Departments, March/April 1996 - Archaeology Magazine Archive


Departments	Volume 49 Number 2, March/April 1996

In This Issue Assault on Afghan Heritage	For more than 20 years, Nancy Hatch Dupree has crusaded to save Afghanistan's rich cultural heritage. By Peter A. Young
From the President Renewing a Critical Dialogue	The role of public education in shaping the first American museums, such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, has once again become central. By Stephen L. Dyson
Letters	Oh, Those Brutish Neandertals; Salient Thoughts
Special Report Excavating MIAs	Twenty years after the fall of Saigon there are 2,162 American servicemen missing, presumably dead--1,613 in Vietnam, and the rest in Laos, Cambodia, and China. The Joint Task Force-Full Accounting's effort to find them, conducted by recovery teams of Americans and Vietnamese (and their counterparts in Laos and Cambodia), relies on standard archaeological and forensic methods of investigation. The author describes the investigation of Case 0642, the loss of a Marine Corps A-4E Skyhawk near Que Son; and Case 0020, a T-28 trainer that crashed near the Vietnam-Laos border during a reconnaissance mission in 1963. By Brenda Smiley
Insight To Your Health!	One of ARCHAEOLOGY's contributing editors reviews what recent research and ancient authors have to say about the early history of wine making. By James Wiseman
At the Museums The Elusive Olmec	The largest exhibition of Olmec art ever assembled underscores the fact that our understanding of the Olmec is based almost entirely on the study of unprovenienced artifacts. The Olmec World: Ritual and Rulership was at the Art Museum at Princeton University until February 25, and will be at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from April 14 through June 9. Reviewed by Angela M.H. Schuster
Books The Genius of Hadrian	The first comprehensive modern study of Hadrian's Villa in English points to the need for a proper map of the site and an all-out effort to save it from vandals and the vagaries of time. Hadrian's Villa and Its Legacy, by William L. MacDonald and John A. Pinto. 392 pages. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995. $55.00. ISBN 0-300-05381-9. Reviewed by Alexander Wallace
Multimedia Saving a Critical Legacy	A video about the destruction of Native American archaeological sites in the Southwest is not currently available because budget cuts have prevented the National Park Service from producing more copies. Silent Witness: Protecting American Indian Archeological Heritage. 1994. Produced and Directed by Lee Luce Lysne. Color, 31 minutes. Reviewed by Peter S. Allen
Forum Guidespeak	A tour guide's tall tale contains hints of a Phrygian cultic rite. By Jessica E. Saraceni