From Crystal Skulls to the Caste War
Intersections of Tourism, Archaeology and Heritage in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico Archaeological sites in the Yucatán Peninsula are among the leading attractions for a thriving tourism industry and have helped to significantly boost the local economy since the 1970s. While the success of tourism has provided many economic benefits for the millions of people […]
Why the Present Matters: The Importance of Community Outreach and Public Engagement in Archaeology
But it is more important — because more humanizing — for us to understand the actors of the past in their full complexity and humanity, just as we would like to be appraised by future historians. Straw men and cardboard women are unworthy subjects and incapable of teaching us anything of value. – James Axtell […]
Remains of the Day: A Native American Burial Discovered in San Francisco Is Shrouded in a Fog of Acrimony
On February 25, 2014, at eight in the morning, the sky had barely turned light. In a muddy excavation site five stories below street level, an equipment operator deftly maneuvered his skid-steer, bathed in powerful electric lights. After two years of digging through sand and mud, the excavation phase of the Transbay Project was only […]
The Nexus of Collaboration: Negotiating African American History and Public Interest in Southwest Virginia
On a hazy June afternoon in 2003, we stood on a bluff overlooking the New River in Whitethorne, Virginia with members of the newly formed Kentland Historic Revitalization Committee. The group had convened to curb a record of benign neglect in the historic district of Kentland Farm, the agricultural research station of Virginia Polytechnic Institute […]
USFSP Researchers Make Groundbreaking Discovery: the First Complete Ancient African Genome
St. Petersburg, Fla. (October 8, 2015) – An anthropology team from the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP), Drs. John and Kathryn Arthur, have announced that after several years of excavation and research in southwestern Ethiopia, their work has resulted in an enduring discovery: the first complete ancient African genome. In 2012, an ancient […]
Dig Wars!
The American Anthropological Association has written to the Travel Channel objecting to and asking for changes in the TV show “Dig Wars,” in which contestants are sent to various locations with metal detectors to see if they can locate and dig up antiquities. The material they dig up is called “loot,” and is evaluated for […]
Clutter and Stress
Jeanne Arnold talks to the Boston Globe about cluster, stress and he latest book: With the 21st century’s constantly evolving technological innovations and the wild success of bulk-shopping stores, our hoarding habits have gotten worse. Some of us feel like we’re drowning every time we take a moment to look around our homes. A recently […]
American Treasures: Two Archaeologists Host a Discovery Channel Series
Kirk French from Pen State department of Anthropology and Jason De Leon, from the university of Michigan star in a Discovery Channel 10-episode series. In a interview to centerdaily.com we learn that “’Artifact or Fiction’ was the original name of the show, but just weeks before the show’s air date, The Discovery Channel changed it […]