Seven Thousand Year Old African Dairy
Pastoralism is the practice of keeping and herding animals such as cattle, goats and sheep, and using the products they produce, including meat, hide, bone, horn and of course, dairy. In the old days,...
View ArticleThe Personal Benefits of Doing Archaeology: Subversive subsurfaces.
In discussing the relevance of archeology to anything, there is an easy answer provided by my friend Peter Wells, a specialist in Culture Contact and the Central European Iron Age. Peter tells his...
View ArticleWhere is the debris from the Japanse Tsunami?
Almost exactly one year ago, a very large double strength tsunami struck the Pacific Coast of Japan and washed a huge amount of stuff out into the sea. The oceanic born debris of terrestrial origin...
View ArticleThe Pre-Clovis Debra L. Friedkin site
Butter Milk Creek is a Texas archaeological site and an archaeological complex located rather symbolically a couple of hundred miles downstream from the famous Clovis site in New Mexico. It is the most...
View ArticleThe Oldest Human Bones, Jebel Irhoud, Morocco
You’ve heard to story. I’m here to give you a little context. But in case you haven’t heard the story, this is from the press release which is, so far, the only information generally available: New...
View ArticleDid Early European Neanderthals Make Art?
There is some recent evidence that they did, but when you put it in context, the question becomes both more complicated (and unanswerable) and interesting. As is true of most things in Archaeology,...
View ArticleThe Untermassfeld Controversy
Ancient European humans and their near relatives such as late Homo erectus, “archaic” Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, and Denisovans all come from an African stock. While some of the variation we see in...
View ArticleUrban Archaeology
[D]ennis removed the top of the hamburger bun, flipped the meat out of the way, laid down catchup on both sides and reassembled the Cheeseburger Special Agnes had just laid before him as deftly as he...
View ArticleAbout that 130,000 y.o. Human Occupation in California
A claim is being made, in a recent issue of Nature Magazine, that humans were active in the vicinity of San Diego well over 100,000 years before archaeologists think humans were even in the New World....
View ArticleEnd of Nature, First Americans
Book note: There are two books you may want to check out because, for the moment (Tuesday, March 7th is the moment), they are deeply discounted at Amazon: Kindle version for two bucks: The End of...
View ArticleHappy Birthday Maria Reiche
Maria Reiche was an archaeologist and mathematician who worked on the Nazca lines in Peru. Originally, she worked with Paul Kosok, who discovered the remarkable drawings, and starting in the mid 1940s,...
View ArticleThe archaeology of some Polish vampires
Apotropaic magic is designed to ward off or control evil. In vampire fiction, as well as in real life in cultures that include a belief in vampires, apotropaic objects might be crucifixes, cloves of...
View ArticleHow I captured the Ghost of the McGregor Museum: A True Story
A City of Death and Misery Everything I’m about to tell you in this story is true.1 You might not want to read this story while you are alone or while sitting in the dark.2 Kimberley South Africa is...
View ArticleClimate Science Deniers Are Annoying Because
It is very hard for me to view the world without my Anthropological glasses, since I’ve been one kind of Anthropologist or another since I was 13 years old. Thinking about climate science deniers, I...
View ArticleWhen Are Nomads Not Really Nomads? (Efe Pygmy Ethnoarchaeology)
“First, we’re going to collect our data,” Jack, the archaeologist, was telling me as we slogged down the narrow overgrown path. He seemed annoyed. “Then, we’ll leave. Until we leave, they won’t leave....
View ArticleAcross Atlantic Ice: Clovis Origins
I want to talk about the book Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture. It was written by Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley, both highly respected archaeologists. The point they make...
View ArticleSeven Thousand Year Old African Dairy
Pastoralism is the practice of keeping and herding animals such as cattle, goats and sheep, and using the products they produce, including meat, hide, bone, horn and of course, dairy. In the old days,...
View ArticleThe Personal Benefits of Doing Archaeology: Subversive subsurfaces.
In discussing the relevance of archeology to anything, there is an easy answer provided by my friend Peter Wells, a specialist in Culture Contact and the Central European Iron Age. Peter tells his...
View ArticleWhere is the debris from the Japanse Tsunami?
Almost exactly one year ago, a very large double strength tsunami struck the Pacific Coast of Japan and washed a huge amount of stuff out into the sea. The oceanic born debris of terrestrial origin...
View ArticleThe Pre-Clovis Debra L. Friedkin site
Butter Milk Creek is a Texas archaeological site and an archaeological complex located rather symbolically a couple of hundred miles downstream from the famous Clovis site in New Mexico. It is the most...
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