you live in the now, your interests lie some-
time before the present. In studying antiquity, that’s hundreds or thousands of years. In
studying Punk, that’s 40. My lifespan has paralleled Punk’s, and I’ve spent most of my time
avoiding Punk more out of ignorance than anything. It’s like being a dinosaur before the
asteroid comes. It’s like before the Internet. You live your life, and every so often you get
banged on the head. You wake the fuck up.
Punk has been patient with me, asking me to discover it. In my early teens I had
skater friends who had the Sex Pistols on tape, who covered their notebooks with the Dead
Kennedys logo, who wore Vans, who read Thrasher, who wore Dag Nasty t-shirts. Theirs
was an alien culture, but I gravitated to them because they were funny, creative, hon-
est, unpretentious, and they could have cared less that I didn’t skate, grow my hair out (or
shave it), or listen to their music. I was in the culture, but out of it, surrounded by the ac-
coutrements that would become the artifacts of memory.
As a high school junior, a Punk friend asked me to help him design a ‘zine. He knew
that I worked for the school newspaper and had access to free paper and X-ACTO knives
and rubber cement. I had done layout and paste-up before. “What’s a ‘zine?” I asked him.
“It’s like a newpaper, but it’s underground, and it’s gonna be about all the things that suck
about this school.” I had no idea why he was so angry. School was great. I played sports. I
was in a bunch of clubs. I liked the structure.
We got to work. He hand-wrote the articles. We found images together and photo-
copied those. We pasted it all together on a 2-sider, and then we ran off copies. We did one
issue. I was uncomfortable, and I left. That ‘zine is lost to history. I went to college and
opted out of trips to see early Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane’s Addiction, Pixies. I couldn’t
understand the music in H\üsker D\ü’s Zen Arcade. I slept through proto-punk, punk, post-
punk, and hardcore. So now I study it.
Fast-forward 20 years. I move to Princeton in 2010, home of the Princeton Record
Exchange. It is (and remains) the best music store I’ve ever frequented. They have a Punk
section. I visit monthly and have built a collection of all of the bands I missed: Sex Pistols,
The Clash, The Ramones, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Fugazi, The Minutemen, Descendents/
All, and later with The Cramps, The Reverend Horton Heat, Helmet. It’s the Law of Su-
perposition of Punk, working my way down the strata, understanding where Rancid came
from, following the branches of the punk family tree to the trunk and then to the roots.
Bands upon bands atop bands. And the hardest bands to find are the ones that did the most
for Punk. Every month I look for Bad Brains records. Every month I look for Television,
77
for New York Dolls. Fuck eBay. I want to find these records with my own hands, digging
down, excavating the stacks. There are a ton of Green Day records. A ton of Offspring.
People consume and regurgitate. But the good stuff? That gets digested, nutrients for the
mind and soul. These are my most precious finds. They get catalogued, and then I listen to
them every day, learning more about what Punk was and reflect on what Punk is.
Punk has not just informed my mind. It informs the music that I make. On October
9, 2012, Bill Caraher, a godfather of Punk Archaeology, emailed me to see if I’d create some
music to play before bands took the stage at the Punk Archaeology unconference in Fargo
on Feb. 2, 2013. Three months and 17 songs later, the album was as finished as it was ever
going to get. I wrote and recorded everything by myself in great haste and in low-fi in my
basement at night, expressing a Punk attitude towards problems in archaeology and cultural
heritage. The result is rough around the edges (and occasionally raw throughout), but is the
best music I’ve ever done. It’s a 44-minute dissertation played from the gut and from the
heart, calling upon my sources, citing these through vocal phrasing, in the guitar chords
and tones, in furious, double-time drumming, in simple bass-lines. Ian McKaye, Henry Rol-
lins, Black Francis, Robert Pollard, and Bob Mould were my thesis advisers. I’d like to think
that I’ve earned at least a Masters in Punk Archaeology after all of this fieldwork. In the
process of discovering all I’d missed, I’ve definitely gone native. I’m a “real” archaeologist
and now I work for a “real” publishing house. And it feels deliciously subversive to sneak
away from that to play my first live show at age 40, to make a new ‘zine, and to feel like
I’m finally home.
Note
Download the Punk Archaeology MP3 songs for free by visiting www.soundcloud.com/chari-
nos/sets/punk-archaeology. Lyrics to the songs are in this volume’s Appendix.
78
C hapt er el ev en
How to Draw Punk . . . Archaeology
Joel Jonientz†
“Punk Archaeology Handbill by Joel Jonientz”
Photo Joel Jonientz, CC-BY
Step One: Define the Parameters
In designing the poster for Punk Archaeology, I did what all good designers would do: I
looked at a sample set of posters from Punk’s Golden Age to decipher what makes an image
“Punk”. I looked at Jamie Reid’s iconic designs for the Sex Pistols, Linder Sterling’s in-your-
face collages for the Buzzcocks, and my personal favorite: Art Chantry’s poster designs for
the Pacific Northwest punk rock scene. What I found was that all of these posters shared
an aesthetic that celebrated the culture of the 1950s and 1960s. They turned an ironic love
of bowling, burlesque shows, and monster movies into brightly colored, low-fi works of art.
I also found images loaded with counter-culture, post-hippie era sexualization that often
borders on misogynistic. Take the Buzzcocks flyer for their single, “Orgasm Addict” as an
example. The image depicts a nude female figure against a mostly solid yellow background.
The figure’s head has been replaced by an iron, and its nipples were removed in favor of
two grinning mouths full of teeth. This is one of punk’s most iconic images, and it is im-
portant to note that the Punk movement was in many ways a reaction to the culture of its
time. In Punk’s formative era, the 1970s, issues of racial and sexual equality dominated the
culture. It is not surprising then that Punk chose images that would be considered subver-
sive and perhaps even offensive. My point here is not necessarily to rehash Punk’s extensive
history, but to define the problem and consider the question what makes an image “Punk?”
In this consideration I would be negligent not to acknowledge the problematic nature of the
Punk’s depiction of women.
Step Two: Keep the Girl; Lose the Midget
For an artist, it is a wondrous time to be alive. There are thousands images available for
viewing via a simple Google image search. I am constantly looking for images use as refer-
ence. A few months before I began work on this project, I ran across a striking photo of a
midget and a model dressed in leather, bat hoods, and capes. I had no use for this image at
the time, but I pulled it from the Web anyway and stored it for future use. I do this all the
time, and you will find that artists worth their salt keep a file of images that, whether or
not they contain a midget and a model dressed as Batman, are kept around for future refer-
ence. In this case, though, the photo of the model fit a number of the criteria for the main
image I envisioned for the Punk Archeology poster. It referred to 1960’s pop culture through
its use of the Batman cowl and cape while at the same time highlighting counter-culture
through its use of the leather bondage gear. With work, I felt that I could appropriate the
81
image of the figure in a way that would downplay its sexual nature and be referential of
Punk’s past imagery. All I had to do was lose the midget.
Step Three: Make it Punk
Having found my main image, I next needed to make it fit a low-fi Punk aesthetic. When do-
ing my early research for the project, one of the most important aspects of making the im-
age Punk was utilizing a style that makes the poor image quality photocopies, mimeographs,
and badly aligned offset printing the strength of the project. So, I made three separate
illustrations of my counter-culture Batgirl. The first utilizing only red, the second only blue,
and the final used only green. I made sure in doing this that I flattened and simplified the
figure as much as possible. The more flat the image, the more stylized it became, and the
farther away from a real person it appeared. The goal was to make the image an abstracted
field of flat colors. As much as possible, I wanted to emphasize the color relationships and
downplay the image’s sexuality. Having done that, I then began to overlap and offset each
version of my Batgirl until I found a combination that could hold the center of the composi-
tion and emphasize the play of colors. I added chunks of primary color and a moiré effect to
the area directly behind the figure to emphasize the poster’s cut-and-paste style. Finally, I
added a big red Creature from the Black Lagoon button, and my counter-culture Batgirl was
transformed into the perfect punk rock Batgirl.
Step Four: Connect it to Archaeology
What I know about archaeology could actually fit in a couple of sentences. I have
never been on a dig, and although I know and work with practitioners in the field, we sel-
dom (if ever) talk about what it is they do. Not a problem. When designing for a specific
group, you should go with what you know. More often than not the stereotypical imagery
that represents the group will suffice. It has come to signify them for good reason and can
act as visual shorthand that will be universally understood. So, I found a photo reference of
a damaged pot and illustrated it set on a field of broken clay. Slap a couple of Sex Pistols
and Buzzcocks stickers on it, and the connection is made.
82
Chapter t wel v e
The Sound of Archaeology
Kostis Kourelis
“Winged bull of Nineveh”
It’s the year 1847 and a British archaeologist/diplomat is excavating the Assyrian site of
Nineveh. The finds include gigantic sculptural reliefs depicting kings, royal animals, and
monsters that the archaeologists must extract from the deep trenches after being buried for
centuries under the Iraqi desert. Eventually transported to the British Museum in London,
they enter the canon of western civilization that all American undergraduates must memo-
rize for their final exams in the art history survey exam. And some of the sculpture even
made it to the United States; you can see them at the Yale University Art Gallery or the
Metropolitan Museum in New York, and some of the sculptures have migrated graphically
onto the skins of hipsters, favorite subjects for tattoos. But what the erudite student of art
does not see is the much-ignored musical dimension of archaeological practice, a communal
conflagration of sound, a magical enchantment, as the original talisman of the past rises
from the bowels of the earth. Austin Henry Layrd, the archaeologist of Nineveh, describes
the happening as he recounts the drama of hoisting the sculpture of a bull from the trench-
es with ropes and pulleys and a massive workforce of local Iraqis, a sectarian mix of Chris-
tians, Kurds, and Arabs. Having pulled up the bull statue from below, they lower the ropes
to bring the bull down on the ground.
The mass descended gradually, the Chaldaeans (the Christians) propping it up with
the beams. It was a moment of great anxiety. The drums and shrill pipes of the Kurdish
musicians increased the din and confusion caused by the war-cry of the Arabs, who were
half frantic with excitement. They had thrown off nearly all their garments; their long hair
floated in the wind; and they indulged in the wildest postures and gesticulations as they
clung to the ropes. The women had congregated on the sides of the trenches, and by their
incessant screams, and by the ear-piercing tahlehl, added to the enthusiasm of the men. The
bull once in a motion, it was not longer possible to obtain a hearing. The loudest cries I
could produce were lost in the crash of discordant sounds.1
Let’s travel 50 years forward and thousands of miles eastward from Iraq to Louisi-
ana. It’s May 11, 1901, and Harvard archaeologist, Charles Peabody, has arrived at Coahoma
County to conduct a seven-week excavation season at the Dorr Plantation in Clarksdale
and the Edwards Plantation in Oliver. The excavations focus on the mounds of the Choc-
taw people. The work is made strenuous by the damp black soil of the river, the heat, and
the humidity. A team of 9–15 hired workers motivates their labor by singing. Their repeti-
1 Austin Henry Layard, Nineveh and its Remains (London, 1849); Brian M. Fagan, Eyewitness to Discovery:
First-Person Accounts of More than Fifty of the World’s Greatest Archaeological Discoveries (New York, 1996),
p. 93. Thanks to Nassos Papalexandrou for bringing this passage to my attention.

85
“Eva Palmer-Sikelianos”
tive and mesmerizing field songs, which we know today as the Delta Blues, catch Peabody’s
attention. The New England aristocrat, whose family endowed Yale’s Peabody Museum of
Natural History, has never heard anything like this before. He is transformed and turns his
attention to the excavation music. Before even processing his excavation finds, he publishes
and essay, “Notes on Negro Music,” in the 1903 issue of the Journal of American Folk Lore,
a landmark in the musicology of the American Blues. He writes:
On their beginning a trench at the surface the woods for a day would echo their yell-
ing with faithfulness. The next day or two these artists, being, like the Bayreuth orchestra,
sunk out of sight, there would arise from behind the dump heap a not unwholesome μυγμός as
of the quiescent Furies.”2
Another 25 years forward, we find ourselves in the American School of Classical
Studies at Athens, where a slight democratization of practices brings students as the labor
force of excavation rather than hired hands. Reading through the Administrative Records
of the American School, we came across a fascinating letter from 1925, where the student
fellows request from the Board of Trustees nothing but a Victrola, so that their dormant
hours can be filled with jazz, dance, and cocktails. Another student that same year is ex-
pelled for a brave breach of morality so unspeakable that the letter does not even say what
it is, purported to have occurred among the locals at the nightclub of the Grand Bretagne
Hotel in Athens. Unfortunately for the students, their request for a Victrola is denied as
“encouraging comradery and sinfulness.”3 But while in Europe, the archaeology students of
the 1920s and the 1930s enter the Bohemian circles of the proto-Punk of Expressionism, New
Objectivity, and Surrealism. They cross-dress and dance, they throw themselves into art
and music. Their punk rockers are Isadora and Raymond Duncan, Eva Palmer and Angelos
Sikelianos, George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell, all members of the American avant-garde
that create bohemian communities and workshops in Greece. Some of the bohemians are ac-
tually working side-by-side with the archaeologists. Austrian Expressionist painter Georg
von Peschke, is employed by the Corinth excavations to produce architectural drawings for
publication, but projects shadow portraits of the excavators onto the dig house walls for en-
tertainment. Other excavation artists include Piet de Jong, and Emile Gilliéron. Gilliéron is not
2 Charles Peabody, “Notes on Negro Music,” The Journal of American Folklore 16, no. 62 (July-Sept.,
1903), p. 148; “Exploration of Mounds, Coahoma County, Mississippi,” Papers of the Peabody Museum
of American Archaeology and Ethnology 2, no. 2 (Cambridge, Mass., June 1904), reprinted 1969. I
discovered this piece in Ted Gioia, Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who
Revolutionized American Music (New York, 2008), pp. 20-22.
3 Archives of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Administrative Records, Box
318/3, Folder 6 (1933) and Folder 10 (1934).

