Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Archaeology
Of the
Mediterranean
World
Volume 5
(2014)
William R.
Caraher
The Archive
The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World
Volume 5
(2014)
William R. Caraher
University of North Dakota
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Table of Contents
Student Resistance .................................................................................................................................. 1
Good Advice .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Rethinking Teaching History Survey in the Scale-Up Classroom.................................................. 5
The Narthex at the South Basilica at Polis on Cyprus ...................................................................... 8
Sixth Annual Cyprus Research Fund Lecture: Dr. Sarah Lepinski on the Archaeologies of
Dcor ........................................................................................................................................................ 12
Friday Varia and Quick Hits ................................................................................................................. 13
Tis the Season ........................................................................................................................................ 16
Friday Varia and Quick Hits ................................................................................................................. 18
Teaching Graduate Historiography Again ........................................................................................ 21
More on Manuring in the Most Recent Hesperia (or Sherds and Turds II) ............................. 26
My Year in Music .................................................................................................................................... 30
2013 in Review ....................................................................................................................................... 35
Friday Varia and Quick Hits ................................................................................................................. 36
The Hedgehog and the Squirrel ......................................................................................................... 39
A Cold View from my Office Window ............................................................................................... 42
Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom 2.0 ............................................................................. 43
Medieval Material from the Palace of Nestor at Pylos ................................................................... 47
Friday Varia and Quick Hits ................................................................................................................. 50
Worth the Walk ...................................................................................................................................... 53
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Student Resistance
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/student-resistance/
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 13:41:50 +0000
Its grading time, and like most college faculty members, my mind turns to attempting to
understand how students engaged the course material, assignments, and class structure.
There is the inevitable frustration at shortcomings and misunderstanding, and the slight
feeling of accomplishment that comes from seeing a class performing to specification on an
assignment. Id be lying if I said that the latter offsets the former. Mostly, I spend time
pondering how and why students did what they did.
(For those regular readers of this blog, I have posted on this topic before
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/civility-and-student-resistance/)
here and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-roots-of-studentresistance/) here with links further back into the mists of time)
Of course, this is not unique to me or to higher education at this moment in time. American
higher education, prone to self-doubt and external and internal critique even as it became
the model for much of the world, is enduring a particularly virulent bout of critical scrutiny
right now. Assaulted by MOOCs, moves toward alternative forms of credentialing, and
substantial funding cuts, higher education has pushed hard to be more accountable,
transparent, and rationalized. To do this, universities have employed a growing number of
assessocrats, administrators, and quality experts to promote the virtues of efficiency and to
bring the diverse traditions of American higher education into line with both one another and
the expectations of a range of stakeholders ranging from idealistic and detached critics on
the left to short-sighted commentators on the right.
Students understand this and have endured the growing move to an industrial model of
higher education with a certain amount of grace. Beset by a growing number of
requirements, assessment tools, and regimentation, students have become adept at
navigating a system which despite being under constant critique, nevertheless demands of
their allegiance and confidence. When students struggle to wrap their head around what it
happening in the classroom or on their transcript, we as faculty alternate between nearresignation (typified by the long sigh)and moralizing. The former is relatively harmless as
long as it produces understanding and a willingness to compromise.
The latter - moral judgment - is frustrating to watch. There is nothing quite like the end of
the semester to bring forth faculty complaints that students are lazy, unmotivated, or
clueless. At the same time, faculty desperately attempt to concoct new strategies to
prevent what they see as students willful misunderstandings of assignment or subversion
of course learning objectives. The holidays become a time to rearm to enter the classroom
in January with a new set of strategies, tactics, and approaches to bringing students into
line. Pedagogy is transformed into a battle.
Over the past few years, Ive been trying to convince colleagues to take seriously the idea
that students are agents (and in some cases allies) in the struggles against the long term
industrialization of higher education. While they might not articulate their resistance in this
way, they nevertheless behave in ways that undermine the regimentation of university life.
1. Due Dates. Ive long given up on this battle. Even with the more dire warning or appeals
to shared humanity, students refuse to turn in papers on time. Over the past few years, the
excuses have become more half-hearted and my willingness to penalize students has
diminished. While the semesters end would seem to present a firm deadline on student
work, even that has appeared increasingly negotiable in student eyes.
2. Attendance. Students vote with their feet. My upper level classes tend toward the boring.
I know that. At the same time, I make ever effort to present material in each class that helps
students to succeed in the course. They still dont come to class. This behavior does not
come just from poor performers, but from decent (C to B) students as well.
3. Basic grammatical rules. When I first encountered the unwillingness to avoid
contractions, follow the rules of capitalization, and to use punctuation like the semicolon
correctly (I even banned the semicolon in my classes as an effort to curtail its abuse!), I was
quick to bemoan the declining standards of literacy. I then moved on to seeing it as the
changing nature of our language. Now, I recognize it for what it is. Students refuse to follow
basic rules like do not use contractions and do not use the semicolon not out of
ignorance or laziness, but as an effort to resist faculty control over their modes of
expression.
4. Paper length and formatting. Students tendency to read paper lengths literally and
produce papers that are not one line or one word longer than required demonstrates a
playful engagement with the kind of arbitrary rules that structure their assignments.
These four behaviors are simply the most obvious forms of student resistance to the
industrial requirements of higher education. They all demonstrate efforts to subvert the
regimented character of higher education and the aspects of learning that conform most
narrowly to expectations of capitalism. Performing to specification, arriving and doing work
on time, and ceding their time and workflow to external control are all standards closely
associated with industrial modes of production. Moreover, these easily evaluated criteria for
student success share some basic similarities with the most formal methods that the
assessocracy uses to track student and faculty performance through time. Contact hours,
quantity of work, and the ability to perform consistently to specification is not merely
standard for students, but also key structuring elements for faculty work as well.
Chances are that well continue to make efforts to enforce the rules of academy no matter
how arbitrary some of them are. At the same time, I wonder whether we need to shift the
nature of the dialog a bit from critiques of student performance that tend toward the
moralizing (and, frankly, condescending) toward those that recognize student behaviors as
legitimate forms of resistance against a system that is flawed and dehumanizing. Perhaps
we can find a better way to meet our students half way because I think well discover that
theyre fighting the same battle as we are.
Good Advice
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/good-advice/
Mon, 16 Dec 2013 20:13:01 +0000
http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/img_0009.jpg
On the other hand, I did listen to students when they thought that my uncoverage
approach deprived them of learning about periods and events that made history interesting,
exciting, or even just a little more tolerable (this is a non-majors class, so for many, were
aiming for tolerable). The first time I taught the class, I had each table write a single chapter
of a Western Civilization textbook
((http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/thoughts-on-teaching-history-ina-scale-up-classroom-part-vi/) heres the list of chapters).
The students wanted more diversity in their encounter with Western Civilization, so instead
of asking each table to write a single 5000-7000 word chapter, my teaching assistant this
semester suggested that we ask each table to write a 1500-2000 word chapter on one
aspect of Greek, Roman, and Medieval civilization. Instead of each table covering every
aspect of a particular time period (say, the Hellenistic World or Late Antiquity), each table
will cover one facet of a rather more narrow time period.
Each period will be divided into three periods: Early, Middle, Late (e.g. Early Middle Ages,
High Middle Ages, Late Middle Ages). Each table will then get one aspect of that period:
Culture, Religion, Politics, Military, and Social. So, one table will write on Hellenistic military
achievements, and another will write on Classical military achievements, and another on the
Bronze Age military. For each aspect, Ill pose a series of questions to provide some
guidance for the students as they engage these aspects of each period over a 4 week span
of time (leaving 4 weeks at the start of the class for an introduction to the room and basic
approaches to studying the past). At the end of the class, we will collate all these short
chapters into longer chapters focused on each period.
This effort to give the students a slightly broader coverage will also change the pace of the
course. A few weeks ago
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/teaching-tuesday-pace-andteaching/) I discussed the idea of slow teaching and pace in the classroom. In general,
the first version of my Scale-Up class has a particularly slow pace. Students dug deeply into
a particular period and prepared a deliberately organized, written, and revised chapter.
There was plenty of time to work through historical and mechanical issues surrounding each
chapter. The results were relatively good. The one downside to this approach is the
students only produce one chapter, and we did not have a chance to repeat or reinforce the
methods that they had developed. I also struggled at times with the rather uneven rate at
which the various groups engaged the research, writing, and revising process.
By asking the students to write three small chapters over the course of the semester, I have
the opportunity to reinforce how students identify and approach historical problems and
compose arguments and analysis. While I havent worked out the details for how to use the
four weeks (approximately 10 classroom hours) for each chapter (I imagine it will be a
truncated version of what I did with each chapter last semester), I can imagine adding
aspects to the research, writing, and revision process as we go through the semester so
that students engage the material in a slightly more refined way for each unit.
I also think that by pushing the students to move more quickly through the process of
writing a chapter, itll produce less variation in the rate which groups manage the tasks in
the classroom. Groups that struggle to keep up will have more work to do at home.
Stay tuned as I work out the details this spring! For my on
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/) my Scale-Up Adventures
click here.
narthex in the narrow space. A similar concession to space probably accounts for the rather
irregular shape of the narthex at the Chrysopolitissa basilica in Paphos. For the Baptistery
Church at Peyia, the location of the baptistery to the south of this building hints that this
building may not have been a typical church and was arranged to serve the needs of the
baptismal rite rather than the standard liturgy.
title="MaguireDissertation2012Small_pdf.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/maguiredissertation2012sm
all_pdf.jpg" alt="MaguireDissertation2012Small pdf" width="439" height="600"
border="0" />
(From (https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/42388/) R. Maguire, Late Antique Basilicas on
Cyprus. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of East Anglia 2012).
To the east of this church stood the Central Basilica at Peyia. This church has generally
been dated to the 6th century and perhaps the reign of Justinian owing to its centrally
placed ambo and use of Proconnesian marble. In place of a traditional narthex, this church
had a small, but elaborate atrium. The location of the earlier Baptistery Basilica to the west
may have made it difficult to build both an atrium and a narthex for this church. The decision,
then, was to include an open atrium rather than traditional enclosed narthex spanning the
western side of the building.
title="MaguireDissertation2012Small_pdf.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/maguiredissertation2012sm
all_pdf1.jpg" alt="MaguireDissertation2012Small pdf" width="450" height="394"
border="0" />
(From Maguire 2012)
title="DSC_0213.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/dsc_0213.jpg" alt="DSC
0213" width="450" height="301" border="0" />View of the Baptistery and Central
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(http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/quote/701453.html) Congratulations to
the Aussies for retaining the Ashes.
(http://hiddencityphila.org/2013/12/encore-at-kelly-natatorium-one-night-only-for-now/)
Music at the Kelly Natatorium in Philadelphia.
(http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-fish-farms-struggling-2013-12) The struggles of
Greek fish farms with reporting from Sophiko in the Corinthia.
(http://www.mcachicago.org/exhibitions/now/2013/324) The Way of the Shovel: Arts as
Archaeology.
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7332452/The-universityprofessor-who-stood-up-against-dumbing-down-of-degrees.html?fb) Fighting the good
fight on grade inflation.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQoMv4WBlc) These
two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeCMVXK7LhI) videos offer genius advice.
(http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/12/tech/innovation/these-semi-legal-sheltershousing/index.html) This is something right from a William Gibson novel (I mean, not
literally).
(http://sorliebridge.com/) Lets say your really into the Sorlie Bridge in Grand Forks
What Im reading: 70 papers and exams and a (http://corinthianmatters.com/) friends
book manuscript.
What Im listening to: Waxahatchee, Cerulean Salt; The Knife, Shaking the Habitual.
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Merry Christmas!
[scribd id=193118169 key=key-vnjql1lz14gd5w85usy mode=scroll]
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(https://www.academia.edu/5529681/Pope_and_Schultz_The_chryselephantine_doors_of_
the_Parthenon._AJA_118.1_2014_19-31_) Peter Shultz and Spencer Pope on
the Chryselephantine Doors of the Parthenon.
(http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/12/23/247530831/with-its-economy-hobbledgreeces-well-educated-drain-away) Greeces brain drain.
(http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21591709-what-museums-must-dosatisfy-increasingly-demanding-public-feeding) The Economist looks at museums.
(http://www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/ahead/perna_ruby_boruch_moocs_dec2013.pdf) A
Pdf/Powerpointer summarizing some points from the University of Pennsylvanias recent
study of their Coursera MOOCs.
(http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/blog/tools-and-values/) Peer review is a tool.
(http://www.millinerd.com/2013/12/decablog.html) Millinerds 10th Christmas. Makes me
feel like a spring chicken.
(http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/12/the-blog-is-dead/) On the other hand, the blog is
dead. Long live the blog.
What Im reading: Vivek Chibber, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/postcolonial-theory-andthe-specter-of-capital/oclc/783163488) Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital.
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Verso 2013.
What Im listening to: Wooden Shjips, Back to Land; Waxahatchee, Cerulean Salt.
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contributors to the persistence of our field, but these approaches to the past do not
necessary make students comfortable with more abstract exercises that force them to think
critically about how the historical process creates a viable past.
Traditional historiography classes do this by studying the historical development of the
discipline from antiquity to the current time. This is a useful approach, and I use it in my
undergraduate historical methods seminar. Unfortunately, Ive found that historicizing the
discipline has the tendency to lead students to imagine their own moment in the discipline
as the telos of the past 2500 years of historical thinking. As most of my seminar are
students of American history, they sometimes feel a gnawing opportunity to disregard earlier
efforts to understand the past and to focus on their own corner of the world.
More importantly, at least for how Ill teach this course this semester, a strict historical
approach has the potential to lead students to believe that the professional discipline of
history is the culmination of a series of longterm intellectual developments. While the
present professionalized discipline surely evokes a clear genealogy, its disciplinary definition
owes as much to the development of the 19th and 20th century university as any clear set
of historical precedents or limitations. As higher education in the United States moves
toward a post-disciplinary future, reinforcing the professional limits prescribed by historians
in a different context and in response to different challenges seems unlikely to prepare the
next generation of scholars. The rules of the game are rapidly changing, and while it remains
useful to understand that there are rules (still), we have to do all we can to prepare our
students to play a different game.
To start this conversation, I think Im going to start with two books on academia. First, Louis
Menands (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/thoughts-on-theend-of-disciplines/) Marketplace of Ideas (Norton 2010) and then P. Novicks classic work
on the development of the profession of history during the late 19th and 20th century
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/that-noble-dream-the-objectivity-question-and-the-americanhistorical-profession/oclc/17441827) That Noble Dream (Cambridge 1988). This should
frame the course at the intersection of the discipline and the profession.
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europe-postcolonial-thought-and-historical-difference/oclc/43076852) subaltern
studies and (http://www.worldcat.org/title/postcolonial-theory-and-the-specter-ofcapital/oclc/783163488) some recent critiques.
Im also intent on having students think about issues that sometimes tend to fall to the side
of historical critique. For example, our programs growing emphasis on public history makes
it important for students to consider the spatial turn in the humanities and at least be familiar
with (http://www.worldcat.org/title/power-of-place-urban-landscapes-as-publichistory/oclc/31077172) Delores Haydens work (and
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/condition-of-postmodernity-an-enquiry-into-the-origins-ofcultural-change/oclc/18747380) some of the more challenging Marxist critics) and perhaps
(https://www.academia.edu/486053/The_archaeology_of_the_colonized) a little Michael
Given. Id also like for our students to think about (http://www.worldcat.org/title/aftermodernity-archaeological-approaches-to-the-contemporary-past/oclc/653077389)
material culture and objects in our contemporary world. Materiality and space will
complement discussions of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/mediterranean-and-themediterranean-world-in-the-age-of-philip-ii/oclc/535320) time in history which Ill ground in
a reading of Braudel. Finally, I have generally assigned Hayden Whites
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/metahistory-the-historical-imagination-in-nineteenth-centuryeurope/oclc/569790049) Metahistory to get students to think about the line between
history and literature. Its a long book, so I might only assign the first section and then
include some readings by (http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-criticism/oclc/11030789)
Dominick Lacapra or similar.
The newest element to the course will be a week dedicated to considerations of structure
and agency. Ill get the students to read Sahlins (http://www.worldcat.org/title/islands-ofhistory/oclc/10996810) Islands of History and parts of Sewells
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/logics-of-history-social-theory-and-socialtransformation/oclc/56793679) Logics of History (Chicago 2005). These works should
echo with both Braudel as well as Thompson and Gramsci if not explicitly at least in terms
of their shared concerns for the actor in history.
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The only thing that remains to be shoehorned into this syllabus is a week on Foucault. As he
is pretty essential to understand the current state of the humanities (and his thinking informs
the work throughout the course) and the familiarity of students with his work varies
significant, I usually assign (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-knowledge-andthe-discourse-on-language/oclc/23347591) Archaeology of Knowledge.
I think the course as I have laid it out here should run over about 18 weeks. Unfortunately, I
only have 13 or 14 weeks during the semester so something will have to give. I guess
figuring that out over the next week.
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of the quantity of pottery in the plow zone from the Classical period and suggests that this
is not inconsistent with inadvertent transport of pottery with manure on Methana and in
other locations where off-site artifact densities are quite low (less than 1000 artifacts per
ha). While I suspect some will quibble with his calculations for the total assemblage of
material present off-site, I think his estimates are reasonable and conservative for something
that probably needs continued testing to assert with much confidence.
The final part of the paper returns to Boeotia and examines the significantly higher density
off-site scatter from that area (5000+ per ha.). For Forbes some of this increase in density
derives from the combination of small sites and genuine off-site scatter in the halo around
Thespies. More importantly, the waste-stream at Classic Thespies appears to have been
different than in Forbes kitchen garden or 1970s Methana. First, the terrain of Boeotia is
suitable for moving manure in carts rather than in sacks. It may be that the carts of manure
from the more built up area in the cities became an easy place to discard both organic and
inorganic material because the risks associated with passing inorganic material into the
organic material waste stream was less significant. That being said, Forbes also notes that
the deeper plow zone in the fertile Boeotian plains was likely to produce more material
invisible on the surface than the shallow soils of Methana. After attempting to factor for
these variables, Forbes argues that, in fact, the quantity of material in Boeotian off-site
scatters was not much higher than one might expect. In fact, he suggests that there is some
evidence for the removal of inorganic material from the manure if we assume that the
territory around Thespies was rather more intensely manured to support the higher
population of the Boeotian city.
The article is a good one and worth considering carefully. Forbes does a nice job of
managing the ethnographic comparisons and including a brief discussion of his garden
comes off as clever and useful rather than distracting (as sometimes anecdotal evidence
can be). I do wonder whether the estimates of material in the plow zone (the mythical and
elusive total assemblage) remains difficult foundation for any argument without greater
testing (an unlikely prospect in Greece where excavation permits are difficult to obtain and it
is rare to be allowed to ground truth survey units). That being said, an approach that
considers ethnographic parallels and focuses on discard practices continues to be a way
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forward.
I cant wait to hear (and read?) (http://corinthianmatters.com/) David Pettegrews thoughts
on this article!
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My Year in Music
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/my-year-in-music-2/
Wed, 01 Jan 2014 18:00:47 +0000
This has been a good year in music for me.
I said good-bye (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/the-things-ofmusic/) to my first genuinely high-fidelity stereo system.
title="p1020110.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/p1020110.jpg"
alt="P1020110" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/sound-and-archaeology/) I
became more familiar (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/10/02/sound-archeologyvintage-marantz/) with some vintage (or at least old school) gear.
title="P1040607.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040607.jpg"
alt="P1040607" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
I developed an affinity (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/morethings-of-music-2/) for portable
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/more-things-of-music/) head-fi:
title="Music2.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/music2.jpg" alt="Music2"
width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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2013 in Review
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=3660
Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/annual-report/) <img
src="http://www.wordpress.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/annual-reports/img/2012emailteaser.png" width="100%" alt="" />
Here's an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed
about 45,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take
about 17 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/annual-report/) Click here to see the
complete report.
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University of Richmonds Digital Scholarship Lab has blown up with their newest project:
(http://dsl.richmond.edu/historicalatlas/) Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United
States.
Two articles on types: (http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/grunge-typography) a brief
history of Grunge Typography and (http://www.economist.com/news/christmasspecials/21591793-legendary-typeface-gets-second-life-fight-over-doves) the bizarre story
of Doves type.
(http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/topless-protests-raise-thequestion-who-can-speak-for-muslim-women) Who can speak for Muslim women?
(http://wordspictureshumor.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/delayed-warning-shot/) How
creativity works.
(http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/12/johns_hopkins_plans_to_lower_ph_d
_enrollment_and_raise_grad_student_stipends.html) How to thin the Ph.D. Herd (by making
it more elitist good thinking).
(http://www.economist.com/news/christmas-specials/21591793-legendary-typefacegets-second-life-fight-over-doves) Adaptive reuse in Pizza Hut restaurants.
(http://boomboxcreators.tumblr.com/) Toward a history of the Boom Box.
(http://www.dinnerties.com/) This is a cool way to make social networks
real.(http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Barth, get on this!
Speaking of Barth, (http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2013/12/31/vo-north-dakotatrian-crash-derailment.aaronbarth&video_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2F) way to be Johnny-
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the University of Massachusetts. The paper will consider how the practice of collecting 3D
data with photography (trench side structure-from-motion imaging) could impact
disciplinary practices. It will continue to develop some ideas that
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/27328060/Digital-Archaeology-Technology-in-the-Trenches) I
first articulated in a longish paper that I delivered here at UND in 2010 and then refined a
bit for a paper that (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/archaeologicaldata-and-small-projects-a-draft/) I gave at last years AIA
((http://www.umass.edu/classics/5CWorkshop.htm) on YouTubes here), plus some new
ideas gleaned from (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-inmediterranean-archaeology/) the 3D Thursday project.
2. Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom. I learned this fall that
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/139921488/Working-Draft-Teaching-History-in-a-Scale-UpStudent-Centered-Active-Learning-Environment-for-University-Programs-ClassroomSome-Reflections-on-M) the paper Cody Stanley and I submitted to the History Teacher on
our experiences teaching in the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scaleup/) Scale-Up classroom received a revise and resubmit. This was good news since it
was the first effort on our part to write something like this. The bad news is, of course, that
now we have to revise it and there is an April deadline.
3. Settlement on Cyprus in the 7th and 8th Centuries. I was invited to contribute an article
to an edited volume on the Early Byzantine transition across the Mediterranean that evolved
from a conference held in 2011 at the University of Cyprus. The island of Cyprus is
interesting in that it did not follow some of the patterns seen elsewhere in the
Mediterranean. For example, there is relatively little evidence for urban contraction or the
construction of fortified places across the island (with a few, well-known exceptions) and
recent work at Polis, for example, has suggested that the disruptions associated with the
mid-7th century may have been relatively brief and followed by a period of rebuilding. This
paper needs a good bit of thought and work and will benefit from the help of my
collaborators both at PKAP and Polis on Cyprus.
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4. Man Camps at the SAAs. At the end of April, Im giving a paper on my work with
the(http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/) North Dakota Man Camp Project
at(http://www.saa.org/aboutthesociety/annualmeeting/tabid/138/default.aspx) the Society
for American Archaeology annual meeting in Austin. The paper is titled The North Dakota
Man Camp Project: The Archaeology of Workforce Housing in the Bakken Oil Patch of
North Dakota and it should draw heavily from our almost-ready-for-primetime article which
should appear as an advanced working draft on this blog soon! More than that, I hope to
get to do a little research on workforce housing in the most recent Texas oil boom.
The good thing about being a squirrel is that I never get bored snerking around the same
old hedge eating grubs, but, on the other hand, maintaining diversity is exhausting! Wish me
luck!
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The one area where I refused to make any changes is in how I execute group work. The
tables will remain stable over the course of the semester. Students will be given few
opportunities to opt out of group work, and their grade will largely remain dependent on
how they function as a group. I know that students dislike group work and this will prompt
complaints, but I remain committed to providing students with a better group experience
rather than abandoning group work altogether.
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understanding of Medieval society in Greece and the massive, color catalogue with copious
profiles continues in Hesperias (and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens)
long and impressive tradition for documenting artifacts. Providing XRF data for some of the
artifacts in this assemblage makes it even more valuable source of comparanda.
2. Non-Monumental. Davis and Stocker point out that this site is remarkable because it is
not monumental or elite. It is not a church, a palace, or a fortification, but seemingly a more
modest building with a tile roof and a tile floor. The presence of cooking pots in significant
quantities and table wares perhaps suggests a domestic structure. While there was not
enough preserved of the building to allow for any analysis of architecture, we can surmise
that it was made of mud brick, had a tile roof, and was simple in design.
3. Modest Structures and Survey. One of the most important contributions of this article is
the observation that a large percentage of the unexcavated area of the Englianos ridge
where the Palace of Nestor stood underwent intensive pedestrian survey. This survey
produced very few sherds datable to the 12th and 13th century. Davis and Stocker suggest
that this probably reflected absence of a Medieval settlement in the area and noted that in
the later Ottoman period the ridge fell under the control of a nearby village. While this would
certainly account for the absence of any substantial quantities 12th and 13th century
material, we should not overlook the possibility that a modest, short-term settlement,
featuring relatively humble structures like that revealed in Blegens and Rawsons
excavations, would have left only the faintest signature on the surface. The significant
quantities of Medieval tile that appeared in the brown level of topsoil may have represented
a rather undiagnostic assemblage had the excavators not revealed the more clearly
Medieval material in the black ashy level beneath.
This article will no radically redefine how we understand Medieval settlement in the
Peloponnesus or even tell us much about Medieval life on the Englianos ridge, but it does
represent a substantial and perhaps even definitive first step toward a more conscientious
effort to document Medieval life in the Eastern Mediterranean. If more scholars presented
significant finds from earlier excavations in such a careful and thorough way, our
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The great thing about blogging (or writing on the web) is how transparent networked
reading is. I remember as a graduate student, one of my prized possessions as a graduate
student was a copy of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/late-roman-and-early-byzantineinscriptions-of-athens-and-attica-an-edition-with-appendices-on-scripts-sepulchralformulae-and-occupations/oclc/40388704) Eriki Sironens Helsinki dissertation: The late
Roman and early Byzantine inscriptions of Athens and Attica. It was hard to get in the U.S.
and I had no idea how many people had copies. My copy carried from Athens and
photocopied with a purloined copier code at night in a dark corner of the history
department.
Today, we read in a different way. Articles circulate at the speed of light, and social media,
email, and blogs compose part of this networked reading infrastructure. When other people
read our posts and like our ideas we know it. Our reading habits sway with the flickering of
other peoples interest on our social media dashboards. It appears in our blog analytics and
sketches out the barest outlines of a community who shares practices, habits, and interests.
The attention a post gets from this community shows the community of readers (and
writers) at work.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/man-camps-in-may-some-moreobservations/) My most popular posts
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/26/linear-b-in-3d/) were primarily
driven these days by their prominence on social media. When
(https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofnorthdakota) a popular Facebook or Twitter
personality likes what they see, my daily page view jump from the hundreds to over 1000
within hours.
2. The Ephemeral and the Persistent. One of the most interesting things about blogging is
attempting to understand the relationship between posts that receive significant immediate
attention and those that linger and gain page views slowly over time. My
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/) New Archaeology of the Mediterranean
World blog has existed for close to three years now and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/teaching-graduate-historiography
55
a-final-syllabus/) some posts (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/listsand-ranking-of-archaeology-journals/) continue to garner attention indicating that our idea
of blogs as kinds of digital ephemera is perhaps over stated.
In the past, I have suggested that blogs can fill a gap between the almost completely
ephemeral media of the conference paper and the institutionally protected status of
traditional academic journals. As blogs continue to mature on the web issues of visibility and
persistence will shape how we understand their value and their place in the academic
ecosystem. A post thats three or four years old and continues to get attention has greater
meaning than (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/real-snow-inat/) a post that attracts a few hundred hits in a day and then fades into obscurity.
At the same time, Ive tried to strike a balance between posts that enjoy momentary or
situational popularity (for example, I had
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/some-thoughts-on-digitaldissertations/) a post featured on Wordpress.coms (http://wordpress.com/fresh/) Freshly
Pressed page) and those that have persistent significance to my reading community. The
sensational or situational post has the advantage of making by blog more visible on the web
and attracting new, interested readers. As I continue to experiment with using my blog as a
platform for other peoples writing, I feel even greater obligation to draw attention to it
through ephemeral posts and a greater social media presence.
3. Blogging is Dead. A few weeks ago (http://kottke.org/) Jason Kottke (one of the great
old men of the blogging community) wrote (http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/12/the-blogis-dead/) a short piece for the Nieman Journalism Lab titled The Blog is Dead, Long Live
the Blog. In it he talked broadly about the transformation of reading on the internet and
how he almost never reads proper, traditional blogs any more. In fact, he suggests that the
traditional format of the blog with posts arranged in chronological order has slowly given
way over the past few years to more topical or thematic arrangement of content. He notes
the emergence of sites like (https://medium.com/) Medium which look to present content
for various authors in a more stylish format than most blogs, and without any concession to
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chronological format.
Over the past few months, I ran a series of posts on 3D imaging in Mediterranean
archaeology. One of the complaints voiced by a number of contributors was that there was
no proper table of contents and they had to scroll through pages of content to read the
entire series of posts. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-inmediterranean-archaeology/) That was an easy enough problem to fix, but it shows that as
the blog developed, the suitability in the traditional blogging format has limits.
At the same time, the narrative structure of blogging with its clear, chronological trajectory
seems suitable for telling the story of archaeological work and academic research as
ongoing processes. It invites a regular reader into an archaeologists world and has obvious
parallels with the format of a archaeological field notebooks. It also assumes a particular
practice in the part of the reader who makes daily visits to a blog and reads it in sequence
getting to know the authors over time. Whether this is enough to keep blogging as the
format of choice for archaeological outreach remains to be seen.
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feature of the book is the series of remarkably detailed photographs of certain iconic
boomboxes of the 1970s and 1980s. The photographs are large and sufficiently detailed as
to reveal wear patterns, damage, and identifying characteristics of each boombox.
(http://www.owerko.com/#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=0&a=
2&at=0) You can get an idea of his photographs on his website. The detail is such that
one can see the the various plastic parts that give the exterior of the boombox its complex
and overwrought aesthetic. The part show the kinds of wear that reflect use. The bent
pause button on tape controls reflected the common practices of pausing tracks to cue
up the next song or even using it to freeze the music for the second to syncopate a groove
or, in the most skilled hands, to loop it. Broken handles show the limits of these devices
portability and the practice of adding more flexible shoulder straps. The worn plastic faces
preserve signs of how the boombox rubbed against fabric in transport with chips and dents
reflecting less forgiving contacts. These battle scars complement stickers and homemade
repairs to provide a roadmap to each objects biography.
The bulk of the book is dedicated to conversations about boomboxes and their place within
the urban underground of the late-20th century and photos of the boomboxes in use.
While Ill accept Olivares notion of the office chair as status marker in a traditional office
context, Im skeptical of Owerkos more romanticized idea of the boombox as a markers of
the urban underground. After all, what made the boombox great was that it was ubiquitous.
Get any group of American Generation Xers together and almost all of them will talk about
boomboxes. These are kids from the cities, from the burbs, from rural areas, rich, poor, or
middle class. The boombox was not iconic of some kind of subversive underground, but of
the democratizing consumerism of the middle class. Maybe its best to say something like
the appearance of the boombox in certain settings had a destabilizing effect on the
expectation that common material possession would create a cohesive middle class
identity. But this does not make a catchy title.
Finally, the books are not archaeological monographs or even properly exhaustive studies
(although Olivaress work is close), but windows into the life and times of objects. As
archaeologists explore the contemporary world more and more thoroughly, these kinds of
non-scholarly collections will start to assert greater value just as, two centuries ago, non
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systematic, amateur collections of ceramic objects, fossils, or other artifacts became the
framework for the first generation of great museums and collections.
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traditional history class, Ive given students the opportunity to imagine a different class and
one that has the backing of tradition.
At the same time, Im banking on a general dislike of traditional lecture-style history classes
especially among non-majors and an openness to an alternative that might be more
entertaining. For the first class, I had the students create a list of rules to organize a society
on a deserted island. The playfulness of the exercise opened the door to a larger
conversation about the limits faced by almost all preindustrial societies.
The goal is not play for the sake of play, of course. Nor am I aiming for a kind of edutainment
where I replace the sage on the stage with a romper-room, feel good, group work.
Instead, I hope I can systematically reinforce these rhetorical points throughout the
semester and to use them to undermine deep set student resistance to an unfamiliar
environment.
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Much of this larger narrative is in the background of the contributions to this volume. I wish
it had appeared about 6 months earlier so I could have incorporated it into the discussion of
the Iron Age at Pyla-Koutsopetria that appeared in the conclusion to our recently submitted
monograph. Of particular significance is S. Fourriers work on the rural sanctuaries
associated with Kition. She argues that the territorialization of Kition did not occur until the
Classical period rather than during the earlier Iron Age and associated it with Kitions
conquest of Idalion in the 5th century. In other words, the territorial limits of the kingdom of
Kition remains in flux and its control over the countryside and its resources was not fully
established.
This challenges what I attempted to argue in the conclusions to the Pyla-Koutsopetria
volume where I observe that the Iron Age site situated atop the prominent coastal ridge of
Vigla might reflect the first phase in the expansion of Kition into its eastern hinterland.
title="Figure5_19.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/figure5_19.jpg" alt="Figure5
19" width="450" height="337" border="0" />View of the Iron Age site at Pyla-Vigla from
the coastal plain.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/borders-ethnicity-and-the-state-inarchaic-cyprus/) I blogged about it here. I suggest that the scatter of Iron Age material
across a number of units coincided with the well-know statue of Bes with a dedication to
Reshef now in the Louvre with its Phoenician inscription.
(http://www.ajaonline.org/article/219) D. Counts has argued that this statue is a hybridized
image that evokes certain aspect of Phoenician deities as well iconography common on
Cyprus. From this same area, we also identified
(http://opencontext.org/subjects/3F36780A-E51C-4116-9950-65427D8BF01D) an
assemblage of figurines probably dating, at earliest, to the Classical period along with
(http://opencontext.org/subjects/C425DE2B-55CE-46EC-3309-1C85E4987E0C) a few
sherds (http://opencontext.org/subjects/E260EA5B-229C-4F60-065A-1C1B01178F74)
that are likely Cypro-Geometric in date.
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title="Figure5_18.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/figure5_18.jpg" alt="Figure5
18" width="450" height="321" border="0" />Cypro-Geometric Material
She noted that many of the extraterritorial sanctuaries in the territory of Kition share
characteristics of cults associated with Idalion. One of the key figures in the cult life of
Idalion is Reshef and it is rather remarkable that Fourrier did not mention the statue of this
deity from the area of Pyla. If we follow her argument, the presence of this statue from the
coastal zone of Pyla might suggest that Idalion exerted some influence over this maritime
zone. Complicating this is the possibility that some extra-urban areas like Pyla-Vigla formed
part of a larger homogeneous cultural region where the iconography of the Master of the
Lion (typically associated with Heracles-Milqart) intermixed with Phoenician influences
derived from communities at Kition, Idalion, and elsewhere in the region.
title="Figure5_29.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/figure5_29.jpg" alt="Figure5
29" width="450" height="321" border="0" />Iron Age Material
The significance of this for our analysis of the Pyla-Vigla Iron Age component goes even
further. Fourrier observed that extra-urban sanctuaries may have originated to serve the
needs of local communities before becoming parts of territorialization strategies of the
emerging Iron Age polities. The close relationship between some of these sites and earlier
Late Bronze Age sites reflected both practical advantages of the location of Bronze Age
sites and the availability of building material, as well as the efforts to connect with a
shadowy, if physically present past. The site at Pyla-Koutsopetria certainly fits this pattern in
that it stands in close proximity and visual range of the Late Bronze Age site of PylaKokkinokremos.
If we accept Fourriers argument for the late development of Kitions territorialization, then
we might be wise to narrate the history of Iron Age activity at the site of Pyla-Vigla in a
different way. It seems probable that the site originated as a settlement in the shadow of the
long abandoned Late Bronze Age site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos in the Cypro-Geometric
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Period. By the Cypro-Archaic period, the site appeared as part of the larger Mesoria
community with its complex and hybridized cultural identity and perhaps had a relationship
with the nearby inland site of Idalion. With the territorialization of Kition in the 5th century,
the site develops even further and shows signs of ongoing cult activity as well as expansion.
This activity persists throughout the Hellenistic period and into the Roman era before
declining in Late Antiquity.
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Apamea in Syria. Considering the large-scale destruction and looting of Syrias antiquities
during the present civil war, this seems in bad taste at best and unethical at worst. (Check
out Michael Peppards concerns in the comments of my blog. Its interesting that he refers
to the authors of the two blogs as bloggers when he knows that Chasing Aphrodite is
authored by two investigative journalists of high standing and Looting Matters is authored
by David Gill, a scholar of significant reputation. Moreover, I suggested that Fordhams
behavior might just be in poor taste or unethical (by the standards of the field of
archaeology) which Im not sure are properly slanderous. That kind of thing makes
Peppards comments seem unimpressive.)
(http://proteus.brown.edu/archforthepeoplecompetition/Home) The Joukowsky Institute at
Brown is running a contest for Accessible Archaeological Writing. The top prize is $5000
and the best papers will appear in an edited volume.
While it is not unusual for American Evangelical churches to have espresso or coffee bars,
it might be a bit more unusual to discover that (http://www.italymagazine.com/news/earlychristian-basilica-found-under-new-lavazza-headquarters) coffee maker Lavazzas
headquarters has its own Early Christian Basilica.
(http://www.trowelblazers.com/post/55692805223/halet-cambel-olympian-activistarchaeologist) R.I.P. Halet ambel.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/ara-guler-capturing-turkeysunseen-corners-in-new-exhibit-at-sackler-gallery/2014/01/08/1dcc37a0-6bed-11e3a523-fe73f0ff6b8d_story.html) The photographs of Ara Gler show the hidden and historic
corners of Turkey and are on display at the Sackler Gallery in D.C.
(http://bbgwatch.com/bbgwatch/plagiarized-article-on-romans-eating-giraffe-gets-a-topnews-posting-three-days-late-on-voice-of-america/) Apparently press agencies plagiarize
one another even when it involves giraffe eating at Pompeii. Who would have guessed it?
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(http://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/beta-testing-archaeology-in-elderscrolls-online-2/) Andrew Reinhard beta tests Elder Scrolls online with his archaeological
sensibilities intact.
(http://ucsheritage.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/sutton-hoo-society-conference-2014/)
Sutton Hoo Conference to mark the 75th anniversary of excavations at the site.
(http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/ancient-greeks-used-portable-grills140109.htm) Portable souvlaki grills from the Mycenaean Bronze Age on Greece.
(https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGWEbHost/jobdetails.aspx?partnerID=25240&siteID=
5341&AReq=31407BR) What to be the next managing editor of the Loeb Classical
Library?
(http://www.philipvickersfithian.com/2014/01/natalie-zemon-davis-shows-how-toread.html) Natalie Zemon Davis shows us how to read a primary source.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25496729) The BBC looks at the abandoned
resort of Varosha on Cyprus that is in the U.N. Buffer zone.
(http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/VA-to-publish-Nazis-degenerate-art-inventoryonline/31569) The Victoria and Albert Museum will publish online the catalogue of 16,558
pieces of Nazi Entartete Kunst (degenerate art) decommissioned from German museums in
late 1930s.
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/10562017/Melting-glaciers-innorthern-Italy-reveal-corpses-of-WW1soldiers.html?utm_content=buffer6b139&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitt
er.com&utm_campaign=buffer) Melting glaciers reveal WWI corpses. Grizzly.
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elsewhere on the island. The massive deposit of rubble and pottery associated with these
modification establishes beyond a doubt a terminus post quem of the mid-7th century.
Using these two sites as points of reference, I think I can address the six major issues that
influence how we talk about the 7th and 8th century on Cyprus in general and that directly
impact what we can say about settlement.
1. Methods and Evidence: Survey, Excavation, Architecture, and Texts
First, there is the reality that our textual sources are problematic and fragmentary deriving
from a range of genres, historiographic perspectives, and languages. They do not present a
cohesive picture of the island provide much insight into larger issues of settlement. In fact,
some sources suggest that the population of the island was nearly all sold into slavery and
removed (e.g. the Soli inscription) whereas other inscriptions seem to indicate that the
island remained reasonably prosperous despite Arab incursions. Archaeological evidence
likewise follows this confusing pattern with excavated sites showing greater signs of
continuity with 6th century activities than the landscape revealed by intensive survey.
Architecture is even more revealing with several well-know churches preserving decoration
datable to the 7th and 8th century. In the end, textual and archaeological evidence leave us
with two different, mutually exclusive stories for this period of transition.
2. Ceramic chronology.
Part of the issue is the difficult nature of 7th and 8th century ceramics. Despite the
significant amount of scholarship from the past decade that has pushed the date of wellknow fine wares and transport amphora from the comfortable confines of the 6th century
into the wild margins of the 8th, there has been little large scale reassessment of ceramic
assemblages on the island. We have continued to note how individual type fossils like
Late Roman 1 amphora or Cypriot Red Slip forms could date later than originally thought,
but we have only begun to use this knowledge to imagine 7th or 8th century assemblages
on the island (outside a few, well-known examples like the pottery workshops at Dhiorios or
Marcus Rautmans identification of hand-made pottery at Kopetria). Until the redating of
major wares informs the visibility of locally produced or common wares on Cyprus, the 7th
and 8th centuries will continue to be rather difficult to identify in surface survey and in more
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Contextualizing much of the conversation about 7th and 8th century Cyprus is the nature of
economic activity in the Eastern Mediterranean during these centuries. As scholars have
begun to recognize that the political and military events in this period disrupted trade as
much as caused it to decline, new models for understanding the Early Byzantine economy
have emphasized the change in character as well as change in scale. If the Cypriot
economy and settlement in the 6th century felt the influence of the annona trade between
Egypt and Constantinople (e.g. the settlement at Peyia in southwest Cyprus being
warehousing site) and the administrative reorganization that funneled the agricultural
produce of Cyprus to the needs of the army at the frontiers (perhaps leading to the
prosperity of the sites at Dreamers Bay and Pyla-Koutsopetria), then the economy and
settlement of the 7th and 8th century perhaps responded to the more fluid and changing
opportunities and political situation of those centuries. For example, the changing needs
and power of the central government in Constantinople may have spurred the decline of
sites that emerged in response to the command economy of Late Antiquity.
If the unsettled economic and political circumstances of the 7th and 8th century, may have
led to more dynamic responses from Cypriots who looked to limit risk and maximize
opportunities in more contingent ways. In other words, if we accept the possibility that rural
settlement was less visible during these centuries (rather than absent), it may be that shortterm settlement in a contingent countryside reflects a more situational approach to a more
dynamic economy.
5. Administrative Structures: Church and State
The persistence of certain institutions on Cyprus - namely the church and the political and
social apparatus of the Byzantine state - demonstrate that despite the the large scale
disruptions to the Late Roman world, certain aspect of life continued on Cyprus relatively
unchanged. Recent work on lead seals from Cyprus show that the ecclesiastical,
administrative, and aristocratic hierarchies continued to function on the island. These
structures demonstrate the persistence of official ties to the capital and to the underlying
legal and social institutions that would maintain, say, the prestige of local aristocrats or the
position of the church as an economic engine in the community.
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So, if the contingent countryside reflects the instability of Mediterranean politics and
economy, then the persistence of some activity in urban centers demonstrates the ongoing
presence of traditional elites attempting to continue to perform their traditional function in
particular dynamic environment. The reconstruction of churches at Soli, Paphos, Polis, and
elsewhere suggest that the church continued to be able to marshal and deploy economic
resources from communities. The reconstruction of aqueducts and perhaps some civic
buildings at Salamis-Constantia shows that certain civic functions continued, albeit on a
more modest scale. Finally, the apparent abandonment of the site Kourion may reflect the
intervention of community leaders to relocate key institutions
and (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/kourion-and-aba/)
salvage existing resources from the site.
6. Events: Invasions, Forced Migrations, and Settlements.
Finally, events have long shaped the master narrative of the decline in the Roman
Mediterranean. The Arab raids of the middle decades of the 7th century, the loss of Egypt
and Syria, and the so-called condominium period have long shaped our understanding of
settlement, demography, and economy on the island. On the one hand, it is impossible not
to see things like a substantial Arab fleet patrolling the waters off the islands coast or the
fundamental transformation of the large-scale economic unity of the Eastern Mediterranean
impacting events on Cyprus. In fact, it would naive to somehow argue that these events did
not impact life on the island.
On the other hand, punctuating the history of the island with these events undermines any
understanding that sees Cypriot society as dynamic agents in their own history. By shifting
our attention to patterns of activity on the island and prioritizing them in our analysis, we
open the door to appreciating the strategies that communities and institutions used to
adapt to changing times. It provides more than simply an answer to tired questions of
continuity and change (that largely reside within a discourse of development toward
nationalism) and allows us to focus our attention of the mechanisms that produced the
seductive patterns that have meant so much to our understanding of the modern world.
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Cyprus Research Fund Lecture Tomorrow: Archaeologies of Dcor by Dr. Sarah Lepinski
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/22/cyprus-research-fund-lecturetomorrow-archaeologies-of-decor-by-dr-sarah-lepinski/
Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:19:35 +0000
Despite dueling blizzards here and on the east coast, the Cyprus Research Fund Lecture
appears to be on schedule (more or less) to go off as planned tomorrow.
We got a snazzy write-up on the (http://arts-sciences.und.edu/news/2014/01/cypresslecture.cfm) campus news feed and we have a snazzy flyer:
title="CyprusResearchFund2014_pdf.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/cyprusresearchfund2014_pd
f.jpg" alt="CyprusResearchFund2014 pdf" width="460" height="600" border="0" />
For those of you in the neighborhood, you need to brave the cold and come and check out
the talk at 4 pm tomorrow in the East Asia Room of the Mighty Chester Fritz Library.
For those of you on the East Coast, recovering from sinus surgery, or in Denver for the ice
hockeying contests, you can listen to (https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/cyprus) the
LIVE feed of the talk right here.
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reign of the "assessocracy" who favor quantitative measures for evaluating the effectiveness
of the classroom environment.
I won't be the first or the last to observe that the twin pressures of SoTL and "audit culture"
have slowly transformed the way that scholars in disciplines think about teaching. A recent
conversation with a colleague got me thinking about the way in which this shift from
disciplinary conversations about teaching to a campus wide audit culture influenced how
we think about teaching as professors. To our mind, the key shift was from faculty who
derived their teaching credentials from their expertise in a particular subject area to teaching
as a criteria that can be evaluated independently from any particular specialized knowledge.
This transition was accompanied by the rise of the assessocracy and audit culture and has
produced a situation where teaching (and learning) stand as a separate skills and goals
unto themselves.
I recognize that defenders of assessment practices and mainstream SoTL will protest this
as an overly simplified view of their work and that being a successful teacher assumes the
mastery of "content." At the same time, the severing of content knowledge from the skills
necessary to pass on that knowledge produces a significant dichotomy between what we
know as disciplinary practitioners and what we do as teachers of that discipline. In other
words, there is a parallel between the work of teaching becoming focused more on
methods and the teaching of methods as the key to disciplinary knowledge. Again, there is
nothing wrong with teaching methods or even methodology (indeed, I do it myself), but just
as teaching and content become severed, I cant help feeling concerned that content
knowledge and methods will become increasingly estranged.
It may seem absurd at first, but one wonders if it might be possible to be, by the standards
of our age, a good teacher without necessarily having any specialist content knowledge.
This would coincide with the growing tendency on this campus to see faculty teaching well
outside their specialties (and to have pressure to do this!) both within and across
disciplines. This observation is not meant to criticize these bold souls who take on teaching
Thucydides without having read him in Greek or the Fall of the Roman Empire without even
doing primary source research in Late Antiquity (or, say,
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(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/teaching-graduate-historiographyagain/) graduate historiography without any training in 20th century intellectual history), but
to point out that despite the emphasis on specialist training in graduate school, teaching
knowledge seems to trump area knowledge in some circumstances.
This may relate to the process of deskilling where our ability to produce knowledge
becomes less closely related to specialized and embodied skills associated with craft
production and more related to industrialized forms of knowledge production. These
industrialized models depend upon rigorously maintained and standardized metrics
influenced by Taylorism and total quality and efficiency standards, rather than the more
difficult to document sensitivities to texts and disciplinary discourse borne of encounters
and interactions with individuals deeply steeped in specialized the knowledge.
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(http://www.buzzfeed.com/dorianlynskey/how-the-murder-of-rapper-pavlos-fyssas-turnedgreece-upside) This is an interesting take on the fall of the Golden Dawn party in Greece.
(http://newzup.net/articles/2014/01/20/%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%AD%CF%80%CF%8
4%CF%85%CE%BE%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%8C%CF%81%CE%B1%CE%BC%CE%B1-%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%B1%CF%8C%CE%BB%CE%B7-%CF%84%CE%B7%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BC%CE%BC%CF%8C%CF%87%CF%89%CF%83%CF%84%CE%
BF) Some new dreams about the future of Varosha (Famagusta) Cyprus.
(http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/maps) Carbon footprint maps.
(http://www.peakbagger.com/pbgeog/histmetropop.aspx) A chart showing the changing
populations of the major urban centers in the U.S. over time.
(https://twitter.com/HistOpinion) And a bunch of cool charts of historical opinion polls.
(http://ask.metafilter.com/255675/Decoding-cancer-addled-ramblings) This is a cool
example of crowd sourcing and devotional texts.
(http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2381263) An interesting study of
the first year open online courses offered by HarvardX and MITx.
(http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/the-ipod-of-prison-sonyradio.html) Prison radios.
(http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2014/01/15/why-are-rap-lyrics-being-used-as-evidence-incourt/) A Spider speaks out about the use of rap lyrics in court.
(http://www.cbsnews.com/news/where-professors-send-their-children-to-college/)
Where college professors send their kids.
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These, of course, observations are not new, but our struggle to identify consistently the
archaeological evidence for activity during the 7th century has shaped how we understand
settlement in Cyprus for decades. One of the strengths of Zavagno's work is that he
synthesizes the fragmentary evidence for settlement activity across the island. The
reconstruction of buildings at Salamis-Constantia, evidence from Paphos, Polis, Soli and
Kourion, and difficult, but widely accept evidence from architectural change on the Karpas
peninsula paints an increasingly expansive picture of settlement throughout the 7th century.
