The Archive for The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Volume 4 (2013)

William R. Caraher University of North Dakota

New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World by William R. Caraher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 2013

Title Man Camps in May: Some More Observations The Real and Imagined Mount Athos MOOCs at the University of North Dakota The Archaeology of Religion and Culture in Late Antique Greece Some Thoughts on Digital Dissertations Does a University Need a Library? Three Dimensional Imaging in Mediterranean Archaeology: A Short Introduction to a Blog Project Ten Tips for a New Graduate Student An Open Letter to our new Provost and Dean Does a University Need a Library: A Response to a Response Three-Dimensional Modeling in Mediterranean Archaeology: An Open Invitation A New Article on 3D Imaging in Archaeology Imagined Battlefields on the Dakota Prairie Teaching Thursday: Five Tips for Every College Student Fitness and the Archaeologist Writing the past in photographs Some 3D Models from Cyprus iPads in the Field and Reflections on Archaeologys Digital Future Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age: Best Practices and Realities Churches in Greece or Why my Dissertation is not a Book Teaching Thursday: Teaching Byzantine History Mapping North Dakota Man Camps The Summer of Two Archaeologies Whats Next in Archaeology? A Few Thoughts on Open Access in Archaeology A Pedantic Post on Giving Papers A Late Roman Farmhouse near Metaponto North Dakota Man Camp Project Update Mapping the North Dakota Oil Boom Punk Archaeology Recap and Reflections Some More Thoughts on Digital History A Very Short Introduction to Late Antiquity

Date 5/20/13 12/11/13 12/12/13 11/26/13 7/29/13 9/24/13 9/5/13 4/25/13 8/19/13 9/25/13 7/24/13 7/22/13 10/13/13 8/29/13 8/12/13 10/7/13 7/23/13 5/24/13 1/31/13 7/8/13 8/15/13 1/29/13 5/27/13 4/22/13 1/17/13 3/13/13 3/12/13 6/4/13 2/20/13 2/4/13 1/7/13 1/15/13

Views 2,185 133 107 126 713 277 323 702 341 167 275 268 120 172 185 102 187 236 360 179 105 253 141 138 180 149 146 100 123 128 133 112

Per Day 10.21 14.78 13.38 5.25 4.95 3.18 3.05 2.94 2.77 1.94 1.85 1.77 1.76 1.52 1.42 1.38 1.25 1.12 1.11 1.08 0.83 0.78 0.68 0.57 0.53 0.53 0.52 0.50 0.41 0.40 0.38 0.33

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A Last Second Holiday Gift http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/a-last-second-holiday-gift/ Thu, 20 Dec 2012 13:51:27 +0000 Bill Caraher Like last year, I know many of my friends with a passion for Mediterranean archaeology and other, random bits of interesting stuff are desperately searching for last second Christmas presents. Well, you picked a perfect day to read my blog! Behold Volume 3 of the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Archive. It contains 200 blog posts from 2012 and runs to close to 350 pages and over 115, 000 words. (For those feeling nostalgic, feel free to gift [http://www.scribd.com/doc/76046493/The-Archive-Volume-2-2011] Volume 2 or [http://www.scribd.com/doc/45687170/The-Archive] Volume 1 (2007-2010)). Like last year the title page is in brilliant Futura font, but the text is now in the legible Garamond. I've replaced the table of contents in Volume 2 with an index of the 50 most popular posts (in page views per day) in Volume 3. I've also done a bit more to remove more of the web mark-up. As before, I recommend binding the print version of this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIL3fbGbU2o] in rich Corinthian leather. I can hear all my more sage friends and colleagues already pointing out to me that if I had the energy to write 100,000+ words a year, I certainly had the energy to converts that pesky dissertation into a monograph. But, the issue, as always, is fun. Converting a dissertation to a monograph is not fun. Writing a daily blog on whatever passes through my mind is. Since getting tenure, I've decided to commit 25% of my time to doing things that are fun. So my blog, creating a digital scholarly press (shhhh), Punk Archaeology are all fun. Working on a decade old dissertation that is freely available on the internets is not fun. So, share in my fun this holiday season and enjoy the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Archive: [scribd id=117493442 key=key-bb3gorh48nd3l33n5s9 mode=scroll]

Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/21/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-50/ Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:02:51 +0000 Bill Caraher It's the holiday season and the world did not end (so everyone has to finish their Christmas shopping this weekend!). On the other hand, people will also have time to read these Friday quick hits and varia. Tomorrow will be the 10th anniversary of Joe Strummer's death. In his honor, check out [http://www.npr.org/2012/12/20/167651279/joe-strummers-life-after-death] this NPR story and [http://www.openculture.com/2012/12/the_clash_live_in_tokyo_1982_watch_the_comple te_concert.html] this Clash concert from Japan in 1982. And turn up London Calling or Streetcore really loud sometime tomorrow. (And notice the parallels between Strummer and E.P. Thompson) [http://www.academia.edu/2307004/OXREP_Indo-Roman_Trade_Bibliography] A sweet bibliography on Roman trade with India (again for Strummer and Thompson). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2012/12/17/cia-officiallydenies-that-it-is-trying-to-erase-a-letter-from-the-russian-alphabet/] The CIA officially denied attempting to erase a letter in the Russian alphabet. Well, that's nice of them. [http://www.architizer.com/en_us/blog/dyn/68732/costa-concordia-wreckage-tobecome-seaside-public-space/#.UNRaW4njlRv] The coastal wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise ship will become a pretty awesome park (via [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] Richard Rothaus). More Rothausia: [http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/383413/] An unknown bidder beat out the expected victor in buying the Nekoma, N.D. Safeguard Missile complex. So we have officially scrapped our effort to buy this amazing site for the future global headquarters of [http://www.trefoilcultural.com/] Trefoil Cultural and Environmental and the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. Elsewhere in North Dakota: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/heritagerenewal/sets/72157632269025284/] Ukrainian Homestead Houses. [http://www.eh-resources.org/podcast/podcast.html] A really nice (and Australian) collection of Environmental History podcasts. For folks who followed [http://uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com/post/37809971913/indiana-jones-mysterypackage-we-dont-really] the bizarre, Indiana Jones inspired, package received by the University of Chicago admissions office, [http://uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com/post/38161122385/mischief-managed-for-thoseof-you-who-have] this is how it was resolved. !
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[http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/a-last-second-holiday-gift/] Wait, did you look at the 2012 archive already? [http://detroiturbex.com/content/schools/cass/index.html] Schools make particularly compelling subjects for abandonment porn. Consider the difference between how a closed school is commemorated on the web and [http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/20/3776210/electric-funeral-death-of-mmo] the end of virtual worlds. [http://dashes.com/anil/2012/12/the-web-we-lost.html] The web we have lost. If you haven't been reading [http://corinthianmatters.com/] Corinthian Matters recently, now is a great time to catch up and check it out. David Pettegrew has posted a ton of good stuff lately and some really useful datasets. [http://doconversations.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/metadata-101/] Dumbarton Oaks talks about Metadata. [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/12/new-highly-detailed-imagenorth-koreas-lack-electrical-infrastructure/4201/#] North Korea at night. What I'm reading: G. Bowker, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/memory-practices-in-thesciences/oclc/60776866] Memory Practices in the Sciences. MIT 2005; R. Neuwirth, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/shadow-cities-a-billion-squatters-a-new-urbanworld/oclc/55286007] Shadow Cities: a billion squatters, a new urban world. Routledge 2005. What I'm listening to: The Clash, London Calling; Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Streetcore."ChristmasCamel.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/christmascamel.jpg]"ChristmasC amel"] The Christmas Camel steals the show

Cold Walk Home http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/cold-walk-home/ Sat, 22 Dec 2012 14:26:50 +0000 Bill Caraher I like to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/reflections-on-100walks/] walk in the North Dakota cold, but it generally involves [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/what-to-wear/] preparing oneself properly. And the first walk of the year in genuinely cold weather (i.e. low single digits with blustery winds) is always colder than I think it will be. In fact, it was this cold: "ColdWalkHome.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/coldwalkhome.jpg]"ColdWalkHo me]

Aurora Borealis http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/aurora-borealis/ Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:43:05 +0000 Bill Caraher On a frigid walk home from a friend's house, watched the sky around the North Pole prepare for Santa's annual trek through the heavens. I had seen hints of the aurora borealis a few times over the past year, but never as dramatic as on Saturday night. I was not expecting to see them, so I wasn't prepared to do anything with them photographically, but I did try to capture them first with my iPhone 5 and then with a DSLR (without a tripod!). "AuroraDark.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/auroradark.jpg]"AuroraDark" width="450" height="132" border="0" /> So, on Christmas Eve when you look north, I hope the sky brings you something spectacular. "Aurora2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/aurora2.jpg]"Aurora2]

Some Cricket Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/some-cricket-archaeology/ Wed, 26 Dec 2012 15:45:45 +0000 Bill Caraher For Christmas my wife got me a set of vintage cricket stumps. While she discovered these in Brisbane, Australia (owned by [http://www.qldcricketersclub.com.au/] a member of the Queensland Cricketers' Club), they have a known provenience to near Surrey, England and date to the first decade and a half of the 20th century (if not a bit earlier). Apparently the stumps are made of hickory. [http://www.lords.org/laws-and-spirit/laws-ofcricket/laws/appendix-a,74,AR.html] They are regulation height (28 inches) and diameter (1 3/8). They flair out slightly toward the base. "StumpsALL.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stumpsall.jpg]"StumpsALL] They each have a brass cap on the top of the stump protecting the slot where the bails sat and providing a surface for them to be driven into the ground. A small brass pin secured each cap, but on this set only one pin remains. The brass caps show signs of regular pounding and the distortion of the caps matches the distortion of the hard wood at the top of the stump suggesting that these caps and stumps had been together for significant use. "StumpsTOP.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stumpstop.jpg]"StumpsTOP] The bottom of the stumps are a bit unusual in my limited knowledge. There is no evidence that they had brass tips on them to protect the end of the stumps from moisture or other damage when they were driven into the ground. There is no evidence for pins on other clamps. In contrast to the relatively elegant flaring of the shafts, the tips look pretty crude and irregular There might even be a bit of evidence for retouching of the points. "StumpTips1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stumptips1.jpg]"StumpTips1] "StumpTips2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stumptips2.jpg]"StumpTips2] Also curious was a series of semi-circular burn or clamp(?) marks on the shafts of the stumps. They are visible on the bottom stump in the first photograph and below. My working hypothesis are that these are marks made by a mallet or hammer used to remove the stump from the ground at the end of play, but perhaps someone has a better idea. "StumpMarks.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/stumpmarks.jpg]"StumpMarks] A brief surf of the interwebs has made it pretty clear that there is not a huge amount of information available about vintage cricket equipment so any additional information on these artifacts would be much appreciated. !
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Squatters http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/27/squatters/ Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:47:10 +0000 Bill Caraher [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/] Kostis Kourelis prompted my to read over [http://www.worldcat.org/title/shadow-cities-a-billion-squatters-a-new-urbanworld/oclc/55286007] Robert Neuwirth's Shadow Cities (Routledge 2005). The book deals with the various situations and conditions of squatter communities around the world. Neuwirth focuses on particular in well-known squatter settlements in Brazil, Kenya, and India as well as the less known situation around Istanbul. The strength of the book is the first 175 pages which documents anecdotally stories and conditions from these various squatter communities. The reason that Kostis recommended this book was that there are some nice parallels between life in squatter communities and life some of the man camps in the western North Dakota Bakken Range. I don't mean to suggest that the residents of the Bakken man camps are squatting, although some of our residents in Type 3 camps almost certainly are, but I think there are significant historical, architectural, and social parallels between so-called man camps and squatter settlements around the world. First, many of the squatter settlements began as camps set up to house workers who had come to participate in the emerging industrial economy. As the industrial economy retreated or changed, the workers in these camps lost their jobs, but sometimes continued to occupy the areas illegally. These illegal settlements became attractive to poor rural laborers who migrated to cities like Rio and Nairobi to find work. These settlements tend to become places of architectural innovation as the residents attempted to utilize their meager resources to the greatest effect and to build free from various codes and legal restrictions designed to protect the rights of property owners. In some areas, government regulations have limited what squatters can do architecturally, but in other places - like Brazil and India - squatters have found remarkable ways to overcome poverty and negotiate building practices that provide amenities without impinging on their rights of their equally illegal neighbors. The parallels between the ad hoc building practices and those witnessed at the most informal man camps is quite remarkable. The use of discarded objects, the methods of gaining access to electricity, water, and sewage, and creative efforts to expand the living space all have clear parallels with practices used in squatter communities around the world. Moreover, outsider attitudes toward conditions in squatter communities and camps are similar. Outsiders see these places as violent, dirty, and depressing places, whereas residents often see these settlements as places of hope and potential. More significantly, perhaps, are the efforts of squatters to negotiate their own sense of community. In almost all the communities documented by Nuerwirth, squatters valued the social relations that made it possible to achieve a sense of community, to achieve a degree of social insurance in difficult economic conditions, and to negotiate rights among property !
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holders in the absence of official state authority. The remarks by residents of [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-2/] Type 2 and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-3/] Type 3 man camps in the Bakken Oil Patch often centered around the sense of community felt in these less formal and regulated settlements and stood in contrast to how they perceived life to be in the more physically comfortable environments offered in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-1/] Type 1 camps. In fact, some of the residents of Type 2 and 3 camps explicitly remarked how they preferred their lives to life in a [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-1/] Type 1 camp. The more visible involvement of the state - or in the case of the Bakken Oil Patch - the corporate interests invested in managing the workforce there seemed to have undermined the sense of community in a way very similar to that perceived by squatters around the world. Like man camp residents, many of the squatter preferred their life in squatter communities and continued to live there even after the economic contingencies made it unnecessary. Neuwirth's book invokes a kind of anarchist political philosophy that finds in squatter settlements a kind negotiated utopia where residents paradoxically have a greater sense of ownership over the place than state regulated private property would allow. (Of course, he downplays the involvement of equally exploitative and unregulated forces like drug gangs, local strongmen, and unregulated forms of capitalism (loan sharks, utility hoarders, and others) who prey upon poverty and unequal access to coercive force, capital, and basic commodities. This same tension, of course, is visible in the man camps as price gouging, unequal access to utilities, and the invisible hand of corporate interests (and a sometimes intrusive state) constantly challenge efforts of communities to find a working balance and create their own utopias.

Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-51/ Fri, 28 Dec 2012 12:58:49 +0000 Bill Caraher It's a cold, post-Christmas day here in North Dakotaland, but it's wintertime so we didn't expect any less. I'm sitting by the fire in New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Global Headquarters and contemplated a short, but cute list of quick hits and varia. [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/opinion/sunday/the-words-and-expressions-of2012.html?hp&_r=3&] Man camp is one of the New York Times words on 2012. We'd like to think that we did our part. Along similar lines check out this [http://www.zazzle.com/real_oilfield_wives_2013_calendar-158446957345518361] Oilfield Calendar produced by a group called the [http://realoilfieldwives.com/] Real Oilfield Wives. There seems to be a little world of [http://www.drillingahead.com/group/oilfield-wives] oilfield women and [http://www.rigwives.org/index.html] rig wives on the internet. Looks like enough for a good M.A. thesis. [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/blegens-notebooks-from-korakou/] A new blogger and a nice post in Blegen's notebooks. It will only be a matter of time before Prof. Dr. Nakassis's blog get more page views than mine. It barely took [http://corinthianmatters.com/] Corinthian Matters a year. When we were in Watford City we enjoyed our stay at the [http://www.rooseveltinn.com/] Roosevelt Inn and Suites. We'll enjoy it even more now that they have [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/252287/group/homepage/] a 20 ft. tall head of Theodore Roosevelt. [http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/12/04/three-things-i-learnedthrough-teaching-a-flipped-class/] Some nice thoughts on flipping the classroom. This is classic [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] Rothausia: [http://cabel.me/2012/12/19/the-basement/] amazing juxtaposition of old and new media. [http://www.akwn.net/] News in ancient Greek. I've been lucky enough to get a bottle of [http://www.tasmaniadistillery.com.au/] Sullivans Cove Double Cask Single Malt Whiskey from the Tasmanian Distillery. It's just lovely. [http://www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/12860/description/0/0] Some good folks are making an effort to get the World Archaeology Conference 7 from Jordan online. This is a good idea, but I am not sure I can justify supporting it and paying for access. It seems like this should just be part of WACs standard operating procedure considering their interest in bringing together the global community of archaeologists.

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 Holy Crap!! [http://www.wired.com/underwire/2012/12/ff-skater-ian-rogerstopspin/all/?pid=8735] Punk's Not Dead! [http://blog.longreads.com/post/38719064937/longreads-best-of-2012-david-roth] The best longreads of 2012. I really like cricket, but [http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-sri-lanka2012/engine/current/match/573012.html] this year's Boxing Day test wasn't much fun (even though the Aussies won). Next year's will be the one that matters. Similarly: [http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/12/19/books/20favorite-bookcovers-3.html] a well-designed book cover. [http://stereopsis.com/flux/] I installed f.lux on my MacBook Pro and I really like it. It makes working early in the morning and in the evening slightly more appealing. And it's free. What I'm reading: Geoffrey C. Bowker, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/memorypractices-in-the-sciences/oclc/60776866] Memory Practices in the Sciences. (MIT 2005). What I'm listening to: Father John Misty, Fear Fun; Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory."NDSkyDec27_2012.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ndskydec27_2012.jpg]"NDSkyD ec27 2012"]

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Red Sky in the Morning... http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/red-sky-in-the-morning/ Sun, 30 Dec 2012 15:20:42 +0000 Bill Caraher The pink sky only appears for a little bit in the morning. "NDSkyDec30_2012.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ndskydec30_2012.jpg]"NDSkyD ec30 2012"]

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Archaeological Data and Small Projects: A Draft http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/archaeological-data-and-smallprojects-a-draft/ Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:44:28 +0000 Bill Caraher I have completed a draft of my paper, "Archaeological Data and Small Projects: A Case Study from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project" for the Archaeological Institute of America's annual meeting later this week. I have [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/small-archaeologicalprojects-and-the-social-context-of-their-data/] blogged on this already and circulated the draft for feedback from some remarkable co-authors and colleagues. As they will undoubtedly notice, I took some of their advice and ignored some of it. Most of the advice I ignored was not because it was bad, but because it involved too substantial a reworking of my paper. As per usual in my papers, I try to do too many things here. 1. I attempt to offer a very abbreviated "sociology" of the data collection processes and decision making from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. 2. In a cursory way, I attempted to define small and large archaeological projects based on their access to resources, and, then argue that these resources shape the way that these projects use technology. 3. I attempt to hint at the impact our technologies and data structures had on the kinds of analysis we can produce, but I also leave certain questions open. For example, I recognize the tension between the need for data standards and the potential false hope that highly standardized datasets can offer scholars interested in comparative analysis between projects. These three goals would probably be difficult to carry out in a 10,000 word article, much less a 2,000 word conference paper (and a longer version of this paper is already floating around in my head). On the other hand, this paper does serve as an interesting short exploration of these ideas, and I suppose that's the beauty of a conference paper (especially one given in the last session of a conference when most participants have departed!). Enjoy: [scribd id=118489192 key=key-2fnlybkajoerw77jrgpj mode=scroll]

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Happy New Year http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/happy-new-year/ Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:23:41 +0000 Bill Caraher For those of you interested in this kind of thing, here's a link to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/annual-report/] the annual report generated by Wordpress.com. 31,000 views and 230 posts isn't too bad, but the dearth of comments is always disappointing. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year!

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First Walk of the Year http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/01/first-walk-of-the-year/ Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:07:11 +0000 Bill Caraher The first day of the year is one of those brilliant North Dakota winter days. The weather was mild and the sky was crystal blue. "NoDakSky_01_2013_1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nodaksky_01_2013_1.jpg]"NoD akSky 01 2013 1" There is an odd stretch of Belmont Avenue where the trees switch from the berm between the road and the sidewalk to inside the sidewalk. I have no idea why this is. The trees are mature and the same size as the trees on the berm; so it's hard to imagine that they date to before or after the other trees on Belmont. "NoDakSky_01_2013_2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nodaksky_01_2013_2.jpg]"NoD akSky 01 2013 2"]

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Late Roman Peasants http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/late-roman-peasants/ Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:23:35 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the best things about the holiday break is that I can make a small dent in my almost endless reading list. First on this list was [http://www.worldcat.org/title/constructingcommunities-in-the-late-roman-countryside/oclc/710044987] Cam Grey's Constructing Communities in the Late Roman Countryside (Cambridge 2011). This book continued a useful trend in the study of Late Antiquity by investigating economically marginal groups that scholars have traditionally overlooked. Grey studies the peasant to build a picture of rural communities during the Late Antique era. This not only resonates with longstanding interests in peasants (particularly among British Marxists) as transhistorical phenomenon, but also with the traditional questions that focus on the fate of the countryside (and by extension the economy) in Late Antiquity. Rather than emphasizing the rural basis for, say, the Late Roman economy, however, Grey explored the forms of social relationships formed by peasants (as agents!) in Late Antiquity. As an aside, Grey's book continued along a path first hacked out by T. Gallant in his [http://www.worldcat.org/title/risk-and-survival-in-ancient-greece-reconstructing-the-ruraldomestic-economy/oclc/24088070] Risk and Survival in Ancient Greece (Stanford 1991). This is one of my favorite books on ancient Greece and it works to bring together textual and archaeological evidence with global conversations about peasants in the contemporary world. While Gallant's work is more theoretically explicit, Grey's work continues on the trajectory that Gallant set out by looking at the complex set of social relationships that helped to manage risk and survival in the ancient world. This book has been out for long enough to generate some nice reviews, so I won't add my meager musings to this chorus, but I will offer a few little observations: 1. Texts. Archaeologists usually imagine that their methods provide the key to understanding the non-elites in the premodern world. Grey's book is unapologetically historical and uses textual sources in new ways to sketch out a picture of the Late Roman peasant. In some cases, he does this by reading against the grain of traditional elite sources; in other cases, he uses the remarkable archive of papyrus sources from the Egyptian desert. (As a small critique, it does feel like he sometimes relies quite heavily on a small number of particularly robust papyrological sources). His approach to these texts is sensitive to genre, authorship, and regional variation. The last of these is particularly significant in that he is sensitive to the differences in peasant relations in the East and West. 2. Resistance. The elite bias of most of our primary sources and the historical interest in institutions over individuals has made the search for non-elite resistance in Late Antiquity difficult. Grey does not provide revolutionary insights into the practices of peasant resistance, but does begin the difficult process of reconsidering elite sources by looking for ways in which dominance implies resistance, for the use of encoded transgressive acts (like demonic possession), and for the subtle negotiations that not only bond peasants to the elite, but also underscore the peasant's role in creating their place within Late Roman society. !
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3. The Church and the Poor. One of Grey's most valuable contributions was his effort to understand the role of the church in caring for the rural poor. He argues that the church was far more interested in helping individuals who had encountered a rapid change in wealth than those who permanently situated near the bottom of the economic system. This coincides well with the role of most institutions in the premodern world which were far better at providing momentary redress in a crisis than producing policies designed to redistribute wealth or mitigate endemic economical inequality. Grey's book continues to open new perspectives on the life of the rural poor and the structure of rural society in the later Roman world. As archaeologists [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/even-more-on-peasants/] like Kim Bowes who is also at Penn - develop more refined techniques and a growing interest in life in the countryside, Grey's excavation of textual sources represents valuable complement (and surely at times a challenge) to a view of the ancient countryside fixated on postholes and pot sherds.

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Some More Thoughts on Digital History http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/2382/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 11:00:43 +0000 Bill Caraher [http://aia.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10489&action=display&sid=7G ] Our panel yesterday on Managing Archaeological Data in a Digital Age was really nice. There was an engaged audience and a diverse but cohesive group of papers. What more could you want for a panel on the final day of the conference? I wont bother to sum up the paper in part because they should be made available before too long on the Youtubes or similar. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/archaeological-data-and-smallprojects-a-draft/] My paper is available here, but I tweaked in a bit so itll read differently from how it was delivered. The panel and drinks afterward got me to think about how we organize our efforts in digital archaeology. It seems to me that our efforts are focusing more and more on four areas. 1. Digital Data Collection in the Field. This involves collecting digital data at the edge of the trench and involves applications, technologies, and methods designed to streamline the production of digital archaeological data in the field. This involves work using the iPad or other tablets, developing mobile applications, and efforts to deploy GIS, databases, and image catalogues in the field. Some of the most interesting and useful conversations at [http://paperlessarchaeology.com/] Paperless Archaeology revolve around these applications. 2. Analysis Tools. Once data comes in from the field, a growing tool kit of sophisticated digital tools have emerged to analyze and process this data. Relational databases and GIS are the best examples of this group of digital tools. There are also, however, a small, but influential new group of web-based tools designed to facilitate collaboration, transcription and translation of legacy data, and the organization of new data sets using tags and linked data. These new tools - often powered by robust and clear graphic interfaces - bridge the gap between the team work to produce archaeological information in the field and the sometimes solitary work of archaeological publication. By opening archaeological data to an easy to use, collaborative space, projects can bring more participants into the data analysis and interpretive process. 3. Digital Publication. Digital publishing is a major trend across all areas of academic production. Archaeological data, however, has only just begun to find scholarly outlets where robust, digital data sets can appear. [http://opencontext.org/] Open Context is the obvious example of a venue that presents peer-reviewed digital data to the public. It seems likely that other venues will follow as the need to have a public, critical repository for digital data continues to attract attention. The ability to link to this data generally or even specific records makes this kind of digital space particularly valuable for projects who are looking to allow readers to drill down into their data from print or other online publications. !
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4. Digital Archives. Digital represent long term and sometimes cold storage for digital archaeological data. In many cases, projects cannot link to specific records in the data and the priority is long term archiving of the digital material rather than dissemination or, even, publication. The advantage of these services is that they often have funding and infrastructure models which look toward sustainability and ongoing curation to keep the data in accessible and archival standard formats. The value of this four part division of digital archaeology work is not to propose a typology that pigeon-holes the flexible and innovative approaches to archaeological information that seem to be intrinsic in digital archaeology at present, but to suggest that these emerging patterns provide a way to understand the how archaeologists conceptualize their digital workflow. There is no doubt that the boundaries of various steps within a digital workflows will continue to be more fluid than more traditional archaeological work patterns (with, for example, a rather rigid division between field and lab), and I imagine that digital archaeologists will continue to chase the potential utopia of an smoothly integrated digital work. On the other hand, even digital practices involve a series of strategic compromises. It is not clear, for example, that an archival service like [http://www.tdar.org/] tDAR could provide as robust and sophisticated an interface for digital publication as Open Context, but these two services are not mutually exclusive. Moreover, a nice interface for, digitizing legacy data might not be suitable for collecting data in the field or suitable for digital publications or archiving. As the field of digital archaeology continues to develop, I suspect that we will continue to see more easily defined projects that correspond to regularized and recognizable patterns in projects digital workflow. Understanding how the innovation in Digital Archaeology patterns provides insights into how future tools will develop and archaeological practices restructures itself in the digital age.

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The Semester of Drafts http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/08/the-semester-of-drafts/ Tue, 08 Jan 2013 12:54:09 +0000 Bill Caraher One thing that I can quite get over is how reluctant students are to share work in progress. Of course, some of this can carry over to academic culture in the humanities where sharing drafts (even as "working papers") has been received quite unevenly. The idea that one's intellectual processes should somehow remain secret seems to derive from ideas that exposing how the wizard works will either let the good ideas fly away before they are "all growed up" or result in embarrassment when people realize that brilliance does not spring fully formed from a scholar's mind. For professionals, it is ultimately a personal and professional decision whether to share a draft or not. For students, however, reluctance to share work in progress makes it difficult to evaluate, influence, and understand the work processes. In my experiences, most students experience difficulties related to their work flow and organization. These are largely issues of process not product. Teaching in our fancy [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] Scale-up classroom, I hope to have unique opportunity to access student processes, but creating an environment where students work on their own, in small groups, and in larger groups. Getting students to offer their initial thoughts to a prompt individually before asking them to synthesize these ideas with their peers will encourage the students to see the intellectual process as both collaborative and iterative. Their first efforts to address a prompt, engage a question, or consider a problem will of necessity be drafts. As [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/teaching-thursday-the-scaleup-classroom-and-docile-minds/] I have noted on this blog, the idea of prying into the learning process of students finds inspiration from Foucault's and Bentham's panopticon. Observing and parsing the learning process at ever smaller intervals also has parallels with industrialization as craft production models gave way to finely managed workflows. My Scale-up class - with its emphasis on collaborative work, finely parsed workflows, and decentered learning - follows patterns known from the emerging (post)-industrial, information economy where knowledge and creativity (or the more highly vaunted "critical thinking") has become a corporate commodity.

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Lessons from my First Class in the Scale-Up Classroom http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/lessons-from-my-first-class-in-thescale-up-classroom/ Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:08:03 +0000 Bill Caraher Last night I survived my first class in our brand-new, [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] Scale-up classroom here at the University of North Dakota. The first night of my 2 hour and 20 minute evening class introduced students to the syllabus, the room, and the basic format of my class. As I have noted earlier, this new classroom features 20, 9 person table each with a connection to a large, flat-screen monitor and three laptops. There is no podium to facilitate lecture and even if their was most students in the room face one another not the professor. This room organization supports a decentered teaching environment for a large class (180 students). As most Scale-Up classes, my course will focus on group work focused on the table or smaller pods of three students (i.e. 3 pods to a table of 9 oriented around a computer). My assignment for the first day began with individual student work. I asked each student to make up a list of 10 rules or laws to structure a community of 9 castaways on a desert island. The 9 castaways have a bag of seeds, a hatchet, and a copy of the Beatles "White Album". Each day, 6 of the 9 castaways had to do agricultural work for the group to survive. I then asked the students to share these rules with their pod and come up with a composite list of 10 rules or laws. Then they were asked to synthesize these lists into a list of 10 rules for the table. The practical goal of this exercise was to get the student familiar with the structure of the class where I will move regularly from individual work, to pod work, to table work. The learning goal was more complex. Thinking about a desert island was the first step in getting students to reflect on how extremely limited resources impacted life in preindustrial societies. The reading for week 2 develops these ideas more systematically. After my first class in the Scale-Up classroom I can offer several observations and concerns: 1. Individuals took longer to complete their list (20 minutes) than it took for the pods to produce a common list of 10 rules (approx. 15 minutes). It took even less time for the tables to produce a common list of rules (12-15 minutes). This is a bit ironic for me because the purpose of individual work was the prepare students to contribute to their pods and tables. In effect, the preparatory work will take longer than the "real work". 2. While it will be easy enough to organize the class to give extra time for students to complete their individual in-class work, it will be more difficult to adjust the class for the reality that some students and groups took longer than others to complete the short projects. The predictable occurred with some groups getting bored and loud while other groups struggled with their work. As the course goes on and students begin the larger project slated to take up the final 60% of the class, I can tell groups who complete their work faster to work on their larger project. For now, however, I think I just need to remind groups who are done their work to be patient.

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3. When I designed the class, I had this idea that my T.A. could grade the individual in-class writing assignments very quickly during class time. These assignments were generally going to be simple in structure and content making them easy to grade efficiently. Rather than taking my very able T.A. 10 minutes to grade this first short assignment, it took him about 30 minutes to grade the list of 10 rules for the desert island on 5 point scale. So I need to factor this into my grade on the fly philosophy. 4. Using the room's technology is simple and intuitive. I was concerned that it would be difficult to get the myriad of monitors (20!) and digital projectors (4) to work in a concerted way. It took my T.A. and I about 15 minutes to figure out how to use the room in a basic way meaning that we have more than enough time over the next few weeks to do bizarre and exciting things in the room. 5. The room is loud. I don't like wearing a microphone, but it quickly became clear that I needed to do this to be heard in every corner of the room. Moreover, students needed to use the microphone to be heard by the other groups. More problematically, however, when all the groups were working on their projects, the room became loud. It wasn't loud like a Who concert, but a din filled the room that I found pretty distracting. I need to admit that I live and work in a bubble where I control the sounds that fill my space. I wonder how I would function intellectually and academically in a room filled with noise? So, my first day in the Scale-Up room was moderately successful. The students compiled interesting lists of rules and kept me entertained and impressed. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] I'll keep the world up to date on my adventures right here as the semester moves along.

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Intensive Survey and Byzantine Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/intensive-survey-and-byzantinearchaeology/ Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:02:22 +0000 Bill Caraher This spring I'm contributing to a symposium put on by Dumbarton Oaks on archaeological survey and Byzantine archaeology and history. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/byzantine-survey-archaeologylooking-across-chronological-boundaries/] I've been asked to talk about how Byzantine archaeologists have looked across chronological barriers in the context of survey. I decided to begin with Timothy Gregory's 1986 article in Byzantine Studies/Etudes byzantines titled "Intensive Survey and its Place in Byzantine Archaeology". The article made the case for the value of intensive survey in Byzantine archaeology with particular attention to the value of intensive survey methods in documenting the Byzantine countryside, examining the archaeology of regions, and identifying sites that usually do not attract the attention of the excavators of monumental or urban remains. As Gregory notes throughout this seminal, if idiosyncratic, article is that intensive survey has the potential to expand our knowledge of Byzantine society beyond the limits imposed by knowledge derived from the study of churches, fortifications, and urban areas. More importantly for my purposes, however, the methods associated with intensive survey located Byzantine archaeology within a broader diachronic landscape. Even though the earliest intensive survey projects, as Gregory noted, like the Minnesota Messenia Expedition, focused on particular problems and periods, they recovered and made efforts to analyze objects and features of any period in their survey area. With the MME, for example, which was designed to study the Mycenaean landscape of the southwest Peloponnesus, understanding the distribution of Byzantine material was a peripheral concern, and, as a result, the authors relegated the study of the period to a section dedicated generically to medieval pottery. More recent projects, however, have paid greater attention to the Byzantine pottery. The highly influential heirs to the MME project - the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project and the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project - both included specialists in the Byzantine period; the former will have a volume dedicated to the Medieval period and the latter has received significant attention at the hands of Sharon Gerstel. Joanita Vroom has studied the Byzantine and later periods for the major surveys in Boeotia by John Bintliff and Anthony Snodgrass. While none of these projects focused explicitly on the Byzantine or Medieval period, their directors became known for their wide range of serious archaeological interest. So it is hardly fair to suggest that the prehistoric specialities of the directors of PRAP and NVAP and the various Cambridge/Bradford/Leiden projects limited how much we could learn about the Byzantine period in their survey areas. At the same time, these excavated sites that provided stratigraphic and conceptual anchors for these projects tended to be prehistoric or Classical in date (e.g. Pylos or Nemea), and, as a result, Byzantine archaeology represented an epiphenomenal aspect to the brilliant second wave survey projects on

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mainland Greece. The longstanding emphasis among scholars and funding bodies on the Classical and Bronze Age periods in Greece accounts for this bias as much as anything. Its somehow poetic to suppose that the chronologically peripheral status of Byzantine material in the major survey projects resulted in a loss of resolution, the same way that the edges of our vision tend to be less clearly defined. We lack nuanced chronologies for most classes of Byzantine ceramics and we know almost nothing about local utility and cooking wares. As a result we can discuss the post-classical period in only relatively imprecise ways when we encounter this material in unstratified conditions on the surface of the ground. The chronological difficulties extend in some cases to our ability to date standing monuments outside of urban centers or without epigraphical or textual evidence. Moreover, churches and fortification frequently enjoyed long periods of continued use, modification, and upkeep from the Byzantine period into later ages making it even more difficult to isolate a monument as Byzantine or Ottoman or even Early Modern in date. Chronological ambiguity in Byzantine material culture and the peripheral relationship of Byzantine archaeology to the core interest of many of the most influential survey archaeology projects have combined to associate Byzantine material with a broader category of material dated coarsely to the post-ancient or "Medieval-Modern" age. The result of this combination of chronological ambiguity is an equally ambiguous engagement with material from the Byzantine period. This creates some particularly difficulties with how intensive survey has informed Byzantine history and archaeology more broadly. As Gregory recognized some 25 years ago, many of the key issues in Byzantine history require that we understand how settlements and land use patterns change through time. As Guy Sanders and others have shown, the shifting sands of ceramic chronology have often made even the most widespread and widely accepted changes in settlement - like the transformation of Greece over the course of the so-called Byzantine Dark Ages - difficult to discern in the surface record. We have made little progress in understanding later, more subtle, or more local shifts in settlement or land use. The problems with our understanding of Byzantine material culture especially in a rural context has led archaeologists to consider Byzantine material as part of a longer chronological period and contributing to how we understand trends associated with the longue dure rather than more particular historic events. Disentangling the Byzantine from these longstanding habits of analysis will require both refining our ability to recognize material in field and shifting how we understand the post-Classical landscape. Over the next 6 weeks or so, I'm going to continue to work on this paper and these ideas and bring in more specific examples from survey literature. What you see here is just a preliminary sounding. Stay tuned.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-52/ Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:45:58 +0000 Bill Caraher It's a winter-weather day here in North Dakotaland, but the fireplace is going in New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World and my laptop is keeping my lap toasty warm. So there seems to be nothing better to do right now than for me to prepare and you to read a little list of quick hits and varia. On the top of everyone's list this week is the story of the remarkable finds at Byzantine Myra in Turkey. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/08/science/under-turkish-mud-wellpreserved-byzantine-chapel.html] The coverage in the New York Times is well-worth using one of your 10 free articles to read. Any excitement over the Byzantine period in the popular media is great. Let's hope that this interest extends to sites with well-preserved foundations immediately beneath the plow zone! Keeping in Byzantine times: thanks to [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2013/01/polispectoral-crosses.html] Kostis Kourelis for the kind words on my work with Amy Papalexandrou in the Polis: City of Gold exhibition catalogue. Lots of fun stuff with maps this week. First, [http://kottke.org/13/01/extremetemperatures-force-new-color-code-for-weather-map] Australian Bureau of Meteorology had to use a new color on their maps to indicate temperatures over 50 degrees C. My wife has family in Alice Springs and they confirmed several days of over 50 degree C weather. The need for a new color on the maps smacks a bit of "this amp goes to 11", though. We also saw maps of [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/01/07/asurprising-map-of-the-best-and-worst-countries-to-be-born-into-today/] the best places to be born and, in some ways the opposite, [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/01/08/lynching_map_tuskegee_institute_s_ data_on_lynching_from_1900_1931.html] a vintage maps of 20th century lynchings in the U.S. [http://worldmap.harvard.edu/] Here's a link to Harvard's WorldMap project. It's pretty cool and I'm very tempted to use it, rather than Google Earth, in my History 101 class this semester. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzU9-ZpNYgc] The Running of the Classicists. If people don't quite understand what hockey is like here in North Dakotaland, [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nhl/news/20121214/north-dakota-hockey/] they should read this article. More North Dakotiana: [http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/01/10/168972151/the-north-dakota-townwhere-a-one-bedroom-apartment-rents-for-2-100-a-month] How much does a one-bedroom apparent rent for in Williston? For more on the North Dakota Oil Patch, check out [http://blackgoldboom.com/] Black Gold Boom.

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 Apparently, [http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/01/why-teacherssecretly-hate-grading-papers/266931/] this author thinks that teachers "secretly hate grading". Most of us openly hate grading and some most of the reasons that the author noted, but since most of us understand these things, the onus is more or less on us to create assignments and a classroom culture to mitigate these factors. [http://corinthianmatters.com/2013/01/07/corinthian-matters-ages/] Corinthian Matters turned 3 years old this month and has celebrated that landmark with a nice group of interesting posts. Of particular note is [http://corinthianmatters.com/2013/01/09/information-fluency-and-digital-history/] David Pettegrew's Digital History syllabus. At last weeks, AIA/APA annual meeting, digital humanities was described as an intervention caused by the temporary crisis of the digital world. I wonder whether David's syllabus marks a turning point in the place of digital technology in ancient history and archaeology. David is as smart as they come in Mediterranean Archaeology, but he is not someone with a singular interest in digital practices. His teaching of a digital history course shows that certain barriers have lifted. We are all digital historians and archaeologists now. The Modern Language Association meeting (as well as the American History Association meeting) takes place this time of year and that means a bumper crop of digital humanities musings. I have read or discovered them all, but [http://nowviskie.org/2013/resistance-inthe-materials/] I like Bethany Nowvisikie's paper. What I'm reading: K. Sessa, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/formation-of-papal-authorityin-late-antique-italy-roman-bishops-and-the-domestic-sphere/oclc/727126711] The formation of papal authority in late antique Italy : Roman bishops and the domestic sphere. Berkeley 2012. What I'm listening to: [http://kishibashi.bandcamp.com/] Kishi Bashi, 151a; Father John Misty, Fear Fun. "SmithBuilding.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/smithbuilding.jpg]"SmithBuildin g"] Smith Tower, Seattle

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Images of a Dream Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/images-of-a-dream-archaeology/ Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:08:47 +0000 Bill Caraher I was looking for a photograph to include with a little blurb on a talk that I am going to give at my alma mater, the University of Richmond. I came across this photo that I took in the Ligurian Alps with my buddy Mike Fronda. I though it would work for that paper. "Dream_Archaeology.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/dream_archaeology.jpg]"Dream Archaeology" The other option is this photo of the Early Christian basilica perched above the site of Nemea. "NewImage.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/newimage.png]"NewImage"

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Regional Survey and Byzantium http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/regional-survey-and-byzantium/ Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:38:19 +0000 Bill Caraher Last week, I wrote a bit about Timothy Gregory's 1986 article in Byzantine Studies/Etudes byzantines titled Intensive Survey and its Place in Byzantine Archaeology. Some 7 years earlier, however, in the same journal John Rosser offered similar thoughts in an article titled "A Research Strategy for Byzantine Archaeology". In this article, Rosser suggests that Byzantine archaeology (1) needed "an overall research strategy, and (2) had to begin to address issues the difficult relationship between text and material culture. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that neither of these issues have been resolved to everyone's satisfaction almost 35 years after Rosser's call to arms. First, the current diversity of Byzantine archaeology is perhaps not a liability. Scholars from the U.S. at least, who tend to have less institutional coherence than scholars in other countries, have continued to look toward urban excavations to shed light on Byzantine culture, have worked to document traditional objects of interest in Byzantine studies namely churches and monasteries, and have pioneered the use of intensive pedestrian survey to document shifting patterns of settlement and land use in the Byzantine era. In short, despite very recent efforts to consolidate conversations among Byzantine archaeologists under the generous auspices of Dumbarton Oaks, Byzantine archaeology in the U.S. has remained refreshingly and frustratingly diverse. Second, Byzantine archaeology [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/text-and-archaeology-in-thegreek-world/] like much archaeology in the Mediterranean world - still struggles to escape the long shadow of our textual records. Rosser makes clear his attitudes. He calls for archaeologists to devise strategies to interpret how Byzantine society organized land as the basis for an agrarian history of the Byzantine era. Questions of land tenure have particular significance for understanding whether the Byzantine period marked a significant break with the economic structures of the ancient world. Rosser regarded "the greatest contributions Byzantine archaeology can hope to make" to be "in the area of demographic, social, and economic history" (p. 157). By expanding what we know about land use and its impact on demography and the economy, Byzantine archaeologists and historians would begin to address the question of whether the so-called end of the ancient world was an economic event or more properly tied to culture, religion, or political changes. We might also attempt to understand why the eastern and western Mediterranean developed along such different trajectories. To do this, Rosser calls for more sophisticated approaches to regional level survey and, like Gregory, cited the influential Minnesota Messenia Expedition. The MME took as the basic unit of study the region, sought to explore the relationship between its inhabitants and their natural environment through time, and drew upon an interdisciplinary team of scholars to document change through time. The latter ensured that the project recognized the structure of the landscape and to some extent settlement and land use to reflect longterm patterns of

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local resources exploitation on the regional level. As a result, Rosser can commend the MME for their use of both Linear B and Venetian records for understanding the structure of settlement through time. Rosser's grounded his call for a Byzantine archaeology in an appreciation for how diachronic survey can impose longterm structure on the countryside. By allowing texts and material culture from all periods to contribute to an understanding of how resources shaped settlement, the first wave of regional surveys created an approach where Byzantine archaeology could be freed from its dependence on contemporary texts and construct a model landscape that informs how we understand agrarian change in the Byzantine era. This review of a 35 year old article is mostly an academic exercise (and a reminder of this article's existence since Byzantine Studies/Etudes byzantines is not in Jstor or other major online databases). But it informs a talk that I'll deliver at a Dumbarton Oak's symposium in March on survey archaeology and Byzantine studies. Looking back to Tim Gregory's and John Rosser's articles from the late 70s and mid-1980s contextualizes a larger discussion the place of regional and intensive survey in Byzantine archaeology and raises the questions whether we have responded to Gregory's and Rosser's call for a new direction in Byzantine archaeology and how have our perspectives on the potential of intensive survey have changed since the time of these articles.

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A Very Short Introduction to Late Antiquity http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/a-very-short-introduction-to-lateantiquity/ Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:08:53 +0000 Bill Caraher I am teaching a very small readings course to a couple of very advanced students this semester. The readings focus on the archaeology and society of Late Antiquity. To supplement readings by the usual suspects (Peter Brown and his cadre of ambitious and competent students), I added G. Clarke's new [http://www.worldcat.org/title/lateantiquity-a-very-short-introduction/oclc/663438382] Late Antiquity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford 2011. It's an odd little book full of good things and interesting omission. The oddest thing about the book is the almost total absence of any discussion of archaeology, material culture, or art. This is particularly odd for a book on Late Antiquity because [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8365.00326/abstract] Late Antiquity as a period originated in the study of ancient art and architecture. Scholars like Riegl and Strzygowski saw the art of the 4th-7th century as debased forms of art dating to the Greek and Roman past (much the same way as Hellenistic art represented debased forms of the Classical). Some of this critique was formal, but it is impossible to separate the formal from the social, political, and ideological. So, the absence of any sustained discussion of Late Antique art, architecture, or material culture stuck me as quite odd. What makes this even more odd is that archaeology has played an immense role in discussions surrounding the many of the characteristic events of Late Antiquity. The conversion of temples to churches, for example, is central issue on the conversion of the Mediterranean to Christianity and impossible to understand without recourse to archaeological evidence. Clarke barely touched upon this phenomenon, and when she did, she drew upon textual sources like Jerome to support her view of the gradual abandonment of pagan cult, but the preservation of temples as a kind of architectural heritage. Not only does archaeological evidence provide a more nuanced perspective on this issue with temple conversions, neglect, and preservation in a range of contexts, but it also gives voice to practices and people who lived outside of the purview of elite textual production. Clarke likewise omits any substantial discussion of urban change. Like the conversion of temples, urban change has represented a key contributor to our definition of Late Antiquity. Scholars have long debated whether the social and architectural transformation of cities marked a "decline" of certain civic virtues associated with the ancient world. This is more than merely ideological bickering, but depends upon how we understand the structure of society and its manifestation in the character of the urban fabric. Understanding urban change, then, becomes a central point to any discussion of how and whether Late Antiquity is distinct from its Classical antecedents. It is a short book by definition and design, so I can overlook that Clarke does not delve into the recent and significant debates surrounding Late Antique trade and production. One does wonder, however, whether discussion of the date and distribution of certain classes of !
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ceramics could well inform a more robust definition and understanding of this important and difficult period. For example, if fine ware produced on Cyprus continued to circulate into the 8th century, perhaps the Mediterranean persisted as a coherent cultural zone much later than scholars have tended to expect. This has an impact on when and whether we see the fragmentation of the Mediterranean world as a hallmark of the end of antiquity and first steps in the development of distinct and independent cultural zones. These critiques aside, the book does offer a decent overview of the major textual traditions and historical debates central to the study of the Late Antique world. It will offer relatively little to the scholar, but for a student, the length of the book, its accessible language, and its accessibility for critique make this a useful contribution to a growing list of books available to introduce Late Antiquity to both students and the general public. It will best serve as a complement to books like [http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-the-later-romanempire-ad-284-641-the-transformation-of-the-ancient-world/oclc/62732669] Stephen Mitchell's which ground the period in a more robust discussion of material culture.

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More thoughts on the Scale-Up Classroom http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/more-thoughts-on-the-scale-upclassroom/ Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:15:26 +0000 Bill Caraher Last night I had my second class meeting in the brilliant new [http://und.edu/scaleup/index.cfm] Scale-Up classroom, and I think that I finally get what people are talking about. (I also realize that admitting this after my second class risks hubris!). At one point, my T.A. and I observed that well over half the class was meaningfully engaged in examining texts and making arguments. For a 150+ person 100-level history course this was pretty remarkable. ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] For more on my experience with this room read these posts, here.) Despite the first flush of success, I am still a novice in using this classroom. So my schedule from last night had a "training wheels" feeling to it. It was composed of four parts: a short diagnostic quiz (20 minutes), a short (30 minute) lecture, a list-building assignment done by the "pods" of three students (25 minutes), and a writing assignment for each table of 9 students (20 minutes). This schedule seemed to work well for the class, but I have discovered some new challenges. "Scale-UP.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/scaleup.jpg]"Scale UP" width="450" height="199" border="0" /> 1. Getting the Class to Calm Down. When I first entered the room, I was greeted by a remarkable din this evening. Maybe the myriad tvs invoke a sports bar or students really found my pre-class music choices inspiring, or maybe it was the large roundtables that make the room look like an old college dining hall. Whatever the reason, it was energizing right up the point when we had to get down to business. Then, I couldn't make the din stop. This was a problem because the first exercise of the night was a short, individual quiz. Even after telling the students to work quietly on their quiz, I found that some students were still chatting about the readings and generally ignoring the exercise. This is really quite unusual, but I suspect the architecture of the class which directs student toward one another and away from a single source of authority makes it more difficult to get their attention. 2. Timing Exercises. Last week, [http://joeljonientz.com/] a colleague with more experience organizing student group work suggested that I introduce formal time limits to various group exercises. This had good results. In general the pods finished around the same time; most completed the 20 minute assignment in about 25 minutes. The larger groups were able to produce a substantial text from the outlines produced by the pods after about 20-25 minutes. I do feel like the set up of the room and the class led to more wasted minutes than a traditional classroom and this is becoming a concern to me. While I expect the students will become more familiar with the routine soon enough (and I recognize that I will have to !

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change up the routine some to prevent smarter students from discovering ways to game the system). As I noted in my first point, simply getting their attention away from group work took time as did the required set up and wrap up of in class exercises. In a one day a week class that is already shorter than the standard day-time class, this is a particular difficult. At UND a night class is 10 minutes shorter than a standard 50 minute, 3 days a week class; as result, we lose a week of the semester from the start. Each additional 10 minute delay per class sacrifices another week of the semester. 3. Letting Students Teach Students. On the second day of class, I had to figure out a way to accommodate around 20 late adds to the course. My first move was to seed them in groups to replace students who had dropped. I then told the groups to bring them up to speed on the mechanics of the class. For about 20 minutes, I figured "that was that", but after some additional reflection I decided to do a more proper introduction to the class during a short break. Maybe this was unnecessary, but it make me feel more part of the process of my own course. Maybe I just needed to feel my own authority after the somewhat rambunctious start. 4. Stopping the Class. Once the students started on their pod-level work, I began to get the same questions over and over from groups around the room. So I stopped the class and addressed these issues to the group as a whole. It took a few minutes to get the students' attention (see above), but once I did, it was easy enough to iron out difficulties with the assignment. 5. Accepting Unconventional Outcomes. Once I stopped the class, I realized that I have to use this amazing ability (supported by the cordless microphone!) sparingly. I think that I'm going to get some unconventional outcomes in this class, and I need to develop more flexibility to my expectations. Moving from group to group reminded me of archaeological fieldwork where most of my job as project director involved moving from trench to trench, trouble shooting problems, and assessing progress. After a few exhausting days in the field, I came to realize (with my more experienced co-directors) that we have to let our trench supervisors and excavators do their jobs, make some mistakes, and come up with their own interpretations and analyses. Short of digging every trench all the time (and knowing what is under the surface), archaeology has taught be that I can't control all the variables. With a room of 150+ students with varying degrees of ability and preparation, I need to get better at accepting a range of valid outcomes in the course both in terms of the approaches to material and the knowledge produced. I have just a few more reflections to offer, none of which may mean anything: At one point, when the battery in the cordless microphone died, I simple used my "outdoor voice" to get the class's attention. The class immediately fell silent. I attribute this to my voice clearly emitting from my body. With the cordless mic, it usually took then a minute or so to focus on my disembodied voice droning from speakers in the ceiling. Water reaches its own level in most of the groups where I have already observed certain individuals taking on leadership roles. It is striking to see how quickly students have adapted to the classroom and the assignments. I wonder if the instability and variety in undergraduate teaching methods has made students more flexible in their expectations.

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A Few Thoughts on Open Access in Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/a-few-thoughts-on-open-access-inarchaeology/ Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:00:35 +0000 Bill Caraher The death of Aaron Swartz this past week has pushed scholars have once again to think about the limitations placed on the publication and dissemination of their labors. [http://asorblog.org/?p=3829] Eric Kansa has published a nice post on ASOR's blog that framed the discussion of the dissemination of archaeological data in ethical terms. In this post he offers a link to a pre-print of an article that appeared in December in [http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rwar20/44/4] World Archaeology titled: " [http://alexandriaarchive.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/Kansa-Open-ArchaeologySelf-Archive-Draft.pdf] Openness and Archaeology's Information Ecosystem." This article represents one of the best summaries of issues involving Open Access and Open Data in archaeology and should be a must read for any project director or archaeologist who thinks seriously about how they will make the results of their fieldwork available to the public. For those of you who don't know him, Eric Kansa is the PI of Open Context and Open Access/Open Data project for archaeological information. It is probably safe to say that his resource provides the most sophisticated interface for the peer-reviewed publication of digital archaeological data. So he has significant credibility in this conversation. I encourage you to go and read the article, but he makes a few points that are so central to understanding the landscape of Open Access archaeological publications. 1. He decouples critiques of Open Access from critiques of peer review. Open Access has nothing to do with peer review; it has to do with how individuals access the content produced by peer review. This is something that many scholars do not quite seem to understand (including the esteemed president of the Archaeological Institute of America), and this is ironic since paying for access to a journal is not necessary to ensure peer review which (as I have discovered sometimes painfully this year) paid for in the sweat of individual peer reviewers. The absence of a highly-ranked peer-reviewed, Open Access journal in Mediterranean archaeology is deeply problematic especially as this discipline is backed by strong institutions who could make this project happen. (As an aside, it is interesting to note that the rankings that Kansa cites in his article are maintained by Thompson-Reuters a forprofit publisher that is almost certainly part of the problem.) 2. He notes that with the ongoing academic diaspora and the growing number of scholars who work outside of academia or at institutions with limited access to research resources, access to resources has become a vital issue in the continued development of our field. In the past, the infrastructure of book and journal publishing was expensive and this limited the distribution of knowledge. Today, however, the cost of publishing is rapidly declining toward zero and limits on the dissemination of knowledge rest at least in part with the profit motives of large companies.

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3. Preserving the past. Restrictions on access to scholarly materials not only limits the dissemination of knowledge, but often can prevent libraries from archiving scholarly publications which are only available through subscription access. As library resource fluctuate through time, this is a particularly precarious situation in which libraries are forced to depend on the continued good will and health of the for-profit content providers. If knowledge is a commodity, there will be a calculus to how much supply satisfied demand at any given moment. [http://www.fastcompany.com/3004769/my-email-exchange-aaron-swartz-shows-originalthinker] In an interview in 2009, Aaron Swartz regarded his success to be, in part, driven by his curiosity: "The problem is that school drives all that curiosity out. Instead of letting you explore things for yourself, it tells you that you have to read these particular books and answer these particular questions. And if you try to do something else instead, you'll get in trouble. Very few people's curiosity can survive that." The Open Access movement, at least for now, appears committed to ensuring that scholars and the public can continue to satisfy their curiosity through access to scholarly work (which is largely funded by public entities).

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-53/ Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:45:42 +0000 Bill Caraher It will be a downright balmy day here in North Dakotalands with a high expected to be 32 degrees F, but don't fear that the denizens of the Northern Plains will get soft with these springtime temperatures in the darkest January. We're under a blizzard warning for Saturday. So tonight, I expect my neighbors to be firing up their grills, lathering on the sunscreen, and playing backyard cricket, but tomorrow we'll once again be hunkered down by the fire, reading our blogs, and dreaming of the Mediterranean sun. In the meantime, please enjoy a artisnal collection of quick hits and varia: [http://news.discovery.com/history/pompeii-ancient-toilet-130112.htm] Apparently there were toilets on the second floor of houses in Pompeii. Upstairs and downstairs bathrooms make Pompeiian houses more conveniently accommodated than some homes I know here in Grand Forks! [http://hiddencityphila.org/2013/01/a-neighborhood-son-takes-on-the-white-elephant/] This is a fantastic use of GIF art in the service of a serious piece of web writing (and it's a cool story too). [http://tag2013.uchicago.edu/cfp.html] More New York Times stuff on life in Bakken Oil Patch. [http://www.openculture.com/2012/01/free_the_guggenheim_puts_65_modern_art_book s_online.html] Free modern art books from the Guggenheim. There is very little not to like about free and art and books in the same sentence. My wife and I have very different opinions about birds, but [http://macaulaylibrary.org/] this is a pretty cool page from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology and the Macaulay Library. [http://webaudio.prototyping.bbc.co.uk/] Did I post this in an earlier quick hits and varia? Maybe. But if I didn't everyone should check out the BBC's web recreation of their classic radiophonic sounds. Anyone who teaches online could certainly imagine uses for these sounds Everyone knows about Punk Archaeology, right? ( [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/01/17/punk-archaeology-practice-notes/] And if you're wondering, yes, they are practicing.) If you're in the Grand Forks area and need or want one of Joel Jonientz's amazing technicolor posters, stop by my office. "Punk_Arch poster (3).jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/punk_archposter-3.jpg]"Punk Arch poster 3"] [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2013/01/hiddentension-furnesss-hockley-house.html] More on Frank Furness from Kostis Kourelis. One thing that was nice about working in Cyprus was that it was a bit distant from the exasperating and exhausting news of economic catastrophe in Greece. !
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[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/tax-haven-reputation-plagues-eu-bailout-ofcyprus-a-877369.html] Now, however, it seems like the footsteps are getting louder and the extent of the problems more clear. [http://biblioklept.org/2013/01/02/h-p-lovecrafts-advice-to-young-writers/] Some great writing tips from H.P. Lovecraft to young writers. For those of you who keep a score card at home, the "new" iteration of my blog passed the 500 post point this week. [http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/campuslife/5-things-you-shouldnever-say-to-your-professor] And a pretty funny list of things that you should never say to your professor. I've received at least five emails this week asking me "if we did anything in class last week." I now tell them: "You dodged a bullet. We actually sat quietly for 2 hours and did absolutely nothing." [http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-sri-lanka2012/engine/current/match/573016.html] It was nice to see that the return of the big Australian cricket stars to their team produced predictably awe inspiring results against an out matched Sri Lanka . Has anyone thought of producing scholarly reviews of MOOC courses? I'd love to read a thoughtful review (or even semi regular reports) from these classes. I know I could just sign up and do it myself, but part of me wonders how we can judge the impact of these courses on popular and scholarly discourse. It's one thing to have thousands of students enrolled, but it's another thing to produce knowledge. [https://www.coursera.org/course/secrets] Maybe I'll have enough time in Cyprus to blog about Susan Alcock's Coursera class in June. [http://www.jillpetersphotography.com/swornvirginsofalbania] Photographs of the sworn virgins of Albania. It's interesting the virginity and gender are so deeply intwined. [http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/01/ff-paul-larsen-sailrocket/all/] This is an amazing sailboat. Read the article, but also check out the videos! What I'm reading: T. Weller ed., [http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-in-the-digitalage/oclc/820630307] History in the Digital Age. Routledge 2013. What I'm listening to: The Bears of Blue River, [http://thebearsofblueriver.bandcamp.com/album/dames] Dames; Yo La Tengo, Fade."Train.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/train.jpg]"Train"I know it's grainy,but I love the sparks from the smoke stack.

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Walk in the Cold http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/walk-in-the-cold/ Sun, 20 Jan 2013 18:08:38 +0000 Bill Caraher <img class="size-full]"Walk in the Cold" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/walkinthecold.jpg" /> Before the truly frigid weather descended upon the Red River Valley, I took a nice long walk in the cold.

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Some Random Thoughts on the Future of the University http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/some-random-thoughts-on-thefuture-of-the-university/ Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:32:59 +0000 Bill Caraher Writing on the future of the university has long been a cottage industry. Predicting disruptive changes and revolutions to conservative institutions and industries requires little in the way of penetrating insight. A few friends asked what I thought about [http://www.the-americaninterest.com/article.cfm?piece=1352] Nathan Harden's recent article in the American Interest, and it being a holiday weekend, I decided to take some time to respond a length. Harden's article predicts that online MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and other digital open access education initiatives at the university level will be a disruptive and transformative approach to higher education. He argues that these innovations lead by [https://www.edx.org/] schools like Harvard and MIT have appeared at a crucial moment when universities have become expensive, financially vulnerable, top heavy with administrators, and enduring widespread critique for deviating from their traditional missions of producing good citizens, an educated workforce, and ethical society. For Harden, the involvement of elite universitys in producing MOOCs and other open access initiatives leverages the best of American higher education, and, as good currency drives out bad, these offerings should either elevate offerings by their more modest brethren (small and midsize state universities and liberal arts colleges), drive them out of the higher education business, or force them to become a local tutor for elite offerings. For an industry that long prided itself on low student-teacher ratios, responsive instruction, and a wide range of campus services (from organized sports to libraries and dinning halls), the critiques offered [http://books.google.com/books/about/Modern_Jeremiahs.html?id=BwKCAAA AMAAJ] introduces a new kind of Jeremiad where innovation disrupts the deeply flawed university system as we know it. Harden seems to see the difficult financial conditions of many schools as indicative of the flawed model of American higher education. I have my doubts. First, some of the financial issues experienced by private universities comes not from pricing themselves out of the game, but because their endowments suffered during the global economic down turn. Next, state universities have suffered because funding priorities have changed. Dating to before the recent recession, state colleges and universities have received less and less money from the state governments while at the same time being restricted in how they can raise money to make up the funding gap (e.g. states often limit tuition increases, require the admission of instate students at a discounted price, and even restrict the amount and kinds of fees charged to students). Neither of these issues are directly related to the performance of the university system except that our society as a whole has become increasingly skeptical of our institution's ability to contribute to the production of a economically and socially dynamic society. In other words, funding for higher education and the performance of higher education are separate issues and the lack of funding does not mean that the approach or performance of our universities is flawed.

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(As an aside, the average amount of student loan debt - $23,000 per student - seems quite reasonable in that it is far less than, say, the average price of a car ( [http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneybuilder/2012/05/10/average-price-of-a-new-car/] $30,000 in 2012) and unlike a car one's education tends to appreciate over time rather than lose value) But to return to the disruptive potential of MOOCs and other open course initiatives, I'll offer three observations: 1. Trends. The dream of several massive online courses servicing massive numbers of students is an appealing one for anyone who sees the issues with U.S. higher education as our institutions have never adjusted to the rapid increase in the number of students who started going to college in the middle of the 20th century. As a result, we continue to use methods developed to teach a small number of economic and social elites to teach the masses. Massive online courses provide an antidote to this failure to adapt. The problem is, of course, that similar efforts to scale higher education have not worked. Massive courses at massive universities drove down the cost of higher education by supplementing the ranks of the faculty members with legions of eager graduate students who mediated between the sage on the stage and the students. Over the last two decades, both students and faculty have rebelled against this model for teaching. Calls to invert the lecture and to create a more dynamic, interactive classroom have tended to feature more intensive faculty involvement rather than a more distant, highly mediated source of erudite authority. While online teaching can provide this kind of hands-on mentoring, it is difficult to image being able to do it on such a scale as the current MOOCs without significantly increasing the degree of faculty involvement or the number of faculty members involved. In short, MOOCs run counter to a century long trend in American higher education that calls for smaller class, more faculty involvement in teaching, and more hands-on, personalized instruction. 2. Technologies of Scale. MOOC type classes will begin to lose some of their economies of scale if they come to provide a significant source of for credit instruction. I regularly teach an online class of 100 students and received 4-5 student questions about the technologies involved in this course per week. This is rather low-tech class and a relatively static interface. If I were teaching this class to 1000 students I might expect 40-50 questions a week and I see no reason why this trend wouldn't continue as the course size increased. With MOOCs enrolling over 50,000 students one can imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of student related issues per week. While this is not an insurmountable problem, it will require an investment in course infrastructure to keep pace with not only the massive numbers of students enrolled, but the increased pressure of evaluating and managing the students in class. Economies of scale and new technologies might make MOOCs sustainable at a cost relatively lower than traditional university education, but I cannot imagine that they will continue to be free. We should remember that the current first generation of MOOCs do not seek to engage students in the same way or to the same extent as a classroom based course. The metrics for evaluating student performance remain crude in comparison with a typical university classroom, the active contact hours between faculty member and individual student are vanishingly small, and student expectations remain modest (or at least in keeping with the !
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price of the courses!). MOOC style course that have yet to introduce robust methods to manage elevated student expectations, increased contact hours, and more subtle standards of performance. These will cost money. 3. Continuity. Finally, it is important to stress that much of what students encounter in MOOC style education is radically different from what they encounter in secondary education. While taking nothing away from the flexibility of the student mind, the change from a highly structured school environment to an la carte system provided by MOOCs seems to be the kind of radical departure from how we teach students to learn. If we believe that our current teaching and learning methods are broken or unsustainable, then it is going to take more than just changing how we deliver information or construct knowledge on the university level. Lest people see this post as the rantings of a luddite, I should point out that [http://www.scribd.com/doc/37922545/Proposal-for-the-Development-of-OpenLearning-Courses] I proposed a series of MOOC style courses at the University of North Dakota over 2 years ago. It made its way though the university bureaucracy before dying in Deans' Council. Since that time, I have thought about the potential of MOOCs and what they can offer to higher education. My general feeling at present is that MOOCs present very little threat to the typical university curriculum. They do, however, offer a significant threat to textbook publishers. Assigning a free MOOC as part of an established class (as universities are already doing) provides a more dynamic, personal, and inexpensive interface for the delivery of content than the traditional textbook.

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Camping in Australia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/22/camping-in-australia/ Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:33:20 +0000 Bill Caraher I am planning my third research trip to the Bakken Oil Patch next month to continue work with a great group of collaborators to document the situation in the man camps in this rapidly changing area of the state. To this end, my colleagues and I have continued to try to find useful parallels to the pattern of temporary settlement now common in the western part of the state. ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] For more on the North Dakota Man Camp Project see here.) This past week, [http://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/volume_7_number_2/papers/pegging_out_the_ca mp] I came across the work of Bill Garner, an Australian archaeologist and historian, who has written on the history of camping in an Australian context. In an article on the history of camping gear in the collection of Australian museums, he makes some pretty ingenious arguments for the history of camping in an Australian context. He begins with the 18th century use of tents by the first white settlers in Australia and the adaptation of the Aboriginal "gunyah" for shelter at the "leading edge of settlement". With the Australian Gold Rush in Victoria in the 1850s, tents sprouted in the gold fields and new forms of settlement and domesticity came along with them. In these communities, Garner noted a range of different settlement strategies which attempted to bring some sense of domestic order despite the chaotic organization and simple material conditions. Interestingly, he suggested that miners often created ad hoc communities around their tents and ate together as well as sharing some basic domestic tasks. We saw similar practices in some of the most humble [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-3/] Type 3 "man camps" in the Bakken Oil Patch, and far less sense of community in the more sanitary, neat, and industrial [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-1/] Type 1 camps. The sense of community in the informal settlements of the Australian miners could sometimes incubate radical politics. So, perhaps the orderly conditions of the modern man camps provided more than just comfortable surroundings for short term residents of the Bakken Patch. Among the more interesting contributions in Garner's work was his discussion of the rise in recreational camping at the turn of the 20th century and the so-called "National Camp" to support the construction of the new national capital at Canberra. In fact, members of parliament camped when they inspected the future capital in 1909. The workers who built the capital and the surveyors who laid out its buildings and streets likewise lived in the camp which existed until 1931 and served the needs of both laborers as well as the local unemployed. In the 1970s battles over Aboriginal land rights, camps at the capital took on another meaning. This "tent embassy" evoked both the traditional practices of Aboriginal settlement and more specifically the Gurindji settlement at Wattie Creek. I may have also been that the !
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tents reminded Australians of their own history as settlers and the tragic inversion of fate for Aboriginals who now lived in tents on the lawn of the capital. The meaning of tents as symbols of Australian recreation, as historically meaningful gestures, as symbols of protest, and as reminders of the nation's natural wealth. This complex confluence of meanings certain cuts through American ideas of the camp as well. Even today, the work camps of Bakken Patch resembles the R.V. parks filled with recreational campers. Squatters camps serve as both practical adaptions to the lack of housing, but also as protests against unjust policies. Documenting the complex interplay of meaning in the works camps of western North Dakota is the next step in creating a more nuanced archaeology of the Bakken Man Camp.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale Up Classroom (Part IV) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/thoughts-on-scale-up-iv/ Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:25:55 +0000 Bill Caraher Last night was my second real class in the [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] Scale-Up classroom. I am certainly still in the learning stage in the Scale-Up environment, but felt more at ease this class than I did last week. I have come to have a better sense for how long itll take pods (groups of three students) and tables (groups of nine students) to complete an assignment. I also was slightly more ambitious with my assignments asking the pods and tables to accomplish slightly different, if interrelated tasks. As readers of this blog know, I am working to do more than just " [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching] flip the classroom". I am working to "flip the textbook" by getting my students to produce a Western Civilization textbook over the course a semester. Last week, I assigned to each table a chapter for the textbook that the class is writing and got them taking the first steps in thinking about how they might approach the challenge of marshaling information. We discussed the difference between primary and secondary sources and I asked each pod to compile a list of primary sources relevant to their chapter with basic information on authorship, location, date, and genre. In the second half of class, I asked the tables to compile a list of the best primary sources and to explain how provide evidence for events, people, and institutions that they might include in their chapter and the major themes that we introduced last week to the course. Finally, at the end of class, I asked each student to evaluate the list of sources that their table prepared and to identify the most and least useful source for understanding their period. This exercise encountered some predictable and some novel issues: 1. Directions and Definitions. In a class of 150+ students, it is not necessarily remarkable that some do not pay attention to the directions or definitions provided at the start of class. The Scale-Up room, however, provides some additional challenges. First, bad understandings and good understanding seem to battle on a more equal playing field. As a result, some groups that were unclear concerning the difference between primary and secondary sources got into a rut and wasted time collecting useless information. The idea that students who understood the difference between primary and secondary sources would influence students who struggled with the distinction did not seem to result in a room that understood the distinction, but a patchwork of students who understood and those who did not. 2. Time. I am still struggling with what to do when some groups finish early and some take longer. In some ways, this is an inevitable product of asking students to perform different tasks. Since each group has a different topic and each period and topic presents a unique set of challenges, each group could reasonably take a different length of time to finish their work.

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3. Revising. The first in class, group writing assignments were well considered, but rather poorly executed. Part of the promise of the Scale-Up room is that it creates an environment better suited to active collaboration than the passive reception of knowledge. So some of the work that we might expect a student to do at home, happens in the classroom. This provides a great opportunity to observe the learning process, but a bustling classroom of 150 students is not necessarily the best environment for careful writing. So we tweaked the system a bit to allow for tables to revise their writing up until the weekend, while still requiring them to turn in their work at the end of the class time. 4. Logistics. My class has some moving parts to it. The most vexing at present in the requirement that each student get a different textbook. Since there was no way to arrange for this before the first day of class (this is a 100 level history course), the students signed up for textbooks on the first day and I urged them to order them as soon as possible. Predictably, two weeks later, about half the class has the book and the other half seem flummoxed. The issue (as always) is that flummoxed half who did not sort out how to get a textbook in two weeks is also the least adept at finding ways around this issue. Because so few students have textbooks and some groups had a disproportionate number of students without textbooks, the results were uneven. 5. Difficulty and Ability. One the most remarkable things to observe is how the difficulty of the chapter failed to correlate with the performance of the group. Some tables had chapters for which primary sources were quite scarce, disparate, or difficult. For example, one table is working on a chapter on the Aegean Bronze Age and the only textual primary sources are Linear B tablets. This group was great. They found transcribed Linear B tablets on the internets and began to analyze them and consider their value as historical sources. Another group worked on a chapter on Archaic and Classical Greece, a relatively well-documented period, and they struggled to find sources. For those of you who are keeping track at home, I lectured for about 25 minutes last night (night including basic housekeeping tasks) over the course of a 2 hours class. I am chronicling my success and failures adapting a History 101: Western Civilization course to the Scale-Up Classroom at the University of North Dakota each Wednesday [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] here.

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Three Upcoming Events in the North Dakota Cold http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/three-upcoming-events-in-northdakota-cold/ Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:26:16 +0000 Bill Caraher The next few weeks are going to be pretty hectic around here, but in a good way. There three events with varying degrees of publicity that I want to make know today. 1. Dan Graham's Rock My Religion. To get us in the mood for Punk Archaeology, I am going to do an informal viewing of Dan Graham's important 1984 video at<strong> noon on February 1st in the Working Group for Digital and New Media's Lab (203 O'Kelly Hall)</strong>. The video runs about 50 minutes and we expect some conversation afterward. Bring your lunch. [http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/rock-my-religion/] Kostis blogged about this video way back in 2009 when it was screened again at the MoCA in L.A., the Whitney in New York, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. While these screenings featured shows by Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, and the Freebies, our showing will not although I can promise an interesting group of cats will be there to talk about it. 2. Punk Archaeology. <strong>The show is on February 2nd in Fargo at the Sidestreet Bar and Grille. The music will begin around 7 pm ish. The roundtable will probably happen around 9ish and more music and merriment will follow</strong>. The show, music, knowledge, and conversation are all free. Our plan is to stream the event live over the internets. We've started to get a little positive press. Check out [http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/387412/group/Life/] our little announcement in the Fargo Forum, [https://soundcloud.com/charinos/punk-archaeology-interview] Aaron Barth's (our producer) interview with Bob Harris on the Mighty KFGO 790 in Fargo, and [http://theartspartnership.net/artspulse/punk-archeology-yes-its-a-thing/] some good vibes on The Arts Partnership ARTSpulse blog. We're waiting on the UND or NDSU home page! 3. Kyle Cassidy. It is really exciting to announce that [http://www.kylecassidy.com/] Kyle Cassidy will be visiting North Dakota from February 8th-11th. <strong>He'll be on campus on February 8th and give a talk at noon on February 8th in the East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz Library</strong>. [http://kottke.org/12/12/portraits-of-gun-owners-in-their-homes] He is probably best known for his 2007 [http://www.amazon.com/Armed-America-Portraits-OwnersTheir/dp/B0013TFBPG/] Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes (Krause 2007). This past summer he released his second major book this summer: [http://www.amazon.com/War-Paint-Tattoo-Culture-Forces/dp/0764340867/] War Paint: Tattoo Culture and the Armed Forces (Schiffer 2012). I have no idea what he'll be talking about, but I am pretty sure it'll involve photography.

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Bret Weber, [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] Richard Rothaus, and I will be taking Kyle out west to help us continue [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] to think about the Bakken Oil Patch. We are slowly bringing a group of photographers together who are interested in the strange aesthetics of exploitation on display in the Bakken. This is an exciting project. The very next weekend, I'm off to my alma mater, the University of Richmond to give a talk. I will deliver a revised version of my venerable Dream Archaeology paper. This paper began as [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/09/12/kozani/] a few hasty meditations during my time at the American School in Athens in 2007 and 2008, became my presidential lecture here at the University of North Dakota in 2009, and I'll unveil the third version of the paper at my talk at Richmond on February 19th. I'll have more information on this soon. Finally, you might have heard that it's cold here. "ItsCold.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/itscold.jpg]"ItsCold" In one of my very few failings of Northern Plains machismo, I started my walk home last night and it was about -17 with a windchill approaching -40. I got about a kilometer into my walk and began to feel cold. My hands got cold and my feet got cold. It seemed like some discretion might be in order and I requested extraction. (Over this same time my iPhone battery dropped from 90% to 72%.)

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-54/ Fri, 25 Jan 2013 14:10:01 +0000 Bill Caraher There are few things better to do on a snow North Dakotaland morning than to prepare a series of quick hits and varia. It is even better when I'm by the fire in the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Headquarters with a nice cuppa coffee. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/turkey-cultural-war-archaeologicaltreasure] Turkey continues to make noise in its "culture war" by demanding the return of artifacts removed illegally or otherwise from its borders. This is fascinating. Turkey's efforts sit a particularly complex intersection of critiques of culture, concepts of ownership and use, and nationalism. [http://oilpatchdispatch.areavoices.com/2013/01/20/varied-interests-out-to-protectkilldeer-mountain/] You got it man nobody messes with The Rothaus ( [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IONyLZn0pLI] for those who need the cultural reference (rated PG-13)). Some ideas on how to make [http://blogs.dickinson.edu/dcc/2013/01/21/classicalcommentary-diy/] DIY Classical Commentaries for students from Dickinson College. This is such a great idea. Anyone who has ever taught a language knows that no student commentary is ideally suited for their students (unless you build it yourself!). [http://englianos.wordpress.com/] Farm Fragmentation in Modern Greece. [http://splasho.com/upgoer5/] This is fun. Can you explain a hard idea using on the "ten hundred" most common words? [http://printoharama.wordpress.com/] My buddy Dallas Deforest is writing about Rebetika. You should check out his blog. [http://jmcolberg.com/weblog/extended/archives/meditations_on_photographs_a_car_on _fire_at_the_mall_by_jmc/] Some vaguely interesting thoughts about photography in the 21st century. The National Endowment for the Humanities is digitizing their grant records. [http://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh/featured-project/digitizing-nehs-early-grant-recordsour-first-grant] Here is the first grant ever issued by this institution. [http://samfee.net/views/] My buddy Sam Fee's landscape photographs are just stunning. [http://agreeordie.com/blog/musings/545-how-to-tie-a-necktie-eldredge-knot] How to tie a Eldredge knot. [https://sites.google.com/site/sophieinnorthkorea/] Some interesting travel notes in the wondrous land that is North Korea.

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 [http://savageminds.org/2013/01/22/jared-diamond-doesnt-make-me-mad/] Anthropologists do not love Jared Diamond. As if we didn't already know, [http://www.seasteading.org/] the future is Seasteading. [http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2013/01/was_amanda_mckittrick_ros_the _worst_novelist_in_history.html] The worst novelist in history. Anyone who has ever graded a big stack of undergraduate papers over a long weekend can relate to this: "This stuff is, in lowish doses, quite entertaining, but if you read enough of it, its absurdity seems to spread outward to the whole of literature, like a particularly contagious airborne virus Ros writing is not just bad, in other words; its badness is so potent that it seems to undermine the very idea of literature, to expose the whole endeavor of making art out of language as essentially and irredeemably fraudulentand, even worse, silly." If bad writing doesn't do it for you, [http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/21/nabokov-on-what-makes-a-goodreader/] check out Nabokov's requirements for good readers. It doesn't take much to realize that bad reading and bad writing are deeply intertwined. [http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Online_Learning_Bill_of_Rights.html] A Bill of Rights and Principles for Learning in a Digital Age. [https://twitter.com/search/realtime?q=%23learnersrights&amp;src=typd] Some interesting conversation going on across Twitter around the hashtag #learnersrights. [http://www.mooc2degree.com/] Check out the first step in the move from MOOCs as outreach to MOOCs as massive credit farms. [http://www.patheos.com/blogs/phoenixandolivebranch/2012/07/15-reasons-graduateschool-is-like-a-religious-cult/] Graduate school as cult. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/01/14/169150921/the-drummer-queenwho-runs-nairobi-dancefloors] The Kenyan Drummer Queen. What I'm listening to: We Are Augustines, iTunes Sessions; Son Lux, [http://www.noisetrade.com/sonlux] At War with Walls and Mazes; Foxygen, We are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic. What I'm reading: K. Bowes, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/houses-and-society-in-thelater-roman-empire/oclc/503079562] Houses and society in the later Roman Empire. Duckworth 2010."ApartmentBlock.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/apartmentblock.jpg]"Apartment Block" One of my favorite apartment blocks in Grand Forks

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Evening http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/evening/ Sat, 26 Jan 2013 14:23:28 +0000 Bill Caraher When I first started posting some of my photographs on my blog I worried people would regard them as self indulgent or get bored. Then I decided not to care. This was the evening sky last night. It was pretty and made me feel happy to being living in North Dakota. "NoDakSky_01_2013_3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/nodaksky_01_2013_3.jpg]"NoD akSky 01 2013 3"]

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Negotiating Clerical Authority in Late Roman Italy http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/negotiating-clerical-authority-inlate-roman-italy/ Mon, 28 Jan 2013 12:30:35 +0000 Bill Caraher I spent part of the weekend finishing up Kristina Sessa brilliant new book on the formation of Papal authority in Late Antique Italy: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/formation-ofpapal-authority-in-late-antique-italy-roman-bishops-and-the-domesticsphere/oclc/727126711] K. Sessa, The Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy: Roman Bishops and the Domestic Sphere. (Cambridge 2012). As readers of this blog know, I have been fascinated with authority for years and Sessa's book offers just the kind of sophisticated perspective to capture my attention. She outlined how expectations from the domestic sphere shaped and were shaped by the expanding power of the bishop. The book oozed with post-structuralism (although it was not explicitly framed this way) especially the work of P. Bourdieu. Domestic expectations formed the habitus within which episcopal authority negotiated its place in Late Roman society. The bishop drew heavily on the existing discourse of authority to position himself at the head of his flock in Italy. His efforts were manifest in his sermons, letters, and other texts which preserved the delicate dance between emerging episcopal authority and longstanding practices among the proud, if besieged, elite of the Late Roman West. The bishop partially defined his authority over his flock as the elite landowner and paterfamilias of the Christian community. This responsibility included care over the church's resources, lands, and dependents as well as the involvement in the life of Christians in Italy. The bishop, however, did not merely adopt a traditional elite position in the Roman social order as if this kind of simple replacement was possible among elites understandably reluctant to cede authority. The Roman bishop adopted both traditional elite language of authority and subtly transformed it by replacing familiar familial social expectations with a new language of Christian stewardship over the earthly affairs. Stewardship emphasized the temporary character of earthly authority particularly over wealth. This required earthly elites to accept a demotion from absolute control over all his possessions to subordination to the bishop as the representative of the Christian God. Just as the bishop was God's steward on earth, so the Roman elite stoop subordinate to the bishop at least in matters of salvation (and by extension many aspects of every day life). The intersection of the cosmic hierarchy and the earthly hierarchy placed the Roman elite in a position of authority, but also in a position of moral responsibility over their dependents and possessions just as the bishop carried out the work of God. Thus the bishop negotiated an important shift in Late Antique habitus by articulating key aspects of elite authority in Christian terms and locating social practice within a new set of cosmic relationships and expectations that, in turn, imposed new rules and obligations. (Because this blog is all about me, I want to point out there that Sessa makes a far more sophisticated and clever version of the argument that I attempted to make in [http://www.worldcat.org/title/church-society-and-the-sacred-in-early-christian-

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greece/oclc/59019454] my dissertation. I attempted to show that the reorganization of social space within Early Christian basilicas both drew upon well-known rituals and social practices, but inscribed them within a new Christian cosmology. This enabled the rise of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Greece as Greek society renegotiated traditional forms according to a new set of rules.) The rest of the book is every bit as cool as Sessa described how the bishop of Rome put his newly articulated authority into use. Like so much scholarship these days, Sessa is deeply interested in understand how ecclesiastical authority penetrated longstanding elite patterns. She looks at how bishops became involved in marital issues, the relationship between landowners and slaves, and the family economy. As ecclesiastical elite exerted a growing influence over all aspects of religious practice, the traditional involvement of the paterfamilias over religions worship in the home eroded. This included some of the tricky issues surrounding worship at home that [http://www.worldcat.org/title/private-worshippublic-values-and-religious-change-in-late-antiquity/oclc/183179509] Kim Bowes treats at some length in her book ( [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/some-thoughtson-kim-bowes-private-worship-public-values-and-religious-change-in-late-antiquity/] my reflections on it here). The control over the location and authority of the liturgy seems to have been central to ecclesiastical authority. If the liturgy was the primary means that the Christian community gained access to God, then the control over this mediating act was central to projecting authority over the community.

