JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
It isn't every day that a person finds archaeological artifacts lying around, let alone in a dumpster. Well, that is exactly what happened with more than 1,000 objects dating back to Mexico before Spanish conquests. Luckily, the artifacts also found their way to high school archaeology teacher Jeremy Pilver, who's also a professional archaeologist. And now those artifacts are being returned to Mexico, where they came from. And Jeremy Pilver is with us now to talk all about this. Welcome to the program.
JEREMY PILVER: Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: I mean, Jeremy, this is such a cool discovery. Just for starters, can you tell us what some of these artifacts are?
PILVER: Sure. So they're largely ceramics and ceramic shards with a variety of different iconographic patterns, designs and colors. There was a very small bird pendant for a necklace. There was what I believe to be a small plug earring that would have been worn in somebody's ear. So it's a pretty diverse range of materials.
SUMMERS: I mean, this is such an incredible story. If I have it right, these are pre-Hispanic artifacts from Mexico. They were found in Western Massachusetts, and you are in Farmington, Connecticut. So I've got to have you tell me the story of how they made their way to you.
PILVER: So about 2.5 years ago, my wife's uncle, Matthew Pioggia (ph), was in Western Massachusetts, and they were clearing out an old house, and, you know, there were all kinds of things thrown in the dumpster. And as he's looking at the dumpster of these discarded materials, he's just seeing things that he's never seen before. He knows I'm an archaeologist. And so he thought, you know what? Let me just send a picture to Jeremy and, you know, he might have some idea.
SUMMERS: Right.
PILVER: So I received this series of images, and my jaw nearly hit the floor. I didn't know the culture, and I didn't know the exact dates of their origin, but I knew they were real, and I knew I immediately had a responsibility to rescue these materials. So I frantically called him and said, can you get them out of the dumpster?
SUMMERS: (Laughter) Yeah. They've got to get out of the dumpster.
PILVER: To his credit, he crawled into the dumpster and spent the next four hours digging out. And, you know, it's not like this is some organized collection. It was mixed in with personal effects and all kinds of stuff. I don't know - some weeks or months later came by and brought about 50 box tops worth of material and...
SUMMERS: Whoa.
PILVER: ...Other stuff.
SUMMERS: What was it like seeing all of these things in person for the first time after this kind of wild story?
PILVER: It was unbelievable. But I also saw the state of the materials. You know, the boxes and the materials were covered in debris and dust, and, you know, there had been mice and all kinds of things. So I knew this was not going to be a small task. This was going to have to involve a pretty significant mobilization of labor.
SUMMERS: It took nearly two years to go through everything - classify, clean, catalog and document all these objects, and you ended up getting help from your high school archaeology students. Tell me about their involvement. That has to be an incredible experience for them.
PILVER: They were amazed. You know, you hear a lot about challenges in the classroom and difficulties motivating students and getting off their phones or whatever it may be. Well, just present them with a real-world challenge, and you will see them demonstrate, you know, the utmost excellence. And I mean, I had to basically push them to take a break...
SUMMERS: (Laughter).
PILVER: ...Because they were enthralled by all of it. But this was a new experience because it really was the less glamorous, kind of lab-based work that is so important and so necessary to do good archaeological work. So we created a lab in a high school building, and we just got to work. We had a shared spreadsheet and, you know, just systematically went through everything. And then part of our team was really trying to understand, well, how did they get here, and what is the story of these artifacts? Because, fortunately, Matthew Pioggia dug out all the paperwork, too. In that paperwork, we found the legal documentation in which the artifacts had been loaned out of Mexico by the National Museum of Archaeology in Mexico City...
SUMMERS: Oh, interesting.
PILVER: ...To a archaeologist, a Ph.D. candidate or matriculated from a university in the United States, and that it was on loan from the National Museum of Archaeology, but from 55 years earlier.
SUMMERS: Why do you think the repatriation of artifacts, their nation of origin, is so important?
PILVER: What we teach is that our primary responsibility as an archaeologist is to the people and to the culture being studied, even if it may interfere with our research. You know, there's not too many things in life that, to me, are, you know, certain. And to me, this was a certainty. These materials belong to the people and culture that created them. As an instructor of archaeology, to show my students we don't just talk about it, and we looked at case studies and so on, here's the dilemma. Now we're in it, and now we have to make sure that we fulfill our ethical responsibilities.
SUMMERS: Jeremy, how did it feel handing this collection back over?
PILVER: (Laughter) It was a strange feeling. So it was - you know, they had a spot cleared out in front of the building at the consulate. The entire staff of the consulate was out there. They came one by one, unloading the boxes, and I felt like I took the first deep breath in about 2.5 years.
SUMMERS: Wow.
PILVER: I mean, it just was an enormous relief to know that after all this time, all this work, so many hours, so many people that helped contribute, that it was really happening.
SUMMERS: So, Jeremy, how did the Mexican officials at the consulate react to all of these artifacts you brought in? Like, what was that like?
PILVER: I think that was the most amazing and powerful part for me. I thought of it as important from, you know, a professional archaeological perspective and from an academic perspective and from a historical perspective, but the people at the consulate were genuinely moved by the gesture. And, to me, it was so powerful and felt so rewarding, that made the entire process worthwhile.
SUMMERS: We've been speaking with Jeremy Pilver. He's an archaeologist and a high school teacher. Jeremy, this was so incredible. Thanks so much.
PILVER: Thank you so much. Take care.
(SOUNDBITE OF MARCOS VALLE, ET AL. SONG "GOTTA LOVE AGAIN") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
