ARCHAEOLOGY : 4RCH430L06Y

Archaeology Travel Photos on Flickr

2005-11-21T15:52:00.000-05:00

A great source for wonderful images of archaeological sites and resources around the world, the Archaeology Travel Photos Pool on Flickr are beautiful to peruse. The pool of photos contains images from Egypt, Cambodia, Turkey, and many other places. I've added a couple from both Turkey and the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Definitely worth having a look, if only for some beautiful photos.

Some things never change

2005-11-21T15:48:00.000-05:00

Large groups of people binge drinking, even today, often results in fire. In ancient Peru, some peoples apparently felt that if you've gotta go, go out with a bang.

Speaking of Virtual Museums...

2005-10-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

A post from Egyptology News took me to an Archaeology magazine review of the British Museum's interactive website about ancient history. There is also a link to past multimedia reviews. The British Museum's site is very geared toward interactivity, and thus, uses a good bit of Flash media. I haven't had a chance to explore it fully yet, but I look forward to doing so.

Texas Beyond History

2005-10-18T11:17:00.000-04:00

Texas Beyond History is a beautiful example of the convergence of archaeological resources, public outreach, and web design. The site is the virtual museum for The Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory (TARL), and it is well put together. The site is easy to read, easy to navigate, and has a well designed Flash map of sites in Texas on the homepage. While Flash is often misused (just think of almost every movie promotional website--most of them take too long to load and don't move smoothly from one scene to the next), the interactive map on the Texas Beyond History site works smoothly for me. I've had my computer freeze on some websites with heavy handed use of Flash movies, but this one caused no problems. It's also well integrated with the rest of the website, linking to more information on other HTML pages. The only critique I might have of the Flash map is that you have to roll your mouse over a tiny dot that marks the location of the site you want more information about, and it's a pretty small target to click on. If the name of the site were also part of the link, that would probably work better. However, that's a pretty minor complaint on my part. Over all, the site is a well thought out and well executed resource for anyone interested in the archaeology of Texas.

Homo floresiensis

2005-10-14T11:08:00.000-04:00

For anyone interested in hobbits, Nature.com has a spread on the hominids found on the Indonesian island of Flores and affectionately referred to as "hobbits." A few of the links on the pages are "premium plus" content, but most of it is accessible to the unregistered and unsubscribed user.

Limits

2005-09-29T15:37:00.000-04:00

I've found that I've limited myself unnecessarily in this blog. Since I'm not a fan of limits, self-imposed or not, I'm going to both redesign the site and reimagine its purpose. Odds are pretty good no one reads it just yet, since I haven't really advertised it, so I'm guessing no one will be bothered by the changes.

Interactive Digs

2005-08-23T21:25:00.000-04:00

Archaeology Magazine has a section of their website dedicated to interactive digs. The current excavation is at Sagalassos, a classical city in southwestern Turkey. The site contains field notes from the current and previous seasons of excavation, images from the site, profiles of the archaeologists, and a selection of highlighted discoveries in a Find of the Week section. There is also a discussion board for questions and answers regarding the site and archaeology, where the archaeologists in charge of the dig have responded to most of the questions posted.

Another recent excavation featured on Archaeology's Interactive Dig is that of Hierakonpolis, an Egyptian site. The pages about Hierakonpolis are organized by specific areas of the site that have been excavated, and within in each section, commentary are organized by date.

Both websites contain a wide array of information, both about the excavation sites and about what it's like to work in the field at an archaeological dig. Both contain mostly text and images, and as such do not present trouble loading. The websites are clean and navigation is straightforward.

eSkeletons

2005-08-19T11:08:00.000-04:00

The eSkeletons Project is an incredible resource for those studying comparative anatomy and skeletal structures of humans and primates. The site was created at the University of Texas at Austin and has quite a list of contributers. The site includes high quality images of primate bones, different views for each bone, Quicktime movies demonstrating the ways the bones move, interactive images that highlight the features of each bone in bright colors, and interactive virtual reality using VRML. While the navigation of the site is somewhat awkward, and the use of frames doesn't allow you to bookmark any of the pages, as a resource, the availability of so many different images, views, and interactive elements is incredible. The site has some very helpful introductory pages for first time users, and a list of plugins needed to make the site work properly. For those who may not have access to a collection of primate skeletons, this is a great resource and a great idea. While the design and color scheme of the pages leave something to be desired, the black background is the perfect contrast to the lighter colored bones, and thus, serves its purpose on most pages. However, reading the text on a few pages is a strain on the eyes, with a periwinkle font color and black background. Also, the link for the VRML player plug-in links to a page that says the company that made the recommended player no longer supports it. However, that's an easy oversight in maintaining such a project. Perhaps I'll e-mail the person who is currently the project manager and ask what plug-in I should download. One last technical item in this post--while the page says it works best in Internet Explorer, I had no problems viewing it in Mozilla Firefox.

Unwrapping a mummy...

2005-08-04T14:13:00.000-04:00

...without unwrapping the mummy.

Wired has a short article about using high resolution scans to virtually unwrap a 2000 year old mummy. The best part of the article are the images. The scans reveal a greater level of detail than actually unwrapping the mummy would have revealed, and using the scans prevent damage to the mummy, allowing longer preservation. Egyptology News, a blog on all things Egyptology, has provided links to many other articles about the digital unwrapping.

