Monday February 8, 2010
This week's archaeology Fieldwork in Focus comes from Eileen G. Ernenwein at the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies at the University of Arkansas, who is heading up joint investigations at Tel Bet Yerah, Israel through the Cotsen Institute.
Dramatically situated on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel, Tel Bet Yerah is the site of a large fortified Early Bronze Age town. Photo by Google Earth
The Cotsen Insitute of Archaeology at UCLA is now accepting applications for a new field school in archaeological geophysics, to be held this summer at Tel Bet Yerah, Israel. The program will take place over the course of five weeks beginning June 26, 2010. Students will learn the fundamentals of archaeo-geophysical methods, which allow us to "see" archaeological features buried beneath the ground surface. Hands-on instruction in survey planning, data collection, processing, and interpretation will be given in the context of the ongoing
Tel Bet Yerah Research and Excavation Project.
A student collects Ground-penetrating Radar data with the GSSI SIR-3000 system
Photo Credit: © Jason Herrmann
Dramatically situated on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Israel, Tel Bet Yerah is the site of a large fortified Early Bronze Age town. In 2010 we will explore a large expanse of the site where virtually nothing is known about the subsurface, and image areas where monumental structures and waterworks may be located. This field school will be held in conjunction with the traditional Archaeological Field School at Tel Bet Yerah, who will benefit from the discoveries made with geophysics, and also help guide the excavations.
Magnetometry data is collected with a Bartington Grad601 Fluxgate gradiometer system at the UNESCO world heritage site of Tiwanaku, Bolivia
Photo © Eileen Ernenwein
The Tel Bet Yerah archaeo-geophysical project will be held between June 26 and July 29, 2010; the costs include housing at Ohalo Manor hostel, meals during the work week (Sunday-Thursday), and transportation from the Ben Gurion airport on the initial day of the fieldwork. College credit is available through the UCLA Field School Program.
Sunday February 7, 2010
This spring, the Brooklyn Museum will hold an exhibition of Egyptian artifacts in the Charles Edwin Wilbour collection, taken from Egyptian tombs dated between Old Kingdom and the Roman period.
Roman Period Mummy Footcase. Photo courtesy Brooklyn Museum
The museum passed along several images of the artifacts to be seen, and I took the occasion to assemble a photo essay of some of them, with a tad bit of context for our entertainment.
The Brooklyn Museum's exhibit To Live Forever will run between February 12 and May 2, 2010.
Tuesday February 2, 2010
When I was a little girl, my parents bought us an encyclopedia at the grocery store. You bought them one volume at a time, as I recall, they were bound in ersatz leather and they had a peculiar smell to them that I carry to this day. I spent a great deal of time as a child, huddled up in my room with a flashlight reading up on the world's great mysteries, one alphabet letter at at time.
Cover art from What on Earth Evolved - 100 Species that Changed the World
Photo Credit: (c) 2009 Bloomsbury USA
Since becoming an adult, and, of course, working as much as I do on the Internet, I sometimes wonder if today's kids don't lose out by not having a big book of knowledge lying around the house that they can just dip into. The Internet's great, but it is awash with distractions like computer games, MySpace, and Twitter.
Recently, Bloomsbury USA sent me two retro volumes, that make me hope that there still is an audience of kids--and their parents--who might love a tasty encyclopedic book like What on Earth Happened? and What on Earth Evolved?, both written by science writer Christopher Lloyd and engagingly illustrated by Andy Forshaw.
Cover art from What on Earth Happened?
Photo credit: (c) 2008 Bloomsbury USA
What on Earth Happened? The Complete Story of the Planet, Life, and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day is a history of, well, everything, encapsulated in 400 jam-packed and colorful pages. What on Earth Evolved? 100 Species that Changed the World describes the top 100 species, from insects to dinosaurs, that Lloyd believes were the "most robust, enduring and environmentally beneficial creatures" on our planet. Big surprise: Humans are not #1.
Entertainingly written and illustrated, What on Earth Evolved and What on Earth Happened belong in the hands of as many middle schoolers as you know. Get a kid interested in science and ancient history today!
Friday January 29, 2010
Washington State University's 2010 field season in the Owyhee River Canyon of southeastern Oregon is the seventh season for the project directed by Dr. William Andrefsky, Jr. Excavations at the Birch Creek site, a large pit house village will be held between May 24 and June 25, 2010. Field director Jennifer Ferris sent along this description of the upcoming session.
Owyhee River Canyon in Oregon. Photo by William Andrefsky, Jr.
The WSU Department of Anthropology's seventh annual archaeological field school will be held in conjunction with the Vale Oregon District, of the Bureau of Land Management. Led by Dr. William Andrefsky, Jr., the excavations are located in the beautiful Owyhee River Canyon approximately 60 kilometers from the Jordon Valley in southeastern Oregon. The focus of this year's effort is on the excavation of a prehistoric multicomponent site with a large pit house village. The class will emphasize both academic and practical instruction in developing basic skills in archaeological excavation, survey, mapping, photography, and field curation. Laboratory procedures and lectures on lithic analysis, faunal analysis, and paleo-environments will also be included as part of the program.
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