Castles and Coprolites

Last week was very busy. I was away in Vilnius, Lithuania for the European Association of Archaeologists annual meeting . The last one I went to was Pilsen in 2013  so it was good to go back and catch up with the latest research. I think I probably overdid it, giving a paper and a poster presentation, and also running the Newcastle University exhibition stand. I wasn't really able to do either effectively, having to jump in and out of sessions to sit at the desk. I ended up missing quite a few talks that I wanted to see. However, my paper presentation did go well, and I got some good questions and discussion. I was talking about Catalhoyuk, and assessing the past 25 years of 'multi-proxy' archaeology and approaches to use of space. Although some aspects were critical, the aim was to try and see what has worked and what hasn't worked, and some of the reasons why this might be. There is such a rich and unique record of the history of  excavation and methodology at Catalh...

I read this lovely post the other day, " We were all that kid " about a little girl who brought her collection of objects to a museum for the curator to look at. It made me smile, as it reminded me of myself, and how I ended up being this thing called a geoarchaeologist. As early as I can remember I was fascinated by the natural world. My biggest obsession was with rocks and gemstones, though I also loved insects. I still have a lot of my collection - the rocks and gems anyway. I did have a red tailed bumble bee and a stag beetle that I tried to preserve with my non-exist childhood conservator skills, but they didn't survive. I have a distinct memory of a school field trip to London. I bought a book from the NHM on gemstones, and I remember how it had all the chemical names of the minerals, and how I tried to learn them. I still remember my birthstone peridot is magnesium iron silicate. The NHM is huge with so many flashy displays and interactive things, but I was quite...

I have a very important deadline tomorrow, hence it's the perfect time to do a blog post for Doug's Archaeology Blogging Carnival.  Last year I took part in a series of posts about the purpose of blogging . This time the theme is Grand Challenges facing archaeology, specifically the participant's archaeology. In my case of course this is geoarchaeology. It's a good theme for me, as it's something I've been reflecting on a lot recently. I am writing a paper on investigating 'use of space', and multi-proxy approaches in archaeology. It's half review, half critique, and is turning into a bit of a monster. What follows is some of the central thoughts I am discussing in that paper, so actually any comments and feedback would be much appreciated! One of the major challenges that I see facing geoarchaeology, is the integration of data from different scales. How do we use data collected for example at the microscale (such as geochemical patterning of floor...

Today is my first day back in the office after the Xmas hols, though I've actually been itching to get back. Not because I don't like the holidays - it was great, I had a real Christmas tree for the first time in my life which was very exciting, and I am now planning on ways to turn it into reference material for environmental archaeology practical classes. This is also the first time ever that I can think of, where I genuinely did not do ANY WORK AT ALL over the holidays . This definitely correlates with the fact I got a permanent position last September , and so am no longer in that state of permanent anxiety that characterizes being a postdoc. I made a promise to my family that I would get better at work-life balance and stop being in continuous work mode. I do not regret this decision at all, I am happier, my family is happier, we had a fantastic Xmas and New Year. But I do find it so hard to stop working. It's a combination of actually loving my job, all the paper wri...

Blog readers, I need your help! Or rather, a fellow blog reader and student needs your help. Fleur Shinning is a Masters student in Heritage Management at Leiden University  in the Netherlands. Her research is investigating how the use of blogs and social media contributes to the accessibility of archaeology, and she is studying several blogs as case studies, Castles and Coprolites being one of them. Her end goal is to contribute to improving public outreach activities, and she is hoping to get blog visitors to answer a series of questions regarding their motives for visiting the blog. You can access the questionnaire here:  http://goo.gl/forms/z3BAUTyYUL . As an incentive anyone who answers the questionnaire will be entered into a competition to win 6 issues of Archaeology Magazine! As the blog author I have also answered a series of questions on blogging for Fleur's research, and it reminded me about the blogging carnival that I took part in durin...

So as noted over on Doug's Archaeology blog , many people who have been taking part in the SAA Blogging Carnival didn't post anything for February, in response to the open ended question of blog about whatever you like. My excuse is, that I did start working on something, but it started to evolve into a full length piece which I will probably submit to either the IA issue or e-book on blogging archaeology that are in preparation . I couldn't help but do a little background reading into the use of social media and blogging as a research tool, and became immersed in the vast amount of literature on the topic. So my theme for February ended up being, Archaeological Blogging as a Tool for Self Reflexivity...or something along those lines. It actually links in very well with a lot of thinking I've been doing recently about bringing together archaeological science and theory, partly due to co-convening a course in theoretical archaeology this year, but also the experience of ...

It's December! That means I need to be thinking about a new micrograph of the month for your viewing pleasure, but for now here is my response to the second round of questions for the Blogging Archaeology blog carnival. Click here for more info and my response to the first round in November. Very interesting to see the range of responses to the last lot. I recognised a few of the blogs taking part, as well discovering some new ones to add to my reading list. The Good- what has been good about blogging?  I love writing and putting together images, and my blog is a great way to keep up with that in a way that is less time consuming and stressful than writing articles and lectures. Aside from the pleasure of simply writing, it's also great fun looking at my viewer statistics. It is quite satisfying to see where my audience comes from. Sometimes I can guess who it is, for example when my relatives in Oregon have been reading, and I also get a lot of views from Edinburgh, York...

I was invited today to take part in a blogging carnival, related to a Blogging in Archaeology session at the upcoming SAA conference . Quite handy actually as I can't attend the conference in person this year due to teaching commitments. What is a blogging carnival you may ask? Check out the original post on Doug's Archaeology here. Each month leading up to the session, a question is posted, and participants can choose to answer it via their blog. The answers are then all summarised at the end of the month. Hopefully this will highlight some new archaeology blogs to add to the long list I already follow (maybe I should do a post about that!). Anyhoo. Here are my answers to the first set of questions: Why did you start a blog? I had been meaning to start one for years before I actually did. I have been a big user of social media since I was an undergrad, but always for personal rather that professional purposes. I eventually started my blog at the beginning of 2012 af...