I am overjoyed to share that the Special Issue on Archaeological Identitiscapes that I guest edited for Cambridge Archaeological Journal is now out as FirstView and readable Open Access on the Cambridge Core website, Cambridge University Press. The issue is introduced by my piece on the politics of interpretation, which sets the research agenda on ancient identities: the priority is to link the past to the present in meaningful and dynamic ways through a rigorous method, while deconstructing the abuse of the past by dominant political discourses that justify exclusionary agendas (against migrants, LGBTQ+, ethnic minorities) with supposedly uniform ancient identities.
The papers of the special issue, focusing on case studies from Punic and Roman period Sardinia, the Pueblo Revolt period New Mexico, nineteenth century Madagascar, and ancient and modern Britain, envisage the archaeological record as a set of interconnected signs, whose potential overcomes the material space they occupy so that they become meaningful to different individuals and communities in diverse, and still legitimate, ways.
I am grateful to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions of the European Commission for the generous funding that allowed this output and the IDENTIS project to become reality.
Mauro Puddu 