The evidence for fortification at Salamis, Paphos, and Amathus as well as the less wellunderstood sites along the Kyrenia range suggests that there was some effort to invest in
defense of vulnerable populations after the raids of the 640s and 650s. Finally, Zavagno
deals with the tricky issues of an Arab garrison stationed at Paphos. It would be interesting
to understand how this garrison was supplied and whether it was large enough to influence
the structure of local settlement.
Along similar lines, Zavagno argued that Cyprus played a key role in Byzantine military
strategy in the region, and it would be interesting to consider how this might have influence
settlement. If we understand the busy countryside of the 6th century as at least partly the
result of Cypriot agricultural products moving north through the Aegean to troops stationed
on the Danubian frontier, then we might want to reflect on how the strategic requirements of
the fleet and troops moved to Cyprus as a staging area influences local markets and
production patterns.
The most significant political issue in Zavagnos work is the exact nature of the famed
condominium which evidently stipulated that both Arabs and the Byzantines could govern
and extract taxes from the island. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/41933706) In his 2011/2012
contribution to Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Zavagno makes clear that our understanding of
the 7th century and the condominium is inexorably linked to the current political situation on
the island. One might take this even further to argue that sorting out the 7th and 8th century
on the island is a product of the narrative of nationalism that looks to Late Antiquity as a
seminal moment in the formation of national identity. To be fair, much of this derives from the
West where scholars have looked to the fall of the Roman Empire and the Early Middle
Ages for the rise in both ethnic communities and polities that formed keys aspects of
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national myths.
The relationship between political hegemony on the island, related economic relationships,
and settlement remains a difficult and open area question. The continued prosperity of the
church, the ability of the two states to collect tax revenue, and the persistence of local elites
suggested that the political situation did not adversely affect the economic realities of the
island and this has meaning for how we understand the productive environment of Cyprus
and, in turn, settlement. Luca Zavagnos work has moved us closer to sorting out the
economic, political, and settlement structure of the island during this tumultuous and
opaque era.
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and how we know it. At the same time, this article did give me pause to consider how my
work fits into larger conversations in the field.
An interesting group of colleagues contributed to panel at the Archaeological Institute of
America annual meeting and then (http://link.springer.com/journal/10761/14/2/page/1) an
edited volume on the topic of abandonment in the Mediterranean world. We were certainly
attuned to the longstanding interest in issues surrounding social and political collapse in the
context of the Later Roman world. More importantly, my recent efforts to understand the
transformation of the island of Cyprus in the 7th and 8th century focuses on the persistence
of certain features of Cypriot life include the church, patterns of exchange, and forms of
longstanding social practice. The ability of both local institutions like the church and
practices often regarded as structural to adapt within larger political and economic
systems finds parallels in the ability of individuals to innovate and affect change within
communities of practice.
My work on intensive pedestrian survey has frequently intersected with issues of humanenvironment interaction, although one might observe that this is a very broad issue even
among the general challenges identified by this article.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeologicalproject/) Any regional survey project worth its salt recognizes how something like an infilled
harbor or the availability of agricultural land or stone suitable for building shapes the
character and extent of settlement. In the seismically volatile Eastern Mediterranean
scholars have come to appreciate the resilience of communities in the face of short-term
environmental disruptions like earthquakes.
Along similar lines, issues of mobility and movement in the landscape will be the focus of
some of my work in Greece over the next few years on the (http://westernargolid.org/)
Western Argolid Regional Project. It is interesting that scholars did not explicitly recognize
the challenge in documenting movement in the landscape (as opposed to the results of
movement). Our work in the Western Argolid will explore a region characterized as a major
route from the hinterland of the city of Argos to communities to the west and north.
Documenting a landscape of movement will be a challenge as most intensive pedestrian
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survey project have tended to focus on landscapes filled with more or less stationary
settlements. The archaeological evidence for movement, routes, and paths rests gently in
the countryside and will require both careful attention to subtle marks in the landscape and
the development of alternate techniques to identify the traces of movement left behind.
It was heartening to see that my research at least touched upon issues that a broad swath
of my discipline thought to be important.
(http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-grand-challenges-forarchaeology.html) As some thoughtful critiques have observed already, this list in hardly
exhaustive and the need to categorize the various challenge surely displaced challenges
that cut across multiple sub-categories. At the same time, these lists underrepresent issues
of intense concern for some subfields in archaeology that are influenced more by texts and
fields such as art history. Mediterranean archaeology, for example, continues to explore
issues of reception which is perhaps represented in the broader concerns of community
building, identity, and cognition, but draws on a body of literature derived from art history
and philology. No list will make everyone feel represented.
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2. Dont try to do things that I cant do. Another problem with my last effort at leave was that
I tried to convert my dissertation into a book. The instinct was good, but at the end of the
day, I dont think in book length segments. In fact, I struggle to think in 8,000 - 10,000 word
segments (some people would argue that Im not quite up to the task of a blog post).
On my last year of leave,(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/churchesin-greece-or-why-my-dissertation-is-not-a-book/) I decided to try to write a book. And it
was, predictably, a disaster. I wrote a draft of something. It is pretty strange and more like
an article or an article and a chapter in something that Id never or couldnt finish. And it
compounded my frustration of spinning my wheels for the last few months of sabbatical and
returning to classes emotionally exhausted.
So, this time, there is no book project (yet) and there is no ambitious program to pen a
concept album. I just need to write my way, think in little chunks, and churn out my own
unique brand of mediocre pop.
3. Take time to catch up on reading. One thing that I did do well last time I was on leave is
that I dedicated time each day to read. I am so far behind in reading in my field that it is
almost embarrassing. In fact, I was leafing through the book reviews in the Journal of Roman
Archaeology recently and it took me several minutes to realize that it was the 2010 volume.
It all looked so fresh and exciting!
I need to catch up.
4. Load up research for the future. Along the same lines as catching up on reading, I was
very successful in loading up on research material during my last sabbatical. Im almost
embarrassed to admit that I continue to mine this material even today as
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/30697799/Caraher-Dream-Archaeology-2010) I polish off
some long lingering projects.
My last sabbatical gave me access to a pair of world class research libraries, and I dont
think Ill have the same access this time around. At the same time, I need to concentrate
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some focused research time on assembling and organizing materials for research ideas that
are not fully formed. In contrast to my need to read expansively in my field, I also need to
hunt and gather and pull together some of the more obscure but high quality material in my
field especially as I push my research into new areas like the (the
(http://westernargolid.org/) Western Argolid) and new periods (the
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/settlement-on-cyprus-in-the-7thand-8th-centuries/) 7th and 8th centuries) which I understand broadly but not on any
detail.
5. Start new things. The final thing that I did right last time I was on sabbatical is that I
started some new things. As with most academics, Im fundamentally conservative and
prefer well-trod paths to wild flights of fancy. And I know that I need to temper my
enthusiasm or Ill burn through my increasingly limited energy and attention reserves in the
first few months of sabbatical and have nothing left for the long North Dakota winter. At the
same time, I have to do something new to keep my interest in my so-called academic
career.
So stay tuned over the next 18 months as I try my hand at this sabbatical thing again.
Madcap blogging adventures will undoubtedly ensure.
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international objects like Cypriot Red Slip. At first, we might be inclined to argue that
these handmade vessels reflect a general decline in the quality of material culture
associated with these periods, but their existence alongside more refined objects like
Cypriot Red Slip suggests that the 7th century consumer continued to have access to finer
quality vessels, but chose for whatever reason to select relatively poorly made vessels. The
obvious (if partial) answer is that economic problems in the 7th century led to a decline in
the market for high quality red slipped wares, but not its complete collapse. This is not too
dissimilar to my decision to use the Realistic Nova 10 speakers on my basement system.
They were free and (Ive been told that) the (very) local economy could not support more
stereo equipment at this juncture.
Fair enough. The result was an assemblage of equipment that is functionally similar, but,
nevertheless, represents a diverse set of economic circumstances that accounts for
relatively modest gear interspersed with somewhat more expensive and refined equipment.
title="img_0960.jpg"
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0960" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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(http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/01/24/david_galjaard_photographs_albanian_bu
nkers_in_his_photo_book_concresco.html) Albanian bunkers.
(http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/map/) Along similar lines, a map of abandoned
places in North Dakota.
(http://mercurytheatre.areavoices.com/2014/01/27/the-original-fargodome/)
Remembering the Fargo Arena, among the largest buildings in the U.S. in its day.
(http://hyperallergic.com/105270/in-paris-punks-curatorial-redemption/) Punk in Paris.
(https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1306413684/flag-the-app-that-prints-and-mailsyour-photos-for) This is a cool idea on Kickstarter. Im not sure itll get funded, but it should.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/opinion/23margolick.html?pagewanted=all&_r
=0) This is what happened when Louis Armstrong came to Grand Forks.
(http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2011/features/administr
ators_ate_my_tuition031641.php) Why college costs so much.
(http://www.openculture.com/2014/01/harold-bloom-creates-a-massive-list-of-works-inthe-western-canon.html) Say what you will of Harold Blooms idea of a Western Cannon,
but this is a great list of great reads.
(http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2014/01/how-to-buy-and-sell-a-turntable-in-australia/)
Buying stereo equipment in Australia is not all that different from buying it on the northern
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plains.
What Im reading: D. Metcalf, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/byzantine-cyprus-4911191/oclc/544474804) Byzantine Cyprus 491-1191. Nicosia 2009.
What Im listening to: Frank Sinatra, Songs for Swinging Lovers and In the Wee Small
Hours.
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1143" width="450" height="610" border="0" />
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invested in creating a future that both carries forward the best of the past and seeks to
redress historic wrongs. In short, the historical method (such as it is and whatever that
might mean) produces a valid and usable past to inform decision making in the present. By
presenting our work in public and expanding who has access to the tolls of a professional
historian, we dream that we can make inform how the democracy functions and make our
world better. It has, of course, vaguely troubled students of history (even in my introduction
to the historians craft class) that despite our best efforts, historical actors rarely seem to
learn from the past or, if they do, it is not in a consistent predictable way.
Jack's article noted that there has never been any convincing link between public philosophy
and more sophisticated, consistent, or rigorous political awareness. In fact, he noted that
surveys have shown that Americans tend to respond unpredictably even to issues subjected
to sustained engagement in the national media and involving basic historical facts salient
to political decision making. In other words, deliberate critical engagement with historical
issues does not lead the general publics ability to conclusions consistent with careful
historical analysis. Walking a birther through the process of evaluating historical evidence
is not likely to change his or her mind.
Moreover, Jack points out that claims by philosophy (or any of the humanities) to produce
better citizens are deeply problematic. At least some part of our modern democracy
depends upon the idea that we are intrinsically capable of participating in the political life of
the community. The idea of being better or worse at being a citizen would imply the there
are those whose participation in the political process would be less valuable because they
are not citizens of the better sort. This is anti-liberal.
In many ways, Jack's critique of public philosophy can apply to how historians have
approached engaging the public. If historians or philosophers are not engaging the public
to create better citizens, but there remains practical and real benefits associated with
raising our profile in the community, we need to find ways to articulate what it is that we do
when we step out of our offices and into the public sphere.
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Jack cleverly parallels the work of the public philosopher with that of the drug dealer. His job
is to try to get people hooked on philosophy and to cultivate it as a particular form of
entertainment. He does not mean this to trivialize public philosophy and he clearly regards it
as a more healthy form of entertainment than say crack cocaine. His arguments are complex
and dont entirely align with what we do as historians, but they do give us a start. The
entertainment value of public philosophy provides a point of entry for a range of
experiences:
"It models thinking, is individualistic not collective, it is built on personality not ideas, is
passionate and not detached, and advocates for people not ideas. It seeks to prepare
ground for future philosophical endeavors, and while the questions asked may be about any
area of life, knowledge or inquiry, it should become obvious that public philosophical
investigation skews towards the individuals who happen to be there. Most public philosophy
involves examination of ones own personal life. It is about self-knowledge before it is about
anything else."
Of particular utility for historians is the idea that public philosophy models thinking. The
philosopher lays bare the process of engaging ideas by standing in front of an audience and
taking their comments, observations, and ideas seriously. Modeling thinking then becomes
one take-away and positions the audiences encounter with public philosophy as less of a
collective act of community building and more of an individual act of contemplation.
Watching the public philosopher think and understand, begins a process of normalizing
reflective thinking that carries on after the event. To affect this the public philosopher has to
reveal themselves as much as their ideas to the audience. The audience has to see the
philosopher as someone who is not so different from themselves. Making careful, critical,
and reflective thought visible gives the audience permission to reflect in their own lives and,
as he summarizes: "public philosophy creates the groundwork for philosophical reflection in
personal life with the hope and that this reflection may inspire future wide- ranging
conversations about culture and meaning in life."
Porting these ideas to practice of history in the public sphere is not straight forward. Public
history has taken on the trappings of a sub-discipline with all those conceits. Public
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philosophy, in contrast, is more raw and intimate and personal and open-ended. As a
department full of historians without the burden of public history (as a sub-discipline), I
wonder if wed be well served to think carefully about Jacks ideas. To consider public
history as a moment where we can show the community what we do as part of who we are.
Rather than falling back of problematic platitudes about making better citizens or building "a
sense of community" (whose community? for whom?) we can communicate the idea that
doing history is one way to mediate between the individual and the community. The
entertainment value of public history gets people into the room and our job is, to use Jacks
phrase, "to prepare the ground and to let people figure it all out on their own. I turn the dirt
and watch what grows.
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communities of Western North Dakota and play up the impact of the oil industry on
isolated rural America. Among the standard series of images associated with the Bakken
boom, are those of the man camp. Just as many of these images appeal to long-held
stereotypes of the working classes - especially those involved in extractive industries, the
man camp has a long historic pedigree and my talk today will locate this phenomena in a
historical and global context.
Cyprus
My perspectives on the Bakken come from a rather unusual place:
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/mining-in-cyprus-and-workcamps-in-north-dakota/) over a decade of archaeological research on the island of Cyprus
in the Eastern Mediterranean. From as early as the Bronze Age (i.e. 1600 BC) the island
saw the systematic extraction and processing of copper from the unique geology of the
Troodos mountains. The site of Politiko-Phorades, excavated by Sydney Cyprus Survey
Project under the direction of Bernard Knapp, preserved the remains of a Late Bronze Age
smelting facility set in a region where numerous veins of copper were near the surface.
While the site itself showed little evidence for habitation, there are two sites nearby that
preserved an assemblage of ceramic material suggestive of habitation. What is surprising at
this site and its surrounding area is the dearth of arable land meaning that the community
working the vein of copper had to be supplied by an agricultural support village some 2 km
distant. The support villages and production sites fell under the control of larger political
centers on the island who then benefited from the export of copper around the Eastern
Mediterranean.
Greece
While I worked in Cyprus, I spent a part of every summer documenting a site in Greece.
Situated in the southeastern Corinthia the site of
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/a-working-paper-on-lakkaskoutara-in-the-corinthia/) Lakka
Skoutara ((http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4) and here) is a collection
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of nearly 20 houses scattered through an upland valley and dating to the late-19th and early
20th century. Nearly every house has a cistern and a threshing floor for the processing of
wheat grown on the terraced valley walls; the remains of an olive mill and centuries-old olive
trees dot the valley bottom.. While this is not an extractive industry in the same way as oil
production or copper smelting, it nevertheless took place at the periphery of the region. The
site of Lakka Skoutara was about 5 km for the major village in the southeastern Corinthia
and only occupied seasonally during the harvest. In other words, these houses represented
temporary habitation for the families who threshed the grain or harvested olives. Each house
had the barest necessities: a cistern, an oven, and room for sleeping and for animals. These
fields fed their families and provided
Texas
A world away, in the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/north-dakotaman-camps-in-a-comparative-context/) East Texas oil boom, the Humble Oil company
(which would later become Exxon) arranged for housing for their employees near the town
of Kiglore, Texas (pop. ca. 500). The facilities ranged from five room houses with electricity
and gas for supervisors to lots where hourly employees could build or move more modest
homes in the so-called poor boy camp. Workers looking for work or filling the myriad
lower-paying or more contingent positions in support of the work in the East Texas fields
often lived in the woods around Kilgore. Over 300 people once squatted in a camp known
as Happy Hollow despite regular raids by the police. Corporate interests in providing
suitable housing for employees varied. Some looked to workforce housing to attract better
quality employees. In other cases, camps provided an opportunity to reinforce social
boundaries between the different ranks of employees in the oil patch. Whatever the case,
the camps served the needs of a rapidly expanding workforce.
Qatar
The rapid growth of the Gulf states on the back of oil and gas capital has led to the massive
influx in temporary labor. The tiny nation of Qatar, for example, hosts close to 350,000
Nepalese workers in a nation of fewer than a quarter million inhabitants.
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abstraction more than get their hands dirty with the complexities of ancient politics or the
economy.
The first time I taught the class, I started slowly and kept work that had to be produced
outside of class to a minimum. Most of the outside of class work focused on reading. This
year, however, I have set the class up so that class time is dedicated to conceptual and
organization work which has to be executed fully outside of class time.
This has prompted more complaints about how the groups are functioning and has shown
the logistical challenges of, say, ordering books or balancing individual expectations against
the work of the group. The more work that has to take place outside of class time the more
pressure there is for the groups to function successfully.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/) For more on my Scale-Up
adventures go here.
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Campus looks great under a new layer of snow and with dramatic blue skies in the
background.
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use the modest tools at my disposal to get results that I could understand as meaningful.
Shawn's talk once again motivated me try to do some topic modeling and text analysis and
he and Sebastian Heath reminded us all that much of archaeology is frequently about TEXT.
Excavation notebooks, published reports, survey documents, all produce unstructured
textual records for archaeological sites. In some sense, our ability to make sense of the
material past is only as good as our ability to understand its textual representation. Just as
we have invested energy into using more and more sophisticated digital tools to capture
archaeological data at the edge of the trench, we need to explore the resources available to
analyze bodies of text.
3. Deskilling and Social Impact of Digital Tools. I introduced the term deskilling to the
conversation in (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/practice-andmethod-in-creating-3d-models-in-archaeology/) my paper on Thursday afternoon, and it
reverberated - in various ways - throughout the conference. It made sense that we
considered how digital data capture in the field transformed the practices, skills, and
disciplinary structure of archaeology. I introduced my talk with a confession of disciplinary
and profession anxiety. I am nervous that my skill set will not only become obsolete or,
worse, render me obsolete, but also undermine the value of discipline specific skills in the
field of archaeology. At its most alarmist, my perspective offers a future where digital tools in
the field marginalize the interpretative ability of individuals or remove the space of
interpretation from the side of the trench or the walk through the landscape to the laptop
computer, office, or computer lab. Few at the conference embraced this pessimistic view,
but we all agreed that the increasingly significant role that technology plays in
archaeological data gathering holds for risks for archaeologists and the discipline of
archaeology.
4. DIY. One of the coolest confirmations that came out of the conference was just how
many projects are using do-it-yourself solutions to technological problems. From DIY aerial
photography and XRF to deploying a range of text and topic modeling applications to
published and unpublished texts, it is clear that the rapid diffusion of technologies and the
growth of the "maker" community across the entire range of disciplines and technological
interests has intersected with the long-standing tendency toward improvisation in
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archaeology to make digital archaeological practices a hotbed of DIY. What makes this
particularly intriguing is this DIY culture exists at the same time (and sometimes in the same
place) as high-profile collaborations between archaeological projects and the tech industry.
This suggests, of course, that the DIY instinct is not so much a manifestation of some kind
of strict DIY ethos (which celebrates the autonomy of the maker in response to the
increasingly pre-packaged, commodified, prescribed world of technology) as a DIY of
convenience. In other words, archaeological DIY reflects its roots in the improvised and ad
hoc approach to challenges in the field, limited resources, and difficulties accessing tools
designed for every circumstance from remote locations. This distinct genealogy is almost
enough to define a distinct species of archaeological DIY.
5. Future Proofing Your Workflow? One of the extensions of archaeological DIY is that we
began a conversation about how to future proof our archaeological workflow. For example,
using an ad hoc solution to a technological problem might continue the flow of data over a
field season or a field project, but it becomes more of an issue when the ad hoc solutions
rely on proprietary software or a series of fragile links between applications or temporary
solutions. The problem is, of course, the more we rely on software to analyze our data, the
more we have to work to preserve both the data as well as our the tools that we used to
produce our data. Propriety software is an obvious problem, but this is equally problematic
with DIY solutions that are difficult to maintain and replicate over time. So, we all thought a
bit about how to future proof our research not only to maintain consistency season-toseason, but ensure that what we did could be understood by future archaeologists.
6. Metaphors. Finally, it was fascinating to hear and consider the metaphors that
archaeologists were using to describe their digital processes. Data flowed in streams, but
was also expelled as vomit. There were rivers to cross and bridges too far. Data breathed, it
could be hard or soft, it collected in archives, and it possesses magic. It is clear that we
were both at ease talking about data as an abstract, atomic version of archaeological
evidence, but we also struggled to think about data literally. I wonder how long it'll take for
Mediterranean archaeologists to articulate a clearer vision of how data functions to produce
analysis and meaning?
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The conference was as thought provoking as it was informative. I learned as much about
digital practice as I did about concepts and theory. This is a pretty rare thing these days and
I enjoyed myself immensely.
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Slow Teaching
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/slow-teaching/
Tue, 11 Feb 2014 12:28:55 +0000
Anne Kelsch, our Director of Office of Instructional Development here at the University of
North Dakota, sent along a fascinating article on slow pedagogy. As readers of this blog
know, I've been an advocate of
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/teaching-tuesday-pace-andteaching/) becoming more aware of pace in how we teach. I have made various tweaks in
my classes to use change of pace in teaching to lure students to engage material in a more
focused way in the classroom and, at the same time, to develop the ability to think quickly
and efficiently. That being said, I also value slowing down, maintaining routines, and thinking
carefully (such as I can) both in classroom work and in assignments. In fact, I have gradually
shortened the length of assignments in my midlevel classes to allow students to focus a bit
more on the details of writing than the need to fill changes.
This article, Determining our Own Tempos by P. Shaw, B. Cole, and J. Russell appeared
in (http://www.worldcat.org/title/to-improve-the-academy-vol32-resources-for-facultyinstructional-and-organizational-development/oclc/860943738) To Improve the Academy
32 (2013) and talked about the value of slowing down and encouraging contemplation
during the classroom encounter. (To add to the quaintness of this notion, Anne sent me the
article as a photocopy, on paper, in a campus mail envelope rather than as a scan in an
email!). The article discussed the context for the "slow" movement extending it from the slow
meals phenomenon through slow writing and the larger slow living movement which
emphasizes taking pause in our every day life and managing our engagement with the
hectic pace of the mass media, the internet, and other so-called distractions.
The most significant take away from this article is the value of creating an
environment where students feel comfortable both in reflecting on their own learning and in
thinking carefully about the material or content of the class. While the article provides little
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direct advice for installing slow learning exercises in the class, they did make refer to some
techniques the authors used to create a contemplative and reflective environment for
students. Playing music before class that generates a calm environment in the classroom
(i.e. not the Meat Puppets), taking some quiet time during class to encourage thorough
consideration of an issue, and fostering group discussions that verge on the conversational
(rather than the task or goal oriented) all play a role in creating an environment more
conducive to deliberate thought than the typical classroom.
The authors then extend their model of slow pedagogy to faculty development. They
emphasize the value of quiet conversation, reflective practices, and writing groups to
transform what can be a solitary professional existence with one embedded in a community
of supportive peers. As the authors note, this will not happen naturally, but has to be
cultivated by an environment that supports particular practices.
Whether one buys slow pedagogy or even the entire slow movement, there is no doubt
that the tempo of life has come under increased scrutiny in the early 21st century.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/practice-and-method-in-creating3d-models-in-archaeology/) Just this week, for example, I coined the term slow
archaeology to describe archaeological practices that are deliberately independent of the
pace allowed by technology. I see a slow archaeology as a antidote to field practices
increasingly informed by a Taylorist obsession with efficiency.
I have also (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/08/walking-homeand-the-phenomenology-of-landscape/) sung the praises of
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/reflections-on-100-walks/) my
daily walk home (and its beauty
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/worth-the-walk/) here,
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/walk-in-the-cold/) here,
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/first-walk-of-the-year/) here,
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/cold-walk-home/) here and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/winter-walk/) here). One of the real
bummers of this winter is that I am still recovering from a broken leg and I havent returned
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to my daily walking routine. It find that it robs me of valuable time for thinking without the
distractions of digital gadgets, human distractions, or even good old fashioned texts. I will
do all I can to make sure that daily strolls are part of my life during my sabbatical year. My
daily blog writing - usually before 7 am - encourages me to take some quiet time at the start
of my day to think through problems, develop a regular practice of writing, and focus as
much on producing as consuming digital media.
Finally, we can all see the reinvigorated interest in craft behind these various slow
movements. As our culture slides more and more deeply into the totalizing grasp of late
capitalism and audit culture, we increasingly look for opportunities
to (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/simplicity-minimalism-and-theancient-ascetic/) embrace minimalism, take control of the pace of life, or just tune in by
turning off. It is probably too soon to tell whether these practices represent desperate last
ditch efforts to preserve our humanity or another chimerical return to simpler times
mediated by the relentless push of technology.
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Dwelling in the Bakken: Workforce Housing in the Bakken in a Global and Historical
Perspective
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/dwelling-in-the-bakken-workforcehousing-in-the-bakken-in-a-global-and-historical-perspective/
Wed, 12 Feb 2014 12:37:23 +0000
For those of you in the Grand Forks area, Bret Weber and I are giving a little talk down at
the Backstage Project at the Empire Theater tonight on our work in the Bakken. It is part of
the first annual International Studies Speaker Series.
title="Series_Flyer_ALL_Talks_pdf.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/series_flyer_all_talks_pdf.jpg
" alt="Series Flyer ALL Talks pdf" width="464" height="600" border="0" />
Our paper is going to be sort of a cool format, where Im going to read a short paper and
Bret is going to respond to it. This is helping me gets some words on page for our
(http://bakkenbook.wordpress.com/cfp/) Bakken Goes Boom edited book project. My
contribution to this project will probably focus on archaeology of housing in the era of late
capitalism. Its still germinating a bit
Anyway, if you cant make it down to the Empire tonight, I think were going to record our
conversation. And if youre interested in my part of tonights festivities, you can read my
short remarks below:
[scribd id=206593300 key=key-1yyunx58usnqf0m66055 mode=scroll]
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to avoid thinking that they are the general direction that online, personal publishing will go.
In archaeology, being traditionalists, we may continue to blog in a chronological format
drawing on longstanding models from the archaeological notebook or field dispatch. But as
we have started to use our web presence for more than just regular reports from the field,
we may begin to think about how the blogging platform fits can contribute to larger
enterprise of reimagining publication.
So heres my abstract for now:
From Blogs to Books
Blogging as Community, Genre, and Platform
Looking back at my first efforts to describe the blogging phenomenon among
Mediterranean archaeologists in 2008, I was reminded how the work at the intersection of
blogging and archaeology defied simple characterization. At the same times, blogs created
communities of readers and allowed for public experiments with the traditional generic
conventions of academia as bloggers reflected, speculated, and annotated their
experiences. The speed of blogging, the networks it created and relied upon, and the range
of different functions blogging served from public relations to academic notes, initiated a
key reimagining of our professional discourse by the archaeological community.
In recent years, archaeological bloggers begun to move the platform used for blogging in
the direction of a new forms of archaeological publication. It is worth noting that there is
nothing inherent in the technology of blogging that makes it incompatible with academic
publishing. In fact, even the casual, conversational style of an informal blog post can echo
the style of the more academically respectable conference paper. Moreover, new platforms
like Medium dispense with the rigid chronological formatting associated with blogs and
provide graphically sophisticated and appealing final product. More importantly, these new
forms offer both a speed of delivery absent in traditional print publications as well as space
for interaction between author and audience and can accommodate audio, video, and
interactive media that are only now being incorporated into the more digital versions of
traditional journals.
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(http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2014/02/11/kyle_cassidy_photographs_librarians_at_t
he_american_library_association.html) Kyle Cassidy photographed
librarians and (http://magpielibrarian.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/slates-this-is-what-alibrarian-looks-like-this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/) some of the really disappointing
and frankly bizarre responses to it.
(http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/02/04/metro-makeovers-for-the-abandonedstations-of-paris/) What to do with an abandoned subway station in Paris.
(http://hiddencityphila.org/2014/01/photographing-the-abandoned-city/) Some photos of
abandoned Philadelphia.
(http://www.pqed.org/2014/02/do-cities-create-their-own-unhappiness.html) Do cities
create their own (un)happiness?
(http://paulbelford.blogspot.com/2014/01/thoughts-on-protection-of-aircraft.html) Aircraft
wreck sites as scheduled ancient monuments.
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(http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2014/02/degree_of_freedom_project_earning
_a_one_year_b_a_through_moocs.html) More MOOCtastic observations.
Do any archaeologists out there (https://medium.com/m/welcome) use Medium?
What Im reading: M. L. Galaty; O. Lafe; W. E. Lee; Z.
Tafilica, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/light-and-shadow-isolation-and-interaction-in-theshala-valley-of-northern-albania/oclc/824670816) Light and shadow : isolation and
interaction in the Shala Valley of northern Albania. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology 2013.
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What Im listening to: Miles Davis, My Funny Valentine (Recorded 50 years ago this week);
Bob Dylan, Times They Are A-Changin (Released 50 years go).
title="IMG_1186.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/img_1186.jpg" alt="IMG
1186" width="450" height="337" border="0" />Bret Weber and I presenting
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/dwelling-in-the-bakken-workforcehousing-in-the-bakken-in-a-global-and-historical-perspective/) the first talk at the new
International Studies Speaker Series.
title="IMG_1188.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/img_1188.jpg" alt="IMG
1188" width="450" height="337" border="0"
/>(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/) And this is
inching closer and closer to reality
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regional studies that rely on the collection and organization of archaeological information.
Conceiving of archaeological evidence as data has also made it easier for projects to speak
to each other and to forge, fragile, but real generalizations about the ancient Mediterranean
as a cultural, economic, and political unit.
1. New Archaeology. The emergence of New Archaeology in the 1950s encouraged the
use of the scientific method produce archaeological knowledge. While scientific practices
had long validated archaeological practices, with the New Archaeology, the attendant rigor
in data collection and interpretation supported the development of methods and a
methodological discourse that privileged quantitative analysis (although not exclusively) as
the way to bridge the gap between object and the human behaviors constituent of culture.
This is an oversimplification, of course (after all this is a blog!), but my description of the
New Archaeology summarizes a strain in this movement that informed intensive pedestrian
survey in the Mediterranean with its emphasis on diachronic, regional level developments.
2. Technology. Technology accelerated the impact of New Archaeology on field practices.
The ability of computers to facilitate and normalize the collection of large data sets, to
analyze them, and to plot these spatially has spurred a massive wave of data driven
archaeological projects. Technology has streamlined both analysis and data collection in the
field and has subtly shifted the object of study from actual objects, places, and spaces to
data. (I do realize that archaeological notebooks and non-normalized, open field field
recording is a kind of data, but archaeologists have only recently started to analyze these
kinds of unstructured datasets in a sophisticated way.) Technology has produced field work,
then, as data collection and tools ranging from DTMs, GPS units, iPads, and even the lowly
clicker, serve to normalize how we describe the archaeological environment to allow for
more efficient analysis.
Technology has also contributed to the deskilling of the field archaeologist by tending
toward automated and more atomized tasks designed to produce bits of information
suitable for efficient analysis. This kind of archaeological
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylorism) Taylorism fit into larger scientific movements in the
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my own field experiences and the values of archaeologists with whom I have worked.
1. Teach Technique Before Technology. At a recent conference, one of the undergraduate
participants insisted that archaeology programs could do more to prepare students to use
technology in the field. While technology has certainly come to play a key role in
archaeological data collection, I suspect her mentors spent more time talking about field
techniques and concepts than the various mediating technologies. An emphasis on
technique grounds practice in disciplinary knowledge whereas an emphasis on technology
offers the short-term promise of a transferable skill (often of immediate value to an
employer) but erodes the ability to recognize the continuum of knowledge production that
begins with procedure, continues through methods and analysis, and culminates in
interpretation. To be fair, most of the better programs and field schools emphasize
technique over technologies.
2. Reflection. Recently, (http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/the-power-of-patience)
scholars have come to appreciate the value of reflection in the classroom and have begun
to recommend that students (and, indeed, faculty!) slow down and engage an object
thoughtfully and deliberately. We attempted to encourage these moments of reflection
during our field season the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project by encouraging
students and staff alike to write blog posts from time to time. These public journal entries
served the dual purpose of communicating the experience of a field project to a wider
public and encouraging some reflection during the hectic field season. Not all staff
members (or students) took advantage of this opportunity to slow down and think, but those
who did began the provided a public account of the recursive experiences of working and
living together on an archaeological process.
3. Conversation. At the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, our field director, Tom
Tartaron, introduced an idea called (http://www.jstor.org/stable/25068001) continuous
consultation mode (CCM for short). His idea derived from a permit restriction that
prevented this project from collecting ceramics from the field. As a result our ceramicists
analyzed finds in the field and were available to discuss their analysis more or less on the
spot with field team members and project directors. This process stood in contrast to a
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more traditional approach in survey archaeology where the field teams collect material and
return it to a lab or storeroom where it would be studied by ceramicists either as it came out
of the field or, more commonly, in later seasons. Whether CCM produce tangible gains in
how we collected data in the survey is open to debate, but it did ensure that our preliminary
discussion of the landscape occurred in the landscape. In fact, we often had debates later
about whether perceived changes in artifact density in the field corresponded to actual
changes in artifact density as produced by the GIS.
Another space where a slow archaeology became apparent was in the evening meals. At
most of my projects, we worked to encourage meals together as a field team and for staff
and students to sit with one another at the end of a field day. While the stuff often had
pressing responsibilities, this pause in the hectic routine gave everyone the chance to
interact in a less harried and formal environment. As a field walker in the Eastern Korinthia
Archaeological Survey, I learned as much from informal conversations at dinner as I did in
the field.
4. Artists. At the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project and on the
(http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/) North Dakota Man Camp Project we attempted
to include artists on our field team whenever funding permitted.
(http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/exhibits/show/toposchora) The contribution of these
artists to the visual archive for these projects has been immeasurable. They also showed us
how to look at our landscapes differently. This does not simply refer to the view through
their camera lens, but extends to the process of
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/emerging-cyprio/) viewing
the landscape. Watching Joe Patrow or Ryan Stander move through the landscape and
position themselves to observe our work encouraged me to become more aware of how
archaeological practice located our bodies in the field. As importantly, it reminded me how
the pace of archaeological field work was only one frame for encountering the landscape
and producing a meaningful response.
5. Description. One of the contributors to Punk Archaeology decided it would be clever to
submit a handwritten manuscript. This was very punk (and a pain in the ass). He has also
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Civilization survey and upper level courses in the history of Greece and the history of Rome.
A completed Ph.D. in history or related field is preferred but ABDs will be considered.
Send an application PDF that contains a letter of application, vita or dossier, a statement of
not more than two single-spaced pages describing teaching and research interests,
evidence of teaching ability (if available), and copies of graduate transcripts to
und.ancienthistorysearch@und.edu. The application also requires three letters of reference
that can be sent electronically to the same address or that can be mailed to: Chair, Ancient
History Search Committee, Department of History, University of North Dakota, O'Kelly Hall
Room 208, 221 Centennial Drive Stop 8096, Grand Forks, ND, 58202-8096. Deadline for
ensuring full consideration is March 15, 2014.
The University of North Dakota is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. The
University of North Dakota encourages applications from women and minorities. The
University of North Dakota determines employment eligibility through the E-Verify System.
North Dakota veterans' preference does not apply to this position.
This position is not subject to a criminal history background check.
The University of North Dakota complies with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus
Security Policy & Campus Crime Statistics Act. Information about UND campus
security and crime statistics can be found at http://und.edu/discover/_files/docs/annualsecurity-report.pdf.
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So this semester, Ive intensified the class by introducing more, longer writing assignments
earlier in the semester. I eliminated the individual midterm exam and replaced it with a series
of three, 1000-word essay produced by each table. The essays cover the Greek, Roman,
and Medieval periods and provide a broad overview of the material in the class while giving
the students a good bit of flexibility in how they engage it.
This approach has had three interrelated side-effects:
1. Hard Work. Last semester, I had very few complaints about the class being too
challenging. I had chalked this up to my easy going attitude and ability to encourage
students to be their best. It may have been, however, that the class was not very hard. This
semester, there is a constant low rumble of the course being too challenging. Students
have begun to yearn for the warm and familiar experience of lectures and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/student-resistance/) signs of
resistance have appeared.
I am interested in determining whether the increased opportunities for student interaction in
the Scale-Up room presents better opportunities for concerted student resistance. I am
committed to recognizing many common forms of disruptive student behavior (laziness,
apathy, disengagement, et c.) as forms of resistance and working both to accommodate
these behaviors as legitimate expressions of student ideas without accommodating them
entirely. I usually attempt to take student behavior seriously and I am rare to dismiss it as a
student not ready to be in college or to take offense.
2. Group Breakdown. For example, there has become a relative stark division between
individuals in the groups who want to work hard, grasp the material, and produce text, and
those who are really into (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flappy_Bird) Flappy Birds. Ive been
particular fascinated by students who have just admitted to their groups that they are lazy
and will not do the work. While, on the one hand, their honest is impressive. On the other
hand, they have made their resistance to the learning process pretty obvious. This has not
endeared them to their groups but it does provide me with a clear statement of intent
(explicit admissions of laziness are far easier to accommodate than confusion,
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disengagement, or absenteeism).
Interestingly, the more engaged students in the groups seem far more concerned that lazy
students will get credit for their hard work than the laziness of individuals within a group will
effect the grades of the group as a whole. As a result, I spent a good bit of time reassuring
groups that the hard work of some individuals will not benefit their more lazy classmates.
3. Late Work. Along with the break down in group dynamics, there has been a slow down in
work production. Last semester, my course required relatively little work outside of the
classroom. This semester, I have expected my students both to prepare each week for class
and to complete group writing assignments outside the classroom. To be clear, this is not
an excessive workload for a 100 level class and usually amounts to writing less than 150
words per week and reading fewer than 100 pages.
For the midterm assignment, I have provided weekly feedback on their group writing, but so
far it has been a challenge to get groups to present their work promptly or in a sufficiently
complete way that I can provide adequate feedback. Some of this is clearly because group
dynamics have broken down, but some of this is also a simple act of resistance. In
response, I both pushed the students to refine how their groups worked and gave them an
extra week to complete the midterm.
Hopefully, I can find a balance between recognizing the legitimacy of student resistance
(even if it, frankly, gets on my nerves) and the encouraging the class to perform more
consistently.
Ill update my readers as I move forward.
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(http://www.vulture.com/2014/02/jon-stewart-on-bartending-at-a-famous-punk-club.html)
A little punk archaeology (John Stewart style) from New Jersey.
Im going to think more about the slow movement over the next six months.
(http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=242736480) This is a good place
to start (and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/toward-a-slowarchaeology-part-1/) here, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/towarda-slow-archaeology-part-2/) here, and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/slow-teaching/) here are other
points of departure).
Along similar lines, (http://xkcd.com/1331/) check out this clever comic from xkcd.
(http://southinpopculture.com/2014/02/18/faith-and-conviction-in-southern-appalachiathe-death-of-a-snake-handling-pastor/) Some thoughts on the death of a snake handling
pastor.
What Im reading: <span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans
Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.799999237061px;) M. L.
Galaty; O. Lafe; W. E. Lee; Z. Tafilica, <a style="lineheight:22.799999237061px;outline:none;text-decoration:none;color:#000000;fontweight:bold;font-size:12px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;borderbottom-color:#eeeeee;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sansserif;" href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/light-and-shadow-isolation-and-interaction-inthe-shala-valley-of-northern-albania/oclc/824670816) <em style="line-height:inherit;) Light
and shadow : isolation and interaction in the Shala Valley of northern<span
style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sansserif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.799999237061px;) Albania. Cotsen Institute of
Archaeology 2013.
What Im listening to: Angel Olson, Burn Your Fire For No Witness; Nina Simone, Sings
the Blues; Nina Simone, High Priestess of Soul. (For her birthday!)
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title="photo.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/photo.jpg"
alt="Photo" width="450" height="336" border="0" />Compliments of Susie
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Friday Afternoon
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/friday-afternoon/
Fri, 21 Feb 2014 20:43:19 +0000
title="IMG_0018.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/img_0018.jpg" alt="IMG
0018" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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a process deeply concerned with the manipulation of time (pdf), then perhaps I was
misguided to assign such significance to New Archaeology. Maybe it is the entire process
of discipline building that has fueled the quickening and deskilling of archaeological
practice. (Ive flirted with an understanding of history as craft for some years now
and(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/the-historians-craft-and-thecraft-of-history/) most recently here.)
2. Gramsci. In my new formulation, the growing interest in technology and the increasingly
granular and atomistic methods for collecting archaeological data are inseparable from the
roots of contemporary practice and disciplinary structure within the university. In fact, the
coincident development of industrialization and capitalism and the basic institutions of
contemporary society ensured that the very terrain of disciplinary knowledge is inseparable
from alternate modes of production grounded in craft or other forms of embodied
knowledge. For Gramsci, changes in the base (in our case, changes in technologies that
directly impact field practices) and the superstructure (the larger disciplinary project of
archaeology) are inseparable.
3. Pre-Disciplinary Archaeology. If we accept, then, that the process of discipline creation
created a particular terrain on which the expansion of technology and deskilling could take
place, then there may be little within the discipline of archaeology to subvert these trends. In
fact, it has taken me a good bit of time to understand that work of scholars like
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/the-archaeological-imagination/)
Michael Shanks to ground the archaeological imagination in pre-disciplinary practices is an
effort to argue for the existence of archaeological knowledge outside of its disciplinary
development. Reflections on embodied knowledge, experience, and encounters with the
landscape for example, propose ways of knowing that resist the methodological pressures
associated with diciplinarity. Following E.P. Thompsons lead, Shanks reminds us that
humans understood their physical world, landscapes, and objects prior to the hegemonic
authority of disciplinary archaeology. There is another way.
4. Kundera and Forgetting. This weekend, I read through
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/slowness/oclc/34285156) Milan Kunderas novella
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Slowness. It is a quick, elegant read (I couldnt resist!), and he makes this point:
There is a secret bond between slowness and memory, between speed and forgetting In
existential mathematics, that experience takes the form of two basic equations: the degree
of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is
directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.
The book is archaeological at its core interweaving the reflections of the narrator (and
author) with three stories arranged stratigraphically throughout the novel. The stories occur
in the same place as the narrator and his wife (presumable in the present) but on takes
place slightly earlier and the other much earlier (in the 18th century). Despite the temporal
displacement, the stories intersect so freely that by the end time collapses and a character
from the 18th century story and from the slightly earlier 20th century story appear to the
narrator. The deliberate pace of the novel preserves the stories within it, but not in their neat
stratigraphic levels. The intensity of memory allows the neatly partitioned fabric of the stories
to collapse defying the speed induced divisions between the past and the now.
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Long Day
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/24/long-day/
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 00:17:21 +0000
title="LongDay.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/longday.jpg" alt="LongDay"
width="450" height="613" border="0" />
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West with mining camps, timber camps, and oil camps, contributed to expansion of a set of
domestic values, hierarchies, and class relations nurtured in the East and then pushed out
with the expansion of industry.
That the Bakken formation is geographically part of the American West (as typically defined
) and subjected to a kind of extractive economy most closely associated with historical
processes taking place in the American West is a coincidence and should not necessarily
impose a geographic limitation on how we understand this phenomenon. At the same time,
the historical study of North Dakota has long recognized certain themes fundamental to the
development of communities in the state.(http://historyrfd.net/isern/431/6themes.htm)
Elwyn Robinson famously articulated 6 themes: remoteness, dependence, radicalism,
economic disadvantage, the too-much mistake, and the climate of a sub-humid grassland.
While the application of these themes to all historical problems in the history of the state is
perhaps ill-advised, the influence of these ideas on how North Dakotans imagine
themselves and understand their history is important. For example, the challenges of
adapting existing infrastructure to the growing workforce in the Bakken counties could
easily be articulated in the context of the too-much mistake which described the overlyambitious investment in infrastructure at the foundation of the state. Moreover, Robinsons
understanding of the remoteness, dependence, and economic disadvantage of the sparsely
populated North Dakota prairie fit well within later understandings of periphery favored by
world systems theorists and others committed to core-periphery models.
Articulating workforce housing in the Bakken as part of the American West likewise frames
how we understood settlement in the area from an archaeological and architectural
perspective. Historically, scholars have used archaeology to document temporary
settlements associated with extractive industries and construction in the West. As William
Cronon reminds us in (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/more-onman-camps/) his remarkable study of the town and mine at Kennecott, Alaska, the remains
of these sites serve as physical reminders of the increasingly integrated global economy of
the early 20th century which made it possible to extract copper from veins deep within the
earth, transport a workforce, supplies and ore via rail, and sustain these activities at a
remote location in central Alaska. Likewise workforce housing camps associated with the
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Bakken oil boom, particularly the Type 1 variety, represents a century old tradition realized in
distinctly 21st century materials, infrastructure, and plans.
John Bickerstaff Jackson, another great 20th century student of the American West,
recognized in the mobile homes of the four-corners region the direct predecessors of our
Type 2 camps. He described the momentary appearance of trailer courts with their solitary
cinderblock common room designated for laundry. These settlements appear across the
borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona often to house a pipeline or
construction crew and last only as long as the project. For Jackson, these mobile homes
represented part of long tradition of housing in the New World that began with the
temporary wooden houses of the first European settlers on the East Coast and continued
through the balloon frame homes of the 19th century to the box houses and mobile homes
of the 20th century. The latter forms moved west with the surging populations and soon
became a defining feature of the Western landscape. While many of Jacksons essays do
not reward too much scrutiny, he nevertheless recognized the importance of mobile housing
for the requirements of wartime production, post war shifts in settlement, and the baby
boom in the American West.
Just as RVs came to symbolize the leisure time pursuits of the mobile, post-war, middle
class, the mobile home and RV emerged as alternate housing solutions for an increasingly
mobile workforce who came to work in the American West, including the Bakken, when
opportunity called. Low population density, uneven access to utilities and other
infrastructure, the presence of large-scale construction projects and extractive industries,
and a temporary workforce that is accustomed to mobility contributed a distinctly Western
character of the Bakken.
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small selection of primary sources, and lots of tips and pointers how to find more sources.
For example, I directed students working on the Archaic economy to Hesiods Works and
Days and nudged students looking at the Classical economy to Xenophons Oeconomicus.
In other cases, such as Athenian politics of the Classical period, sources are more readily
obvious.
In an introductory history course, Im less concerned about students being right (whatever
that means) and producing accurate historical content, than I am with them developing the
confidence to explore a topic in an independent way, to formulate an approach to
presenting what they learned, and to write a section of a chapter setting out their
interpretation of the past.
It is interesting to note how students respond to this freedom of analysis.
1. Demand Definition. Some students demand that we provide them with more formal
definition of their topics. Particularly troublesome to students are the borders between
social, cultural, and economic history. While professional historians rarely set firm
boundaries between these arbitrary categories of historical analysis, my students struggled
to understand what topics might be acceptable in their chapters.
Some of this reflects a problematic understanding of such broad and abstract concepts as
culture and social history (and my rather superficial explanations to the entire class were
unsatisfactory). More important, it speaks to how students in this 100 level history class
expect firm divisions within their own classroom experiences and in the production of
disciplinary knowledge.
So as faculty and administrators continue to talk excitedly about breaking through
boundaries and escaping silos that define our disciplinary knowledge and ways of
knowing, our students continue to look for rigid divisions in disciplinary structure.
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2. Putting the Cart before the Horse. At the start of the give students a little list of things
that they should do, in order, to write their chapters. Heres the list:
1. Collect Evidence
2. Concoct a Thesis
3. Develop Outline
4. Write Draft
5. Share Draft
6. Peer Review
7. Revise Draft
8. Submit draft
Despite this list, groups get eager to delve into the writing component of the assignments
and will often start to write, get frustrated, and ask for help before even formulating a thesis
or establishing an outline. With words staring at them from the page, they quickly become
frustrated that they cant marshal order from their hastily arranged ideas.
Other groups, jump on the first three or four examples that they can find and attempt to
force these into order. They then become frustrated when they cant write a thesis that
brings together combine randomly selected bit of information.
Managing student frustrations as they figure out how to push their way through these
assignments is my biggest challenge right now. I am impressed by students willingness to
dive right into a complex assignment, but I wish I was better at managing their energies.
3. Critiques and Revisions. One of the challenges that Im looking forward to addressing
this next week is getting students to provide critical feedback to their peers and taking this
feedback constructively as they revise their drafts. Much like the ambiguity associated with
the assignment itself, students often want a single body of clear directions in the revision
process rather than a conflicting mass of suggestions from their peers. Getting the students
to filter the peer reviews and focus their revisions is among the most challenging (and
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The work of Given and Knapp as well as Galaty et al. in Albania perhaps are the first group
of genuinely 3rd wave survey projects. They continued to include some aspect of artifactlevel intensive survey, but they have embedded this work in a range of complementary
historical, ethnohistorical, architecture, and environmental studies. If the second wave
focused on the artifact as the most basic archaeological component of the region, then
third-wave survey returns to considering the region as a holistic entity, defined by the
interplay between historical, ethnographic, and environmental narratives, while at the same
time acknowledging the autonomy of artifact distribution patterns.
In the Shala Valley, Galaty et al. considered the history of interaction and isolation in this
region over five years of ethnohistoric archaeology. The final publication is an impressive
body of integrated studies that see the region as a negotiated periphery of a series of extraregional cores ranging from the Ottomans to the various versions of the modern Albanian
state. The residents of Shala negotiated their interaction with these larger political entities
through varying degrees of resistance and accommodation manifest in the history,
architecture, demography, and economy of the area. In no way was the periphery passive.
