Saturday, March 21, 2009LOLs from the Past I'm still typing up the data the field school and I collected two summers ago. I'm almost done though! Since I originally wrote these notes a so long ago I smile at some of the things I put in. Some of my notes include:
"Biggest. Guy. Ever." The vast majority of my notes are serious in nature, I swear! Labels: anthropology:archaeology, dissertation link : 5:06 PM
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Friday, December 5, 2008The Chan Hypothesis for the Origin of Agriculture One of the big debates in archaeology is the origin of agriculture. Agriculture marks an important turning point in human history: it sparked a change from nomadic to settled groups, it enabled population growth, and our modern lives depend on it. So it is natural to wonder about the hows and whys of the origin of agriculture. One theory is that hard times forced people to develop agriculture, which caused population to grow. Another theory is that population grew from good times, which forced people to develop agriculture. Yet another is that the common tradition of throwing giant feasts to show one's own status caused people to develop agriculture to enable larger feasts (this is the least sensible, IMO).
Personally, I don't think there is a monumental event that led to the invention of agriculture. My theory is that agriculture developed simply because it is more attractive than foraging! Imagine you're a forager. Every day you spend several hours hiking a few kilometers gathering nuts and fruit, and hunting small animals for food. It's a nice life, but involves a lot of legwork (and armwork, carrying that stuff). Now, while chatting with a buddy about foraging, you put a few pieces together: the seeds bring back, when dropped accidentally on the ground, sometimes sprout into a whole new plant! Well hold on, if you could organize these seeds, you could control where your favorite plants show up. Now instead of hiking a few kilometers for scattered nodes of plants, you have a ton of plants growing next to your house! Who wouldn't go for that? The same thing happens with herding animals: after a good hunt you find a cache of baby animals with no parents. You take them home and put them in a pen so they can grow up big and delicious. From there you realize if you didn't eat the adults and instead let them do their thing, they'll make more babies, and so on. No more hunting! It's dangerous and likely to fail. Just keep a breeding population next to your house and you won't have to go ten yards for a nice, guaranteed meaty meal. Your animals will need a food supply though... luckily you have dozens of edible plants next to your house! Of course my story is not testable scientifically, but it is based on a sequence of very likely events. Also, yes agriculture takes a lot of work too, and there is a lot of scientific evidence that agriculture led to a decline in health. But, people don't care about stuff like that. Given the options of hiking around or working around your house, the choice is pretty obvious. It just takes people to figure it out, and I don't think that is very hard either given a few lucky observations and some patience. So that's the Chan hypothesis for the origin of agriculture: it' developed because it is a lot more convenient than foraging and people are lazy. Labels: anthropology:archaeology link : 12:43 PM
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Friday, August 22, 2008Too Much of a Good Thing The Inca religion is based on Sun worship. The Inca leader (also called "the Inca") is said to be the son of the Sun. Ironically, only the ruler and certain elites are allowed to carry a parasol to protect them from the Sun's harmful rays.
Labels: anthropology:archaeology, inca link : 2:21 PM
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Tuesday, February 19, 2008I'd Like to Be... Endless Ocean (link warning: creepy music) is one of those non-game games that crop up from time to time to remind people that games aren't all about shooting and competition. At it's core, it's a marine biologist simulator. You dive in the fictional Pacific tropical reef of Manoa Lai and look for fish. Upon sighting a fish you have to obtain information from it. Strangely, this is mostly done by rubbing the fish (waving the Wii remote), though you can also feed them. When they like you enough, sparkles appear and you can read a short blurb. Sounds kind of trite, right? But it's all in the presentation:
 {Look, a sea star!} The graphics are wonderful. It's not real-real, but it's more than enough. Besides swimming around and rubbing fish, there are a few other objectives. You can also lead people on dives to find the fish they want to see. Someone working at a magazine will send requests for photos of certain fish. Your financial backer will point you towards certain features like shark spawning zone. But it's all very open ended and these tasks can wait if you just want to dive. There are of course some amusing things that crop up in this open-ended game. After a point, fish started to like me so much that they would follow me wherever I went. Sounds cute... until you want to take a picture. Then they ruin every photo I try to take by swimming in my face:  {A nice photo of a hammerhead shark, except for the fish-in-my-face.} The fish-rubbing mechanism is also questionable in places, like when stingrays are involved: Petting a lionfish is also a bit weird, since they have poisonous spines and all. And of course, one liked me so much it started following me. Safest. Dive. Ever. To my surprise, the game has a basic plot involving my fellow researcher's family issues and how they're linked to her work. Also, I branch into underwater archaeology as the obligatory underwater ruins are discovered. It's like I'm working... kind of.  Endless Ocean is one of those "edutainment" titles that is actually engaging. It doesn't take itself so seriously, which keeps its flaws in check. How could you not smirk when "Amazing Grace" starts playing upon seeing your first whale shark? Update: I forgot to mention, the game can read mp3 files off of an SD card and play it instead of its own Christian tunes. Can you say "Octopus's Garden?"  {This game should be rated Mature because it has boobies.} Labels: anthropology:archaeology, games link : 2:33 PM
