Archaeologists as people
Douglass W Bailey
©2008-2009 International Institute of Anthropology
©2008-2009 Lolita Nikolova, PhD
Last update: 11-28-09
Link to the World Archaeological Congress - the fastest growing global organization of archaeologists
and their friends: http://www.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/site/join.php
Join us!
External links:    
San Francisco State University, Department of Anthropology (http://bss.sfsu.
edu/anthro/baileypage.html)   
See Douglass Bailey at News and events (SF State University)   
Link to Stidii de Preistorie, the member of which editorial board is Douglass
W Bailey
Internal link:
(iTune lecture by Douglass W Bailey)






















I saw Douglass Bailey for the first time around 1990. I didn’t know
his name since in Sofia he had been known as the American who
was interested in Bulgarian Prehistory. But I remembered him
from the Archaeological reports. He was sitting close to the
windows in one of the front rows of the report hall at the
Archaeological Institute with Museum. Later I met him in 1991 at
the IUPPS Congress in Bratislava when he told me that my text
about the Early Bronze burials in the settlements would be
published in his book.

I probably did not look excited enough since it was the meeting
where I reported my theory of diffusion of cremation from Central
Europe to the Balkans in the Early Bronze Age. The conclusion
was so surprising for the specialists from Central Europe
educated in the traditions “Ex Balkanicus lux” that in the IUPPS
publication they turned my map with the diffusion point 180
degrees around (from the Balkans to Central Europe). Later I saw
that in the Baltic-Pontic Studies it was republished correctly.

In 1994 Ljubljana organized the first and the most exciting
meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists.
Douglass Bailey was in Ljubljana, and together with Philippe
Della Casa, Mihael Budja and many other colleagues we had a
very nice time. I had come from Zurich where I was doing
research for four months on a grant from  the University of Zurich
with a host Professor Margarita Primas.

In 1995 Douglass Bailey came to the International Symposium in
Karlovo (Bulgaria), but I was so busy with the organization of the
event that in my memory is mostly the interview with Douglass
that took place on the Karlovo radio. The Bailey’s presentation at
the Symposium made me feel proud that an event at such a high
level was going in Karlovo. The Symposium on the Early Bronze
Settlement Pattern in the Balkans actually became a national
event for Bulgaria, repeated several times on the national TV
news with videos from the symposium and compliments to the
works of art by my father, the artist Peter Nikolov, and by Dechko
Todorov. Dr Krassimir Leshtakov with his students were at the
core of the success of this symposium which is now in the
historical calendar of the most prominent cultural events in
Karlovo. I also remember Douglass Bailey from the excursion to
Plovdiv during the symposium.  He made a phone call when we
were in the old city, to organize his excavations in Bulgaria.

I do not have a memory of being next to him at the same table and
for this reason I cannot mention anything about his family. I
usually ask colleagues about their families when sit with them at
the table. As a matter of fact, after 1995 I met Douglass Bailey in
Thessaloniki (EAA Meeting), Puetro Rico (SAA Meeting), Cracow
(EAA Meeting) and finally this year [2008] in Dublin (WAC 6). We
did not ever talk more than 1-2 minutes but I remembered his
presentations in Puerto Rico and in Cracow that made me listen
to him and write questions in my mind, most of them left for my
research.

So, basically I know Douglass Bailey mostly from his writings.
They are not like the morning talk show of Doug Wright that I
listen to at least one a week when I am in Salt Lake. But there is
something very common between both Americans, not only the
first name. This is the excitement of what they have been doing. I
have been a reading person, but I have never felt in another
archaeologist’s books the level of excitement that  Douglass
expresses from his own discoveries. He makes you go and dig
for new discoveries – to be like him. This cannot be learned from
a textbook. And I am sure there will be students who will say, “I
became a prehistorian because of Doug Bailey.”

On our archaeological sky full with rain, clouds and darkness of a
variety of storms, Douglass Bailey is the sun who always knows
how to show up between the clouds and warm all of us. This is
his patent and we may never learn his secret.

And now I don’t know what makes me more proud of Douglass
Bailey – his continuous interest in Balkan Prehistory, his perhaps
well sold books at Amazon.com, or the fact that he is part of the
academic global community as an active member of WAC, EAA
and SAA. It looks to me as though his whole personality makes
me proud of him, even when I’m not sure that he always talks
nice about me. In the church the people have their priest. In
archaeology we need a sun in the professional sky. And
Douglass Bailey is such a warming person that you just cannot
stop loving archaeology even just because of personalities like
him.

Around 1990 when I met the American interested in Bulgarian
Prehistory for the first time, I sealed him in my mind as a huge
dignitary. As I am from three generations of  teachers, I have my
way to preserve social memory. So, for the 80th anniversary
birthday of Douglass Bailey, I am planning to give him two folders
with citations. In the first there will be highlighted with yellow the
positive and neutral citations of his works. In the other one I will
highlight with green the critics. At this point I don’t know which
folder will contain more my works. But I know what will be written
on the top of both of them: “Thank you Doug for having you among
the Balkan prehistorians. Without you we, the Balkan
archaeologists of the 21st century, would be more or less like
orphans.”

