Tag Archives | Culture

Adopt-a-Monument

By on July 6, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education

Hello, my name is Cara Jones and work for Archaeology Scotland, as the Adopt-a-Monument Project Officer. Adopt-a-Monument is a five year scheme which supports and facilitates local archaeology groups who wish to conserve and promote their local heritage. The scheme is community led and we work through-out Scotland – from Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway. In addition to our more traditional projects, we are also funded to do outreach projects – taking archaeology to non-traditional heritage audiences.

My Day of Archaeology post is about one of our Adopt-a-Monument outreach projects – The Claypits. In 2011, Adopt-a-Monument was contacted by the Friends of Possil Park to see if we could help with their greenspace improvement initiative for an area of apparent waste land in central Glasgow. Flanked by the Forth Clyde canal, the area has a industrial past, linked to the development of Glasgow in the 18th and 19th century. On first impression, the Claypits does look like an un-inviting, littered and burnt out car dump kind of place – the type of place you avoid and definitely not a space where you would enjoy and appreciate. However, once you start to work there, get to know the local people and start researching the past and present use of the site, Claypits transforms into a valuable greenspace within urbanised landscape. I enjoy many things about this project, but one great aspect is that isn’t just about archaeology – we are working in collaboration with ecologists (it’s a great newt and frog site!), artists, a lovely local councillor, fishermen (Get Hooked on Fishing – a great youth engagement project), canoeists, mountain bikers, the local allotment association, Scottish Canals and the Waterways Trust. I’m sure I’ve missed someone out, but it is a great example of successful partnership working.

Team meeting before the event starts

But I digress! My Day of Archaeology was the ‘Bats, Beasties and Buried Treasure’ event, held at the Claypits on the 30th June 2012. Aimed at local people (and in particular local families) the open day encourages the use and enjoyment of their local greenspace. We ran several activities which included the dig box and ancient crafts, a treasure hunt and storytelling – all linked to the archaeology and local history of the area.

(The Dig box!)

 Situated at ‘Base Camp’, the dig box contained replica finds (cattle bone, shell, beads, burnt pot, bone comb etc) which (after discovery) we encourage each child to think like an archaeologist – ‘what do these finds tell us about this location?’, ‘What would we find if we excavated your front room’ – introducing the concept of material culture within a context they understand. Next to the dig box we also had grinding activities (both a replica saddle quern and rotary quern) where children could grind grain into flour, which they could then take away with them. We also had a ‘make your own Neolithic pot’ areas, where children can make a small pinch pot and try and copy groove ware decorations.

Neolithic pot making!

We also organised a treasure hunt – developed by Kate (our placement from Newcastle University) who buried objects which relate to the past use of the site (some old brick from the iron foundry, an old milk bottle from quarry). While guiding them through the site, Kate encouraged children to find the object and then try and think about why the object was there and how it relates to the past use of the landscape. Our storytelling activity did the same thing – Erin (our crack storyteller) developed stories around the local history of the site and surrounding area. Her stories ranged from the time local football club Partick Thistle beat Celtic 4:1 in 1971, to a story about a young girl who disguised herself as a man to work in the quarry on the site at the time of the building of the canal. Storytelling is for us, a new way of disseminating the archaeological and historical background of the site and something we hope to develop further as Adopt-a-Monument goes on.

Erin and her storytelling hour!

Of the 100 to 130 visitors to the site on the day, 59 children took part in our activities, which, taking into account we didn’t have canoes or newts to attract children is not bad going!

Team Archaeology Scotland!

 

 

 

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Map of Britain with pins in

Mystery, Diversity and the Joy of Archaeology

By on June 30, 2012 in DayOfArch2012

Human beings are odd beasts. So much more than political animals, our ‘habits’ are so varied that they sometimes seem far from habitual. Capable of action on all scales, from building enormous monuments that take millions of people over many generations to a single individual caring for a companion in the face of incurable illness.

