"Did you see any Incas in Peru?": The use of the Inca in the construction of indigenous identity in Peru WALAC workshop paper. Oct 24, 2007. Workshop for the Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Chicago.
Creating The Inca: Contextualising the construction of archaeological objects and narratives in museums. MA dissertation, submitted August 2007. Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.
Creating the Inca in Peruvian, U.S., and Spanish museums CLAS Tuesday Brown Bag Colloquium. March 6 2007, Centre for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago
Bruno, M. and Leighton, M. 2007; "Additional Excavations in the KU (Kala Uyuni) sector - N894/E639" in Matthew Brandy and Christine Hastorf (eds) Kala Uyuni: An Early Political Center in the Southern Lake Titicaca Basin. 2003 Excavations of the Taraco Archaeological Project. Contributions of the Archaeological Research Facility, University of California, Number 64.
Ulla Rajala, Francesco di Gennaro, Heli Arima, Carrie Roth-Murray, Francesca Fulminante, Janne Hymylö & Mary Leighton; "New international excavations at Cisterna Grande (Crustumerium, Rome, Italy): studying chamber tombs, burial rites and funerary representations during the Archaic period" Antiquity Vol 79 No 304 June 2005
In July 2004 the Remembering the Dead project carried out its first excavation season in the cemetery area of the ancient Latin town of Crustumerium (Rome, Italy). The excavations were conducted in collaboration between Dr Rajala (Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge) and Dr di Gennaro (Director of the Archaeological Area of Crustumerium, Soprintendenza di Roma) and financed partly by the British Academy and the Finnish Cultural Foundation. The core team was composed of researchers and students working in Britain, Italy and Finland, who share research interests in central Italy and/or funerary archaeology and digital methods. The aim of the project is to shed new light on the funerary practices in central Italy during the pre-Roman times. In addition, the project tries to salvage knowledge from the tombs in peril due to the continued activities of tomb robbers.
Leighton, M. and Stig Sorenson, M.L.; Breathing Life into the Archives : reflections upon decontextualisation and the curatorial history of V.G.Childe and the material from Tószeg. European Journal of Archaeology 2004 Vol. 7(1): 41-60
Abstract:What is the fate of the material from old excavations? This article aims to generate attention towards this question by discussing the fragmentation of assemblages due to long and disjointed excavation campaigns as well as the eagerness of museums to have representative objects from famous sites. The challenge emerging is the need to explore ways of reinstating objects that may be widely dispersed and entirely decontextualized into our database. The tell at Tószeg-Laposhalom, Hungary, is used as a case study with particular attention to the campaign of 1927. This case is important for several reasons. Tószeg is a key European Bronze Age site. It is also a good example of a site with numerous excavation campaigns and many different teams being involved. Moreover, the 1927 campaign, which is documented through the correspondence between the partners, was V.G. Childe's first excavation, and the data recovered played a key role in his Central European Bronze Age chronology. PDF
Life to the dead: Archaeologists and the study of human remains. European Archaeology Association Conference, September 2004
Absract: Are human remains primarily objects or people? How does the way the individual archaeologist defines the physical remains of the human body affect the way that they are studied? What is it about human bone and tissue that makes it so different from, for instance, animal bone? And why should archaeological graves and the physical body be treated with 'respect', when there is no compulsion to treat ancient pottery as someone else's possession that shouldn't be touched, or a structure as someone else's property that shouldn't be entered? Drawing on an ethnographic study of archaeologists working in Britain, and observation of tomb excavations in Italy, this paper explores the ambiguities of definition and practice that surround the excavation and study of our most contentious sets of data. It is asserted that the majority of the archaeologists interviewed and observed claimed to treat human remains as a separate class of archaeological data, and the funerary context as a separate sphere of archaeological practice. The 'personification' of what was being studied was a result of the comparability the archaeologist perceived as existing between themselves and the physical remains. Issues to be addressed are: The extent to which archaeologists identify with the remains that they study, and see them as being similar to themselves. How in turn this affects the way that human remains are worked with, from excavation and study, through to publication and museum storage. The implications this has for the way that the archaeology of the dead is used to reinforce or distort wider debates about the dead human body in contemporary society.
Sacrilege for Science? Public versus archaeological perspectives on the disturbance of the dead. Newnham Pudding Seminar Series. January 2003
"I see dead people" : Archaeologists and the study of the dead. Student Led Archaeology Conference, February 2003
The meaning of death in contemporary British Society. Peterhouse Theory Group, Cambridge. February 2003