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Saturday, July 28, 2007Touring the South Coast Last weekend the students and I were led on a tour of southern Peru by Lin, who works... wow we just had a small earthquake*. Anyway, he works at the same museum the bioarchaeology students and I work at and he's helped us to adjust a great deal. While the archaeoastronomy students and I were hanging out with him and some other Peruvian students, he invited us to go with him to see some of the southern towns. Apparently he has a brother who has connections there. The following weekend (one week ago) we hopped on a tour bus. Destination: Pisco.
Pisco is a town which shares its name with the brandy it produces. We arrived late a night. The town looks like a bomb went off, with piles of construction rubble and broken sidewalks scattered about. We quickly got settled in the hotel "The Eden" for the night. Far from being a paradise, it was creepy and smelly. It didn't matter too much to us (though the yellow stain on the wall adjacent to my bed was worrisome) and we slept in preparation for the next day. The next morning we were roused awake when the tour bus arrived a half hour earlier than what we were told. Lin was not there yet (we think he stayed with a friend) so we were very confused. Eventually we got on the bus and headed towards the town of Paracas to see the Islas Ballestas. The Islas Ballestas are a chain of islands compared to the Galapagos islands. In the 1800s it was important because guano miners could excavate some bird poo for sale to other countries as fertilizer. There are meters of bird poo that still cover the islands since it's a renewable resource. If I remember right, 80% of the Peru GNP was guano during that time. Unfortunately, the goldmine of poo was sought after by Chile, which in part lead to wars between the two countries, which Peru pretty much lost. To see these islands, we take speedboats. The dock had swarms of pelicans milling about waiting for a kid holding a raw fish to toss it in the air for them to fight over. One one side, several men were trying to tow a car towing a boat that had somehow sank into the water. The lead car tried to pull them both out, but the cable connecting them snapped and the stuck car got stuck even more. I didn't want to take pictures of someone's bad day so I kept going to the boat. The dock also had some interesting signs:  With a mish-mash of tourists from all over Europe we jetted off for the islands. The tour was awesome: there were pelicans, sea lions, cool rock formations, and yes, bioarch students: we saw that penguins do indeed live in Peru:  After the boat tour we got in a cab to see Paracas proper. Unlike the tiny modern town, the Reserva Natural de Paracas is a gigantic wildlife and archaeology reserve. It covers a section of the coastal desert, and part of the ocean as well. We saw the little but well-made museum which had some examples of Paracas textiles and the famous funerary bundles of cotton and other offerings. After the museum, we saw some of the natural formations on the coast, such as the Catedral:  {Click for a panorama.} From the reserve we were driven to Tambo Colorado, an Inca outpost a few kilometers inland. It is one of the top five examples of Inca design in Peru. We had the site all to ourselves so Lin showed us the maze of corridors and rooms. He grew up in the area and spent some of his childhood exploring the site before it became a protected tourist attraction. Tambo Colorado (Tambo means an Inca outpost and Colorado means colored, because some red paint still exists on some of the walls) was a local ceremonial center, storehouse, and elite getaway for the Sapa Inca, the Inca leader. The site now shows the mark of five hundred years of history: in some of the Inca niches visitors in the 19th century had carved poems in cursive into the plaster wall. After Tambo Colorado we went back to Pisco to eat and rest. There was nothing planned that night, but we were awoken from our naps by a blast of live music. We thought it must have been really close, but we looked out the window and saw that it was coming from a stage all the way across the plaza:  {For those about to sleep, we salute you!