Arranged Delirium

The Archaeological Institute of America sent along a link to their Google Earth Layer for Archaeological Sites in the US and Canada. You can Access it here where there is also a press release.

This went live just last week for National Archaeology Day and they hope to get feedback and suggestion this year and have them implemented for the next National Archaeology Day in October 2012.

Occasionally, and all too infrequently, I get asked questions about Google Earth and archaeology. In many ways it is a good thing that I get the question irregularly, because I do very little field work nowadays and I don’t understand everything well enough to explain it effectively. I typically go on about GIS and how you would need that technology for any real analysis, but then explain how you can do most of what you might actually want to do (getting started) with Google Earth. It’s not too long after this point that people’s eyes glaze over and I realize that I’m talking to myself - what is also probably a good thing because I no longer know what I’m talking about.

Fortunately, RR has written up a very nice explanation over at Whitewashed Tomb. Now when people ask me, I can just say “Have you been reading my blog?” and leave it at that. They won’t need to go through the physical exertion of eye-glazing, and I won’t need to go through an explanation of something I understand only tangentially because I never really do it anymore…win!

In the summer of 2006, I took a few students for a hike along this gap between the South and West Mesas of Chaco Canyon. I remember it being a pleasant day, and cool. Afterwards, we enjoyed refreshing beverages and a well-prepared picnic! Ah, the memories…

This image was actually taken the day before from North Mesa above Pueblo Bonito. It’s my favorite image of the day. You can see more images of Chaco in my online galleries.

My colleague Dr. Pettegrew is blogging again at Corinthian Matters, and I’m linking here to encourage him to keep with it : )

In seriousness though, he’s got a link to an animation of the diolkos across the Isthmus of Greece. I’m not sure about all the details since they conflict with some of what I’ve understood in the past concerning how this portage road was used. But, it’s quite helpful for envisioning the overall use of the road and why it would have provided a considerable shortcut between Italy and the western Mediterranean. I’m embedding it below in its entirety, but you can find links to sections at Corinthian Matters.

You can find more information by following this link to the project page hosted by Vimeo…

Well, against my strict sabbatical policy to only finish tasks, I’m taking on a new project. Specifically, an edited volume on archaeology and new media. Bill is already thinking about this, and now I’m trying to collect my thoughts on it and begin a prospectus. We would value any thoughts and ideas form people, so please don’t hesitate to comment and send up emails. We are just working on this as we can around other items, so this is a 2-3 year process.

I think the format is easy for me to envision: a book that is also electronic and a corresponding web app that allows folks to access annotations, any addendum, and perhaps even formulate a sense of community via discussion boards if anyone wants to talk about it. I’d imagine there could be quite a bit of discussion on some of these topics. So, in looking at Bill’s ideas, I see it as both traditional and dynamic - and I think that’s exactly what our audience requires. I don’t think this approach will be overly problematic - O’Reilly is already releasing electronic review copies of texts I use in my classes with active links to the web. I find these very useful and carry them around on my tablet. What we’re talking about doing here is essentially similar with the addition of some web technologies which are the stuff of my development activities anyway…

But I’m still struggling a bit with the organization of the work. I can see the best practices section being a collection of case studies - that’s our last section. But how do we address the topics of concern here? Bill suggests definitions and sampling strategy, both of which make good sense. I’d probably want to add in components for interpretation and education; although they might just as well fit into a definitions section. But then I get caught up in a circular argument which underscores the conundrum I face when thinking this through: do we organize these discussions around what we are specifically doing with new media and technology, or do we focus on the archaeological research process and how the new media relates to that? I like the idea of organizing around the research process, but so many of the tool we use are becoming pervasive throughout the entire process. And it’s informing the work we do - while we are doing it - as well as the interpretations we make after the fact. So it’s not so easy to break the new media or technology away from any isolated activity since it’s often invading multiple elements of our work…