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Mapping North Dakota Man Camps http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/mapping-north-dakota-mancamps/ Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:06:04 +0000 Bill Caraher The state of North Dakota has just completed a survey of workforce housing in the western half of the state and [http://web.apps.state.nd.us/hubdataportal?uuid=67877500-43db4476-b4c2-b089a81cadb5] made it publicly available. The rapidly expending workforce needs of the Bakken Oil Patch and the resulting housing crisis spurred this work which marks an important step in the state's efforts to understand the human impact in the western part of the state. The new data released by the state identified almost 600 locations of workforce housing with over 26,000 beds. As readers of this blog know, I've been working with a team of historians, social workers, archaeologists, architectural historians, and artists in the western part of the state. This background data is really important for our work because we had only the vaguest ideas how much workforce housing existed in the western part of the state, and this hampered our ability to understand whether the very fine grain data that we collected in August was a representative of the overall trends in the region. The camps cluster on major roads through the area and around the towns of Tioga, Williston, and Watford City as well as the towns of Ray, Alexander, Ross, and Stanley. The incorporated town of Trenton, west of Williston on the Missouri River also seems to be a small center of camps. "Camps.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/camps.jpg]"Camps" The state created a typology for camps based, presumably, on zoning. Their "Crew Camp" category conform to our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-1/] Type 1 camps and included the massive camps run by Target Logistics and other contractors. Our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-2/] Type 2 camps appear as their "Mobile Home" and "RV Park/Campground". It's interesting to see that Watford City has a bunch of RV Parks whereas Williston has more Mobile Homes. I'm assuming that this reflects the more provisional status of the workforce housing in Watford City where people live in RVs rather than what we might traditionally call trailer parks. "CampsTypes.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/campstypes.jpg]"CampsTypes" Crew Camps were by far the largest concentrations of beds averaging over 120 occupants per site whereas RV Parks and Mobile Homes tend to average closer to 20 or 30 residents. The area north of the Missouri particularly around Williston and extending west toward the Montana border.

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"CampsOccupants.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/campsoccupants.jpg]"CampsOcc upants" Our experiences in the western part of the state suggest that the data collected by the state (and their contractor) is decent, but not great. Our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-3/] Type 3 camps, which were the most provisional and contingent, do not appear on their maps, and this is to be expected. These maps also miss some known Type 1 and Type 2 camps suggesting that there are holes in their dataset. On our trip out west this month, we hope to ground truth more of this data and determine its utility as a baseline for understanding the larger significance of our data.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale Up Classroom (Part V) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-v/ Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:40:22 +0000 Bill Caraher I enjoyed my fourth class in the University of North Dakotas new [http://und.edu/scaleup/index.cfm] Scale-Up classroom this evening, and as for each previous week, I thought I would offer my observations. 1. Spark is gone. This was the first class where I felt like the spark of the teaching in the fancy classroom has begun to dim a bit. I also think the students showed a bit more ScaleUp fatigue. Its not that anyone was complaining or refusing to engage in the process. The students continued to work hard in their groups and produce solid work. For the first time this semester, however, I got tired. I was on my feet for the full 2:20 minutes moving from group to group addressing questions, engaging in banter, and providing guidance. My two mini-lectures amounted to less 25 minutes of lecturing. This is the first time Ive felt flipped lecture fatigue ( [http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/12/04/threethings-i-learned-through-teaching-a-flipped-class/] see here for a similar experience). 2. Pods and Tables. For the first few classes, I asked the pods (of 3) and the tables (of 9) to do similar assignments. For the first time this semester, we felt like the difference between the performance of the pods and the tables was significant enough to warrant a small intervention at the start of the class. So I reviewed the the difference between primary and secondary sources for historians because while most of the tables seemed to understand the difference, many of the pods seemed to struggle with it. It would seem that good ideas and right answers drive out bad, but it remains to be seen whether the good ideas at the group level trickle back down through the pods to the individuals at each table. I think Ill probably have to flip the learning process some over the course of the class and move from tables to pods from time to time to see how much our table-sized, group-think influences our podlevel group-think. 3. Class and Home. Because our understanding of primary and secondary sources required some gentle intervention, I had to compress the other aspects of the class. The result was that after 30 minutes of work on a pod-level assignment, only about 15 minutes remained for the tables to compile and refine the work of the pods. I had asked the pods to compile a timeline of 10-15 item and to articulate their significance for their chapters. The tables were tasked with producing a master timeline from the various timelines produced by the pods and to bring in their primary source for this. Since the tables ran out of time for this process, we gave them until Friday to complete the task. This is the first time since the first couple of weeks of the course that I have assigned formal home work. Part of flipping the classroom that I have enjoyed the most has been to make classroom time into work time. This has allowed me to observe the students workflow and research savvy in a more refined way. Most of my observations on student research skills are pretty basic right now. For example, many students do not go right to Wikipedia at the start of their research but waste significant time wandering the enchanted forest of the !
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Googles. By moving part of the group work to home work rather than class work, the groups will have more time to produce good quality work, but the process will also be more occluded from view. 4. Peer Review. My original plan for this week was to introduce an aspect of intergroup peer review to the course, but we ran out of time because of my primary source intervention. This means next week, I am going to the pods to review the work tables. So each table should get three peer reviews from three different pods. To get the students familiar with this concept, I asked each table to talk briefly about their best and worst primary source from the previous weeks class. Asking tables to make their work public gave me a chance to offer some gentle critique during class time, to talk about primary sources across the entire historical scope of the class, and make sure tables understood what was going on in the class. 5. Have I engoodened learning? This is the ultimate goal of the Scale-Up experiment, right? It seems to me now that the Scale-Up class is ahead of where a traditional lecture would be, but I also have far more contact with the students, so I can see student progress on a far finer level than during my more traditional lectures type classes. There is also the issue that my more traditional history courses may set the bar extraordinarily low. It is difficult to know whether the Scale-Up class is encouraging students to learn more quickly and in more subtle ways or whether my baseline is so bankrupt that anything I do in the classroom would yield essentially comparable results.

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Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age: Best Practices and Realities http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/managing-archaeological-data-inthe-digital-age-best-practices-and-realities/ Thu, 31 Jan 2013 12:30:50 +0000 Bill Caraher This past week, Deb Brown, who co-organized our panel at the Archaeological Institute of America's annual meeting made the talks available on the YouTubes. All the papers were very solid on this panel and it provides a nice overview of the state of the field. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/07/2382/] I offered a reflection on the paper in their immediate aftermath here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/digital-archaeology/] have more to say on the topic in here. Keep your eyes open for the next issue of Near Eastern Archaeology for some additional thoughts on the topic (with a more practical perspective) by [http://corinthianmatters.com/] David Pettegrew, [http://www.samfee.net/delirium/] Sam Fee, and me. (Hopefully we can make a pre-print of that available sometime soon.) So here are the papers in one handy place. Archaeological Data and Small Projects: A Case Study from the Pyla-Koustopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus. William R. Caraher (UND), R. Scott Moore (IUP), David K. Pettegrew (Messiah College), and Sam Fee (Washington and Jefferson College) [youtube=http://youtu.be/EnGvHt-l9HA] Digital Archaeology and the 100-Year Archive: Experiments in Field Recording, Dissemination, and Long-Term Data Preservation at Chersonesos (Crimea, Ukraine). Adam Rabinowitz, University of Texas at Austin, Jessica Trelogan, University of Texas at Austin, and Maria Esteva, University of Texas at Austin [youtube=http://youtu.be/L0e70-R1mMA] Ur Digitization Project: Creating a Digital Research Tool for a Divided Collection. William B. Hafford, University of Pennsylvania Museum [youtube=http://youtu.be/IfEtD5AphZQ] The Archaeological Resource Cataloging System (ARCS): A New Practical Approach for Archives, Scholarly Access, and Learning. Timothy E. Gregory, The Ohio State University, and Jon M. Frey, Michigan State University [youtube=http://youtu.be/iasYBcpwdd4] Providing for Access to and Preservation of Archaeological Information Using Digital Technology. Francis P. McManamon, Arizona State University, Adam Brin, Arizona State University, Mary Whelan, Arizona State University. [youtube=http://youtu.be/WpZSOiu4ADk] !
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Lucie Wall Stylianopoulos, Discussant, on Managing Archaeological Data: [youtube=http://youtu.be/Fyix6CEw-qE]

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/01/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-22/ Fri, 01 Feb 2013 12:57:29 +0000 Bill Caraher It is a cold day here in North Dakotaland, but the weekend should provide enough excitement to keep us all warm. Be sure to come down to Sidestreet Grille and Pub for [http://www.ndhumanities.org/punk-archaeology.html] Punk Archaeology featuring some good conversation, rock 'n' roll, and adult beverages on Saturday starting ay 7 pm. We've received some great coverage in the local press [http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/388158/] including this thoughtful article (which optimistically compare us to the famous Fargo Testicle Festival of 2001; I prefer to think of us as a 21st century version of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_to_Zap] Zip to Zap.) Or better still, [http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/the-young-lions-of-archaeology/] check out Colleen Morgan's essay for our little Punk Archaeology volume and [https://docs.google.com/document/d/19Xwq5LO06ybWV_rjZBL8v_7LTyHU6tUh9Iat6i DQkt8/edit] Andrew Reinhard's thoughts. Our producer Aaron Barth will be on Fargo's 101.9 FM Morning Talk from 7:30-8:00 tomorrow to talk about Punk Archaeology. [https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/archaeology/] We will be streaming punk archaeology here starting around 7 pm CST tomorrow. We'll be monitoring the [https://twitter.com/search?q=%23punkarch&amp;src=typd] Twitter hashtag #punkarch throughout the night! (Have I mentioned how awesome it is that [http://www.und.edu/instruct/wittgraf/] Mike Wittgraf has agreed to play with Reinhard, Barth, and some of the Dirty Frenchmen?) "Punkarchaeologyandsnow.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punkarchaeologyandsnow.jpg]"P unkarchaeologyandsnow" width="341" height="600" border="0" /> In the meantime, occupy yourself, if you like, with some quick hits and varia: [http://apaclassics.org/index.php/apa_blog/apa_blog_entry/competition_visualizing_the_c lassics/] A prize competition for the best visualization of data in Classics. It pays American cash dollars. [http://www.lifo.gr/team/lola/34138] Some awesome photographs of turn of the (20th) century Greece. [http://www.itv.com/news/2013-01-29/living-in-a-tomb-syrias-children-hide-in-romanruins-from-the-modern-war-machine/] A depressing example of adaptive reuse in Syria. [http://blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2013/01/28/podlich-afghanistan-1960sphotos/5846/] Some awesome photographs of Afghanistan in happier times.

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 [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/bathing-in-the-bronze-age/] Bathing in the Bronze Age. [http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/01/14/how-to-write-with-style-kurtvonnegut/] How to write with style. [http://byzantinenews.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-role-of-performance-in-late.html] The role of "performance" (in quotes) in Late Antiquity. I think they mean, so-called performance or at least performance in an ironic way. [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/Spiffs/ron-stroud-aristeia-acceptance] Prof. Ron Stroud being honored by the American School of Classical Studies. He's a class act. [http://mathyawp.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-lesson-of-grace-in-teaching.html] How to teach with grace. [http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/navid-baraty-intersection-nyc-nighinterview] Vertiginous. [http://travel.cnn.com/after-25-centuries-greek-temple-sees-light-317586] The Temple of Apollo at Corinth under the bright lights. [http://elearning.unifr.ch/apb/Typika/index.php] A database of Artefacts and Raw Materials in Byzantine Archival Documents. [http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/01/22/magico-audiophile-speakersalon-wolf/1809691/] High-end audio in USAToday. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/surfana/surfana-whatever] WHY IS NO ONE SUPPORTING SURFANA? I can't think of any more excellent idea right now. [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/For-40-Years-This-RussianFamily-Was-Cut-Off-From-Human-Contact-Unaware-of-World-War-II-188843001.html] I have no idea what to make of this story. [http://archaeologyfaces.tumblr.com/] The faces of archaeology. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-west-indies2013/engine/current/match/573022.html] A rough evening for the ole West Indies. [http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/01/detroit-dave-jordano/] Some awesome photographs of Detroit that might make us rethink our fixation on abandonment porn. Why am I thinking so much about photography? [http://webapp.und.edu/dept/our/uletter/?p=35958] It's because Kyle Cassidy will give a talk at UND next Friday and then visit the Bakken with my North Dakota Man Camp Project colleagues. [http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=6288] Another - infinitely less depressing - amazing example of adaptive reuse.

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 [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magazine/north-dakota-wentboom.html?ref=magazine&amp;pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0] More (if it was even possible) on the North Dakota oil boom in the New York Times. [http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-am-the-woman-in-your-department-who-does-allthe-committee-work] Some amusing and [http://chronicle.com/blogs/onhiring/howmuch-is-enough/36163] some annoying thoughts on service. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/presenting-my-path-to-tenure/] Last time I talked about service here on my blog, I got attacked on Facebook. Now I just tell paraphrase Herodotus and tell my more junior colleagues: cities that were once great are now small and cities that were once small are now great and that human happiness never tarries long in one place [http://spiderdiaries.richmond.edu/margaret14/] What to do if you're cold at the University of Richmond. Some amazing maps: [http://fakeisthenewreal.org/reform/] a new map of the U.S. organized by population, [http://www.handsomeatlas.com/] some 19th century maps and graphs of the U.S. also organized around population, and [http://www.midafternoonmap.com/] some relaxing and fascinating afternoon maps. What I'm reading: [http://www.amazon.com/War-Paint-Tattoo-CultureForces/dp/0764340867] Kyle Cassidy, War Paint: Tattoo Culture and the Armed Forces. (2012) What I'm listening to: June Panic, Glory Hole; Frightened Rabbit, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2013/jan/28/frightened-rabbit-pedestrianverse-stream] Pedestrian Verse."NoDakCold.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/nodakcold.jpg]"NoDakCold" It's cold.

An anthem for Punk Archaeology: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c21SfaAwBw0]

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Punk Archaeology is GO http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/02/punk-archaeology-is-go/ Sat, 02 Feb 2013 14:16:19 +0000 Bill Caraher The pre-game events for Punk Archaeology commenced last night and the enthusiasm is palpable. So, if you're from North Dakotaland, be sure to come by Sidestreet Grille and Pub tonight at 7 pm for music and musings on punk rock, archaeology, and everything in between. If you're not from North Dakotaland, [https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/archaeology/] we are streaming events here. "Punk_Arch poster (1).jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punk_arch-poster-1.jpg]"Punk Arch poster 1" My opening remarks are here: As I sat back to think about my paper for this little gathering, I put on some early Replacements (Sorry Ma and Stink) and the newly remastered version of The Heartbreakers L.A.M.F. For some reason the former captured my attention far more than the latter even though the former was more refined in its presentation (at least more refined in that punk rock kind of way). The MC-5s iconic Kick Out the Jams or the original mix of Iggy and Stooges Raw Power are classic examples of the live, spontaneous, chaotic, unrefined sound that so many people associate with punk rock. There is something archaeological about it. Maybe its the live or spontaneous sound that punk rock sold to so many kids in the late 1970s and 1980s. It was an excitement associated with music that sounded like anything could happen; a musical equivalent to reading Lester Bangs or Hunter S. Thompson. Listening to punk rock foreshadowed my wandering in the Greek countryside looking for things or, later, excavating where we encountered the possibility for anything and performed that possibility. We almost always had a plan, but we never were sure if our plan was any good. After all, we once excavated an Early Christian basilica and found a Hellenistic fortified camp. When I discovered blogging in 2007, I recognized that a blog was the most punk version of academic publication. I am not sure that Ive ever made a post on my blog without a typographical, grammatical, or spelling error. Yet my blog still gets read and talked about more than my most carefully edited articles. I often find myself learning to play my instrument as I perform. Like excavation or survey, my posts almost always begin with a point, but almost always end up someplace else. I dont really edit or revise and have come to enjoy the spontaneity of writing to the public without the safety net of peer review. Im sure that my blog is full of intellectual problems, faulty arguments, wrong notes, and dissonant moments.

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I guess academics have generally tried to avoid writing in a provisional way or spontaneously. We frame our live conversations and conference papers with qualifiers, and our publications with equivocation buried by evidence. The overproduced corpus of formal archaeological publications obscures the archaeological act in a way that a punk archaeology resists. If archaeological publications represent the well manicured lawns of the suburbs, punk archaeology happens in the dirty, cramped garages or the dark and musty basements of the velvet underground. Punk archaeology celebrates spontaneous archaeological moments, the colossal screw-ups, obscure and forgotten places, and the dissonant sounds of a field that is far less assured in process than in product.

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Punk Archaeology Recap and Reflections http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/punk-archaeology-recap-andreflections/ Mon, 04 Feb 2013 12:47:09 +0000 Bill Caraher Thanks to the efforts of my buddy Aaron Barth, the enthusiasm of the presenters and musicians, and the encouragement of all the folks behind the scenes, punk archaeology was a remarkable success. There were moments of standing room only crowd (which may have been because Andrew Reinhard rocked so hard that people moved aside to give him room). The conversation was lively and thought provoking. The audience was eclectic and electric. "PunkArchaeologyDoOver.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punkarchaeologydoover1.jpg]"P unkArchaeologyDoOver" 1. Performance. Punk archaeology was clearly performed on Saturday night. Between the music, the dramatic presentation of ideas, and the venue, punk archaeology was loud, intense, and strident. The words and the music made it pretty clear that these were ideas, but ideas [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll7rWiY5obI] turned up to 11. Speakers were announced by bull horn, stood on a stage without a podium, and talked through a P.A. system set up for bands. The informal venue and adult beverages distracted the audience and required the speakers to go out and grab the attention that the audience did not offer. Peter Schultz yelled GOO, Andrew Reinhard declaimed, Richard Rothaus read from graph paper, Kostis Kourelis wore a black tie and black suit. The performance of the Stooges' "I Wanna be Your Dog" almost blew my mind and was far-and-away the best cover of that song ever at a North Dakota Humanities Council event or (and I'm going out on the limb here) any academic conference ever. 2. Personal. The talks were deeply personal. Some, like Richard Rothauss, Josh Samuels and mine, described events encountered over the course of research, others, like Kris Groberg and Andrew Reinhard, talked about their discovery of punk in personal terms. [http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/the-young-lions-of-archaeology/] Colleen Morgan's paper - posted on her blog - likewise, captured the personal tone of our conversations well. Of course, it should be no surprise that any academic pursuit has a personal element, but we so often suppress that as we follow profession conventions shaped by expectations of a detached objectivity even as our disciplines have embraced "subjective" (for lack of a better word) modes of thinking for close to a century. 3. Embracing Ambiguity. To my mind, the greatest intellectual contribution was the critique of certitude in archaeological work. Almost all the participants talked about the how punk rock defied the limited typologies that archaeologists often admit as a way to organize archaeological knowledge. Of course, these typologies often extend to include the ethical landscapes that shape anthropological and archaeological practices. Peter Schultz called the ambiguity of archaeological practice goo; I referenced the disorganized suburban garage. Richard Rothaus and Josh Samuels considered the moral and ethical ambiguity of being a

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disinterested observer of archaeological and anthropological practices. The spirit of punk allows for the ambiguity and randomness of live performance. 4. Innovative. Punk may still be cutting edge and in the conservative world of academic archaeology. The spirit of most papers was that we can still learn from punk and push archaeological work in new directions. This could mean as Kostis Kourelis suggested, the careful study of a punk venue, or as other suggested, the embrace of punk principles to transform archaeological practice and publication. "PunkArchaeology2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punkarchaeology2.jpg]"PunkArc haeology2" There were, of course, some issues: 1. Definitions of Punk. Kostis Kourelis and I enjoyed What Kingswood Needs, but we realized that their point of reference was Green Day rather than, say, The Heartbreakers or Hsker D. The continued transformation of the punk genre destabilized our reference to punk archaeology in a substantial way. This was cool (see ambiguity above), but it did make me stop and think about the range of meanings present in our use of the modifier punk. The rather polished sound (and slightly vapid lyrics) of pop punk bands like Green Day probably 2. Gender. We only had one punk archaeologist woman at the gathering. While some of this has to do with Colleen Morgan being in either Doha or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Jim] Merrie England, it nevertheless is an interesting trend (that did not go unobserved!). Some of this might be understandable as punk rock almost certainly trends toward men, but if we want to suggest that punk archaeology has universal significance, then we need to broaden the movement to include more women. 3. Meaning. Most significantly, we need to determine whether punk archaeology MEANS anything. It was fun, there was good discussion, but now the question is: what next? If this was just an opportunity to hang out with old and new friends, enjoy some music, and hear a range of interesting reflections on archaeology, then that is well and good. But, it still remains to be seen whether the global punk archaeology movement will create knowledge that will change how we think about what we do. One of my favorite chats of the evening was with June Panic who discussed the process of recording an album in a studio. He remarked that the recording an album involved almost continuous compromise and the end result was never exactly how you envisioned it. He stressed the idea that you cant ever control all the variables in the recording process, and I feel like we did a good job letting the evening and the event run its own course and produce its own meaning. "PunkArchaeology1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punkarchaeology1.jpg]"PunkArc haeology1" There'll be some better pictures and some audio for the event coming soon! So stay tuned!

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"PunkArchaeology4.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/punkarchaeology4.jpg]"PunkArc haeology4]

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The Man Camps in Winter http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/the-man-camps-in-winter/ Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:33:58 +0000 Bill Caraher This weekend, I am making another research trip out to the Bakken Oil Patch to document the material culture and life in the Man Camps. Part of our research team from this summer is going with us in addition to photographer [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/] Kyle Cassidy. There has been another flurry of press coverage on the Bakken this past week anchored by [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/magazine/north-dakota-wentboom.html?ref=magazine&amp;pagewanted=all] the massive article by Chip Brown in the New York Times Magazine with [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/02/03/magazine/north-dakota-photosaudio.html?ref=magazine#/?slide=24] photographs by Alec Soth. The expanding content available at the multimedia documentary project, [http://blackgoldboom.com/] Black Gold Boom provides another source of high quality journalism related to the Bakken. We plan to meet with [http://oilpatchdispatch.areavoices.com/author/amydalrymple/] the local correspondent for the Forum newspapers who has done a nice job covering local issues in the boom. The content that the various media outlets produces runs from sensational to mundane, and they make a consistent effort to capture the range of stories present in the Bakken. The media coverage puts our research in an interesting place. On the one hand, we were drawn to the Bakken for some of the same reasons as the media has been. The stories are compelling, the setting is dramatic, and the impact of the oil boom is significant for local communities, the men and women in the industry, and the environment. On the other hand, if our research is too anecdotal or if we succumb to the appeal of stories, then we run the risk of contributing little new to well-developed conversations about the Bakken. "_MG_9410.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mg_9410.jpg]"MG 9410] Photo [http://www.johnholmgren.com/] John Holmgren <p style="text-align:left;] We like to imagine that our work has significant differences from the work done by journalists in the Bakken, but I think we need to articulate the differences between our work and their's more clearly. 1. We need to be systematic. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/mapping-north-dakota-mancamps/] The recent maps of the "crew camps" in the Bakken area have demonstrated that work force housing is extensive, varied, and substantial in quantity. While we have visited only a small sample of the camps identified by these maps, we can use this survey to guide some of site visits on the trip this winter. I anticipate using [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/documenting-man-camps/] the same basic data collection forms with some additional fields to document how the man camps adapted to the winter weather.

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2. We need to archive. We collected a substantial dataset of images, drawings, and photographs this past summer and I expect that we will collect another body of information this winter as well. It currently resides safely in the cloud, but we need to begin to think carefully about how we intend to archive this data and make it available to public in a meaningful way. I could imagine an [http://omeka.org/] Omeka site with images and drawings from our work as well as our descriptions of camps. We also need to have a location for a physical, long term, archive for our images and I suspect that the University of North Dakota's archive is the most suitable option. 3. We need to be longitudinal. At first, I envisioned my data collection as a one or two time trip to the Bakken. After my second data collecting trip, however, it became clear that we needed to plan to return to document some of the camps in the winter and to understand how they changed through time. This winter's visit will help us understand how the population of camps changes in the winter and how individual unit adapted architecturally the challenges of the North Dakota climate. 4. Think collectively. As our work has progressed in the Bakken and the various research and creative interests of the participants have come together and diverged, it seems clear that a focused research project may be the least effective way of documenting life in the crew camps. In its place, I think our project is moving toward a collective model of research where a team of scholars work on their own interrelated research projects together, but write independently. The collective model allows us to pursue our independent lines of interest and to offer a diverse and nuanced perspective on the Bakken. 5. Art. There have been quite a few photo essays on the Bakken, but few of these have been articulated in a self conscious way. As we have attracted the interest of artists, we are beginning to think about how art joins into our conversation on the Bakken. In some cases, photographs become illustrations of points, but far more frequently, the art becomes an independent argument that challenges, expands, or complements our historical, archaeological, or anthropological research. Our plan is for at least one more photographer to be drawn into our research collective and - we hope - a graphic artist. We will need to plan a bit over the next few days to maximize our time in the Bakken this weekend, but the need to be systematic and to collect data with an eye toward producing a robust archive and to contribute to a longitudinal project will help keep us on task.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale Up Classroom (Part VI) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-vi/ Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:19:13 +0000 Bill Caraher This was the fifth class for my History 101: Western Civilization course in [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] University of North Dakota's new Scale-Up room. So far I have introduced students to some of the basic tools for the historian: historical models, primary sources, chronology, agency, and (next week) space and place. The students have used a series of exercises on these large, but central topics to historical analysis to organize and analyze a smaller, chronologically and topically cohesive body of historical material. The goal is to shift attention away from the vast body of content to the ways in which historians organize, interpret, and analyze material. Each table is responsible for part of the historical narrative and the combined efforts from the 18 tables of 9 will produce a textbook. So far, the course has gone well with the students accepting the flipped classroom environment, working decently well with their colleagues, and dutifully absorbing both the basics of the historical method and the some key elements of a particular time or set of issues that I have assigned to each table. Tonight was the first night that I felt like the class was a bit frayed at the edges. I will probably have to change up the routine some so that the students still have some sense of adventure. Fortunately, the midterm exam is on February 19th and next week, I will bring the course together for a summary and recap of the main points in the first six classes in the semester. The second half of the class will also involve some new classroom management methods. I want to encourage peer review between groups, make sure that good quality work is happening in the 3 person pods, and try to establish some new ways to evaluate individual student performance. So now is as good a time as ever to express some concerns: 1. Setting the bar. Ill be honest. I am thrilled that the students have engaged the material as well as they have, but my expectations were rather low. Having spent the last decade teaching lecture style class and online courses, I am usually satisfied with 25%-30% of the class getting the material in a sophisticated way. In this class, I have seen hints that closer to 50% of the class have some of the key concepts under control. While I wonder whether I was too conservative in my expectations for this class, I do suspect that limited the amount of content that the students were expected to command gave them an opportunity to concentrate on the larger conceptual framework useful for understanding that narrative. 2. What is a midterm? I decided to include a midterm exam this semester as an intentional nod to traditional courses. I also thought it would give me a break from teaching on one night and serve as a tool to assess individual learning after the first 5 weeks of class. The challenge of the midterm is that I have to write a series of questions that can be plausibly answered using almost any period and subject matter. Fortunately, I have attempted to stress !
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the use of specific evidence and primary sources to support historical arguments so far this semester, so my hope is that I can ask relatively open ended questions that draw on the basics of the historical method. The questions will ask students to use the specific evidence from their period to support an argument. The biggest challenge, of course, is to set a standard for where the students should be at this stage of semester across a range of content. As my next point will make clear, teaching history may have shifted their emphasis from content to method, but content still matters. Some content and historical questions are simply more complex than others and require more creativity, nuanced analysis, and sophistication to unpack. 3. Groups and Challenges. One of the most interesting experience that I have had so far is that the topics assigned to each group (and I've included a list of my chapters at the end of this post) require such different sets of analytical skills. Groups that have particularly challenging topics have come to embrace the challenge. For example, the group assigned to study the Bronze Age Aegean has to deal with a period with no narrative textual sources (and one group, the Minoans, lacking textual sources at all), but a wide range of archaeological sources. This group has embraced this challenge and interrogated the existing sources with a much greater degree of enthusiasm and rigor than groups with much better documented periods. Here's my chapter list for the class. Since the class did not enroll 180 students, I had to combine Chapter 1 with Chapter 2 and Chapter 12 with Chapter 11. Tables of 9 students will collaborate to produce a 5000-7000 word chapter on each of these subject area. 1. Prehistory I: Pre-Bronze Age Near East (combined with Chapter 2)2. Prehistory II: Bronze Age Near East (Mesopotamia and Egypt)3. Prehistory III: Bronze Age Greece and Aegean (Mycenaeans and Minoans)4. Archaic and Classical Greece (Athens and Sparta)5. Greek Society and Culture6. Hellenistic Greece7. Roman Republic8. Roman Empire9. Roman Society and Culture10. Roman Religion and the Rise of Christianity11. Late Roman Empire 12. Byzantium and Islam (combined with Chapter 11)13. Early Medieval West (Carolingians)14. High Middle Ages I: Feudalism and Manorialism15. High Middle Ages II: The Imperial Papacy16. High Middle Ages III: The Crusades17. High Middle Ages IV: The World of the Town18. Later Middle Ages I: The Black Death19. Later Middle Ages II: The 100 Years War20. Later Middle Ages III: The Decline of the Papacy and Rise of Kings Check out more posts on my experiences in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] the Scale-Up room here.

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Kyle Cassidy Visit and Lecture http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/kyle-cassidy-visit-and-lecture/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:22:14 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm pretty excited to welcome photographer [http://www.kylecassidy.com/] Kyle Cassidy to campus tomorrow. He's a well-known photographer and author from Philadelphia who reached out to me and Bret Weber about our man camp project (via [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/] Kostis Kourelis!). He'll be joining us out in the man camps over the weekend for a whirlwind documentation, photography, and adventure trip. (It's an adventure trip since [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] Richard Rothaus will be joining us.) We see his work as a potentially important contribution to the North Dakota Man Camp Collective. Kyle will be giving a talk on campus tomorrow at noon in the East Asia Room at the Chester Fritz Library. Since [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/255728/group/homepage/] it appeared in the Grand Forks Herald yesterday, it'll be huge. "KyleCassidyFlyer.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/kylecassidyflyer.jpg]"KyleCassidy Flyer" width="450" height="657" border="0" /> Here's what his talk is on: Kyle Cassidy talks about the process of visual storytelling, drawing from his published works, photo essays, and gallery shows. He'll discuss how the medium has changed over the past decade into a much richer environment, how academics and artists can embrace and use this, connect to larger audiences and how the new mechanisms can be used to fund and facilitate research. Here's who he is: Kyle Cassidy has been documenting America since the 1990s. He has photographed mobsters, music subcultures, politicians, dominatrices, scholars, and science fiction fans. His projects have extended abroad to Romania, where he captured the lives of homeless orphans living in sewers; and to Egypt, where he reported on archaeological excavations. His documentary photography book [http://www.amazon.com/Armed-America-PortraitsOwners-Their/dp/B0013TFBPG/] Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes was awarded Amazon.coms "Best 100 Books of 2007 "Best 10 Art Books of 2007 medals and won rave reviews from both Field and Stream as well as the Washington Post. His most recent book [http://www.amazon.com/War-Paint-Tattoo-CultureForces/dp/0764340867/] War Paint: Tattoo Culture and the Armed Forces tells the stories of veterans body art. Currently he is working on a book project entitled Where I Write: Fantasy and Science Fiction Authors in Their Creative Spaces as well as a collection of portraits of roller derby players.

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Here's who is sponsoring his talk: Working Group in Digital and New Media and Department of History

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-55/ Fri, 08 Feb 2013 14:29:41 +0000 Bill Caraher We're getting ready to head out west for another short field season in the Bakken Oil Patch, but before we go, [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/255728/group/homepage/] Kyle Cassidy will give a talk at noon today, and I'll offer up a little gaggle of quick hits and varia. Enjoy: If you're a Windows Server and Network Administrator and want to work at Catalhoyuk, [http://www.bajr.org/Employment/UKEmploymentDetails.asp?ID=8886] go here. [http://www.randomhouse.ca/hazlitt/feature/shelf-life-whats-future-book] More on the future of the book. [http://www.renaudmarion.com/index.php?/ongoing/air-drive/] Floating cars! [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/good-news-and-bad-for-pompeii/] News on Pompeii. [http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18745] The economic basis of the college as country club. [https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/CB22x/2013_Spring/about] Gregory Nagy teaching an edX course on the ancient Greek hero. [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Air-Pollution-Has-Been-aProblem-Since-the-Days-of-Ancient-Rome-187936271.html] Air pollution in Ancient Rome. [http://www.slideshare.net/jessedee/you-suck-at-powerpoint-2] How to engooden your powerpointers. [http://timeliner.okfnlabs.org/] Sweet timeline application using Googles. [http://vimeo.com/41756240#] The larger the past gets the smaller our present feels. [http://derekbruff.org/?p=2494] What it takes to put on a Coursera course. [http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/oscar-broneers-slidecollection/] Oscar Broneer's Slide Collection. [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n03/rebecca-solnit/diary] Rebecca Solnit on new forms of settlement. [http://chronicle.com/article/Hot-Off-the-Library-Press/136973/] New ideas in [http://chronicle.com/article/Hot-Off-the-Library-Press/136973/] scholarly publishing from the library.

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 What I'm listening to: Frightened Rabbit, Pedestrian Verse. What I'm reading: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/tilling-the-hateful-earth-agriculturalproduction-and-trade-in-the-late-antique-east/oclc/316430311] M. Decker, Tilling the Hateful Earth: Agricultural Production and Trade in the Late Antique East. Oxford 2009.

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Home Base on Day One in the Bakken http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/home-base-on-day-one-in-thebakken/ Sat, 09 Feb 2013 13:15:09 +0000 Bill Caraher <img class="size-full]"Home Base on Day One in the Bakken" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/homebase.jpg" /> So far so good on trip out to the Bakken Oil Patch in February. We made it to our first base around Tioga without any issues. We have a full day of camp visits scheduled for today with our main focus being around Tioga and Williston. We head south to Watford City tonight. There is another major epicenter of oil related activity there and numerous man camps. We're just a bit worried about the weather for tomorrow.

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Winter in the Camps http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/winter-in-the-camps/ Sun, 10 Feb 2013 04:06:02 +0000 Bill Caraher There has been a good bit of fog lately in Western North Dakota. It's left behind a brilliant and heavy hoar frost. This was one of the small towns we visited this trip out west. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/wheelockinwinter.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2470]"WheelockinWinter" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/wheelockinwinter.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="360" /> UPDATE: [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/256184/publisher_ID/40/] Some nice coverage of our work in the Grand Forks Herald. Check it out.

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The Fracktastic Bakken http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/the-fracktastic-bakken/ Mon, 11 Feb 2013 12:54:18 +0000 Bill Caraher We're up early this morning to pack and get a jump on the drive from Watford City to Grand Forks. They had some snow in the eastern part of the state so we decided to head back a few hours early. Since I don't have time for a real blog post, I'll just give you an image to hold you over and write at greater length throughout the week. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/fracktastic.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2489]"Fracktastic" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/fracktastic.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="322" /> Trailers used to transport fracking fluid lined up in a North Dakota field.

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Notes from the Man Camps of the Bakken http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/notes-from-the-man-camps-ofthe-bakken/ Tue, 12 Feb 2013 13:24:30 +0000 Bill Caraher I just got back yesterday from an extraordinarily productive three days in the Bakken Oil patch in North Dakota. With a great team of collaborators, I continued to document the social and material conditions of "workforce housing" in the oil patch. We collected more interviews, did some photography, revisited some camps we saw last summer, and got basic data on the growing group of camps clustered around Watford City. I can offer some immediate impressions that contribute in a general way to our observations from this summer. These impressions are straight from my field notes. 1. What folks leave behind... One of the most interesting things about this trip is that we visited some camps from which residents had recently departed. There were three interesting examples of this. The first camp was a [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typologyof-north-dakota-work-camps-3/] Type 3 camp and there was clear evidence that the camp was broken up in haste. The tractor wheels in the newish snow maybe hint that the campers were pulled out by someone other than the residents. More evidence for this comes from the scatter of material left behind at the camp. The remains of the camp included coolers filled with canned food and beer, pots and pans, cooking equipment, grills, a tent, various trash, and the remains of the camp fire. "DSC_0197.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0197.jpg]"DSC 0197" width="402" height="600" border="0" /> "DSC_0196.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0196.jpg]"DSC 0196" The next example came from a [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-2/] Type 2 camp. The majority of what was left behind was wood. The skirts built to keep the cold wind from passing under the RV remained stuck in the ice leaving an outline. Around the area are pallets used to to create a deck and plywood set up to protect the sewage and water pipes from the freezing North Dakota wind. Plastic cups, buckets, a tool box, extension cords, bits of foam insulation, and piece of aluminum also litter the area. "DSC_0293.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0293.jpg]"DSC 0293" Another unit removed since the last major snow from a Type 2 camp in the area of Watford City (perhaps a week ago?) left behind less debris: a propane tank, a bucket covering the !
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sewage pipe, and some wood. [https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn13_h.htm] A smudge of scoria served as a slab for the resident's vehicle, and little else. "DSC_0396.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0396.jpg]"DSC 0396" 2. How folks stay warm... We observed a range of practices to keep warm in the brutal North Dakota winter. The most common practices at Type 2 camps involve sealing the underside of the camper with wood and insulation. In some cases, this involved installing wood "buttresses" to support the insulated word around the base of a camper so that it would not break free as the unit shifted in the North Dakota wind (in a few cases people used snow to reinforce or as an alternative to these buttresses). The cold and the shifting of the units in the wind could cause the foam insulation to shatter littering the area with debris. In a few cases residents used hay bales. Sewage and water pipes were insulated with heat tape, pvc piping, and foam. Windows are sealed on the inside or outside with insulated, reflective pads. We noted in some camps that residents even sealed the south facing windows. "DSC_0437.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0437.jpg]"DSC 0437" "DSC_0422.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0422.jpg]"DSC 0422" "DSC_0406.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0406.jpg]"DSC 0406" "DSC_0341.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0341.jpg]"DSC 0341" width="402" height="600" border="0" /> The best way that we saw to stay warm was probably in indoor RV park near Watford City where each unit stood in a heated bay. "DSC_0533.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0533.jpg]"DSC 0533" 3. How towns respond to booms... We continued our work to document small and nearly abandoned towns that have seen an influx of new residents as a result of the boom. I am particularly interested in how mobile homes, RVs, campers, and trailers infill vacant lots, parks, and marginal areas of these towns. In the photo below you can see a house, a trailer, and an camper sharing a lot. The house looks like a standard first-half of the 20th century North Dakota house. "DSC_0384.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0384.jpg]"DSC 0384" "DSC_0408.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0408.jpg]"DSC 0408" !
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4. The limits to the temporary... The Target Logistics Williston Complex has beds for over 1000 people and was built in less than 100 days. The entire complex is modular and included units purpose built for this installation and units brought in from other installations (including the Vancouver Olympics) and Colorado. The entire facility can be removed to another location on semi trucks in weeks. On a smaller scale, individual campers can be removed abruptly from their location and relocated. The use of generators at both large facilities and around smaller units (that use electric heat!) indicates that the local utilities infrastructure cannot necessarily keep up with the increased and fluid population. "DSC_0452.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0452.jpg]"DSC 0452" On the other hand, some folks have lived in their campers for years and see them as home. People have invested in their space and attempted to make it as functional and comfortable as possible. The idea that these spaces are just temporary seems to challenge our very idea of domesticity. The home is permanent, represents individuality, and is deeply embedded in our idea of private space. Life in the large institutional camps embraces the provisional character of their architecture and their residents (a one site, the manager told us that people don't live in their camp, they stay there.) Elsewhere, however, there continues to be indication that people do live there. "DSC_0473.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0473.jpg]"DSC 0473" 5. The artists eye... The most remarkable thing about our trip this time was getting to watch Kyle Cassidy work. He is a photographer from Philadelphia who lent us his creative vision. After a few days in the patch, it became clear that we needed to collaborate to document what is going on in the Bakken. His photos, which he'll release on his blog capture the determination of so many of the people living and working the patch. Our interviews and efforts to document bits and pieces of people's lives can only go so far to show how people think about themselves and their place in the world. Kyle's photos can do this in a way that is neither patronizing nor cold. His images brought to life the experience of living and working in western North Dakota in way that our research can only allude. "NoDakCountry.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/nodakcountry.jpg]"NoDakCount ry" width="450" height="313" border="0" /> Looking through my pictures and field notes has forced me to realize how important my experiences in this place have been. Ten years ago I defended my dissertation on the Early Christian architecture of Greece. I was living in Athens and thinking and talking about Greek history, architecture, and archaeology for days on end. Nothing has moved me like being in the field in February in western North Dakota, trying to get my head around what living and working in this landscape means to people.

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For more on our project go [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/workcamps/] here and follow us on [https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oilcampsnd&amp;src=typd] the Twitter hashtag #oilcampsnd.

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Some thoughts on MOOCs http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/some-thoughts-on-moocs/ Wed, 13 Feb 2013 12:42:26 +0000 Bill Caraher I recently received an email forwarded by a friend from a local legislator asking us generally about how we saw MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) fitting into the future plans of the University of North Dakota. It was a pretty generic question asking if we imagined MOOCs to be the future of university education and what wed need to get UND involved. This got me thinking that maybe it would be a good idea to post some of my thoughts on MOOCs. 1. MOOCs are like the most advanced ocean liner. Right now, many MOOCs are just massive online lecture courses with some interactive components added on. They primarily disseminate information, typically in conjunction with a textbook and some online exercises. The size of the classes alone make the interaction between the faculty member and individual students difficult and this interaction is typically replaced with collaborative learning among the students themselves. While it is impressive that these classes with thousands of students can create productive learning environment, the course itself typically relies on the sage on the stage both to market the course and to communicate the information to the students. This is the lecture course at its most refined and modern form. It has little to do with the flipped classrooms and other student-centered approaches that have become increasingly common in debates about the future of university education. Thats why I see them as the most advanced ocean liners: the most refined model of an out dated mode of transport. 2. MOOCs may replace the textbook. One of the most interesting effects of a MOOC is whether they can replace textbooks. Traditionally, textbooks, like MOOCs, provide students with basic content and some basic skills. Just as we wouldnt tell students to master a textbook and then award them credit - no matter how sophisticated a textbook is - a MOOC should not replace actual classroom instruction. The MOOC involves virtually no contact hours with actual faculty, but they do provide access to content in a dynamic way. Textbooks are expensive and generally speaking boring. MOOCs, in comparison, are open and free and compete in an crowded market for attention. As a result, they tend of be exciting and interesting and designed to capture the attention of busy students and draw them in. 3. MOOCs do not come cheap. On the side of production, [http://derekbruff.org/?p=2494] its clear that MOOCs require significant investments in not only content but also production. The best MOOCs have high production values, exciting graphics, and dynamic content. They have the support of graduate assistants, production crews, and - sometimes - colleagues in departments. The design phase involves significant technical expertise. Having created a large online course, I can also attest to massive amount of time necessary to craft content so it works well in an online environment. Creating exercises that intrigue !
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students and draw them to interact with their peer and to delve more deeply into course material is not a simple task nor one easily streamlined. Significant upfront investment will be necessary to encourage faculty to create MOOCs. Finally, MOOCs will require some infrastructure support. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/05/how-online-classabout-online-learning-failed-miserably/] As high profile MOOC failures have shown, there needs to be technical support for the both the faculty member conducting the class and the students enrolled. I regularly receive 10-20 emails a week on technical and academic issues from students in a 120-150 person class. As class size increases to over 100, we should expect the number of emails to increase proportionately. This could put a tremendous strain on faculty time and the technical staff of a university without proper support. As result of the investments necessary to conduct a MOOC, major universities will continue to have a monopoly on their production, and I suspect that the most cash-strapped schools will remain consumers of MOOC content. 4. Reviewing the MOOC. Im interested to see whether the academic community come to review MOOCs as they might a new textbook or monograph. Unlike a traditional classroom course that is open only to paying enrolled students, a MOOC is open to anyone who takes the time to enroll. Can we imagine MOOCs to be the foundation for the kind of dynamic digital scholarship that so many academics think is imminent? After all, MOOCs can be as focuses as the audience will endure, interactive, dynamic, public, and open. All these things are key elements in how many folks see the future of academic publishing. 5. The New Model MOOC. One of the key aspects of the MOOC revolution is determining was to make them sustainable. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/37922545/Proposal-for-theDevelopment-of-Open-Learning-Courses] When I was toying with the idea of a introducing a MOOC program here at UND, I thought that the MOOC provided a remarkable platform for targeted advertising. Collaborating with business that would provide products either directly relevant to the class (like textbooks or related books) or of interest to people taking the course (like the history channel supporting a MOOC on a historical topic) might work for MOOCs with thousands of students. As far as I can understand, no MOOC platform has introduced targeted advertising, but I have no idea why not. While MOOCs will not draw the millions of viewers watching even the worst rated television broadcast, one might think that focus of the average MOOC participant would more than make up for that with higher than average click through rates. I am not convinced that MOOCs will revolutionize university level teaching, but they open up intriguing possibilities for how students and a broader audience engages academic and scholarly content. Best understood as a complement to the university classroom, the expenses and potential revenue streams stimulated by MOOCs should give universities space to innovate alongside their core mission.

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Man Camp Stories from Photographs http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/man-camp-stories-fromphotographs/ Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:24:00 +0000 Bill Caraher <guid isPermaLink="false] https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2516</guid>

Last weekend we stopped by a [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-2/] Type 2/ [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-3/] Type 3 man camp. As I noted on Tuesday, it appears that some of the residents had recently moved on (or been moved on). In fact, one could see where the campers had been because there was a gap in relatively recent snow. As we look toward publishing this photos, I am trying to figure out how to produce some text that complements Kyle Cassidy's photographs without bringing them down with a toxic dose of academic prose. So here's my first effort: [http://www.kylecassidy.com/] Kyle Cassidy's arresting photograph of one part of Man Camp 6: all that remained from a camper was a gap in the snow, a pvc pipe, an air conditioner, and a set of barbells. "MC6_Cassidy.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mc6_cassidy.jpg]"MC6 Cassidy"Awesome Kyle Cassidy Photograph of Man Camp 6 in February 2013 In 2009, this site was an open field outside the small town of Tioga, ND (pop. 1,230 in 2010). By August 2012, the area featured several new apartment buildings under construction and a man camp of 27 units loosely arranged in 2 rows. At the south end, there were four FEMA type trailers probably brought north from Katrina Camps. The northern part of the camp featured a series of campers generally with water and electricity, but only the FEMA type units had sewage hook-ups. In the northwestern corner, tucked into the shelter belt stood a group of campers and tents without electricity or water. This was a Type 3 camp. Someone had put a port-o-potty in the camp. A local trucking company had set up the FEMA trailers to house their workers. Carpenters and other workers at local construction sites occupied some of the campers including the Type 3 camp in the northwest. Some of the residents of the Type 3 camp were still looking for work. Air photos taken in September of the same year, showed that at least a few of the campers with electrical and power hook-ups had pulled out. "Camp_6.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/camp_6.jpg]"Camp 6" width="450" height="349" border="0" />September 2012 Aerial Photograph

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"MC_6_Sketch.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mc_6_sketch.jpg]"MC 6 Sketch" width="450" height="592" border="0" />Sketch Plan by Kostis Kourelis (August 2012) <p style="text-align:left;] The gap in the snow that Kyle photographed was at the north end of the western row, and we had photographed and described this very same unit in August 2012. The Augustus photographs show a Yellowstone by Camino camper with a small area under a camouflage awning set up with a makeshift tent post and rope on its west side. The area under the awning extended the space of the camper and protected a small outside area that featured buckets, a kennel for a dog, coolers, tools, a wheel barrow, propane tanks, gas cans, and extension cords. The contents under the awning would have been at home in a suburban garage. A full-sized, stainless-steel type, refrigerator also stood under the awning. A small plywood patio provided a step into the camper. A camp chair was the only hint at leisure at the site. A window unit air conditioner was stored in the shade unused. The resident of the unit complained about the noise from the Type 3 camp to his west in the shelter belt. "DSC_0245.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0245.jpg]"DSC 0245" My photograph in August 2012

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-56/ Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:40:35 +0000 Bill Caraher After a mild week, it is no surprise that we're in for a cold few days. There's a light at the end of the tunnel, though. On Sunday night I head south to Richmond, Virginia to give a talk at my alma mater, the University of Richmond. I haven't been on campus there for close to 20 years, so it will be exciting to visit a place where I spent so many of my formative years. In the meantime, I'm sitting by the fire and conjuring up a little gaggle of quick hits and varia for your weekend reading pleasure. Congratulations to Dallas Deforest for defending his dissertation this past week. It's on baths and bathing in Late Antiquity. I can't wait to get my hands on a complete copy. Get to know Dallas's diverse interests better by [http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/] checking out his blog here. [http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/historic-photos/] Be sure to check out the photo of a 19th century urban man camp. [http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/866131/shows-that-matter-el-anatsuis-byzantinebottle-cap-art-at-the] Byzantine Bottlecap Art. [http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/committee-trims-bill-tosurvey-killdeer-mountain-battlefield-site/article_481f7a88-7564-11e2-bc970019bb2963f4.html] A bill to fund a survey of the Killdeer battlefield was trimmed from $250,000 to $4,999 because of the objection from "one landowner, Bryan Dvirnak, whose family has owned part of the battlefield since 1928. He said no one had contacted his family regarding the survey." So we now should contact landowners BEFORE we have funding for a survey? The Bismarck Tribune could not have done any more to make this all sound insane. [http://www.adventurescience.ca/100milesofwild/index.html] Good thing this crazy project will begin at Killdeer Mountain. [http://cabel.me/2013/02/04/litterplugs/] Improvised trash cans in Japan. [http://thisisnthappiness.com/image/42941280266] Boredom. [http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive] This is what happens when you lie and your car catches you in those lies. My wife and I really like [https://tonx.org/] TONX coffee. [http://www.muleradio.net/newdisruptors/3/] Hear about it here. In fact, they should sponsor my Friday Quick Hits and Varia, because it's always fueled by a delicious cup of Tonx. Sponsorship is SUPER cheap. [http://omeka.org/blog/2013/01/24/omeka-2-0-drops-today/] Omeka 2.0 is out. I wonder whether it will available on Omeka.net.

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 More and more disturbing news from Greece [http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/02/14/yannis-hamilakis/spartan-myths/] as Y. Hamilakis chimes in. Some oil patch blogs: [http://lifeinwilliston.com/] My Life in Williston, North Dakota, [http://realoilfieldwives.com/] Real Oilfield Wives, [http://educationofanofw.blogspot.com/] The Education of an Oilfield Wife. And check out [http://oilpatchdispatch.areavoices.com/] Amy Dalrymple's Oil Patch Dispatch. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonahsargent/nodak-rigged?ref=card] More on the patch from documentary filmmakers. [http://www.oregonlive.com/today/index.ssf/2013/02/university_of_north_dakota_pro.ht ml] Some love for the North Dakota Man Camp Project from the AP and Oregon. What I'm listening to: Jack White, Blunderbuss; The ABCs, [http://theacbs.bandcamp.com/album/stona-rosa] Stona Rosa. What I'm reading: N. Gaiman, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-gods-anovel/oclc/46393953] American Gods."DSC_0269.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/dsc_0269.jpg]"DSC 0269" width="402" height="600" border="0" />

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Crazy Friends: Transecting the North Dakota Badlands in Search of 100 Miles of Wild http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/crazy-friends-transecting-thenorth-dakota-badlands-in-search-of-100-miles-of-wild/ Sat, 16 Feb 2013 16:23:40 +0000 Bill Caraher It's cool to have crazy friends whose antics I can observe at a distance. "100MilesofWild.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/100milesofwild.jpg]"100Milesof Wild" width="450" height="128" border="0" /> This is their press release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Adventure Scientists to Rock the Bakken on Earth Day Transecting the North Dakota Badlands in Search of 100 Miles of Wild Badlands, North Dakota Earth Day, April 22, marks the start of 100 Miles of Wild, the first eco-expedition of Calgary-based Adventure Science set against the inhospitable backdrop of North Dakota's Badlands. Over the course of 10 days, teams of ultra-endurance athletes and scientists will run, climb, and trek through one of the United States' last unexplored and most rugged acres of wilderness, documenting the state of the vastly shrinking wide open spaces now under threat from expanding development from the Bakken oil fields. The first 100 Miles of Wild projects has a simple aim, Adventure Science founder and PhD geologist Simon Donato said. We will discover and report first-hand the condition of the wilderness that inspired President Theodore Roosevelt's effort to preserve the rugged, wild spaces for all Americans and the world. Adventure Science is a neutral organization of volunteer experts and citizen-scientists. While members obviously appreciate wilderness, they also have diverse viewpoints about oil development and growth. What they share is a determination to collect information and make scientific observations ahead of the drill-bit. The goal of the project is not to tell communities what to do, but rather to help them gather the information they need to make informed decisions. The team will produce educational materials to teach students and the public about the natural and historical significance of the region, as well as to educate them about the relationships between oil development, natural, and cultural resources. Andrew Reinhard, one of the team's two archaeologists, noted, [team member] Richard Rothaus and I had been planning a relatively casual Badlands journey for the past few years. As the Bakken Oil Boom exploded, we realized we needed to hit this idea hard. Expedition members are no strangers to wilderness travel, backcountry navigation, and extreme sports. Most of the science-athletes are ultra-marathoners, mountaineers, ice

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climbers, and solo explorers. One is an ex-Army Ranger. All are supported by a seasoned crew of search-and-rescue paramedics and safety personnel. In the Badlands, archaeologist Rothaus explained, anything can happen. The weather in April could bring anything from blizzards to tornadoes. There's no drinkable water. We're traveling over more than 20,000 feet of elevation change in a short amount of time. And the rattlesnakes might be waking up. Along the Badlands transect the team members will document the flora, fauna, historical sites, archaeology, and geology they encounter. Every hour they will stop, record photos and video panoramas, and make an audio recording to check for noise pollution, making notes on what they observe. The route and records will be carefully tracked with GPS units. The world can follow along on Twitter using @100MilesOfWild and the #ndbadlands hashtag, and by visiting [http://adventurescience.ca/100milesofwild/index.html] adventurescience.ca. Media queries can be submitted to Melissa Rae Stewart, mstewa42@uwo.ca or by phone at 519-204-6926.

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A Suburban Sunset http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/a-suburban-sunset/ Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:00:35 +0000 Bill Caraher A suburban sunset over a strip mall on the prairie. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/suburbansunset.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2526]"SuburbanSunset" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/suburbansunset.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="360" />

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A Visit to Richmond http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/a-visit-to-richmond/ Tue, 19 Feb 2013 13:19:46 +0000 Bill Caraher Today I'm giving a talk at the University of Richmond, my alma mater. Here's the poster for the talk. It's the [http://calendar.richmond.edu/?eventid=4320&amp;informationid=casData,startdate:201302-19,enddate:2013-02-19,starttime:180000,endtime:193000] 5th Annual Stuart Wheeler Gallery Lecture. Prof. Wheeler was one of my mentors at Richmond and inspired my interest in architecture which carried through my dissertation research. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/cs_13_wheeler-dflyer2.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2531]"CS_13_Wheeler-dflyer2" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/cs_13_wheelerdflyer2.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="270" /> The lake is beautiful: [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/westhamptonlake.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2537]"WesthamptonLake" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/westhamptonlake.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="360" /> The walk up the slope to Westhampton College was harder than it was 20 years ago: [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/richmond_walk.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2535]"Richmond_Walk" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/richmond_walk.jpg?w=360" width="360" height="480" /> I checked out Jeter and Thomas Halls where I lived on campus: [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/thomashall.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2536]"ThomasHall" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/thomashall.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="360" /> [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jeterhall.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2533]"JeterHall" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jeterhall.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="360" /> Jepson Hall is aging well: [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jepsonhall.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2532]"JepsonHall"

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[http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jepsonhall.jpg?w=360" width="360" height="480" /> But not as well as North Court has aged: [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/northcourt.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2534]"NorthCourt" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/northcourt.jpg?w=360" width="360" height="480" /> North Court was part of Ralph Adam Cram's original design of campus, and Cram was a particular interest of Prof. Wheeler's. So I've added a bit of Cram to the conclusion of my paper: Ralph Adams Cram, the main architecture responsible for the most iconic buildings on the University of Richmonds campus and a special topic of interest to Stuart Wheeler described the ruins of Netley Abby as follows ( [http://books.google.com/books?id=CMIgAAAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PP1#v=onepage&am p;q&amp;f=false] The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain (1909), 93): "When the spangled turf is wet with dew and the mist from the water is veiling the sundered walls; when the sun rides high and the mellow stone glows deep and golden, whilst deep shadows lurk under the transept vaults, when the light is level at sunset and the grassy pavement is slashed with golden bars; in sun and shadow, in mist or rain. [Netley] is the very haunt of poetry, a dream-like emanation of the past, set her on the verge of the insistent, clamorous present."

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Mapping the North Dakota Oil Boom http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2543 Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 Bill Caraher The state of North Dakota has one of the best GIS services in the U.S. Not only is the data available for display, but in most cases you can download it and play with it to your hearts content in ArcGIS, QGIS, GRASS or whatever.So as I prepared to present some of our recent work on the North Dakota oil boom to some eager students at the University of Richmond, I took a moment to play with North Dakota's massive GIS database of oil exploration.&nbsp;

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Mapping the North Dakota Oil Boom http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/mapping-the-north-dakota-oilboom/ Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:11:19 +0000 Bill Caraher The state of North Dakota maintains one of [http://www.nd.gov/gis/] the best, free GIS datasets in the nation. Not only is it available to surf, but most of the datasets can be downloaded and played with in the GIS program of your choice. I recently downloaded the almsot exhaustive dataset of oil wells in the state and played with it in ArcGIS as I prepared an informal presentation on our recent research in the North Dakota Oil Patch. The resulting map is below. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/wellsgis.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2548]"WellsGIS" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/wellsgis.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="359" /> The green dots represent wells from the most recent boom nad the various other color dots represent earlier booms. The black specs are wells that are still active. I was particularly interested in wells dating to before the first 1950 oil boom including some in the Red River Valley from the late 1940s. It might be useful to look for some of the earlier well sites just to get a sense for how these places might appear in the landscape. Since I'm currently cruising at 30,000+ feet, it's probably best to keep this short, but I'll mess a bit more with these maps over the next few weeks.

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Excavating a Fake Snake http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/excavating-a-fake-snake/ Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:41:00 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the most rewarding things about my recent visit and paper at the University of Richmond was some great new insights into the way in which dream archaeology works. [http://classics.richmond.edu/faculty/jlaskari/] Prof. Julie Laskaris shared a citation from the 2nd century writer Lucian who described how Alexander of Abonoteichos initiated his deception with the snake-puppet god Glycon. While this passage does not involve dreams explicitly, it showed that even in antiquity there was some skepticism surrounding claims of inventio. According to Lucian, Alexander buried a blown goose egg with a baby snake in it in the foundations of a temple that was under construction. Alexander then discovered the egg and the snake, incubated it, and then promoted the snake as Glycon around which he built a cult. Here's the passage from Lucian's Alexander 13-14: 13. When at length it was time to begin, he contrived an ingenious ruse. Going at night to the foundations of the temple which were just being excavated, where a pool of water had gathered which either issued from springs somewhere in the foundations themselves or had fallen from the sky, he secreted there a goose-egg, previously blown, which contained a snake just born; and after burying it deep in the mud, he went back again. In the morning he ran out into the market-place naked, wearing a loin-cloth (this too was gilded), carrying his falchion, and tossing his unconfined mane like a devotee of the Great Mother in the frenzy. Addressing the people from a high altar upon which he had climbed, he congratulated the city because it was at once to receive the god in visible presence. The assemblyfor almost the whole city, including women, old men, and boys, had come running marvelled, prayed and made obeisance. Uttering, a few meaningless words like Hebrew or Phoenician, he dazed the creatures, who did not know what he was saying save only that he everywhere brought in Apollo and Asclepius. [14] Then he ran at full speed to the future temple, went to the excavation and the previously improvised fountain-head of the oracle, entered the water, sang hymns in honour of Asclepius and Apollo at the top of his voice, and besought the god, under the blessing of Heaven, to come to the city. Then he asked for a libation-saucer, and when somebody handed him one, deftly slipped it underneath and brought up, along with water and mud, that egg in which he had immured the god; the joint about the plug had been closed with wax and white lead. Taking it in his hands, he asserted that at that moment he held Asclepius! They gazed unwaveringly to see what in the world was going to happen; indeed, they had already marvelled at the discovery of the egg in the water. But when he broke it and received the tiny snake into his hollowed hand, and the crowd saw it moving and twisting about his fingers, they at once raised a shout, welcomed the god, congratulated their city, and began each of them to sate him!self greedily with prayers, craving treasures, riches, health, and every other blessing from, him. But Alexander went home again at full speed, taking with him the new-born Asclepius, born twice, when other men are born but

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once, whose mother was not Coronis, by Zeus, nor yet a crow, but a goose! And the whole population followed, all full of religious fervour and crazed with expectations. [https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~wstevens/index.html] Prof. Walt Stevenson added to this conversation by noting that Cyril of Jerusalem was skeptical of the power of relics of the true cross excavated by St. Helena in Jerusalem: Cyril, Cat. 4.10: 10. He was truly crucified for our sins. For if you would deny it, the place refutes you visibly, this blessed Golgotha , in which we are now assembled for the sake of Him who was here crucified; and the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross. But He was crucified not for sins of His own, but that we might be delivered from our sins. And though as Man He was at that time despised of men, and was buffeted, yet He was acknowledged by the Creation as God: for when the sun saw his Lord dishonoured, he grew dim and trembled, not enduring the sight.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-57/ Fri, 22 Feb 2013 13:18:12 +0000 Bill Caraher It's cold, winter, and I'm sick. Hopefully my varia and quick hits can keep others warm and healthy. [http://hyperallergic.com/65108/an-introduction-to-the-early-web-aesthetics-of-geocities/] Web archaeology and aesthetics: Geocities. [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog] The Society of Architectural Historians has a blog and Kostis Kourelis is its editor. This will be awesome. [http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/of-moocs-andmousetraps/42487?cid=pm&amp;utm_source=pm&amp;utm_medium=en] A MOOC for freshman composition. [http://chronicle.com/article/Humanities-Unraveled/137291/] Did somebody say, humanities? More abandonment porn: Another effort at [http://www.scribd.com/doc/23738526/Paul-Virilio-Bunker-Archaeology] Bunker Archaeology. [http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2013/02/world-war-ii-bunkers-jonathanandrew/] I love the effect of the light on these World War II era bunkers. I want to do this with man camp trailers in the Bakken. [http://hiddencityphila.org/2013/02/a-row-house-and-a-life-transformed/] Another cool architectural gif by Ben Leech. It's a day for beards. [http://www.newnownext.com/beards-keep-you-young-healthy-andhandsome-says-science/02/2013/] First, they keep you safe (something that I have argued for years [http://itsaboutthemoney.net/archives/2013/02/21/on-the-yankees-facialhair-policy/] wait until some well-known organizations that limit facial hair get sued for exposing their boys of summer to a greater risk of cancer.). [http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/51325] The Philly beard will be the next big thing and I might just be on it. [http://www.google.com/glass/start/] If I don't understand Google Glass does that mean it's not meant for me? [http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia2013/engine/current/match/598812.html] This is a good start for Australia and for Moises Henriques's test career. Macho innings from Warner with a broken finger, and I just didn't realize how good Michael Clarke was until this past year.

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 [http://blog.amaliadillin.com/2013/02/forged-by-fate-cover-reveal.html] I am super excited to get my copy of Amalia Dillin's debut novel (she took ancient history courses from me here at the University of North Dakota). [http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaiasydney/8497328462/in/photostream] Zagora from the air. Food: [http://guysamericankitchenandbar.com/] This is funny. [http://www.amazon.com/Grand-Forks-Marilyn-Hagerty/dp/0062228897/] And this is transcendently awesome. I rank having a chance to hang out with Marilyn Hagerty on a number of occasions among the coolest experiences of my life. Really. In Cyprus, we call it [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia] synesthesia. Recently I have good evidence that I have synamnesia: the ability to forget things in colors. [http://prettyip.meetstrange.com/] Anyway, here's your IP address in colors. Don't blame me, it's the internet. [http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/the-benefits-of-exercising-outdoors/] It's a bit amazing that we need to tell people things like it's better to exercise outdoors. What I'm reading: <span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.799999237061px;text-align:left;] N. Gaiman, </span> style="line-height:22.799999237061px;outline:none;textdecoration:initial;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-size:12px;border-bottomwidth:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:#eeeeee;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;text-align:left;" [http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-gods-a-novel/oclc/46393953] <em style="lineheight:inherit;] American Gods<span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;lineheight:22.799999237061px;text-align:left;] .</span> What I'm listening to: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, II (which is not as good as The Meat Puppets, II); Grant Green, The Complete Quartets with Sonny Clark."RylandHall.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/rylandhall.jpg]"RylandHall" width="436" height="600" border="0" /> [http://urhistory.richmond.edu/architecture/ryland.html] Ryland Hall, University of Richmond(Cram, Goodhue, and Ferguson; Carneal and Johnston)

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Everyday Life http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/23/everyday-life/ Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:27:43 +0000 Bill Caraher "tracks.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/tracks.jpg]"Tracks" width="446" height="600" border="0" />

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Hoar Frost http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/hoar-frost/ Sun, 24 Feb 2013 15:19:52 +0000 Bill Caraher A nice hoar frost this morning with the tree on our berm standing out against rosy-fingered dawn. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/hoarfrost.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2560]"HoarFrost" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/hoarfrost.jpg?w=360" width="360" height="480" />

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Re-imagining the Basilica at EF2 at Polis-Chrysochous http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/re-imagining-the-basilica-at-ef2-atpolis-chrysochous/ Mon, 25 Feb 2013 12:29:44 +0000 Bill Caraher As readers of this blog know, I am involved with some great scholars on a long term research project at the site of Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus. To date our work has primarily focused on the basilica-style church in the area of EF.2. The church was built toward the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century and then stood for half a millennium (or there abouts). The church stood in an area that was a center of activity from the Hellenistic period, a busy intersection in Roman times, and continued to support houses, burials, and manufacturing into the Byzantine epoch. "NewImage.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/newimage.png]"NewImage" width="450" height="500" border="0" /> The church is a wild and sexy thing. During its hard life, it saw numerous architectural interventions ranging from what might have been an almost total reconstruction to slight structural and aesthetic tweaks. Traditional architectural history attempts to document the life of a building like this in terms of coherent phases that then collate with larger narratives of architectural development typically on a regional or even trans-Mediterranean scale. Our church is a reluctant partner in this kind of undertaking. Any effort to push the buttresses, wall-thickenings, reconstructions, re-uses, floors, fills, and other evidence for architectural modification into well-defined phases has so far met with total frustration. This is not to say that the church did not see major episodes of modification, but that final plan of the church came about as much through a series of minor architectural responses as to major cohesive interventions. The resulting image of our church is less a testimony to the orderly progress of regional styles as the industrious work of a community. And we submitted an abstract to the Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research to this effect: Re-imagining the Basilica at EF2 at Polis-Chrysochous Bill Caraher, University of North DakotaAmy Papalexandrou, Independent Scholar (Austin, Texas) Over the last four study seasons, a Medieval Team consisting of Amy Papalexandrou, Bill Caraher, Scott Moore, Brandon Olson, and Sarah Lepinski have worked to document the basilica style church at the site of EF.2 at Polis-Chrysochous. This building and its immediate vicinity were excavated over a 25 year period beginning in the early 1980s. While excavators successfully articulated the architecture, they made little headway unpacking the complex stratigraphy of this part of the site. To do this, our project has created a relational database that integrates transcribed notebook information, inventoried finds, and context

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pottery. We complemented this archaeological data with renewed study, documentation, and imaging of the architectural remains to create a substantially revised phase plan for this building. This work makes a significant contribution to history of Early Christian and Medieval architecture on Cyprus by reinforcing the dynamism of Christian architecture and establishing that the transition from wood-roofed to vaulted basilicas can dates to earlier than previously expected. Moreover, these conclusions also provide a useful opportunity to reflect upon the potential to integrate new imaging technology with models for digitizing legacy data and integrating it with new analysis.

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Evolution of the Scholarly Journal: An Interview with Tim Pasch http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/evolution-of-the-scholarly-journalan-interview-with-tim-pasch/ Tue, 26 Feb 2013 12:05:57 +0000 Bill Caraher Next week is the University of North Dakota School of Graduate Studies Scholarly Forum. My lovely wife coordinates all the festivities surrounding this annual academic smorgasbord. Among them are the two dean's lectures. The second dean's lecture will be next Wednesday at noon in the Lecture Bowl on the University of North Dakota campus. It is free and open to the public. It will be by my good buddy Tim Pasch who'll speak on the evolution of the scholarly journal. As the interview below indicates, Prof. Pasch's remarks are particularly timely considering [http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ostp_public_access_mem o_2013.pdf] the recent policy shifts by the U.S. Government and [https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/increasing-public-access-results-scientificresearch] here. Since [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/a-few-thoughts-on-openaccess-in-archaeology/] this is a topic that I've blogged about here ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/archaeological-data-andpublishing-a-fragment/] and here), I thought it might be nice to include my wife's pre game interview with Tim published at the [http://mygradspace.wordpress.com/] School of Graduate Studies blog. Come and hear his talk! Or catch it on the lifestream! And, if you're in town, do check out the scholarly forum. Here's the interview: Dr. Timothy Pasch of the Communication Program will share some exciting insights into the future of scholarly publishing. Dr. Pasch is one of our two Deans Lecture Series presenters during the annual Scholarly Forum. I sat down with Dr. Pasch to learn more about his research in this area. Susan Caraher: Can you talk a little about your Deans Lecture Series presentation, The Evolution of the Scholarly Journal: Digital Convergence and Broader Impacts? Tim Pasch: Granting agencies such as the NSF and others require, as part of their proposal process, explanation of how the grant recipient will disseminate the knowledge they will glean from their research. Its no longer enough to simply gather research and create the knowledge, for after you have accomplished this, you are required to share the wealth, or disseminate that knowledge. This (in part), is what is referred to as Broader Impacts. Grants and journals serve a purpose closely related to (but not exactly) this. Modern research is still embedded in the paradigm of the printed word on paper (journals). Digital journals, for their part, offer us convenience as they can be read on computers, tablets, and other mobile devices. Even still, the trend is still static theres printed text and there is some rudimentary video, but its primarily still simply text and image. Were entering !

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an era where this is no longer sufficient for granting agencies they are looking for innovative New Media approaches for the dissemination of that knowledge. So artists and other digitally creative individuals have a very important role in creatively disseminating the knowledge of STEM and other researchers there are exciting collaborative possibilities there. Theres also a burgeoning opportunity for creative, immersive, convergent journals; so you are simultaneously engaging audio, video, interactivity. For example, you can visit a new discovery and engage with it in three dimensions, manipulate it, delve right into it. If you are a musician, for example you can do so much more than simply describe the music you can have a waveform available for immediate interaction. These are living journals. S: Part of your research is looking at communication in marginalized communities. How might the digitization of scholarly journals impact communities that might not have ready access to new technologies? T: When you try to use technologies to assist individuals without technology, or those who dont know how to use it, Im sometimes asked, How can it be accessible if you need to buy into the hardware in order to access it? One of the arguments we can make is the decreasing cost of getting into a computer or a tablet. When tablets first emerged their cost was close to $2000, however they are available for much less now. And there are a number of initiatives that aim to deliver technology to underprivileged individuals. Its also becoming easier to say that it is less expensive to purchase a tablet than to subscribe to a scholarly journal. And with an increasing move toward open source publishing, all of these factors may help to make knowledge much more accessible; although I will discuss models that strive to keep knowledge very closed as well. S: What do you think is driving agencies to expect such Broader Impacts? T: Funding is becoming more difficult to acquire based on the economy and other factors. When a grant is being evaluated, agencies are less likely to fund projects that dont demonstrate a direct impact on the communities that this kind of work is designed to empower, or those projects that do not disseminate the knowledge as widely as possible to the target audience. It is no longer sufficient to solely publish findings in a journal or just make a website as the primary vehicle for outreach. There is a greater expectation to have a detailed plan to market and distribute knowledge in a very compelling way. It needs to be engaging and inspiring. S: With a greater emphasis on Broader Impacts by granting agencies, do you think this could influence the way in which academics will design their research? T: The best proposals will be built around Broader Impacts and will incorporate these aspects from the beginning, rather than having them added as an afterthought, or attachment to the proposal itself.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale Up Classroom (Part VII) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-vii/ Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:16:11 +0000 Bill Caraher This week we returned the midterm exams and embarked on the second part of our three part experiment in teaching History 101: Western Civilization I in the [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] Scale-Up Classroom at the University of North Dakota. The goal of the class is to introduce the students to historical analysis by dividing the class into groups and having each group contribute a chapter to a Western Civilization textbook. If the Scale-up room involved "flipping the classroom", my history course complemented that by "flipping the textbook." 1. Looking Back. The midterm exam was a challenge for me. First, since I've been teaching online for the last few years and do not assign a midterm or any "closed book" assessment it took a minute to adjust my expectations to an in class assessment. Next, I have general taught my course as content focused meaning that the midterm evaluated the students' grasp of a focused body of material from the first half of class. In my Scale Up class each group is working on a different chronological period making the midterm an exercise in method rather than material. In other words, this class upset my expectations for what a solid 100-level history exam should be. In the past, I could expect a basic mastery of material, but with this exam, I had to accept that my students were still novice potters producing rough and ill-shaped bowls. Unlike the more limited, skill-based exercises that we conducted week-to-week (e.g. built a timeline of primary sources or prepare a list of significant institutions and individuals for your chapter), the test asked the students to integrate these smaller skill sets into a larger historical argument. The results were, predictably, uneven and will likely only make sense in the context of the final project where we can determine whether the students improved their ability to craft pots over the course of the semester. Most students clearly understood that there should be a relationship between the models that we use to understand the past and a body of historical evidence, but making this leap from lining up models and evidence side-by-side and reflecting on the tension between evidence and interpretation is probably something that will develop only over the course of the semester. 2. Looking Ahead or Clamoring for Contracts. As the students process their test grades (which were just a bit better than average for a 100 level history course) and look ahead to the final project, you can feel the tension rise in the room. Students who had been committed collaborators with their less engaged peers have begun to worry that with the midterm complete, the next major assignment depends almost entirely upon their collaboration with classmates. While this is a real world experience (working with academic collaborators can often be a frustrated process!), students also need some reassurance that they don't end up carrying the more lackluster efforts of weaker students to the detriment of their grade. !
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As a result, I am going to institute a contract for each chapter produced by the table of nine students. The goal of the contract is for students to negotiate the intricacies of actually working together to write the first chapter draft which which is due the week after spring break. To do this, they will work up an outline that will serve as the basis for a contract. The contract will involve word counts, a due date, and an author. A preliminary draft will be compiled and edited during class the Tuesday after spring break. Students will receive grades based on their contributions and the overall structure of the chapter keeping with our practice of interleaving individual and group grades. 3. Driven to Distraction. The past month has seen the gradual creep of distraction into the classroom. Some of this is my fault. For example, yesterday I asked all 18 groups to present a 2 minute elevator pitch for their chapters. While 2 minutes is not too much to ask even the most distracted undergraduate to focus, 2 x 18 (almost 40 minutes) of listening to one another present material pushed the class too far and led to a growing distracted din. In the future, I'll only ask half the tables to present on any given day and will group tables with related topics together and ask them to present on the progress of their larger projects. The other form distraction comes from having laptop computers on each table. Last night I observed students watching some kind of ice hockeying contest (who knew the that NHL still existed I almost felt guilty telling them to stop watching) and the game cast of the Minnesota v. Indiana college basketball game. What made this particularly annoying was the most distracted also tended to underperform. I had a chat with a colleague the other night about dealing with the distracted and distracting students. Generally, I have a laissez-faire attitude toward student behavior and figured that students will largely self police and some small doses of public humiliation (i.e. calling a student out for admitting to watch the NHL at all) sucked the air out of the transgressive thrill of being obviously distracted before a major insurrection could break out. I think that I have the situation under control, but only time will tell. For more on my adventures in the Scale Up classroom, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] go here.

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Fragments of the Contemporary Past in the Bakken Oil Patch http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/fragments-of-the-contemporarypast-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/ Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:42:52 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the past year, most archaeologists who hear about my fieldwork project in the man camps of the Bakken Oil Patch assume that I'm doing ethnoarchaeological research. I am partially to blame for this because I have tended to compare my work to my research into settlement in Cyprus and Greece. In fact, at one point our resident contract archaeologist suggested that what we were doing wasn't archaeology at all. That being said, I often struggled to articulate what an archaeology of the contemporary past was. In fact, the idea of the contemporary past was so strange and paradoxical to most people that it seemed intended to baffle. This past weekend, I finally got around to reading [http://www.academia.edu/1043183/Surface_assemblages._Towards_an_archaeology_in_a nd_of_the_present] Rodney Harrison's "Surface Assemblages. Toward and Archaeology in and of the Present" (Archaeological Dialogues 18 (2011), 141-161 with discussion). He argues that an archaeology of the present promotes a shift from an archaeology dominated by the metaphor of uncovering and excavating to an archaeology shaped by the metaphor of the surface assemblage. The surface assemblage locates the archaeologist and objects on the same plane and recognizes the archaeological activity - particularly the reassembling scattered fragments into a whole - as something that occurs in the present. Thus archaeology of the contemporary world is not a departure from standard archaeological practice, but the natural extension of our interest in things. Collaborating with Bret Weber and Aaron Barth who are collecting interviews in the same places where Richard Rothaus, Kostis Kourelis, and I are documenting material culture makes our effort to place people and things in the same physical and intellectual space more explicit. Just as architecture requires a different kind of documentation from ceramics or portable goods, people require a different form of documentation from their houses and other objects; people in this assessment are simply another kind of thing. Several of the respondents to Harrison's article did point out that this kind of approach is only valuable if it produces new knowledge in the context of a particular project. As our work continues to develop we are finding more and more productive analysis within our seemingly descriptive moments. For example, at the larger institutional man camps ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakotawork-camps-1/] Type 1 camps) we generally talk to staff and management; at the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-2/] Type 2 and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-3/] 3 camps, we talk to residents. This is as much a "bias" in our data collection as a reflection of the structure of the camps themselves. The researcher and material and human objects of research exist in the same place and co-create

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the description. In this sense, the camps, the residents, the staff, and the researchers are all part of a single assemblage produced through natural and cultural processes.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/01/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-58/ Fri, 01 Mar 2013 13:33:01 +0000 Bill Caraher It's a gently warming Friday and the air smells a bit like spring (and this means that we'll get well over 20 today and the next winter storm will not happen until Sunday!). When the weather gets nicer, it puts even more pressure on me to enthrall you with my quick hits and varia. Hopefully, something will capture your attention. (And don't think I haven't noticed the steady decline in page views over the month of February!) [http://blog.bibleplaces.com/2013/02/picture-of-week-disappearance-ofphilae.html] Photographs of the disappearance of the Egyptian sanctuary at Philae to the rising water behind the Aswan Dam. [http://www.lifo.gr/team/evrymata/36358] A cool interview with Kim Shelton on the resurrection of the Temple of Zeus at Nemea. (And old archaeologist once told me: she has a name, you know? Anna Anastylosis). [http://www.antiquity.ac.uk/projgall/levy335/] LiDARtastic in Petra. [http://ayjay.tumblr.com/post/32688676580/w-h-auden-taught-at-the-university-ofmichigan] It's uncanny how similar W.H. Auden's English 135 syllabus at Michigan to my syllabi at the University of North Dakota. [http://www.millinerd.com/2013/02/electric-education.html?spref=tw] Some cool perspective on the current revolution in higher education and [http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/myth-student-loancrisis/309231/] a nice little graphic on the so-called student loan crisis. Some interesting stuff on Christian art. [http://www.lifo.gr/mag/features/3645] The Greeks get strange about contemporary icons and [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine21529832] the use of contemporary technique to enliven a traditional space. [http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/the-biblical-pseudoarcheologists-pillaging-the-west-bank/273488/] The unfortunate state of archaeology in the West Bank. [http://www.drlima.net/2013/02/30-jahre-musikverkauf-animiert/] Music sales over the past 30 years. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/257523/] Old school Grand Forks. [http://proteus.brown.edu/stateofthefield2013/Home] This looks like a cool meeting (an advertisement for myself). [http://archaeosoup.com/these-are-not-the-ruins-youre-looking-for-the-archaeology-of-agalaxy-far-far-away/] Abandonment porn from a galaxy far far away

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 [http://www.coudal.com/writing.php] The Rules of Cricket. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2013/content/current/story/622969.html] The second India-Australia test looks really interesting. [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/749755.html] I'm getting ideas for the cover of our book on the man camps of the Bakken and [http://archive.harpers.org/2013/03/pdf/HarpersMagazine-2013-03-0084284.pdf] another magazine cover on the Bakken boom(pdf). [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/25/prominent-anthropologist-resignsprotest-national-academy-sciences] You go, Marshall Sahlins! [http://motionpixels.co/] This looks pretty cool. How to build a record collection ( [http://soul-sides.com/2013/02/starting-a-collectionpart-1/] part 1, [http://soul-sides.com/2013/02/starting-a-collection-part-2/] part 2). [http://www.dustandgrooves.com/rutherford-chang-we-buy-white-albums/] And how and why to collect the White Album. [http://www.nationaljournal.com/whitehouse/what-the-white-house-looks-likecompletely-gutted-20130226#.USz57XJNq] Some cool photos of the gutted White House from the 1940s. [http://audirvana.com/] I've been experimenting with Audirvana this week. It sounds better than iTunes. I'm going [http://www.audiofile-engineering.com/fidelia/] to mess with Fidelia soon too. [http://www.wired.com/playbook/2013/02/ff-cold-weight-loss/] Walking in the cold does help us lose weight. What I'm listening to: Autre ne Veut, Anxiety; Donald Byrd, Up with Donald Byrd; Atoms for Peace, Amok. What I'm reading: R. Harrison, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/after-modernityarchaeological-approaches-to-the-contemporary-past/oclc/653077389] After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past. Oxford 2010."TreesandSky.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/treesandsky.jpg]"TreesandSky"]

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Big Questions and Next Directions in Byzantine Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/big-questions-and-next-directionsin-byzantine-archaeology/ Mon, 04 Mar 2013 14:16:16 +0000 Bill Caraher At the end of next week I am heading to the Joukowsky Institute at Brown University to contribute to a symposium on " [http://proteus.brown.edu/stateofthefield2013/Home] Big Questions and Next Directions in the Archaeology of Greece". My paper will look at Byzantine Archaeology. With only 15-20 minutes, there are limits to what I can say. Moreover, I can't say that I follow closely the newest contributions from every angle related to Byzantine archaeology. Like most scholars, I have tended to diversify my portfolio beyond the limits of Early Christian and Byzantine Greece while still investing time in areas related to core research interest both in Greece and elsewhere. That all being said, I do intend to make a few key points: 1. I'll begin with a brief observation that Byzantine archaeology has generally remained ambivalent toward debates in mainstream "world archaeology". With notable exceptions, Byzantine archaeologists of Greece barely raised an eyebrow in the direction of processualism and have studiously avoided post-processualism or any other post-structure theorizing. The main focus of Byzantine archaeology continues to be the typological study of monuments, urban areas, fortifications, imported pottery and fine ware, and the interplay of texts and objects. 2. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule and that we aren't becoming more aware of the limits of traditional approaches to Byzantine archaeology. Indeed, over the past 40 years, archaeologists interested in the Byzantine period have used dendrochronology, intensive pedestrian survey, energetics in Byzantine architecture, remote sensing, and other scientific practices to produce new knowledge about Byzantium, but, in general, these contributions have remained isolated and not been integrated into the master narrative of Byzantine Greece. There is, however, a foundation for the meaningful expansion of the archaeological data that informs our understanding of Byzantine Greece. For example, continuous revision of ceramic typologies produced through stratigraphic excavation at Corinth, Athens, and Sparta has already begun to produce new chronological, economic, and architectural insights. 3. At present, my main interest is in the archaeology of architecture in Greece and Cyprus. As a rule, the study of Early Christian and Byzantine monuments in Greece has focused on the production of neat floor plans and elevations. Architectural historians then organized these plans and elevations into typologies, compared various typological difference to one another, and presented arguments relating differences in plans and elevations to regional trends, liturgical practices, and chronology. I did some of this in my dissertation, and, in many ways, this method reflects the nature of our evidence for the Byzantine period. Considering the number of known buildings of Early Christian date in Greece, it is remarkable how few have received systematic archaeological publication; many were not excavated according to stratigraphic methods.

