The final prompt for ArchInk 2020, ‘Ghost.’ What’s more terrifying than a box of unfinished reports? oooOOooo!
ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Ghost’
Tag: humor
ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Box’
There are so many ways, so many lenses, to understand the past–why just ‘box’ oneself into one kind of interpretation? ArchInk prompt #12, “box”.
ArchInk 2020 (Inktober), ‘Stone’
Archaeology Inktober, #3: Stone.
ArchInk 2020 (Inktober), ‘Below’
Archaeology Inktober is here again! I’m a bit behind, but here is prompt #2 “Below.” Now, I know that mice are a huge disturbance to subsurface deposits, but what else could sing a Disney parody?
SHPO on a Hippo!
You may be chuckling to yourself or asking ‘what on earth is a SHPO?’. A SHPO is a State Historic Preservation Officer, which was created by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Every state has a SHPO and a SHPO Office. They oversee the compliance efforts of all federal agencies (i.e. BLM, NRCS, NPS, Forest Service), as well as private companies receiving federal funding. They are there to help ensure that we make a good faith effort in recording, reporting, protecting, persevering, etc. cultural resources.
ARCHAEOLOGY INKTOBER 2019: OCT. 3 ‘Behavior’
Sometimes I think past peoples are just messing with archaeologists. You never know . . .
Archaeology Inktober 2019: Oct. 1 ‘Material’
Catching up on my Archaeology Inktober Prompts. This is the first thing that popped into my head when thinking about ‘material.’ We all wish we could get into the heads of those who leave behind the artifacts we study, to get beyond the material record. Sometimes that’s possible with descendant communities, who carry a wealth of knowledge from their ancestors, and/or from written records, but so much of prehistory and history is limited to just the things we find. Something we find breathtakingly beautiful may have been considered butt-ugly when it was created.
This years prompts:
Radiocarbon Dating
I created this cartoon for the ‘What’s Up, Archaeology?’ blog!
What’s radiocarbon dating all about? It’s one of the most popular ways of figuring out the age of an archaeological site using organic material (i.e. a living thing at one point, like a tree or ear of corn). So, bone, charcoal, cloth, artifacts made from organic material or the material itself can (hypothetically) be dated. How does this work? The amount of Carbon 14 in no longer living organic material decays at a steady rate (a half-life) over time; the smaller the amount of C-14 left in the material, the older the sample is. It is incredible how this method can date sites that are 40,000 years old!
Unlike dendrochronology, radiocarbon dating does not provide a specific year to date an archaeological site, but a range of years which are calculated with fancy mathematics and physics well beyond my understanding (i.e. I just hear ‘bleep bloop fancy words blah blah…
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Archaeology, in a Nutshell
My most recent cartoon post on ‘What’s Up, Archaeology?’
The simplest explanation I’ve ever given to describe my job: I study dead people’s stuff. No, not all dead peoples’ stuff, just anything 50 years old or older.
I Love Teaching, But We All Have Those Days . . .
A new contribution to the ‘What’s Up, Archaeology?’ blog! Here’s the full text:
The Twelve Days of Archaeology Class, or, A Professor’s Lament
On the first day of classes, a student said to me,
Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.On the second day of classes, a student said to me,
Aliens could be the answer. . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.On the third day of classes, a student said to me,
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be the answer . . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.On the fourth day of classes, a student said to me,
It’s just like the show ‘Bones’
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be the answer . . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.On the fifth day of classes, a student said to me,
WHERE’S ALL THE GOLD?
It’s just like the show ‘Bones’
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be the answer . . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.On the sixth day of classes, a student said to me,
I took this artifact while hiking
WHERE’S ALL THE GOLD?
It’s just like the show ‘Bones’
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be the answer . . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.On the seventh day of classes, I stopped answering questions.
And Indiana Jones’s the worst there can be.
The Twelve Days of Archaeology Class, or, A Professor’s Lament
On the first day of classes, a student said to me,
Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.
On the second day of classes, a student said to me,
Aliens could be the answer. . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.
On the third day of classes, a student said to me,
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be the answer . . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.
On the fourth day of classes, a student said to me,
It’s just like the show ‘Bones’
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be the answer . . .
And Indiana Jones’s the best there can be.
On the fifth day of classes, a student said to me,
WHERE’S ALL THE GOLD?
It’s just like the show ‘Bones’
Who cares about theory?
Aliens could be…
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