} The Lonely Planet guide says this town is dangerous at night so we were a bit reluctant to leave "The Eden." Being a bit daring ("I'm unrobbable!") I went off by myself to check out the concert scene. Pisco was very lively. People were watching the concert, kids ran around the plaza, and I saw a very busy pedestrian street. I found that it was lined by restaurants, bars, and strangely, giant electronic store chains shrunken to Pisco size. I walked around taking it all in before returning to the hotel to report that Pisco at night was indeed safe. We went out to dinner and most of us pooped out after that. Patrick went out with Lin to a baby shower and then dancing. The plaza concert lasted until 2AM or so, keeping us awake. There was no time for rest as we were off again the next morning at 6AM. This time we were getting on a bus first to the town of Ica, capital of the Ica department, and then off to Nasca. Lin offered to take us there so we could fly over the Nasca lines and being archaeology dorks, we all leapt at the chance. Nasca was scorching and we felt even more tired. We learned that early morning clouds had delayed the flights, and the earliest we could possibly get into the air was 3PM. We had lunch and Lin took us around. We went to some ceramic and metallurgy workshops to see how they do their crafts. When our flight was delayed to the next morning, we went 25km away to Cahuachi, a Nasca site. There was an archaeological field school going on at the time. One of the Peruvian archaeology students showed us around. We couldn't get too close but I did take a 360° panorama:  {Cool site + friendly archaeologists = win. Click for a panorama.} We had dinner at a chicken restaurant near our Nasca hotel. I rested a bit while Lin was away doing Lin things and the students went to a planetarium to see their presentation. We walked around Nasca at night, which was a lot more charming and temperate than in the afternoon, and spent the night in town. The next morning we went to the Nasca Aerodome where the small planes for tours over the lines are located. After a little bit of waiting they asked for three of us to volunteer to go. I didn't want to turn this decision into a drawn out thing so I kind of ordered the three students to go. They gladly went while I waited on the ground and took pictures. They came back after a half hour or so and it was my turn, sharing a plane with a young Italian couple. I sat in the front seat next to the pilot. I've always been wary of small planes but the flight was very enjoyable. We did some hard banking over the lines for our photography needs but I didn't feel a thing. I heard that two of the students had a puke fest on the first flight. To be honest the line formations that made pictures of animals and things looked really small from so high above. I don't believe for a minute that you cannot appreciate them from the ground, especially if you know what is there beforehand. They're also far from perfectly shaped. If I had 500 people holding hands I could have them spread out and form a large shape in the sand. Once they are in place I'd have them remove the soil around their feet, join these clearings with their neighbors' and we'd have a picture of whatever I wanted of comparable quality. No aliens needed. After I landed we were off again on our next adventure: sandboarding! Near the town of Ica is a small oasis resort called Huacachina. There we hopped on a dune buggy and were taken on a bumpy tour of the local sand dunes. How bumpy was it? Well see for yourself: The dune buggy stopped on top of a fair-sized dune. The driver, Luis, hopped out and pulled some sandboards out of the back. They looked pretty much like snowboards. He showed us how to lay on them surfer style and launch ourselves down the sand dune. It was awesome! The sheer sense of speed is something that will stay with me for a long time. He picked us up again at the bottom of the dune and drove us to a bigger one. By the fourth set of dunes we were looking down hundreds of yards of sand. We all had a lot of fun. Since I weighed more than the others I went the farthest (Force equals mass times acceleration). So in a way, I got more out of it, lol. After our pockets and shoes were well-filled with sand, Luis drove us back to the resort. We got some much needed cold drinks and ice cream. At the inn we were based at, there was an odd menagerie of animals milling about. There were peacocks, dogs, a turtle, and a monkey of all things. The monkey was very nice and cute. Maybe, too nice. I found that, unlike a cat which I could brush off of me, the monkey would not be put down. It's little prehensile hands and and feet would grab anything on me: my shirt, my lip (!), my camera, etc. It preferred holding on to me rather than the tree it was leashed to or the grass. It was also extremely bitey, chewing the heck out of my fingers, arm, and camera just for kicks.  {I call the small one "Bitey."} A British guy helped me out by taking the monkey from me, but then it was stuck to him. We laughed that it's like a cold: we can only get rid of it by passing it to someone else (Ok, not really, but it's a folk belief). Eventually we got away when it hopped on the ground to transfer itself between us and we both darted out of the range of his leash. The other guy must have felt sorry for it because when I came back out from a cafe, the monkey was back on his shoulder. We left Huacachina and went back to the bus station in Ica. There we got on a bus back to Lima, a four and a half hour trip. We were exhausted and I passed out as soon as I hit my bed at the Villa Rica. It was amazing that I made it to work on time the next day. Well, Ok I was 15 minutes late. Thanks for reading through all this. We had a busy weekend! It's been a week and I'm still tired from the trip and bruised from the dune buggy. *Today is Fiestas Patrias, Peru's independence day. The fact that an earthquake occurred during a Catholic mass at the main cathedral with the president in the audience is not a good omen! Labels: anthropology:archaeology, peru link : 5:23 PM
