World Archaeological Congress 4

From January 10-14, 1999, Cape Town, South Africa welcomed the fourth World Archaeological Congress. Held at the University of Cape Town, the congress had 700 delegates from 70 countries, including me, who spoke, listened, argued, discoursed, lectured, agreed, and agreed to disagree. In short, a wonderful time was had by all. As long ago as it was, I was forever changed by the experience. Let me give you a taste of what I learned in Cape Town.

Best Paper: Hands down, and everybody who saw it agrees, was the Keynote Presentation given by Carmel Schrire (Rutgers University) for the Glynn Isaac Memorial Lecture. Entitled Tigers in Africa: The World of Glynn Isaac at the Cape of Good Hope, the hour-long talk was a metaphorical delight, engrossing and evocative. Her talk sold lots of copies of her recent book, Digging Through Darkness: Chronicles of an Archaeologist, including one to me, which I felt compelled to review.

Best Argument: A three-way tie for me. I had an argument with a delegate from the UK about the intrinsic value of archaeology; an argument with an Australian about whether global access to information was good or not; and an argument with an Israeli about whether Clinton or Netanyahu would be more likely re-elected.

Best News from an Archaeological Site: Sterkfontein, where researchers were excavating the first complete Australopithecine skeleton ever found.

Most Enlightening Moment: In one of the sessions on History and Contextual Landscapes, when I realized that in the Global vs. Local tug of war going on all over the planet, archaeologists are right smack dab in the middle and at last unable to keep ourselves out of the political fray.

The World Archaeological Congress, held every four years, offers an opportunity to meet with colleagues all over the world. In 2003, the WAC-5 was held in Washington DC. Did you go?