Hey all...I was scheduling my week for SAA2015 and found a way to make it a bit easier. I thought I'd make a quick video so others could do it if they please.
Now, this works on Apple iCalendar apps across the iPhone and Mac OS, but, I'm sure there is an Android way to do this using Gmail or some other app. I'm just not well versed in that system.
If you know how to do it on Android, leave a note in the comments.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you at the SAAs!
ZeroLemon Field Battery
This is just a quick post to promote a sale I saw on Stack Social. It's for the 10000 mAh solar portable battery from ZeroLemon. As of the date on this post, you can get this battery for $26!!! First, let me explain the 10000mAh.
For a batter, you have several different measurements. The output is in either 1A or 2A (1 amp or 2 amp). This is like the size of the engine in your car. The bigger the engine, the faster it'll go. The 10000 mAh (milli amp hours) is like the gas tank. A 10000 mAh battery has more juice in it than a 6000 mAh battery. The 20000 mAh battery that I have has twice as much juice as the 10000 mAh one here.
Charge two devices at once!
As an example, the iPad Air has an 8,600 mAh battery. That means, if you have a 6000 mAh battery that it will only put a 3/4 charge on a completely dead iPad Air. My 20000 mAh battery will put 2.5 charges on my iPad Air. Most tablets are in this range for batteries, so, this 10,000 mAh battery is perfect for daily use.
These batteries come with a solar panel on the outside. Don't place much faith in that panel. If you're stranded in the middle of no where, then, it'll probably come in handy. However, it's too small to really charge the device too quickly and shouldn't be relied on.
This device is super rugged. I have no problem throwing it in my pack and getting out in the field. However, if you're working in a wet environment, you might want to bag it. The charging port and USB ports are wide open.
Mostly water resistant and rugged.
I get emails from Stack Social several times a week. I don't mind because they have AMAZING deals on new and existing tech and software. They're not the quickest for shipping, though. My ZeroLemon battery took about 3 weeks to deliver. However, for the savings, you can't beat it.
Throw it in your pack and go.
Check out the deal below before it's gone and keep those devices charged!
Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the field!!
What is an archaeological survey? What does that even mean? The Host at Happy Archaeology Fun Time interviewed me near the Truckee River in downtown Reno and we talked about it. Enjoy the video, and, be sure to go over to the YouTube channel and give it a thumb's up!
Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the field!!
Figure 1. Screening with some help from local volunteers.
Bill White and I are recording a special episode of the CRM Archaeology Podcast all about Field Schools. What should be taught at a field school? What shouldn’t be there? What did you get out of your field school? Should you learn job hunting skills? Why type of field school should you go for?
We’ll be recording on Thursday, March 26, at 5pm PDT. Send an email to chris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.com if you want to call into the podcast and tell us your field school story. If you’re an undergraduate looking for a field school, call in and tell us what you’d like to learn or what you’re looking for. If you don’t know, we’ll try to help.
I’ve told my field school story before on the this blog, in my book, and on the podcast but I’ll talk about it again briefly. The field school was actually an Earthwatch program at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. We were digging trenches in deposits between basalt layers dated from 1.83 to 2.01 mya. Basically, the bottom of the Gorge. It was AWESOME. We dug, screened, identified extinct faunal remains, did a little pedestrian survey, cleaned and tagged artifacts in the onsite lab, and had presentations on the area and the archaeology. We also visited several Masai villages and a market. The experience was one of a kind and fueled my passion for paleoanthopology. Did it prepare me for a career in contract archaeology, though? Not even a little bit.
First, you need to figure out what you want to do with your life. I know, easier said than done. I don’t mean be specific, though. I just mean, do you want to be a paleoanthropologist? Do you want to work in contract archaeology? Even better, do you want to work in a certain part of the country or world? Those are big, mostly easy, questions that you can probably answer right now. The next question, though, is even more difficult.
Figure 2. This image is NOT from a WCRM project. Just FYI.
Now that you know where you want to go, or at least the region, you have to figure out which school to go to. If they have a website with info, great! If they don’t, contact someone that teaches the school and ask them questions. I’m going to focus on contract archaeology now since that’s what I do.
