Category: Education

Time Team USA

Education, Multimedia

The long-running British show about a crack team of archaeologists (and Baldrick) excavating a site in just a few days is coming to the States.

TIME TEAM, USA (w.t.) will take viewers into scientific digs, as experts uncover America’s rich history. The fast-paced series will intertwine high-tech geophysics, artists’ renditions of the past and computer reconstructions with more traditional archeological techniques. But the team of experts will have a mere 72 hours onsite to disinter artifacts and other significant materials; when time’s up, they’ll report what they’ve learned. Camera crews, tracking each step, will give the audience an archaeology-as-it-happens experience.

Some of the sites under consideration include the Indian Mounds of Mississippi and Skull Creek Dune in Oregon.

The US doesn’t provide quite the glamour of the UK when it comes to archaeological sites, though. No Roman forts or medieval cities. I wonder if they’re going to basically stick to pre-Columbian locations or if they might adapt to the newness of the culture and study more recent stuff.

There’s always the Spaniards. Spanish history in the United States goes way back and it’s often been overlooked in favor of the splashier British arrivistes.

Oh, I know! The Lost Colony of Roanoke! That would be a great thing to uncover in 72 hours after historians have spent hundreds of years trying to figure out what happened.

Ancient mechanics

Ancient, Education

Have you ever wondered how people came up with basic mechanical devices like the wheel or the lever? I have, and much more importantly, so have the smart folks at the Archimedes Project.

The Archimedes Project is a joint endeavor of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Harvard Classics department, the English Department of the University of Missouri and Perseus Project at Tufts University which studies the history of mechanics.

By following the historical record, the Archimedes researchers have discovered that the evolution of physics — or, at least, mechanics — is based on an interplay between practice and theory. The practical use comes first, theory second. Artisans build machines and use them but do not think about why they work. Theorists explain the machines and then derive principles that can be used to construct more complex machines.

The Archimedes researchers say that by studying this dialectic they can better understand what people knew about the natural world at a given time and how that knowledge may have affected their lives.

They’re building a monster online database of their research. It’s not enormously user friendly right at the moment, but it’s still a fantastic resource including all sorts of ancient writings on mechanics.

Of course, as Harvard classics professor Dr. Schiefsky points out, scientists aren’t often classicists as well, so it’s a small group of people who have the ability and inclination to pursue this study.

I am neither scientist not classicist, but ancient science is a subject of endless fascination to me. Gotta prepare for the post-technological apocalypse, donchaknow.

Free online archaeology program!

Education, Museums

Yes, that’s right: free. The only other online program in archaeology I know of is the University of Leicester’s distance learning courses, and they’re both far more complex — book purchases, homework and final exams are involved — and far from free.

National Park Service Archeology Program, however, is easily accessible, entirely online, limited in scope to the ways and means of caring for archaeological collections, aka curating.

Much more broadly, this technical assistance is designed for the global archeological community — professional archeologists (e.g., university professors, CRM principal investigators and their staff, federal, tribal, and state agency staff), graduate students, upper level college students, and others concerned about archeological collections — who are rarely taught this material in formal educational settings. Because “Managing Archeological Collections” is created for primary access and use via the Internet, “global” is a key word here.

Cool, huh? Needless to say, I’m taking it. And even more needless to say, I’ll post all about it, especially the ethics sections. I have high hopes that a program by the NPS will take a firm stance on provenance issues, given how often looters target national parks for devastation in the name of profit.

Poverty Map of London

Education, Modern(ish)

The London School of Economics has digitized the full archive of Charles Booth’s late 19th c. Inquiry into Life and Labour in London.

Charles Booth’s Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London, undertaken between 1886 and 1903 was one of several surveys of working class life carried out in the 19th century. It is the only survey for which the original notes and data have survived and therefore provides a unique insight into the development of the philosophy and methodology of social investigation in the United Kingdom.

It’s a wonderland of social history, with a particularly engaging map of the city color-coded by income level.

Click here to explore the Poverty Map of London along with a current map to help you get your bearings.

On the Origin of Seafaring (and other stuff)

Ancient, Education

Colgate University archaeologist Dr. Albert J. Ammerman, is known for his work on the origins of Rome and Venice. He also discovered two ancient campsites on the coast of Cyprus which suggest some very ballsy Syrians and Turks hit the open sea for fishing thousands of years before the island was permanently inhabited.

To hear Dr. Ammerman talk about this find in detail and other work he’s done in Italy, check out this fantastic podcast from a Colgate series: Download

It’s a fascinating glimpse into the interdisciplinary, detailed and creative nature of archaeology.