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Friday, June 29, 2007A Weekend Excursion to Pachacamac Last weekend we took a field trip down to Pachacamac, a site/tourist attraction to the south of Lima. I'm very familiar with the site: we had a tour there in 2004 and on my second trip I worked there with some of the radiologists. This time I took the students back for a quick view of the site.
Pachacamac was a ceremonial site for the local groups which grew in prominence as an oracle center. Peoples from far off areas of the Andes would make pilgrimages there to hear spiritual advice and make offerings to the powerful dieties who inhabited it. When the Inca arrived, they built their own gigantic temple near the structures already there, putting their stamp on the local religion. The Pachacamac diety was embodied by a carved wooden pole, the "staff god." When the Spanish sacked Pachacamac, Pizarro's brother broke it apart. Today what remains of the site are several pyramids, and many remnants of walls and floors. There are always active archaeological digs going on on the premises to learn more about the various people who lived there. The area is also pretty big. While the tour can be done on foot, it is far more convenient to hop in a vehicle and go from structure to structure.  {A pick-up motorcycle, or something. Luckily, this was not our ride in Pachacamac.} We had arrived in a hired cab driven by Sandros, whom Bob has worked with for several years (I'm a bit hazy on their history). He is really nice and friendly to us even though we're a bunch of loud kids and he's in his cab all day. We went through the small onsite museum and then got in our cab. Our first stop was the Mamacuña, a structure which housed women removed from society in order to produce textiles and beer for the Inca royalty. They were also given to local lords as concubines like a type of reward. This is the most-restored of the Pachacamac structures, though it's a work in progress so we weren't allowed to enter (with some official help we did go inside during the previous field season though).  {The restored Mamacuña} We then went to the Inca Templo del Sol. It has restored steps so one could climb up and admire the view of the ocean and some islands. A dog greeted us at the pyramid. It seemed to latch on to our group, walking just ahead of us as if leading us through the ruins. Surprisingly, it kept us on the path, going as any group of tourists would. If we lingered to take photos, the dog would go out ahead and look back at us, waiting. We joked that we should give it a treat since we were supposed to tip tour guides. At one point, it broke off from our group and ran up to the security guard at the pyramid for some attention before coming back to us. We were sad to see it go as we drove off in our cab to the next site, but I was adamant about not taking any dogs with us.  {The bestest guide dog ever. Yes he is!} We left Pachacamac and went to a nearby restaurant, where I had eaten every day when I worked there. It's a higher class place and I ordered before seeing the menu so I didn't know what the prices were (I asked the waitress what the daily specials were). I ordered an arroz con mariscos, which was rice covered in all kinds of seafood, from clams to shrimp to even jellyfish and sea snails. When I got it, it was gigantic. On the plate was a whole hardboiled egg and a small lobster! When I got the bill I found out that my plate was 40 soles ($12.70 or so). Our individual lunch budget was 9 soles. Oops! Well since Bob wasn't there I was the boss so I pardoned myself. Besides, that was the best arroz con mariscos I've had here. Our next and last stop before returning was San Bartolo, a local surfing town. Since it is winter here, the town is pretty much closed up. But, we went for the archaeology! Well, sort of. The town sits on a giant shell midden which was made when prehistoric people dumped their seafood trash over thousands of years. Now, the ground is sedimentary rock overlaid by topsoil-like substrate with shells and bones embedded within. That's interesting as it is, but when I climbed a hill overlooking the ocean, we found that the view was far cooler.  {A huge-tastic view of San Bartolo.} We spent a lot of time there watching the waves, climbing rocks, and looking at crabs as they skittered around. After that, we went home to grungy old Lima. But is Lima so bad? That's the topic of my next big post. Labels: anthropology:archaeology, peru link : 6:53 PM
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Thursday, June 7, 2007First Visit to the Museum On Monday, the museum we were to work at, the National Museum of Anthropology, Archaeology, and History, had a special occasion: they were celebrating the deathdate of Julio C. Tello, the first Peruvian archaeologist who conducted scientific investigations. We piled into a taxi and went to the museum to meet Bob. While usually security is extremely tight at the museum, we were ushered in by Vidal, the hostess of the ceremony. We were led to some folding chairs placed in rows facing a concrete walkway. It turned out that the walkway was the tomb of Tello himself, in the middle of the museum grounds! Extremely well-dressed Peruvian researchers and professors started to fill the seats. Bob had to sit with other professors in the front row so Mercedes Delgado, a Peruvian archaeologist sat with us.