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The future of Byzantine archaeology and architecture in Greece involves the study of Byzantine architecture through the results of careful, stratigraphic excavation. Attention to stratigraphy will not only transform the rather static and typologically bounded floor plans into more temporally dynamic spaces, but also grant agency to the individuals who both built and used these monuments. Greater attention to the distribution of finds, architectural stratigraphy, evidence for building practices and maintenance rituals, will shift attention to the "everyday" practices that fueled the Byzantine economy, informed local identities, and created the monumental landscape. 4. A more archaeological approach to Byzantine architecture need not involve new excavations. Renewed attention to archaeological "legacy data" produced by earlier excavations may offer insights into the transformation and use of Early Christian and Byzantine monuments. In fact, many Byzantine archaeologists maintained far better records from their excavations than ever saw publication. Attention to Byzantine monuments documented during excavations focused on earlier materials - e.g. excavators removed Byzantine period structures from sites like Corinth and Olympia as they uncovered earlier levels - holds forth the potential to reveal significant insights into the structure of Byzantine communities. Recent efforts at Athens and Corinth to make this data available in digital forms will expand the number of scholars who have access to the history of these sites and hopefully increase the pace of research. At the same time, Byzantine archaeologists have a responsibility to make their work available promptly and, whenever possible, in digital form. Moving away from a proprietary notion of archaeological data toward a collaborative model will help produce the kind of (relatively) "big data" is available to address questions of regional economies, large-scale change in settlement patterns, and, of course, ceramic typologies and chronology. 5. Finally, if renewed attention to legacy data and architecture is to have an impact on our understanding of the Byzantine world, we cannot lose sight of the transdisciplinary natural of Byzantine studies. Like its cousin, Classical Archaeology, Byzantine archaeology has long availed itself to texts to inform its main research questions. To continue this tradition, however, we must ground our analysis in integrative approaches to the Byzantine world which facilitate a true dialogue between archaeological remains and textual accounts (rather than one remaining slavishly dependent on the other). The notion of a Byzantine landscape provides an important interpretative field for exploring the relationship between texts and archaeology in a Byzantine context. The idea of the landscape allows for the coexistence of monuments, settlements, survey results, and textual accounts without reducing any one object to dependency on the other. Moreover, recent work on landscape has increasingly recognized the productive tension created by various narratives. Taskscapes, for example, that represent the processes involved in the construction of a church might well be overwritten by hagiographic narratives that located holy sites in the life and travels of a saint. The distribution of local settlements might challenge narratives of abandonment that conform to political or military goals. Artifacts of resistance might provide contrasting perspectives on otherwise triumphant narratives. Landscapes need not always capture tension between text and material culture. The presence of seemingly isolated churches might challenge views of settlement based on nucleated habitation. Soundscapes, view sheds, and the faint evidence for paths and roads, connect communities and monuments in ways

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that defy perspectives informed by modern efficiencies and topography and contribute to producing evidence for a Byzantine experience. The future of Byzantine archaeology is in interrogating the methods and results of the rich tradition of archaeological practice in Greece and leveraging the growing body of conceptual literature grounded in world archaeology.

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Two Notes from the American Schools of Oriental Research http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/two-notes-from-the-americanschools-of-oriental-research/ Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:05:52 +0000 Bill Caraher I am on the program committee for the American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting and have had the good fortune to be "in the loop" on some of the cool things that ASOR has done over the past several years. One of the coolest is the their [http://www.asor.org/news/2013/03/mfm-2013.html] March Fellowship Madness fundraising drive. This is driven by the blog and its an effort to expand the amount of money available to distribute as the ASOR fellowships. These fellowships help students at all levels participate in archaeological projects, graduate students conduct research in the Near East, and projects fund new initiatives. [http://www.asor.org/news/2013/03/mfm-2013.html] Here's a link describing the fund raising drive. In addition to this page, [http://asorblog.org/?cat=153] they are also featuring blog posts on how theses fellowships made an impact on the recipients' lives, research, and careers. My project on Cyprus - the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project - received a Harris Grant to fund some equipment at a key moment in the project's development. We were a tiny project of maybe 3 scholars and 6 students conducting a survey at the coastal site of PylaKoutsopetria. Our funding came from a hodgepodge of sources including our universities, private donors, and places like ASOR. Every dollar was crucial to be able to achieve our research goals, so the Harris grant allowed us to get a printer and a scanner so we could digitize our results in the field. In my capacity as a member of the program committee for [http://www.asor.org/am/2013/2013-call-for-papers.shtml] ASOR's Annual Meeting, I also want to spread the word that we're looking for some more papers on the Byzantine period. The Byzantine period in the Near East coincides with what the Aegean and Western Mediterranean calls Late Antiquity. <strong>The deadline is March 15 and there will be no penalty for late abstracts.</strong> There remains much to be done to explore issues of the economy in the Near East and its relationship to the rest of the Eastern Mediterranean. The remarkable character of Late Antique/Byzantine settlement in the Near East has tragically come to the fore through recent events in Syria which has seen the reoccupation and shelling of well preserved village on the Limestone Massif. Religious architecture, particular Christian Churches, is on the verge of a major step forward in the Near East owing to the recent careful, stratigraphic excavation of a number Byzantine churches. The quality of recent archaeological work provides an well-documented assemblage that deserves careful attention. I could go on So please, take a moment to think about giving to ASOR's Fellowship Drive and, if you're a Byzantine archaeologist, think about sending in an abstract to ASOR. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/big-questions-and-next-

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directions-in-byzantine-archaeology/] Also check out my post yesterday and give me feedback!

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part VIII) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-viii/ Wed, 06 Mar 2013 13:03:00 +0000 Bill Caraher The dust has settled after the midterm and students are beginning to look toward the next major task in my History 101 class taught in a Scale-Up Classroom. We have passed the halfway point of the semester and each of the 9 student tables are preparing to write their chapters for a "flipped textbook". Two weeks ago, the students wrote proposals for each chapter and they were solid. Last night, the prepared outlines, talked with other tables to avoid overlapping content, and apportioned responsibilities for preparing the first draft. This work led to a few revelations on how the Scale-Up Room worked and how I will set up my class in the future. 1. Open Ended Assignments. As I developed my class, I imagined lots of small task based assignments. This came in part from my exposure to faculty in the sciences who were preparing their course for this room. As a result, I had a number of assignments that asked students to make lists. Lists had the advantage of a finite amount of work: I asked individuals, pods, and tables to compile a group of objects in some kind or order and supported by some kind of evidence. The bounded nature of these assignments helped me to manage classroom time, assess success or failure, and build a foundation of "factual" information that students could draw upon later in the semester. Typically, students worked on lists in pods and then compiled their lists as a table and uploaded it to a wiki. The major problem with lists is that students either didn't finish or they finished early and goofed off when they were done. These two outcomes were annoying. This week, I asked the students to prepare an outline for their chapter, based in part on their proposal. Unlike my list assignments, I provided very few rules on how long the outline should be, how much detail it should have, and how many entries it needs to include. I offered three more or less required suggestions: first, I told them to use a standard outline format (I.,B.,1.,b.,i., et c.), I recommended that they include more detail and sources rather than less, and I asked the group to use the outline to divide up specifically the work of writing the first draft among the pods at the table. That's all it took for the students to work for over an hour and a half without interruption on their outline. Groups were asking for help flagging me and my GTA down constantly. They asked good and substantive questions about their chapters. The various tables interacted with one another and negotiated the topical and chronological boundaries of their chapters. By the end of class, outlines had taken shape and most of the groups were involved in the sticky negotiation surrounding who would write what over spring break. With more clearly bounded tasks like preparing lists, students had a tendency to doing the least amount of work possible or becoming hung up on the details of the assignment (e.g. what happens if we only have 5 entries in our list?). With the open ended assignment to

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write an outline and a practical goal in mind, students embraces their task with tremendous enthusiasm and focus. The results were good. 2. Scale-Up and Its Discontents. I got a great insight from a couple of good, but not entirely enthusiastic students about the limits of the Scale-Up room. Inevitably there is a time in each class that some lecture is required. Most days, it involves introducing a concept (10-20 minutes), giving instructions (10 minutes), or trouble shooting a persistent problem (5 minutes). The most lecture heavy class will involve no more than 45 minutes of lecture over the 2:20 minute course (32%). Most days, however, lecture totals are less than 25% of the class. Unfortunately, the Scale-Up class is terrible for even short lectures. Students do not face one direction. There are pillars in the classroom that obstruct many students' view. The acoustics are challenging so I have to use a wireless microphone. I pace while I lecture so that most students can see me, but unlike a standard classroom, it's very difficult to make eye contact with any student or group and I am usually out of sight from some part of the class at all times. The result is that for most students part of my lectures tend to be disembodied voice. In other words, my lecture becomes the voice you hear at the airport telling you that the moving walkway is coming to an end or not to leave any unattended baggage. Students clearly have problems connecting with this kind of lecture and when they don't connect, they do not retain information. 3. Writing as a Group. We use the Blackboard CMS to manage most of the group work. For writing as a group and disseminating it to the class, we have used the Wiki function. In almost every way this textbook captures the spirit of wiki-based composition. Unfortunately, Blackboard's Wiki application is dreadful. It gets jacked easily on formatting artifacts on text imported from Word or other word processors. It doesn't handle spacing or font size with any elegance making most text either cramped and bobo looking or spaced out like Miles Davis in 1976. This makes the prospects of creating a textbook from text disseminated through the Wiki feature in Blackboard a dreadful prospect. There is not much I can do at this point except imagine a better application in the future or look at the various web-based collaborative writing platforms on the internets. The last few classes in the Scale-Up room began to fatigue me as I felt like the students were going through the motions, last night was energizing and positive. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] For more on my experiences in the Scale-Up room click here.

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Working Draft: Byzantine Archaeology in Greece: Big Questions, Next Directions http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/working-draft-byzantinearchaeology-in-greece-big-questions-next-directions/ Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:57:39 +0000 Bill Caraher After getting some nice feedback on my Monday blog post, I put together a working draft of the paper that I'll deliver at [http://proteus.brown.edu/stateofthefield2013/Home] a conference at the Joukowski Institute for Archaeology at Brown next week. No one will mistake the paper as anything other than my particular perspectives on Byzantine Archaeology. It reflects my interests in landscapes, legacy data, and the archaeological study of architecture. One can certainly see my recent work at Polis on Cyprus and on the churches of the Corinthia as well as my little projects dealing with legacy data at Isthmia and Thisvi. That being said, I know that I didn't give enough attention to recent work on Byzantine ceramics, various areas of "scientific archaeology," the growing awareness of the relationship between nationalism and Byzantine archaeology, the development of indigenous archaeologies in the Byzantine period, and very recent work at particular sites where researchers are making important strides, and this is a pretty uneven perspective on the current character of the field. I also know that I have left out citations and the like making it a bit difficult to track some of my references But this is just a working draft and I continue to be eager to take any and all input. [scribd id=129089348 key=key-2jesyxzeu17vec6n9es6 mode=scroll]

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-23/ Fri, 08 Mar 2013 13:24:59 +0000 Bill Caraher We have hints of spring in the Red River Valley with a high today in the upper twenties, but don't worry, we won't get soft. Snow piles abound and the weather folks have assured us that things will still get worse before they get better. Whatever the weather, the Friday before Spring Break (for me at least) is a good time for some quick hits and varia. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/sackler-displaying-cyruscylinder-an-artifact-with-long-history-and-many-meanings/2013/03/07/e6312362-876511e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394_story.html] The Cyrus Cylinder from the British Museum is on display at the Smithsonian's Sackler Gallery. Have you looked checked out ASOR's March Fellowship Madness yet? If not, [http://www.asor.org/news/2013/03/mfm-2013.html] go here and [https://netforum.avectra.com/eweb/FND/DonateFund.aspx?Site=ASOR&amp;WebCod e=DonateNow&amp;Action=Add&amp;prd_key=8fe1c12f-3fb6-4303-876e602cd41763f8&amp;fun_key=dabbdc9b-f6ab-48fd-bb20494a16fdeace&amp;Name=March%20Fellowship%20Madness%202013] then give a few dollars to help support [http://asorblog.org/?cat=153] stories like this. It's a good thing. Peter Brown's [http://www.worldcat.org/title/through-the-eye-of-a-needle-wealth-thefall-of-rome-and-the-making-of-christianity-in-the-west-350-550-ad/oclc/761383853] Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD. (Oxford 2012) is very long. [http://www.bmcreview.org/2013/02/20130235.html] This review is shorter. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287902/Locust-alert-Middle-East-plaguedescends-Egypt-creates-panic-Israel.html] A plague of locusts in the Middle East! Few things are more infuriating than being told that sharing a PDF of a scholarly article with a colleague violates copyright. [http://www.technologyreview.com/view/512231/computer-scientists-measure-thespeed-of-censorship-on-chinas-twitter/] The speed of censorship in China. Three cricket notes: [http://www.espncricinfo.com/new-zealand-v-england2013/engine/current/match/569243.html] What's happening here? [http://www.espncricinfo.com/sri-lanka-v-bangladesh2013/engine/current/match/602472.html] Welcome back Sanga (this is all I wanted to see from the Boxing Day Test)! [http://www.fakingnews.com/2013/03/harbhajan-singhannounces-retirement-from-day-1-of-test-cricket/] And this is funny. So I need to buy a new Window's PC and have some grant money to do it. [http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-l521x/pd.aspx?c=us&amp;l=en&amp;s=dhs] I'm !
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thinking of a Dell XPS15. It needs to be powerful, have a graphic card, and be of "better" quality. Any opinions? On the same grant, [http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/828170REG/Panasonic_DMC_GX1KBODY_LUMIX_DMC_GX1_Mirrorless_Micro.html] I'm going to get a Panasonic GX-1 with a couple of lenses rather than upgrading my venerable Nikon D80 DSLR. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9phcWaIbkA&amp;list=UUZWL6wXr94CInkTMLNbjuRA&amp;index=1] Here I am yesterday talking about the North Dakota Man Camp Project on the student run Studio One television show. [http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/punk?utm_source=Facebook&am p;utm_medium=statusupdate&amp;utm_campaign=punk] Punk fashion at the Met [http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/punk?utm_source=Facebook&am p;utm_medium=statusupdate&amp;utm_campaign=punk] Punk: Chaos to Couture. And for something less punk, [http://p3d.in/6Tuil/shadeless] check out Sebastian Heath's 3D image of the Met's Caracalla head. [http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/51892-after-small-tripof-its-own-nc-wyeth-odyssey-painting-safe-in-philly-museum] This is a little article on an N.C. Wyeth painting, Odyssey, that found its way into the from the GlaxoSmithKline corporate offices to the Philadelphia Art Museum. It is interesting that the Philadelphia Art Museum does not have any Wyeth paintings, but the nearby Brandywine River Museum has a massive collection. Wonder why they gave it to the Philadelphia Art Museum? [http://lifeinwilliston.com/index.php/man-camp-housing-101/] A quick course on how to pick a man camp and [http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/columns/spotlight-oneconomics/spotlight-on-economics-population-projections-for-williston-basin/view] a new report on the rising population of the Williston Basin. [http://www.greekamericanradicals.com/] A new documentary on Greek American Radicals. Any Ihnatko is not my favorite tech blogger, but [http://www.macworld.com/article/2030042/why-i-switched-from-iphone-to-android.html] I did think his three part series on why he switched from an iPhone to a Samsung Galaxy IIIS is pretty good. The only issue for me is [http://www.macworld.com/article/2030168/pros-and-cons-why-i-switched-from-iphoneto-android-part-3.html] this admission: "After that, Id only pull out my iPhone for one reason: to take a photo. The iPhone continues to kick the butts of all challengers as a camera." Check out the three part post over at the Electric Archaeologist on Digital Humanities Job Advertisements ( [http://electricarchaeology.ca/2013/02/28/text-analysis-of-2012-digitalhumanities-job-adverts/] part 1, [http://electricarchaeology.ca/2013/02/28/text-analysisof-2012-digital-humanities-job-adverts-part-2/] part 2, [http://electricarchaeology.ca/2013/03/05/text-analysis-of-2012-digital-humanities-job!
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adverts-part-3/] part 3). [http://electricarchaeology.ca/2013/03/06/1706/] Then check out his notes on how to become a Digital Humanist. [https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/] This is an interesting way to measure your social attitudes. [http://cdn1.hubspot.com/hub/162029/WBI2012/North_Dakota_2012_State_Report.pdf] North Dakota is the 19th most well-being state (pdf). [http://pitchfork.com/news/49818-watch-franz-ferdinand-perform-new-songs-live/] New Franz Ferdinand songs, [http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2013/03/watchkurt-vile-perform-a-new-song-never-run-away.html] a new Kurt Vile song, and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iotu-YDHn7k] a cool performance by Kishi Bashi. If you're in North Dakota and want to hear some cool cats talk about the Dakota War in the Dakota Territory, [http://heritagerenewal.org/dakotawar/] check out this schedule of public talks. [http://www.greatplainsexaminer.com/2013/03/05/exploring-nanson-a-north-dakotaghost-town/] Some North Dakota abandonment porn. [http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/restorations-2/] Check out the archaeology of conserving and restoring old computers. What I'm reading: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/walker-evans-florida/oclc/41315418] Walker Evans, Walker Evans: Florida. J. Paul Getty Museum 2000 via Kostis Kourelis (But I have a couple of other books on my nightstand including D.B. Monk's [http://www.worldcat.org/title/aesthetic-occupation-the-immediacy-ofarchitecture-and-the-palestine-conflict/oclc/47705555] An aesthetic occupation : the immediacy of architecture and the Palestine conflict. Duke 2002 (via Jordan Pickett) What I'm listening to: Ten Years After, Cricklewood Green; Ten Years After, Ssssh; Ten Years After, Stonedhenge. R.I.P Alvin Lee. Two photos of one of my favorite (albeit utterly indistinct) buildings in Grand Forks: "LittleShop1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/littleshop1.jpg]"LittleShop1" "LittleShop2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/littleshop2.jpg]"LittleShop2]

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Trailers, Florida, and Spring Break http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/trailers-florida-and-spring-break/ Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:43:38 +0000 Bill Caraher Since this is the first day of our Spring Break, it seems appropriate to talk about Florida. Last week, [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/] Kostis Kourelis nudged the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] North Dakota Man Camp Project Team to check out the slim volume titled [http://www.worldcat.org/title/walker-evans-florida/oclc/41315418] Walker Evans: Florida produced after the Getty exhibited some of [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/evan/hd_evan.htm] Walker Evan's photographs from Florida. This 1941 photograph appeared on the cover. "NewImage.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/newimage.png]"NewImage" width="450" height="353" border="0" /> [http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/190038889] From the Metropolitan Museum of Art The trailer is a lovely 1940s "toaster type" (as Evans called it) travel trailer. There are still a few example of these in the man camps of North Dakota (the trailer below apparently dates to the mid-1950s). "DSC_0450.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/dsc_0450.jpg]"DSC 0450" More interesting, however, is that the trailer in Evans photographs features a lovely walkway made of shipping pallets. [http://www.slate.com/articles/business/transport/2012/08/pallets_the_single_most_imp ortant_object_in_the_global_economy_.html] As several observers have noted, shipping pallets are crucial to the global economy as much because of their initial intended use as for their dynamic afterlife. While I had known that pallets had existed from the first part of the 20th century (in fact, [http://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/ch/ch08/CHvolume08page550.pdf] their boom began in the late 1930s and coincided with the introduction of the gas-powered forklift), I had assumed that the almost ubiquitous character of these pallets was a product of late 20th century and the rapid expansion of the so-called "World Economy". "NewImage.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/newimage1.png]"NewImage" width="258" height="258" border="0" /> Apparently, as soon as pallets became widely available, they began to see use as architectural elements. The pallet walkway is a ubiquitous feature in the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-

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camps-2/] Type 2 man camp in the Bakken area. We associated the presence of pallets in the man camps with the rapid intensifying integration of Western North Dakota with the global economy. The movement of equipment, specialized supplies, food, and other goods necessary to support the increase in activity and man power in the Bakken must have made many more pallets available for secondary use. The presence of pallets at a 1941 trailer park in Florida may reflect the increase in rail traffic to this area as it became a desirable seasonal resort. <img title="DSC_0466.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/dsc_0466.jpg]"DSC 0466" width="225" height="335" border="0" /><img title="DSC_0467.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/dsc_0467.jpg]"DSC 0467" width="225" height="335" border="0" /> <p style="text-align:left;] They aren't just common at man camps or trailer and R.V. parks, of course. They also find their way into suburban basements. "Pallet.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/pallet1.jpg]"Pallet" <p style="text-align:left;]

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A Late Roman Farmhouse near Metaponto http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-late-roman-farmhouse-nearmetaponto/ Tue, 12 Mar 2013 12:23:24 +0000 Bill Caraher This past week I've been reading Ermina Lapadula's publication of the [http://www.worldcat.org/title/late-roman-farmhouse-at-san-biagio/oclc/812052649] Late Roman Farmhouse at San Biagio near the ancient city of Metaponto in the Basilicata region of Italy. Excavated by a team of both Italians and a team from the University of Texas, the ten-room farmhouse was mid-sized (a villula) and of modest prosperity. It represents one of a rather small number of non-elite rural dwellings in Italy published in any detail and is consistent with [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/even-more-onpeasants/] recent work on Roman peasants in the Italian countryside. I'm preparing a formal review of this book for the American Journal of Archaeology, and I'll post a preprint of that when it's done. For now, however, I'll give you some observations. 1. Tiles. Ten years ago, my buddy [https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/article/view/2435] David Pettegrew published an article in the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology on the farmhouses in the Classical period in Greece. One of the difficulties he faced in understanding what a farmhouse might look like in the surface record was how few excavated rural houses exist in Greece. The same observation, of course, could be made of almost any rural structure. He goes on to note that even excavated rural buildings do not seem to produce enough roof tiles to cover them. The reason for this is rather obvious; people strip abandoned buildings of their valuable tiles, and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/a-byzantine-roof/] we confirmed this practice through some ethnographic parallels. It would seem that the San Biagio farmhouse likewise lost its tiles probably after a short period of abandonment. While the publication did not go into much detail regarding the post abandonment history of the building or any other matters of site formation, an attentive and interested reader can glean intriguing details about the site's later history throughout the volume. 2. Reconstruction. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is a lovely digital reconstruction of the building supported by an appropriately detailed discussion. Unlike the older practice of hand-drawn architectural reconstruction (which were also included in this volume) - which were largely illustrative - new digital reconstructions often include discussions of how the process worked. I was particularly intrigued by the discussion of the roofing system used at San Biagio and it seems to coincide with what [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/a-byzantine-roof/] we found at our site of Pyla-Koutsopetria in Cyprus. Moreover, the digital reconstructions were gorgeous in resolution and detail. See Figure 2.28 below with a detail of the roof. "NewImage.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/newimage2.png]"NewImage" width="450" height="281" border="0" /> !
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3. Landscapes. One of the most useful things about this volume is that the same team who excavated the farmhouse had also conducted and [http://www.worldcat.org/title/chora-ofmetaponto-3-archaeological-field-survey-bradano-to-basento-vol-1/oclc/828855910] published a larger regional survey from the region. As a result, they were able to locate this site within larger patterns of settlement and ascertain how deeply connected the regional economy was to larger Mediterranean networks of exchange. The mid-sized farmhouse is both typical for the region, which tended to lack the large villas typical of the 2nd-4th centuries in southern Italy. Economically, the villula was fairly integrated into the larger Mediterranean networks of exchange with ceramic material showing exchange with other parts of Italy, Spain, the Aegean, and North Africa (and even a few fragments of Late Roman 1 amphora from the Eastern Mediterranean). That being said, the authors suspect that the main economic activity at the farmhouse was animal husbandry and it was probably a "self-sufficient" rather than explicitly commercial farm. It would have been really fantastic had the authors brought a more sophisticated conceptualization of landscape (perhaps using Ingold's idea of the taskscape) to their study of the villa and its environs. 4. A Small Private Bath. It is striking that this rather modest farmhouse had a small private bath. Another buddy of mine, [http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/] Dallas Deforest has recently completed a dissertation on baths and bathing in Late Antique Greece and I wonder whether there is evidence for such small private baths there. When we discover hypocaust tiles in the countryside during field survey (and this is exceedingly rare), we immediately expect them to derive from an elite residence. The presence of a small bath at a more modest site might temper our assumptions a bit. 5. Artifacts and Stratigraphy. The site was excavated stratigraphically and the volume includes a well-executed artifact catalogue. On the one hand, the catalogue is really nice. It is neither overblown to include every example of particular objects nor too spare to mine for comparanda (and the very nice assemblage of 3rd century material makes it a very appealing source for comparanda!). On the other hand, I remain frustrated by the separation of the objects from their archaeological context. I realize that this arrangement is a practical requirement for most archaeological publications and benefits both the treatment of the stratigraphy and the artifact, but it remains frustrating to have to flip back and forth between the two parts of the book. This will be the advantage of the next generation of digital archaeological publications which allow the reader to drill down into the data upon which the observations rest.

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A Pedantic Post on Giving Papers http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/a-pedantic-post-on-giving-papers/ Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:11:52 +0000 Bill Caraher This past week I enjoyed a nice set of papers at the annual School of Graduate Study's Scholarly Forum here at the University of North Dakota. I was, however, struck by some trends in the graduate student papers that I did not particularly find useful. My papers tend to conform loosely to a template and some folks have nudged me to write a bit on my template and my general critique of conference papers in my blog. I am not super excited about writing such a pedantic post, but I'll do it anyway. As always, if you do it some other way, have differing opinions, or just want to hate on me, the comments are open. So, here are five rules for any graduate student giving a paper at a conference: 1. Read you paper. There are three reasons for this. First, it is tremendously difficult to present a complex argument from short notes. Complex arguments rely on a certain amount of intellectual and rhetorical rigor that is typically foreign to a conversations style of speaking. Second, if you have rather extensive notes, one gains little advantage from reading them. If you have extensive notes, might as well write out the entire paper. Finally, people at academic conferences are not there - in general - to be entertained. We're there to hear sophisticated arguments. If someone in the audience is bored because your presentation style is boring, then they aren't doing it right. Present a good argument and no one will be bored. 2. No More than Five Words on a Powerpoint Slide. My policy is to avoid the dreaded "Powerpointer" whenever possible. In fact, I've given it up for Lent this year. I've never quite understood the practice of putting words on a Powerpoint slide that are the same as the words you are reading in your paper. At best, it encourages us to ignore you; at worst it is a distraction. Use The Powerpointer for images that help advance your argument. If images are unnecessary, then skip The Powerpointer and force the audience to focus on your text. 3. Thesis. Provide your thesis within the first 2 minutes of your paper (or in the first 10% of your content). If I have to wait 5 minutes or more to figure out what you're arguing, then I have lost interest. Your thesis should be supported by historiography or a literature review. As soon as you tell me your thesis, tell me why I should care. My rule is: drop your thesis within the first 2 minutes and then spend the next 2 minutes contextualizing your argument. For a 1500-2000 word paper, it should be 200 words for an introduction concluding with a thesis and no more than 300 words on the secondary literature supporting your thesis. 4. Use a Case Study. I am guilty of trying to say everything that I have ever thought on a topic in a 15-20 minute paper. While these papers stand as personal monuments to my brilliance (cough, cough), they are usually pretty rough on the audience. Recently, I have tried to focus my papers by using a single case study or single, focused argument. I try to keep the case study to around 1000 words and leave a couple hundred words for a conclusion that will relate my single argument or case study to a larger body of evidence.

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5. Chose your Last Sentence Carefully. I just discovered this very recently (and in part it is a product of blogging because I never know how to end a blog). A nice, final sentence tells the audience and the moderator that your argument is now done. It avoids the dreaded "that's all I have to say", awkward conclusion moment. It also gives the audience something to remember from your paper and gives you one last chance to exude confidence before people begin to pepper you with questions. I know everyone has their own style. In fact, when other people have delivered papers that I wrote, I've been told that my somewhat Billtastic style comes through. And I also realize that adhering to a rather formal template can imply that an argument resides - somehow - outside the text (rather than being coterminous and intrinsic in the text). I also know that some disciplines love The Powerpointer more than knowledge itself and so my somewhat primitive attitude toward The Powerpointer probably reflects my rather conservative disciplinary leanings. My post is meant mainly to offer some practical tips to students as try to figure out how to present their research at academic conferences. That's all I have to say.

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A New Camera http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/14/a-new-camera/ Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:17:40 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the last few years, I've been looking for a new camera. I have a DSLR that I like a good bit - a Nikon D80 - and it has proven to be quite durable and reliable, but it's heavy and bulky. In the field we have tended to use Nikon Coolpix P5000, P6000, or P7000 point-andshoot cameras at times when I probably wanted something more robust. These are fine camera but for their size and price, they aren't nearly as flexible or as high quality as a DSLR. I found myself carrying the smaller Nikon point-and-shoot When the Micro4/3 format appeared, it was pitched as the between point-and-shoots and DSLRs, but they tended to be expensive and have too many options for me to figure out quickly what I wanted and I am always worried about a new format (I narrowly avoided owning [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_film] a disc camera). Fortunately, some [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/] photographer [http://www.johnholmgren.com/] friends convinced me that the format was mature, dynamic, and high quality enough for me to take the plunge. So I got a with a 20 mm 1.7 lens. I also have a 14-42 mm lens. Since the Micro4/3 does not have a fullsized sensor these lenses are roughly 40 mm and 28-84 mm respectively. Here are some photographs using the 20 mm 1.7 lens (a new camera can only help so much): "P1020043.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p10200432.jpg]"P1020043" "P1020041.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p10200411.jpg]"P1020041"] "P1020026.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p10200262.jpg]"P1020026" "P1020052.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p10200521.jpg]"P1020052" Pretty nice! Don't tell my DSLR, but I might have a new favorite camera! [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/751594.html] Oh and since he endured some endless questions about cameras from me, it would be wrong for me not to tell you to check out Kyle Cassidy's humming beast photos. They're pretty sweet and tiny and cost only a little.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-59/ Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:04:59 +0000 Bill Caraher Today started out looking like a snowy drive to Fargo and then a roll of the dice whether I'd make it to beautiful Providence, Rhode Island, but after careful consultation with the local haruspices, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to spend some time in snowed into lovely Fargo, ND. So I decided to stay put and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/07/working-draft-byzantinearchaeology-in-greece-big-questions-next-directions/] sent my paper along via the inter tubes. ( [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/] For my friends in Fargo, I want you to know that this virtually ensures a sunny day with highs in the mid 30s.) So rather than these quick hits and varia tiding you over until my triumphant return, they instead should stand as melancholy reflections on life in the antipodes. I will, however, spend some time working on [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/alate-roman-farmhouse-near-metaponto/] this book review and trying to sketch out an article about teaching in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] the Scale-Up classroom for [http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=202045] this issue of the History Teacher. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/cultureobituaries/9913218/Hector-Catling.html] I am a bit late on this, but here's Hector Catling's obituary. He had a tremendous impact on the archaeology of the Cypriot countryside and on our understanding of Late Roman ceramics. [http://networkedblogs.com/J8Hk4] Some open access prehistoric Cyprus (via Ancient World On Line). [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9909936/Roman-ruins-inLibya-aerial-photographs-by-Jason-Hawkes.html] Some amazing photographs of Roman sites in Libya. [http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/08/inside-google-street-view-from-larry-pages-car-tothe-depths-of-the-grand-canyon/] A brief history of Google Streetview. [http://nikneuk.deviantart.com/] Floor plans for Homer and Marge Simpson's house and [http://www.etsy.com/shop/TVFLOORPLANSandMORE?ref=seller_info%3C/a] others. Everyday there are [http://www.renaemitchell.com/] more photographs of [http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/north-dakotas-oil-boom/100473/] the oil boom in western North Dakota. This is going to be the most photographed oil boom ever. ( [http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/a-trip-to-iran/100471/] Oh, and here are some cool photographs of Iran and [http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/] found photos on the National Geographic Tumblr.) [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/search/label/Corinth%20Architects] The first two sections on a study of architects at Corinth Excavations.

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 All ten test cricket playing nations are in action this weekend, but [http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia-2013/engine/current/match/598814.html] Australia v. India looks the most interesting. [http://beautifuldecay.com/2011/09/08/joe-forkans-the-lebowski-cycle/] The Lebowski Cycle (linked here in celebration of the 15th anniversary of that film). [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog] If you don't check out the Society of Architectural Historian's blog on Fridays, you should. This is on of the best weekends for motorsports with NASCAR at Bristol and the opening of the Formula One season. [http://www.undwritersconference.org/wc-schedule.htm] Do check out the UND Writers Conference schedule for next week. A new journal: [http://www.psupress.org/journals/jnls_JEMAHS.html] The Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies. [http://feltron.com/ar12_02.html] Nicholas Feltron's 2012 Annual Report. [http://kylecassidy.smugmug.com/Nature/hummingbeasts-2013/] Everyone should go and buy little pictures of hummingbeasts by Kyle Cassidy. What I'm reading: <span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.799999237061px;text-align:left;] D.B. Monks</span><em style="line-height:22.799999237061px;color:#222222;fontfamily:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;textalign:left;] style="line-height:inherit;outline:none;text-decoration:none;color:#000000;fontweight:bold;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottomcolor:#eeeeee;" [http://www.worldcat.org/title/aesthetic-occupation-the-immediacy-ofarchitecture-and-the-palestine-conflict/oclc/47705555] An aesthetic occupation : the immediacy of architecture and the Palestine conflict<span style="color:#222222;fontfamily:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;lineheight:22.799999237061px;text-align:left;] . Duke 2002</span> What I'm listening to: My Bloody Valentine, mbv."TheEnd.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/theend.jpg]"TheEnd" width="600" height="291" border="0" />

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The Things of Music http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/the-things-of-music/ Sun, 17 Mar 2013 17:21:37 +0000 Bill Caraher Due to circumstances almost beyond my control, I am rearranging my current stereo situation. Since I am lucky enough to have a "stereo situation", this is clearly in the category of "first world problems". On the other hand, I don't have any real hobbies so I have to obsess with the ones that I do have. Sometime this week, I'm parting ways with my beloved stereo. I've been assured that it's going to a nice farm where it can play with other stereos lovely state-of-the-art sound rooms (or to the band room at a local university). In any event, it's my grown-up stereo. Like archaeological typologies, as they mature, they tend to be parsed ever more finely. I had a lovely McIntosh MC275 amplifier powering a pair of nice Focal 836v speakers. A McIntosh MA6300 integrated amplifier served as a pre-amp (it was slated for replacement by a real preamp, perhaps the new McIntosh D100 pre amp/DAC). The amp was connected to the preamp by a pair of Shunyata Research Aires cables. These mated perfectly with the MC275 to make the sound tubetastic. The gentle decay of the MC275 and the slightly airy sound of the cables made blues and jazz sound very nice and made sure the rhythm of a more raucous song like the Beastie Boys Sure Shot was intoxicating. I never did get the Focals to sound exactly how I wanted them. I wonder whether the extra woofer tended to obscure the sweetness of the midrange a bit? In any event, I didn't ever get the pluckiness from the guitars or the roundness from the piano notes that I aspire to (and remember from the vague sonic memory of a pair of Wilson WATT Puppies heard 25 years ago). Anyway, I could never decide whether I wanted speakers that could rock or sing to me sweetly. "P1020110.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p1020110.jpg]"P1020110" "P1020114.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p1020114.jpg]"P1020114" "P1020115.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p1020115.jpg]"P1020115" I'll replace the lovely McIntosh with three year old Peachtree Audio Decco Integrated amplifier driving a pair of 20 year old Energy speakers. The Decco has a simple tube stage and I think I can hear it in the midrange, but it's hard to know for certain through the less sophisticated sound of the Energy speakers. I'm also switching from the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic (connected to the McIntosh through a decent pair of Tributary cables) to the Decco's built in DAC. Lots of moving parts right now, lotta in, lotta outs, and a lotta whathave-yous. Lotta strands to keep in my head. "P1020126.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/p1020126.jpg]"P1020126]

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The Bakken as Taskscape http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/the-bakken-as-taskscape/ Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:33:10 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the weekend, I re-read Tim Ingold's influential article " [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/124811] The Temporality of Landscapes" to revisit his idea of taskscapes (World Archaeology 25 (1993), 152-174). Ingold locates the complex idea of taskscape at the intersection of the relational character of landscape and temporality. Landscapes as lived spaces constitute the relationships between various animate and inanimate agents. Various scales of time - from the momentary and personal to the geological, cyclical, and historical - mediate these relationships and influence their physical manifestation. At its core, then, taskscapes represent the space and time where actors perform tasks of various kinds. Ingold's interest in temporality drew me to his work mainly because the discourse surrounding the Bakken was so explicitly temporal. The term "oil boom" implies something short in duration and the construction of temporary housing for the Bakken workforce recognizes that temporality plays a key role in how participants construct the landscape discursively. Long time residents define their landscapes stratigraphically as "before the Boom" and "since the Boom". In fact, our own efforts to document the "archaeology" of workforce housing in the Bakken oil patch likewise intersects with a discourse steeped in issues of temporality as we articulate how deploy archaeological practices designed to study the past in a contemporary setting. Moreover, agency in the context of the Bakken boom cuts already recognizes both human and non-human players in the formation of the taskscape. Oil, for example, flows at its own rate and comes out of the ground in its own time. Trucks punish roads leaving deep impressions in the macadam and asphalt. Truckers contend with the roads and the relentless flow of oil as workers in casing toil to the rhythm of the drill. The sound of the oil pumps echoes the beating of a heart and punctuates the Farmers work the surface of the ground and worry about who owns the rights to the strata below their crops and houses. People, oil, roads, machines, and housing interlace to form the taskscape of the Bakken Boom. Our own work as archaeologists engages and forms this taskscape as well. We work amidst the people and objects that we study. They change at a pace that seems to intentionally undermine the expectations that the physical remains of the past are static objects of study as in traditional archaeology. In fact, as we stay in the man camps and negotiate the rutted roads and avoid trucks and chase the leading edge of the Boom, we participate in the same taskscape as the people and things we study. Our short visits, temporary lodging, and sense of being a newcomer (not to mention transport in a large, macho truck) fits into the taskscape that we study by echoing the experiences of many of the other human agents participating in the Bakken boom. Thus, Ingold's taskscapes provides us with a useful heuristic to understand the intersection of our own work and the transformation of the western North Dakota Bakken landscape. It has the utility of echoing aspects of the discourse common to participants in and observers !
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of the Boom, embraces both human and non-human actors in the creation of temporally defined space, and makes room for the methodological positioning of archaeologists studying the "contemporary past".

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A Tree in the Blizzard http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/a-tree-in-the-blizzard/ Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:51:04 +0000 Bill Caraher This is what I saw last night when I looked out my front door. "TreeinSnow.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/treeinsnow.jpg]"TreeinSnow" width="450" height="374" border="0" /> Later the next day, I looked out my back door. "BackDoor.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/backdoor.jpg]"BackDoor" "BackDoor2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/backdoor2.jpg]"BackDoor2"] <wp:post_id>2629</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>2013-03-18 08:51:04</wp:post_date> <wp:post_date_gmt>2013-03-18 13:51:04</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:post_name>a-tree-in-the-blizzard</wp:post_name> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> <category domain="category" nicename="north-dakotiana] <![CDATA[North Dakotiana</category> <category domain="category" nicename="photography] <![CDATA[Photography</category> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[a:7:{s:7:"primary";s:68:"http://mediterraneanworld.files.word press.com/2013/03/treeinsnow.jpg";s:6:"images";a:1:{s:68:"http://mediterraneanworld.files. wordpress.com/2013/03/treeinsnow.jpg";a:6:{s:8:"file_url";s:68:"http://mediterraneanworl d.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/treeinsnow.jpg";s:5:"width";i:900;s:6:"height";i:748;s:4:"type ";s:5:"image";s:4:"area";i:673200;s:9:"file_path";b:0;}}s:6:"videos";a:0:{}s:11:"image_count";i: 1;s:6:"author";s:7:"6410445";s:7:"blog_id";s:8:"18496651";s:9:"mod_stamp";s:19:"2013-03-18 13:51:05";}</wp:meta_value>

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Social Media in the Oil Patch http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/social-media-in-the-oil-patch/ Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:07:14 +0000 Bill Caraher I've been trying to interest some of my colleagues in the Communication program in a project that works to document the use of social media in the Bakken Oil Patch. So far, there have been no takers, so I thought I'd pitch the idea a bit more widely. Over the past 5 years, the use of fracking to extract oil from miles beneath the surface has transformed communities in the western part of North Dakota. For all the effects on the physical communities around Williston and Watford City, there has also been a parallel development in the region's social media presence. From the rise of [http://www.youtube.com/user/greggzart] Greg the YouTube sensation ( [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/747241.html] check out Kyle's picture!) who describes on YouTube his struggles to make his way as a new arrival in Williston to the [http://realoilfieldwives.com/] Real Oilfield Wives, a website and Facebook page, dedicated to the life of oil field wives. Facebook pages dedicated to [https://www.facebook.com/WatfordCityNewcomers] Watford City Newcomers and [http://lifeinwilliston.com/] My Life in Williston share space with pages dedicated to [https://www.facebook.com/WatfordCityNDindoorRVpark] Watford City's new Indoor RV Park and [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bakken-Oilfield-Fail-of-theDay/292810960810561] the tragedo-comic Bakken Oilfield Fail of the Day. The business oriented [http://www.bakkendispatch.com/] the Bakken Dispatches speaks in the same forum as the Facebook page, [https://www.facebook.com/ThisisMandaree] This is Mandaree, which documents the influence of drilling in the Ft. Berthold Indian Reservation. [http://oilpatchdispatch.areavoices.com/] Amy Dalrymple's Oil Patch Dispatch provides news from the patch in a blog type format. [https://twitter.com/NDOilCan] The North Dakota Petroleum Council maintains an active Twitter feed. A simple search for [https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Bakken&amp;src=typd] #Bakken on Twitter provides a significant insight into the range of activities present in social media outlets. [http://www.renaemitchell.com/] Photographers and [http://blackgoldboom.com/] documentary makers share space with [https://www.facebook.com/BurnedNTurned] local businesses catering to the Bakken boom. While I am not trained in the study of social and new media, I have been pretty interested in how Facebook and Twitter collapse the distinction between various voices. Industry advocates (driven in part by marketing strategies) stand shoulder-to-shoulder with support groups and critics of activities in western North Dakota. The interaction between media outlines, critical voices, individuals, and communities provides a window both into the nature of these new media voices and the emerging communities of the patch. Some student, somewhere, needs to analyze this to understand how these virtual communities, marketing strategies, viral phenomena, and twitter strategists contribute to how we understand the Bakken and the North Dakota oil boom at the intersection of community, individuals, and technology.

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In other, somewhat related, news from the Bakken, [http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/393600/] we were a bit shocked to hear that there was a stabbing death at the [http://www.capitallodge.net/] Capital Lodge in Tioga. This is where we tend to stay when we're out in the Bakken. Sort of a bummer.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part IX) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-ix/ Wed, 20 Mar 2013 13:21:14 +0000 Bill Caraher Last night the students in the History 101: Western Civilization class that I'm teaching in the [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] University of North Dakota's snazzy new Scale-Up classroom submitted the first draft of their chapters. Those of you who follow this blog know that the core feature of this class involves "flipping" the textbook and making each of the 18, 9-student tables responsible for producing a chapter. The week before spring break saw each table prepare an outline for their chapter drawing on their careful work over the first 7 weeks of the semester. This outline not only organized their chapter but also set out which students were responsible for each part of the chapter. Watching the students work together to produce an outline and bringing their work together into a chapter was pretty remarkable. In general, the students approached these tasks with a seriousness of purpose. In the process of circulating from group to group, I learned a few things about classroom management: 1. Student Managed Groups. Students get annoyed when some of their group members don't show up or pull their own weight, but, in general, the tables have done a remarkable job managing their groups. Most groups clearly could work together and handled the distribution of tasks in a pretty efficient way. While many of the Scale-Up pundits recommended formal ways to ensure tasks rotate at the table, I've yet to see any real issues with students dividing responsibilities evenly across the group. 2. The Three Computer Problem. One issue, however, is that each table only has three computers for nine students. This was an intentional feature of the Scale-Up room to facilitate student interaction and collaboration. The issue is, of course, that the laptop itself is not designed to accommodate multiple users. In fact, the basic design of the laptop is to create an intimate space between user and the tool. While it is possible to project the work from the laptop onto a large flatscreen monitor assigned to each table, the round table shape means that some students at the table can't see the monitor without moving to a different position. None of this a deal breaker for the Scale-Up room, but it makes certainly kinds of exercises - like looking for images or sources on the web, writing anything longer that short texts, and any kind of formatting work - less than ideal in the Scale-Up setting. In effect, the three laptops become tools useful only in short bursts. And, since my class involves some sustained work during class time (e.g. writing an outline), most tables now have more than the three laptops running. 3. A Little Something Extra. Last night was the first night that the groups completed the assignments faster than I anticipated. Most of this is owing to the increased efficiency of the groups. Tasks that involved significant planning at each table at the beginning of the semester now happen without the need for organization. Students have accepted certain tasks and get to work quickly.

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What this means from a course management standpoint is that exercises later in the semester have to be more complex and more densely scheduled. So when they ran out of work last night, I had to dip into my reserve of ideas to keep some of the more efficient groups active and moving forward. 4. Keeping Momentum. Most groups had completed the tasks set for them this class and appeared to have momentum in terms of editing and working on their chapters. So I suggested that they take the last half hour of class to plan for the rest of the week. This instantly caused 70% of the class to leave. Apparently, there is a balance between giving the students open-ended tasks (prepare an outline) and giving them time without a clear objective (plan for future work). The former capitalizes on rapport and building momentum; the latter stops a class dead in its tracks and causes people to leave. 5. What's Next? As I look ahead toward the final part of the class which will focus on peer review, I have to convince the students of three things that are, frankly, not native to their species. First, they have to read other people's work critically and make substantive comments. Next, they have to recognize the value of taking this work seriously not only for their own benefit but because it will benefit their classmates. And, finally, they have to stay on task and continue to assess and edit their own work. For more on how my History 101 class has progressed in the Scale-Up classroom, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] check out my earlier posts.

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Looking beyond Chronological Boundaries in Byzantine Survey Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/looking-beyond-chronologicalboundaries-in-byzantine-survey-archaeology/ Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:17:31 +0000 Bill Caraher Over Easter, I'm giving a talk at the [http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/events/byzantine-spring-colloquium] Spring Colloquium at Dumbarton Oaks. The topic will be looking across chronological boundaries in Byzantine survey archaeology. This was not exactly the topic that I would have picked, but it is a good and important one for reflecting on the current situation in Byzantine archaeology more broadly. I have written a first draft of the paper and a longer article-ish piece, but I'll spare you the rough edges and give you a quick summary of where my argument tries to go. 1. Introduction. I begin with some quick words on the significance of survey archaeology for revealing the rural landscape and settlement, contextualizing known monuments, and informing our reading of the documentary and textual sources that exist for the Byzantine or Medieval countryside in the Aegean (e.g. the Cadaster of Thebes, various hagiographic sources, monastic typika, et c.). I also limit my comments on survey and the Byzantine countryside to Greece and - to a far lesser extent - Cyprus. 2. Historiography. I spend a little time treating two seminal discussions of survey archaeology in a Byzantine context: [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/regional-survey-and-byzantium/] John Rosser's 1979 article and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/intensive-survey-and-byzantinearchaeology/] Tim Gregory's 1986 article in Byzantine Studies. I note that Rosser in his work with the Minnesota Messinia Expedition saw the need to look across chronological boundaries in order to understand the limits in which Byzantine rural society developed. Since the Byzantine countryside was largely unknown and we struggled to recognize Byzantine material in the context of survey, we had to attempt to understand this period through analogy to other post-ancient (and ancient) periods in a particular region. This approach intersected with the tendency of regional and "second wave" survey projects in the Aegean to be directed by prehistorians or scholars focused on historical antiquity rather than later periods. Following practices dating to the early 20th century, post-Classical material was grouped together in a single corpus and often studied alongside ethnographic concerns. In fact, the most recent major work on Byzantine ceramics from Greece, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/after-antiquity-ceramics-and-society-in-the-aegean-fromthe-7th-to-20th-century-ac-a-case-study-from-boeotia-central-greece/oclc/52783246] Joanita Vroom's After Antiquity: Ceramics and Society from the 7th to 20th century A.C. does the same thing. This organization is largely a product of the disciplinary history of the field. 3. The Anatomy of Settlement. In the third section, I suggest that this approach, while problematic, can offer some significant insights. I highlight Jack Davis's lengthy 1991 article [https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/article/view/2680]

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"Contributions to a Mediterranean Rural Archaeology: Historical Case Studies from the Ottoman Cyclades" in the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology. At the end of this article, Davis notes that studying the better documented Ottoman and Early Modern periods can help us understand how various agricultural strategies and settlement patterns can help us understand rural landscapes in the Byzantine period. I then consider this approach in the context of my work (with David Pettegrew and others) at the site of [http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4] Lakka Skoutara in the Corinthia where we have evidence for early 20th century settlement and an early and spatially distinct Medieval settlement ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/a-workingpaper-on-lakka-skoutara-in-the-corinthia/] and more here). The assemblage of material from the Medieval period features the full range of ceramics (table wares, kitchen wares, and storage and utility wares) with the exception of highly diagnostic imported fine wares and coincides well with habitation. This comparative approach highlighted differing settlement and land use strategies in a relatively marginal landscape. "BeautifulLakka.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/beautifullakka.jpg]"BeautifulLakk a" 4. Archaeological Signatures and Formation Processes. The fourth section of the paper, looks briefly at some survey work that we did on the island of Kythera in 2001 that documented the ceramic material from around a series of Medieval and Venetian period churches. I note that these buildings provide windows into both an earlier landscape, but also into earlier practices ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/thebakken-as-taskscape/] I can't escape from Ingold's taskscapes this week!). The presence of fine ware around the church of Ay. Onoufrios near the Medieval town of Paliochora echoes finds associated with [http://www.jstor.org/stable/3182049] the nearly contemporary site of Panakton on the Attic/Boeotian border which was one of the few buildings on that site to produce a notable assemblage of fine ware. I suggest that the distinct lifecycle of churches and the practices associated with their maintenance - including the accumulation of prestige goods, local discard of broken ceramics, and work to keep the area around the church clean and free from debris - informs how we understand the signature of Byzantine churches in the landscape. This approach to Byzantine sites in the countryside requires that we recognize that even datable buildings are not static markers in the landscape, but the product of diachronic processes that create corresponding complex signatures. 5. Dreams across Time. I conclude the paper with a short fantasy that the Byzantines themselves looked across chronological boundaries when they defined their landscape. Saints, bishops, and pious laymen all worked to recover and rebuild earlier monuments that they knew about in the landscape. The reuse and rebuilding of the landscape makes clear that the Byzantines recognized their landscape as a diachronic phenomena that not only represented distinct periods, but provided a space to create history. I'll post a more complete draft of this paper once I get done tuck pointing it.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-24/ Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:25:52 +0000 Bill Caraher There are lots of changes taking place here at the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Headquaters, so perhaps it's nice to have just a little consistency like a little gaggles of handselected Friday Quick Hits and Varia. And a little less consistency with regard to the consistent -10 degree mornings [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52500698x] Gaston Maspero's epigraphic notebooks have been scanned and are really nice to look through (even if you're not particularly interested in Egypt or epigraphy (via [http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2013/03/gaston-masperos-epigraphicnotebooks.html?utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_source=twitterfeed] the Ancient World Online). [http://www.akademiai.com/content/q0332k24768704p8/] I find scholarship on the possible relations between China and Rome just fascinating. [http://www.latsisfoundation.org/default.asp?pid=92&amp;la=1&amp;libID=1&amp;goback=.gmp_690807.g de_690807_member_223731252] Some free online guides for Greek museum and sites from the Latsis Foundation. [http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/exhibitions/cairo-to-constantinople-earlyphotographs-of-the-middle-east-QGPHH] Early photos from the Middle East from Edinburgh. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/gallery/2013/mar/18/antikythera-shipwrecktreasures-in-pictures] More recent photos from the Antikythera shipwreck. [http://chronicle.com/article/The-Professors-Behind-the-MOOC/137905/] More on MOOCs. [http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201303/urban-explorers-gq-march2013?printable=true&amp;mbid=social_fb_fanpage] Urban explorers. And it's nice to that both [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/design/2012/02/take-tour-istanbuls-conceptualnew-taksim-square/1291/] Istanbul and [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-andlifestyle/2013/03/despite-austerity-athens-completely-revamps-its-downtown/4971/] Athens are re-imagining their downtowns. [http://undergradhist.tumblr.com/] Undergraduate history illustrated. We need at least one image of the famous "pheasant revolt". (Danielle Skjelver make this happen!) [http://knobfeel.co.uk/] It is super important how a knob feels. [http://www.thereviewreview.net/publishing-tips/new-yorker-rejects-itself-quasiscientific-a] I love articles about rejection rates and practices.

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 The second manuscript in the Grand Forks Neighborhood History Series has just entered review. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/93096768/The-Old-Church-Walnut-Street] Here's the first volume in the series or [http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/christopher-price/theold-church-on-walnut-street-a-story-of-immigrants-and-evangelicals/paperback/product20112605.html] you can buy a copy made of dead trees here. In the meantime, read [http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/03/publishing-industry-next-chapter/] some more on the next steps for traditional publishing. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/placing-our-new-old-house/] Now that we sold our lovely 19th century house, we're looking to cut costs by [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/housing/2013/02/apartments-so-small-they-can-only-bephotographed-above/4780/] moving into a place more like this. I told my wife this morning after [http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-australia2013/engine/current/match/598815.html] reading the day one scorecard of the fourth India v. Australia test that I thought 17 was pretty good for Shane Watson. It tied his third highest total of the series. She told me to be nice. [http://typographica.org/features/our-favorite-typefaces-of-2012/] Nothing makes me happier than a list of someone favorite new fonts, although [http://www.urbanfonts.com/blog/2013/02/serif-vs-sans-the-final-battle/] this useful graphic explaining the difference between serif and sans-serif gets pretty close. The Bakken is not an area known for having lots of data driven studies, but [http://fatalsincerity.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/data-shows-link-between-oil-workersand-violence-against-native-women/] this is one that is particularly depressing. [http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/we-re-going-to-pour-some-dom-p-into-a-diaper] How can anyone NOT support this? [http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/207858/washington-post-seeksblogger-to-post-at-least-12-times-per-day/] Wow. I feel pretty lazy when I see an job advertisement for someone like this. On the other hand, [http://www.scholarslab.org/announcements/head-graduateprograms/] this looks like a cool job. [http://thebakken.com/] The Bakken Magazine or another [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC55iPVxWUg] video essay on life in the Bakken for people not that into words and [http://www.hlntv.com/slideshow/2013/03/20/boomtown-oil-williston-north-dakotapictures] more photos, always more photos. If you're into the experience of being in a man camp without being into work or the North Dakota of it all, [http://www.theshadydell.com/] this looks sort of close. [http://www.charitybuzz.com/auctions/johnvarvatos/catalog_items/3286055] A fancy stereo.

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 What I'm reading: R. Harrison and A. J. Schofield, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/aftermodernity-archaeological-approaches-to-the-contemporary-past/oclc/653077389] After Modernity: Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past. Oxford 2010. What I'm listening to: The Clinic, Free Reign II; Phosphorescent, Muchacho (one of my favorite lines from any [http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17522-phosphorescentmuchacho/] recent music review is "listening to Muchacho often feels like being warmed by afternoon sun as it floods your window")<div>"SpringMorning.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/springmorning.jpg]"SpringMorni ng"</div>

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Rosy-Fingered Dawn http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/rosy-fingered-dawn/ Sat, 23 Mar 2013 15:06:39 +0000 Bill Caraher "IMG_0334.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/img_0334.jpg]"IMG 0334"]

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Domesticity and the Man Camp in the Bakken Oil Patch http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticity-and-the-man-camp-inthe-bakken-oil-patch/ Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:25:27 +0000 Bill Caraher As many of you know, Bret Weber and I have been working on a study of the man camps associated with the North Dakota oil boom with some amazing colleagues. We call our project the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] North Dakota Man Camp Project. On Saturday, Bret and I had our first writing day. For about 11 hours, we sequestered ourselves to brainstorm and write. "ManCampBrainstorm.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/mancampbrainstorm.jpg]"ManC ampBrainstorm" Over that time we managed to produce a rough outline for an article, work through some of the historiography and literature review (which includes literature on social policy, archaeological theory, the New West historians, and vernacular architecture!), and start to produce actual analysis of our data. The section included below is fresh from the document produced on Saturday and undoubtedly full of stylistic, proofreading, and thinking issues. On the other hand, it is probably our most sophisticated statement to date on our work in the Bakken. <strong>Domesticity and Workforce Housing in the Bakken</strong> Mobile homes, recreational vehicles, campers, travel trailers, and other forms of mobile housing form the bulk of workforce housing in the Bakken oil patch. From the elaborate modular housing units characteristic of the Type 1 camps operated by Target logistics to the most modest fifth wheel travel trailer tucked into a tree line or parked in a farmers field, the dominant form of workforce housing in the Bakken. While the units themselves all make varying concessions to architectural expectations associated with domesticity, units in Type 2 and Type 3 camps tended to see architectural modification designed to accommodate the temporary residence in the Bakken. Type 1 camps, in contrast, tend to be more architecturally standardized and sterile with only limited opportunities for the modification of space. Work and Life Historical ideals of domestic space emerged during the industrial revolution. Industrialization saw the gradual decline of the putting-out system where families took parts of the manufacturing process into their homes. The emergence of the factory and, later, the office as the site for work stood in contrast to the space of the home as the civilizing retreat. The creation of company towns attempted to manage strictly the division between domestic space and work space represented a very formal manifestation of this division and demonstrated that the ideal of domestic space was not a form of resistance to the demands

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of labor, but a complementary to the needs of management to produce well-ordered employees. The corporate control of company towns like the Fordvilles set up to house Ford employees emphasized the civilizing character of an idealized, middle-class domestic life. Historically, temporary housing for resource extraction often followed some of these same rules with restrictions of alcohol consumption and divisions based on rank, salary, and occupation ensured that the camps rules enforced ideals associated with proper society. In the physical work of construction and resource extraction, the all-male workforce contributed to a perceived need for order as the employees lacked the civilizing touch of women and families. This type of strictly managed division between place of work and domestic space typified the arrangement of [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-ofnorth-dakota-work-camps-1/] Type 1 camps. Often set up to house the workers from a particular multinational corporation, they maintain a rather strict rules with regard to alcohol consumption, cleanliness, and behavior. In one particularly well-appointed Type 1 camp, on entering the facility, there is a mudroom where residents would shed their dirty work clothes and prepare to enter an area separated from work life. Once inside, small, standardized rooms provide a modicum of privacy, comfort, and personal space. The space around the camps are clean, austere, and without public space for unstructured interaction. Trucks from the various companies working in the Bakken fill the well-light and graveled parking lot in neat rows. Like the corporate suburbs from the first half of the 20th century, the structured and consistent environment presented by these camps mimics the structured workforce housed within its walls. As an informant at one such camp told us, men come here to work, sleep, and eat. Working takes place on site and sleeping and eating in the Type 1 camp. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakotawork-camps-2/] Type 2 and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-3/] 3 camps represent a different model of workforce housing. Irregular in organization and allowing for substantial individualization, the camps often represent the breakdown between domestic and work space. Some camps grow up around work sites. Camp ##, for example, housed the employees at a truck maintenance shop on a major thoroughfare. Another camp housed construction workers at a nearby site. This arrangement, however, is not particularly unusual in the context of workforce housing where the proximity of labor to the worksite represented one of the major advantage of creating work camps. At the same time, Type 2 and 3 camps show a far deeper integration of work and domestic space. RV parks housing workers often sit next to idling trucks waiting for the next shift. Tired, equipment, and tools litter the space around the units indicating the some maintenance took place in the immediate vicinity of domestic space. The tendency for more residence of Type 2 and 3 camps to be independent contractors rather than employees of large multinational companies likely accounts for the use of domestic space as places for work. In fact, the separation between domestic and work places has largely been a product of corporate culture. Domestic Space and Identity If traditional ideas of work-life separation characterizes the organization of space in Type 1 camps, these spaces also tend to provide the least space for the expression of individual !
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identity. The small size of the rooms, their regular shape and organization, and policies that limit significant modification to the basic fabric of the units limit how individual residents can present themselves. The practice of individuals staying in the Bakken for four to six week, leaving the area for two weeks off, and then returning to a different room within the Type 1 camp (or a different camp entirely) limited the opportunities and the incentive to individualize space. Type 2 and 3 camps, in contrast, offer remarkably substantial pallets for self-expression. In some cases, self expression could be as simple as parking ones car or motorcycle in front of a unit. Living for an extended period of time in the same unit encouraged a sense of ownership. Having space around individuals unit also made it easier to individualize ones environment. In some cases, individuals modified their space to accommodate practical needs related to oil patch work. Plywood mudrooms with shed roofs leaned against the side of the RV provide a place to remove dirty clothing prior to entering the unit. Built storage units provide additional space for tools and personal effects, and pathways made of plywood or shipping pallets marked the route from where a vehicle is parked to the door of the unit. Beyond these practical modifications to their living spaces, residents in Type 2 and 3 camps had opportunities to create distinctive living space around their units. Numerous units included elevated decks, grills, tables, awnings, and camp chairs arranged for spending time outdoors. Units had small garden plot which included vegetables as well as ornamental plants. Evidence for pets was not usual ranging from kennels set out of the sun to area set apart with ad hoc fences. In August, there were signs of kids play areas in some units including small pools, bikes, toys, and other aspects of family life. Some particularly elaborate units featured grass lawns. In many Type 2 camps, individuals own their units and this allows for a particular freedom to customize and individualize their living areas. They also tend to rent the lots which included some space for parking, equipment storage, and recreational space around their unit as well as access to a mast for electricity and hook ups for water and sewage. Rules enforced by camp owners at Type 2 camps and by state and local laws dictate the extent to which space can be modified. For example, it is no longer legal to enclose ones unit completely in freestanding architecture in a Type 2 camp. An indoor RV park - a particularly elaborate version of Type 2 camps - allows an individual to part their RV in a climate controlled garage, but also severely restricts the kind of modifications on can make to a unit that space. Type 1 camps, in contrast, are more like hotels where individuals pay for a room or bunk. Type 3 camps, as I will discuss later, may include squatters who do not pay rent and do not have a clear set of guidelines established by camp owners or management. Material and Community A Type 3 camp nestled amid a shelter belt near the town of Tioga demonstrated a tendency to pool resources to support communal ideal of domesticity. Unlike Type 2 camps, where individuals arranged their units to accommodate their practical needs and identities. The freedom to control the space around ones unit mimicked the individualized houses in a modern American suburb or, perhaps better still, small town and demonstrate a sense of personal space and perhaps even ownership. A Type 3 camp that we visited stood in a shelter belt near a construction site. The units did not have masts, water or sewage hook-ups. Without the access to these services restricting the arrangement of the units, the residents !
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located their units, which included a tent, around common space where they prepared food and socialized as a group. They also had carved a horseshoe pit out of the undergrowth in the shelter belt with a bobcat borrowed from the local construction site. The assemblage in the common area included numerous coolers to preserve food, insulated jugs for water, tables, several grills for cooking, pans for cleaning dishes, dishes, and an area for a camp fire. We first visited this camp in August 2012, when we returned in February 2013, the residents had departed quite recently. Left behind where coolers filled with food and beer, pallets used to support a truck bed camper. Since the residents were most likely squatters, there were no requirements to remove discarded objects from the site and judging from the goods left behind, perhaps little opportunity. Conclusions Since the 19th century, ideas of domesticity and labor have gone hand-in-hand. Domestic space, no less than the space of work in factories or offices, has represented a space of control linked, in part, to the production of reliable, consistent worker to provide labor in a highly structured industrial economy. The organization of Type 1 camps embraced this division between space of work and highly regulated space of home. Type 2 camps provide residents with greater freedom of expression and use of space. The assemblages associated with these camps are more dynamic and diverse, and the architectural diversity evokes the modern suburbs or small towns where each home expresses something about the identity of the owner. At least one Type 3 camps, in contrast, offered an alternate, vision of domestic life that was both less formally structured by access to utilities and, at the same time, organized around shared space reflecting certain communal aspects of everyday life.

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More Things of Music http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/more-things-of-music/ Mon, 25 Mar 2013 21:08:46 +0000 Bill Caraher Last week, I noted that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/thethings-of-music/] my music is full of things. So here are more. When left to work at home, I surround myself with the things of music. "Music2.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/music2.jpg]"Music2" "Music1.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/music1.jpg]"Music1" The Grado RS1s are the opposite of the headphones "the kids wear these days". Openbacked with a "thin" sound by design, they make the music startling immediate. There is no muffled, crunk, crazy bass just lively upper midrange and treble that contributes to an amazing presence of the music. Jazz, rock, and blues come alive in ways that almost make me forget about my beloved MC275 almost.

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Three Things for Tuesday http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/26/three-things-for-tuesday/ Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:13:02 +0000 Bill Caraher The next two weeks are busy, but pretty exciting ones for me. So I thought I would use todays post as an advertisement for myself and some of these cool events. First, I head east on Friday to Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC for their spring colloquium on Byzantine archaeology. This spring it will focus on survey archaeology in a Byzantine context. This is the third colloquium focusing on Byzantine archaeology. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/byzantine-archaeology-amarginal-practice/] My notes on the second colloquium are here, and [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/04/do-byzantine-archaeology-conversation.html] Kostis Kourelis's notes on the first colloquium are here. This year's colloquium will be more focused on a specific practice and its relation to Byzantine archaeology rather than on the field in general or its relation to long standing institutions. [http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/events/byzantine-spring-colloquium] Here's a link to the colloquium and the program. It will be interesting to hear whether the field of Byzantine archaeology manifests at particular distinction or cohesion at the level of practice. On my return to North Dakota, my buddy Bret Weber and I head south to North Dakota State University in Fargo to present on our research on man camps in the Bakken oil patch. This talk will be our first formal academic talk as a research team (rather than just on our own) and will hopefully present a more advanced state of our research than any point before. The talk is on April 3rd from 2-3:30 in MU Rose Room. "CurtisAmlundNDSU2013.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/curtisamlundndsu2013.jpg]"Curti sAmlundNDSU2013" width="445" height="600" border="0" /> Finally, on Friday April 5th, Prof. Sam Fee from Washington and Jefferson College will come via the internets to the University of North Dakota to present on his work with the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP) on creating a web and tablet application for collecting archaeological data in the field. We alpha tested the cleverly named PKApp (get it?) this summer and wrote a short technical piece on the application this spring for [http://www.asor.org/pubs/nea/index.html] Near East Archaeology. Sam and I will run the talk like conversation exploring the technical aspects of trench-side data collection, the practical concerns, and the future directions of this technology. Sam was one of the great early bloggers and technologists in Mediterranean archaeology. [http://www.samfee.net/delirium/] Check out Sam's blog here. Sam's talk will be at 1 pm in the Working Group in Digital and New Media lab in O'Kelly 203 at the University of North Dakota.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part X) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-x/ Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:23:05 +0000 Bill Caraher This is my 11th week teaching History 101: Western Civilization in [http://und.edu/scaleup/index.cfm] the University of North Dakota's new Scale-Up Classroom. The goal of the class was to introduce the students to the major aspects of the historical method, to get them to organize a substantial writing project, and to develop some skills necessary to collaborate in a group. To do this, we tasked each table of 9 students to write a chapter on a particular topic in Western Civilization. These chapters will come together to form a textbook. Last week the students presented first drafts of their chapters. Many of the students are now getting excited as they see both their chapter take shape and the textbook take shape across the room. Several students have even asked whether they could get a copy of the book when they were done! The chapter drafts themselves and the process of revising these drafts gave me a chance to think about how the class worked to produce historical knowledge with a body of assessable text in front of me. Here are my observations on student writing, process, and my writing: 1. Narrative vs. Thematic Approach to History. One of the main successes of my class is that students are clearly struggling with the tension between narrative history and history of institutions or trends. This is mostly an issue of organization and figuring out how to move within the chapter from the presenting a specific and detailed historical account to treating institutions or even "structures" that shaped pre-industrial society. Some of the more ambitious groups have begun to think about how they can integrate primary sources into the mix and move from the very specific bits of historical knowledge to larger synthesis. To my mind, this emphasis on the specific and the general is a key aspect of the study of history. 2. Students and Textbooks. The chapters were remarkably decent. There were the predictable issues with organization, some niggling grammar problems, and some need to clarify citation. There were remarkably few factual problems, intermittent episodes of good analysis, and solid evidence for student effort across the board. What is interesting in their imitations of textbook chapters is the almost total absence of coherence and continuity between the various historical factoids present. I got to thinking whether their imitation of textbook chapters represented the way that they read textbooks. In other words, do they read textbooks like long strings of relatively unrelated facts? 3. Managing Unstructured Time. Getting students comfortable with actual dynamics of collaborative work is among the most difficult parts of teaching in the Scale-Up room. Over the course of the semester, students have become better and better at figuring out how to manage open-ended assignments (e.g. revise your chapter) and unstructured time. Last night, for example the class featured two big blocks of unstructured time. One at the start when the students produced a blueprint for revising their chapter and one toward the end where the students began revisions and devised the best approach to making their blueprint for !
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revisions actionable. While I still wish the students would take better advantage of time toward the end of class, I also realize that a two hour and twenty minute class is a long time for sustained work, and it is clear that students are getting better at using time to its fullest extent. 4. Peer Review. The big step in the next few weeks is going to be peer review. Right now, when groups engage each other it is still pretty perfunctory and tentative. (It was cool to watch the students fan out across the room to present their chapters to other groups.) Over the next couple of weeks, we are going to work to increase student engagement in the peer review process. Some written reviews and some reflections on how the structure, quality, and content of chapter differ will help students to see how writing a peer review can help their own work. We will also have to think about ways to get students within the groups to reflect on the distribution of the work on the chapter. 5. Writing the Scale-Up. I've begun to write an article length reflection on my semester teaching history in the Scale-Up room. It's my first real effort at writing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). I've long thought that those who can't do, SoTL, but I also want to provide a basic record and guide to what I learned from doing this. So I am thinking in terms of writing my Scale-Up experiences as an exercise in archival work along the lines of G. Stanley Hall's [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/34908853] Methods of Teaching History (1896). ( [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/teachingthursday-teaching-history-in-the-19th-century/] Some of my reflections on this are here.) More on this work soon For more on my adventures teaching in the Scale-Up room, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] check out these earlier posts.

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Looking Across Chronological Barriers in Byzantine Survey Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/looking-across-chronologicalbarriers-in-byzantine-survey-archaeology/ Thu, 28 Mar 2013 11:29:43 +0000 Bill Caraher This weekend I'll be at Dumbarton Oaks presenting a paper at their spring colloquium on Byzantine Archaeology. As I have noted earlier this week, the colloquium is on the impact of survey archaeology on Byzantine studies, and I was tasked with writing a paper on looking across chronological barriers. I focused my paper on comparative landscapes, formation processes, and Byzantine attitudes toward the past in texts. I am not sure that I say anything profoundly new, but I think that I manage to weave these three topics together in an effective way. I am not entirely pleased with how I discuss the comparison between the Early Modern and Medieval landscapes in Lakka Skoutara. I think it probably needs a more robust basis for comparing the two artifact assemblages, but this is challenging in a paper targeted to be around 20-30 minutes paper. (Since my paper is penultimate paper after a long day I mercifully kept my remarks shorter than the recommended length imagining that some of my colleagues earlier in the day will go longer than their allotted time). I am also not convinced that I engaged the issue of formation processes fully in the second section, but my paper should provide some food for thought, and it allowed me to dust off some old data that as far as I know has not been published. Here's the paper and you can judge whether it works or not: [scribd id=132790463 key=key-2bd9wmae0hdnj86mippc mode=scroll] If you're still looking for more of my riveting writing, I noticed that a book review of mine appeared on the [http://ajaonline.org/online-review-book/1536] American Journal of Archaeology webpage this week. ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/review-of-settlementurbanization-and-population/] You can see an earlier version of this review here).

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-25/ Fri, 29 Mar 2013 12:00:11 +0000 Bill Caraher I am on the road today, so this is a quick hits and varia from beyond the travel zone. The good news is that we're heading for warmer climes. The better news is that its thawing for Easter weekend here in Grand Forks. So as you enjoy the luscious sounds of melting snow, please enjoy this little gaggles of quick hits and varia. [http://gawker.com/5992398/the-unbelievable-photos-taken-by-thecrazy-russians-who-illegally-climbed-egypts-great-pyramid] Some photographs from atop the pyramids. [http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/events/byzantine-springcolloquium/surveyprogram.docx] I'm at this conference (pdf). [http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/post-apocalyptic-foodways-thearchaeological-and-ethnographic-evidence/] What to eat after the apocalypse. And [http://www.academia.edu/2997156/Emancipatory_Digital_Archaeology] go and download her dissertation. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/education/harvard-asksalumni-to-donate-time-to-free-online-course.html] Here's one way to manage your MOOC. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/18/174637393/the-wonderfulworld-of-whisky-art] The art of drying whiskey. [http://americanchurchhistory.blogspot.com/] This is our D.A. Student Chris Price's blog. [http://www.designweek.co.uk/news/daniel-weil-redesigns-the-chessset/3036205.article] The chess set, tastefully redesigned. [http://www.watfordcitycentennial.com/] Watford City Centennial coming in 2014. [https://the-magazine.org/13/ground-control-part-1] Yep, you have to subscribe, but some interesting thoughts on drones at UND. I've been badgering my colleague Bret Weber to get on Twitter. [http://thinkingculture.wordpress.com/2013/03/21/canacademics-manage-without-twitter/] So here is one reason why. And [http://schizomedia.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/reflections-on-joining-twitter/] here is another reason why. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/259946/] The Chancellor Shirvani of the North Dakota University System seems like he's in hot water this time. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/259763/] Reason to support the North Dakota Man Camp Project. [http://www.sah.org/publicationsand-research/sah-blog/sah-blog/2013/03/27/why-the-humanities-matter] Kostis Kourelis on why the humanities matter. [http://www.studiosixamplifier.com/] This is a very nice looking tube headphone amp. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereophonic_sound#Stereo_on_disc] This week is the 55th anniversary of stereophonic LPs. Here are some of the amazing stereo recordings done in 1958: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeuLArBAiFI] Part 1, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8HMACBRCs8] Part 2, and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBIcMJ9W4Xo] Part 3. [http://visual.ly/world-100people] If the world was 100 people, this is what it would look like. What I'm listening to: Shout Out Louds, Optica. What I'm reading: (TOP SECRET)<div>The return of the mud.</div>"Melting1ND.jpg]"Melting1ND" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/melting1nd.jpg"] !
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The Great Thaw of 2013 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/the-great-thaw-of-2013/ Sat, 30 Mar 2013 14:00:43 +0000 Bill Caraher Every year (so far) we have thawed ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/thaw-of-2012/] 2012, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/the-2011-thaw/] 2011, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/spring-thaw-andflood/] 2010, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/thaw/] 2009). "MeltingND.jpg]"MeltingND" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/meltingnd.jpg"] <wp:post_id>2662</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>2013-03-30 09:00:43</wp:post_date> <wp:post_date_gmt>2013-03-30 14:00:43</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:post_name>the-great-thaw-of-2013</wp:post_name> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> <category domain="category" nicename="north-dakotiana] <![CDATA[North Dakotiana</category> <category domain="category" nicename="photography] <![CDATA[Photography</category> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[a:7:{s:7:"primary";s:67:"http://mediterraneanworld.files.word press.com/2013/03/meltingnd.jpg";s:6:"images";a:1:{s:67:"http://mediterraneanworld.files. wordpress.com/2013/03/meltingnd.jpg";a:6:{s:8:"file_url";s:67:"http://mediterraneanworld. files.wordpress.com/2013/03/meltingnd.jpg";s:5:"width";i:450;s:6:"height";i:600;s:4:"type";s: 5:"image";s:4:"area";i:270000;s:9:"file_path";b:0;}}s:6:"videos";a:0:{}s:11:"image_count";i:1;s: 6:"author";s:7:"6410445";s:7:"blog_id";s:8:"18496651";s:9:"mod_stamp";s:19:"2013-03-30 12:16:47";}</wp:meta_value> Some Notes on Survey Archaeology in a Byzantine Context http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/some-notes-on-surveyarchaeology-in-a-byzantine-context/ Mon, 01 Apr 2013 14:19:17 +0000 Bill Caraher

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This weekend I attended the [http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/events/byzantine-spring-colloquium] Dumbarton Oaks Spring Colloquium on Byzantine Survey Archaeology. The papers were remarkable and focused. The hosts and colloquiarchs, Margaret Mullett, John Haldon, and Sharon Gerstel put together a congenial environment for a wide ranging conversation on survey archaeology in a Byzantine context. While John Haldon did an admirable job weaving the various papers together at the end of the day's proceedings, I couldn't resist offering my own observations. Enjoy: 1. Survey Comes of Age. One of the most refreshing things about the meeting was the lack of heavy-handed apologies for survey. Most of the participants understood the limits of their methods and located their conclusions within the constraints of their evidence. Rather than universal apologies for survey as a method, we have moved to reflexive understandings of the limits of our data. 2. Multiple Methods. The recognition that survey produces a particular and legitimate kind of archaeological data opened the door to admitting to the multiple methods present in the current survey world. People presented projects that ranged from extensive - single person survey to projects that collected data that exceeded our ability to produce historical analyses on the basis of this data. For example, I felt the recent extensive survey work from Limnos collected data that was every bit as significant historically as a project that collected observation point density data at 10 m intervals from each unit. Its not that one method was superior to the other on the grounds of methodology, but that we can recognize the utility of various types of survey data sets. This is an important step in the development of survey work and locates our method in a rather different context than excavation where the link between field methods and results tends to be far less explicit. 3. Long Shadow of Texts. While the Byzantine component of many survey projects developed from projects directed by their prehistoric colleagues, Byzantinists have long recognized that texts in some cases have great utility for understanding the Byzantine landscape. On the other hand, Byzantine survey archaeologists are constantly on guard against the undue influence of texts on their analysis. The papers showed particular interest in attempting to understand how texts focused on regional trends could be generalized to explain assemblages across the Mediterranean. Moreover, we all returned to longstanding discussions of how imperial economic and political policies shaped changes in the countryside. Some of these conversations date to the 19th century and involve how we understand the development of feudalism as a stage within the Marxist paradigm of how economies developed. This is deep history. 4. Area versus Assemblage. One thing that was pretty interesting is that most of the survey project continued to have an interest in areas and sites rather than assemblages. Some of the projects were explicitly siteless in design, but nevertheless returned to the site based paradigm in order to integrate their results with a larger historical discourse (see above). In contrast, there was relatively less conversation about assemblages and cultural and economic composition of the material culture produced by survey. It seems that we still wanted to see survey data as representing past activities (habitation, settlement, fortifications, et c.) rather than being produced by past activities. !
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5. Less Technology and More Curation. Typically when survey archaeologists get together there is lots of talk about the latest and greatest piece of kit. This might be a remote sensing technology, some kind of infield data collection device, or the latest analytical tool. To be sure, some papers used innovative methods, but on the whole, there was much more talk about the curation and study of physical objects than electronic ones. I think this represents development of both digital standards and a stable tool kit of technologies that support archaeological fieldwork. Now, we have to turn our attention to the much more challenging issue of working with host countries to curate the objects and sites that survey produces. 6. Toward a Byzantine Survey Archaeology. There was some discussion of what is necessary from an institutional, methodological, and disciplinary standpoint to produce a distinctive Byzantine approach to survey archaeology. Some of this will revolve around research questions and academic alliances and collaborations. Some of this might revolve around particular field practices. For example, survey in a Byzantine context will likely pay particular attention to formation processes attendant to standing Byzantine monuments. Byzantine archaeologist in a survey context might also go further to make arguments for the coherence of surface assemblages and produce some horizontal stratigraphy where the regular association of coarse wares and known fine wares can allow us to make certain tentative chronological arguments. These are not features exclusive to Byzantine period, but they are areas where Byzantine archaeology has begun to make a contribution. Finally, we have the advantage of a field that is located at the very earliest moment where a genuinely historical archaeology is possible. This positions us as scholars to contribute and critique the enter historical archaeology undertaking from the rather unique perspective of survey archaeology. There were a few areas where there was not much conversation although these are typically part of the larger chatter among survey archaeologists. 1. Sharing Data. First, with the exception of Jim Newhard the conference lacked any major player in the recent trend toward data curation. How we make our results visible to the world and our colleagues remains a major issue for archaeologists in general, and survey archaeologists in particular. The born-digital nature of survey data makes survey practitioners particular important contributors to these conversations. The idea of a distinctly Byzantine survey archaeology could involve a stronger commitment to digital data curation, distribution, and analysis. 2. Beyond the New Archaeology. Most papers at the conference showed a strong commitment to quantitative methods that drew upon the core tenants of processual and new archaeology. Almost no one was willing to push a little further to consider post-processual practices. The idea of the landscape remained something produced through systematic collection of physical data from the countryside. There was little in the way of reflexive practices on more qualitative forms of data collection although survey archaeologys close relationship to landscape archaeology has long opened the door to these kinds of approaches. 3. Cyprus. The contributions of Cypriot survey archaeologist once again remained around the fringes of the conversation. To my mind the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project represents one the model regional scale survey projects in the Eastern Mediterranean and its successor TAESP will probably be even more important. The work of M. Rautman in site-based survey and the historical data collected on the Byzantine landscape from the Cyprus Survey !
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and other projects on the island makes it one of the most thoroughly investigated landscapes in the Mediterranean. I think its high time that we hold a Survey Archaeology in Cyprus in Comparative Context workshop that looks at how we can compare the results of surveys to answer questions that have relevance at both a regional and transregional level.

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Making an App for That: A Conversation with Sam Fee on Developing In-field Applications for Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/making-an-app-for-that-aconversation-with-sam-fee-on-developing-in-field-applications-for-archaeology/ Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:51:01 +0000 Bill Caraher On Friday at 11 am, Prof. Sam Fee, from Washington and Jefferson College will speak via the internets with the UND community in the Working Group in Digital and New Media Lab (O'Kelly 203). His talk is titled "Making an App for That: A conversation with Prof. Samuel Fee on developing in-field applications for archaeology". The talk will be a conversation between me, Sam, and anyone who wants to join us from the audience. I've known [http://www.samfee.net/] Sam Fee for over 20 years and he has an inspiring knack for making the complex simple and teaching archaeological methods, practices, and theories. He was one of the first [http://www.samfee.net/delirium/] archaeological bloggers who I followed regularly, and I have admired [http://images.samfee.net/] his accomplishments as a photographer. At UND, he'll talk about the development of the PKApp which is the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project's custom web/tablet application for trench side data collection. We alpha/beta tested this summer on a bunch of iPad generously provided by Messiah College and wrote a short descriptive and technical piece on our experiences for [http://www.asor.org/pubs/nea/] Near Eastern Archaeology (that I think will appear this month). So come by the Working Group Lab (O'Kelly 203) at 11 am on Friday to check out Sam Fee. "FeeLecture.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/feelecture.jpg]"FeeLecture" width="489" height="600" border="0" />

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part XI) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-xi/ Wed, 03 Apr 2013 12:25:45 +0000 Bill Caraher I just completed my tenth week of teaching History 101: Western Civilization in [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] the University of North Dakota's new Scale-Up classroom. I feel like I am still figuring out both pedagogical and classroom management issues despite the over 20 hours of teaching in the room. The overarching idea behind my class is for each 9 student table to produce a chapter of a textbook. As of last week, each table has produced a revised draft of their chapter and the next two weeks will involve setting it aside and working on peer review. 1. Taking a Step Back. Over the last three weeks, students have worked hard to write and revise their chapters. I have urged them to consider five major issues with their work (1) coherence, (2) organization, (3) primary sources, (4) citation, and (5) proofreading. The first two issues involve ensuring that the chapter is more than just a litany of facts or content, and the last two involved copy editing type work. I've given the students wide latitude on how to integrate primary sources into their chapter. At our pre-class meeting, my GTA observed that the students may need some critical distance from their chapters. As a result we decided that the next two classes will focus on peer reviewing other chapters in order to give the students a chance to study closely how other groups have approached issues of organization, argument, and structure in their work. The goal of this is explained in point 2. 2. Guided Revisions. One of the great challenges this past two weeks is getting the large groups to revise their chapters without telling them exactly what to do. The groups received feedback after an initial draft and worked on revisions over the past week. The results were mixed with some evidence that the students did not understand the comments that we made on their chapters, some evidence that they did know how to make the necessary changes, and some evidence for predictable student resistance and laziness. The goal of the next two weeks is to encourage students to peer review other groups chapters and to begin to think of their own work more reflexively. Hopefully this will open the door to more careful and thorough revisions as students will be better able to communicate to each other the kinds of changes necessary than I will be able to communicate to them. 3. Energy and Intensity. I made a bit of a rookie mistake tonight. The students worked hard to write short introductions and to plan revisions for their work. There was a tremendous amount of energy in the room and a flurry of activity at every table as the groups organized their approaches to their revisions and working on writing short introductions to their chapters. As the momentum surrounding this activity began to crest, I introduced the next phase of activities for the week. This involved some lower key list building and more structured group work.

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It felt like I had thrown an anchor out of speeding boat when the class dissolved into a morass of distraction. In the future I need to be a bit more careful about how I combine assignments in the classroom so that the groups can maintain momentum and not be driven to distraction. 4. Minding the Gaps. One thing that is fascinating is how students have shifted from worrying about students who arent pulling their weight in the group to adopting strategies that allowed the group to succeed without the work of the slacking or absent students. Having observed this transition, I suspect that the best approach to entirely understandable concern by students about the equitable distribution of work in the group is just letting it play itself out. Over time, students will understand that a good final product will benefit them more than they will be hurt by the under performance of their classmates and rally to the cause. Four more classes this semester and I'll report back on them here. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/thoughts-on-teaching-history-ina-scale-up-classroom-part-x/] For my on my adventures in Scale-Up teaching click here.

