Lamberg-Karlovsky's discoveries alter archaeology's conceptual map

By Eileen K. McCluskey

Special to the Gazette

Not many people can claim to have brought about a fundamental change in their profession. But archaeologist Carl Lamberg-Karlovsky played a central role in revealing relationships between "peripheral" archaeological sites, particularly the now-famous "Tepe Yahya" in Iran, and "core" sites like Mesopotamia.

"I started an important change in the conceptual framework dealing with remote places," Lamberg-Karlovsky said.

Until Lamberg-Karlovsky's discoveries entered the archaeological lexicon in the early 1980s, only three arenas were considered important in the archaeological world: Mesopotamia; the Indus, 750 miles east of Mesopotamia; and Biblical archaeology -- Egypt and the Holy Land.

Peripheral Vision

In the days before Tepe Yahya's recognition, according to Lamberg-Karlovsky, archaeologists wishing to secure a bright future would vie for a dig in one of the core areas. But rather than focus on those sites, Lamberg-Karlovsky homed in on a peripheral dot on the map, one of the many tiny villages located between Mesopotamia and Indus.

In 1965, Lamberg-Karlovsky was "just an assistant professor [at Harvard]. Chance and luck are terribly important to an archaeological career," he said as he described his first break, the one that led to Tepe Yahya. "I was very attracted by the work of Sir Aurel Stein. He was the first person, in the 1920s, to explore Southeastern Iran and Baluchistan." The young professor applied to the National Science Foundation to resurvey the area Stein had explored. The Foundation agreed to fund the project, and Lamberg-Karlovsky went to Tepe Yahya.

At that time, Lamberg-Karlovsky noted, "we knew there were relations" between core areas and the periphery. But it was also believed that "literacy was restricted to Mesopotamia."

Early Discoveries

In the early '70s, Lamberg-Karlovsky's first discoveries at Tepe Yahya were "tablets of the exact same date as those found in Mesopotamia, and written in the Elamite language," he said, the same language as that written on the Mesopotamian tablets.

Lamberg-Karlovsky said his team also found that Tepe Yahya "was in control of the production of highly desired chlorite bowls, an export item that matched those found in Mesopotamia and Indus." The bowls proved a crucial point: The periphery was central to trade around 2500 B.C.

When Lamberg-Karlovsky uncovered the tablets and bowls, most archaeologists weren't ready to embrace their implications. The young explorer found colleagues "questioning the validity of the tablets"; some even asked if he really believed the things he wrote.

The Diamond of Antiquity

However, two parallel events helped to tip things Lamberg-Karlovsky's way. One came through the work of Italian archaeologist Maurizio Tosi, explained Lamberg-Karlovsky, "who in the early '70s said to me, 'What you're doing with the chlorite bowls is exactly what I'm doing with golden lapis lazuli' " at another peripheral site in the same region as Tepe Yahya. "Lapis," said Lamberg-Karlovsky, "is the diamond of antiquity." Maurizio found that at this site, they broke down the lapis into beads and blocks for transport throughout the ancient land. These discoveries, he noted, showed that "supply and demand was operating" between peripheral and core sites.

Another set of events helped to change archaeological viewpoints of peripheral sites. "By 1981," said Lamberg-Karlovsky, "four other sites in the periphery had shown tablets" like those discovered at Tepe Yahya.

Hence a new archaeological industry was born, with widespread investigations of relations between the core and the periphery. Lamberg-Karlovsky's work since Tepe Yahya has taken him to diverse parts of the globe, preserving some of the world's most ancient treasures. But when he ponders this work, Lamberg-Karlovsky grows solemn, even sad: "Archaeology is a very political process. Who owns the past is an open question; archaeology exists in a very political context. Who has the right to excavate in occupied territories? There are people lining their pockets with the sale of illegally excavated archaeological objects. I've seen corruption among high-level government officials who are willing to allow their treasures to be excavated and sold illegally."

A Place to Belong

Lamberg-Karlovsky was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1937. In 1939 Germany invaded his country, and Lamberg-Karlovsky's uncle secreted the 2-year-old out of the country with his grandmother. Lamberg-Karlovsky's father, a political activist, was arrested by the Nazis in 1942. His father, along with his aunt, were killed in Auschwitz. Lamberg-Karlovsky commented, "Maybe I have concentrated on peripheral regions because of my early years -- I didn't know where I belonged."

But if the bumper sticker on his office wall in the Peabody Museum is any indication, Lamberg-Karlovsky's sense of humor has not suffered from his sorrowful early life. The sign reads, "Denial is not a river in Egypt." The professor has lived by this motto, bringing the reality of ignored lands into the forefront of his profession.