WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.279 So if you want to understand the Roman Empire, 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.620 you know, you dig up a Roman coin. Right. That's 00:00:05.620 --> 00:00:07.879 the classic image. Yeah. But if you want to understand 00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:10.919 like why that coin matters or whether the person 00:00:10.919 --> 00:00:12.939 who dug it up had some sort of hidden political 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:16.000 agenda, you don't look at the dirt. No, you really 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.079 don't. You look at a 19th century office memo. 00:00:18.920 --> 00:00:21.440 Exactly. Today's deep dive is about what happens 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:24.579 when the most important artifact isn't what we 00:00:24.579 --> 00:00:27.510 pulled out of the ground. but the actual paper 00:00:27.510 --> 00:00:30.050 trail left behind by the people who found it. 00:00:30.109 --> 00:00:33.210 It completely abends the traditional view of 00:00:33.210 --> 00:00:35.710 the discipline. I mean, we usually think of the 00:00:35.710 --> 00:00:38.369 artifact as the absolute center of the archaeological 00:00:38.369 --> 00:00:41.070 universe. Right, the golden idol, the ancient 00:00:41.070 --> 00:00:43.810 sword. Yeah, but we almost never think about 00:00:43.810 --> 00:00:47.549 the massive invisible infrastructure of human 00:00:47.549 --> 00:00:50.950 beings required to, you know, catalog, protect 00:00:50.950 --> 00:00:53.630 and argue over that artifact. Which is exactly 00:00:53.630 --> 00:00:56.250 why we are stepping out of the excavation trench 00:00:56.250 --> 00:00:58.340 today. We're walking directly into the rooms 00:00:58.340 --> 00:01:00.340 where the discoveries themselves are documented. 00:01:00.460 --> 00:01:03.679 It's meta -archaeology, really. Exactly. We are 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:06.420 pulling apart a brief but incredibly dense source 00:01:06.420 --> 00:01:09.140 about the Vassal Parvin Institute of Archaeology 00:01:09.140 --> 00:01:12.400 in Romania. And our mission for you today is 00:01:12.400 --> 00:01:15.640 to explore how an institution doesn't just find 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:18.819 history, but actually records the history of 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:21.219 finding history. And we should clarify, we are 00:01:21.219 --> 00:01:24.159 not talking about some fringe historical society 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:26.959 here. No, definitely not. This is an elite branch 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:29.560 of the Romanian Academy. It's a cornerstone of 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:32.159 Eastern European intellectual life. Right. And 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:34.480 just to ground you in its modern standing, since 00:01:34.480 --> 00:01:37.840 1999, it has been directed by the historian and 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:40.599 archaeologist Alexandra Volpe. Who is himself 00:01:40.599 --> 00:01:43.340 a member of the Romanian Academy. Exactly. So 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:45.359 we are dealing with the highest possible level 00:01:45.359 --> 00:01:48.140 of academic rigor. and state -sponsored heritage. 00:01:48.680 --> 00:01:50.840 Unquestionably. Okay, let's unpack this. Because 00:01:50.840 --> 00:01:52.700 to really understand the modern institute, we 00:01:52.700 --> 00:01:54.799 actually have to treat the organization itself 00:01:54.799 --> 00:01:57.700 as a subject of study. The institute is honestly 00:01:57.700 --> 00:01:59.980 as historic as the subjects it investigates. 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:02.219 It really is. The source notes this is the oldest 00:02:02.219 --> 00:02:04.500 research institution in Romania. It dates all 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:07.459 the way back to 1834. 1834. Just let that sink 00:02:07.459 --> 00:02:09.900 in. Right. And if you look closely at the categories 00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:12.039 buried at the bottom of the article, there's 00:02:12.039 --> 00:02:14.719 this tiny detail that completely reframes the 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:17.180 whole picture. Oh, the geopolitical context. 