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Things Fall Apart http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/things-fall-apart/ Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:57:37 +0000 Bill Caraher I know I'm a few weeks late on this, but I heard that Chinua Achebe died on March 21st. His greatest novel, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/things-fall-apart/oclc/773226956] Things Fall Apart, inspired my dissertation research. As most readers of this blog know, I wrote [http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?osu1057071172] my dissertation (defended 10 years ago!) on Early Christian basilicas in Central and Southern Greece. In Achebe's novel the building and development of the little church in the Evil Forest represented the intrusion of the colonial of the missionary. Achebe is explicit. With the church came government, the disruption of traditional life, and ultimately spiritual and physical violence. At the beginning of Chatper 16: "When nearly two years later, Obierika paid another visit to his friend in exile the circumstances were less than happy. The missionaries had come to Umuofia. They had built their church there, won a handful of converts, and were already sending evangelists to the surrounding towns and villages." Chapter 17: "We have now built a church," said Mr. Kiaga, the interpreter, who was now in charge of the infant congregation. The white man had gone back to Umuofia, where he built his headquarters and from where he paid regular visits to Mr. Kiaga's congregation at Mbanta. "We have now built a church," said Mr. Kiaga, "and we want you all to come in every seventh day to worship the true God." On the following Sunday, Nwoye passed and repassed the little red-earth and thatch building without summoning enough courage to enter. He heard the voice of singing and although it came from a handful of men it was loud and confident. Their church stood on a circular clearing that looked like the open mouth of the Evil Forest. Was it waiting to snap its teeth together? After passing and re-passing by the church, Nwoye returned home." And in Chapter 22, Achebe moves toward the climax of the novel with the church at the center: "The band of egwugwu moved like a furious whirlwind to Enoch's compound and with machete and fire reduced it to a desolate heap. And from there they made for the church, intoxicated with destruction. Mr. Smith was in his church when he heard the masked spirits coming. He walked quietly to the door which commanded the approach to the church compound, and stood there. But when the first three or four egwugwu appeared on the church compound he nearly bolted.

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He overcame this impulse and instead of running away he went down the two steps that led up to the church and walked towards the approaching spirits." ---I won't try to intervene in Achebe's carefully constructed allegory other than to make the rather facile observation that the church building was power for the missionaries and the destruction of the church was colonial resistance. The architecture itself created conversion and colonial change.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-26/ Fri, 05 Apr 2013 12:32:52 +0000 Bill Caraher Family is in town this week, so the quick hits and varia will be a bit spare. To make up for that, they'll be of exceedingly high quality (or whatever). In the meantime, please remember that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/making-an-app-for-that-aconversation-with-sam-fee-on-developing-in-field-applications-for-archaeology/] Prof. Sam Fee will be speaking at 11 am in the Working Group in Digital and New Media's Lab in O'Kelly 203. He will have a conversation titled "Making an App for That" that will focus on his work to create a web based table application for in field data collection. [http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/] A nice digital map of the Roman Empire. [http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/2013/04/04/news-and-notes-6/] Some good links at the Mediterranean Palimpsest. [http://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/] The Museum of Brisbane is reopening. [http://hiddencityphila.org/2013/03/at-coltrane-house-getting-closer-to-the-dream/] Saving the Coltrane House in Philadelphia. [http://freedominthe50states.org/] Apparently, North Dakota is the freest state in the U.S. [http://beneaththewordsandnoise.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/hague-north-dakota/] Something on Hague, North Dakota. [http://www.wofford.edu/sharedworlds/handinhand.aspx] Hand-in-Hand is writers on writing written on their hands. [http://blog.historians.org/news/2010/calling-all-historians-open-casting-call-for-historybased-reality-tv-show] A casting call for folks interested in history who want to be on reality t.v. [http://www.harpercollins.com/browseinside/index.aspx?isbn13=9780062190833] Richard Hell's autobiography. [http://standarddesigns.tumblr.com/post/46382159864/joy-division-new-order] Albums as books. [http://space.kinja.com/twenty-awesome-covers-from-the-us-space-program-461436874] Covers from the U.S. Space Program. What I'm reading: A. G. Frank, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/latin-americaunderdevelopment-or-revolution-essays-on-the-development-of-underdevelopment-and-the-

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immediate-enemy/oclc/781698651] Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution. New York 1969. What I'm listening to: NOTHING (this isn't good).

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Day of Digital Humanities 2013 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/day-of-digital-humanities-2013/ Mon, 08 Apr 2013 12:08:50 +0000 Bill Caraher I am participating in this year's Day of Digital Humanities. So my posts today will be cross posted to a blog called " [http://dayofdh2013.matrix.msu.edu/billcaraher/] Bill's Digital Intervention". I urge you to dip into the wealth of digital knowledge and insight being produced over at the [http://dayofdh2013.matrix.msu.edu/activity/] Day of Digital Humanities headquarters or through the [https://twitter.com/search?q=DayofDH&amp;src=typd] #DayofDH hashtag on Twitter. When I signed up for the Day of Digital Humanities activities, they asked that I come up with a definition for the Digital Humanities. This is what I said: What is Digital Humanities? The digital humanities are an intervention. The space of the humanities has entered a period of rapid technological change which has forced scholars to become aware of the tools that they use for understanding their texts. This situation has inspired a new, more robust discourse centered on both the tools that humanities use and the knowledge that humanists produce. The Digital Humanities (Digital History, Digital Archaeology, et c.) embrace *techne* as it informs their epistemology. ------Post 1 I think the goal of the Day of Digital Humanities is for us to post how we work in this field throughout the day. So this is my first post: If the broadest definition of digital humanities sees it as an approach to humanistic inquiry focused on a particular set of digital tools, then it is perhaps most fitting to start my Day of Digital Humanities with a discussion of the tools. This past week, I received an automated email from a good academic journals Editorial Manager software asking me to peer review an article. The software was very straight forward, efficient, and I am sure that the journal found it useful for managing submissions and reviews. That being said, I still dont like it. This software intervenes into a particular delicate area of our academic mission. We as professional scholars are expected to provide peer reviews of our colleagues works. This ensures that the work in academic journals and in our field in general upholds academic standards and advances knowledge. In general, this work is uncompensated. At the same time, publishers profit from our collegial obligations while restricting access to the final product. I have peer reviewed for journals to which I do not have access because I cannot afford the final product of my review.

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Requesting that a scholar peer review an article is a sacred act. It expects a scholar to sacrifice their time and professional energies for the greater good of the field and discipline. Even in our digital age an automated message hardly seems befitting one of the fundamental transactions of academic life. That this kind of treatment may come from a publication produced for a profit and that limits access to the knowledge that my labor produced is particularly disheartening. The tools that we use shape the knowledge that we create. ------Post 2 Paper and the Machine If digital humanities increased the emphasis on the various technologies central to the production of humanistic knowledge, it also made clear that despite inroads of digital technologies across all areas of academic research, we still very much live in a hybrid world. I spent the world conducting a peer review. I had dutifully printed out a paper copy of the manuscript and spent three hours this morning scrawling notes in generous margins provided translation of the text from its original A4 size to 8.5 x 11. Ill then transcribe or summarize my notes from the paper margins to a Byword file on my MacBook Air and save it to the iCloud. Before I submit my review, Ill cut it from the Byword file and dump it in a Microsoft Word file. While Im writing this Im listening to music stored in digital files but played through analog headphones. We life in hybrid world articulated by the range of tools at our disposal. Digital humanities must be a hybrid endeavor, unstable, and subversive. ------Post 3 Making Text I spend most of my days writing and the more I write the more tools that I use. I know its almost a cliche among digital humanists to have a bewilderingly cluttered desktop stretched over multiple monitors, but I suspect this super specialized interest in tools, workflow, and technology is a product of our seeing digital as a key heuristic for producing knowledge. It also creates a peculiar awareness of the tools we use in our digital worlds. For example, I argue with a graduate student in our program over the relationship between the Apple hardware and software interface and aesthetic and my own workflow. I am comfortable in an Apple environment and that helps me be more productive because I can imagine away the interface and focus on the task at hand. Making the tool invisible, however, poses a risk for the critical digital humanists. The moment that we forget our tools we run the risk of pretending our tools dont matter. When I write this blog in the lovely and simplistic interface of [http://bywordapp.com/] Byword and then move it to the Wordpress blog interface (for my !
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[http://dayofdh2013.matrix.msu.edu/billcaraher/2013/04/08/making-text/] Day of Digital Humanities blog) or into [http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/] Mars Edit to post on my Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, I make a series of little decisions that locate my text in little networks of human and non-human actors. These actors do more than shape the context for my text (as if any text could exist separate from a context) but actually make the text itself. The audience, display, pagination, style, and words themselves, mark the text as the product of particular networks. In the digital world, these networks include the physical, electronic, and mappable world of software and the internets. As a digital humanist, I have to remember to feel the digital world. ------Post 4 Music, Mashups, and Multitasking I spend most of day digital days listening to music. Some of it is streamed via Spotify, some of it is digital downloads, and some of it is ripped from CDs. As I continue to reflect a bit on my digital life, I was struck by how much more ubiquitous music has become for me. The portability and streamability of my music means that I can be as fickle as I like most days and interrupt albums and sometimes even songs. As I do this, I switch from one task to the next dancing across the open documents on my desktop with the attention span of a fly thats got into some Red Bull. Like my music I have the ability to move between various documents, texts, and media either by bringing them together in a single workspace like Scrivener or strewn across multiple applications and monitors. While we often hear that such workflows have eroded our students attentions spans and destroyed out ability to think deeply, it has also allowed us to operate in a comparative and transmedia framework that supports the growing convergence of communication tools. Production of digital humanities, then, mimics our hope for the field. The fickle mind of the music obsessed scholar and compulsive multitasker produces and consumes technological mash-ups and demands that software and hardware support these work patterns. Everything must be happening all at once.

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Formation Processes in the Man Camps of the Bakken Oil Patch http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/formation-processes-in-the-mancamps-of-the-bakken-oil-patch/ Tue, 09 Apr 2013 12:43:29 +0000 Bill Caraher <guid isPermaLink="false] https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2697</guid>

One of the first things people assume when they hear that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] I'm doing archaeological work in the Bakken Oil Patch is that I'm doing some kind of ethnoarchaeological research. They can quickly see the parallels between short-term settlements around the world and the so-called "man camps" of the Bakken and even grasp the potential parallels among settlements associated with extractive industries on the periphery around the world. While we have worked to keep this from being the main focus of our work and focused instead on "archaeology of the contemporary past" as an interpretative paradigm over the more accessible ethnoarchaeology, we nevertheless cannot avoid observing how formation processes shape the archaeological landscape visible in the man camps of Western North Dakota. In the article currently underway, I spend about 2000 words discussing how attention to formation processes informs our analysis of the camps. First and foremost, we have worked to describe the temporary workforce housing as a temporary phenomenon. In other words, we reflect on how both the individuals housed in man camps and the physical structures themselves would - in some way - depart from the landscape. For the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-1/] Type 1 camps, we observed how most of the camps including housing units and infrastructure were mobile and modular. They sat on leveled gravel areas and invested little in poured concrete slabs or foundations. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-2/] Type 2 and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-3/] 3 camps consisted primarily of mobile homes and RVs which could likewise be moved by their owners to new locations leaving very little behind. A level gravel bed, masts for power and hooks ups for sewage and water were the only real infrastructure that consistently appeared in Type 2 camps. Type 3 camps often lacked even these basic improvements. The design of man camps privileged mobility and limited investment in the local environment, and this ensured that relatively little would be left behind compared to more permanent settlement types. The short duration of many of these settlements will also mitigate against the development of robust assemblages of material. As archaeologists who study settlements associated with extractive industries have noted, [http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint] frequently habitation often leaves relatively little behind not only because the residents took everything of value from the settlement on departure, but also because the lifespan of the settlement was often just a decade or two. One of the key factors in the production of robust !
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assemblages of material associated with settlement in time. The longer a settlement persists, the more small scale discard practices produce assemblages recognizable to archaeological research. That being said, we were aware that various discard practices contributed to the material "signature" of man camps in the landscape both now and in the future. While Type 1 and many Type 2 camps had formal arrangements for the removal of trash from the camp sites, Type 3 camps lacked this basic infrastructure and are more likely to be surrounded by a halo of trash. Residents of these very short term, but infrastructure poor settlements appear to discard plastic containers, coolers, trash, camp style chairs and tables, scavenged objects like cable spools and shipping pallets, pvc pipes, and other unused objects immediately outside the main habitation areas. Larger Type 2 camps showed indication of recycling practices with re-usable objects set aside provisionally for re-use. Piles of shipping pallets and pvc pipes sit at the limits of the camp collected from residents who moved on and made available to new arrivals to make their units more comfortable. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/trailers-florida-and-spring-break/] Shipping pallets are particularly useful in Type 2 and 3 camps where they serve purposes ranging from elevated walkways to fences and supports for campers. PVC pipes connect units to sewage and water supplies. It is difficult to know how long these "provisional discard" areas will persist in the landscape after residents begin to abandon the camp, but as the number of individuals departing begins to exceed the number of new residents, it seems likely that these area will collect more material unless some kind of intentional intervention occurs. Moreover, Type 2 and 3 camps are likely to produce more material associated with the oil industry as [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticityand-the-man-camp-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/] the clean line between domestic life and work life blurs. Finally, the location of workforce housing at both a global periphery and at the periphery of local settlement influenced formation processes. The lack of existing settlement in the area ensured that settlements were rather low density scattered amidst the industrial and extractive industries throughout the Bakken Oil Patch. The absence of large scale, nucleated settlement produces a "continuous carpet" of low-density settlement across the landscape. This will, in turn, leave behind a scatter of habitation-associated debris interspersed with industrial discard related to both oil production and related industries. As we continue to think about how our research could influence policies in the Western North Dakota, understanding how the remains from workforce housing will shape future landscapes in the region is part of a larger interest in the ecological and environmental impact of the Bakken boom. It could also help us recognize what kind of interventions are necessary to make life for new arrivals easier in the patch and ensure that residents can adapt to the changing shape of the boom. For more on [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] my work in the "man camps" of the Bakken go here. For [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticity-and-the-man-campin-the-bakken-oil-patch/] the first part of this work-in-progress article go here. I'm off to give an interview to Prairie Public Radio this morning and this blog post has helped me consolidate drifting ideas.

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Radio Days http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/radio-days/ Tue, 09 Apr 2013 15:17:58 +0000 Bill Caraher My colleague Bret Weber and I will be on Prairie Public Radio this afternoon at 3 pm CST to talk about the North Dakota Man Camp Project. [http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/listen-now/] I suspect it will broadcast through the internets. [http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/mainstreet/upcoming-shows/] The program is Main Street. "Evernote Camera Roll 20130409 092345.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/evernote-camera-roll-20130409092345.jpg]"Evernote Camera Roll 20130409 092345" "Evernote Camera Roll 20130409 101112.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/evernote-camera-roll-20130409101112.jpg]"Evernote Camera Roll 20130409 101112]

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part XII) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-xii/ Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:27:52 +0000 Bill Caraher This is my 12th week teaching History 101: Western Civilization in the [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] University of North Dakotas new Scale-Up classroom. So far this semester, there have been weeks where everything works flawlessly and then there have been weeks like this week. At present the students have prepared drafts of chapters that they are writing for a new Western Civilization textbook. This flipped textbook approach has dragged the students through the intricacies of conceptualizing, organizing, and writing a textbook chapter. Each 9 student table is responsible for one chapter. Over the past week, the students prepared two peer reviews of other chapters following a fairly simple template. In class, I simplified this template a bit further and asked them to bring their reviews together as a table. Once the reviews were circulated, I asked each table to respond to the reviews that they received. The results of this exercise have been pretty ordinary. It reminds me of three issues with asking students to peer review. 1. Students dont know how. They have no idea how to provide feedback to other students. They seem fixated on giving positive feedback and allergic to any sort of substantial critique. As a group, they contradict themselves, stumbled over obvious issues, and rarely produced anything approaching a cohesive criticism. Despite my efforts to push the students to prioritize their critiques, it was not entirely successful. In general, I think their peer reviews were just barely helpful. 2. Students struggle to embrace iterative work. In general, I have found that students like the idea of writing drafts, but they rarely enjoy or embrace the process. I suspect that too many courses in their academic careers treat graded assessment as the final result of their efforts rather than part of the process. As a result, students do not regularly engage with comments and see them as a way to improve a work. This rather alienated attitude toward comments undermines the fundamental ideas of peer review and the process of working iteratively through drafts. 3. Value. Most scholars are motivated to write good and thoughtful peer reviews because they have received and benefited from good and helpful reviews. Moreover, most of us buy into the larger project of academia in which peer review is a key element. Students rarely have experienced the benefit of peer review (and many of them may not even read the comments on their work) and certainly do not buy into many of the basic commitments of academia. Knowing these three things, I still failed to incentivize the peer review process and the results were predictable. The exercise was treated as perfunctory and the results were uneven. More than that, an exercise that I anticipated would take 40 minutes per chapter (i.e. 80 !

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minutes over the course of the class) took about an hour total. I had to scramble during the second half of class to keep the tables moving forward in editing their chapters and, for the first time all semester, I had to ask the students to fix work that they produced in class. The solution to the peer review issue is, as always, carrot and stick. The stick is making the peer review a major part of the students grade. The carrot is to encourage students to buy into the peer review process as an opportunity to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their work and fundamental to academic life. Last night, I missed on both. For more on my adventures teaching in the Scale-Up Classroom, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] go here.

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A Special Issue of Hesperia: Philhellenism, Philanthropy, or Political Convenience: American Archaeology in Greece http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/a-special-issue-of-hesperiaphilhellenism-philanthropy-or-political-convenience-american-archaeology-in-greece/ Thu, 11 Apr 2013 12:48:30 +0000 Bill Caraher April may be the cruelest month, but it's also a time when archaeologists shift our attention to summer fieldwork and imagine languid days of writing and research. [http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.82.issue-1] The spring number of Hesperia kicks off these summer reveries and the most recent issue is a particular treat. The issue, edited by Jack Davis and Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan and deriving from a conference held in 2010 at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, looks critically at the history of American archaeology in Greece with attention to philhellenism and philanthropy. Rather than being a brazen paean to the work of American archaeologists in the first half of the 20th century, it rings a more critical note and suggests that not all acts of generosity and affection toward Greece reflected altruism. "Screenshot_4_11_13_7_50_AM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/screenshot_4_11_13_7_50_am.j pg]"Screenshot 4 11 13 7 50 AM" width="465" height="600" border="0" /> I have not made my way through the entire volume yet, but I would urge anyone interested in this topic to start with Jack Davis's contribution titled "The American School of Classical Studies and the Politics of Volunteerism". Focusing on the crisis years of 1918-1919 and the involvement of American School officials in the activities of the American Red Cross in the aftermath of the First World War, the article explores the role that personal relationships between important figures in American archaeology like Edward Capps had with members of the Greek political elite. These relationships, Davis argued, fueled by philanthropic efforts on the part of Capps and other high profile individuals associated with the American School not only contributed the Greek struggle to survive the chaotic decade at the end of WWI, but also American efforts get exceptional concessions from the Greek state, the most visible of which was the right to excavate the Athenian Agora. Y. Hamilakis in a contribution titled "Double Colonization: The Story of the Excavations in the Athenian Agora," suggested that appreciation and mutual respect was not the only impetus behind the willingness of the Greek state to allow the Americans to not only excavate the Athenian Agora, but also to expropriate the property of hundreds of residents in a traditional Theseion neighborhood. In Hamilakis's more critical account, the Agora excavations represent the politics of double colonization. The space of the Agora reflected both the colonial experiences of Hellenism and archaeology's commitment to modernist practices and the long tradition nationalism in archaeological practices in Greece. As one might expect from Hamilakis, he weaves the political machinations of various Greek and American archaeologists (and the reflection of their maneuvering in the Greek press) together with development of archaeological impulses toward revealing the hidden and "real" Athens below the houses of contemporary residents. His arguments for the

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"allochronization" of Greece in the rhetoric of the American School officials are particularly critical. In short, he argued that School officials expected concessions from the Greek government that we the same as those afforded to the French and Germans over 50 years earlier ignoring the radically different situation in Greece at the time. At the same time that Americans were negotiating the destruction of a neighborhood in Athens, the Greek state (with the help of the international community, to be sure) was navigating the massive influx of refugees from Asia Minor and continuing aftershocks of the First World War. What makes this volume all the more significant is the backdrop of both the current economic crisis in Greece and the changing economic realities of archaeologists working in Greece (and this, of course, extends to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens). To state simply that the American School, American archaeology in Greece, philhellenism, or 20th century American philanthropy in Greece is an expression of a modernist colonial impulse would be a gross over-simplification of a complex relationship between the two states, their political culture, and individuals. These essays offer a critical corrective to simplistic perspectives on this interaction at a particular fraught time in history of Greece and Greek archaeology. Congratulations to the editors and the Hesperia staff for producing a timely contribution. If I'm not mistaken, this is one of the very few times that Hesperia has turned itself over to a single theme in a Special Issue. I am not sure why they decided to do this rather than to release a Hesperia Supplement, but whatever the format, this is a supercool contribution to the history of our field.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-27/ Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:20:07 +0000 Bill Caraher It's snowing here in North Dakotaland with more on the way this weekend. While I'm ready for winter to be over, I also know that every day of winter in April gives us another day of fall in November. I remember sitting outside in fading spring sun last year at this time, but I also remember sitting outside without a jacket on Halloween. There is a rhythm to these kinds of things. So, try not to fret too much and sit back and read some quick hits and varia. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22084384] The recent excavation in Olde London Towne have been pretty cool. [http://www.menil.org/exhibitions/ByzantineThings.php] Some cool Byzantine Things at the Menil Collection curated by the remarkable Glenn Peers from University of Texas Austin. [http://www.willistonherald.com/news/is-a-new-city-on-the-way/article_6029a096-a2bd11e2-b9ad-001a4bcf887a.html] Monmouth College's Archaeology Day featuring yours truly. [http://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh/grant-news/announcing-23-digital-humanities-startgrant-awards-march-2013] Congratulations to Eric Poehler for receiving a National Endowment for the Humanities Start-Up Grant for his Pompeii Bibliography and Mapping Research Project. Filmmakers in both [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/24/golden-dawn-filmpolitical-storm] Greece and [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/opinion/hail-hailfreedom-in-cyprus.html] Cyprus are documenting the rise of right wing parties. [http://www.sr.ithaka.org/news/ithaka-sr-2012-us-faculty-survey-now-available] The most recent Ithaka S+R Faculty Survey is now available. If you missed me and Bret Weber's radio broadcast on Prarie Public's Main Street this past week, [http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/mainstreet?post=49220] check it out here. My wife got [http://www.aloaudio.com/thenational] me an ALO headphone amp and it didn't work, but they worked quickly and efficiently to ship me a replacement. Good customer service is so important. [http://www.montulli.org/theoriginofthe%3Cblink%3Etag] The origins of &lt;blink&gt;. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/apr/10/michael-clarke-wisden-cricketeraustralia] Congratulations to Michael Clarke who was named Wisden's Cricketer of the Year in [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22090116] the 150th Edition of the Wisden Cricketers Almanack.

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 Settlement Pattern Change: [http://www.willistonherald.com/news/is-a-new-city-on-theway/article_6029a096-a2bd-11e2-b9ad-001a4bcf887a.html] A new city in Williams County. [http://ethnographymatters.net/2013/04/02/an-uplifting-experience-adoptingethnography-to-study-elevator-user-experience/] Ethnography of elevator users. A little abandonment porn: [http://www.lenscratch.com/2013/04/center-awards-projectdevelopment.html] Border crossings after Schengen. [http://www.doaks.org/news/2013-news/201320132014-dumbarton-oaks-fellows] Congratulations to the most recent crop of Dumbarton Oaks Fellows including University of North Dakota Alumnus Nathan Leidholm (University of Chicago). [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/04/massive-volunteer-collectiveproofreads-25-000-public-domain-books/274876/] Crowd sourcing ebook editing at Project Gutenberg and [http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/04/2013/crowdfunding-the-past-isthis-the-future-of-archaeology] crowdfunding archaeological research. [http://society6.com/joeljonientz] If you love Joel Jonientz's stuff (and let's face it, who doesn't these days), [http://society6.com/joeljonientz] you can now buy your very own piece of Jonientz. [http://hastac.org/blogs/kmcdono2/2013/04/08/spring-spotlight-4-digital-historyproject-management-stanford] Digital History Project Management at Stanford over at HASTAC. Adweek reflects on [http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/how-wired-magazinechanged-way-we-talk-about-technology-148425] Wired Magazine's 20th Anniversary. [http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/14/tmagazine/14document.html?_r=1&amp;] The Great Gatsby in covers. What I'm reading: [http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.82.issue-1] J. Davis and N. Vogeikoff-Brogan, Philhellenism, Philanthropy, or Political Convenience? American Archaeology in Greece. Hesperia 82.1. What I'm listening to (it's quite a list!): [http://noisetrade.com/gwr/hold-on] The Gospel Whiskey Runners, Hold On; Bim Sherman, Miracle; Kurt Vile, Walking on a Pretty Daze; Freddie McGregor, Bobby Bobylon."Sunset.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/sunset.jpg]"Sunset" width="450" height="332" border="0" />

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Spring Sky http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/spring-sky/ Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:06:25 +0000 Bill Caraher We are enduring yet another winter storm warning, so I decided to snap some wishful thinking photos of our spring sky this morning on a quick trip to the edge of town. I really like the silver tones in the sky when the sun is low and the snow reflects so much light. "GFSpringSkyApril2013.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gfspringskyapril2013.jpg]"GFSpr ingSkyApril2013" width="430" height="600" border="0" /> "GFSpringSkyApril2013_2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gfspringskyapril2013_2.jpg]"GFS pringSkyApril2013 2" width="430" height="613" border="0" /> "GFSpringSkyApril2013_3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/gfspringskyapril2013_3.jpg]"GFS pringSkyApril2013 3" width="430" height="573" border="0" />

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Indigeneity and Western North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/15/indigeneity-and-western-northdakota/ Mon, 15 Apr 2013 14:04:08 +0000 Bill Caraher Thanks to Dimitri Nakassis, I enjoyed reading [http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1086/670330] Daryl Stumps contribution to Current Archaeology: "On Applied Archaeology, Indigenous Knowledge, and the Usable Past." This article sets out to document the various ways in which indigenous knowledge has influenced archaeology. Stump identified three types of indigenous archaeological knowledge: applied archaeology, usable archaeology, and hybrid archaeology. These three approaches represent ways to integrate indigenous knowledge into archaeological research. The first approach sees indigenous knowledge as a way to influence the development of policy or to produce knowledge that can be applied to contemporary situations in a direct way. The second approach, according to Stump, represents indigenous knowledge mitigated by modern Western epistemologies to correct for understandings that are inconsistent with current academic knowledge. Finally, he introduced hybrid forms of knowledge that brought together indigenous knowledge and modern knowledge without - necessarily privileging one or the other. Stump argues that hybrid forms of archaeological knowledge have failed to produce anything that is convincing or productive. In effect, bringing together two different epistemological positions has not moved the discipline forward. The creation of an indigenous group usually involves a kind of "othering" where members of the colonizing west identify a group as not like them. In most cases, this is complemented by the group themselves identifying as existing prior to the colonial engagement, possessing different values, and usually having certain claims to local rights (that are spatially and temporally defined). Can we imagine the Western part of North Dakota as having a kind of indigeneity to the kind of knowledge that they produce? The longterm residents and new comers to the region conform to some of the standards of indignity. They both suffer from the colonial encounter at the periphery. This means that they are physically, socially, and economically displaced from political power and have little influence over their engagement with global capital. The residents of the area tend to define their knowledge according to "before the Boom" and "since the boom", and those "longtime residents" view the "before the boom" past with romantic nostalgia grounded in traditional knowledge. This created a sense of entitlement among these residents to certain claims to land, development, and the regions future. In fact, there is a strong sense of regionalism among the residents of this periphery. Some of these characteristics extend to the new residents of western North Dakota as well. While some of the newcomers to the Bakken boom were permanent residents elsewhere, there is also a group of migrant labor associated with oil production who move from one area of production to the next following the flow of global capital around the world's peripheries. This group has its own body of traditional knowledge, sense of identity, and life ways designed to accommodate their migrant lifestyles and dangerous work.

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I recognize that defining these groups as having a kind of indigenous knowledge that I'm distorting the political intent of this discourse. On the other hand, the political stakes involved in natural resource extraction transforms the positions of local communities. These transformative pressures form along the fissures created by the needs of global capital and the extractive industries and the desire of local communities to benefit from this while at the same time preserving their way of life. The differing expectation of the two groups often leads to the kind of epistemological disjunctions that we do not expect within the supposedly unified "western" discourse. Even something as simple and direct as statistical appraisals of the impact of the oil boom find little consensus among the various groups invested in the process. To return, then, to Stump's article and critique of hybrid approaches to archaeological knowledge, we can suggest that the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] North Dakota Man Camp Project offers an instructive case study. We have collected dozens of interviews with residents of the man camps that represent a range of ideas, arguments, and perspectives on the Bakken boom. At the same time, we have collected archaeological data from the camps themselves to offer a perspective filtered through the kinds of empirical observation associated with disciplinary knowledge. The creation of a multifocal dataset that reflects both local knowledge and our own "universalizing" disciplinary knowledge provides a kind of hybrid perspective that Stump imagines is hardly possible. While we can argue that our disciplinary knowledge and the indigenous knowledge produced through interviews draw upon the same basic epistemologies and are therefore compatible or at least open to critique by the same basic criteria of usable or applied archaeological knowledge. I'd argue, however, that the political realities of the extractive industries and the colonial encounter that these creates produces an environment for the kind of indigenous "othering" that archaeologists have recognized in a global context. The temporal dimension of indigenous knowledge is particularly apparent in Stump's article. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/fragments-of-the-contemporarypast-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/] Our project has sought to engage perspectives offered by the "archaeology of the contemporary past". The idea of the contemporary past locates the archaeologist's work in the same time as the material that they study. Harrison has used argued for replacing the metaphor of excavation where the archaeologist "uncovers the past" with that of survey archaeology where archaeologists and their material exist on the surface at the same time. Our work in the Bakken recognizes that the archaeologist and the residents of the Bakken occupy the same taskscape. In effect, there is no temporal displacement associated with the indigenous knowledge produced by long time residents of the Bakken, "new North Dakotans" who have come to work in the patch, or our archaeological knowledge. By undermining the idea that indigenous knowledge is allochronistic (that is that the indigenous group's knowledge does not share the same time as the ethnographer or archaeologist), we can create a space for genuinely hybridized knowledge that destabilized the idea that disciplinary archaeological knowledge has particular authority. Practically, this approach has tremendous value for the kind of research that we're conducting in the Bakken. There are numerous voices in the conversation about the activities in the Bakken. They each represent a legitimate kind of knowledge (global capital, archaeological, local, industrial) grounded in economic, social, and cultural expectations

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because these various forms of knowledge represent forms of political power. Giving voice to the various political positions present in the Bakken recognizes the debate and the authenticity of the various claims by stakeholders. For more on my research in the Bakken Oil Patch with [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] the North Dakota Man Camp Project, go here.

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Monmouth, Illinois http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/monmouth-illinois/ Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:03:25 +0000 Bill Caraher Today your esteemed (or not esteemed) blogger is coming to you from the lovely library at Monmouth College in Monmouth, Illinois. [http://www.monmouthcollege.edu/information/newsEvents/newsDetails.aspx] I'm giving a talk tonight for the campus's archaeology day. "MCLibrary.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/mclibrary.jpg]"MCLibrary" Because of the vagaries of travel in the antipodes, I am in town for the entire day rather than my usual surgical strikes. This gave me some time to wander around town looking for a coffee shop with the internets. This does not seem to exist in Western Illinois, but I did get a delicious breakfast (and, yes, I do know the golden rule of social and new media: no one cares what you had for breakfast). "Breakfast.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/breakfast.jpg]"Breakfast" But the town was gorgeous despite the low grey skies. Some really nice victorian domestic architecture: "Monmouth1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth1.jpg]"Monmouth1" "Monmouth2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth2.jpg]"Monmouth2"] "Monmouth3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth3.jpg]"Monmouth3" "Monmouth5.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth5.jpg]"Monmouth5"] Some nice examples of turn of the century, small-town monumentality. "Monmouth4.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth4.jpg]"Monmouth4" "Monmouth7.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth7.jpg]"Monmouth7" Some commercial and public buildings that are nice, if showing some signs of wear and tear.

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"Monmouth10.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth10.jpg]"Monmouth10 "] "Monmouth9.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth9.jpg]"Monmouth9" "Monmouth6.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth6.jpg]"Monmouth6" "Monmouth12.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth12.jpg]"Monmouth12 "] "Monmouth14.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth14.jpg]"Monmouth14 " Some urban art. "Monmouth8.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/monmouth8.jpg]"Monmouth8]

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Man Camps as Non-Places http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/man-camps-as-non-places/ Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:26:16 +0000 Bill Caraher It seems sort of fitting to be sitting in an airport and wondering whether man camps in western North Dakota qualified as non-places. The generic quality of the Type 1 camps, in particular, would find parallels with [http://www.worldcat.org/title/nonplaces/oclc/474248560] Marc Aug's theory that spaces of transience like airports and motorways or generic spaces like shopping malls or hotels that provide experiences that are devoid of any character that would allow someone to identify these spaces as a particular place as distinct in time or space. Airports are the best case study as they adopt an intentionally generic design that is neither familiar nor unfamiliar, they function nearly 24 hours a day in a perpetual twilight, and they typically lack distinct spaces that allow an individual to make a meaningful and persistent connection with his or her surroundings. "DSC_0005.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/dsc_0005.jpg]"DSC 0005" Some of the most generic Type 1 camps share these features in that they have almost no distinguishing features that connect them with their surroundings. As I have noted before the rooms in these camps have few distinguishing features and look like small hotel rooms. The units themselves are regular and monotonous. Interior halls are long and without natural light. Food is served in brightly lit dinning halls and many provide food around the clock to accommodate the various shifts. They are even set on a bed of gravel to isolate the residents from the mud, snow, and earth of the North Dakota prairie. "DSC_0007.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/dsc_0007.jpg]"DSC 0007" Adding to this, is the transient nature of residents who tend to pass through Type 1 camps while they work for three or four weeks straight and then return home or to at least some place else. [http://www.worldcat.org/title/condition-of-postmodernity-an-enquiry-into-theorigins-of-cultural-change/oclc/18747380] David Harvey in his Condition of Postmodernity recognized these kinds of flexible spaces as necessary to support the unfettered flow of global capital in our late modern (or "supermodern" in Aug's terminology) age. As I sit in the Peoria airport, looking at the attractive, but otherwise bland concourse and watching uncomfortable and fatigues travelers make the best of their surroundings, I can't help think of the experience of working the Bakken and living in a Type 1 camp. My colleagues who have been more attentive to the human (rather than material) aspects of life in the Bakken remarked consistently on the austerity of life in Type 1 camps. Reflecting on their comments, I wonder whether the idea of non-place captures some of the experiences that my colleagues articulated. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] This is my 50th post on the North Dakota Man Camp Project, for more on our research, go here.

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Historical Landscapes on Naxos http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/historical-landscapes-on-naxos/ Thu, 18 Apr 2013 13:01:34 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the benefits of a day spent traveling is that I get to catch up on my embarrassing backlog of reading. The first article on this stack (pulling them from the bottom of the pile as always) was [https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/article/view/11092] J. Crow, S. Turner, and A. Vionis, "Characterizing the Historical Landscapes of Naxos," JMA 24 (2011) 111-137. This relatively short article makes the case for using Historical Landscape Characterization or HLC to describe and structure historic landscapes in the Eastern Mediterranean. The authors apply this method to the island of Naxos and attempt to isolate features of the Byzantine, Medieval, and post Medieval landscapes. The basic methods of HLC stipulate that each area on a map be given a certain place within a historical typology of landscape. The types available are standardized and range from the almost descriptive (rough ground) to the more interpretative (prehistorical enclosures). The goal of HLC is to produce a stratified map of a landscape suitable for describing historically significant landscapes at a meaningful scale. Generally, archaeologists produce these maps in response to issues of heritage management in the U.K., but the method is sufficiently robust and flexible to be exported to archaeological projects elsewhere. The types present in any particular landscape would vary, of course, according to scale and method for producing the HLC. As Vionis and company have noted, this HLC analysis could be a particularly valuable method for framing Mediterranean historic landscapes and preparing regions for study by more intensive means. The study of Naxos, for example, depended upon historical aerial and satellite photographs, documentary sources, results of excavations and surveys on Naxos, and some, albeit limited, autopsy. This work was able to identify, for example, the relationship between "braided terraces" and Medieval churches and to suggest that certain parts of the landscape retained some key pre-modern features. Vionis was able to argue on the basis of HLC and field survey that the regions around seemingly isolated churches were likely productive agriculturally on the basis of historical proximity. While the arguments made on the basis of these large scale HLC techniques will never satisfy scholars who see excavation as the only method for producing knowledge about the past, this method of classifying a landscape represents a tool for larger scale work. At the same time, Vionis et al. recognized that their work was provisional and by producing it in GIS database they ensured that it could be updated, disseminated, and republished as more data became available. "Screenshot_4_18_13_7_59_AM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/screenshot_4_18_13_7_59_am.j pg]"Screenshot 4 18 13 7 59 AM" width="450" height="338" border="0" /> I can immediately see the utility of using HLC methods to describe landscapes prior to intensive pedestrian survey and to produce a set of hypotheses that survey or excavation would test. It also provides a method for describing a more extensive landscape that !
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provides context for the area documented through intensive survey. For example, I think these methods could be particularly useful for the southeastern Corinthia where we have worked to describe an early modern settlement at the site of Lakka Skoutara in the region of Sophiko. We have a significant body of landscape data from the Sophiko region both from several intensive surveys, extensive surveys, and architectural and feature studies, including a new dissertation that dates argues [http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=ucin1342106516] for a Bronze Age date of terrace walls in the region. It would also be an appealing way to approach the landscape of western North Dakota.

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Digital Lightning at the University of North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/digital-lightning-at-the-universityof-north-dakota/ Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:03:25 +0000 Bill Caraher Pure, uncut amazingness. April 22nd. 4 pm. Gorecki Alumni Center. University of North Dakota's Campus. On April 22nd, the Working Group in Digital and New Media will ask questions about these bursts of digital possibility. Like lightning, the presentations will be quick and in rapid succession. Like lightning, the topics seek to illuminate a subject and to find points of connection to our world. Like lightning, the speakers aim to electrify. Presentations Bill Caraher "What's Next in Archaeology?" Kyle Conway "How Media Translate, or, Why do I Like Chase Scenes?" Travis Dessel "Crowd Sourcing Big Data?" Paul Worley " What Matter Whos Speaking? Performance, Shapes, Knowledge" Michael Wittgraf "Is it Music?" Richard Van Eck "Does Tech Make You Smarter?" Crystal Alberts "The Writers Conference, So What? Who Cares?" Brett Ommen "Who is Talking on Twitter?" Tim Pasch "Do I own my digital content that I paid for, created, or uploaded? Well" Joel Jonientz "Art in the Age of Digital Authenticity. Should we Abandon the Concept of Originality? Come and check it out.

"DigitalL_invite.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/digitall_invite.jpg]"DigitalL invite" width="450" height="390" border="0" />

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-28/ Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:32:05 +0000 Bill Caraher Apparently Grand Forks is well on its way to break a 109 year old record for the longest winter. We are not forecast to break 50 degrees before April 21st which is the latest date on record. Winters like this make me wish that this global warming business was just a myth cooked up by the liberal press. Hopefully the routine of Friday Quick Hits and Varia will bring a burst of banal normalcy to the chaotic days in the U.S. [http://www.ucy.ac.cy/goto/byzantiumintransition/enUS/HOME.aspx] A conference on the Middle to Late Byzantine transition on Paros in Late May hosted by Athanasios Vionis and Maria Parani of the University of Cyprus. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/opinion/latin-here-to-stay.html?smid=fbshare&amp;_r=0] Latin is here to stay according to a letter to the editor in the New York Times. [http://atlas.lib.uiowa.edu/] An interactive atlas of early printing. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/digital-lightning-at-theuniversity-of-north-dakota/] April 22nd. 4 pm. Gorecki Alumni Center on the campus of the University of North Datkoa. D I G I T A L L I G H T N I N G. Pure, Uncut, Amazingness. If you want to experience this and don't live in The North Dakota, [https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/workinggroup/] here's a link to the livestream. [http://www.lsa.umich.edu/UMICH/modgreek/Home/Window%20to%20Greek%20Cult ure/C.P.%20Cavafy%20Forum/Kourelis%20Cavafy.pdf] Kourelis on Cavafy (pdf). [http://mentalfloss.com/article/50149/9-extremely-pretentious-latin-and-greek-plurals] Awesome archaic plurals. [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1375] Righteous anger from an artist. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe-v-bangladesh2013/engine/match/623576.html] Good on Zimbabwe! Bowling Bangladesh out for 134! [http://allthebuildingsinnewyork.com/new/] Australian James Gulliver Hancock is trying to draw all the buildings of New York. [http://nation.time.com/2013/04/09/north-dakota-a-portrait-of-an-oil-boom/] The North Dakota oil boom in Time Magazine. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thenightshift/the-greatest-band-everprint?ref=NewsApr1813&amp;utm_campaign=Apr18&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm _source=newsletter] I have no idea how anyone could NOT support this.

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 [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/261396/publisher_ID/40/] This continues [http://titomouraz.com/] Check out Tito Mouraz's "Open Space Office". [http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/vietnams-new-fire-breathing-dragon-bridge] A fire breathing bridge and [http://vimeo.com/64136248] a crazy movie by Greta Alfaro. (via [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] Richard Rothaus) [http://thebeautfyofsolitude.tumblr.com/post/48298169126/vintage-typewriter-blackwall-lust] Type writer and [http://blog.sfmoma.org/2013/04/new-news-for-open-space/] type writer. What I'm reading: L. H. Inge, R. Hodges, and S. Leppard, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/butrint-4-the-archaeology-and-histories-of-an-ioniantown/oclc/828717451] Butrint 4: The Archaeology and Histories of an Ionian Town. Oxford 2013. What I'm listening to: Shuggie Otis, Inspiration Information/Wings of Love."Me.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/me.jpg]"Me" width="450" height="294" border="0" /> "DigitalL_invite.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/digitall_invite1.jpg]"DigitalL invite" width="450" height="390" border="0" />

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More Things of Music http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/more-things-of-music-2/ Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:01:43 +0000 Bill Caraher Portable hifi made less portable, but more hifi. "Music3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/music3.jpg]"Music3" width="450" height="274" border="0" />

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What's Next in Archaeology? http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/whats-next-in-archaeology/ Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:32:21 +0000 Bill Caraher This is my paper for [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/digitallightning-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/] this afternoon's Digital Lightning event. If you're in Grand Forks, the event showcases the recent efforts of the Working Group in Digital and New Media. It will be at 4 pm in the Gorecki Alumni Center on the University of North Dakota's campus. If you can't make it to UND, that's ok, [https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/workinggroup/] you can enjoy the live stream of the even here. My talk will look at what's next in 3D imaging. It's pretty speculative, but that's ok, because it's only 6 minutes long. "Slide01.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide01.jpg]"Slide01" Slide 1:This image, by UND MFA Ryan Stander, captures the traditional view of archaeological fieldwork. The use of a dental tool to meticulously extract a bowl of the 4th century BC resting on the floor of a collapsed house. This vessel tells us something about the economic conditions among mercenaries at a fortified settlement on the south coast of the island of Cyprus. Its pretty analogue. "Slide02.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide02.jpg]"Slide02" Slide 2: Anyone with even a little more archaeological experience knows that publication remains a crucial step in the archaeological process. Mediterranean archaeology remains committed to old school paper publications. (This article actually details how our project used a custom web application to collect data in the field. So Im fudging a bit. "Slide03.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide03.jpg]"Slide03" Slide 3: Traditionally, the publication process begins on the side of the trench with paper paper plans and textual descriptions. For over 100 years, these rather primitive tools have allowed archaeologists to describe the horizontal and vertical relationships between layers of soil, objects, and architecture that they excavate. "Slide04.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide04.jpg]"Slide04" Slide 4: In the last 3 decades, new tools have allowed archaeologists to document more precisely these spatial relationships. Here UND alumnus Brandon Olson uses a laser theodolite total station that uses precision optics to measure distance and plot features in tranches. Brandon is a Ph.D. student at Boston University and our field director on Cyprus. !
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"Slide05.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide05.jpg]"Slide05" Slide 5:The precision of the total station allowed us to create a precise plan of the architecture that we find in our trench. This plan here derives from traditional excavation methods and the data collected from the total station. This plan is suitable for publication with only a few modifications and depicts the line of a massive 2 m wide wall that fortified the mercenaries stationed at our site on the south coast of Cyprus. The dashed line shows the location of a deep pit on the south side of the wall. This stone lined pit on the interior of the wall was probably for storage and was filled with over 100 kg of pottery probably representing a clean up at the site after an episode of destruction. "Slide06.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide06.jpg]"Slide06" Slide 5: Photography has also played a key role how we document the results of excavation. A photograph of our trench from above makes more clear the line of the wall and the stone lined storage pit on its south side. You can also see where we stepped the trench back to prevent stones collapse from falling into the stone lined put area while we excavated it. This image, obviously, provides additional, useful information on the arrangement of the trench, the storage pit, and the fortification wall. Theres a secret to this image, though. "Slide07.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide07.jpg]"Slide07" Slide 6:The overhead photograph is actually a mosaic made from over 200 individual digital photographs. The blue rectangles on this image are the individual photographs. We then processed these images using 3D photogrammetry software called Agisoft Photoscan. This software uses overlapping photographs to not only create a mosaic image, but also to measure the relative vertical and horizontal position of the objects in the image. "Slide08.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide08.jpg]"Slide08" Slide 7: This allows us to create a point cloud with each point having an X, Y, and Z coordinate - Ill talk more about this later - and then to create a 3D surface from these points. This is what the 3D surface looks like. This surface took about 10 hours to process using a laptop computer with an 12 gigs of ram, 1 gb graphics card, and an 2.8 gb Intel i7 processor. With 200 photographs, we know that this surface is accurate within a couple of centimeters. The software adds some shading to make the 3D image standout more. "Slide09.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide09.jpg]"Slide09" Slide 8: We can then drape this surface with the photomosaic to create a photorealistic 3D image of our trench. We can rotate the image so that we can present new perspectives on the trench in traditional 2D publications. We can also georeference the image so that we can measure vertical and horizontal distances and place the trench and its features in relation to other things on the site. From this image you can now get a clear idea what the stone lined pit looks like as well as see the neatly stacked south face of the fortification wall. !
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"Slide10.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/slide10.jpg]"Slide10" Slide 9:3D models like this are getting to be old hat in archaeology. In the past 2 decades, however, they were built using ground mounted LiDAR which use lasers to measure three dimension objects. In fact, this summer well compare Agisoft Photoscan to results produced by a $80,0000 Leica Scanstation at my new project at the site of Polis-Chrysochous on the western side of the island. These technologies, however, still do little more than amount to a different way to display the three dimensional space of the archaeological intervention in a static two dimensional medium. The three dimensional image remains a measured representation of the trench. Whats next is making this image dynamic. We already can rotate the image and zoom in and out. This is not the next step. The next step is bringing the archaeological data the we produce during excavation and allowing a the viewer to access this data through this image. Each point, for example, could link to more than just locational data, but also to interpretative data. Points could tell us about the features that they constitute, their stratigraphic context, and any objects related to the these strata. The 3D image will go from being a static surface to a dynamic interface allowing the viewer to dig down into archaeological data to explore the myriad interpretations that make up our understanding of the past.

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A Review of Metaponto 4 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/a-review-of-metaponto-4/ Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:21:14 +0000 Bill Caraher This past month, I spent some time reading and reviewing Eremina Lapadula's The Chora of Metaponto 4: The Late Roman Farmhouse at San Biagio. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/a-late-roman-farmhouse-nearmetaponto/] I've blogged about it already, but now I have a rough draft of the review ready for your consideration. I've been thinking a good bit about how I write book reviews lately. I tell my students that there are three kinds of reviews with three kinds of theses, and the best reviews explain how a book works rather than what a book says. 1. This book is good because 2. This is book is good, but 3. This is not a good book because In practice, however, I've found it more difficult to pull this off. The review below is probably my least successful effort. On the one hand, it's reasonably thorough and critical. On the other hand, it is entirely unremarkable. (On the third hand, it is also more or less done and off my plate before my summer work commences) [scribd id=137520797 key=key-22jf22p7a3s44wrzhmdt mode=scroll]

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Dusk http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/dusk/ Wed, 24 Apr 2013 02:59:03 +0000 Bill Caraher The North Dakota sky at 9 pm when my night class lets out. Not a glorious photograph, but enough to get the idea. "Dusk.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/dusk.jpg]"Dusk"]

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Last Days Teaching History 101 in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part XIII) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/last-days-teaching-history-101-ina-scale-up-classroom-part-xiii/ Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:06:04 +0000 Bill Caraher Last night I had my second to last night of the semester teaching History 101: Western Civilization in [http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm] the University of North Dakota's fancy new Scale-Up classroom. The course is deigned around the idea that 18 groups of 9 students will produce a chapter for their own textbook. Over the past three months we have walked the students through the conceptualization, organization, and finally writing of a 5000 word textbook chapter. The groups have, generally, taken the task seriously and worked hard. The greatest challenge has been to balance course learning goals with issues of classroom management. Some nights, I get the balance right and the students work as focused teams to address particular historical problems. ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/thoughts-on-teaching-history-ina-scale-up-classroom-part-xi/] Other nights, of course, the wheels come off.) Last night was a pretty good night. The students worked for almost two hours on their projects without interruption. 1. Authority and Revision. The final third of the class has focused on peer review and revision of chapters. The first step was a superficial reading by myself and my graduate assistant. We then asked tables to peer review other table's chapters. We hoped that these two steps of peer review would produce sufficient critique for students to make meaningful and substantive revisions of their chapters. In the end, this process produced mixed results. In general, students were ambivalent about revising their chapters based on these peer reviews, and instead of taking the peer reviews seriously as points of departure, most chapter lay dormant. This was a problem because many chapters remained poorly organized, riddled with typographical errors, and with only spotty citation (and some egregious incidents of plagiarized text!). Despite these issues, the groups seemed lethargic and at loose ends. So, over the last few days, I wrote up close to 10,000 words of critique on each chapter and posted them to a wiki with an estimate grade as a prompt to get students to revise their chapters thoroughly. I posted these comments yesterday and the students found then right before class. Needless to say, my specific comments girded by my additional authority made the groups come to live. The tables worked for close to 2 hours straight last night. Their questions for me and Cody (my super competent graduate assistant) were direct, specific, and clear. I am actually excited to see their revised chapters. 2. Student Resistance. Before class last night, I talked to Cody about my theory of student resistance. I've explored these topics [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-roots-of-student-resistance/] here, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/teaching-thursdaymore-on-student-resistance/] here, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/grading-detroit-and!
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student-resistence/] here, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/11/teaching-thursday-gradingand-resistance/] here, and [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/audit-culture-and-historyas-craft/] here. In short, I argue that some ways that an explicit need to resist motivates some student efforts to confound faculty expectations. The increasingly streamlined and "corporate" environment of university life has led to student resistance in myriad of subtle ways. The most obvious of these is a general carelessness toward writing and proofreading. The work necessary to correct niggling proofreading issues is never high and the stakes tend to be relatively low. As a result, it provides a useful environment for students to express their own identity against faculty efforts to prepare them to be cogs in the machine. Like a slave might damage equipment or neglect a daily task, students refuse to follow the rules of capitalization, persist in using contractions in formal writing, and ignore paths of least resistance. The Scale-Up room seeks in part to undermine this resistance by giving students greater control over their own fate and work rhythms. They have to work together to accomplish tasks and the decentered arrangement of the classroom occludes the faculty presence. I've come to think that the genius of the Scale-up room is that it promotes the possibility of faculty observation ( [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/teaching-thursday-thepanopticon-and-online-teaching/] la Foucault's panopticon) as a way to mitigate student resistance. The carrot is, then, that students have more control of how their production; the stick is that the faculty may always be watching. Some days I feel like Google or Amazon (.com) as I wander the classroom listening to students working and offering helpful (and more or less unprompted) suggestion. 3. End Game. With one class remaining, I have started to reflect on the mechanical, managerial, and pedagogical mistakes that I've made this semester. The most obvious one right now is that some of my failed efforts to encourage peer review and open ended revisions led to a few lost weeks. As a result, I am not going to be able to add the level of polish to final product as I had hoped. Some issues will simply have to be left unfinished like organizing the bewildering array of primary and secondary source citation, maps and images, and even formatting issues. The students are really interested in many of these issues, but I feel the obligation to keep them focused on content. Next time I teach the class, I will work to streamline aspects of the class to produce a better final product. This is the thirteenth installment of my reflections on teaching History 101 in a Scale-Up classroom. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] Go here for the rest.

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Ten Tips for a New Graduate Student http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/ten-tips-for-a-new-graduatestudent/ Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:43:54 +0000 Bill Caraher This evening I'm taking out a couple of my students who have been accepted into graduate school for next year. I threatened (offered?) to give them my list of ten tips to being a successful graduate student (also know as "things that I wish I had done in graduate school or did, but only by accident). I riffled through my harddrive and found a few versions of it and decided to compile them into one list. This list is directed at prospective graduate students in my field and it reflect my mistakes and successes more than anything else. 1. Have fun. Graduate School is fun. Resist the urge to rush through the program toward an uncertain future. Don't dawdle by any means, but make sure to savor your time in graduate school. Chances are that your graduate school environment will be the most supportive, robust, and dynamic that you experience throughout your career. Enjoy it. 2. Take all the gloomy press about the job market with a grain of salt. Graduate school in the humanities is like minor league baseball. You do it because you love the game and because you believe you have what it takes to make it to the big leagues (such as they are ). Don't do it if you feel entitled to an academic position at graduation or out of some false belief that the minor league system is designed to give every prospect an equal chance at success. Do it because you love what you're doing and it's a remarkable opportunity to do it for a few more years. 3. Read as much as possible. Get in the habit of looking at the major journals in your field and reading reviews. Read bibliographies. Get to be friends with your librarian. Anything you can do to know what is being published and what it is about. (The arrival of review volume of the Journal of Roman Archaeology remains one of the highlights of my year.) 4. Work harder than everyone you know and collaborate with people smarter than you. My experience is that these two things are related. Smart people have better ideas, get more opportunities, and generally have more fun. Part of the reason that they are successful is they have less smart collaborators and colleagues who work really really hard. Work hard and smart people will let you ride their coattails. 5. Write all the time. I write for at least an hour every day, even if it's just working on my blog and each year, I find it easier to write more. I might not be developing new ideas or getting smarter, but I am definitely better and bringing my ideas from my eddying and swirling brain to the page. Ideas only really count when they are on the page. Writing a blog or a journal offers a simple way to maintain writing discipline and move ideas from thoughts to words. It also offers you a chance to produce a positive presence on the web.

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6. Develop a digital ecosystem. Find ways to stay organized on your computer, back up your harddrive, develop ways to use mobile devices to make your life easier. Try new software to streamline your workflow. 7. Develop some ancillary skills. I was lucky enough to be a sufficiently marginal field archaeologist to have a chance to develop some skills in GIS and database management. While this began as a way to keep me from somehow messing up field work, it has since put me in the position to shape field procedures, interpret data, and produce analysis. Despite only ever taking one archaeology course in my life, I have turned using various database tools into opportunities to direct my own projects and to publish the results. If you can, take classes outside your department and discipline. 8. Balance professional development and taking risks. There will always be pressure to publish and present your work and it begins in graduate school (earlier and earlier these days!). At the same time, remember that graduate school is where you can take risks, learn your limits, and experiment with new approaches and ideas. Despite the feeling that the stakes in graduate school are high, they are much higher when you get your first academic position. 9. Spend time at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This is the greatest of the foreign research centers for American graduate students. It has an amazing alumni network, brilliant facilities, and a solid program. The School as an institution and its faculty take graduate education seriously. If you're working in the Eastern Mediterranean, do what you can to spend time at the ASCSA. 10. Be interested in everything. There is tremendous pressure these days to professionalize and focus. While focus and discipline are good and will ensure that you move through your program with pace, maintaining academic interests outside your narrow field of dissertation represents an important risk management strategy. If your particular, specialized graduate research doesn't end up being the "next big thing", you'll have other irons in the fire. One last tip listen to and trust your mentors.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-29/ Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:35:30 +0000 Bill Caraher Today is supposed to be the day that we break the mythical 50 degree barrier here in North Dakotaland and we should be in the 60s tomorrow. It feels like we might be entering that strange liminal zone between winter and summer. I don't remember what it's called, but I know it involves cruel months, lions, lambs, and perhaps unicorns. As we begin to once again feel blood circulate freely in our veins, I can offer some quick hits and varia to energize the arrival of "flood and mud" season. ( [http://www.wdaz.com/pages/floodcam2013] You can check out the flood cams here.) "Flood.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/flood.jpg]"Flood" [http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/] Abandonment in modern Greece (although I do wonder how many of these photographs reflect the recent economic crisis, and how many of them reflect decades old building practices.) [http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/05/09/the-paris-time-capsule-apartment/] Here is an even more dramatic and unintentional example of abandonment. This is even more cool, [http://www.amazon.com/Persistent-Memories-Pyramiden-SovietMining/dp/8251924367/] an entire Soviet mining town somewhere north of the article circle, abandoned and documented by intrepid archaeologists. I haven't seen this book yet, but I want it. Congratulations to Big Joe Rife for winning the CAMWS book award for his magisterial [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/book/?i=9780876619391] Isthmia IX: The Roman and Byzantine Graves and Human Remains. Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies 2012. [http://www.mjcb.eu/] Mapping the Jewish Communities of the Byzantine Empire Project. [http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2013/04/24/slash-not-just-a-punctuationmark-anymore/] Someone just encountered the "undergraduate slash". ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/teaching-thursday-teachingwriting/] I noted its conspicuous decline as early as December 2011). [http://www.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league-2013/engine/match/598027.html] Chris Gayle scored a century in 30 balls on his way to 175*. He hit 17 sixes and 30 boundaries from 66 balls. All of these things are records for T20. More cricket. I am super excited to see [http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes2013/content/story/631951.html] Chris Rogers named to the Australian team for the Ashes. This is the same Chris Rogers who dismissed early buzz about his selection with the quote: I'd like to play but, as people keep reminding me, I'm very old.

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 [http://janchipchase.com/content/essays/you-lookin-at-me-reflections-on-google-glass/] Jan Chipchase chimes in on Google Glass. [http://professor-anonymous.tumblr.com/] This is mostly funny. [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/04/24/mercers-winning-combo-astell-kern-aloand-audeze/] I am impressed, but unconvinced by this guy's headphone system. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/22/178430480/worst-first-day-evertv-anchor-fired-after-profane-debut] I know that I shouldn't laugh at other people's misfortune, but since this guy has capitalized on it and it is a funny way to start your broadcast career. [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1392] Joel Jonientz recommends that we check out Neil Gaiman's keynote from the digital minds conference. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/a-quest-for-a-cheaper-better-collegecourse-sometimes-in-a-bigger-class/2013/04/19/] An argument for the big class. [http://theluxuryofprotest.com/Love_Will_Tear_Us_Apart_Again_v2-alt.html] This is a pretty cool map of the covers of Joy Division's "Love will tear us apart". [http://www.pcworld.com/article/249951/if_it_aint_broke_dont_fix_it_ancient_computer s_in_use_today.html] An old computer that still works just fine, and [http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/04/tech-time-warp-alto-parc-jobs/] the story of Steve Jobs's visit to XEROX that transformed how we interact with personal computers. My blog post from yesterday, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/ten-tips-for-a-new-graduatestudent/] Ten Tips for a New Graduate Student, has been read over 650 times in the past 24 hours. This is by far my most popular post in its first day on the web. What I'm reading: D. Hayden, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/field-guide-tosprawl/oclc/54046420] A Field Guide to Sprawl. (New York 2004). What I'm listening to: Frank Turner, Tape Deck Heart. Young Galaxy, Ultramarine. "Me_2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/me_2.jpg]"Me 2" width="450" height="537" border="0" />

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More Thaw in 2013 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/more-thaw-in-2013/ Sun, 28 Apr 2013 21:24:34 +0000 Bill Caraher Sometimes [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/the-great-thaw-of2013/] the thaw doesn't take and you have to start again: "MoreThaw2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/morethaw21.jpg]"MoreThaw2" width="450" height="1077" border="0" /> But it always happens <span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.796875px;] ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/the-great-thaw-of-2013/] 2013, </span> style="outline:none;text-decoration:none;color:#000000;fontweight:bold;font-size:12px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;borderbottom-color:#eeeeee;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sansserif;line-height:22.796875px;" [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/thaw-of-2012/] 2012<span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sansserif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.796875px;] , </span> style="outline:none;textdecoration:none;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-size:12px;border-bottomwidth:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:#eeeeee;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;line-height:22.796875px;" [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/the-2011-thaw/] 2011<span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sansserif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.796875px;] , </span> style="outline:none;textdecoration:none;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;font-size:12px;border-bottomwidth:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottom-color:#eeeeee;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;line-height:22.796875px;" [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/spring-thaw-and-flood/] 2010<span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.796875px;] ,</span> style="outline:none;text-decoration:none;color:#000000;font-weight:bold;fontsize:12px;border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:solid;border-bottomcolor:#eeeeee;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;lineheight:22.796875px;" [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/thaw/] 2009<span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sansserif;font-size:12px;line-height:22.796875px;] )</span>

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A Historian Getting Old http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/29/a-historian-getting-old/ Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:08:16 +0000 Bill Caraher I turned 41 this weekend and it gave me reason to stop and think about this past semester and some of the little ways that Ive come to feel my age. Our department has been reevaluating the history major and taking stock of current requirements. I ended up on the other side of some recent decisions and thats fine. I figure you win some and lose some, but what was most interesting was the character of the changes and my reactions. This is has made me feel old both intellectually and personally. 1. World History versus Western Civilization. Im a Western Civilization guy. I received my B.A. in Latin and History and my graduate work was mostly in this history of the ancient and Medieval West and Byzantium. So, the first thing that struck me is that I completed my graduate degree completely unqualified to teach a World History survey course, although I am sure I could imagine a way to teach it at the introductory level. This is a bit shocking because the idea that our department would require World History for our majors as well as a introductory level survey makes sense. World History is increasingly taught in high schools and many graduate programs continue to see World History as a desirable teaching field. Moreover, we recognize that our students need to be comfortable negotiating the challenges of our globalized and international economy, politics, and culture. What made me feel old was the consensus among my colleagues that Western Civilization could no longer provide a sufficiently cosmopolitan perspective for our students. When I reflect on my graduate training and my experiences as a historian, Ive always found plenty in my Western experience that gives me a wider perspective on the world, and I feel relatively confident that the traditions of critique in the Western traditional ensure that these perspectives are critical. That being said, I was rather surprised by the attitude among my colleagues that we might easily replace Western Civilization with a World Civilization sequence without either recolonizing the world by projecting our Western perspectives onto a global stage, or by simply conceding the value of our own heritage (i.e. the West) to our students. Times have changed, and I am feeling old. (At the end of the day, we decided to keep both Western Civilization and offer another introductory level sequence in World Civilization!) 2. Language. Over the same time, our department took some time to examine our language requirements. Right now we offer two different kinds of history degrees. One requires students to take four semesters of a foreign language; the other requires the students to take a minor. Every year our department returns briefly to the question of whether it is necessary to continue to require students to take a foreign language. The chief argument against this requirement is whether four semesters of a language does enough for our students to be worth the risk in enrollment numbers. Students it would seem are intimidated by learning a foreign language. About half of our students opt to take a minor which is actually more credit hours to avoid taking a language (or at least prefer to take a minor over taking a !
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language). The fear is that we might be losing majors in this scenario, and as a result, we do an informal cost/benefit analysis on the utility of requiring a foreign language for out students. I have always considered history to be a philological endeavor and knowing languages (both foreign and domestic!) is key to what we do. I can hardly imagine a history major without a rigorous language component, and here I follow [http://books.google.com/books?id=Jt_Hw6f3cB4C&amp;lpg=PR1&amp;ots=HaJVKHK muv&amp;dq=Theodor%20Mommsen%20rectoral%20address&amp;pg=PA191#v=onepa ge&amp;q=Theodor%20Mommsen%20rectoral%20address&amp;f=false] Theodor Mommsen famous recommendation that aspiring historians focus their energies on languages and the law. I spent as much time taking languages in undergraduate and graduate school as I did taking history classes. The shift from a field grounded in languages to a field grounded in the more ecumenical perspectives offered by method has caught me offguard even as I am the one responsible for teaching our undergraduate methods course. This severing of the discipline from its philological roots is more evidence that times have changed, and I am feeling old. 3. The Game versus the Discipline. Ive always respected the need to play the game of academia as well as to defend the discipline intellectually. The Game for me has always involved a lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lotta what-have-yous and managing things like enrollment in our major, attempting to retain faculty and even to expand our department, and tending our standing with the administration and our colleagues across campus (many of whom will not be particularly sympathetic or even interested in disciplinary concerns). The Discipline is grounded in patterns of thoughts, epistemology, and methods that validate the truth that history can produce. As long as we exist in the real world, there is a balance between The Game and The Discipline. We cant create a Discipline that no one finds relevant or offers classes in which no one enrolls. At the same time, it is difficult to stomach playing a Game that sacrifices the core values of the Discipline in the name of professional or academic development. These days, however, I wonder whether I am no longer sufficient engaged in my professional or disciplinary environment to locate the line between the Game and the Discipline. Times have changed, and I feel old.

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Sprawling Landscapes http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/sprawling-landscapes/ Tue, 30 Apr 2013 11:19:27 +0000 Bill Caraher I spent some quality time this past week with D. Haydens [http://www.worldcat.org/title/field-guide-to-sprawl/oclc/54046420] A Field Guide to Sprawl (New York 2004). This is a fantastic book. It provides some (mildly tongue and cheek) definitions for the various types of sprawl visible in the American landscape. The great thing about this book is that it provides an archaeological typology to sprawl in action. Most of what we see in the Bakken would fall under her categories of Manufactured housing (70-71) or Truck City (112-113). Hayden astutely notes that built homes are to mobile homes as mobile homes are to R.V.s. Over 10% of the new housing (and more in the West) are not mobile homes. Truck City, of course, derives its name from [http://books.google.com/books?id=cRddYSJCEBEC&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA255#v =onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false] John Bickerhoff Jacksons famous essay of the same name that explores role trucks and truckers played in the expansion and decentralization of American business (and ultimately American consumer culture and life). For the Bakken Oil Patch, trucks have played a key role in integrating the periphery with the core by bringing equipment to the Patch and moving raw material out of the Patch. Haydens work provides us with more than just a technical vocabulary, and provides us with an approach to one of the more curious challenge of documenting the workforce housing in the Bakken. Unlike most (although by no means all) habitation sites studied by archaeologists interested in the "contemporary past", The Bakken is not abandoned. Abandoned sites make life easier for archaeologists because the processes associated with abandonment fit so much better into longstanding conversations about archaeological remains throughout time. In fact, most of the sites that archaeologists explore have undergone some kind of abandonment. Still functioning sites pose new problems. Some of these are ethical and deal with the ways in which we go about documenting lived spaces. But in many cases the issues are practical. While all sites undergo formation processes, sites that continue to be occupied - particularly sites designed for short term habitation - are likely to undergo rapid changes in short periods of time. Our efforts to document a site at a moment provides just a momentary insight into a larger set of quickly moving processes ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/man-camps-as-non-places/] that might, in fact, move even more quickly in our contemporary age than in past centuries). While Haydens book does not provide a solution to the problem of change, she does demonstrate how aerial photographs use as a way to document dynamic landscapes like those characterized by various kind of non-urban sprawl. [http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/sprawl/] For a more punk rock view on sprawl go here.

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Thoughts on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom (Part XV) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/thoughts-on-teaching-history-in-ascale-up-classroom-part-xv/ Wed, 01 May 2013 13:15:59 +0000 Bill Caraher Last night was the last meeting of my History 101 class in the [http://und.edu/scaleup/index.cfm] Scale-Up classroom at the University of North Dakota. Most of the class consisted of students doing a robust battery of assessment exercises and, then, revising the chapters of the textbook that the class composed over the course of the semester. Some students were still working away when I left the room after 9 o'clock. It was clear that a number of the groups not only saw that they could produce a high quality product that would get a good grade, but also felt some real ownership and pride in their work. This was heartening. As with any experimental exercise, there will some good, some bad, and some downright ugly. My first semester teaching in the Scale-Up room was no exception. I am working on a longer reflective piece that will summarize many of the reflections that I have presented in this weekly series of blog posts, but for today, I'll hit on some of the basic, practical issues that I encountered over the course of the semester. "Scale-Up_Panorama.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/scaleup_panorama.jpg]"Scale Up Panorama" width="500" height="109" border="0" /> The Good 1. Student Engagement. The level of student engagement in this course has been astounding. I have never encountered an introductory level course with more motivated and committed students. Two-thirds of the students took every assignment serious and a half did more than yeoman's effort on most assignments. Making the classroom the space of active work was central to this. The Scale-Up room made the students more accountable to each other and giving students the room to lead and teach undermined their tendency to resist authority ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/last-days-teaching-history-101in-a-scale-up-classroom-part-xiii/] see point 2 here). In short, this format works to keep students engaged in process. 2. Attendance. One the great failings of my survey courses, particularly the night class, is attendance and retention. I was pleasantly surprised to see that student attendance remained over 90% throughout the semester and my drop rate improved from over to 20% to less than 15%. These are significant improvements. Students - despite their occasional complaints - seemed to like coming to class in the Scale-Up room. Getting the students to class is half the battle in any large class. You can't teach the students if they are not there. 3. Organize, write, edit, revise. The Scale-Up room provided a remarkable platform for encouraging students to take the writing process seriously. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/thoughts-on-teaching-history-ina-scale-up-classroom-part-ix/] The students approached the outlining process with a !

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seriousness of purpose that was remarkable. Most took their task of writing the first draft intentionally and over the past two weeks worked hard to address critiques and produce thoroughly revised drafts. All the chapter got better and all the groups seemed committed to understanding and revising their papers in a way that I could never manage to encourage in a traditional, lecture style classroom. The Scale-Up room is better at focusing students on process because it provides them with the tools (laptops) and the space (round tables) to collaborate on the frustrating, if rewarding, task of writing. "Scale-Up2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/scaleup2.jpg]"Scale Up2" The Bad. 1. Management versus Pedagogy. My greatest challenge this semester was balancing my pedagogical goals with my need to understand and managed the new classroom space. Students sat around 18 tables with 9 seats and 3 laptops each. It was impossible to lecture for more than 10 minutes in the decentralized space of the room. As a result, I had to make sure that I had activities to keep the students occupied and focused through the entire 2 hour, 20 minute class period. To do this effectively, I had to figure out how to break down various academic processes into small, manageable activities with assessable outcomes. I spent considerable time trying to figure out how to make something like producing a timeline into a collaborative activity. At times, though, I began to reflect that my need to manage this strange new classroom began to trump the actual pedagogical value. A great example of this is that I ran out of projects for students to do before the semester was over. As a result, I spent a good bit of time concocting ways to encourage students to work on revising their projects. 2. Collaboration versus Combination. One of the main tricks in managing the collaborative writing project is moving students from working on sections of a project and then combining them to actually collaborating to produce an integrated single product. The challenge was getting students to transfer their "ownership" of a particular section to "ownership" of the entire work. The most interesting thing was watching the group cut a student's sections that did not fit into the larger project. Only best groups were able to make this decisions and many of the groups continued to see the final chapter as a combination of discrete sections authored by individual students rather than a cohesive whole. 3. Content versus Method. The first issue that most of my colleagues note in how I've taught my History 101 class is that the students do not get the full content of a traditional 101 class. This is in keeping with a practice known as "uncoverage" among historians that seeks to shift the focus from content to methods in the history survey course. The argument goes that most students are unlikely to remember particular bits of historical "fact" but they can learn methods that will allow them to organize and critique facts encountered throughout their lives. So we should shift our emphasis from teaching facts to teaching methods. This is a great approach, but rarely does a student come to the field of history because they love the methods. In an survey class at the introductory level, we are hoping to instill a passion for history and the past. Teaching students about the past involves some treatment of content. I will have to continue to defend how I draw the line between content and method in my Scale-Up experiment.

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The Ugly. 1. Citation and Sources. I had this hope that the students would primarily use their textbooks as sources for their chapters. To support that I ensured that each table had 7 different textbooks represented. Of course, the predictable happened. Students ignored the textbooks and went uncritically to The Googles like moths to the light. Then as they wrote their chapters, they became flummoxed by citing their rather motley assortment of online sources. Because I did not anticipate students going so quickly online, I did not develop any exercises to encourage critical reading of online sources and had to cobble together a method for having them cite these sources in their chapters. I was similarly struck by their approach to primary sources. I gave the students my existing primary source reader and nudged them to use the primary sources provided in this document for their chapter. Most of the groups, however, charged off to Google and brought to the table a new group of primary sources. I was not familiar with most of them and struggled to develop easy to understand rules to guide the students through citing them. I need to simplify and streamline this system. 2. Peer Review. I struggled to get students to take peer review seriously. I keep hoping that by encouraging them to critique their fellow students chapters they will refine their ability to read their own work critically. In fact, what happens is that the students offer facile and weak reviews of the other chapters, groups flail around in any effort to use these peer reviews to fix their works, and - worst of all - they see no connection between their lack of real effort to peer review and the mediocre quality of peer review. On the flip side, they seem my thorough critiques of their work as revelatory. I need to figure out a way to get the students to peer review better. This will probably involve modeling peer review more seriously for them and making their peer reviews worth more points. 3. Disembodied Voices. The most challenging thing about the room is that the combination of a decentralized arrangement of the classroom and the wireless microphone makes it very difficult to lecture or even instruct for more than 8-10 minutes. While I understand that the room is not designed for this, it nevertheless makes it difficult to even give students instructions for a complex assignment. Students get restless after about 5 minutes of my talking. Similarly, there is no way that student groups can present their work to class using their table microphones. The set up of the microphones ensures that the class activities remain decentralized. There is a final issue that I'm curious to see develop. That is the use of this classroom as a showcase for the university's commitment to innovative teaching. This is great, of course, but right now we have only one Scale-Up room and the work in this room is not representative of either the spaces or the kinds of innovation in teaching across campus. So while [http://und.edu/provost/] it is great to see photograph of the new provost in the Scale-Up room, it is more important for the university to continue to support innovative teaching in all forms across campus. "NewProvost.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/newprovost.jpg]"NewProvost" width="300" height="450" border="0" />

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[http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] For more on my experiences in the Scale-Up room go here.

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This is my 600th Post http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/this-is-my-600th-post/ Thu, 02 May 2013 11:35:57 +0000 Bill Caraher This is my 600th post on my "New" blog. This is the sequel to the [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/] "Old" blog where I posted 859 times. This blog has been seen 67,500 times by folks all over the world. It's nice to know that people find my musings interesting. It's also the last day of classes in the 2012-2013 Academic year. Over this time, I wrote 81,000 words for this blog and 145,000 words for various projects ranging from peer reviewed manuscripts, articles, book reviews, grant proposals, conference papers, reports of various kinds, letters of recommendations, and other odds and ends. [http://www.daytum.com/billcaraher] You can see what I worked on this year here. [http://www.scribd.com/billcaraher] I post some of my writing here. I'm tired.

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Teaching Byzantine History http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/teaching-byzantine-history/ Thu, 02 May 2013 11:39:55 +0000 Bill Caraher I promise that this is not going to become a teaching blog (not that there is anything wrong with that), but I am all excited that I have have agreed to teach an upper level history class for the first time since 2007. As most of you know, I generally teach our historical methods course and History 101: Western Civilization each quarter. Fret not, I am not going to dump one of those classes, but add another course to my plate in the fall to move to a 3-3 teaching load. ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/reflections-on-teachingmore-than-four-classes/] Ive blogged about the advantages of periodically teaching more.) The course will be the History of the Byzantine Empire. We added it to the schedule a bit on the late side, so I have to do a bit of advertising to make sure it enrolls. So I began to think how to advertise a course on the Byzantine Empire. I came up with five clever ways: 1. The Roman Empire II: A Sequel. For the Star Wars fans and the popular enthusiasm for sequels. 2. The Byzantine Empire: Like Larry Potter or the Hobbits. [http://www.academia.edu/2471946/Urban_Legend_Architecture_in_Lord_of_the_Rings] My buddy Kostis Kourelis has already published in this general direction, but I would pitch my class as the study of real life Hogomorth or whatever that place with all the domes is called.3. The Byzantine Empire: A More Western Orient. I could continue to trade on the romance of domed buildings and combine it with mystical Christianity, be-turbaned aristocrats, and a tragic narrative arc to make it a kinder, gentler, more Christian, Orient. 4. The Byzantine Empire: The Other Christians. They arent the Roman Catholics or the Protestants; theyre the other Christians. I only wish I had [http://joeljonientz.com/] the graphic design abilities to produce movie posters for each of these classes. Since I don't, this is how I sold it. "ByzHistoryFlyer.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/byzhistoryflyer.jpg]"ByzHistoryF lyer" width="456" height="600" border="0" /> My flyer played up my reputation for innovative teaching and, in its place, promised the students that I would teach the class in a very traditional way. (In conversation, I've likened it to the teaching equivalent to MTV's unplugged.) I want to ground the class in a series of 15 lectures, discussions primary sources, and formal graded written works produced by single students after careful thought. I want the class to be large (40+), I want it to be challenging to teach, and I want the students to feel that the content and the format put them outside their comfort zone. My hope is teaching a political and religious history of the Byzantine Empire (with some archaeology and culture thrown in) in a rather traditional way will get the students attention. !
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I wonder whether our emphasis on active learning exercises (and Ive been as involved as anyone [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] in various flavors of experimental pedagogy) has paradoxically added life to some of our more traditional practices. Asking students to engage a lecture when more and more of their classes focus on discussion problematizes this form of instruction and encourages the students to develop skills like listening, note taking, and synthesizing lectures with primary and secondary sources. We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck. <

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-60/ Fri, 03 May 2013 13:04:09 +0000 Bill Caraher It's a sunny, but cool spring Friday in North Dakotaland. It is also reading and review day, and this means that I survived yet another semester. It also means that I'm just that much closer to my summer adventures in North Dakota, Greece, and Cyprus, and my summer todo list. These are all fun and exciting things. So, while I try to balance my fatigue and excitement, I'll pass on a little list of quick hits and varia to get the end of your week going right. But, wait, before I start my weekly list, I need to include a brief advertisement. Fellow digital adventurer, Joel Jonientz, has launched his first Kickstarter campaign yesterday. Joel is a professor in the department of art and design and I've linked to his amazing blog more than a few times (he also designed the fantastic Punk Archaeology poster). He is using Kickstarter to raise money for a fantastic student project. They are designing a video game that infuses old school gameplay with artistic and musical sensibilities. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] It's called Rhythm Planet and you should definitely support it and get everyone in your social network to support it. You'll definitely hear more about it. "RPlogosm.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rplogosm.jpg]"RPlogosm" width="500" height="518" border="0" /> Ok, now back to your regularly scheduled quick hits and varia: [http://traffickingculture.org/data/looting-at-apamea-recorded-via-google-earth/] This before and after image of the looting around the site of Apamea in Sypria is insane. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317119/Machu-Picchu-Stonehenge-Worldsincredible-ancient-ruins-seen-space.html] Archaeological sites from the air. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/collections/p018818x/archaeology-at-the-bbc] These are some amazing tv programs from the 1950s and 1960s on the BBC. Many of them feature archaeological luminary Mortimer Wheeler. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/28/qatar-returns-statues-greece-nudity] Qatar was offended by the nudity of Greek statues. [http://www.buzzfeed.com/summeranne/a-devout-cat-lives-at-the-hagia-sophia-inistanbul] The cat at Hagia Sophia. [http://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/group-has-wild-trek-acrossbadlands/article_fe71c076-b3b1-11e2-b062-001a4bcf887a.html] The team reports after the 100 Miles of Wild Adventure.

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 [http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uoia-tro041113.php] I bet this study on sexual harassment among students doing anthropological fieldwork could be replicated among archaeologists. [http://www.geographer.gr/ci/index.php/hatt/] This is the ultimate tool for converting HATT (the Greek projection) to a system compatible with Google Maps. [http://www.asor.org/foa/ane-today.html] Check out ASOR's new email newsletter The Ancient Near East Today. [http://www.sah.org/conferences-and-programs/2014-conference---austin/programpaper-sessions] The Society of Architectural Historian's call for papers. [http://www.pewforum.org/Muslim/the-worlds-muslims-religion-politics-societyinfographic.aspx] A Pew Survey focusing on the beliefs and attitudes of the world's Muslim population. [http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/usgs-releases-new-oil-and-gasassessment-for-bakken-and-three-forks-formations/?from=title] Fear not, it seems like North Dakota has more oil than anyone expected. [http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html] As the web turns 20 years old today, we should all admire the first website. [http://www.subversivefestival.com/newsiteml/3/148/en/the-6th-subversive-festivalthe-utopia-of-democracy] The Subversive Festival! [http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/florentijn-hofman-hong-kong-rubberduck] A massive, awesome rubber duck. [http://www.dietmareckell.com/?splash=1] This guy's photographs are awesomely archaeological. Check out all the galleries. [http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/1/4279674/im-still-here-back-online-after-a-yearwithout-the-internet] Reflections on a year without the internet. [http://chronicle.com/article/The-Document-an-Open-Letter/138937/] A spirited critique of the spread of for credit MOOCs and [http://derekbruff.org/?p=2579] some interesting thoughts on why MOOCs have not been adopted by the Digital Humanities project. [http://networkawesome.com/special/women-punk/] Women of Punk. [http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/2013/04/cheating-to-learn-how-a-ucla-professorgamed-a-game-theorymidterm?fb_action_ids=10101842552591732&amp;fb_action_types=og.likes&amp;fb_ref=. UX3MV0nqbpI.send&amp;fb_source=other_multiline&amp;action_object_map=%5B6413 82845878594%5D&amp;action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&amp;action_ref_ma p=%5B%22.UX3MV0nqbpI.send%22%5D] A clever pedagogical ploy (although I am not sure that I completely understand what he was really truing to accomplish).