The intensive survey of 1000 units across the valley produced remarkably little pottery, but it
did reveal that the valley saw occupation in both early prehistoric times (including by
Neanderthal hunting parties!) and later prehistoric times and likely in the Late Roman and
Medieval periods as well as the better known Ottoman and modern occupations. It was
interesting to note that the authors spent almost no time reciting the standard
methodologies related to intensive pedestrian survey. There was little discussion of sample
size, visibility adjusted densities, or off site scatters. It would have been interesting, for
example, to know a bit more about whether
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/more-on-manuring-in-the-mostrecent-hesperia-or-sherds-and-turds-ii/) manuring associated with local farming practices
contributed to the scatter of artifacts near houses. The obsession with artifact-level
distributional analysis so characteristic of second wave survey is not evident in this volume
and this does not detract from its larger arguments.
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The study of the houses in Shala revealed strategies adopted by its residents to protect
their occupants from the tradition of blood feuds in the area, to maintain meaningful
economic units, and eventually to subvert communist era efforts to collectivize farming in the
valley. The introduction of new world crops like maize and potatoes made it possible for the
valley to support larger populations. All these trends reveal that the residents of the valley
recognized their isolation as a strategic asset that played a key part in how they negotiated
their engagement with the wider world.
Intensive survey in the valley revealed the large settlement at strategically-located and
heavily-terraced site of Grunas which the Shala valley team subjected to excavation and
intensive documentation. They excavated the site carefully and subjected an impressive
sample of the finds to scientific analysis. This work demonstrated that the settlement at
Grunas was nucleated and defensible, but perhaps associated with transhuments who
brought their flocks to the valley in the summer months. The construction of such an
impressive site for seasonal occupation is difficult to understand, but perhaps suggests that
the control of summer pastures plays a part in ideologies of regional control and authority.
I was particularly curious to hear that the residents of the valley were traditionally Catholic.
The detailed typological study of inscribed signs on houses demonstrated that religious
observation operated both on the domestic and communal level. It was strange, however,
that the authors did not query communal religious expression more carefully. The book
lacked any treatment of the churches in the valley and aside from a few brief comments
about their location within settlements, it was not clear whether churches played a role in
structuring the inhabited space of the valley. I was also interested in whether the Catholic
faith of the valleys residents, which by all accounts was idiosyncratic, contributed to the
status of the valley as negotiated periphery.
The continued flourishing of intensive, regional level, projects in the Eastern Mediterranean
has pushed the practice forward in key ways. The emergence of third wave survey
projects has moved regional level studies away from the New Archaeology inspired fixation
on distribution patterns and methodologies, and toward a thoughtfully considered
transdisciplinary approaches that see artifact scatters as only part of the larger study of the
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landscape. To be fair, first and second wave surveys have shared this interest in historical,
environmental, and ethnographic studies of the landscape, but third wave survey projects
integrate these studies with artifact level survey in a much more complex and thorough way.
The arguments advanced in (http://www.worldcat.org/title/light-and-shadow-isolation-andinteraction-in-the-shala-valley-of-northern-albania/oclc/824670816) Light and Shadow:
Isolation and Interaction in the Shala Valley of Northern Albania establish a compelling new
direction in the archaeological understanding of regions.
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(http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/24/keeping-jazzs-rhythm-with-a-shutter/) The
photography of jazz musicians by Aram Avakian.
(http://www.faithistorment.com/2014/02/sunsets-photos-by-thomas-weinberger.html) I
like these photographs too.
(http://und.edu/features/2014/02/paul-worley.cfm) Congratulations to my good buddy
Paul Worley on the publication of his book.
(http://www.openculture.com/2014/02/raymond-chandlers-ten-commandments-forwriting-a-detective-novel.html) Ive probably posted this before, but Raymond Chandlers
Ten Commandments for Writing a Detective Novel are useful tips for any writing.
I watched Ghost Busters this week (see below) and was struck by the scene in the movie
which showed the Ghost Busters on the cover of Omni Magazine. Well,
(http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/02/omni-advertisements/) heres something about
Omni Magazine.
(http://www.esquire.com/blogs/news/ghostbusters-oral-history) And here is an oral history
of Ghost Busters.
(http://annyas.com/screenshots/warner-bros-logo/) Along similar lines, heres a visual
history of the Warner Brothers logo.
What Im reading:(http://www.worldcat.org/title/in-praise-of-slowness-how-a-worldwidemovement-is-challenging-the-cult-of-speed/oclc/55495224) C. Honor, In Praise of
Slowness. HarperSanFrancisco 2004.
What Im listening to: Beck, Morning Phase; St. Vincent, St. Vincent.
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Basement Archaeology
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/03/04/basement-archaeology/
Tue, 04 Mar 2014 12:34:30 +0000
One of the advantages of riding my bike indoors (on a stationary magnetic trainer) is that I
get to look around the basement a bit more closely. Since
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/placing-our-new-old-house/) we
moved into this house in 2011, weve been trying to sort out its architectural phases.
Fortunately, the house has only seen one major addition (but the changes to the interior
space of the house are substantially more complicated).
Like many homes in Grand Forks, it received an addition on the back (west) of the house
probably with indoor plumbing. The original back wall of the house then became the
plumbing wall with both the upstairs and downstairs bathroom (both of uncertain date)
being located just to the interior of the original back wall of the house.
title="OurHouseca1900.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/ourhouseca1900.jpg"
alt="OurHouseca1900" width="450" height="338" border="0" />
This photograph from around 1900 shows the addition with a drain pipe or a piece of
moulding just beyond the second window on the side visible above marking the west wall of
the original house.
Looking at the beams used in the new addition, I couldnt help but notice a few loose nails.
So after wiggling a few of them (and noticing that they were not in structurally sensitive
places), I decided that I should remove one for closer examination. After
(http://www.sha.org/CF_webservice/servePDFHTML.cfm?fileName=32-2-06.pdf) reading
around a bit on the internets, I was able to identify and date this nail with some confidence.
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Here it is:
title="Nail3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/nail3.jpg"
alt="Nail3" width="450" height="269" border="0" />
What we have here is, if Im not mistaken, an iron, grain-in-line, face-pinched, cut nail. The
crack running along the face is clearly visible as is the nicely pinched face.
title="Nail.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/nail.jpg"
alt="Nail" width="450" height="128" border="0" />
The head on this nail is slightly smashed, but is square and consistent with the pinchedface. The nail type would dates easily to the 19th century with the massive crack along the
face suggesting - according to Tom Wells 1998 typology - an earlier rather than later date
for this type.
title="Nail Head.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/nailhead.jpg" alt="Nail Head" width="447" height="600" border="0" />
These are the most common nails of this period and while the cracked face makes me
wonder a bit, they are nevertheless consistent with the late 19th century date for the
addition to our house. As my wife sagely observed, a nail dating to a decade or two earlier
than the addition may simple indicate the use of older construction materials available at
hand or the relatively outdated supply available in a small, rural community in the new state
of North Dakota.
While Ill never say its fun to own an old house, these little archaeological project do make a
blustery, snowy, and cold March morning more interesting.
Do let me know if you can either refine my chronology of this nail or tell me that Im hopeless
and should stick to Early Christian basilicas.
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words, one essay asks the students to go from the specific to the general and the other
asks students to go from the general to the specific. This is fairly standard stuff in my class.
This semester, I only have 10 students in the class, probably because I scheduled it late in
the afternoon. The students are good and conscientious. So, Ive decided to experiment a
bit and off an optional oral midterm exam. It will be one-on-one, in my office, and run for 20
minutes in two, ten-minute sections, each of which will begin with a single question that is
not fundamentally dissimilar to the questions that I will ask on the written midterm. My plan
is to use this question as a point of departure for a conversation that probes the extent of a
students familiarity with a particular topic.
Ive decided to experiment with oral exams for three reasons.
1. Discussions are good. My students have not been entirely comfortable discussing
primary sources and complex issues like historiography and the philosophy of history in a
classroom setting. Prompted in the right way or painted into a corner, they tend to respond
in ways that demonstrate a much greater understanding of issues than they would in
a typical classroom conversation. The idea of an oral exam is to draw the students into a
conversation about a complex topic and to give them confidence to engage challenging
material.
At the same time, some of my colleagues have experimented with oral responses to written
papers and exams. These are recorded in our Blackboard course management system and
appended to the student paper. While I havent done this yet, my colleagues report that oral
comments seem to have a significant impact on the students and work to establish a
stronger relationship between teacher and student as well as communicate more effectively
the strengths and weaknesses of student work.
The spoken word can be more engaging, transparent, and familiar than the written.
2. Exams are fake writing. As much as I liked the challenge of taking an exam, I have come
to see essay exams as a kind of fake writing. Fueled by anxiety, misguided strategy, and the
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relentless ticking of the clock, in-class, essay tests are a catastrophe of compromises that
almost always produce disappointing results. While all student writing assignments are in
some ways artificial, essay tests are among the most problematic with time constraints,
handwritten answers (in an era where most students type their work), and bodies of
evidence limited by student memory (rather than the abundance of the internet).
3. The class is small. Oral exams will take about 30 minutes per student (thats 20 minutes
of conversation and at least 5 minutes of note taking afterward). Even for 10 students, this
will be close to 5 hours. Fortunately, a handful of students will opt for the traditional written
exam so it will probably only 3 hours of student exams. It is hard to imagine doing this in this
class if it was even the standard size of 30 students.
There are drawbacks to oral exams, of course. Some students might be intimidated by
being in a faculty members office and the oral interview will certainly benefit students who
think better on the spot. Ive also wondered whether male students might be more at ease
in an office conversation than female students.
A small class that is due to for revision is the perfect place for experimenting with some new
techniques. I think I have most of the variables sorted out in the class, and I have a robust
sample of past written exams carved in my memory. Im not sure that oral exams will
become a major part of my pedagogical toolbox, but a little experimentation right before
sabbatical cant hurt too much.
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Any argument for the Bakkens peripheral location implies the perspective of the core, but in
the 21st century localizing the core is not at all easy to do or clear. The old national cores of
the 19th and early 20th century or of the first wave of globalizing capitalism have largely
receded from immediate importance (although the Bakken is peripheral to these locations
as well). In their place, we have the oddly decentered (and dislocated) cores presented by
transnational corporations and their myriad (often obscured) subsidiaries. In short, the core
is no longer a particular place, but a concentration of authority, capital, and technology that
can be deployed in the periphery very quickly.
If we can accept that the core is a non-place (that is outside of any clearly understandable
spatial relationships; a shinny office tower in Houston can be for a company incorporated in
Delaware), then the periphery becomes merely the area or field in which the core articulates
its authority. Peripheries become non-places too. We have noticed this on the ground in
the Bakken as (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-northdakota-work-camps-1/) Type 1 man camps tend to be nondescript modular units that are
as at home on the North Dakota prairie as in anywhere in the world (or are equally alien in all
places). The same might be said for the massive drill rigs that can be disassembled,
shipped around the world, and reassembled for their task and operated by the same crew.
The collapse of place is vexing for the archaeologist who assume that social relations
occupy recognizable spatial perimeters and transform space (which is empty) into place
which has meaning. The place making exercise also has a temporal dimension in that it
relies on time to deny the contemporaneity of object in order to make it accessible for study.
This temporal displacement is typically the first step in the historical or archaeological
project. We have to recognize something as an object of study and space must become
place (that is, instilled with social, historical, temporal or other relations) to be knowable.
Traditionally, the work of the nation played a central role in creating places even if it was the
nation as refracted through local agents. And the disciplines of archaeology and history
developed in parallel (and in collusion with) the nation and emphasized and contributed to
similar place-making activities. In other words, history and archaeology are very good at
making meaning from place, but not as good at understanding the transnational non-places
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Atari and archaeology: (http://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/2014/03/07/breaking-atariburial-ground-excavations-and-documentary/) this is so cool and potentially important for
how we understand the archaeology of 21st century capitalism.
(http://nplusonemag.com/train-in-vain) Writers on the train. This is a cool and clever idea.
Some cool stuff on Philadelphia this week. First,
(http://www.phillyhistory.org/blog/index.php/2014/01/fifty-years-before-the-war-onpoverty/) some photographs of Philadelphia slum from the early 20th century. Next,
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/opinion/sunday/the-sound-of-philadelphia-fadesout.html) the decline of the Philadelphia accent. Finally,
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3lZFiyd_-0) a little primer on how some folks talked
where I grew up.
(http://www.tourlentes.com/Stephen_Tourlentes_Web_site/Photographs.html#0)
Landscape photos of prisons with death row.
(http://demnpl.com/2014/03/04/kiara-kraus-parr-seek-n-d-dem-npl-endorsementattorney-general/) Good luck to Kiara Kraus-Parr/Jendrysik in her run for state attorney
general!
What Im reading: M. Weimer, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/learner-centered-teachingfive-key-changes-to-practice/oclc/818865862) Learner-Centered Teaching: Five Key
Changes to Practice. Second Edition. 2013.
What Im listening to: The New Puritans, Fields of Reeds. Beck, Sea Change.
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Learning-Centered Teaching
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/learning-centered-teaching/
Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:26:44 +0000
This morning, Im off to a faculty seminar organized by our Office of Instructional
Development. The seminar will discuss the new edition of M. Weimers
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/learner-centered-teaching-five-key-changes-topractice/oclc/818865862) Learner-Centered Teaching (2013). The book is well-known to
folks interested in finding new ways to reach students in the classroom and questioning the
traditional commitment to lecture style classes. Her book provides a useful summary the last
two decades of work to shift the teaching environment into one that moves the learner and
learning to the fore. Most of the techniques she espouses involve giving up some authority
to the students in the class as a way to get them to buy into the learning process. The book
has obvious parallels with my efforts in the Scale-Up classroom this semester.
Despite the acclaim and the good intentions, these kinds of books (and this one in
particular) leave me a bit cold. Heres why:
1. The Problem. Like many books of this kind, the author assumes that the existing system
of higher education has a problem that learning centered teaching can fix.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/some-thoughts-on-academicallyadrift/) The problem is ill-defined, but revolves around student engagement, the absence of
deep learning, and sense of frustration that many faculty members (myself included!) feel
when entering a tradition classroom. While there certainly is a feeling of crisis in higher
education these days, the cause for these problems are hard to pinpoint. Maybe its
students have changed, perhaps its the technology, maybe its the expansion of audit
culture, or perhaps we as faculty have changed in some way that has put us out of touch
with our students. One thing is clear: the problem remains far more poorly defined than
the myriad solutions. This book is no exception. The point of departure is that we, as faculty,
can do better than soldier on with traditional methods of teaching, and most of the
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scholarship that she marshals assumes that the current system is some how broken.
2. Who is the learner? Like one would expect, she locates the solutions to the current
problem (however defined) in the classroom and the shift from a teacher centered
approach to a learning centered approach to eduction. As a college-level educator, I
agree with her call to change how we teach, but I remain skeptical that changing what we
do in the classroom alone will somehow transform student expectations and practices. The
entire culture of student learning in the U.S. revolves around teacher centered activities,
and, while this might be changing, the response of students to our learning centered
environment remain deeply conditioned by the consistency of traditional teaching practice.
In other words, I am skeptical that the success of learning centered teaching comes from it
being better as much as from it being different. Its difference depends upon the relatively
stable landscape teacher centered learning in secondary and post-secondary eduction
today.
3. Do we really share authority? For Weimer, sharing authority in course design is a key
step in shifting from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered classroom. Students may be
reluctant at first, but they enthusiastically respond to opportunities to become involved in
course design, deciding on activities and even point values within a class. I am hesitant to
see this as sharing authority as, in my experience, student decision making is pretty
predictable and in most cases we are not ready to allow students to access inner sanctum
of learning or content goals for the class. In other words, the most important things that
faculty author remain set apart from student input. Weimers suggestion then, reads more
like a stratagem or teaching trick than actual ceding of authority to students.
That being said, my experience is that students generally want to remain in their comfort
zones and for classes to be more traditional (i.e. teacher-centered) than learning-centered.
While we can certainly load the deck so that students have to share experience of the class
within a learning-centered paradigm (and Weimer advocates as much), there remains a vast
grey area between the edges of our authority as experts and student expectations for a
class. Ive allowed students to push into the area of course and content goals in the past
and found it fairly disconcerting. How and where to set the limit for shared authority remains
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unclear.
My skepticism toward book runs the risk of overshadowing some of the really positive things
that I learned from it.
1. The Learning-Centered Classroom. I shifted to more of learning-centered teaching
method because I began to have anxiety attacks when attempting to lecture to a large
auditorium style classroom. I have no idea why these attacks started, but they were
paralyzing and deeply unpleasant with side-effects lasting for days. As a result, I changed
my teaching style and started using classroom time as laboratory time where students
worked to solve historical problems, interrogate primary sources, and produce historical
analysis.
While I no long dread going to teach, I often find myself at loose ends during class time. In
the Scale-Up room, in particular, well designed assignments leave very little for me to do in
the classroom other than watch the students work. Weimer addresses this feeling and, in
essence, told me it was to be expected. That little reassurance, as superficial as it is, makes
a big difference in how I engage the classroom.
2. Student Failure. I am still uncomfortable with assignments that students struggle to
complete successfully, but my tolerance for failure in the classroom is increasing. I think it is
a produce of the learning-centered classroom, in fact. Students have to be given space to
approach problems on their own, make a mess, and then regroup and attack the problem in
another way. Failure in the classroom or on an assignment is a productive prelude to
innovation and, if approached in the right way, authorizes students to find their own path, to
individualize methods, and to own content.
3. Coverage and Uncoverage. I still get obsessed with coverage in my history classes, but
recently Ive become more and more interested in how LITTLE I can cover before the course
become so generic and so method driven that it loses disciplinary integrity or meaning.
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Interestingly, students push back in part because they love the stories that history offers and
they love the vast panorama of the past more than the hard work of analysis, interpretation,
and research. Balancing coverage and content with method and practice comes up again
and again in Weimers book giving me confidence to know that Im not the only one
struggling with the limits of content in a learning-centered environment.
Finally, when I put the book down on Saturday afternoon, I did think a good bit about the
large implication of learning-centered teaching. I wondered how this approach speaks to
larger changes in how universities work and what were expecting from education. On the
one hand, we can argue that focusing on learners and learning prepares them for a rapidly
changing world where their greatest skill might be their ability to learn.
On the other hand, I always worry that were teaching students to exchange traditional
forms of authority (of the teacher, for example) with a less centered and more ubiquitous
form of authority that is both everywhere and nowhere.
Ill update this post after the seminar this morning.
UPDATE: Instead of updating my post, Im going to post
(http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/dexter-perkins-und-should-renew-focusteaching-and-learning) a link to an editorial written by Dexter Perkins in our local paper. Its
relevant because he talks about some of the same kinds of learning centered approaches
that we discussed in seminar yesterday.
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As I watched my page views and visitors slowly increase over the first few years of this blog
and a few fearless colleagues start their own blogs, we began to discuss the potential of
our efforts to disrupt the standard methods of scholarly communication. Academics love to
imagine themselves to be rebellious trailblazers, but mostly were as conventional as anyone
who sits in cramped offices under florescent lights taking a paycheck and doin work. At
the same time, we do have the freedom to be a bit more unconventional than the average
cubicle jockey and we have generally been trained to challenge authority.
It is hardly a revolution to see blogging as a more interesting mode of academic
communication than the traditional scholarly routine of poorly-attended conference papers,
barely-read (much less cited) articles, and the skimmed battery of echo-chamber forged
book reviews. The appeal of academic blogging might be as simple as the regularity,
visibility, and immediacy of the content. But it might also be that bloggers have generally
developed their pages as personal vehicles and, like our favorite teachers in high school
and college, weave in their own personality throughout the posts. In contrast to the
austerely scientifical prose favored in traditional academic publications, blogs and
individual blog posts can be (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/not-agood-paper-the-art-of-digital-archaeology/) informal,
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/thinking-about-trash-in-the-mancamps-of-north-dakota/)
provisional, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/an-open-letter-to-ournew-provost-and-dean/)
flippant, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/fitness-and-thearchaeologist/) humorous, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/somecricket-archaeology/) random, and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/does-a-university-need-a-library-aresponse-to-a-response/) polemical without undermining their integrity as a academic
products. For many of us, the blog carries the our more dynamic classroom personas into
public space and toward the realm of academic publication.
Along the way, our blogs develop loyal readers, commenters (especially when combined
with the social media), and (http://englianos.wordpress.com/) like
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reluctance to engage critically their fellow students work and a tendency to put a superficial
loyalty to classmates over a longterm commitment to collective learning. The pedagogues
concerns are fixed by articulating once again, and maybe with different words, the
expectations for these papers; the teachers concerns are best resolved by some mildly
apocalyptic penalties meted out to students who offer uncritically inflated provisional grades
to their fellow students. Middle ground is probably best in this case.
With my first short article submitted on my experiences teaching in the Scale-Up room, Ive
begun to think about a follow up article or two. While Im slated for sabbatical next year, Im
sorely tempted to ask to teach in the room next spring as part of a three year research cycle
that focuses on three iterations of my class in this kind of learning-centered environment.
That would be the topic of a second article of a trilogy. The third article would look at the
relationship between learning-centered spaces and the changing architecture of higher
education with references to online teaching, MOOCs, Scale-Up rooms, and traditional
lecture bowls. This paper will take some research and more careful consideration, but
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/teaching-thursday-thepanopticon-and-online-teaching/) as this blog has suggested, our growing interest in
process and making invisible learning visible has clear echoes with 20th century modes of
industrial educations that run counter to disciplinary tendencies to history (or the larger
humanities project) as craft.
For more of my reflections on teaching in the
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/) Scale-Up go here.
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perspective of political geography, its location is curious as it represents one of three large
settlement sites on Larnaka bay alongside Hala Sultan Tekke and Bronze Age Kition. It
remains difficult to understand the political or economic circumstances that allowed two
contemporary settlement to develop very close to each other (Hala Sultan Tekke and Kition)
and a third some 10 km to the east.
Brown focused some significant attention on the area around Pyla-Kokkinokremos and
followed our general arguments from various PKAP publications: the main asset available
for the development of Pyla littoral and Pyla-Kokkinokremos was likely the presence of a
now-infilled embayment that formed a natural harbor at the site. Moreover, for the Bronze
Age Brown has pointed out that there is evidence for earlier settlement in vicinity of PylaKokkinokremos at the sites of Steno, Pyla-Stavro, and Verghies. Each of these smaller, less
monumental sites, demonstrated a population who may have already availed themselves to
some of the environmental assets of the region.
For Brown, the catalyst for the development of the monumental site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos
was the maritime connections available through the natural embayment at the base of the
plateau. Without entirely dismissing sites fortified character, he gently suggests that the
casemate wall was more architecturally imposing than militarily robust. There is evidence albeit unpublished and only obliquely mentioned in this article (although possibly not an
uninterrupted fortification) - that the casemate walls had openings to the exterior of the
settlement. Brown noted that this would not have detracted from the appearance of the
walls at the site, but would have reduced their quality as fortification. Perhaps, then, the wall
around Kokkinokremos was more of a mark of civic identity in the region and its orientation
toward the sea.
The maritime orientation of the site perhaps indicated strong connections with the Levant.
Brown concludes his article with a discussion of Alashiya, a word that might refer to part of
Cyprus in Syrian and Babylonian texts. While not all scholars agree that Alashiya refers to
Cyprus, Alashiya was noted as a source of copper. Brown offers the interesting observation
that the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos is only 10 km from the copper mining area around
Troulli which was exploited at least as late as the Roman period and maybe as early as the
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Bronze Age. Perhaps, then, the location of Kokkinokremos allowed the community to
engage productively with metallurgical resources, avoid the concentration of economic and
political power at Kition and Hala Sultan Tekke.
Browns article summarizes a raft of interpretations of the Pyla littoral that both developed
during and informed the interpretation of this region that will appear in the monograph
describing our work in the wider Pyla microregion. It is good to see some of Michaels work
in print and I hope we can incorporate citations to this article in our volume.
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island from 608-610. Coins from Heracliuss successor Constans II (r. 641-668) are almost
as common. The number of coins drops precipitously after the reign of Constans II largely
owing to the decline of regional mints and the political and economic ambiguity of the island
as it passed into the strange condominium period during which both Arabs and Byzantines
had some authority on the island.
The abrupt drop in coins after the reign of Heraclius and Constans II poses an interesting
problem for archaeology on the island. Because the number of coins declined so
dramatically, we can probably assume that coins of Heraclius stayed in circulation for at
least a generation, if not more. As a result, the use of coins of Heraclius to date
archaeological features is a particular challenge. In the archaeology of Cyprus, however, this
is a common occurrence. For example, coins of Heraclius date at least a dozen of the 70odd Early Christian basilicas on the island. In most cases on Cyprus, the evidence from
ceramics or other datable artifacts from stratigraphic contexts does not accompany the
evidence from coins. Coins alone appear to date the structures.
The use of coins to date buildings, destruction levels, and stratigraphy is problematic on
archaeological grounds. Despite the appeal of coins as firmly dated artifacts, they are only
useful if they are the latest object in a level. Moreover, the absence of coins from the 8th
century on the island means that any dating by coins alone becomes problematic because
of the uneven supply of currency to the island.
The use of coins to date these basilicas to the middle decades of the 7th century reinforces
arguments for the collapse of Cypriot settlement and society at this time. In particular, the
coins of Heraclius tend to support arguments from the destruction of these buildings as a
result of the Arab raids on the island around 650. Of the 70-odd basilicas on the island,
excavators have argued that a third of them were damaged or fell out of use over the
second half of the 7th century and attributed this trend to the Arab raids.
I sometimes joke with my ceramicist friends that our continued efforts to trace the use and
production of traditional Late Roman red-slipped wares and storage amphora into the 8th
century will eventual force us to change the dates on some well-known emperors. The
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funny is that I assume we can use ceramics to date coins and then to date political events
just as coins have often been used to date ceramics. The ongoing revision of ceramic
chronologies and a more critical treatment how coins work in an archaeological context are
important steps in understanding 7th century settlement on the island.
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primary sources, individuals, and events. The less good students struggled with the most
basic recall of names, dates, and evidence. Even with my gentle nudges and prompts, some
students struggled to support even the broadest generalizations with specific details. If
anything, the oral exam environment was more frustrating than mediocre exams because the
students lost a bit of autonomy in how they could obfuscate what they didnt know. In the
oral exam environment, I tried to nudge them to disclose information that I considered basic
and vital rather than allowing them to craft an exam that papered over or simply avoided
challenges.
2. Nerves. I was shocked by how nervous the students were and how much the nerves
inhibited their performance. This is a small class - 10 students - and the classroom is
comfortably relaxed. In the one-on-one environment of an oral exam, however, the relaxed
classroom environment turned to darting eyes and nervous fidgets. I held the exam in a
student lounge which I hoped to be a neutral venue. The sun was out and the weather warm
enough for me to open a window. I tried to chat a bit with the students to break the intensity
of the mood. I thought I did everything I could to defuse test anxiety.
Despite my efforts, even the best students struggled to relax for the first half of the 20
minute test. I was heartening, however, to see some students get into a groove by about the
10 minute mark and answer their second question better than their first. If I do this in the
future, I have to find a method for getting the students to relax (at least some) prior to the
most rigorously evaluated part of the oral exam.
3. Facing the Students. Perhaps the most valuable part of the oral exam is facing the
students as they struggle to articulate answers, look for evidence, and respond to my
prompts and challenges. There was something deeply humanizing about the oral exam
experience.
Some of my colleagues have taken to providing oral feedback on papers and exams using
our course management system software. They feel that this helps them to connect with
their students in ways that written responses do not. While I havent experimented with this
particular technique, I think the oral exam shares some obvious similarities. It reminded me
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how foreign the concepts that I am trying to teach are to the students. The idea of evidence,
specifics, and argument are so fundamental to how historians approach the world. It was
revealing to see students struggle to articulate arguments, marshall evidence, and piece
together causality.
This experience has reminded me
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/slow/) to slow down and to model
more explicitly and clearly the process of using evidence to support arguments, being
specific, and finding connections.
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annual meeting. At panels chaired by women, 46% of the papers were given by men and
54% were given by women. In panels organized by both men and women, 82% of the
papers were given by men.
The numbers produced above refer to only the presenter as listed in the ASOR program,
but because I had the program in a tabular form, I was also able to look at coauthors of
papers. I didnt break these down according to session type because I wasnt sure that it
was relevant. It is interesting that of the 56 papers listing a man as the primary authors, 45
had male coauthors (80%) and 19 had female coauthors (33%) with 9 (16%) having both.
(These numbers do not add up to 100% because it is possible to have both a man and a
woman as a coauthor!) Overall numbers are a bit more charitable with the 54 papers had
82 male coauthors and 27 female (75% versus 25%).
For 51 papers authored by women with coauthors, 57% (N=29) had female coauthors,
53% (N=27) had male coauthors, and 14% (N=7) had both. 56% of the total coauthors
on women authored papers were men and 44% were women.
Finally, I can offer some overall numbers. 58% of the named authors on papers are men and
42% are women. 55% of papers list men as the primary author and 45% list women.
Some final thoughts. Since Ive been on the program committee there has been a
consistent interest in using the annual meeting to influence the shape of the profession. For
example, we have implemented an appearance policy designed to ensure spots are
available in the conference for a wide range of perspectives and to prevent the conference
from becoming dominated by a small group of ambitious and aggressive presenters. I
wonder whether we need to think a bit about how to use the annual meeting to promote a
more gender balance in the profession.
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(https://www.academia.edu/398715/_Problems_in_Interpreting_Rural_and_Urban_Settlem
ent_in_Southern_Greece_AD_365-700._) Guy Sanders has noted that we are likely
missing many of the small issues (nummi or minimi) that circulated throughout Late Antiquity
because they were so small that they slipped through the excavators sieves. Like
handmade pottery, these tiny coins served to shape Late Antique life on Cyprus in a way not
entirely visible to the 20th century excavator.
Nummi and handmade pottery have parallels with the ephemeral character of short term
settlement to the careful eye of the contemporary survey archaeologist. We know that local
communities throughout history adopted flexible strategies to manage agricultural risk even
during times of apparent economic, political, and social stability. During times of unrest or
rapid change, like the middle decades of the 7th century, there would be a tendency to
adopt more flexible approaches to survival and to shy away from longterm investments that
would be more visible to the archaeologist 1500 years later. Like handmade pottery and
nummi, ordinary features of everyday life would have persisted as low risk strategies and
objects like imported pottery or large issue coins would decline as communities and
individuals became less inclined toward significant investments or more substantial
economic transactions warranting the use of larger coins.
The fragments of my writing over the course of a normal semester reflect the day-to-day
strategies adopted to survive 21st century academic as a moderately productive scholar.
The long, lazy writing days of spring break allow higher risk strategies to unfold, and these
included interrogating intuitive connections and making obvious their relationships.
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(http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/dc_home_where_minor_threat_played_first_show_hits
_the_market/8084?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=Sunday+February+9th,+
2014&utm_medium=headline) A little bit of punk archaeology.
People love Nate Silver so much and (http://fivethirtyeight.com/) people love his newly
refocused FiveThreeEight site, (http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117068/nate-silversfivethirtyeight-emptiness-data-journalism) its refreshing to read some critique.
(http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n04/rebecca-solnit/diary) I just really like Rebecca Solnit stuff.
And (http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/13/5488558/danah-boyd-interview-the-era-offacebook-is-an-anomaly) I also like danah boyd.
What Im reading: C. Stewart, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/domes-of-heaven-thedomed-basilicas-of-cyprus/oclc/320836271) Domes of Heaven: The Domed Basilicas of
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of Unplugging (March 7-8). The idea behind unplugging relates somehow to an ancient
practice of taking a day of rest where you disengage from the rest of the world. Whether the
organizers have understood these ancient ideas correctly or not is less a concern than the
general indulgence in anachronistic notions among unpluggers and slow advocates. They
seems to hang onto this romantic notion that somehow life was slower, less rushed, less
dominated by the press of time in the past. Advocates of the infamous work-life balance
likewise harken back to a mythical day when work and life were sufficiently well defined to
be set in balance against one another.
The irony, of course, is that questioning the value of a hectic pace of life is a luxury available
only in modern, industrialized societies. In other words, it is a profoundly modern indulgence
that we can slow down without fear of crops being ruined and we can disengage from our
social networks without losing information vital to our survival as individuals or a family.
Does this irony undermine the basic idea that a slower, less distracted pace of life is better?
I dont think it does. Certainly, the intense pace of life experienced by farmers in a
preindustrial economy was not conducive to long, healthy lives. In fact, Halstead points out
that the toil of harvesting alone was something that 20 or 30 years olds could endure best,
but older folks - you know, in their 40s! - avoided, reminds us that the physical exertions of
premodern life were intense and, by modern standards, debilitating. Maybe remembering
this will help us keep our rhetoric in check a bit. Slowing down and unplugging are modern
indulgences available to a very small number of individuals in the wealthy, western world.
We should celebrate these opportunities, but always realize that they very tools that we
blame for the robbing us of work/life balance are the the same tools that have allowed us to
define work and life as separate entities.
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http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/3869/
Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:01:44 +0000
A simple post today in memory of a student that we lost over spring break.
In memoriam:
Matthew J. Heisler
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of The most obvious struggle is that the table wants to both validate the work done by
individuals and pods and use existing evidence collected by the pods rather than collect
more evidence.
Most of our intervention involves critiquing the tables thesis statements and helping groups
organize their ideas into a cohesive chapter. In some cases, we provide nudge groups in a
particular direction particularly if they appear to be heading off track or taking a tack that will
be difficult for them. In other case, we make sure groups working on adjacent periods (e.g.
the cultural history of the Roman Republic and the cultural history of the Roman Empire) or
overlapping topics (e.g. the social and economic history of the Roman Empire) do not focus
on the exact same areas.
As the semester has gone on, students have become better at organizing their workflow at
the table, but not quite as good as I had hoped. Last night, for example, I did not dictate the
move from pod work to table level work and found that tables struggled a bit to organize
their activities. The biggest problem, this week was that without the definite prompt to move
from pod work to group work, students did not stop and formulate a thesis. Instead, they
created a list of ideas and then forged a crude outline that did not support a statement of
historical argument. Since weve been pushing students to formulate a thesis consistently
over the course of the semester, watching tables skip this step was disappointing. It also
showed how dependent the groups remained on prompts from us to structure their work.
Moreover, without the clear prompts from pod work to table work, groups tended to rush
through their tasks and hurry to leave the room. The prompts helped the groups to structure
their time and move through their work deliberately. Without the prompts, many groups left
class a half-an-hour early.
As we move toward the end of the semester, we will experiment further with removing
prompts that structure the groups engagement with the writing process. In general, we had
hoped to slowly move the groups toward a more independent, collaborative process. Well
have to see how this goes.
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pioneer in digital history, Ayers will visit campus digitally via a live video feed from the
University of Richmond's campus. His talk will present a sweeping overview of the
developments in digital history.
President Ayers talk coincides with the ongoing commemoration of the 150th anniversary of
the Civil War. Professor Eric Burin, UND's own Civil War Historian and historical database
guru, noted:
"Ayers's is one of the premier scholars on the Civil War Era. His "Valley of the Shadow"
project revolutionized research on the Civil War. It not only made available countless
historical documents; it allowed researchers to navigate those documents in an almost
infinite number of ways. Thanks to Ayers's path-breaking work, every researcher can offer
"alternative readings" of the war."
Ayers' work in digital history has received national accolades including the 2013 National
Medal for the Humanities awarded by Barak Obama in the White House, the Bancroft Prize,
Beveridge Prize, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
As a teacher he has been recognized as the National Professor of the Year from the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and his digital history projects have
been used in classrooms around the world. He is also the co-host of BackStory, a nationally
syndicated radio show that ties history to the present day.
The talk is sponsored by the Working Group in Digital and New Media and the College of
Arts and Sciences. Joel Jonientz, Associate Professor of Art and Design and the Chair of
the Working Group in Digital and New Media, notes that the innovative ways of bring a
speaker like Ayers to UND is :
".. fitting that we're using digital technology to bring one of the most renowned digital
historians to campus. It gives the UND community the chance to interact and learn from a
global scholar in the humanities, and to think about the future of the past."
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But I fell in love with a swell little chick, thats why I can be stickin around."
Between those verses however, he gives us a hint at the significance of the village or the
small town in an exchange with Leonard Chess:
((http://people.carleton.edu/~jlondon/Little%20Village%20Text.pdf) The transcription here
is from Justin Londons website at Carleton College (pdf).)
LC: Go ahead we're rolling, Take 1
What's the name-a this?
SB: Little Village pause
A Little Village, mother f*cker! A Little Village!
LC: Theres isn't a mother f*ckin' thing there about a village
You son-of-a-bitch! Nothin' in the song has got anything to do with a village
SB: Well, a small town
LC: I know what a village is!
SB: Well alright, goddamn it! You know, you don't need no title
You name it up, you, I got-get through with it, son-of-a-bitch
You name it what you wanna. You name it your mammy, if ya wanna
This exchange is a good sign. It means that the status of village or town is incidental to the
song, despite its prominence in the title. It is possible, however, that little villages could have
pads like palaces:
She got a pad like a palace, everything was cruisin' kind
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, she take me to her pad, an everything was cruising kind"
This need not imply monumental architecture, but certainly suggests a kind of opulence.
Perhaps its the presence of a palace that prompts Williamson to change the lyrics later in
the session:
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Finally, students resist approaches that run counter to the practice of deskilling faculty and
disciplinary knowledge. Over the past two decades,
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/writing-sotl-assessment-andembodied-knowledge/) academia has embraced whole-heartedly audit culture as a tool to
deskilling the academic workforce and undermining the primacy of disciplinary knowledge.
From the standpoint of management, this turn against disciplinary knowledge parallels the
rise in Taylorism and scientific management principles. The goal is to transform faculty from
engine that drives higher eduction, to interchangeable cogs in a machine. By emphasizing
the universal character of teaching and learning, faculty become interchangeable and the
university trades disciplinary knowledge for the teaching of skills as I have argued in point
one. In other words the displacement of authority grounded in disciplinary knowledge to that
grounded in terms of employment authorizes students to act as consumers and to defend
their rights. Weve all experienced this kind of resistance as faculty members.
In this context, student resistance represents both a recognition of their authority in the
classroom as well as the displacement of faculty authority from particular, specialized
knowledge to teaching skill. In this place, student resistance supports the growing power of
the assessocracy and metadisciplines like SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning).
While I am tempted, in my most cynical moments, to see student resistance in this context
as anti-faculty, when I critically reflect, I tend to see student behavior as part of the larger
transformation of higher education away from artisnal practice and toward a model of 20th
century efficiency. For my blog post today, I am more interested in recognizing that student
resistance developed along the rifts created by the displacement of authority grounded in
disciplinary, academic knowledge for that grounded in our position - however tenuous - on
the assembly line.
The goal of my post today is to identify the location of student resistance within our
discourse of practice in teaching and learning. Resistance seems most likely to occur in
places of weakness where our imagining of the world has flaws and inconsistencies. I
identify these were moments of displacement where we say one thing and do something
else or have a foot planted, none-to-firmly, in two mutually exclusive discourses of
authority.
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dynamic, persistent, if more contingent economy, during the so-called Dark Ages.
More on this paper (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/writing-asprocess-and-the-7th-century-on-cyprus/) here,
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/03/17/coins-raids-and-dates-in-7thcentury-cyprus/) here, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/more-oncyprus-during-the-7th-century/) here, and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/settlement-on-cyprus-in-the-7thand-8th-centuries/) here.
Or you can just read the working paper here:
[scribd id=215397597 key=key-re7z2shr8scfux6wc31 mode=scroll]
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this will help at all when Im tromping around the Argolid, but it has to be better than
nothing!
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week.
For now, I have been thinking a good bit about Talal Asads 1992 essay
(http://scholar.google.com/scholar.bib?q=info:JXpq13IwEw0J:scholar.google.com/&o
utput=citation&hl=en&ct=citation&cd=0) Conscripts of Western
Civilization in which he locates the possibilities available to the post-colonial subject within
the discourse of modern nationalism. In other words, the modern, national discourse even
shapes the strategies for resistance available to the disposed, restive, or politically marginal.
Late capitalism, particularly the transnational kind manifest in the Bakken, marks a departure
from Asads thoughts as it undermines the territoriality of the nation, the moral cohesion of
modernity, and obscures the structure and movement of capital. In this context, workforce
housing, particular as embodied by the postmodern non-places central to the organization
of labor in the Bakken, presents a distinct challenge to the kind of developmental
regionalism that characterized the expansion of modern, national capitalism. One can easily
expand this critique to core and periphery in the Bakken and the absence of true cores and
true peripheries in the world of transnational capital. To put this another way (and a way that
fits with the repackaged, nationalist rhetoric that portrays work in the Bakken oil fields as a
patriotic contribution to national energy independence), the workforce in the Bakken are
conscripts of post-nationalism.
Enjoy and, as always, feedback is appreciated.
[scribd id=216094155 key=key-lialg6c6bp6ihnozvms mode=scroll]
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the space for aggregating related content (or the space of articulating the blogging
community) from the space of the content provider (the blogger) to the consumer (the
reader). That being said, aggregators, like (http://planet.atlantides.org/maia/) Tom Elliots
Maia, continue to provide a curated point of access to the archaeological blogosphere.
The practice of commenting on blogs has also provided a space for the interaction among
members of a broadly construed blogging community. Unfortunately (I suppose), comments
fields on academic blogs have tended to be fairly deserted. A recurring complaint among
academic bloggers is that they have so few commenters on their work. In my assessment,
much of this has to do with the rather circumscribed space of the individual blog. The
archaeological community remains relatively small and the loyal readership of any particular
archaeological blog smaller still. More than that, compared to contemporary social media
sites, the relative infrequency of posts and the fairly small audience on an academic blog
creates a situation where the opportunities for comments and conversation remain few and
far between. In other words, the structure of the blogging community provides only a
modest space for communities to develop through commenting (except in particular,
exceptional circumstances).
Social media space is instructional for academic bloggers. The size of a networked
audience and the regularity (and diversity) of posts has created a new space for
conversation and commenting largely replacing the comments section on a blog. The
multiple points of entry, formally structured relationships between commenters, and the
sustained activity alone conspires to encourage conversation in the same way that the
informal space at the hotel bar during a busy conference often produced more useful
insights than the formal period of content at the end of a panel.
Archaeological blogs represent a particular situation for content distribution on the web. In
the blogging world, then communities of practice developed not through the staccato burst
of daily interaction in comment feeds, but through the development of linked content. With
the social media providing a space of interaction and conversation, the blog is a platform for
communicating academic ideas and for the engagement with dynamic linked content.
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ordinary points.
I suppose the magic of bonus points is that they preserve the illusion of being something for
nothing. This is the same class where students take significant exception to the possibility
that a student in their group would get credit (ordinary points, mind you), without doing their
share of work. They will gladly accept bonus points, however, on the allure of getting
something for nothing.
In any event, I decided to offer these same bonus points to anyone who attends the lecture,
whether they are in my class or not.
title="Ayers_Talk_Flyer_pdf.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/ayers_talk_flyer_pdf.jpg"
alt="Ayers Talk Flyer pdf" width="466" height="600" border="0" />
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occupying more marginal land, are part of this same process of producing for booming
urban markets and dynamic regional trade.
Casanas understanding of the boom in the Orontes Valley coincides with
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/01/a-working-paper-on-settlementon-cyprus-in-the-7th-and-8th-centuries/) my reading of settlement on Cyprus. The Late
Roman period in the East - perhaps into the 7th century on Cyprus - represented a period
of urban prosperity, a high degree of monetization, and thriving regional markets in the
Eastern Mediterranean stimulated at least, in part, through imperial policy and the needs of
the army on the frontiers and the capital at Constantinople. The opportunities of the market
stimulated the exploitation of marginal lands and this coincided with a gradual diversification
of agricultural production from strictly subsistence practices to limited, opportunistic
production for market. (http://www.worldcat.org/title/tilling-the-hateful-earth-agriculturalproduction-and-trade-in-the-late-antique-east/oclc/316430311) As Michael Decker has
argued for the same region marginal lands sometimes become opportunities for niche
production and the traditional reading of the Dead Cities on the limestone massif suggested
that these villages produced olive oil primarily for export (although more recent work has
shown that the villages may have also produced wine and grain perhaps for local
consumption).
As a conclusion, Casana frames the issues involving the structure of settlement in the
Northern Levant as primarily archaeological in character. In other words, the remarkable
preservation of the Dead Cities of the limestone massif has led scholars to overlook and
mischaracterize contemporary settlement on the more fertile lands of the Orontes valley.
This, as one can imagine, distorted the reading of settlement in this region and overlooked
the massive expansion of settlement present in the region. The work of the two surveys
summarized by Casana brings the Northern Levant in line with contemporary settlement
patterns in the so-called (http://aha.missouri.edu/people/rautman.html) busy countryside
of Late Roman Cyprus. Like the Northern Levant, the booming urbanism of Late Roman
Cyprus and access to the substantial and monetized Eastern Mediterranean economic
world supported the expansion of settlement across the island. When the cohesive Eastern
Mediterranean market faltered in the face of invasions and plagues in the later 7th century
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(on Cyprus and perhaps in the Levant as well), urban areas declined and regional markets
returned to levels prior to the momentary stimulus provided by the state and an exception
period of economic and political integration.
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Next week, when we participate in excavating 30 year old Atari games from a New Mexico
landfill, we'll be performing another transgressive action by assigning corporate, consumer
"junk" archaeological status and figuring out how to extract a sample of the possibly millions
of cartridges and related matter from a landfill. More than that, we're going to do this while a
documentary crew looks on, with a limited budget, specific priorities, and a different kind of
appreciation of the objects of our excavation. For example, the production company wants
to give away some of the excavated objects and apparently have permission to do this.
As the idea of what we're going to do next week sunk in, I immediately became
apprehensive. First off, I'm a Mediterranean archaeologists and despite my dalliances in the
archaeology of the contemporary world, I am far more comfortable with the rules of
archaeology in Cyprus or Greece than in the U.S. More than that, I am more comfortable
with objects and material that are traditionally archaeological in terms of date (i.e. at least
100 years old!), context (within a controlled research setting), and policies (governed by a
clear set of cultural property laws and policies). While this is not meant to diminish the
cultural significance of more recent objects, it does push me to consider the limits of a
formal "archaeological status" - in the narrowest, disciplinary sense.
Is it the buried location of the Atari games that make them archaeological?
Would a million E.T. cartridges in a warehouse attract the same kind of archaeological
scrutiny?
Furthermore, an E.T. cartridge in a private collection does not produce the same kind of
ethical tension as, say, a well preserved African red slip plate dating to the 6th century A.D.
In other words, the nature of a modern cultural object works against my traditional
disciplinary expectations of significance. (And for those of you who are regular readers of
this blog, this is the same tension that arose when I first started working on my
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) North Dakota Man
Camp Project).
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On the one hand, the discipline of archaeology becomes centered on process rather than
location or object. On the other hand, it is clear that the limits imposed by the location of the
games in a landfill (and the toxicity of the site), the limits imposed by our collaboration with a
documentary film crew, and the need to use backhoes and other heavy equipment, defy a
narrow reading of archaeological process. Our work in Alamogordo will be at the fringes of
disciplinary practice at best, and the most useful thing about the exercise will be a chance
to reflect on the limits of archaeology as performance. Just as video games enter the realm
of culture" through the performance of curators, conservators, and scholars, the limits of
the discipline come through the posture of its practitioners.
Im left thinking about a lovely poem by Cris Kirkwood:
Many a hand has scaled the grand old face of the plateau
Some belong to strangers and some to folks you know
Holy ghosts and talk show hosts are planted in the sand
To beautify the foothills and shake the many hands
Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
And an illustrated book about birds
You see a lot up there but don't be scared
Who needs action when you got words
When you've finished with the mop then you can stop
And look at what you've done
The plateau's clean, no dirt to be seen
And the work - it was fun
Nothing on the top but a bucket and a mop
And an illustrated book about birds
You see a lot up there but don't be scared
Who needs action when you got words
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or editorial oversight represent blogging practice, and this has attracted the attention of
critics who remain skeptical of the value of blogging to the larger academic discourse. Our
ability to push unfiltered archaeological knowledge into the web has both outpaced the
institutional practices designed to evaluate and control the flow of academic knowledge as
well as our interpretative habits which often rely on clear generic indicators to define the
character and utility of scholarly production.
Field archaeology is a meticulous process that proceeds at its own pace dictated by the
vagaries of manpower, artifact recovery, and recording. The publication process frequently
fall prey to the same gradualist approach as famous excavations can take years or even
decades to reach publication. While some of this can be attributed to the workflows of
particular excavators and their teams, at least some of the issues reside in the traditional
process of publishing a field project which involves significant time dedicated to review,
editing, and layout. The published results of the field publications are regarded as definitive,
although even the most hardened empiricists recognize a difference between a preliminary
excavation report and the final publication.
The basic character of blogging streamlines many of these concerns, traditionally going with
limited editorial attention and drastically simplified layouts. Both in terms of practice and as
a medium, blogging lacks the substantial friction associated with print publication, has
allows for almost instantaneous online publication. Bloggers now report on field projects
from the field and use the blog to speculate on their work, hypothesize, and even report
tentative conclusions. These practices not only lift the veil on the interpretative processes
that produce archaeological knowledge
((https://www.academia.edu/2365783/DIY_and_digital_archaeology_what_are_you_doing_
to_participate) Morgan and Eve 2012; Maguire 2008 for similar attitudes), but also
communicate some of the experiences of archaeology from the edge of the trowel. My blog,
for example, both documented our misguided expectation that a basilica style church stood
on the site of a Hellenistic fortification, and explored the tensions among the projects senior
staff as we struggled to balance the educational and research components of our work. A
similar, if more radically inclusive process, was used on the Prescot Street excavations in
the U.K. in which all participants were invited to blog and to document their work on the
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excavation.
While few will argue against the value of blogging for provide a sense of the archaeological
experience and to expose archaeological practice to a wider audience, there are limits to
the kind of immediacy and transparency that blogging can provide. For example, some
nations control stringently the right to reproduce images of objects, architecture, and sites,
but have yet to develop comprehensive policies extending to the digital realm. A blog may or
may not represent a digital publication. On an even more practical level, announcing the
results of an ongoing excavation during the season might make a site more susceptible to
looting or other forms of disruption. As with all archaeological work, the limitations and
opportunities of a particular medium or practice is not the final work on a decision to
disseminate information.