00:02:17.460 --> 00:02:21.819 Yes. The year 1834 places its establishment squarely 00:02:21.819 --> 00:02:24.740 within the era of the Ottoman Empire. Which is, 00:02:24.819 --> 00:02:26.960 if we connect this to the bigger picture, you 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:29.759 have to realize the sheer audacity of establishing 00:02:29.759 --> 00:02:33.039 a dedicated academic research institution during 00:02:33.039 --> 00:02:36.139 such a volatile geopolitical era. Audacity is 00:02:36.139 --> 00:02:38.520 the perfect word for it. Because the 19th century 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:42.439 in that region was defined by, you know, collapsing 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:45.780 empires, shifting borders, intense national awakenings. 00:02:45.879 --> 00:02:47.879 It's basically a geopolitical earthquake zone. 00:02:48.139 --> 00:02:50.479 Yeah, exactly. The map of Europe is constantly 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:52.900 being redrawn. So for a group of scholars in 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:56.639 1834 to plant a flag and say, we are going to 00:02:56.639 --> 00:02:59.680 systematically study our prehistory, our ancient 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:02.139 history, our classical archaeology, medieval 00:03:02.139 --> 00:03:04.759 history. Right. All of it. That goes way beyond 00:03:04.759 --> 00:03:08.219 a simple academic decision. It's a profound cultural 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:10.039 defense mechanism. Oh, I like that. A defense 00:03:10.039 --> 00:03:12.180 mechanism. Well, yeah, because it transitions 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:14.699 the idea of history from something that just 00:03:14.699 --> 00:03:16.680 passively happens to a population to something 00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:19.080 that is actively claimed, actively categorized, 00:03:19.319 --> 00:03:22.919 exactly categorized by that population, regardless 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:25.800 of who technically claims the borders at that 00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.960 exact moment. They are essentially saying empires 00:03:28.960 --> 00:03:32.419 come and go, but the dirt is ours and the story 00:03:32.419 --> 00:03:35.240 of the dirt is ours. Right. But I mean, if you 00:03:35.240 --> 00:03:38.460 were going to make that kind of sweeping cultural 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:40.780 claim. You can't just do it in the abstract. 00:03:40.900 --> 00:03:43.180 You need a physical space. Yes, you need a fortress 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:45.319 for that knowledge to actually weather those 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:47.900 geopolitical storms. You need walls to hold the 00:03:47.900 --> 00:03:50.539 weight of that ambition. And they found them. 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:53.479 Today, the Institute is housed in what is known 00:03:53.479 --> 00:03:56.439 as the Macca House. Right. At Henriquanda Street, 00:03:56.479 --> 00:03:58.919 number 11, right in the heart of Bucharest. That's 00:03:58.919 --> 00:04:01.879 the one. And what they hold inside this building 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:05.139 constitutes the Romanian archaeological patrimony 00:04:05.139 --> 00:04:08.400 in two major, highly traditional fields. OK, 00:04:08.520 --> 00:04:10.560 what are they? First, they hold the Numismatics 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:12.960 collection. Which is the study of coins and currency. 00:04:13.150 --> 00:04:16.470 Exactly. And second, they house the epigraphy 00:04:16.470 --> 00:04:18.490 collection, which is the study of inscriptions. 00:04:18.610 --> 00:04:20.569 Now, for anyone listening, that fits the classic 00:04:20.569 --> 00:04:23.769 image perfectly. Oh, completely. Ancient coins, 00:04:24.110 --> 00:04:27.110 ancient writings carved into stone. Epigraphy 00:04:27.110 --> 00:04:30.149 is, I mean, it's fascinating because it's essentially 00:04:30.149 --> 00:04:33.430 the immutable public record of an ancient society. 