I’d like to state for the record, that archaeology is not about dinosaurs. Or fossils. And no, we aren’t treasure hunters (although our academic predecessors had collecting habits that say otherwise). What we are however, are storytellers. Within the etymology itself, an archaeologists’ career at heart is governed by an all encompassing need to use evidence from the past to reconstruct what we can for the future. In the field today, science, mathematics and cognitive psychology (to name a few) all function alongside traditional disciplines of art history, linguistics and economic theory. Interdisciplinary narrators are what we are.
My name is Liv, and I have been an archaeologist for the last two and a half years. I’ve spent two of those years however, researching, speaking, and publishing on the illicit trade of antiquities. More specifically how intelligence, data science, and legislation all play significant roles in the holistic governance of archaeological stories around the world. Combining these two schools of thought came to a head when writing my undergraduate thesis, when I was confronted by the present and future consequences of historiography. As in, what role do we play as viewers of history ourselves, and how do we make sure that we act responsibly?
I fell in love with archaeological storytelling at a young age, where both my family and teachers realised that gods and monsters were far more interesting to me than the damsels in distress I saw in newly published books – although undoubtedly mythology does have its fair share of those. I grew up to nurture that curiosity through high school and university, where my thesis for the latter focused on the black market of art and how criminological data models can be used to understand how the looting of the world’s archaeology is directly impacted by armed conflict. This was the moment where archaeology was no longer about the past for me, and rather became an active endeavour for further preservation and learning. It is how I found my current jobs as an Intelligence Researcher, as an Analyst for the Museum of Looted Antiquities database, and as a Researcher for a counterintelligence and intelligence project of anti-colonial movements during the apartheid.
A day in my life (outside of full time work) is genuinely hard to define. Working in archaeology, especially within the cultural heritage sector means that no two days are the same. The work I have the privilege of doing sits at the precipice of current events, legislation, methodology and principle. It is my responsibility to stay alert, and to read as much as possible – like I did when I was younger. Some days I spend proactively developing gathering intelligence for case summaries within our online museum, whilst others are spent sifting through archives, transcribing criminal evidence, peer reviewing, reworking GenAI prompts for future work, making maps, or footnoting court proceedings. This career means having your finger on the pulse of the world, tracking stories of love, memory, betrayal, revolution, and success. All of whom are equally important, and cannot be understood without delicately tracing our origins from our past. Archaeology is the jigsaw puzzle that keeps adding pieces, without the reference picture. Soon though, you’ll realise that the picture looks a lot like you.
About the contributor
Liv Siefert is an archaeologist and intelligence analyst who has dedicated her career to reframing cultural heritage as a geopolitical security issue, with credentials from Macquarie University, Universiteit Leiden, and the Basel Institute on Governance.
The original pages
As published in Issue 2: United in Discovery. Click any page to view it full size.
First published in Issue 2: United in Discovery, the Innately Science newspaper.