Category: Cartoons

ArchInk 2021, Day 4

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response to ArchInk prompt "past presented" with an archaeologist ribbon dancing and saying pyramids were built by people, not aliens.

The prompt for day 4 (clearly I’m a bit behind) was “Past Presented.” This got me thinking about all the terrible “ancient aliens” type of television shows that are really doing a disservice not only to the audience but to the ancient people who should be given credit for the amazing things they accomplished (i.e. not aliens). However, these types of shows are increasingly popular, which further demonstrates how much archaeologists are needed to find new and interesting ways to combat this misinformation! Ribbon dancing?

ArchInk 2021, Day 2: The Best Rubbish

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Response to ArchInk prompt, The best rubbish. Cartoon image of 1930s deodorant/footcream tube (i.e. one of my favorite artifacts observed). There's an advertisement for this saying "Mary is beautiful but dumb because she does not realize she she smells poorly." Lather Up!

My response to the ArchInk prompt, “The Best Rubbish.” This is one of my favorite historic artifacts I’ve observed while surveying, a small pink tube of women’s underarm and footcream deodorant from the 1930s. I went down a rabbit hole of advertising for these products from that time and they are horrendous! Who knew a lack of deodorant could shipwreck marriages? Make a woman dumb? And so much more! There’s a wonderful article by Sarah Everts in Smithsonian Magazine about how advertising companies tried to convince women they smelled bad and needed their products: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-advertisers-convinced-americans-they-smelled-bad-12552404/.

ArchInk 2021, Day 1

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Comic in response to ArchInk prompt "Uncommon Ground," showing an archaeologist easily finding artifacts and features in the southwest USA, while having a much harder time in the grasslands/plains of the USA.

Here’s my contribution for Day 1 of Archaeology Inkotober 2021, the prompt being “Uncommon Ground.” The transition from one’s specialty area to another can feel a bit jarring at times. Yes, the process of analysis is similar across the board when it comes to ceramics and lithics, recording structures, etc. but actually being able to find said artifacts can be tough. I had gotten so used to my high desert environments, where there’s a field house, pueblo, or crazy huge artifact scatter every few meters, that moving to an area requiring shovel tests to see if anything–anything at all–was on the landscape, was a hard shift. But, no matter what, no matter where, there’s archaeology if people were there.