00:04:33.709 --> 00:04:37.230 It's their propaganda. Right. The laws, the monuments 00:04:37.230 --> 00:04:39.370 they wanted everyone to see forever. The official 00:04:39.370 --> 00:04:43.389 story. Yeah. But alongside... the literal treasures 00:04:43.389 --> 00:04:46.610 of stone and metal. The Macca House has this 00:04:46.610 --> 00:04:49.110 other collection, and I got completely stuck 00:04:49.110 --> 00:04:52.389 on this. The paper archives. Yes. Right next 00:04:52.389 --> 00:04:55.230 to the ancient epigraphy, they hold an incredibly 00:04:55.230 --> 00:04:58.129 rich archive of administrative documents. It 00:04:58.129 --> 00:05:00.329 sounds so dry when you say it like that. Right. 00:05:00.629 --> 00:05:03.069 But they have the personal documents of various 00:05:03.069 --> 00:05:05.149 personalities in Romanian archaeology. They have 00:05:05.149 --> 00:05:08.069 heritage management records and personal correspondence 00:05:08.069 --> 00:05:10.850 with other institutions. It's a massive paper 00:05:10.850 --> 00:05:13.629 trail. And my initial instinct was to push back 00:05:13.629 --> 00:05:16.170 on this. Wait, why keep the administrative paperwork 00:05:16.170 --> 00:05:18.029 and the daily letters of the archaeologists? 00:05:18.449 --> 00:05:20.639 It does sound a bit like hoarding. It totally 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:25.160 does. Why treat a 19th century office memo or 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:28.120 some letter about funding with the same reverence 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:31.100 as a Roman coin? It sounds counterintuitive to 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:33.959 hoard administrative baggage, for sure. But think 00:05:33.959 --> 00:05:36.620 about the coins and the carved stones as the 00:05:36.620 --> 00:05:39.899 raw data of a scientific experiment. The archived 00:05:39.899 --> 00:05:42.959 letters, the administrative memos, and the personal 00:05:42.959 --> 00:05:46.379 diaries. That is the methodology section of the 00:05:46.379 --> 00:05:49.079 research paper. Oh, wow. I never thought of it 00:05:49.079 --> 00:05:50.879 like that. Right. And without the methodology, 00:05:51.100 --> 00:05:53.480 you can't actually trust the data. Because you 00:05:53.480 --> 00:05:55.680 don't know how they got it. Precisely. They are 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:58.240 preserving the general and institutional history 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.480 of archaeology in Romania. Because history doesn't 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:03.779 just, you know, objectively manifest on a library 00:06:03.779 --> 00:06:06.500 shelf. No, it's violently debated. Debated, funded, 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:09.199 restricted, constructed by human beings with 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:12.509 flaws and agendas. Wow, yeah. When you understand 00:06:12.509 --> 00:06:15.269 how an excavation was managed or when you read 00:06:15.269 --> 00:06:17.730 the personal letters of the discoverers, you 00:06:17.730 --> 00:06:20.250 start to see how historical narratives were shaped. 00:06:20.529 --> 00:06:22.889 You see the man behind the curtain. Exactly. 00:06:22.970 --> 00:06:25.250 You see their biases, their struggles with local 00:06:25.250 --> 00:06:27.750 authorities, their sudden leaps of intuition. 00:06:28.110 --> 00:06:31.490 So if an archaeologist in the late 1800s finds 00:06:31.490 --> 00:06:34.449 a medieval artifact, the artifact obviously tells 00:06:34.449 --> 00:06:37.110 us about the medieval period. Right. But the 00:06:37.110 --> 00:06:39.790 letter that archaeologists writes to their colleague 00:06:39.790 --> 00:06:42.930 about why they chose to dig in that specific 00:06:42.930 --> 00:06:46.009 field or who was paying them to dig there, that 00:06:46.009 --> 00:06:48.629 tells us about the human beings who are actively 00:06:48.629 --> 00:06:51.149 writing the history books. It's the meta history 00:06:51.149 --> 00:06:53.750 of the discipline. Who is watching the watchman? 00:06:53.949 --> 00:06:55.850 Or in this case, who is documenting the diggers? 00:06:56.470 --> 00:06:59.790 Exactly. The Vassel Parvin Institute recognized 00:06:59.790 --> 00:07:02.589 incredibly early on that preserving the chain 00:07:02.589 --> 00:07:05.589 of custody for their national history meant preserving 00:07:05.589 --> 00:07:07.629 the thoughts of the people holding the shovels. 