The paradigm of blogging update Derek Lowe is Blogging About Science Blogging:
But with a few extra minutes to explain what we were trying to
do and why, they could appreciate what was going on. And they could see
that it wasn't easy, and that we often didn't know why things were
happening, and that we had to wait a long time between chances to run
around high-fiving each other. Considering how television and movies treat
science (which, to be fair, could be the only way to treat it for the
purposes of mass entertainment), knowing these things was a real step up.
So when I found out about blogging, I didn't hesitate very long before
jumping in. Here was a chance to do just the kind of thing I did when
talking to people one-on-one, but for as many visitors as cared to stop
by. It sounded like just what I'd been waiting for, and it still is.
That's another good reason for blogging by scientists: Communicating what
you do in somewhat simpler terms to non-colleagues. And with the amount of
time and space we can use, it's a far better medium in many ways than
either sound-bite television programs or even various print media. Plus
you have the possible interaction with readers who want to know more or
who have additional information to contribute.
Archaeologists
uncover Roman graveyard in Austria
Archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed a large
Roman-era burial ground in the western Austrian city of Wels that
contained at least 50 skeletons, numerous urns and coins.
The graveyard, believed to date to 2 or 3 B.C., was discovered about a
year ago during excavation to build an office complex and an underground
parking garage, said Renate Miglbauer, the archaeologist in charge of the
site.
Book review Object
lessons
In Gold & Gilt, Pots & Pins, David A Hinton demonstrates how
even the most everyday items can communicate history, writes Jane Morris
. . .
Enthusiastic digging for ancient treasure is not a recent phenomenon. In
renaissance Rome it was almost a national obsession. The Farnese family
removed most of the fabulous sculptures from the 3rd-century AD Baths of
Caracalla, then largely intact, to decorate their palaces. In the 1700s,
the king and queen of Naples picked out the choicest finds from the new
excavations at Pompeii. What no one cared about was the stuff of every
day: the wine jars and tweezers, the broken cups and coins. It was the
one-off, eye-popping pieces of art that mattered, not the sum of hundreds
of bits of mundane detritus.
Modern archaeology has changed all that, along with the growing
realisation by museums and historians that most of us want to know how
people like us lived. Archaeologists researching pre-history have relied
on all kinds of domestic finds, not just the beautiful and rare, since Lt
Gen Pitt Rivers started sifting through the ancient rubbish pit on his
estate in the 1880s.
Sounds like an interesting book. Also, anything that advances the idea
that the only thing of interest to archaeology is really cool stuff made
for kings and emperors and stuff is probably a good thing. Seems aimed at
professionals rather than the lay readership though.
Pecos
Conference kicks off on rain-soaked day
Familiar with working in every type of weather condition
imaginable, the abundant rainfall this morning proved no match for
hundreds of archaeologists who converged at Overlook Park in White Rock
for the annual Pecos Conference.
The weekend conference serves as an educational forum and exchange of
ideas and research findings among archaeologists and historians from a
plethora of academic specialties.
More
here.
Dig reveals
more of isles' bloody history
NEW evidence of bloody clan battles at a medieval stronghold
in the Western Isles has been unearthed by archaeologists.
A team from Glasgow University has revealed a fortified settlement on Dun
Eistean, a sea stack on the north-east coast of Lewis, thought to have
been a refuge and spiritual home for the Clan Morrison 400 to 800 years
ago.
The discovery of musket balls, a lookout tower and a defensive wall around
the perimeter of the island points to battles with the Morrisons' fierce
rivals, including the Macaulays.
James Peterson murder update Three
suspects charged in death of archaeologist
Police in Brazil arrested a man and two teenagers Monday in
the killing of an American archaeology professor who used to teach in
Maine, saying the three were drunk and high on cocaine when one of them
shot James Petersen in an Amazon rain forest town.
Petersen was chairman of the University of Vermont's anthropology
department and professor from 1983 to 1997 at the University of Maine at
Farmington, where he founded the school's Archaeology Research Center. He
was shot to death while dining in a small restaurant Saturday with
colleagues, including a UMF friend working on the same
project.
What a sad way to go. Shot to death by some drunk, high punks.
P.S - The Cango cave dwellers haven't missed so much in 80 000 years
The earliest inhabitants of the Cango Caves near Oudtshoorn
would have been surprised to learn that they were living 80 000 years
before modern man, and not a mere 10 000.
"I could have sworn we were much nearer civilisation than that," one of
their philosophers might have said, while sharpening his stone knife.
But 21st century archaeologists have just found implements in the entrance
area of the caves that pertain to the middle Stone Age. I can see the cave
philosopher once again disputing this.
"What do you mean 'middle'?
Heh. Cute.