87
“Situationist graffiti, Menton, France”
Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License
Photo by Espencat
only working for the French in the excavations at Delphi, but his is also teaching a young
Georgio de Chiricos how to draw, while the Surrealist artist was growing up in Greece.
Those early intersections between seemingly uptight American Protestant academics and pro-
miscuous Continental bohemians is beginning to occupy some scholarly attention in its own
right.
From Peabody to Alan Lomax, from Victrolas to Punk shows, from archaeology to
ethnomusicology, the road is straightforward. At least so it seemed to me and to my buddy
Bill Caraher. But we hadn’t anyone to make such of these connections vivid. As our profes-
sional and personal friendship developed, Bill and I realized that, beyond a love for Greek
archaeology, we shared a love for punk rock. But things got even more interesting when we
realized that our love for punk rock is not incidental, but is a central component of why we
became interested in archaeology from the beginning. Moreover, we realized, that we both
had mentors with similar, perhaps secret, bohemian interests. Unbeknownst to both, our old
white-haired mentors had hung out at Andy Warhol’s Factory in the 1960s, had watched the
Velvet Underground, had danced with expatriate Lesbian dance teachers in the basements of
Plaka, had brushed shoulders with Beat Poets like William Burroughs in Kolonaki (around the
corner from the American School in Athens), or they had embraced digital archaeology under
the influence of John Cage’s early adoption of computers to produce pure and unadulterated
chance music. But how could we explain to the rest of the world this visceral conviction
that Punk and archaeology for us, and for many others, the very same thing? Our Punk
Archaeology blog (http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com) sought to put on the table at least
some case studies to enumerate, categorize, even seriate our thoughts. There is a naiïve no-
tion that Punk, post-Punk, Goth, industrial, or however you choose to define the box is raw,
pure, unadulterated emotion. In contrast, Punk has been one of the most intellectual move-
ments, generated by philosophical traditions, schools of sociology, and even archaeologies.
Dick Hebridge created an entire discipline by simply studying the habits of the Birmingham
punks in the 1970s and founded the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies, where he
trained generations of Punk sociologists. Hebridge’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style (1979)
has transformed our ways of interpreting style in culture. Greil Marcus’s Lipstick Traces: A
Secret History of the Twentieth Century (1989) showed how Punk has a heritage that starts
most explicitly in 1913 with Dada and Cabaret Voltaire, movements that punk learned in art
school and revived (sometimes even taking the names of their ancestors for their bands: Bau-
haus, Cabaret Voltaire, Dresden Dolls). In art history, one can trace a beautiful line of con-
nection between the academy and the music hall, where for instance, Brian Eno, Heaven 17,
and Gang of Four, got their Marxist sophistication from the lectures of T. J. Clark. Before
becoming one of America’s most esteemed art historians (at Berkeley), Clark had been a mem-
ber of the Situationist International and taught the post-Punks at the Camberwell College of
89
Arts.
Once we acknowledge an intellectual inheritance within Punk and archaeology, we
might be able to turn to even more substantive questions of method and praxis. The blog has
been a modest beginning.
90
“Punk Archaeology blog banner”
punkarchaeology.wordpress.com
Chapter t h irt een
Reflection on the Punk Archeology Unconference
Timothy J. Pasch
“Recording Les Filthy Trenchman’s Performance,”
Feb. 2, 2013, SideStreet Grille & Pub
Photo Timothy J. Pasch
used by permission
I am neither an archaeologist nor a historian; rather I have my doctorate in Communication
and research primarily computer-mediated forms of message transmission, often with inter-
national/cultural focuses. Related to my interest in communication in general, I had some
initial curiosity related to the unique nature of the Punk Archeology event; curiosity that
was heightened by the fact that my University of North Dakota colleague Bill Caraher had
co-organized the event, and I therefore knew that I was in for a scholarly treat. I could not
however have adequately prepared myself for the intensity, excitement, and overall deeply
satisfying experience that the unconference developed into for me.
From a technological standpoint, I was involved in working with a team of two oth-
ers from the University of North Dakota at the event, and our role was to record high
definition audio and video of the unconference, ensure sound reinforcement for the speakers
and musicians, photograph still images, and stream the video to our larger campus commu-
nity. While at first I was unsure as to whether I would possess the intellectual background
to relate to the scholarly content, I rapidly found myself becoming not only interested, but
actually viscerally enraptured with the atmosphere of the evening.
As I reflect on the event itself, I have been mentally equating the unconference with
the Bakhtinian concept of the Carnival from a cultural theoretical perspective. It was a
conference where the usually expected and anticipated conference-related roles were removed,
leaving a sense of academic and social freedom of expression that I have not yet experienced
in any scholarly setting to date. The use of a megaphone for announcements, the fact that
presenters and audience members were both enjoying adult beverages together, the ability
of presenters and participants to utilize language that would generally be considered collo-
quial at times, and the fact that the scholarly presentations were interspersed with musical
performances, made for a conference that shattered my previous conceptualizations of the
so-called appropriate academic conference, and replaced it with an event wherein the Bour-
dieuian homo academicus was supplanted by a fully developed and engaged public sphere in
the Habermasian sense.
Although as Communication scholars we often study the idea of these theoretical con-
structs of alternate forms of message transmission and reception, it is quite rare that the
normally expected paradigms are altered in such an effective fashion. I found myself engag-
ing with the conference on multiple levels that (again, in my experience) are generally re-
served for entirely different locales and sets of colleagues. In particular, the musician in me
was able to resonate with the very strong punk rock performances, high-quality musician-
ship, and lyrics. The academic in me, simultaneously, was able to appreciate the scholarly
talks related to fieldwork, challenges of data collection, issues of cyberinfrastructure while
95
working in less-than-stellar conditions, and some of the cited literature that I was familiar
with. I was able to additionally relax physically to an extent that is generally not possible
at a scholarly conference, and this, in turn, enabled me to more socially engage with schol-
ars whom I might not normally have the opportunity to approach.
I found this event to reconfigure many of my previously held beliefs related to what
a scholarly conference should, and could be; and it is my sincere aspiration that I may enjoy
the opportunity to attend further events of this type.
96
P A RT t wo
Punk Archaeology from Bill Caraher and Kostis Kourelis
Chapter Fourt een
Toward a Definition of Punk Archaeology
Bill Caraher
Photo Aaron Barth, CC0
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on July 28, 2009 at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/07/28/toward-a-definition-of-punk-archaeology/)
I was asked recently what exactly “Punk Archaeology” is . . . and aside from pointing to
our blog of that name, I struggled to come up with a clever answer or really any answer.
The best that I could offer was that Punk Archaeology was an empty vessel, a conceptual
universe opening to being filled by the careening intersection of punk rock music and ar-
chaeology (in almost all of its forms and meanings). So far the vessel is filled with bits of
methodology, some history, some archaeology (in a Foucaldian sense) and even some proper
archaeological investigations. This description, however, does not necessarily explain what
Punk Archaeology is. So, here goes a first effort towards a definition of Punk Archaeology:
1) Punk Archaeology is a reflective mode of organizing archaeological experiences.
Punk Archaeology began as conversations between Kostis Kourelis and other archaeolo-
gists who admitted to listening to punk rock music or appreciating the punk aesthetic while
studying archaeology. The result was a collaboration between me and Kostis as we made an
effort to probe the intersection between these two choices. Why would we be drawn to punk
rock —or any particular music —and how does this musical choice explain or organize or condi-
tion our approaches to archaeological research? Both of us came around to the question of
whether there is a totalizing discourse in our intellectual lives. Is there some strand that
makes sense of our varied interests?
2) Punk Archaeology follows certain elements of the Punk aesthetic through the dis-
cipline of archaeology. It celebrates, in particular, the things that can be grouped under the
blanket heading of DIY practices: various low-fi podcasts, in-field improvised devices, seren-
dipitous inventions that allow archaeologists to document space, place, and the past.
3) Punk Archaeology reveals a deep commitment to place. Punk with its ties to garage
band sound has always manifested itself spatially: the tensions between urban and suburban
(e.g., “Little London Boys”), East and West Coast, and the persistent association of certain
sounds and styles with cities or even places (some of which are intended to disorient: Max’s
Kansas City). As archaeology is, in so many ways, a “science” of place, its affinity to a
musical genre that self-consciously laced the experience of music with the experience of
place would seem appropriate.
4) Punk Archaeology embraces destruction as a creative process. Archaeologists
destroy the very object that they seek to study. Digging through strata removes artifacts
from their physical context and places them in the disciplinary context of the archaeolo-
101
gist notebook, database, plan, map, article, or monograph. Destruction as a creative process
echoes in some ways the process of Punk which sought to deconstruct musically the foun-
dation of Anglo-American pop music and build in its place a subversive recontextualized
narrative of safe and comfortable bourgeois life. I am not sure that archaeology is always
subversive, and I don’t even know whether punk rock forms the best parallel for the recon-
textualizing process of excavation, but there is a certain symmetry between the two.
5) Punk Archaeology is spontaneous. The one thing that the Punk Archaeology blog is
seeking to capture is the spontaneity of the connection between Punk and archaeology. The
performance of punk archaeology through the medium of blogging allows for our definition
to remain flexible and fluid. We can reshape our argument and our juxtapositions and even
challenge and contradict ourselves. In short, we can create distortion, noise, and a kind off
creative chaos. That might, like Punk, have value.
Or not.
We’ll see.
102
Chapter Fi ft een
101’ers
Kostis Kourelis
“101 Walterton Road”
Photo Julian Yewdall, CC-BY
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on February 18, 2008 at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/101ers/)
The Clash’s front-man Joe Strummer started his first band in 1974. Their name “The
101’ers” reveals the urban domestic origins of Punk, named after 101 Walterton Road, where
the band members squatted. Technically, squatting means the occupation of abandoned build-
ings without official permission or payment of rent. Strummer had just bought his iconic
Fender Telecaster. Among other odd jobs, he trimmed flower beds at Hyde Park and was
janitor for the English National Opera. Earlier in the winter 1972–73, Strummer had a truly
archaeological job, working as a gravedigger (as did Rod Stewart). The story of the band is
told in Strummer’s official biography by Chris Salewicz, Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe
Strummer.1 Strummer and the rest of the 101’ers lived and practiced in the basement, which
had a dirt floor. Walterton Street was a wartime ghetto, which the government was slowly
tearing down, house-by-house. 101 Walterton was the last house on the block razed in 1975.
The squatters then moved to 36 St. Luke Road, close to a West Indian community. Essential-
ly, the 101’ers were inhabiting an abandoned urban carcass. The house had no interior toilet,
no hot water, no electricity, and was flea-infested. Electricity was illegally tapped from the
public grid. The photo, from Salewicz, gives an architectural image of Punk’s origins, ris-
ing out of dilapidated brick houses of the 19th century.2 Spaces such as these would become
dwellings and performing spaces for countless bands in the U.K. and the U.S.
Although 101 Walterton does not exist anymore, it was located at 51 °31’ 29.83”N, 0°
12’3.08”W (lat/long) and can be visited via Google Earth.
Masonry brick wall became central to the iconography of Punk. In stark low-budget
black-and-white photography, the brick matrix provided dramatic visuality to the music: an
exaggerated Xerox manipulation, further contrasted the black brick against the white mor-
tar. Consider the architectural backdrop on the Ramones self-titled debut album (1976), a
graffitied masonry wall from Lower Manhattan (probably outside CBGB’s). Similarly, when
the Clash released their first (also self-titled) record in 1977, it also set the band within a
highly dramatic brick wall. The photo was taken by Kate Simon for an article in Sounds
in late 1976. The setting was an alleyway opposite the front door of the band’s Rehearsal
Rehearsals building in Camden Town. The 1980 album cover for Sandinista also featured a
brick-wall background. The aesthetics of bare brick walls contrasts with those of a decade
1 Salewicz 2006, 116, 118, 129.

2 Salewicz 2006, 181.
105
“The Ramones”
Sire/Philips, 1976
earlier. When Andy Warhol moved into the Factory in January 1964, he had Billy Name (a
lighting technician) cover the bare brick walls with silver. The demise of the Factory in
1968 corresponds with the peeling of the silver application. Punk did not have glitter. It’s
also noteworthy to compare the punk walls with rock’s most famous masonry, namely The
Wall by Pink Floyd in 1979. The 2-LP album sleeves highlight a crisply drafted wall, pure
whiteness inscribed by pure black lines. Above this orthographic drawing, we have the
blotchy graffiti of the band’s name and record title. True to its conceptual art-rock nar-
rative, this wall exists in a fantastic, timeless, highly representational graphic realm. Al-
though of similar iconography, it is foreign to the rough and real bricks of the Ramones and
the Clash.
107
“The Clash”
CBS, 1977
C hapter s ixt een
Athens Street Art
Kostis Kourelis
“Anti-police graffiti on the walls of Athens, during the riots of 2008”
Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, Photo Badseed
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on October 13, 2008, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/athens-street-art/)
G raffiti Artists Leave Their Mark on Athens on ABC Australia discussed the rise of
graffiti on the archaeological sites of Athens.1 Indeed, walking through the streets of
Athens in 2007, I first noticed the explosion of Greek street art. The Plaka especially is
saturated. I think that graffiti has not been seriously discussed in relation to Greek archae-
ology. How could Greek archaeologists categorically condemn graffiti but, at the same time,
celebrate Lord Byron’s scratchings on the Temple of Zeus (Poseidon?) at Sounion? As an
archaeologist of post-Classical Greece, I find myself closer to the side of the vandals “defac-
ing” the ancient temples than the purists. One of my favorite archaeological illustrations is
a drawing showing a tapestry of graffiti at Ramnous2 in Vasileios Petrakos is one of few
Greek archaeologists to publish such defacement in a site monograph. My love of graffiti
should not be dismissed at face value on account of my period interests (Byzantine over Clas-
sical). We tend to associate spolia, reuse and appropriation with the Late Roman and Byzan-
tine periods. Classical Athenians, however, did a fair share of it, too. For details, you must
ask my wife, Celina Gray, who labors over reuse in Athenian cemeteries. For my favorite
article on Late Antique spolia, I send you to Joseph Alchermes, “Spolia in Roman Cities of
the Late Empire: Legislative Rationales and Architectural Reuse,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers
48 (1994), pp. 167–178.
In this essay, I wish to discuss neither the archaeology of graffiti nor the graffiti
of archaeological sites. Rather, I want to highlight the burgeoning scene of Greek street art
in a positive manner. Its cultural relevance should be taken seriously. It is Greece’s greatest
public art and one of the few instances of constructive civil disobedience. I will start with
a simple question, which is more than rhetorical. Is modern graffiti inferior to classical art?
Of course, classical art is more important, but can we be so sure? One way to test the rela-
tive relevance of disparate art forms is to gauge contemporary interests. Although my meth-
odology is by no means scientific, I decided to test cultural value in my local Border’s book-
store by conducting a simple statistical study. So, on my way back from work last Tuesday,
I stopped at Border’s at New London’s Crystal Mall. The store contains a modest art selec-
1 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/07/2383653.htm, (I thank Tim Gregory who sent this link to Bill

Caraher who sent it to me)
2 Vasileios Petrakos,Ο δήμος της ΡαμνούςΡαμνούς, vol. 1, Τοπογραφικά (Athens, 1999), p. 270.
111
“Chromopolis, Greece 2002”
Photo NotAwkward, CC-BY
tion, covering 18 shelves, or the equivalent of 54 linear feet of shelf space. Scanning care-
fully all the shelves, I was surprised to find absolutely NO books on ancient art. By the
way, my job at Connecticut College was teaching ancient and medieval art (incidentally as
Joe Alchermes’ sabbatical replacement); my informal survey obviously devastated my sense
of academic value. I was disheartened to see that antiquity was found sparingly only in a
few general books. I concluded that, similarly, my ancient survey will be the only exposure
that my students will ever have to this material. At Border’s, a little more than two linear
feet were devoted to street art, that is 4% of the total shelf space. Thus, we can conclude
that for a general American audience, street art is infinitely more important than ancient
art. Modern Greek graffiti, moreover, is highly respected within those publications. An ex-
cerpt from Nicholas Ganz’s Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents best summarizes
the Greek scene: “Greece and its local activists were thrust into the limelight through the
Chromopolis project.3 Concentrated in Athens and Thessaloniki, the movement is enjoying a
boom, particularly in pieces. Over the fast few years, pioneers such as Bizare or Woozy have
continued to make their mark, and new artists are emerging, often working with stencils or
characters.” Have the archaeologists quoted in ABC missed the movement altogether? Most
likely. Reading the official condemnation of graffiti might give us the impression that street
art is strictly an underground subculture. This is another misrepresentation. Preparing for
the 2004 Athens Olympics, the Ministry of Culture went hip-hop by sponsoring Chromopo-
lis, a project organized by graffiti magazine Carpe Diem. In the summer of 2002, Greece
invited 16 internationally acclaimed graffiti artists, including OsGemeos, Besok, Codeak,
Bizare, Mark1, and Loomit. The artists created large scale compositions at 10 sites (image
above). The works were proudly included in Greece’s official Cultural Olympiad and elevated
graffiti with venues such as the archaeology of Minoan and Mycenaean food at Birmingham,
or a Post-Byzantine art exhibit in New York.
Although by no means would I promote vandalizing archaeological sites, the recent
growth in archaeological graffiti seems to fit a larger pattern, the explosion and interna-
tional prestige of Greek street art. In the American context, it would be difficult to ignore
the prestige of street artists like Shepard Fairey, who designed one of the most desirable
images for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign; see my posting on Punk Archaeology:
“Glue.”4 The press on Fairey was more concerned about his mainstream status; see Melena
Rizik, “Closer to Mainstream; Still a Bit Rebelious.”5 The elusive Banksy seemed to have
made a surprise installation in SoHo, and the press went wild.6 I fall in the group of people
3 New York, 2004, 128, 162-163; for the Chromopolis Project see: http://www.graffiti.org/chromo
4 http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2008/04/punk-archaeology-glue.html
5 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/arts/design/02fair.html
6 see David Itzkoff “A Could-Be Bansky Appears on a SoHo Wall” (NYT, Oct. 1, 2008): http://www.nytimes.
113
who worship those idolatrous artists. And judging from the 4% coverage at Border’s, I’m not
alone.
The fans of Greek street art are harder to find. But I’m clearly not the only ar-
chaeologist of Greece to see cultural vitality in modern Greece beyond the national love of
the Parthenon. Guy Sanders, Jan Sanders, and Petros Sandamouris administer a wonderful
Facebook Group, “Alternative Athens: Beyond Your Comfort Zone.”7 It’s defined as follows:
“Εκτός των συνόρων: how can you find a real Athens beyond your hotel or institution or group?
A member of one Athens based institution has likened their closed community to a huge sow
to which its piglets return and suckle year after year. How do we find out about the life
beyond our Comfort Zone? This group is intended to be a place where venues outside the
bubble are shared and evaluated.” Some of the Group members (Jess Hackman, Eva Akashi,
Sara Lima, Isabela Sanders) have been photographing Athenian street art and adding it to
the communal images. What we need now is a systematic survey, the archaeology of Athe-
nian street art, the mapping of Greece’s newest masterpieces. The Wooster Collective is such
an organized venture documenting street art globally.8 I’m waiting for the Essential City
Guide to Athens! I had started photographing street art in Philadelphia, but that was a few
years ago. One of my objectives had been to record locations through time and show the tem-
poral nature (both deterioration and addition) of this art form. The survey of Greek graffiti
must take inspiration from the Geocaching craze, a hobby that unites GPS, Google Earth,
and treasure hunting. Deb and Colin Stewart introduced me to this and I look forward to
joining. A search under Athens, Greece, produced 91 caches in Athens alone. What are we
waiting for?
People catalogue all kinds of things. My dear friend Jules, for instance, catalogues
built-in ashtrays. Although she doesn’t see it archaeologically, she is creating the only exist-
ing database of this extinct socio-type. In fact, if you have more instances, send them to
me, and I’ll send them to BUILT-IN-ASHTRAYS.9 Needless to say, this is the pet project
of a reformed smoker and quite the social thinker.
Curious about street art bibliography? The least that I can do is share what I found
at Border’s in a measly New London mall. You can map that, too.10 In the spirit of free art,
I bought nothing but browsed to my heart’s content. In browsing order: Tristan Manco,
Street Sketchbook: Inside the Journals of International Street and Graffiti Artists (San
com/2008/10/02/arts/design/02bank.html
7 http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=19727415036
8 http://www.woostercollective.com/city_guides
9 http://builtinashtrays.blogspot.com
10 http://www.borders.com/online/store/StoreDetailView_1303
114
“Inscription by Lord Byron, Temple of Poseidon, Sounion, Greece”
Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY, Photo Adam Sofen
Francisco, 2007); Josh J. MacPhee, Stencil Pirates: A Global Study of the Street Stencil
(Brooklyn, 2004); Roger Gastman, Caleb Neelon, and Anthony Smyrski, Street World: Urban
Art and Culture from Five Continents (New York, 2007); Nicholas Ganz, Graffiti World:
Street Art from Five Continents (New York, 2004); Eleanor Mathieson and Xavier A. Tapies
(ed), Street Art and the War on Terror: How the World’s Best Graffiti Artists Said No to
the Iraq War (London, 2007); Stephen Powers, The Art of Getting Over: Graffiti at the Mil-
lennium (New York, 1999), Steve Grody, Graffiti L.A. : Street Styles and Art (New York,
2007); Ryo Sanada, Suridh Hassan, Rackgaki: Japanese Graffiti (London, 2007); Jon Naar,
The Birth of Graffiti (Munich, 2007); Banksy, Wall and Piece (London, 2007).
December 6, 2008 marks a watershed moment for Athenian topography. Following the
death of a teenager by the police, the city blew up into the greatest demonstrations the city
had ever seen, and the first ones that did not seem to have a clear calling or agenda. Al-
though not directly, the damages from the 2008 protests generated a new sensibility among
the graffiti community, as popular gatherings gathered force. Previously not associated with
great street art, 2008 saw the first curatorial effort in presenting its taggers and artists,
in Jerry Goldstein’s Athens Street Art. The economic crisis that has ensued since 2008 has
further provided an artistic impetus to street images.11 Indeed, the street art in Athens has
taken monumental proportions. There are neighborhoods where the painted square-footage
greatly outnumbers the non-painted surfaces. Amusingly, when the mayor of Athens met
with mayor Bloomberg of New York, graffiti was at the top of their discussion list.12 The
preponderance and popularity of street art raises some questions about punk credibility.
Much of the visual style is figurative and illusionistic, not dissimilar to contemporary tat-
toos. It thus seems to capture a different visual imaginary with roots in the communal and
psychedelic 1960s rather than the snappy 1980s. At least the volume of Greek street art
elicits some serious academic treatment of its numerous artists.
The notoriety of Greece as a new important player in contemporary street art oc-
casionally conflicts with the country’s official celebration of that new position. Most inter-
esting is the meteoric rise of one street artist, Stelios Faitakis, who in 2011 was selected
to create a mural for the Danish (not the Greek) Pavilion in the 54 International Venice
Biennale. Focusing on Free Speech, the Danish Pavilion featured Faitakis’ large mural that
11 See a review of the blossoming art scene, Rachel Donadio, “Greece’s Big Debt Drama Is a Muse for Its Art-
ists,” The New York Times (Oct. 14, 2011) (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/15/arts/in-athens-art-blossoms-amid-
debt-crisis.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)
12 See Anemona Hartocollis, “Seeking to Engage Citizens, Athens Turns to New York for Advice” The New
York Times (May 16, 2013) (http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/16/seeking-to-engage-citizens-athens-turns-
to-new-york-for-advice/)
116
stylistically combined street art with the Byzantine visual tradition.13 During the same year,
the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art organized “Art in the Street,” the first major
exhibit on graffiti by an American Museum, which recognized the pioneering role of Greek-
American artis Taki 183 in inventing graffiti in 1969 New York.14 Taki (diminutive of Deme-
trius) 183 has yet to be honored by Greece.
13 (http://thebreedersystem.com/artists/stelios-faitakis-artist-page/)
14 (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/arts/design/early-graffiti-artist-taki-183-still-lives.html?_r=0)
117
C hapter s ev ent een
House of the Rising Sun
Kostis Kourelis
“The Animals, The House of the Rising Sun”
Columbia Graphophone/MGM, 1964
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on January 1, 2009 at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/01/01/house-of-the-rising-sun/)
“T he House of the Rising Sun” is one of the best known rock songs, a landmark across
many genres: American blues and folk, the British Invasion, garage rock and even Punk.
Its origins are complicated and contested: people still argue whether it was Woody Guthrie,
Bob Dylan, or The Animals who ushered the song into the popular mainstream. It probably
dates to 18th-century American folk tradition but entered ethnographic fact on September
15, 1937, when folklorist Alan Lomax taped a miner’s 16-year-old daughter, Georgia Turner,
performing the song in Middlesborough, Kentucky. Since then, many have rendered their
own versions, from Roy Acuff (1937), Woody Guthrie (1941), Lead Belly (1948), Glenn Yar-
brough (1957), to Bob Dylan (1961). The song, however, did not become a classic until 1964,
when the The Animals from Newcastle, England made it into a number one hit.
The song refers to a New Orleans house of prostitution with a contested archaeo-
logical history. Some claim that 826–830 Louis Street is the original location of the house,
originating from the name Marianne LeSoliel Levant, the brothel’s Madam from 1862 to
1874. There is no proof of this lineage. An 1838 newspaper mentions a Rising Sun cof-
fee house on Decatur Street, and a Rising Sun hotel stood on Conti Street before it burned
down in 1822. The latter site was the subject of a 2004 excavation by Shannon Lee
Dawdy, now assistant professor of archaeology at the University of Chicago. Dawdy could
not conclusively prove whether this was the famous House of the Rising Sun.1
More interesting than the song’s real archaeology is its idealized archaeological pro-
jection. The Animals performed their number one hit in the 1965 music film Pop Gear,
surrounded by a fantasized archaeological cage, stripped down in groovy mid-modern mini-
malism.2 The clip is absolutely stunning. The artistic level of its production is so superior
that it makes one wonder what happened to the integration between popular music and the
visual arts.
The set design is based on an Ionic colonnade built by purely white thin boards
through which The Animals circumnavigate. A yellow wall (matching the band’s shirts, be-
neath their 4-button suits) forms the background and receives both the white thin columns
and their intense gray shadows. I’ve tried to capture the dynamism of this imagined House
of the Rising Sun in a sketch at the beginning, but much of the energy of the video comes
from the movement of the mobile musicians (Burdon, Valentine, Chandler) around the sta-
1 For Dawdy’s fascinating work after Katrina, see John Schwarts, “Shannon Lee Dawdy: Archaeologist in
New Orleans Finds a Way to Help the Living,” New York Times (Jan. 3, 2006).
2 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=prS1_Xibf5U
121
“The Animals, The House of the Rising
Sun, Pop Gear set, 1965”
Sketch Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY

Sun, Pop Gear, 1965”

Sun, Pop Gear set dressing, 1965”
tionary musicians (Gallagher, Steel), the close-ups on Burdon, and the movement of the cam-
era behind the colonnade providing a peculiar (both thin and thick) sense of depth. The set
reconfigures the porch of southern domestic architecture, its classical vocabulary, as well as
its papery thinness. The composition, however, is entirely modernist with Cubist composi-
tion, Constructivist combinations and an Expressionist sense of light.
The L-shaped elements may also remind us of the hang-man games we played as chil-
dren and, thus, suggest connotations of lynching. Without a doubt, The Animals were aware
of Billy Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.” A fascinating song in its own right, “Strange Fruit” was
written by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish school teacher from the Bronx. Meeropol cited Law-
rence Beitler’s graphic 1933 photograph as inspiration for the lyrics, which he published in
a school-teacher union magazine in 1936. Holiday performed the song at the first integrated
night club in Greenwich Village in 1939. But this is only a slight, if not sublimated reading.
Overall, The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun” is pure form. Like the British Invasion
in general, the clean-cut gentlemen from Newcastle distilled the southern blues, and repack-
aged them with a sleek force that could bring down the walls. Cleaned up, the “House of the
Rising Sun” stops being an item of ethnographic “authenticity” and becomes pure libidinal
force. Much more than the legendary Beatles, Eric Burdon and The Animals offer the build-
ing blocks of a raw subversiveness that leads straight to The Clash. One can clearly see
that the architectural style of Deconstructivism begins in 1965. Zaha Hadid, Bernard Ts-
chumi, Daniel Liebeskind and other paper-thin superstars suddenly seem derivative. Are The
Animals so important? I hope to study more Pop Gear clips and see how other peer groups
contributed to Punk Archaeology. This includes performances by Herman’s Hermits, The
Four Pennies, Matt Monroe, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and other slightly forgotten
pioneers of what we now group under the category of garage rock.
I must thank my 10-year-old nephew Sean Gray for introducing me to Pop Gear inad-
vertently. Grandparents Terry and Brenda Gray got Sean a guitar for his birthday in July.
During the last few months, Sean has become a studious guitar player, giving his first pub-
lic recital in Albuquerque, of the “House of the Rising Sun.” He emailed The Animals’ video
to his uncle and aunt, in case they had never heard of the song before. Since I also got a
guitar last Christmas (thanks to Terry and Brenda), I have taken up the challenge of the
“Rising Sun.” Sean is much better than me, but Popi is enjoying the finger-picking across
the classic Am, C, D, F and E7th chords.
Bibliography
S. L. Dawdy, “Beneath the Rising Sun: ‘Frenchness’ and the Archaeology of Desire,”
International Journal of Historical Archaeology 12 (2008), 370–387.
123
Chapte r ei gh t een
Punk, Nostalgia, and the Archaeology of Musical Utopia
Bill Caraher
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on January 23, 2009 at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/punk-nostalgia-and-the-archaeology-of-musical-utopia/)
Last week, Kostis Kourelis initiated a collaborative project designed to explore the concept,
experience, and potential of Punk Archaeology. As we had bandied about this very topic
over the space of our two blogs, we decided to create a blog dedicated to the exploration of
this topic. The format is completely experimental and part of a greater goal to find those
points of contact between intellectual life and scholarly life.
My first contribution to this project is completely in the spirit of punk rock. It’s raw,
garage-band quality thought and seeks to question the relationship between nostalgia, ar-
chaeology, and the punk aesthetic:
One thing the Kostis’ essay on the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun” reminded me
of was the nostalgic tone to so much popular music. This is not exclusive to the 1960’s
British invasion bands, nor to punk rockers, of course, but it does intersect with a key
characteristic of an archaeological preoccupation with the past. Archaeologists are in some
ways nostalgic (in the same way that they are often secretly utopian in aspiration). We hope
that excavating the past we can reveal the deeper significance or truth in some fragment
of the contemporary world. The fragments of the past become recontextualized within our
contemporary sensibilities— reassembled and redeployed to capture a kind seemingly authentic
past full of utopian innocence and beauty.
The rediscovery of the American Blues, whether by the 1960s British pop music scene or
the later 1960s American folk rock scene seems to capture a similar craving for authentic-
ity, a desire both to appropriate a past reality and recreate it in the present as a utopian
critique of the plastic, mass-produced, insincere present. The mid-1960s blues revival craved
this authenticity, and in this was both genuine and, to a certain extent, naive. (And in some
way, this is what made the intersection between these two groups so potent. Here I’d re-
fer a reader to Sonny Boy Williamson’s date with the Animals or, more haunting still, Alan
Wilson’s (of Canned Heat) work with Son House in the mid-1960s.) It’s possible at times to
detect (over the ironic, post-everything din) the quest for a kind of primordial authenticity
still echoes in the blues inspire guitar rock of the White Stripes (see their version of “Death
Letter“ from De Stijl) or the Black Keys.
Punk rock’s engagement with the archaeological stratigraphy of music reveals a more
post-modern disposition. While on the one hand, the Punk movement continued to champion
a kind of a kind of musical authenticity. The low-fi, garage band postures and sound spoke
126
to a more basic and visceral kind of musical experience: ”Always leave them wanting less.”
On the other hand, when punk musicians dug through the stratigraphy of past music and
excavated classic pop songs from just a generation earlier, they regarded them with a new
spirit of ironic detachment. These songs no longer deserved the kind of authentic (re)produc-
tions embraced by the blues revival but a new reading that revealed by the potent gaze of
the punk rocker. The very name of the iconic early punk band, The Velvet Underground,
invokes the seedy underbelly of the domesticated suburban life in the same spirit that the
Germs’ raucous versions of Chuck Berry’s “Round and Round” or Johnny Thunder’s version
of The Commodores’ (and perhaps as significantly the Dave Clark Five’s) “Do you love me?”
I am not positive how this relates to archaeology, but in the spirit of garage band
ramblings, I offer this: the most recent trends in archaeology have pulled back from roman-
tic dalliances with the idealized symbols of pure “Classical” past (think: alabaster temples
and philosopher-filled stoas) and dedicated themselves to uncovering and subverting such
idealized symbols through the study of the more mundane objects and spaces. Over the last
several decades serious research has recovered the significance of domestic structures, rural
installations, and coarse and utilitarian pottery. By appropriating the mantle and methods of
Classical archaeology and its associations with utopian visions of the past, a new Mediter-
ranean archaeology recontextualizes the research of a generations of scholars romanced by
the illusory notions of authenticity offered by monumental, urban, elite architecture, sculp-
ture, and ceramics. The Punk Archaeologist shifts the attention from such elaborate acts of
nostalgic commemoration toward a sustained and subversive effort to appropriate the notion
of the Classical in the spirit of social and political critique. The goal is less to preserve the
Classical world than to use it as weapon against itself.
127
“The Velvet Underground”
MGM, 1969
C hapter Nin et een
Punk and Place
Bill Caraher
“The Cramps, Larry’s Hideaway in Toronto, June 14, 1982”
Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY, Photo Canada Jack aka Jeremy Gilbert
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on February 10, 2009 at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/punk-and-place/)
With Lux Interior’s death on February 4, 2009, 1