The ceremony was very diverse. After some opening words by the hostess, wreaths were brought out to the tomb. She then had numerous people stand up to be recognized, including the students and I! Vidal told the crowd that we were students from America led by Bob who will soon be working at the museum. We stood up and smiled for a picture before nervously sitting back down. Different professors started to give short speeches, supposedly on Tello's contribution and personal stories. One professor started a very impassioned speech. It basically said that foreign students studying in Peru was what is exactly wrong with Peruvian archaeology and against what Tello stood for: homebrewed researchers. Awkward! The next speaker went on a similar rant about how the Peruvian government is not doing enough to recover artifacts that have been absconded to the United States and Europe, sometimes falling into the hands of what would otherwise be legitimate museums. That speech irked a speaker, the director of the museum, who requested to get back to the podium. She defended the Peruvian government's efforts, citing that any funds are sucked up fighting the tricky American lawyers. We were by now quite uncomfortable. The hostess knew this tangent was making the crowd (especially us) feel weird so she gave a neutral speech about how cultural patrimony is everyone's responsibility and moved on. The next section was an ethnic dance by a group from a local small town. I'm not sure what happened but there was some communication problem between the dancers and the band and the performance was rather lackluster.  {Andean dancers perform at the ceremony.}  {Standing at Tello's tomb after the ceremony.} Labels: anthropology:archaeology, peru link : 12:28 PM
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Tuesday, June 5, 2007The First Field Trip The last few days in Peru have been action-packed and I've barely had time to even think about blogging. I have a little bit of free time now, so let's talk about our first field trip!
Bob had arranged for us to tag along with some Peruvian students on a trip to a site called Chupacigarro/Caral. While you'd think that Peruvians would've been tired of these sites by now, they actually travel less than Americans do, even around Peru. I think it was as new for us as it was for some of them. We hopped on a private minibus and headed north on the Panamerican highway out of Lima. Our first stop was the largest sand dune in the world. We stopped and looked around for shell middens. In the past, people would have hauled their shellfish from the ocean up the sand dune where there was drinkable water. They would eat their catch and leave behind the shells. Where there was a shell midden, there would be many white shells and fragments laying plainly on the dark sand. We also spotted some animal bones and some ancient corn cobs.  {On the dune, looking for shells.} We ate breakfast in a cafe in a small town. The first place we tried did not have the regional favorite tamales. The second place had a few. We didn't know whether this was a meal or not (it was 9AM) so some of us only ordered a tea or coffee. Little did we know that the next major meal would be had twelve hours later! After our snack we got back on the bus. At Barranca, a larger town, we turned off the highway and went down a bumpy dirt road lined with various crops grown by the locals. From what we could see (and now remember), there were chile peppers, cotton, sugar cane, and maize. Someone had a plot of maize growing in the sun. We stopped the bus and hopped out to have a closer look.  {Corn drying in the sun.} The owner of the field eventually found us and was pleasantly surprised to see that his corn had gotten so much attention. He encouraged us to pick them up and pose for photos with them. One of the Peruvian students bought one as a souvenir. The dirt road to Chupacigarro/Caral was longer than we had thought. Going up the Supe valley away from the coast, we would've gone in the same path that a fisherman would have used to get to the site. Our busload of archaeology students and professors had to stop and ask for directions to the site! It's not often that archaeologists lose a ceremonial site with several pyramid and residential compounds, but it does happen apparently. When we got to the site, it was very hot. Only a few of us had the trifecta of hat, water, and sunscreen. It was also around 1PM and the American students were getting hungry. Still, we went on a guided tour of Chupacigarro/Caral. Called the earliest Peruvian civilization, the site is comprised of several pyramids approaching 60 feet tall as well as other smaller buildings. For its time period, the Preceramic, the size and complexity of the site was unique. It wasn't exactly a city as there is no sign of heavy residential use or large cemeteries, but there are some buildings that had clear signs of habitation. I took some great panoramic photos of the site, showing how the pyramids are positioned.  {Pyramids at Caral/Chupacigarro (click for gigantic panorama!).