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 [http://lifehacker.com/the-complete-guide-to-procrastinating-at-work-477166257] I meant to post this earlier. What I'm reading: D. Katz, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/solid-foundation-an-oralhistory-of-reggae/oclc/51652943] Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae. (2003). (What I should be reading: B.D. Weaver, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/oilfield-trash-lifeand-labor-in-the-oil-patch/oclc/502304568] OilField Trash: Life and Labor in the Oil Patch. (College Station 2010). What I'm listening to: The Men, New Moon; Big Scary, Vacation; Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Mosquito."offtheRails.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/offtherails.jpg]"OfftheRails" width="441" height="600" border="0" />

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Field Finds http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/field-finds/ Sun, 05 May 2013 20:28:48 +0000 Bill Caraher The snow is finally gone leaving behind all sort of finds. "FootballBW.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/footballbw.jpg]"FootballBW"]

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The Greek Orthodox Church in Grand Forks http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-greek-orthodox-church-ingrand-forks/ Mon, 06 May 2013 12:01:36 +0000 Bill Caraher Since this is the Monday after Easter for my Greek Orthodox friends, I thought it was a good time to post something on the Greek Orthodox church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. One of the first things that I noticed when I got to know something about the community here in Grand Forks was the conspicuous absence of any substantial Greek population. There was no Greek church (or any kind of Orthodox congregation) and no obvious Greek names in community lore (and no Greek restaurants, businesses, or organizations). Despite the far reach of the Greek immigrant community, Grand Forks appeared to be one of the few places that did not attract a Greek population. The agricultural economy of the region, the absence of manufactory and extractive industries, and the inhospitable climate probably could explain the absence of substantial Greek community (although one does exist in larger communities in the region like Winnipeg to the north and Duluth to the east and a church dedicated to [http://oca.org/parishes/oca-mwminspa] St. Peter the Aluet serves the Greek community (as well as others) in Minot to the west.). It is worth noting, however, that the state did see [http://www.worldcat.org/title/prairie-peddlers-the-syrian-lebanese-in-northdakota/oclc/49757933] Syrian, Lebanese, and Jewish communities around the turn of the century. Moreover, a little digging in [http://library.und.edu/special-collections/] the archives at the University of North Dakota by [http://civilwarhistory.wordpress.com/staff/dsauerwein/] Daniel Sauerwein, indicated that a Greek community did exist in town, even though few traces remain. In the process of researching for a book, Daniel found a few images of the Greek church. The church was apparently moved to the corner of 4th Avenue and Walnut St. in 1958 and it functioned until 1990. We're pretty sure that this is an image of the building's interior. "GOCInterior.jpeg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gocinterior.jpeg]"GOCInterior" width="450" height="365" border="0" /> The building itself was wood-framed, as one might expect, and modest in size and adornment. It is difficult to know for certain whether the Greek Orthodox community built the church new or moved into a structure built for another congregation. The absence of a steeple suggests that it might have been build for the Orthodox congregation. The church stood in the neighborhood known as Churchville and was immediately adjacent to the much more imposing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Lutheran_Church_(Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota)] United Lutheran Church and nearby [http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/uw&amp; !
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CISOPTR=2901&amp;CISOBOX=1&amp;REC=9] the Beaux Arts (with more than a few hints of Byzantine influence) Christian Science Church. My guess is that this little church served the entire Orthodox community in the area. "GOCExterior1.jpeg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gocexterior1.jpeg]"GOCExterior 1" width="450" height="297" border="0" /> "GOCExterior2.jpeg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gocexterior2.jpeg]"GOCExterior 2" width="450" height="289" border="0" /> I am sure some members of the community can add to what we know about this building and it congregation (since we know next to nothing!). I have to think that some of the reason that we know so little about this church and its community is that the building has vanished. <p style="text-align:left;] <span style="text-align:center;] So, if you can add more to the story, leave a comment or [https://twitter.com/BillCaraher] hit me with a tweet. Thanks to Daniel Sauerwein for keeping his eyes peeled for information on this little community and their church! (And you'll be hearing more about Daniel's researches in the fall, so stay tuned!)</span>

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A Working Paper on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/a-working-paper-on-teachinghistory-in-a-scale-up-classroom/ Tue, 07 May 2013 11:24:20 +0000 Bill Caraher As most of you probably know, I've been teaching my 100-level history class in the University of North Dakota's fancy Scale-Up classroom this semester. As part of that project, I made my teaching journal public [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] here on the blog. From those reflections, I've put together a working draft of an article that tries to briefly locate Scale-Up teaching in the larger context of teaching history at the university, outlines in a more systematic way my classroom techniques, and identifies certain key challenges that we faced teaching in this room. There's a reflective conclusion that considers how shifting the educational paradigm from teaching-centered to student-centered embraces trends present in the development of online teaching and Late Capitalism. I've included some of my basic lesson plans as an appendix and paired them with my reflective blog posts from throughout the semester. As always, I'm keen for conversation and feedback. [scribd id=139921488 key=key-nw02ge17kau13cff3jz mode=scroll]

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Abandonment http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/abandonment/ Tue, 07 May 2013 17:57:40 +0000 Bill Caraher I've talked a good bit about about abandonment on this blog "Abandonment1.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/abandonment1.jpg]"Abandonme nt1" "Abandonment2.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/abandonment2.jpg]"Abandonme nt2"] "Abandonment3.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/abandonment3.jpg]"Abandonme nt3"]

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Rhythm Planet: A crowd-funded, student-developed video game at the University of North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/rhythm-planet-a-crowd-fundedstudent-developed-video-game-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/ Wed, 08 May 2013 12:13:28 +0000 Bill Caraher This week [http://joeljonientz.com/] Joel Jonientz, a colleague of mine from the Department of Art and Design, rolled out one of the coolest projects that I've seen from our humble little campus here in The Grand Forks. He has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the completion of Rhythm Planet, his student-developed video game. He is looking for $31,700 to complete the game and all of this money (minus Kickstarter's fees) will go to paying students to produce the game and contributor rewards. [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1417] Joel is blogging about the Kickstarter process at his blog. In short, the way it works is that Joel and his students get nothing unless the project meets its goal. That means, you will not get charged unless the project raises $31,700. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>Before you read any more of this post, go and support this project on Kickstarter</strong>. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] "KickstarterRhythmPlanet.jpeg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kickstarterrhythmplanet.jpeg]"Ki ckstarterRhythmPlanet" width="500" height="456" border="0" /> [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>Now that you've supported the project, keep reading</strong>. The project is cool for many reasons. First, Joel has been a staunch supporter of my little adventures, so there is a kind of reciprocity here. He designed the amazing Punk Archaeology poster and will hopefully accompany my team West to Williston this August as part of the North Dakota Man Camp Project. That's the not the main reason the project is cool, though. I am fascinated with what I call (to myself) "the project-focused classroom" and Joel created a class that developed the first draft of a video game. I am equally fascinated with the idea that a class can begin something that then gets crowd-funded. The comforting classroom environment moves seamlessly into the world of entrepreneurship, marketing, and real deadlines. We have entered the age of crowd-funded higher education. I keep envisioning a MOOC (Massive, Open, Online Class) that is made up of interested students who are also the investors in a project. The scale of some recent MOOCs, which can run to the tens of thousands of participants, would mean that individual investments could be tiny (&lt;$5) for the project director (previously known as the instructor) to raise a significant amount of capital. When the project is complete, participants would become either shareholders or simply receive a copy of the final product. The curriculum of the course would lead the !

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group from conceptualization to completion over a course of 3 months. Imagine a magazine crowdsourced, crowd-funded, and published in this way? "RP2a.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/rp2a.jpg]"RP2a" width="500" height="518" border="0" /> Enough of my indulgent fantasies of egalitarian, crowd-sourced utopias. To support his amazing Kickstarter project, I sat down with Joel (over email, of course) and discussed his Rhythm Planet. This is part one of the interview: [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>WAIT. Before reading any further, please support this project on Kickstarter. Then proceed to the interview.</strong> Bill Caraher: Can you explain the origins of this project? Joel Jonientz: When I first arrived at the University of North Dakota, I was encouraged to remake the Time-Based Media program to better reflect student interests and bring the curriculum forward into the 21st century. Part of that process involved listening and responding to student needs, and one of the things students asked for again and again was a class in game design. This was right around the time I became involved with the Working Group in Digital and New Media. The group had acquired a space on campus and some very specialized equipment that would allow for a diverse group of students and faculty to collaborate on multimodal projects such as a video game. I approached the students who had shown interest game development and with them began to recruit other students to the project that would become Rhythm Planet. Once we had about a dozen students with the skill sets we were looking for, it was simply a matter of fitting the project into my teaching load by creating a special topics course so that they could earn credits for what would be a semester of experiential learning. At the time we began, I had no idea what we could accomplish, and I did not envision that we would create a game that would still be in development three years later. "Zone2.1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/zone21.jpg]"Zone2 1" width="500" height="276" border="0" /> BC: How did the Working Group in Digital and New Media serve as a catalyst for this project? JJ: When we first envisioned the Working Group, it was as a space in which faculty and students could collaborate on research projects that pushed the boundaries of traditional classroom instruction. Because of the interdisciplinary makeup of the Working Group, I was able to reach out to students who I otherwise would not have known and involve them in the development of Rhythm Planet. The Working Groups Laboratory Space was instrumental in games development in the way the team was able to work together. All of the sound and visual assets in the game were created in the lab and the space made it possible for the students to meet, test, and make changes to the game in real time. BC: So did the physical space of the Working Group lab help the team collaborate to create the first iteration of this game?

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JJ: Working collaboratively is always challenging. The key to developing Rhythm Planet was enabling honest dialogue between groups and avoiding distraction. Each week, we would meet as a large group discuss timelines and then split into three separate teams. One group worked on the gaming engine and programming. The second group created visual assets and character animations. The final group created the soundtrack. For the most part, the students in the first cohort were self-starters. There were multiple points in the process where one teams mission became subservient to another. The programmers could not begin working out the game engine without assets from the artists, who in turn could not build out the zones without the puzzles from the level designers etc. The worst thing that could have happened during the process would have been one group sitting around waiting on another. Down time is the enemy of a good working environment. BC: It seems like you had a pretty impressive workflow at play from the start. Are there any lessons we can all learn about teaching from the game design process? It seems like this game project illustrates some of the limits of the single class or even course based design model. You needed more time. JJ: Because I had never created a game before, I was often forced into a position where I had to answer a question with I dont know. As a young professor this sentence had not previously been one I was used to uttering. I am in many ways being paid for my expertise and not knowing was an aspect of teaching I was uncomfortable with. In this particular case, I was wholly unprepared for most of the questions being asked of me and so I was forced to admit my ignorance on the subject. What developed out of this was a transparency in the learning process that I had not encountered before in my own teaching. When confronted with a question I made not knowing a teachable experience. Lets learn this together, and Here is how I would go about finding the answer, became phrases I uttered daily and continue to use in my teaching today. There is no shame in not knowing a thing and virtue in making your research process transparent. This is the lesson I took from the process. BC: What will the Kickstarter fund? How will the final product be better than the existing game? What can players expect in the later levels? JJ: The Kickstarter campaign will fund the completion of the game. Rhythm Planet as it exists today is a collection assets waiting to be made whole. Throughout its development, we have been able to put enough pieces together to test the concept and play a level or two, but we want to get to the point in which we could send the entire game out for a beta test. This Kickstarter will allow us to put together the first three zones totaling fifteen levels. The number of assets we have created through the three iterations of the gaming class would allow us to double the games size over time, but for now we have set our sites on finishing the work of the original group. "Zone1.1_bkg 2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/zone11_bkg-2.jpg]"Zone1 1 bkg 2" width="450" height="219" border="0" /> [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>Have you supported this project on Kickstarter, yet? Have you decided to be part of the future?</strong>

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More on Rhythm Planet: A Crowd-Funded, Student-Developed Video Game http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/more-on-rhythm-planet-a-crowdfunded-student-developed-video-game/ Thu, 09 May 2013 11:36:21 +0000 Bill Caraher As I noted yesterday, my talented colleague Joel Jonientz, from the University of North Dakota's Department of Art and Design, is crowd-funding his student-developed video game on Kickstarter. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-astudent-developed-video-game] Before you read any further, go check it out here (and that means clicking on the link). [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] "KickstarterRhythmPlanet.jpeg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/kickstarterrhythmplanet1.jpeg]" KickstarterRhythmPlanet" width="450" height="411" border="0" /> [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/rhythm-planet-a-crowd-fundedstudent-developed-video-game-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/] Yesterday, I mused how using Kickstarter to fund a student project brings a new dimension to how technologies like crowd-funding is expanding how we might understand student engagement in their academic programs. Seeking crowd-funding for a project breaks down the barriers between what happens in the classroom and the larger community of interested onlookers in a way similar to how MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) have expanded the audience for parts of the academic curriculum. Today, in the second part of my interview with Joel, we talk more about the potential overlap between Kickstarters and MOOCs, discuss video games as art, and reflect on how a video game about mining might be particularly relevant on a state enjoying an oil boom.

"karlatron_walk _colored.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/karlatron_walk_colored1.jpg]"Karlatron walk colored" width="450" height="124" border="0" /> Bill Caraher: Im interested in process and some of the most exciting Kickstarters invite their investors to be part of the process even to the extent of influencing the final product. Will investors get to see how this project takes place? Joel Jonientz: We have created several reward levels that would allow supporters to influence the game. We have a level that allows for designing characters and one that asks investors to envision their own level design. If the project is successfully funded we plan to create a web space where our backers can view the projects process and help with the beta testing prior to release.

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"KarlandJr.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/karlandjr1.jpg]"KarlandJr" width="450" height="326" border="0" /> BC: Why is a professor of Art and Design the lead on this project? Is this a typical situation? JJ: Many of the students involved had been interested in gaming, but had not wanted a computer science degree so had begun taking animation classes. UND does not have a formal game design program. There are a large number of students who are interested in gaming as a career path and at the time I suppose I looked like the most willing candidate to teach the class. I am not sure if this is a typical situation. I was asked by a group of students if I would help them make a game and I said yes. There have been days when I have regretted that answer, but not many. "Karl and Karl Jr.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/karl-andkarl-jr1.jpg]"Karl and Karl Jr" width="454" height="600" border="0" /> BC: Has your position as a professor of art and design brought particular artistic influences to the game? What are they? JJ: I would say that film, has probably had more of an influence than art on the gaming world. Many of the gaming titles being produced today are beautiful, absorbing near cinematic experiences. Artists have begun to play with elements of the gaming world, and commercial animation has certainly influenced the look of games, but the fine arts have not yet begun to influence gaming in my opinion. "karlconceptart1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/karlconceptart1.jpg]"Karlconcept art1" width="432" height="600" border="0" /> BC: To my mind, the game has a cool vintage video game feel to it. Can you talk about how the aesthetic, music, and game play came together? You mention in the Kickstarter page Looney Toons of the 1950s, but are there other influences? The entire game seems nostalgic for what we experienced in our youth in the 1970s and 1980s, but this is a good bit before most of ours students were born. How can we understand this nostalgic aesthetic? JJ: Early on in the games development, I realized that the students in the art group were not really ready to lead the process. This was a painful realization for me because up until that point I had envisioned my role in the project as mostly one of coordination. After we were forced abandoned several visual concepts the art students had developed (I believe the phrase this art sucks was used during one team meeting). I stepped in and acted as visual lead. All of the visual style seems nostalgic and of our youth in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily because I drove visual aesthetic in that direction. This is not to say that the students were not capable of creating the assets. They just needed to learn how to direct their skills. So the process became that I would design and create a key level for each zone that they would then dissect and use to inform the creation of the levels they were assigned. Once the visuals had been established, I believe the other groups were influenced by the retro look until it had overwhelmed the game design process.

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"karljumpingovermountain color.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/karljumpingovermountaincolor.jpg]"Karljumpingovermountain color" width="420" height="600" border="0" /> BC: [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] Im a bit obsessed (like many here in North Dakota) with the Bakken Oil Boom. I kept imagining that the theme of mining would resonate with recent activities in North Dakota? JJ: The majority of the students who have worked on the game are native to North Dakota and the recent oil boom may well have influenced them. In the early days of game development, I put a sole constraint on the games theme and that was that the finished project needed to playable in front of my Grandmother at Thanksgiving Dinner. So, there was to be no theft or murder and no gunplay of any kind. This meant that the game had to be rated G. This as much as anything pushed the game towards mining and beat the clock type puzzles. Of course my Grandma is dead, but they didnt know that at the time. BC: Ok, one more question. I cant help feeling like this Kickstarter project has the potential to intersect with recent interest in MOOCs (Massive Open Online Classes). While only a small group of students will be working on this project, a larger team of investors will be behind it and in their own way participating in the teams success. Does doing this project give you any ideas about how you might organize classes in the future? JJ: There have been several projects in the animation community that utilize a large collective of artists to create a film or television segments. Bill Plymptons Guard Dog Global Jam, comes to mind, but none that have tapped into the MOOC movement. Crowd funding as a model for creative development is in itself a fascinating phenomenon. One of the outcomes of the project for me personally is that I am trying to write about the experience as it is happening in posts on my website. The whole Kickstarter movement is so new that it is hard to find much that has been written about it beyond what the site itself has put out. So I am pursuing that in the process. I have now organized and taught three separate gaming courses each more focused than the one that came before it, but I think that if I ever endeavor to do this again I would throw out everything I know about how I think a game should be created and let the students drive the engine until they need guidance. That was my first experience in game creation and to this point it still continues to be the best. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>Now, go and give a $20 to Joel's sweet, sweet video game and get stickers.</strong> "MMcorps.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/mmcorps.jpg]"MMcorps" width="500" height="478" border="0" />

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-30/ Fri, 10 May 2013 11:50:04 +0000 Bill Caraher It's another bright, beautiful, and cool morning here in North Dakotaland. The last final exams are done and the stacks of grading grow smaller which each passing day. The long spring and summer days in the town of Grand Forks will be quieter now. So as we begin our new summer routines, it seems like a good time for some quick hits and varia. But, before you go any further, [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>go and check out Joel Jonientz's Kickstarter to fund the completion of his student-developed video game</strong> (and read an interview with him [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/08/rhythm-planet-a-crowd-fundedstudent-developed-video-game-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/more-on-rhythm-planet-a-crowdfunded-student-developed-video-game/] here). It's over 20% funded and I have it on good authority that it will be awesome. [http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/press/exh/3514.html] Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections in Washington, D.C. this fall. [http://aarome.org/news/features/steven-ellis-looks-at-the-history-of-the-roman-retailindustry-in-pompeii] Steven Ellis talks about retail space in the Roman world in an interview with the good folks at the American Academy in Rome. [http://www.mgh.de/dmgh/] The Monumenta Germaniae Historica is now available online and free. [http://www.mgh.de/dmgh/] Some great photos of the rock-hewn churches in Lalibela, Ethiopia on Good Friday (last week). [http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/the-cost-of-turning-turkeys-oldchurches-and-museums-back-into-mosques/] Some interested goings on around the Byzantine monuments of Turkey. [https://soundcloud.com/sue-alcock/secret-sound-1] You can compare Sue Alcock's trench sounds with [http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/PodCasts/Voices_of_Archaeology/Trench _Sounds.mp3] my original trench sounds. [http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/05/thorncrown-chapel-under-threat] Thorncrown Chapel, one of my favorite buildings, is under threat. [http://geoguessr.com/] This game is really fun.

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 [http://features.slashdot.org/story/13/05/07/2017203/interview-john-mcafee-answersyour-questions] John McAfee interviews are always guaranteed to bewilder and amuse. [http://features.slashdot.org/story/13/05/07/2017203/interview-john-mcafee-answersyour-questions] Richard Rothaus and Andrew and Andrew Reinhard talk about their 100 Miles of Wild in the North Dakota Badlands on Prairie Public Radio's Main Street. [http://chronicle.com/article/The-Memo-American-Us/139137/] American University is rethinking MOOCs. [http://www.albrightknox.org/education/artist-in-residence-program/dennis-maher] The House of Collective Repair. [http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/kareem-things-i-wish-i-knew] Life lessons from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. [http://stats.espncricinfo.com/indian-premier-league2013/engine/records/batting/most_runs_career.html?id=7720;type=tournament] Michael Hussey has the Orange Cap in the Indian Premier League. [http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20061117/LIFE/611170324/F-Scott-ZeldaFitzgerald] Some notes on F. Scott Fitzgerald's stay in Wilmington, Delaware. [http://www.businessinsider.com/the-further-you-are-from-north-dakotas-bakken-oilthe-poorer-youre-likely-to-be-2013-5] The closer you live to the Bakken the more money you make, and [http://deadspin.com/infographic-is-your-states-highest-paid-employee-aco-489635228] this is especially true if you're the Dean of the Medical School at UND. What I'm reading: 18 chapters from the textbook written by my [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] Scale-Up History 101 class, PKAP Survey Data, and [https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/issue/current] various recent articles in the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology. What I'm listening to: Mikal Cronin, MCII; Pete Murray, Feeler."Morninghasbroken.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/morninghasbroken.jpg]"Morning hasbroken"]

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Discard http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/11/discard/ Sat, 11 May 2013 16:16:25 +0000 Bill Caraher This weekend is the annual "spring cleaning pick-up" weekend in Grand Forks. Residents of the community can discard anything they want at the curb. This creates some interesting assemblages. Local junk collectors roam the streets before the official pick up occurs gleaning interesting or valuable objects. Here's one in my neighborhood. The first photo is when it was initial set out and the second was at noon the next day. "Discard1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/discard1.jpg]"Discard1" "Discard2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/discard2.jpg]"Discard2" Next year, I think I'll organize a group of students to comb the streets and photograph these discard piles. This should tell us something about various domestic habits (what kinds of goods fall outside of traditional discard practices), consumer practices, and recycling.

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Some New Views of Mediterranean Landscapes http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/some-new-views-ofmediterranean-landscapes/ Mon, 13 May 2013 14:21:19 +0000 Bill Caraher [https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/issue/current] This month's Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology has two interesting articles on Mediterranean Landscapes. The first is by Michael Given. It continues a trend urging survey archaeologists to look beyond the dots on the map. Weaving recent work on agency with perspectives drawn from phenomenology, Given urges survey archaeologists to look up from their carefully measured transects and settlement maps to consider the human scale of the landscape. The social experience of walking between activity areas, the aural landscapes, and the smells. For Given, the experience of the landscape represents the interaction between natural and manmade objects and people. It extends from the people and objects from centuries earlier to the boots and studied gaze of the archaeologist. He reframes the term commotion to mean the collaborative movement of people and objects to create a dynamic landscape. Our archaeological interpretation of the landscape is simply another form of a continuous commotion that creates meaning landscapes. Archaeologists have increasingly come to recognize the symmetry between objects and people in defining the interpretative space of our discipline. The agency of the unformed clay, tools, and the potters hands collaborate in the production of a ceramic pot. The pot contributes to the social rituals of its community (conviviality, in Given's terms)) because like the space of a home or church - the pot influences and structures the kinds of interaction possible at any given moment (no pun intended). When the pot no long functions (or dwells?) in its "primary context" and becomes part of another community associated with discard, it continues to interact with its surroundings. Given notes that farmers recognize sherds in the field and see these objects as markers of space and, in that regard, the sherds of the pot collaborates in the extension of the convivial moment. (On a recent AIA lecture series stop, a farmer who was donating his collection of projectile points to a local college remarked that before no-till farming and the adoption of moldboards it was common to see all manner of projectile points turned up and to become familiar with these objects.) Given frames the emergence of a symmetrical archaeology of landscape as the next step in Mediterranean survey archaeology. It remains difficult, however, to understand exactly how archaeologists can apply these kinds of interpretations to the extensive and complex assemblages produced by our currently intensive method. On the one hand, the tools that contemporary archaeologists use exist in a complex mesh of relationships that include the archaeologists, the remains of the past, and the local environments (from the storeroom to the survey unit). On the other hand, re-imagining the complex "formation processes" that create the "commotive" landscape seems like a tall task. C. Papadopoulos's article in the same volume looks at human intervention in the abandonment and post-abandonment history of a modern Cretan village. Papadopoulos

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documents the various processes that occurred over the post-abandonment life of a Cretan village. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/a-working-paper-onlakka-skoutara-in-the-corinthia/] David Pettegrew and I have worked on a similar study for the settlement of Lakka Skoutara in the Corinthia. Among the interesting observations offered by Papadopoulos is that at his site, tiles were not systematically recycled but doors and door frames were taken, presumably for the wood as well as for their "vintage" appearance. One particular interesting episode of recycling involved a pair of monks who scavenged wood from support beams for icons because its old and distressed appearance would add a patina of age and authenticity to the icons and allowing the monks to sell them for a higher price. Papadopoulos also treats the various household item that were absent or left behind by considering the economic and social processes that create the assemblages visible to archaeological inquiry. Unlike Given's work, Papadopoulos's work is grounded in processual archaeology and M. Schiffer's description of site formations processes. Adapted to the specific case of a Cretan village demonstrates the range of impacts that human aspect of site formation has on these processes. It is worth noting that Papadopoulos and his team who documented the site took particular care not to interfere with ongoing site formation processes. Between site formation studies and an expanded understanding of the role of objects and agency in the production of landscapes, intensive pedestrian survey continues to undergo a significant shift in how we interpret artifact assemblages. Far from being the persistent palimpsest of past settlement, artifact assemblages now represent a diachronic range of both human and non-human activities among which the archaeological intervention is simply the most recent episode.

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North Dakota Man Camps in a Comparative Context http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/north-dakota-man-camps-in-acomparative-context/ Tue, 14 May 2013 12:01:46 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the last month I've made my way through [http://www.worldcat.org/title/oilfieldtrash-life-and-labor-in-the-oil-patch/oclc/502304568] Bobby Weaver's newest book on the Texas Oil Boom of the first half of the 20th century. It is an engaging read. More interesting for my research though is his brief discussion of the arrival of corporate man-camps in the East Texas book of 1930-1935. He describes the strategy of the Humble Oil Company (which eventually merged with Standard Oil of New Jersey to become Exxon). Humble built a town of 4 and 5 bedroom houses for their salaried employees to induce them to bring their families and make a home in the oil patch. These houses had water and electricity and other amenities. For hourly employees of significant value they prepared a series of lots with water, sanitation and power and invited them to move or building houses on these lots for a modest monthly rent. Workers not fortunate enough to find lodging in Humble's [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-northdakota-work-camps-1/] Type 1 or [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-2/] Type 2 camps made do. They lived "poor boy" camps which were sometimes nothing more than tents in a field or a windbreak. These larger camps which have nice parallels with our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-ofnorth-dakota-work-camps-3/] Type 3 camps sometimes swelled to over 100 residents. Weaver describes one such camp on the outskirts of Kilgore, Texas in a place called "Happy Hollow" which would grow to close to 300 residents. From time to time the police would break up the camp - just as they presumably do to Type 3 camps in the Bakken - but the camp would reliably reappear throughout the duration of the boom. I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Tristan Brusl at the Centre d'tudes Himalayennes who does research on the situation surrounding Nepalese in Qatar (and elsewhere). [http://samaj.revues.org/3446] In a recent article in the South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, he described life in the labor camps associated with this booming Persian Gulf state as a "life of exception" following [http://www.worldcat.org/title/homo-sacer-sovereign-power-and-bare-life/oclc/37457953] Giorgio Agamben's development of this concept in his Homo Sacer. Agamben concludes his study of "the state of except" with a short discussion of mid-century concentration camps. Without simplifying a rich and complex article, Brusl emphasized how Nepalese migrants were held apart from mainstream society in Qatar through the location of the camps, the conditions of the facilities, and laws and customs that prevented the immigrant workers from accessing most parts of Qatari society. While Brusl does little to explore the Qatari justification for these policies, he notes that while in the camps the Nepalese experience a leveling of social distinctions present in Nepal and a general sense of being trapped, jailed, and dehumanized. The camps described by Brusl have parallels with our Type 1 camps, but seem to allow for greater personalization of space and often house !
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workers for longer periods than the short term labor force accommodated by Type 1 camps in the Bakken. [http://wes.sagepub.com/content/21/1/27] In a 2007 article in Work, Employment, and Society, Pun Ngai and Chris Smith studied dormitory labor in China and understand this regime as the intersection of larger transnational labor process with local practices. In doing so they distinguish dormitory labor practices from earlier models of Fordism which emphasized the paternal role of the corporation and draw upon David Harvey's (and others) view of global capital as radically disruptive to both time and space. They summarize a key argument from [http://www.worldcat.org/title/spaces-of-capital-towards-a-criticalgeography/oclc/46959535] Harvey's Spaces of Capital in a particular useful way: "Analysis of the spatiality of transnational political economy highlights a fundamental paradox central to global capital: that the imperative of capital flight the deterritorization of production on a global scale means nevertheless that workplaces require provisional setting within specific locales to ensure that surpluses are expropriated within a given timeframe (Harvey, 2001)" Despite Ngai's and Smith's emphasis on the local influence of practices like dormitory labor, it is hard not to see the parallel with workforce housing in the Bakken which shares some aspects of the Just-in-Time labor practices common to the textile industry supported by the Chinese dormitory regime. Having space to accommodate additional labor or - in some cases - access to surplus labor stored in camps allows companies to accommodate the fluctuations in the global oil market and local production. None of these circumstances are a direct parallel for what is going on in the Bakken, but they all provide points of comparative reference that will enrich the significance of our final analysis. Moreover, the remind people in North Dakota that what is going on here really is as much about global forms of labor organization as it is the situation in local communities.

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My Summer Adventures http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/pkap-preparations/ Wed, 15 May 2013 12:33:57 +0000 Bill Caraher As the semester comes to a close, I am getting started in my preparations for my summer fieldwork. This summer I'll spend time at Pyla-Koutsopetria near Laranka on Cyprus, and Polis, near Paphos before heading to the Argolid for five days or so at the end of the my season. For some of the first steps in preparation see my co-director at PKAP, [http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/] Scott Moore's blog. In the meantime, life has been hectic. The great thing about my life right now is that almost everything going on is fun and interesting. Here's my summer set list: 1. Submit PKAP survey data for peer reviewed publication on [http://opencontext.org/] Open Context. 2. Complete revisions on a submitted and accepted paper titled [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/patronage-and-reception-in-themonumental-architecture-of-early-christian-greece/] "Patronage and Reception in the Monumental Architecture of Early Christian Greece". 3. Complete revision on a working paper from [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] our work in the Bakken. 4. Complete revisions on the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punkarchaeology/] Punk Archaeology conference and blog publication with Kostis Kourelis and the super-efficient Andrew Reinhard. 5. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/a-review-of-metaponto-4/] Finish my revisions and submit my review of Metaponto 4. 6. Return to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/a-working-paper-onteaching-history-in-a-scale-up-classroom/] my working paper on teaching history in a ScaleUp Classroom. 7. Prepare a draft of our conclusions from [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/] 5 seasons of work at the Early Christian basilica at the site of E.F2 at Polis-Chrysochous. 8. Prepare a draft of an essay on the archaeology of the Corinthian countryside for the Hesperia reprint series. 9. Complete a blog post on using iPad's in the field for [http://asorblog.org/] the ASOR blog. 10. Spread mulch.

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There are a few other exciting and still secret projects percolating through the cracks including another volume in the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/new-idea-grand-forkscommunity-history-project/] Grand Forks Neighborhood History Series.

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The Digital Divide http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/the-digital-divide/ Thu, 16 May 2013 12:30:17 +0000 Bill Caraher Today I'm heading out west again to do some scouting work for our summer field season(s) in the Bakken. One of the kinks that we're still working out is how to get as many of our research team to use our project's Geographic Information System database. Our GIS maps allow us to identify the camp where we're working and ties together our photographs, interviews, and descriptions. "Camps.jpg]"Camps" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/camps.jpg" width="450" height="227" border="0" /> I'm pretty comfortable with various GIS environments ranging from ESRI's ArcGIS to QGIS and even Google Earth. It is easy enough to run our GIS on my iPhone using Google Earth, ESRI's little iPhone Application, or any number of other spatial data viewers available generally for free. My collaborators are not. This introduces an interesting challenge. This May there will be a study season that my codirector will supervise. It will focus on collection some quantitative data based on a survey. He'll be accompanied by some students, an interviewer, and one of our collaborating photographers Kyle Cassidy. What do we do if the director and the team are not comfortable with our basic GIS applications? We can use paper maps, of course, so there is a low tech solution, but this involves a separate step in producing media for the May field team and we'll have to reintegrate their paper map data into the team GIS. None of this is insurmountable, but it definitely caught me off guard. There is a tendency to imagine that scholars have largely bridged the digital divide in the research world. Because basic digital research tools are easily accessible, developers have produced straightforward interfaces for even relatively complex software, and free, open source, or low cost options are available for most commercial software, we tend to imagine a kind of techno-democracy where almost everyone can do basic digital work. The realities are more complex and remind me that people are at least as important as technology in making a project work.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/17/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-61/ Fri, 17 May 2013 11:17:22 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm off traveling in the Bakken Oil Patch today avoiding my usual frenzy of activity immediately before I head to Cyprus for my field season. I'm hoping that we have lovely weather and see new and interesting way that people have adapted to live and work in the oil patch. "WhiteEarthND.jpg]"WhiteEarthND" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/whiteearthnd.jpg" width="450" height="98" border="0" /> Since I'm off having adventures, I feel obligated to keep my loyal blog readers at least somewhat entertained. [http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003349] Yersinia pestis is the 6th century Justinianic plague. [http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/05/2013/uruk-rises-again-in-digital3d] 3D Uruk. [http://vimeo.com/album/2292509] Videos created by the Byzantine Institute in the 1930s and curated by Dumbarton Oaks. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/sunday-review/alice-e-kober-43-lost-to-history-nomore.html] Alice E. Kober's contribution to the decipherment of Linear B. [http://ed.ted.com/lessons/four-sisters-in-ancient-rome-ray-laurence] A cool TED talk on Roman Women by Ray Laurence. [http://www.humansofnewyork.com/tagged/iran] Humans of New York goes to Iran. [http://petapixel.com/2013/05/12/photo-seriesvisits-abandoned-star-wars-film-sets-in-the-deserts-of-north-africa/] Some Star Wars themed abandonment porn. [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog/sahblog/2013/05/15/john-jager-unknown-prairie-architect-in-minnesota.-part-1] Rothaus on the Society of Architectural Historian's blog. [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1445] Five things you should know before starting a Kickstarter project ( [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1287760287/rhythm-planet-a-student-developedvideo-game] <strong>like this one</strong>)! [http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/this-is-most-detailed-picture-internet-ever] A very detailed map of the internet. [http://alioutfit.tumblr.com/] What Ali Wore. Perhaps the most over-posted, over-tweeted video on the internets right now: [http://vimeo.com/65576562] David Foster Wallace's commencement address at Kenyon College 2005, "This is Water". What I'm reading: Tim Ingold, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/being-alive-essays-on-movement-knowledge-anddescription/oclc/500783858] Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge, and Description. New York 2011. What I'm listening to: Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City."IMG_0525.jpg]"IMG 0525" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/img_0525.jpg"]

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Oil http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/19/oil/ Sun, 19 May 2013 18:52:26 +0000 Bill Caraher "P1020670.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020670.jpg]"P1020670]

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Man Camps in May: Some More Observations http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/man-camps-in-may-some-moreobservations/ Mon, 20 May 2013 13:30:42 +0000 Bill Caraher This past week I spent a few days scouting in the Bakken in advance of the North Dakota Man Camp Project's first field season of the summer at the end of the month. He will be going out to the Bakken to administer a survey on behalf of another agency. This agency asked that we administer the survey on the basis of our camp typology and was open to adding some questions to the survey to help with our research. (For the uninitiated, we argue that there are three types of camps, cleverly named [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-1/] Type 1, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-ofnorth-dakota-work-camps-2/] Type 2, and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-3/] Type 3). We hope to also do some interviews, and [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/] Kyle Cassidy will once again join the team to do some more photography of the characters and landscapes of the Bakken. This is a bit nerve wracking for me because I'll be in Cyprus while Bret is heading up our research team, but [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/16/the-digital-divide/] I think we're on the same page technically and conceptually. This past week's trip was the first I made since writing the first draft of an article on our work. There is something about writing that makes my observations all the more tangible and real. So it felt some addition pressure to check on some of the observations that I made in the article on our trip this week. 1. Camps and Abandonment. One of my favorite arguments (which I think was initially offered by Richard Rothaus) was that Type 3 camps might leave the greatest signature in the landscape because they are the least integrated with the modern methods of trash disposal and have the least investment in any particular place. The short duration of many Type 3 encampments would obviously moderate the accumulation of substantial quantities of discard, but the circumstances of their abandonment could have a more significant impact on the materials left behind. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/man-camp-stories-fromphotographs/] I've written about this before here. We revisited the Type 2/Type 3 camp that we initially documented in August 2012 and returned to in February 2013. This camp had been abruptly abandoned in the winter of 2013 and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/notes-from-the-man-campsof-the-bakken/] there was a significant assemblage left behind. When we returned to this camp this week, we discovered that the most conspicuous trash was removed from the site. Plastic silverware, beer cans (Coors Light), bottle caps (Corona), fragments of broken styrofoam, pieces of a small grill, and a few other objects. The cement brick fire pit that was !
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still visible in February. was disassembled and moved to another location near some other RVs in the area leaving only the ash deposit from the past fires behind. "DSC_0171.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/dsc_0171.jpg]"DSC 0171" "P1020609.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020609.jpg]"P1020609" We also noted signs of abandoned or declining map camps throughout our study area. We observed a "dry" Type 2 (that is a Type 2 with electricity but no water) that had numerous open lots after being nearly filled in August 2012. We also observed a Type 2 that had been completely abandoned and was strewn with trash, abandoned RVs, fragments of insulation and bit of architecture most notably the plywood mudrooms leaned against the side of many RVs. We would have spent some time documenting this camp, but the gentleman onsite seemed pretty uninterested in having us around. Fortunately, Bret Weber left his business card with the man so if he changed his mind, he can let us know. He was the one of the few unpleasant characters we have encountered in the Bakken. 2. Where are the Type 3 camps? The proximity of the Type 3 camp described above site to a group of new apartment buildings probably accounts for why it was so thoroughly cleaned up. Many Type 3 camps, however, are less conspicuous (and perhaps this is by design as some of them are probably unpermitted or even squatters). Others are incredibly short term and last only as long as is necessary for a particular activity. The small Type 3 shown below, for example, stood at a construction site, drew power from generators, and had a ports-john nearby. "P1020668.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020668.jpg]"P1020668" The small size, short duration of occupation, and sometimes hidden locations makes Type 3 camps particularly difficult to locate and document. These aspect of Type 3 camps perhaps also makes them significant and suitable for archaeological investigation. 3. Towns and Workforce Housing. Every time we go out to the Bakken we check out another small town that shows signs of infilling with mobile homes and RVs to serve as workforce housing. Certain patterns of land use in these towns are just beginning to appear. For example, two of our study sites developed around the closed schools in the communities. The available land around schools and the more robust utilities infrastructure probably accounted for this. "P1020601.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020601.jpg]"P1020601" "P1020555.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020555.jpg]"P1020555" We also noted that old towns provide appealing locations for short-term workforce housing. First, most of western North Dakota is dotted with small towns in various states of decline. The two towns pictured above had populations of 80 and 97 respectively (from over 200 in !

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their boom times). These town are linked to major roads, have utility connects and some (albeit modest) amenities, and land. Moreover, they tend to be out of sight allowing for a kind of unsupervised growth. 4. Seasonal Rhythm and Discard. The seasonal rhythms of camp life in Type 2 and Type 3 camps are particularly visible. We noted, for example, piles of plywood and foam insulation around the camps as residents de-winterized their units. We could also sometime tell if a RV entered the camp recently based on evidence for winterizing. "P1020559.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020559.jpg]"P1020559" 5. The Next Step. The more we traveled the area over the past year, the more we feel like we have a technical handle of what is going on in terms of the oil boom. This last week, we made our way south to Killdeer and Dickinson, North Dakota and saw much the same kind of development and organization as we saw around Watford City and Tioga. It may be that the time of extensive research is coming to a close and the next step is to document one or two camps at a very high resolution. We're making plans now for another field trip in August (funding permitting). So, stay tuned. "P1020577.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020577.jpg]"P1020577]

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Public History Comprehensive Exam Questions http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/public-history-comprehensiveexam-questions/ Tue, 21 May 2013 11:45:47 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the great pleasures of working at a school with a smaller Ph.D. program is that we get stretched to fill roles a bit outside our core area of expertise. This past week, for example, I was asked to be the third reader on a comprehensive exams for a student in the joint University of North Dakota - North Dakota State Ph.D. program in history. My area of expertise was public history. Whereas I have take one graduate class (audited actually) in archaeology (so I feel qualified to opine widely in that field), I have never actually taken a course in public history and read only sporadically in this field. In any event, sometimes an outsider to a field can provide some new insights, and maybe these questions reflect that: Select one question for each category. Write as much as necessary to explore the issue thoroughly. Take 4 or 5 hours to do this or whatever is customary. I. Archaeology as Public History 1. Recently, archaeology and public history have experienced a bit of convergence as both fields have sought to make their research more accessible to an interested (and often funding) public and accept more responsibilities to the communities in which they work. Discuss the main similarities and differences in the how these two fields have approached engaging the public. 2. Both archaeology and public history have seen the museum as one of the key tools for engaging the public and disseminating information. The museum, of course, as an institution has changed through time as have the fields of archaeology and history. Some have argued that archaeologys object-based epistemology resonates more with earlier models of the museum whereas historys approach to the past has more in common with the contemporary museum that understood networks or contexts as the main way in which objects produced knowledge. As both an archaeologist and a public historian, how do the different approaches to how objects produce meaning inform the organization, presentation, and function of museum exhibits? 3. Both archaeology and public history have embraced (or, perhaps better, recognized) what some scholars have called the spatial turn. What this means is that space, landscapes, streetscapes, geography, and architecture, have played a key role in defining historical social relationships (think Delores Hayden, H. Lefebvre, or M. de Certeau here). How have the two fields sought to make past spatial realities visible to the public especially in dynamic circumstances where the social, architectural, and natural topography have changes significant? How have their approaches differed and how are they similar?

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II. Public History1. More and more history programs are offering courses, certificates, and degrees in public history at the graduate and undergraduate level. What are the key concepts that youd introduce in an undergraduate course in public history? How would the concepts differ if the course was taught at the graduate level? How would you balance theoretical and methodological aspects of public history and the practical aspects of the field? 2. Over the last three decades digital methods have come increasingly to influence the practice of history. In scholarly practice, digital tools have increased the speed and scope of research. In the realm of public history, the internet, mobile devices, and the social media have the potential to expand the audience for historical research, empower new content creators, and combine content from a wide range of sources. Using specific examples, how has digital media transformed the practice and theory of public history? What does the future of a digital, public history look like? 3. Public historians have often positioned themselves as gate keepers between disciplinary knowledge and the general public. Indeed, the very term public history implies the there is a private history that the discipline has kept from the public view. How has public history worked to both expose the process of historical study to a wider public and occlude its own practices behind disciplinary barriers and claims of expertise and authority? How can the discipline break down these barriers without undermining its own authority? Be specific.

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Summer Reading List http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/summer-reading-list/ Wed, 22 May 2013 13:00:13 +0000 Bill Caraher By the end of today, I'll be winging my way to Cyprus for my summer field season. Unlike almost every year since 2004, I won't do any new fieldwork this summer and, instead, spend my time preparing material for study, studying past seasons, and scouting for new adventures. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/pkap-preparations/] As I have posted already, I have a busy summer with a number of projects requiring attention. At the same time, the summer gives me a bit more time to spend reading books both for pleasure and for professional development. I usually prepare an ambitious reading list and only scratch the surface, but part of the fun is preparing this list, right? I am going to keep working my way through the classics of "cyberpunk" fiction. As I have noted before, cyberpunk should be the preferred genre among punk archaeologists. Not only did the major contributors of the genre influence punk rock [http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/sprawl/] think here about Gibson's sprawl or John Shirley writing songs for the Blue yster Cult, but the cyberpunk genre is explicitly materialist. The experiences of technology and landscapes frame most of the plots for these works. In 2011, I was enamored with George Alec Effinger's Budayeen trilogy (When Gravity Fails, A Fire in the Sun, The Exile Kiss). These books capture both the gritty materialism of most cyberpunk works and locate it in a exotic Orientalizing setting. Byzantium is never far in these works. My plan is to read A Fire in the Sun and The Exile Kiss this summer. (As an aside, if you have a long flight or plan to retire for a time to an exotic resort, take John Shirley's A Song Called Youth Trilogy with you. It's dark, punked out, and bizarrely prescient.) I will also try some Gary Ballard, particularly his Bridge Chronicles Trilogy, in part because he self published his works, and they have garnered some acclaim. (Also Ballard does not have a Wikipedia page. How bizarre is that?). If Ballard is the most recent contributor to the genre, Alfred Bester is perhaps its founder. So plan to give him another chance and try to read his The Stars My Destination (1956) because I need to give one of the great fathers of the genre another chance. I tried to read The Demolished Man (1953) a few years back and like many readers - I became completely lost in it (not in a good immersive way). To wrap up my cyberpunk reading, I'm going to revisit William Gibson's Neuromancer. I have recommended it a good bit over the past couple years, but I have no read it since the mid1990s. It's not that long. So I'll re-read it. Lest my less frivolous colleagues begin to worry, I am going to read some academic works as well. I've started G. Lucas's Understanding the Archaeological Record (2012) three times but have not had the space to finish it. So that's on the docket. The same goes for Tim Ingold's Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge, and Description (2011). I know I should also read Drew Wilbourne's Materia Magica: The Archaeology of Magic in Roman Egypt, Cyprus, and Spain (2013), but I don't have a copy yet.

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Finally, I am teaching Byzantine History this fall fro the first time since. 2008? and I need to surf through some of the more important survey's of Byzantine history produced since then. My first stop will be Haldon, Jeffreys and Cormack's (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies (2008) and then onto J. Shepherd's Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire (2008) and Haldon's A Social History of Byzantium (2009) as well as Av. Cameron's slim volume, The Byzantines (2006). Filial loyalty will require me to assign Timothy Gregory's A History of Byzantium (2005) for the class. I want to read Richard Hell's autobiography, I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp (2013), but musicians autobiographies so often leave me cold. My wife bought me a copy of David Katz's excellent Solid Foundation: An Oral History of Reggae, but I'm going to save that for July when I can sit in my most comfortable chair. Finally, if any editor is reading this post, I do know that I should be reading for a review Butrint 4: The Archaeology and Histories of an Ionian Town (2013). I'm on that. Really.

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iPads in the Field and Reflections on Archaeologys Digital Future http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/ipads-in-the-field-and-reflectionson-archaeologys-digital-future/ Thu, 23 May 2013 12:40:46 +0000 Bill Caraher This is a post that might appear sometime in the next little bit on [http://asorblog.org/] the ASOR Blog! This past summer my excavation on Cyprus experimented with using iPads to document our excavations in the field. Since 2003, I have co-direct the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project with Prof. R. Scott Moore of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Prof. David K. Pettegrew of Messiah College. Over this time, the three of us designed our archaeological methods, in-field procedures, and data structure. During the 2012 season, we embraced the opportunity to test and refine a web application developed by Prof. Sam Fee at Washington and Jefferson College. Messiah College generously loaned us the iPads. Our trench supervisors and excavators embraced the experiment. And Sam was willing to work within with our existing data structure, databases, and ontologies. By iPad standards, the cleverly named PKApp was simple in design. It drew upon relatively little of the iPads sophisticated hardware or processing power. We did not have the resources or the funding to develop a robust server-side or mobile digital infrastructure. In fact, the simplicity of our applications design and the limited resources available to our project is probably the most significant aspect of our work. If a small and otherwise unremarkable project can develop a bespoke iPad application, it prompts us to consider how the techniques, procedures, and methods used to collect archaeological data are no long just the purview of digital project or technophile excavators. Digital archaeology is no long a particular subset of archaeological practice, but fundamentally coterminous with careful documentation in the field. That we could develop and deploy an application demonstrates that we have officially entered a period of rapid technological change for archaeological data collection. Mobile computing has well and truly begun to replace old fashioned pen and paper notebooks. Responses to this change range from nearly unbridled enthusiasm to concerns about how the technology actually works and how our current infrastructure will continue to adapt to rapidly growing digital archives. "iPading2.jpg]"IPading2" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ipading2.jpg" Here are my three thoughts along these lines: 1. Practical Realities. Sam Fee presents the technical details for our application in the March 2013 issue of Near Eastern Archaeology. From the user's perspective, however, the application is straightforward and uncomplicated. It provides places to enter the basic data collected over

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the course of excavation as well as open text fields to record descriptions of the stratigraphy and features. The application ran on iPad tablets, but could have run on any tablet computer (or laptops) with only some small tweaks. The iPad proved durable and effective in the field. The screens held up against the glare of the Mediterranean sun, and the batteries survived the rigors of a full field day without any issues. The application worked flawlessly as well, collecting data entered by student and depositing it nightly in a designated email account. Just to be certain, we continued to document our trenches on paper forms. This made sure that we had a complete record of our trenches in the event of a technology failure. None occurred. 2. Methods and Procedures. The most remarkable thing about collecting data in a digital form at the side of the trench is that we have much better control over the quality of data that our trench supervisors records. We can control the entries into the database to ensure, for example, that soil descriptions are done according to standard Munsell categories, we can prevent anyone from incorrectly numbering a stratigraphic unit, or we can ensure that trench supervisors record elevations in an appropriate format. This ability to smooth data on the side the of the trench and to avoid problematic entries improved the quality of data from the moment that we began to use the application. At the same time, however, we created an environment where the trench supervisor typed his trench descriptions. For most academics typing - even on the cramped, on-screen keyboard of the iPad - is at least as fast as writing so speed of recording was not an issue. What did pose a challenge was understanding how a typed record of a trench might differ from a handwritten record. We noticed for example that it was easier to delete a description that proved to be incorrect or inaccurate than it would be in a notebook. In fact, as many projects, we encouraged trench supervisors to strike through mistakes in their notebooks and forms to preserve a record of how their thinking changed over time and to share scratch paper and even informal notes prepared in the field. When a trench supervisor deletes a record that change is gone. Technical details like this gave us pause as we considered how digital tools could inadvertently change the kind of data we record from the field. 3. Digital Archives. Once we produced data in digital form, we had to think hard about how we plan to preserve it for future generations of researchers. Traditional archives exist for the preservation of paper and pen documentation, and while a new generation of digital archives has begun to emerge, the standards and technologies needed to preserve and make available digital records remains in flux. We haven't necessarily settled on a digital repository for our data, but we will almost certainly save our data to a number of institutional repositories. The need to have a long term digital archive, however, is just part of the issues surrounding born-digital data in archaeology. With born-digital data, the process of archiving goes from being something that occurs at the very end of the project to an ongoing concern. Each day on PKAP, for example, we sent the data recorded on the iPads to a cloud service for archiving. For the daily archive, we sent our data directly from the iPad to the commonplace !
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service of Gmail. The data was then accessible to the project directors who could back it up on their laptops and create multiple copies ensuring that our excavation data almost simultaneously exited in multiple places. This was a satisfactory and free short term solution, but hardly a long term step to ensuring a persistent record of our work. "iPading3.jpg]"IPading3" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ipading3.jpg" The remarkable thing about our use of iPads, development of a web application, creation of methods and procedures to facilitate data collection, and use of a digital archive is that none of us on the project - except Sam Fee - are digital archaeologists. Despite our only rudimentary familiarity with the complexities of application development and implementation, the entire experiment was remarkably painless, low cost, and produced results that were better and more secure in most ways than our use of pens and paper. The democratization of digital data collection in archaeology marks a sea change in how the field works in basic ways. Digital tools are no long the domain of sophisticated projects with substantial budgets and dedicated specialists, but there for any project willing to create strategic alliances and to take the plunge. As I noted at the top of this blog post, the days of digital data capture in archaeology are no long in the future, but upon us.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-62/ Fri, 24 May 2013 04:27:59 +0000 Bill Caraher It feels much earlier (or later?) than 7 am right now as I push through jet lag to prepare another little spread of quick hits and varia for my readers. To continue where I left off on Wednesday, William Gibson describes jet lag in his 2003 novel Pattern Recognition as "the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythms." That may be a bit overwrought, but it feels sort of accurate this morning. [http://aristotleguide.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/photo-of-the-week-owl-in-athens/] An owl in Athens. A couple articles by Joanna Smith and Szymon Rusinkiewicz on using and producing 3D models at Polis on Cyprus [http://multiscience.metapress.com/content/d522w1q62u512027/] here and [http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/gfx/pubs/Smith_2012_MTP/modeling_the_past.pdf] here. [http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/05/state_bird_improve ments_replace_cardinals_and_robins_with_warblers_and_hawks.single.html] Along similar lines, this is really funny and critically essay on the problem with state birds. [http://www.offexploring.com/lmcculle] This is a cool faculty research seminar at my alma mater. [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&amp;aid=657784 4] This is a ringing endorsement for peer review. (via Dimitri Nakassis). Is this really the best that the world can do right now? [http://thenewinquiry.com/blogs/zunguzungu/the-mooc-moment-and-the-end-ofreform/] MOOCs and the end of reform. [http://edudemic.com/2013/05/how-to-cite-social-media/] How to cite social media in MLA and APA style. [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/05/15/cold_war_map_shows_areas_prohibi ted_to_soviet_travelers_in_the_united_states.html] No go zones for Soviet citizens during the cold war. [http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/arts-and-culture/cover-story/Neil-Gaiman-KyleCassidy-Make-Good-Art.html] Neil Gaiman and Kyle Cassidy discuss creativity. [http://info.drillinginfo.com/the-50-top-oil-and-gas-people-on-twitter/] Top 50 Oil and Gas people to follow on Twitter.

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 [https://twitter.com/search?q=%23OilCampsND&amp;src=typd] Follow the adventures of Kyle Cassidy and Bret Weber in the the Bakken this weekend on Twitter at #OilCampsND. [http://deadspin.com/how-north-dakota-lost-its-mind-over-a-choke-job-504008586] Great Deadspin article on how UND can lose its mind over little things. What I'm listening to: Daft Punk, Random Access Memory; The National, Trouble Will Find Me. What I'm reading: Polis and PKAP Notebooks.

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Two Views from Cyprus http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/two-views-from-cyprus/ Sat, 25 May 2013 04:13:51 +0000 Bill Caraher Scott Moore and I started work yesterday at the Larnaka District Archaeological Museum. Our first goal was to develop a method for processing the over 700 lbs of ceramic excavated in 2012 from what appears to be a stone lined storage bit abutting a Hellenistic fortification wall. Brandon Olson our Hellenistic ceramicist shows up in June to analyze these finds. Scott and I arrived a week earlier to pre-sort and pre-process as much of the material is possible to expedite the process. "JetLagged.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/jetlagged.jpg]"JetLagged" The photo is out of focus and that worried me at first until I realized that the photo was fine (maybe), and I was out of focus. This little vessel resting for a time inside a tiny cup is probably a miniature and miniatures are most frequently associated with cult activities. Up to this point, we have not found any other evidence for cult activity at this site, but we know that there were sanctuaries nearby ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/some-more-cool-observationson-sanctuaries-around-pyla/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/borders-ethnicity-and-the-statein-archaic-cyprus/] here). The prominent location of the coastal height of Vigla where this material derives make it an appealing possibility. After the first day of work in the dusty museum, I took an afternoon nap and awoke to a lovely dusk. At the end of our street, just above the Mediterranean rooflines, a few windmills turned languidly on the hills outside of Larnaka. "WindandDusk.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/windanddusk.jpg]"WindandDusk " width="425" height="600" border="0" />

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The Summer of Two Archaeologies http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/27/the-summer-of-twoarchaeologies/ Mon, 27 May 2013 12:57:31 +0000 Bill Caraher Scott Moore and I are off to the museum this morning after a productive weekend. The Larnaka District Archaeological Museum stores the artifact from our excavations near Pyla Village. Our main goal for this field season of [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeologicalproject/] the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project is to process the artifacts from the 2012 excavation season. In the afternoon, we dedicate our time to preparing for our season at Polis-Chrysochous on the western side of the island which will start in early June. At Pyla-Koutsopetria, we had to start to process over 700 lbs of pottery as efficiently as possible over our 6, short days of access to the museum storerooms. This material all derives from a single deposit and was carefully excavated as a number of different stratigraphic units. Since we determined at the end of the season that the pottery comes from a single depositional event, we've been tempted to combine the various stratigraphic units identified in the field into a single unit for the purpose of processing pottery. (We'd keep the excavated contexts separate during the analysis process, but for the purposes of discussion and analysis all the pottery would appear as a single context.) "PileofPots.JPG]"PileofPots" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/pileofpots.jpg" width="450" height="400" border="0" /> All the pottery derives from a 2 x 3 x 2 m storage pit on the inside of the Hellenistic fortification wall on Vigla. As the pit leaned up against the wall, it posts dates it and the content of the storage pit (which appears to have become a trash pit at some point) then provides a terminus ante quem (a point before which) for the wall itself. So, not only are the contents of pit of interest because they appear to directly relate to the cycle of destruction and clean up at the site, but they also help date the fortification. Since the material appears to be from the clean up deposit, it should reflect the range of material at the site and activities. Next, we have to prepare for [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/] our season at Polis-Chrysochous which will start on June 2. This involves processing more of the excavation notebooks and determining which areas require some focused attention. Our goal is to have a publishable preliminary report on the basilica-style church at the site of E.F2 (in the Polis excavation grid) prepared by the end of the summer. Doing data entry and notebook study is not nearly as exciting as analyzing piles of relatively well-preserved pottery fragments, but every bit as necessary. We key the notebooks and sync them with both the inventoried artifacts (generally remarkable finds or nearly complete vessels) and the context pottery (the Cypriots call these "the sherds", and they are usually broken up bits of pottery from all sorts of depositional contexts).

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[http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/polisnotebook.jpg] <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-2914]"PolisNotebook" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/polisnotebook.jpg?w=480" width="480" height="596" /> In fact, I'm going to start to type and analyze two Polis notebook the moment I'm done with this blog. More on this soon.

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Punk Archaeology Update http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/28/punk-archaeology-update/ Tue, 28 May 2013 13:02:54 +0000 Bill Caraher Andrew Reinhard has been toiling away on various aspects of our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/] Punk Archaeology event held this past February in Fargo. Not only has he edited our volume of essays on various aspects of punk archaeology, but he has also worked hard to make a recording of the event available on Sound Cloud. I know I need to prepare the introduction to the book, but my field work is keeping me from this task! "GOPR0089.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gopr0089.jpg]"GOPR0089" We not only streamed the event LIVE, but also recorded the full audio thanks to the inspired work by Tim Pasch, Chad Bushy, and Caleb Hulthusen from the University of North Dakota. The venue was not ideal for capturing super high quality, multitrack live recordings, but the recording by the UND team does captures the live quality that is so important to the punk aesthetic. "GOPR0073.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gopr0073.jpg]"GOPR0073" Here's a link to the talks. My two short talks ( [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeologyspeaks/bill-caraher-and-aaron-barth] here with Aaron Barth and [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks/bill-caraher-on-punk] here) served as a kind of introduction so it might make the most sense to listen to it first. [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks/andrew-reinhard-memoirs-from] Andrew Reinhard's remarks serve is a bit of a conclusion. [https://soundcloud.com/punkarchaeology-speaks/kostis-kourelis-on-punk] Kostis Kourelis provided us with a kind of ballad for the night and [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks/kostiskourelis-on-punk] Peter Schultz gave us one of those anthems that stick in your head. [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks/richard-rothaus-punk] Rothaus and [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks/josh-samuels-punk-archaeology] Samuels made us sit up and listen. [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeologyspeaks/kris-groberg-nobody-wants] Groberg anchored our event locally while [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks/aaron-barth-the-universal-punk] Barth projected us toward a universal aesthetic. "GOPR0141.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gopr0141.jpg]"GOPR0141" And here's a link to the bands. [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/punkarchaeology-andrew] Andrew Reinhard started the evening, followed by [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/punk-archaeology-the-filthy] a set by Les Dirty Frenchmen (here labeled as The Filthy Trenchmen!), [https://soundcloud.com/punk!

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archaeology/june-panic-live-and-unplugged] June Panic, and [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology/punk-archaeology-what] finally What Kingswood Needs. Be sure to check out the [http://www.und.edu/instruct/wittgraf/] Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Music Mike Wittgraf on keys with Reinhard and the Frenchmen/Trenchmen. The night was even more awesome than I imagined it thanks to my creative, brilliant, and cooperative colleagues. The book will be available (fingers crossed) by the late summer or early fall.

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Stamps and Signatures http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/stamps-and-signatures/ Wed, 29 May 2013 12:07:48 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the cool things from this season is that we have found a significant number of stamps and signed ceramic artifacts. Stamps commonly appeared on amphora handles to mark the provenience of contents of the storage container. We're finding quite a few this season in the assemblage from the storage pit along the line of the Hellenistic fortification. This is the coolest so far because I like the slick, stylized Alpha and Gamma. It could be a modern trademark. (We're calling it the Agamemnon handle after the famous king of Mycenea in Homer. It's certain not that old (it's probably Hellenistic), but it's sure fun to imagine an ancient olive oil or wine merchant marketing their product as Agamemnon's Finest Olive Oil. "AG.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ag.jpg]"AG" width="450" height="404" border="0" /> In fact, today while sorting we came across this sweet stamped amphora handle with a lyre and a flower on it and an inscription. How cool is this? "LyreStamp.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/lyrestamp.jpg]"LyreStamp" In some cases, the "stamp" was just etched into the clay. It's not as fancy. I suppose it's possible to imagine this done after the vessel was fired. Here's an example of that practice on a clunky, round amphora handle: "Star.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/star.jpg]"Star" The coolest examples of this are found on black slip and glaze fine wares where the maker will etch is initials (or something) on the base. We have a base by the famous and mysterious Phil painter (this is a joke). The Phi and Lambda spell the name of Phil. He and Tony ran a pottery shop during the Hellenistical period near our site. Good products, great prices (another joke). "Phil.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/phil.jpg]"Phil" width="450" height="490" border="0" /> While presorting and washing pottery is boring, it does give me the chance to engage with the finds in a tactile and detailed way. I am not a ceramicist, but I recognize the value of understanding ceramics as a key to unlocking not only the chronology of archaeological sites in the historical Mediterranean, but also some aspects of how people lived in the ancient world.

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Adaptive Reuse http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/adaptive-reuse/ Thu, 30 May 2013 15:31:07 +0000 Bill Caraher As my readers may remember, I'm fascinated by the idea of adaptive reuse (in all forms!). In our recent work in the man camps of North Dakota, for example, I was interested in how residents used [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/trailers-floridaand-spring-break/] shipping pallets for a whole range of functions. In fact, pallets are sufficiently useful for purposes other than moving bulk goods around the world, that they are stockpiled for recycling on a global scale. In antiquity, ceramic vessels appear to be ubiquitous. They not only served as tableware, but also served as storage, transported bulk goods, and performed a range of industrial functions from smelting to the production of other ceramics. Ceramic vessels also a variety of functions after they were no longer suitable for their initial purpose. The most famous use of recycled ceramics is probably as ostraka which were used as everything from voting chits to notepads. We have an rather typical conical amphora toe which has been punched through and used as a funnel. "Amphorafunnel.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/amphorafunnel.jpg]"Amphorafu nnel" width="450" height="370" border="0" /> The other possibility is that these storage vessels also served as convenient dispensers of liquid. A stopper could be put in the hole, but that is probably more likely for an amphora toe with a smaller hole on the side of the toe. We happened to find one of those as well: "Amphorafunnel2.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/amphorafunnel2.jpg]"Amphoraf unnel2" width="450" height="388" border="0" /> The reason I'm posting about ceramics so much this week is that my co-director Scott Moore and I have spent a good bit of time either pre-sorting or washing pottery. It's boring, and it gives me time to think: "P1020819.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/p1020819.jpg]"P1020819]

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/31/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-63/ Fri, 31 May 2013 11:18:18 +0000 Bill Caraher It's always a challenge to prepare my varia and quick hits from abroad. I usually don't have quite as much time to cruise the web (which is something that I tend to do on little breaks in my office at home) and the internet is a bit less ubiquitous so it's harder just to hop online to check something out. That being said, I do have a little gaggles of quick hits and varia for your reading enjoyment. [http://www.economist.com/node/346800?story_id=346800] As most of my readers would know, May 29th is a bad day to be Byzantine. [http://apaclassics.org/index.php/apa_blog/apa_blog_entry/message_about_20132014_placement_service] The APA/AIA Placement Service, which provided a single portal for job opportunities in archaeology, Classics, and ancient history, appears to be no more. [https://www.coursera.org/course/secrets] Sue Alcock's "Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets" on Coursera looks cool and it starts really soon. Is anyone taking it? Can they write a review? [http://blog.coursera.org/post/51696469860/10-us-state-university-systems-and-publicinstitutions] Coursera is really expanding into the public universities. I wonder when we'll see the University of North Dakota on that list. ( [http://www.thecrimson.com/flashgraphic/2013/5/23/edx-faculty-letter-smith/] And open discussion of the potential liabilities of these MOOCs is heating up as well.) [http://webwriting.trincoll.edu/] Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning. I missed this earlier, but [http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/zotero-gets-anupgrade-to-version-4-0/49575] we're now at Zotero 4.0. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22685260] Australia is the happiest place in the developing world and [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2331899/The-booziestplaces-America.html] North Dakota (according to this study) might be a close second. [http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/30/4359490/where-the-richest-music-nerds-go-toplay-the-high-end-show] What happens when a normal person goes to the Munich HighEnd Audio Show. (As an aside, I really like my Sennheiser Momentum headphones running through a ALO National headphone amp. I don't like them as much as I like my Grado RS1s, but I get nervous even carrying my Grados to the front porch much less around Cyprus in a backpack!) [http://oilpatchdispatch.areavoices.com/2013/05/24/williams-county-cracks-down-oncrew-camps-where-homicides-occurred/?] More limits on man camps being discussed.

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 [http://www.flightradar24.com/] I've become a bit obsessed with watching the flights come and go from Cyprus using this webpage. [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/photobooth/2013/05/slide-show-happybirthday-miles-davis.html#slide_ss_0=1] Happy birthday, Miles Davis. What I'm reading: Polis Notebooks!! What I'm listening to: Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain; Miles Davis, Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet."StLaz2.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/stlaz2.png]"StLaz2" width="450" height="428" border="0" />

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Some Miniatures from Pyla-Vigla http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/some-miniatures-from-pyla-vigla/ Mon, 03 Jun 2013 12:56:01 +0000 Bill Caraher We wrapped up a short study season this past week at the museum in Larnaka, Cyprus. Our main focus was on the finds from a single trench excavated in 2012. We sorted the material and prepared it for the arrival of Brandon Olson later this week, who will study the Hellenistic ceramics. As I have mentioned here before, pre-sorting and washing the pottery is boring, but it does give us a chance to look at every object that came from this massive deposit of material. The objects all came from a 2 x 3 x 2 storage pit that leaned against the inside of the massive fortification wall the protected the north side of the site of Vigla. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/life-and-times-at-a-ptolemaicsettlement-on-cyprus/] For more on the site in general, go here. When we excavated the material we were struck by how homogeneous the assemblage appeared to be. In fact, our initial conclusions was that the material piled into this storage pit represented the clean up from one of at least two episodes of distraction at the site. On closer inspection, however, it looks like the assemblage from these pits might include a good bit of material earlier than the main period represented at the site. It looks like we have more than a few painted Iron Age storage vessels. More interesting, however, is the evidence for miniatures at the site. On Cyprus, miniatures are most often associated with cult activities. While it would not be particularly remarkable that some cult activity occurred at our site, thus far we have almost no evidence for it. In fact, we have generally argued that our site was a short term mercenary camp which would not preclude cult activity, but we might expect it to be fairly insubstantial and secondary to main function of the site. We do have some evidence for [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/the-religious-landscape-of-postantique-pyla-kousopetria-cyprus/] Iron Age cult activity nearby and the miniatures as well as the presence of what appear to be Iron Age pottery in our dump assemblage may indicate that the storage pit was filled with material from beyond just the immediate vicinity and the periods most prominent at the site. I've begun to wonder whether our assemblage on Vigla includes material from this sanctuary or whether it simple represents the remains of cult activities associated with the soldiers on the site. "P1020840.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020840.jpg]"P1020840" It is worth noting that Scott Moore, our very serious ceramicist, rejected my other argument: that people in olden tymes on Cyprus were just much, much smaller like the hobbits in all those Larry Potter stories.

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North Dakota Man Camp Project Update http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/north-dakota-man-camp-projectupdate/ Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:38:35 +0000 Bill Caraher This post is from Bret Weber, a former camp cook for the Pyla-Koustsopetria Archaeological Project and now my co-director in the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project. He recent directed our third major fieldwork trip to the Bakken, and since I was in Cyprus, he has generously provided this update. Thanks, Bret! Last week I led a team of 6 out to North Dakotas industrial wilderness as part of the ongoing work of the North Dakota Man Camp project. The team included Kyle Cassidy the famous and delightfully genial photographers second trip to western ND. This was the first trip specific to the man camp project for the other four members who included the first women to join the project. Robert Caulkins is a PhD student at UND. In addition to his insights as a Marxist historian he brought his personal experiences from having worked and lived in similar circumstances earlier in his life, along with his tats and bearing that assured our easy passage. Florent is a Parisian and new lawyer who recently passed two bar exams including one on patent law. He has some specific interests in unmanned aerial vehicles, but he reads broadly and has a keen insight for systems analysis. Julia Geigle, Florents partner is an MSW student finishing up her Masters thesis and is a co-author on an article about the impact of the boom on social service systems that has just been accepted by Social Work, the top journal in that field. Carenlee Barkdullmy partner and fellow co-author on the previously mentioned articleis an Associate Professor in UNDs Department of Social Work. She and I have done other work out in the oil patch, but this was her first trip explicitly related to the man camp project. Each of the members brought rich new insights to the work, though the insights of the two women were less gender specific than we had been expecting. "adsc_9020.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/adsc_9020.jpg]"Adsc 9020] Bret Weber (photo Kyle Cassidy) The collection of 150 surveys helped to fund the trip and the work promises to supplement our ongoing data collection about temporary workers in the oil patch, especially in relation to their housing situation. However, while the specific information gathered on the surveys will surely have value, we also gained insights by simply doing the work of gathering surveys. For instance, we had hoped to gather surveys from a distribution of the various man camp types identified in other posting on Bills blog. Additionally, we had planned to pick up some quick and easy surveys at the infamous WalMart in Williston. However, the megastore was surprisingly slow (for that location) and there was security everywhere including patrols in the parking lot. Carenlee proposed that we go to the train station, and we chanced to hit it at the perfect time. The Empire Builder only rolls through town once a day and we happened to get there an hour before it arrived. This gave us a chance to collect surveys from those

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waiting to catch their train and those who disembarked when it arrived, even while it rained outside. The two main observations that I took from this recent trip (my 10th out to the patch in the last 18 months) had to do with 1) the diminished number of camps in Watford City and 2) a hopefully helpful insight around issues of ownership and an apparent caste system across occupations. The previous week, Bill and I had already noticed a relative dearth of the most ad hoc and ephemeral Type III camps. Indeed, on that reconnaissance trip we speculated on an hypothesis that perhaps Type IIIs were a component of the edge of the boom where it was newest. Consequently, we drove several hours south and east to the front of the expanding boom, but only found more of the Type I &amp; II camps that we were seeing elsewhere in the patch. Taking greater time on this survey trip and looking at the camps more closely I realized that areas that had been almost completely full of camps as recently as last summer have since been cleared for shopping malls. Additionally, Tioga and Watford City have built hundreds of units of permanent housing. If this boom continues for a long time, their wisdom will pay off: if it busts anytime soon, those communities will have failed to heed the lessons from previous booms and be left with bills for infrastructure. The two main observations that I took from this recent trip (my 10th out to the patch in the last 18 months) had to do with 1) the diminished number of camps in Watford City and 2) a hopefully helpful insight around issues of ownership and an apparent caste system across occupations. The previous week, Bill and I had already noticed a relative dearth of the most ad hoc and ephemeral Type III camps. Indeed, on that reconnaissance trip we speculated on an hypothesis that perhaps Type IIIs were a component of the edge of the boom where it was newest. Consequently, we drove several hours south and east to the front of the expanding boom, but only found more of the Type I &amp; II camps that we were seeing elsewhere in the patch. Taking greater time on this survey trip and looking at the camps more closely I realized that areas that had been almost completely full of camps as recently as last summer have since been cleared for shopping malls. Additionally, Tioga and Watford City have built hundreds of units of permanent housing. If this boom continues for a long time, their wisdom will pay off: if it busts anytime soon, those communities will have failed to heed the lessons from previous booms and be left with bills for infrastructure. The previous week, Bill and I had already noticed a relative dearth of the most ad hoc and ephemeral Type III camps. Indeed, on that reconnaissance trip we speculated on an hypothesis that perhaps Type IIIs were a component of the edge of the boom where it was newest. Consequently, we drove several hours south and east to the front of the expanding boom, but only found more of the Type I &amp; II camps that we were seeing elsewhere in the patch. Taking greater time on this survey trip and looking at the camps more closely I realized that areas that had been almost completely full of camps as recently as last summer have since been cleared for shopping malls. Additionally, Tioga and Watford City have built hundreds of units of permanent housing. If this boom continues for a long time, their wisdom will pay off: if it busts anytime soon, those communities will have failed to heed the lessons from previous booms and be left with bills for infrastructure.Let me back into that discussion by first revisiting the surveys. One of the questions on the surveys was whether workers owned or rented their housingwe had set up this question imagining that it would provide a quick metric to distinguish whether people lived in a Type I or II camp. However, very quickly we realized that we had neglected a key and obvious alternativehousing

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provided by an employer. Indeed, most of the workers in Type I housing did not either rent or own their rooms, instead, housing is simply part of the contract for working out in the patch. This caused us to think about the responsibilities of ownership in Type II camps. While not all RVs or trailers parked in Type II camps are directly owned by the residents, it seems to make sense that there would be a much closer relationship between occupants and owners in the Type IIs. This leads to a broad array of other considerations: who is responsible for paying for weatherization (which, we found out, is a big business in the patch, generally costing about $2,000 per trailer)? What about when lights burn out or pipes freeze? This, we think, is an additional distinction between Type Is &amp; Type II camps that deserves further consideration as we prepare for the August Field trip after Bill returns from the Mediterranean.

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Doing Work at Polis http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/05/doing-work-at-polis/ Wed, 05 Jun 2013 12:09:48 +0000 Bill Caraher For the third straight year, I've sequestered myself for a few weeks in the lovely village of Polis-Chrysochous to commune with the notebooks from the Princeton Polis Expedition. These notebooks detail the excavations at the site of E.F2 on the Princeton grid. This site dates from the Hellenistic to Medieval period and the most conspicuous feature is an Early Christian to Medieval basilica style church. This church and the great group of colleagues working at Polis drew me to the site initially. Since 2009, I've been working on producing a database from the notebooks, assisting Scott Moore and Brandon Olson in analyzing the context pottery, and integrating their work with the notebooks and the existing registry of finds. This means getting three databases to talk to each other. Two of the three - one designed to accommodate our notebooks and one designed to accommodate the new readings of the context pottery - meld together smoothly. The database accommodating the registered finds is a different matter. It was built over 20 years and is not normalized. It can only link to the other databases through a series of concordances. This is tedious stuff to develop and test. The greatest challenge, however, is to understand the notebooks. Polis was one of the last large-scale Mediterranean excavations not to be excavated stratigraphically. Instead, excavators defined "Levels" which could be stratigraphic or simply spatial and then made "Passes" through these levels which could also be stratigraphic or simply spatial or just arbitrary. What I've tried to do is to superimpose a stratigraphic system on top of the existing system of levels and passes in order to understand the depositional processes that formed the archaeological record. This is both a nightmare and a rush. Whereas some people love archaeology for the thrill of discovery, I have to admit to getting my rush in the problem solving aspects of the discipline. I love reconstructing the spatial relationships through the irregular lens of the Polis notebooks. This is a process of course. Here are the steps: 1. Read the notebooks and transcript the Level and Pass descriptions. Nothing works better than transcribing to study the details of excavation. This practice also allows me to organize the levels and passes which tended to appear almost randomly throughout the notebooks as the trench supervisors often had multiple contexts open at once. "0009.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/0009.jpg]"0009" width="450" height="292" border="0" />Polis Notebook Page 2. Once we have the notebooks transcribed and analyzed, I build an informal pseudo-Harris Matrix (sometimes I call them a Franco Harris Matrix). I used [http://vue.tufts.edu/] Tuft University's VUE program to attempt to illustrate the relationships between various levels.

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3. This allows me to identify sensitive contexts that might be able to inform architecture or activity areas. In most cases, we can simple identify a handful of contexts that must be earlier or later than each other. Inevitably numerous contexts are lost to contamination, irregular or obscure excavation decisions, or ambiguous depositional relationships. 4. The ceramics from these contexts are read in the museum by Scott Moore or Brandon Olson, and we draw in the registered finds (typically more distinct or diagnostic objects) from that database to produce a comprehensive dataset of the finds from the level and pass. 5. Finally, at the end of the year, I bring together the read pottery, the stratigraphy, the architecture, and the finds to try to make arguments for the history of the site. We've been targeting specific areas of E.F2 each summer and will hopefully have the entire basilica documented by the end of this field seasons. We're really close. "SCottatWork.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/scottatwork.jpg]"SCottatWork"] Scott Moore watching a movie from Netflix when he should be analyzing pottery.(Actually, he's looking up a form in a scanned pottery volume on his iPad.)The photo is with Camera Noir on my iPhone 5.

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Linked Archaeology is Punk Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/linked-archaeology-is-punkarchaeology/ Thu, 06 Jun 2013 12:09:09 +0000 Andrew Reinhard Andrew Reinhard gives us the scoop on the punk mentality and linked data practices in archaeology. So on Tuesday, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/north-dakotaman-camp-project-update/] I had a sweet guest blogger and people really liked it. So when Andrew Reinhard (a punk archaeologist of the highest order) wanted to post something here, I not only couldn't say "no", but I couldn't say YES fast enough. And when he wanted to talk about what he learned at the Linked Ancient World Data Institute (#LAWDI), I was all in. (This is the SECOND time in less than 6 months that I've been lucky enough to introduce Andrew to the uninitiated (which I was as well about 8 months ago)). "Punk Archeology-49.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/punkarcheology-49.jpg]"Punk Archeology 49] Punk Archaeology 2013. Photograph by Timothy Pasch. So here are Andrew Reinhard's thoughts on linked archaeology and punk archaeology: The idea that theres such a thing as final publication of archaeological material is bullshit. I said this to a room full of colleagues all of whom had a stake in the new-new thing: Linked Ancient World Data (or LAWD). The cool thing? Nobody disagreed. [http://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh/institutes/linked-ancient-world-data-institute] The Linked Ancient World Data Institute (#lawdi) was an open source love-in funded by an NEH Digital Humanities grant spread over two spring, 3-day sessions. The first session was held in 2012 at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World ( [http://isaw.nyu.edu/] ISAW) in New York City, and the second concluded this past Saturday, June 1st, at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. LAWDI, the collective brainchild of Sebastian Heath, Tom Elliott, and John Muccigrosso, was created to bring together a diverse and progressive band of scholars, librarians, and museum professionals of the ancient world, many of whom were also technologists, to explore the nature of Linked Open Data (LOD) as it relates to antiquity and how to share it across the Internet. Ours was a multinational, happy band, female and male, older and younger, tool-builders and tool-users, some with projects completed, and others with projects just underway, some facile with the finer points of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework] RDF and [http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/] SPARQL, others not so much, yet all demonstrated good faith in the belief that we could help each other learn. And link. There were no Luddites here. There were only LAWDites. !
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Assaulted by unseasonable heat and humidity, we embraced Digital Humanities chic cargo shorts and tshirts, flip-flops and sandals. This was Open Access fantasy camp fueled by coffee and alcohol. Run more like a workshop than a formal conference, papers were replaced largely by practice, jumping in feet first to understand what RDF is, what the difference is between a URI and a URL, how to mint URIs, how to make archaeological data discoverable and usable. My data is your data, and your data is my data, Tom Elliott said in 2012. We followed the Freirean model of student-teachers and teacher-students, each learning from the other. Numismatists like Andrew Meadows and Ethan Gruber demonstrated the open data masterpiece that is [http://nomisma.org/] Nomisma.org, while Dan Pett of the British Museum modeled his [http://finds.org.uk/] Portable Antiquities Scheme as a crowd-assisted project. Chuck Jones of the ISAW library discussed its digital collection practices and followed up with an Open Access tour de force via the [http://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/] Ancient World Onlines collection of over 1,200 OA journals on antiquity worldwide. Eric Kansa demoed his [http://opencontext.org/] OpenContext.org site for hosting and sharing archaeological projects and there data. Sebastian Heath and I attacked issues in archaeological publication from two fronts, Heath by way of XML, HTML, and [http://isaw.nyu.edu/publications/isaw-papers] ISAW Papers, and me by way of making digital, linkable content available alongside traditional print publication. Parts of each day were dedicated to student presentations, where both nascent and established projects in linked archaeological data were showcased, many of which came prepared with questions ranging from how to prepare data for global consumption, to how to link to established online geographical tools like [http://pleiades.stoa.org/] Pleiades and [http://pelagios-project.blogspot.com/] Pelagios, and beyond. William Murray discussed his 3D project with ships battering rams used in the Battle of Actium. Rebecca Benefiel and Sara Sprenkle presented their prototype of a new web application involving the ancient graffiti of Pompeii. Katy Meyers argued for the need for open data in bioarchaeological collections and mortuary site datasets to avoid a sampling bias that limits interpretation of that data. There were a dozen more presentations like these on interesting, useful projects. Each speaker came ready to share, ready to ask questions, and ready to receive help. The spirit of LAWDI created an incredibly supportive environment that allowed for free (and ego-free) dialogue about what to do with archaeological data not just to bring it into the world, rescuing it from inside a silo or behind a paywall, but also how to connect with tools and websites already in use in order to make data on anything from findspots to artifact types to cuneiform inscriptions more open and more useful in ways the holders of that data might not have even imagined. Dinners and late-night hack-a-thons followed each days sessions, with smaller groups spiralling off to attack specific problems of ancient geography or naming authorities with code, or to discuss problems of archaeological data in a more theoretical way, supplemented with breaks in the action for air-guitar, rugby scores, and beer-runs. By the end of the BBQ on the final day, our brains were beyond full, but the inertia and creativity driven by the constant conversation carried all of us home to immediately begin working on existing projects and the next, new-new things for our respective disciplines.

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If the above doesnt sound punk-rock, it should. We turned the traditional conference structure on its ear and skanked on its head. Most people in the room over those three days had already embraced the DIY (do-it-yourself) attitude shared by all punks. If a tool doesnt exist, build it. If you have a question, ask it. If you can help somebody, do it. The spirit of community was evident, and all LAWDites formed a tight bond by the end with the sense that were all in this together, and what were doing is for the greater good. Many projects are either under-funded or are done for free, hand-coded in basements late at night or early in the morning, at times built with tools never intended for the purpose to which they were put. A big part of Punk is making noise with the instruments you have, learning by playing, and getting better by playing with others. Creativity thrives when theres no money, and the Punk attitude drives us to find ways around these restrictions, often creating better, leaner end-products than if wed had a bottomless pool of resources, time, and materials. We build because we have to. And we recognize the problems inherent in ransomed scholarship and in the old ways of thinking about archaeological data and how that data is/are made available. Its Punk to question authority. Its Punk to question the establishment. Its Punk to question the status quo. We dont do it to be subversive (most of the time). We do it because we feel there is a better way to go about the business of sharing information openly, and making that information easily discoverable and hopefully easy to use. Its not about the money, and its not about the notoriety. But it is about the big picture and how we want to see the world. We live in it, and therefore we have a voice to change it if we want. Thats Punk. And thats Linked Ancient World Data. When I said that the concept of final publication of archaeological material is bullshit, I meant it with every cell in my body. Publication of archaeological data is the conversationstarter. While it might mark the end of the push for tenure, or the conclusion of the analysis of a pottery assemblage or hoard of coins, the publication contains the synthesis and ideas of only one author (or perhaps a handful). Who knows what other information can be gleaned by another set of eyes, another brain. How can that data be re-assessed, re-mixed, re-used, recycled? That questioning, that reconsideration is how we move our field(s) forward, and is how science works (or is supposed to work). And its also how Punk works. By checking our egos at the door when we submit our research, we can engage in an open and constructive dialogue with our current peers and those who come after, and our ideas on the ancient world will become more focused and occasionally overturned from those critical questions we werent afraid to ask. Now that the Linked Ancient World Data Institute is formally complete with both 3-day sessions behind us, all participants find themselves at the vanguard of a Punk Archaeology movement. Join us online as part of the Linked Ancient World Data Initiative. Details of more formal meetups and hangouts, plus informal gatherings be they real or virtual, online or in London or New York or elsewhere, will become available soon and throughout the coming months. Better yet, dont wait for these to happen. Do it yourselves. Use the #lawdi hashtag on Twitter. Subscribe to the Ancient World Online. Read the ISAW Papers. Google Linked Ancient World Data or LAWD or AWLD. Youll find us. Be a punk. Join the initiative, and help create the new status quo of open, free, and shared archaeological data. NOTE: Ill update this post via the Comments area once the 2013 LAWDI program is open, as well as the Twitter archive and collection of links to get readers started.