Lolita Nikolova

Д.У. Бейли е един от съвременните автори, който
иновационно и плодотворно свързва съвремеността с
праисторията (Bailey, 2005). От особено значение е анализът
на праисторическото изкуство, който е реализиран от гл. т. на
теоретичните принципи на творческото изобразяване.  Бейли
предлога подходи към  най-ранното изкуство, без които днес
то не може да бъде разбрано в актуалните му семиотични
параметри. Типичен пример е разграничаването модел от
миниатюрно представяне на изобразявания предмет (2005:
29 sq.).

Лолита Николова
Археология и енкултурацията (в контекста на  
балканската праистория) (in print)
Archaeologists as people
The publication with materials
from the International
Symposium in Karlovo "Early
Bronze Age Patterns in the
Balkans (ca. 3500 - 2000 BC)"
where Douglass Bailey has two
important contributions to Early
Bronze Age..
Contents
Preview at google.com
List of figures, xv
Preface and acknowledgments, xvii
Introduction, 1
Miniaturism and dimensionality, 26
Hamangia, 45
Anthropomorphism: dolls, portraits and
body parts, 66
Cucuteni/Tripolye, 88
Visual rhetoric, truth and the body, 122
Thessaly, 147
Subverting and manipulating reality, 181
Corporeal politics of being in the
Neolithic, 197
Notes, 205
Bibliography, 217
Index, 236
p. 214 (Questia)
Based on the Bulgarian
material, therefore, three
patterns emerge. First, large
tools dominate the inventory
of copper objects (86.6 per
cent); second, very few (9.5
per cent) of the large tools
(but over half of the small
objects) have significant
traces of use-wear; and third,
the vast majority of large
copper tools were deposited
during burial ceremonies. As
discussed above, the
distribution of copper objects
among burials was not even;
it was disproportionately
distributed across cenotaph
and male burials. These
patterns suggest that most
copper objects played an
expressive role in events
during which fifth millennium
BC communities declared,
claimed and confirmed
individual and group
identities within their society.

The production of copper
tools and ornaments and the
possible use of copper ore to
decorate skin or clothing fit
together in a suite of
expressive objects and
activities. The early uses of
copper were limited to
fashioning body ornaments;
the large objects made of
copper in the more developed
phases (extravagant tools
and weapons) were
expressive more than
functional; and painting the
body with copper ore would
have had similar, though
perhaps less permanent,
significance and purpose in
expression. It is little surprise
then that some
anthropomorphic figurines
had bands of copper around
their legs and probably rings
of copper through ear-holes
and lip perforations.
p. 5
The combination of chapters
addressing tells provides a
compelling case for a new style of
analysis of this type of site and sets
up a new agenda for fieldwork.
From Spring/Summer 2008 Newsletter of the
Dep of Anthropology, SF State University
(external link)
Q: What do you do in your spare time?
A: As a school-boy in New Jersey, I used to
sneak out of school to play pick-up hockey
games at a local rink, dreaming of doing
impossible things on skates, of winning the
Stanley Cup. As I write this, I am riveted to
the National Hockey League playoffs. My
son and I are huge San Jose Sharks fans and
we try to see as many games as we can.
There is something extra-ordinary in
hockey's mixture of brutal physical power
and performative beauty. The speed, the
difficulty, the coordination of people and
the precision of movement are of a level
found in very few public performances or
spectacles. Running beneath this, there is
an unwritten code that I appreciate: don't
behave outside the accepted norms of
equitable conduct. Do unto others as you
would have them do unto you; if you don't,
then look out, because you will get what's
coming your way and it will not
be pleasant. This underlying philosophy
draws all sorts of people to hockey games,
from all parts of society; I am at home in
those sorts of diverse, edgy, crowds.
Q: Other interests?
A: I am in love with early 20th century
photography. I can spend hours looking at
work from this period or reading the
daybooks of the key practitioners: Eduard
Steichen, Gertrude Kasebier and the rest of
a group who called themselves the
Photo-Secessionists.
Q: Anything else?
A: I have a lifetime quest to find the best
sashimi outside of Japan.
In 1995 Douglass W. Bailey
was an invited participant at
the International Symposium
in Karlovo (Bulgaria), together
with Jak Jakar, Gheorghe
Lazarovici, Mihael Budja,
Nikola Tasic, Michel
Séfédiadès, Kamen Dimitrov,
Krassimir Leshtakov, Milorad
Girić, Nikolaus Boroffka (new
article), Ventsislav Gergov,
Zoia Maxim, Velichka
Matsanova, Lolita Nikolova,  
etc.