It got me thinking about the close re-
lationship between punk music and place I haven’t thought systematically about it, but in
fragments, as I tried to link it to the importance of place within archaeology.
Punk as much as any other music played with place. In their efforts to defy social
conventions and question the accepted practices of the music industry and bourgeois society,
punk rockers challenged expectations with their concerts. They engaged in theatrical, cha-
otic performances openly rejecting the polished and choreographed sets associated with pop
music. By rejecting the systematic in their performances, they embraced the spontaneous
and contingent.
This is not to say, however, that their shows were accidental or random. There was
an aura of intentionality. The Cramps’ show at a mental hospital was full of meaningful
references ranging from the tradition of performing to shut-ins of various kinds to2 Antonin
Artaud’s Theater of the Absurd and Marquis de Sade’s famous efforts to direct plays while
imprisoned at the hospital at Charenton.3 The former evoked B. B. King’s great live album at
the Cook County Jail and Johnny Cash’s concerts at Folsom Prison and San Quentin (as well
as a series of other well-known performances to inmates). While these performances have
been seen as acts of compassion by Cash and King, they also make explicit the link between
the dire nature of their music and the dire state of the inmates. In fact, the power of these
shows derives, in part, from the authenticity of the performances. The inmates as audience
have actually shared the tortured stories of the performers. It speaks of an intimacy that is
absent from shows where the audience, the musician, and the music dwell separately from
one another.
A concert at a mental hospital depends upon the understood link between the audi-
ence and the music established by folks like King and Cash, but turns it on its head. The
Cramps, with their theatrical stage shows, absurdist lyrics, and chaotic, raucous sound,
depend upon the place to define their music. They play the music of the insane:
1 I offered a short post on The Cramps’ concert at the California State Mental Hospital (http://punkarchaeology.
wordpress.com/2009/02/06/50/)
2 as Kostis Kourelis noted in his comment http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/50/#comments
3 one could also note M. Foucault’s Madness and Civilization (New York 1965)
131
“And we drove 3,000 miles to play for you people . . . And somebody
told me that you people are crazy, but I’m not so sure about that. You
seem to be alright to me.”
The playfulness with place has deep roots in the Punk movement. The moniker “ga-
rage rock” locates the entire genre of music in the informal and marginal space of the ga-
rage. The garage is also a symbol of suburbia and the dislocation of domestic space from the
place of work and the urban center. When punk bands played CBGB’s or Max’s Kansas City
(the name itself is another play on place) in New York, the garage band sound made explicit
their critique of bourgeois values; when suburbia came to the city, they presented not the
well-ordered, picket-fence houses, but a sonic dystopia.
As I wrote previously, punk rock played with time by evoking, manipulating, and
mocking nostalgic themes in American music. The Cramps dedicated their album A Date
with Elvis to the late ’50s/early ’60s rocker Ricky Nelson. They also drew heavily from the
informal “low-fi” sound ironically insisting on a kind of musical authenticity to underpin
their blatantly silly lyrics and ridiculous stage shows. Their songs show strong influences of
both rockabilly and surf rock. The Cramps’ sound formed the foundation for later bands like
The White Stripes or The Black Keys or Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion who ironically and
playfully employed the authenticity of low-fi sound to highly textured, remixed, and pro-
duced albums.
Time and space remain central archaeological concerns. Punk rock’s willingness to
play with nostalgia and authenticity and use place as a form of social and musical critique
provides foundations for a far more radical appreciation of archaeological contexts than tra-
ditional chronological or functional analyses allow.
132
Chapter t went y
Metal Machine Music
Kostis Kourelis
“Metal Machine Music”
RCA, 1975
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on April 27, 2009, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/metal-machine-music/)
In 1975, Lou Reed released one of the most radical albums in rock history. Metal Machine
Music consists of looping guitar feedback, orchestrated dissonance, 65 minutes of noise.1
Released a year after the pop-oriented Sally Can’t Dance, the album has puzzled historians.
Was it a joke? Was it a redemptive avant-garde gesture? Did it fulfill an earlier record con-
tract? However skeptical some critics may have been, this monumental double album had a
huge influence. Not only did it invent New York’s Post-Punk “No Wave” movement but also
a new rock genre known today as industrial music. It also aligned Punk with contemporary
classical music, the rarefied mechanical universe of Ioannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhau-
sen, and John Cage. In an interview with Lester Bangs, Reed points out that he originally
sought to release the album in RCA’s classical division.
In 2007, the German ensemble Zeitkratzer performed the piece with Lou Reed and
released it on CD. In April 2009, Reed performed Metal Machine Music once again at the
Blender Theater in New York, with Sarth Calhoun and Ulrich Krieger (who first transcribed
the work for Zeitkrzatzer).
It’s amazing to think that 34 years have passed since the album’s original release.
Excluding Sonic Youth’s success, the dissonant New York scene of No Wave is completely
unknown to the general public. The situation might be changing, however, through a bib-
liographic explosion. In 2008, Thurston Moore (of Sonic Youth) and Byron Coley have pub-
lished a documentary visual history, No Wave: Post-Punk Underground. New York. 1976–
1980.2 Two other books were released in 2007: Mark Masters, No Wave;3 Paula Court and
Stuart Baker, New York Noise.4 A biography of Sonic Youth has also been published: David
Browne, Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth (New York, 2008). In so many
words, the New York punk scene has found some solid scholarly footing in the last couple of
years.
There have also been some serious attempts to document the visual tradition of punk
rock. While attending the Archaeological Institute of America’s annual meetings in Chicago
in January 2008, I got a chance to see, “Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll
since 1967,” an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art that tried to present rock’s
1 http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9I5OtlKjzJo&
2 New York 2008.
3 London 2007.
4 London 2007.
135
visual tradition after 1967. I must admit that the exhibit was disappointing (for a variety
of reasons that I won’t get into here), but at least it made me contemplate the difficulties
of trying to display the connection between art and music. At least, it inspired me to design
a class on Punk Aesthetics (which I doubt anyone would ever let me teach). For those who
missed the show, the catalog is just as good: see Dominic Molon and Diedrich Diederichsen
(Chicago, 2007).
Although not explicitly connected to Punk, a relevant show opened in New York,
believe it or not, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ‘The Pictures Generation’ 1974–1984
reflects on artists like Cindy Sherman that flourished at the heyday of punk. Some of the
artists were also part of the music scene. Robert Longo is a good example. He designed The
Replacements’ album cover Tim (1985) and shot music videos for New Order and R.E.M.
Robert Longo’s Men in Cities painting series (1979) stands out as the greatest visual state-
ment of Post-Punk aesthetics with which I grew up. The Met show includes another work
by Longo, a three-dimensional leaping man, “American Soldier” (1977). Holland Cotter uses
Longo’s leaping metaphor in his review, “At the Met Baby Boomers Leap on Stage” (New
York Times, Apr. 23, 2009). It’s unusual that this show takes place at the Met, “a fusty
backwater for contemporary art and an object of scorn in the art world” (Cotter). But the
change is very much welcome. The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, and the Guggen-
heim have become so annoying with their “contemporaneity” and steep admissions. The Met
for me has become a default in the good old world of public service.
“The Pictures Generation” show at the Met ran parallel to a new “Generational” series
at the New Museum. “The Generational: Younger than Jesus” surveys a new crop of artists
born after 1976 (hence younger than Jesus when he was crucified). For Harold Cotter’s re-
view of this show, see “Young Artists Caught in the Act” (New York Times, Apr. 9, 2009).
The Generational series at the New Museum are trying to out-do the Whitney Biennial.
But the ultimate capitalization of Punk aesthetics arrived in 2013 with the fash-
ion exhibit “PUNK: From Chaos to Couture.”5 Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show hoped
to continue capitalizing on the popularity of fashion shows, such as “Alexander McQueen:
Savage Beauty” at the Met in 2011.6 By most accounts, the Met’s show was a monumental
failure. Without a doubt, Malcolm McLaren’s and Vivienne Westwood’s Sex Boutique in Lon-
don placed clothing at the forefront of the Punk movement, but the show at the Met was
so badly conceptualized despite some interesting consultants (like Richard Hell). For a more
thorough review of the show, see Richard Hell and Legs McNeil’s May 10, 2013 interview on
Q7 or Sasha Frere-Jones, “The Day that Punk Died Again,” The New Yorker (May 7, 2013)8
5 http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/PUNK
6 http://blog.metmuseum.org/alexandermcqueen
7 http://www.cbc.ca/q/2013/05/10/media-panel-gilbert-hernandez-elivra-kurt/
8 http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sashafrerejones/2013/05/met-punk-chaos-to-couture.html
136
with a most memorable concluding statement: “The biggest sin of this current show is not
that it isn’t true to Punk. It’s that it doesn’t honor history, ideas, or clothing. It’s dull, and
even a suburban house party can negate that kind of bad religion.”
The object of this blog posting was to offer a general overview of recent phenom-
ena in the historization of Punk. The bibliography is growing. Biographies, photographic
archives, new performances, and museum exhibits entrench Punk deeper into the halls of
academic legitimacy. Still, however, there is little on Punk Archaeology. If the reader had
the slightest doubt that Punk has accumulated an institutional patina, consider the follow-
ing. On November 24, 2008, Christie’s held its first Punk Rock Fine Art auction. You can
see all the 236 lots (and respective prices) on Christie’s website.9
9 http://www.christies.com/features/auctions/1108/2063/
137
Chapter t wen t y - on e
Bowie’s Philadelphia Sound
Kostis Kourelis
“Young Americans”
RCA, 1975
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on June 25, 2009, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/bowies-philadelphia-sound/)
Much of 1980’s New Wave (ABC, Duran Duran, Thompson Twins, Spandau Ballet, Culture
Club, etc.) has an orchestral, soulful sound. These “New Romantics” reclaimed the grandeur
of Swing from the syncopation of Disco. The city of Philadelphia played a minor role in
New Wave with figures like Hall and Oates (who met at Temple) and the Hooters (who met
at Penn). A local music scene thrived in the late ’80s and ’90s, although many bands, like
the Johnsons, Scram, and the Dead Milkmen, received limited national attention.
Philadelphia is responsible for the origins of New Wave’s grand sound by means of
an earlier and lesser known avenue, David Bowie’s 1975 album Young Americans. On Au-
gust 11, 1974, Bowie spent a week in Philadelphia, recording Young Americans at the Sigma
Sound Studios on 212 N. 12th Street. It is here that Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff created
what is known as Philadelphia soul or the Philadelphia sound (Bowie called it “plastic soul”).
Gamble and Huff had started the Philadelphia International Records label only three years
before Bowie’s visit. Young Americans was an important point of departure from Bowie’s
earlier rock persona in Ziggy Stardust (1972), or Diamond Dogs (1974). In Philadelphia,
therefore, David Bowie pursued one of his many incarnations as a spiritually black artist.
And it is here that he met Puerto Rican guitarist Carlos Alomar, who became an integral
member of Bowie’s band. Young Americans also features backing vocals by Luther Vandross
and includes the song “Fame,” co-written with John Lennon, which became Bowie’s first
American hit.
I doubt that 1980’s New Wave (or New Pop) was directly inspired by Philadelphia In-
ternational Records. Its point of departure is David Bowie’s 1975 album, which had already
reconfigured the elements of the Philadelphia sound. A year after the release of Young
Americans, David Bowie turned a new chapter in his musical career by moving to Berlin
with Iggy Pop. The short relationship with Philadelphia was hence quickly overshadowed by
a three-year residence in Berlin. The Berlin trilogy (Low, Heroes, Lodger) incorporated Brian
Eno’s electronic experimentation into the Philadelphia foundations.
Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 2008, and an excellent 4-CD box set was released on the occasion, Love Train: the Sound
of Philadelphia (Sony Legacy). Terry Gross interviewed Gamble and Huff in “Riding Philly’s
‘Love Train’ with Gamble and Huff.”1 On May 19, 2009, Gamble and Huff received BMI’s
Icon Award.
1 NPR, Nov. 26, 2008, replayed May 22, 2009: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story/
php?storyId=104387686
141
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A recent book explores Bowie’s creative three years in Berlin: see Thomas Jerome Seabrook,
Bowie in Berlin: A New Career in a New Town.2 For the Philadelphia episode, see also
Christopher Sandford, Bowie: Loving the Alien.3 The story of the Philadelphia sound is
chronicled in, John A. Jackson, A House on Fire: The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia Soul.4
2 London 2008.
3 New York 1996, 128.
4 New York 2004.
142
Chapter t went y - t w o
The Magnetic Age
Kostis Kourelis
“David Thomas”
Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License,
Photo Joe Mabel
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on July 23, 2009, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/07/23/the-magnetic-age/)
D avid Thomas, the singer of the legendary Cleveland punk band Pere Ubu, has written one
of the finest essays on rock music (David Thomas, “Destiny in my Right Hand: ‘The Wreck
of Old 97’ and ‘Dead Man’s Curve,” in The Rose and The Briar: Death, Love and Liberty
in the American Ballad, ed. Sean Wilentz and Greil Marcus, pp. 161–174, New York, 2005.1
Thomas takes two ballads, “The Wreck of Old 97” and “Dead Man’s Curve,” and constructs
a narrative explaining the fundamentals of American music. It all has to do with the Mag-
netic Age that started in 1877 when Thomas Edison invented the microphone and culminated
with Elvis Presley (“the Homer of the Inarticulate Age”). “The Wreck of Old 97” is a ballad
inspired by the 1903 train wreck in Virginia. The earliest version of the song was recorded
in 1924 and it has since been sang by everyone, including Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash,
and Hank Williams. “Dead Man’s Curve” is a ballad written in 1964 by the rock duo Jan and
Dean, who preceded the Beach Boys in creating surf music. The ballad describes another
wreck, half a century later, taking place with a car. The technical heroism of the two songs
corresponds to the technical craft (magnetic electronics) of recorded music, “a dialogue inside
the blurred zone between soundscape and landscape.” Thomas asserts that the Magnetic Age
is another way of saying the American Age and it unites seemingly unrelated individuals
like Edison and Elvis or Eisenhower and Kerouac.
Thomas is not simply retelling a generic version of America’s love for speed, cars,
and trains but constructs a paradigm through which to interpret rock music. In the spirit
of art critic Clement Greenberg, Thomas brings attention to the materiality of the medium.
Dan Graham placed Punk’s origins in the religious experiments of Protestant America.
Thomas places punk’s origins of the magnetic medium— the microphone, the vinyl record, the
hi-fi system, the speakers, and the space inside our ears. I’ve been thinking a lot about the
texture of dissonance and distortion that characterizes the project of Punk Archaeology. I
have been listening to a lot of Sonic Youth lately —especially their brilliant album, Eternal—
and I’ve been reading David Brownes’ Goodbye 20th Century: A Biography of Sonic Youth
(2008). I also received a library copy of another interesting new book, David Sheppard’s On
Some Faraway Beach: The Life and Times of Brian Eno (2009). Eno is truly the glue be-
tween the Magnetic Age and Punk. In 1977, Eno collaborated with David Bowie in the album
1 http://books.google.com/books?id=9z0vJTHfoCAC&pg=PT108&lpg=PT108&dq=wreck+of+old+97+david+thomas&s
ource=bl&ots=E_zFosLofB&sig=qUyRlzMb5MEyBAZ765PBGJZnNzk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AwvkUYGyE9LK4AOps4Do
DQ&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA
145
Heroes, the final record of the Berlin trilogy. It includes the song “Sons of the Silent Age.”
I wonder if the Magnetic Age and the Silent Age are not but synonyms of the same mechan-
ical predicament.
David Thomas’ essay is called “Destiny in My Right Hand,” and it appeared in The
Rose & the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad, ed. Sean Wilentz and
Greil Marcus (2005), pp. 161–174. The book contains 23 essays interpreting some of the most
fundamental American ballads. The authors range from R. Crumb to Luc Sante and Sarah
Vowell. While reading this book, it’s mandatory to listen to a parallel CD with the songs un-
der discussion.
Sonic Youth and Pere Ubu are the inheritors of the Magnetic Age. David Thomas
does not talk about Punk in his essay, although he credits “Dead Man’s Curve” with a dose
of “punk snottiness.” On the dissonant end of the Magnetic Age, see my earlier essay on
Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music (120). I listened to Thurston Moore’s solo project Trees Out-
side the Academy (2007). The CD inner sleeve contains many pictures from Moore’s youth.
Among them, you see a teenage Moore strapped with headphones listening to Metal Machine
Music. Now, in the 21st century, we should have witnessed the full demise of the Magnetic
Age by the Digital Age. Nevertheless, old rockers like Sonic Youth, and even younger ones
like Jack White (note his band, Dead Weathers) remain purists in the Greenbergean sense.
Craftsmanship of the Magnetic Age (i.e., the 8-track recorder) seems to have endured in the
Digital Age, which might after all be a mere Post-Magnetic Age that claims an ironic self-
referential stance to its predecessor.
146
Chapter twenty-three
Punk Archaeology: Trench Sounds
Bill Caraher
“Excavators at PKAP”
Photo Bill Caraher, CC-BY
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on August 4, 2009 at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/punk-archaeology-trench-sounds/)
“T rench Sounds” is a 10-minute extract of over three hours of taping in Dallas DeForest’s
trench at Pyla-Koutsopetria. The goal was to capture the sounds of a trench in all of their
mundane glory.
The inspiration was Punk Archaeology. Kostis has posted on Lou Reed’s Metal Ma-
chine Music (120) and its seminal influence on the New York “No Wave” movement. This
album, which is almost impossible to listen to, is composed almost entirely of various ephem-
eral sounds of the musical production process particularly looped tracks of guitar feedback
much of which was created intentionally by placing guitars facing their amplifiers. This
dissonant noise was then remixed and edited to produce tracks including an unusual locked
groove track at the end of side “D” (of a two-record set) which would play the final 1.8 sec-
onds continuously, the effect lost on 21st century listeners who are more likely to spend the
$4 to download the album in MP3 than the $20+ to purchase the album on vinyl.
Our final “Voices of Archaeology” track is hardly as intentionally dissonant as Metal
Machine Music (nor will it likely be as iconic). It does, however, capture and attempt to
present some of the ephemeral sounds of archaeology —the gentle thumping of the pick, the
scraping of the dust pan, the cascades of dirt into buckets, the interrupted and fractured
conversations. It attempts to capture sonically what we as archaeologist are attempting to
capture physically: the various bits of pieces of the past. At one point on the track, Paul
Ferderer asks whether a tiny fragment of ceramic material is a piece of tile or a piece of
pottery. The tiny fragment was at once almost completely inconsequential (and the question
of whether the fragment was pottery or tile was even less consequential as all ceramic mate-
rial was analyzed by our ceramicist) and at the same time the bit of ceramic is representa-
tive of the archaeological process. The artifact must be contextualized in some way to gen-
erate meaning. It goes without saying (almost) that fragments of the past have no inherent
meaning. They are displaced objects that the archaeologist envelop in contexts ranging from
the place of origin, the original “primary” use, and, of course, the chronology of the other
objects at the site. The tension between the decontextualized object at the moment of discov-
ery (the most tenuous and fleeting contextualizing moment) and various “big picture” narra-
tive and analyses that ultimately come to make a specific site meaningful finds its place in
the immediacy of punk rock as experience.
I recently listened again to the MC5’s first album Kick Out the Jams, a live album,
149
and admired their effort to capture the live sound and mark the band as a live phenomenon
while evoking punk rock’s debts to the blues (a genre of music almost always recorded live)
and the ephemeral connections manifest in garage bands across the country. The contex-
tualizing narrative of modern American music has, of course, placed the MC5 in a proper
analytical and interpretive category (often placing them alongside Iggy Pop’s Stooges whose
first album came out the same year and captured a very different kind of sound through the
exacting production of John Cale) and stripped the first album of much of its shock value
(although it still can capture some of the excitement typical of live performances).
Our short track of trench sounds hopes to capture the same thing—at once it is incon-
sequential (and frankly hard to listen to!) alone just like Paul’s fragment of pottery —but at
the same time, it captures a moment that begs a larger, more dynamic context. The moment
of discovery is the point of departure for archaeological analysis. “Trench Sounds” pushes
the incidental noise of archaeological research into the center like the feedback pushed to the
center of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music. By recontextualizing the sonic elements of ar-
chaeological fieldwork I hope to have shed light on the analytical process itself which brings
otherwise discarded and inconsequential artifacts to the center while pushing the archaeo-
logical experience to the edges.
http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/PodCasts/Voices_of_Archaeology/Trench_
Sounds.mp3
150
C hapter t wen t y - f ou r
It’s Only a Matter of Time
Kostis Kourelis
“Fred Cooper”
Photo courtesy Trustees of the American
School of Classical Studies at Athens
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on August 5, 2009, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/its-only-a-matter-of-time/)
T he Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project has released “Trench Sounds,” the first ar-
chaeological example of podcast vérité ever released (to my knowledge) on webspace.1 The ex-
periment sprang from Bill Caraher’s interests in Punk Archaeology, in new technologies, and
in documentary theory. “Trench Sounds” is profound in its simplicity, like an Andy Warhol
movie The Kiss (1963). “Trench Sounds” is a 10-minute recording of the sounds produced in
an excavation trench this last season at PKAP, Cyprus. We hear the irregular percussion of
the scraping trowel, archaeological interpretation, but also the serendipitous smalltalk that
makes up the social space of a trench. It might not mean much to many listeners, and I
suspect some may wonder “so what” or even be slightly annoyed. What I like about “Trench
Sounds” is that it addresses time. It rescues a mere 10 minutes of archaeological life. It
enlightens the non-archaeologist but also raises questions for the archaeologist. Isn’t excava-
tion all about the exploration of time, in reverse sequence, in stratified layers and unstrati-
fied jumbles?
I know many archaeologists who have been influenced by minimalism. My two men-
tors, unbeknownst to the reader of their scholarship, have been affected by minimalism, di-
rectly or indirectly. Cecil L. Striker’s meticulous method, his love for the abstract beauty of
dendrochronology, and the incisive excavations by hand drill, not to mention his architectur-
al taste is one example. Frederick A. Cooper, a lover of Proust and Le Corbusier, once told
me that John Cage inspired his archaeological directions (especially into computers). Both
Striker and Cooper are masters of precision; both are craftsmen of a post-war America, a
time when the U.S. led both the realms of technology and the arts. Like their contemporary
artists, they turned method into ammunition against the superficialities of American cul-
ture, its consumerism and arbitrary values.
But I return to “Trench Sounds.” Listening to the podcast made me wonder: why
hasn’t anyone written an archaeological opera, or an archaeological performance piece? Alter-
natively, why hasn’t anyone written an archaeological report where time as quantity becomes
the manipulated medium. Consider the opera Timberbrit (2010), where composer Jacob Cooper
slows down songs by Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. The technique is called “time-
stretching.” Consider the production of Hamlet by the Wooster Group, where the 1964 TV
version with Richard Burton is re-timed into Shakespearean meter, projected onto a screen
1 http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/PodCasts/Voices_of_Archaeology/Trench_Sounds.mp3
153
and replicated by live actors.2 Consider Bruce Nauman in the Venice Biennale.3 Consider
Bill Viola’s deconstruction of Renaissance space with his time-delayed videos, or Gary Hill’s
fragmented utterings. And finally, consider Jeff Wall’s 2003 project Fieldwork, which takes
up the mysteries of excavation directly.4 These are only contemporary examples of the mini-
malist (or post-minimalist) tradition. Such works have not really flavored the archaeological
mindset —as far as I can see.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I would like to read an archaeological field
report (not an opera, a play, or a movie) that intentionally speeds up or slows down strati-
graphic time. I’m imagining a fictitious collapse of archaeology’s double time: 1) the time
taken for contexts to stratify, and 2) the time taken by excavators to peel them off. This
would be a biographical, documentary, and semi-fictitious genre. And I’m not talking about
the overly self-referential methods of post-processusalist archaeology, but a work of post-
modern literature. Or maybe I don’t really know what I’m talking about. “Trench Sounds”
is a work of imagination, a dream, a reality show, a fragmented experience that brings
PKAP’s field season into the neighborhood of conceptual art.
2 See Scott Shepperd’s/Hamlet’s interview on Studio 360 http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2007/11/23

