Thank you for your support of thePipeLine during 2025. Before we throw the old year onto the spoil heap of history PipeLine editor Andy Brockman looks back on five of the the most read, and perhaps most consequential, stories in the world of archaeology which we have covered during the year.
The year began with a new and to his critics, increasingly authoritarian, president in the United States and with the Trump administration came a small group of staggeringly wealthy Social Media broligarchs wanting to exert ever greater control of the news and information which is available to people around the World.
In that climate both traditional TV and print journalism and evidence based new media journalism [like thePipeLine], which have relied on Social Media traffic and shares, for both readers and for financial support, have been treated as hostile players to be driven out of the town square of information and debate.
That you have stuck with the website and continued to engage with our stories and social media on the BlueSky account is even greater cause for thanks.
Below is a sample of the stories we have covered, global and local, they are all about the ethics of archaeology and the responsibility of archaeologists towards the heritage we share and to the people who form our communities.
1. GAZA and the #EAA
The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza remained one of the most divisive events on the planet in 2025, with some claiming the actions of the Netanyahu Government were a proportionate response to the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023 while an increasing number of nations, including allies of Israel as well as International bodies such as the United Nations and the International Association of Genocide Scholars, criticised the ongoing destruction of life and infrastructure in Gaza and the International Criminal Court [ICC] launched a War Crimes investigation issued International Arrest Warrants for Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defence minister Ehud Gallant.
Against that background, as we described in our most read story of the year, the European Archaeological Association [EAA] found itself caught up in the controversy over Gaza when its Chair and a small group of the organisation’s senior leadership, tried to overturn a democratic decision to ask archaeologists with affiliations to official bodies in Israel to attend its annual meeting, #EAA2025, hosted virtually in Belgrade, as individuals.
But neither we, nor more importantly the EAA’s members, would have known the details of any of this had not principled sources close to the heart of the EAA, bravely shared information and evidence about what had happened with thePipeLine.
Following the debacle of #EAA2025 the EAA Leadership promised its members “critical reflection, but, up to the time of publication, that critical reflection appears to be kicking the can down the road, while evidence mounts that serious breaches of international heritage law and archaeological ethics are taking place in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.
As we publish this round up, while a nominal cease fire is in place, the people of Gaza still face air and artillery strikes and a military occupation of much of the Gaza Strip, while the Government of Israel is seeking to block access to the territory by respected international aid agencies such as Oxfam, Medicine sans Frontieres and the International Rescue Committee and a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party has introduced a bill taking control of archaeological sites across the occupied territories with the intention that control is extended to Gaza..
This action is seen as part of a plan to thwart a, so called, Two State Solution to the almost fifty year old occupation of what is now the territory of the Palestinian Authority and represents a profound challenge to the international archaeological community.
Archaeologists are first and foremost human beings, who also belong to communities and it is inevitable that in 2026 many in the archaeological world will seek to see the sector uphold international law and simple humanitarian feelings, however much the current Leadership of the EAA and others, might prefer they don’t.
2. CIfA’s Disappearing CEO
February saw another story where a major representative body in archaeology, this time the UK’s Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, was accused of a cover up. However this time we had to work with sources in the public domain.
The story began with the shock announcement that CIfA’s Chief Executive Nathan Baker, was standing down having only been in post since the previous Summer.
CIfA gave no reason for the shock decision other than stating it was for personal reasons.
However, our interest was raised by an enigmatic post on Facebook where the poster suggested that Mr Baker might have been busy with his previous employer, the Institute for Occupational Medicine.
thePipeLine was able to reveal that not only had Mr Baker apparently represented his previous employer at a major industry event months after he was meant to have joined CIfA, the organisation had never announced he was leaving and he remained listed as the CEO of the Institute of Occupational Medicine throughout the time he was meant to be CEO of CIfA..
Meanwhile we were able to examine internet posts which revealed that in the recruitment process which ended with Mr Baker being appointed, CIfA had hired a high end, and therefore expensive, corporate head hunting company, the LSL Group .
CIfA’s accounts revealed that the process could have cost in the region of £18k in 2023/24 alone. Put in perspective that is almost two and a half thousand pounds for each month Mr Baker was supposed to have been in office, all drawn from the fees paid by CIfA members.
Not that the membership could ask what was going on in their name. CIfA closed down all discussion of the issue on its Social Media and failed to respond to any of the questions which we put to the organisation. The Institute of Occupational Medicine similarly failed to respond to questions.
3. Giving Archaeologists an Independent Voice
One reason thePipeLine exists is to give a voice to archaeologists who for whatever reason, are denied a voice, something thePipeLine can do because we are completely independent of all archaeological, heritage and academic bodies.
One of our longest running stories is just such…the ongoing threat to archaeological provision at the University of Sheffield, and in particular its world class Zooarchaeology lab.
This year we have covered the story twice in the #WatchingBrief podcast which we co-host with the Archaeosoup channel, investigating the cost in personal terms to staff facing redundancy and later what the archaeologists on the spot described as a rushed and badly thought through move to inappropriate premises.
We also explored the situation facing colleagues in the United States when we interviewed then Forest Service archaeologist Morgan Kinney [aka @Archaeowolf] whose post had fallen victim to Elon Musk’s DOGE.
Morgan Kinney described the personal impact of the move fast and break things approach of the Trump administration and its wider impact in archaeological and environmental terms.
4. Dodecahedron Gone [from the PAS Database]
In its role as a critical friend thePipeLine also looks at heritage institutions and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which registers finds declared by the public, most often by metal detectorists, is one of our regular subjects.
In May we followed up on questions raised in Social Media as to why the record of the famous Norton Disney Roman Dodecahedron had apparently disappeared from the Portable Antiquities Scheme database.
There were allegations of gatekeeping by the finder/owner [whoever they are] but after our investigation it is fair to say we are none the wiser as to what actually happened, apart form the fact the data relating to the object had been removed from the database leaving a question as to what else may have been removed from the public database of the PAS, or never shared at all.
5. The Pre Nuclear Steel Steal
Attempts by commercial salvage companies and treasure hunters to monetise historic shipwrecks has been another fixture in thePipeLine’s coverage over the decade of our existence. In July 2025 we reported how work by UK maritime archaeologists from the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (MAST) and a British nuclear scientist had shown that one of the most often repeated excuses for looting steel wrecks, including warships protected under the UN Salvage convention such as HMS Prince of Wales, that they contained valuable “pre-nuclear steel” was essentially a myth.
It turns out the looting of such wrecks has been all about greed and a fast buck at the scrap yard.
thePipeLine will be back in 2026 with more of the stories from archaeology and heritage world which we think you need to know about, and sometimes which certain people and organisations would prefer you didn’t know about.
It promises to be both exciting and challenging.
Nonetheless we will keep this website and the associated YouTube channel Open Access,
So please, when you read our stories, share them, and, if you can, support our work with a donation.
And of course if you think there is something you think we should cover Tip Us A Story.
Happy New Year!
