As anthropologist Jason De León illustrates, “[a]rchaeology is about ‘trying to understand human behavior in the past through the study of what people leave behind’…[n]obody ever said the past had to be a thousand years ago” (Hartigan Shea 2018). When one hears the term ‘archaeology’, they may be tempted to think of the far past whereas it — as De León emphasizes — could refer to even one minute prior.

Today, immigration across the Mexico-United States border (into the United States) remains a prominent issue. De León has studied this area (specifically the Sonoran Desert where many migrants attempt to cross despite its gruesome conditions) in great depth. De León has been recognized by the MacArthur Foundation in 2017 for his expertise in “[c]ombining ethnographic, forensic, and archaeological evidence to bring to light the human consequences of immigration policy at the U.S.–Mexico border” (MacArthur Foundation 2017). Unsurprisingly, De León is one of the only people within the “[range of] archaeologists and material culture specialists” (Hamilakis 2016) to partake in this field.

A Dora The Explorer backpack, among many others, recovered from near the Mexico-United States border and displayed in the “State of Exception” exhibit at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center of The New School (Dobnik 2017).

On the Greek island of Lesvos, a similar situation with immigration is occurring. “[M]ore than 500,000 people crossed from Turkey, migrants and war refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, as well as many other Asian and African countries, to [this] island with 85,000 permanent inhabitants” (Hamilakis 2016). In venturing to safer land, “[s]ome of [their] camps…can become substantial and highly organized structures despite their makeshift character, as [seen] in northern Greece” (Hamilakis 2016). These people make do with what little they have, setting up shop and moving onwards — these campsites becoming modern sites for archaeological investigation.

An aerial view of a cramped, makeshift camp in Idomeni on the Greece-Macedonia border, housing approximately 7 thousand people at the time of imaging (Telegraph Video 2016).

In regards to what immigrants jettison in regions like the Mediterranean and the Arizona desert, what is left behind “form[s] worthwhile topics for further reflection and study” (Hamilakis 2016) — and a budding ‘branch’ of archaeology. By locating these abandoned objects, voices and identities are given to otherwise invisible people. This growing problem of today mirrors the movement of past peoples and how they have been studied to understand why they left and where they went. However, currently — the time in which this is an issue — the world has the power to work to reach a logical solution. When looking through their belongings, one can see how these people, regarded as ‘invaders’ and ‘inconvenient’, are human. Understanding that these immigrants are giving up everything to head to safer places for acceptable livelihoods is crucial; they are leaving their past lives to stay alive.

Inevitably, there is no reason to disregard the people leaving their countries for our land of dreams, because they are just like the rest of us.

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Additional Readings

De León, Jason

  2013 Undocumented migration, use wear, and the materiality of habitual suffering in the Sonoran Desert. Journal of Material Culture 18 (4): 321-345. doi:10.1177/1359183513496489.

Papataxiarchis, Evthhymios

  2016 Being ‘there’: At the front line of the ‘European refugee crisis’ — part 1. Anthropology Today 32 (2): 5-9. doi:10.1111/1467-8322.12237.

Pringle, Heather

  2011 The Journey to El Norte. Archaeology, January/February. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://archive.archaeology.org/1101/features/border.html.

Works Utilized

Dobnik, Verena

  2017 NYC gallery displays migrants’ backpacks, belongings. The Washington Times, February 10. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/ feb/10/ny-gallery-displays-migrants-backpacks-belongings/.

Hamilakis, Yannis

  2016 Archaeologies of Forced and Undocumented Migration. Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 3 (2): 121-139. doi:10.1558/jca.32409.

Hartigan Shea, Rachel

  2018 Immigration Archaeology: What’s Left at Border Crossings. National Geographic, August. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/08/embark-genius-jason-immigration-archaeology/.

MacArthur Foundation

  2017 Jason De León. MacArthur Foundation, October 11. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.macfound.org/fellows/986/.

Telegraph Video

  2016 Watch: Aerial footage of crowded migrant camp on Greece-Macedonia border. Telegraph Video, March 2. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/macedonia/12180807/Watch-Aerial-footage-of-crowded-migrant-camp-on-Greece-Macedonia-border.html.

Images Utilized

Lennihan, Mark

  2017 Migrant Belongings Art [image]. Associated Press. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/ap_migrants_  belongings_art_83724jpg/.

Telegraph Video

  2016 Migrant Camp – Aerial [image]. Telegraph Video. Accessed November 24, 2018. https://secure.i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03587/migrant-camp-aeria_3587034b.jpg.