If field work blogs have the potential to make the field processes more transparent, research
blogs invite readers into the creative and generative process associated with scholarship.
The ability to present ongoing research to a wide audience of peers fits into a continuum of
scholarly communication that begins with the conference paper (or perhaps with the
informal conversation) and culminates in the peer reviewed book or article. The blog is less
clearly vetted than the conference paper or the late, barely lamented, note or
correspondence section of academic journals. In the lead up to the 2014 Society of
American Archaeology blogging panel,
(http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/blogging-archaeology-blogarch-allof-the-responses-to-why/) Dougs Archaeology Blog curated a blog carnival involving many
prominent archaeological bloggers. The responses to the question Why do you blog?
revealed the range of purposes associated with research from publishing snippets of
programing code useful to archaeologists, to staking claim to academic ideas in process
and sharing academic problems as they arise in scholarship. As S.W. Kansa and F.
Deblauwe have recently noted in their survey of web tools for research in Zooarchaeology ,
scholarly use of blogs to circulate research remains inconsistent
((http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1r6137tb) Kansa and Deblauwe 2011). The practice of
exposing ideas to critique is part of the academic process, but we have yet to completely
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electronic dissertation in the English department at Virginia and one of the very first in the
nation.
Kirschenbaums first book, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/mechanisms-new-media-and-theforensic-imagination/oclc/79256819) Mechanisms: New Media and the Forensic
Imagination, was published by the MIT Press in early 2008 and went on to receive
numerous awards. Kirschenbaum serves on the editorial or advisory boards of a number of
projects and publications, including Postmodern Culture, Text Technology, Textual Cultures,
MediaCommons, and futureArch. His work has received coverage in the Atlantic, New York
Times, National Public Radio, Wired, Boing Boing, Slashdot, and the Chronicle of Higher
Education. For more information, (http://mkirschenbaum.wordpress.com/) see his website.
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This semester, however, there is no need to do that. Im not teaching the class again, and if I
do, it wont be the same class. So as the semester winds down in this course, I find myself
without a clear sense of purpose. I guess I never developed or even considered an
endgame strategy.
Thinking about my lack of endgame, got me to reflect on the various initiatives that begin
with promise on university campuses, but seem to lack a formal endgame. This is particular
significant at a place like UND where our administrators rotate through every 3-5 years and
bring with them a new set of priorities, strategies, and vision. More than that, the economy,
technology, and disciplinary boundaries appear to have entered a period of particular fluidity
and dynamism that calls into question the value of any project or program that would
continue
If faculty have the initiative and resources to invest in new programs or projects, then, then
we must also understand the environment in which we work. Project, programs, and even
classes need to have endgames which are more than just slipping quietly into sabbatical or
watching interest in a program or project decline until it is quietly discontinued. Just as
archaeological projects generally have plans to move from field work to publication, I
wonder whether programs and projects on campus should have requirements for
productive, reflective conclusions. These conclusions not only allow for the assessment
(and if we know anything about the modern university, its that they love assessment) of the
results of the program, the class, and the project over a set length of time, but also hold all
parties accountable for the resources committed to the undertaking. Productive
undertakings that succeed in their goals will have the opportunity to make a strong case of
continued support - over another fixed duration with another set of clear goals;
unproductive undertakings or ones that do not achieve their goals over a realistic span of
time, will not get continued support freeing up resources for new, innovative programs.
This approach may seem overly mechanistic and run counter to an open-ended spirit of
humanistic inquiry. But, spending the last few weeks thinking about the trajectory of a
course has made me realize that a classs endgame has to produce a more satisfying and
productive results than my current situation. As I wrap up teaching History 240 - perhaps
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for the last time ever and certainly the last time in its current configuration - Im struck by a
feeling of pointlessness. Five years of teaching the class and I have no ability to reflect on
what I accomplished over that duration in a synthetic or systematic way.
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the game E.T. to its rightful place in our nostalgic utopian view of the past.
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/metahistory-the-historical-imagination-in-nineteenthcentury-europe/oclc/700666) Hayden White, following Northrop Frye, recognized
Romantic forms of emplotment as evoking anarchist ideologies although not necessary in
the strictest, most doctrinal sense of the word. The act of Romantic restoration, however,
does fit well the task of the archaeologists who build their ideal futures through the careful
reconstruction of the past.
There is something of an echo between the archaeologist's craft and our desire to make
the past whole again, and the fantasy of science fiction which so often - in its most popular
form - follows the well-worn path from impending distopia to redeemed utopia. The
nostalgic fanboy recognizes the Romantic emplotment common to fantasy and archaeology.
The Atari dig embodies the powerful impulses of nostalgia, science-fiction, fanboy
enthusiasm, and archaeological epistemologies.
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Joel Jonientz
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/joel-jonientz/
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:10:47 +0000
Yesterday we lost Joel Jonientz, one of my closest friends, collaborators, and neighbors. He
was 46 and has a wife and three small kids. It sucks.
title="untitled-429.jpeg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/untitled-429.jpeg"
alt="Untitled 429" width="450" height="300" border="0" />
Joel was a remarkable guy. He had vast knowledge ranging from painting, drawing, and
comics (his scholarly specialty) to music, technology, baseball, football, and (while he
refused to discuss it as a Seattle sports fan) the NBA. He knew how to use a circular and a
table saw (and rebuilt my front porch while I helped). Whenever there was something to do,
hed remind me: he could read how to do it on the internet, and he had a masters in FINE
arts. He could go from moderating a panel of poets, artists, and writers at the UND Writers
Conference to complaining about an offseason move by the Seahawks in a moment.
He co-produced a podcast and (http://www.professorfootnote.com/) you can hear it here.
He maintained (http://joeljonientz.com/) a blog that documented his art here.
He (http://vimeo.com/user3695627) has videos on Vimeo here including
(http://vimeo.com/25245568#at=0) this one in Mayan.
He designed an amazing poster for
(https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punk_arch-poster1.jpg?w=862&h=1200) Punk Archaeology here for free because he though the entire
thing sounded fun. He laid out the book and
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(https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/punka_cover_1.jpg?w=900&am
p;h=900) designed the cover art.
He always stayed to the end of the game when watching sports at my place. When things
were going well for one of our teams, he would insist on high-fives. I dont do high fives.
title="Joel.jpg" src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/joel.jpg"
alt="Joel" width="579" height="600" border="0" />
He understood that it was just as important to hang out when things were going poorly. In
2011, he was the only person watching the NLDS with me (in a crowded house) and we
both noticed Ryan Howard limping after running hard to first on the final out of the Phillies
losing effort.
title="untitled-318.jpeg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/untitled-318.jpeg"
alt="Untitled 318" width="450" height="300" border="0" />
More than any of that, he was a family guy. He loved his wife and kids in a way that gave
perspective to the entire world and gave him a consistent set of priorities that guided his
life, work, and friendships. When he and I were stressed out about something, hed smile
and tell me that when he got home, he had three little people who would remind him of what
was really important in life and produce joy.
Whenever I needed something, he would be there to help. He was supportive of most of my
ideas (and he was supportive of most of his friends ideas) even if it was largely because
he loved a bad plan.
Yesterday, I was barely able to function, but today, I think Im seeing a bit more clearly.
Anyone who met Joel - even just for a moment - remembers him, and well all feel his loss
for a long time.
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Joel and I had plans! He was the co-director of The Digital Press at the University of North
Dakota with me. We had both worked hard to direct the disparate energies of the Working
Group in Digital and New Media (there was even talk of us getting a web page!). He was
fascinated by my work in (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/workcamps/) the Bakken and, when we last talked on Easter,
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/punk-archaeology-buried-atariand-disciplinary-anxiety/) he was excited for my plan to excavate Atari games in the New
Mexico desert.
If yesterday, I was wracked by grief, and, while today I dont feel any less sad, I also realize
how much work I have to do to live up to Joels legacy.
A little update : This post has received over 400 page views in the last few hours. Joel used
to tell me that a mention on my blog was worth about 30 page views on his. He and his
friends are returning the favor 10 fold. So take a few minutes to (http://joeljonientz.com/)
click through to his blog, (http://www.professorfootnote.com/) listen to a podcast, or
(http://vimeo.com/user3695627) check out a video. This image
was (http://joeljonientz.com/?attachment_id=411#main) touching today.
One update more: (https://soundcloud.com/taiko-1/joel-ripple) My good friend Tim Pasch
shared this with us today. Its a cover of Grateful Deads Ripple.
There is a road, no simple highway,
Between the dawn and the dark of night,
And if you go no one may follow,
That path is for your steps alone.
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Digging E.T.
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/digging-e-t/
Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:03:15 +0000
So, this has been a bad week for our community and I am still in shock from what happened
this weekend. At the same time, one of the last conversations I had with Joel was about the
Atari excavation. He was so excited about it and wanted to hear about it as soon as I could
officially tell him anything. (In fact, I had said that I would send along some unofficial
updates via email as the project developed).
So this afternoon, Im off to Alamogordo, New Mexico to excavate a landfill and to document
the search for some 4-5 million discarded cartridges of the Atari game E.T. The team is
sweet: Andrew Reinhard is our fearless leader, Richard Rothaus and K. Lindsay Eaves know
how to do things, and Bret Weber and I will be there to theorize, contextualize, and learn.
Well also be joined by Raiford Guins, author of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/game-aftera-cultural-study-of-video-game-afterlife/oclc/844789683) Game After, Ernie Cline, author
of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/ready-player-one/oclc/687652381) Ready Player One,
and a band of merry and accomplished filmmakers.
Ive blogged on locating this work in a larger conversation about
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/punk-archaeology-buried-atariand-disciplinary-anxiety/) the archaeology of late capitalism and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/fantasy-fanboys-and-archaeology/)
in narrative strategies embraced by fantasy, fanboy, and gamer culture. I think we should
also think about how excavating a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico contributes to our
image of the modern American West where high-tech industries intersect with open and
unpopulated spaces and failed dreams. Ill be leaning on Bret Webers expertise in Western
History as we track the final journey of the games from the Atari distribution center in El
Paso to the landfill in Alamogordo.
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While I am not sure whether well be allowed (or have time) to tweet or blog from the dig,
but if we can, I will. In the meantime follow the hashtag #diggingET to see whats up.
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2. Stratigraphy was present and visible. There was clear stratigraphy present in the landfill
and we were able to document it reasonably well. There were clear layers of soil on the top
of the fill which covered a later layer of trash that we understand to have been a single
dumping episode. It covered another layer of soil, which was the soil cover for the major
landfill episode at the site. The major landfill at the site came up black both with
decomposition and evidence for ash and burning. This level was a distinct depositional
process that involved vertical columns of trash and it rested immediately atop the deposit of
Atari games, which were, apparently, layered horizontally along the bottom of the cut made
for the trash and covered with a thin and irregular layer of concrete.
3. The problems with abundance. Once the material started to come out from the fill, we
discovered that most of the layers atop the Atari deposit consisted of domestic trash. This is
not surprising. We did quick reads of these levels, but the pace of excavation and the
quantity of material (as well as the safety concerns and the production companys priorities)
made it impossible to perform any formal garbagology on the non-Atari landfill levels. The
quantity of trash was overwhelming and even the more homogenous Atari deposit was too
much to quantify in the time that we had. As a result, we can talk fairly confidently about
what was present in the deposit and coarsely about the relative proportion of the material.
Our sample was random, in that it reflected the location of the trench excavated rather than
the deposition process itself, but it may or may not be representative of the entire
assemblage. The size of the sample which probably represented less than 10% of the entire
assemblage provided us with enough material to make some good observations on the
processes that formed this group of material.
4. Multiple narratives. The most interesting thing about our experience here is the different
narratives that have emerged surrounding the excavation. Some narratives are local and
involve the validation of stories circulated by local residents for years. Some are global and
involve the conclusion of (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/21/fantasyfanboys-and-archaeology/) a romantic quest for a fragment of a shared (albeit consumerist)
past. Even within the archaeological team, there are various narrative ranging from an
interest in confirming an video game legend to critiques of late capitalism, questions of
disciplinary boundaries, and the history of the American west. At the same time, being part
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scheduled assignments in a shorter period of time, I cancelled the major paper and spent
more time working with the students on the other assignments in the class.
The problem, of course, is that I usually schedule about a month or five weeks for major
assignment and losing two weeks left me with three weeks when the students and myself
are more or less at loose ends. While I can reinforce certain basic skills, provide some
additional content, and even work on aspects of the class that usually get passed over
quickly, this work typically goes to support the final paper.
What I need to get better at doing is manufacturing time so that I have more flexibility in how
I approach the course schedule. This includes using new media to deliver content, adjusting
assignments on the fly, and thinking through alternative assignments that can be made
ready at a moments notice. This approach will not only help me be a more dynamic and
flexible teacher when we do not encounter a time crunch, but also force me to think more
carefully about the goals of individual assignments and how these goals could be
accomplished in different ways.
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(http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/research_projects/all_current_projects/sudan/ama
ra_west_research_project/the_town_of_amara_west/house_d127.aspx) An ancient house
in Sudan.
(http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-bones-show-signs-of-struggle-with-coeliacdisease-1.15128) Coeliac disease in antiquity.
(http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/identify-mystery-text-win-1000/) Mystery text deciphered.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/28/why-studentsusing-laptops-learn-less-in-class-even-when-they-really-are-taking-notes/) Why writing
longhand may be better than
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typing ((http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/22/0956797614524581.abstract)
the scholarly article is here).
(http://detroit.jalopnik.com/general-motors-will-build-you-a-tidy-little-shipping-c1569884815) A cool tiny house from GM.
(http://m.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/the-adjunct-professorcrisis/361336/) Adjuncts revolt.
Some links on the Atari dig:
(http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2014/05/01/punk-archaeology-andexcavating-video-games-in-new-mexico/) Some punk archaeology over at the AAA blog.
(http://almostarchaeology.tumblr.com/post/84509623583/exhuming-atari-or-punkarchaeology-levels-up) Almost Archaeology.
(http://readwrite.com/2014/04/28/atari-et-dig-alamogordo-gamelist#awesm=~oD6qRBLdpquPof) Readwrite.
(http://www.wired.com/2014/04/atari-et-dig/) Wired.
(http://jimgoldenstudio.bigcartel.com/) Relics of technology.
(http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2014/05/01/historic-movie-theaters-restoring-the-wallawalla/) Restored movie theaters.
(http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/04/squatters-in-venezuelas-45-story-tower-ofdavid/100721/) Abandonment and squatting in Caracas, Venezuela.
What Im reading: D.B. Weiss, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/lucky-wanderboy/oclc/50166622) Lucky Wander Boy. New York 2003; I. Bogost and N. Montfort,
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(http://www.worldcat.org/title/racing-the-beam-the-atari-video-computersystem/oclc/312933472) Racing the Beam: the Atari Video Computer System. Cambridge,
MA 2009.
What Im listening to: The Moles, Flashbacks and Dream Sequences: The Story of the
Moles.
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1702" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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Despite these shortcomings, these two articles and the others in this volume show that 3D
imaging technologies are no longer the domain of a fringe group of tech savvy (tech
obsessed?) archaeologists, but increasingly available to solve real archaeological problems
of field documentation.
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convert easily to uncompressed .tiff formats. Video files present a different challenge, of
course, as they have - from what I can tell - garnered the same kind of wide agreement for
an archival format.
More than that, the formats of files do preserve traces of Joels artistic process. Animation
for example might easily involve both proprietary still image formats, design, and video.
While we plan to have several copies of the imaged drives preserved, we began to think
about how the relationship between proprietary file types and process should be
represented in the more carefully and selective curated archive. Converting all the propriety
file types to archival formats runs the risk of overwriting part of his creative process by
obscuring the tools he used to make his works.
2. Structure. The issue of curating process extends to file structure as well. When we
produce a curated copy of his files saved to archival formats, we will have to make some
difficult decisions on how to reconcile the formats present on multiple hard drives with
multiple file structures that often preserved parts of the same project or projects. Some of
this will involve working closely with people familiar with various projects. Joel was an
intensely collaborative dude who worked with multiple people on multiple projects so it will
be a challenge to figure out who can help understand the key components and organization
of his work.
3. Stability. This is the biggest challenge and one that we dont have to face alone. We
need to move a significant amount of data to a stable medium that will be there for his kids
when they start to get interested in their fathers work. Right now hard drives are not
particularly stable when were looking at a decade or more of storage. In fact, hardware in
general is not stable over such long periods of time. So well have to make a plan to keep
migrating the data to new hardware and to make sure that it will be available for the future.
For now, we have a solid start on organizing and curating Joels digital legacy. Once I get
back from summer fieldwork, we are going to start to digital curation process in earnest. As
we do that, and make progress, Ill keep the world in the loop.
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distribution center.
"We landed in El Paso and checked out the completely nondescript building where the
games originated. It's not a box factory, but in the early 1980s it was a distribution center for
Atari. It reminded us straight away that culturally significant objects from the late 20th
century will not necessarily originate in the hands of crafts people or exotic locales. These
are consumer goods, made in anonymous factories, and shipped through boxlike
warehouses," Caraher noted, "We wanted to locate these objects in their social context
from the start. These are not exotic."
For a shockingly large number of retro-video games enthusiasts and nostalgic
40somethings, the games nevertheless had meaning. The 2014 Atari Expedition was an
extension of a documentary film directed by Zak Penn which sought to to determine the fate
of the Atari burial ground. The documentary is scheduled to appear this year on Microsoft's
Xbox platform. Caraher was part of an archaeological team coordinated by Andrew
Reinhard and was joined by Bret Weber from the Department of Social Work, and
archaeologist Richard Rothaus (NDSU). They were joined by Raiford Guins from Stony
Brook University, one of the foremost video game experts in the world. They spent four days
in the New Mexico desert offering archaeological perspectives to the documentary film and
recording the finds and excavation process.
"Our goals," Caraher said, "were somewhat different from the guys making the
documentary. We were there to record what was happening in as detailed way as possible.
They were there to make a movie."
For Caraher and Weber, the work in New Mexico was an extension of their interest in the
archaeology of workforce housing in the Bakken. Since 2012, they have co-directed the
North Dakota Man Camp Project which explores the material and social environments of
North Dakota's so-called man camps. Like the Atari dig, the NDMCP takes the material
culture of the last 30 years seriously as a way to explore social, economic, and political
relationships that traditional ethnographic and historical practices over look. Both projects
emphasized not only the recent past, but also privileged the production large-scale
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Grading Music
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/grading-music/
Fri, 09 May 2014 13:02:03 +0000
isPermaLink="false) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=3974</guid>
Today is a pretty intense grading day for me, so instead of my usual Friday Varia and Quick
Hits, I thought Id provide my grading playlist:
For me, grading is all about maximizing my flow:
Bob Marley, Exodus.
Tom Petty, Full Moon Fever.
Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight.
Boston, Boston.
Iggy Pop, Lust for Life.
Iggy Pop, The Idiot.
Grace Jones, Nightclubbing.
Fleetwood Mac, Mr. Wonderful.
The tunes are coming from a late-1970s-ish Marantz 2235B driving a pair of Energy C-2
book shelf speakers. The source is my reliable MacBook Pro running unmodified iTunes
through a Schiit Modi DAC. Cables are all Audioquest.
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system/oclc/312933472) Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System as well as
D.B. Weisss novel (http://www.worldcat.org/title/lucky-wander-boy/oclc/50166622) Lucky
Wander Boy. Between the world of technology and rural Greece sits the unfinished volume
by Jeff Ferrell called (http://www.worldcat.org/title/empire-of-scrounge-inside-the-urbanunderground-of-dumpster-diving-trash-picking-and-street-scavenging/oclc/76963954)
Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trashing Picking,
and Street Scavenging.
For quiet evenings, I think Ill take with me - in paper no less - the new City Lights edition of
Gertrude Steins (http://www.worldcat.org/title/tender-buttons/oclc/858895188) Tender
Buttons.
Finally, (and I forgot to include this in my original post) Im going
(http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2014/05/r7l17-preliminaries.html) to collaborate with Kostis
Kourelis to read Ruskins (http://www.worldcat.org/title/seven-lamps-ofarchitecture/oclc/19886931) Seven Lamps of Architecture.
That should get me through at least the first part of my summer.
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Collaboration
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/13/collaboration/
Tue, 13 May 2014 12:59:40 +0000
Today, Brett Ommen is going to begin recording (http://www.professorfootnote.com/) the
final episode - at least for now - of Professor Footnote. It is a memorial episode for
(http://joeljonientz.com/) Joel Jonientz who died late last month before more episodes could
be recorded and produced. A number of his friends are going to swing by the the Working
Group in Digital and New Media lab to chat with Brett about Joel and, in keeping with the
theme of the program, any topic outside our area of expertise.
I want to talk with Brett about a couple of topics that I had just begun to share with Joel. So
I thought I would get some thoughts down here before I head into the studio.
One thing that Joel could do better than anyone I've ever met was collaborate. He had the
ability to shape his creativity into almost any form required in a project and manage his
frustrations with us and the project in an almost superhuman way. Since he died, I've been
thinking about what he had that allowed him to collaborate so easily with a range of other
folks across campus and what we could take away from Joel's commitment to collaboration.
First, collaboration is not longer a luxury in academia today. We're not longer in a world
where individual projects celebrate the lonely genius of devoted scholar. Today, noncollaborative work represents - in most cases - a poor investment for funding institutions
and disciplines. Collaborative work takes advantage of economies of scale and the idea that
two people working together and sharing expertise can accelerate the production of
knowledge in ways that a solitary scholar working away in his or her dimly lit office cannot.
Collaboration, of course, take many forms and should not diminish from an individual's ability
to contribute to their field or the debate, although it might effect the credit and control an
individual has over their contribution.
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In the humanities, our most common collaborative moments happen in the background. We
regularly rely on editors, conscientious colleagues and interlocutors, and, of course, our
students who rarely get explicit credit for their contributions. Perhaps it is our familiarity with
that model that make more involved and elaborate collaboration between scholarly peers
less appealing.
Whatever the reason, Joel had certain characteristics that made him an effective and willing
collaborator, and while it is dangerous to generalize from a single example (I do live
dangerously, of course), I think we can learn something from his methods:
1. Take risks. Over the past few weeks, we've probably worn out Joel's enthusiasm for bad
plans. That being said, his willingness to go along with a bad plan reflected his relatively
high tolerance for risks and his own confidence that he'd be able to figure out a way to
make something happen. In fact, as with many entrepreneurs, I suspect his tolerance for risk
was no greater than most of us, but his confidence in his abilities to mitigate that risk was
greater.
The ability to manage risk is crucial in collaboration. By including more people and more
moving parts, the number of variables increases and our ability to control all aspects of a
project decreases.
2. Have a dynamic body of work. Joel's work was spectacularly dynamic from traditional
humanities-type scholarship in the history of comics and animation to painting, computer
animation, video work, and most recently sound. His ability to move from one medium to the
next allowed him to both understand the challenges facing collaborators as they struggled
to develop specialized skills, as well as to supply skills over a range of different areas.
Collaborations usually depend on our ability to understand the diverse workflows of various
actors, the best academic collaborators have produced dynamic body of work that
demonstrates both their ability to adapt and understand challenges outside their area of
specialty.
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3. Have skills. Closely tied to experience with different media, is the need for real,
substantial, specialized skills. The best collaborators bring a specific body of expertise to a
project. This expertise might be a distinct skill - in Joel's case this ranged from graphic
design to animation - or honed understanding of a particular set of tools - in Joel's case this
meant digital tools.
title="P1030926.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1030926.jpg"
alt="P1030926" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Having a well-defined skill set or area of expertise helps to formalize the conditions of
collaboration by defining clear domains of responsibility. Just as having a dynamic body of
work ensures that a good collaborator can understand diverse workflows, a clear set of
skills ensures that a collaborator have a set of realistic responsibilities.
4. Be willing and able to work independently. One of the silliest things I hear from people
resistant to collaboration is that they don't like to work with other people. This is crazy. The
best collaborations do not necessarily involve working together. In fact, I might suggest that
the best collaborative ventures involve individuals with distinct skills working independently
toward a common goal.
Over the past year or so, I worked with Joel in creating
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/the-digital-press/) a new digital press.
The project had (and will continue to have) its challenges moving forward. Even when the
project bogged down in university politics or our own overwhelming schedules, I could rely
on Joel to take the initiative and get things done without constant badgering or pressure. He
could work independently to move a project forward.
5. Advocate for collaboration. Finally, the best collaborators are advocates for collaboration.
One of the most bizarre things taking place at the University of North Dakota is how they go
about encouraging collaboration on campus. They provide funding for collaborations at the
beginning of projects, but so far have done little to reward collaborations when they're
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completed.
title="P1030927.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1030927.jpg"
alt="P1030927" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
It doesn't take much creativity to propose a collaborative project, but it does involve
creativity to bring one to completion. I'd suggest that our fine university consider the the
preceding criteria as a way to ascertain the whether a collaboration is likely to result in a
positive outcome.
More importantly, however, they need to work toward practices that ensure that faculty are
rewarded for successfully completing collaborative practices. Joel contributed to a white
paper produced by our Working Group in Digital and New Media that helped ensure that
faculty who do collaborate get recognized in the same way as those who toil away
(inefficiently) on their individual projects. Recognizing the results of collaboration will do
much more than funding projects at the onset to support collaborative work on campus.
Ive blogged on similar topic
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/collaboration-and-work-campsout-west/) here and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/thinkingabout-collaboration-and-digital-history-in-practice/) here.
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New Beginnings
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/14/new-beginnings/
Wed, 14 May 2014 13:06:34 +0000
I heading to Greece this morning and am about as packed as one might expect at the end
of a hectic term and a hectic month.
So my blog might become a bit more intermittent over the next couple months, but please
be assured, dear readers, that I will keep you in mind and send along my regular musing on
well, whatever it is that Im musing on.
For now, Id like to direct you to (http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/letter-facultyleaving-und-will-be-sorely-missed) a letter to the editor printed yesterday in our local
newspaper. Even the casual reader of this letter and my blog will recognize my desperate
need for a reset (to use gamer lingo picked up at
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/atari-excavation/) the Atari dig).
And, for updates from my ongoing work (in absentia) in Cyprus, please check out
(http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/) my colleague Scott Moores blog. He and
Brandon Olson are continuing our work this sumer at
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/) Polis(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/) Chrysochous and
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeologicalproject/) Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus while I let myself be distracted by new horizons in
Greece. We have a largely completed manuscript documenting the first substantial body of
new analysis at Polis-Chrysochous and Brandon and Scott and cleaning up a few loose
ends. We also have a roughed out manuscript of the second volume in the PylaKoutsopetria series. Pyla-Koutsopetria 2: Excavations at Pyla-Koutsopetria and Pyla-Vigla. It
will, with any luck, appear alongside the forthcoming Pyla-Koutsopetria 1 as a volume in
American Schools of Oriental Research Archaeological Report Series. And we think thats
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pretty cool.
More on my new beginnings in the next few days!
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Thessaloniki
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/19/thessaloniki/
Mon, 19 May 2014 06:58:43 +0000
Its been seven years since Ive been Thessaloniki. For a Byzantinist, and one interested in
ecclesiastical architecture, this is a problem. It was also a problem that my wife had not
been to Thessaloniki ever. So this past week, we made our way to Thessaloniki for a couple
of days of site-seeing at a vacation pace.
((http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/thessaloniki/) Here are
some photos from my last visit.)
title="P1050505.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050505.jpg"
alt="P1050505" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
While some of my friends are doing the movements work by
(http://www.athenscongress.com/documenti/abstracts/E_230.pdf) documenting 19th
century mountain villages (.pdf), Susie and I were nourishing our urban spirituality by
traipsing around Thessaloniki getting pretty churches to pose seductively.
First, Ay. Sophia. When you think of inscriptions in mosaic on the dome of an 8th century
Byzantine church you have to rock the KJV:
"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven."
title="P1050442.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050442.jpg"
alt="P1050442" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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title="P1050449.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050449.jpg"
alt="P1050449" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Its hard to get a day going without a basilica. The Acheiropoietos church, probably late-5th
or early 6th century:
title="P1050473.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050473.jpg"
alt="P1050473" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Domes on cylinders on cubes at the 14th century church of Profitis Elias:
title="P1050534.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050534.jpg"
alt="P1050534" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Our host at Ay. Dimitrios, with all his pre-iconoclastic serenity:
title="P1050564.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050564.jpg"
alt="P1050564" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Ay. Panteleiomon rises from the busy streets:
title="P1050576.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050576.jpg"
alt="P1050576" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Some mosaics from the Rotunda of St. George:
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title="P1050590.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050590.jpg"
alt="P1050590" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Tombstone from the once vibrant Jewish community in the city appear in the stone piles
around the Rotunda to remind us of the citys difficult and tragic past:
title="P1050610.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050610.jpg"
alt="P1050610" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Some art deco for Richard Rothaus (and an example of some of the remarkable street art in
Thessaloniki):
title="P1050646.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050646.jpg"
alt="P1050646" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
title="P1050512.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050512.jpg"
alt="P1050512" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Finally, one of my favorite monuments, the church of Ay. Apostoloi:
title="P1050745.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050745.jpg"
alt="P1050745" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
We departed the city having - for the moment at least - our fill of urban bustle and retired to
more idyllic environs More soon!
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title="Hammond_Map.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/hammond_map.jpg"
alt="Hammond Map" width="450" height="353" border="0" />
The right flank of the battered Corinthian fleet retreated to this beach after the first day of
the Battle of Syvota.
title="P1050775.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050775.jpg"
alt="P1050775" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Heres the view from Dymokastro (Hammonds Vemokastro) of the straits between the
mainland and the Ionian islands of Paxoi and Corcyra where the sea battle took place. The
Paxoi are visible to the left of the sun and Corcyra to the left.
title="IMG_1368.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_1368.jpg" alt="IMG
1368" width="450" height="97" border="0" />
The fortification on Dymokastro is a good bit later, of course, dating to the Hellenistic period
and excavated over a series of campaigns at the end of the 20th century.
There is ample room for a modern tour bus to idle by the side of the road while American
School students scamper up the east side of the hill. As my wife and I made the steep, but
not overgrown climb up to the summit (or high enough to understand where the summit
was, take some photos, and descend), I could almost hear Merle Landgons voice (he was
the Mellon Professor during my first year there) telling us that we had an (seemingly)
impossibly short time to make the climb, visit the site, and be back on the bus. (According
to my memory, Langdon would then vanish and appear - as if without exerting any effort - at
the top of the hill and begin telling us the history of the site).
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The walk rewarded us with more than just find views, but also a significant stretch of a wellpreserved wall of polygonal masonry.
title="P1050808.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050808.jpg"
alt="P1050808" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1050804.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050804.jpg"
alt="P1050804" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1050789.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050789.jpg"
alt="P1050789" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1050811.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050811.jpg"
alt="P1050811" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The top of the hill was less rewarding with an overgrown placard marking private house:
title="P1050782.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050782.jpg"
alt="P1050782" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
The views, however, are worth the walk. Paxos in the near foreground, Corcyra in the
background, and the Syvota islands on the right.
title="P1050778.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050778.jpg"
alt="P1050778" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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Parga
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/parga/
Wed, 21 May 2014 06:31:14 +0000
For the last few days Susie and I have been hanging out in Parga on the Ionian coast. We
have a picturesque view from our little balcony and have enjoyed decent food and cool
relatively quiet nights. The few days of rest and relaxation from a hectic year has given me
some free time to think about the complex history of this little community and to visit a few
of the local castles that speak to the tense and sometimes violent history of this region.
title="P1050900.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050900.jpg"
alt="P1050900" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Our room is situated just below the massive fortification walls at Parga itself. The main body
of this castle 19th century in date. Parga was a Venetian possession from the early 15th
century and allied itself with the nearby Ionian islands. The infamous Ali Pasha was
responsible for the most impressive parts of these fortifications, but the lower parts of the
walls date to 16th century, perhaps after the Ottoman sack of 1571 (although some parts
might be earlier), with additions throughout the 18th and into the 19th century. The city
itself clings to rather steep slopes leading to two mediocre anchorages. The better of the
two harbors is small and protected by a series of small islands.
title="P1050972.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050972.jpg"
alt="P1050972" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
It was perhaps used in Roman times, but was not deep or large enough for ships in the
16th, 17th, or 18th century. The main town stood on a bulbous headland projecting
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the British flag over the fortress of Parga gave Ali Pasha pause. He continued to fortify his
positions on the borders of the city - at both Agia and further north at Magariti to remind the
Parghini of his very proximate (and erratic) threat.
title="IMG_1384.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_1384.jpg" alt="IMG
1384" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The city fell under Ottoman control when it was left out of the Treaty of Paris which granted
the Ionian islands to the British. The community at Parga asked both the British for
clarification and, as an insurance policy against the independent ambition of Ali Pasha, sent
emissaries to the Ottoman state. Neither worked and the city was granted to Ali Pasha in
the name of the Ottoman state through an agreement with Britain. For the next century,
Parga would remain under Turkish authority.
title="P1050939.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050939.jpg"
alt="P1050939" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
For more on this check out
(http://books.google.gr/books?id=9bzR1p2ylRkC&lpg=PA132IA2&ots=wNeaLvFizE&dq=A%20brief%20history%20of%20suli%20and%20par
ga&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=A%20brief%20history%20of%20suli%20and%2
0parga&f=false) Bossets 19th century account of the history of Parga,
(http://books.google.gr/books?id=5mRn8H_IIKgC&dq=editions%3ArKoshy4jqrwC&a
mp;pg=PA523#v=onepage&q=Parga&f=false) Leakes nearly contemporary
discussion (based largely on an earlier Greek work), or
(http://books.google.gr/books?id=Xc5HAQAAQBAJ&lpg=PA229&ots=Un4fkUe
dcx&dq=Margariti%20castle&pg=PA207#v=onepage&q=Margariti%20cas
tle&f=false) Allan Brooks more recent discussion of the fortifications here and
throughout region.
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title="P1060015.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1060015.jpg"
alt="P1060015" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
The interior was too overgrown to really understand, but it looked like a standard plan of Ali
Pasha built castles with an open courtyard and several vaulted areas beneath a platform for
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guns:
title="P1060012.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1060012.jpg"
alt="P1060012" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1060009.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1060009.jpg"
alt="P1060009" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The views over the wide valley leading out of the Souli are stunning though:
title="P1050996.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050996.jpg"
alt="P1050996" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1050992.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1050992.jpg"
alt="P1050992" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
There were also more purple flowers:
title="P1060023.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/p1060023.jpg"
alt="P1060023" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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Vacation's End
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/vacations-end/
Fri, 23 May 2014 05:35:34 +0000
Vacation is over:
title="ProfileofParga.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/profileofparga.jpg"
alt="ProfileofParga" width="450" height="327" border="0" />
Work time starts now:
title="photo (5).JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/photo-5.jpg" alt="Photo 5"
width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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our rather exceptional corp of team leaders, and burdening our GIS person with an endless
routine of preparing over 100 individual maps each day. It could also be a challenge
economically: the cost of printing hundreds of maps daily would soon tax our limited office
supply budget and cut into, say, the availability of food for the survey methods and data
specialist. So, to keep the peace, I relented.
((http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/) Scott Moore and David Pettegrew will
recognize my willingness to let go of impossible plans gracefully a hallmark of Bill 2.0). I still
plan to mention the idea from time to time.
So without my genius plan for preparing (http://www.handmaps.org/) hand-drawn maps of
the entire valley (which is very much in keeping with my interest in
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/17/toward-a-slow-archaeology-part1/) Slow (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/02/18/toward-a-slowarchaeology-part-2/) Archaeology), we are forced back to something less elegant (but
probably more possible) like a combination of field notebooks and free-text boxes in the
database which is probably better than an unwieldy and swarm of check boxes associated
with features. Maybe I can get the directors to relent and encourage the teams to produce
daily maps of their area...
title="IMG_1440.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_1440.jpg" alt="IMG
1440" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Keep checking back here for more on the project this summer and well even post
sometimes to the Twitters using the hashtag #WestARP.
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Planning a Project
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/planning-a-project/
Tue, 27 May 2014 05:41:59 +0000
Unlike most research in the humanities, archaeological field work requires a significant
amount of logistical preparation and organization. During the first year of a project, it
frequently feels like the logistics overwhelms the archaeology in terms of time and attention.
The number of participants in a project also increase the level of complexity and the time
committed to making arrangements and plans.
This summer, instead of directing my own project with my colleagues
(http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/) R. Scott Moore, David Pettegrew, and
Brandon Olson, Im taking some time to work with Dimitri Nakassis, Sarah James, and Scott
Gallimore on their project, the (http://westernargolid.org/) Western Argolid Regional
Project, a new intensive survey that will focus on a valley in the western hinterland of
Argos.
As the project is gearing up, Ive had a chance to contribute to creation of the database,
preparing the GIS, and getting our field team leaders up to speed on survey methods and
procedures. Fortunately, Ive been spared most of the logistical aspects of the project (so
far), and I have to admit that I do not miss them at all.
To give you a sense of the kind of logistics, Ill offer a few examples.
1. Rooms. One of the biggest expenses and headaches on a project is figuring out how to
organize the rooms in an efficient and humane way. We are in the small village of
(http://westernargolid.org/?page_id=76) Myloi ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myloi,_Argolis)
or Mili) on the Argolic Gulf. The student accommodations are first rate, but they are
expensive and when the entire team is here, the project will have students scattered
throughout the village. I suspect each hotel has different rates, different room types, and
328
different availability. On my first day here, I witnessed a rather intense conversation among
the project directors as they sought to sort out the various rooms available for the team
leaders and myself. The goal is to use the rooms as efficiently as possible and adapt the
accommodations so the changing needs of the project. This is a nightmare, but one that
WARP has handled well.
title="IMG_0715.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/img_0715.jpg" alt="IMG
0715" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
2. Food. The next great logistical hurdle for any project is arranging meals. Right now we eat
in the village for dinner and have lunch and breakfast in our rooms. The savings on lunch
and breakfast make it easier to spend money on dinners, but when the entire team arrives
next week (25 undergraduates), dinners will come from local tavernas, but lunch will still be
served in the rooms. This may sound simple enough, but it means that food must be
purchased daily, prepared, cleaned up, and arrangements have to be made at multiple
establishments for dinners. This involves different rates, different receipts, lots of contact
with taverna owners, and this all takes tons of time. It is vitally important that our field teams
(and staff!) be well fed to keep morale high and field work consistent and efficient.
3. Budget. The biggest nightmare for archaeology in the 21st century is the budget. Unlike
our friends in the hard and applied sciences, archaeologists do not have a support staff
dedicated to streamlining the receipting and budgeting process. So it generally falls on the
archaeologist - often in the field - to make sure that all activities fall within the increasingly
restrictive accounting guidelines. In the last few decades budget guidelines have become
more and more restrictive as universities seek to demonstrate fiscal responsibility in an era
of spiraling tuition and heavily critiqued budgets.
(Of course, the irony is that every accountant hired to scrutinize submitted receipts likely
costs more than an assistant professor in the humanities contributing in their own way to
increased tuition, but this is the cost of good political theater in a risk adverse environment.)
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So the project directors, particularly Sarah James, have to be careful how they spend their
money not just to stay within budget, but to stay within budget guidelines that often do not
apply to the real world in Greece. To make matters worse, our budget for this summer
draws on multiple grants that each have their own restriction.
Im immeasurably grateful for the efforts that the project directors have made to keep my
insulated from the financial and logistical challenges of running a project on this scale and in
this environment. It frees me up to actually think about archaeology, but watching them deal
with the intricacies of leasing a apotheke (a secure storeroom for artifacts), negotiating the
changing assemblage of rooms, and building up the contact and social capital to make all
the other logistical aspects of a project run smoothly.
Be sure to follow us on Twitter with the hashtag #WestARP!
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of ecclesiastical activity with a basilica and inscriptions, and despite its coastal location it
appears to have survived into the 8th century with a bishop appearing at the Second
Council of Nicaea reinforced with evidence from seals. The churches in the area of
Epidauros are well-known and long thought to be among the earliest in Greece (on the
dubious basis of architectural style). At Ano Epidauros a substantial quantity of Late Antique
activity appeared, including the intriguing church at Lailoteika which may date to the 7th
century or later. Scholars have long debated the reason for the Late Antique flourishing of
activity on the small islands of the Saronic Gulf like Spetses, Dolkos, and Chinitsa which
seems to have continued in the 7th century.
The Late Romans did not spare the Argolids famous Bronze Age sites, with the
neighborhood of Limnes, Prosymna, and the mighty Tiryns producing Early Christian graves
and the citadel of Midea featuring activities in the 5th or 6th centuries.
To use a vivid Appalachian saying: you cant swing a dead cat without hitting Late Roman or
Early Christian remains in the Argolid.
In contrast, the valleys of the Western Argolid including our survey area which follows the
upper reaches of the Inachos River from the village of Kaparelli east through Lyrkeia and
ancient Orneai, toward Sterna and the northwestern suburbs of Argos. This region is a
blank space without almost no published sites of Late Roman date. In fact, the most
prominent Late Roman site in our survey area appears in a two-page reference to some
Early Christian remains around the village of Lyrkeia by Dimitrios Pallas in the ADeltion of
1960 (pp. 100-101).
Needless to say, this is odd. The valley bottom is fertile and the river provided a
transportation route between the densely settled Argive plains and Arcadia which continued
to prosper at least judging from the numerous buildings of Late Roman in this region.
Moreover, the (relatively) easily traversed passes, strategic hill tops, and accessible valley
walls, presented exactly the kind of topography to attract the attention of Late Roman
military planners. This kind of marginal land also tended to attract Late Roman settlement.
Recent scholarship has seen 5th and the first half of the 6th centuries as a period of
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Paper forms do have some advantages beyond being cheaper and easier to implement.
They also ensure that there is an intermediate stage between data collection in the field and
data entry into our field databases. This step allows us to vet our data at an intermediate
stage and to familiarize ourselves with the data as its arriving from the field. This is possible
with a digital field collection, but necessary with paper forms. We also enjoy the flexibility of
paper forms. This will be our first year in the field and while were reasonably confident that
our form and database will work to represent the archaeology of our region, we also have to
be flexible and a paper form is a very flexible tool which can be easily edited on the fly to
accommodate unforeseen circumstances.
2. Decentralized Databases. Since we dont have a server here and we dont have the skills
or the resources to set one up, we have to run multiple versions of the database in an
unsynchronized way and then integrate them periodically throughout the season.
This is less than optimal on a number of levels, but it does bring the our team leaders and
project directors all into the data management process. It also pushed us to keep our
databases simple. These databases are largely flat tables without complex one-to-many
relationships. This will not only facilitate our regular merging of multiple copies of the
database, but also makes it easier to integrate with our GIS.
3. Changing Student Skills. When I was at the American School of Classical Studies as
faculty in 2007-2008, Jack Davis, then director, and I (and I believe a Skyped Sebastian
Heath) did a short seminar on GIS one afternoon. At the start of the seminar, we asked the
assembled graduate students from some of the best programs in the U.S. who had GIS
experience. I think only one students raised their hand.
This summer, we are joined by a great gaggle of graduate students who will run our field
teams and ALL of them have experience using GIS. These students are capable of
performing almost all the daily GIS-related tasks for an intensive survey and some more
complex analysis on landscape data. We have a dedicated GIS person, but shell serve
more as a coordinator than a dedicated specialist.
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The level of digital competence among the students also allowed me to beta-test my
database with them and they were able to provide remarkably focused and knowledgeable
feedback. They not only understood the basic function of the database, but showed a clear
understanding of the structure of the data.
Times are changing in Mediterranean archaeology!
A year or so ago, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/archaeologicaldata-and-small-projects-a-draft/) I gave a paper describing the uneven flow of digital
technology in the world of Mediterranean archaeology. I argued - in a roundabout way - that
were no longer in a world where archaeologists are skeptical of the value of using
sophisticated digital tools, but that resources tend to dictate access to technical skills and
the necessary hardware to embrace digital technology to the fullest.
WARP does not have the resources this season to leverage every tool in the digital
archaeology tool kit, but we do have the resources to create a cohesive plan that is
consistent with best practices. Ill let you know how things go as the season progresses.
Follow us on the Twitters and Facebook at the
(https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23WestARP) #WestARP hashtag.
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So along these lines, Ive inaugurated the Pallet Project. For now Im using my iPhone
camera and (http://daringfireball.net/) John Grubers little (http://vesperapp.co/) Vesper
Application to collect photos with some short notes on location. For a ubiquitous object like
shipping pallets, I decided to use a ubiquitous device.
title="ImageFromVesper.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/imagefromvesper.jpg"
alt="ImageFromVesper" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
There are few objects more ubiquitous in 21st century society than wood shipping pallets.
The North Dakota Man Camp project documented the use of pallets in a wide range of uses
from elevated walkways to fences. Just as Jeff Ferrell became sensitized to the empire of
scrounge that existed throughout the everyday world in the forms of trash piles, street
scavengers, recycling centers, thrift shops, and dumpster diving, I hope to use the simple
directive of documenting the location and context for shipping pallets to refocus my
archaeological impulse on everyday objects.
title="ImageFromVesper (1).jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/imagefromvesper-1.jpg"
alt="ImageFromVesper 1" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Pallets are interesting for the archaeologist not only because they are so common around
the world, but also because
(http://www.slate.com/articles/business/transport/2012/08/pallets_the_single_most_import
ant_object_in_the_global_economy_.html) they represent evidence for the workings of the
global economy. Just as ancient amphora are not particularly significant as transport and
storage amphora (they are not, for example, particularly dynamic or complex expressions of
ancient culture when compared to, say, fine wares or religious architecture), the distribution
of amphoras provide a key indicator of the extent and nature of ancient trade. Pallets are not
nearly as diagnostic as ancient amphora, however, but they do demonstrate how deeply the
global economy penetrates our modern world. The form of the pallet, their expansive
distribution, and the range of secondary uses for these objects demonstrates the
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convergence of the global movement of goods, global markets, and local practices.
title="ImageFromVesper (2).jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/imagefromvesper-2.jpg"
alt="ImageFromVesper 2" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
If I was a book writing guy, Id write a book with chapters that were like this:
I. Introduction: (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/)
Pondering a Punk Archaeology
II. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/82186248/Between-Sea-and-Mountain-The-Archaeologyof-a-Small-World-in-Greece) Lakka Skoutara:
(http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4) Formation Processes in a 20th
Century Rural Settlement in Greece
III. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/216094155/The-Archaeology-of-Man-CampsContingency-Periphery-and-Late-Capitalism) The Man Camps and the Bakken:
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) Short-term Settlement
in a 21st Century Context
IV. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/atari-excavation/) Digging Atari:
Speed, Context, and the Life of Objects in Late Capitalism
V. The Pallets Project:(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/trailersflorida-and-spring-break/) Common Objects and the Archaeological Gaze
VI. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/backyard-archaeology/) The
Small Town Yard: A Test Trench into the American Dream
VII. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/slow/) Archaeology and Slow:
Digital Practices and Refocusing the Archaeologists Gaze
VIII. Toward a Punk Archaeology of Late 20th Century Capitalism
So, the ball is in your court publishers, make me an offer I cant refuse!
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processes. Taking the field teams to the abandoned village gave us a chance to talk about
formation processes. We looked at the way in which tiles collapsed from roofs, the use of
sherds and tile fragments as temper in the mud brick, and the various ways in which houses
continue to function in the rural landscape after they no longer serve as homes.
title="P1060246.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060246.jpg"
alt="P1060246" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1060250.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060250.jpg"
alt="P1060250" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
title="P1060254.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060254.jpg"
alt="P1060254" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1060260.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060260.jpg"
alt="P1060260" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
title="P1060266.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060266.jpg"
alt="P1060266" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
From Pentaskouphia village we headed up to Acrocorinth to check out the imposing citadel
of the city of Corinth. The grey sky gave our visit some nice flat light for photography and an
appropriate romantic ambiance for the place for Byrons:
Arise from out the earth which drank
The stream of slaughter as it sank,
That sanguine ocean would o'erflow
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title="P1060304.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060304.jpg"
alt="P1060304" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
In the final picture, you can just make out the height of Mt. Artimision in the far distance to
the left of Pentaskouphi castle. Artimision overlooks our survey area in the Argolid.
Be sure to follow us (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23WestARP&src=typd) on
Twitter at #WestARP!
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leader. After all, this would allow us to distinguish as unique, different engagements with the
unit led by different individuals. Even this might not be enough. If weve learned anything
from (https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/article/viewArticle/2705) Big Al
Ammerman, its that you can never walk the same survey unit twice. Maybe we need to
make the unique identifier the unit number, procedure, team leader, and date.
title="P1060404.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060404.jpg"
alt="P1060404" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
This is all a good bit to think about on the first day in the field, especially when it was damp,
overcast, and muddy. Maybe it was being out in the field, however, and away from the blue
light of the computer screen that prompted me to think about how we imagine space. It
could also be that I managed to help to screw up mapping a few units as I got my survey
legs back. Nothing like real fields in a changing landscape to shade my understanding
digital contexts.
title="P1060382.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060382.jpg"
alt="P1060382" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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The project directors, Dimitri Nakassis and Sarah James, have their dog with them in the
field on most days. The dog is cute and named Holly. This is my best picture of the dog so
far:
title="P1060394.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060394.jpg"
alt="P1060394" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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title="P1060514.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060514.jpg"
alt="P1060514" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The survey teams disappeared into olive groves, terraces, and fields of wild oats.
title="P1060529.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060529.jpg"
alt="P1060529" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The trip down, of course, is always a bit more challenging then the trip up the hill. On the
way up, there are certain economies of effort that lead to calculated decisions in how to
ascend a hill. You tend to scrutinize the possible routes because the cost in ascending the
wrong way is substantial and immediate.
title="P1060521.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060521.jpg"
alt="P1060521" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Descending is another matter. I find that I tend to chose my paths more impulsively and get
stuck moving carefully over steep rocks, entangled in impenetrable barriers, and negotiating
sprawls of scree.
title="P1060523.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060523.jpg"
alt="P1060523" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
It was a pretty exhausting hike, but we now have a set of notes on the hill, the cave, and the
route up to the high saddle.
title="P1060531.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060531.jpg"
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The work in Greece is very different from his punk archaeology adventures in the New
Mexico desert where he encountered a media circus surrounding the well-publicized
excavation of thousands of Atari game cartridges from a landfill. The three-day dig in New
Mexico attracted international media attention and even earned mention in the Grand Forks
Herald.