3 http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_tomkins
4 http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/jeffwall/infocus/section6/img5.shtm
154
C hapter t went y - f iv e
Woodstock, Landscape, and Archaeology
Bill Caraher
“Max Yasgur’s Farm”
Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY, Photo Heinrich und Friedl Winter
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/woodstock-landscape-and-archaeology/)
Kostis once mentioned that he thought that archaeology was “a post-hippie” discipline. A
certain tendency to emphasize rural places, the integrated, almost spiritual, character of
landscapes, community engagement, and political activism would seem to evoke many of the
central ideals of the hippie movement, albeit within a far more structured environment (it’s
an open issue whether Punk shared the celebrated spontaneity of the hippie movement or
parodied it).
This weekend, the New York Times offered a shortish article: “Woodstock: A Moment
of Muddy Grace.” Aside from well-worn ironic observation that the memory of Woodstock
became a commodity almost as soon as the festival was over, there was a short paragraph
that included one interesting line:
With the 40th anniversary of Woodstock looming so soon? The commemora-

tive machinery is clanking into place, and the nostalgia is strong. There’s a
Woodstock Festival museum now at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and
a recently built concert hall at what was the concert site, Max Yasgur’s farm
(though the original Woodstock hillside has been left undeveloped).
The notion that the original hillside would be preserved is an interesting example of
how the absence of development could nevertheless represent the commodification of a par-
ticular landscape. Paralleling the desire to preserve battlefields, archaeological landscapes,
and other places of cultural significance, the archaeology of absence evokes both the notion
of a sacred precinct as well as haunting ideas of ritual abandonment. In the hyper-commod-
ified world of Woodstock nostalgia, the protected hillside stands out both as an ironic and
highly structured place of commemoration.
Perhaps this is another characteristic that separates Punk Archaeology from its post-
hippie variants. The hippie movement, for all its energy, has long been overrun by a kind of
crude commercialism so even an archaeologically motivated decision like preserving the fa-
mous Woodstock hillside cannot stand outside the discourse of capitalism and gain.
Has Punk remained more authentic?
Certainly the battle to save Punk landmarks like CBGB’s has been less successful.
The urban foundation of Punk perhaps created landmarks in an environment which had a
157
more ephemeral character. Change was anticipated and expected in urban landscapes. The
countryside was idealized as unchanging and efforts to commemorate the countryside typi-
cally involve limiting the impact of human activities or even marking it off entirely. Archae-
ology, however, relies upon the traces of change through time to document human culture.
The urbanism of Punk contributes to its resistance to commodification (and makes its ap-
peals to nostalgia more ironic still) and preserves it for a different method of documentation
for later Punk Archaeology.
158
Chapter t wen t y - si x
Performing the Margins: Punk and Place
Bill Caraher
“Uptown Bar, Minneapolis, MN”
Photo katydale.wordpress.com
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on September 7, 2009, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/performing-the-margins-punk-and-place/)
E ven as Kostis was conjuring his posts on Pink Floyd at Pompeii and the Scorpions at
Mytilene,1 another iconic locus of punk rock magic was reaching the end of its life. The Up-
town Bar & Cafe in Minneapolis ultimately closed in 2009.2 Its octogenarian owner, Frank
Toonen, was looking to sell the bar to secure the financial future for his family (a noble
cause, if there ever was one). The bar hosted virtually every major punk(ish) rock band to
come out of Minneapolis (Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Hü\sker D\ü) and ranked as a lo-
cal CBGB’s or Max’s Kansas City. Ironically, the bar was torn down for a three-story retail
space as the Uptown neighborhood continued a process of re-gentrification.
To be honest, I’d never been to the Uptown Bar & Cafe (nor Uptown, for that mat-
ter), but the story of the Uptown Bar & Cafe caught my eye in the context of our ongoing
conversation about Punk and place. Many of the most storied Punk establishments estab-
lished themselves in seemingly marginal urban spaces made available by white flight and the
post-war growth of suburbs. They now confront the reopening of the urban center to eco-
nomic development which in many ways challenged both economic opportunities made avail-
able by the marginal status of various neighborhoods and urban locales as well as the gritty
and explicitly anti-suburban ascetic that Punk cultivated. The creative risks exploited by
punk rockers as they returned to the urban center from the security of suburban “garage”
demanded an authenticity of the Punk experience that cannot be maintained when surround-
ed by boutique shopping spots and chain clothing retailers that seemingly revel in the make-
believe character of the consumer experience.
The authenticity of the urban experience is not just a hallmark of Punk music. To-
day, it is seen most visibly in hip-hop music where credibility is tied a performer’s ability
to maintain their ties to economically and socially marginalized segments of urban areas. (As
hip-hop has globalized, it has shown that the performance of authenticity has transferred
from marginalized areas within the American city to marginalized areas of the globe. Take,
for example, the Somali-Canadian rapper K’naan who mocks the urban posturing of North
American rappers by contrasting their claims and experiences to his upbringing in Somalia.)
Common’s song “The Corner” is a another great meditation on the space of perfor-
mance in contemporary hip-hop. The song juxtaposes Common’s lyrics about his experiences
on “the corner” with nostalgia-tinged lyrics of the radical spoken-word poetry collective “The
Last Poets” who note:
1 See for a nice neighborhood history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptown,_Minneapolis

2 See: S. I Johnston, “Crossroads,” ZPE 88 (1991), 17-24.
161
. . . The corner was our Rock of Gibraltar, our Stonehenge
Our Taj Mahal, our monument . . .
Of course, in hip-hop the corner invokes more than just an urban space associated
with drug dealing, informal social gatherings, and, perhaps more properly, the performance
of dozens between rappers that formed the basis for the combative aspects of modern hip-
hop music. The corner invokes the crossroads that was an iconic symbol in American Blues
music. Most famously, the crossroads was where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil in
exchange for musical talent.
Crossroads represent both central places where diverse paths cross, but also liminal
sites where clearly-defined spheres of control and authority break down or lapse entirely. It
is not surprising, for example, that Oedipus met the Sphinx at a crossroads.
To return then to Punk and place, the loss of the Uptown Cafe & Bar (and other
Punk landmarks) stands out as the return of marginal spaces to the control of the center. In
many cities in the U.S., this has manifested itself as reclaiming the marginalized zone of an
urban core neglected in the post-war migration to the suburbs for the commercial, capitalist,
gentrified space of the new suburban centers (i.e., “let’s make the cities look like we imag-
ined them when we built those surrogate cities”: suburban shopping malls).
To bring my archaeological interests more fully into the conversation, I’ll just point
out that for the last seven years I’ve been working with the team of the Pyla-Koutsopetria
Archaeological Project to study a community situated at a crossroads along the coast of
southeastern Cyprus. Peripheral to the main centers of power on the island, there is reason
to think that the ancient community situated in what is now the coast zone of the village
of Pyla (another liminal space!) served as a local crossroads community. David Pettegrew’s
work at a similar site in the Eastern Corinthia commonly referred to as “Cromna” is another
example of a crossroads community. These liminal spaces situated neither clearly within an
urban core or in the romanticized space of the rural periphery defy categorization. The com-
plexity and density of the artifact assemblages found in these areas press to the limit meth-
ods devised to document more dispersed kinds of activity in the countryside. At the same
time, the absence of a built up center with known, monumental architecture, makes it chal-
lenging to justify large scale, systematic excavation.
The marginal status of crossroads places have made them a kind of improvisational
space for archaeological fieldwork. In this way, they echo the marginal spaces of desiccated,
post-war, urban core which became the places of Punk performance, or the ill-defined and
marginal space of the corner which became a zone dominated by ancient and modern sphinx-
es. Punk Archaeology revels in the marginal, ambiguous, ambivalent and, in many ways,
dangerous spaces that only become central through the ephemeral performance.
162
Chapter twenty-seven
London Calling
Kostis Kourelis
“London Calling”
CBS, 1979
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on December 2, 2009, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/london-calling/)
It seems only yesterday that the landmark LP London Calling by the Clash turned 25, an
event celebrated by a re-release of the album with new video and footage. On December 13,
2009, London Calling turned 30. And at the ripe age of 30, the Clash turned archaeological.
The anniversary was marked by the auctioning of the Clash’s original artwork, the clas-
sic album cover with Paul Simonon smashing his Fender Precision bass on stage at the New
York Palladium. There’s lots to say about Simonon’s instruments, including a Rickenbacker
given to him by Patti Smith, but basically the white Fender Precision was iconic. The 1979
image contains its own archaeology, namely, The Who smashing their instruments in the
1965 performance of “My Generation” at the Beat Club, as well as Sid Vicious hitting an
audience member with his own Fender Precision bass. The bass that Simonon smashed in the
photo had been newly bought in 1979. Simonon regretted destroying this instrument because
it proved to be one of his best-sounding ones. The very bass has become a relic and it now
resides at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.1
At any rate, Bonhams auction house is selling the original London Calling art work
by Ray Lowry valued at $100,000 as Sale 16905 Lot 26, and two autographed photos valued
at $500 and $300 as Sale 16905, Lot 29. Ray Lowry, unfortunately, passed away in 2008.
After the dissolution of the Clash, by the way, Paul Simonon has turned to a career in
painting.
1 You can read the entire history of Simonon’s 11 basses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Simonon

165
Chapter twenty-eight
Patti Smith: Life as Narrative
Kostis Kourelis
“Patti Smith, Provinssirock Festival, June 16, 2007”
Wikimedia Commons, GNU Free Documentation License, Photo Beni Köhler
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on January 19, 2010, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/patti-smith-life-as-narrative/) with part 2 published here:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/01/20/patti-smith-archaeology-of-life/)
Over the 2010 Christmas holiday, I chanced on the Patti Smith documentary that I had
heard about on Studio 360.1 We had just unloaded the U-Haul, moving the family to Phila-
delphia, and the WHYY feature somehow reaffirmed the move to an an urban capital. Patti
Smith herself has roots in Philadelphia, a fact that she talked about at length when I saw
her perform exactly eight years ago at the Keswick Theater, December 27, 2001. That was
a special concert for me. I went with my best friend Yorgos, and we were both amazed by
the number of older people (like us) in the audience who even brought their children. Smith’s
own mother, who lives nearby, was in the audience, and both Smith’s sister and son accom-
panied her onstage.2
Soon after Patti Smith lost her husband (Fred Smith of MC5) and her brother (Todd)
in 1994, R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe called her out of the blue to offer condolences; he also recom-
mended a photographer. Steven Sebring entered Patti Smith’s life a that moment, document-
ing the experiences of an ordinary human being rather than the legendary “godmother of
Punk.” Sebring’s filming became the documentary Patti Smith: Dream of Life that premiered
on Dec. 30, 2009, on PBS’s Point of View.3 Dream of Life is hauntingly beautiful capturing
the creases in the artist’s life. I also enjoyed Sebring’s focus on Smith’s children, especially
Jackson Smith who is married to Meg Ryan (of the White Stripes). In many ways, Patti
Smith’s story after her marriage to Fred Smith is a life centered around Detroit (Saint Clair
Shores). Documentaries on rock musicians tend to follow generic lines. Dream of Life breaks
away from the mold and becomes a creative enterprise in its own right.
Patti Smith also published an autobiographical work on her relationship with photog-
rapher Robert Mapplethorpe (see the 1969 booth photo): Just Kids.4 Just as Dream of Life
takes us to the period after Smith’s New York apotheosis, Just Kids takes us to the period
before. For a review of the book, see Janet Maslin.5 Maslin points out that Smith’s growing
up with Mapplethorpe took place before many of the disturbing pictures that earned Map-
plethorpe his late notoriety (and censorship by the NEA).
1 http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2009/12/25
2 See a review: http://www.xnet2.com/patti/archives/0112/msg00114.html
3 http://www.dreamoflifethemovie.com/
4 New York 2010
5 Bohemian Soul Mates in Obscurity,” New York Times (Jan. 18, 2010), pp. C1, C8: http://www.nytimes.
com/2010/01/18/books/18book.html
169
Patti Smith: Archaeology of Life
In addition to the memoir (Just Kids) and the Steven Sebring documentary (Dream of Life),
Patti Smith has produced another kind of life narrative, articulated through objects.6 An
exhibit, ‘Objects of Life’ at the Robert Miller Gallery, features 14 objects that have been
significant to Smith and her collaboration with Sebring.7 They include Smith’s childhood
dress, her Land 250 Polaroid camera, and a tambourine made by Robert Mapplethorpe.
The exhibit is the first of three that will focus on various themes in Smith’s art. The
film Dream of Life shows Smith obsessively engaged with objects. “Objects of Life” takes
the documentary narrative into a different curatorial and archaeological dimension. Unlike
traditional archaeological presentation, Sebring/Smith’s 14 objects point to inter-subjectivity
possibilities and relate to the curatorial themes that Orhan Pamuk raises in the Museum of
Innocence.8
6 See earlier posting: http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/01/patti-smith-life-as-narrative.html

7 http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/in-cahoots-patti-smith-and-steven-sebring/ and Orhan Pamuk,
The Innocence of Objects (New York, 2012); http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/The_Innocence_of_Ob-
jects-9781419704567.html
8 Feb. 6, 2010. For more on this see: kourelis.blogspot.com/2009/10/museum-of-innocence.html
170
Chapter twenty-nine
Camden: Whitman, Smith, Vergara
Kostis Kourelis
“Self-portrait of Camilo José Vergara”
Photo Camilo José Vergara, CC-BY
“Camden, New Jersey”

Photo Camilo José Vergara, invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on February 10, 2010, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/camden-whitman-smith-vergara/)
Walt Whitman spent the end of his life in Camden, New Jersey, not far from where Patti
Smith spent her childhood. While growing up in Germantown, Philadelphia, and then Dept-
ford, New Jersey, Smith would visit the Whitman Hotel in Camden and imagine that her
poet hero once inhabited the spaces. Whitman’s trajectory of American poetry extends to
William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg, both from Paterson, New Jersey; interestingly
enough, Williams was Ginsberg’s pediatrician and wrote the introduction to “Howl.” From
Ginsberg, the trajectory continues to Bob Dylan and Patti Smith, an inheritance that nei-
ther musician undervalue. The celebration of the everyday, even if it smells of sweat and
dirt, is central to Whitman’s American tradition. This is what architect Louis Sullivan called
the “physiology” rather than the “physiognomy” of American life. Sullivan, who coined
the “form follows function” equation was himself not a reductivist; his functionalism was
“physiological” not technocratic. If American life has been suffering economic ailments, its
physiology is evident not in the great skyscrapers of the spirit but in its ruins of its post-
industrial cities.
Patti Smith is not alone to bring us back to Whitman’s Camden. Camilo José Vergara,
the Chilean-New Yorker photographer has devoted his career in documenting America’s fall-
en urban condition. His American Ruins was a landmark publication, appearing at the same
time that a California school of sociologists (Edward Soja and Mike Davis) turned Marxism’s
attention from the superstructure to the base, from a functionalist view of the city to a
consideration of space. Vergara’s photographs have appeared in numerous publications and
exhibitions since then. But I would like to highlight one particular project, “Invincible Cit-
ies”, where Vergara turns his attention directly onto Camden. Vergara has been producing
what he hopes will culminate into “A Visual Encyclopedia of the American Ghetto.” “Invin-
cible Cities” offers Camden as a case study. An interactive database1 allows the viewer to
navigate through Vergara’s photographs across space and time.
Vergara has been photographing the American ghetto since the 1970s. His persever-
ance matches Jacob Riis, while his methodology combines the sociologist’s lens with the
documentary rigor of Bernd and Hilla Becker. Invincible Cities takes Vergara one step fur-
ther. I suspect that Patti Smith would find Vergara’s lens a little too literal. Walt Whitman
1 http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/intro.html
173
might protest the slickness of the digital colors (he would prefer the texture of male sweat).
Even if sensibilities differ, Camden needs revisiting, and Vergara has let us perform the
very kind of scholarly voyeurism that could lead into action if not the transformation of our
civic psyche.
174
Chapter thirty
Punk Archaeology, Squatting, and Abandonment
Bill Caraher
“Punk house”
Photo missnatalie.com/blog/labels/punk
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on February 22, 2010, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/punk-archaeology-squatting-and-abandonment/)
I spent part of the weekend exploring Thurston Moore’s and Abby Banks’s evocative book,
Punk House.1 The book largely features Abby Banks’s photographs of punk houses across
the U.S. Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth fame, provides a short introduction where he talks
about the punk house phenomenon, the practice of squatting associated with the most radi-
cal expression of the punk lifestyle, and the aesthetic of the punk interpretation of the DIY
approach to home decoration. All of these practices speak to the radical politics behind punk
rock as a movement. The rejection (or total disregard for) private property made squatting
an appealing alternative to ownership, and the collective house represented a more domesti-
cated (and less risky) alternative.
Squatting, Archaeology, and Abandonment
Squatting is essentially an archaeological phenomenon: archaeologists are squatters who oc-

