First Day: The ViA 2009

I have been in Southampton, UK for the last 24-odd hours on a whirlwind journey to the Visualisation in Archaeology Conference and it’s better than ever this year! There are fewer presentations and lots of discussion time, a model that is really productive at these small workshop/conferences.  I still have a bit of work to [...]

The Mamluk Emporium

As previously mentioned, I have been spending these last few weeks excavating a Mamluk-era barrel vault here at Tell Dhiban. This has meant several weeks of lifting guffaws full of dirt and rocks up out of the building to remove the collapse while documenting brief re-occupations of the building. Finally, on Wednesday, I came down [...]

Dhiban by the Numbers

17: Flea bites on my left hand
5: Workmen
3: Words I learned in Arabic (horribly transliterated: Gumu, Suu-on, Harrrr = “get out” “chert” “hot”)
6: Hours of sleep (a good night!)
103: Iron Age, Roman, and Mamluk pot sherds from my trench
16: Tags I filled out for finds
8: Cups of tea consumed by 13:00
38: Guffaws full of rocks [...]

Touring Jordan

As most people in the states were sleeping in, anticipating beer, friends, and fireworks, I was scrambling over piles of black basalt ruins in the desert near the Syrian border. The ruins of Umm al-Jimal seem to stretch on forever, black against blue sky and gold sand. Our group of nearly twenty rapidly dispersed across [...]

In a Mamluk Ruin

 
For the last week I have been excavating a Mamluk-era barrel vault, previously excavated in 2004 and 2005.  After cleaning out tons of limestone blocks used as backfill, we started to try to sort out the major architectural features in the building—in particular there’s a mysterious cistern, which was cut in the northern wall that [...]

The Summer Plague

It was a cool, breezy summer day; as I wandered among the dead and the dying I thought how it had been years since I had been able to love life this much.  I went into the mosque courtyards, wrote down the number of coffins on a piece of paper, and walking through the various [...]

The Archaeology Indies

If you’re in the Yay area, and are so inclined, join me at the Presidio Officers’ Club tonight at 7pm, where we celebrate Archaeology Month in California with a presentation of short “indie” films by archaeologists. I’ll be presenting my first short film, “Skeuomorphs.”
Here’s the official announcement:
Archaeology Indies
Curious to learn more about local archaeology [...]

The Bosnian “Pyramids”

Back in 2006 when news of newly discovered pyramids was reported in Bosnia, I remember checking out the tiny photograph of the angular, foliage covered hills, then shrugging my shoulders and moving on.  It seems that amateur archaeologists have continued the investigation of these hills, and have posted the results on Flickr.

They are really lovely [...]

Efes Mastery

I’ve been working on the OKAPI island in Second Life pretty hard recently, with the addition of Sadrettin’s cafe, the water tower complete with little owl, and some cosmetic fixes that I’ve been meaning to do for a while now.  I’m also happy to report that Karl Harrison will be helping us BURN Çatalhöyük DOWN [...]

Alleys, Byways, Arcades

Walter Benjamin’s great project, a study of the arcades of Paris, has been deeply influential in my work, and in the work of many of my peers.  While there are more academic reasons for this (this interaction with place, deep annotation, his use of photography and other visual materials, montage, his theory of knowledge/progress) part [...]