Yet, go with any person to the place they sleep and you will learn much about them, their society, economics, politics, aesthetics and so on. You can learn from the materials of that space – Do they sleep on a bed? under blankets? are they clean? Do they have Justin Beiber posters? Picasso prints? Turner originals? Is there water by the bed? is the cup glass, pottery or metal?

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Globalisation

By on June 29, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology

Its 30min past Day of Archaeology here in Estonia, so not too late to post my thoughts from the day.

I was sitting in my office in Tallinn, working with the dataset from Hungary for the University of Southampton and thinking about the TED’s talk I went to see day before (over live link from Edinburgh) about the globalisation and openness. Pankaj Ghemawat told us that when looking the data, there is actually no globalisation, or at least not at the level we’d like to think about it. He encouraged us to look for our own answers based on the data.

And here I am, working with the database gathered over half a dozen years or more. Main question I struggle with is how my work (merging and preparing  datasets for analyses) might change the end results… and how the people who are going to analyse the data trust someone like me to play with it and to make it “eatable” for them?

I do not agree with Pankaj about the globalisation, but i do think we need to know the data we draw our conclusions from much better, or even if we help someone else do it.

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Day of Archaeology in Macedonia 2

By on June 29, 2012 in DayOfArch2012

The Archaeology of Archaeology

 

Quite often we are engaged with something which later becomes our profession. As time goes by we are seized by the obligations and responsibilities of our profession so that forget why we choose the one which models our life. Whether we have done it because we love the activities related to the specified profession, we believe in its contribution to improving the world or simply have decided to deal with something because it brings us earnings or prestige in society? Particularly The Day of Archeology gives an opportunity once archaeologists to rethink their motives and wonder why we started to deal with archeology. Any of our responses will guide us to answer the question what archeology is about us and how it is seen in the eyes and minds of those who are not archaeologists. Therefore, regardless of our individual motives to become archaeologists and (not)objective reasons to stay still archaeologists, however most agree about our understanding of archeology and its objectives.

 

Archaeology is a science i.e. scientific discipline that officially exists for only three centuries. Although in the past millennia there was consistent tendency to comprehend the past, yet the first archaeologists with Bachelor appear very late, even in the 18th century. However, in comparison with many other social and natural sciences, the later institutionalization of archeology is just formalizing what thousands of years is one of the most existential human issues – the past. Man has always had an interest in what happened in the past and how it contributes in creation of the present. And particularly in the answers to this question, archeology is considered as the most competent, especially due to its possibility to have direct insight into what people left behind. Despite other sciences that considers distant past, the archeology has the privilege directly to penetrate into the items as they were and not like others had wrote and spoke about them. Perhaps such a privilege for a forensic understanding of the past is the motive that stimulates archaeologists to be attracted by the possibility for a voyeuristic glimpse into ancient cultures. Surely, such scientific voyeurism as much it is exciting that much it bears responsibility, mostly in the interpretation of the function and significance of objects and buildings in the past.

 

 

Interpretation is actually the essence of archeology, from which emerges the greatest responsibility of archaeologists as the official interpreters of the past. Archaeologists are not adventurists which digs the fields and hills or distributors of artifacts for embellishment of collectors and governors. Yes, there were any and there are some still, but most of us feel the responsibility to thoroughly examine and understand the past cultures and through argumented interpretation to share our knowledge. Although there are enormous temptations for personal glory and creating national policies through artifacts, yet we remain consistent to our responsibility with arguments to interpret the past and present as a cultural heritage. The hours spent under the blazing sun on sites or inside wet museum storages make us stronger in the determination of comprehensive understanding of the human past, as well as in its explanation to people today. Therefore, a day in honor of archeology reminds us of our scientific ethics and confront us with the challenges and responsibilities we have for a current and future generations. In a way, it brings us back to the initial motives why we became archaeologists. The desire to know the past and thoroughly to talk about it is the urge that stimulated us to be persistent in our choice and intention to contribute to the understanding of the millennia of humanity changes and achievements. We believe that this urge will still keeps us in our scientific endeavors and will further stimulate the sharing of our knowledge of Macedonian and World cultural heritage.