cupy and savor the abandoned corners of a society. While archaeology tends to be a form of
high impact squatting which often leads to the destruction of the site, punk squatting rep-
resents a whole series of ephemeral practices that can go almost undetected by subsequent
visitors to the space. Like archaeology itself, the practice of squatting challenges any simple
view of abandonment and in turn challenges the notion of ownership, possession, and uses
that are vital in some way to our understanding of function within an archaeological con-
text. So while archaeologists are squatters, like punks, the practice of squatting undermines
basic assumptions that allow archaeology to function. Archaeologists, like squatters, put
spaces in the margins of the mainstream world into use.
Recent attention to the practice of abandonment both within the archaeological record
and in the American cities wracked by the recent economic downturn has tended to view the
spaces of abandonment as tragic expressions of the ultimate futility of human efforts to
transform the landscape or the false optimism of progress. Abandoned monumental architec-
ture —especially hospitals, prisons, factories, churches, or public works —provided evidence for
the cynicism of the punk world view as well as the backdrop for their ability live without
these amenities.
Archaeological evidence for so-called squatters in the period of history that I study,
1 A. Banks, Punk House. (New York 2007).
177
“A sign posted at the C-Squat punk house, New York City”
Late Antiquity, almost beg such ideological questions. Were the Late Antique squatters in
the monumental architecture of the earlier, Classical-era proto-punks who recognized and cel-
ebrated the futility of their predecessors? Should we view their re-use of abandoned spaces
as critique?
At the same time the modern archaeologist-as-squatter likewise searches for frag-
ments of the past —something useful among the neglected corners of society—in a utopian and
ideological quest to produce a singular, uninterrupted world.
Formation Process and Provisional Discard
Banks’s photographs capture the layered, weathered, look of group houses that both support
the impecunious lifestyles of their punk residents as well as the chaotic, multi-generation
application of DIY practices. The rooms that Banks photographed were filled with objects
out of context— junk— deployed to support lifestyles at the margins of capitalism. The houses
stand as living testimony to the value quintessential archaeological practice of provisional
discard. The pattern of occupation produces a stratigraphic space as each resident adds a
layer of interpretation to what went before.
These houses take what archaeologists have sometimes seen as an almost subconscious
or deeply structured processes of discard into a performative critique of society. Short-term
habitation practices, in turn, transform a series of practical choices into the chaotic pas-
tiche of lived stratigraphy.
Music
The link between these houses and punk music is clear. As we have observed earlier (125),
punk music is a nostalgic, utopian, critique that seeks a more profound authority than
punks observe from the world around them. The punk houses, the temporary residence of
squatters, and the archaeology of a stratified, provisional existence, forms a physical coun-
terpoint to the archaeological overtones in punk music.
179
Chapter thirty-one
Punk and Spolia
Bill Caraher
“Detroit Cobras, Mink Rat or Rabbit”
Sympathy for the Record Industry, 1998
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on July 29, 2010, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/punk-and-spolia/)
I’ve been listening again to the Detroit Cobras and thinking about some of our first con-
versations on Punk Archaeology. The Cobras specialize in what they have called “revved up
soul.” They make this wonderful noise by covering (mostly) lost classics of the Motown era
over the driving rhythms of Punk and the fuzzy, distorted lo-fi sound of the punk blues
movement. Rachel Nagy’s voice succeeds at being both smooth and abrasive at the same
time. Some critics have called their sound “Garage Soul.”
Their first album, Mink, Rat or Rabbit covered songs by 1950’s and early 1960’s
bands like The Marvelettes, The Shirelles, Irma Thomas, The “5” Royales, and The Shangri-
Las. Later albums continue this tradition. (Their first two albums) —Mink, Rat or Rabbit
and Life, Love and Learning— are, to my ear, their best. (Notice the absence of the “Oxford
comma” in both titles.)
The point of mentioning this somewhat obscure band is to consider the relationship between
Punk and spolia. “Spolia” is a technical archaeological term for the re-use older fragments of
architecture in new construction. It is typically associated with Late Antiquity and was ini-
tially regarded by critics steeped in the Classical tradition as indicative of the loss of tech-
nical skills and economic impoverished conditions at the end of Antiquity. Other saw the use
of spolia as a conscious decision on the part of Late Antique builders and, at worst, reflec-
tive of a taste for a discordant, disorganized, and, ultimately, decadent aesthetic.
Of course hip-hop music withstood similar criticisms as the artists cut up and
sampled R&B classics to form a rhythmic backdrop for their poetry. Such reuse of earlier
material was viewed as unoriginal and indicative of a kind of creative bankruptcy among
“today’s generation.” Punk took its lead from pop music which it sped up and made more up-
tempo, raucous, and chaotic. The Cobras occupy a third space recently developed by bands
like the White Stripes and the Black Keys where Punk, R&B, and blues are infused with the
DIY, low-fi sound of the garage (which represents a more austere and suburban version of
the venerable low-fi juke joint).
The epicenter of this music has been Detroit (or the Rust Belt more broadly) where
the Punk of the MC5 and the blues of Son House and John Lee Hooker intersect. The music
here has tremendous symbolic significance, as Detroit has become emblematic of the decline
of “traditional America,” and images of the ruinous conditions of the factories have become
images of the decline of America’s fortunes as a manufacturing power. The photographs are
183
archaeological in their attention to detail and the need to accommodate history.
The music of the Detroit Cobras provides a counterpoint to the haunting, archaeologi-
cal photographs of abandoned Detroit. Fragments of the city’s earlier days come through in
their music, but rather than critique the declining fortunes of America’s industrial heart-
land, the music calls forth the continued vitality of those days in much the same way that
spolia maintained a conscious connection with earlier architecture.
The archaeological impulse in of punk rock of the Detroit Cobras reveals a kind of
native archaeology of the American city which draws backwards on its unique history to
produce critical memory. Such work is the work of archaeologists both of the past and the
present who sought to communicate something meaningful from the fragments of the past
that remained visible in their present. The spolia preserved in the music of the Detroit Co-
bras presents a musical museum in much the same way that the fragments of the past in
produce meaning in the context of a physical museum today or in the context of monumental
architecture in Late Antiquity.
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Chapter thirty-two
More Punk and Nostalgia
Bill Caraher
“The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society”
Pye/Reprise, 1968
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/more-punk-and-nostalgia/)
Kostis Kourelis brought to my attention a New York Times article on an exhibit of Vic-
torian era stereoscopic photographs called “A Village Lost and Found.”1 What made this
exhibit interesting to Punk Archaeology fans was that former Queen guitarist Brian May
curated the exhibit and co-wrote the accompanying book. The New York Times review of
the exhibition both feigns surprise that a rock ‘n’ roller like May would be interested in such
quaint, esoteric artifacts as hand-colored stereoscopic images and, at the same time, ac-
knowledged the deep nostalgic vein in British society (and its music). In doing so, the NYT’s
author makes reference to one of my favorite albums which lurks around the margins of
punk rock, The Kinks, Are the Village Green Preservation Society.
The double album, released in 1968, consists of series of tracks celebrating traditional
village life in England. Topics range from the village green to picture books, trains, farms,
and typical village characters (“Johnny Thunder” and the deviously rocking “Wicked Anna-
bella”).
The nostalgic element captured, however ironically, in the Kinks’ album continues in
punk music. As I have noted before, Punk always had an affection for the pop music of the
earlier generation, even though punk rockers from the Germs to the Ramones and the Heart-
breakers typically sped up the hooks and contorted the lyrics that gave pop music its wide-
spread appeal. One of my personal favorites is the Germ’s cover of Chuck Berry’s “Round
and Round.” At the same time punk rockers like Jonathan Richman (especially in his early
Modern Lovers tracks like “Old World,” which is bracketed later in the first Modern Lovers’
album with the track “Modern World”) produced music with the same whimsical nostalgia as
the Kinks’ “Village Green”:
I see the ’50’s apartment house

It’s bleak in the 1970’s sun
But I still love the ’50s
And I still love the old world
I wanna keep my place in this old world
Keep my place in the arcane knowledge
And I still love the ’50s and I still love the old world
1 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/arts/design/24may.html
187
As I have argued before (125), the archaeological character of these songs is not in
their perfect reproduction of the past, but in the preservation of the past through critique.
For example, the Kinks’ celebration of the village green evokes the nostalgia for the earlier
times that shot through modernizing British society. In fact, as Matthew Johnson has de-
scribed in his Ideas of Landscape, such nostalgia for an earlier period influenced how ar-
chaeologist have studied the landscape and regarded material and buildings from the modern
period. Romantic notions of the earlier, rural world, celebrated its simplicity, inherent vir-
tues (especially of Britishness and, as we have witnessed recently the “real” America of the
small town), and purity, and expected some degree of continuity to be visible in the society
and culture of contemporary denizens of the countryside and the small town.
Punk tried to make a mess of these idyllic critiques by taking the staid nostalgia and
melding it with what to many appeared to be the most fleeting, contemporary, and criti-
cal musical genres. In some ways, this finds a parallel between those of us committed to
sophisticated and critical approaches to archaeology of the countryside, but still enamored
with the illusory, anti-modern character of the countryside. I can admit to loving to explore
the lonely hilltops in Greece, to document isolated ruins, and to embracing the contrast be-
tween the bustle of the village or city and the peaceful “isolation” of rural Greece. I often
will pause and listen just to the wind and revel in the absence of the motorbikes or trucks
while at the same time scrutinizing the read-out on a state-of-the-art GPS unit or looking
at a map showing an aerial photographs and analyzed via sophisticated computer software.
As much as my analyses call into question the notion that the Greek countryside was iso-
lated, I still use the view of olive-covered hills in my publications and presentations to evoke
the exotic character of an archaeological past. The contrast between my reliance on modern
technology to document the past and the romantic image of the rural Greece produces a pro-
ductive conflict. My appreciation of the beauty and isolation of the Greek countryside drew
inspiration from traditional romantic views of rural life while, at the same time, my ap-
proach to field work and conclusions challenges those very same views. A Punk Archaeology
approach embraces these same ironies drawing heavily on traditional thought while at the
same time challenging them.
188
Chapter thirty-three
Rock in Athens
Kostis Kourelis
“Rock in Athens ticket”
Photo Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on January 11, 2011, at his location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/rock-in-athens-85/)
On July 26–27, 1985, the ancient stadium of Athens hosted an interesting happening or-
ganized by the newly formed General Secretariat of Youth (Γενική Γραμματεία Νέας Γενιάς) and
the French Ministry of Culture. Rock in Athens ’85 was a two-day New Wave rock festival,
which was quite cutting edge for its time. Although major bands like the Rolling Stones
had performed in the ancient stadium before (Apr. 17, 1967), Rock in Athens was the first
rock festival to ever take place in Greece. A New Wave festival at Kalimarmaro in 1985?
How radical is that? But it makes little sense considering the lack of a following for New
Wave in Greece at this time. A heavy metal festival would make sense, rising naturally from
Greece’s hard rock tradition. I can’t be certain about my observations, since I wasn’t pres-
ent, but as a committed follower of New Wave, I was struck by the shortage of punks in
the summers that I would visit Greece. My cousins, who followed music closely, would con-
firm these observations. I was a New Wave Greek-American looking for a scene in Greece.
Sure, there was the punk band Panx Romana from 1977, singing “You Greeks! You are
worms, and the Acropolis doesn’t belong to you.” (Έλληνα είσαι σκουλίκι και η Ακρόπολη δε σου
ανοίκει.) And there were also anarchists squatting in Athens (less institutionalized and vio-
lent as they are today). And there was the store REMEMBER 77,1 on Adrianou 77 in Plaka
(founded 1978), where I bought my first pair of Creepers in 1991.
What makes Rock in Athens ’85 peculiar is its sponsors. The festival was conceived
by the Greek and French Ministries of Culture. It was a state event televised on national
TV and hence totally different from festivals like Woodstock, Live Aid, Coachella, or the
extremely successful Rockwave in Athens. Melina Merkouri, then Minister of Culture, was
present. Priceless footage shows the grand Merkouri meeting the wild Nina Hagen (and her
clean-cut mother) backstage. The General Secretariat of Youth was formed in 1982, soon af-
ter Georgios Papandreou’s Socialist government won elections and tried to liberalize cultural
policy that had been dominated by the conservative right and its family-tradition-religion
priorities. Quoting the website,2 the Secretariat’s task was (and still is) “shaping, monitoring
and coordinating the government policy for youth and its connection with society and social
entities. In this way, Greece was harmonized with the European and international practice
of high-level, self-sustained and integral government services aiming to public youth poli-
1 http://www.rememberfashion.gr/
2 http://www.neagenia.gr/frontoffice/portal.asp?cpage=NODE&cnode=6&clang=1
191
cies.” We must also remember that only two weeks earlier in the summer of 1985, Live Aid
took place in London and Philadelphia. But this was a private venture, organized for famine
relief in Ethiopia by Bob Geldof. Live Aid was the first concert to be televised in a global
scale through satellite. As the interview with Boy George reveals, Culture Club did have a
fan base already in Greece. But it seems that there was not enough of a fan base for each
of the bands to appear individually. The festival garnered each group’s small fan base into a
guaranteed (and cheap) event. We must also consider that Rockin’ Athens ’85 was not exclu-
sively targeted to Greeks. Hoards of vacationing European and American youth attended.
After all, Greeks flee Athens for the countryside in July and August.
Whatever the motivations of the concert may have been, it seems to have taken a
great risk. As a result it did begin shaping cultural attitudes at least insofar as New Wave’s
popularity boomed. Nevertheless, the conflict between audience and performers, the awk-
wardness of the ancient stadium, and the July heat are all evident in the videos. The per-
formers included Culture Club, Depeche Mode, Stranglers, Nina Hagen, the Cure, Talk Talk,
Telephone, and a surprise guest star, the Clash (or at least the remnants of the Clash, —Mick
Jones and Nicky Headon had already left, and the Clash disbanded in 1986). According to
eye-witness accounts, fights broke out between the police and fans outside the stadium. Ital-
ian tourists were somehow involved.
If anyone wants to watch the televised festival (ERT2), you can find it almost in
its entirety (minus the Clash performance) on YouTube (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/01/
rock-in-athens-85.html). Extremely interesting are the backstage interviews below. To see the
Melina-Nina encounter, go to Part 3. In the spirit of Punk Archaeology, YouTube allows me
to investigate an event that took place in the ancient Panathenaic stadium that was recon-
structed for the first Olympics of 1896. The footage is source material for an ephemeral
moment. The videos not only transport us to a different era of Greek cultural policy, but
they offer evidence for an almost surreal confrontation between a primarily Anglo-American
youth movement and a resisting Mediterranean. Just watch the accumulation of sweat on
Boy George’s face as the night progresses. Although I haven’t studied the videos in great
length, they also reveal tensions in a cultural dialogue. Note for example homosexual tensions
between Boy George and the audience. I hope that the readers of this posting interested in
the history of the Greek 1980s will offer closer reading and insights.
Interviews Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8_Thgt6J0&fs=1&hl=en_US