00:07:07.629 --> 00:07:10.670 That is just brilliant. It is. Those personal 00:07:10.670 --> 00:07:12.790 letters show us the evolution of archaeological 00:07:12.790 --> 00:07:15.069 thought. They show us how the actual preservation 00:07:15.069 --> 00:07:18.250 of these artifacts evolved over decades. It totally 00:07:18.250 --> 00:07:21.389 changes how you view a dusty archives. It's not 00:07:21.389 --> 00:07:23.730 just a filing cabinet of dead paperwork. No, 00:07:23.829 --> 00:07:26.240 not at all. It's the behind the scenes documentary 00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:29.100 of how we came to know what we know. And that 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:31.899 documentary is crucial. But here's the problem 00:07:31.899 --> 00:07:35.040 with hoarding all this meta history in a single 00:07:35.040 --> 00:07:37.879 building in Bucharest. The isolation risk. Yeah. 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.420 If you are developing your own methodology and 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:43.720 you are only talking to your own local experts, 00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:46.920 you run the massive risk of creating an intellectual 00:07:46.920 --> 00:07:49.560 echo chamber. you start believing your own hype. 00:07:50.019 --> 00:07:52.420 Exactly. You might develop a local excavation 00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:54.579 technique that the rest of the scientific world 00:07:54.579 --> 00:07:57.120 views as deeply flawed, but you wouldn't know 00:07:57.120 --> 00:07:59.220 it because you aren't talking to anyone else. 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:01.819 Which is why I was so relieved to see in the 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:04.339 source material that these archive letters weren't 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:06.439 just sent down the hall in the Macca House. They 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:09.139 were writing to everyone. Right. This institute 00:08:09.139 --> 00:08:13.220 was aggressively outward looking. And that brings 00:08:13.220 --> 00:08:15.740 us to their participation in a major international 00:08:15.740 --> 00:08:19.240 initiative called the AREA project. The Archives 00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:22.000 of European Archaeology. Yes, the AREA project. 00:08:22.120 --> 00:08:24.620 The AREA project is brilliant because it explicitly 00:08:24.620 --> 00:08:26.680 targets the history of the discipline across 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:29.360 all of Europe. And within that project, the Institute 00:08:29.360 --> 00:08:31.579 has a specific main research direction, right? 00:08:31.860 --> 00:08:34.879 They do. They focus heavily on the topic of archaeology 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:37.590 abroad. So what does this all mean? Well, the 00:08:37.590 --> 00:08:39.730 source notes they're investigating the training 00:08:39.730 --> 00:08:42.350 of Romanian archaeologists in Western European 00:08:42.350 --> 00:08:45.950 countries and looking at how connections were 00:08:45.950 --> 00:08:48.070 established with international museums. Right. 00:08:48.610 --> 00:08:50.889 My brain immediately translates this into like 00:08:50.889 --> 00:08:54.250 a 19th and 20th century study abroad program 00:08:54.250 --> 00:08:57.580 for scientists. That is actually a highly accurate 00:08:57.580 --> 00:09:00.620 way to visualize it. It was a formal, systematic 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:03.379 effort to ensure their experts were cross -pollinating 00:09:03.379 --> 00:09:06.320 ideas with the best minds on the continent. Like 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:08.500 sending your brightest minds out into the world, 00:09:08.779 --> 00:09:10.860 letting them absorb the cutting -edge techniques 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:13.480 in Paris or London. Or Berlin. And then bringing 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:16.600 that rigorous standard right back to Henri Coanda 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:19.539 Street. What's fascinating here is how this completely 00:09:19.539 --> 00:09:22.299 shatters the romanticized illusion of the lone 00:09:22.299 --> 00:09:24.860 genius working in a vacuum. The Indiana Jones 00:09:24.879 --> 00:09:27.980 Exactly. It proves that establishing historical 00:09:27.980 --> 00:09:30.519 truth is a massive collaborative cross -border 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:33.879 effort. You can't do it alone. You can't. Romania 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:37.759 recognized that to truly validate their own local 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:41.480 findings, to make the world care about their 00:09:41.480 --> 00:09:44.360 ancient history, They needed to elevate their 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:48.340 methodology to an unimpeachable global standard. 