 

Macedonian Archaeological and Scientific Association

 

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Human Remain Detection Dogs Help Archaeologists Find Unmarked Graves

By on June 29, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, DayOfArch2012

As you probably know by now if you have been following us on twitter (@FPANNrthCentral), we have been out at Munree Cemetery in Tallahassee today. We have been working with specially trained dogs called Human Remain Detection Canines, or HRD dogs. They have been helping us to find unmarked burials that are at minimum 100 years old! The Munree Cemetery is a historic African American cemetery with over 250 known burials, most of which do not have any type of marker present. Some of the graves are visible at the surface, but some areas we were unsure about. Of course, we wanted to avoid excavating in a cemetery, so we brought in the dogs! Two of the dogs and their handlers came all the way from Louisiana to help us out today! We also had a local dog handler and her HRD dog volunteer  to help us out. The dogs were able to identify several areas that possibly contain human burials. Tomorrow morning we are going to bring out the ground penetrating radar (GPR) to see if we can find any anomalies in those areas. The cemetery is five acres, and it would take us days to GPR the whole thing, and even longer to process all that data, so the dogs have helped us narrow down the areas to those that have the greatest probability of containing burials.

Jada and Dixie, both specially trained HRD canines, traveled all the way from Louisiana with their handlers to help us today!


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Doing Archaeology, Digitally

By on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology

This Day of Archaeology doesn’t see me out surveying or excavating, nor in a lab.  Instead, it finds me sitting at my desk at MATRIX: The Center for Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online at Michigan State University in front of my Mac Book Pro, two large Apple Cinema Displays (powered by an old, yet remarkably reliable, Mac Pro), an iPad, an iPod, an Android handset (Droid X2 if you are interested), and a Galaxy Tab 10.1.  This (extremely technological) state of affairs results from the fact that its been a long time since I’ve actually stuck a trowel in the ground.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got a great field archaeology pedegree.  I spent my elementary, highschool, and undergrad years (my father is an archaeologist as well) working on sites in the Northern Plains (mostly Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta – and a little bit in Montana and North Dakota).  As a graduate student, I worked in Indiana and Illinois.  My primary area of research as a graduate student (as well as my archaeological heart), however, rested in Egypt – Predynastic Egypt to be precise.  I worked several seasons with Fred Wendorf and the Combined Prehistoric Expedition at Nabta Playa.  The bulk of my work in Egypt, however, was at Hierakonpolis, where I excavated a variety of Predynastic household sites and did research into Predynastic household economy.

As a graduate student (and even as an undergrad, to be quite honest), I found myself increasingly interested in how information, computing, and communication technology could be applied to archaeology for teaching, research, outreach, and scholarly communication.  Fast forward several years and I find myself sitting at my desk at MATRIX in front of a dizzying array of devices.  My transformation from a “traditional” archaeologist (if you will – though, to be honest, is there really such thing as a “traditional” archaeologist) to a digital archaeologist is complete.

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Boreal CRM Archaeology in Northern Canada

By on July 30, 2011 in Commercial Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayofArch2011, Excavation, Prehistory