} At the close of the tour, we had a pago ceremony to commemorate the memory of the site and remember the people who must have lived, worked, or worshipped there. Bernadino, a fantastic Peruvian archaeologist, led the ceremony by thanking the triplicate division of the world (underground, surface, and sky) and offering them and us some coca leaves, a cigarette, and a shot of tequila. Afterward we got back on the bus where the Peruvians started to celebrate a memorable trip. They brought out some pisco, some bread, some apples, and passed them around. There were drinking songs and general merriment to end our day. We were back in Lima by 9:30PM and quickly grabbed some dinner at a nearby seafood restaurant. We were really tired, and it was only Saturday! Photos have been posted to Flickr. Give it a look! Labels: anthropology:archaeology, peru link : 9:43 PM
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Sunday, April 8, 2007I Just Found Something Called Google Earth Just kidding. But lately I've been using it to check out places in Peru. Some of the field school students wanted to know where their hostel is located. I scanned over the city of Lima until I found the right place. I guess you can't tell much about crime and sanitation from the Google Earth view. They should make map overlays for crime and population density like SimCity has. Knowing Google, that's coming.
I also looked around the country for archaeological sites. Most have been previously marked so it was pretty easy. You can see how huge some of the city-sites like Chan Chan are.  {View of Chan Chan from Google Earth. A small vertical bar to the left is a bus, for scale.} If you want to see my Google Earth collection so far, download these tiny files and fire up Google Earth: Field School Sites, Peruvian Archaeological Sites Labels: anthropology:archaeology, peru, tech:computers link : 1:11 PM
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Monday, March 26, 2007Back to Peru This summer I'll be going back to Peru. Yay! It's been in the planning stage for a while now but now it's all coming together. My advisor Bob Benfer is holding two archaeological field schools this summer: on on bioarchaeology (one of my specialities) and archaeoastronomy. I can't stay around for the archaeoastronomy field school since I have another thing to attend in San Diego at that time, but I'll be co-teaching the one on bioarchaeology! It should be a lot of fun.
We're so hardcore that we have our own field school website. It was made by my buddy Neil but I made some updates to promote this season. There's some links to articles on the Buena Vista site and pictures of past seasons. Good times! Yesterday I sent out emails congratulating the students who applied for the field schools. They all sent gushing emails saying how happy they are for this opportunity. It was unexpected and kind of sweet. It's like they just got their name called on Price is Right or something. I remember when I had that much pep... around 1996 or so. Labels: anthropology:archaeology, peru link : 10:13 PM
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Friday, March 9, 2007Archaeoporn! The Lost Tomb of Jesus documentary that the Discover Channel aired then subsequently countered and suppressed had one upside for archaeology: the popularization of the term "archaeoporn" to describe the documentary. It was actually said on a panel discussion that aired after the actual show. While this new and exciting word is sweeping the news (check out the headline!) and blog world, I wanted to see if this word has shown up before. Doing a search of "archaeoporn -jesus" gave me results not having to do with the documentary. Here are the results:
For those who want to know more about the statistical argument against the assertions in Lost Tomb of Jesus, Dr. Randy Ingermanson has a well-written explanation. He's a Cal alum too! (Basically, "Few even think to ask the question.") When I typed "archaeoporn" into Google, it asked if I mean "archaeopteryx." No, Google, I really mean "archaeoporn." Labels: anthropology:archaeology, perversion, statistics link : 12:15 PM
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Tuesday, February 6, 20075,000 Years to Hold You The Daily Mail has an interesting article on an archaeological discovery: skeletons of a male and female in an embrace. Since the discovery is near Mantua, one of the locations in Romeo and Juliet, they're really playing up how romantic and touching the find is. But read a little further and it says:
"One theory being examined is that the man was killed and the woman then sacrificed..." Ah, romance. Labels: anthropology:archaeology link : 11:05 PM
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Sunday, December 24, 2006Taj Majal vs. The Eiffel Tower. FIGHT! Kristin and I had a debate over what the seven wonders of the world are. We agreed on the easy ones like the Library at Alexandria and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon but we weren't sure if one of them was a temple to Zeus (which one was) or to Athena (which none were). We settled the issue by renting an A&E DVD on the matter, hosted by Leonard Nimoy. It was kind of boring but it did teach us what's what.