If you’re interested in contract archaeology you are going to need some specific skills that will set you above your competition. Many people, like me, just fulfilled the basic requirements of a CRM job: a degree and a field school, oh, and a pulse. To set yourself above the rest you want to get some good training in but you have to know what that training is.
Here is a list of things that you should learn at a field school to be more marketable on your first job:
This is just a start, but, it’s a fundamental list of what you should look for in a field school. If a field school director is not teaching one of these things, ask them why they aren’t.
Figure 3. The waste rock and entrance corridor of an adit, a horizontal mine shaft.
Contrary to what some graduate students and professors might think, field school isn’t just for finishing your dissertation or working on that site you’ve been digging for 20 years. It’s for teaching. Chances are the field school has been funded by organizations who demand that you teach. So, teach! I’ve heard of a number of instances of people attending field schools and just moving buckets for the grad students or not being able to use the expensive equipment. Field school students aren’t there to be your grunts. They are there to learn and they are often paying over $6000US for the privilege.
Remember, if you want to tell your story or tell us what you’re looking for in a field school, see the note at the top of this post.
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field!!
The March 2015 issue of the SAA Archaeological Record is out. First, it's a special issue covering archaeology and reality TV with a boader focus on communicating archaeology in the media. I just want to point out that there is ZERO mention of podcasts. Not even in passing. Go ahead, search the document. You won't find it. I guess I need to publish some articles about podcasting for there to be a mention of it.
I wasn't planning a blog response to Bill White's first post on race and diversity in archaeology, which itself was a response to Episode 51 of the CRM Archaeology Podcast about diversity in Archaeology.
Then I saw the first episode of the "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore". It was a stereotypical race-bashing extravaganza! For the first time ever a black man gets a show on a major network in a popular time slot, according to Wilmore anyway, and if anyone had to guess what the topic of the first show would be, most of us would have said race. Well, you're right.
We're trying to talk about racism in archaeology and how to get more non-whites interested in a career in the field but we have a long ways to go before we can even tackle that problem. First, black artists are going to have to stop thinking they have a free pass to talk about racism. It's just as racist as white people doing it. Black artists are making the problem worse by making fun of it and by CONSTANTLY TALKING ABOUT IT. I'm not saying we/they shouldn't talk about racism and how to fix it. I'm saying don't make it a punchline.
Wilmore started the show by talking about the Academy Awards and the movie Selma. The movie was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song (for Glory) but not best Actor or Director. Now Al Sharpton is leading a charge to bring action against the Academy Awards for being racist. Really? How can you possibly prove that? What amount of nominations would have made Sharpton happy? Does EVERYTHING that has to do with MLK have to be elevated and celebrated? Anything associated with all of those decisions is racist no matter how you look at it.
The second episode started with Bill Cosby and the crap he's been going through. Is the show only going to be about black celebrities and issues? Wilmore is a funny guy and shouldn't have to just talk about race issues on his show. Why can't he just be a comedian? Is it the public's fault? Do we only except racist comedy from non-white comedians? We have a long ways to go.
Every time I write that line I think of Buffy. Anyway...
We need to stop making race a punchline. That's it. Start there and see what happens. I don't care if you're black. If you make a black joke or a joke about race then you're a racist. As a white man, If I make a white joke then I'm racist. Any time you make a color-based joke or reference, YOU'RE RACIST.
I hope the Nightly Show starts covering other news. I hope they do it from a perspective other than race. Think about what you say and how you say it regardless of your race. Stop thinking you get to use a "Get out of racism free card" just because you aren't white. Become part of the solution and start talking about how we can move forward.
I'm not really sure where to share this post. If you think it should be shared, either for ridicule or comment, then please, share it.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the field.
I drafted this post a few weeks ago and never got around to finishing it. Now it’s about to encompass a couple things that Tom King is wrong about.
It all started with a podcast interview I recorded with Tom a couple months ago. The interview is for a podcast that isn’t quite ready yet so I have no link for it. We were talking about archaeology and archaeologists and the idea of professional licensing. I asked Tom why we don’t have licensing for archaeologists. He told me it’s because we don’t actually need archaeologists. We need plumbers and electricians so we have licensing for them. He apparently thinks we need nail and hair salons too since they also require licensing.