I work for a small consulting firm which conducts cultural resource field surveys of proposed oil and gas developments in the fields, forests, mountains and boreal muskeg of northeastern British Columbia. Each working day, we load up our big 4×4 trucks with ATV’s or skidoos and head out to play with the moose and bears in Canada’s great backyard. We are assigned specific project areas to inspect, such as pipelines and oil or gas leases, which take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to fully investigate. We are generally looking for areas which might have been favourable camping locations, such as creek banks or elevated terrain features with a bit of a view. Once we find one of these areas within our projects, we check surface exposure – if any – for cultural material (generally lithics in this neck of the woods – pre-contact ceramic technology didn’t catch on this far north and the acidic soils quickly deteriorate unburnt bone and wood) and then we conduct a little subsurface inspection through shovel testing. If we are able to find any flakes or tools, we then try to establish the boundaries of the cultural area through more shovel testing and then return with this information to our clients, oil and gas exploration firms. In the vast majority of cases, they will choose to alter their development to avoid the terrain feature upon which the site rests; if not, we will be asked to conduct an excavation to fully investigate the site area and record all associated features and remove all the cultural material. Today, July 29, 2011, was in the middle of just such an excavation for us.

Earlier this week our team of four drove two hours further north along the Alaska Highway and signed ourselves in to the remote camp north of the Sikanni Chief River which would be our base for the next two weeks. Then we drove another hour along a very rough dirt road to where we unloaded our ATV’s and then ‘quadded’ (as we say) a further 11 kilometres into the forest along steep and very challenging seismic line trails that are used by everyone up here as accesses into the bush. We arrived at the site, established a 10 m by 15 m grid (had to cut down a few spruce trees for this) over the cluster of shovel tests that contained cultural material, took some photos, drew up a plan and began to dig.

Peter and Dean excavate the site

 

So far this week, we’ve excavated about half of the site area and found several suspected hearth-features, about 150 flakes and half a dozen stone tools. Projectile points are the real glory finds for any pre-contact excavation but everyone – myself included – loves to hold the scrapers. It’s always a thrill to find anything that has been hidden for so long and not only are they lovely to look at but they fit so comfortably in the hand, as the tool-maker has often thoughtfully included some kind of groove for the thumb – unlike arrows and spearheads, these are objects that were meant to be held, and they convey a quiet, homely domestic atmosphere to the site.

Black chert scraper

We will continue the dig for another week or so, until we are satisfied that we have removed all the cultural material from in front of the bulldozers which will be coming in after us, and then we’ll de-camp back to our home base to finish up our reports and any cataloging. The artifacts will eventually wind up in the local museum system and we will head back out into the wild to check new locations.

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Johannes Kolb Archaeology and Education Project

By on July 29, 2011 in Community Archaeology, DayofArch2011, Education

Today, July 29th  we are in the lab at the University of South Carolina in Columbia washing artifacts from our two week field season in March 2011.  Our site has evidence from Ice Age hunters on up into the 20th century and everything in between.  We have all the Native American cultures known in South Carolina, USA.  These are followed in time by an early 18th century German American occupation when Johannes Kolb and his family moved here in 1737.  During the 19th century there was a slave occupation and a saw mill and loggers camp in the very early 20th century.

Since 1997 we have been working with volunteers in excavating 50cm squares and one 2 meter square in every 5 meter block in order to obtain a 17% over all sample of the site.

See our website:  38DA75.com

 

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Roman Woman with Healed Broken Nose

So you want to be a Roman bioarchaeologist…

By on July 29, 2011 in Day of Archaeology, DayofArch2011, Osteology, Romano-British, Science

If you’re anything like me, you’ve wanted to dig up the bones of dead Romans for as long as you can remember.  (Well, except for that brief period where I wanted to dig up dinosaurs and the even briefer one where I thought I might become a mathematician.)  But if you live in the southern U.S. like I do, you’re certainly not discovering Roman skeletons in your garden all the time.  What does a Roman bioarchaeologist do every day?  Generally, teach, research, and talk to colleagues and the public about teaching and research.