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:50.720 Think about the stakes of that. They were high. 00:09:50.840 --> 00:09:53.980 If you find a groundbreaking artifact that changes 00:09:53.980 --> 00:09:58.139 the understanding of European history. But your 00:09:58.139 --> 00:10:01.019 methodology is considered backwater or isolated. 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:02.940 The international community is just going to 00:10:02.940 --> 00:10:04.779 dismiss you. They'll laugh you out of the room. 00:10:04.820 --> 00:10:07.000 Pretty much. They needed to know what the French 00:10:07.000 --> 00:10:08.740 were doing, what the British were doing, so they 00:10:08.740 --> 00:10:12.360 could apply those exact rigorous standards to 00:10:12.360 --> 00:10:15.340 the soil in Romania. And by establishing those 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:17.559 connections with international museums and foreign 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:20.000 archaeologists, they were deliberately weaving 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:22.559 Romanian history into the broader tapestry of 00:10:22.559 --> 00:10:24.120 European history. They were building a network 00:10:24.120 --> 00:10:26.379 of trust. But building trust is only half the 00:10:26.379 --> 00:10:28.419 battle. Oh, sure. Because if you are conducting 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:30.720 all these international excavations and you are 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.220 collaborating across Europe, and you have this 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:36.200 newly elevated, globally trusted methodology. 00:10:36.340 --> 00:10:38.580 You still have to tell people about it. Exactly. 00:10:38.659 --> 00:10:41.659 You need a way to actually broadcast your findings 00:10:41.659 --> 00:10:43.980 to the world. You need a megaphone that reaches 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:46.200 past your own borders. You need a publishing 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.259 platform that carries the full weight of your 00:10:49.259 --> 00:10:52.659 institution's reputation. Which leads us to the 00:10:52.659 --> 00:10:54.799 Institute's crowning achievement in publishing. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:58.080 The journal. The Dacia Archaeology Journal. And 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:00.120 just to tie the whole history of this place together, 00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:03.620 the journal was founded in 1924 by the Romanian 00:11:03.620 --> 00:11:07.179 historian and archaeologist Vasile Parvin. The 00:11:07.179 --> 00:11:09.679 very man the Institute was eventually named after. 00:11:10.019 --> 00:11:12.960 Yeah. Honoring his monumental legacy in structuring 00:11:12.960 --> 00:11:15.460 the discipline. His name is on the building and 00:11:15.460 --> 00:11:18.360 his intellectual DNA is entirely in this journal. 00:11:18.779 --> 00:11:21.080 The source notes it has had continuous activity 00:11:21.080 --> 00:11:24.100 for over 80 years. Which is a staggering run 00:11:24.100 --> 00:11:26.980 for an academic journal. It really is. But here's 00:11:26.980 --> 00:11:29.559 where it gets really interesting. I want to zero 00:11:29.559 --> 00:11:32.179 in on the linguist of this journal. Oh, the languages. 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:34.500 Yes. Because a journal's language is never just 00:11:34.500 --> 00:11:37.299 about words. It's about power, and it's about 00:11:37.299 --> 00:11:40.240 access. The language choices they made are fiercely 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:43.879 deliberate. They really are. The original title 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:47.090 of the journal, founded in Romania, by a Romanian 00:11:47.090 --> 00:11:53.649 was entirely in French, which translates simply 00:11:53.649 --> 00:11:56.009 to Dacia Archaeological Research and Discoveries 00:11:56.009 --> 00:11:58.409 in Romania. Right. Now look at how the journal 00:11:58.409 --> 00:12:01.870 operates today. The title has shifted to a Romanian 00:12:01.870 --> 00:12:08.070 one. But the article points out this incredibly 00:12:08.070 --> 00:12:10.710 labor -intensive detail about the inside of the 00:12:10.710 --> 00:12:14.529 journal. The subsections. Yes. Today, they publish 00:12:14.529 --> 00:12:17.309 identical subsections in four different languages. 