"Being part of the team supervising and documenting the Atari dig in New Mexico was
great. It gave me more first hand experience working in late-20th century archaeological
contexts. This is work at the fringes of the traditional disciplinary definitions of archaeology
which has tended to privilege the ancient or at least 'really old' artifacts.
"The Atari dig, however, can speak to us a in a very immediate way about how we live today.
The rapid pace of change in contemporary world propels objects from being things we can't
live without to things that we cast aside, want hidden away from us and buried in a landfill.
Archaeologists tend to study things that were, for whatever reason, cast aside, but with the
Atari dig we had a chance to witness and participate in the rapid cycling of culture where
something as common and popular as Atari games is desired, discarded, and, then,
excavated as cultural, and historical artifact. So for us, the process of discard and discovery
creates a cultural artifact, and the interest of the Smithsonian in some of the excavated
games confirms the enduring importance of what we did and what it produced."
His work in the Argolid, Greece is more consistent with what we imagine as traditional
archaeological practice. The field project will focus on a valley that connected to prominent
regions of the ancient world. Caraher will help manage the archaeological data both in the
field and in the digital realm. He will draw upon over a decade of running his own projects
on the island of Cyprus:
"Unlike the Atari dig where we basically has to combat the idea that what we were doing
wasn't archaeology because the objects and processes that we studied were so recent,
work in Greece has to challenge the idea that the seemingly remote and picturesque Greek
landscape has never been modern. In fact, the valley we're studying has been a significant
thoroughfare for thousands of years including today where Greece's most modern highway
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runs along its north slopes. This should lead us to see the valley as unchanging over time,
but to push us to understand how this region functioned in different economy regimes,
political powers, social and religious systems over time. So to put it another way: by saying
that the ancient is so similar to the modern, we're observing not that the rural world of
modern Greece is somehow static, but rather that we have every reason to assume that
rural Greece in antiquity was every bit as dynamic as our modern age. The ceramics
scattered across the surface of the ground are antiquity's Atari cartridges and can tell us
about how people lived and worked in the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, or Medieval
periods."
The progress of the Punk Archaeology movement, his work on Greece and Cyprus, in the
digital world, and all sorts of other stuff appears almost daily on his blog:
His work this summer can be followed on the hashtag
(https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23WestARP) #WestARP on the Twitters.
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be promoted to the Extensive Team, but here at WARP everything takes less time.
Despite the exile from all human contact, I find the Extensive Team a good chance to think.
Today for example, I visited the remains of a well-appointed seasonal house or kalyvi near
the village of Lyrkeia. The little house had lost its roof, but it was well-built.
title="P1070056.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070056.jpg"
alt="P1070056" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Its two court yards were clearly defined and carefully constructed of slightly shaped field
stones. The cypress trees were a nice touch.
title="P1070070.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070070.jpg"
alt="P1070070" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
title="P1070050.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070050.jpg"
alt="P1070050" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Nearby, there are some beautiful terrace walls. It is well know that the team from the Argolid
finished third in the International Terrace Building Competition held in Bern, Switzerland in
1928. A possibly apocryphal story holds that they would have finished higher had the Greek
state appropriated sufficient funds to ship over 10 tons of local, Argolidic limestone to
Switzerland for the Terrace Building Finals. Supposedly, Venizelos favored a Cretan team
who finish first in the Greek Terrace Championship, but had been disqualified on a
technicality. As a sign of support for Venizelos, the newly formed five parties coalition
refused to support the shipment of stone for Greek team from the Argolid, and this cost
them a better finish in Bern.
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Whatever the case, the reputation of terrace builders from the Argolid was well deserved:
title="P1070077.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070077.jpg"
alt="P1070077" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Near the elegant little kalyvi stood a similarly well-constructed mandra or animal pen. This
animal pen crossed over a series of four small terraces. I suspect that animal pen was for
goats. Its construction atop rather narrow terraces suggests the transition from growing
grain on the steep and unforgiving slopes of the valley and using the slopes for grazing.
title="P1070081.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070081.jpg"
alt="P1070081" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Further along the same slopes were a number of lovely pocket terraces for olive trees. I
havent seen many of these in my wanders around the eastern Peloponnesus so it was
pretty nice to see them in our survey area.
title="P1060994.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060994.jpg"
alt="P1060994" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1060990.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1060990.jpg"
alt="P1060990" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The other advantage of being on the Extensive Team is enjoying a peaceful sunrise through
the maquis.
title="P1070037.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070037.jpg"
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archaeological field work clearly drew upon premodern labor practices. Experience in the
field produced through apprenticeships to senior archaeologists counted as much as
training and the ability to conform to social expectations of field practice.
The need to perform field work in such a way that conforms to social expectations that exist
outside of formal methodological assumptions. For example, despite almost a half century of
discussions of archaeological sampling and the limits to archaeological definitions of space
and the landscape, there continues to be pressure for full coverage survey and grueling
excavation schedules that produce more data than will ever be published in a project
directors lifetime. The mo fieldwork, mo knowledge paradigm holds its appeal to
archaeologists, in part, because the discipline remains ambivalent toward modern practices
even as it embraces technology and scientific practices in the field.
So at the same time that the discipline is modernizing field practices and defining the
landscape or trench as a series of tick boxes, numbers, and fields on a form, archaeology
continues to have this patina of premodern practices that rely a largely hidden set of social
expectations about doing archaeology the right way. It should come as little surprise that
an "old boys club are responsible for much of this unwritten pressure that still shapes
certain aspects of the discipline. I have a longer post of this in the slow cooker where I try to
work out some of the issues, but I think I need a few more conversations with my
conspirators here on WARP to get the argument worked out.
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undermined my argument by demonstrating the ability to move fairly easily from the detailed
documentation of a unit to the more expansive view of the landscape necessary for mapping
units. Moreover, these team leaders not only have field experience, but also have experience
with GIS and databases. Their training has prepared them to do more than simply collect
data carefully in the field, but also to analyze it using the increasingly robust tools available
to archaeologists. This shift in training is remarkable and suggests that the computer lab
has become as much a place of analysis as the field.
title="photo (6).JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/photo-6.jpg" alt="Photo 6"
width="450" height="337" border="0" />
2. Internet Objects. One of my favorite finds so far this season was a very modern, mouldmade, ceramic roof tile with the website of the manufacturers on it. Since it is not permitted
to publish a possibly ancient artifact in a digital format prior to the end of the season, I cant
show you the artifact here, but I can offer a link to (http://www.xalkis-sa.com/) its digital
object which has already been published. (Directors Note: Actually Bill could show it, if he
had a photo because its not an antiquity.) It is easy, then, to go and check out the location
of production, the specifications of the tile, and even the cost. More interesting than that:
the tile is a physical icon for a virtual object. This relationship between the tile and the
website, however, is only temporary. When the website disappears, changes location, or is
updated, the link between the particular tile and the virtual object is changed or broken.
There is significant talk these days about (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_Things)
the internet of things where physical objects and virtual objects exist side-by-side. The roof
tile might be one of the humblest examples of these interconnections, but one that
nevertheless demonstrates the archaeological complexities of the internet as a mediating
entity between objects separated by vast distances and connected by unstable, mutable
links.
title="P1070183.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070183.jpg"
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title="IMG_1638.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_1638.jpg" alt="IMG
1638" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
My after dinner constitutional:
title="IMG_1642.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_1642.jpg" alt="IMG
1642" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="IMG_1639.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/img_1639.jpg" alt="IMG
1639" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
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Sometimes a Cave 2
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/24/sometimes-a-cave-2/
Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:43:26 +0000
Last week I posted about how
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/sometimes-a-cave-is-just-a-cave/)
sometimes a cave is just a cave.
(https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070422.jpg)
This week, I can post that sometimes a cave is a super cool cistern from the modern period
with a great view and an opportunity to practice my field drawing skills.
(https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070408.jpg)
Sorry to miss posting for a few days, my usually reliable MacBook Air is on the blink, so Im
slumming in PC land.
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A Bridge
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/a-bridge/
Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:13:41 +0000
This is mainly to start a blog post with the line that I want you use at the beginning of an
important article:
The study of Ottoman bridges in the Western Argolid remains in its infancy. The goal of
this brief article is to bring attention to a small, but important body of Ottoman bridge work
in this region.
(https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070483.jpg)
(https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070482.jpg)
This lovely arch spanned a small ravine and carried a switchback kalderimi road down a low
saddle to the village of Lyrkeia and our survey area. The stone work is lovely consisting of
local grey limestone faces with smaller stones used as chinking. The arch itself is made of
thinner stones arranged carefully with a substantial quantity of pebbly white mortar.
The road that leads to this bridge runs on its own carefully wrought terrace through olive
groves. The is evidence that the bedrock had been cut back to let the road pass more
easily. The bedrock was close enough to the surface to allow it serve as paving for part of
the route, and it probably made this particular field appealing for use as a road (and less
than appealing for agriculture!).
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Archaeology of Sound
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/06/25/archaeology-of-sound/
Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:40:03 +0000
isPermaLink="false) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=4211</guid>
Every now and then when Im in the field, I panic about falling behind in my journal reading
and letting the ENTIRE DISCIPLINE PASS ME BY.
WHAT?? Archaeological Dialogues has an issue dedicated to ROMANIZATION?
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/romanization-andchristianization/) I thought about that once, like four years ago! I must read now!
WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY has forthcoming volume dedicated to the archaeology of
sound? I know people working on that RIGHT NOW and how can I possibly interact with
them without being familiar with soon-to-be-published articles. More than that, Im an
audiophile and I need to understand the archaeology of connectors. And Ive done
archaeology of the contemporary world (forthcoming) so I must understand what was
albums were found on the floor of a commune where the Grateful Dead once live.
Its not that it has to happen eventually - like say
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/my-plan-to-not-waste-mysabbatical/) while Im on sabbatical - it has to happen now.
So instead of spending a weekend catching up on vital scholarship and remaining relevant
to my discipline, I decided to clean up some audio file that I captured over the past few
weeks in the field.
On my hike to the cave, I encounter a fairly agitated hawk and this what he (or she) sounded
like:
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[audio https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16994195/WARPHAWK.mp3 ]
Weve also had the good fortune of encountering some very vocal goats:
[audio https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16994195/WARPGOATS.mp3 ]
And some excitable frogs (especially at night!):
[audio https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16994195/WARPFROGS.mp3 ]
Finally, you can faintly hear the bells of the church at Kaparelli at the western edge of our
survey area:
[audio https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16994195/WARPBELLSshort.mp3 ]
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I saw the usual array of scenic and curious things in the field.
Prof. Nakssis makes lots of phone calls from the field because hes the boss:
title="P1070232.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070232.jpg"
alt="P1070232" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
This is what a day that will approach 40 degrees looks like at the start:
title="P1070508.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070508.jpg"
alt="P1070508" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
This what about 38 in the field looks like:
title="P1070522.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070522.jpg"
alt="P1070522" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
On a hot day of mapping, we were caught off guard by a ZETOR in the wild (its a Czech
tractor company):
title="P1070507.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070507.jpg"
alt="P1070507" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
A magic bus:
title="P1070531.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070531.jpg"
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title="P1070218.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/p1070218.jpg"
alt="P1070218" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
For more on whats going on with the project, (http://westernargolid.org/) check out the
project blog here.
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to rot, but the metal frames and hinges will stay behind long after the wood disappears.
title="P1070610.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070610.jpg"
alt="P1070610" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The Inachos river is another marginal landscape. It is seasonal and during the dry summer
months, it serves as a road, dumping ground, and temporary apiary!
title="P1070707.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070707.jpg"
alt="P1070707" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Further up on the slopes, discarded be hives litter an open field. The frames in some were
intact, although the metal lined covers had been largely removed.
title="P1070720.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070720.jpg"
alt="P1070720" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
I suppose in a few years, when all the bees are gone, all well have left to show their impact
on these marginal landscapes will be scraps of metal.
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title="P1070654.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070654.jpg"
alt="P1070654" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Ive also been drawn to other agricultural equipment in the field. For example, I liked how
these irrigation heads looked in a klouva and the alternative:
title="P1070674.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070674.jpg"
alt="P1070674" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1070677.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070677.jpg"
alt="P1070677" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Sunrise over the survey area.
title="P1070877.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070877.jpg"
alt="P1070877" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1070582.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070582.jpg"
alt="P1070582" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
And some high-tension electrical wires:
title="P1070697.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1070697.jpg"
alt="P1070697" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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When we understood the situation, Dimitri Nakassis and I immediately panicked. We then
called Sarah James. And I then called my wife. All the while Machal Gradoz was bonding
with the puppy and decided to take it back to adopt it on the spot. We made a quick run to
the vet in Argos and got some puppy supplies and puppy formula and the crisis has been
averted.
The puppys name is Eleni after the saint who looked after her for the first few weeks of her
life.
title="photo (7).JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/photo-7.jpg" alt="Photo 7"
width="450" height="600" border="0" />
So for today, we are the Western Argolid Regional Puppy (project).
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Towers on Euboea
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/08/towers-on-euboea/
Wed, 09 Jul 2014 03:27:07 +0000
The most recent (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia) Hesperia has
an interesting article on (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.83.2.0277) the
ancient towers of the Paximadi Peninsula on Euboia. This is one of the best know groups of
towers in Greece despite their poor state of preservation. Becky Seifried and Bill Parkinson
begin their work with the catalogue of 25 towers prepared by Donald Keller in the 1980s
and then expanded by Southern Euboia Exploration Project some ten years later.
The article presents a revised and expanded version of Kellers catalogue and offer some
significant insights into the function of these towers. Without going to too much detail,
Seifried and Parkinson more or less agree with many of the observations that
(http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/40981055.pdf) David Pettegrew, Sarah
James, and I made about the fortifications at the site of Ano Vayia (.pdf). We argued that, at
least for the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period, many rural fortifications reflect local
concerns rather than concerns of the polis or some kind of central authority.
(As an aside, I was really excited to see all the round towers of Classical date on the
Paximadi peninsula. I tended to associate round structures with more sophisticated building
practices and a more skilled workforce perhaps associated with regional level powers. This,
then, confused me when we encountered a round tower at the relatively isolated site of Ano
Vayia. The frequency of round towers on the Paximadi peninsula provided me with a nice
body of comparanda for our fortification at Ano Vayia (below).)
title="www_ascsa_edu_gr_pdf_uploads_hesperia_40981055_pdf.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/www_ascsa_edu_gr_pdf_u
ploads_hesperia_40981055_pdf.jpg" alt="Www ascsa edu gr pdf uploads hesperia
40981055 pdf" width="439" height="579" border="0" />Fortifications on Ano Vayia in the
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Corinthia
Our arguments, however, were limited by our focus on a single site with a unique location,
Seifreid and Parkinson take our argument a step further by looking at a group. One of the
more intriguing aspects of their argument is the possibility that the towers built during the
Classical period served to protect the limited agricultural resources present on the
peninsula. In fact, the towers may have been built by individual landowners to protect their
farms and land. The high degree of inter visibility between the towers of Classical date
suggests that landowners worked together to create a mutual defense network.
title="Seifried_and_Parkinson_2014_Offprint_pdf__page_34_of_39_.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/seifried_and_parkinson_20
14_offprint_pdf__page_34_of_39_.jpg" alt="Seifried and Parkinson 2014 Offprint pdf page
34 of 39" width="432" height="427" border="0" />Lines of site between Classical period
towers on the Paximadi Peninsula, Euboia
The relationship between the towers, then, is not the product of a central government, but
rather the relationship between individual landowners who invested in a kind of social
insurance based on the locating of towers in intervisible locations in the landscape. One
might even see the locating of towers as part of a community of practice that recognized
mutual defense in a threatening world was as much a priority for farmers as terraces,
threshing floors, and access to water.
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on the Western Argolid Regional
Project 2014
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/11/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-onthe-western-argolid-regional-project-2014/
Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:27:28 +0000
Yesterday was the last full field day with our field teams on the Western Argolid Regional
Survey. So I thought I should do a traditional Good, Bad, and Ugly post from our field
season.
I should emphasize that the project was pretty remarkable. We covered an amazing amount
of territory (almost 5.5 sq km), our field teams held up well, our team leaders remained
(more or less) in good spirits, and we produced interesting results. With one week
remaining we mostly have odds and ends to sort out, some drawings and photographs, and
the usual work of data curation.
So without further ado:
The Good.
1. Units, Resolution, and Efficiency. We walked close to 2400 units while keeping our
average unit size to under 2500 sq. m. and through most of the field season we walked an
average of 92 units per day. The average unit took a little over 5 minutes to walk so taken
together our field teams walked for around 7 hours and 40 minutes per day or about 2
hours per team per 6 hour field day. There are certainly gains to be made in efficiency, but
the cost will be steep with our current manpower.
2. Good Field Clothing. The project produced a spectacular display of innovative, synthetic,
hip looking field clothes. The maquis, heat, spiders, and sweat took a toll on all field
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1. Im old. This was the hardest field season that I have ever experienced. My body started
to ache about week 4 or 5 and by the end of week 6, I was ill with some kind of fatigue
induced cold. My ankle is swollen, my knee is glitchy, and Im riddled with little cuts, sores,
and rashes.
title="P1080028.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1080028.jpg"
alt="P1080028" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
2. Boots. The sharp-edged limestone of the Argolid and Corinthia is absolutely brutal on
boots. So far this season, Ive seen gashed soles, torn leather, eviscerated nylon, and other
boot related disasters.
3. Puppies. Ive never been a dog person, but Ill admit that watching
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/western-argolid-regionalpuppies/) the puppy saga unfold this year on WARP was heartrending. Im glad that we
managed to save the micro-dog although Im worried that itll never learn to walk properly
(although people say at 6 weeks no puppy can walk properly). So this is not a bad thing in a
traditional sense, but it was an unexpected emotional outlay.
The Ugly.
1. Spider Sticks. The Western Argolid is filled(http://westernargolid.org/?p=264) with
large spiders who build beautiful webs between closely spaced trees. These things are
creepy and the webs are sticky and annoying especially when you come upon them
unexpectedly while field walking. Students (and staff!) discovered the value of a the spider
stick. This is a stick - usually made of olive wood - that can brush aside spider webs as you
field walk. Unfortunately, they can also be used as weapons to beat down a team leader
who has pushed a bit too hard. We only narrowly averted a spider stick uprising in the
waning weeks of the season.
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title="P1080008.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1080008.jpg"
alt="P1080008" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
2. (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/05/25/forms-and-features-in-thewestern-argolid/) Paper Forms. Our data recording involved two steps. Writing on paper
forms in the field and keying the data into a database. The days of paper forms are almost
over, however. We saw how the Mazi Project is using iPads to streamline data flow from the
field to the laptop. I think there is also a chance that iPads will allow for better, more robust
datasets that include more images, more field drawings, and more integrated data both in
the field and in the lab.
title="P1080042.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1080042.jpg"
alt="P1080042" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
3. Larry Potter. This season was the season of Larry Potter. As my colleagues pointed out,
this cohort of students have been involved with Larry Potter from the time they learned to
read and the novels, movies, and soundtracks dominate their world. In fact, we had to talk
about the possibility that the bamboo sticks used to separate lots in our workspace might
be tempting swords, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidditch) Quidditch sticks, or wands
and how that might be facilitate an unhelpful blurring of the line between the productive
space of the archaeological workroom and the fantasy space of Larry Potter and friends.
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quickly drown out a commitment to more open-ended practices. If handwriting, paper forms
in the field, (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/slow/) slow the pace of
data collection or
(http://pss.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/22/0956797614524581.abstract) even
improves our ability to understand the complexities of the archaeological landscape, then
perhaps the extra time necessary to write on paper is worth it.
Even a continued commitment to paper forms, however, does not ensure that our team
leaders and field teams record thoughtfully (rather than just systematically) everything that
they observe in the field. For example, we noticed that larger features that cannot be
quantified or documented according to a set of rigorously enforced standards tended to get
less attention from our teams. For feature recording we asked our teams to describe walls,
buildings, kilns, wells, cisterns, or other manmade features in a free text area of the survey
form. In general, these teams struggled to consistently record the shape, construction style,
and location of features in units. We dont think that our teams overlooked features as much
as under-documented them over the course of their typical field day. The filling out of a
survey form, then, became a microcosm for the larger issue facing intensive survey (and
perhaps all of archaeology). The temptation is to collect easily quantifiable data or
phenomena that we can articulate within relatively narrow parameters at the expense of
more complicated artifacts in the fields. The latter slows the field team down because each
instance requires a new description and this kind of creative engagement with each
instance on its own terms produces a kind of messy data that is difficult to aggregate. The
request by team leaders and field walkers to streamline feature description reinforced the
pressure that they felt to document objects in the landscape in a thorough and systematic
way without structured prompts.
As we spend the week organizing data from the field, I once again thought about whether
we need to move more aggressively to using tablets to collect data in the field. Part of me
sees the transition from paper forms as part of a larger process of improving the efficiency
of basic data recording. This should, in turn, free up our team leaders to understand the
landscape in a more nuanced and synthetic way. On the other hand, the demise of paper
forms may push us further along a path where we engage the landscape in a highly
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2. Reuse. For Bevan, the significance of containers extends well beyond their primary use
as transport vessels. Storage vessels designed for large scale transport of goods around
the Mediterranean basin often enjoyed long lives as local storage containers, burial pots,
and even houses. The ubiquitous character of these transport amphora and other containers
created a kind of utilitarian koine built around the adaptive reuse of these objects. In modern
times, the reuse of shipping containers and (yes!) wooden shipping pallets, provides a good
example about how the containerization of transport creates a medium for other expressions
of culture. (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pallets/) My pallet project
and studies of the famous blue tarp follow certain lines by showing how these ubiquitous
aspects of global transport culture have created distinct modes of expression characteristic
of our contemporary culture.
title="P1060941.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/p1060941.jpg"
alt="P1060941" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
3. Amphoras and Other Transport. One thing that Bevan notes is that amphora were not the
only way in which commodities were moved around the Mediterranean landscape. I cant
recommend enough my buddy Scott Gallimores recent article in the most recent ZPE on
some ostraka from Chersonesos on Crete. Scott argues that these ostraka (as well as some
from near Carthage in North Africa) were chits used to record the transfer of wine from
skins used in overland transport to amphora for overseas exports from Crete. The use of
wine or oil skins to transport goods from small producers overland is something often
overlooked by scholars who have tended to see amphoras almost exclusively as the marker
of trade contacts.
This has particular significance for
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeologicalproject/) my site of Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus where we have a superabundance of Late
Roman 1 amphora. It may be that these locally produced amphora (although not at our site)
received olive oil from the region around Koutsopetria and it was transferred to amphora for
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export at our site, and this accounts for the massive quantity of amphora sherds at our site.
4. Responses and a Reply. I really liked the format of the article which included several
responses which almost read like peer reviews of the article. The editors let Bevan reply to
the critiques and he clarified some of the more controversial or opaque statements. The
conversational aspect of the article expanded how I read his work. In particular, some of the
respondents showed interest in thinking about how these containers manifested a Latourian
sense of agency. Bevan does not talk in any great detail about this but the first respondents
clearly thought that this was a productive route for further inquiry transforming the meaning
of the article through their research interests.
The wealth of this article is almost impossible to summarize. It is among the most stimulating
articles Ive read for quite some time.
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?s=Bevan) As with most
(http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/staff/bevan/#tabs-3) of Bevans stuff, his work is
grounded in empirical research, and while there are a few little issues that our hardcore
ceramicists (Mark Lawalls comments demonstrate this) will pick up on and dispute, it is
more important to appreciate the larger concepts involved his efforts. And even if you
disagree with all of his conclusions, you have to admire his willingness to present in an
article a synthetic overview of something as profoundly significant as containerization in a
Mediterranean. His work will at very least be a point of departure.
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Before anyone reads on, you should understand that of us who fussy and fiddle with our
two-channel stereo systems obsessively are a strangle lot of people. We tend to have
strong opinions about gear, sound, and music and support them with our (mostly) hard
earned cash dollars. As a result, we tend to be a contentious lot and engage as much in
debates about equipment over whose advice and opinions we should trust as experts.
The concept of being an expert on how high-end stereo equipment works and sounds is not
all that difficult to grasp, of course. Folks who design and engineer equipment have a
practical grasp of how to transform electricity into the sound that we're willing to pay top
dollar to enjoy. These individuals, however, are not the object of Mr. Hull's thoughtful
remarks because few would dispute their authority and understanding in matters of sound
reproduction.
Mr. Hull sets his sights on the other, more ambiguous group of experts who fill paper and
web pages with opinions and work at serious stereo stores all around the world. These
individuals tout various products, communicate difficult and obscure technical details to the
public, and engage in sometimes rancorous debates regarding the quality (and, less
frequently, value) of particular equipment and approaches to sound. Sonic measurements,
technical details, and other "objective" arguments animate discussions among audiophiles
especially on hot-button issues like the value of expensive, highly-engineered cables,
speaker design philosophies, or various room tuning devices.
The core of these audiophile conversations, however, is the description of sound using
words. Most audiophiles love to listen to music and stereo equipment, but also love to read
about, discuss, and even watch other people listen to stereo equipment and music. The
interplay between our own listening and the listening of others provides a structured set of
expectations way in the pages of audiophile magazines, websites, and in retail
establishments. Audiophile experts deploy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypallage)
transferred epithets in a way that would make Homer (the poet, not the Simpson) proud.
They easily talk about speakers being bright, headphones being smokey", amplifiers
having rhythm and so much intimacy that it is sometimes hard not to blush. Parallel to
and interspersed with this poetic language, is the technical language of zero feedback,
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distributions. Most of will not have the luxury of auditioning in our own home
(http://www.dagostinoinc.com/) DAgostino amplifiers or
(http://www.wilsonaudio.com/index.shtml) Wilson Speakers not to mention smaller more
bespoke brands who create products when ordered or lack robust distribution networks.
Experts in the audiophile community mediate access to expensive, rare, and high-quality
gear through the use of a common language. As non-experts, we may not always agree with
these experts in their opinions of high-end stereo equipment, but they nevertheless have
access to equipment that we do not.
This intersection of readers and writers in the field of high-end stereo equipment creates
what some have called a community of practice. These communities function through a
series of shared expectations and mutually understood actions. Not all members of the
community will share equally in the prestige within the community, access, or technical
proficiency. In fact, the community includes both the audience for experts as well as the
experts themselves.
This almost too long discussion (although not as long as Scot's) is meant to contribute his
efforts to define expertise in our hobby. That we have struggled to define the character of
experts in our community is not a huge surprise. The conversation about audio gear
depends on how we talk about equipment that in many cases we will never own or even
hear. The nature of expertise in this context depends as much on how we talk about things
as the things themselves.
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structures and the mutual understanding of collegial rank and status (i.e. being peers).
At the Atari excavation the punk approach to archaeology manifest as a critique of late
capitalism which both
(https://twitter.com/zakpenn/status/487758173567074304/photo/1) colonized
archaeology in the interest in the ((http://recode.net/2014/07/17/microsoft-to-shut-downxbox-entertainment-studios/) apparently stillborn) effort to produce content for Microsofts
X-box platform and created the object of their investigation: Ataris E.T. video game. Like my
work around workforce housing in the Bakken Oil Patch, punk archaeology attempted to
position itself in a way to critique the changing nature of material, labor, and consumer
culture. The archaeological aspects of both projects focused on the quickening pace of
contemporary society where objects and settlements moved more quickly from objects of
desire to artifacts of study. The pace of culture means that archaeology as a discipline must
engage an ambiguous body of material that is flowing at an alarming rate from objects in
use in everyday life to archaeological artifacts.
Punk archaeology looks to blur lines at the edges of the discipline. In some ways, this is
good. It opens up our discipline to think about new ways of doing things, which range from
new approaches and methods to new ideological commitments and new definitions of
disciplinary limits.
On the other hand, professional archaeology and academia in general worked to
democratize the production of knowledge. It is a bit concerning that punk rock music,
despite its flirtation with gender bending and
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8J9WssSj7Q) androgyny, and to some extent punk
archaeology is a movement (can I really call it that?) that shares this aggressive, masculine
encoding. More than that,
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/punk-archaeolog/) punk
had strong roots in a white, suburban subculture and often rejected middle or even upper
class values while at the same time romanticizing a kind of lost urbanism in decades
characterized by white flight and disintegration of traditional cities. As much as academic
professionalism remains committed to a commodified and industrial model of knowledge
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production, it had the useful side-effect of breaking down some the gender, racial, and
economic barriers that had made academia a bastion of white, male, upper class privilege.
On its best days, punk archaeology seeks to critique the professionalization of the academy
(and the contemporary rise of the post-industrial assessocracy) while preserving the gains
that this process has made.
(https://soundcloud.com/drunkarchaeology/episode1) Andrew Reinhards Drunk
Archaeology goes even further along the lines of blurring professional boundaries. If the DIY
of punk archaeology rejects many of the institutional character of knowledge production,
Drunk Archaeology challenges professional standards even further. As E.P. Thompson and
others have argued intoxication has a long tradition as a form of resistance. The most
famous manifestation of this is St. Monday when workers would be absent on Monday as
they recovered from weekend indulgences. Drunk Archaeology continues in this tradition by
injecting alcohol into an rollicking conversation about the site of Pompeii with Eric Poehler
and Francesca Tronchin. The podcast shares many of the characteristics of punk
archaeology (and punk rock) with its raw language, challenged production standards, and
intellectual irreverence. Reinhard manages to use the drunkenness of the conversation to
good effect punctuating the conversation with the clinking of ice in refilled glasses and
swirly audio effects as three participants romp through the history and archaeology of
Pompeii. The podcast is good despite its rough production and oddly unscripted chat. Think
of as the MC5s Kick Out the Jams
It ask shares with Punk Archaeology a bit of ambivalence in its critique. Is the drunkenness
meant to be simply playful? Or is it meant as a hat tip to traditions of the booze-soaked,
hyper-masculine, preprofessional archaeologist who follows a honed intuition rather than
methodology or formal training to discover the past. Could it even be a subtle wink to the
parallels between archaeology and the long, complex, and damaging history of alcohol in a
colonial context?
I think Id prefer to read (listen?) to the podcast as a more complex critique which uses
alcohol as a way to challenge the overwhelming force of rationality, methodology, and
scientism in our discipline and instead emphasizes the passion, mystique, and fun, of
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In fact, the long Western tradition of sparsely populated, wild places as the source of
various kinds of corrupting influences (from the so-called Germanic hordes who supposedly
destroyed the Roman world to the uncivilized wildlings in the Game of Thrones) has
provided a context for activities that would be far more problematic in the more densely built
up core. The willingness to treat the periphery in a different way also captures the binary
logic of Western colonialism where behaviors and attitudes unacceptable in the core meet
with ambivalence in colonial places.
This process of internal colonization follows the rough and irregular edge of a rural-urban
divide across the United States. Pollution caused by extractive industries in, say,
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) the Bakken Oil Patch
in western North Dakota, is simply the price of progress for residents of the core and for
small communities who see sacrifice as a road to deeper integration with the core and
access to economic and political power. In Pezullos study of Bloomington, Indiana, the
social, economic, and political power of companies like Westinghouse helped to protect the
use of PCBs in manufacturing in Indiana even as the risks became visible and known to the
community. The absence of strong counterweights to wealthy and powerful corporate
interests pervades the Bakken as well.
Pezullos observations on pollution in rural America could likewise be applied to the
dumping of thousands of unsold and returned
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/atari-excavation/) Atari video games
in a landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. This moment in time reflects the remoteness of
Almagordo from the prying eyes of shareholders. The presence of White Sands missile
range nearby only reinforces the suitability for this sparsely populated stretch of rural land
for activities set apart from the settlements and interests of most Americans.
The next paper in the book looked at the discard and collection of trash on the slopes of Mt.
Everest. Further chapters considered the pollution present in minority neighborhoods
impacted by hurricane Katerina in New Orleans. Most of the papers considers the social
construction of discard practices and pollution as mediated through varying degrees of
economic and political remoteness. For anyone interested in grasping better how trash fits
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into our modern (and arguably premodern) world, the studies contained in this volume are
valuable reads.
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on archaeology as craft.
At the same time that I was eavesdropping on this Twitter conversation and reacquainting
myself with Tilleys article, I was also reading a pre-publication draft of an article by Sara
Perry. I wont spoil the fun before its 2014 publication, but the title is Crafting Knowledge
with (Digital) Visual Media in Archaeology. Set aside Collen Morgans work, it has
reminded me that there are compelling efforts to bridge the gap between digital tools and
craft practice. ((https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/not-a-goodpaper-the-art-of-digital-archaeology/) My efforts were NOT compelling in any way.)
Anyway, these conversations have spurred me to make three observation.
1. Slow. As with everything on this blog, I cant help but make this conversation about my
own work (although (https://twitter.com/electricarchaeo/status/494163025058734080)
Shawn Graham who brought me into the Twitter conversation indulged me as well). My
interest in Slow Archaeology has less to do with the pace of archaeological work (either
excavation or survey) and more to do with creating an alternative to the kind of methoddriven, industrial practices that have emerged as a component of disciplinary archaeology. If
methodology promotes a transparent and - as much as possible - linear relationship
between field procedures, analysis, and interpretation, then Slow Archaeology advocation
complicating this process. Tilley offers one way to complicate the mechanical (if not
mechanistic), method driven disciplinary archaeology by making room for practitioners to
think about archaeological work outside of atomistic data recovery guided by hypothesis
testing.
Survey archaeology is particularly suitable to this kind of practice because it is largely nondestructive. Walking across a landscape without a notebook or a camera might seem like
an effete indulgence of 21st century Western intellectuals or even a lingering expression of
colonial dominance (and these critiques are consistent with views of the Slow movement
more generally). On the other hand, this practice would promote - even just for a time - a
less-structured engagement with the archaeological landscape.
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3. Craft and Archaeology in the 21st Century. All of this thinking about craft and
archaeology (and a small, but compelling body of recent scholarship) has me thinking that I
should run another series of guest blog posts on the topic. That our conversations have
begun in Twitter is perfect for this kind of digitally mediated conversation. My growing
experience moving text from the blog to more traditional paginated medium (see two soon
to appear books based on the (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punkarchaeology/) Punk Archaeology blog (and conference) and the series of posts on
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-in-mediterranean-archaeology/)
3D Modeling Mediterranean Archaeology) is itself a manifestation of craft practice and
becoming familiar with the tools and technologies required to move documents through the
process of publication.
So, heres a draft proposal:
Archaeologists have become increasingly interested in the intersection between the
growing number of new digital tools, methodologies, and field procedures, and the
longstanding traditions of archaeological expertise and practice. This interest reflects both
optimism for a more highly visible, transparent, and democratic archaeology, but also a
concern for the skills and knowledge that will be lost as archaeology fully embraces its
place as a (post)industrial discipline. This conversation is not distinct to archaeology, of
course, with scholars across the humanities and social sciences reflecting on the potential
of craft as a meaningful and familiar way to articulate what we may be losing.
Who would be interested in contributing to this kind of forum? I volunteer my blog to host it
and The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota to push out a quick publication.
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comments on Troys blog. In short, Troys blog is one of the best points of departure for
research on small places in North Dakota.
The kerfuffle began when Toms class page pointed to Troys blog as a point of departure
for student research on ghost towns. Apparently, the goal of Toms class was to produce a
book or part of a book on abandoned places in North Dakota. From what I understand that
goal has not been achieved yet so there is no final product. The internet, as this blog is
ample evidence for, provides access to process, however, and Troy objected to the process
that Toms class was using to start their research. And then this all hit Facebook and got
pretty exciting for a couple of days.
This is an interesting problem on two levels. First, it demonstrates two fundamentally
different ways of viewing information made available on the web. Troy naturally feels
protective of the work he has invested into an impressive resource that he generously made
available on the web. I cant really say for sure what Toms motives are, but I suspect they
were similar to mine when I created an index to my History 101 class that consisted entirely
of links to Wikipedia. If a resource is available on the web, I feel pretty comfortable
deploying it for whatever schemes or goals I have in mind. (Tom is a sometime reader of this
blog and is known to have a wry smile about many things in life, so maybe hell post a
comment).
In fact, much of my academic career has been dedicated to creating resources that I hope
other people will do more with than I have. For example, I included a catalogue of over 200
churches in
(https://etd.ohiolink.edu/ap/10?0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:osu1057071172) my
dissertation, and it is available for free for download via Ohio States library catalogue. I fully
(and optimistically) expected someone to use my catalogue to produce their own studies of
Early Christian basilicas in Greece. In fact, I think the enduring value to my work is probably
not the analysis (which will always represent strains of thinking grounded in a particular time
and place), but the catalogue, which will hopefully represent a resource for the next
generation of scholars. David Pettegrew and I have made available a photographic
catalogue of houses at the site of (http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4)
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Jones nor Khazdan could know, of course, if we were using their work and its hard to avoid
the idea that many recent books and encyclopedias on these topics used the exhaustive
efforts of Jones and Khazdan as a guide. I wonder whether Troy would have felt different
had Tom used a paper syllabus and assigned copies of Troys books as a guide for his
class? Would Troy have ever even known?
I also wonder whether the relatively small and tight nit community of scholars interested in
North Dakota also played a part in how this particular controversy took place? It seems like
Troy was particularly offended that Tom didnt ask or contact him before linking liberally to
his blog. The courtesies, much like waving on a lonely rural road in North Dakota, are the
kind of thing that happens regularly in small communities where people know one another
and both Tom and Troy live in Fargo. I wonder whether Troy would have felt the same way if
Tom was a professor at, say, the University of Texas or University of Queensland in
Australia?
Finally, it is interesting that some of the rhetoric (and Ill ask Troy to clarify this, if he thinks
Im mischaracterizing him in any way) is grounded in the difference in how academics and
non-academics see resources made available on the web. As we academics explore small,
privately produced collections on the web (many of which are curated by antiquarians like
Troy), we will have to think more carefully about how we use these resources both to
respect the significant investment of time and energy that they involved and to transfer their
value effectively to an academic context.
Im reluctant to see either Troy or Tom in the wrong here, but this little controversy (by the
standards of the internet) reminds us how far we are from understanding how this media
works even after in the 25th year of the World Wide Web Era.
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From my perspective there are three significant issues involving craft in archaeology (but Im
sure there are more!):
1. Craft in the Field. How and where do craft approaches exist in archaeological practice
and how have recent trends in archaeological methodology limited the influence of
traditional craft approaches to field practice (for better or for worse). In craft, the master
craftsman has intellectual and bodily control over the entire productive process. How do we
reconcile craft modes of archaeological production with those grounded in more industrial
modes?
2. Craft in the Discipline. While the modes of knowledge production associated with craft
have sometimes taken on a nostalgic glow in recent years, they can also carry forward a set
of deeply conservative attitudes regarding access to the field (both literally and figuratively)
and the authority to produce archaeological knowledge. In many cases, the authority within
a system of craft derives from vaguely defined notions of expertise and experience
which while important in archaeological work, tend to reinforce hierarchical social
arrangement and privilege certain groups who have had traditional access to field work
opportunities, material, and the previous generation of archaeological masters (e.g. old,
white, men). In contrast, in professional archaeological knowledge is a product of rigorous
adherence to modern, industrial, field practices (often mediated by technology) which could
be acquired through the study of published work on methodology. This had the advantage
of opening of the discipline to a wider group of practitioners by undermining field practices
that reproduced traditional social hierarchies. Do appeals to archaeology as craft present
real risks for archaeology as a discipline?
3. Craft and Technology. In recent years, it appears that archaeologys increasing
engagement with technology would bring about a revolution in field and publication
practices. With more data collected in more sophisticated way and at a faster rate,
technological changes has accelerated the slow process of field documentation. This has
ensure that we have more information from our time in the field, and less time for the
deliberate and contemplative aspects of the archaeologist craft. I realize that juxtaposing
craft with practices mediate by technology is not entirely fair or accurate; at the same time, I
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can think of few technologies used regularly in archaeological work that explicitly reinforce
the kind of haptic, embodied knowledge of traditional archaeological experience. Does
archaeology used technology in such a way to marginalize opportunities for engagements
grounded in craft?
These issues are meant as points of departure rather than limits on what we can consider in
this series of posts, and they are meant to be a bit polemic to stimulate reflection on the role
of craft in the discipline. Id welcome contributions that go beyond these rather simple
proposition or reject them completely. (For some of my own reflections on archaeology,
history, and craft (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/craft/) go here.)
Over the next few months, we hope to present a series of contributions on the issue of craft
in current archaeological practice. The contributions will appear weekly either on my blog
here, or, if we can arrange it, on (http://arf.berkeley.edu/then-dig/) Then Dig. Once we have
an assemblage of contributions, I am willing to edit and publish them in an ebook and paper.
Better still,, I'm open to co-editors or even guest editors to help with the practical and
intellectual aspects of the editorial process. Im currently finishing up editorial duties on
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-in-mediterranean-archaeology/)
last years 3D Thursday contributions and they will, with any luck, appear early this fall.
As for the mechanics of contributions, Im willing to be the contact person for now, so
please drop me an email at billcaraher [at] gmail [dot] com or leave a comment on this post.
I dont see any need to impose word limits on contributions and longer post can be broken
across several weeks if that would work better. Im happy to post images as well, and
having necessary permissions and publication quality images (e.g. 600 dpi or better) will
facilitate the final editing process for publication.
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Excavating my Office
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/05/excavating-my-office/
Tue, 05 Aug 2014 13:26:25 +0000
I know its a bit hackneyed now for archaeologists to document the material culture of their
office, but I cleaned my office yesterday for the first time in about five years.
I wont say anything profound or amazing, but I was shocked by the quantity of residual stuff
floating around my office.
title="IMG_1815.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/img_1815.jpg" alt="IMG
1815" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="IMG_1816.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/img_1816.jpg" alt="IMG
1816" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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1819" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
For example, I found a ticket stub for a Son Seals concert at Little Brothers in Columbus,
Ohio in 1997.
title="IMG_1817.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/img_1817.jpg" alt="IMG
1817" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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More than that, the assemblages produced by comparable methods have certain clear
similarities. Both study areas produced an abundance of Late Romam material particular
easily-identified Late Roman amphoras. In the case of Koutsopetria, these are largely Late
Roman type 1 amphora. In the Corinthia, the survey area produced a substantial quantity of
Late Roman type 2 amphoras. While neither amphora was produced locally, both are
regional types and LR1 kilns are known on Cyprus and there are LR2 kilns in the Southern
Argolid. Both of these amphora types have been associated with forms of administrative
trade in the Late Roman world, and provisioning the army on the borders of the empire in
particular.
Connectivity has tended to focus on the small-scale trade between interdependent
microregions rather than the larger-scale, administrative trade. In fact, considering the role
of this larger-scale trade in our notions of connectivity marks a return to older notions of
trade in the Late Roman world which saw economic activity largely stimulated by the
requirements of supplying the capital and the armies. The Corinthian Isthmus featured both
imperially funded construction in the Hexamilion wall and, at least in the 6th century, a
garrison of troops at fortress at Isthmia. The appearance of LR2 amphora in this context
suggests the movement of goods into the area most likely to provision the garrison and to
supply construction crews associated with the Hexamilion wall renovations in the 6th
century.
At Koutsopetria, the abundance of LR1 is perhaps tied to the need to supply the army in the
Balkans. The site may have served as a transshipment point for agricultural produce leaving
Cyprus through the small embayment there. The numerous fragments of amphora there
makes it unlikely that they represent goods coming into a small community, but more likely
represented exports. The uniformity of the amphora types also suggests that goods are
flowing out from the site in a systematic way.
The advantage of comparing these two study areas is to present a useful counterpoint to
the common view of connectivity that emphasizes links between microregions. Our paper
will return to a view of the Mediterranean that considers the links between small places and
the center while at the same time attempting to understand how these connections
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other classes. I still found the comments disheartening. I dont use The Powerpoint because
I want students to pay attention to what Im saying during my lectures rather than slavishly
copying down notes from a Powerpoint slide. I dont circulate study questions before they
read the primary sources because students tend to become mesmerized by these questions
and find it difficult to think beyond them during our discussions. I hope, perhaps naively, that
students will be curious enough about my lectures and the readings to find their own ways
through the material, and I design my classes to reward unique and unexpected
engagements with the content.
I feel like I can add three observations to Conns comments.
First, I suspect that the rise of the gyrocopter professor is also tied to the rise of audit
culture (also known as the assessocracy). The insistence from both other faculty members
and the administration that every cognitive move in the class be assessable and evaluated in
relation to a strictly articulated set of course goals. For many administrators, this relates
directly to accountability. Faculty have to be accountable for what they are teaching and the
outcomes have to be trackable. As a result, we simplify the learning process into easily
assessed goals (e.g. Ability to read and know the meanings of really big words or Ability
to clearly articulate a thesis statement). These goals are then articulated in the syllabus and
invoked whenever a task associated with these learning goals happens in class or on an
assignment. This transparency of learning objectives is commendable to many, but our
students will often see these goals as the ONLY objective of the course. As a result (and
using a great phrase bandied about on the Twittersphere), students drift into becoming
incurious grade drones especially as the pressures of the semester mount.
The other aspect of the gyrocopter professor is the slow and steady adaptation of the
humanities to an industrial mode of learning. In craft practice, the master is deeply involved
in all aspects of production from the arrival of raw materials to the final product. In industrial
practice, the creation of the final product is broken into smaller and smaller tasks and each
task receives detailed attention to improve efficiency. From the late 19th century, the
American university system has seen the rising influence of industrial models for learning.
Complex topics such as ethical behavior, the past, or literature are broken down into
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smaller and small tasks over a more and more structured curriculum. Each learning task
becomes the subject of audit culture to improve efficiency.
Finally, one observation that got lost in all of this is that it is really difficult to keep your
students engaged in classes that dont lay out every expectation in great detail. Faculty and
students have to share a significant amount of trust for learning in an unstructured way to
take place over the course of the semester. Building that trust is a difficult, time consuming,
and humbling task. For the average faculty member pressured by research and service
obligations, it is hard to find the time and energy to build these bonds of trust. Students, of
course, are in the same boat. Pressures of work, life, and other classes make it hard for
them to slow down and get to understand the mutual expectations required for learning. In
the place of this painful and protracted process of trust building, we produce little rubrics
and state learning goals and lead our students by the hand through the wilds of learning
hoping that somewhere along the line they move beyond being incurious grade drones,
and we can end our daily gyrocopter flights.
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(http://www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/pdf_publications/lessons_learn
ed_reflecting.html) If you really like mosaic conservation, check out these papers.
(http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/792706.html) Check out Kyle Cassidys view of the
search for the lost mummy!
(http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2014/08/craft-highlow-brow-conspiracy.html) Kostis
Kourelis on craft.
(http://imperium.ahlfeldt.se/) A digital atlas of the Roman world powered by Google Maps.
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(http://www.bbc.com/travel/feature/20140626-turkeys-religious-ghost-town/1) An
abandoned Greek village in Turkey.
(http://www.1914.org/news/siegfried-sassoons-war-diaries-go-online-for-first-time/)
Siefried Sassons war diaries.
(http://www.openculture.com/2013/11/fly-through-17th-century-london.html) Fly through
17th century London.
(http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/07/tower-of-london-poppies/) 888, 246 ceramic
poppies cascading from the tower of London.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/arts/design/censured-delaware-art-museum-plansto-divest-moreworks.html?emc=edit_tnt_20140807&nlid=31495494&tntemail0=y&_r=1)
Delaware Art museum is selling more art.
Facebooking in the classroom: (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/why-thisprofessor-is-encouraging-facebook-use-in-his-classroom/54223) here and
(http://tso.sagepub.com/content/42/2/95.abstract) here.
(http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/how-did-the-federal-government-rate-your-college-acentury-ago/83411) In 1911, UND and Richmond College ranked as Class II universities
by the U.S. Bureau of Education. Ohio State was a Class I university.
(http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/possessed-james-brown-eighteenminutes) Watch this 18 minute video for your weekly dose of energy.
(http://bloody-disgusting.com/videos/3306348/youve-never-heard-thunderstruck-playedlike/) Thunderstruck played by a Finnish bluegrass band.
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What Im reading: Jos Antonio Bowen, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/teaching-nakedhow-moving-technology-out-of-your-college-classroom-will-improve-studentlearning/oclc/778417681) Teaching Naked: How moving technology out of your classroom
will improve student learning. (2012).
What Im listening to: Owl John, Owl John.
title="IMG_1832.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/img_1832.jpg" alt="IMG
1832" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
A Wet Dog
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I think then Id like to introduce four ways of talking about workforce housing in the Bakken.
1. Stories of the Boom. One of the most interesting thing that weve encountered are the
various ways that people have talked about the oil boom in North Dakota. The media, for
example, loves to tell stories of people taking risks to make their fortune as well as folks who
found only disappointment in the Bakken. The Bakken is narrated in so many different ways
and workforce housing, man camps, are typically part of these stories. We could imagine
directing a visitor to the Bakken or someone attending one of our workshops to consider
the various ways that people have told the story of the Bakken boom and how the place
where many of these new North Dakotans live contribute to these stories.
2. Objects and Arrangements. A key aspect of living in workforce housing is that home is
often somewhere else. On a practical level, there is workforce housing provides less space
for the kinds of objects that most of us associate with him. On a philosophical level, this
reduced assemblages makes it more difficult for residents of the man camps to express
their own identity through their objects located in and around their residences. In this
context, then, it is useful to consider the objects associated with workforce housing. They
typically range from objects associated with domestic life - grills, coolers, refrigerators, lawn
or camping furnitures - to those associated with work. The latter category becomes all the
more common when the line between the space of sleeping and eating overlaps with the
space for working.
3. Architecture and Innovation. Despite the limited assemblage of material present in many
of these camps, there is nevertheless innumerable examples of innovation as residents of
the Bakken work to transform RVs from season and occasional vehicles to spaces for
longterm habitation. Elaborate mudrooms, platforms, and barriers to block the cold and
wind, expand and refine the limited space available in the standard recreational vehicles.