Interviews Part II: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KktND9FqYNI&fs=1&hl=en_US
Interviews Part III: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLDt-aDs2KI&fs=1&hl=en_US
192
Chapter thirty-four
Punk Rock, Materiality, and Time
Bill Caraher
“The Reisenauer brothers of Les Dirty Frenchmen practice in Fargo, ND”
Photo Aaron Barth, CC-BY
(Originally published on the Punk Archaeology blog on May 2, 2011, at this location:
http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/punk-rock-materiality-and-time/)
I spent part of a weekend doing three things: learning how to make pasta with my new
pasta maker, listening to low-fi punk, and reading Kathleen Davis’s Periodization and Sov-
ereignty.1 I am not sure that I learned much applicable to Punk Archaeology from making
pasta (although it was delicious at dinner that night), but low-fi punk, a short Twitter
exchange, and Davis’s book did bring together some ideas that I had been meaning for some
time to write about.
The low-fi sound that has become popular thanks in large part to bands like the
White Stripes, the Black Keys, and other purveyors of so-called Punk Blues positions itself
as an antidote to the austere, “over-produced” stylings of contemporary pop music. (Re-
cently, I’ve been hanging out with the album GB City by Bass Drum of Death, but I also
listened to Soledad Brothers self-titled solo album and their more polished 2006 offering The
Hardest Rock. My original idea for an essay was to compare the low-fi, thoroughly aver-
age sound of GB City to the produced sound of Arcade Fire’s Suburbs, but that seemed
too easy). The sound harkens back to garage rock and rough live albums produced in make-
shift recording studios on 4- and 8-track recording machines. Low-fi recordings replaced
the spaceless character of the recording studio with the gritty and flawed presence of the
garage, the basement, or the warehouse. Echoing and distorted vocal tracks compete for
space against raw guitars and abusive drums. The best low-fi captures something of a
hastily-arranged live recording without actually being anywhere in particular. Low-fi comes
from anyone’s basement, garage, or abandoned strip mall. It embodies marginal (maybe even
abandoned) spaces (it’s not surprising that Detroit has become a Mecca of low-fi sound) and
pushes out music that speaks to haste, temporary accommodations, and immediacy without
specificity.
With the advent of digital music, low-fi has projected the materiality of its sound by
producing vinyl LPs or even cassette tapes. The sonic texture of the 8-track recorder in the
basement or garage comes packaged in neatly anachronistic forms that insist upon a mate-
rial presence even more physical than the music itself. A friend of mine (on Twitter ironical-
ly enough!) suggested a track from an Oblivian’s album recently. When I asked whether she
could share the track with me, she told me that she only had it on vinyl! So the grounding
of low-fi music in a time and place moves from the practice of recording and to its material-
1 Kathleen Davis, Periodization and Sovereignty. (University of Pennsylvania Press 2008).
195
ity as a recorded product. Digital music, which can exist simultaneously in an infinite num-
ber of places, resists any effort to impose physicality (and with music moving to “the cloud”
in the very near future the location of music recordings will become all the more ambiguous).
The link between the physical sound of the low-fi recording and its circulation in
physical media positions low-fi (and Punk) to resist (in an ironic way, to be sure) the ephem-
eral character of so much “cultural” production today. From blogs and ebooks to musings in
the indistinct space of social media, the viral distribution of music and video, and claims
of a reimagined-aesthetic minimalism, the space or even material nature of cultural produc-
tion is collapsing in on itself. In the future (bee-boop-boop-boop-beep), the diagnostic rims
of Late Roman fine ware vessels will be stray bits of sound, text, or video clinging to the
deteriorating disks of disused servers or discarded along with iPods and Kindles in modern
middens. Unlike the vinyl LP or even the (comparatively) primitive cassette tape, there is
little on the iPod or Kindle that links it physically to the music or text stored on the device.
Moreover, the use of these devices does not cause the music or text to deteriorate.
So, I sat around one weekend, grading papers, making pasta, reading Kathleen Da-
vis’ book, and listening to the space of low-fi sound spooling off a hard drive and running
through my stereo. I could listen to it as much as I wanted and wherever I wanted.
196
Chapter thirty-five
Broken Spider
Kostis Kourelis
“Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith and wife Patti Smith at
Arista Records’s 15th anniversary party, 1990”
wodumedia.com, attribution unknown
(Originally published on Kostis Kourelis’s blog on April 26, 2012, at this location:
http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/04/spider.html)
F red “Sonic” Smith was a founding member of Detroit’s proto-punk group The MC5. In
1980, Smith married Pattie Smith at the Mariner’s Church, where Smith later erected a
memorial to Sonic. In 1994, Sonic suffered a fatal heart attack that devastated Patti Smith
(see discussion in previous posting “Patti Smith: Life as Narrative.” Incidentally, the Detroit
rock heritage of Sonic and Patti continued with their son Jackson, who married Meg White
of the Detroit duo The White Stripes.
The small offering over Sonic’s grave is known as the Spider. It was designed by
Thomas Hutchison for RCA in the 1960s. It served as a converter for 45 RPM records, a
format invented by RCA in 1949 to replace the cumbersome 78 RPM. Most fittingly, the
Spider deposited in Sonic’s grave is broken. The original triskelion has lost one of its legs
making the object’s secret biography even more perplexing. Pervasive in the listening habits
of North Americans, the Spider has become iconic of the era of singles. Actually, I didn’t
appreciate the magnitude of this iconography until I opened today’s Intelligencer Journal/
Lancaster New Era on p. A12 and saw Walt Handelsman’s tribute to Dick Clark, who died
on April 18, 2012. Handelsman is a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. The original tribute
was published in Newsday (Apr. 19, 2012).
Like the Spider at Elmwood Cemetery, Handelsman’s Spider is also funerary in na-
ture. The Spider here becomes iconic of Dick Clark’s era of American Bandstand that was
syndicated on ABC from 1957 to 1987. Interestingly enough for readers of Punk Archaeol-
ogy, American Bandstand began in Philadelphia and was recorded in the studios of WFIL on
46th and Market. Designed in 1947, the original building still stands in all its modern glory
with a huge satellite antenna on its roof.
Sonic’s MC5 appears at the very til end of the Dick Clark era. It’s rock ‘n’ roll at its
best but contains the seeds of the demise of rock ‘n’ roll’s mainstream. Thus, in its truncated
form, Sonic’s offering becomes difficult to recognize, a fragment that allows entry into mel-
ancholy while also asserting a reflexive imbalance. If the Spider is the generational litmus
test for 1960s rock ‘n’ roll Top 40s mainstream, one must wonder what may have been the
pilgrim’s intentions by depositing a 45 Spider on Sonic’s grave. MC5 was clearly shut out of
American Bandstand. Their first album (Kick Out the Jams) was released in 1969 as an LP,
199
“Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s grave site”
Photo Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY
“Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s grave site with “Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s grave site with
artifacts” artifacts”
Photo Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY Photo Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY
not a 45. The original record was pulled from the stores because it had the word “Mother-
fucker” on the album cover. Detroit’s major department store refused to sell the record, and
Elektra dropped the MC5 from their contract as a result.
201
Chapter thirty-six
“Sonic” Archaeology
Kostis Kourelis
“Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s tombstone” “Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s tombstone”
Photo Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY Photo Kostis Kourelis, CC-BY
(Originally published on Kostis Kourelis’s blog on April 25, 2012, at this location: http://kourelis.blogspot.
com/2012/04/sonic-archaeology.html)
On the weekend of April 24, 2012, I was in Detroit for the annual meeting of the
Society of Architectural Historians, organizing the panel “From Idea to Building: Ancient
and Medieval Architectural Process.”1 Another priority in my Detroit visit was to follow
up some ideas on the Punk Archaeology project. I wanted to investigate the topographies of
memory related to Fred “Sonic” Smith, founder of MC5, godfather of Punk and late hus-
band of Patti Smith. Visiting sites of memory is appropriate to Smith and her recent exhibit
Camera Solo at the Wadsworth Athenaeum (and soon moving to Detroit). I have already writ-
ten about Smith, Whitman and archaeology here.2
Fred Smith died in 1994 from a heart attack at the age of 45. Patti Smith writes
about the devastation of this event in her memoir Just Kids and discusses in the documen-
tary Dream of Life. Sonic was buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit, and I wanted to visit
the unique funerary monument that marks his grave. It comprises two vertical rock slabs
inscribed with “Sonic” and “Frederick D. Smith. Musician XX Century.” The monoliths are
small and disappear among the grand 19th-century monuments. But they are powerful in
their sublime physicality.
As I began to sketch for myself the elements of the monument, I detected a scatter
of offerings on the ground. Clearly, I was not the first pilgrim at Sonic’s tomb. Trying not
to disturb the surface, I located six objects: five coins and one blue plastic object, which
seemed so familiar but which I couldn’t immediately identify. I placed an image on Facebook
with a question and my colleague, the philosopher David Merli, immediately identified it as
a 45rpm converter. There is much to say about the site of Sonic’s tomb. For the time being,
I’ll post these few documents, including the sketch of the finds.
1 April 18-22, 2012; http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/09/65th-annual-meeting-of-society-of.html

2 Chapter 28, Chapter 29.
205
“Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s tombstone”
“Plan of Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith’s grave site with finds indicated”
“Alien Artifact”
Chapter thirty-seven
Zeppelin Archaeology
Kostis Kourelis
“Bron-Yr-Aur Cottage near Machynlleth, Wales”
Geograph.co.uk, CC-BY, Photo Andy
(Originally published on Kostis Kourelis’s blog on December 3, 2012, at this location:
http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/12/zeppelin-archaeology_3.html)
A couple of years ago, we began the Punk Archaeology project which culminated in a
day-long conference, performance and all-around happening in Fargo on February 2, 2013
(see http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/zeppelin-archaeology/). The revival of
this collaborative (it would be punk sacrilege to call it “community”) helps me return to one
of the issues raised in the project, namely the relationship between Punk and house form. I
had pondered on this before: see “The House of the Rising Sun,”1 (119) The Clash squatting,2
(163) Iggy Pop’s trailer home in Ypsilanti.3 As Barack Obama honored Led Zeppelin in the
2012 Kennedy Center awards, I thought about the contrast between two domestic utopias,
between Punk’s post-industrial arcadia of urban ruins and rock’s pre-industrial utopia of the
idyllic countryside. During the 1970s, two antithetical bands, The Clash and Led Zeppelin
congregated in radically different dwellings. Both were extreme expressions of belonging,
and both were off the grid-—neither had electricity nor water. Joe Strummer began his musi-
cal career in 1974 by forming The 101’ers, who took their name from 101 Walterton Road,
London, where the band squatted (103). The row house was part of a bombed-out World War
II neighborhood that the government eventually demolished in 1975. The band then squat-
ted at 36 N. Luke Road in a West Indian neighborhood. In this Jamaican neighborhood,
the Clash encountered reggae music, which explains the musical affinities we find in their
albums Sandinista (1980) or Super Black Market Clash (1993). The punk-reggae hybrid of
Ska and 2 Tone (exemplified by The Specials, The English Beat, The Selecter, and Madness)
would have never taken place had the two demographics not lived together in the Caribbean
neighborhoods of London. Through The Clash and other bands like them, Punk was con-
ceived inside the domestic ruins of 19th-century cities.
At the same time, Led Zeppelin retreated to the British countryside, inhabiting an
18th-century cottage in Wales. Bron-Yr-Aur, made famous by an instrumental track by the
same name, belonged to Robert Plant’s family, who took used it as a vacation house in the
1950s. Although rooted in the American blues, Led Zeppelin taps into a medieval sense of
organicity that is deeply seated in the foundations of the British psyche. This is clearly evi-
dent in the band’s fin-de-siecle logotype. While Plant and Jimmy Page were writing Zeppelin
III at Bron-Yr-Aur, Raymond Williams was historicizing the British myth of the country in
1 Chapter 17
2 Chapter 15
3 Chapter 27
211
“Led Zeppelin”
a landmark of Marxist historiography, The Country and The City (1973).4 Williams argued
that the British began idealizing the countryside at the very moment that they were destroy-
ing it (the enclosure movement, aristocrats turning to capitalist landlords, etc.) Unbeknownst
to Williams, Plant and Page were in the process of transforming the myth of rural England
into a powerful acoustic aura to be replicated in ordinary homes through high-fidelity record
players. The Bron-Yr-Aur house (photo below) represents the specific architectural origins of
this transformation. Zeppelin’s genius (which is why they were honored by the White House)
was to invisibly translate these very stone walls into an aural structure that bears no re-
semblance to its vernacular origin.
PS. I did the sketch of Zeppelin Sunday morning, sitting in the kitchen of my sister
and brother-in-law (who was spending his sabbatical in Washington, D.C.), waiting for oth-
ers to wake up, reading The Washington Post.5 When my niece came down, she was extreme-
ly curious why I was drawing people from the newspaper. Then she disappeared to return
with a concocted notebook that resembled mine, but made up of cardboard, tape and paper.
For the rest of the morning, we learned how to copy cartoons and photos. She’s a natural.
4 R. Williams, The Country and the City. London 1973.

5 http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/led-zeppelin-listened-to-each-other-and-found-rock-and-
rolls-most-magical-formula/2012/11/29/4ba466fc-35ac-11e2-9cfa-e41bac906cc9_story.html
213
appendix
“Punk Archaeology CD, Andrew Reinhard”
Photo Andrew Reinhard, CC-BY
Appendix: Punk Archaeology Lyrics
Bill Caraher commissioned Andrew Reinhard to create some punk music in anticipation of
the Punk Archaeology unconference held in Fargo on February 2, 2013. With no further in-
struction, Reinhard retreated to his basement and created a 17-song, 44-minute punk concept
album about issues in archaeology, cultural heritage and academia. This appendix contains
the lyrics, all of which were authored by Reinhard (unless otherwise noted).
Listen to/download the Punk Archaeology album here:

https://soundcloud.com/charinos/sets/punk-archaeology
“Elgin Marbles”
A Punk Archaeology song featuring lyrics by Lord Byron from “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”
and spoken word from Wikipedia:
The Elgin Marbles are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures, inscriptions and
architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the
Acropolis of Athens. Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ot-
toman Empire, obtained a permit from the Ottoman authorities to remove pieces from the
Parthenon. From 1801 to 1812 Elgin’s agents removed about half of the surviving sculptures
of the Parthenon, as well as architectural members and sculpture from the Propylaea and
Erechtheum.
Cold is the heart, fair Greece! that looks on thee,

Nor feels as lovers o’er the dust they loved;
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see
Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed
By British hands, which it had best behoved
To guard those relics ne’er to be restored.
Curst be the hour when from their isle they roved,
And once again thy hapless bosom gored,
And snatch’d thy shrinking gods to northern climes abhorred!
The Marbles were transported by sea to Britain and were purchased by the British govern-
ment in 1816. They have stood ever since in the British Museum. The debate continues as to
whether the Marbles should remain in the British Museum or be returned to Athens.
217
“Repatriate”
United Kingdom!
“Austerity” Big Museums!
Austerity United States!
don’t work don’t work don’t work Big Museums!
Austerity United Kingdom!
won’t work won’t work won’t work Big Museums!
Austerity United States!
don’t work don’t work don’t work Big Museums!
Austerity Repatriate!
won’t work won’t work won’t work United Kingdom!
Rob museums, heritage for sale. Stole my heritage!
The surest sign austerity has failed. United States!
Austerity Stole my heritage!
don’t work don’t work don’t work United Kingdom!
won’t work won’t work won’t work United States!
don’t work don’t work don’t work Take a BM
Austerity Take a BM
won’t work won’t work won’t work Take a BM
Stealing from your country’s history. and stick it
Black market sales will feed your family. up
Austerity your Ashmolean.
don’t work don’t work don’t work Neil MacGregor
Austerity Repatriate
won’t work won’t work won’t work Benin Bronzes
Austerity Repatriate
don’t work don’t work don’t work Elgin Marbles
The unemployed will find a way to live Repatriate
When their government can’t find a way to Lewis Chessmen
give. Repatriate
Feldman Drawings
Repatriate
Rosetta Stone
218
Repatriate All museums
Lambeth Ark Must repatriate!
Euphronius Krater Must repatriate!
King Tut’s Tomb Must repatriate!
Repatriate Repatriate!
Morgantina
Repatriate
NAGPRA says to
Repatriate “American Looters”
Turkey says I’m a looter!
to Repatriate I hunt treasure!
Greece says American digger!
to Repatriate Treasure hunter!
Italy says to I sneak onto the battlefield
Repatriate to find some musket balls.
All museums Or maybe find some arrowheads
Must repatriate! to decorate my walls.
All museums I love American history.
Must repatriate! I’ll keep some of my own.
Take a BM Who cares if there’s no provenance
Take a BM Just leave my shit alone.
Take a BM I’m a robber!
and stick it I steal treasure!
up Pot hunter!
your Ashmolean. Treasure stealer!
All museums I sneak into the burial grounds
Must repatriate! and dig throughout the night
All museums to find some jewelery or beads
Must repatriate! for when the price is right.
All museums I love me some Indian history
Must repatriate! I’ll keep some of my own.
All museums Who cares if there’s no provenance?
Must repatriate! Who wants to buy some bones?
All museums I look for diggers dubious
Must repatriate! who have some pots to sell.
219
My buyers aren’t too curious. Or maybe very fine!
They buy, and all is well. Albert Munsell, you old fart!
I love me some art history. I love to use your soil chart.
I’ll sell some of my own. Albert Munsell, you old fart!
Who cares if there’s no provenance. I love to use your soil chart.
Buy something for your home. 10R 8/1
I’m a dealer! Dark red!
I sell treasure! Or maybe brown!
Auctioneer! 10YR 4/6
Treasure seller! Strong brown!
Or maybe red!
5YR 6/3
Olive yellow!
“Soiled” Or maybe green!
10R 8/1 2.5Y 3/3
Dark red! Yellow!
Or maybe brown! Or maybe gray!
10YR 4/6 Micaceous inclusions
Strong brown! Soil intrusions.
Or maybe red! 2.5YR 6/2
Micaceous inclusions Reddish brown!
Grains are fine! Or maybe black!
Or maybe very fine! 5Y 5/4
5YR 6/3 Black!
Olive yellow! Or pinkish gray!
Or maybe green! Chroma
2.5Y 3/3 over value
Yellow! is what
Or maybe gray! we’re talking about.
2.5YR 6/2 Quantifying color
Reddish brown! when out in the field.
Or maybe black! Albert Munsell,
5Y 5/4 he invented the chart.
Black!
Or pinkish gray!
Micaceous inclusions
Grains are fine!
220
“Publish and Perish” “Untenured”
I’m so goddam happy You climb the tenure ladder
cuz I finished my dissertation, Nothing could be sadder than you.
but now I feel really crappy I hate to break it to you,
cuz it’s time for publication. But your dean is gonna screw you.
Don’t know what I’m gonna do. Why don’t you fucking die?
It’s going out for peer review. Why oh why won’t you just fucking die?
It took ten years to write this thing, Your department chair in Classics
and another year for editing. gonna let you get your ass kicked. I’m
It’s a double-blind review this time warning you.
with no defense, no second try. Think you’re safe in archaeology
The publisher in the Netherlands but they won’t give an apology to you.
is the only one who’ll publish this. Think you’re safer in philology,
I’m so goddam happy that’s worse than anthropology. You’re
cuz my manuscript got a decision, screwed.
but now I feel kind of crappy They’ll just hire one more adjunct
cuz I’ve been accepted with revisions. You’ll feel like you’ve just been punked, it’s
Don’t know what I’m gonna do. true.
It’s dissertation time–Part Two. So why don’t you fucking die?
I’ve got six months to get it right Why oh why won’t you just fucking die?
or kiss my tenure dreams goodnight. You’re showing your maturity,
I thought this topic was over with you’ll kill for job security, won’t you?
when I turned in that massive diss. You’ve got to publish or you’ll perish
Revisions suck. I hate em, man. to keep that job you cherish, won’t you?
Send me to Afghanistan. So go and set a fire to that temporary hire–
I’m so goddam happy light the fuse.
cuz my book is finally published, But you’ll never make professor, you’ll al-
but now I feel really crappy ways be the lesser.
cuz the cover is a single shade of brown Enjoy the abuse.
and they spelled my name wrong.
221
the Agora, and on the Isthmus,
“Archaeologists Teaching Languages” I once did a survey for fitness
I’m a digger Archaeology is my business
Classically trained to go deeper I can teach it with God as my witness
Def with the trowel and sweeper So why you got me teaching these classes
Ill with a pen and some paper Intro Greek to the terrified masses
resolving archaeology capers These kids are as slow as molasses
I can date a soil sample by flavor Subjunctive is kicking their asses.
total stations are things that I savor I’m an archaeologist
remote sensing is a favorite behavior but I’ve got to teach some Latin.
But now I’m teaching Classics at Xavier? I’m not much for Classics
I’m an archaeologist but I’ve got to teach some Greek.
but I’ve got to teach some Latin. I’m not a philologist
I’m not much for Classics but this job is really happenin.’
but I’ve got to teach some Greek. Optative in the evenin,’
I’m not a philologist Wheelock three times a week.
but this job is really happenin.’ Did Colin Renfrew
Aorist in the evenin,’ ever have to do the things that I do
Amo amas three times a week. Did John Boardman or Beazley have to read
I’m a doctor through
of philosophy but now I gotta proctor Latin composition midterm re-dos
undergraduate exams like a mobster or did they all focus on their research
an overqualified degreed helicopter or helping their students as teachers
Latin ones and twos to the slaughter of archaeology instead of homeric
I wanna teach architecture to freshmen greek grammar esoteric.
Pottery seminars to upperclassmen Now let’s draw another plan isometric.
But now they gave me overflow in Latin I’m an archaeologist
I guess ancient history ain’t happenin.’ but I’ve got to teach some Latin.
I’m an archaeologist I’m not much for Classics
but I’ve got to teach some Latin. but I’ve got to teach some Greek.
I’m not much for Classics I’m not a philologist
but I’ve got to teach some Greek. but this job is really happenin.’
I’m not a philologist The Iliad in the evenin,’
but this job is really happenin.’ Double dative three times a week.
Aspects in the evenin,’ To the Universities
Sum esse three times a week. and Deans of Humanities,
I dug at Corinth, let archaeologists
222
teach archaeology. Eric Kansa, Ethan Gruber, and Rabinow-
itz.
Sean Gillies, Leif Isaksen, Daniel Pett,
And a dozen other names a I haven’t rocked
“Linkin’” yet.
Let my data go! Pleiades, Pelagios, and Perseus,
Extrapolate my columns out of Filemaker Linked Ancient World Data Institute.
Pro. My data’s buried deep inside.
Don’t keep my data in no spreadsheeter. Make this silo open wide.
I’m not on dBase like I’m Derek Jeter. Open Context is the site.
Don’t want proprietary filetypes. Archaeology done right.
Don’t want nuthin’ with a license ‘cos it Sending out an SOS.
ain’t right. This is not a test.
XML, Dublin Core, Open Source, yo. Don’t wanna hear about no paywall.
GitHub, gubgub, SourceForge, yo. The data from my site should be free for
Give my data some space so it can breathe all.
right. And if it’s not, then what good is it?
Accessibility is the goal right? Current scholarship with its lip zipped.
My data’s buried deep inside. Chuck Jones to the rescue.
Make this silo open wide. The AWOL blog shows you what to do.
Let my data be. Open Access content on the Old World.
What good is my data if it’s just for me? Bringing scholarship to the New World.
If I keep it in a silo, you can’t link to it. My data’s buried deep inside.
Keep my data from the world? I wouldn’t Make this silo open wide.
think of it. Read The Ancient World Online.
So let me be a good citizen, All open access all the time.
and open up my data to you netizens.
My data’s buried deep inside.
Make this silo open wide.
Publish data free online.
My data’s yours and yours is mine. Sand Diggers”
Sending out at SOS. It’s fun to go out and play in the sand.
This is not a test. I’ve dug in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
Muccigrosso, Elliott, and Sebastian. There’s only one problem I can’t under-
Elton Barker, Hugh Cayless. Scott Johnson. stand.
McMichael, Andrew Meadows, Bridget Al- They’re bombing the fuck out of every-
mas. thing, man.
223
<spoken> <spoken>
I mean, I’ve got my Toughbook, my iPad, I mean, here I am in the middle of the
my permits, fucking desert
I’ve got a fucking guide, an army escort, a in long pants, a long shirt, and a stupid
Desert Eagle .45, fucking hat
a helmet, flak jacket, some cyanide pills, a that keeps my ears and nose from burning
shitload of water, off,
and a map to some site in bumfuck no- standing there with a fucking pick and
where that when we get there shovel
is bombed back to the fucking stone age. and a couple of grad students who drew
Which is a good thing ‘cuz I’m a prehisto- the short straw,
rian. and here comes Ranger-fucking-Rick to
It’s fun to go out and play in the sand. shake us down
I’ve dug the Dakotas out in the Badlands. for drugs and to demand papers.
There’s only one problem I can’t under- I tell him, “if you want papers, you can
stand. grade my fucking midterms, bitch.”
They’re drilling the fuck out of everything,
man.
<spoken>
I mean, I’ve got my total station, a four-
wheel drive, “Excavators”
GPS, GIS, and maps from the fucking Artifact comes to light.
GSA and USGS, Document it right.
and I’m wondering just how I’m supposed Take a photograph.
to do this fucking survey Send it to the lab.
when I know I’m going to break an axle or Each level we take down
break my leg We destroy part of this town.
by falling into some fucking hole left there Recording all we see.
by Preserving history.
an oil exploration team. My Marshalltown #5
I might as well go fly a kite. makes me feel so alive.
It’s fun to go out and play in the sand. If every season is like this,
I’ve dug Arizona out on the hardpan. I’ll die in a state of bliss.
There’s only one problem I can’t under-
stand.
They’re harassing the fuck out of everyone,
man.
224
“History” Let’s kill the intellectuals.
History is now. They’re in our fucking way.
Tomorrow comes. They don’t agree with our god.
Today is yesterday. Hear what our prophets say:
Change is coming with the sun. Ignorance
And all you have Ignorance
Is gone before it’s begun. Let’s get back to basics.
Thucydides and Xenophon, Fundamentally they’re sound.
Herofotus, Timaeus, and Polybius. There is no god but our god.
Subjectivity abounds. Who cares what’s underground?
You’ll never know Ignorance
How that shit went down. Ignorance
[Readings from the Histories of Herodo- Let’s tear down all of history.
tus] It’s in our fucking way.
History is now. Who cares about math and science?
Tomorrow comes. Or the lit’rature of today?
Today is yesterday. Hear what the prophets say.
Change is coming with the sun. Hear what the prophets say:
And all you have Ignorance
Is gone before it’s begun.
“Do the Archaeologist”

