ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author describes the intentional destruction of an ancient ceramic amphora, and he uses that act as the stimulus for a discussion of the justification of using violence in anti-colonial struggles (as argued by Frantz Fanon) and in archaeology. The author draws analogies between colonialism and archaeology and provides a critique of the archaeological ontology that valorizes preservation and conservation. In the final section of the chapter, the author questions the value of standard academic archaeological writing and publication by reporting on the life-histories of the individual shards that, having been freed from their positions with the reconstructed amphora, now live a diverse set of lives in different parts of the world.