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Andrew "GOPR0155.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/gopr0155.jpg]"GOPR0155"Andr ew's less mild-mannered persona. Photograph by Chad Bushy.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-64/ Fri, 07 Jun 2013 11:29:04 +0000 Bill Caraher It's 5 am here in Polis-Chrysochous and I having some coffee in preparation for a long morning clearing weeds from the ruins of the Christian basilica at E.F2. As readers of this blog know, I am particularly interested dream-inspired renovations or discoveries of Early Christian buildings. So I was very aware of my dreams last night just to see if a holy personage might appear to motivate or at least smile kindly on our work this morning. I think I got close. I first dreamt about a colleague who was very concerned about the tone of a cover letter she was writing and going through all the revisions in it line by line, but this was interrupted by Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Music Mike Wittgraf appearing to discuss a problematic student. Strangely, Mike Wittgraf appeared as Bill Walton (from his mid-1980s playing days with the Boston Celtic), and both scenes took place in my basement. Perhaps it is irreligious to think this way, but this was not as cool as the Panayia appearing to me begging that I "resaddle her old church" or "Ay. Photeini threatening to strike my blind if I did not excavate her church" or even a well-meaning lesser saint asking me to weed with particular piety. [http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/07/a-type-offieldwork/] We did clean off the basilica nicely, though. "P1020898.JPG]"P1020898" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020898.jpg" This all being said, I am up nonetheless and preparing a small gaggles of varia and quick hits: [http://www.artofmaking.ac.uk/] Stoneworking in the ancient world. [http://www.seangb.org/] Athenian names. [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/244460] Greek poets and austerity. If you didn't read about our adventures with [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/ipads-in-the-field-and-reflectionson-archaeologys-digital-future/] iPads in the field here, [http://asorblog.org/?p=4614] then you can see it on ASOR's fancy "Archaeology in the Digital Age" blog. If you didn't read [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/linked-archaeology-is-punkarchaeology/] Andrew Reinhard's guest blog yesterday or [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/north-dakota-man-camp-projectupdate/] Bret Weber's guest blog on Tuesday (because you mistakenly thought is was just more of my blah, blah, blah), you really should. They are already two of the best things I've read this summer. [http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2013/06/05/the-greatfargo-fire-of-1893/] The Great Fargo Fire of 1893. [http://sparoza.wordpress.com/] A year in a Greek garden. [http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/everybody-is-stupidexcept-you/201305/do-the-best-professors-get-the-worst-ratings] Apparently the best professors might get bad ratings on student evaluations. This explains some things. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/265139/] It looks like the North Dakota University System needs a new chancellor. There's a great line in a Paul Kelly song about Australian Aboriginal protests in the 1960s. According to Kelly, during the great

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Gurinji strike, one of their great leaders, Vincent Lingiari, told the white establishment "we know how to wait". I feel like this should apply to any disruptor who comes to North Dakota looking to change (usually for the worse) our bizarre little culture. They can do what they want as hard as they want, but we know how to wait. Along similar lines, [http://touch.baltimoresun.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76098290/?related=true] some curious bickering around St. Mary's College in Maryland. I gave a talk there many years ago, and it was very nice. Photographs of Fracking at the Field Museum in Chicago in an exhibit called [http://fieldmuseum.org/happening/exhibits/fractured-north-dakotas-oilboom] Fractured: North Dakota's Oil Boom. On a similar note, some of the first research on crime rates in western North Dakota. [https://medium.com/peoplegadgets/bbae2adcadc6] Kyle Cassidy on photography and gadgets. S [http://al3x.net/2013/05/23/letter-to-a-young-programmer.html] ome good advice (full stop) directed toward new programers considering a start up. As someone who has leadership roles in starting an archaeological project, a digital humanities center, and is now thinking about starting a digital press, the advice seems pretty broadly applicable. [http://www.businessinsider.com/22-maps-that-show-the-deepest-linguistic-conflicts-inamerica-2013-6#] Apparently, there are regional differences in how American's speak. Who knew? Art using Excel Spreadsheets. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1849488617/the-sportsmen-of-oz-limited-editiontrading-card-s?ref=email] Support this Kickstarter right away: Trading cards from the golden age of Australian sport. What I'm reading: R. Maguire's dissertation: Late Antique Basilicas on Cyprus: Sources, Contexts, History (2012). What I'm listening to: Frightened Rabbit, Pedestrian Verse; Alphaville, Forever Young."IMG_0587.JPG]"Thisisreal" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0587.jpg]

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Break Through with Basket Handled Amphora http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/break-through-with-baskethandled-amphora/ Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:21:41 +0000 Bill Caraher In 2012, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/more-and-better-onbasket-handle-amphora/] Scott Moore and I took on the task of attempting to understand the chronology of our basket-handled amphora. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/basket-handles-like-alongaberger-party/] They look like this, and we found a ton of them during the survey and excavations at Pyla-Koutsopetria. When we first encountered them, we thought that they were probably Iron Age, but as we excavated [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/life-and-times-at-aptolemaic-settlement-on-cyprus/] the site of Vigla we found more and more of them in what were clearly Hellenistic contexts. While pre-sorting the huge deposit of Hellenistic ceramics from the storage pit adjoining the Hellenistic fortification wall, we noticed more and more conical amphora toes in fabrics very similar to those in which the basket handles appeared. The toes had "shaved" sides where clay was removed to create the distinctive shapes and mostly appeared in buff fabrics. As we began to encounter these handles and toes in a similar fabric, we noticed brief mentions and short articles in a range of publications on these amphora generally dating them to the Iron Age, but we had not found a comprehensive discussion or typology of these handles. This is beginning to change, however, and the very recent publication edited by Mark Lawal and John Lund titled [http://www.worldcat.org/title/transport-amphoraeand-trade-of-cyprus/oclc/844021661] The Transport Amphora and Trade of Cyprus offers some very useful contributions to our efforts to work out the date. In particular, contributions by K. Levent Zoroglu and Kristian Gransson demonstrate that baskethandled amphora were quite widespread in the Mediterranean basin and they might have a place of manufacture on Cyprus. Considering their common appearance on the eastern side of the island, it is tempting to look for a place of origin in the vicinity of Salamis. "basket1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/basket1.jpg]"Basket1" width="350" height="600" border="0" /> Moreover, ours fit into the typology proposed by Zoroglu from his site of Kelenderis in Turkey. We have Type 3 amphora and they coincide with the dates provided through coins and other ceramics at our site. "basket2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/basket2.jpg]"Basket2" width="450" height="305" border="0" /> This is an import step in clarifying the chronology and function of our site.

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Water and our Basilica http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/water-and-our-basilica/ Tue, 11 Jun 2013 12:40:10 +0000 Bill Caraher While helping our ceramicist, Scott Moore, make his way through thousands of pot sherds excavated from the basilica at EF2 at Polis, I've been working on writing up some of the preliminary observations on the architecture of the church. Among the most interesting aspects of the the church, is how the builders managed water at the site. The position of the church perpendicular to the north slope of a hill exposed it to apparently significant flow of water. Moreover, the entire area of E.F2 seems to be riddled with well, drains, and water pipes suggesting that water management was more than just an issue for the builders of the church. "P1020936.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020936.jpg]"P1020936"The exposed foundation wall of the south aisle of the basilica. The exposed walls running under the basilica are beneath the rubble drainage layer. Here is what I penned in the gaps between batches of pottery of the last few days on issues of water and architecture at the basilica at EF2. It's all provisional and a work in progress, but it's what I've been thinking about the last couple of weeks here at Polis. From as early as the Hellenistic period there is evidence for concerns about water at the area of E.F2. There are numerous wells in the area associated with the workshops to the south and west of the basilica in the Hellenistic period. The Roman period saw the construction of complex systems of water pipes associated with the paved roads and what appear to be settling basins and drains. White most of these features likely contributed to water supply for various industrial and domestic activities in the city of Polis, it is possible that they also served the important role of water management in the area of EF2. The location of EF2 on the slop of a hill likely exposed the site to the risk of season flooding especially in the event of torrential Mediterranean winter rains. Several unusual features in the architecture of the the basilica appear designed to protect the foundations of the basilica from the flow of water south to north across the site. On the foundations, below the level of visible walls, a plaster lip protected ran along the roughly mortared foundation of field stones of both the eastern apse and the south side of the basilica. The plaster lip or rim was best preserved along the foundation of the eastern apse where it extended for approximately 15 cm. The purpose of this rim appears to be to prevent water from running down along the foundation through the less densely packed earth associated with the foundation cut. Elsewhere along the line of the foundation excavations revealed sections of foundation wall covered with moist green clay (S06.1991.8). In other places in EF2, similar clay was associated with roof fall, and the water proof character of this clay has led to its continued use to seal roofs even until relatively recent times (e.g. H10.1997.11,4 (vol 1., 55). It seems, then, that the builders of the basilica made an effort to seal the foundations of the church against both water run off from the roof of the building or the surface and the seepage of ground water. !
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The south side of the basilica saw a more substantial effort to manage the flow of water downslope in the area. The continued presence of a paved road along the upsloap, south side of the church and the probable existence of an open courtyard immediately to the south of the building exposed the southern foundation wall and the piers supporting the south portico to the corrosive effects of water run off. In an effort to counter this risk of water destabilizing the south foundations of the church, the builders designed the courtyard to act as a massive drain. Beneath a level of limey, packed earth which probably represented the ground surface of the courtyard, a loose level rubble which in some places exceeded a meter in depth may have functioned as a massive French drain designed to prevent water from pooling against the south wall of the church and running down running directly down the soft foundation cuts of for the walls. Instead, the porous character of the rubble level served to slow the flow of water south and perhaps even allow it to drain away prior to reaching the vulnerable south wall of the basilica. The rubble layer is most likely contemporary with the first phase of the basilica and extends almost to the depth of the basilica foundation. Later burials have probably disturbed the integrity of the limey, packed, floor, but there nevertheless appears to be no pottery in the packing that is later than the 7th century with Cypriot Red Slip Form 9 being the latest present (in R09.1986.6,1-2). The massive leveling course of rubble below the floor packing was, in turn, cut by the foundation of the piers of the south portico. In levels associated with the foundations of the the south protico the latest material dates to between 600 and 700 and includes well-document Cypriot Red Slip Form 10. Below the level of the foundations, however, the material is slightly earlier, in general perhaps representing at late 6th to early 7th century date. This rubble level appears to sit immediately atop early Roman deposits dating to the 1st century BC to first AD and even earlier level of Hellenistic date. The diverse assemblage of fine wares, kitchen wares, and transport and utilities wares present in the massive rubble leveling course indicates that it was not only the product of a wellprovisions and connected community, but that the rubble course was at least partially associated with discard from other locations in the community. "P1020976.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020976.jpg]"P1020976"Roma n period water pipe.

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The PKAP-Polis Project's Season of Work http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/2965/ Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:37:06 +0000 Bill Caraher This weekend is the annual CAARI (Cyprus-American Archaeological Research Institute) Workshop. This meeting attracts archaeologists from all over the Republic of Cyprus to present their work often as their field or study seasons are underway. At its best, it is a great way to catch up with both old friends and professional news. Typically, my project, the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project presents some of their research, but, alas, this year, we were not invited to participate. Rumor has it that we were not invited because we made all the other projects look bad, and this was bad for morale in the archaeological community. Apparently our reports on what we had accomplished on the island in such a short time brought [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Caesar*.html#11] some very important senior archaeologists to tears at the relative insignificance of their own achievements. Despite the situation being as it is, Scott Moore and I have opted to soldier on. Instead of leaving the archaeological community in awe of our achievements through a direct presentation of our genius, we have decided to contribute a brief report on our work at Polis in their larger work. We hope that it will be seen as sufficiently modest to get invited back to the CAARI workshop again in the future: A Brief Report on the PKAP-Polis Team's 2012 and 2013 Work Over the course of the 2012 and 2013 season, we have continued to study the stratigraphy, architecture, and finds from the Christian basilica style church in E.F2. To facilitate this work, we have prepared a comprehensive GIS-based site plan of the church, transcribed close to 40 excavation notebooks from the area, and created an relational database integrating digitized notebooks, analyzed context pottery, and registered finds. These tools and the study of over 20,000 artifacts from a fills, collapse, discard areas, and use levels has allowed us to begin the process of dating the major phases of this basilica and locating it in the history of the busy area of EF2. The most immediate significance of this work is that we can now date the basilica's construction to the 6th century AD with substantial modification over the next century including the addition of a narthex and south portico and its transformation from a woodroofed to barrel-vaulted church. The ceramic assemblages associated with the various construction phases contained a wide range of well-attested pottery in the southwestern Cyprus including local fine wares (Cypriot Red Slip) and imports (African Red Slips and Phocaean Wares), Late Roman Amphoras, and various Late Roman kitchen and cooking wares. It is worth noting that this assemblage is rather distinct from assemblages along the

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south and eastern sides of the island which feature far more imported fine wares and more numerous LR1 amphoras than we have currently recognized at Polis. While our primary focus has been on the Late Antique and Early Byzantine levels at E.F2, we plan to expand our work to include the systematic study of the Hellenistic, Roman and later Medieval remains in this area. Our intial study of material related to these earlier periods in the area has revealed the existence of a well-defined 1st c. BC/1st c. AD horizon characterized by Cypriot Sigillata and imported Eastern Sigilatta A table wares and a range of cooking vessels in recognizable Roman fabrics. Amphora and utility wares are far less common with the exception of the ocassional example of John Leonard's infamous "pinchhandled" amphoras. In 2013, we also conducted a campaign of high resolution laser scanning of the area of EF2 collection over 50 million individual data points with a Leica ScanStation C10. The result of this work not only complemented the more fanciful 3D reconstructions accompanying the City of Gold exhibit, but also provided detailed visual support for the study of notebooks and ceramics. The laser scans will allow the research team to document architectural relationships during the offseason, to produce vertical elevations, and to supplement and revise the existing plans of the site and its buildings.

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Progress Processing Pottery http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/progress-processing-pottery/ Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:38:32 +0000 Bill Caraher Scott Moore and I have spent a good bit of time processing context pottery from the site of Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus. This is how it looks: "P1020863.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020863.jpg]"P1020863" "P1020864.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020864.jpg]"P1020864" "P1020866.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020866.jpg]"P1020866" "P1020870.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020870.jpg]"P1020870" Then typed and keyed into a database.

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Saturday Quick Hit and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/saturday-quick-hit-and-varia/ Sat, 15 Jun 2013 04:17:39 +0000 Bill Caraher These are a day late because of a mid-afternoon hike into the Akamas Peninsula yesterday. I'll post some photos of it on Monday most likely. In the meantime, get your Saturday started right with some quick hits and varia. [http://www.enet.gr/?i=news.el.texnes-politismos&amp;id=368110] Some efforts to prepare the Corinthian Diolkos more interesting for tourists and protected. Let's hope they don't read [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/the-diolkos-of-david-pettegrew/] David Pettegrew's recent article. Hesperia 82.2 is up and ready to go, and [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia.82.2.0229.pdf] this version is graced by Tracey Cullen's retirement letter. She has been a fantastic editor and she has made Hesperia into the elegant, dynamic journal that it is today. [http://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/] The archaeology of and in video games and [https://twitter.com/Archaeogaming] its Twitter feed. Considering how much our students play video games, think about video games, and learn from video games, this is probably worth following. [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog/sahblog/2013/06/11/learning-from-taksim-square-architecture-state-power-and-public-spacein-istanbul] The architecture of Taksim Square in Istanbul and current protests. [http://blog.press.umich.edu/2013/06/new-authors-agreement/] A very cool approach to making more scholarship open access from the University of Michigan's Press. [http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/06/12/eaten-by-the-athletics-beast/] Steve Conn on Gordon Gee's retirement. [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/201306-06/harvard-must-boost-humanities-study-to-stop-decline-report-says.html] Harvard and the humanities. [http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/story/_/id/9376342/los-angelesdodgers-arizona-diamondbacks-open-2014-season-australia-report] Baseball at the Sydney Cricket Ground?! I'm not sure how I feel about this On a similar note, [http://www.cricket.com.au/news/2013/6/14/the-rivalry-that-unites-australia] the Ashes in Australia 2013/2014. I know what I'll be watching on Christmas night (in the U.S.). In the meantime, there is India-Pakistan today making the otherwise irrelevant Champions Trophy seem significant. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/642145.html] This is a cool article that puts that rivalry in perspective. [http://www.digitalhistorians.org/] I'm not entirely sure what this is, but I'm going to keep an eye on it. [http://m.willistonherald.com/mobile/news/man-camps-on-the-wayout/article_f449637a-d502-11e2-a396-0019bb2963f4.html] More on Man Camps in Williams County and [http://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/too-late-for-mckenzie-county-to-makethe-call/article_f9a181ee-d20b-11e2-8513-0019bb2963f4.html] the roads in McKenzie County. [http://letterology.blogspot.com/2013/06/airliner-badges-take-wingedflight.html] I love the logos of old airlines, almost as much as [http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/post/52868438974/sightseers-park-to-watch-astratocruiser-taxi] I love how certain old airplanes looked. [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/06/a-rotating-thunderstorm-closerthan-you-have-hopefully-ever-seen-before/276837/] Crazy stop action video of a supercell thunderstorm cloud. [http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/06/the-food-lab-7-old-wives!
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tales-about-cooking-steak.html] A nice corrective to how we think we should cook steak. What I'm reading: <span style="color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:11.818181991577px;lineheight:22.798294067383px;text-align:left;] R. Maguires dissertation: </span><em style="line-height:22.798294067383px;color:#222222;font-family:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:11.818181991577px;text-align:left;] Late Antique Basilicas on Cyprus: Sources, Contexts, History<span style="color:#222222;fontfamily:'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif;fontsize:11.818181991577px;line-height:22.798294067383px;text-align:left;] (2012). (Hey it's long!)</span> What I'm listening to: The Oblivians, Desperation.

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Any Mediterranean Landscape http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/any-mediterranean-landscape/ Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:36:15 +0000 Bill Caraher On Friday, our traditional day off here in Polis, I went for a walk in the country with my friend and fellow archaeologist Tina Najbjerg. We walked up to the ridge that separates the fertile Chrysochous Valley from the more arid and remote Akamas Peninsula in Greece. Our walk even included the picturesque ruin of a small, maybe Middle Byzantine monastery know as the Pyrgos tis Regainas. [http://archive.org/stream/deviacyprianotes00hoga#page/14/mode/2up] Hogarth describes part of the walk like this in his Devia Cypria (1889): "On this side of the Akamas we enter a land of classical and mediaeval romance ; for here, according to Cypriote tradition, was the Fontana Amorosa of Ariosto, and a distinct and far more beautiful "Vrisis ton Eroton", where the natives say that Aphrodite wedded Acamas. There can be little doubt that the two have probably but one origin, and that the real 'fount of love ' is the present "Vrisis ton Eroton"", although the western tradition has identified itself with a separate spring. The latter rises at the foot of the cliff in a tiny bay half-an-hour's ride north of Agios Nicola, and is a prosaic little fount enough; but the former, three and a half miles to the south, near the Potami tchiflik, has no rival in Cyprus. Approaching from the sea the traveller follows a rushing stream up a densely wooded ravine, barred at last by sombre cliffs, whose top can scarcely be discerned through the arch of boughs; spreading and shimmering over the slanting face of the rock falls a mountain stream, until near the base the cliff slopes inwards and the water falls from a forest of maiden-hair fern in a thousand silver threads to the pool below : across the threads here and there shoot stray shafts of sunlight, penetrating the dense shade of a gigantic fig-tree, and three separate springs rise on either side under the cliff and gurgle down to join the pool. The traveller, whose eyes have seen only the rock and scrub of waterless Cyprus, seems in an enchanted spot, not seeing from whence the water comes, and he ceases to wonder that native fancy has peopled the spot with legendary loves, and sailors carried westward vague reports of its beauties to the ears of Ariosto. Between the rival fountains and a little back from the coast lies a mediaeval relic now known as Pyrgos, the ' Tower ' ; an arched gateway gives entrance to a small cloister of which only the northern side is standing, the wall showing traces of fresco. Round about are foundations of out-buildings, and disused paths lead through the brushwood : east of it is a little spring and some fine pine-trees. There can be no doubt that it was once a small monastery, or a metoichi of a larger one." It seemed pretty nice to me too. In fact, it was nice enough that I just enjoyed the shade of the oaks and the little ruined monastery and left my camera in my bag for a while. They day was warm and just a bit hazy. Our main goal of the walk was to take in the amazing views.

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"P1020998.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1020998.jpg]"P1020998"View north over the Chrysochou Bay Standing atop that ridge and look around, I got the uncanny feeling that I could be anywhere in the Eastern Mediterranean and have these views (well, not anywhere literally, but that the Mediterranean countryside looked like this). I'm not a naturalist, but even I could identify the wild olives, carob, scrubby oaks, and pine common to the Mediterranean littoral. They left scratches on my legs from the bare branches that goats have The rocky ground, the thin soils, the sea borne breeze, even the smells of goats, oregano, and salt air made our walk familiar. "P1030002.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1030002.jpg]"P1030002"A view south to the Akamas "P1030003.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1030003.jpg]"P1030003" "P1030012.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/p1030012.jpg]"P1030012" "IMG_0638.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0638.jpg]"IMG 0638" "IMG_0635.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0635.jpg]"IMG 0635"]

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Polis and Amathus http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/polis-and-amathus/ Tue, 18 Jun 2013 11:27:25 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the past couple of weeks, I've been working my way through [https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/42388/] Richard Maguire's recent dissertation on the Late Antique Basilicas of Cyprus. While he dedicates the main body of his dissertation to a series of nuanced case studies, the real jewel of his dissertation is the gazetteer of Cypriot churches. As long time readers of this blog know, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/the-early-chris/] I've been piddling about with a catalogue of churches on the island (it was really just a list) for years.. Maguire's dissertation has put an end to that project (thankfully)! One of the most immediately useful observations in Maguire's gazetteer is that the church on the Acropolis of Amathus has a 13 x 13 square as its core. The basilica is #6 in his gazetteer and coins have dated the building to the final quarter of the 6th century. "AmathusAcropolis.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/amathusacropolis.jpg]"Amathus Acropolis" width="450" height="338" border="0" /> Its 13 x 13 m core consists of the nave and aisles and is roughly similar to the core of our church in the area of EF2 at Polis. Of course, the 13 x 13 square does not align perfectly with our church, but then again, our church is a good bit rougher than the elaborate Amathus church. "EF2PolisBasilica13m.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/ef2polisbasilica13m.jpg]"EF2Poli sBasilica13m" width="450" height="433" border="0" /> What makes this parallel more compelling is that, like the Amathus Acropolis basilica, our church has south porch with four piers. It joins with a narthex that extends beyond the southern aisle. More importantly, our church appears to date - on the basis of ceramic evidence, to no earlier than the final decades of the 6th century. So our church and the church at the Acropolis at Amathus are more or less contemporary.

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More Pottery, More Problems http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/more-pottery-more-problems/ Wed, 19 Jun 2013 13:01:42 +0000 Bill Caraher About two weeks ago, I was feeling pretty good about the date our our basilica at the site of Polis. We dated the church on the basis of five or six fairly secure deposits associated with the construction or modification of the church. The pottery in these contexts is largely the locally(ish) produced fine ware, Cypriot Red Slip. The more pottery we have, however, the more problems it creates. And here's how it goes. First, we have to identify the major wares present and the make an effort to distinguish the different shapes. That often means spending hours looking at sheets of rim profiles and reading fiddly descriptions of fabric. Because these pots were not made on a production line, any sherd we find does not really line up precisely with the object in our books so we have to wiggle it to fit a category (and, moreover, the potters were not sitting around discussing how to produce Cypriot Red Slip Form 9!). It's like getting some kind of polyhedron to pass through a round or square hole in a child's game. "Screenshot_6_19_13_3_22_PM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/screenshot_6_19_13_3_22_pm.j pg]"Screenshot 6 19 13 3 22 PM" width="450" height="453" border="0" />"Screenshot_6_19_13_3_25_PM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/screenshot_6_19_13_3_25_pm.j pg]"Screenshot 6 19 13 3 25 PM" width="450" height="615" border="0" /> Then, once we are satisfied that we have fit our sherd into the typology, we can begin attempting to date our shapes on the basis of stratified examples of these vessels elsewhere. Most scholars who contribute to the typologies we use to identify the sherds also make an effort to date the pottery. Unfortunately, the bewildering array of shapes and sub-types can devolve into equally bewildering chronological arguments. I had a bit of a "down-melt" this morning when confronted with several possible for a type ranging from 580/600-700 to early 5th to 7th century. That's a big difference and 580/600 is not a secure date but TWO different dates separated by a slash. In terms of normal humans living in normal time, this is meaningless. I was not born in 1972/1988. "IMG_0598.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0598.jpg]"IMG 0598" Finally, once we get some dates on some pots, we have to reconcile the chronologies of various vessels within the deposit with one another. This always involves dating the deposit to after the date of the more recent object. Once we have the terminus post quem (that the date after which) for the deposit, we can begin to attempt to understand how earlier material made its way into the collection of pot sherds deposited as a single event. Since most of our deposits are associated with the construction of the basilica, it is easy enough to understand the various earlier sherds as being part of the debris used to backfill a foundation trench or !

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pack a floor. In fact, from a use standpoint the latest and earliest sherd in the deposit functioned essentially the same way. They were all residual and probably all cast aside some time earlier in either a dump or in some kind of local destruction. The problem is, of course, the more pottery there is, the more complicated the chronological relationships are. For each deposit, we have to sort out both the very local chronology of material, but also the relationship between it and others at our site which may not have the same types (or sub-types) or pottery, but may have a similar date. As a great man once said, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUhRKVIjJtw] mo' pottery, mo' problems.

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Residuality and Fill Levels at the EF2 Basilica at Polis http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/20/residuality-and-fill-levels-at-theef2-basilica-at-polis/ Thu, 20 Jun 2013 12:10:16 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the challenges that we faced working at the EF2 basilica at Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus was that so much of the ceramic evidence came from various kinds of fill levels at the site. In other words, we had very little material from traditional use contexts and an unbelievable quantity of pottery associated with either construction deposits or the massive rubble fill level that extends south from the basilica. While analysis of ceramics from areas of such relatively undifferentiated contexts has not always been the rule on archaeological project, recently decades have shown how the study of material in these fills levels can produce high-resolution snap shots of the certain components of a communities material culture. "R09Fill.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/r09fill.jpg]"R09Fill" width="450" height="217" border="0" />Note the "Rubble Layer" in the scarp drawing As we looked at the pottery from these levels we began to think about how to approach assemblages of ceramic artifacts produced by activities completely unrelated to the original to the original purposes of the objects. The artifacts present in the leveling and construction fills, for example, represent past activities at the site, habits of discard, and construction practices. They also provide chronological "type fossils" that allow us to date architectural features associated with the levels. Gavin Lucas in his new book, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/understanding-thearchaeological-record/oclc/747331911] Understanding the Archaeological Record, puts it nicely: "If we think about the archaeological record in terms of the residuals of assemblages, we must consider such residues as possessing the memory of the assemblage itself, insofar as the organization of the residue captures, however faintly, the organization of the parent. It is the residue of this organization that is being sought, not simply the elements or objects which were part of it." (p. 211). Over the last couple of weeks, we've worked out way through the material in the fills that extend south from the basilica and have paid particular attention to the very common Cypriot fine ware (or table ware) called Cypriot Red Slip as well as contemporary imported pottery (see my post yesterday for more on this). Our intent is to analyze the residual ceramics in these fills much like we'd interpret survey data. In fact, we intend to compare the assemblage produced by this fill with assemblages from both similar contexts (especially those associated with the nearly contemporary basilicas at the site of [http://www.worldcat.org/title/cypriot-village-of-late-antiquity-kalavasos-kopetra-in-thevasilikos-valley/oclc/52156317] Kalavassos-Kopetra) as well as the results of [http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-the-paphian-aphrodite-2-the-canadian-palaipaphos-

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survey-project-artifact-and-ecofactual-studies/oclc/715318591] survey work in the larger Paphos and Polis area. Our goal is to be able to speak to and from the architecture as well as the assemblage in our analysis of activity in the area of EF2 at Polis.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-65/ Fri, 21 Jun 2013 12:26:42 +0000 Bill Caraher As per usual, I discovered that we really should read two more units of pottery before we depart Polis this summer. This has thrown the PKAP-Polis Project into overdrive because these levels fill about 15-20 trays of pottery. Scott reads about a tray an hour, so we're looking at a couple of long days in the storeroom. [http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/a-little-more-pottery/] At least Scott is keeping up a brave face. But before we get down to business, we have a day off. Scott Moore and Brandon Olson are on their way to Nicosia for some work at [http://www.caari.org/] CAARI and I'm going to prepare a short talk for the North Dakota Humanities Council this evening on the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project and do some GIS work. I will also provide my loyal and engaged readers with a little swarm of quick hits and varia. [http://www.technologyreview.com/view/516081/the-remarkable-properties-ofmythological-social-networks/] Social networks in Homer's Odyssey. [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/news/newsDetails/corinth-2013-winds-down] Report from Corinth. [http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/06/this-castles-toilet-still-holdsparasites-from-crusaders-feces/] Parasites in Crusader poo from Cyprus. [http://vimeo.com/67870043] Carving an Ionic Capital. [http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1328921/1/1328921_Querciaetal11_postprint.pdf] Roman Pottery from the Antikythera Survey. Things old are new again: [http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-14/ancientroman-concrete-is-about-to-revolutionize-modern-architecture] The innovation of Roman concrete and [http://www.manton.org/2013/06/multiplane.html] Disney's multiplane camera in iOS 7. [http://trowelblazers.tumblr.com/post/52389525415/agatha-christie-putting-the-ur-inmurder] Agatha Christie at Ur. [http://oihistory.blogspot.com/2013/06/news-for-its-latest-beer-craft-brewer.html] Ancient beer. [http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/06/down-and-out-in-athens/100531/] How the other half (or 2/3rds?) live in Athens and [http://www.authentichistory.com/18981913/2-progressivism/2-riis/index.html] lived in turn of the century New York.

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 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKHz7wOjb9w&amp;feature=player_embedded] JET BIKE!!! [http://issuu.com/undalumniassociation/docs/full_magazine_with_nyberg_cover/21?e=11 45658/3073185] Some persistent press for Punk Archaeology. [http://www.mapbox.com/labs/twitter-gnip/brands/#7/47.249/-96.103] The maps are mind-bottling. [http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/06/18/typewriter-tip-tip-tip-and-othernews/] Typewriting. [http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2013/0614/India-to-end-staterun-telegram-service.-Stop] The last telegram. Wait how will I communicate with my students? At least we still have the mimeograph. [http://news.oitablog.jp/english/2012/04/mr-mimeograph-prints-his-final.html] what?? Noooooooooooooooo. [http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/06/forget_moocslets_use_mooa.html ] This is really funny. [https://maps.google.com/?ll=78.655741,16.308512&amp;spn=0.000311,0.002591&amp;t= m&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=78.655741,16.308512&amp;panoid=XFjVuvmO_FGkibZHJ2MMQ&amp;cbp=13,66.43,,0,0&amp;z=19] Visit Pyramiden. [http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/open-access] Peter Suber's Open Access is now available open access and [http://asorblog.org/?p=4757] the Golden Age of open access archaeology. North Dakotans [http://www.armenianweekly.com/columnists/kristi-rendahl/] write on Armenia and [http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/06/16/192199375/the-batteredold-car-that-drove-my-fathers-american-dream] Greek immigrant experiences. When can we officially begin to discuss a North Dakota Diaspora? Plus, we have a [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/] Barth (who hasn't diaspora-ed yet). [http://www.aloaudio.com/studio-six] It's never too soon to start my Christmas list! [http://www.theabsolutesound.com/buyers_guides/18/] How to make you stereo sound better for cheap. There are lots of things to do with books including [http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/17/discarded-books-recovered-nostalgia/] this or [http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/06/rebound-dissections-and-excavations-in-bookart-at-the-halsey-institute-of-contemporary-art/] that. [http://www.marksimonson.com/notebook/view/mad-men-mad-props] Watch your fonts!

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 What I'm reading: H. Meyza, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/nea-paphos-v-cypriot-redslip-ware-cypryjska-ceramika-czerwonoangobowana-studia-nad-poznorzymska-ceramikastoowa-lewantu/oclc/496750893] Nea Paphos V: Cypriot Red Slip Ware. Varsovie 2007. What I'm listening to: Kanye West, Yeezus."Really.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/really.jpg]"Really" width="450" height="634" border="0" />

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Discovery in Pieces http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/discovery-in-pieces/ Mon, 24 Jun 2013 12:11:07 +0000 Bill Caraher Yesterday was one of my best days ever as an archaeologist. I didn't discover some amazing new site. And I didn't find some amazing or valuable object. And my day didn't involve out witting Nazis or mummies (or zombies). Over the last few weeks, we have worked to establish dates and architectural relationships for the various parts of the basilica at EF2 at Polis. We figured out that the narthex and the south portico of the church were added to the building most likely date to the middle years of the 7th century. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/more-potterymore-problems/] We found particular types of late Cypriot Red Slip pottery in a foundation trench associated with the narthex, and we know that the south portico - a long porch build along the south side of the church - had to date to after (or the same time as) the narthex. The south portico appears to have been cut into a massive rubble fill the extended north from the south wall of the church. ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/water-and-our-basilica/] We've tentatively argued that this rubble fill was a response to a local drainage issue.) The other phase of the church that we've been studying involves the building of buttresses along the walls along the walls of the main nave. The ceramics from deposits associated with these piers also date to the 7th century, but we had not been able to associate their construction with the building of the narthex and south portico. Until yesterday. Yesterday, [http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/sunday-meansstamps/] Scott Moore discovered a join between two pieces of a stamped Cypriot Red Slip plate. One piece came from the massive rubble course south of the basilica that narrowly pre-dates the building of the portico. The other piece of the same plate came from a foundation deposit associated with the construction of a buttress on the north wall of the nave. This sherd, then, connects the two major changes to the basilica: the addition of a narthex and portico and the reconstruction of the main nave. "TheSherd.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/thesherd.jpg]"TheSherd" The two pieces of pottery came from trenches about 15 m apart. The trench to the south of the south portico was excavated in 1985 and the trench in the nave in 1990. One sherd was inventoried as a find (which means that it stood out as something with intrinsic value) and one sherd languished in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/progress-processing-pottery/] the boxes of context pottery. (We had to look through over 20,000 artifacts in the context pottery boxes to find this little guy!).

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Bringing together the context pottery and the inventoried finds, two different episodes of excavation, and the narthex, portico, and buttresses of the main nave has unlocked the chronology of the church. It was a pretty good day.

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End of the Season Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/end-of-the-season-varia/ Tue, 25 Jun 2013 12:46:47 +0000 Bill Caraher At the end of a study season, I'm always left with various things that I'm all excited about, but I don't have sorted out for a blog post. For example, I usually have a satisfying photograph of the end from the last day at the apotheke (or storeroom) like this: "IMG_0663.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0663.jpg]"IMG 0663"] The table is empty, and that's a good thing, because it was usually filled with pottery under study or being catalogued. I also have a few photographs that try to capture the range of activities during the season in a single shot. So, I have a photograph that shows off Brandon Olson's illustrations of Late Roman fine ware like this. Scott and Brandon are looking at two chronologically contemporary, but physically distinct areas of the excavation for joins. "Drawn.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/drawn.jpg]"Drawn" width="450" height="756" border="0" /> And I since we did some 3D modeling of parts of the basilica using Agisoft Photoscan, I invariably have some cool screen shots like those below. The first one is southwest corner of the narthex. If you look carefully you can see the lines of the original arched opening which was latter walled up with less well-sorted (and weight bearing) rubble walls. "Screenshot_062513_031844_PM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/screenshot_062513_031844_pm. jpg]"Screenshot 062513 031844 PM" width="450" height="246" border="0" /> Here is another showing the buttresses in the north aisle of the church. You can see clearly how the eastern apses do not bond with the main wall of the north aisle. "Screenshot_062513_032224_PM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/screenshot_062513_032224_pm. jpg]"Screenshot 062513 032224 PM" width="450" height="205" border="0" /> One of the most useful things about modeling architecture using Agisoft is that we can show parts of the basilica at almost impossible angles without having to get a crane and reshooting photographs. I also have a little gaggle of photographs that I like, but don't really know what to do with. So I have this one of the "super moon" over the plataea of Polis at night. I like it because it looks a bit like a painting.

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"IMG_0660.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0660.jpg]"IMG 0660"] Then I always have ridiculously beautiful scenes like this: "IMG_0637.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_06371.jpg]"IMG 0637" width="450" height="671" border="0" /> Or like this: "IMG_0638.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_06381.jpg]"IMG 0638" I don't recall whether these two photos appeared on the blog. It's ok if you find this kind of thing empty and self-indulgent. I promise that I'll get back to more substantive blog posts over the next couple of days. I have some writing and thinking time in Larnaka before I head to Greece to check out an area where I hope to do some fieldwork next year.

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Analyzing Residual Ceramics in a Fill Deposit http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/analyzing-residual-ceramics-in-afill-deposit/ Wed, 26 Jun 2013 12:58:08 +0000 Bill Caraher I know this isnt one of my best titles ever, but it describes what I am trying to do pretty accurately. As we move toward a comprehensive preliminary study of the basilica in area EF2 at the site of Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus, we want to be able to say something about some of the ceramic assemblages associated with the buildings. In particular, we have a massive fill level that we have tentatively associated with the second phase in the construction of the basilica. <p align="left] The fill is dated by both coins and ceramics to the middle decades of the 7th century an consisted over 3000 pieces of broken pottery. Because the excavators did not save all pottery and tended to discard less apparently diagnostic artifacts, the fill consisted over over 40% fine ware (compared to 9% transport amphora sherds, 32% utility wares (primarily storage vessels and other less diagnostic coarse and medium coarse fabric sherds), and 15% kitchen wares). While it may be possible to reconstruct what they discarded into the pottery dump, for now we think that the assemblage is more or less representative of what was excavated. <p align="center] [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image.png] <img title="image" style="border-top:0;border-right:0;background-image:none;borderbottom:0;float:none;padding-top:0;padding-left:0;margin-left:auto;borderleft:0;display:block;padding-right:0;margin-right:auto;" border="0]"image" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image_thumb.png" width="450" height="270] CRS Sherds in the R09 Fill at Polis The majority of fineware in this assemblage is Cypriot Red Slip (or, [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&amp;aid=874397 8] what we maybe should call Late Roman D Ware). The chronology of the assemblage represents almost the full chronological range of CRS production which began some time in the 4th century and perhaps continued as late as the 8th. Like many significant assemblages of CRS, CRS9 and its variants (largely identified by [http://www.worldcat.org/title/neapaphos-v-cypriot-red-slip-ware-cypryjska-ceramika-czerwonoangobowana-studia-nadpoznorzymska-ceramika-stoowa-lewantu/oclc/496750893] Henryk Meyza and his work at nearby Paphos) make up the largest percentage of our material. The particularly production long life of CRS9 (beginning in 400 and continuing with some variation to almost the end of the 7th century) might account for its preponderance in our assemblage. Unlike many other sites on the island the Polis R09 Fill had an impressive quantity of CRS8 an CRS11 sherds. [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/crs11.jpg] <img title="CRS11" style="border-top:0;border-right:0;background-image:none;borderbottom:0;float:none;padding-top:0;padding-left:0;margin-left:auto;borderleft:0;display:block;padding-right:0;margin-right:auto;" border="0]"CRS11" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/crs11_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="101] These likely date to the final century (or 150 years) of CRS production. The size of CRS11 vessels and the distinct folded-over shape of the rim of many of the CRS11 basins found at our site may suggest a local production center, although the rim of the vessel shown above is similar and comes from Anemurium in Asia Minor. Our percentages are !
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similar to those produced by the nearby [http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-thepaphian-aphrodite/oclc/30892600] Canadian Palaiopaphos Survey Project, but they identified fewer CRS11 sherds. <p align="center] [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image1.png] <img title="image" style="border-top:0;border-right:0;background-image:none;borderbottom:0;float:none;padding-top:0;padding-left:0;margin-left:auto;borderleft:0;display:block;padding-right:0;margin-right:auto;" border="0]"image" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image_thumb1.png" width="450" height="270] CPSP CRS Assemblage <p align="left] A nearly contemporary assemblage associated with two basilica churches excavated by Marcus Rautman at Kopetra on Cyprus also produced a similar distribution of forms. <p align="center] [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image3.png] <img title="image" style="border-top:0;border-right:0;background-image:none;borderbottom:0;float:none;padding-top:0;padding-left:0;margin-left:auto;borderleft:0;display:block;padding-right:0;margin-right:auto;" border="0]"image" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image_thumb3.png" width="450" height="270] CRS from Kopetra <p align="left] The main difference between the CSPS and Kopetra assemblages are that they probably represent a wide range of depositional processes from discard to (perhaps) use. Our assemblage from trench R09 at Polis is probably all secondary discard and two steps removed from its primary use context. It was deposited as a single event, but the material likely derived from a range of domestic discards. <p align="left] <strong>UPDATE</strong>: One more example, here are the different forms documented by the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. <p align="left] [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image4.png] <img title="image" style="border-top:0;border-right:0;background-image:none;borderbottom:0;float:none;padding-top:0;padding-left:0;margin-left:auto;borderleft:0;display:block;padding-right:0;margin-right:auto;" border="0]"image" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/image_thumb4.png" width="450" height="270]

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What's in your bag? http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/whats-in-your-bag/ Thu, 27 Jun 2013 12:24:08 +0000 Bill Caraher One of my favorite recent gimmicks is [http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/whats-inyour-bag-travel-edition/50567] blogs doing little " [http://www.theverge.com/label/whatsin-your-bag] what's in your bag?" features on their contributors. I'm not sure why I find them so fascinating. Maybe it is the archaeologist in me who is interested in objects and people. Maybe it's the tech geek who wonders about other people's gadgets (o.p.g.s). Most likely, I do it because it makes me feel less awkward for what I take. So to thank all those bloggers who make me feel less odd for traveling with too much gear (and all the other possible reasons), I offer you my own modest "what's in my bag" on the day before I depart Cyprus for Greece. "photo.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/photo.jpg]"Photo"] Starting at top left: 1. Three kinds of notebooks. A longterm, journal type Moleskin notebook. Three smaller clothbound short's pocket sized notebooks, and a single Field Notes brand shirt pocket sized notebook (because I like Futura font). 2. Three chargers with related cables. 3. These chargers and cables live in a little hard drive case. 4. Two 1 TB hard drives. One is a USB 3 drive and blazing fast. It's great for on the go backups and large-scale data swaps when the internet is too slow to use the cloud. The other is a USB2 drive and carries everything from my office computer on it. I also have two 16 gb flash drives; one is always lost and it's always the one that I need. I keep both 1 TB drives in a single case. So if I lose that case, I lose all my backups, all at once. This keeps me from wishing that the other backup was lost. (At Polis we call these The Terabyte Drive. I have no idea what the plural of this is.) 5. A 13" 2012 MacBook Air. This is my favorite computer in the world. I blog on it. I edit photos on it (using Gimp). I read email on it. I prefer to write on it when my grown-up 15 inch Retina MacBook Pro is not around. It's like a little friend that travels with me always. 6.iPad. I carry the iPad around because I just know that one of these days, I will discover that I can't live without it. 7. A Mouse. Because my main field computer is a PC, I am obligated by university policy to travel with a mouse. 8. Kindle. I actually prefer reading on a Kindle than dragging 40 lbs. of books with me.

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9. Panasonic Lumix GX-1 with a 14 mm lens and a 14-40 mm lens. [https://medium.com/people-gadgets/bbae2adcadc6] I'll let Kyle Cassidy handle this one, but it is my DSLR replacement. It is one of my favorite things especially with the LCD viewfinder for the Mediterranean sun. 10. Sennheiser Momentum headphones. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/more-things-of-music/] I love [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/the-things-of-music/] my stereo, and it is really important that I can hide from the world in music for a little part of every day. These help. 11. iPod Classic with [http://www.aloaudio.com/the-national] ALO Audio National Headphone Amplifier. This helps more. 12. Dell 15" XPS (2013). This is my pimped out GIS, database, Agisoft (3D imaging) computer. It's a gamers computer with a big, fast GPU and a lots of RAM. It's heavy, has Windows 8, and seems very serious. It sort of freaks me out. 13. Backup Headphones. Sometimes I like my smaller earbuds. So I have a pair of little Shure in-ear monitors when I don't need the big sound of the Sennheisers and a pair of little (relatively) cheap Klipsch earbuds for when I'm looking closely at things on site. 14. [http://www.wonpro.com/style/frame/templates9/product.asp?lang=2&amp;customer_id =1327&amp;name_id=29951&amp;content_set=color_1&amp;rid=8006] Wonpro international powerstip. Best thing ever for the traveling archaeologist. You can attach a power cable for almost any kind of outlet (I have a Cypriot/UK cable, a Greek cable, and an Australian cable) and the strip itself accepts almost any plug. 15. Little carrying case of passport. 16. Sunglasses. That's what's in my bag. What's in yours?

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/28/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-66/ Fri, 28 Jun 2013 11:59:03 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm packing for a quick trip to Greece today, but I'm also counting down the days before I leave Cyprus from the great Northern Plains. I'm not sure what my internet connectivity will be while I stomp around in the Argolid, but if there is a connection (no matter how faint), I'll at least post a few photos. In the meantime, here are some quick hits and varia to tide you over. [http://blogs.cofc.edu/thearchaeoinformant/2013/06/21/linear-b-archives-project-in-fullswing/] This looks like a cool way to document Linear B tablets. Along similar lines, [http://ajaonline.org/forum/1554] the introduction to this special issue of the American Journal of Archaeology gives a nice overview of the current state of discussion regarding craft production in the Bronze Age. This is a more important issue than you might initially think and the introduction is really accessible (and the entire issue is open access!). [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23029507] Creepy little Egyptian statues that move on their own. [http://sgsymposium.ku.edu.tr/artamonoff] Historic photographs of Byzantine Istanbul. [http://nmnh.typepad.com/rogers_archaeology_lab/] Mandan and Arikara pottery. Notice the comb ware! [http://www9.wittenberg.edu/nearbyarchaeology/?p=742] Byzantine archaeology in northwest Ohio. [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2013/06/crets-landscape-of-war.html] Landscapes of war. [http://www.openculture.com/2013/06/ithe_art_of_punki_presents_a_new_documentary_ on_the_dead_kennedys_and_their_gritty_aesthetics_.html] The Art of Punk on the "gritty aesthetics" of the Dead Kennedys. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-XS4aueDUg&amp;feature=youtu.be] On a similar note, Cuban DIY inventions during the "Special Period in the Time of Peace." [http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2013/06/26/rick-rubin-on-crashing-kanye-salbum-in-15-days.html] Rick Rubin. [http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/82650/publisher_ID/29/] Rededicating the Grand Army of the Republic statue in Grand Forks.

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 [http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/June-2013/SpectacularEarly-20th-Century-Panoramic-Photos-By-George-R-Lawrence/] Historic aerial photographs of American cities. Some interesting debate on whether [http://theunderstatement.com/post/53867665082/pandora-pays-far-more-than-16-dollars] Pandora is good for bands or [http://thetrichordist.com/2013/06/24/my-song-got-playedon-pandora-1-million-times-and-all-i-got-was-16-89-less-than-what-i-make-from-a-single-tshirt-sale/] bad for bands. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/opinion/sunday/the-decline-and-fall-of-theenglish-major.html] The decline of the English major or [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-strauss/hiring-english-majors_b_3484409.html] its continued relevance. What I'm reading: See bullet point #2. What I'm listening to: Nothing new"IMG_0675.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/img_0675.jpg]"IMG 0675]

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Earth, Wind, and Fire on a Short Trip to Greece http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/earth-wind-and-fire-on-a-shorttrip-to-greece/ Tue, 02 Jul 2013 19:00:38 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm conspiring on a TOP SEKRET project in Greece over the past few days. I hadn't been to Greece since 2010. So I was perhaps a bit overstimulated by it all. But I really like being in Greece and the prospect of working there again is beyond exciting. And, we experienced earth, wind, and fire in my brief stay there. The hill behind our hotel conflagrated (that's a word right?). It was terrifying so I responded like any American and started to take pictures. "P1030387.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/p1030387.jpg]"P1030387" We went on a number of long, exhausting walks. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/any-mediterranean-landscape/] The landscape was brilliantly Mediterranean with vineyards, olive groves, abrupt, steep mountains covered with impenetrable [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquis_shrubland] maquis. "photo (1).JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/photo1.jpg]"Photo 1" width="450" height="121" border="0" /> The wind is an inevitable product of one too many hills with sturdy, but slope-adverse eastern North Dakota legs. "IMG_0601.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0601.jpg]"IMG 0601" As I grew weaker on the walk through the mountains, I realized that my generation of archaeologist made soft by obligations to publish and, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/24/discovery-in-pieces/] long days in museums and storerooms, were not going to ascend into the mountains during the next war to collaborate with rebels and ally forces. I'd last about 3 days (hours) on [http://130.91.81.228/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/19-1/Koster.pdf] the thousand year road (if you don't know, click the link and read).

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Fortified Camps and Refuges http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/fortified-camps-and-refuges/ Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:00:25 +0000 Bill Caraher I've been thinking a bit about fortified camps and refuges lately. This is largely prompted by my TOP SEKRET project, but also prompted a bit by my reflections on [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/some-miniatures-from-pylavigla/] our ongoing study of the site of Pyla-Vigla on Cyprus. The question I keep having is how does one distinguish a fortified camp from a refuge. Camps, at least for the Classical to Roman period served to accommodate soldiers for a short period of time. In fact, the Romans built fortified camps at the end of every days march. These camps differ, of course, from the more long-term camps - occupied for a number of years or even longer - known from the Roman period at strategically significant places in the Mediterranean, along borders, or in areas where longterm garrisons were stationed. "James_R._McCredie_Fortified_Military_Camps_in_Attica_Hesperia_Supplement_vol_11_ _1966.pdf__page_13_of_156_.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/james_r_mccredie_fortified_military_camps_in_attica_hesperia_supplement_vol_11__1966pdf__page_13_of_156_.jpg]"James R McCredie Fortified Military Camps in Attica Hesperia Supplement vol 11 1966 pdf page 13 of 156" width="450" height="481" border="0" /> [http://www.worldcat.org/title/fortified-military-camps-in-attica/oclc/398109] During the tumultuous Hellenistic period, numerous sites identified with short-term, strategic occupation appear across Greece, and a small number have been identified in Cyprus as well. [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf] Archaeologists have argued (pdf) that these likely served the needs of armies on the march or engaged in shortterm fortification of the tactical locations or enemy territory. The argument for such episodic or short-term activities rests on two main features of these camps. First, the material from such sites typically represents the short-term character of activities in these areas. Assemblages tend to be remarkably cohesive, largely utilitarian in character and chronologically unified. Second, the fortification walls at these sites tend be rough, inelegant affairs. They rarely have proper ashlar polygonal or isodomic styles and often utilize natural features like rock outcrops or steep slopes to supplement the course of the wall. The remains of the wall, even if they seem imposing to us today, may have simply been the stone socles for mudbrick superstructures. "P1030899.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/p1030899.jpg]"P1030899"

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If the camps had any easily defined buildings within their circuits, they tended to be simple in design and rather small. In Greece they clearly featured tile roofs; in Cyprus, the roofs might have been reed and mud. In short, these rough-and-ready fortifications lacked the monumentality of the famous Attic border forts or the Hellenistic fortification that dot the Ionian coast of Turkey. Refuges are a less clearly identified type of fortification in the landscape. In fact, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/attische-festungen-beitrage-zum-festungswesen-undzur-siedlungsstruktur-vom-5-bis-zum-3-jh-v-chr/oclc/463505602] some scholars have interpreted fortified camps as refuges. The material evidence for a refuge would likely be similar to that produced by a short-term military encampment. Moreover, a refuge, set away from the main areas of settlement and more likely to be hidden than monumental would manifest similarly in the landscape. The best way, I suspect, to begin to make arguments for the function of remote fortified sites is to locate these places within larger settlement patterns and roads and routes through the landscape. Intensive survey has played a part creating dynamic landscape of settlement and movement in Greece and Cyprus. It seems possible that this work will present a way to understand rather modest, short-term, rural fortifications as well.

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Heading Home http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/heading-home/ Thu, 04 Jul 2013 03:46:54 +0000 Bill Caraher After almost 7 weeks in the Eastern Mediterranean, I'm heading home this morning. It has been a great couple of months, but I look forward to enjoying the best of the North Dakota summer. "IMG_0705.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0705.jpg]"IMG 0705]

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/05/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-67/ Fri, 05 Jul 2013 12:24:35 +0000 Bill Caraher It's my first back in the US and I'm still working to get my bearings, but I think I have enough of them to offer a little gaggle of quick hits and varia on a lovely mid-summer Friday. [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/virgin-mary-archeopark-to-open-soon-onzeytinli-island.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=49802&amp;NewsCatID=375] A Virgin Mary archaeological park in Turkey which is cool, but not in the way that it sounds. [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/virgin-mary-archeopark-to-open-soon-on-zeytinliisland.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=49802&amp;NewsCatID=375] Charles Texier's [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/virgin-mary-archeopark-to-open-soon-on-zeytinliisland.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=49802&amp;NewsCatID=375] Byzantine Architecture (1864) free from Harvard. [http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/lego-acropolis-offers-modernday-insight-intoancient-world-20130704-2pepq.html] Lego Acropolis in Sydney. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbSkRS8Ih7o] This little YouTubler on the Aral Sea is pretty cool. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mowax21/urban-archaeology-21-years-of-mowax] Punk Archaeologists should all support this. I haven't read this new reports on [http://www.humanitiescommission.org/_pdf/HSS_Report.pdf] the humanities from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and [http://artsandhumanities.fas.harvard.edu/humanities-project] from Harvard, but they're on my summer reading list. Both are generating lots of response and reaction. Now [http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-Declining-Not/140093/] Michael Brub and [http://chronicle.com/article/The-Humanities-inDubious/140047/?cid=cr&amp;utm_source=cr&amp;utm_medium=en] Anthony Grafton and James Grossman chime in. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/technology/douglas-c-engelbart-inventor-of-thecomputer-mouse-dies-at-88.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=1&amp;] R.I.P. Douglas Engelbart the inventor of the mouse (among other things). I appreciate my colleague and friend Eric Burin's willingness to deploy his specialist knowledge on the Civil War in the public sphere. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/267289/group/Opinion/] Check out this op-ed. I wonder, though, whether his rhetorical position (artful sloganeering?) could be made against those who so staunchly defend the humanities, though. While wandering Amsterdam's Schiphol airport yesterday, I noticed [http://moreintelligentlife.com/page/contents-julyaugust2013] a cover photo of Neil !
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Gaiman not taken by [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/758907.html?thread=16090235&amp;] Kyle Cassidy. [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/02/how-a-pasta-chain-called-noodlesco-punked-wall-street.html] This is a pretty funny little story about Noodles and Co. Wall Street triumph. It is very reminiscent of the [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/marilyn-hagerty-olivegarden_n_1332753.html] Marilyn Haggerty incident a couple years back. We have a Noodles and Co. in Grand Forks and it's pretty uninteresting. What I'm listening to: [http://foolsgoldrecs.com/runthejewels/] EL.P. and Killer Mike, Run the Jewels. What I'm reading: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/tiger-tiger/oclc/9587237] Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (1956)."photo (2).JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/photo-2.jpg]"Photo 2]

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Churches in Greece or Why my Dissertation is not a Book http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/churches-in-greece-or-why-mydissertation-is-not-a-book/ Mon, 08 Jul 2013 12:05:20 +0000 Bill Caraher Ten years ago this month, I submitted my dissertation, [http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1057071172] Church, Society, and the Sacred in Early Christian Greece, for final approval at Ohio State and became Dr. Bill Caraher. A year later, I was lucky enough to become Visiting Assistant Professor Bill Caraher and a year after that Assistant Professor Bill Caraher. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/presenting-my-path-to-tenure/] And finally, last year, Associate Professor. Pretty exciting business, academia is. Last week, over dinner with my Ph.D. advisor in Greece I was once again asked why I hadn't made progress toward publishing my dissertation. The easy answer always has been: [http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi?acc_num=osu1057071172] it's available here for free so I felt no need to work on it more so that someone else could make money from it. A more complex answer usually involved me explaining that I was extremely fortunate to get a job at a school that supported faculty research, while not requiring a book for tenure. So instead of re-heating my dissertation for a quick monograph to ensure tenure, I started a new project - the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project - on Cyprus, and have managed to bring it almost to completion over the last decade. In fact, a monograph based on the survey we conducted at the site between 2004 and 2010 is in final revisions and will appear as a volume in the [http://www.asor.org/pubs/books-monographs/ars.html] American Schools of Oriental Research Archaeological Report Series. That being said, people still bug me about my dissertation. So now, I tell them that there are other scholars doing great work on some of the same issues that I explored in my dissertation. [http://www.worldcat.org/title/saints-and-church-spaces-in-the-late-antiquemediterranean-architecture-cult-and-community/oclc/422764940] Ann Marie Yasin's book on saints and churches appeared in 2009 (some thoughts on it [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/saints-and-church-spaces/] here and [http://www.scribd.com/doc/40841124/Yasin-Review-Oct2010] here); [http://www.worldcat.org/title/private-worship-public-values-and-religious-changein-late-antiquity/oclc/183179509] Kim Bowes has produced some good scholarship in private churches (my thoughts on it [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/some-thoughts-on-kimbowes-private-worship-public-values-and-religious-change-in-late-antiquity/] here); and R [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_late_antiquity/summary/v003/3.2.sweetman.htm l] ebecca Sweetman has attacked the complex evidence for Early Christian architecture in Greece with insight ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/christianization-and-churchesin-the-peloponnese/] my thoughts on it here). There seemed little need for another book on Early Christian architecture in Greece. The field was in good hands.

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All that being said, I have continued to churn out little papers and articles on the topic of Early Christian architecture and churches. Few of them have appeared in print largely owing to the vagaries of academic publishing, but all of the papers below are either forthcoming or in press except the epilogue. Whenever possible I have posted working drafts or pre-prints to [http://www.scribd.com/billcaraher] my Scribd page. I guess people can put these papers in order and make them almost like a little book. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/152406487/Patronage-and-Reception-in-the-MonumentalArchitecture-of-Early-Christian-Greece] Chapter 1: Monumentality and Early Christian Architecture. (I just uploaded this today!) [http://academia.edu/273610/Abandonment_Authority_and_Religious_Continuity_In_Pos t-Classical_Greece] Chapter 2: Architecture, Epigraphy, and Liturgy: A Case Study from the Justinianic Isthmus. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/47591826/Caraher-Ambivalent-Landscapes-2011] Chapter 3: Ambivalence and Resistance in the Architectural Landscape: Another Case Study from the Isthmus of Corinth. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/47591826/Caraher-Ambivalent-Landscapes-2011] Chapter 4: Abandonment and Authority in the Architecture of Post-Late Antique Greece. [http://www.scribd.com/doc/30697799/Caraher-Dream-Archaeology-2010] Epilogue: Dreams of Churches in Byzantine Greece Maybe sometime soon, I'll find a bit of time to write an introduction to this little pseudo/cyber-volume that will make explicit how the various parts link together, but I feel like these chapters represent range of my thoughts on Early Christian architecture in Greece. Here's Chapter 1: [scribd id=152406487 key=key-48f2pg95x1wnnnjoi4s mode=scroll]

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The Persistent Memory of a Soviet Mining Town http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/the-persistent-memory-of-asoviet-mining-town/ Tue, 09 Jul 2013 11:41:17 +0000 Bill Caraher I was pretty excited to finally get my hands on [http://www.worldcat.org/title/persistentmemories-pyramiden-a-soviet-mining-town-in-the-high-arctic/oclc/650217449] E. Andreassen, H.B. Bjerck, and B. Olson's [http://www.worldcat.org/title/persistentmemories-pyramiden-a-soviet-mining-town-in-the-high-arctic/oclc/650217449] Persistent Memories: Pyramiden, a Soviet Mining Town in the High Arctic (Trondheim 2010). This book is an archaeological essay that combines haunting photography with reflective text to provide the reader with an intimate portrait of the Soviet mining town of Pyramiden. The town was abandoned for close to a decade after the Russian company that established the settlement after World War II closed the mine in the late 1990s. The team of Norwegian archaeologists and a photographer arrived in 2006 nearly a decade after the last permanent resident had departed. Despite the town's completely modern history, the archaeologists understood that there were very few traditional documentary records of life in the town and arrived to document its state. In a relatively short essay, the authors bring the town back to life through careful attention to the remains. There are a few ways in which the author's research intersects with our work in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] the man camps of Bakken oil patch in western North Dakota. 1. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/man-camps-as-non-places/] Non-Places. The authors consider the status of Pyramiden as a non-place. The formal plan, the cookie cutter residences, and the position of the town as a heterotopia (a realized utopian space), created a settlement that has few distinct features outside of the global standard of a hypermodern "Sovietness". Moreover, the provisional and short term character of any community created by the inhabitants created few opportunities for the inhabitants to fuse their identity to the character of the location. It maybe that the radical isolation of the site and the absence of longterm human settlement in the area necessitated the status of the Pyramiden as a non-place. It may have also been both formal and informal policies designed to enforce uniformity among the workers and managers at the site that robbed the place of the distinct character associated with "place-ness". 2. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticity-and-the-mancamp-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/] Housing and Homes (and Class). While the authors suggest that Pyramiden was a non-place, they nevertheless recognized efforts workers in the mine to personalize their spaces. In fact, there seems to have been greater signs of individualization among workers than those of the mangers and elites. Not only did workers decorate their apartments with symbols of global consumer culture, but they also customized their spaces with improvised shelves, art, and furnishings. In contrast, the larger and more comfortable apartments of the management classes showed less signs of customization and efforts to !
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establish individual identities. Perhaps managers stayed less time at Pyramiden or had greater pressure to conform to a homogenized standards or corporate expectations, as the authors suggest. In the North Dakota man camps, we noticed a similar characteristic between workers who lived in RV parks and those who lived in the standardized man-camps provided by the larger corporations. The former group tends to work in industries peripheral, but vital to the main work in the oil patch (truck repair, truck driving, equipment cleaning, and various contract services). The latter work in the core industries associated with jobs on drilling or fracking rigs or with large contractors that provide large scale services to the companies in the patch. The former tend to be independent or quasi-independent contractors, whereas the latter are company men. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/14/north-dakotaman-camps-in-a-comparative-context/] A similar division in how various groups individualized their living space occurred in the early days of the Texas boom. 3. Margins. One thing about Pyramiden is clear: it is situated in an intensely marginal environment. Perched at the foot of the Arctic Mt. Pyramiden and surrounded by glaciers and the sea, the town was visited only once a year by a supply ship. A helipad provided the only other physical link to the outside work. The need for an entirely self-sufficient community and the remains left behind demonstrate the close link between the expense of bringing material to the Arctic and the value of removing the remains. In short, the persistence of Pyramiden and its arrangement as a "non-place" is at least partially a product of its marginal location and the expense of transporting the aspects of consumer culture that we deploy in a range of distinct ways to mark our modern identities. There are general parallels between the location of Pyraminden and the marginal position of the man camps in western North Dakota. The creation of a new society ex nihilo and the tenuous physical connections with the core demands a particular kind of engagement with the environment. 4. Provisional Discard. Distinct discard practices often characterize communities in marginal environment or situated at the periphery. One of the most significant features of the community at Pyramiden is the absence of substantial dump. As the Russian managers of the community explained, the inhabitants reused and repurposed as much of the material as possible and material that could not be repurposed or consumed completely rarely came to the site. Food scraps were fed to pigs, left over paint or solvents needed for one project were used in others, and workshops and apartments were filled with recycled and repurposed tools and equipment. The man camps of North Dakota show a similar assemblage of recycled and repurposed material - from the ubiquitous [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/trailers-florida-and-spring-break/] shipping pallet to piles of pvc pipe left behind by departing RVs for the next residents of a camp. Like the residents of Pyramiden, the inhabitants of short-term settlements in the Bakken oil patch tend to travel light and find new uses for objects that might be cast aside closer to the core. 5. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/formation-processes-in-theman-camps-of-the-bakken-oil-patch/] Formation Processes. The greatest disappointment in !
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reading this book was its relative lack of attention to formation processes. The site as a ruin or as a haunting reminder of the earlier activities and lives takes center stage whereas the post abandonment processes that created the site for archaeologists and photographer become interference or, at worst, the romantic residue of a life in ruins. This is a missed opportunity, to my mind, as our modern world (filled with non-places) so rarely decays slowly in the face of nature without massive human intervention. Pyramiden is a place where its abrupt abandonment has left it exposed to nature in a way so rare in our modern world. More could be made of the processes that transformed the settlement since its abandonment and how man-made materials situate themselves in their environment. You can check out some of [http://books.google.com/books?id=kNB0ifZO2oC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_summary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage& amp;q&amp;f=false] the book on Google Books or - even cooler in some ways [https://maps.google.com/?ll=78.655741,16.308512&amp;spn=0.000311,0.002591&amp;t= m&amp;layer=c&amp;cbll=78.655741,16.308512&amp;panoid=XFjVuvmO_FGkibZHJ2MMQ&amp;cbp=13,66.43,,0,0&amp;z=19] on Google Maps!

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The Ashes http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/the-ashes/ Wed, 10 Jul 2013 11:50:04 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm taking today off from blogging because I'm hunkered down in front of the TV watching the Ashes. The Ashes, as many of my readers probably know, is the regular series of test matches between Australia and England. It's named after the tiny urn that goes to the victors. Right now, England has the urn, and Australia has gone to England to try to get it back. The teams are ranked 3rd and 4th in the world and smart money has England winning the series, but both sides are vulnerable in some way. "Bear.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/bear.jpg]"Bear" Over the past decade, I've really come to like cricket. I might be obsessed. Here are a few reasons why: 1. Cricket is Simple. The basic rules of cricket are exceedingly simple. You have a bowler who tries to get a batter out by either knocking a pair of bails of three wooden stumps or causing the batter to put the ball in the air so that a fielder can catch it. The only really important rule that comes regularly into play is that you can't block a ball from striking the wicket with your legs. The batter has to both protect his wicket (this is the stumps and the bails) from being hit by the bowler and to score runs by putting the ball into play and running to another wicket which stands opposite. England chose to bat first this morning, and now it is Australia's job to get all 11 England bats out. Then Australia will have a go with the bat and England will try to get them out. Once that happens, England will have another chance, and Australia will follow. All this has to be completed in 5 days. To win a team has to score more runs and get the other side all out twice. If they don't get the other side out, but score more runs, the match is a draw. 2. Cricket is Pre-Modern. I'm an academic historian and, as I have mentioned here in the past, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?s=craft] academia is one of the last bastions of pre-modern work cycle where our pursuits are often better described as crafts than professions. Cricket is pre-modern in that a day of play stretches over close to 8 hours and makes no concessions for day of the week. The rhythm of play can be breathtakingly fast, but it can also creep along holding our modern attention spans in utter distain. Also, it is outdoors, played in natural light, and full of traditions maintained for the sake of tradition. My well-meaning colleagues often refer to cricket as boring, but that's only because we've become so accustomed as rapid-fire, blurs of sports where constant action holds fast to our digitally-atrophed attention span. Cricket - particularly Test Cricket - requires patience, rewards attention to details that mark the ebbs and flows of the contest, and provides an oasis from the constant demands of modern life.

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3. Cricket is Global. I've blogged on this before, but cricket is a truly global sport. While it originated in the colonial encounter - spreading throughout British Empire - the rise of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies over the course of the 20th century ensured that the game quickly became hybridized. In fact, cricket may be the game of the 21st century (even more so than Formula 1 or football/soccer which remains largely anchored in Europe and nourished by European capital - although this is clearly changing as money from Persian Gulf has fortified European leagues) as the India, in particular, has come to increasingly influence the shape of cricket on a global scale. Massively capitalized tournaments like the India Premier League (which features the shortest form of the game) has pushed international cricket to adapt their schedules and shift priorities. I am not much of a fan of the short form of the game, I can think of few other sports where the likes of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, can genuinely influence the global structure of the game. Moreover, cricket is a sport of immigrants in the UK, South Africa, and Australia where players with names like Nasser Hussain and Hashim Amla became stars and a 19 year old of Sri Lankan descent, Ashton Agar, earned his first cap this morning for Australia. Cricket reflects the shifting centers of global power and show how sport is place where new forms of culture are negotiated even as the importance of tradition remain intact. I'll concede that cricket is not for everyone, but for those of us in academia where the slow grind of simple tasks repeated meticulously, drenched in tradition, and ringed with innovation and perspective, there is something special and distinct about the sport. So, if you get a chance, head over to [http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes2013/content/current/series/531603.html] Cricinfo and check out the coverage of The Ashes this week (or anytime really in the next month and a half), [http://www.lords.org/mcc/laws-of-cricket/laws/] revel in the simplicity of the Laws of Cricket, be amused by [http://www.thecricketer.com/jargonbuster.aspx] the bizarre language of cricket jargon, and ponder tensions between the simplicity of the action and [http://www.cricketforworld.com/2011/06/cricket-fielding-positions.html] the bewildering array of fielding positions.

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Punk Archaeology Update http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/punk-archaeology-update-2/ Thu, 11 Jul 2013 11:04:25 +0000 Bill Caraher Punk Archaeology is getting closer to a reality. I put this short introduction together on my last day in Cyprus. Since, I'm on Ashes duty (and rebuilding my front porch with help from [http://joeljonientz.com/] some friends: "I have an MFA, how hard could it be?"). So, enjoy a sneak peak at our latest project: Punk Archaeology Introduction Punk Archaeology always requires a bit of explanation. The little volume is meant to be a step in that direction. My hope is that the book will serve as a prompt to spur reflection on the coincidence of punk rock music (or rock music more broadly) and the study of the past. The idea of a punk archaeology developed from a series of [http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/] blog posts by Bill Caraher and Kostis Kourelis prepared from 2008 to 2011. These posts mostly appeared at the blog Punk Archaeology and the best of those posts have been collated as part 2 of this book. We began with the observation that quite a few archaeologists had some interest in punk rock music. This coincidence prompted us to think about how punk rock music and the larger aesthetic and lifestyle associated with that musical form influenced archaeology. We followed these thoughts in direction ranging from the archaeology of rock music to parallels between the punk and archaeology as practical and creative processes. The results was a kaleidoscopic manifesto called Punk Archaeology. Encouragement from friends and colleagues prompted us to consider turning the blog into something more. It felt vaguely like being asked to turn our live shows into a record. This is where [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/] Aaron Barth, a Ph.D. Candidate in history at North Dakota State University and an archaeologist, stepped in. He and I had conversations about Punk Archaeology over the course of some collaborative fieldwork, and he finally persuaded us to take Punk Archaeology from the provisional space of the blog to more tangible space of a colloquium in Fargo. This happened on February 2, 2013. When we started to spread the word about this colloquium, a great group of scholars stepped forward to contribute. [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] Richard Rothaus signed on to talk about his experiences of visiting Turkey in the immediate aftermath of devastating earthquakes. Josh Samuels probed the limits of archaeological responsibility when the studying fascist architecture in Sicily. Peter Schultz presented a challenging epistemological intervention that connected punk rock to European intellectual movements. Kris Groberg anchored out punk inspired musings in the very local and intimate while Aaron Barth took the local in universal directions. Andrew Reinhard concluded the spoken

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word section of the program with a reminder that this is also about the music. The papers here offer some of the flavor of the night. We combined these eager contributors with an intriguing group of bands including on fronted by archaeologist Andrew Reinhard and locked down by drummer Aaron Barth and Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Music and electronic music revolutionary Mike Wittgraf. The chaos of the night was urged along by musicians from the Fargo Punk band Les Dirty Frenchmen and What Kingswood Needs. Local indy-music icon and philosophical ruminator, June Panic gave depth to the evening with a brilliant acoustic set. Panic's cover of the Ex Pistols's "Revolution in the Classroom" brings to mind questions of authenticity and authority. "Power is the order of the day", right? Andrew Reinhard's archaeological themed set showed that punk rock could express the anxieties of archaeology as a discipline, a profession, and as practice just as well as it could express suburban, urban, political, or class dissent. What Kingswood Needs returned to the core product of punk by blending entertainment and challenges. In keeping with the broadly popular attitudes of punk rock, we presented our papers at a public venue, the Sidestreet Grille and Bar in Fargo. The presenters sat in the audience, were introduced by a bullhorn, and the papers and music were recorded (as Tim Pasch details in this volume). As the papers in this volume attest, the first Punk Archaeology conference provided everyone in attendance with an opportunity to interrogate the borders of the academy, popular culture, and loud, chaotic, and confused social critique. We asked that the papers be kept short - in the spirit of punk - and we even encouraged our contributors to present their ideas in as raw a way as they felt comfortable. We also invited a few papers from veteran punk archaeologists, and a few overcame their skepticism to contribute to our modest volume: Mike Laughy, Colleen Morgan, Heather Waddell Gruber, and R. Scott Moore. Any venture like this requires significant gestures of appreciation. First and foremost, Aaron Barth did most of the footwork required to organize the conference, arrange for music, and shepherd the receipts through proper channels. The North Dakota Humanities Council and Tom Isern's Center for Heritage Renewal at North Dakota State University served as our patrons of punk and provided funding and logistical support. Joel Jonientz from the University of North Dakota's Department of Art and Design (an individual of deeply punk leanings) provided the art work and moral support. Tim Pasch (of the University of North Dakota's Department of English and Communication Program), Caleb Holthusen, and Chad Bushy from the University of North Dakota who took time out of their weekend to provide expert sound and technical support. The bands who entertained us and my colleagues who presented papers and came out to support our adventure gave me hope that what we were trying to do could make sense. Andrew Reinhard deserves special thanks. He and Aaron Barth were the only two people to bridge the gap between punk as performance and as bundle of ideas, influences, and inspirations. Just as at the conference he's provided a healthy dose of punk in his embrace of this book's open access, DIY process, but at the same time, he's been an efficient professional as he shepherded this volume through the editing and publication process. Like an editorial Rick Rubin (or John Cale), Andrew managed to bring these papers and blog posts together without weakening their spontaneous character.

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He is also to thank for posting the [https://soundcloud.com/tags/punk%20archaeology] music and [https://soundcloud.com/punk-archaeology-speaks] talks from the night to Sound Cloud. I hope that these communicate the exuberant spirit of that cold February night in Fargo and serve as a perfect accompaniment to these essays.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-68/ Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:31:13 +0000 Bill Caraher It's [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/the-ashes/] Ashes Week and yesterday involved me rebuilding part of my front porch (we used three kinds of saws and, at times, two drills, making it a very manly operation), but today is back to endless editing (while watching cricket in the morning hours; I was going to say that this might be a slow 3rd-day morning in the test, but James Pattinson just stumped Kevin Pieterson and yesterday's hero, Ashton Agar took his first test wicket). All this does very little for you, dear reader. So to make it up for you, I'll provide a lovely gaggle of quick hits and varia for your Friday enjoyment. [http://www.archaeology.org/news/1060-130708-britain-ireland-hill-forts-iron-age] Crowd source volunteers to map of Iron Age forts in Britain. [http://jvrp2013.blogspot.com/] Catch up with the Jezreel Valley Regional Project and the good work of Stephanie Steinke, an M.A. student in History at the University of North Dakota. [http://www.archaiologia.gr/en/blog/2013/07/04/hagia-sophia-in-trabzon-was-declareda-mosque/] Another church re-mosqued in Turkey. I'm not sure that the re-mosquing is as much of a concern as preservation of these monuments more generally. [http://www.britishpathe.com/video/a-mediterranean-island/query/documentaries] A British documentary on Cyprus in the 1940s. [http://www.ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2013/07/11/minot-air-force-station/] A depressing tale of adaptive reuse at the old Minot air station in North Dakota. [http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/12714/the-visual-emergence-of-the-occupy-gezimovement-p] Street art in the Occupy Gezi movement in Turkey. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/267721/] The University of North Dakota explores MOOCs in a program called "UND for Free". [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyNRy1To5vg] Louis Armstrong was a class guy and practiced a least a couple of hours a day to keep his chops. This is why I try to write a little bit every day. [http://howclothesshouldfit.com/] How clothes should fit. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/267951] It looks like the old Grand Forks Opera House might be changing hands. It's a great building. [http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/8-academics-are-among-winners-of-2012-nationalhumanities-medals/62777?cid=at&amp;utm_source=at&amp;utm_medium=en] My Alma

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Mater's president, Edward Ayers at the University of Richmond, won a 2012 National Humanities Medal. [http://www.talesofanoilfieldgypsy.blogspot.com/] Another blog from the Bakken Oil Patch. [http://www.head-fi.org/t/634201/battle-of-the-flagships-58-headphones-comparedupdate-audeze-lcd-2-revision-2-6-4-13] This is a crazy-extensive review of 50 flagship headphones. [https://medium.com/this-happened-to-me/b38636e0b699] The famous 80% Principle sounds pretty good to me after a week like this. I like this little post on it, but it only barely works. If doing 80% rather than 100% gives me 20 more years of life, then I'm only barely making up for the 20% of my life that I decided to relax away. I'm skeptical. [http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/altavista-put-out-pasture-how-fares-its-90scomrades-6C10551716] Remember Alta Vista? [http://wastedonarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/roxy-munich-the-archaeologyof-disco/] Roxy Munich. Mostly for the title but it is worth reading. [http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/07/inside-an-abolished-orchestraplaying-for-its-life.html] How the ERT Orchestra spends its time. [http://www.feorag.com/assets_c/2013/07/Eurobeer-map-919.html] How to say beer across Europe. What I'm reading: N. Vincent and C. Wickham eds., [http://www.britac.ac.uk/openaccess/debatingopenaccess.cfm] Debating Open Access. London 2013. What I'm listening to: 80-R, [http://80-r.bandcamp.com/album/one-night] One Night."IMG_0731.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0731.jpg]"IMG 0731"]

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The South Basilica at Polis http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/the-south-church-at-polis/ Mon, 15 Jul 2013 13:06:11 +0000 Bill Caraher We've officially renamed the EF2 basilica. It is now "the South Basilica" and we've officially moved from pondering ceramics and architecture on the ground to writing. And this is our first effort to bring together the results of over three years of study (and many years of field work by many people before then)! We've been working on lovely new illustrations of the site plan and our basilica, and they're almost presentable now: "Figure_1_WRC3.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/figure_1_wrc3.png]"Figure 1 WRC3" width="450" height="342" border="0" /> "EF2BasilicaDetail.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ef2basilicadetail.png]"EF2Basilic aDetail" And here's our most recent text: [scribd id=153876418 key=key-gvr5854e2h4ghzywmdq mode=scroll]

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Writing and Editing http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/writing-and-editing/ Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:36:33 +0000 Bill Caraher I've spent most of the time since returning home on writing and editing. The main focus of my attention has been the monograph that I authored with [http://corinthianmatters.com/] David Pettegrew (and with meaningful contributions by [http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/] R. Scott Moore) on the results of our survey work at the site of Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus. The manuscript was accepted by the American Schools of Oriental Research Archaeological Report Series, and we've almost finished revising the seven chapters of the completed manuscript. It's boring, but necessary work. Doing this large scale editing work is also timely for me. For the first time in 6 years, I'll be teaching an upper level history course here at the University of North Dakota. As one might expect, an upper level course requires a greater focus on writing and revising over 100,000 words of dry-as-dust archaeological analysis has reminded me how terrible my writing is. (Readers of this blog probably already realize this, but since I rarely read what I've written, I can hide.) So here are some things that I need to do better: 1. Avoid using the dash and the semicolon. When I got desperate to link two ideas, but struggled to use "my grammar", I introduced a semicolon or - worse - a double dash. As I revised our text, I found that well over half of the times that I used double dashes, they served to link clauses that had almost know grammatical relationship with the rest of the sentence. Semicolons travel in swarms. In paragraphs where one appears, more are sure to follow. Generally, we seem to use these when we began to link (endlessly to my mind) idea after idea. Like the double dash, semicolons appeared when we began to pile up ideas more densely than our grammar allowed. 2. Avoid starting sentences with the word "While". Heavens. While x appears to be the case, y is more interesting. At one point I use the word "While" close to 80 times in a 50 page chapter. That's close to twice a page. Like my semicolons and double-dashes, "while" is a word that I tended to use to escape from onerous requirements of making the relationship between ideas clear. Generally, I use "while" when I need two ideas to exist simultaneously in an ambiguous relationship. By using while, I use time to juxtapose ideas that I should probably link together more explicitly. Moreover, I use the word so often it creates a sort of boring repetitiveness to my writing. 3. We equivocate too frequently. seems, suggests, hints, may be et c. Most of the reason why we juxtapose ideas without making clear connections is because we lack the confidence to tie ideas together in a positive, deliberate way. We also saturated our text with the words that allow us to escape from the pressure of making clear statements. I realize that this is !

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keeping with the ambiguity present in research that dances the edge between social-scientific confidence and humanistic self-doubt (or recognition that all knowledge is provisional!). Whatever the reason, the proliferation of these words throughout our work makes our text a big drag to read. More importantly, our constant equivocating makes it hard for us to distinguish between arguments that deserve some qualification and those where we should speak more confidently. 4. Too many adverbs throughout. We love ourselves some adverbs. In most cases, we use adverbs to qualify arguments that probably do not require any qualification (see what I did there?). Adverbs make our text ugly. They add little to our arguments. And they often obscure as much as they illuminate. 5. Avoid vague terms "a fair amount" "somewhat". In most cases we words as lazy descriptors: How much more African Red Slip? Somewhat more! I can justify the use of these vague terms by explaining that our text is already filled with specific figures. These figures can be very precise and specific, but they do little to communicate the significance of a value. The advantage of using phrases like "a fair amount" is that they are both descriptive (to a point) and interpretative. Unfortunately, when we use them too frequently and in place of more precise documentation, we run the risk of 6. Repetition. We repeat ourselves. We say the same things, sometimes using the same words, in multiple places throughout the text. On the one hand, this saves the reader from having to move back and forth through the text. But, it can appear lazy and be annoying when we repeat basic information (like the dates of a particular feature in the landscape or some point of clarification). 7. Citation format. I tell my students that if they are going to take the time to create their own citation format, they should at least use it consistently. It's a waste of time to invent a new way to cite a source every time you need to cite it. Of course, we could be a bit more efficient in this area as well. Sheesh. 8. Passive voice. It was used too much by us. (See what I did there?) I hate passive voice. I find it tedious to read and painful to write. I have no idea how so much of it came into our writing. I suspect it has to do with what [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/the-grammar-of-excavation/] I have called elsewhere the "grammar of excavation". Archaeology depends on phrases that place the object of study in a passive position and obscure the scientific hand of the researcher: "artifacts were measured and recorded on special forms". One the other hand, our project made a big fuss about how we took into account the position of the archaeologist in documenting the landscape. We need to do better here to make sure the archaeologist is always active. 9. Figures, Illustrations, and Tables. Egads. It is tricky to know how to include figures, illustrations, and tables into a text. We will have well over 200 of these (and maybe closer to 300), but I still can't quite figure out how often we need to refer to a plan, map, or table, during our discussion. Do you just do it once and let the reader figure out that referring to the same plan or map later will help make our argument more clear? Or do we do it

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constantly relying on the reader to filter out the repetition? Should we direct the reader to maps in earlier chapters or reproduce the map? I have no idea. As I look ahead to another long week of editing (both this and other manuscripts), I hope to be able to gradually eliminate some of the worst habits from my writing and get back to writing good, simple prose.

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Depositional Processes in Suburban Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/depositional-processes-insuburban-archaeology/ Tue, 16 Jul 2013 21:31:45 +0000 Bill Caraher A little bit of suburban archaeology on a steamy July afternoon. "Depositional_Processes.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/depositional_processes.jpg]"Dep ositional Processes" I'd clean it up, but the prime directive of any good archaeologist is not to interfere with any depositional processes. Ok, I made that up. I didn't pick it up because it was colorful and it involved bending over.

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Student Responses to my History Class in the Scale-Up Room http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/some-stats-from-my-scale-upclass/ Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:50:45 +0000 Bill Caraher This spring, I wrote [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] a series of blog posts about teaching historian in the [http://und.edu/scale-up/] University of North Dakota's fancy new Scale-Up Classroom. The room was so new that it had "new classroom smell" and I was the first person from the humanities to teach in it. As part of the program that got this room up and running, we conducted a more comprehensive survey (complete with IRB approval) on our students in this class to assess student reactions to the room and how we each used it. I only have access to the result from my class, but with over 120 responses, I think it is a meaningful sample of student attitudes. "Scale-Up_Panorama.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/scaleup_panorama.jpg]"Scale Up Panorama" width="450" height="98" border="0" /> First some basic descriptions of the class: 53% of my class were freshmen and the rest of the class was evenly distributed between sophomores, juniors, and seniors. 83% of the class had never taken a course in a Scale-Up style room. 56% thought that they would get an "A" in the class. While this seems pretty high, I gave 37% of the course "A"s and when we eliminate students who earned Ds and Fs, we come pretty close to 50% of the class earning As. This is much higher than usual and probably reflects my own lack of confidence in assessing the work of students in this new classroom setting as the students willingness to take the course seriously. With that baseline information, it was interesting to look at student responses to various prompts. The first part of the survey involved a series of questions about how effective the course was in accomplishing some key learning and social goals. The students were asked to respond as "strongly agree", "agree", "disagree", and "strongly disagree". Part of my goal in teaching in the Scale-Up room was to improve student engagement, attendance, and retention. Some of the strongest positive survey responses appeared in these areas. For example, 40% strongly agreed and 45% of the students agreed that the Scale-Up room promoted discussion. 75% percent agreed or strongly agreed that the room encouraged active participation. And 71% agreed or strongly agreed that the course encouraged them to communicate effectively. The survey suggests that this classroom and my course had a positive impact on the social environment of learning. 79% agreed or strongly agreed that the course helped them develop confidence working in small groups. 87% agreed or strongly agreed that this room helped the students develop connections with their classmates. This presumably provided a social environment for the critical engagement with their classmate's work as 74% claimed that the class helped them examine how others gather and interpret data and assess the soundness of their conclusions.