Large camps, have a vibrant trade in recycled building material and, in some cases,
additions that allow residents to customize their spaces to suit the distinct needs of yearround life in the Bakken. The growing prevalence of mobile housing and the needs of an
expanding contingent and transient workforce is ushering in a new chapter in the history of
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vernacular architecture.
4. Images of Home. Most of the world has encountered the Bakken oil boom through the
often-spectacular images published in the national media. These images show a range of
experiences associated with extractive industries, but images of the workers in their
domestic space are relatively rare. The national media then characterizes the Bakken
primarily as a place of work with short-term habitation being a curious, but
underrepresented footnote. This has the risk of dehumanizing the residents of the Bakken
by making them seem an appendage to work rather than individuals who struggle to make a
comfortable, secure, and balanced life just like the rest of us.
Today, were going to revisit a bunch more of our study sites around Watford City and
Williston and Ill post an update tomorrow.
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2. Settlements are changing. One of our favorite camps is a Type 2 camp just outside of
Williston called Fox Run. This came had over 300 units in it last summer and showed a
tremendous amount of architectural innovation with elaborate mudrooms, well-kept spaces
around the units, built decks and platforms, and residents describing a genuine sense of
community. In our visit this summer, the material conditions in the camp had clearly
changed. There were fewer elaborate mudrooms (and more mudrooms in reuse), the areas
around units were less well-kept, and the sense of community had palpably changed. There
were far more open lots than we had seen before. It seems like the character of the facility
had changed and, while I use this word guardedly, the camp seems to be in decline. Were
contemplating writing a history of Williston Fox Run and have begun to look into county and
state records for the parcel. The Type 2 camps are attracting a different kind of resident as
more permanent (or semi-permanent) housing is made available for workers looking to
reside in the Bakken for more than a single season.
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3. Settlements and Capital. In our almost ready for publication article we noted that man
camps represented a way that industry managed the need for a contingent workforce who
could move at the close to the same speed as global capital. A meeting with the
development office in Watford City complicated our picture a bit by pointing out that man
camps themselves are also a product of the global (or at least national) flow of capital.
Camps like Williston Fox Run were built by developers and maintained by companies with
investors who live far outside the region. In other words, the development extractive
industries in the Bakken and the housing requirements for workforce all derive from the
same pool of non-local capital and predictably respond to the needs and expectation of
investors, managers, and pressures that have only practical concerns for local communities.
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This is unsurprising, but we had not explored this aspect of the Bakken boom in past field
and research seasons.
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professors/) my Teaching Thursday post from last week on gyrocopter professors. These
professors feel compelled by a whole raft of institutional and social pressures to hand feed
students information both about the structure of the course and its content. The pressures
to make everything clear - even things that cant be clarified without losing inherent
dissonance and complexity - have resulted in a simplification of the teaching and learning
process and content.
Over the past few years, I have unknowingly, but intentionally, sowing a certain amount of
confusion in my classes and despite pressures to present the course and its content as
yielding clearly stated objectives. To be clear, I do value student learning and directed
learning. If students in my history course, for example, concluded that we have nothing to
learn from antiquity or that history cannot help us understand our work in a more
sympathetic way, Id be disappointed and adjust the class to provide the necessary
structure to guide the students to conclusions that I find consistent with my view of the
discipline and the world.
At the same time, Ive used open-ended assignments with only the most superficial
explanations as standard assignments in my upper level and graduate history courses. The
only thing that I require is that these assignments have a thesis and use primary sources to
support an argument. The arguments and character of the papers is up to the students to
decide. There are no leading questions, rubrics, or templates to structure the papers.
Graduate Historiography Paper. Over the course of the semester, you have maintained
journals based on our weekly reading. Using these journals as a primary source present
an argument related to your understanding of historiography or historical epistemology.
Undergraduate Source Paper: Using one or more of the primary sources from class, present
a critical argument (i.e. a thesis supported by primary source evidence) related to the history
of Byzantium.
These rather open-ended assignments invariably cause consternation, if not genuine
confusion, but they also push students to think as much about what makes a good historical
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argument (in a generalized way) as specific arguments associated with the subject matter in
the class. To prevent despair, I assure my classes that the discomfort they feel is, in fact,
what it feels like to learn. As most readers of this blog know, real learning is pain and
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-roots-of-student-resistance/)
student resistance is often a good indicator of learning taking place.
The challenge from a pedagogical perspective is that so much of our students university
experience has become defined by rubrics, templates, and well-defined learning goals
ensures that the confusion threshold in the classroom is very low. This either makes it easier
to create the disfluency necessary for deep learning or suggests that some of the basic
mechanisms of higher education run counter to its most cherished goals.
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inspired our work on the (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/workcamps/) North Dakota Man Camp Project.
(http://www.npr.org/2014/08/07/338586411/before-war-a-punk-drummer-preservedsyrian-chants) Punk rock drummer preserving Syrian chants.
(http://www.designboom.com/art/mohammad-domiri-intricacy-iranian-mosquesarchitecture-08-06-2014/) Iranian architecture.
(http://www.espncricinfo.com/blogs/content/story/767583.html) The dark undertone to
cricket journalism and the long shadow of crickets imperial past.
(http://www.gofundme.com/d0yph4) Crowd sourcing to help a local business.
(http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/05/language_map_what_s_the_most_
popular_language_in_your_state.html) Some cool maps of second and third languages in
the U.S.
(http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/08/13/upshot/where-people-in-each-statewere-born.html?smid=fbnytimes&WT.z_sma=UP_WPI_20140814&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id
&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=3#North_Dakot
a) And where people in your state were born.
(http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/discover/1994/) Microsoft website from back in the
day.
What I am reading: Luke Lavan
ed., (http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/22134522/10/1) Local
Economies? Production and Exchange of Inland Regions in Late Antiquity. Late Antique
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$5000 for the best paper and that paper and the eight runners-up will be published. I cant
help but thinking that this is the kind of competition that should be crowd sourced. All the
contributions should be made public and some kind of voting system should be put in place
(perhaps like the system put in place for SXSW panels). After all, it seems like this kind of
competition should be judged by someone other than the faculty and students from the
Joukowsky who have generally focused on academic writing!
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/a-proposed-blog-seriesarchaeology-and-craft/) Craft. (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-inmediterranean-archaeology/) Like last fall, Im hosting a series of blog posts (short(ish)
articles on (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/04/a-proposed-blogseries-archaeology-and-craft/) Archaeology and Craft here on my blog. With some luck
and coordination, I hope to crosspost them over at (http://arf.berkeley.edu/then-dig/) Then
Dig. The plan is to get them out as a short volume within a year via the Digital Press at the
University of North Dakota. The contributions can be any length, but since they start on a
blog, I generally nudge folks to keep them under 5000 words. Of course, we can always
split longer posts into two or more parts. Drop me an email if you want to contribute. I have
a few contributions already, but I like to have five or six before I start to post them regularly.
I just realized this weekend that Im officially under contract as of August 15, so I need to
start to get focused on my official sabbatical to do list (and a post on that will be
forthcoming). Hopefully these opportunities will give you productive distractions as the grind
of semester looms!
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Obviously, this 200 word effort to summarize a complex and nuanced book does not do
justice (or even represent in a completely accurate way) to Kohns work. At the same time,
one can understand how Kohns work challenges some prevailing efforts to understand
non-human agency. For example, Kohn draws on Peirces semiotics to argue for the
existence of systems not grounded in the rules of human language. Efforts to understand
material agency, however, tends to rely on human language to articulate agency in the
material world. The world of living things, however, functions according to its own logic and
rules, that are both consistent and outside of the structures that weve built to articulate
culture.
The potential of Kohns ideas to influencing archaeological work - at least how it is currently
construed in the Mediterranean - has less to do, in my mind, with the role of non-human
living things in the construction of the ancient world, but as a reminder of our tendency to
limit who we recognize as agents within the production of culture. I immediately thought of
my own - largely unconvincing - efforts to identify
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/resistance/) resistance in the
archaeology of the Late Roman Corinthia. I tried to argue that the existing monuments of
culture preserved evidence for another discourse that runs counter to the prevailing
message of elite power. The key to recognizing these counter arguments goes beyond
simply inverting the message of an object in an effort to discern its opposite, but to expect
and understand messages that are fundamentally incompatible with the language and
discourse of elite authority. Like the language of the forest, articulating resistance neednt
adhere to the rules established by our monolithic views of elite culture, but perhaps derives
its power by functioning completely outside this system.
(As an irreverent aside, I found Kohns book almost completely unhelpful in figuring out what
our new dog wants. I do, however, think more carefully about what, when, and why he
dreams!)
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research.
On the one hand, it is clear that funding for basic humanities research, particularly on the
scale of archaeological work, is drying up both in the U.S. and abroad, and academics are
becoming increasingly creative to find funds for their work. More than that, archaeological
fieldwork has always attracted wealthy patrons. In the 19th century, for example, donors
might receive artifacts from an ongoing excavation. Today, donors receive t-shirts,
newsletters, and insider information. Some prominent sites, like Nemea, have
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aardvark#mediaviewer/File:Porc_formiguer.JPG) non-profit
organizations established to fund the excavation, conservation, and reconstruction (!) of the
site. These groups organize events, et c. I tend to associate the most formal manifestations
of this work with longstanding practices in fundraising at academic institutions. Universities,
research institutions, and professional associations raise money to advance their priorities.
Generally speaking, these groups are in fundraising for the long haul, and see it as
inseparable from a kind of relationship building that at least ostensibly works to broker a
shared vision for the institution with its supporters. There is compromise between the
interests of supporters and the goals of the institution with the institution providing a
substantial check on the more fickle attitudes of funders.
Crowdfunding, on the other hand, strikes me as something different. Rather than brokering
the complex relationship between donors and an institution, crowdfunding asks for onetime, money to support a single project. More than that, limited time allowed to raise funds,
actually discourages, to some existent, a persistent engagement with the project. For the
donor (and I have supported quite a few and quite a range of projects on Kickstarter), there
is less of a feeling of commitment to the cause. In fact, Im relieved after my donation that I
wont be pelted with emails for the rest of my life asking me to affirm my friendship (as a
famous Ohio State capital campaign once asked). The basic structure of these asks, in fact,
encourages donors to see them as a gift for a very specific reward. Many companies have
come to using crowd-funding platforms as a way to presell devices and generate capital
prior to their investment in manufacturing (or even final development).
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not lend itself to consistent pressings. Compounding matters is that up until 1924 or so,
recordings were made by the acoustical method. That is, the performers played into a
horn that amplified the sound enough to move a cutting stylus across a master cylinder of
wax. These recordings could not capture the same sonic range as later electrical recordings
made into microphones, but are more coveted by collectors. The inconsistent character of
shellac discs, however, continued to compromise quality at playback as did the tendency to
press records that did not play at precisely 78rpm and used various frequency response
curves idiosyncratic to particular labels.
As a result, the sound from 78rpm discs might be described as inconsistent, but to some
extent the sound we hear from them defines an era of recorded music. There is an
undeniable authenticity that audiophiles, in their relentless pursuit of perfect sound, tend to
overlook. Recent debates about the LP revival, for example, tend to focus on the idea that
LPs sound BETTER than the compressed sound of mp3 recordings so popular with the
kids these days.
At the same time, it is hard to deny that our compressed-to-distortion mp3s are the
authentic sound of music for this generation just as the crackling, warped, and distorted
sound of relatively inexpensive 78s was the sound of recorded music prior to the war. Ill
admit that Im not a LP guy and, in fact, I find the sound of digitized 78s difficult to enjoy. At
the same time, Im not as mortified by the sound of MP3s, as say, Neil Young or other
audiophiles. While I still prefer a CD or even a high-resolution download, reading
Petrusichs book has reminded me that there is something undeniably authentic about both
78s and mp3s.
2. The Song. One of the great tropes (http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/theattention-span-gap/) in the audiophile press is how the kids these days dont have the
patience for long-playing records or even albums. They just want the poppy singles, loaded
onto mediocre sounding portable mp3 players (so called iPods), and lasting no more than
3 minutes. In fact, some argue that they simply dont have the attention span for a LP. This,
of course, is crazy as these same young music consumers can watch movies, the NFL, and
go out to concerts in healthy numbers and all of these things last for longer than a single
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song.
More than that, the LP era was an aberration in how we listen to recorded music. The 78
era, lasting from the late teens to the World War II, was all about 3 minute singles. And the
average listener couldnt afford to sit still for too long because once the song was done,
they have to get up and flip over the 78! Perhaps our short attention span for recorded
music is the norm, and the LP generation was, in fact, a group not only too lazy to get up
and flip over an album, but also dulled their music senses by subjecting them to endless,
pointless, mediocre b-sides on long-playing records.
3. Rituals of Listening. One of the great aspects of Petrusichs book is how she describes
these 78 collectors listening to their prized possessions. None of these guys (and, yeah,
theyre almost all men) hesitated at all to PLAY their records for the author. More than that,
almost all of them clearly enjoyed hearing the music. They tapped their feet, squirmed in
their chairs, fell into trances, gestured in the air, and generally reveled in the listening
experience. They felt the intensity of these authentic listening experiences.
More than that, once they began to listen to 78s, they listened to more and more. The
records flew off their shelves and onto their turn table. More than once the author had to
extract herself from an emotionally draining listening session before her host was done
spinning records.
I found her descriptions of these events to be among the most compelling parts of the book.
The way these seasoned collectors still found something invigorating in these poorly
produced singles reminded me of enduring power of simple rituals.
It also made me want to go and put a CD in my ole CD player (a 1992 vintage Nakamichi
CD4), warm up the tube amp (a very recent Audio Research VSi60), and listen to my big Zu
Omen Defs with their old school full-range drivers.
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get things right for even a relatively simple book design. If the technical details are not
complex, the execution is.
2. Book production is invisible. While Ive been laying out my own books, Ive also been
editing page proofs for (http://www.scribd.com/doc/232052894/PKAP-Introduction) PylaKoutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town for the ASOR
Archaeological Report Series. As Ive carefully re-read the text and made small corrections
here or there throughout, I got to thinking how relatively invisible book designers, layout
people, and even copy editors are within the system of academic production. So many of us
academics consider ourselves sensitive to the various inequalities intrinsic to the various
systems at play in our worlds. At the same time, Ive never seen a particularly spirited
defense of those folks who participate in the publishing industry below the levels of the
clearly evil corporate overlords who spend their days converting the fruits of academic
labors to the fruits of their table.
(With not a little embarrassment, I remember enabling a co-author to rewrite a good chunk
of an article at the stage of page proofs, and the editors and production folks, through
gritted-teeth, accepting our requests. As someone who is now spending time on the
production side of publishing, I am becoming more and more aware of how our late-game
creative decisions do not exist in a vacuum.)
3. The Heterotopia of Independent Publishing. Over the past few years, the potential of self
or independent publishing has emerged as a largely unrealized threat set against the worst
abuses of the academic publishing industry. As a blogger, Im sure that Ive expressed and
even acted on some of those threats (http://www.scribd.com/billcaraher) by pushing out
pre-prints, sacrificing time that I could be spending producing products for publishers to
make my ideas accessible on my blog, and by, finally, using my blog platform as an
incubator for content that I will eventually publish with my low-fi press.
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unlikely to have created an archaeologically visible assemblage at any one point on these
routes. More than this, overland trade in wine or olive oil
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/containers-and-connectivity/) may
not have used amphoras at all further impairing the archaeological visibility of the kind of
low-level connectivity characteristic of Mediterranean exchange patterns. Between
ephemeral containers and variable, low-density scatters, the regular pattern of
archaeological exchange characterizing connectivity will never be especially visible in the
landscape.
In contrast, imperial provisioning requirements, fueled for example by the quaestura
exercitus, would present exceptionally visible assemblages of material. The interesting thing,
to me, is that the amphoras visible on the surface in the Korinthia and at Koutsopetria are
not what is being exchanged, but the containers in which exchange occurs. The material
exchanged, olive oil and wine, are almost entirely invisible in the archaeological records on
their own. The visibility of these two places reflects the presence of outlets for a regions
produce. The produce itself, however, leaves very little trace, and we have to assume that
networks that integrated microregions across the Mediterranean functioned to bring goods
from across a wide area to a particular site for large-scale export.
The collapse of these sites of large-scale export during the tumultuous 7th and 8th
centuries did not make trade between microregions end, but it made it more contingent and
less visible, as (http://www.scribd.com/doc/222312961/Settlement-on-Cyprus-during-the7th-and-8th-Centuries) I have argued for this period on Cyprus. The absence of large
accumulations of highly diagnostic artifact types in one place represent a return to our
ability to recognize normal patterns of Mediterranean exchange as much as the disruption of
this exchange. The decline of these sites both deprived archaeologists of visible monuments
of exchange and ancient communities of a brief moment of economic stability within
longstanding contingent networks.
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about life in Type 2 camps. Wards article looks at colonias and informal homestead
subdivisions in the US. These are subdivisions which often lack utilities but are sold to lowincome individuals and families at low prices and with irregular financing arrangements.
They are typically associated with Hispanic communities in the borderlands between the US
and Mexico, they also appear throughout the US at the periphery of cities where
underdeveloped land is inexpensive and unskilled labor opportunities exist. While these
settlements differ from our workforce housing camps because the residents actually own
their land, they are similar because the residents typically engage in all sorts of informal
architecture ranging from shacks built from plywood to RVs and mobile homes. In most
cases, these practices represent an effort to gradually develop their property and housing
with limited resources. The use of blue tarp, scrap wood, pallets, and other material that
could be rearranged and reused for other purposes ensured that the investment was both
modest and the structure itself served as a kind of provisional discard conserving useful
material for other projects as needs change.
Wards rather quick discussion of these forms of informal vernacular got me to wonder how
certain practices - like the construction of mudrooms and other plywood and scrap wood
additions - move around the country. Perhaps it is borderland colonias that developed this
important, sustained tradition of ad hoc, vernacular architecture, and it moved northward to
the Bakken following the route of oil patch workers from the Texas oil fields to those
elsewhere in the US.
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/dynamic-settlement-in-thebakken-oil-patch/) During our last trip to the Bakken, we talked with the new management
of one of our study sites, and they explained that they were trying to standardize and clean
up the spectacular array of mudrooms present at their site. They argue that the large
mudrooms are safety hazards and often act as extensions to the RVs to accommodate more
people than they are designed to accommodate. During our visit, we noticed an abandoned
mudroom that was set up for just this purpose. Note the use of blue tarp, the sale price of
$1000, and the bed. There were two rooms in this mudroom both set up for sleeping.
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On the one hand, we suspect an actual concern for safety in the camp as plywood
mudrooms can represent a real fire hazard especially when they feature irregular wiring, are
heated with gas heaters, and have inadequate insulation and ventilation. On the other hand,
it is in the best interest of the camp to reduce the number of residents per unit. This not only
increases the amount of rent collected per resident, but also lowers population density of
the camp taking pressure off the basic infrastructure (trash removal, water, electric, parking
et c.) and making keeping order in the camp easier. It was a useful reminder that safety,
order, and regularity are not incompatible with profitability. The formal American city, like the
formal man camp in the Bakken, is not without economic motives.
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Route 1: Minot, ND to Ross, ND
The main point of entry into the Bakken from the north is the small city of Minot. Minot is
served by Delta airlines, has an Amtrack station, and sits astride Route 2, the famous The
Highline, that runs from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Everett Washington. It is the
northernmost east-west highway in the U.S. and follows the route of the Great Northern
Railroad from which it takes its name. The route from Minot to Williston, North Dakota is
among the most scenic stretch of the Highline, and communities in North Dakota along this
route had been in decline for two generations prior to the most recent oil activity.
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difficult or annoying the little exercises worth a small number of points. The downside of
low-stakes work is most students still value grades over learning and it requires me as a
faculty member to dedicate more energy to work that is not worth much in terms of grades
while still keeping a high level of consistency and attention on graded work. In other words,
student culture means that an attention to learning has to exist alongside their own interest
in grades, not in addition to it.
4. Role of Lectures. My original design for the class involved dividing the semester into 5, 5class modules. Each of these modules will include two lectures, two guided, primary source
discussions, and a short project that is begun in class. This makes time in class for lectures,
but the balance remains shifted toward discussion and creative work. While Ive slowly
moved away from traditional lectures in classes, this past fall, I tried a lecture based upper
level course with the hope that student interest in the topic and a more flexible
conversational lecture style would make students excited about the topic. In general, this
approach was a failure despite having pulled it off successfully in past years. Students
today dont have much time for in class lecturing.
So, I am thinking about preparing the 10 lectures that Id give over the course of the
semester as podcasts and give them to the student to listen to outside of class. This would
then free up 10 class meetings per semester. As Bowen has noted, lectures can easily be
moved outside the classroom opening up class time to discussing narrative and content,
exploring sources more carefully, and more complex and possible collaborative in-class
active learning activities.
Now getting students to listen to podcasts is another matter entirely
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(http://bigstory.ap.org/article/greek-archaeologists-enter-large-underground-tomb)
Apparently that tomb in Macedonia is really big.
(http://corinthianmatters.com/2014/08/27/digitizing-isthmia-with-the-archaeologicalresource-cataloging-system-arcs/) Jon Frey introduces his Archaeological Resource
Cataloguing System (ARCS) over on David Pettegrews Corinthian Matters.
(http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28867884) Armenians in Myanmar (or Burma if you
kick it olde skool).
(https://soundcloud.com/long-gone-sound/sets/alexis-zoumbas-a-lament) Three track
preview of Alexis Zoumbas on Soundcloud. Olde skool Epiriote music.
(http://sociologicalimagination.org/archives/13385) Sociology as craft.
(http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2018/) Beloits annual mindset list for the Class of 2018.
(http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2014/08/25/why-im-asking-you-not-to-uselaptops/) Dont use your laptops!
Two good $300 headphone reviews (http://www.marco.org/headphones-closed-portable)
here and (http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-300ish-headphone/) here. For my
drachma, I prefer the Sennheiser Momentum and the B&O H6 which I think are much
better balanced when driven by a good amp. The Sennies sound decent direct from a
laptop or an iPod.
(http://ontheroofs.com/hong-kong-2/) The roofs of Hong Kong.
(http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/game-of-thrones/) An interview with the designer of the
title sequence of King of Thrones.
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pick-up trucks with corporate names stenciled on their flanks will become more common as
will tractor trailers carrying equipment west into the oil patch. The border between Ward
and Mountrail Counties is pocked with prairie potholes or small lakes amidst rolling hills.
Upon entering Mountrail County, the evidence for both the economic opportunities and
social and environmental challenges of natural resource extraction becomes more and more
visible among the communities in this region. These communities had only limited
experience with the potential and pitfalls of dramatic growth in population as well as day-today industrial activity and had generally settled into quiet obscurity. They had generally
experienced steady decline in population from their heights in the 1950s brought about by a
combination of agricultural prosperity and an earlier oil boom which was felt especially
further west in Williams County. A slightly interruption in the regions population decrease
occurred during a short oil boom in the the 1980s, but this did little to interrupt the overall
pattern for the region. The first places on this itinerary to show evidence for recent
transformation are the small towns of Blaisdell (unincorporated) Palermo (ca. 82 in 2013),
Stanley (pop. 1,458 in 2010), and Ross (ca. 109) in Mountrail County (ca. 9,376 in 2013)
in Mountrail County and Tioga (ca. 1565 in 2013) in Williams County have received the
brunt of the most dramatic changes. The strange contrast between the historical lack of
development, investment, or visible change and the recent boom has drawn travelers,
journalists, tourists, and scholars, to the area. The bustle of the road east from Minot offers
just a preview of the activity of the oil patch, and the traveler might succumb to feeling like
theyre heading up the river into a Heart of Darkness.
The first distinct evidence for the economic challenges of the area comes in the area of
housing which appears before any oil activity. Within 3 miles of county line modular
workforce housing appears. On a low rise to the north of the Route 2 approximately 2.5
miles west of the county line, in a township called Egan (pop. 64), is a group of
approximately 15 stackable mobile housing units. The units stand 150 m to the north of
the main road and are called Egan Crest reminiscent of some affluent suburb. Each unit is
based on the dimension of standard high-cube shipping containers (40 ft or 12.19 m long
and 8 ft or 2.44 m wide) with 9.6 ft (2.86 m) tall roofs. These mobile, modular apartments
have been stacked two high and feature housing for 2 workers un each 20 ft crate. In the
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region, theyre know as stackables and are seen as a welcome upgrade from life in RVs or
or larger more formal workforce housing deeper in the patch. The stackables do not have
security around them are and apparently are well-insulated and comfortable. Their isolated
and scenic position surrounded by rugged farmland gives them a both serenity and
vulnerability.
Some 2 mile further west and immediately to the south of Route 2 is Blaisdell RV Park. This
park is the first of the informal and scrappy RV parks that make up so much workforce
housing in the Bakken. The leveled area of tan gravel is situated some 100 m south of
Route 2 and entered at its northeastern corner. Passing a somewhat forlorn play area, there
is parking in front of a administrative building with some common area. The park itself is
comprised of nearly 100 small units about half of which are small mobile homes and the
other half are RVs. In 2014, two large residences carved out of semi-trailers stood at the
south end of the rows introducing some of the innovative architectural approaches to life in
the Bakken. The units along the west side of the park are rented like hotel rooms whereas
the eastern side of the park offer lots available for rent. To the south of the park is Blaisdell
Rodeo which convenes each year in early August. The town of Blaisdell is north of Route 2
and is worth a short visit to see the school house and a wood-framed prairie church.
Continuing west along Route 2, past the turn off to Palermo
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rather than the 913 artifact per ha that units with 50% visibility tend to produce). Units with
coarse gravel were consistent with visibilities. Interestingly, units with fine gravel or sandy
soil produced fewer artifacts than their average visibilities would suggest. Sandy soils,
although relatively rare, had 41% visibility but produced only 390 artifacts per ha. Its
tempting to see sandy soils as recently deposited riverine sediments, but they dont
necessarily pattern that way across the survey area.
Background Disturbance. Recently, survey archaeologists have begun to think about
background disturbance as a major influence on artifact recovery. This term describes the
amount of objects in the soil matrix that distract the eye from the ceramic and man-made
lithic objects we are supposed to be identifying. We recorded background disturbance as
either light, moderate, or heavy (or none). Our data showed that units with moderate and
light background disturbance performed more or less consistently with their visibility. Units
with heavy, background disturbance, however, had much higher than average visibilities
(70%) and much lower than predicted artifact densities than this visibility alone would
predict. This suggests that high background disturbance might influence recovery rates in a
substantial way.
Dominant Vegetation Height. For each unit we recorded the dominant vegetation height.
This correlated strongly with surface visibility - as one might expect - with densely
overgrown units with vegetation head high or higher (!) having average visibility in the teens
(18% and 17% respectively), and waist high vegetation averaged a paltry 33% visibility.
Interestingly, head high or higher vegetation produced lower artifact densities than
suggested by visibility alone, but weve long reckoned that our visibility scale runs to
imprecise with very low visibility fields. Units with vegetation at knee height coincided
produced densities that coincided with expected visibility, but units with ankle height
vegetation produced more artifacts than one might expect from visibility alone.
These short studies demonstrate that artifact recovery rates are influenced by a range of
variables present in the landscape. Using visibility and artifact density as a baseline for
understanding artifact recovery allowed us to recognize the influence of a range of variables
that impacted field walker performance. The highest recovery rates appear to come from
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units with cobble or coarse gravel, ankle high vegetation, plowed, loose soils, and light or
moderate background disturbance producing visibilities of between 70% and 90%.
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communities (i.e. communities of not fully Romanized peasants in imperial North Africa)
acquired growing access the diagnostic Late Roman material over the course of Late
Antiquity. This access reflected both change in the status of peasants and, more
importantly, the change in consumption patterns. The access peasants had to material
associated in earlier periods with Roman or thoroughly Romanized populations of North
Africa reflected decisions on the part of the Roman policy and peasant communities. The
Roman and Romanized populations depended upon, the consumption of red slip pottery, as
a marker of distinction and elite status during the initial centuries of Roman rule in North
Africa. This occurred because the Romans undermined the traditional land tenure, village
settlement structure, and production patterns in the region and drew peasants onto larger
estates where the Romans could exert considerably more control over peasant
consumption patterns through social pressures and the increasingly monetized nature of the
Roman economy that focused on production for urban elites and export.
For Dossey, then, Roman rule led not to depopulation - as some have argued - but the
collapse of an identifiable rural signature for the non-Roman population. The
reappearance of the rural population in Late Antiquity occurred not because peasants
began to reoccupy the countryside, as some have argued, but because of the breakdown of
Roman social, economic, and - at least during the 3rd century - political organization. This
breakdown had an economic impact in that it motivated the redevelopment of rural industry
as it sought to fill the gap left by the larger disrupted economic relationships. The
development of rural industry and the breakdown of traditional social and political order also
created space for changes in peasant consumption. Not only did peasants have greater
access to material, but they also took the opportunity to subvert weakening social pressure
by adopting increasingly Roman habits.
While she doesnt articulate it specifically in this way, Dossey describes Roman and Late
Roman consumption patterns (and attendant archaeological visibility) in North Africa as a
function of communities of practice. Ive been messing with these ideas over the last year or
so as a way to understand variation in Late Roman ceramic assemblages across the island
of Cyprus. Our site at Pyla-Koutsopetria, for example, showed a far greater variety of
imported fine wares than, say,
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(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/analyzing-residual-ceramics-in-afill-deposit/) the site of Polis-Chrysochous on the western side of the island. Both sites
showed signs of 6th century economic prosperity, but it manifest in substantially different
assemblages of pottery.
The idea that assemblages are not exclusively representative of access to materials, but
also represent decisions by communities adds a level of complexity to my own tendency
toward systemic arguments. Both the Eastern Corinthia and Pyla-Koutsopetria are areas
that show significant engagement with the economic power of the Late Roman state. At the
same time, both areas show distinct assemblages of table and fine ware that hint at the
workings of communities there.
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(https://www.academia.edu/3738686/Temples_Baths_Churches_and_Pipes_Water_Mana
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Garage Archaeology
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/09/08/garage-archaeology/
Mon, 08 Sep 2014 13:35:19 +0000
This weekend, Susie and I cleaned out our little one-bay garage so it can store her sports
car during the winter months. It produced two fun things. One is that it provided a little
study collection of locally available bricks
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/backyard-archaeology/) for my
excavation of my backyard next fall. It also was a good little architectural study of a very
simple building.
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The bricks in the garage were not particularly remarkable. The previous owner of the house
was an avid gardener and landscaper who installed some lovely sunken paths around the
house. She used spoliated bricks from around town to give the paths a rusticated look. She,
also, had access to the local historical societys storeroom so were pretty sure that she
grabbed at least some bricks that originated from important buildings around town.
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alt="P1080929" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The harder fired and more modern bricks are on the right side. The brick with the alternating
08080 pattern is clearly marked as made in Canada. They are almost certainly made over
the last 40 years and are very hard fired.
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title="P1080932.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1080932.jpg"
alt="P1080932" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
(http://www.mnbricks.com/michael-j-moran) The softer brick with the clear stamp reading
M.J. Moran is probably late 19th or first decade of the 20th century when Michael Moran
was involved in a range of large construction projects in town. He eventually joined with the
Dinnie Brothers and some other investors in the Red River Brick Corporation of Grand
Forks.
title="P1080930.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1080930.jpg"
alt="P1080930" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The three bricks on the far left side of the photograph are very soft and range in color from
buff to pink. They probably date to the 1890s or the very early 20th century, and suspect
they were made somewhere on the Red River.
The garage dates, probably to the first half of the 20th century and is currently being
compromised by a large elm tree. A superficial cleaning of the garage revealed two phases.
The first phase consisted of a 16 ft x 12 ft garage with an 8 foot door on its west side. The
garage sat on a slightly elevated concrete soccle. The concrete floor does not join the
soccle. At some point the garage was extended 4 ft to west. The added 4 ft is visible in
both the original soccles in the current garage and in the construction of the roof and
walls.
title="P1090005.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1090005.jpg"
alt="P1090005" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090010.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p10900101.jpg"
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makes describing all the options an expensive and time consuming prospect. My feeling is
that there are better ways to learn about where to stay online.
4. Style. One the things that Ive been working on this fall is my creative non-fiction voice. I
worked on it a bit with the piece
(http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/why-we-dug-atari/375702/3/) I
co-wrote for The Atlantics website. Im trying to develop it through my little
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/slow-archaeology-draft/) Slow
Archaeology essay (and I need to work more on that today), and my hope is that the tourist
guide will be my first longer than a blog post or article foray to the edges of academic
writing.)
Ill be honest, I am not sure what Im doing. Im reading some creative non-fiction (for
example, a prepublication draft of (http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Ruins-ArchaeologistsSeductive-Rubble/dp/0062127187/) Marilyn Johnsons new book on archaeology and
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/do-not-sell-at-any-price-the-wild-obsessive-hunt-for-theworlds-rarest-78-rpm-records/oclc/863695550) Amanda Petrusichs
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/do-not-sell-at-any-price-the-wild-obsessive-hunt-for-theworlds-rarest-78-rpm-records/oclc/863695550) Do Not Sell at Any Price as well as some
compelling essays by (http://www.amazon.com/Things-That-Are-AmyLeach/dp/1571313516/) Amy Leach in her Things That Are) and Ive been trying to figure
out how to make my own language and style more accessible without watering down the
ideas. I hope that the dear readers of this blog, as well as some colleagues in my Bakken
endeavors.
5. Irony. One thing that Ive been battling against is my own outsized love of the ironic. The
very idea of industrial tourism captures the kind of counterintuitive thought play that I enjoy,
but I also recognize that not everyone finds this stuff amusing. I understand, for example,
that many people in the Bakken are working hard (harder and with greater risk than Ive ever
worked). I also understand that longtime residents of the Bakken counties are genuinely
traumatized and mourn the changes taking place to their once familiar communities. I also
know that environmentalists have a real stake in whats going on out west, as do worker
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safety advocates, Native American communities, small town administrators, and scholars,
journalists, and entrepreneurs.
More than that, as the article on North Dakota Tourism has indicated, many folks in my
adopted home state are deeply committed to a post-ironic position. To give a flippant
example,they wear trucker hats with farm logos on them not to be hipsters, but to take a
hipster meme and infuse it with genuine sentiment that nevertheless remains open to a kind
of productive ambiguous. I dont want to trivialize their intellectual, political, economic, or
environment commitments for the sake of a wry smile or some smug ironic posturing.
I do, however, think that our current spate of triumph of the human spirit voyeurism,
cookie-cutter outrage and, above all else, FEAR of the Bakken has shaped how the world
sees this landscape. My goal is to inject a playful, but critical dose of skepticism into this
conversation by translating our fascination with the Bakken to a genre intrinsically
dependent upon the wondrous gaze.
I hope I figure out how to do this before this guide is too long to fix!
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sources from the Eastern Mediterranean. For the Roman Republic, well likely return to
textual sources and perhaps dip our toes into prosopography. For the Roman Empire, well
consider the archaeological evidence for Romanization and look at epigraphy as a source.
Late Antiquity, then presents an opportunity to bring together the various sources and
methods that weve studied over the course of the semester. Discussion of sources should
represent 2 days of the 5 available for each module.
That leaves two course periods for group work each module. My plan now is to develop 5
group projects that draw upon the sources and methods that theyve learned and
synthesizes it in some way. These synthetic project will push students to get move toward
higher levels of thinking within (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_taxonomy) Blooms
taxonomy. Theyll also be fortified with individual work that depends on skills developed in
the group context. The class will have a final, a midterm, and at least one short, synthetic
paper.
This is largely an approach to teaching brought over from my experience in the Scale-up
room and designed as much to improve student engagement as to advance particular
learning goals or skills. (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/21/a-reviseddraft-teaching-history-in-a-scale-up-classroom/) It draws on ideas that have been floating
about higher education for the last 30 years, if not a century. I wonder whether theyll qualify
as innovative?
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the guidance of video game expert (http://raifordguins.com/) Raiford Guins and marked
them as potential museum worthy artifacts.
title="P1050172.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1050172.jpg"
alt="P1050172" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
These two events bring to the fore issues of archaeological ethics. Ive generally considered
ethical debates in archaeology, at their best, a kind of benign parlor game. The big picture
of bad things to do and good things to do is pretty well much familiar to anyone who has
spent any time in the discipline. It is not good for a group associated with the
Archaeological Institute of America to be auctioning off antiquities. That much is clear. The
grey area around the fringes, however, where serious ethical work needs to happen, tends
to realm of bombast and handwringing. For example, it is bad that large parts of Syrias
archaeological heritage is under threat, but it is far worse that over 50% of the countrys
population is now refugees. Complaining about the former is fine from a professional
standpoint, as long as it never threatens to drown out the latter. Or worse, in our rush to
decry the evils of looting, we somehow blame the victims of this countrys horrible civil war.
Its fine to criticize Indian Jones as a bad archaeologist because
(http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2014/09/09/why-archeologists-hate-indiana-jones/)
he obviously ran-roughshod over the German excavation permit in Egypt, but we shouldnt
forget that he did so in order to save the world from evils of Nazi domination. I was not
comfortable with the decision to (http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yetanother-globetrotting-adventure-indiana-jones-checks-his-mail-and-discovers-that-his-bidfor-tenure-has-been-denied) deny Dr. Jones tenure, in part, on the basis of his ethical
decision making, and I recognize that pressures to forfeit his finds to
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoy4_h7Pb3M) top men made it very difficult for him
to publish promptly.
Fortunately, the auctioning of Atari games relates neither to the massive displacement of
innocent civilians or global domination by a genocidal fascist regime. It does, however,
dance, albeit more merrily, along the borders of archaeological ethics. Over the last week,
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Ive made a list of things that concern me about the the auctioning of Atari games by the city
of Alamogordo.
1. Archaeology of the Contemporary World. Over the past few years, Ive become
increasingly interested in archaeology of the contemporary world. This sub-discipline has
focused on applying archaeological methods to contemporary contexts. As a result, we
have expanded the definition of archaeological artifact to the point where it exceeds any
legally recognized status in the world. Atari games buried in the 1980s are now
archaeological artifacts not because of their age, but because of the systematic scrutiny
that defined their contemporary context. If publishing an artifact without proper
archaeological provenience or an object for sale runs the risk of using our disciplinary
knowledge to imparting value in the antiquities market, then the presence of archaeologists
at the Atari dig and our documentation of those finds serves a similar purpose for the
upcoming auction. This is something that Ive worried about a good bit. Whether we like it
or not, the academic publication of objects and object types affects their value, contributes
to their desirability, and fuels the market. An Atari game is pretty mundane and common, but
they are limited commodities just like Roman lamps, amphoras, and black figure vases. By
participating in the excavation of objects that will go to auction, we have used our
disciplinary knowledge to stimulate and expand the market for a finite resource.
2. Archaeology and Corporate World. Hardly a month goes by without some country
demanding the repatriation on an artifact legally or illegally removed from its territory or the
territory of some predecessor state. In my reading of the ethical issues surrounding these
disputes, archaeologists are generally less interested in the specific legal arguments related
to the rights of a particular nation state, and more interested in the role that objects play in
the preserving evidence for the past at a particular site or in a particular context. In other
words, it is the cultural situation of objects proximate to their place of discovery that fuels
archaeological calls for repatriation. As for the countries calling for repatriation, I get the
sense that the calls remains a post-colonial weapon of the weak that seeks to redress
wrongs conducted and perpetuated by colonialist powers. The archaeologist, in many
cases, is a representative of these colonialist powers, and our willingness to sanction the
sometimes arbitrary demands of states calling for repatriation relates as much to guilt over
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artifacts.
While it doesnt make me happy to know that the city will auction these excavated artifacts, I
wonder whether this archaeological grey areas will continue to grow as our definition of the
past and the discipline of archaeology changes.
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functions in light of the massive assemblage of Late Roman amphoras at the site of PylaKoutsopetria. I have tended to assume that large concentrations of similar containers
represents the administrative and economic power of the state, largely because small scale
exchange practices and producers have tended to be dynamic and contingent and to leave
a less less visible signature in the landscape. The repair, manufacture, recycling, and
redistribution of traditional wooden pallets is an open ecosystem with numerous small-scale
participants facilitating the circulation of pallets around the world (with some notable
exceptions like the Australian company (http://www.chep.com/why_chep/pooling/) CHEP
who has demonstrated a willingness to go to war to protect its closed pool practices of
pallet circulation). So, if I owned a company in Grand Forks, ND, Id go to my local pallet
company - API Pallets of Grand Forks - to procure pallets to ship my goods. API also, I
assume, purchases pallets from companies at a fixed price (typically less than $10 per
pallet) or individual recyclers. They then repair or recondition the pallets and sell them back
to the market. Pallets that cannot be repaired are recycled almost entirely (at least by API);
the wood becomes mulch and the nails are recycled. What is fascinating to me is that this
entire system functions in a decentralized way (unlike the CHEP closed pool) with each
community having a depot for pallets that ensure their repair and recirculation.
Of course such a decentralized system can only function if there are significant pressures
present to ensure the maintenance of standards. Pallets have to fit inside trucks, on
airplanes, into rail cars. They have to be close to the same strength so that they can be
stacked with goods and treated in a similar way. (http://www.apipallet.com/pallet-basics101) Even allowing for some significant variation, wood pallets are standardized, despite
being produced on a small scale around the world, through the combined pressures of
regularized shipping practices and (http://www.palletcentral.com/) a trade association (note
for example how many pallet companies have the similar
(http://www.mockpallet.com/Pallets_101.html) Pallets 101 page on their websites).
This standardization, of course, came about in part because of the needs of the US military
to supply troops deployed globally.
This got me thinking about the manufacturing of standardized amphora shapes, like Late
Roman 1 amphoras. By all accounts, the production of these amphoras occurred at various
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sites on Cyprus and Cilicia. Their standard shape and sized functioned to facilitate the
movement of supplies through a particular region. The organization of these producers and
suppliers was decentralized and the only pressure to standardize came through the
practices associated with moving goods. This is not a novel observation, but I suspect that
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/containers-and-connectivity/)
Andrew Bevan would have found this parallel useful in his recent article on containerization.
One last observation, I did some quick web searching and noticed that Williston does not
seem to have a center for the recycling, repair, and redistribution of pallets. There may be
one in Minot and Dickinson, and there certainly is one in Bismarck. As with so many things
in North Dakota, these core services and infrastructure tend to be clustered in the Red River
Valley (for now) and particularly in places like West Fargo which serves as a region
redistribution hub for much of the area.
I think a field trip over to API Pallets is in order soon in support of the
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pallets/) Pallet Project. Until then,
(http://www.hulu.com/watch/536145) more pallets, more pallets!
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Despite these things, I dutifully take my very excited pooch to the dog park every day. He
rampages about blissfully ignorant of the potential ethical pitfalls surrounding (literally) his
exuberance.
Our dog park in Grand Forks takes depressing to the next level. It is built on the flood plain
of the Red River in an area called Lincoln Park. This park was built on the site of a
neighborhood called
(http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/199804/15_mainstreet_floodremote-m/)
Lincoln Drive which was inundated by the
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Red_River_Flood_in_the_United_States) 1997 Red
River Flood. Now the park and site of the neighborhood are on the river side of the flood
walls that protect the town. They put up a historical marker at the center of the park telling
the history of the community there. Its very nice.
title="IMG_2044.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_2044.jpg" alt="IMG
2044" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
It does little, however, to assuage my guilt over letting my dog run wild over the subtle
undulations that are the streets and alleys of a neighborhood. Lines of mature trees
remember shaded sidewalks and roads. Isolated trees stand in forgotten yards and the
clearly visible depressions settle under the memory of lost homes. It feels like letting my dog
run around a battle field and makes me remember the opening of the first book of the Iliad.
Serious bummer:
,
,
title="DogPark1.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/dogpark1.jpg"
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between deck boards. Ill return to this. B1 and B2 pallets have light damage or have
repairs. Irregularly spaced deck boards, the insertion of blocks to support broken stringers,
or obvious splitting and splintering throughout leads to lower ratings. The difference in price
between an A1 and B1/2 pallet is about $3. They do repair pallets to raise them to either
A1 grade or B1/2 grade on site.
title="P1090064.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1090064.jpg"
alt="P1090064" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
One thing Bret and I began to think about it the way in which the size of a pallet (48 x 40
inches) has impacted life in the Bakken (and elsewhere). For example, modular housing
units like the most common in the Bakken are designed to move by rail or truck. Pallets, of
course, are designed to fit inside containers, semi trailers, and rail cars and move about the
country carrying standardized loads. The existence of this regular unit of measure and the
tendency in the Bakken to use this scale to organize human activities, whether it is life or
work, provides a highly visible means of standardizing the space of human activities.
It was heartening, then, to see the guy at the pallet plant use his fist to measure the distance
between the deck boards. This gesture returned the pallet to the human scale.
title="P1090071.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1090071.jpg"
alt="P1090071" width="600" height="450" border="0" />
The guys there also commented on the various stamps added to pallets to mark them as
being used at a particular farm or factory. Since the pallet pool is an open pool, meaning
that whoever possessed the pallets had the right to resell them, these stamps were meant
to mark out simply one stage in the pallets life and to manipulate the standardized form of
the object without compromising its functionality.
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Finally, our reuse of pallets is important because it defies the functional expectations of
these objects and reshapes them to our human existence rather than the opposite.
title="P1060942.JPG"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/p1060942.jpg"
alt="P1060942" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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members and five grad students in Syria for three months for less than one lab in the med
schools spent on glassware during the same time period.
Archaeologists rely on themselves because they have to. They are the cassette tapes of
academics; played through one speaker, loudly, and full of passion, blasting a song that so
many people cant understand the words to, but are moved by experiencing. Punk
Archaeology is filled with this music: In Richard Rothaus Punk Archaeoseismology,
scientists try to understand the destruction of a town 1,600 years ago by racing to Gllk,
Turkey the day that it sinks into the sea, killing every single inhabitant, during a terrible
earthquake. It is as personal and visceral as any Xeroxed Zine because it is ultimately about
science poured from the crucible of very personal chaos. Colleen Morgans account of
continually explaining her tattoos to workers is an explanation for everyone in the sacrifices
we all make to identify our tribe. Kostis Kourelis singling out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvanias
unheralded place in the creation of Punk and New Wave reminds us of Philadelphia, Turkey
and its likewise mostly forgotten place in Byzantine history archaeologists know better
than most anyone else that kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall and the small things that are
meaningful to us now wont even be footnotes in eighteen hundred years unless someone
tracks them down.
This book is about archaeology, and more than that, its about music, but when you peel
back all the power chords, the distorted guitars, the sweat, the frenetic drums, Ramones
stickers and the cheap beer, most of all, this book is about trying to fit broken pieces
together to make sense of a world in which you are constantly reminded that everybody dies
in the end, because youre looking at veritable mountains made up of their triumphs, their
failures, and their very bones.
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spud dates:
title="Oil_Spuds.jpg"
src="https://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/oil_spuds.jpg" alt="Oil
Spuds" width="450" height="311" border="0" />
The first, and rather rough draft of the introduction also worked through the concept of
industrial tourism. I locate it at the intersection of three trends (1) industrial archaeology, (2)
the reuse and preservation of industrial monuments, and (3) urban exploring and
abandonment porn.
The Society for Industrial Archaeology has worked to elevate the standing of industrial
monuments in the eyes of archaeologists and the public. Some of the growing appreciation
for industrial past stems from more and more industrial sites crossing the informal 50 years
barrier to become eligible for official heritage recognition or enrollment in the National
Register of Historic Places. The increased number of industrial sites requiring
archaeological assessment before redevelopment has accelerated development of the
fields of historical archaeology (or archaeology of the contemporary world).
Both the recognition of an industrial past as part of a shared history and the monumental
scale of certain kinds of industrial buildings (train stations, factories, warehouses, et c.) has
led to the redevelopment of these spaces in ways that commemorate historical industries.
Cities now have warehouse districts, science centers in refitted factories, and museums in
neoclassical train stations. At the same time, still function industrial sites like the Hoover
Dam continue to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, and many factories
continue to offer occasional tours to the curious public.
Finally, the interest in abandonment porn, (http://www.urbanexplorers.net/) urban exploring,
and (http://www.infiltration.org/abandoned.html) infiltration has a clear industrial focus.
Sites like the Packard Plant in Detroit and the Belle Isle Power Station outside Richmond,
Virginia have become famous with urban explorers who trespass and take risks to
photograph and document the recent industrial past. Many of the photographs seek to
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capture the failed grandeur of these buildings as either romantic commentaries or as ironic
gestures.
As the West moves toward a post-industrial future, the industrial past and present become
opportunities for critical reflection on a set of values that simultaneous celebrates the
achievements and even virtues of industry at the same we push it out of sight and mind into
the third or (ironically termed) developing world. The concept of the developing world
serves as a useful reminder that historicizing an industrial past implies a path to a present
development that we export as freely as industry itself.
So, my Tourist Guide to the Bakken seeks to focus attention on the diminishing historical
present by approaching it through the eyes of the tourist. Itll ask the question (always
tacitly) whether our industrial present justifies arguments grounded in an industrial past by
superimposing the two. What kind of future do we see in the rapidly vanishing present?
I hope to have a draft of the tourist guide ready by October 4th and to ground truth it over a
few days then.
Oh, and I guess I do owe everyone baited to clicking on this link a list of the seven wonders
of the Bakken Oil Patch. Williston might be a bit overrepresented, but this list is provisional
and I more than open to any suggestions!
1. Hess Gas Plant - Tioga.
2. Indoor RV park at Watford City.
3. The Bakken Buffet
4. Target Logistics Williston Compound (Williston North Lodge, Bearpaw Lodge, Williston
Cabins)
5. Whispers Gentlemans Club - Williston
6. Williston Foxrun RV park
7. Williston Walmart
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Sabbatical Notes
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/sabbatical-notes/
Thu, 25 Sep 2014 12:58:38 +0000
My first month of sabbatical is behind me, and I have a few notes to share about how Im
adapting to it. To be clear, I feel very fortunate to have this time away from teaching and
service responsibilities, and I am not suggesting that my workflow or practices reflect a
universal experience with sabbatical. And I certainly hope that my comments dont sound
unappreciative of the opportunity to take time to focus on research and out of classroom
activities for a year. On this blog, however, Ive long maintained a thread related to my
personal workflow, and the comments below relate to that rather than represent some
universal critique of the sabbatical practice.