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‘Archaeogenetics’, the study of ancient DNA, has opened the door to further understanding Earth’s complex history through examination of humans, animals, and plants. With DNA being a dependable ‘artifact’ in itself, archaeologists can learn much more about the people who once populated the sites they examine.

Many know the story of how North America was “discovered” by white, European explorers, but the origins of the Native Americans they drove away has continued to remain a bit nebulous. However, in 2013, the body of a young girl recovered from a burial pit in Alaska assists in reaching an answer about their origin; the significance lies in her DNA that, when analyzed in 2017, matched Native Americans as well as “ancient north Eurasians who lived in what is now Siberia” (Sample).

Archaeologists at the Upward River Sun site in Alaska where the body of the ancient Beringian girl, named “Xach’itee’aanenh t’eede gaay” (“sunrise-child girl”), was found (Sample).

Examining ancient DNA is complex and often cannot be done, as genetic material degrades easily. Viviane Slon of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology explains, “not every fossil will yield DNA, and not every fossil will yield enough DNA to reconstruct a full genome” (Moscato). In fact, “the best environments for preserving DNA tend to be cold, dry and stable over long time periods” (Moscato), like that of Alaska.

The body of this young girl yields support of the early Native Americans traveling to America by way of East Asia (Sample). Because ice caps held so much of the ocean’s water during the Ice Age, an open land bridge spanned from Russia to Alaska where the Bering Strait is currently (Tamm; Sample; Renfrew and Bahn 140). The land bridge, called Beringia, housed people from East Asia in addition to acting as a “byway” to a new land.

However, geneticists realized that the remains of the girl recovered were genetically different from modern Native Americans, proving the existence of the previously unknown “ancient Beringians” (Sample). About 34,000 years ago, a group of individuals began to separate from the Asians. By 20,000 years ago, today’s Native American ancestors split off from the ancient Beringians, heading into now-North America and forming the “northern and southern branches” all Native Americans trace back to (Strickland; Moreno-Mayar; Tamm).

This diagram details the formation of Native American populations from early ancestors — Ancient Beringians split off from Ancestral Native Americans about 20,000 years ago with their subsequent movement unknown.

Inevitably, the limits of understanding the people of the past become apparent as there is a shortage of tangible proof of ancient Beringians being on Beringia and where they went after. One can only answer so many questions without exhibiting more speculation than corroborated truth. It is like constructing the outside frame of a puzzle, but not having many connecting pieces on the inside. The traces of ancient Beringians are waiting to be discovered and shared with the world to provide answers about this incredible, lost community.

Works Cited

Cohen, Jennie. “Native Americans Hailed From Siberian Highlands, DNA Reveals.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 26 Jan. 2012, www.history.com/news/native-americans-hailed-from-siberian-highlands-dna-reveals.

Moreno-Mayar, J. Víctor, et al. “Terminal Pleistocene Alaskan Genome Reveals First Founding Population of Native Americans.” Nature, vol. 553, no. 7687, 2018, pp. 203–207., doi:10.1038/nature25173.

Moscato, David. “The Incredible Science of Ancient DNA.” Earth Touch News Network, Earth Touch, 6 Feb. 2018, www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/how-it-works/the-incredible-science-of-ancient-dna/.

Renfrew, Colin, and Paul G. Bahn. Archaeology Essentials: Theories, Methods, Practice. 3rd ed., Thames & Hudson, 2015.

Sample, Ian. “Surprise as DNA Reveals New Group of Native Americans: the Ancient Beringians.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 3 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/science/2018/jan/03/ancient-dna-reveals-previously-unknown-group-of-native-americans-ancient-beringians.

Strickland, Ashley. “11,500-Year-Old Infant Remains Reveal Ancient Population.” CNN, Cable News Network, 5 Jan. 2018, www.cnn.com/2018/01/05/health/ancient-population-discovery-alaska-trnd/index.html.

Tamm, Erika, et al. “Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders.” PLoS ONE, vol. 2, no. 9, 2007, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000829.

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Images

https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/CEg9yf-zqGgsDK0AhEMLKXj_h6o=/1072×720/filters:no_upscale()/https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/f8/3d/f83d9a08-978f-42fa-9ebd-0428fb2e1b74/101610_web.jpg

https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/nintchdbpict000376128856.jpg

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Additional Resources

https://www.nps.gov/bela/learn/historyculture/the-bering-land-bridge-theory.htm

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-americans-lived-on-bering-land-bridge-for-thousands-of-years/