00:12:17.690 --> 00:12:20.769 French, English, German, and Russian. That is 00:12:20.769 --> 00:12:23.389 no small feat. And I have to push back on this. 00:12:23.450 --> 00:12:26.149 On the translation effort. Yes, because translating 00:12:26.149 --> 00:12:29.789 highly technical, dense archaeological data into 00:12:29.789 --> 00:12:31.970 four different languages doesn't just happen. 00:12:32.009 --> 00:12:35.029 Oh, it's a nightmare. It is an agonizing, incredibly 00:12:35.029 --> 00:12:37.769 expensive, time -consuming logistical nightmare 00:12:37.769 --> 00:12:40.289 for an academic publisher, especially before 00:12:40.289 --> 00:12:42.669 the internet. Oh, absolutely. So why go through 00:12:42.669 --> 00:12:45.269 that massive effort? Why not just publish the 00:12:45.269 --> 00:12:48.309 data in Romanian and let the international scholars 00:12:48.309 --> 00:12:51.350 use a dictionary or hire their own translators 00:12:51.350 --> 00:12:53.750 if they care enough about the findings? This 00:12:53.750 --> 00:12:55.690 raises an important question about the nature 00:12:55.690 --> 00:12:58.070 of accessibility in science, especially during 00:12:58.070 --> 00:13:01.029 the 20th century. Okay, how so? Well, if you 00:13:01.029 --> 00:13:03.490 have groundbreaking data, but it's locked behind 00:13:03.490 --> 00:13:06.590 a linguistic wall, does it really exist to the 00:13:06.590 --> 00:13:09.070 global scientific community? I suppose it just 00:13:09.070 --> 00:13:11.250 sits in a university library waiting for someone 00:13:11.250 --> 00:13:13.710 to care enough to decode it. Exactly. It becomes 00:13:13.710 --> 00:13:16.269 passive knowledge. Right. But look at the specific 00:13:16.269 --> 00:13:18.909 four languages Vassal Parvan and his successors 00:13:18.909 --> 00:13:23.169 chose. French. English. German, and Russian. 00:13:23.289 --> 00:13:25.929 The heavy hitters. For the bulk of the 20th century, 00:13:25.970 --> 00:13:29.269 those weren't just languages. They were the geopolitical 00:13:29.269 --> 00:13:31.889 and scientific borders of the world. Oh, okay, 00:13:32.090 --> 00:13:34.649 yeah. By translating the work into those specific 00:13:34.649 --> 00:13:37.710 tongues, the Institute was making an incredibly 00:13:37.710 --> 00:13:40.210 aggressive strategic move. Oh, I see. It's not 00:13:40.210 --> 00:13:42.149 just about being helpful to a foreign reader. 00:13:42.309 --> 00:13:44.830 No, not at all. It's a demand to be taken seriously. 00:13:45.039 --> 00:13:47.820 They were removing every possible excuse for 00:13:47.820 --> 00:13:50.379 the international community to ignore their findings. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:52.500 We did the translation for you. Now read it. 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.919 Exactly. And by publishing in Russian and English 00:13:55.919 --> 00:13:58.299 simultaneously, for instance, during periods 00:13:58.299 --> 00:14:00.899 of immense global division like the Cold War. 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:03.240 Oh, man, I didn't even think about the Cold War 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:05.320 aspect. Right. This institute was essentially 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:09.169 saying. Science bypasses the Iron Curtain. Our 00:14:09.169 --> 00:14:12.169 data on human prehistory is highly relevant to 00:14:12.169 --> 00:14:14.509 the Soviets, and it is equally relevant to the 00:14:14.509 --> 00:14:17.850 West. That is brilliant. They were actively forcing 00:14:17.850 --> 00:14:20.389 Romanian discoveries into the center of the global 00:14:20.389 --> 00:14:23.129 academic dialogue. They refused to be sidelined. 00:14:23.169 --> 00:14:25.850 So if a German scholar was researching a specific 00:14:25.850 --> 00:14:28.870 type of classical pottery, they didn't have to 00:14:28.870 --> 00:14:30.950 wait for a translated summary to trickle down 00:14:30.950 --> 00:14:33.710 a year later. No. They could open the Dacia Journal. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:36.679 and read the identical peer -reviewed subsection 00:14:36.679 --> 00:14:39.659 in German, instantly. It allowed the findings 00:14:39.659 --> 00:14:42.840 of the Institute to be immediately debated, scrutinized, 00:14:43.059 --> 00:14:45.179 and integrated by the wider global community. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:47.279 It speeds up the whole scientific process. Yes. 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:50.179 It goes back to the ARRA project and the terror 00:14:50.179 --> 00:14:52.519 of the echo chamber. Right, avoiding the isolation. 00:14:52.750 --> 00:14:55.889 The Dacia Journal wasn't a local newsletter padding 00:14:55.889 --> 00:14:58.330 Romanian archaeologists on the back. It was an 00:14:58.330 --> 00:15:01.330 open, persistent invitation to the rest of the 00:15:01.330 --> 00:15:04.190 world to engage with their research on equal 00:15:04.190 --> 00:15:06.409 footing. It's actually a massive intellectual 00:15:06.409 --> 00:15:08.789 flex when you think about it. It really is. It's 00:15:08.789 --> 00:15:12.269 an institution saying, our research is so vital, 00:15:12.909 --> 00:15:15.980 our methodology is so bulletproof. that we are 00:15:15.980 --> 00:15:17.879 going to serve it to you on a silver platter 00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:20.480 in your own native language. Because you simply 00:15:20.480 --> 00:15:23.019 cannot understand European history without our 00:15:23.019 --> 00:15:26.259 data. That is just wow. It demonstrates absolute 00:15:26.259 --> 00:15:28.580 confidence in the quality of their work. And 00:15:28.580 --> 00:15:31.620 it cements the Wiesel -Parsen Institute not just 00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:34.220 as a repository of local artifacts, but as a 00:15:34.220 --> 00:15:37.419 crucial functioning hub of European archaeological 00:15:37.419 --> 00:15:39.759 dialogue. Which brings us full circle. It does. 00:15:40.059 --> 00:15:42.570 As you're listening to this today. I really hope 00:15:42.570 --> 00:15:44.669 your mental image of archaeology has shifted 00:15:44.669 --> 00:15:46.990 just a little bit. I know mine did. Because when 00:15:46.990 --> 00:15:49.649 we look at a single Romanian institute operating 00:15:49.649 --> 00:15:51.889 out of the Macca House, we aren't just looking 00:15:51.889 --> 00:15:54.029 at a place that stores ancient coins and carved 00:15:54.029 --> 00:15:56.590 stones. No. We are looking at a living time council. 00:15:57.009 --> 00:15:59.950 It's an institution that acts as a fortress for 00:15:59.950 --> 00:16:02.450 the passionate individuals who dedicated their 00:16:02.450 --> 00:16:05.870 entire lives to uncovering history over the last 00:16:05.870 --> 00:16:08.669 two centuries. It really is. The institute itself 00:16:08.840 --> 00:16:10.980 Weathering empires and global conflicts just 00:16:10.980 --> 00:16:13.480 to keep the record straight is the ultimate artifact. 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:15.860 And as we close out this deep dive, I want to 00:16:15.860 --> 00:16:18.120 leave you with a thought to mull over. Let's 00:16:18.120 --> 00:16:20.360 hear it. We spend this time marveling at how 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:23.799 19th and 20th century handwritten letters, personal 00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:26.659 diaries and administrative memos have become 00:16:26.659 --> 00:16:30.019 this precious, irreplaceable archive of the human 00:16:30.019 --> 00:16:32.899 element behind archaeology. Physical paper trail. 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:35.200 Exactly. The physical paper trail of discovery. 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:38.759 It makes you wonder, in our current era of fleeting 00:16:38.759 --> 00:16:41.700 text messages, encrypted emails, and auto -deleting 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:45.059 digital memos, what exactly will the archaeologists 00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:47.659 of the 22nd century have left to archive about 00:16:47.659 --> 00:16:50.500 the discoverers of today? That is a haunting 00:16:50.500 --> 00:16:53.899 and fascinating question to end on. If the methodology 00:16:53.899 --> 00:16:57.320 is lost in the cloud, do we lose the human story 00:16:57.320 --> 00:16:59.980 of the discovery? We just might. Thank you so 00:16:59.980 --> 00:17:01.620 much for joining us on this journey today, and 00:17:01.620 --> 00:17:03.179 we'll catch you on the next Deep Dive.