Last spring, (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/01/29/my-plan-to-notwaste-my-sabbatical/) I blogged about how I planned not to waste my sabbatical. Here are
my notes so far:
1. Space and Place for Work. This year my office on campus is being used by my
replacement so I dont have access to my usual workspace. Fortunately, my lovely home has
an office space that serves just fine for my purposes. I have windows, plenty of desk space,
a decent stereo, and a table for piling books and paper in no particular order. What my
home office lacks is opportunities to interact with my colleagues and students.
While I understand that it is popular to see these interactions as distractions and
interruptions, my time on sabbatical so far has convinced me otherwise. In fact, I have to
say that I am understanding far better recent office design trends that emphasize common
space at the expense of the isolated office. One of my greatest challenges so far this year is
the lack of opportunities to interact on a daily basis with my colleagues and students.
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2. Priorities. I am not someone who works better under pressure. If I dont have a paper
completed at least a week before I deliver it, I slip into unproductive panic mode. As a result,
I schedule my productive time very deliberately. During the academic year, I know that I have
35 hours of productive research and writing time each week usually distributed over three,
ten-hour days during the week and usually about five hours over the weekends. The other
30 hours per week are dedicated to teaching and service responsibilities.
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/what-do-i-do-all-day/) Ive
tracked that using the clever Reporter app for iPhone.
What I didnt realize is that those 30 hours of teaching, grading, and meeting are the key to
my week. By limiting the hours I turn over to research and writing, they force me to prioritize
my days. Right now, I am struggling to structure my days in a rational way because I have no
pressures requiring me to evaluate and organize my research responsibilities. More time to
work has not made me less productive, Im writing and reading more than ever, but it has
made my work less clearly directed toward a goal.
3. Taking Breaks. Without the regular interruptions provided by students and colleagues
(not to mention that my wife worked in the same building!), I have to force myself to take
breaks or risk running out of energy and concentration before the middle of the week.
Fortunately, we have a dog that becomes quite insistent on going for walks about 11 am
every day. A walk through the neighborhood and a trip to our fantastically depressing dog
park usually clears my mind enough to promote a productive afternoon.
4. Shiny Objects. One thing that Im struggling to figure out is whether I should allow myself
the freedom to chase what one colleague has called shiny objects. Ive spend a little over
a week on the Tourist Guide to the Bakken, which is a fun project, but it was clearly not part
of my pre-sabbatical agenda. In fact, it originated while I was taking a little break on
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oilpatch/) a Wednesday afternoon and
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/the-seven-wonders-of-thebakken-oil-patch/) since then it has become a 12,000 word manuscript. Its been a fun
project that has allowed me to bring together lots of odds and ends from my time in the
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Bakken, but at some point it will impinge on my existing projects. Without the pressure of
classes, the schedule of the semester, and the regular drain of meetings, I hope I can make
the right decision and manage balance the appeal of new projects against the time and
energy Ive invested into existing projects.
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(https://plus.google.com/photos/112910819123336138519/albums/603727167967049
2849) Some Google Glass videos of the South Stoa Mosaic Restoration in Corinth.
(http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Italian-art-show-to-make-US-debut-inDelaware-277068411.html) Stolen and recovered Italian antiquities on show in Delaware.
(http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/blog/?p=120) Digital challenges facing the Hellenic
Ministry of Culture.
(http://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/phd-dissertation-proposal-receptionand-application-of-archaeology-in-video-games/) Andrew Reinhards Ph.D. proposal for the
University of York focusing on the intersection of video games and archaeology.
More about Alexis Zoumbas from (http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/09/22/talkabout-beauties/) The Paris Review (by Chris King) and from the
(http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/28/magazine/hunting-for-the-source-of-the-worldsmost-beguiling-folk-music.html?ref=magazine&_r=2&referrer) New York Times
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What Im listening to: Aphex Twin, Syro; The Velvet Underground and Nico; Nick Drake,
Pink Moon.
title="IMG_2056.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/img_2056.jpg" alt="IMG
2056" width="450" height="600" border="0" />Contemplation
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the Mandan refinery and the crude pipeline from Tioga to Mandan (and the refined oil
pipeline from Mandan to Moorhead, MN) improved this situation to some extent, but the
limited capacity of the Mandan refinery and the limited reach of the pipeline into the rapidly
expanding oil field ensured that a substantial investment to move North Dakota crude and
high prices on the global market.
Schaff makes brief mention of the workforce housing challenges associated with boom
noting that, in Tioga, men were living in chicken coops and grain silos. He noted that
Watford City schools, social services, roads, and housing stock also felt the crunch. These
social challenges, however, formed an afterthought to Schaffs predominantly technical and
corporate discussion of the boom.
2. Geography and Topography. As I work away on my Tourist Guide to the Bakken, Ive
begun to think a bit how to describe a productive landscape that is largely underground.
Schaffs thesis, as well as the work of other scholars, have helped me to understand the
geography and geology of the Bakken counties better. I now think that any guide to Bakken
would be incomplete without a discussion of such key geological features as the Nesson
Anticline which runs in a north-south line south of Tioga, across the Missouri, and into
McKenzie county. This formation attracted the attention of the first major investors in the
North Dakota oil fields in the late 1920s and 1930s and saw several deep, exploratory
wells. The first productive wells in the Bakken, like the No. 1 Clarence Iverson Well drilled
by Amerada (which became Hess) near Tioga was into this formation.
On our trip out to the Bakken next week, I hope to be able to identify some of these
formations visually so that a knowledgable traveler can at least see the surface
manifestations of the productive landscapes below the ground.
3. Historical Markers and the Bakken Boom. As the first Bakken Boom of the 1950s is over
50 years old, historians naturally turn to thinking how to commemorate and mark this history
in the landscape. The first wells and pumps that drew oil from thousands of feet below the
surface are long gone, but (http://aoghs.org/editors-picks/north-dakota-williston-basin/) it is
nevertheless marked by a granite historical marker. The gently rolling hills dotted with more
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recent wells and crops are hardly characteristic of tourist areas. At the same time, there is a
global recognition of the challenges facing the communities, environment, and workforce in
the Bakken. History and historical awareness provides one approach to mediating between
global and local communities. Finding a way to mark the Bakken landscape with the
evidence for the past oil booms embeds contemporary experience in a historic place. In
particular, it recognizes that the landscape of western North Dakota has long been a place
of booms and busts and its seeming isolation belies deep connections with global markets.
The oil boom - as much as periods of agricultural prosperity - located the places and
communities of Williams and McKenzie counties within a global context.
Would it be possible to prepare a North Dakota oil field for inclusion in the National
Register of Historic Places?
For some information on the early days of oil exploration in the state, check out
(http://media.proquest.com/media/pq/classic/doc/3159843601/fmt/ai/rep/NPDF?_s=Vh0t
OjmZxIWCkqA7F7y9dN4G8yM%3D) Clarence Herz recent North Dakota State University
M.A. thesis and
(https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/documents/Publication_List/pdf/MiscSeries/MS-89.pdf)
John Bluemles The 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of Oil in North Dakota (NDGS 2001).
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This volume was made possible by a whole community of folks ranging from the relentless
(archaeogaming.wordpress.com) Andrew Reinhard who proofed this over and over and over
again to (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Aaron Barth who put together the conference
which produced these papers. The authors were great to work with except
(http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus who insisted that we include his
handwritten paper. (I kid, I kid). Support for the whole deal came from the Cyprus Research
Fund, the(http://heritagerenewal.org/) Center for Heritage Renewal at North Dakota State
University, the (http://www.ndhumanities.org/) North Dakota Humanities Council, and
(http://laughingsunbrewing.com/) the delicious beer makers at Laughing Sun Brewing in
Bismarck. Administrators at the University of North Dakota are to be commended for raising
their eyebrows politely and ignoring what I was doing.
This book would not have been possible without the efforts of (http://joeljonientz.com/) Joel
Jonientz who did the cover design and layout.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/04/22/joel-jonientz/) I wish he was
around to see the results. The book is dedicated to him.
title="NewImage.png"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/newimage1.png"
alt="NewImage" width="398" height="317" border="0" />
Other Details:
The print copy should be ready to go by the end of the week and available at Amazon. Ill
post a link to that. It should cost around $30.00, but look like a million bucks. Make sure to
order copies for friends and families as well as university libraries and private collections.
Here are links to the papers being read at the conference on Soundcloud thanks to Tim
Pasch, Chad Bushy, and Caleb Hulthusen for recording the event:
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(https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks) https://soundcloud.com/punkarchaeology-speaks
(https://soundcloud.com/tags/punk%20archaeology)
https://soundcloud.com/tags/punk%20archaeology
And listen to Andrew Reinhards soundtrack here:
(http://www.soundcloud.com/charinos/sets/punk-archaeology)
http://www.soundcloud.com/charinos/sets/punk-archaeology
Heres the book, folks:
[scribd id=241441729 key=key-UQukO9kZuhjsD4W88raG mode=scroll]
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Hellenistic Corinth
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/hellenistic-corinth/
Wed, 01 Oct 2014 13:24:19 +0000
Over the last few weeks Ive bee reading Mike Dixons new book:
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/late-classical-and-early-hellenistic-corinth/oclc/884594626)
Late Classical and Early Hellenistic Corinth, 338-196 BC for a book review. As with so
many of my plans, I had hoped to have a draft of the book review done by the end of
September. It doesnt look like that will happen, so instead, Ill write a blog post that can
serve as a rough draft of the review and to capture my impressions on the book before they
get washed out by a million other little projects.
Dixons work on the Hellenistic Corinth was eagerly anticipated.
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/disputed-territories-interstate-arbitrations-in-the-northeastpeloponnese-ca-250-150-bc/oclc/45703753&referer=brief_results) His 2000
dissertation on interstate arbitration in the northeastern Peloponnesus became a convenient
guide to the unpublished antiquities and general topography of the southeastern Corinthia.
It was among the finest of a group of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/well-built-kleonai-ahistory-of-the-peloponnesian-city-based-on-a-survey-of-the-visible-remains-and-a-studyof-the-literary-and-epigraphic-sources/oclc/124083356) topographic
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/studies-in-the-topography-of-the-southerncorinthia/oclc/34369379) dissertations (http://www.worldcat.org/title/studies-in-thetopography-of-sikyonia/oclc/42616289) focusing on the northeastern Peloponnesus in
Greek antiquity. In this work he demonstrated that he was a conscientious reader of
archaeological landscapes, and he brought this same care to his reading of the political
landscape of the Hellenistic Corinthia.
There is much to like in this book.
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First, it appears at a time when the Hellenistic world is enjoying a renaissance and the
archaeology of Hellenistic Corinthia will get its share. The
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/hellenistic-pottery-from-the-panayia-field-corinth-studies-inchronology-and-context/oclc/761310480) publication of Sarah James dissertation, the
imminent publication of the Rachi settlement above the sanctuary at Isthmia, and David
Pettegrews soon to be published monograph on the historical periods on the Isthmus, and
even my own modest contributions
(http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia/article/75/3/327-356) to the
fortification and
(http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia/article/79/3/385-415)
topography of the Late Classical and Hellenistic Corinthia demonstrate the extent of
scholarly interest in this period and this place. It would not be an exaggeration to say that
the Hellenistic period is the new Late Antiquity.
Dixons book provides a single destination for the literary sources central to the basic
narrative of the Hellenistic period at Corinth. This alone makes the book valuable to scholars
of the Corinthia. Dixons argument that the Corinthian polis negotiated its relationship with
its Macedonian rulers through the strategic deployment of eunoia, or reciprocal goodwill, is
likely to attract critique, but it is consistent with how scholars like
(http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia/article/79/3/385-415) John Ma
have understood the relationship between cities and Hellenistic rulers.
Dixons book is explicitly and almost exclusively political in scope, and he creatively weaves
together the admittedly limited sources for the citys political life throughout this period. At
times, Dixons work feels a bit speculative. For example, his efforts to understand why
Corinth did not return the actor Thessalos who had fled to Corinth after angering Phillip II
for attempting to arrange a marriage alliance on Alexanders behalf. Dixon offers several
possible scenarios to explain why Corinth defied Phillips request despite having a
Macedonian garrison there. Dixon proposes (albeit gently) that Thessalos could be a
Corinthian and this accounted for his confidence in fleeing to the city. The reason for
Corinths failure to comply and endangering eunoia with the Macedonian dynasty remains
unclear, and Dixons speculation adds little substantive to his arguments. In fact, if more
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evidence existed for Corinth during this period, it would be tempting to reject the historicity
of the Thessalos affair and the letter of Phillip as many scholars have and move on. In
Dixons defense, he marks his treatment of this affair as speculative, and I tend to appreciate
his willingness to explore the limited sources fully, but to others these red herrings may
detract from his overall arguments.
More problematic in Dixons work is his tendency to read the behavior of the city as
monolithic in its motivation. For example, I struggled to discern the strategy of eunoia from
the goals of the Corinthian state. Even when a Macedonian garrison watched over the city
of Acrocorinth, there must have existed factions within the Corinthian demos who sought
not only different ends but also different means to these end. For example, in the complex
political wrangling that involved Corinths relationship with the Achaean League and the
political influence of Aratos of Sikyon, some of Corinths vacillating might reveal political
factions within the city who had varied interests rather than the pivot of the entire city based
on proximate military or diplomatic threats.
While we lack the sources to confirm the existence of these factions, Dixons reading of the
Corinthian politics assumes certain strategic understandings of power relations in the
Hellenistic world. In recent years, the study of Hellenistic diplomacy and practical political
theory has enjoyed renewed attention. My entrance into these debates came through
(http://www.worldcat.org/title/between-rome-and-carthage-southern-italy-during-thesecond-punic-war/oclc/667105366) Michael Frondas book on the diplomatic moves of
Hannibal and the Greek cities of south Italy during the Second Punic War. Dixons book
and arguments would have been stronger had he engaged some of this recent scholarship
more fully to frame his work in a larger historiographic and theoretical context. Whether this
would have revealed more nuanced readings of Corinths diplomatic history is difficult to
know, but it certainly would have linked the history of this important city more clearly to
ongoing discussions on interstate relations in the ancient world.
I would have also enjoyed a more thorough treatment of archaeological work outside of the
immediate environs of the city. Dixons dissertation and experience excavating at Corinth
demonstrated his archaeological chops, and he dedicates a chapter to the archaeology of
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the Hellenistic period on the Isthmus. Most this chapter focused on major monuments and
sanctuaries, and most of his critical engagement with recent archaeological work in the
region appears only in his footnotes. For example, it would have been useful to understand
how Dixon understood David Pettegrews recent skepticism toward the economic
significance of the diolkos. I have also valued Dixons take on the various remains
fortifications from the Late Classical and Hellenistic period throughout the Corinthia.
Understanding the strategies employed by various Macedonian monarchs (and invading
armies) to fortify or garrison the citys chora might provide insights into how recognized
Corinths military value in a regional context as well as their approach to protecting the
citys economic foundation in the countryside.
In general, my desire for greater attention to archaeological detail and efforts to connect
Corinthian diplomatic practices to ongoing discussions within the field reflect more my
interest and the book that Id like to see, than any shortcoming on Dixons part.
Finally, (and I say this with the trepidation of someone
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/punk-archaeology-the-book/) who
just published a book) I wish these Routledge books were better copy edited. While copy
editing problems never obscured the meaning of the text, they were frequent enough to be
distracting. Things like this, however, do not detract from the books over all value. Itll be
the first book on a new shelf in my library ready to receive the fruits of the impending
Hellenistic revival.
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Finally, if you want a paper copy but dont want to pay $28.50,
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnR03_10ai4) I can fax it to you.
Enough of that, here are some quick hits and varia:
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igM98u_rvrA) This is an amazing video produced by
one of the students on the Western Argolid Regional Project this summer.
(http://www.neakriti.gr/?page=newsdetail&DocID=1173175) Byzantine reservoir
under the streets of Heraklion, Crete. The second Byzantine Period in Crete is really quite
remarkable.
(http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/09/29/350658131/whos-buried-in-themagnificent-tomb-from-ancient-greece) I just cant get enough of the Amphipolis tomb!
(http://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/) For all you Collingwood fans (or as we call him
R.G.C.), Roman Inscriptions of Britain.
(https://chroniclevitae.com/news/730-how-i-got-this-job-donna-yates?cid=megamenu)
This is an exotic job for an archaeologist!
(http://frankenplace.com/) This Frankenplace app is amazing. I dont know what I can do
with it yet, but I will soon.
(http://www.ndsu.edu/news/view/detail/14276/) People should do to Fargo to hear
Witold Rybczynski.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/09/28/dark-side-of-the-boom/) More
national media attention on the oil boom. For the national press, the Bakken Boom must be
the gift that keeps on giving.
555
(https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/documents/Publication_List/pdf/RISeries/RI-22.pdf) There
is almost no reason not to read a report on the Nesson Anticline (pdf).
(http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/784519.html) I just dont post
enough links about the demise of Kenyan cricket.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwCZdyHKhI8) You definitely need to watch Aasif
Karims spell against Australia in 2003.
(http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/sloppy-hi-fi-john-vanderslice) Sloppy HiFi. Sounds like my office!
(http://demnpl.com/2014/09/30/representatives-oversen-boschee-odney-advertisingviolation-corrupt-practices-act/) Well, this sounds fun.
(http://ismyshiftkeyonornot.com/) Is my iPhone shift key on or not?
What Im reading: Lisa Peters, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/fractured-land-the-price-ofinheriting-oil/oclc/880966135) Fractured Land: The Price of Inheriting Oil. MSHS 2014.
What Im listening to: Thee Mike B, (https://soundcloud.com/theemikeb/thee-notorious-bi-g) Notorious B.I.G. Remix; Willie Nelson, Stardust.
title="IMG_2107.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/img_2107.jpg" alt="IMG
2107" width="450" height="337" border="0" />Heroic in Black and White
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src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090131.jpg"
alt="P1090131" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
<img title="P1090132.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090132.jpg"
alt="P1090132" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
We then continued along old Route 2 into Manitou township. If you are an industrial tourist
and have time to visit one place in North Dakota, I might honestly suggest visiting Manitou.
The former town has completely vanished except for the consolidated school which stands
abandoned with a small, neglected mobile home, RV park nearby. Note the Dutch Colonial
touches:
<img title="P1090143.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090143.jpg"
alt="P1090143" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Around the area stands a brand new salt water disposal site designed to handle some of
the byproducts of fracking. Further north is a massive raid yard where North Dakota crude is
collected for shipment to refineries around the U.S.
<img title="P1090148.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090148.jpg"
alt="P1090148" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Heading further west along old Route 2 provides ample opportunities to contrast oil
production and the western North Dakota landscape. Even a mediocre photographer like
me can manage some dramatic shots.
title="P1090149.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090149.jpg"
alt="P1090149" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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Old Route 2 descends into the White Earth Valley east of the town of White Earth. The
most impressive landmark along this route is Panchos. Panchos was originally a dance hall,
cafe, and bar that opened in 1955, during the peak of the first oil boom.
title="P1090157.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090157.jpg"
alt="P1090157" width="450" height="268" border="0" />
The dance hall and cafe are long gone, but the bar is still open. We talked to the bartender
there and it took very little effort to imagine the clubs earlier days when bands played on a
stage to patrons from the towns of White Earth and Manitou who had money to spend from
their hard work in the oil patch or as local ranchers and farmers. The bartender told us that,
in its prime, there were 20 tables in the dance hall that could be moved aside for roller
skating. There was a little cafe serving t-bone steaks and french fries for $2.50 and icy cold
beers for $.50. The bar preserved hints of the buildings more august past and some dusty
old memorabilia on the walls. Pancho died in 1985 and his kids, now in their 80s, still own
the place. Its worth a stop.
After checking in on some of our study sites around Ray and Tioga, we decided to enter
Williston by heading south through Wheelock toward the Route 1804 (the Lewis and Clark
Trail) that runs along the north side of Lake Sakakawea. The countryside here saw
exploratory efforts in the 1920s and 1930s include an exploratory well of over 10,000 feet
drilled by a subsidiary of Standard Oil of California. At the time, this well was among the
deepest in the western U.S. The drill bit broke before they hit oil.
Today, there is plenty of evidence for oil exploitation that we caught in the evening light.
title="P1090186.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090186.jpg"
alt="P1090186" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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unveil a mural sponsored by the Near Southside Neighborhood. Part of the Mayors Urban
Neighborhood Initiative (MUNI), the mural project was a multi-year neighborhood effort
involving brainstorming, fundraising, and hands-on community participation. This event will
also celebrate the life of local artist Joel Jonientz, creator of the mural, who passed away
unexpectedly last year. Jonientz was an art professor at UND, and his UND
colleagues helped complete the mural in his honor. The event will wrap up at the 2nd floor
of Rhombus Guys. All are invited to attend this community event
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title="P1090234.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090234.jpg"
alt="P1090234" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090227.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090227.jpg"
alt="P1090227" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
title="P1090258.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090258.jpg"
alt="P1090258" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Ive posted this photo before, but I was really struck by our visit to Ponchos in White Earth,
ND, and the bartenders description of the places glory days in the 1950s. The bar was
once made prosperous because US Route 2 (now nothing more than a dirt road) passed
outside its door. When new Route 2 was built about mile to the south, it bypassed both the
town of White Earth and contributed to Ponchos and the towns decline.
title="P1090157.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p10901572.jpg"
alt="P1090157" width="450" height="349" border="0" />
This made me think of the town of Alexander which we visited on Monday. The town saw
over 12,000 vehicles per day (or about a car every 8 seconds) pass through town since the
start of the oil boom. When the bypass opened last week,
(http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/content/eerily-quiet-85-dirt-road-only-way-and-outalexander-until-truck-bypass-done) the traffic stopped passing through downtown,
apparently, quite abruptly. Its hard to imagine Alexander suffering the same fate as White
Earth, but settlement in western North Dakota and the movement of traffic through the oil
patch is a fickle mistress.
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title="P1090214.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090214.jpg"
alt="P1090214" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The Bakken boom, has introduced more examples of abandonment. Ive been particularly
interested in seeing evidence for abandonment at RV parks that house the temporary
workforce in the region. As residents moves from one hot spot to the next, pulls up stakes
for the winter, or finds permanent housing, they leave behind all sorts of things that are too
difficult to move or relatively valueless.
Mudrooms
title="P1090135.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090135.jpg"
alt="P1090135" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090158.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090158.jpg"
alt="P1090158" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
Air conditioners:
title="P1090165.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090165.jpg"
alt="P1090165" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Pots, pans, and trash: (As an aside, I sampled this assemblage, by collecting the trash can
filled with pots and pans and putting it in the back of my pick-em-up truck. I not only loved
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/pallets-and-scavenging/) the
feeling of scavenging (and had to resist picking up other things throughout the rest of my
trip west), and also have been thinking about the ethical and scientific aspects of
sampling discard from the near workforce housing in the patch. More on this next week after
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title="P1090194.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090194.jpg"
alt="P1090194" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090149.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p10901491.jpg"
alt="P1090149" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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%CE%B1%CF%81%CF%87%CE%AD%CF%82-%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%8520%CE%BF%CF%85-%CE%B1%CE%B9%CF%8E%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%BC%CE%BF%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B4%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AE-3d%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%B1%CF%81%CE%AC%CF%83%CF%8
4%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B7-%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82%CE%B6%CF%89%CE%AE%CF%82-%CE%B3%CF%8D) Thessalonikis White Tower
in 3D.
(http://www.enetenglish.gr/?i=news.en.home&id=2067) R.I.P. Loukanikos.
(http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/crowdfunding-archaeology-somedata-finally/) Crowdfunding archaeology.
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/08/20/crowd-funded-research-inarchaeology/) I blogged on this a while back.
(http://www.equinoxpub.com/home/morgan-book-review/) This is a better review of
Ifantidis, Archographies: Excavating Neolithic
Dispilio(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/3373/) than mine.
(http://www.nestani.com/) The village of Nestani is important for fracking in North Dakota.
(https://twitter.com/sebhth/status/519945287021133824) This is a nice tweet.
(http://digipubarch.org/2013/11/15/what-would-a-punk-public-archaeology-look-like/)
What would punk public archaeology look like?
(http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781472409980) Graffiti and street art.
(http://thepunkeffect.com/?p=18690) A review of the rough cut of
(http://thepunkeffect.com/?p=18690) Atari: Game Over.
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The result of that was a proposed mural by Joel. It appears to have involved sheep. I never
saw this draft of the mural, but (http://vimeo.com/88013974) I hope they were as awesome
as these sheep.
Bret was not impressed with Joels sheep, and told me so.
I told Joel - probably after a beer or two - that Bret wasnt feeling his mural. Joel laughed
about it in that way that artists sometimes laugh leaving you unsure whether he was hurt or
had just added Bret to his list of people who would never get it.
Bret, of course, had not communicated this to Joel, but the next time the two were in the
same place, the first thing Joel said to Bret was I hear you didnt like my mural. He then
told Bret to go and look at his stuff. Bret later admitted that this was usually something you
did before commissioning a piece of public art, but it didnt matter because Joel was able to
repurpose some of his (http://joeljonientz.com/?s=Arbuckle&submit=Search) Fatty
Arbuckle work into the perfect mural to hang across from a police station and next to a rail
line.
In a less public venue, it will be fun to recount the adventures involved in moving the
prepared, but unpainted panels into Joels van late one evening...
Here are the murals, which were finished by students and colleagues in the Department of
Art and Design at UND.
title="P1090265.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090265.jpg"
alt="P1090265" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090264.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090264.jpg"
alt="P1090264" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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title="P1090267.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/p1090267.jpg"
alt="P1090267" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
It was cool to see the community embrace public art and got me thinking about what more I
could do to make Grand Forks a more interesting place.
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side at his death bed. For some reason, popular books on the oil boom and fracking
demands a kind of first person intimacy.
I got to thinking about why these authors used this particular device to introduce their
treatment of fracking. It's not like fracking has been dehumanized in the mass media. The
oil-smeared faces oil workers have already offered a human face of the industry, but these
books seem to substitute a different face. They have replaced the dirty hands of the laborer
with the soft hands of the journalist. Appealing to middle class ambivalence about fracking,
the writer takes on the confusion of information confronting someone who might have oil
stocks in their portfolio and appreciate their performance, but also have a twinge of guilt
that perhaps profiting from petrochemical industry is not compatible with genteel
environmentalism.
One of the key aspects of this bourgeois environmentalism are the attitudes of Gold and
Peters toward private property. Peters, in particular, demonstrates a delicate ambivalence.
On the one hand, she recognized the homesteading claims of her grandfather who tried to
make a living from the difficult North Dakota soils. She admired her grandfathers
prescience in retaining mineral rights to his land and making leases to oil companies. Her
childhood and environmentalism developed, ironically, from the conversion of these oil rights
to property on the scenic St. Croix river and a lovely cabin. On the other hand, Peters
knowingly trespasses on the St. Croix property after it was sold to reminisce about her
childhood. Elsewhere in the book she was traumatized when she encountered an
overzealous security guard at a fracking sand quarry. The final encounter in the book, which
involved spreading her fathers ashes at a well site, was made more sweet when an oil field
technicians at the well gave an impromptu tour rather than chasing the family away from the
site. Despite his generosity, Peters made clear that the risk was there and the reader could
only think of the earlier encounter at the quarry. In fact, a key tension throughout the book is
the complexities of ownership whether of oil, property, or mineral rights, and the benefits
and (ethical and emotional) risks associated with ownership.
In a sense, then, the story of the oil boom revolves around a complicated American dream
which recognizes property ownership - whether the Jeffersonian farm, the modern suburban
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retreat, or the urban condominium - as part of a package of rights derived from a particular
reading of John Locke. Environmentalism, in contrast, appears to ask the individual property
owner to resist the fullest expression of those rights for the common good. In some cases,
the state intervenes as mediator between the rights of the individual and the community, but
Peters book problematizes this relationship between the individual and property.
The first chapters of Prudhommes and Golds book likewise articulates the oil dilemma
facing Americans as they locate themselves between the arguing factions, competing
narratives, and the conflicting myths of private property, energy independence, and
progress. Im no environmentalist, but I do worry that the emphasis on the individual story
undermines the genuine power of collective action. By making the hard work to keep the oil
industry safe and as environmentally and culturally sensitive as possible a distinctly middle
class operation guided by a set of middle class expectations, we run the risk of minimizing
the responsibilities of the state (as in the federal, state, county, and local governments) and
the community (loosely construed as people who share space, resources, and social ties) to
negotiate the complex interests of its stakeholders.
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under ground, or coursing overhead at the periphery of our vision. On our recent drive east
from Watford City, through the rolling hills and valleys inscribed by creeks draining south
into the North Dakota Badlands, took us past the landmark called Johnsons Corner near
the small, unincorporated town of Keene. Like most of the North Dakota countryside in this
area, there are drill rigs, pumps, gravel pits, salt water disposal sites around, and some
tanks surrounded by fences. These sights are only the tip of the iceberg, however.
Underground Johnsons Corner is a hub of multiple pipelines that carry North Dakota crude
to refineries, rail yards, and markets.
I am sure that Im attracted to these invisible infrastructures as a response to all the
intimately human narratives that Ive encountered lately. From
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/fracking-made-personal/) guiltwracked, middle-class oil lease holders to (http://www.thenation.com/article/182077/howsmall-town-north-dakota-became-one-americas-truly-elite-oil-fields#) Ivy League-trained
journalists hanging out in Williston bars, the increasingly cliche stories of triumph and
tragedy in the Bakken have begun to lose their emotional impact. The stereotyped narratives
of violence, greed, and loss have been increasingly set against a generic backdrop of rural
idyl. Whats missing to my eye, is an appreciation for the interlaced networks of movement,
objects, and economic and social relationships that extend throughout the Bakken (and the
world) that shape the life of individuals in Williston, Watford City, Wheelock, and Tioga.
The routes of pipelines, the ebb and flow of traffic, the daily movements of the service
industry, and the rhythm drilling, fracking, and pumping, all make
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/the-bakken-as-taskscape/) the
Bakken a compelling taskscape. These things happen at a scale that offers explanations for
the individual experience in ways that microcosmic studies of oil-streaked laborers cannot.
As I think more and more about the tourist guide, one of the key aspects of its design is to
located these individuals in the historical and industrial context of the boom. I hope to drag
individuals out of their guilt-wracked reveries, out of the strip clubs and bars, our from
behind the wheels of trucks, or the controls of heavy equipment and to locate them within
an economically productive landscape. Perhaps by presenting the scale and complexity of
the Bakken we can go beyond the attempts to invoke empathy for the human experience
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and move toward understanding the relationships and systems that have created the
Bakken condition.
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(http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/10/16/history_of_the_ottoman_empire_ottoma
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"Internet courage is like a Cover 2 corner. When you got safety over the top, you feel
better about yourself. Torrey Smith
What Im reading: R. Gold, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/the-boom-how-fracking-ignitedthe-american-energy-revolution-and-changed-the-world/oclc/852226364) The Boom: How
Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World. 2014.
What Im listening to: Ex Hex, Rips; Jawbreaker, 24 Hour Revenge Therapy.
title="IMG_2165.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/img_2165.jpg" alt="IMG
2165" width="450" height="337" border="0" />Its a dogs life.
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(http://www.missourireview.com/tmr-blog/2013/02/font-and-you-the-style-memoir/) like
Garamond throughout. I like the intimacy of the Classical/Old Style fonts and I think theyd
be fitting for a memoire.
Font situation aside, her talk should be good fun. Im donating some of my time from
(http://www.ndhumanities.org/) North Dakota Humanities Council affairs to organizing this
talk, so its sponsored by the NDHC.
(https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/r1m4tzz9oea/) Heres the link to the live stream on
the day of the talk.
title="FracturedLandFlyer.jpg"
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Anyone who took one to Tim Gregorys seminars in the 1990s or reads even superficially in
the discipline of Mediterranean history knows that interest in the longue dure has only
gained strength over the last three decades. From
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/containers-and-connectivity/)
article length studies on containerization to massive monographs on
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/corrupting-sea-a-study-of-mediterraneanhistory/oclc/42692026) historical connectivity and the
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/making-of-the-middle-sea-a-history-of-the-mediterraneanfrom-the-beginning-to-the-emergence-of-the-classical-world/oclc/844789745)
protohistoric Mediterranean, scholars have continued to explore longterm trends in the
history of the Mediterranean. In fact, regional studies of Mediterranean landscape, whether
focusing on (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/fragile-landscapesand-persistent-communities-on-antikythera/) a single island or
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/landscape-and-history-in-themaeander-valley/) a particular valley, tend to engage in diachronic approaches drawing on
archaeological and textual evidence in equal measure. It is genuinely heartening to read a
work like the History Manifesto that pushed the discipline to absorb more lessons from the
study of the premodern Mediterranean world.
At the same time, I left this book with a nagging feeling that the authors dodged a key issue
driving historical work toward more focused studies. For the last century, historians have
looked toward their methods to define their discipline. Our tendency to encourage students
to focus on small bodies of material and limited questions has not been exclusively the
product of short-termism or foreshortened professional horizons, but the need to pass on
the basic skills of historical work. Critical reading of a text, for example, requires us to focus
on single text, if only for the duration of a class or an assignment. Writing a thesis and
making arguments grounded in critically engaged evidence remains the hallmark of
historical work and practicing these methods requires attention to detail whether at the
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scope of a region, an epoch, or a single battle. If historical work depends on a particular set
of methods which give historians a command of detail, nuance, and causality central to
presenting a compelling argument about the past, telling the discipline to shift their focus
toward understanding long-term trends in a critical, historical, way is not enough.
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Of course, Guldi and Armitage recognized this and argued that digital tools from the simple
effectiveness of Google Ngrams to more complex designs that allow historians to perform
distant readings from a well-defined and substantial bodies of evidence will accelerate
historians ability to understand longer spans of time and more complex issues. At the same
time, these forms of distant reading ask historians to suspend a certain amount of critical
attention to individual texts and push historians to developed greater expertise in computer
algorithms, quantitative methods, and arguments made from large datasets. While these
things are possible, I cant help but thinking that they represent substantial changes to the
discipline and its methods. More importantly, these changes suggest that Guldi and
Armitage see the strength of the discipline less in its current methodological tool kit (with its
strengths, weaknesses, and discursive character) and more in the discipline's authority in
speaking about the past. In other words, they are asking historians to shift their disciplinary
authority away from a body of methods, techniques, and skills refined over centuries, to new
approaches under the same disciplinary and professional banner. While they couch this
shift as a return to perspectives more common before the middle of the 20th century or still
thriving in odd corners of the discipline like Mediterranean studies, they are asking
historians to step into a very different river with fundamentally different disciplinary and
critical character.
The interest in microhistory, agency, and close reading of texts arose, in part, to address the
weaknesses of big picture thinking and to maintain a view of the humanities that is
conscious of the individual. These practices coincided with the core qualities of the
historical method: its philological roots, the character of history as craft, and the passionate
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northern coast of Troezene, bears a large Greek flag painted on its flanks and this explicitly
connects the site to a national identity. At the same time, the national identity manifest in
this 19th century ruin, however, is nevertheless outside the main archaeological narrative
promoted by the Greek state. In other words, the 19th century ruin provides an opportunity
to locate the Arvanitika-speaking community within a positive narrative of the Greek state.
Forbes discusses the way in which local communities articulate their archaeological
landscape and how it often differs from the interest of national or foreign archaeologists. He
cites Susan Suttons description of the communities around the archaeological site of
Nemea who associated more closely with a cave in a nearby hill that they relate to the den
of the Nemean lion. Methanites likewise recognize the antiquity of a cave set high on the
slopes of the volcanic peninsula, and Forbes notes that these natural features often provide
points of reference in the landscape that allow local communities to establish regionally
meaningful archaeological identities.
This article caught my attention for two reasons. First, on the (http://westernargolid.org/)
Western Argolid Regional Project this summer we documented a fortification associated
with the Greek War of Independence. Without getting into too much detail, graffiti
festooned a number of parts of this rather visible fortification allowing individuals to locate
their names within the archaeological landscape. This linked the nearby community of
Lyrkeia very closely to a historical place. It is interesting to note that the nearby ancient ruins
did not attract similar attention. The fort on Methana will also be a useful point of
architectural comparison for our fortification in the Argolid although our fortress has far less
august a historical pedigree.
I was also interested in reading that Forbes did not mention the inventio story associated
with the church of St. Barbara. According to (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/76820937)
Forbes monograph on Methana, a local resident had a dream which led the villagers to
excavate and discover the bones of St. Barbara and St. Juliana who helped protect the
island from the influenza epidemic in the early 20th century.
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/more-dream-arch/) Ive
blogged about it here. Whats interesting about this story is that it presents indigenous
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archaeology as more than simply the recognition of ruins or sites by a community, but the
actual excavation of sites of particular significance. As Arvanitika speakers and Greek
speakers in Greece share the Orthodox faith, it is significant that both communities have
used these same methods to create locally meaningful archaeological landscapes (if not in
the strictly scientific sense) that resonate with national narratives emphasizing the Orthodox
(and Byzantine) roots of the Greek nation. This narrative is distinct from the national
narrative that privileges Classical antiquity, and perhaps provides another alternate space
for the forging of historically significant national identities.
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For example, both punk rock and archaeology offer unconventional, yet familiar, ways of
providing social criticism of the present. As I have been thinking a good bit about my almost
completed tourist guide to the Bakken and how has parallels to a punk rock approach to the
North Dakota landscape. It takes a familiar genre of work - the tourist guide - and applies it
to an unconventional place and set of circumstances - the modern oil patch. The message
of the guide will be ambiguous and situated between
a (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Hagerty) post-ironic earnestness and a space for the
critical distancing conducive to both contemplation and escape.
Ive also thought about the (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/atariexcavation/) Atari excavations in New Mexico and wondered whether encountering and
presenting the buried games as archaeological artifacts likewise had the effect of providing
some distance from the familiar and opening these objects up to new forms of critique.
So maybe I need to emphasize how punk archaeology is a tool that encourages us to
approach the familiar in unconventional ways. It complements conventional archaeology
which likewise provides a distance for critically understanding objects from the past, but in
most cases these objects are already unfamiliar to the modern viewer. Maybe I need to
emphasize how punk archaeology makes the familiar and everyday unfamiliar.
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603
The deskilling of the curators craft has obvious parallels with concerns among academics particularly in disciplines like history which have come to celebrate their skills in organizing
disparate bodies of data into a cohesive argument. The popularity and quality of sites like
Wikipedia which is community curated and lacks the authority of single, known,
credentialed artists, reflects the awesome potential of crowd sourcing knowledge and the
potential to undermining the authority of the historians voice.
The response to this, at least among some celebrity curators, is to emphasize industry and
volume of production. The most famous of these curators is HUO,
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Ulrich_Obrist) Han Ulrich Obrist, whose frenetic lifestyle
involves (http://nymag.com/arts/art/rules/hans-ulrich-obrist-2012-4/) almost continuous
travel and work. While this clearly reflects the character of the individual as much as
anything, Balzar makes clear that it represents an argument against the deskilling of the
curators craft. The industry, professionalism, professional stature, and dedication of Obrist
alone demonstrates the value of and demand for a skilled curator in a world filled with
impostures.
The increased pace of the curators life and the need to appear (if not to be) busy at all
times to fit into a 21st century model of professionalism has certainly spilled into the
humanities. The pace of life and work of a historian has come to represent value in the eyes
of many both within the discipline and outside it. The constant refrains of Im so busy
marks out the professional academic as having particular value. (And perhaps serves a
contrast to the dilettantish amateur can lavish attention on an obscure project of only
personal importance.) At the same time, academic programs dedicated to curation have
developed to prepare curators for the challenges of a career in the art world. This step
toward professionalization occurred in the humanities during the late 19th centuries and
helped to fortify a clear division between amateurs and professionals in an effort to ensure
professional historians particular value in the emerging, modern university. Obrist, despite
his celebrity, emerged from a preprofessional world of curation and learned his craft through
apprenticeships at leading galleries and museums.
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The relationship between professionalization, pace, and value in the world of curation, then,
has obvious parallels with the development of academic disciplines in the humanities.
History faces the same struggles that the world of curating does with amateurs or crowd
sourced alternatives taking more and more attention away from academic practitioners. It
remains to be seen how and whether historians can regain their exclusive, professional
authority or whether the discipline will succumb to the relentless pressure of popular
perception.
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I intend to serialize my tourist guide over the next couple of weeks, but for this first group of
posts, I have focused on my introduction and a fairly rough draft of my concluding
comments. More of the tourist guide proper will follow, so please stay tuned!
A Tourist Guide to the Bakken Oil Patch
Table of Contents
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-86a52bd3779f)
I. Introduction
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-893e900d4fc4)
I.1. A Brief Industrial History of the Bakken Counties
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-393d56b45ea9)
I.2. Practical Notes on Travel, Roads, and Weather in the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
II1. Route 1a: Ross to White Earth
III. Route 2: Ross to Tioga
IV: Route 3: Tioga to Williston
IV.1. Route 3a: Wheelock, Nession Flats, East Williston
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(http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/archaeology-today/phaistos-disk-deciphered/) I
am dismayed that scholars are rejecting the decipherment of Phaistos disk presented at
TED on Crete. If we cant believe a local TED talk, I am completely without a compass.
(http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2013/article/archaeological-society-in-stlouis-places-ancient-artifacts-on-the-auction-block) This is super annoying, but fortunately,
the (http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/17833) AIA is dismayed. Its funny, I
discovered that in May, (http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/letter-und-isnt-all-itsome) a letter I wrote to the local paper caused dismay. I can honestly say that Ive never
felt dismay. Ive been disappointed, startled, and even bummed out, but never dismayed.
Maybe this is a weakness on my part.
(http://io9.com/1-000-years-of-scientific-texts-from-the-islamic-world-1651688013) A
massive collection of scientific texts from the Islamic world at the (http://www.qdl.qa/en)
Qatar Digital Library.
(https://asunews.asu.edu/20141027-university-librarian-appointment#.VEot1LeG54.facebook) James ODonnell, Late Antiquitist, is the new director of libraries at
Arizona State.
(http://www.vigamus.com/en/exhibition/current/item/128-e-t-the-fall-atari-s-buriedtreasures) Atari ET games from Alamogordo are on display in Italy.
(http://twopointommen.wordpress.com/2014/10/23/passion-and-the-job-market/) Brett
Ommens struggle with and without academia (a brutally honest read, but important).
(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/24/mi5-spied-historians-eric-hobsbawmchristopher-hill-secret-files) It must have been a boring assignment, but apparently MI5
spied on Eric Hobsbawm and Christopher Hill.
(http://apps.texastribune.org/shale-life/life-in-a-man-camp/) Man camps in Texas.
612
(http://www.underconsideration.com/quipsologies/archives/october_2014/arminvit_86.php
) A nice example of adaptive reuse of old Mac Pros.
(http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2014/oct/29/turkeys-new-presidential-palaceunveiled-in-pictures) The new presidential palace in Turkey is looks pretty fancy.
(http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2014/10/the-five-stages-of-grieving-the-artof-jeff-koons) Milliner on Koons.
(http://www.wired.com/2014/10/super-friends-hall-of-justice/) Cincinnatis Union
Terminal is endangered.
(http://bloomingatdoaks.com/) Whats blooming at Dumbarton Oaks.
What Im reading: Dean MacCannell, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/tourist-a-new-theoryof-the-leisure-class/oclc/1818124) The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. (2013
edition). I really am reading it, but Ill also admit (against the advice of several colleagues),
that Im going to read William Gibsons (http://www.worldcat.org/title/tourist-a-new-theoryof-the-leisure-class/oclc/1818124) The Peripheral.
What Im listening to: The Twilight Sad, Nobody Wants to be Here and Nobody Wants to
Leave; Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins. Im
listening to both on (https://tidalhifi.com/us) TIDAL, which is CD quality streaming. If you
love music, its worth the 7 day trial.
title="IMG_2246.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/img_2246.jpg" alt="IMG
2246" width="450" height="337" border="0" />Milo sez: The rug really tied the room
together
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semi-exotic and appropriately mysterious location for the story. The media frenzy surround
the excavation was largely manufactured by (http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/11/03/etlandfill-excavation-documentary-premiers-this-month) the documentary film crew who paid
for and arranged the excavation. This isnt to say that the excitement over the excavation
wasnt real or that these Atari games dont have historical significance within the context of
an urban legend and the historical practices of American consumer culture and the video
game industry. They obviously do and well see how this interest will correlate to value over
the course of the Ebay auction today. (Ill post an update to this later today when the Ebay
auction for Atari Dig Cartridges starts.)
As an archaeologist, weve become hyper sensitized to the buying and selling of antiquities
and recognize how such practices works to encourage looting and destruction of
archaeological sites as well as the commercialization of our shared cultural heritage. For
objects associated with more recent history, archaeologists have been a bit less vocal in
their concern. For example, we have not railed against the selling of stadium seats or bricks
from demolished ball parks or the world wide market for rare, valuable, and significant
baseball cards. In fact, the experience of buying, selling, and trading sports memorabilia is
as much of the part of this industry as owning and displaying it (although the same might be
said about the sale of art and antiquities in some peoples minds). In other words, the value
of the objects comes purely from the commercial practices associated with its acquisition.
Baseball cards, for example, were trading cards meant to be swapped, collected, and
exchanged.
Perhaps equating the Atari games with sports memorabilia sales in not a useful way to think
about these objects. On the other hand, most institutions, whether cities like Alamogordo or
universities, have processes where they liquidate unneeded assets or surplus.
Archaeologists are unlikely to protest the sale of 1964 Selectric typewriters from a
university or municipal warehouse even though these objects are 50 years old and, even if
they constitute an assemblage. In this way, the city of Alamogordo is simply selling off
surplus inventory which they do not have the space to store or any interest in conserving.
615
That the games dug out of the ground and the project was at least partially documented by
archaeologists lends them the patina of antiquity without having to be old. The appearance
of some of the games (http://www.vigamus.com/en/exhibition/current/item/128-e-t-the-fallatari-s-buried-treasures) in an Italian museum of video games provides them with some
cultural validation, but the Ebay auction today will give us an idea about how much these
objects will fetch on the open market. If the market for artifacts, to some extent, dictates
their significance and the value of artifacts on the market dictates their appeal to looters and
the potential risk to archaeological sites, then todays auction will give us an idea about
whether the public sees these objects as just more cast offs from our consumer society.
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(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b93b0c9ec118)
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch59e1916d0780) II1. Route 1a: Ross to White Earth
III. Route 2: Ross to Tioga
IV: Route 3: Tioga to Williston
IV.1. Route 3a: Wheelock, Nession Flats, East Williston
IV.1. Route 3b: Wildrose
V: Route 4: Williston to Watford City
VI: Route 5: Williston to Sidney, MT
VII: Route 6: Watford City to New Town
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b69182c6e409)
VIII. Conclusions: Industrial Tourism and Some Theoretical Reflections
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alt="NewImage" width="450" height="299" border="0" />
Stay tuned for more on this!
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(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-893e900d4fc4)
I.1. A Brief Industrial History of the Bakken Counties
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-393d56b45ea9)
I.2. Practical Notes on Travel, Roads, and Weather in the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b93b0c9ec118)
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch59e1916d0780) II1. Route 1a: Ross to White Earth
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-1af30cc01a78)
III. Route 2: Ross to Tioga
IV: Route 3: Tioga to Williston
IV.1. Route 3a: Wheelock, Nession Flats, East Williston
IV.1. Route 3b: Wildrose
V: Route 4: Williston to Watford City
VI: Route 5: Williston to Sidney, MT
VII: Route 6: Watford City to New Town
624
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b69182c6e409)
VIII. Conclusions: Industrial Tourism and Some Theoretical Reflections
625
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First Snow...
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/first-snow/
Sun, 09 Nov 2014 00:01:27 +0000
I usually post an image of the first real snow of the year:
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/first-snow-2013/) 2013 (Oct. 20),
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/first-snow-2012/) 2012 (Oct.
4), (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-23/)
2011 (Nov. 10), (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/first-snowwinter-2010/) 2010 (Nov. 21),
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/the-first-snow/) 2008 (Oct.
28), and in (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/westernmacedon/) 2007 (Sept. 11).
Here it is for 2014.
title="IMG_2276.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/img_2276.jpg" alt="IMG
2276" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
Enjoy!
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members are prestigious schools who are struggling to make ends meet and the remarkably
difficult road that many scholars and creative professionals traverse to get to a position of
job security.
I've been pretty fortunate to have a good place in the fiscal economy of my profession. I
make enough money to be happy, have tenure, have a nice office, good students, fantastic
colleagues, and an relatively decent relationship with the university administration.
That being said, I have found the last two months of sabbatic rather stressful. My work
hours have crept longer, my anxiety level has slowly ratcheted up, and I never feel like I'm
doing enough. What is this about?
Social Economy. My muddled mind has attributed this to the other major force in the lives of
creative professionals, the social economy. This describes (https://nplusonemag.com/issue20/the-intellectual-situation/the-free-and-the-antifree/) the other benefits most of us seek
for doing our jobs. We hope that our work and its influence will in some way transform the
world for the better. To achieve this, we need people to read our work, to invite us to join
into conversations, to agree to collaborate, and to generally respect our intellectual and
personal integrity. This social economy cuts across our work as scholars, its products, and
our various academic obligation and rewards us through professional advancement which
will, with any luck, advance our academic or creative agenda.
The social economy offers very little in terms of direct financial reward and whatever it does
offer tend to be much delayed. That being said, the academic social economy does offer
loads of fringe benefits that range from better odds at winning grants, cool travel
opportunities, rewarding collaborative projects, and, of course, opportunities to publish
work in high profiles places (which add value and increase the exposure). In most cases,
capital in the social economy develops through productive engagement with institutions
other than our primary places of employment (although not always). Academic associations,
research centers, scholarly publications, conferences and meetings, and various institutes
award capital and status in the social economy by both leveraging the work of scholars to
fill their pages, panels, and libraries, and providing platforms to amplify the impact of
631
scholarly production.