Was Tom King right? Do we not have a NEED for archaeologists? I guess it depends on your definition of “need”. If you take it to the absolute reductionist view of my friend, Dave, then we don’t really “need” anything beyond a cave to sleep in and some food to eat. However, most of us have more extensive needs.
We need archaeologists the way we need science, medicine, and space travel. These things help us live in this world in a better way than our ancestors did. They help us live healthier lives and learn from our past. Archaeology teaches us what has and has not worked in the past. It shows us what’s been tried and how we can proceed. More than that, archaeology is a record of human achievement. Whether we need that or not, again, depends on your definition. I think we do need archaeology and I think the world would be worse off if our heritage were not recorded for descendent generations to learn from.
Consider this, everything from farming to chemistry to physics to industrialization is recorded by archaeologists. ALL HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT is part of history and archaeologists record that history.
The follow-on question is, of course, should we license archaeologists? What would that get us? What is the benefit to the public and what is the benefit to the archaeologist?
The public benefit is the secure knowledge that someone with sufficient training is recording their precious history. We’ve all heard of, and have possibly seen or been party to, those excavations where someone blew through a feature. We’ve seen people blow off sites while on survey. Would licensing prevent those things from happening? Maybe. With licensing would come the need to maintain that license. We would have to go through regular training and continuing education. We could bring in an ethical component too, and, harsh penalties for violating those ethics. It wouldn’t happen overnight, but, in the end I think there would be a huge benefit.
Archaeologists would benefit as well. Aside from the continuing training, archaeologists would likely get paid more and would have a higher credibility amongst the other field sciences. Maybe these things don’t mean much to some, but, from questions asked on the Profiles in CRM podcast it’s clear that pay and respect are high on most archaeologist’s lists.
The other thing Tom King is wrong about is that you don’t have to publish to be an archaeologist. Let me explain.
I shared a link on my Facebook page to a podcast from Joe Schuldenrein: http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/82755/students-uncovered-experiences-and-perceptions-from-archaeology-graduate-students
On that episode Joe interviewed a couple of grad students and asked them about their program and what their plans are. The show was completely from a grad student perspective.
Along with the post on Facebook I commented that it was a good episode but ignored the fact that most archaeologists don’t have a graduate degree. Then Tom started commenting.
Basically, Tom said that the industry standard for getting hired at a museum or university is that you have to publish. Sure, I’ll buy that. The problem is that most archaeologists in the United States work in Cultural Resource Management (CRM). Most CRM archaeologists (Tom is cringing at that term right now) are field technicians. Most field technicians have a BA/BS in anthropology or archaeology. So, most archaeologists do not have graduate degrees.
I explained this and the conversation turned to whether field technicians are archaeologists at all. Just because they dig holes and walk lines doesn’t make them archaeologists, according to Tom. If they don’t do research and they don’t publish, then they just aren’t archaeologists.
Wow. What they hell do we call them, then?
An archaeologist is someone that studies the material remains of human activity. The papers and reports that are written about archaeological topics are based on data from the field. Those data are collected by field technicians. Field technicians need to be able to identify artifacts and sometimes assess the condition of sites. They need to have a knowledge of many different types of artifacts and features in order to do their jobs. Anyone can dig a hole, but, not everyone can determine the soil horizons they’re digging in and what they mean. Not everyone can look at a piece of glass and know that it’s from 1970 so we shouldn’t waste our time there. Of course these things just take training, but, it’s that training, on top of a degree, that makes a person an archaeologist.
Yes. You want more? Fine. You need a degree because going through college gives you a perspective that people that don’t go through college just don’t have. Over the course of an anthropology or archaeology BA/BS you’ll be exposed to writing, research, and analysis. The quality of those activities is variable, but, you’re exposed nonetheless.
When I was a field technician I freely called myself a scientist. I encouraged others to do the same, even though they saw themselves as shovelbums. In fact, I want to do away with the label “shovelbum”. It’s derogatory and in no way describes the fantastic people that I’ve had the privilege of working with. At my CRM firm I don’t hire shovelbums. I hire archaeologists. Shovelbums can go look for work at Home Depot.
So Tom King is wrong, in my opinion. Archaeology IS important. We SHOULD be licensed. You DON’T have to publish to be an archaeologist.
Eviscerate me in the comments…
Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the field!!
