Wednesday December 9, 2009
I am happy to announce that my first book, The Archaeologist's Book of Quotations, has just been published by the Left Coast Press.
The book contains over 300 quotations from articles and books by archaeologists over the past 200 years, as well as from movies and music and comics and other bits of pop culture, presented in chapters on fieldwork and ethics and whether archaeology is a science or not.
I had a blast putting it together: hope you like it too.
Monday December 7, 2009
The Streets of Pompeii is a walking tour of the ruins of Pompeii, one of two Pompeii walking tours that were assembled from photographs taken by several tourists and posted on Flickr, among other places.
Pompeii Street. Photo by Mossaiq
Recently, blogger Archaeopop wrote about a new Google Street View of Pompeii, developed with the full cooperation of the Italian government to give a boost to tourism in their country. Google Street view is video shot at ground and stitched together so that the user can get a personalized stroll through an area. While the tool is a little hard to use at first, when you try it, pretty soon you'll be gliding through the streets of Pompeii staring at ruins in amazement.
Archaeopop is of the opinion that, given the technology afforded by Google Street View, the Italian government should rebury the site, in the interest of preservation. Like the Upper Paleolithic art gallery called Lascaux Cave, Pompeii is suffering from over-exposure to climate and visitors, and Archaeopop believes that the best thing to do is as the French government did for Lascaux: do an interactive, detailed recording project and close it off to visitors. What's your opinion?
Sunday December 6, 2009
About.com is looking for a professional writer with the background and experience in archaeology and history to cover the sub-topic of Pre-Columbian history in the Americas for my website, Archaeology @ About.com.
An ideal candidate would be an archaeologist, history professor/teacher, or historian who can write knowledgeably for a broad audience on topics related to the Pre-Columbian history.
The contributing writer needs to be capable of expressing complicated concepts and history in simple, practical language, and write for a non-academic audience. Candidates should be able to convey what makes this time period interesting, and should have a lively and engaging writing style. Candidates should have previously published writing--either online or in print--and should be able to secure, with rights to publish, high quality photos of historic sites.
Finally, the successful candidate should be willing and able to work in a collaborative environment with an editor and the current Archaeology Guide.
Tuesday December 1, 2009
The 2010 season of the ongoing investigations of the Huari-Ancash Archaeological Project will be held in the Rio Puccha valley of Peru. The Huari-Ancash project has been run by Bebel Ibarra of the University of Paris since 2004; and Margarita Brikyte of the project staff sent along this description.
Students at the Huari-Ancash Archaeological Project. Photo courtesy Huari-Ancash Archaeological Project
The aim of this year's archaeology and bio-archaeology field schools is to learn of the lifestyle of the prehispanic population in the valley of Rio Puccha, Peru. Our project revolves around funeral aspects and ancestral cults of Peru's Early Horizon (Chavin, ca. 900-300 BC) and Early Intermediate Horizon (Recuay, ca. 300 BC-600 AD). We are undertaking archaeological excavations in order to obtain information which helps us understand these subjects. From an ongoing analysis of the excavated human remains we seek to learn the kinship ties of the bygone peoples. The project is supported by the Archaeological Museum of Huaraz, Instituto Nacional de Cultura, the Municipality of Huari and the Instituto de Estudios Huarinos.
The project this year will include two archaeology field schools (June 13-July 5, 2010 and July 8-August 3, 2010), and a bioarchaeology field school, concentrating on the human remains (June 13-July 5, 2010). For more information please visit the project website or contact project director Bebel Ibarra at bebel_chavin@yahoo.com