The Xiangtangshan Caves Project

2005-08-02T10:01:00.000-04:00

A project similar to the Stanford Forma Urbis Romae Project is the The Xiangtangshan Caves Project. Both are examples of using digital photography and 3D imaging technology for studying archaeological artifacts that simply can't be studied as easily or as effectively without such technology. The Xiangtangshan Caves project involves finding artifacts in museums and and private collections that have been taken out of the caves and scanning those items in order to reconstruct what the caves looked like in their original context. The institution primarily spearheading this project is the University of Chicago, although it's a highly collaborative project with many people and institutions involved.

The site for the project is currently pretty sparse, since it seems to be in its beginnings, but there is some great information there and some wonderful images. Also, from a design perspective, I really love the appearance of their site--very clean, simple, and elegant. I'd be excited to see how they display their finished project.

Stanford Forma Urbis Romae Project

2005-07-26T23:05:00.000-04:00

What's wonderful about Forma Urbis Romae Project is the use of digital media to achieve an end that isn't feasible otherwise. The remains of the broken Severan Marble Map of Rome would be too large and unweildy to piece together physically by trial and error, but digital photos and 3D models of the pieces can make studying and reconstructing the map much easier. The website for the project has a detailed history of the map itself, the methods for the project, and a searchable database of the details of the pieces of the map. The images of the map are viewable using a downloadable viewer on PC only.

Virtual Dig

2005-07-26T22:52:00.000-04:00

Concordia University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has created a Virtual Dig where students can follow along with excavations of a Byzantine church at Hippos. The site has a public face and a private face in the form of the digital classroom, for which registration is required. The online class learns what happens at the dig in as close to real time as they can without being part of the excavation.

Digital Media, Information Technology, and Archaeology

2005-07-07T10:34:00.000-04:00

To clarify a bit, I'm keeping a fairly broad definition of what constitutes a use of digital media or information technology in archaeology. Since I'm mainly looking at examples on the web, one thing I would like to see more of in archaeology is the use of digital media and technology to publish findings from archaeological explorations to a as broad an audience as possible.

The Society for American Archaeology lists as one of its Principles of Archaeological Ethics "public education and outreach." My impression is that the internet, digital media, and information technology are powerful and rarely utilized tools for public outreach. Part of this blog is to explore what has been done, what is being done, and how well it's being done to use these tools for this particular purpose of outreach and education.

I don't think that all archaeological or scientific data should be kept in predominantly digital or electronic form. I've worked enough with computers to know that backing up data is extremely important, and in the case of archaeology, the best "back up" of data includes the original artifacts and field notes from any excavation or archaeological exploration. Well, the original site in as undisturbed form as possible is probably the best back up, really. Artifacts without context don't mean nearly as much to an archaeologist as artifacts in situ and in context. However, I'm curious about whether enough archaeological data and information is made available to the public.

When someone mentions archaeology, the first thing someone usually says in response includes mention of either Indiana Jones or Lara Croft. I've read academic books for class that include mention of this misconception by the general public about archaeology, and I've read books where the author expresses little confidence that assumptions like that about archaeology can be changed. Fictional works, whether novels or movies, will always exaggerate and misconvey most professions they use as part of the fiction. Personally, Indiana Jones is one of my favorite fictional characters, but he's certainly not why I want to become an archaeologist.

I want to know if most archaeologists assume that other people won't understand what they do, or if they attempt to dispel myths and introduce fact into the fiction. As you can see, I have many reasons for keeping this blog, and hopefully, others will find it, read it, and judge my thoughts at least a little interesting or insightful. Then again, maybe not.

The Hacimusular Project

2005-07-05T17:56:00.000-04:00

One reason I'm impressed by The Hacimusular Project as an example of digital media in archaeology is the fact that one of the goals of the project is "to explore the ways in which information technology (e.g., geographic information systems, relational databases, CAD programs, digital imagery, etc.) may be applied not only in the collection of archaeological data, but in its analysis and its publication." Also, the project is based in Turkey, which has to be one of the most beautiful countries I've visited. Not that I've visited a staggering number of countries, but my minimal frame of reference should in no way lead you to doubt what I say--it's an incredible country with a rich and varied history.

One of the first things I love in exploring The Hacimusular Project website is the use of interactive multimedia technology, specifically, Quicktime movies. Some of the movies you can control by clicking and dragging to pan over the excavation site. Several can be found by looking at the Excavation page.

I also like the clean appearance of the site's design, although it's use doesn't appear consistent through all the pages, and I'm not sure why that is.

This particular project seems to be very comprehensive in scope, attempting to study one site as thoroughly as possible across time to create a cultural sequence for that particular region of Turkey and from as many fields as possible to gain a multidisciplinary look at the site.

Inaugural Explanatory Post

2005-07-05T16:47:00.000-04:00

As an anthropology student with aspirations to become an archaeologist, and as someone who works with digital media in an academic setting, I'm very interested in the sorts of projects found on the web within anthropology and archaeology. A blog seems the best way to explore this topic and share whatever I find with others. By "others," I mean whoever happens by as they travel from site to site, blog to blog.