“Ignorance” We do not use a whip,
Let’s tear down the temple. and we don’t have guns equipped.
It’s in our fucking way. X is never on the map.
It don’t belong to our god. That is just a load of crap.
Hear what our prophets say: Instead we dig a trench,
Ignorance moving soil by the inch,
Ignorance sifting everything we see,
Let’s burn all the manuscripts. recording each and every piece.
They’re in our fucking way. Archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaurs,
They don’t belong to our god. We’re picking up the pieces from some long-
Hear what our prophets say: forgotten wars.
Ignorance Don’t take a souvenir,
Ignorance but you can take a level here.
225
Don’t forget the scale Archaeologists need dates.
when you photograph that nail. If you’re a little older,
Don’t be such a cock well that’s pretty freakin’ great.
when you’re asked to clean the baulk. We like getting dirty,
Don’t be such a dick and we do it in holes.
when it’s your turn to swing the pick. We’re into photography.
Archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaurs. We take really good notes.
We don’t know where Atlantis is down on Every season, we go nuts.
the ocean floor. Every trench becomes a rut.
We don’t know where Jesus lived or if there Hooking up with people who
was a Trojan War. we’d normally not screw.
All we know is that we’ll never know for But it’s science that we love
sure. and history we’re thinking of.
We’re in the library, the classroom, and the So let’s find another site
lab, so we can excavate it right.
our careers are in ruins, but we think
that’s pretty fab.
We spend time reading books
at our desks or on our nooks.
We write more of the same “Miskatonic University Excavations at
so we can make ourselves a name. Innsmouth”
Some of us can code, Down
and our data we upload. Diggin’ down
Some of us are just Old School: Whatever it is down there
our computers, unused tools. I wanna know
Archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaurs. My university
Ain’t no ancient astronauts or aliens that They have sent me
came before. To see what it is down there
We’re not raiding tombs or hunting for They wanna know
some crystal skulls. Found
Give us sherds or bones or stones to docu- This is what I’ve found
ment in full. I found what it is down there
We’re in the library, the classroom, and the I thought you should know
lab, Down
our careers are in ruins, but we think Diggin’ down
that’s pretty fab. Whatever it is down there
But sometimes we get lonely. I wanna know
226
Down Io! Saturnalia!
Io! Saturnalia!
“Law of Superposition of Punk”

(instrumental with band names)
“Saturnalia”
Io! It’s Saturnalia!
And the tables are gonna turn again this
year!
The slaves become the masters,
so the pilleus I’ll wear.
I’m gonna roll the bones tonight.
I’m gonna win my share,
of coins and toasted walnuts, man,
but Pliny, he don’t care.
Io! Saturnalia!
Io! Saturnalia!
Io! Saturnalia!
Give me gifts of pottery and wax!
I’d love some knucklebones, a comb,
or maybe a new axe.
December 17th is here,
and until the 23rd,
I’m the King of Saturnalia, man,
the Lord of the Absurd.
Io! Saturnalia!
Io! Saturnalia!
Io! Saturnalia!
I’m gonna eat and drink my fill,
and then I’ll drink some more,
I’m gonna wear my synthesis,
this toga’s such a bore.
Io! Saturnalia!
227
A b out th e A ut h ors
A aron Barth works in historic preservation with academic and scholarly institutions, engi-
neering firms and tribal liaisons, navigating federal and state regulatory processes on their
behalf. He is a board member of the NEH-funded North Dakota Humanities Council, and is
a drummer with a penchant for heavy punk blues.
Bill Caraher is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Dakota. He is

the co-director of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP) and has published
articles on a range of archaeological topics. He maintains a blog called the Archaeology of
the Mediterranean World.
Kris Groberg is Associate Professor of Art History at North Dakota State University. She
earned her Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from the University of Minnesota. Her academic special-
ty is the History of Russian Art and Architecture. Her research interests include the Ico-
nography of the Russian Orthodox Church, Images of Sophia in Russian Culture, the Devil
in Russian Art, Russian Decadence & Symbolism and, most recently, the Study of Sacred
Space (Hierotopy).
H eather Waddell Gruber is an Assistant Professor of Classical Studies at Concordia Col-

lege in Moorhead, Minnesota. Her research interests include Greek rhetorical education, Greek
lyric poetry, and ancient gender and sexuality studies. She has published and presented
research on topics ranging from the portrayal of women in Greek declamation, to the poetic
language of Catullus, to Black Classicism.
J oel Jonientz received an M.F.A. in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design
in 2006. His work explored multiple avenues of artistic practice including painting, draw-
ing, comics, and animation. He was an Associate Professor at the University of North Da-
kota where he directed the time-based media emphasis.
230
K ostis Kourelis is an archaeologist of the medieval Mediterranean. When he is not survey-
ing houses and settlements, he ponders the archaeological dimensions of modernism and the
avant-garde. He is professor of architectural history at Franklin & Marshall College and
was once the bass player of K-6, a not too illustrious Philadelphia band of the 1990s.
Michael H. Laughy Jr. is Assistant Professor of Classics at Washington and Lee Univer-
sity, and field supervisor of the Athenian Agora Excavations. He bought his first trowel in
1992, the same year he bought his first drum set.
R. Scott Moore (Ph.D., The Ohio State University 2000) is Professor of History at Indi-
ana University of Pennsylvania. He has been working in the Mediterranean since 1995 and is
currently the co-director of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP) on Cyprus.
C olleen Morgan received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California,
Berkeley in 2012. She has worked in five countries on three continents, excavating sites 100
years old and 9,000 years old and anything in-between. She went to her first punk show in
1991 and still prefers vinyl.
Timothy Pasch is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of North Da-

kota.
Andrew Reinhard is a punk archaeologist without borders who in real-life is the Director
of Publications for the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. A late-bloomer, he
played his first rock show at 40 and spends a lot of his time and money at the Princeton
Record Exchange excavating punk albums from the bins.
Richard Rothaus (Ph.D., The Ohio State University) is President of Trefoil, a private
consulting firm. He was a university professor and administrator for over a decade before
entering the private sector. Rothaus’ research focuses on the interaction of humans and the
environment, and he is equally comfortable working in the field or archives.
231
J oshua Samuels is a historical archaeologist whose research focuses on landscape, heritage,
and totalitarianism. While his primary geographical focus is Sicily, he has also conducted
archaeological work in Crete, North Africa, and the California Sierras. He earned his Ph.D.
from Stanford University in 2013, and an M.Sc. from the University of Sheffield in 2004.
While Fugazi is among his favorite bands, he mostly listens to Nine Inch Nails and Skinny
Puppy; he should probably just call himself an “Industrial Archaeologist.”
P eter Schultz is the Olin J. Storvick Chair of Classical Studies at Concordia College. He
took his Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Athens in 2003. He is the
co-editor of Early Hellenistic Portraiture: Image, Style, Context (2007, Cambridge), Aspects
of Ancient Greek Cult: Ritual, Context, Iconography (2009, Århus), Structure, Image, Orna-
ment: Architectural Sculpture in the Greek World (2009, Oxbow Press) and the author of
numerous articles on Athenian art, architecture and topography. He is currently completing
monographs on the sculptural program of the temple of Athena Nike in Athens and on the
social history of Greek art for Cambridge University Press.
232
PUNK ARCHAEOLOGY
Punk Archaeology is a irreverent and relevant movement in archaeology, and these papers
provide a comprehensive anti-manifesto.
“Archaeologists are at home in the dirt. When an archaeologist needs to get a wheelbarrow
of backfill across a trench, they build a bridge out of whatever’s lying around; they do it
this way because they’re in the middle of nowhere and they know the swiftest way between
point A and point B is to do it yourself ... This DIY attitude is how they manage to trans-
port & house two faculty members and five grad students in Syria for three months for
less than one lab in the med school’s spent on glassware during the same time period.
Archaeologists rely on themselves because they have to. They are the cassette tapes of
academics; played through one speaker, loudly, and full of passion, blasting a song that so
many people can’t understand the words to, but are moved by experiencing. PUNK ARCHAE-
OLOGY is filled with this music ”
Kyle Cassidy, Author and Photographer
“The <Punk> of Punk Archaeology exists as acipher, an empty signifier. The value of this
volume lies in its commitment to variously loading <punk> with meaning based on the epis-
temic uncertainties that mark human civilization and its study. This volume traverses the
supposed rules of theory and praxis, of art and science, of conservation and change, of
information and meaning by way of the unruly <punk>. <punk> helps these authors locate
their work and our world, not because it functions as a particular concept but instead be-
cause it refuses any particular mode of divination. As such, PUNK ARCHAEOLOGY offers all
academic fields a lesson for utilizing the anarchy of the cipher to negotiate the perils of
disciplinary rigidity.”
Brett Ommen, hobo academic
William Caraher is an Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota.

Kostis Kourelis is an Assistant Professor at Franklin and Marshall College.
Andrew Reinhard is a punk archaeologist without borders.
The Digital Press @

The University of North Dakota

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University of North Dakota

UND Scholarly Commons

Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/press-books

Kyle Cassidy, Author and Photographer

Brett Ommen, hobo academic

William Caraher is an Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota.

The Digital Press @

The Digital Press @

2014 The Digital Press @ The University of North Dakota

Book and Cover Design

ISBN-13: 978-0692281024 (The Digital Press at The University of North Dakota)

Chapter 5: Chapter 12:

Chapter 6: Chapter 13:

Punk Archaeology Lyrics 215

About the Authors 229

Listen to/download the Punk Archaeology unconference:

Andrew Reinhard/Aaron Barth:

Les Filthy Trenchmen:

What Kingswood Needs:

For Richard Gilmore, friend, mentor, hero.

As a goo-loving, goo-spewing proto-punk, Collingwood rejected the flaccid inductive gener-

All Sex Pistols lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/s/sexpistols.html

Browning, G., 2004. Rethinking R. G. Collingwood. Basingstoke.

Collingwood, R. G. 1930. The Philosophy of History. London Historical Association.

Dray, W. H. 1994. “Was Collingwood an Historical Constructionist?” Collingwood Studies, 1:

—. 1995. History as Re-enactment: R. G. Collingwood’s Idea of History. Clarendon Press.

D’Oro, G. 2002. Collingwood and the Metaphysics of Experience. Routledge.

Hughes-Warrington, M. T. E. 1996. “‘How Good an Historian Shall I Be?’: R. G. Collingwood

“Bill for Ralph’s Corner Bar featuring Grant Hart,

“How many do you have?”

I need a second skin

I want you to know people who laugh too loud

I know I’m artificial

Step Two: Keep the Girl; Lose the Midget

Step Three: Make it Punk

Step Four: Connect it to Archaeology

1 Salewicz 2006, 116, 118, 129.

1 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/07/2383653.htm, (I thank Tim Gregory who sent this link to Bill

“The Animals, The House of the Rising

“The Animals, The House of the Rising

With Lux Interior’s death on February 4, 2009, 1

2 See Scott Shepperd’s/Hamlet’s interview on Studio 360 http://www.studio360.org/episodes/2007/11/23

With the 40th anniversary of Woodstock looming so soon? The commemora-

1 See for a nice neighborhood history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uptown,_Minneapolis

1 You can read the entire history of Simonon’s 11 basses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Simonon

6 See earlier posting: http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/01/patti-smith-life-as-narrative.html

“Camden, New Jersey”

Squatting, Archaeology, and Abandonment

Squatting is essentially an archaeological phenomenon: archaeologists are squatters who oc-

Formation Process and Provisional Discard

I see the ’50’s apartment house

Interviews Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV8_Thgt6J0&fs=1&hl=en_US

1 April 18-22, 2012; http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/09/65th-annual-meeting-of-society-of.html

4 R. Williams, The Country and the City. London 1973.

Listen to/download the Punk Archaeology album here:

Cold is the heart, fair Greece! that looks on thee,

“Do the Archaeologist”

“Law of Superposition of Punk”

Bill Caraher is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Dakota. He is