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Finally, the 78% students responded with agree or strongly agree that the classroom facilitated multiple types of learning activities. Presumably this promoted student engagement. I also began coding some of the free text responses. In general, when the prompt was negative (e.g. "Please describe one situation in which this room DID NOT WORK WELL for you. Provide as many details as possible), the responses tended to focus on group work and the usual student griping about being dragged down by their classmates. Students also complained about the class size and that my T.A. and I could not rapidly respond to their questions. Students also complained that they did not get to learn about every period in history. The "uncoverage" model that we used in the class asked students to concentrate on one period and produce a substantial chapter on that one period for a collaborative textbook. While I'd like to think that students learned the skills to read, write, and study history critically, the students themselves seem particularly committed to certain basic assumptions about how an introductory history course should function. In more open-ended free-text prompt ("What are your overall thoughts about the classroom in which you are taking this course?") students continued to suggest that this room was not ideally suited for a history survey course with 18% of the students making that specific complaint. The selective response section only 58% percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that this room was appropriate for this kind of class and nearly as many strongly disagreed (24%) as strongly agreed (26%). In the free text response section of the survey, many of the students who made this complaint stated that they prefer the coverage provided by a lecture style class. Some, however, responded to both the negative and more open-ended prompt by saying that the class was too big and that they did not get enough personal attention. So, it appears that the design of the classroom has already shifted what students expected from a faculty member in an introductory level survey. Surely this would not be a complaint or an expectation in a traditional lecture style class. To end on a positive note, 45% of the responses to the open ended prompt were positive and only 33% were negative (although 18% suggested that the room was inappropriate for this kind of course) about their experiences in the room (16% were ambivalent). This at least suggests that continuing to work on teaching history in that room has some positive outcomes. For more on [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] teaching history in a Scale-Up Classroom, go here.

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Something on the Ashes and Something on Audio http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/18/something-on-the-ashes-andsomething-on-audio/ Thu, 18 Jul 2013 11:36:13 +0000 Bill Caraher I almost overslept this morning after an almost four and a half hour Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks last night. I did managed to drag myself out of bed to watch the Ashes at Lords. After all, if the Queen herself could make it, then I could make it. "BoysofSummer.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/boysofsummer.jpg]"BoysofSum mer" width="450" height="226" border="0" /> First, <strong>the Ashes</strong>. Todays post will be influenced by the early hour and the need to keep one eye on the Ashes, but I wanted to opine on a situation from the first Ashes test. On the third day at Trent Bridge, [http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/content/story/650739.html] Stuart Broad edged Ashton Agar to Brad Haddin. It wasn't just a little niggling edge, it was a thick edge. The umpire missed it and Australia had used up their reviews so Broad's innings with the bat continued. The commentators discussed at length whether Broad should have walked (that is, acknowledge that he was out even if the umpire got it wrong), and most felt like Broad did the right thing and the umpires were there to decide who was in and who was out and in this case they got it wrong. I'm not so sure about this reasoning. I would think that edging the ball - especially a thick edge like Broad's - is one of the few times that the player was in a position to know whether he was out better than the umpire. Another such time is when a player makes (or misses) a catch. When [http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-championstrophy-2013/content/story/640499.html] Dinesh Ramdan faked a catch in the Champions Trophy earlier this summer and was caught on camera doing it, it received a substantial fine and a two match ban. While Broad's sin was one of omission - he failed to tell the umpire that he had edged the ball - and Ramdan's was a sin of commission - he blatantly faked a catch, the latter has to be the product of the same commentator logic. If the umpires are there to judge who is out and who is not, then one should do everything necessary to stay in or to convince the umpire that a player is out. If there is an "absolute" in or out that exists outside of the umpire's decision, then Broad should have walked. I can accept, of course, that sometimes a player genuinely does not know whether he's edged the ball or not. For example, Michael Clarke on the fourth day edged the ball, but nevertheless called for a review when the umpire gave him out. While Clarke has taken some heat during the first test for his use of reviews (the so-called Decisions Review System), it seems unlikely that he'd call for a review if he knew he was out. Broad, in contrast, knew he edged the ball and should have walked. And <strong>some audio</strong>

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As readers of this blog know, I've been dabbling with introducing some of my interest in music to this blog [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/the-things-ofmusic/] here (and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/more-thingsof-music/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/21/morethings-of-music-2/] here). I promise that I won't begin telling you what I had for breakfast or about the antics of my cat. On the other hand, I was pretty pleased to have contributed to one of my favorite audiophile blogs this week: [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/07/17/a-part-time-audiophile/] Confessions of a Parttime Audiophile. Everyone should click through to this site to read my post and to show the editor/publisher, Scot Hull, that I can bring page views to keep his sponsors happy. It's been very interesting watching him develop the site from a single author blog to more of an online magazine. I'd pretty pleased to do my part, but hope that he can maintain the personal, practical, "lifestyle" tone of the blog even as it gets more contributors. [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/] "PTAudiophile.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/ptaudiophile.png]"PTAudiophile " width="320" height="320" border="0" />

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/19/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-31/ Fri, 19 Jul 2013 11:40:35 +0000 Bill Caraher It is innings break in [http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes2013/engine/match/566933.html] the second Ashes test this morning so a perfect time to prepare some quick hits and varia. England's final wicket partnership was a bit of bother, but I think Australia has a very reasonable chase. Hopefully we'll have a couple of exciting mornings of cricket this weekend. We also hope for some good weather so we can enjoy some long summer days on our front porch. While we're hoping for the cricket and the weather, you can enjoy a little gaggle of quick hits and varia: [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jul/11/recovering-submergedworlds/?pagination=false] Peter Brown essays on new books on Late Antiquity by Glenn Bowersock and Patricia Crone in The New York Review of Books. [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/yamac-houses-of-ephesus-reveal-mysteries-ofhistory.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=50350&amp;NewsCatID=375] Restored wall painting from Ephesus. Brilliant. [http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-07-16/looted-art-from-cypriot-churchesmuseums-is-returned-by-germany] Looted Cypriot art goes home. [http://icfadumbartonoaks.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/echoes-of-trips-past/] Airplaining to Byzantium or something like that. Some really cool vintage travel documents from Dumbarton Oaks. [http://www.digtech-llc.com/blog/186-book-review] Resume Writing for Archaeologists. This should be required reading for every aspiring shovel bum. [http://nataliavogeikoff.com/] From the archivist at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This should be good. <strong>WAIT</strong>: [http://toys.usvsth3m.com/watch/] This is awesome. [http://www.bombsight.org/#10/51.4018/0.2170] Visualizing the Blitz in London. This is a really amazing map. [http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/02/geography/usa-surnames-interactive] A pretty cool map of common American surnames. [http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/406023/group/homepage/] Mapping and visualizing the battlefields of the Dakota War. Congratulations to Richard Rothaus and Tom Isern (at NDSU).

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 [http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/29230/11-sounds-your-kids-have-probably-neverheard] Some endangered sounds. How do we document endangered sonic landscapes? [http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5198#] The Potosi language used by miners in Bolivia. A man camp language! [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/14/fashion/a-life-that-can-fracture-arelationship.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=1&amp;] Some interesting views on oilfield culture and relationships and [http://realoilfieldwives.com/2013/07/17/my-10-essentialsfor-camper-living/] some essential objects for camper life. [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/07/17/a-part-time-audiophile/] You didn't read and retweet my first effort an blogging about audio gear? Why not? Just to hurt me? [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/07/17/a-part-time-audiophile/] At least click through! [http://www.agisoft.ru/wiki/Links_and_Resources#Opinions] It's always fun when software I use recognizes how I use it. And check out the soon to appear issue of the Journal of Field Archaeology for some technical details on using Agisoft Photoscan in the field. [http://jonnegroni.com/2013/07/11/the-pixar-theory/] The Pixar Theory. [http://www.dezeen.com/2013/07/11/evernote-by-studiooa/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+dezeen +(Dezeenfeed)de] The plan of a modern office. And a few interesting responses to how coffee shop owners and coffee shop patrons have different views of how coffee shops function in their daily lives. [http://brooksreview.net/2013/07/coffee-shops-look-to-oustlaptop-hobos/] Patrons often use them as make-shift offices (I know that I did when I didn't have a formal office), but [http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20130716/lakeview/badwolf-coffee-opens-without-chairs-create-social-hub-vibe] owners often imagine that people gather there for coffee. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=VhaEtUGbJqU#at= 21] This is the real punk rock music. [http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2013/07/being-a-lifelong-bookworm-maykeep-you-sharp-in-old-age] Reading may keep you young and [http://healthland.time.com/2013/07/13/how-writing-heals-wounds-of-both-the-mindand-body/] writing my heal wounds. What I'm reading: You expect me to edit, write, and READ this summer? What I'm listening to: Sleep Study, Nothing Can Destory; Various Artists, [http://www.noisetrade.com/antirecords/anti-records-summer-sampler] Anti Records Summer Sampler (2013) - for Tom Waits and Keith Richard's version of Oh Shenandoah alone. "IMG_0732.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0732.jpg]"IMG 0732"]

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"IMG_0733.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0733.jpg]"IMG 0733]

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A New Article on 3D Imaging in Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/a-new-article-on-3d-imaging-inarchaeology/ Mon, 22 Jul 2013 14:21:43 +0000 Bill Caraher It was pretty exciting to read Brandon Olson, Ryan A. Placchetti, Jamie Quartermaine, and Ann E. Killebrew, "The Tel Akko Total Archaeology Project (Akko, Israel): Assessing the suitability of multi scale 3D field recording in archaeology," in the [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/jfa] Journal of Field Archaeology 38 (2013), 244-262. Brandon is our field director at the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project and my former M.A. student at the University of North Dakota. He's finishing his Ph.D. in Archaeology at Boston University. The article documents the use of Agisoft Photoscan at the site of Tel Akko in Israel, where a team lead by Ann Killebrew. Agisoft Photoscan (or as we called it The Agee-softs) is software that uses photogrammetry to create 3d images. I've posted on how we have used this software before [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/whats-nextin-archaeology/] on this blog. The article provides thorough instruction on how to use this software to produce accurate three-dimensional models of everything from cylinder seals to entire landscapes. Taking photographs for photogrammetry is deceptively difficult, and Olson et al. provide some nice illustrations and descriptions of best practices. "Agisoft Cameras.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/agisoftcameras.jpg]"Agisoft Cameras" width="409" height="488" border="0" /> Moreover, the address various technical aspects of the practice ranging from the computer power necessary to process these images as 3D models to archiving methods to ensure that these models can be reproduced in the future. The article also demonstrated the remarkable accuracy of these this new software. It produced images with sub-centimeter accuracy making them practical rivals of much more expensive processes involving laser scanning equipment. The practical tone to the article leaves open a few other conversations about the use of three-dimensional imaging software in archaeology. First, the historian in my looks to the past and considers the place of this kind of software and processes in the history of archaeological imaging. Since the advent of archaeological photography, archaeologists have sought ways to document excavation in a more efficient and technically precise way. The use of these tools, however, have transformed the way that archaeological knowledge is produced and reproduced. The precision and accuracy of 3D photogrammetry has the potential to transform how we understand archaeological data collection by allowing such interpretative acts as illustration to take place many month later and at significant physical remove. While such delayed illustration will probably never become "best practice" (there is real value to trench side interpretative drawing), increasingly high resolution reconstructions of the trench, architecture, and even entire landscapes strive to make more clear the lines between documentary and interpretative practices.

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Equally as significant, if more practical, is the issues of disseminating 3D images. At present this infrastructure is woefully underdeveloped. Services like [http://p3d.in/] p3d.in provide relatively easy spaces to display and store 3D images, but these are hardly long-term archival solutions. Adobe has produced a 3D .pdf format (which I think relies upon the open standard U3D format), but PDF itself remains proprietary, it will be problematic. There are myriad alternative like PLY or the open-source [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COLLADA] COLLADA format that may hold the potential for not only more streamlined dissemination of 3D images, but also long-term archives of the results. It will be important to preserve some evidence for how the processing of 3D images relates to various interpretative results. I have this idea for asking practitioners of various 3D imaging techniques to provide short thoughts on not only how they use such applications, but how these relate to earlier formats of archaeological imaging (from the sublime to the mundane) and how these formats will transform archaeology in the future. Would anyone who use these technologies in the Mediterranean want to chime in and send along short posts (&lt;1500) to me for a series of blog posts? If it is as amazing as it could be, we could look to publish these posts in a short "best practices and future directions" booklet. Just a thought <strong>UPDATE: </strong>There was a great response to this post. So stay tuned for some blog based scholarship and maybe a quick open access book(-letish thing) in the early winter! [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/some-3d-models-fromcyprus/] And check out some 3D models from my site here.

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Some 3D Models from Cyprus http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/some-3d-models-from-cyprus/ Tue, 23 Jul 2013 12:50:48 +0000 Bill Caraher A number of colleagues responded to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/a-new-article-on-3d-imaging-inarchaeology/] my post yesterday on three-dimensional modeling in Mediterranean archaeology, and this is an exciting thing. To show that I'm not a mere observer to the trend, I wanted to post a few 3d models that Brandon Olson and I developed over the past year. As I have blogged about before, we modeled our trenches at the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project using Agisoft Photoscan, and these models contributed to our final trench plans. Yesterday, as I finished processing a few images from our summer work at PolisChrysochous, I uploaded the results to [http://p3d.in/u/billcaraher] p3d.in, a new service that provides online support for 3d imaging projects. [http://p3d.in/u/sfsheath] Sebastian Heath introduced me to this site through his collection of 3D images from Kenchreai and elsewhere. ( [http://kenchreai.github.io/kaa/KE1828/] Here's a quick peek into how this kind of model might be integrated into the online publication of a site.)The site was easy to use and accepted .obj files produced by Agisoft. I was able to link texture files to .obj file easily to produce a fairly decent looking model. The site performs best in the most recent versions of [https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/] Google Chrome. To see the images best, make sure to set the shading to "shadeless". This application seems to require a good bit of processor so it might not work on every computer. It is also in beta, so it is not entirely stable. "Shadeless.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/shadeless.jpg]"Shadeless" width="450" height="407" border="0" /> I've shown images of the trench in Excavation Unit 16 on the site of Vigla at PylaKoutsopetria before, but now I have uploaded [http://p3d.in/nF9qj/shadeless] our 3D model to p3d.in: [http://p3d.in/nF9qj/shadeless] "EU16.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/eu16.jpg]"EU16" width="450" height="325" border="0" /> The stone-lined storage pit to the north of the trench wall is clearly visible in this model as is the use of roughly worked stones on the fortification wall to create irregular faces. I have also uploaded [http://p3d.in/vvroJ/shadeless] a model of our trench from Excavation Unit 15 on the site of Vigla at Pyla-Koutsopetria. This was Aaron Barth's trench. Not only is the wall from the first phase of construction at Vigla visible, but a plaster floor that over ran the wall and was buried in wall fall can be seen in the north scarp.

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[http://p3d.in/vvroJ/shadeless] "EU15.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/eu15.jpg]"EU15" width="450" height="312" border="0" /> I've also uploaded a few examples of architectural detail prepared by Brandon Olson this summer from Polis on Cyprus. The images show key areas of the South Basilica church on the site ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/the-south-church-atpolis/] for plans of the church and a preliminary discussion go here). The biggest downside of this at present is that there is no way to add a scale or north arrow to the images. I've oriented all the images. For example, [http://p3d.in/d5pNw/shadeless] here's a detail of the south wall of the narthex. You can clearly see the lower courses of the arched openings in the south wall of the narthex that were later filled with unmortared stones. You can also see the western most (and only remaining) pier of the south porch at the far right in the model. [http://p3d.in/d5pNw/shadeless] "South Narthex Wall.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/south-narthex-wall.jpg]"South Narthex Wall" width="450" height="234" border="0" /> [http://p3d.in/jC0tQ/shadeless] The next image is from the north aisle of the basilica and illustrates the substantial buttresses built along the north side of the north aisle wall. We have argued that this buttress likely supported part of a barrel vaulted roof. [http://p3d.in/jC0tQ/shadeless] "North_Aisle.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/north_aisle.jpg]"North Aisle" width="450" height="290" border="0" /> Finally, [http://p3d.in/BqLGT/shadeless] we have a massive and complex model of the south wall and aisle of the basilica including a series of three elite burials, the east wall of the south portico, and the foundation wall of the south aisle. Of particular interest are the tombs and the relationship between the south portico wall and the south wall of the apse and south aisle. Also of interest is the faint remains of a (late?) 7th century cobble wall projecting south from the south portico wall. The walls to the south of main nave are clearly earlier than the basilica. The cobble foundation to the left (or west) of the image may be the foundation for the Hellenistic city wall. [http://p3d.in/BqLGT/shadeless] "South Aisle.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/south-aisle.jpg]"South Aisle" width="450" height="313" border="0" /> This model involved over 350 individual photographs and took over 5 days to process in Agisoft.

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Three-Dimensional Modeling in Mediterranean Archaeology: An Open Invitation http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/three-dimensional-modeling-inmediterranean-archaeology-an-open-invitation/ Wed, 24 Jul 2013 12:49:23 +0000 Bill Caraher The positive response to my call for blog posts on issues centered on 3D modeling in Mediterranean archaeology has continued. For recent posts on this topic see [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/a-new-article-on-3d-imaging-inarchaeology/] here, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/some-3dmodels-from-cyprus/] here, and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/whats-next-in-archaeology/] here. My motivation for doing this came from this a number of sources. The most proximate inspiration came from a recent, fine article: Brandon Olson, Ryan A. Placchetti, Jamie Quartermaine, and Ann E. Killebrew, The Tel Akko Total Archaeology Project (Akko, Israel): Assessing the suitability of multi scale 3D field recording in archaeology, Journal of Field Archaeology 38 (2013), 244-262 ( [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/a-new-article-on-3d-imaging-inarchaeology/] check out my brief summary and discussion here)' I've also been amazed and inspired by [http://kenchreai.github.io/kaa/KE1828/] some of Sebastian Heath's recent work with the Kenchreai Excavations; Adam Rabinowitz's interest in new ways to document both ongoing excavations and archives ( [http://www.academia.edu/1801517/Precision_accuracy_and_the_fate_of_the_data_expe riments_in_site_recording_at_Chersonesos_Ukraine] e.g. here); Eric Poehler's work at [http://www.umass.edu/classics/Technology.htm] the Pompeii Quadraporticus Project; my wife's encounters with 3D modeling through [https://www.coursera.org/course/secrets] Sue Alcock's, now-completed, Coursera MOOC: Archaeology's Dirty Little Secrets; and [http://gfx.cs.princeton.edu/pubs/Smith_2012_MTP/] Joanna Smith's recent efforts at Polis-Chrysochous where I work. There seems to be enough buzz around the most recent generation of modeling software - particularly Agisoft Photoscan - to warrant some kind of treatment of this technology in print. The contributions might best reflect the following issues (but I'm open to others!) 1. How do we understand the current crop of 3D modeling technologies in context of the history of archaeological imaging? Are the most optimistic readings of this technology mere echoes of earlier enthusiasm for photography in an archaeological context or is this somehow qualitatively different? 2. Is there an emerging consensus on best practices in 3D imaging of archaeological sites? What are the current limits to this kind of technology and how does this influence the way in which data is collected in the field? 3. How do we understand archival considerations for 3D models and their dependent data? For example, what happens when we begin to prepare archaeological illustrations from 3D models collected in the field and processed using proprietary software? How do we manage !
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the web of interrelated data so that future archaeologists can understand our decision making? 4. What is the future of 3D modeling in archaeology? At present, the 3D image is useful for illustrating artifacts and - in some cases - presenting archaeological and architectural relationships, but it has yet to prove itself as an essential basis for analysis or as a robust medium for communicating robust archaeological description. Will 3D visualization become more than just another method for providing illustrations for archaeological arguments? My proposal for publication is as follows: This fall we run a series of blog posts on various aspects of the questions posed above (or whatever you want to write on). Let's set a preliminary deadline of September 1st. I'll post to my blog articles on Tuesdays and Thursdays (Three-D Tuesdays/Thursdays) for as long as we have content. I'll create a heading image or something and will need an author/affiliation line from everyone. The main benefit of running this on my blog, rather than a separate blog, is that we have visibility. Once all the posts are up and comments are made, I can take the posts and edit them with comments into a little pdf book. If we're all beyond excited, I'm willing to prepare it for circulating in paper as print-on-demand. This is but a small step from preparing a pdf copy). To make this easier, I ask that you send me your posts as .txt files with hyperlinks in parenthesis and in-text citations. Please send along images as separate files (in a zip folder) include captions where you'd like them to appear in the blog post. Include a works-cited at the conclusion of your contribution. The deadline for all contributions will be <strong>September 1 </strong>and the posts will start as soon as possible thereafter! I'm imagining contributions of under 2500 words, but since "electrons are free" I can certainly accept longer pieces! If you're doing interesting work and want to contribute to this drop me a line: billcaraher (at) gmail (dot) com. This will be a very inclusive project.

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Working Paper on Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/working-paper-on-teachinghistory-in-a-scale-up-classroom/ Thu, 25 Jul 2013 12:16:20 +0000 Bill Caraher As readers of this blog know, I've been working on a paper documenting and reflecting on teaching Western Civilization I in the [http://und.edu/scale-up/] University of North Dakota's fancy-pants new Scale-Up classroom. My teaching assistant from the spring 2013 semester, Cody Stanley, is my coauthor. This draft of the paper included some of the results of a survey conducted at the end of the course, a more substantial literature review, and a general tightening of our argument throughout. I think the article is good, but like everything I write, it is probably trying to do too many things all at once. On the other hand, I think - almost by default - we make some good observations on the changing landscape of college teaching in the humanities. Any and all feedback would be really appreciated! For more on my Scale-Up adventures, feel free to peruse [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] my weekly teaching journal and various other blog posts on the topic. [scribd id=139921488 key=key-nw02ge17kau13cff3jz mode=scroll]

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/26/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-69/ Fri, 26 Jul 2013 12:02:11 +0000 Bill Caraher It's a gorgeous early fall day here in North Dakotaland with the temperature in the mid-50s this morning and an unmistakable crispness in the air. To celebrate, I'm heading onto campus for the first time since the spring to get a book at the library, do some administrative deeds, and walk around feeling collegiate. As you contemplate the leaves changing colors, football, and curling up by a crackling fire with an adult beverage and a good book, I'll serve up some quick hits and varia. If you're still hungry for more, check out [http://www.dayofarchaeology.com/] the International Day of Archaeology and, in particular, [http://www.dayofarchaeology.com/punk-archaeologist-without-borders/] Andrew Reinhard's punk archaeology musings. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe23373731] One of the side-effects of austerity is more temptation to loot antiquities in Greece. [http://ancientbodies.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/i-am-the-walrus/] A buried walrus amidst 19th century graves in England. [http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/icfa/special-projects/online-exhibitions/beforebyzantium] Before Byzantium. Dumbarton Oak's online exhibit on the early activities of Thomas Wittemore (the founder of the Byzantine Institute). [https://academiccareers.uchicago.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp] A starting position in Byzantine Theology and Visual Culture at the University of Chicago's Divinity School. [http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite4_1_23/07/2013_510672] I guess a James Bond film was fine, but Red Bull extreme sports are not on Meteora. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/science/fort-tells-of-spains-earlyambitions.html?_r=1&amp;] Early Spanish Forts in North Carolina. [http://www.lparchaeology.com/hipum/what/] I really like the Hayling Island pop-up museum. [http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dh/2013/07/19/textal-now-available/] A mobile text analysis app! I wasn't really looking for this, but I'm glad it exists. [http://www.neh.gov/divisions/odh/grant-news/announcing-6-digital-humanitiesimplementation-grant-awards-july-2013] The NEH awards six digital humanities implementation awards. These all look like worthy projects embracing spatial approaches,

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crowdsourcing, networks, mobile applications, transmedia engagement and games. This is pretty much a summary of where the field is going. Conspicuously absent: text work. It's funny how many of my colleagues [http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/07/19/san_jose_state_suspends_udacity_ online_classes_after_students_fail_final.html] have responded to this report. I am not sure that faculty understand how MOOCs will work yet. [http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html] Require Reading: Typography in Ten Minutes. Some great aerial views of my wife's home town. [http://www.lensaloft.com.au/Interactive_tour/BrisbaneDusk/Brisbane.html] These are breathtaking. More here: s [http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1619846] croll down to heck out the photos of her alma mater - University of Queensland - here. Require viewing: [http://vimeo.com/70921986#] Experiments in Speed. It's only 9 minutes long, but it's lovely and "it is potentially, fairly dangerous". If you want to see a well-curated blog, check out Kostis Kourelis's work at the Society of Architectural Historians blog. This week: [http://www.sah.org/publications-andresearch/sah-blog/sah-blog/2013/07/25/race-space-and-trayvon-martin] Race, Space, and Trayvon Martin by Dianne Harris at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. [http://www.stereophile.com/content/amar-g-bose-phd-19291502013] RIP: Amar G. Bose. I wonder how much he is to credit for [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/garden/the-new-audio-geeks.html] the rise of the "New Audio Geeks". North Dakota: [http://www.examiner.com/article/what-s-the-matter-with-north-dakotarise-of-a-male-dominated-dystopia] A male dominated dystopia. And, if that's not bleak enough, [http://www.buzzfeed.com/susanelizabethshepard/wildcatting-a-strippers-guideto-the-modern-american-boomtow] here's a long read on being a stripper in Williston. [http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Derfor-er-abortstriden-sa-het-akkurat-her7261627.html#.UfJb3WTwI_Z] Here's my buddy Mark Jendrysik of the University of North Dakota's Department of Political Science and Public Policy explaining the situation to the good residents of Norwegia. [http://beerlabelsinmotion.tumblr.com/] On a much lighter note here are some animated beer labels. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/detroitsound/detroit-sound-conservancy-oralhistory-project] People should support the Detroit Sound Conservancy's Oral History Project on Kickstarter. If that's not your cup of tea, [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968285581/wolftree-vol-2] here's another worth project. [http://www.worstroom.com/] The Worst Room.

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 [http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=LA0713-164217] Anyone want to invest in helping me get my tour vehicle? What I'm listening to: Mikhael Paskalev, Jive Baby; Sleep Study, Nothing Can Destroy ( [http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2013/07/12-minnesota-bands-you-shouldlisten-to-now.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter] for more good Minnesota bands check this out.) What I'm reading: A. Bevan and J. Conolly, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/mediterranean-islands-fragile-communities-and-persistentlandscapes-antikythera-in-long-term-perspective/oclc/842929772] Mediterranean Islands: Fragile Communities and Persistent Landscapes: Antikythera in Long-Term Perspective. Cambridge 2013."IMG_0745.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0745.jpg]"IMG 0745" "IMG_0747.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0747.jpg]"IMG 0747" "IMG_0749.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0749.jpg]"IMG 0749]

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Downtown at Dusk http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/27/downtown-at-dusk/ Sat, 27 Jul 2013 14:52:13 +0000 Bill Caraher "Front.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/front.jpg]"Front" width="450" height="639" border="0" />

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Some Thoughts on Digital Dissertations http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/some-thoughts-on-digitaldissertations/ Mon, 29 Jul 2013 13:23:51 +0000 Bill Caraher Recently, there has been a good bit of talk about policies governing the digital publication of dissertation. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/churches-in-greeceor-why-my-dissertation-is-not-a-book/] I blogged about it a couple of weeks ago, but most of this came from American Historical Association's well-meaning efforts to urge us to adopt flexible policies toward the digital publication of dissertations immediate after their completion. Instead, they recommend allowing scholars to embargo their dissertations for up to [http://blog.historians.org/2013/07/american-historical-association-statement-onpolicies-regarding-the-embargoing-of-completed-history-phd-dissertations/] six years after they have been completed. They did not necessarily recommend that every scholar do this, but they recommended that a 6 year embargo be an option. "TwilightDissertation.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/twilightdissertation.jpg]"Twilight Dissertation" The fuss was sufficient that [http://blog.historians.org/2013/07/qa-on-the-ahas-statementon-embargoing-of-history-dissertations/] the AHA made real efforts to clarify their position and then the president of the AHA, [http://blog.historians.org/2013/07/why-put-at-riskthe-publishing-options-of-our-most-vulnerable-colleagues/] William Cronon, responded directly to criticism of the Association's position. His response was measured. He argued, in a nutshell, that recent Ph.D.s are particularly vulnerable because their dissertation is their most significant scholarly achievement to that point. Allowing recent Ph.D.s to embargo their work is a policy that protects that work and ensures that these vulnerable scholars can deploy their dissertation for greatest professional benefit. He is particularly concerned that academic publishers might look askance at publishing dissertations that are available for free digital download. This would make it more difficult for scholars at the start of their career to publish books heavily based on their dissertations. Since books remain the gold standard for tenure, any reluctance by publishers will perhaps make it more difficult for scholars to earn tenure. It is interesting to consider whether this policy is closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Smaller numbers of historians are hired to tenure track positions and a smallest percentage of Ph.D.s over the past 40 years earn employment at all. As a result, the pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education, [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/10/03/leaders_of_history_association_call_f or_new_view_of_the_job_market] Inside Higher Ed, and even the AHA have called for academically trained Ph.D.s to embrace the possibility of non-academic careers. The culture of academia is changing. Moreover, state universities are under increased pressure to justify their expenditures on the humanities. Making dissertations available to the public (who often understand their tax !
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dollars as directly funding graduate research) is a key way to assuage public concerns that money invested in higher education funds exclusively boutique projects that the average citizen could never access, much less appreciate. One response to these concerns has been to encourage more open access research. Moreover, [http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=127043] this practice follows national programs like the NSF and [http://publicaccess.nih.gov/] NIH which are requiring scholars to make available their research. Dissertations, especially those receiving "public funds" at state universities (putting aside the vagaries of state university budgets), would appear to many people as the products of their tax dollars. In the UK, this concern has fueled a recent spate of graduate student blogs where students advocate for themselves by making more of their research transparent. Other fields in the U.S. are making [http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/literally-psyched/2013/04/12/why-grad-schoolsshould-require-students-to-blog/] the same argument for different, but related reasons. Most historians have come to accept that our field is undergoing tremendous change, and Cronon admitted that the status of tenure remains uncertain in our changing academic landscape. More than that, we all know that the character of academic publishing is in transition. Even the idea that an academic publisher would shy away from a dissertation that was freely available as a download is hardly a clear situation, as Cronon points out. Our world is changing and the AHA has the opportunity to promote policies that shape future expectations in the discipline. I respect Cronon tremendously; he's smart and the AHA's heart is in the right place. It appears, however, that the AHA has adopted a policy the limits the circulation of academic research to protect a career path that follows an increasingly obsolete trajectory. (I really want to make the problematic analogy that this is like a well-meaning administrator advocating for lower standardized-test scores to keep under performing schools from being stigmatized.) If dissertations become immediately available for free download, it will accelerate the process of changing the expectations in both academic publishing and on the academic career path. For publishing, the re-publication of embargoed dissertations as books is not the best use of increasingly straightened publisher or - more importantly - library resources. This policy will make libraries more likely to expend resources on research that will eventually become available for free. It's hard to see this as a way forward. More than that, the embargo would tend to protect dissertations that do not undergo substantial revisions. Substantially revised dissertations will retain value to a publisher as an original book. Cronon admits as much: "Ive had several editors from distinguished presses tell me (off the record, unsurprisingly) that although they would certainly consider publishing a revised version of a dissertation that had been posted online, the general effect of online posting would be to raise the bar for whether they would look at such a dissertation in the first place or eventually offer it a contract. And Ive heard of university libraries that now save money by choosing systematically not to purchase university press books based on dissertations that are available online."

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In other words, this policy advocated by the AHA protects the lowest value books - ones that are not substantial revisions of dissertations - and creates a scenario where university libraries spend money to purchase lightly revised dissertations as book! Considering how academic publishing works, they might end up purchasing these lightly revised dissertations a year or two before dissertation embargoes would expire. More importantly, the push to make dissertation research available quickly after its completion fits the changing character of American graduate education with fewer candidates entering academic jobs or joining the tenure track. In effect, we're not only protecting the weakest dissertations, but we're protecting the research of an increasingly small number of scholars who pursue traditional academic careers. I wonder if this calculus is short-sighted and creates a system that privileges an elite career path over the massive quantity of valuable research. [http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/publishing-dissertation-online/51361] Some scholars have argued that dissertations are labor and apply a traditional reading of capitalism, unfortunately I am not convinced that graduate research fits the capitalist model perfectly. In fact, I have argued elsewhere that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/the-historians-craft-and-the-craftof-history/] history remains a craft and graduate students have an apprentice relationship with their advisors making the ownership metaphor of graduate research problematic. After all, most of us relied heavily on graduate advisement to produce the dissertation and as a result, it is as much a product of a system in which advisors and students are both deeply embedded. This isn't to suggest that graduate students aren't entitled to the fruits of their own research, but to suggest that it is more complex equation than simple labor costs might suggest. There are always forces that resist change in academia. In many ways, academic culture is deeply conservative. So I understand - and begrudgingly respect - Cronon's arguments. The AHA has to represent the interests of all historians as well as protect the intellectual product of these scholars. In this case, I feel like they're doing more to protect the scholar than the discipline. I suppose, if an organization has to pick one or the other, they've made the right choice, but I'm still not entirely satisfied.

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Fragile Landscapes and Persistent Communities on Antikythera http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/fragile-landscapes-and-persistentcommunities-on-antikythera/ Tue, 30 Jul 2013 12:57:33 +0000 Bill Caraher It was pretty exciting to get my hands of [http://www.worldcat.org/title/mediterraneanislands-fragile-communities-and-persistent-landscapes-antikythera-in-long-termperspective/oclc/842929772] Andrew Bevan and James Connolly's publication of their work on the small island of Antikythera. In many ways, this book and [http://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Interaction-Troodos-SurveyInterpretation/dp/1782971874/] the soon-to-be-published Michael Given et al. volume on their work in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus represent the state of the art in intensive pedestrian survey in the Eastern Mediterranean. This is important to me, of course, because David Pettegrew and I are doing final edits on the publication of the final results from our work on Pyla-Koutsopetria. The island of Antikythera is located off the southeast coast of the island of Kythera and northwest of the island of Crete. It is small, has a tiny full-time population, and has played only a marginal role in the "great events" documented by ancient and later texts. In fact, it seems likely that the island was periodically abandoned and visited only intermittently by herds, hunters, and shipwreck victims. The famous Antikythera shipwreck demonstrates that the island sits astride major east-west travel routes linking the eastern basins of the Mediterranean sea with those to the west. ( [https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Kythera&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=35.864709,23.315392&a mp;spn=0.090285,0.176983&amp;sll=47.914934,97.102858&amp;sspn=0.149339,0.353966&amp;hnear=Cythera,+Nisi,+Greece&amp;t=h& amp;z=13] It is worth noting that the Google Streetview car has never been to Antikythera! <strong>UPDATE:</strong> [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/may/12/google-street-view-bannedgreece] This is because the Streetview car is banned in Greece) Rather than write a comprehensive review, which I know my more qualified colleagues will produce in good time, I'll highlight a few things that I thought remarkable about this relatively short volume (by archaeological standards). 1. Total Coverage without Counting. When Elizabeth Fentress asked the question "What are we counting for?" over a decade ago in fifth volume of the POPULUS project, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/extracting-meaning-from-ploughsoilassemblages/oclc/43819032] Extracting meaning from ploughsoil assemblages, many survey archaeologists struggled to find an adequate response. Bevan and Connoly's work is the first to almost entirely do away an approach that privileged areas with significant aggregate artifact densities. Instead, almost all pertinent analysis came from the distribution of diagnostic artifacts from specific periods with no real attention to overall patterning of artifacts. This felt like a major break though in how we think about survey.

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More remarkably, of course, the Antikythera survey documented surface assemblages at close to a 10 m resolution. The field walkers are spaced at 15 m intervals and documented artifacts on the surface every 10 m. This sets a new standard for resolution in regional level survey and reflects the growing interest in intensification in field collection. As survey areas have decreased - for permit reasons as well as methodological concerns - the intensity of data collection has increased allowing archaeologists to say more using more robust assemblages over smaller areas. 2. Variable Diagnosticity As assemblages have become more robust and survey resolution has increased, archaeologists have become better able to understand how particular periods appear in the landscape. While [http://www.scribd.com/doc/40028951/The-Hidden-Landscape-ofPrehistoric-Greece-Bintliff-Howard-amp-Snodgrass] Bintliff's "hidden landscapes" still persist, we can not articulate more clearly why certain landscapes are hidden. Bevan and Connolly deal with what is being called variable diagnosticity in as thorough a way as anyone this side of [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25068042.pdf] David Pettegrew (.pdf). This basically means that some artifacts from some periods are more visible than others. The result of this variation is that some periods are more visible than others and we have to compensate for this variation through time. The folks on the Antikythera survey do this by both allowing for ambiguity in reading of pottery by identifying some artifacts as possibly dating to a range of periods. They are also particular attentive to classes of artifacts present and absent in surface assemblages allowing them to understand which periods are more or less. I note this aspect of the book, in particular, because much of the analysis of our survey assemblage at Pyla-Koutsopetria focuses on a similar issues and demonstrates - we hope! that as survey assemblages become more robust, we have to be just as critical about the gaps in these assemblages. 3. Numbers and Maps. The Antikythera project surveyed the entire island. The entire island! And this produced, as one might expect from Andrew Bevan, absolutely stunning maps and figures. Not only did they make the relatively low density distribution of pottery clear, but he also complemented them with some well-executed charts that demonstrated how the various period assemblages coincided with certain environment conditions ranging from distance to water, to slope, soil quality, and proximity to the coast. The authors managed to keep their impressive statistical analysis transparent, but not overwhelming. In other words, I understood arguments based on statistics that I am sure I entirely grasp. There are some other remarkable things about this survey volume. Some perhaps show the way for future intensive survey publications, whereas others are products of particular disciplinary predilections. 1. No Catalogue. The volume included no formal artifact catalogue. To be fair, some of [http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrnahb/downloads/Querciaetal10_manuscript.pdf] !
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the finer discussions of artifacts appeared in separate publications, but it is still remarkable that there is no formal catalogue of finds to support the author's argument. On the other hand, as we torturously edit the catalogue in the survey volume from PylaKoutsopetria, we can appreciate the limited utility of a survey catalogue. Even with increasing openness toward coherent surface assemblages and horizontal stratigraphy, survey catalogues are fairly strange beasts. They contribute little to re-examining chronology or typology. Catalogues do, however, provide evidence for arguments made in the text and while the color pictures and plate are not quite sufficient to evaluate the type-fossil artifacts upon which their arguments rest. 2. Little comparison I was also a bit bothered that there wasn't a greater effort to compare the assemblage on Antikythera with the work done elsewhere in southern Greece, Crete, and the islands. I understand that Antikythera is a small island and, in many ways, it represented a unique case. On the other hand, it would have been revealing to understand how similar the assemblages on Antikythera were to those on Kythera itself or the Peloponnesus. This might shed some light on the how connected these communities were culturally as well as economically to the flow of objects across the Mediterranean. As survey projects become more intensive and assemblages approached more critically, it opens opportunities to compare between projects. 3. No Experiences and No Methods Finally, this publication is - in some ways - pleasantly old-school. There is no excessive dalliance on methods or even much discussion of methodology. In fact, I'm rather curious how they collected ceramics data and counts every 10 meters without slowing the progress of their survey to a crawl! There are few arguments justify the efficacy of their approach to the landscape and, aside for the occasional remarks, very little apologia for the use of survey data to produce arguments. This is not to say that methodology or critical approaches to data are not important (see my discussion of variable diagnosticity above), but to suggest that this is a tremendously confident volume. More disappointing, however, is the almost complete absence of any discussion of the experience of being on Antikythera. The only place where the experience of being on an small, windswept island comes clear is in the 19th century and earlier accounts documented in chapter 8. No where is the archaeologists' experience clearly documented. I have no real idea how long it would take to walk from one part of the island to the next or how modern communication technologies enhanced or emphasized earlier senses of isolation. I recognize that not all archaeologists are comfortable with (or accept) the value of phenomenological approaches to the landscape, but since the idea of a persistent landscape was sufficiently important to appear in the book's title, it would have been nice to get a better sense for how the persistent landscape shaped archaeological work. More importantly, with the exception of the most fleeting appearances, there is little discussion of the fragile and short term community of archaeologists working on the island. The brutal transects that the modern archaeologist marched across the island seem to contrast with the less regular arrangement of settlements and activity areas. In other words,

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the archaeologists seemed to exist in a different landscape from earlier settlement. Unfortunately, I am not clear exactly his this landscape appeared. These quibbles aside, this book is an important contribution to how we go about analyzing survey data and should fit right along side the classics in the field. It will be particularly exciting to read this volume alongside the long-awaited final publication of the [http://www.ucl.ac.uk/kip/] Kythera Island Project.

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More on the Little Fort at Pyla-Koutsopetria http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/31/more-on-the-little-fort-at-pylakoutsopetria/ Wed, 31 Jul 2013 11:51:04 +0000 Bill Caraher After a couple of long, high-visibility posts this week, I wanted to offer something more bite sized. I've been working on wrapping up some of the odds and ends on the PyleKoutsopetria survey volume which he hope to have ready for final(ish) submission by the end of August. Among the final projects is putting together a short section on what we think is a Venetian or Ottoman period fortification wall. I've [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/1232/] blogged on this before, so it's nothing revolutionary. But I do have a couple of decent plans prepared now. "VenetianWall.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/venetianwall.jpg]"VenetianWall" width="450" height="316" border="0" /> Here's the text: During the first field season, field walkers discovered a short stretch of poorly preserved wall running approximately east to west parallel to the main road between Dhekelia and Larnaka. The wall itself preserved only small patches of poorly preserved limey mortar and unworked stone most likely quarried from the earlier remains. 20 m north of the course of the wall, the plough had cut through a section of plaster flooring revealing the ceramic packing below. Considering the proximity to the east-west wall, we assumed that this might be of the same date. The ceramics in the floor packing included coarse ware of Late Roman date. "DSCN1927.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/dscn1927.jpg]"DSCN1927" The wall itself is overgrown with shrubs and largely obscured by earth. It appears to run for approximately 30 m east to west and it might include a small dogleg. The course of the wall appears to follow an early, but visible, holocene beach ridge perhaps consolodated by a now destroyed road bed. The location of the beach ridge indicates that most of the embayment was infilled, and if the beach ridge and the wall are contemporary, this feature likely postdates antiquity. "img_0255.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/img_0255.jpg]"Img 0255" It seems probable that the wall here represents the remains of a small fortification described by Cesnola in the 1880s when he visited the site on his way to his summer home in Ormidhia: <blockquote>

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"Here I found the stone walls of an oblong structure, not older than the Venetian occupation of the island. It had been a small fort mounted with three guns, the embrasures of which are still standing. Along the southeast coast there are several of these guard-houses, built near the shore on elevated ground, some of which, now dismantled and roofless, are of Turkish construction, and two or three hundred years old." </blockquote> The pirates, according to Cesnola's informants, availed themselves to the the nearby cave which we call today Mavrospilios, where they would hold wealthy islanders for ransome. The small scatter of Late Medieval pottery in the area would tend to confirm Cesnola's identification of these walls as part of a small coastal battery. It is worth observing that the presence of such a coastal battery probably indicates the continued availability of the small inlet at the site. -----One more little section to add here is that the Venetian fort coincides perfectly with the "ruined church" on an earlier plan of the site. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/the-religious-landscape-of-postantique-pyla-kousopetria-cyprus/] I've blogged on this before as well, but I fixed a little georeferencing bug to allow the map and my plan to overlap precisely. The only difference between our plans of the site is that I suggest that the earlier road passed in front of the fortification more or less along the line of the existing coastal road. The 19th century plan routes the roads behind the fortification. In both cases, the earlier road follows the route of the earlier beach ridge and probably marks the extent of the small inlet at the site when the fortification was constructed. "VenetianWallasChurch.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/venetianwallaschurch.jpg]"Veneti anWallasChurch" width="450" height="316" border="0" /> Advertisement for Myself: Talk at the University of Texas http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/advertisement-for-myself-talk-atthe-university-of-texas/ Thu, 01 Aug 2013 12:24:35 +0000 Bill Caraher At then end of September I'll be giving a talk at the University of Texas's Workshop on Late Antiquity. The talk is on September 27th at 5 pm. The talk will be my first effort to wrangle architectural analysis and a more thorough and comparative study of the large residual assemblage of pottery from the "South Basilica" at the site of Polis into something approaching a coherent form. The paper will hopefully become the basis for a article length submission to a decent journal in the midwinter. As you might expect, I'll keep my dear readers in the loop as this proceeds.

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One more funny thing. I originally called the talk: Architecture and Assemblage at the Site of Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus, but my hosts at Texas thought that this wasn't a particularly student friendly title. I agreed. So we tweaked it a bit to: Reconstructing Community from Busted Pots and Ruined Churches on Cyprus The last three decades has been something of a golden age in the archaeology of Cyprus. From pioneering intensive surveys to meticulous excavations focused on rural sites that often fell outside the traditional scope of Mediterranean archaeological research, scholars of Cypriot archaeology have engaged current debates surrounding postcolonialism and hybridity, networks of exchange and connectivity, insularity, and the development of the ancient state. The theoretical innovation and methodologically significant fieldwork on Cyprus, however, has done little to project the island from the fringes of most archaeological conversations. While the marginal status of Cypriot archaeology might be understandable for earlier periods like the Cypriot Iron Age which many have seen as peripheral to larger trends in contemporary Aegean and Near Eastern societies, for later periods the robust and sophisticated assemblages produced by recent archaeological work present a solid platform for studying imperial administration, the Mediterranean economy, and the tensions between the local and the global in the context of empire. This paper will take as a point of departure the ongoing work at the site of PolisChrysochous (ancient Arsino) on the western side of Cyprus where a team has worked to document both the architecture of one of two Early Christian basilicas and an associated assemblage of Late Roman ceramics. The architecture and assemblage from this site demonstrates the connections between the city of Arsino and other sites on Cyprus as well as southern Anatolia. At first glance, these links may appear an unremarkable consequence of the site's location, but the character of the basilica and the nature of the assemblage reveals more than simply geographic determinism and hints at the material manifestations of the human decisions that constitute culture. The significance of the past 30 years of field work on Cyprus, in this context, becomes clear as it provides an almost unparalleled potential to analyze the material culture of a series of related, yet distinct, sites in the ancient world. Here's the classy poster: "2013LateAntiquityPoster.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/2013lateantiquityposter.jpg]"201 3LateAntiquityPoster" width="450" height="695" border="0" />

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-70/ Fri, 02 Aug 2013 12:51:43 +0000 Bill Caraher Cool autumn mornings are meant for pulling on a wooly blanket and watching The Ashes on television. Australia looks better than they did in the previous two tests, but if this is a batting wicket, I reckon they need to score about 700 to keep England at bay. (The crowd at Old Trafford gave David Warner a bit "Philadelphia-style" welcome before he got out after 10 balls.) So here are some quick hits and varia to keep you over what should be a lovely weekend here in North Dakotaland: [http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-cats-of-st-nicholas.html] Cats, St. Nicholas, and Cyprus. [http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Diocletians-palace-gets-laser-facelift/30058] Laser cleaning of Diocletian's Palace at Split in Croatia. [http://www.economist.com/news/international/21582287-dead-language-alive-andkicking-online-and-airwaves-resurrexit-vere?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/resurrexit_vere] The revival of Latin on Twitter. [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/did-zeus-exist/?_r=1] Did Zeus exist? U.Va, [https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46985] Columbia, and Notre Dame have posted Byzantine jobs. It's tricky to link to Virginia's job listing and difficult to find Notre Dame's online. I'm U.Va.'s and Notre Dame's have appeared, but not in the usual places. [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=394] The scent of travel. [http://www.city-data.com/poverty/poverty-Grand-Forks-North-Dakota.html] Some interesting maps of poverty in Grand Forks. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/21/opinion/sunday/lets-shake-up-the-socialsciences.html?smid=tw-share&amp;_r=2&amp;] It's nice to see the social sciences worrying about their field too (after all the hand-wringing lately by folks in the humanities). [http://windowsonwar.nottingham.ac.uk/] Another interesting online exhibit related to World War II: Soviet war posters. [http://arts-sciences.und.edu/native-media-center/boommaps.cfm] Maps showing the oil boom in western North Dakota [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/more-on-rural-change-in-westernnorth-dakota/] I've seen this somewhere before

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 Along similar lines [http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2013/07/faces-of-the-oil-boom/] another gallery of photographs from the Bakken. We can really start discussing whether the Bakken Boom or Detroit Decay has attracted more attention from photographers. It'll be interesting to see whether the Bakken Boom and the decline of Detroit attracts scholarly attention. [http://www.academia.edu/286045/Early_Medieval_Detroit_The_Motor_City_as_a_Mirro r_for_Illuminating_Urban_Shrinkage_in_the_Late_Antique_West] This is a clever sounding paper: Early Medieval Detroit: The Motor City as a Mirror for Illuminating Urban Shrinkage in the Late Antique West. Some cool treatments of both [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-30-the-storyof-yugoslavias-diy-computer-revolution] the historical DIY spirit in Yugoslavia and [http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-latvia-young-people-discover-new-passions-inbad-economic-times/2013/07/29/] contemporary DIY practices in Latvia. [http://archelogos.hypotheses.org/103] This is a cool little study that explores whether Digital Humanities is genuinely more collaborative than other fields. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSnfO15cAHE] This is an insane Bob Burnquist skating video. What I'm reading: A. Mailis, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/annexes-at-the-earlychristian-basilicas-of-greece-4th-6th-c-architecture-and-function/oclc/773879183] The Annexes at the Early Christian Basilicas of Greece (4th-6th c.): Architecture and Policy. Archaeopress 2011. What I'm listening to: De La Soul, Three Feet High and Rising; Tribe Called Quest, Low End Theory; Guru, Jazzmatazz Volume 1. "IMG_0755.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/img_0755.jpg]"IMG 0755"] "IMG_0753.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/img_0753.jpg]"IMG 0753"]

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Morning Sky http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/morning-sky-2/ Sat, 03 Aug 2013 13:12:14 +0000 Bill Caraher We got up early to watch The Ashes and between Australia's wickets, my wife noted that the sky offered some warning to us.

"P1030975.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1030975.jpg]"P1030975"]

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A Final Report of the 2012 and 2013 Field Seasons at the Site of Pyla-Vigla http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/05/a-final-report-of-the-2012-and2013-field-seasons-at-the-site-of-pyla-vigla/ Mon, 05 Aug 2013 11:31:39 +0000 Bill Caraher <guid isPermaLink="false] https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=3155</guid>

It has taken us a bit longer than usual to compile a final report on our excavations at PylaVigla in 2012. In fact, it took us so long to put something together we decided to combine our report for 2012 with our report for 2013. This brief article will likely appear in the newish [https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei] Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections. Because the main phases of the site of Vigla coincide with the rise in the Hellenistic monarchies in the Eastern Mediterranean, Egypt and Cyprus remain closely linked during this period. In fact, the strategic relationship between Cyprus and Egypt persisted from at least the Hellenistic period until the 19th century. British interest in the island related directly to their control of the Suez canal and access to their possessions in the Persian Gulf and India beyond. We would usually publish regular reports in the Report of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus (RDAC), but it seems to be enduring a bit of a lull in production. The word in the trenches is that this journal will reappear in the next year or so as a wholly online affair. This is a good thing, to my mind, particularly if it accompanies the digitization of its modest back catalogue. For the archaeology of Cyprus, the RDAC was - for some time - the journal of record and I expect when it begins once again to appear regularly, it will be once again. In the meantime, please enjoy our latest effort to describe and understand our work at PylaKoutsopetria. The main text here is mostly from Brandon Olson as are the GIS maps. Here's the abstract: Since 2003 the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project has systematically investigated a small region near the modern village of Pyla in southeastern Cyprus. Within this study region, the Hellenistic site of Pyla-Vigla is set atop a promontory of the same name, a toponym meaning lookout. Dating to the late 4th and early 3rd centuries B.C., the site was founded and occupied during a turbulent period in Cypriot history, one that saw the transition from rule by local city kingdoms to outright foreign imperial domination. Pyla-Vigla represents a key strategic position for warring Hellenistic kingdoms with interests in Egypt and those seeking to achieve superiority in the eastern Mediterranean. Recent archaeological work by the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project has shed light on the lives of those living at a Hellenistic fort in Cyprus. Documenting sites like Vigla provides a valuable perspective on day-to-day life in the armies that shaped the Hellenistic world. Here's the text: [scribd id=158190232 key=key-2jt5p081qainzrufo5n1 mode=scroll] !
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Teaching the Historians Craft http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/teaching-the-historians-craft/ Tue, 06 Aug 2013 15:38:33 +0000 Bill Caraher Every semester I teach a midlevel course called The Historians Craft. This course is requirement for all of our history majors and introduces students to the intellectual history of the discipline, basic research skills, some reading and writing techniques, and the historical method. In other words, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/the-challenge-of-midlevelcourses/] the course covers a good bit of ground and students, predictably, complain that I try to do too much in too little time. The focus of their complaints tends to be dreaded prospectus assignment. I divide the class into two parts. The first seven weeks are a narrative history of the discipline accompanied by a series of primary source readings. The second half of the class takes the students through the process of writing a proposal or prospectus for a research project. In theory, this prospectus will become the basis for their capstone research project. In practice, this rarely happened. In most cases, the research proposals are superficial, flawed, or just plain bad. The greatest problem with the prospectus assignment is that students struggled to identify a way to make a contribution to the historical debate. As much as I emphasize that most research offers just a modest or nuanced take on long standing conversations in the discipline and a revolutionary approach to a topic in the past is unnecessary, students still look to hit the home run and get frustrated when they strike out (instead of going for the single or even the bunt to advance a runner). Part of the issue is, of course, that students have not read much historical scholarship so struggle to identify opportunities to offer nuance. Despite the uneven quality of the proposals produced by this class, there has been a slight improvement in the quality of capstone papers. Writing a prospectus on new research in 5 or 6 weeks (at the end of a semester!) is an intense project for students not familiar with independent or sustained research, and they struggle to complete the necessary research and to articulate a plausible research project. I have tried to make the intensity of the course part of its appeal, and compare the frantic research over the second half of the semester to [http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/magazine/05Footballt.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0] Chip Kelly's famous uptempo practices. Student buy-in has been modest at best. From the short term perspective, the students have not enjoyed the class and the results of their work have been disappointing. In the longer term, the class has improved the students' performance in the capstone course. As a result of this, we have decided to add another required course between the capstone and The Historians Craft that will reinforce the skills introduced in the lower level class. Run like an undergraduate seminar, this midlevel course will focus on a particular historical topic and take the 15 students through the process of writing a research paper. While the Historians Craft class focuses almost exclusively on processes and methods, this new course will balance content and process. !
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One result of this new course is that we will be able to parse more finely the process of doing historical research. I decided - begrudgingly - to pull back from my prospectus assignment and instead focus a bit more on reading and understanding the debates taking place secondary sources. The first half of the class will remain unchanged and focus on the history of the discipline. (As an aside, I'm seriously considering preparing podcasts for my 12 lecture on the origins of the discipline of history). The second half of the class, which runs about 6 weeks, will undergo some significant modification. Right now, I have five steps in my revised second half of the class. 1. Primary Source Report. This report describes a primary source from either Special Collection at the University of North Dakota Library or a published collection. The goal of this report is to address basic questions of authorship, purpose, genre, and utility. To paraphrase the great R.G. Collingwood, a primary source is only a source if it's a source for something. The something in this case is a historical argument. 2. Bibliography Building. The students will build a basic bibliography based on their primary source document. This will introduce students to library research on a particular topic and to basic bibliography formats. The bibliography will include articles and monographs. 3. Article Reviews. The students will write two short papers that review articles. One will be a common article ready by the entire class and the other will be an article that somehow relates to the primary source document. Each paper will require the student to identify the thesis of an article, to determine the primary source evidence that supports this thesis, and to recognize the historical debate to which the article contributes. 4. Book Review. Article reviews set the stage for preparing a book review which will be an extended version of article review. Like the article review, the students will select an academic monograph that relates to the primary source that they evaluated in the first assignment of the class. In the review, the students will have to address the same issues as the article review in a longer, more developed and critical paper. The book review will make an argument whether the book succeeds or fails in making a compelling argument. 5. Position Paper. The final assignment of the semester will ask the students to bring together their primary source(s) and secondary literature. The goal of the paper is to bring together the article reviews and books reviews into a cohesive evaluation of a single piece of historical evidence. The position paper will not ask a student to articulate a new position in relation to the historical conversation or the primary source evidence, but will ask the student to critically evaluate existing positions. The revised version of the Historians Craft will go live this fall, so stay tuned for some updates on the success or failure of my adjustments!

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Some thoughts on Butrint 4 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/some-thoughts-on-butrint-4/ Wed, 07 Aug 2013 12:48:39 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the past couple of weeks I have slowly made my way through [http://www.worldcat.org/title/butrint-4-the-archaeology-and-histories-of-an-ioniantown/oclc/761381294] I.L. Hansen, R. Hodges, and S. Leopard, Butrint 4: The Archaeology and History of an Ionian Town (Oxbow 2013). When I was first invited to review this volume, I agreed, but without much enthusiasm. As I first tried to engage the book, I found it tough going. I was busy and distract. The book was too large to take with me to Cyprus and so it sat for a while, partly read, gathering dust. This past week, I began to feel the slight upswell of apathy tinged panic about [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/pkap-preparations/] all the little projects that I set out to accomplish this summer and how many of them remain relatively unfinished. Anyway, I got reading this volume in earnest this week, and its good. This summer I had a series of long conversations with my colleagues at Polis-Chrysochous about how to go about publishing the results of fieldwork there. Initially, we imagined producing a traditional archaeological volume with sections produced by various specialists and covering the entire range of material from the site, perhaps limited by period. As we went about attempting to understand this, it became increasingly difficult to imagine a scenario where everyone who has permission to study a particular body of material could complete their work in a contemporary way. Moreover, we were concerned that producing an exhaustive volume would not be a very meaningful contribution to Mediterranean archaeology noting that even some of the best recent volumes from Cyprus attract relatively little attention off the island. As a result, we began discussing alternate approaches to archaeological publication and landed on the idea of a volume that included a series of specialist studies focused on how the material from Polis speaks to issues relevant to the wider community of Mediterranean archaeology. Butrint 4 is similar to this approach, although in places I'd have liked the significance of the studies to the wider discourse of Mediterranean archaeology made more clear. In any event, it is pretty easy to imagine the future of archaeology in volumes that assemble problem oriented specialist studies rather than the exhaustive and universal synthesis. Here are my thoughts on Butrint 4 along these lines: 1. Archaeology and the Nation. Richard Hodges frames the entire volume with an intriguing little essay that positions the archaeology of Butrint in the context of nationalist archaeology. This has long been a point of critique in Albanian archaeology (see [http://www.worldcat.org/title/epirus-vetus-the-archaeology-of-a-late-antiqueprovince/oclc/48679111] Bowden and [https://www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/JMA/article/viewArticle/2754] Davis) and Hodges attributes the desire to see continuity at Butrint as the product of various nationalist motives spurring excavation there. That being said I am skeptical of Hodges remark: "We must conclude that although long-term, large-scale excavation is by far the !
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most costly and unfashionable of archaeological techniques, the results of the Butrint Project suggest that it remains an essential element of the study of abandoned towns. Only by such methods is ethnic nationalism challenged." Only? 2. Continuity Problematized. Hodges and the other contributors to this volume specifically take aim at the sticky issue of continuity and abandonment at the site of Butrint. Instead of showing how the site persisted through time, the contributors took particular pains to explore lulls in activity (including the traditionally vexing 3rd century AD). For example, the history of the villa turned basilica turned elite household on the Vrina plain east of the city of Butrint was punctuated by periods of abandonment influenced by the changing environment on this low-lying plain as well as larger trends in settlement and demographic change. The careful study of the Well of Junia Rufina and the small church and cemetery likewise demonstrated how this site blinked on-and-off through time rather than experiencing uninterrupted significance. 3. Churches. This represents my particular scholarly interest, but there are few regions in the Mediterranean that have more Early Christian basilicas and fewer systematic studies. Even the spectacular basilicas of the provincial capital of Nikopolis remain dated by stylistic analyses that are over a half-century old. [http://www.worldcat.org/title/-ekklesiastikearchitektonike-eis-ten-dytiken-sterean-hellada-kai-ten-epeiron-apo-tou-telous-tou-7oumechri-tou-telous-tou-10ou-aionos/oclc/7800170] Synthetic works of the churches in this region (which increasingly include the remarkable remains in Albania) are hampered by the lack of stratified dates and carefully documented architecture. Moreover, it is clear that Epirus Vetus was an important area in our understanding of the geopolitical and theological conflicts of the 5th to 7th centuries. The studies of the Great Basilica, the basilica on the Vrina plain, and the church on the acropolis of Butrint all begin to present more complex pictures of ecclesiastical architecture in the region. We're still a ways off from having systematic chronological arguments for the dates of the buildings in this region, but we're making steps. As an aside, it was interesting to note that the churches around Butrint used piers rather than columns to support the clerestory and separate the nave from the aisles. This occurs rather rarely in Greece with the basilica near Corinth in the Kraneion district being the largest and most prominent. The " [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/the-southchurch-at-polis/] South Basilica" at Polis may have also used piers to separate the nave from the aisles. While this may have been a practical structural or economic decision, the role of the nave colonnade in elite display is fairly well-established. It would appear that the difference between piers and columns was a shift away from using the nave colonnade to display marble with elaborate carved capitals. 4. Residuality. The careful study of the small Well of Junia Rufina at Butrint was a nice example of how residual pottery can shed light on the economic history of a site despite the not being associated with primary activities. The growing willingness to interrogate ceramic assemblages produced by intensive pedestrian survey has had a significant influence on how once neglected deposits of pottery from excavation can provide valuable insights in the economic and social life of communities. The formidable [http://www.academia.edu/3557329/Early_Medieval_pottery_finds_from_recent_excavatio ns_at_Butrint_Albania] Joanita Vroom analyzed the Medieval ceramics from the contexts

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associated with the well and church and was able to link Butrint to a dynamic world of Eastern Mediterranean commerce and culture. As another aside, it was interesting to see the significant number of Late Roman 1 amphoras - produced in both Cyprus and Cilicia - at Butrint as well as the presence of a Sarachane 54 amphora from the vicinity of Constantinople. Both of these types of amphorae appear at Polis. 5. Diachronic. The study of residuality, continuity, and nationalism in the context of archaeology all require a willingness to go beyond the narrow chronological horizons sometimes promoted in graduate school and in our professional organization. It seems pretty clear to me that the next wave of major research initiatives and publication in Mediterranean archaeology will require at least an openness to diachronic perspectives. A more complete review of this book will come in the following weeks

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Some Other Reasons to Publish Your Archaeological Data http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/some-other-reasons-to-publishyour-data/ Thu, 08 Aug 2013 12:59:07 +0000 Bill Caraher This week I finally sent along the data from our survey at Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus to [http://opencontext.org/] Eric Kansa at Open Context. This was a bigger task than I had anticipated, but with the publication of the volume on our survey, it seemed like ideal time to make our data accessible to researchers on the web. Hopefully, the web publication of our data at Open Context becomes a companion piece to our survey volume allowing a critical reader to interrogate our claims more thoroughly than traditional paper tables and catalogues would permit. I do not need to recite all the good reasons to make raw archaeological data publicly available. In preparing the data from our survey for publication, I did discover some unexpected benefits to this process. 1. How can there be so many holes in my data? At the end of every season, we spent a bit of time making sure that our data was in good order and that there weren't massive gaps in our dataset. Reviewing the entire dataset, however, exposed myriad small gaps and irregularities that had crept into our data over the years. Most of these could be easily filled as we collected data in the field in a way that ensured redundancies, but because these little gaps in our data tables were not significant for our analyses, they remained almost invisible until we reviewed our data for publication. The notion that someone else would use our data in ways we could not entirely anticipate pushed us to apply a greater degree of scrutiny to our dataset and to produce a much cleaner copy. As a little note, it took more time to fix the last few problems than it took to do large scale normalization. Hours before I submitted the data for review, I officially gave up on 23 records in our finds database. I decided just to live with .3% of our data being not entirely tidy. Reviewing and revising our databases also gave me a firm set of practical limits for the quality of our data. 2. Excavating Data. One of the more remarkable things that we discovered on reviewing our data for publication was the number of strange fields that we never used or used only sparingly. For example, our main survey database had three fields describing our orientation as we walked each individual unit. We had columns for bearing, "Direction To", and "Direction From". As our survey units were all orthogonal and each fieldwalker walked a straight line through the unit, I have no idea why there were these three fields. We also had a yes/no field for "Black and White Photograph". Our project had used relatively high resolution (&lt;8 megapixels) cameras from our first field season in 2004. These fields, then, must have entered our database from the earlier databases upon which it was based. The "Black and White" photography field must have originated in either the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey (EKAS) database or the [http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/scsp_var_2001/] Sydney Cyprus Survey !
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Project Database. EKAS originated in the mid-1990s and SCSP in the early 1990s, both prior to the widespread use of publication quality digital photography. Black and white photography remained the standard for archaeological documentation until around the year 2000. The "Direction to" and "Direction from" fields must have derived from the database of a project that anticipated more irregularly shaped units such as terraces or hill slopes. I suspect this came from the database used in the Australian Palaiokythera Archaeological Survey where we walked numerous irregularly shaped units. We removed these fields from the final dataset submitted for publication because they did not include any data (at all!), but it was intriguing to be reminded of the origins of our survey data structure through these residual components. 3. Managing Misfit Data. As we prepared our data for publication we discovered that we had to make some hard decisions about misfit data that do not nest neatly in our larger survey datasets. For example, we collected data on several hundred features in the survey area. Each feature received a number, a GPS coordinate, and a brief description in a notebook. At some point the notebook entries were summarized in a brief table and merged with the GPS point data in our GIS, but these points were never reconciled formally with our survey units. In other words, these points were not part of the survey dataset either spatially or structurally. As we prepared our data for publication, we decided against including the features dataset in large part because it was collected on a different spatial scale and in a fundamentally different way from our survey database. We used the features data to describe the landscape of survey area and even did some rudimentary spatial analysis with it, but in the end this data remained too awkward and complex to include with the survey data. In contrast, we did find ways to integrate the lithic analysis and the study of organic remains from the survey area with our ceramic dataset even though this was data recorded outside of our standard data structure. Managing misfit data was a tricky task and as I am beginning to look ahead to my next survey project, I am already thinking how to ensure that our data integrates more seamlessly. 4. Many Copies Makes a Mess (without version control!). I know that one of the great principles of good data management is to keep multiple copies of data to insure against data loss. With easy access to vast quantities of storage in the cloud, it is now easier than ever to have redundant data storage. The only issue occurs when you have multiple copies of your data, managed by multiple scholars, and living in multiple places. It took more time for us to assemble a complete collection of survey unit photographs, for example, than to normalize the finds and survey database because our photographs lived on various hard drives and we lacked a definitive dataset. As I move forward with new projects, I am going to insist on a better system for maintaining definitive versions of our data. None of these things should come as revelations to anyone who has dealt with archaeological datasets, but encountering all these little issues and making these decisions has compelled me to engage critically with the data collection, revision, and maintenance process one last time before embarking on a new survey project with a new data structure. Reviewing and revising our dataset for formal publication allowed us to understand the limits of our data collection processes and the structure of our data in new ways.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-32/ Fri, 09 Aug 2013 13:20:20 +0000 Bill Caraher Another amazing early fall morning here in North Dakotaland with the mercury not yet showing above 50 degrees. I'm hoping that we begin to see a little bit of color in the trees along the rivers and lakes as my wife and I head north this weekend. In the meantime here are some quick hits and varia for you to enjoy as you watch [http://www.espncricinfo.com/the-ashes-2013/engine/match/566935.html] the somewhat meaningless fourth test of the Ashes. [http://galileeprehistoryproject.org/2013/08/06/alesson-in-proper-troweling-techniques-and-the-perils-of-comfortable-archaeology/] How to trowel. [http://asorblog.org/?p=5146] I don't need to include as many archaeology links on Fridays when the good folks at ASOR are doing such a nice job. [http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_07/08/2013_513150] Tough days to be a tax inspector on Crete. [http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/08/04/archeologists-dig-for-colonialhistory-behind-north-endhome/D77SUMtERUBkSfvE36mO3H/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw] Excavating backyard trash. This gives me ideas. [http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/408104] Aaron Barth (PKAP and North Dakota Man Camp Project Alumnus) is spreading knowledge. [http://theappendix.net/issues/2013/7/tuned-to-the-senses-an-archaeoacousticperspective-on-ancient-chavin] Acoustic archaeology. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/10230298/Our-midlife-odyssey-to-thePeloponnese.html] This is pretty offensive and bizarre. [http://blog.historians.org/2013/08/what-i-do-historians-talk-about-their-work/] Historians talk about what they do. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/09/a-warning-tocollege-profs-from-a-high-school-teacher/] What to expect from our students in the near future. [http://www.mishkahenner.com/Feedlots] Feedlots. [http://backupminds.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/professionalization-in-anthropologygraduate-programs/] The professionalization of graduate programs in anthropology.

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 [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/08/bucharest-would-remindyou-once-again-it-not-budapest/6461/] Bucharest is not Budapest. Who knew? This entire thing seems like splitting hairs. [http://www.donothingfor2minutes.com/] Do nothing for 2 minutes. [http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/aug/02/damascus-whats-left/] What's left of Damascus. [http://www.management-issues.com/news/6724/messy-desk-creative-mind/] Messy desk is a sign of a creative mind. [http://edutechnica.com/moocmap/#] Mapping MOOCs. [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/the-hole-in-our-collectivememory-how-copyright-made-mid-century-books-vanish/278209/] How copyright is hurting the availability of books. What I'm reading: D. H. Meadows, D. L. Meadows, J. Randers, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/beyond-the-limits-confronting-global-collapse-envisioninga-sustainable-future/oclc/25094546] Beyond the Limits: confronting global collapse, envisioning a sustainable future. Post Mills, VT 1992. What I'm listening to: The Mekons, Fear and Whiskey; Mumford and Sons, Babel; [http://sealaneschicago.bandcamp.com/] Sea Lanes, Sea Lanes.

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Fitness and the Archaeologist http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/fitness-and-the-archaeologist/ Mon, 12 Aug 2013 12:25:55 +0000 Bill Caraher This summer I found myself in the worrying position of being too out of shape to be a field archaeologist. I am fairly sure that I'm not the only Mediterranean archaeology who has found himself in this position. In fact, one of the real issues with our fieldwork rhythm is that we tend to work frantically for 6 to 8 weeks and sit at a desk for the other 40 or so weeks of the year. Contract archaeologists (who we all both admire and pity) have a much more regular routine of fieldwork and tend to remain more "fieldwork fitness". As a colleague of mine sagely put it academic archaeologist tend to garden, contract archaeologists farm. My profound lack of fitness became clear during a short hike into hills above the Akamas peninsula in Cyprus with my colleague Tina Najbjerg. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/17/any-mediterranean-landscape/] The day was mild, the scenery striking, and there was even some interesting archaeology to keep my mind on things. Within 10 minutes of us starting our hike, however, I was gasping for air and watched helplessly as a slightly obese German tourist waddled past me on the trail wearing flip-flops and board shorts. This was not a good sign. "GASP.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/gasp.jpg]"GASP" I survived the hike - with only some griping and groaning - but became aware that some of my previous prowess as a landscape archaeologist was at risk. In fact, I was be concerned that I could no longer engage the landscape in haptic way outside of crunch of gravel under foot between the car to the shaded work room. For those of you who know my work, some of it derived from a willingness to hike up to the top of [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf] Mt. Oneion in the Corinthia (about a dozen times!), [http://www.scribd.com/doc/42994192/CaraherPettegrew-James-VayiaOffprint-2010] to wander the rocky environs of Vayia bay, and [http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4] to explore abandoned settlements in secluded valleys. I realized that I probably would struggle to do the kind of fieldwork that I enjoyed and capitalized on early in my career. It's not like I live a completely sedentary existence. I like to walk here in North Dakota and found that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/reflections-on-100walks/] reflections on walking have often informed my fieldwork. Observing the subtle changes in neighborhoods through time has informed my growing interest on materiality in American [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/consumer-culture-andidentity-a-case-study-from-grand-forks-nd/] consumer [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/archaeology-of-consumer-cultureand-north-dakota-work-camps/] culture, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticity-and-the-man-campin-the-bakken-oil-patch/] domesticity, and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/depositional-processes-in!
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suburban-archaeology/] suburban or small town archaeology. But leisurely walks on small town streets did not prepare me [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/earth-wind-and-fire-on-a-shorttrip-to-greece/] to hike into the mountains of the Argolid. Even when I could make it up the sides of hills to see spectacular and utterly undocumented sites, I knew that I didn't have the energy to document anything carefully or thoroughly. As I looked ahead to my next phase of fieldwork, this was a real concern. Following [http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2012/12/26/dissertation-writingcrossfit/] the lead of some other archaeologists, I decided to do something to get in shape. I am not sure that I am ready to, say, [http://100milesofwild.wordpress.com/] walk (much less run) 100 miles through the North Dakota badlands, but next time some such insanity happens, I'd like to be invited (rather than just dismissed with a laugh). This month, I've started to get into shape. I've begun to run some (actually it is more of a shuffle punctuated by a limp) and I got my old bike fixed up for some local bike rides and I'll probably invest in a magnetic trainer to do some work in doors this winter. As one might expect, my knees ache and my body seems to be rejecting the experience of exercise in a mildly violent way. I have seen some improvements though. My resting morning heart rate has dropped from about 55 to the lower 50s and I feel significantly more fit on my runs. The pain of moving my legs and bending my knees remains the limiting factor, but I am getting better at living with nagging pain. I am optimistic that this will allow me to be in more professional shape by next summer (or require significant surgery or [http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/750665.html] "sports related injury" blog mediation ). My goal is to get my morning heart rate solidly and consistently in the 40s and be able to get to my office without breaking 55.

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Backyard Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/backyard-archaeology/ Tue, 13 Aug 2013 13:30:25 +0000 Bill Caraher Every now and then I get such a brilliant idea that I have to patiently wear down my wife's skepticism. For the last year, I've been suggesting (as well as hinting, imploring, and begging) that I be allowed to conduct a proper excavation in part of our backyard. She has finally agreed. When we bought our house 2 years ago there was a swing-set in the backyard. The base of the swing-set was a sandbox. It appears that the sandbox was cut into the ground by maybe 10 cm. When the swing-set was removed, the sand from the sandbox stayed and as a result nothing can grow in a 3 m x 1.5 m splotch in our back yard. Some way or another, the sand must be removed if we want to have a lush and appropriate backyard lawn. "P1030989.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1030989.jpg]"P1030989" The need to remove sand, however, is probably not a sufficiently robust scientific reason to conduct a proper excavation. Archaeology is, after all, destructive and archaeological contexts are a limited resource. There is an archaeological justification for excavating the backyard, however. Our house probably dates to 19th century and is probably the oldest house on our block and in our section of town. We know that the house has seen only limited modification. A back room - maybe designed to be an expanded kitchen - and sleeping porch were added at some point probably in the earliest 20th century. The sleeping porch was built in by the mid-20th century to serve as an additional bedroom. The front porch as it now exists dates from the last decade of the 20th century, but it likely replaced an earlier porch. There has been extensive landscaping and there are two out buildings: a one car garage that is earlier than a two car garage. The former is probably mid-20th century judging by the massive elm tree that today pushes into the side of the structure - and the latter is probably from the 1970s. This short architectural history of the house demonstrates that there is little chance that we'll uncover fragile architectural remains associated with an earlier phase of our house or an earlier structure on the site. This makes our excavation relatively low risk in terms of possibly damaging otherwise protected earlier structures. "P1030977.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1030977.jpg]"P1030977" More importantly, from what I can gather there has never been a fully published archaeological excavation within the urban core of Grand Forks. Despite [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/more-small-town/] the almost constant excavating of foundations for new buildings, there is no effort to document the remains of earlier structures on these sites. What does happen, however, is neighbors discover buried middens in their backyards while preparing gardens and the like. At a recent block party several folks reported finding old bottles and other archaeological material between the back of their houses and the alley way. I suspect that an excavation in my !
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backyard will reveal trash pit from the turn of the 20th century as well as construction debris associated with the house. Carefully documenting these finds will not only reveal the rich material culture associated with small town habitation, but also serve as a study collection for finds discovered in other, more neighborly (and unscientific) gardening digs. "P1030992.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1030992.jpg]"P1030992"] With very recently granted approval, I need to start to assemble a team to excavate my backyard and to determine what approvals will be necessary (including local utilities!). I am clearly not qualified to document the material culture from a turn of the century excavation and have no experience digging in the Red River Valley or the Northern Plains, but fortunately, [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/] I know some people [http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/] who do have experience. We plan to backfill the trench and replace the barren ground with sod when we're done and it won't be any larger than 3 x 3 m. When we excavate, it will be important to publish the results promptly both on the web and in a more traditional form. My thought is that our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/new-idea-grand-forkscommunity-history-project/] Grand Forks Community History Series might provide a useful venus. Hopefully the finds can find a home at [http://www.grandforkshistory.com/exhibits/myra-museum/] a local museum and the digital or paper documentation of our work can live in [http://library.und.edu/specialcollections/] Special Collections at the University of North Dakota. My hope is to start our work mid-summer 2014 provided we can jump through any hoops. I'll certainly keep you posted.

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Making a Mess of Maps http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/making-a-mess-of-maps/ Wed, 14 Aug 2013 12:32:50 +0000 Bill Caraher This week I am focusing on making maps for the final publication of the survey component of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/archaeological-maps/] As I have mentioned before on the blog, making maps is not my specialty and the illustrations in recent survey publications put mine to shame. On the other hand, maps remain a vital component of survey publications and can - when properly executed - communicate information in a more clear and straightforward way than even the most eloquent text. My goal is to keep thing simple. I'm using Myriad Pro font. It's sans serif for legibility and is fairly narrow without sacrificing clarity. I've picked a narrower font to attempt to counteract the name of our project and site "Pyla-Koutsopetria" being fairly long and our site itself stretching east-west for over a kilometer. Anything I can do to save a few points of width on the page is welcome. In its simplest form, my basic map looks like this: "Figure1_2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure1_2.jpg]"Figure1 2" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> I've decided to keep topolines on our map because our illustrations will all be in black-andwhite as a result, I need to manage my use of grey scale in a very deliberate way. So I was uncomfortable using a greyscale DEM as the back ground for the survey area. Throughout our text we use local topographic terms for our site. Those are easy enough to add without getting the map too cluttered, but it is sometimes tricky to put the name of the feature - such as the Kokkinokremos ridge or the Vigla plateau - on the actual feature. So I put it close and figure that the text will make the exact location of the feature more clear. "Figure1_2_ALT.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure1_2_alt.jpg]"Figure1 2 ALT" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> I experimented with using a Bing Maps satellite image as the backdrop. It looks decent in color, but not as crisp in black-and-white: "Figure2_3ALT.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_3alt.jpg]"Figure2 3ALT" width="450" height="353" border="0" />

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"Figure2_3BW.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_3bw.jpg]"Figure2 3BW" width="450" height="353" border="0" /> We also used our own terms for various features on the survey site. We broke the site into 4 zones for analytical and interpretive purposes. This is where things get more cluttered in greyscale: "Figure2_3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_3.jpg]"Figure2 3" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> And the wheels really come off when trying to represent the more complex geological map of the site in grey-scale: "Figure2_13.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_13.jpg]"Figure2 13" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> More standard survey data, however, like artifact densities and visibility look fine. "Figure2_3b.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_3b.jpg]"Figure2 3b" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> "Figure2_11.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_11.jpg]"Figure2 11" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> One of the more "fun" maps to make showed the relationship between artifacts and the area the infilled embayment or harbor. A grey line marks the extent of holocene silt. This one shows Late Roman artifacts and it makes clear the intensive activity around the edges of the embayment. The remains of this activity was likely smeared to the south by centuries of ploughing: "Figure2_17a.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_17a.jpg]"Figure2 17a" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> This map shows the distribution of Medieval artifacts over the same period. Note the small cluster of objects at the western edge of the embayment: "Figure2_17b.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_17b.jpg]"Figure2 17b" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> For the Modern period, the artifact scatter might coincide more clearly with the course of a modern road along the southern edge of the infilled embayment. In general, these roads follow and stabilize the beach ridge. Crushed ceramics may have served to reinforce the road

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and the route of the road probably saw more opportunities for discard. I wanted to include the roads on this map, but it made the map cluttered. "Figure2_17c.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/figure2_17c.jpg]"Figure2 17c" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> As you can tell, producing maps is neither something I am good at or my favorite thing, but I think I am slowly getting better at it. My maps are cleaner, simpler, and show some more attention to little details. They may not be better or even "good enough", but they're heading in the right direction.

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Teaching Thursday: Teaching Byzantine History http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/teaching-thursday-teachingbyzantine-history/ Thu, 15 Aug 2013 12:58:33 +0000 Bill Caraher This fall for the first time since 2007, I'm going to teach an upper level undergraduate history class. I figure once every 5 years is about as often as both the students and my own workflow can handle it. Because another faculty member teaches Greek and Roman history, I have some limits on what I can teach in my specialty. I had prepared and taught a one semester Byzantine history course some years ago so I dusted it off, gave it some thought, and decided to teach it as an overload this fall. For a textbook, I am using the second edition of [http://www.worldcat.org/title/historyof-byzantium/oclc/778339313] Tim Gregory's History of Byzantium (Blackwell 2011) in part because he was my academic advisor at Ohio State, but also because it is the best single volume history available. The course will have five graded assignments. Two primary source papers (3-5 pages each) and a book review of an academic monograph. There will be a midterm and final exam. The course will be a blend of lectures and discussions of primary sources readings. As readers of this blog know, I have a decidedly ambivalent attitude toward lectures. I enjoy giving lectures and the students enjoy the experience, but so much pedagogical research indicates that lectures - at least in a traditional sense - are an inferior way to engaged students. I keep working toward developing a hybrid form of lecture that both engages the students, but also remains true to some of the longstanding narrative traditions in the discipline. I've advertised this course as a traditional course poking gentle fun at some of the more inventive approaches to history. I also misspelled diorama just to keep the students on their toes. (First step of innovative pedagogy is allowing the students to understand that you are more like them then they might expect.) "ByzHistoryFlyer.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/byzhistoryflyer.jpg]"ByzHistoryF lyer" width="456" height="600" border="0" /> Week 1August 27 Tuesday: Introduction August 29 Thursday: City, Empire, and ChristianityReadings: Gospel of St. John; Acts of the Apostles Week 2September 3 Tuesday: Diocletian, Constantine, and Late AntiquityReading: History of Byzantium, Chapters 1-3 September 5 Thursday: Eusebius and the Constantinean System Reading: Eusebius, Life of Constantine Week 3 September 10 Tuesday: Constantine and His Successors Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 4 September 12 Thursday: The Family of Theodosius Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 5

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Week 4 September 17 Tuesday: Pagans and Christians Readings: Pagan and Christian Tombstones of Attica; Mark the Deacon, The Life of St. Porphyry of Gaza; Marinos of Samaria, Life of Proclus; History of Byzantium, Box 4.3, 5.2 September 19 Thursday: Christology and Early Byzantine Spirituality Readings: Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Macrinal Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History (selections); St. Athanasius, The Life of St. Anthony; The Nicene Creed Week 5September 24 Tuesday: Justinian Readings: History of Byzantium, Chapter 6; Procopius, The Buildings, Book 1September 26 Thursday: Byzantine Spirituality: Liturgy and Saints Readings: John Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow; The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom Week 6 October 1 Tuesday: Heraclius and the Loss of the East Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 7 October 3 Thusday: The Dynasty of Heraclius Readings: Theophanes Confessor (selections), Chronicle; The Life of St. John the Almsgiver Week 7October 8 Tuesday: Icons and Iconoclasm Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 8-9 October 10 Thursday: Iconoclasm and the Sources Theophanes, Chronicle (selections), Various Icondule Saints. Week 8 October 15 Tuesday: Catch-up Day October 17 Thursday: Midterm Week 9 October 22 Tuesday: The Macedonian Dynasty Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 10-11October 24 Thursday: Byzantine Values and Literature Reading: Digenes Akritas Week 10 October 29 Tuesday: Macedonian Renaissance October 31 Thursday: The Height of Byzantine Power Reading: Michael Psellos (Books 1-6) Week 11 November 5 Tuesday: Middle Byzantine Spirituality November 7 Thursday: Monasticism Reading: Byzantine Monastic Documents (selections) Week 12 November 12 Tuesday: The Byzantium in Age of the KomneniansReading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 12 November 14 Thursday: The First Crusade Reading: Anna Komnena, Alexiad (selections) Week 13 November 19 Tuesday: The Fourth Crusade Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 13 November 21 Thursday: Byzantium and the West Reading: Niketas Choniates (selections) Week 14 November 26 Tuesday: The Late Byzantine Revival Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapters 14-15 November 28 Thursday: Thanksgiving Week 15 December 3 Tuesday: The Intellectual Life of Late Byzantium Gregory Palamas, Triads (selections) December 5 Thursday: The Fall of Constantinople Reading: History of Byzantium, Chapter 16 Week 16 December 10 Tuesday: The Last Romans December 12 Thursday: The Byzantine Legacy Reading: History of Byzantium, Introduction As a final note, my colleague [http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/] Scott Moore at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and I are teaching this course at the same time. This !
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summer we toyed with some ideas of how both students and the content from the two courses could interact in a way that expands the perspectives of students in both classes. Since our content management systems are "walled gardens", it seems like we'll have to experiment with a blog or similar where students from the two classes can interact in a public forum. As we develop these ideas, I'll post more here.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-71/ Fri, 16 Aug 2013 13:26:00 +0000 Bill Caraher It's dry here and cool and dusty. Last night the cars going by sounded like they on a wet road, but, in fact, it was just the streets covered in sap that hadn't been washed off by a summer shower. We need rain, but it's hard to see much in the forecast. Since I haven't had to mow the lawn much and have spent altogether too many hours in front of the computer this summer, I have gathered some varia and quick hits for my loyal readers to enjoy. It's all Dimitri Nakassis, all the time: [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/Spiffs/advanced-imaging-of-linear-b-tablets-frompylos] a cool little article from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens on his work imaging Linear B tables and [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/climateand-collapse/] a interesting blog post critiquing article on the relationship between climate and political collapse in the Late Bronze Age. Good stuff! [http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130810.html] Two Perseid meteors over Meteora in Greece. [http://rogueclassicism.com/2013/08/13/nasa-wants-you-to-help-with-a-latin-twitterfeed/] Along similar lines, NASA is exploring tweeting in Latin! [http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/archaeologicalpioneers/4874068] Jim Stewart, Cyprus, and the development of professional archaeology in Australia. [http://asorblog.org/?p=5185] The American School of Oriental Research's Andy Vaughn remembers the late Martin Bernal. Anyone who went to graduate school in the 1990s recalls the impact of his works. [http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/08/12/roman-boatpictures_n_3742285.html?utm_hp_ref=uk] "Hundreds of valuable amphora" from the 2nd century found at a Roman shipwreck near Genoa. [http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/open-content-an-idea-whose-time-has-come/] The Getty making thousands of images available freely available. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deanputney/experience-world-war-i-through-agerman-officers-p] The Great War through the eyes of a German Officer on Kickstarter. [http://onesecond.designly.com/] Every second on the internet. [http://www.warhol.org/figment/] Andy Warhol's grave site can be viewed on webcam 24 hours a day. [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/search/label/Funerary] It reminds me of some of the interesting posts on Kostis Kourelis's blog.