To be clear, I also regard most publishing to be a social act. The most successful scholars
best understand the conversation among their peers and find ways to contribute to shared
concerns. Understanding this conversation is rarely simply a matter of reading all the books
and articles on a subject and is typically the result of personal familiarity with individuals, the
community, and the language used to consider and resolve problems within a discipline.
I understand that the social economy is not fair in a traditional sense. There are myriad
unspoken rules, relatively little institutional oversight, and an over reliance on personal
relationships and connections. Among those most committed to the accumulation of social
capital the vagaries of this economy are incredibly stressful, but the benefit of accumulating
status within the social economy is, typically, real social or political change.
For academics, the greatest challenges arise when the social economy intersects with the
financial economy. For example, I have colleagues who refuse to work in the summer
months when they are not on contract or take weekends off. These are reasonable actions
considering our expectations of the fiscal economy, but they don't always maximize our
potential within the social economy (putting aside arguments that we need time off to be
creative and things like that). Im aware of the (https://nplusonemag.com/issue-20/theintellectual-situation/the-free-and-the-antifree/) anti-free movement and the policies that it
advocates, but this movement seems - right now - to privilege the immediate benefits of the
fiscal economy over those of the social economy. I cant quite stomach the idea that fewer,
less free works of scholarship, art, and music is better for our world.
Academics are also susceptible to bullying as the expectations within the social economy
(publishing, presenting, researching, collaborating, peer-reviewing) often trump
opportunities provided within the fiscal economy, yet lack the direct and immediate financial
rewards. Service throughout the academy and within our disciplines often develops vital
social capital, but when reciprocity breaks down (typically under pressures from the fiscal
economy), service become exploitative.
632
Nowhere is more fought than the hiring, tenure, and promotion process where genuine
fiscal rewards (however modest) are directly tied to the successful deployment of social
capital, reciprocal relationships (whether through personal familiarity or shared academic
pursuits), and good will. It is hardly surprising then that moments where the social and fiscal
economies directly interact become times where expectations a disappointed and anger at
the unclear boundaries is the most pronounced.
I don't know how to ameliorate the tension between the two economies. Typical of someone
who is secure in one (the fiscal) over the other (the social), I feel far more powerfully the
pressures of the social economy in my field, and this is leading to a rather stressful
sabbatical year.
Some of this stress, undoubtedly comes from recognizing how privileged I am to survive in
the fiscal economy of my discipline while others struggle but continue to be active, engaged
scholars or creative professionals.
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It ended up being just a procedural issue on the part of Ebay as the seller had updated the
images associated with a few of the games, but our fascination and almost giddy panic
encapsulated something fundamental about the entire undertaking. The mystery
surrounding the games themselves a combination of corporate efforts to obfuscate the fate
of returned or damaged games, the lack problematic state of Atari corporate records, and
the good fiscal decision to bury the games in an economical way. In other words, the
mystery surrounding these games and their fate was not a traditional archaeological
mystery, but a fake mystery fueled by internet debates and lack of access or interest in
tracking down documentary records or first-hand accounts which could have set the record
straight.
So cynics can celebrate how a fake archaeological project solved a fake
mystery.
title="My_eBay Watch_list.png"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/my_ebay-watch_list.png"
alt="My eBay Watch list" width="450" height="346" border="0" />
The media coverage of the auction itself has been bizarre as well. As the games continue to
increase in value, with a boxed E.T. game up to $850 at present, Joe Lewandowski, the
name behind the historical societys auction continues
(http://www.techtimes.com/articles/19590/20141108/flop-atari-2600-et-cartridges-nowfetching-price-of-gold-at-ebay-auction-why.htm) to equivocate over the games value. He
reminds the press that another 750 games will go up for auction after this lot is sold, and
that the hundreds of thousands of games still in the landfill would be cost-prohibitive to
excavate.
The math is baffling: the current auction has already raised close to $15,000 from 100
games (approximately $150 per game), and the prices will almost certain increase quickly
as the auction nears its closing date. If the 750 additional games perform similarly, the
auction should raise over $100,000. Even if the next auction does not receive the same
bidding and excitement, the reserves on the first round of games were at least $50, so the
auction should raise over $40,000 if all the games sell. So, its unclear what the citys
strategy is: are they telling bidders to hold on until the 750 new games appear in
635
subsequent auctions? Are they cautioning bidders that the several hundred thousand (and
perhaps million games) left underground will sit there to insure the value of their
investment? The message is, at best, mixed, and, at worst, disconcerting.
Archaeology of the modern period is tricky because the processes that serve to occlude
archaeological objects (whether fake or otherwise) from our site continued to function. The
complexities of value, the market, and - to be exceedingly simplistic - modern waste
disposal obfuscate the forces that shape artifact histories even as archaeologists work to
scrutinize both the objects and processes themselves. Depending on your position, this
works to undermine the viability of archaeology in the contemporary world because it makes
true critical distancing from the objects under study impossible. Or, it provides a good
reason for us to continue to attempt to use archaeology to unpack the workings of objects
in our world.
In the meantime, the auction will go on and people will bid on games. I have. My current
plan is to put together a nice little collection of games and gift them to the
(http://www.archaeological.org/news/advocacy/17257) St. Louis chapter of the
Archaeological Institute of America on the condition that they never sell them. Maybe Im
kidding.
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in preparing a hand-drawn map for my book? The only criteria is that youve spent some
time in the Bakken.
I also continue to be interested in the readerly experience with (https://medium.com)
Medium. I like the aesthetics of the site and I find it very readable, but I wonder whether
everyone sees it the same way? I also have been thinking about it as a venue for some
aspect of the Digital Press.
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-86a52bd3779f)
I. Introduction
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-893e900d4fc4)
I.1. A Brief Industrial History of the Bakken Counties
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-393d56b45ea9)
I.2. Practical Notes on Travel, Roads, and Weather in the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b93b0c9ec118)
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch59e1916d0780) II1. Route 1a: Ross to White Earth
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-1af30cc01a78)
III. Route 2: Ross to Tioga
638
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-5c5acf468665)
IV: Route 3: Tioga to Williston
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch142498a91299) IV.1. Route 3a: Wheelock, Nession Flats, East Williston
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch9992c0b55574) IV.2. Route 3b: Wildrose
V: Route 4: Williston to Watford City
VI: Route 5: Williston to Sidney, MT
VII: Route 6: Watford City to New Town
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b69182c6e409)
VIII. Conclusions: Industrial Tourism and Some Theoretical Reflections
639
640
641
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-86a52bd3779f)
I. Introduction
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-893e900d4fc4)
I.1. A Brief Industrial History of the Bakken Counties
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-393d56b45ea9)
I.2. Practical Notes on Travel, Roads, and Weather in the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b93b0c9ec118)
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch59e1916d0780) II1. Route 1a: Ross to White Earth
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-1af30cc01a78)
III. Route 2: Ross to Tioga
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-5c5acf468665)
IV: Route 3: Tioga to Williston
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch142498a91299) IV.1. Route 3a: Wheelock, Nession Flats, East Williston
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch9992c0b55574) IV.2. Route 3b: Wildrose
642
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-adea0c51360a)
V: Route 4: Williston to Watford City
VI: Route 5: Williston to Sidney, MT
VII: Route 6: Watford City to New Town
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b69182c6e409)
VIII. Conclusions: Industrial Tourism and Some Theoretical Reflections
643
(https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/viewer?mid=zWAsWPxMUcKE.kNrkA2JaFBZU)
Student-sourced project on Roman amphitheaters.
(http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780884024019) Anthony Kaldelis on
Laonikos Chalkokondyles.
(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/amet.12105/abstract) Time and objects after
conflict on Cyprus.
(http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2014/nov/11/contemporary-graffiti-art-on-thewalls-of-athens-in-pictures?CMP=fb_gu) Another nice collection of Athenian street art.
(http://www.ebay.com/itm/291285755689?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPag
eName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) This is a lot of money for a 30 year old Atari game
644
(http://archive.archaeology.org/1209/features/ned_kelly_bones_australia_old_melbourne_g
aol.html) The end of the line for Ned Kelly.
(http://chronicle.com/article/What-Book-Changed-Your-Mind/149839/?cid=cr&utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en) Books that changed you
mind.
(https://soundcloud.com/dischordpress/sets/fugazi-first-demo) Fugazis first demo.
How are articles like this still being written? (http://chronicle.com/article/ProfessorsPlace-in-the/149975/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en) Really lecture
is dead.
(https://medium.com/message/surfing-drowning-diving-122612314fa8) Sorgatz writes
the history of inventing new media.
(http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-sri-lanka-2014-15/content/story/798949.html) 264
is a lot of runs.
645
What Im reading: J. Urry and J. Larson, (https://www.worldcat.org/title/tourist-gaze30/oclc/777184927) The Tourist Gaze 3.0. Los Angeles 2011.
What Im listening to: The Who, The Who Sells Out.
title="IMG_2298.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/img_2298.jpg" alt="IMG
2298" width="450" height="600" border="0" />
title="IMG_4622.jpeg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/img_4622.jpeg" alt="IMG
4622" width="450" height="600" border="0" />Blanket and Elephant
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Both remains and remainders carry with them the burden of history and objects often
represent conflict both in a tremendously immediate way and through their complex
associations with past events. This emphasizes the temporal character of these objects and
their potential both to create a sense of belonging in history and to generate anxiety about
an uncertain future.
At the same time that I was digesting this complex and compelling article, I was following
(http://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/thoughts-from-a-winning-bidder-of-ane-t-game-excavated-from-alamogordo/) the auction of the games from
t(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/atari-excavation/) he Atari landfill in
Alamogordo, New Mexico. Without trivializing the history of objects and experiences of
people on Cyprus, these games also emerged through a moment of conflict and continue to
carry the ambiguous potential of an uncertain future. For some, these games represent the
folly of our hyperactive media cycle which can impart value almost instantly and withdraw it
almost as quickly. They also invoke the tumultuous history of the gaming industry in the early
1980s. The history of these games, then, rests at the intersection contemporary media
culture and the fragile economy of the early 1980s.
Today, Im heading out to the Bakken oil patch one more time with an updated draft of my
(http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/another-route-from-the-touristguide-to-the-bakken/) Tourist Guide in hand. Ive been thinking a good bit with
(https://www.worldcat.org/title/tourist-a-new-theory-of-the-leisure-class/oclc/1818124)
Dean MacCannells The Tourist (1976). He argues that one of the goals of tourism is to
unify the fragmented world of modernity and the subvert the alienation so characteristic of
the modern world. This is particularly the case of tourism focused on industrial sites,
factories, and the like. The position of the tourist, above and outside of the fragmented
experience of industrial labor, allows them to understand the universe of work and the
production of objects as all part of the same experience. Rebecca Bryant regarded objects
as uncanny owing their ambiguous relationship with time. Tourism must produce a similarly
uncanny encounter with the world as the tourist stands outside of the fragmented temporal
rhythms of everyday industrial life, but nevertheless still in contact with this experience and
648
its products.
The temporal displacement encountered through tourism and through objects associated
with conflicts, the fickle whims of the media, and booms (like the Bakken) makes for a good
topic for reflection recently as I spent time in various timezones and observe the world from
and increasingly distant and detached perspective. Strolling
(http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/travel-notes/) through
airports, truck stops, or streaming by outside a car window has given me pause to consider
whether the unified world view has any more relationship to our lived experiences than
some cheaply made souvenir from an airport gift shop.
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I talk a good bit about the various origin stories in my (https://medium.com/@billcaraher/atourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-86a52bd3779f) Tourist Guide to the Bakken Oil
Patch and this morning published Route 5: Williston, ND to Sidney, MT which looks west
for the origins of the most recent boom.
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-86a52bd3779f)
I. Introduction
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-893e900d4fc4)
I.1. A Brief Industrial History of the Bakken Counties
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-393d56b45ea9)
I.2. Practical Notes on Travel, Roads, and Weather in the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b93b0c9ec118)
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch59e1916d0780) II1. Route 1a: Ross to White Earth
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-1af30cc01a78)
III. Route 2: Ross to Tioga
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-5c5acf468665)
IV: Route 3: Tioga to Williston
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch
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we live in mobile housing has not been reading my blog very carefully.
2. Jeff VanderMeers (http://www.amazon.com/Annihilation-Novel-Southern-ReachTrilogy/dp/0374104093/) Southern Reach Trilogy (2014). VenderMeers novels present a
darker, even more distopian vision of the near future. The trilogy of Annihilation, Authority,
and Acceptance focus on a group of bureaucrats, scientists, and intelligence officials who
the vaguely articulated Central has tasked with studying a mysterious Area X which
suddenly appeared along a stretch of the Forgotten Coast. When the phenomenon that
created Area X occurred, the sparse population of this stretch of coastline vanished and a
barrier arose between the area and its surroundings. Southern Reach is the government
agency investigating Area X, and while the descriptions of the mysterious area tend toward
the etherial, they are unmistakably archaeological in character. The desolate beauty of
abandonment permeates the novel and provides VenderMeer with an appropriate backdrop
to explore the alienating effects of modern society.
3 Julia Schumacher, (http://www.amazon.com/Dear-Committee-Members-JulieSchumacher/dp/0385538138/) Dear Committee Members (2014). This lovely, short
novel explores a year in the life of Prof. Jason Fitger through his letters of recommendation.
It chronicles his relationships with his ex-wife and ex-girl friend, his desperate efforts on
behalf of a once promising friend and a student whose funding is cut by an increasingly
rapacious administration, and his various letters to support students looking for work. The
letter themselves range from the pathetic, to the charming, hilarious, and all-to-real, but they
all embody the tension between Fitger as the devoted egoist and as the dedicated mentor,
colleague, and friend. His letters become opportunities to reflect on his own situation in life
as well as those of the students and colleagues who he recommends. The situations will be
depressingly familiar to anyone who has spent time in academia: the grass is always
greener (in another department), the plight of the overlooked genius, the anxiety surrounding
creative and scholarly production, and the alternation between naivety and suspicion.
One more set of flights starting this afternoon and then Ill be home for the holidays. I dont
have any more novels to read, so Ill have to do work. Hopefully spending some time with
creative folks like Gibson, VanderMeer, and Schumacher rubs off and makes me work
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disruption and trace a dark shadow across the Bakken. For the tourist, signs of these
systems and problems will be always be obscure, but the routes on the tourist guide
hopefully make a few of them more visible.
title="P1090290.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/p1090290.jpg"
alt="P1090290" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
The next step is to prepare a thorough revision of the guide for proper publication. At the
same time, we will work on the revision of a paper for the journal Historical Archaeology
which will represent the first scholarly publication of our work.
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-86a52bd3779f)
I. Introduction
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-893e900d4fc4)
I.1. A Brief Industrial History of the Bakken Counties
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-393d56b45ea9)
I.2. Practical Notes on Travel, Roads, and Weather in the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-c616bb14ba58) I.3.
Technical Notes and Key Terms about the Bakken
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-608a499ac546)
I.4. Controversies and Concerns
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-4fe90333d708)
I.5. The North Dakota Man Camp Project
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-a936805104f2)
I.6. Further Reading
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-b93b0c9ec118)
II. Route 1: Minot to Ross
(https://medium.com/@billcaraher/a-tourist-guide-to-the-bakken-oil-patch-
657
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still providing a venue for the dissemination of detailed information. This would allow
conference organizers to present a more focused conference with more substantial papers
over a shorter period of time. It does not, of course, resolve the issue of scholars who
present less than remarkable papers simply to get funding to attend.
2. The Digital Divides. I am becoming more and more alarmed by the divide in archaeology
between the digital haves and have nots. As research funding contracts and expenses of
fieldwork continue to increase, the presentations documenting significant digital innovation
came almost entirely from large, well-funded projects with the backing of large research
universities. I recognize that innovation requires funding and that many aspects of this work
will trickle down into digital tools and technologies available to smaller, more financially
ordinary projects, but there was little discussion of how this process will take place or what
smaller, less generously funded projects can do to participate in the process of digital
innovation (or little discussion that I saw at the panels that I attended).
The digital divide bothered me because so many of the coolest digital projects seemed far
from being sufficiently scalable to have a widespread impact on the field. Moreover, some of
the data driven digital initiative seem to require the widespread adoption of their complex
platforms to assemble the kind of data required to allow for archaeological big data
initiatives. The truth behind big data in archaeology, however, is that it derives not from
technological innovation alone, but through the combination of technology and social
networks (of the human kind) to generate the kind of collaboration necessary to produce
significant change in the discipline.
The digital divide, then, marks not just the digital haves and digital have nots, but an
approach to digital archaeology that continues to privilege innovation over application. As
an archaeologist open to digital tools and techniques, I am far more interested in
understanding how innovators can provide access to digital tools and support the
meaningful adoption of technology to produce significant bodies of data. In other words, I
was impressed by the highest of high tech (e.g. virtual archaeology in immersive 3D
environments, dynamic bespoke platforms supporting large-scale collaboration between
interrelated projects, and sharks with laser beams who could destroy even the most
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aggressive archaeocyberpirates), I was much hungrier for digital initiative that had
significant adoption rates or that produced meaningful results across multiple projects of
different scales and resources. It seems to me that the future of digital archaeology is in
collaboration and adoption more than innovation.
3. Conferences as (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/man-campsas-non-places/) Non-Places. Upon returning home, I was shocked to discover that the
conference had been in San Diego. The Westin Hotel was fine. The weather was nice from
what I could gather from outside the hotel and taxi cab windows (I did notice the absence of
blowing snow and sub-zero temperatures).
I recognize that part of this was my fault. I could have planned more time for excursions or at
least took a cab to a good local restaurant rather than settling for rather ordinary fare
available near the conference hotel. At the same time, I felt significant pressure to use my
time wisely, attend as many sessions as possible, and be punctual and engaged at various
meetings. By my early morning departure, I realized that the location of the conference was
almost completely irrelevant.
The commercial carpeting, Starbucks' coffee, institutional pastries, familiar hotel rooms, and
polite staff all made the experience of attending this conference nearly indistinguishable
from any other, and made me all the happier to get home.
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An Introduction to Slow
http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/11/25/an-introduction-to-slow/
Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:47:55 +0000
I have a few days this week to get work done before the holidays and decided to start work
on my part of the introduction (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/aspecial-issue-of-north-dakota-quarterly-slow/) to our volume of North Dakota Quarterly
dedicated to the Slow Movement. While were still putting the final touches on the
contributions, the volume obviously requires a few words introducing the topic.
In particular, I was struck by how most of our contributors fell short of considering the global
context for the Slow Movement, and its role in the peculiar narrative of Western progress. A
call for society to slow down and resist the pressures of fast capitalism and late modernity
works best for communities who have the political, economic, and social power and
freedom to question the dominant narrative. As my introduction suggests, communities who
remain enmeshed in the colonial rhetoric of development, progress, and efficiency.
So, heres the first draft:
Slow: An Introduction
The Slow Movement began in Italy in 1986 led by Carlo Petrinis efforts to block the
opening of a McDonalds in near the famed Spanish Steps in Rome. He argued that
McDonalds' global brand of fast food was inferior both in terms of taste, but also owing to
the social and economic relationships necessary to bring this inferior product to market. In
place of fast food, Petrini began a movement that celebrated the intentional pace of a
traditional Mediterranean meal as the antithesis to the transnational hurry embodied by
processed meals. Simultaneously evoking the twin evils of globalization and the accelerated
pace of capitalism, the Slow Food movement that developed around Petrini's writing
championed local cuisine, local ingredients, and the ethical obligations to enjoy the
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conscientious preparation and consumption of food. Since that time, Slow Foods movement
has become a global phenomena and embraced a range of causes centered on local foods,
seasonal delicacies, deliberate preparation, and the understanding of meals as places for
social interaction.
The impact of the Slow Foods movement spread far beyond its Italian origins and focus on
food. Looking back over its first two decades, Carl Honor summarized the diverse takes on
the idea of "slow" and the benefits of this deliberate approach to life by writing in Praise of
Slowness (2004). Honor saw technology, our increasing fixation on efficiency, and even
the rapid pace of our modern "culture" as eroding our ability to savor life and be happy. He
urged his readers to slow down, disconnect, and declutter their lives in an effort to regain
control over their own experiences.
The Slow Movement intersects with academic critiques of late-20th century capitalism. For
example, Ben Agger's critique of "fast capitalism" (Agger 1989; 2004) and David Harvey's
"time-space compression" both locate the increased pace of daily life in the dynamics of
late capitalism with its endless drive toward efficiency in the movement and production of
global capital (Harvey 1989). Contemporary capitalism privileges the ability to adapt, grow,
and produce quickly, and this has contributed to a fascination with speed in our society
today. In this context, uniformity becomes the norm and locates human experience against a
banal reality of non-places (Aug 1995).
This celebration of slowness, of course, has not provided an escape from capitalism, but
has been incorporated into that totalizing system. Today, calls to embrace the slow lifestyle
are as likely to come from a luxury car maker as a global coffee company, restaurant chain,
or footwear manufacture. By coopting the rhetoric of slow, companies have recognized the
appeal of a superficial and popular approach to "slow consumption." In this context, slow
often becomes little more than deliberately driving a Subaru to a Whole Foods store in a
suburban strip mall or cruising the Pacific Coast Highway in a Mercedes SUV. The lavishly
prepared meal prepared with local foods and filled with animated conversation reflects a
distant social reality from the working class who feast on fast food between shifts or survive
on the meager, prepackaged offerings at urban, discount grocery stores. It is hardly
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necessary to observe that subsistence farmers in the global south have different attitudes
toward "local" food and the pressures of constant connection has a different meaning to
poor and isolated communities that are using mobile devices to access the world of microfinance, to participate in local and national politics, and to engage with the wider world. In
short, the Slow Movement represents an opportunity for affluent Westerners to escape a
trap of their own making while still enjoying the fruits of a world that cannot afford to slow
down.
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the late 1960s and had close ties to, say, Andy Warhols Factory. American punk
particularly as it developed in New York City had a much greater focus on aesthetic
challenges to the increasingly banal world of American consumer culture. This was a
critique of consumer culture, suburbia, or even the absurdity of everyday life, but it was less
overtly political.
2. Gender, Race, Orientation, and Community. Furnesss contributors considered the
tensions that existed between the attitudes within the punk scene toward women,
minorities, and gay and queer participants. These attitudes vacillated between the open and
accommodating to the overtly hostile. Even a casual listener to the punk rock music can
appreciate the misogynistic sentiments expressed in punk lyrics and the use of insensitive
(at best) and intolerant language in the sometimes tense relations between groups and
bands. While in some ways, the anarchic and left-leaning politics of punk created a safe
place for minorities of all kinds, the aggressive tone of the music and adversarial posturing
could sometimes create a hostile environment as extreme political and social rhetoric
masked puerile oppositional showboating.
I was particularly struck by the critique of gender in punk, and it made me very aware that
the first, published iteration Punk Archaeology was very much a boys' club (with the
exception of (http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/) Colleen Morgan, the Patti Smith of the
Punk Archaeology movement, Kris Groberg, and Heather Gruber). This was all the more
troubling because Mediterranean Archaeology has tended to be an (old) boys club in many
ways and remains almost exclusively the domain of white folks.
3. Punk Pedagogy. Several authors dealt explicitly with the influence of punk on their
classrooms, and it was fun to see some of my approaches to teaching considered to be
punk pedagogy. Two particular things stand out. First, I share with punk pedagogy a
willingness to cede power to my students, within limits, and to attempt to create a space for
radical creativity in my classroom. I think that some of Furnesss authors would see the punk
in my experiments in the Scale-Up classroom which drew heavily on the thinking of Paulo
Freires (https://www.worldcat.org/title/pedagogy-of-the-oppressed/oclc/43929806)
Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Moreover, I was happy to see that punk teachers shared my
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deep skepticism of the industrialized academy, but none appeared interested in exploring
what a return of a craft approach to higher education might look like (at least in those
terms).
4. DIY. The essays advocate do-it-yourself practices that sought to intentionally undermine
our dependence on mass produced consumer goods and practices. Of course, this has
become increasingly difficult in an academic setting as the creeping spread of regulations,
standards, assessment practices, and corporatized expectations has encroached upon our
ability to operate outside of institutionally controlled practices. It was interesting to me that
few of the articles spoke to any resistance to DIY practices from institutional concerns. For
example, there was considerable outcry surrounding the development of a
(http://www.diybookscanner.org/) DIY book scanner, and the increasingly stringent
copyright laws which were told protect our intellectual property often make it more
difficult (http://chronicle.com/article/Tangled-Up-in-Bob/150131/) to produce meaningful
scholarship or to circulate our works. DIY practices offer a way to subvert, endrun, and defy
these policies and practices, but also carry increasing risk as our intellectual and creative
autonomy is seen as a threat to those who want to monetize it.
(Some day, I will write about my efforts to start a press at the University of North Dakota.)
5. Punk as Failure. One of the most redeeming things about this book is authors openness
regarding the successes and failures of their efforts to (continued below)
Interruption:
Ok. I really want to continue this post, but when we woke up this morning our dog looked
like this:
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but multiple cores and peripheries that shaped the island as an architectural space.
Without getting into the detail of Stewarts article, I do wonder whether he replaced on set
of dichotomies with another. He seemed inclined divide architecture influences between
those from the island and those from outside the island creating a Cyprus: Not Cyprus
dichotomy. While historically this makes sense, as the corpus of basilicas on Cyprus have
generally been seen as unique, I do wonder whether we should look at the communities on
Cyprus as independent actors rather than simply individual representations of some island
wide tendencies. (https://www.scribd.com/doc/246360519/Artifact-and-Assemblage-atPolis-Chrysochous-on-Cyprus) I suspect that some communities on the island looked at
their neighbors for inspiration while others looked far beyond the islands shores.
3. Survey and Early Byzantine Cyprus. Marcus Rautmans article provides a nice overview of
the work done by regional surveys to illuminate the Late Roman and Early Byzantine periods
on the island, and the rural landscape in particular. A key point in this article is that the late
7th century and 8th century landscapes may be much more elusive from an archaeological
perspective. Rautman argues that the disruption of region trade, particularly sponsored by
the imperial government, created a landscape dominated by short-term settlements rather
than substantial and stable investments on the countryside characteristic of 6th and early
7th centuries. These short-term settlements and more contingent practices are less visible
to the archaeologist and sometimes misinterpreted as population decline or abandonment.
4. Chronology and Ceramics. It was pretty remarkable that a collection of articles dedicated
to the Late Romana and Early Byzantine period on Cyprus did not include a single article
focusing exclusively on ceramics. David Metcalfs article on seals and coins and Maria
Paranis all-too-short contribution on everyday life reminded us that small finds can play a
key role in understanding the islands economic, social, and administrative context. The lack
of an article dealing specifically with locally made cook pots, the long-lived Late Roman 1
amphoras, or the regionally produced Cypriot Red Slip table wares, speaks to
archaeological traditions on the island that despite well-known contributions by no less a
scholar than Hector Catling or David Soren, continues to be dominated by students of
architecture, icons, styles, and top-down history of church patrons, imperial officials, and
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bishops. Davis's and Stewart's overview of the study of Byzantine archaeological work on
Cyprus emphasized the long-standing nature of existing research agendas despite the
continued inroads of scholars like Marcus Rautman, Michael Given, and err me, Scott
Moore, and David Pettegrew.
The book has much to offer the student of Late Roman and Byzantine Cyprus and
contributes to the impressive and growing body of knowledge about the island during these
periods. Now, we just need to get scholars from outside the island of Cyprus to read and
consider the work done on Cyprus, and for archaeologists who work on Cyprus to continue
to work to place the island within a wider context.
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So, for those of you who are getting overwhelmed by the ambiguity and clutter of Facebook
or Twitter, I highly recommend Ello as a peaceful alternative. If you need an invitation, drop
me a line. The only thing I ask is that you not disturb my quietude.
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Covering the Boomtown: How Mediated Communication Has Shaped Life in the Bakken
Oil Region
Angela Cary
The Media Goes Boom
Amy Dalrymple
Cowboy Logic, For the Drill
Ryan Taylor
BAKKEN BOOM! Artists Respond to the North Dakota Oil Rush
Rebecca A. Dunham
Photographing the Bakken
Kyle Cassidy
Habitats
Notes from the Global Hinterlands: What It Feels Like to Be Global In North Dakota
Kyle Conway
Extractive Industries and Temporary Housing Policies: Man Camps in North Dakotas Oil
Patch
Bret Weber
Carenlee Barkdull
100 Miles of Wild: North Dakota Badlands Transect
Richard Rothaus, North Dakota University System
Simon Donato, Adventure Science
Melissa Rae Stewart, Adventure Science
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(http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/30/athens-1944-britains-dirty-secret)
Britain in Athens in 1944.
(http://thepointmag.com/2014/criticism/slow-film) Slow film. You know, someone needs
to do (https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/slow/) an edited volume on the
Slow Movement.
(http://typesetinthefuture.com/alien/) Fonts from Alien.
(http://blog.preservationnation.org/2014/12/03/menokin-foundation-restored-structuralglass/) Restoring an important 18th century home with glass (h/t to Cindy Prescott). I want
to say something about glass houses here
(http://www.paulmworley.com/english/job-market-2015-things-i-think-i-thought-i-knew/)
Worley on approaching the academic job market.
(http://twopointommen.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/a-different-kind-of-liberty-demandsa-different-liberal-art/) Two Point Ommen on liberty and the liberal arts. This is good.
One of the great examples of squatting, abandonment, and adaptive reuse will soon be no
more. (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/caracas-tower-of-david-squattersrelocation) They are relocating the urban squatters from Caracass Tower of David.
(http://animagraffs.com/loudspeaker/) How speakers work.
(http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11979120/chip-kelly-philadelphia-eagles-jokes-prooffense-work-ncaa) I dont think our pro offense will work at the college level.
(http://www.npr.org/2014/11/26/366813240/naive-yet-revolutionary-ray-davies-on-50years-of-the-kinks) 50 years of the Kinks.
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(http://www.openculture.com/2014/12/watch-solaris-1972-andrei-tarkovskys-hauntingvision-of-the-future.html) You can watch the original version of Solaris for free (h/t to
Richard Rathaus).
(http://insideenergy.org/2014/11/17/women-in-the-oil-patch-unsafe-or-justuncomfortable/) Women and violence in the oil patch.
(https://medium.com/@chrismessina/thoughts-on-google-8883844a9ca4) Some
thoughts on Google+ (yeah, it still exists).
What Im reading: A. Carusi, A. S. Hoel, T. Webmoor, and S. Woolgar eds.
(https://www.academia.edu/4314979/Visualization_in_the_Age_of_Computerization)
Visualization in the Age of Computerization. Routledge 2014.
What Im listening to: Yo La Tengo, Extra Painful; Afghan Whigs, Gentlemen.
title="IMG_2447.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/img_2447.jpg" alt="IMG
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period graves and tombs, for example, must number in the hundreds, and present an
appealing body of evidence for how Corinthian denizens wanted to represent themselves at
an important, and final, stage of their lives. In particular, tombs have become an important
for unraveling the complex ethnic identity of Roman Corinthians. After the citys destruction
in 146 BC and later refoundation as a Roman colony, scholars have debated the
relationship of Corinthian elites to the citys Roman and pre-Roman past. Did the new
Corinthian elites want to emphasize their Roman-ness and ties to Italy, or did they want to
appropriate the heroic past of the Greek city?
Slane argues in her 2012 article that Corinthian elites showed a clear affinity for Roman
forms suggesting that Early Roman Corinthians continued to look to Italy as they
constructed their new Corinthian identities. Walbank suggests, in contrast, that Slane has
misread or misunderstood the evidence and, instead, has found much more interleaving of
Italian and broadly Greek features in these tombs. In many cases, the debate comes down
to different interpretations of features like benches, motifs in wall painting, and funerary
practices. The evidence is often ambiguous and fragmentary.
Funerary customs as well as urban architecture, ceramics, and religion all seem to point to a
complex and, at times, pragmatic interleaving of Roman and Greek aspects in Corinthian
culture. On the one hand, some features of the Greek city persisted prominently in the
Roman landscape (for example, the ancient water sources around the city center) and could
not be easily overwritten. Building practices, natural resources, and regional economic
connections likewise shaped the kinds of decisions that the new arrivals and elites could
make as to how they presented themselves to their peers and their communities. On the
other hand, the authority of the newly arrived political elites in the city depended heavily on
their ties to power in Italy and at Rome. In this context, it would make sense for
archaeologists to identify ways in which this group demonstrated their positions of authority
and the larger mechanisms of power.
Of course, looking for the Greek and Roman at Corinth runs the risk of breaking Corinthian
culture into a fairly simple binary, but I suppose this is a start. Issues of dating tombs and
their reuse adds practical complexity to any debate concerning what the builders or owners
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sought to express in the tomb's features and decorations. Finally, I wondered a bit about the
reception of the tombs and their intended audience. Ultimately, reception is as much the
context for ethnic representation as any essentialized definition of Greek or Roman
features. After all, Walbank notes that many features in Corinthian tombs appear throughout
the Eastern Mediterranean in the loosely defined Hellenistic world. Id have liked to
understood how the tombs around Corinth compare to those, say, around Argos or Athens
which were much more likely to be points of reference for travelers in the region than tombs
in Asia Minor, the Levant, or even south Italy.
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In any event, ultimately deciding whether the Corinthian elites thought of themselves as
Roman/Italian or Greek or Corinthian based on burial customs is probably a difficult, if
not impossible task. What is more interesting is understanding how Corinthian elites
distinguished themselves from other local elites, competing groups, and other, less elite,
residents of the region, and the diversity of media, motifs, and practices at their disposal.
Walbank gets to some of this in her article. The best part, however, remains the competitive
spirit of Corinthian scholarship. Even if you dont care at all about funerary practices in the
Roman colony (and its fine if you dont, I promise), the article provides a front row seat the
kind of scholarly debate that makes Corinth such an exciting place to work and follow!
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scale and to move quickly and seamlessly from the minutely detailed to the global.
Edgeworths contribution should be read alongside Timothy Webmoors Algorithmic
Alchemy, or Work of Code in the Age of Computer Visualization, in the same volume.
Webmoor conducts ethnographic research in a computer visualization lab in London which
specialized in scrapping data from the internet and projecting it spatially. One of the most
interesting things about the article is that Webmoor blurs the line between coders as
creative contributors to the research process and the more traditional practice of identifying
data sources and proposing lines of analysis. Code (and to some extent coders) has tended
to be occluded from public eye and treated as proprietary of the coder whereas the data
and the output of data and code were publicly available (at least at this lab).
I got to thinking about how our cult of speed relies so heavily on occluded and proprietary
code work. The craft of the archaeologist, which in the field was relatively immediate in their
work at the edge of the trowel, has becomes increasingly mediated by technologies that the
archaeologist can only rarely control or understand. (At a recent conference, a group of us
were fretting about how which Agisoft Photoscan, software the produces structure-frommotion 3D models, worked. We finally concluded that it worked by Russian Magic, which
was more amusing than intellectually satisfying.) This is not to suggest that field
archaeology is completely transparent. There are ceramicists and excavators who can see
and recognize things that are impossible to communicate without decades of experience,
discipline, and training. We depend upon these people to help us understand
archaeological realities, but we also expect them to be transparent in their methods and
processes, even if they are not easily transferable. We would not be satisfied with a
ceramicist who declares a sherd locally made cooking ware, 4th c. AD on the basis of
ceramicist magic.
Part of the cult of speed in archaeology involve outsourcing skill from the trowels edge to
the black-box of coded Russian magic. This fragmentation of the archaeological process
has allowed us to do things at a speed and scale almost unimaginable just a decade ago. In
exchange for speed, weve lost complete control of the archaeological workflow and have to
rely upon ecologies outside of the traditional academic process. A a price to pay for speed.
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factor/) factor. When I read (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2014/12/06/no-girls-allowedwhy-i-hate-wife-acceptance-factor/) this post by Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenny, I was up to my
chest in reading about masculinity and suburbia (starting with (http://forigin.hypotheses.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/21/files/2008/12/marsch-19881.pdf) John
Highams classic article) as I work to revise an article on domestic space in the Bakken oil
patch. So I posted a rather lengthy response exploring the relationship between audiophile
gear, gender roles, and domesticity from a historical perspective. My blog today is an
expanded version of that comment.
According to The Wikipedias, the term
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor) wife acceptance factor first
appeared in Stereophile magazine in 1983 but its origins appear to date to the 1950s. This
makes the idea of the "wife acceptance factor" is so old school to almost be vintage. This
notion has clear roots in the idea that women are in charge of the house and play a key role
in establishing domesticity in the American home.
Domesticity represents the opposite of male encoded space of work, and this division first
developed in the context of the industrial revolution when the workplace shifted from the
home to the factory. With the rise of the middle class, people constructed homes that did
not serve as workplaces and, more importantly for us here, conformed to different standards
of presentation and decor than factories or offices. In fact, guys like Henry Ford went to
great pains to distinguish the life of work from domestic life and created model towns to
house their workers and families. These Fordvilles provided a space for the playing out
middle class values and civilizing men who carried out the brutish work of industrial
labor. For Ford and other early 20th century industrialists, the domestic represented the
civilizing the domain of women, and stood as a civilizing counter point to the industrial.
So "wife acceptance factor" evokes the traditional domain of women: the home. The home,
and the traditional middle and upper class house in particular was the place where the
civilizing influence of women and family overwrite the dirty and competitive world of work
(and perversely, make that work more efficient by maintaining the moral order and health of
the men responsible). Most middle class homes went to great lengths to disguise the
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working parts of domestic life. The walls hid electrical cables, heating and cooling ducts,
and water and sewage pipes, as well as the structural components to the house. More than
that, the organization of the house hid the places where the real work of domestic life took
place. In traditional homes from the first part of the 20th century, garages, carriage houses,
boiler rooms, storage, butlers' pantries, and above all the kitchen were located out of sight
from the main living spaces. Upper class homes developed parallel service areas that
allowed maids, butlers, and other domestic personnel to move unseen between living
spaces. By hiding the working parts of a home, the serene and effortless nature of domestic
life was insulated from working, industrial life. This had the additional effect of occluding
the role of women and their role in maintaining domesticity from the public view, and this
allowed men to claim control over the economic productivity and public life. The home was
not a place for wires, cables, ugly black boxes, protruding tubes, knobs, industrially inspired
speakers and the like.
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Today, of course, we can roll our eyes at these traditional ways of organizing house and
home. My wife and I have generally lived in 19th century or turn-of-the-century homes
variously modified in various way to accommodate modern life. For example, our first
house had the wall between the kitchen and what had been the formal dining room removed
and the wall between the dining room and the front parlor removed to create a more open
plan. We added to this by removing an unsightly fake wall to expose a forced-air heating
duct. We joked about adding some industrial chic to our home. Industrial lofts in major cities
now fetch top dollar. Kitchens have become areas for display and socializing. Many new
homes have even adopted the "two car garage with attached home" appearance that is the
bane of so many suburban subdivisions. Many homes now have home offices designed to
allow the laboring classes to bring work back to their previously serene domestic bliss.
What's interesting to me is that while our ideas of domesticity are changing (as our notions
of work and life are changing) why have views founded in traditional notions of domesticity
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bulky (and expensive) to hide from view. So rather than stereo equipment lagging behind
modern domestic expectations and requiring an adjustment to gain wife acceptance
factor, most high end gear (and big box gear as well) has long adopted the industrial
design standards appropriate for the modern, functionalist home.
We continue to use this language, however, because entire structure of work and life
among the American middle class has become unsettled. This nostalgia for a long ago
abandoned architectural and design vocabulary represents a persistent unease with
changing gender norms, dual incomes, domestic partnerships, and increasingly blurred lines
between work life and home life. As the life of the American middle class is eroded by
shrinking incomes, volatile labor markets, new expectations, and work cultures, we stick to
these traditional stereotypes (see my pun there) and revel in our man caves, wife
acceptance factors, as we beat back the work life from the tempting expanse of the formal
dining room table.
Our concern with women in the audiophile hobby is not just the late arrival of the audiophile
media and industry to modern conceptions of domestic space, but
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Making_of_the_English_Working_Class) the flailing of a
culture that finds its basic structures and expectations increasingly out of sync with
economic and social realities. That were having this debate at all reveals its ultimate
irrelevance. Women and men will enter the hobby and industry (or not) based on their
resources, aesthetics, and interest rather than some kind of gendered notion of the home or
overdetermined nostalgia. All this is to say, that we should invest more time in being
inclusive rather than attempting to justify the exclusivity of our hobby. Treat women who are
interested in sound and music just as youd treat men interested in sound and music.
More on (http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2014/12/10/marketing-audiophiles-and-theopposite-sex/) this conversation here.
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In the place of our typology, we discussed how camps seem to function on a continuum
from the less formal to the more formal. Less formal camps tend to have less institutional
control over behavior of residents, less regular appearances, and the greater fluidity of rules
and policies and their enforcement than more formal camps. The most formal camps, for
example, would by those set-up and run by large companies that cater to large companies
in the oil patch by strictly enforcing rules of behavior and the appearance of the camp. The
least formal camps are occupied by squatters with no institutional oversight and the only
limits on the structure of the camp relate to their existence outside legally sanctioned
settlement.
This continuum then, from formal to informal, allowed us to describe both greater variation
within the workforce housing sites in the Bakken and to understand the mechanisms that
have led to this variation.
In the specific context of revising our article, shifting our focus to the formality of camps
links our descriptions of workforce housing sites much more tightly to issues of individual
agency in the physical structure of the units in the camps. Less formal camps, have greater
scope for individual agency and greater variation, but nevertheless still have certain limits
that dictate their organization and practices. For example, the arrangement of water,
sewage, and electrical hook-ups limits the arrangement of units in the camp. Moreover, the
location of the camp and its visibility to local authorities also influenced how much freedom
camp residents have to innovate architecturally.
For example, we focused some of our conversations with camp residents on the practice of
insulating their RVs for winter. We learned that residents of RV parks tend to learn how to
insulate their RVs from their neighbors with folks who had more experience weathering the
long, cold North Dakota winters, providing informal advice to those from more mild southern
climes. The photograph below shows stacks of extruded polystyrene insulation prepared to
be mounted around the base of a new Sandpiper RV. The unit to the right has both
polystyrene and plywood insulation affixed to the base of the unit and its mudroom.
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title="P1090528.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090528.jpg"
alt="P1090528" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
In some cases, camp managers would inspect the insulation particularly around sewage
and water attachments. Some camp managers explained that if one or two units let their
water or sewage freeze, they pipes throughout the camp might be compromised. As a
result, they inspect sewage and water pipes regularly.
title="P1090476.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090476.jpg"
alt="P1090476" width="450" height="273" border="0" />
title="P1090358.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090358.jpg"
alt="P1090358" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090352.jpg"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090352.jpg"
alt="P1090352" width="450" height="435" border="0" />
The construction of mudrooms or other forms of enclosure attached to the RV is another
indication of the formality of a workforce housing site. Our favorite camp in the Bakken is
Williston Foxrun which has worked hard to manage the range of architectural innovation
present at the site. In its earliest days, the camp showed a remarkable variation in mudroom
styles including some that exceed the size of the RV or enclosed it completely. Recently,
they have worked to limit the size of mudrooms to 8 x 10, but grandfather older mudrooms
built in more permissive days provided that theyre not a fire hazard or encroach on their
neighbors lot. The first two photos below show relatively large mudrooms probably
grandfathered through at Williston Foxrun. Both rooms have air conditioning units
suggesting that theyre used for more than just taking off dirty clothes and storage. The
room in the top photo also has a propane tank with lines running into the unit for either a
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heater or a cooktop. The last of the following three photos shows a recently built mudroom
which is a good bit smaller than the 8 x 10 size limit and lacks any amenities.
title="P1090502.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090502.jpg"
alt="P1090502" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090516.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090516.jpg"
alt="P1090516" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090527.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090527.jpg"
alt="P1090527" width="450" height="385" border="0" />
Finally, we had a chance to look more carefully at discard practices at workforce housing in
the Bakken. As the activity in the Bakken has shifted south and has slowed down because
of the dip in oil prices, there are more and more signs
of(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/abandonment-in-the-bakken/)
RV parks being abandoned or filled with empty lots. While some of the lots were tidy after
the departure of a resident - as one of our informants noted: if he left stuff behind someone
else would use it, so he might as well take it with him - other lots show signs of hasty
departure or no particular concern about recycling insulation or scrap wood.
title="P1090529.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090529.jpg"
alt="P1090529" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
title="P1090408.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090408.jpg"
alt="P1090408" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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title="P1090339.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090339.jpg"
alt="P1090339" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
In conversation with site managers, we learned the folks left cars, personal items,
mudrooms, and other scraps behind when they pulled out. Abandonment sometimes
followed a period of neglect when the RV would break down, its sewage system would fail,
or the occupant had come into hard times and no longer maintained his or her living space.
In some cases, the resident would leave abruptly or be evicted leaving behind a mess for
the camp manager but a rich assemblage for archaeological investigation. The unit pictured
below showed evidence for an infant living there at least for a short period of time (a single
diaper, infant sunscreen, baby lotion), but the camp manager thought the lot was just
occupied by a couple of North Dakota boys."
title="P1090399.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090399.jpg"
alt="P1090399" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
So, it was a productive trip out west thanks, especially to my colleagues Bret Weber and
Richard Rathaus who helped me see differently.
title="P1090565.JPG"
src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/p1090565.jpg"
alt="P1090565" width="450" height="337" border="0" />
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The list of contributors is like a whos who in digital field archaeology in the Mediterranean
world these days so the conversation should be lively and productive. I think that these
annual meetings which bring together the same core group of digital archaeology
practitioners has the advantage of allowing ideas and conversations to develop, but runs
the risk of creating an echo chambers. Right now, were not an echo chamber, which is
good, and this workshop will bring in some new voices to the conversation which will almost
certainly leaven the results.
The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project is represented by (http://uwm.edu/mobilizingthe-past/program/if-i-knew-then-what-i-know-now-reflections-on-custom-mobile-appdevelopment/) Sam Fee and (http://uwm.edu/mobilizing-the-past/program/toward-a-slowarchaeology/) my paper. For my paper, Im continuing to develop the idea of Slow
Archaeology as a complement and counter-weight to current trends in digital archaeology
that privilege efficiency and speed in the field.
(https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/narrative-and-argument-slowarchaeology-version-2/) My first publication developing some of these ideas will appear
early next year in a special edition of a literary journal (GASP), North Dakota Quarterly. Ill
keep folks in the loop as I develop my paper.
(http://uwm.edu/mobilizing-the-past/) Click through the workshops website and, if youre in
the area, register and come and join the fun! Well have a twitter hashtag - maybe
#MobileArc - to open the conversation up to a global audience.
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interested in staying abreast of recent research in the rural world of Roman Greece.
Check out (http://corinthianmatters.com/2014/12/18/daniel-stewart-on-rural-sites-inroman-greece/) David Pettegrews review of this article here.
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archaeologists for the US Military. Her book, then, provided a sweeping view of the
profession and lingered well outside the insulating walls of academia. I suspect that the
picture of the field and the discipline will sit well with many of my professional colleagues.
Despite this, I still felt something was a bit off in the book. Something did not quite coincide
with my experience in the discipline. Some of this feeling was almost certainly a product of
the medium - popular non-fiction. The stories included in the book tended to follow a certain
formula that created a satisfying rhythm to the narrative: first I did or said THIS, and no one
believed me, peopled didnt recognized my work, or people thought I was crazy, but then
THIS, and everyone realized that I was right all alone. I think Hayden White would call this
comedic mode of emplotment, not because its funny, but because her narratives tend
toward the conservative and the socially integrating. In the end, Grant Gillmore, our
struggling Caribbeanist hero, gets a job; Bill Sandy is able to forestall (for now, good
reader!) the destruction of an important 18th century cemetery; Laurie Rush was able to
promote to meaningful changes to the US Militarys policies toward cultural heritage. This is
not to suggest that Johnsons book is naive or unrealistic. She recognized the ongoing
struggles of Sandy and Abbas in funding their projects, but there is this optimism
throughout that, ultimately, the intrinsically compelling nature of our discipline and its
practitioners will win out. This, of course, makes for compelling reading especially to a
generation raised on the satisfying glow of situation comedies where confusion, antics, and
pratfalls resolve themselves and life goes on the way that it should. Archaeology and truth
win out.
This is not to suggest that there wasnt some hints at personal heroism (that is, suggestive
of the Romantic or even the Tragic modes of emplotment) reinforced by the moral good of
the individuals and their pursuits, but generally speaking the integrity of the discipline and
methods, practices, and truth carry us forward.
So maybe it was the focus on individual and their place within the discipline that left me a
bit unsatisfied. I think that I wanted to read something less conventional and less resolved.
Archaeology for all its romance and appeal is not something that is achieved as much as
something that is constantly produced through interactions between archaeologists in the
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field, in publications, and both within and outside of disciplinary media. The challenge of
constructing a discipline with practice, methods, policies, ethics, and expectation constantly
run ahead of modernist ideologies that see our fixation on the past as a hinderance to
constructing a more enlightened, rational, and perfect future (perhaps, but not necessarily
driven by market forces?). For example, notice
(http://news.sciencemag.org/policy/2014/10/battle-between-nsf-and-house-sciencecommittee-escalates-how-did-it-get-bad) the consistent critique of NSF funding
archaeological projects.
Archaeology, then, like the discipline of history, is in a constant state of remaking itself and
pushing back against the very Enlightenment values that defined its place within the modern
academy. This tension does not lend itself to the comedic mode of emplotment, but is, to
my mind, far more suitable for satire where the actors struggle to find a resolution within the
world of their own making. The poetic structure of irony, then, that most 20th-century way of
seeing the world is the most suitable for understanding the nature of archaeology as a
discipline. Our disciplines efforts to evince a conservative, scientific character run counter
to our goals of understanding the past. This tension not only produces an atmosphere of
dynamic questioning in the discipline, but also ensures that typical forms of resolution employment, solved problems, contributions to a fixed body of knowledge, professional
recognition - can hardly represent the culmination of lives in ruins.
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(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141215185026.htm?utm_source=feedb
urner) Some scientifical notes on Roman concrete.
(http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/12/14/amphipolis-tomb-animated-in-newbreathtaking-3d-video/) Breathtaking 3D video, computer animation of the Amphipolis
tomb. (This is only breathtaking for people who have not played video games since Yars
Revenge.)
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