Osteology Field Lecture

Sometimes I get to teach osteology in the field (Tuscany, Summer 2004)

Teaching.  The great thing about the American incarnation of the discipline of anthropology – something I didn’t honestly learn until graduate school – is that it’s what we call four-field: it combines archaeological, biological, cultural, and linguistic approaches to understanding humankind, past and present.  As a university professor, it means that, in a given semester, I teach undergraduates about genetics, monkeys, and cultural relativism more often than I talk about my own research projects on the ancient Romans.  But the amazingly diverse subject matter of my typical Introduction to Anthropology course also means that I can draw from almost any topic in the week’s news to illustrate my lectures and to foster discussion: How does the hubbub over the “gay caveman” from the Czech Republic reflect our preconceived notions about sexuality?  Why does anyone care if Shakespeare – or any Elizabethan Brit – smoked pot?  Who polices American gender norms, telling us that little boys can’t paint their toenails pink and little girls shouldn’t pretend to nurse their dolls?  In teaching students about anthropology, I try to teach them to question the ideas we take for granted and to critique the categories that we often think of as inherent and immutable, to let them see that every culture has its own rules and is a product of its own time.

Roman Woman with Healed Broken Nose

Roman Woman with Healed Broken Nose

Research.  I’m not going to lie – fieldwork is the best part of my job.  Who wouldn’t like digging up dead Romans by day and eating pizza in the shadow of the Colosseum by night?  While teaching gives me the thrill of watching students who have never been exposed to anthropology realize they love it, holding the bones of someone long-dead and reading their biography from their bodies still gives me chills.  After two millennia, the Romans introduce themselves to me, telling me where they were born, showing me their scars, and complaining about their arthritic knees.  It can be hard to listen to the woman with a fractured nose (a victim of domestic violence?) and especially to the babies who didn’t have a chance to grow up because of a simple lack of antibiotics and multivitamins.  And yet, as the field of bioarchaeology has advanced and incorporated the techniques of chemical analysis, my research on the ancient Romans has gone beyond the wildest dreams of my 12-year-old self.  I’ve gotten to identify immigrants to Rome and to investigate their lives in the largest urban center of its time, a topic the historical sources rarely discuss.  I’ve gotten to find out what the average Roman ate, and to see that their childhood diet was actually quite different from what they ate as adults.  And I’ve gotten to work with an array of amazing international archaeologists and anthropologists along the way.

Outreach.  The final piece of my job is not mandatory but is becoming increasingly common.  In his keynote address at the American Anthropological Association meeting last fall, the archaeologist Jeremy Sabloff pointed out that there are no academics representing the face of anthropology.  We no longer have a Margaret Mead or a Franz Boas. Moving the discipline forward in the digital age, he said, means that it’s going to be “public or perish.”  So why be content with the few dozen people who will read your dissertation?  Being an academic today is about putting yourself out there as an expert, being the face of some topic, the person who can explain the importance of an anthropological concept to students and the public.  I have tried to take up this challenge with my own blog, which I envision as a public form of the informal communication that I have all the time with my colleagues.  Through blogging, I have started discussions with people in my field, in other academic disciplines, and outside of the academy completely.  It’s also been useful as a way for me to work through my plot bunnies (or academic otters), those nagging ideas that may not be fully formed but need to get out so that I can focus on one thing at a time.  Fortunately, other academics are also choosing this route to public engagement, and projects like Day of Archaeology allow us to contribute to a broader discussion of what the discipline means and how best to show others our enthusiasm for it.

It’s certainly not easy being a bioarchaeologist in academia, juggling several facets of our work on a daily basis and multitasking like mad.  But the rewards are fantastic: not just flying around the world to excavate in exotic locales, but watching students have “a-ha” moments after a heated discussion about evolution, and explaining to the public why we anthropologists don’t single out the privileged few who “shaped” society while ignoring the millions of others who actually made that society function.

I may not be a dinosaur-mathematician, but I’ve discovered that my childhood dream of studying the dead could come true with a little hard work.   I will continue to define myself broadly as an anthropologist and narrowly as a Roman bioarchaeologist for as long as I can.

 Kristina Killgrove currently teaches anthropology at Vanderbilt University, researches the Romans at Gabii, and interacts with the public through her blog (Powered by Osteons) and her Twitter feed (@BoneGirlPhD).

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