Now there is an international consortium, the New7Wonders Foundation that will put the New Seven Wonders to popular vote. There are twenty-one sites to choose from. On July 7, 2007 they will announce the winners. I guess it sounds like a fun contest, and the organizers seem to have good intentions, but I actually don't like the idea. The most distressing thing to me is that, this contest is putting together landmarks that to me are incomparable. Which is more wondrous, Machu Picchu or the Statue of Liberty? The former was built in high altitude with no metal tools. The latter is beautiful in a European way, and it holds symbolic meaning for a superpower. Which is better? I have no idea, because I don't even want to compare them. Why can't we declare Twenty-One New Wonders? The Seven Wonders were confined to Europe and the Middle East and was named centuries ago. Time has moved on since then, people have created great structures and performed feats of art and engineering all round the globe. Must we stick to seven? If we declare a new Seven Wonders, it sets up a line between the have and have-nots that is completely removed from reality. Are the fourteen sites who lose worse in any measurable quantity than the seven who win? Obviously not, but the losers will certainly be treated worse than the winners though. Tourism, publicity and funding for preservation will be affected for no real reason. The contestants are also based on landmarks that currently exist. The destruction of the World Trade Center shows us how impermanent our world is. Is the WTC not a wonder because maniacs took it apart? What if one of the new Seven is unfortunately defaced? Would it be time for a new contest? While the New7Wonders Foundation should be commended for raising awareness about world heritage and the preservation of history, I have several serious problems with their contest to name a New Seven Wonders. There is no logical or quantifiable way to choose among the twenty-one sites. The designation of Seven Wonders is an arbitrary division from which people will infer real meaning. The dichotomy between seven wonders and fourteen non-wonders will have negative effects on the losers. The list of sites is also short-sighted for such an epic endeavor, including sites which exist in the immediate present. My solution for most of these issues would be to designate all twenty-one sites as "Wonders" so we can enjoy them all on their own merits. Pitting these fantastic locations against each other cheapens rather than elevates them. Looking at the grid of twenty-one contestants I feel awe that humanity has made such a wide variety of architecture and art. I do not look forward to July 8th, 2007 when I will see just seven. Labels: anthropology:archaeology, rant link : 8:50 PM
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Saturday, December 23, 2006Go #54! My advisor Robert Benfer made Discover Magazine's top 100 science discoveries of 2006! He is number 54 on the list, not a bad showing at all. Bob made the list for finding the oldest known site in the New World that was used for astronomical observations. These observations were important for Andean groups for planning their agricultural seasons. I unfortunately haven't seen all of the cool alignments and stuff in person since I wasn't there the field season when the discoveries were made.
Only two archaeological discoveries beat Bob's Temple of the Fox on the list: a newly-discovered tomb in Egypt and the earliest evidence of writing in the New World. Omega-3 fatty acid-producing pigs was another MU development that made the list, at a surprising (?) #38. Alternative energy in general was the #1 story. Bob's Article from Discover Magazine Article from the Columbia Missourian My glorious advisor's webpage with more information on the site. Labels: anthropology:archaeology, MU, peru, science link : 2:25 PM
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