Quote: Looking back at Clovis-first
This is a nice paragraph from Waters and Stafford (2013) on the Clovis-first paradigm for initial habitation of the Americas:
All posts tagged with history of archaeology
Should archaeologists really fear and loathe geneticists?
Ancient DNA is following its Moore’s Law-like progression toward greater and greater sample sizes from past populations. Until this year, it may not have see...
The New Archaeology, social laws, and playboys
Sick burn by Bruce Trigger, 1984:
Some archaeological whoppers get the skewer treatment
Here’s a nice article about two archaeologists, Gayle Fritz and David Freidel, and their efforts to better educate the public and their students about critic...
Link: Graeme Barker on work at Shanidar
Nature’s Ewen Callaway interviewed Cambridge archaeologist Graeme Barker about his recent resumption of fieldwork at Shanidar, Iraq: “Archaeologists ousted b...
Quote: Cowgill on statistical methods
George Cowgill is an archaeologist with a long interest in promoting the unfortunately rare good use of statistics by archaeologists. He has a paper within t...
Framing big questions in archaeology
Keith Kintigh and colleagues have a brief report in PNAS this week about “Grand challenges for archaeology”. They summarize a series of conversations and a s...
Do archaeologists have soul?
Sara Perry has a guest post on Savage Minds, describing the process of developing an archaeological field school focused on heritage studies: “Creativity, In...
Check out Trowelblazers
If you’re interested in the history of archaeology, you are going to really love “Trowelblazers”, a Tumblr site with short biographies of female trailblazers...
More on the reclamation proclamation
Michael E. Smith comments on the Chagnon/Sahlins flap from the perspective of archaeology: “Chagnon, Sahlins, and science”:
Dorothy Garrod remembrance
Cambridge has produced an article about the accomplishments of archaeologist Dorothy Garrod, the first female professor in the institution: “The groundbreaki...
Open every box
Fascinating: “Unique Canine Tooth from ‘Peking Man’ Found in Swedish Museum Collection”
The Ur-museum
This is a fun story: “The story behind the worlds oldest museum, built by a Babylonian princess 2,500 years ago”.
Narrow anthro
Archaeologist (and blogger) Michael E. Smith writes some thoughts about “Why anthropology is too narrow an intellectual context for archaeology.”
Hawass shark-jump
Kate Taylor reports a bizarre story of the continuing troubles of Zahi Hawass: “Using History to Sell Clothes? Dont Try It With the Pharaohs”.
Lewis Binford dies at 80
Lewis Binford died last Monday. I have been waiting for a good obituary to be published. The Wall Street Journal’s effort (“Archaeologist Binford Dug Beyond ...
Quote: Adovasio on Clovis
In John Noble Wilford’s article about the new pre-Clovis archaeological site, Buttermilk Creek, Texas, James Adovasio gets the last word about advocates of t...
Lascaux anniversaire
Bing today has made their image a beautiful photo of Lascaux, in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the cave’s discovery.
Quote: Peter Heather, migration is the great Satan
Peter Heather’s Empires and Barbarians begins with a chapter summarizing grand theories of demography and social transformation among near-prehistoric people...
Wheel in the sky
In my e-mail this morning from Marco Langbroek:
More on Gertrude Caton Thompson
After my post on Gertrude Caton Thompson’s permit problems, a reader referred me to Caton Thompson’s memoirs (Mixed Memoirs, 1983, and sadly out of print.) A...
Permit problems circa 1928
While reading the history of paleontological excavations in the Fayum, I found many articles dealing with the area’s classical archaeology. One article, by G...