LiDAR Continues To Aid Archaeologists By Mapping Ancient Settlements In The Americas From The Sky. Check

HulattPhotography

“The State of  Archaeology”

Such a scary title right? Well, boy oh boy do I have an adventure for you today.

So, I was at a really bougie historic preservation conference because my bosses were presenting. The last panel I went to was supposed to cover the kinds of issues with Cultural Resource Management (CRM) the state was coming across. 

They ended up talking about how all of this would kind of be fixed if we had more funding from the state and more robust laws surrounding archaeological materials.

But this was a room of basically only archaeologists, and mostly professional archaeologists over the age of 35. We were in such an echo chamber. I was the only “young” student there.

SO. I start getting pissed because the same people just kept practically saying “but HOW do we fix our funding problem, we have such AWESOME sites.” “oh, the public is definitely a vital piece to archaeology” but no one was saying the (what I thought was) obvious.

TL;DR If archaeologists want to fix their problems, they need to DO something about it instead of sitting in an echochamber. WE need to make sure the public knows what we do, and more importantly, WHY it matters. We need to make sure the information we disseminate is not just for ourselves in the present, but for the public, for EVERYONE, and for everyone in perpetuity.

When your hair is wavy/curly sometimes there is a fine line between “messy romantic waves” and “evil witch who lives in the woods.”

Isn’t it strange that we talk least about the things we think about most?

Charles Lindbergh (via purplebuddhaquotes)

can’t relate

So I will admit I was feeling funny about going to the Field Museum because of the whole “look at display of objects from colonized groups” thing. Especially because of the Black Panther post with commentary on museums.

But boy, the Field Museum really does seem to be doing a fair amount towards rectifying past attitudes and actions. I took these two pictures and there were at least two others I wish I had remembered to take pictures of. I was thrilled to see such obvious mentions of this kind of thing instead of a lack of change or pretending it didn’t happen.

@kaijutegu I’ve been meaning to post these for the past few days, every time I see the BP museum post go by again!

Sunset on Mars

hate doesn’t just happen. war doesn’t just happen. And we are definitely not “right” enough to kill or bring pain to anyone… // Hina Syeda

Did you know that Uranus was (accidentally) discovered on this day in 1781, the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope? At first, British astronomer William Herschel thought the object in the sky to be a star or comet, but within two years, other astronomers showed it was a new planet orbiting the Sun. The ice giant is four times wider than the Earth and appears blue due to the methane in its atmosphere. Photo: NASA

Academics

In popular culture: wear tweed/plaid/some sort of bland pattern; often in suits; pristine appearance, maybe with wild hair or ink stains; drink tea and coffee; constantly reading books for work and pleasure; erudite conversationalists; love what they do

Me: mostly wear sweatshirts and leggings with a messy bun because if no one needs to see me then screw getting into nice clothes; my blood is tea at this point; ink stains were surpassed long ago; spend a lot of time crying over theory texts and papers; eat a lot of ice cream and watch a lot of Netflix to avoid work; love what I do

Highlights From This Semester’s Cultural Anthropology class

“So, like the dolphin, what you really want to do is maximise the fish returns on your dead seagull investment.”

“Don’t forget, breakfast is never just breakfast. Your avocado is never just an avocado.”

All the best stories start with “so I was hanging around with some Armenians in Moscow…”

‘How to not get arrested during field work’ is a vital anthropologist skill.

“Once you create a state it’s really hard to get rid of.”

Accusations of witchcraft roll downhill.

“You don’t want a continual pattern of recessions and depressions, because then your citizens start reading Marx, and you don’t want your citizens reading Marx, because then bad things happen to you.”

Professor:  “And what did Columbus bring with him when he set off to sail to India?” Student: “Diseases?”

Good luck on your exams everyone, we’ve almost made it!