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 [http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/12/40-maps-thatexplain-the-world/] You can go and check out 40 maps that explain the world or [http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/08/12/the_1931_histomap_the_entire_histo ry_of_the_world_distilled_into_a_single.html] you can simply check out this one brilliant chart. [http://media.umw.edu/podcasts/reclaim-hosting/building-with-howard-how-to-createa-learning-envi] Building your own course management system with Jim Groom and Howard Rheingold. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/08/14/212062159/hip-hop-in-middle-age] Hip-hop enters middle age. One of the first "old buildings" that I became aware of as a child was the Coach House on Philadelphia Pike. It was a stone building apparently built in 1899 (although to my childhood mind, it could have been centuries older). [http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130812/NEWS01/308120082/Fire-damagesformer-Coach-House-Restaurant-in-Claymont?source=nletter-breakingnews] It had a substantial fire this week. [http://www.amazon.com/Gone-Fishing-Mr-JohnLittle/dp/1490533540/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1376575324&amp;s r=1-1&amp;keywords=gone+fishing+by+john+little] Gone Fishing with John Little. [http://melhogan.com/website/show-me-your-desktop/] I'll show you my desktop if you show me yours. [http://prairietalks.org/upcoming-talks/] Some cool Prairie Talks this fall. [http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/08/beautiful-bees/?mbid=social10714584] More reasons to hate bees. They're too colorful. What I'm reading: W. Caraher, D. Pettegrew, and R.S. Moore, Pyla-Koutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town. in preparation. What I'm listening to: The Clean, Vehicle; The Mekons, Fear and Whiskey."P1040004.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040004.jpg]"P1040004" width="450" height="470" border="0" />From our rose garden

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Late Summer Roses http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/17/late-summer-roses/ Sat, 17 Aug 2013 12:51:34 +0000 Bill Caraher The previous owner of our home planted roses and we continue to be the lucky beneficiary of their gardening interest. We've sort of let the roses get away from us this past two years, guided by the conviction that if we did anything to them, they'd all die or get some kind of rose blight. This August, they looked nice in the morning light. I took all these with my Panasonic GX-1 and a 20 mm lens set to manual focus. I tried to get just a tiny bit of the roses in focus. "Roses.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/roses.jpg]"Roses" width="471" height="600" border="0" /> "Roses2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/roses2.jpg]"Roses2" width="450" height="485" border="0" /> "P1030999.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1030999.jpg]"P1030999" width="450" height="236" border="0" /> "P1040009.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040009.jpg]"P1040009" width="450" height="538" border="0" /> "P1040001.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040001.jpg]"P1040001" width="450" height="272" border="0" /> "P1040004.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p10400041.jpg]"P1040004" width="450" height="470" border="0" /> "P1040005.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040005.jpg]"P1040005" width="450" height="526" border="0" /> "P1030999TALL.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1030999tall.jpg]"P1030999TAL L" width="450" height="835" border="0" />

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An Open Letter to our new Provost and Dean http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/an-open-letter-to-our-newprovost-and-dean/ Mon, 19 Aug 2013 13:17:26 +0000 Bill Caraher This fall, the University of North Dakota has a new [http://und.edu/provost/] Provost and [http://und.edu/news/2013/06/debbie-storrs.cfm] the College of Arts and Sciences has a new dean. Right now they are cruising across the state as part of [http://und.edu/news/2013/08/new-faculty-bus-tour.cfm] the University of North Dakota faculty bus tour. So now seems a safe time to tell them exactly what I think they should do as they begin their time at UND. This post follows a tradition on the blog. Five years ago, I welcomed our new university president with a series of historical blog posts that described the tension between a previous president and faculty. I think they're some of my best posts and you can enjoy them [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/03/24/politics-and-th-2/] here, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/politics-and-1/] here, and [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/07/politics-and-th/] here. I don't have anything as clever to welcome our new dean and provost, but I figured that I should post something. Since open letters are [http://www.stephenfry.com/2013/08/07/an-open-letter-to-davidcameron-and-the-ioc/] all [http://allthingsd.com/20130807/dear-jeff-bezos-heres-what-isaw-as-an-analog-nobody-in-the-mailroom-of-the-washington-post/] the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyUxCQt9T0E] rage these-a-days ( [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaxo0T4doqg] and should not be confused with this other kind of letter or, dear lord, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXgiEuoQIP4] this letter), I thought I might type up a few things that I think are important for new administrators to keep in mind as they start their careers at the University of North Dakota. These are not supposed to be grievances or reflect the shortcomings of previous administrators, but they do reflect my priorities as a faculty member. Moreover, I do not claim a particularly unique perspective or vantage point for my open letter. In fact, I'm the perfect definition of rank-and-file faculty on campus. I am not a superstar or a campus asset. I am not a wise and experienced grey head. I am not a hot shot assistant professor. I'm [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/a-proposal-for-a-low-costteaching-fellows-program/] a mid-career, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/presenting-my-path-to-tenure/] associate professor with no particular standing on campus. I do my job - research, teach, and do some service - but I'm not notable for any one of them. I will say that I work hard, but I lack that spark to be anything more than a loyal foot soldier to my discipline and university. Worse still, I'm in the humanities. Finally, I don't have an special behind the scenes knowledge of how the university really functions or how it should function.

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That being said, I can describe how the university appears to me, and I suspect that some of my perspectives will be shared by the great majority of faculty who do not see themselves as particularly special, but want to do the best they can in their environment. 1. Respect faculty time. Over my almost 10 years on campus, I've been engaged in a wide range of activities at the behest of administrators that resulted in nothing. These range from the inconsequential (e.g. an online form that needed to be filled out in addition to the traditional paper forms) to the more time consuming including [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/thinking-outside-the-box-at-themodern-university/] committees charged with creating a new program or evaluating core university functions. While I always felt honored to participate in the more "important" and special committees, they consumed my time and energy and so often did not produce anything of note. The combination of these bigger obligations and the gradual increase in niggling responsibilities impinge on the time faculty can spend doing research and inevitably make us less effective teachers. Please, if you have any control over the expansion of the number of faculty committees, pointless paperwork exercises, and other pressures on faculty hours, try to control this kind of mission creep where creative faculty become bureaucrats. 2. Do not tell creative faculty to develop a business plan to support their creativity. We all recognize that funding makes the world go 'round. I've written my modest share of grants and prepared budgets for my archaeological research projects. I even have tried my hand at some ham-fisted self promotion, and helped to envision a program of crowd-funding for local creative projects, but I cannot create a business plan. My colleagues in the humanities, arts, and sciences have strengths in in creative and innovative thinking, transformational research, and meaningful teaching. We look to our colleagues in administrative posts to find resources for us to continue this work. While we all understand that external grants are sometimes required, we do not have any idea how to create a compelling or sustaining business plan. Fortunately, as administrators, you do. So instead of asking us to do it and taking time away from our creative tasks, you should do use your expertise to help make our creativity viable in the new academic landscape. In the meantime, those of us in creative fields will follow the great John Madden's advice: "Don't worry about the horse being blind, just load up the wagon!" 3. Do not reward bad behavior. Nothing is more demoralizing to the toiling members of the rank-and-file than to see rewarded colleagues or departments who act out, chafe under imagined grievances, seek out offenses, and spend more time causing trouble than doing their job. I realize that sometimes it is easier to placate than to punish, but for those of us who stay out of trouble, overlook possible small offenses with some grace, and suffer injustices with a modicum of dignity, it is excruciating to see the continued support and promotion of people who behave poorly. I understand, of course, that some of folks who misbehave are crusaders for justice, whistle blowers, and revolutionaries, but many are not. They pursue their own agendas, vendettas, and political positions in ways that undermine collegiality on campus.

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When they're rewarded for their antisocial and unprofessional behavior, it undermines morale among those of us who don't want to cause trouble and want to focus on our research, teaching, and colleagues in a positive way. 4. Recognize economic inequality across campus. Faculty at a university function in a wide range of different economies. The economic realities that shape the lives of scholars in the humanities and arts are fundamentally different from those that shape the lives of folks in the hard or applied sciences. I'm not complaining (much). I understand that society values certain kind of research more than others and that certain kinds of research simple costs more than others. I also understand that replacement costs for faculty, start up costs, and the lure of private industry impacts different disciplines in different ways. I am also aware that university administration is growing and careful economic calculations take place before hiring each additional director and associate vice president (cough). Some of these folks are so good at their jobs that they more than pay for themselves and the economic impact of their work funds additional faculty members and research opportunities. At the same time, please realize that it is intensely demoralizing when administrators have no real idea how competitive, challenging, and difficult funding opportunities can be for scholars in different disciplines. We do not all have equal access to corporate resources, federal grant programs, or private resources. More painfully, faculty are not all compensated at the same rate for the same work. It is a difficult generalization to make, but many of us at the most productive times of our careers make less than people who have entered into the "operation shutdown" phase of their careers. I am worldly enough to understand that there is no way to "fix" these disparities across disciplines, departments, and divisions of the university (an I am sure that many would not even really see this system as broken), but it would make my life better if all parties, led by deans and the provost, could at least consistently acknowledge the unequal distribution of resources on campus and if this leads to programs that benefit the work of scholars who have a bit less, then this is an added bonus. 5. Find Creative Ways to Support Collaboration. One of the funniest things that happened a few years back is that at the same time our dean and president were promotion collaboration, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/making-the-professionaloffice/] they moved our department to a new building further away from our closest intellectual colleagues (English and Languages). Moreover, the design of the building encouraged solitary work in offices rather than chance encounters with colleagues. [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/category/headquarters] The examples of companies that have found imaginative solutions to the need to produce new ideas is vast and growing. So far, on campus, there is significant research to support collaborations, but I have yet to see the same commitment to creating an environment that support collaborating. For example, the library has traditionally stood as a space for chance encounters with both ideas and people, and it seems like a natural place to manifest this commitment to cross campus collaboration. Over my time at the university, however, the library has never received enough support. There could be real benefit to developing open plan spaces in the center of campus to support collaborative activities and removing institutional barriers to co-taught courses or !
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cross listing brings the collaborative spirit of faculty to the classroom. Some of these things already exist on campus or may be in the planning stage, and I'm loathe to discourage direct funding of collaborative research, but there is more to collaboration that giving money to successful partnerships. I suspect most people have stopped reading my post at this point as it has clearly strayed into tl;dr territory, but I wanted to go on record with my ideas. Maybe someday when the dust has settled, programs are in place, troublemakers placated, and collaborations ensured, we can sit down for a beer or a coffee. Good luck and welcome to UND.

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Man Camp Methods http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/20/man-camp-methods-2/ Tue, 20 Aug 2013 10:31:20 +0000 Bill Caraher Today the intrepid Bret Weber and I are heading west for my regular tour of the Bakken oil patch. Regular readers of this blog know that my destination is work force housing and my goals are to produce an archaeology of the contemporary "man camp". Regular visits are imperative in this rapidly changing environment and we are still coming to terms with how to document diachronically a social and archaeological phenomenon that is unstable and dynamic. Prior to this trip to the man camps, I've spent the last month editing the final publication of our intensive survey at the site of Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus. Our work there was heavily informed by methodology, and we endeavored to demonstrate how a consistent method produced data sets that led to particular interpretations. This need for a consistent method and procedure is central to what we did on Cyprus as archaeologists. This carried over into our work in the Bakken. Our initial venture into the camps involved documenting camps on individual forms and describing units with photography and another set of forms. The goal was always to sample the kinds of units present in each camp and to describe the facility in general way as well. I think we imagined that these forms would be the basic description of the camp and to some extent, the location and place within our basic typology has remained more or less stable. This weeks trip will mark our fifth data collecting trip into the Bakken and we have moved well beyond the capacities of our rather simple data collecting strategies. On the one hand, we probably need to identify single camps or sites and collect a massively robust data set from them designed to describe every unit and associated object. Returning over time will involve charting the development of the units and the objects that constitute the camp. [http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4] David Pettegrew and I did a similar project at the site of Lakka Skoutara in the Corinthia over a 10 year span. This kind of myopic approach, however, would push our infrastructure and time to the very limits and involve - invariably- ignoring larger regional trends for the sake of intensive documentation. On the other hand, traveling from site to site across the Bakken provides a large scale perspective on a number of different phenomena associated with workforce housing ranging from very short term housing at construction sites which conform to our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-3/] Type 3 camps to large scale prefabricated housing developments which conform loosely - to our [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-ofnorth-dakota-work-camps-1/] Type 1 camps. These camps continue to fit into our typology, but they clearly challenge our functional, economic, and social assumptions. Short term housing at a construction site is not a "grapes of wrath" story, and a subdivision of prefab houses is not the same as [http://www.targetlogistics.net/] a corporate Target Logistics style camp. These are observations that come only from large scale documentation of the region. !
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Moreover, as the oil exploration and extraction expand different areas of the region encounter workforce housing in different ways. In fact, we are heading north in the wilds of Divide County (pop. ca. 2000) and Burke County to see how areas with extraordinarily low population densities accommodate the requirements of oil extraction. This regional approach requires more agile modes of documentation and a certain amount of flexibility in approach. This week's trip will for me, at least, focus on developing a consistent method to document camps that compromises between a regional approach and an approach that focuses on the development of individual camps through time.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/23/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-33/ Fri, 23 Aug 2013 13:28:13 +0000 Bill Caraher Happy Friday, everyone! I just got back from a three day research trip to the Bakken and got a bit behind with the blog and my web reading. In the best of all possible worlds, a quick hits and varia Friday would just get me back on track, but when I'm in the field it get hard to harvest the abundance of the web for my dear readers. So, I'll have to supplement a modest number of quicks hit and varia with some photos from my trip. A full report on the trip will appear next week, I promise! [http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/08/archaeologists-examine-historic-garbagedump/98074?utm_content=buffer26f58&amp;utm_source=buffer&amp;utm_medium=twi tter&amp;utm_campaign=Buffer] Nothing beats Byzantine trash. [http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2013/08/02/monk-takes-devotion-to-newheights/?hpt=wo_mid] A modern stylite, but "to new heights"? [http://archaeogaming.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/the-philosophy-of-archaeology-invideo-games/] Another interesting blog post at archaeogaming. [http://phys.org/news/2013-08-archaeologists-uncover-lost-roman-outpost.html] The Roman military in Jordan. [http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html] I love one dot per object maps. This map shows race in the U.S. [http://eater.com/archives/2013/08/19/heres-anthony-bourdains-foreword-to-marilynhagertys-book.php] Anthony Bourdain's introduction to Marlyn Hagerty's new collection of columns from the Grand Forks Herald. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157603671370361/] The Depression and Home Front in World War II in color. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179073160/in/set72157603671370361] Note some man camps and [http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179073160/in/set72157603671370361] here.Some man camp images: "CampView.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/campview.jpg]"CampView" "DumpsterView.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/dumpsterview.jpg]"DumpsterVie w" width="450" height="190" border="0" />

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"RightinaRow2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/rightinarow2.jpg]"RightinaRow2 " width="450" height="220" border="0" /> "CampView2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/campview2.jpg]"CampView2" width="450" height="220" border="0" /> "TransitionalView.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/transitionalview.jpg]"Transitional View" "RightinaRow.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/rightinarow.jpg]"RightinaRow" "SepticView.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/septicview.jpg]"SepticView" width="450" height="222" border="0" /> "BrokenCamp.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/brokencamp.jpg]"BrokenCamp" "TRHotel.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/trhotel.jpg]"TRHotel" "IMG_0816.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/img_0816.jpg]"IMG 0816" width="450" height="125" border="0" />

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Recent work of the North Dakota Man Camp Project http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/3240/ Mon, 26 Aug 2013 12:29:52 +0000 Bill Caraher This past week, the blog took a short hiatus while I ventured west to do some more work in the Bakken. As readers of this blog know, Bret Weber and I are the primary investigators of the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project. Initially, I had anticipated that my part of the project would be a short-term study of workforce housing. In fact, I had imagined my part of the project to be essentially a "snapshot" of housing a single moment in time. Ah, the best laid plans... "P1040393.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040393.jpg]"P1040393"Bret talking with Ashley Thorberg of Prairie Public on location in the Bakken This month marked my fifth research trip to the Bakken area, and it confirmed my growing impression that a static image of workforce housing only tells a tiny part of the story. While I'm hesitant to define what I'm doing as longitudinal, we have increasingly gathered data that reveals something of the lifespan of camps and their dynamic presence in the Western North Dakota countryside. We also had more time to reflect on the various settlement patterns present in the Bakken countryside. While maps can sometimes provide perspectives on the relationship between short term and longer term settlement, the rapid development of workforcing housing in North Dakota has made it difficult to understand larger patterns without putting boots on the group (and miles on the ole Honda Civic!). Finally, we continue to meet with our friends in the media and listen hard to questions that they ask as at least one indication of what our larger community of stakeholders in the state regard as important for understanding the Bakken boom. One thing from these questions remains clear, they do not see material culture as vital to understanding what's going on in the Bakken. This has been a failure of communication on my part and one that I'm intent on rectifying. Along all these lines, I have a little list of five things that motivated my thinking this last trip to the Bakken and hope that at least some of these ideas will appear in our ongoing efforts to publish our results: 1. Abandonment. For the first time, we've begun to notice some abandoned camps. The two most significant ones were at Wheelock and outside of Alexander. The camp outside of Alexander was bustling when we visited it in August 2012 and was the site of an important episode of entrepreneurship as a group of recent college graduates had set up a semi trailer offering showers to residents of the dry camp. When we visited again in February, the camp was not nearly as bustling and by May it was in serious decline. By August 2013, the camp was largely abandoned with some mobile homes and a gaggle of port-o-johns hinting at a efforts to make sanitation available in the camp. The easy analysis of this abandoned camp is that the lack of water and sewage made it less appealing to workers.

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"MC14Au2012.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/mc14au2012.jpg]"MC14Au2012" Camp 14 under a threatening sky in August 2012 "P1040494.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040494.jpg]"P1040494"Camp 14 in August 2013 The situation in the town of Wheelock might well follow the same pattern. The home-grown sewage system seemed a bit dodgy and the water system depended on a tank built against the back of a house. It's hard to imagine that this system functioned flawlessly over the winter. "DSC_0405.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/dsc_0405.jpg]"DSC 0405" Wheelock in August 2012 "P1040233.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040233.jpg]"P1040233"Wheel ock August 2013 The remains of these camps are a mix of broken PVC pipe, beer cans, fragments of extruded polystyrene insulation, hoses, and wires. The now abandoned masts continue to poke up from the ground and show some signs of wear and tear. The grass is growing back and in parts of the the camp near Alexander the field has been returned to cultivation. 2. Crime and Material Culture One the persistent narratives regarding the oil patch is that crime is rampant. This is repeated endlessly in media narratives, but on the ground, crime is always something that takes place somewhere else, at other camps and in other sites in the Bakken. One way in which our study of material culture plays a key role is that we spent considerable time documenting the objects around individual housing units. It is remarkable how many units had camp furniture, refrigerators and freezers, kids bikes, coolers, work equipment, and household goods. If crime was rampant, it would seem to be rampant outside of the confines of the camps where security over objects seems minimal. "P1040336.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040336.jpg]"P1040336"Divers e assemblage of material associated with a unit at Camp 25 This is a place where material culture can tell a story that challenges the narratives of the media and even - at times - of the camp residents themselves. The apparently wide-spread presence of fire arms (or at least the perceived wide-spread presence) makes the risk associated with petty theft greater than in an ordinary subdivision. 3. Policy and Innovation We spent a good bit of time at Williston Fox Run, a large, Type 2 camp on the northern edge of Williston. The RVs at this camp are remarkable for the extent and creativity of their modification. Most have mudrooms, some have lawns, fences, decks, gardens, and outside social areas, and a few units are nearly enclosed within large additions. Conversations with !

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some of the staff at the camp made clear that there is friendly competition among residents of the camp to create the most elaborate additions and a brisk trade in mudrooms as residents leave and new residents arrive. Moreover, the camp maintains an area set aside for provisional discard of scrap wood, PVC pipe, wood framing, shipping pallets, and other useful pieces of disjecta membra that residents can salvage for their architectural fantasies. "P1040530.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040530.jpg]"P1040530" "P1040531.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040531.jpg]"P1040531" The lenient policies (and seemingly enforcement) regarding additional structures and other modification to units at the camp encourages creativity and transforms the otherwise bleak rows of RVs into a space for self expression. It is likewise clear that opportunities for selfexpression - even if they are somewhat chaotic - played a role in the creation of a sense of community among residents as outside spaces became the arenas for "barbecue cook-offs" and good natured ribbing and admiration surrounding efforts to modify one's space broke through the anonymity of the temporary housing environment. Policies administered by the camp operators contributed to the creation of community at the camp. 4. Local Settlement Patterns The well-meaning efforts by the state to map workforce housing are not a good guide to the realities on the ground. The data remains too inaccurate to form general observations. On the ground research, on the other hand, produces lacunose datasets, but also allows for more subtle observations regarding the relationship between long-standing and short-term settlement that often fall outside the more generalized perspectives offered by the state maps. For example, RV parks serving housing needs often ring small towns that maintain some civic functions (e.g. civic status, post offices, schools et c.). Towns where these functions have lapsed or never existed to begin with tend to have small camps throughout including in open spaces that may have originally be set aside for parks or schools and as infilling between homes. The infrastructure present in small towns whether abandoned or not particularly water dictates at least some of the location of temporary housing. Abandoned schools, in particular, tended to have water hook-ups and parking lots that are well-suited for RVs and are often available inexpensively. "P1020604.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1020604.jpg]"P1020604"Units clustered around the old school in White Earth, ND In contrast, communities with civic status even if small challenge the presence of RV parks for workforce housing in their settled core. This is a pattern the is best-known in the region's larger towns like Williston (pop. 15,000) which has enacted and enforced a series of laws that prevented ad hoc camps at businesses or residences, discouraged people sleeping in vehicles, and camps in public parks. We are going to contact small towns like Wildrose, Crosby, and Tioga to see how they have managed the expansion of workforce housing in their vicinity and discuss with county commissioners the management of RV parks on county lands. 5. The Fringe of the Boom !
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This trip we spent some time cruising the roads of sparsely populated Divide County (pop. ca. 2000) and had a lovely dinner in the county seat of Crosby. Just this week, there were [http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/71445/] news stories on the impact of oil production on this region. The county is full of oil production and pipelining, but relatively little workforce housing. Crosby and Wildrose have a few camps each, but these are small and relatively new. Wildrose sits just north of the border with Williams County which has enacted increasingly restrictive ordinances governing camps making it an appealing site for workforce housing. The camps in Crosby and Wildrose may be associated with pipeline workers active in the area. "P1040152.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040152.jpg]"P1040152" It is curious, however, that there is no sign of the large-scale temporary housing companies like Target Logistics moving into this area (yet) and that camps remain relatively small and disorganized. It may be that larger camps benefit from the infrastructure available on the Route 2 corridor (which runs parallel to the "High Line") and around the communities present off the road (Stanley, Tioga, Ray, Williston, and Watford City). It may also be that these sites are more centrally located in the Bakken generally allowing them to serve the various industries related to oil production (trucking, equipment maintenance, construction as well as drilling and fracking). Finally, we were excited this trip to have documented 50 camps and to have returned at least once to at least 25 of them. For some of the larger sites we have hundreds of photographs and approaching 5000 geocoded photographs of the boom in total. This is becoming a substantial archive.

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Teaching Tuesday: A New Semester and Some New Teaching Goals http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/27/teaching-tuesday-a-new-semesterand-some-new-teaching-goals/ Tue, 27 Aug 2013 11:36:48 +0000 Bill Caraher At the start of a new semester and a new year, I always try to organize my teaching goals into a little list. This is probably because I always try to organize everything into little lists (for better or for worse). I'm also looking ahead to a possible sabbatical next year, so I thought this might be a good time to start to take stock of my teaching so I can think actively about what I do well and what needs work when I have time to actually work on things. It seems to me that changing fundamental things about what one is teaching is often difficult to accomplish on the fly, but it seems more possible to change how one teaches things. 1. Be Myself (and compartmentalize less). I have a tendency to compartmentalize my teaching and to see it as something quite separate from my research and, to some extent, my service interests on campus. I tend not to teach in any of my active research fields and don't often bring my research into the classroom. I usually teach introductory level or methods classes that force me to expand my perspectives from my specialized academic interests into something larger. This semester for the first time in years, I'm teaching in an area adjacent to my research specialties. (Let's say I'm a Late Antiquitist or something.) I'm teaching a Byzantine history course and pledging to bring some of my actual research into the class to demonstrate to students that my main skill is not just being able to read the textbook faster than them. 2. Push Students (encourage students to take risks). If I have felt compelled by boundaries stipulated by our contract to keep separate my teaching and research, my students have used the the contractual interpretations of the syllabus to set artificial limits on their engagement with the material. Students do what the syllabus tells them to do and rarely any more (although possibly less). In other words, completing the syllabus earns an A and an A is all the knowledge one can reasonably hope to gain for a class. Over the past few years, I have increasingly considered the issue of student motivation as one of trust. I need to convince students that the syllabus is just the start of the educational process and everything that they do beyond its requirement (and indeed, beyond the requirement for an A) isn't just wasted energy better deployed in other classes or earning money off campus, but actually making their education more valuable. 3. Teaching Journal (document the successes and failures). Last semester, I was fairly disciplined in keeping a weekly record of the successes and failures of my class in the innovative Scale-Up classroom. In the past, I've kept a weekly teaching log which captures my immediate reactions to my teaching week. A critical reading of this text has helped me to identify weaknesses in both my content and teaching method. Unfortunately, taking the time

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to slow down and make notes while in the heat of the semester is difficult and it involves a conscious commitment not just to survive but to reflect on survival. 4. Mine My Teaching Data More. One thing that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/three-more-observations-on-thespring-semester/] I've rarely done is revisit my teaching data at any level of sophistication to understand for example the relationship between grades on the midterm and the final or short papers and major papers. Of course, overall grades in the class do tell me something about how students perform and the deviation between grades gives me a hint at where an assignment is out of step with the others. Beyond these rather basic approaches to the grades, I haven't done much to understand how students perform over the course of the semester other than through intuition. This might have been accepted decades ago where even basic statistics involved manual number crunching, now it's too easy to use Excel to parse my grades however I want and to experiment with analyzing my grades more carefully to make informed decisions on how I approach certain assignments. 5. Teach Content and Method. One of the biggest challenges of this semester is that I'll be teaching content rather than just method. I can hear the banshees of the active-learning tribe wailing as I write these words. After all, content and method are inseparable. For the last five years, however, I haven't had to worry about content at all, really. My normal teaching load involves Western Civilization and "The Historian's Craft" and both classes have such broad chronological and subject matter that it is possible to select almost any evidence to suit a particular exercise. Content exists, but it is infinitely malleable to fit whatever exercise in method that I am trying to communicate. But this is a slippery slope. As many of my peers have noted, transforming the discipline of history into an exercise in method or worse an extension of the larger "critical thinking" project runs the risk of robbing history (or any discipline) of its disciplinary identity and justifies the collapsing of the humanities into one indistinct melting pot. In an era where efficiency often trumps subtle intellectual distinctions and specialization, it seems like a return to content and content driven method is at hand. I need to work harder at this. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/more-than-four-reasons-toteach-more-than-four-classes-sometimes/] I have playfully evoked Malcolm Gladwell's scientistic argument that expertise requires 10,000 hours of practice. I average about 750 hours of classroom teaching a year and have taught 8 years at the University of North Dakota. By my reckoning, I'm about half way to being an expert teacher. I have a ways to go.

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Broaching Byzantium http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/broaching-byzantium/ Wed, 28 Aug 2013 13:21:55 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the challenges that I faced on the first day of the new semester was how to broach the topic of Byzantium with my Byzantine Civilization class. Superficially, this should be easy; after all, they were taking the class. But University of North Dakota students can be a skeptical, conservative, and reticent audience and their comportment will show me that enrolling in a class is hardly a sign of interest. They'll have names ending in "-son", wear baseball caps because their dad wears ball caps, and have limited patience for the humanities for the sake of the humanities. All in all, it reminded me of how lucky I was to have an understanding community when I decided to drift toward Byzantine studies. When I told my friends and family, they all offered their unconditional support for my decision even if it was not a lifestyle that they wanted or understood. They got that this decision to lean toward the Byzantine was important for me. (I have to admit that I was tempted to channel my inner Chris Farley and come into the room yelling "So, you want to be a Byzantinist" but I realized that this could lead them to living in a van, down by the river, eating government cheese.) That being said, I went through a series of scenarios for offering to broach Byzantium to a skeptical classroom. 1. Byzantium complicates the West. A colleague of mine told me about a controversy in his department over whether a course on Byzantine should get "non-western" or some other facile "diversity" designation in their complex rubric of required coursework. Apparently a member of this department randomly emailed Byzantinists across the U.S. I recall getting his email and thinking "how odd". While I never really heard the result of this dispute, I am fairly confident that consensus did not rule the day. In fact, this controversy demonstrated how the West and its legacy are not a clear cut set of values and ideas (despite appeals to the notion of the West as a kind of common ground). Byzantium fits oddly within any categories. Its Christian, Roman, and Platonic roots make it awkward as a genuine other. We can't help but see much of ourself in the Byzantine struggles between episcopal and imperial power or the historiographic conceits of Michael Psellos or Anna Comnena. At the same time, the mystical, ceremonial, and autocratic stand outside of our commonly accepted continuum leading from democratic Athens to Republican Rome, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment (via [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of_the_Roman_Em pire] Gibbon). 2. Byzantium as culture. This would have involved going all [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia/article/76/2/391-442] "Kostis Kourelis" on my unsuspecting students. I could trace the cultural legacy of Byzantium from 19th century architecture to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_rebours] !
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Huysmann, [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2009/10/relics-warhol-and-greecesmetaphysical.html] Andy Wharhol, and Kristeva. Of course Byzantium could be local as well. When Kostis was in town, he noticed the Byzantine inspired pilaster capitals on our [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Opera_House_(Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota) ] Metropolitan Opera House. This approach - grounded in aesthetics as much as history would push the students to see their world as a complex blend of cultural influences that function on multiple levels. At the same time, it would require the student (and the teacher!) to understand the complex filtering processes that create culture through time from the Enlightenment, to Romanticism to Post-Modernity. 3. Byzantium and the Middle East. A year worth of bleak news from Syria and Egypt of course drew me to thinking about the Byzantine legacy in this part of the world. The scenes of bombed Christian churches, Christians protecting praying Egyptian Muslims, and the complex religious backdrop to the political strife in Syria and Iraq. The vividness of the images and stories from Egypt and Syria make the Byzantine legacy current and compelling. The downside to this approach is that the legacy of Byzantium becomes a metaphor for the turmoil in the Middle East and obscures the colonial or even Ottoman root of the political situation in these countries. In effect, Byzantium becomes the progenitor for an Orientalist perspective on the world. 4. Byzantium as fantasy. Of course many students take this course because Byzantium like the Ancient and Medieval worlds form part of a dynamic fantasy life that is not modern, not local, and not bound by the walls of the university, the demands of a job, and the realities of a difficult economy. The world of Byzantium is an escape to a time where the issues of [https://ohiostatepress.org/Books/Complete%20PDFs/Gregory%20Vox/02.pdf] theology and survival played out against a backdrop of domed churches, gilt palaces, processional ways, dirty crooked streets, and dusty agricultural villages. Indulging student fantasies is part of the teaching game, but I wonder if by moving Byzantium to the realm of Tolkien and Larry Potter that we offer a weak argument for its place in our practically minded curriculum. As [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/teaching-byzantine-history/] I blogged about when I originally announced this class, the issue of broaching Byzantium is a tricky one in the modern, American academy where its place in the so-called "master narrative" is hardly secure. "ByzHistoryFlyer.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/byzhistoryflyer1.jpg]"ByzHistory Flyer" width="456" height="600" border="0" />

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Teaching Thursday: Five Tips for Every College Student http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/29/teaching-thursday-five-tips-forevery-college-student/ Thu, 29 Aug 2013 11:28:56 +0000 Bill Caraher I know that this week, my blog is drifting perilously close to becoming one of the strange, autobiographical teaching blogs, and for that I apologize, but it is the beginning of the semester. And, as a great mean once said, " [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXg99s4AKuc] just my thoughts, man - right or wrong." I have spent some time at the start of the semester trying to get my undergraduate students to anticipate some of the challenges that they will face this semester and to plan according. I tell them that five things <strong>will </strong>happen to them this or any semester. Here is my advice. 1. You will get sick. College is a hive. Going to college is like flying on an airplane continuously for four years. You breathe each other's air, you consume each other's germs, you live, work, and play on top of each other. You are going to get sick and miss class. Realize this and plan accordingly. 2. Close relatives will die. It doesn't take hours of analyzing [http://esa.un.org/wpp/ModelLife-Tables/download-page.html] U.N. Model Life Tables (although I believe that they support my argument) to recognize that our students' grandparent's generation is likely to begin to die while they're college age. In fact, our students' parents will generally enter an age in which the odds of death at any one year increase significantly ( [http://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html] at least this is how I've read this table.). These are statistical models developed from vast pools of population data. You should expect death to visit you in college and make plans accordingly. 3. Your computer will die. It doesn't take complex statistics to know this. All of our computers die every year or our hard drives crash or the internet vanishes or Blackboard does not do what it was meant to do. In fact, just this week, I had a mighty wrestling match with Blackboard and while no one really wins in these situations, I at least managed to adapt my class to this almost inevitable situation. Technology is not reliable, make plans accordingly. 4. North Dakota has bad weather. Invariably, when you go to Crosby in Divide County to visit your dying great aunt Myrtle this November, there will be a blizzard. We go to school in North Dakota where "the weather is bad or it's fixin' to get bad." While I won't ask you not to attend your nephew's first hockey game or your grandmother's 75th birthday party, I will tell you to anticipate being stuck in some small town, without internet, for 72 hours whenever you travel in North Dakota between October and early May. These months see snow and bad weather, anticipate this and plan accordingly.

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5. You will have "personal issues". If the 14th-century Europe witnessed the devastating effects of the Black Death, the 21st century has paid the horrible price for personal issues. They strike the college aged among us and like the various flu epidemics that appear with the changing of the leaves, they leave only sorrow and destruction in their wake. You live in a hive, breathe each other's air, and form volatile relationships with people you are forced to endure for four years. This will inevitably lead to "personal issues." Every student has them every year. It will lead to sleepless nights, missed classes, and poor quality work. Anticipate an outbreak of personal issues every semester and plan accordingly. By placing these realities on the table, I'm making it clear that I expect students to develop habits that allow them to adapt quickly to the common challenges of college age life. I'm not unsympathetic to the death of a close relative or a prized USB drive, but, at the same time, I am not responsible for these things either. Students have to anticipate, communicate, and adapt. I also tell students that if they can document that their significant other ran off with their school laptop, while they are snowed into Slope County attending their great uncle's funeral with the flu, I'll give them an "A".

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-34/ Fri, 30 Aug 2013 13:43:58 +0000 Bill Caraher After a week or so of some pretty intense heat, it looks like we're in store for some cooler days. While I've enjoyed the heat, I think the early dismissals from school have put some pressure on my colleagues with kids. Plus, we've shut the house up and are running the airconditioning for the first time ever hear in Grand Forks. I miss the sounds of the street and the neighborhood. As we endure one day of very un-North Dakota heat, I'll send along a little list of quick hits and varia to help you keep cool. [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/08/pictures/130823-museum-mallawiegypt-looting-artifacts-archaeology-science-antiquities/?now=2013-08-23-00:01] Looting in Egypt. [http://www.nbcnews.com/science/archaeologists-race-against-time-turmoil-save-gazasancient-ruins-8C10989157] The fight to protect the antiquities of Gaza. [http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Byzantine&amp;year_start=1800&amp;y ear_end=2000&amp;corpus=15&amp;smoothing=3&amp;share=] Here's a Google Ngram of the use of the word "Byzantine" that I prepared for my Byzantine Civilization class. Notice the three spikes. The 19th century spikes are Finlay's 1853 publication of [http://books.google.com/books?id=4D8OAAAAYAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;d q=%22Byzantine%22&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=DYUgUrDCOcTDsASrroC4CA& amp;ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false] Volume 1 his History of the Byzantine Empire and [http://books.google.com/books?id=mxlLAAAAYAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;dq =%22Byzantine%22&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=fIUgUtnHeeqsQSA4oHIDQ&amp;ved=0CGAQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&amp;q=%22Byzantine% 22&amp;f=false] Volume 2 in 1877. The post-1945 spike is the activity of displaced scholars in the U.S. and England and the Cold War. [http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/Default.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nid=53285&amp;Ne wsCatID=341] Along similar lines, commemorating Manzikert. [http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/Unesco-warns-Italy-over-Pompeii/30244] The U.N. puts Pompeii on notice. [http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/post/58801615339/view-of-the-interior-of-the-hagiasophia-in] The interior of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul in 1983.

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 [http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&amp;ALID=2K7O3RPS9M K] Constantine Manos' photographs of Greece in the 1960s. [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog/sah-blog/2013/08/22/theright-textbook] Architectural history textbooks. [http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/13380] Want to be an Executive Director? Now might be your chance! [http://cyprus-mail.com/2013/08/29/paphos-mulls-four-metre-aphrodite-statue/] During tough economic times, sometimes you just need to build a 4 m tall statue of Aphrodite. [http://bukowski.net/manuscripts/displaymanuscript.php?show=poem-unknownnow_the_professors.jpg&amp;workid=2229] Read while reflecting on our work in the man camps of the Bakken. [http://cyprus-mail.com/2013/08/29/britain-sends-six-raf-jets-to-cyprus-in-defensiverole/] To be fair, a 4 m tall statue of Aphrodite is better than fighter jets. [http://www.dailydot.com/politics/greek-off-the-grid-internet-mesh/] Whatever the problems with the government, the Greeks are clever. [http://www.archaeology.org/news/1240-130823-new-jersey-fairleigh-dickinsonuniversity-prohibition] I love stuff like this: a time capsule. [http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-27/england-players-may-have-22answered-call-ofnature223a-swann/4915182?section=sport] Sacred ground. Read down to "Fellow spinner Monty Panesar was recently fined by police after being caught" [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/08/why-teach-english.html] Why teach English. [http://askthepast.blogspot.com/2013/08/how-to-treat-freshmen-1495.html] How to treat freshmen in the 15th c. [http://www.targetlogistics.net/1_pdfs/whitepapers/ReturnOnSustainability.WorkforceHousingForPeoplePlanetAndProfit.pdf] Return on Sustainability: Workforce Housing for People, Planet and Profit (.pdf). The nice and grey margins of the North Dakota Man Camp Project. [http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/71445/] Along similar lines, the edges of the oil boom in Crosby, North Dakota. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/opinion/sunday/gorgeous-glimpses-ofcalamity.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=1&amp;] Some amazing images of ecological issues from space. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/271944/] Farewell to a campus legend.

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 [http://dangerousminds.net/comments/smells_like_teen_spirit_kathleen_hanna_tells_the_s tory_behind_the_song] Smells Like Teen Spirit. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=Ti1m6qY-YzE] I will always love you. [http://www.theonion.com/articles/chuck-klosterman-corners-guy-at-party-wearingdio,33615/] This is funny and [http://gawker.com/bald-eagle-crashes-into-window-ascrowd-chants-usa-us-1216413636] so is this. What I'm reading: D. D. Maringolo, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/museumsmonuments-and-national-parks-toward-a-new-genealogy-of-public-history/oclc/768167109] Museums, Monuments, and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History. University of Massachusetts Press 2012. What I'm listening to: The Clean, Vehicle; Crocodiles, Crimes of Passion."P1040607.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/p1040607.jpg]"P1040607"My new toy: A functioning Marantz 2235B. Don at Don's Television and Stereo is a Marantz guy and he replaced the speaker relay and balanced the output. Now I have to decide whether and when to get it recapped. It sounds good-ish.

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North Dakota Sky http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/north-dakota-sky/ Sat, 31 Aug 2013 13:23:21 +0000 Bill Caraher The past two weeks have been hot, a bit muggy, sunny, and dry. The sky has been pink and brilliant in the morning except on Thursday, when we enjoyed impressive line of thunderstorms. This the what those storms did to our sky: "IMG_0830.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/img_0830.jpg]"IMG 0830"] This prompted me to make this little triptych of our morning skies from the past week. It was inspired (actually "copied from") by a print that I saw a couple of years ago at UND's spectacular Arts and Culture Conference. "Triptych.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/triptych.jpg]"Triptych" width="475" height="600" border="0" /> It's a nice time to live in North Dakota.

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My Fall Semester Plans http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/my-fall-semester-plans/ Mon, 02 Sep 2013 12:55:28 +0000 Bill Caraher It's Labor Day here in the US so a perfect time to think about work (when isn't it really?). It's also the start of a new semester and my world is filled with the excitement that comes with teaching new groups of students. New (to me) books arrive daily and I've been tearing into them like they will continue to surprise and enthrall me (even if my critical mind knows this is unlikely). New projects have appeared on the horizon and completed projects are getting placed in folders to collect dust. To do lists still help me focus my excitement especially when I know that some of my adventures are going to push me into new territory or offer interesting challenges to my ability to write. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/pkap-preparations/] In mid-May, I compiled a list of my prospective summer adventures. I almost got through all the things on that list, but I have a few things lingering into the fall: 3. Complete revision on a working paper from our work in the Bakken.8. Prepare a draft of an essay on the archaeology of the Corinthian countryside for the Hesperia reprint series. At the same time, I have added to this list: 1. Finish the final draft of our Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project Survey Volume. We're so close to being done and all I need to do is finish some figures, maps, and a tiny bit of text revisions.2. Develop a more sophisticated draft analyzing the results of our work from Polis this summer. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/advertisement-for-myself-talk-atthe-university-of-texas/] I'll give this at the University of Texas at the end of next month, then at ASOR later in the fall, and hopefully we can move it toward publication by the middle of the spring.3. Finish a book review of Butrint 4 which is a couple of months late.4. Send out invitations for a new, large edited volume project: The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Archaeology.5. Move the Punk Archaeology volume through the type setting and into publication.6. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/24/threedimensional-modeling-in-mediterranean-archaeology-an-open-invitation/] Move a slim volume on 3D modeling through a quick digital publican process. 7. Continue to clean up the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project dataset. As of last weekend, most of our project's photographs have been geocoded. 8. Quietly work on preparing a finds and field database for [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/fitness-and-the-archaeologist/] a new survey archaeology project. TOP SEKRET.

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Along the way, I'm going to work with [http://joeljonientz.com/] some great colleagues to develop a digital-first press on campus. This is less of an official announcement, and more of a confirmed rumor. This should be a fun semester!

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Placing Public History in its Proper Place http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/placing-public-history-in-itsproper-place/ Tue, 03 Sep 2013 11:44:17 +0000 Bill Caraher This weekend I read over [http://www.worldcat.org/title/museums-monuments-andnational-parks-toward-a-new-genealogy-of-public-history/oclc/768167109] Denise Meringolo's Museums, Monuments, and National Parks (University of Massachusetts 2012) as part of my effort to get more familiar with the discipline of public history. Over the last few years, I've been drawn more and more into the field of public history. Some of this has come through my interest in digital history (including my efforts to figure out what to do with a blog), some has come through our department's efforts to develop a public history program, and some has come through my growing engagement with the very recent history of the Bakken oil patch. In the classroom, my brief remarks on public history generally comprised of some exceedingly general comments about the changing discipline of history in the 1970s, alternate careers for historians, and the needs of the federal and state government (and the private sector) for specialists in historical knowledge. (Then I say something like "no more questions"). Meringolo's book places public history in a much larger historical perspective by grounding the development of public history in the development of the discipline and profession of history in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Weaving the story of public history in the U.S. into the federal government's involvement in historical preservation and parks, changing attitudes toward museums, and the rise in scientific archaeology, Meringolo begins to make public history part of the larger narrative of the history's professionalization and changing attitudes toward the role of the government in developing a sense of national identity. Prior to the Civil War, the relationship between efforts to create national parks and to protect sites of historical significance to the young nation intersected with southern lawmakers' efforts to limit the authority of the federal government. In other words, slavery and regionalism thwarted the effort to preserve a common past in the U.S. Without the aide of the government, women took up the work of preserving buildings important to both local and national history. While this work as invaluable for the preservation of sites like Mt. Vernon in Virginia, it also led to the work to be dismissed as "women's work" and outside the pale of men's professional concerns. For the first handful of chapters, this book would make a useful companion to Peter Novick's magisterial style="font-style:italic;" [http://www.worldcat.org/title/that-nobledream-the-objectivity-question-and-the-american-historical-profession/oclc/17441827] That Noble Dream (which she cites regularly throughout). For example, Meringolo provides useful background on the history of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association. This group developed in part as a protest against the apathy within the American Historical Association toward regional history and scholars associated with state historical societies in the midwest.

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An aside: It is worth noting that Orin G. Libby of the University of North Dakota was active from the early days of the MVHA serving at its vice-president in 1909 and president in 1910. In 1908 the campus of UND hosted the associations second annual meeting. The goals of the MVHA paralleled Libby's goals of developing the study of regional history at the University of North Dakota and creating a stable and enduring state historical society. The book also explores the vital links between early 20th century archaeological policy and public history. Here Charles Eliot Norton's American Institute of Archaeology makes a cameo appearance as it funded both the important extensive survey of Adolf Bandelier of Native American sites in the American Southwest in the 1880s, supported the landmark Antiquities Act of 1906, and helped found of a School of American Archaeology in New Mexico (now [http://sarweb.org/index.php] the School for Advanced Research) in 1907. These efforts supported by the AIA at the turn of the century provided a counterweight (in some way) to the continued marginalization of regional history by the AHA. Despite growing resources and collections, local museums at National Parks and Monuments, struggled to assert their independence from the national agenda advanced by the Smithsonian. According to Meringolo, it was not until the influx of resources experienced by the Park Service during the New Deal that regional museums gained complete independence from the long arm of the Smithsonian and its efforts to remain the main federal repository. Here in some ways, her story comes full circle with regional interests - in this case of the parks and local communities - trumping efforts of more central institutions to set the agenda and pull cultural heritage back to a single repository. Meringolo's "genealogy of public history" will not answer every question about this growth field, but it did establish some of the major influences in its development.

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What Our Survey Volume Did Not Do http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/what-our-survey-volume-did-notdo/ Wed, 04 Sep 2013 11:12:58 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the best things that I've done over the last four weeks is think about how I would change the survey volume we are on the verge of publishing from our with with the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeologicalproject/] Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus. Thing of this as a preview of what the book is not. My main inspiration for this came from [http://www.worldcat.org/title/mediterraneanislands-fragile-communities-and-persistent-landscapes-antikythera-in-long-termperspective/oclc/842929772] Andrew Bevan's and James Connolly's recently published monograph on their work on the island of Antikythera (for some review comments see [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/fragile-landscapes-and-persistentcommunities-on-antikythera/] here and [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/sampling-and-collection-strategies-inmediterranean-survey/] here). They included a small section dedicated to the limits of their study and field methods. While short, this nevertheless struck me as a particularly valuable and honest reflection on their archaeological decision making, and we have decided - rather late in the process of revision - to include a few words on the limits of our work here. Quantitative Methods and Survey Data Survey archaeology has long been indebted to quantitative analysis. Chapters 2, 3, and 5 of our volume present a wide range of sometimes overlapping analyses of our survey data. We have kept our quantitative analyses rather simple throughout owing largely to the limits of our experience and training in quantitative methods. We hope, however, that the simplicity of much of our quantitative analysis belies the complexity of our conclusions, but we also appreciate that scholars better versed in statistics, for example, might find both untapped significance in our data as well as problems with our interpretations. To encourage the critical re-examination of our data, we will simultaneously released both the data collected from the field and our finds data through the Open Context interface. We hope that by making our data available, scholars can not only continue to interrogate our data in new and more sophisticated ways, but also link it to other similar datasets from across both Cyprus and the Mediterranean more broadly. Distributional Analysis The center-piece of our book is the careful study of the distribution of material across our site. From the start we recognized the artifact as the basic unit of analysis and this prompted our detailed approach to sampling the surface, the development of an extensive catalogue, and the substantial dataset. This attention was inspired by siteless survey and allowed us to represent our study area as a single assemblage. At the same time, the distribution of artifacts across the study area and the variations in surface conditions and topography prompted us !
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to divide the survey area into a series of zones. The zones are fundamentally arbitrary as they do not represent any single, historically stable set of variables, but are a heuristic concession to our need to describe our study area in text. As a result, our erstwhile commitment to distributional analysis has become compartmentalized by our need to describe our study area in a more accessible way. We hope that this compromise does not undermine the significance of our results. Catalogues and Finds As part of our commitment to distributional, artifact-level analysis we have presented an extensive catalogue of artifacts from the survey area. Without the benefit of stratigraphy, the catalogue primarily represents a sample of the specific evidence upon which our argument rests. Unlike an excavation catalogue that can provide independent comparanda for datable artifact types, our survey catalogue represents how we have interpreted existing typologies. As a result, it should be used with some care as reliance on our catalogue for the chronology artifacts risks does not represent an independent source of information. Moreover, we hope that by including artifacts that we could assign only to broad periods that other scholars will be able to refine these identifications or overturn them entirely. It is worth noting that we selected artifacts for inclusion in the catalogue as they came out of the field and underwent preliminary identification, and prior to our more sophisticated and extensive analysis of the landscape. Artifacts suitable for cataloguing were set aside in separate crates, photographed, and labeled whereas the rest of the artifacts were returned to the bags associated with particular units. At some point after our preliminary analysis and recording of the survey finds, the bags vanished in the densely packed storerooms of the museum, leaving us only with those artifacts set aside for cataloging. As you can see from our extensive catalogue and robust dataset this did not substantively effect our analysis, but it did mean that we could not augment the catalogue in response to our more in-depth distributional analysis. Excavation, Geophysical, Geomorphology, and Survey Like many archaeological projects, the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project developed new directions through time. In 2005, Prof. Jay Noller in collaboration with the Cyprus Geological Survey took a series of core samples from the embayment and we had hoped that the results of this coring would be available for this publication along with a more detailed treatment of the geomorphology of the area. Unfortunately, this did not occur and most of our discussion of the local geology derives from a report first published in the RDAC in 2005. We remain optimistic that the publication of the cores will support our overall conclusions. In 2008, the Department of Antiquities gave us permission to excavate several areas of the survey to ground truth the results of our study of the surface assemblage and to assist in the publication of Dr. Maria Hadjicosti's excavations at the basilica site in the Koutsopetria plain. In preparation for excavation in 2008 and 2009, we conducted a campaign of geophysical work which included both resistivity with John Hunt of Limassol and ground penetrating radar under the supervision of Prof. Beverly Chirulli of Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The results of these investigations provided us with information that guided our excavations, they also confirmed the extent of architecture on the height of Vigla, the Koutsopetria plain, !
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and on the plateau of Kokkinokremos in a non-invasive way. Regrettably, the results of this field work are not publishable in their current form with the exception of the work conducted on Kokkinokremos which appeared in Michael Gareth Brown's 2011 University of Edinburgh's dissertation Landscape and Settlement in South-East Cyprus: The Late Bronze Age Origins of a Phoenician Polity. Finally, our initial plan was to publish the results of our survey alongside the results of excavation at the site. The significance of our work at the site of Pyla-Vigla and delays in the study of the results of our work and Dr. Maria Hadjicosti's excavations at Pyla-Koutsopetria led us to move ahead with the publication of the results of our survey. This change of plans is particular apparent in Chapters 4 and 6 where our analysis of both artifacts and features respectively benefit from our excavations. Preliminary reports on our excavations on Vigla will appear in the next published volume of the RDAC and in the 2013 volume of the Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections. A complete publication of our excavations is currently in preparation.

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Three Dimensional Imaging in Mediterranean Archaeology: A Short Introduction to a Blog Project http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/three-dimensional-imagingthursday/ Thu, 05 Sep 2013 11:23:15 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the past half decade, Mediterranean and Old World archaeology has entered a bold new world of inexpensive three-dimensional documentation. Using photogrammetry software like Agisoft Photoscan, increasingly powerful laptop computers, low-cost drones and airships, and high-resolution digital cameras even projects without access to robust digital infrastructures can now produce centimeter accurate 3D models of trenches, architecture, and even topography. These new resources bring opportunities for new ways to document sites and, of course, opportunities to reflect on the role of technology in archaeology. Over the next two months, this blog will feature a series of contributions from a wide range of authors describing how new a range of technologies have expanded our ability to produce high-quality three-dimensional images of archaeological sites in European and Mediterranean archaeology. The goal is to initiate a conversation among both practitioners of 3D modeling technology and those genuinely interested in these techniques to explore the practical and conceptual limits of these new approaches. "3DThrusday.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/3dthrusday.jpg]"3DThrusday" width="450" height="133" border="0" /> My post today is designed to serve as a bit of an introduction, but right now it is a bit challenging because I am not exactly sure what the various authors will propose in their contributions. When I proposed this meeting of minds, I offered four prompts: 1. How do we understand the current crop of 3D modeling technologies in context of the history of archaeological imaging? Are the most optimistic readings of this technology mere echoes of earlier enthusiasm for photography in an archaeological context or is this somehow qualitatively different? 2. Is there an emerging consensus on best practices in 3D imaging of archaeological sites? What are the current limits to this kind of technology and how does this influence the way in which data is collected in the field? 3. How do we understand archival considerations for 3D models and their dependent data? For example, what happens when we begin to prepare archaeological illustrations from 3D models collected in the field and processed using proprietary software? How do we manage the web of interrelated data so that future archaeologists can understand our decision making? 4. What is the future of 3D modeling in archaeology? At present, the 3D image is useful for illustrating artifacts and in some cases presenting archaeological and architectural relationships, but it has yet to prove itself as an essential basis for analysis or as a robust !

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medium for communicating robust archaeological description. Will 3D visualization become more than just another method for providing illustrations for archaeological arguments? These first three prompts reflect an interest in the way in which the current generation of 3D imaging tools will shape archaeological workflow from the edge of the trowel to the final publication. Just as photography promised to revolutionize the field in the late 19th century, efficient and inexpensive 3D modeling tools seemingly offer a simple solution to documenting spatial relationships. The new tools certainly offer remarkable advantages over longstanding techniques for documenting three dimensional relationships (and displaying it). The process of collecting images from the trench might offer markedly greater efficiently over careful trench side drawings, but it also eliminates or transforms a process prone to produce important insights from the arrangement of features in a trench. Reproducing the processes responsible for creating 3D images is another issue. Many projects use commercial software that operates with proprietary algorithms and which receive regular updates and improvements. While it is perhaps methodological overkill to preserve the software as well as the data processed, there remains some value to ensuring that the process of documentation is reproducible. Finally, as archives and digital publication opportunities develop there remain serious questions about the durability of these media and the delicate chain that links interpretation to evidence. The final prompt nudged the contributors to reflect on the future of this kind of technology in archaeological practice. By imagining future directions for this kind of work, we have another avenue to identify present challenges and opportunities. Over the next couple of months, we will get a glimpse of the rapidly changing present and approaching future in the world of 3D imaging in archaeology. A blog serves as a useful vehicle for this kind of conversation because the pace of development in this field is so rapid. The speed with which we can disseminate these contributions over the web and (hopefully) move them to a quick digital publication befits the pace of change in some of the technical aspects of our field. Once a week, on "3D Thursday", I will post a new post from a contributor. I chatted with some of the contributors and we all felt that once a week gives everyone plenty of time to read and comment on a post before the next one appears. I encourage comments on that post here or using our Twitter hashtag #3DMedArch. Once the last posts are made, Brandon Olson (whose article in the [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/jfa/2013/00000038/00000003/art00004 ] Journal of Field Archaeology 38 (2013) inspired this conversation) and I will collate these into a little ebook (and we'll probably make it available as print book using a print on demand service) and include comments and Tweets whenever appropriate. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota will kindly provide lay out advice and a glorious book cover.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/06/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-72/ Fri, 06 Sep 2013 11:43:34 +0000 Bill Caraher It seems like summer is reluctant to die here on the Northern Plains, but I suppose we can enjoy weather in the upper 80s for a couple more weeks before it feels like it has overstayed its welcome. The semester is well and truly underway at this point and it feels like it will be hectic as always. This is good for aficionados of my quick hits and varia because it means my work day stretches longer and I have many more moments of productive inefficiency to venture out into the wilds of the intertubes for bits of knowledge. That all being said, here are some of my favorite tidbits from this past week: [http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/zagora/category/zagora-dig-blog/] The Australians are getting ready for their season at Zagora and with their sponsors the Powerhouse Museum, they have an impressive and endearing web presence. [http://nataliavogeikoff.com/2013/09/01/barbarians-at-the-gate/] Jack Davis initiated an interesting conversation about the continued utility of the Greek exams for Regular Membership at the American School of Classical Studies. [http://www.hum.gu.se/english/current/news/Nyhet_detalj//evidence-of-productionof-luxury-textiles-and-extraction-of-copper-from-unknown-part-of-cypriote-bronze-agecity.cid1179103#prettyPhoto] Textiles and Copper from Hala Sultan Tekke on Cyprus. [http://rogueclassicism.com/2013/09/02/dieci-anni-fa-rogueclassicism-is-born/] Ten years of Rogue Classicism? How is that possible! Congratulations, David, for the landmark. Whenever Rogue Classicism picks up a post of mine, I'm guaranteed 20% more traffic. [http://www.bu.edu/asor/news/2013/09/basor-editor-revised.html] Want to be the editor of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research? [http://yle.fi/uutiset/finlands_oldest_church_discovered_near_turku/6813503] An old church in Finland. [http://fucktheory.tumblr.com/post/60181904301/first-as-farce-then-as-tragedy-punk-atthe] First as farce, then as tragedy a review of Punk: Chaos to Couture at the Met. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23954579] The Winged Victory of Samothrace gets a bath! [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2013/08/28/sampling-and-collection-strategies-inmediterranean-survey/] Be sure to read this spirited defense of the chronotype collection strategy over at Aegean Prehistory.

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 [http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/09/04/214462131/we-are-next-greek-jewsfear-rise-of-far-right-party] Anxiety among Greece's Jews. [http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/nt-blogs-ten-year-anniversary.html] Another blog-o-versary. Congratulations to Mark Goodacre's enduring NT Blog for 10 years! [http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130904212907-1799428-memo-to-thebuzzfeed-team] Along similar lines, the annual memo from Buzzfeed's founder and CEO Jonah Peretti to his staff. Good advice. [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/05/google-birth-english-cricketerjohn-wisden-doodle] Google celebrates John Wisden. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eBsXra3934] I'll defer to my Jewish friends on whether this song is antisemitic or just sounds antisemitic (d'jew eat?). [http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Digital_Humanities_is_About_Breaking_S tuff.html] Digital Humanities is about breaking stuff. [http://theweek.com/article/index/249044/in-defense-of-the-semicolon] Defending the semicolon. [http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/17980-automated-teaching-machine-a-graphicintroduction-to-the-end-of-human-teachers] The end of human teachers, [http://blogs.theamerican-interest.com/wrm/2013/09/02/moocs-killing-lectures-at-duke/] the rise of MOOCs at Duke (I sort of wanted to spell it DOOK), and [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/the-two-cultures-of-educationalreform/?_r=1] Fish on Bok. [http://www.isaacisms.com/?p=643] The story of a kid, a shopkeeper and a marble. [http://www.ignant.de/2013/09/05/1972-by-noritaka-minami/] Nakagin Capsule Tower in Japan by Kisho Kurokawa. [http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/when-new-yorkers-lived-knee-deep-in-trash/] The trash of New York. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2408591/American-ethnicity-map-showsmelting-pot-ethnicities-make-USA-today.html] An ethnicity map of the United States showing every county. What I'm reading: Etienne Wenger, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/communities-ofpractice-learning-meaning-and-identity/oclc/39666619&amp;referer=brief_results] Communities of Practice. Cambridge 1998. What I'm listening to: The Jazz Crusaders, Live at the Lighthouse '66; Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, Jazz Samba.

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Engaging New North Dakotans in the Bakken Oil Patch http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/engaging-new-north-dakotans-inthe-bakken-oil-patch/ Mon, 09 Sep 2013 11:41:26 +0000 Bill Caraher This weekend, I had a fun chat with some folks from the [http://www.ndhumanities.org/] North Dakota Humanities Council. As many of my readers probably know, [http://www.ndhumanities.org/board--staff.html] I'm on the board. One of the topics of our conversation was how do we engage younger people in the larger project of the humanities. We talked about how busy many 20 and 30somethings are as they attempt to start their careers and personal lives. The conversation then went in two directions. First, we discussed how young people rely on the flexibility of the web to consume cultural content and engage the humanities. Then, we turned to the largest new community of younger people in the state: those associated with the Bakken Oil Boom. And in no time at all, the inspired leadership of the North Dakota Humanities Council worked with me to create a proposal. I should emphasize that this is just a proposal, but I find that the best way to make proposals "work" is to make them public and see what the response is. So here's the first draft of my proposal to the North Dakota Humanities Council. Recent research by the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project has suggested that many new North Dakotans in the western part of the state feel disengaged from their local communities, the state, and its history. The attitudes of new North Dakotans is not unexpected, in part, because these new arrivals do not come to North Dakota for the cultural experiences, but to make a living. That being said, some of the new arrivals intend to make North Dakota their home and even the short-term residents have the potential to contribute to the larger humanities project in the state. In fact, the dialogue between longtime residents of North Dakota and new North Dakotans offers the potential for stimulating and renewing critical reflections on the state's culture. For example, recent debates about how to best approach improvements to basic infrastructure in western North Dakota has revisited [http://webapp.und.edu/dept/library/Collections/robinson/] Elwyn Robinson's famous "too much mistake". The disengagement of the newest North Dakotans from local communities should not imply that these groups have not developed [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticity-and-the-man-campin-the-bakken-oil-patch/] a sense of community among themselves. Like the first settlers to the state, new North Dakotans have worked to forge their own kinds of community centered on work, neighborhood values, and recreation. Unlike the first settlers many of these new communities stretch from physical locations into online social networks mediated by [https://twitter.com/TheBakkenMag/followers] Twitter, [https://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Oilfield-Wives/434228003280781] Facebook, or [http://www.talesofanoilfieldgypsy.blogspot.com/] blogs.

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The presence of a well-developed set of online social networks and an intriguing hook to revitalize conversations on what it means to be a North Dakotan makes the prospect of engaging the new North Dakotans of the Bakken boom a natural focus for the North Dakota Humanities Council. To facilitate this renewed (and renewing) conversation, we will invite leading experts and personalities across the state to contribute short essays (&lt;5000 words) on the history, environment, and values of the state. The format for this renewed conversation will include an interactive online space and print. For distribution of the print publication, we will focus on the "man camps" of the Bakken, leverage existing social networks, and include within each book a QR code that links the printed copy to the online conversation. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota has developed the tools and expertise necessary to be a valuable collaborator with the North Dakota Humanities Council in these endeavors. We propose not only to solicit contributions (under the advisement of the NDHC), to edit the volume, and to prepare the manuscript, but also to take the lead in raising the necessary funds for the production, publication, and distribution of the final product. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota is a new project and will benefit from the value in the North Dakota Humanities Project name and longstanding leadership. This project will not end with the book, but continue as a catalyst to engage both North Dakotans of longstanding and new North Dakotans in a renewed discussion of the past, present, and future of the state. First, we hope the renew a statewide conversation about "being North Dakotan" by creating a point of departure provided by a cross-section of the state's intellectual community. Second, the introduction of the essays in the published volume online produces an online forum from discussion of the ideas in the essays. The combination of a robust online presence, existing social network communities, print publication distributed in a targeted way to new North Dakotans, and the use of QR codes to direct readers of print to online sites ensures that the NDHC web community will have a regular flow of engaged readers. Moreover, the readers will be trackable from across the state to determine whether the program succeeded in reaching the intended audience. Finally, the renewed conversation on the state of North Dakota sets the stage for the 50th anniversary of Elwyn Robinson's landmark [http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-ofnorth-dakota/oclc/190890] History of North Dakota in 2016. Robinson's work has framed the various ways of understanding the past and present of the state for a half of a century and will undoubtedly inspire a new set of reflections which the NDHC will clearly lead.

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An Abstract for this Spring's SAA Meetings http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/10/an-abstract-for-this-springs-saameetings/ Tue, 10 Sep 2013 11:08:42 +0000 Bill Caraher I decided to venture back to the [http://www.saa.org/] Society of American Archaeology annual meeting this spring after nearly a decade away. It seems like there has been more for Mediterranean Archaeologists in recent years, and I want to pitch the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project to a slightly more diverse audience. Here's the abstract: The North Dakota Man Camp Project: The Archaeology of Workforce Housing in the Bakken Oil Patch of North Dakota Since 2007 the western part of North Dakota has experienced an economic and population boom associated with the extraction of shale oil from the massive Bakken formation. While this area had experienced both agricultural and oil booms in the past, nothing in the region's history had prepared the communities and infrastructure for the transformation brought about by hydraulic fracking. The North Dakota Man Camp Project documents the material and social conditions of workforce housing in the Bakken. From corporate installations that resemble mobile hotels to RV parks, infilled small towns, and squatting off the grid, workforce housing has presents the material signatures of community building throughout the oil patch. The rapid expansion of short-term housing and populations in the Bakken has outstripped historical and document-based methods for describing this change. This paper presents a preliminary report on how the archaeology of the contemporary past has provided an alternate method for understanding the assemblages, architecture, and settlement patterns of associated with workforce housing in the Bakken boom.

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Press Coverage of the North Dakota Man Camp Project http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/press-coverage-of-the-northdakota-man-camp-project/ Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:08:11 +0000 Bill Caraher Yesterday, the [http://www.northdakotamancamps.com/] North Dakota Man Camp Project received some great press coverage from the good folks at Prairie Public Radio's Main Street. Ashley Thornberg spent half a day with us as we visited several different types of workforce housing in the area around Alexander, North Dakota. She then complemented our work with some conversations with folks in Dickinson, North Dakota and elsewhere and put together [https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.228047677351078.1073741841.1628544838 70398&amp;type=1] a gallery of the photographs. [http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/mainstreet?post=51946] Here's the link to the archived show. Our segment begins at the 18:30 mark and runs for a close to 30 minutes. I'll look into getting a direct link to the segment. The report continues after a short break for news. Aside from my one painfully obvious mistake (where I say "E.P. Thompson" but mean "Frederick Jackson Turner" and, in my defense: I was on location and had been talking about the E.P. Thompson-like things just moments before (oh, and I'm a Byzantinist)), this is probably the best media coverage our work has received (other than some great attention from [http://oilpatchdispatch.areavoices.com/author/amydalrymple/] Forum Communication's Amy Dalrymple.) Ashley did two things differently from most members of the media. First, she did not become preoccupied by asking us for answers or specific data. She recognized quickly in the interview that we were not producing a census or attempting to document every single camp and every single unit (although that would be awesome!). We also are not producing policy statements (yet), but collecting a range of data that addresses both scholarly questions and contributes to a persistent archive that will inform future scholarly work. Second, she took the time to understand the tricky character of "archaeology of the contemporary past" and pursued questions that helped us articulate how looking at objects can tell stories about the present. Her prompts to me were really effect and spot on, and I appreciate her willingness to give both me and my collaborator Bret Weber to talk about how our research will develop. I won't say any more and encourage you to go and listen to her segment on Main Street. Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-73/ Fri, 13 Sep 2013 12:19:13 +0000

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Bill Caraher It's a brisk 45 degrees this morning and I can now - maybe - say with some confidence that fall has officially arrived on the Northern Plains. As I look out on the lawn that needs to be mowed one or two last times and the trees still filled with green leaves, I've begun to think of short, productive days filled with the pale sun of winter. Until then, I'll do my best to keep my readers entertained with some quick hits and varia: [http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/09/11/mycenean-palace-and-linear-b-tabletsdiscovered-in-sparta-area/] Great, more Linear B, exactly what we need (I joke, I joke this is pretty cool). [http://www.mcgill.ca/classics/sites/mcgill.ca.classics/files/2013-14_newsletter.pdf] Check out page two of the McGill Classical Studies Newsletter to learn why upstate New York has so many places with Classical names (pdf). [http://asorblog.org/?p=5745] Digging Data at the Oriental Institute's library. [http://zeugma.packhum.org/] Three volumes of the work at Zeugma in Turkey available online for free. [http://institutefinearts.tumblr.com/] The Institute of Fine Arts at NYU has a sweet Tumblr of images from its archive. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/georgia/10291740/The-monkwho-lives-up-a-rock-to-get-closer-to-God.html?fb] More on the newest generation of stylite monks. [http://holyresurrection.areavoices.com/] Orthodoxy in North Dakota. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/10296511/Byzantineera-gold-hoard-unearthed-in-Jerusalem.html] A 7th century AD stash of gold jewelry from Israel. [http://blog.wennergren.org/2013/09/engaged-anthropology-grant-joshua-samuels-andpatrimonio-s-pietro-the-heritage-of-agricultural-reform-in-western-sicily/] One of our Punk Archaeologist, Josh Samuels, talks about his work in Sicily and his Engaged Anthropology Grant. [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13476249/Psychonautica_Reinhard.pdf] Andrew Reinhard's steam punk novel set in Archaic times: the Psychonautica (pdf). He's looking for a publisher. Spread the word. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/magazine/no-child-leftuntableted.html?_r=0&amp;pagewanted=all] My brother's school is among those that received grants to fill their classrooms with tablet computers. [http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/07/centuries-old-gardens-are-latestbattleground-rapidly-developing-istanbul/6192/] The fate of gardens in Istanbul (think of the stories about how Late Byzantine Constantinople was filled with grazing sheep and orchards as the population dwindled or stories of urban gardening in Detroit.) !
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 [https://www.justareflektor.com/] Arcade Fire is getting almost all they can out of their collaboration with Googles. [http://vcuarchaeology3d.wordpress.com/] 3D archaeology and curation at VCU. [http://twentytwowords.com/2012/08/29/what-nixon-would-have-said-if-the-firstmanned-moon-landing-had-failed/] If Armstrong and Aldren hadn't made it back from the moon, this is what Nixon would have said. [http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/the_vault/2013/09/4/BigSlaveryMap.jpg ] 19th century map of slavery in the U.S. by county. [http://www.societyforhistoryeducation.org/pdfs/M12_Snyder_and_Hammond.pdf] Using GIS to teach U.S. History (.pdf). [https://people.stanford.edu/widner/content/towards-front-page-digital-humanitiesdhthis] Some interesting conversation about Digital Humanities and how it will challenge, engage, and transform the world of academic publishing. [http://www.dhthis.org/] Do check out DHThis. It's cool. [http://jalopnik.com/i-cant-stop-watching-trucks-crashing-into-this-low-ass-1265504299] Speaking of digital humanities, here are some videos of trucks crashing into a bridge. [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n16/rebecca-solnit/diary] And, here is Rebecca Solnit in the London Review of Books. [http://www.businessinsider.com/the-jungle-largest-homeless-camp-in-us-2013-8] Living Rough: the largest homeless camp in the U.S. What I'm reading: S. Bond and S. Houston, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/re-presentingthe-past-archaeology-through-text-and-image/oclc/843811537] Re-Presenting the Past: Archaeology Through Text and Image. Joukowsky Institute of Archaeology 2013. What I'm listening to: Crocodiles, Crimes of Passion; Ella Fitzgerald, The Cole Porter Songbook."Dolby.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/dolby1.jpg]"Dolby" width="450" height="424" border="0" /> [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/13/audiopioneer-dolby-dies] R.I.P Ray Dolby

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Another Triptych http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/14/another-triptych/ Sat, 14 Sep 2013 12:52:18 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm getting into doing this little triptychs. [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/north-dakota-sky/] Here's a link to my first one. This one is a bit less derivative. These photos were taken near Wheelock, North Dakota while out west a few weeks ago. I liked the sharp lines of the cultivated field and experimented with different focal lengths. "Triptych2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/triptych2.jpg]"Triptych2" width="450" height="299" border="0" />

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Sherds and Churches: Late Roman Pottery on Cyprus http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/sherds-and-churches-late-romanpottery-on-cyprus/ Mon, 16 Sep 2013 13:47:09 +0000 Bill Caraher The last couple of week, I've been working on [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/advertisement-for-myself-talk-atthe-university-of-texas/] the paper that I'll give at the University of Texas next week (egads!). An important component of the paper involves comparing the Late Roman ceramic assemblage from the area around the South Basilica at Polis-Chrysochous with the contemporary assemblage from the site of Pyla-Koutsopetria with a particular emphasis on the local and imported fine ware. The assemblages are different. [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/analyzing-residual-ceramics-in-afill-deposit/] A substantial residual assemblage at Polis produced a substantial quantity of Cypriot Red Slip (CRS) and almost no African Red Slip (ARS) or Phocaean Ware (PHW). the assemblage at Pyla-Koutsopetria was largely (60%) CRS with significant quantities of PHW and ARS. The reason for this difference is difficult to understand. On the one hand, it could be that the residents at Pyla-Koutsopetria simply preferred ARS and PHW to CRS. On the other hand, it could be that the quantity of CRS reaching the eastern part of the island was smaller making it more expensive and less able to compete with imported fine wares. This assumes, of course, that CRS is produced on the island (and there is some evidence that it was not) and that CRS, ARS, and PHW all have a comparable basic cost that shift depending on supply and access. In other words, one type of pottery is not radically more expensive to obtain than another. It is worth noting that on Cyprus, CRS tends not to travel far inland. For example, the site of Panayia-Ematousa lies inland from Pyla-Koutsopetria. The assemblage of fine ware there is predominantly PHW (nearly 60%) with CRS and ARS accounting for 20% and 15% respectively. The coastal site of Maroni-Petrera produced an assemblage of Late Roman fine ware consisting of over 80% CRS. Inland, however, at the village site of KalavassosKopetra, the quantity of PHW and ARS account for over 40% of the assemblage and CRS closer to 35%. In comparison to the nearly contemporary assemblage present at Polis, the Kopetra assemblage has fewer examples of large vessels like the thick-walled CRS Form 11 basin and CRS Form 8 dish and more examples of the somewhat smaller, very common, and long-lived CRS Form 9 dish. A similar trend is apparent when we compared CRS forms from the survey around the inland site of Palaiopaphos and the residual assemblage from Polis. In fact, almost no CRS Form 11 vessels seem to have made it inland to vicinity of Palaiopaphos. It would seem that "finer" CRS vessels moved inland more readily than thicker-walled and "chunkier" vessels. My paper set out to make the argument that the assemblage of pottery present at different sites reflected a set of practices that defined these communities. The practices that produced

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these assemblages were not simply social or economic, but a combination of both. My current hypothesis goes as follows: It would appear that CRS was most desirable in coastal communities near the southwestern corner of the island, most likely nearest its production base or the major point of arrival on the island. Presumably, that this point it was affordable in comparison to its imported rival fine wares produced in either North Africa (ARS) or Asia Minor (PHW). It goes without saying that if inland communities had access to PHW and ARS so did the coastal communities through which this imported pottery moved. When CRS, ARS, and PHW reached inland communities, however, the cost of transporting CRS from the coast increased its price and made its competitors more appealing. When overland transport leveled the playing field between the various forms of Late Roman fine ware available, contemporary communities seemed to prefer PHW and ARS at least as frequently as CRS. The result of this is that the tables of residents in inland communities would have looked rather different from those of communities along the coast. The decision making that led to this distinct assemblages hints at the processes that create culture.

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The North Dakota Man Camp Project: An Executive Summary for Industry http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/the-north-dakota-man-campproject-an-executive-summary-for-industry/ Tue, 17 Sep 2013 11:34:10 +0000 Bill Caraher Next week, we've been invited to present some of our research to a delegation of Norwegian corporate types associated with the energy industry. Statoil will be particularly well represented and we've been working to attract their attention to our work (and hopefully get them interested in funding us). As you can imagine, when big companies come to a university campus there are a "lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous". Most of these are above my pay grade and attention span. Despite this, we're being good sports and have put together an executive summary of our work for industry and my wife has helped us develop a slick marketing packet for these executives so they will know how important our work is and how remarkable our impact has been. Bret Weber did most of the leg work on the executive summary, but we had some interesting conversations on how we should sell our project. I was much more inclined toward selling our methods than our expertise. After all, expertise could be harvested from research publications, but methods and personnel are typically tied to the project. To my mind, investing in a research team and methods could yield longer term value. Bret's take on this won out in our executive summary. <strong>North Dakota Man Camp Project: An Executive Summary </strong> The Importance of Housing After technology and markets, labor is the most important factor in profitable and sustainable energy production. Housing is foremost among the factors affecting recruitment and retention of labor. The NDMCP utilizes a combination of archaeological and ethnographic methods to gather data for industry, communities, and policy makers. Consistent with a zero harm philosophical approach, the project provides information to help resolve uncertainties connected to housing labor and the related impacts on the environment, infrastructure, and community well-being. Temporary worker housing needs are determined by the rapidly changing ebbs and flows of oil and gas exploration and extraction, along with the varying rhythms of indirect sectors such as trucking, construction, and related service needs. All of these separate but interdependent activities are essential to production, but the specific needs and patterns of each complicate development decisions necessary to providing temporary, intermediary, and long-term housing. While limited sectors have become relatively precise in calculating and providing on-demand housing, too often industry, policy makers, and developers have insufficient information, which results in poor planning and resistance to the types of infrastructure development essential to efficient profitability, and to attracting and retaining a quality workforce. In conjunction with costly infrastructure miscalculations from previous !

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booms there is an unfortunate and unnecessary animosity between long-term residents, the industries that are enriching those communities, and the newly arrived workers necessary to North Dakotas oil and gas industry in the present and the future. To date, the boom has created in excess of 65,000 new jobs in western North Dakota. In contrast, existing and planned temporary housing has only produced approximately 20,000 beds. And yet, information necessary for sound housing decisions has too often depended on either sensational media reports or poorly coordinated bureaucratic records. The Unique Approach of the North Dakota Man Camp Project The NDMCP offers a more proficient and comprehensive approach to looking at all of this by bringing together archaeologists, architectural historians, social work researchers, and artists to document the social, material, and environmental conditions of workforce housing in the Bakken. The North Dakota Man Camp project offers a rich, up to date set of perspectives on the long-term costs, benefits, and impacts of various forms of labor housing. The Three Main Types of Temporary Worker Housing In patterns similar to those documented since the earliest oil booms in Pennsylvania and Texas, the NDMCP has identified three types of temporary labor housing in western North Dakota. Type I housingsometimes referred to as crew campsconsists of uniform, institutional housing that makes the most efficient use of resources and has the smallest and least permanent environmental footprint in relation to the number of beds provided. Additionally, by consolidating worker shifts and addressing needs in a collective manner, Type I housing minimizes the impact on transportation, water, and sewage infrastructure. However, with little personalization or individual freedoms and only a limited sense of community, Type I housing is not always the most attractive to workers, especially those engaged in indirect sectors (trucking, construction, and service). Type II campsakin to RV parksare often individually owned, temporary units that most closely replicate the sense of community found in working-class suburbs. However, they make greater demands on existing infrastructure and with less tightly controlled administration they have a greater environmental impact. Additionally, units that are only meant for temporary living have increasingly become near permanent housing structures operating independent of building and safety codes. Type III camps can be best described as living rough with no fixed electrical, water, or sewage infrastructure. This is the least desirable form of housing both for workers and host communities and offers the lowest quality of material existence, especially in relation to harsh weather conditions. Additionally, Type III housing is the least controllable from a community perspective, creates the highest potential for health concerns, and has the greatest per-capita environmental impact. Providing Value to Industry, Policy Makers, and Communities The NDMCP is providing a substantial and updated data set that links the material situation with the social environment in all the different types of Bakken workforce housing. The !

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nuanced connection between the social and material offers both evidence of continuity with past booms and perspectives for future optimization of labor housing solutions in the Bakken and elsewhere. This work provides valuable information for industry, policy makers, and local communities. The Pictures on the Following Page The top left corner is a scene from a typical Type I, crew camp. Note the efficient use of space and low environmental footprint, but also the relative sterility and lack of community. Next to it is an aerial photo a Type II camp. The NDMCP utilizes a variety of recording techniques to offer a particularly rich data set. The winter scene below is of a dry Type II with no water or sewage hook-ups. Many of the units are not designed for permanent habitation or the harsh winter climate (note the make-shift insulation around the base of many of the units), creating potential health and safety hazards. The next two pictures illustrate the sprawling nature of much of the temporary labor housing in the Bakken. The picture on the right was taken in a city that had been decommissioned in the 1980s, and then became an ad hoc collection of trailers and campers. The poorly constructed sewage system serving multiple trailers created a stench that was noticeable throughout the town. The bottom picture is of a Type III camp with no infrastructure, meaning people live rough. "ManCampIllustrations.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/mancampillustrations.jpg]"ManC ampIllustrations" width="464" height="600" border="0" />

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Re-Presenting the Past http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/18/re-presenting-the-past/ Wed, 18 Sep 2013 12:32:34 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the coolest thing about [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/3dmodeling/] the series of 3D archaeology posts that are going appear each Thursday over the next few months is that they have pushed me to think more about how we translate (or represent) archaeological information gathered in the field to different media. I've had the good fortune of working with photographers, videographers, gifted map makers and architects, notebookers and form recorders, as well as interpreters and dreamers. All of these folks have engaged the translation of archaeological information (broadly concerned) from one medium to the next. The recently published volume edited by S. Bonde and S. Houston called style="font-style:italic;" [http://www.worldcat.org/title/re-presenting-the-pastarchaeology-through-text-and-image/oclc/842350632] Re-Presenting the Past: Archaeology through Text and Image (2013) contains a series of contributions focusing how we communicate the experience of archaeology. It's a short book, so there's no need for a thorough review. You can just read it. It did give me a few thoughts that intersect with the work we're doing in the Bakken, the little essays 1. Photography and the Archaeology of the Contemporary Past. Several of the articles made clear that media themselves were not accurate or inaccurate alone, but accurate and inaccurate according to a particular purpose. Photography, which was to save archaeology from the drudgery of trench side illustration, developed in practice as a complementary technology capable of communicating different kinds of information from hand-drawn plans. [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] Our recent work studying contemporary workforce housing in the Bakken has relied more heavily on photography than any of my other projects. To this end, we have even worked with professional photographers which has helped to make more explicit some of our own assumptions about the media. Our use of photography, for example, has largely remained focused on the exterior space of units respecting the privacy of home, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, privileging a view of the individual units that locates it in a very immediate environment. This reflects the limits of the tools at hand which can preserve suitable detail of both the unit and objects associated with it at 3-5 m distance and the realities of the environment where cramped conditions and flat topography can often make views that document the larger context of the man camp difficult. It also succeeds in reproducing the focus of activity of the residents of these units which tends to focus in the narrow space between the unit and the boundaries of its designated lot. In effect, the limits of photographs that we take reflect the limits of the space that we're documenting. 2. Texts, Maps, and Landscapes. A few of the contributions explored the way in which we re-present entire landscapes either verbally, in immersive 3D environments, or through more traditional maps. As many of these scholars have noted the medium, no matter how high tech, caries with it important contextualizing cues (which followers of Michael Shanks have termed metamedia). Accuracy becomes a function of the maps context. The textual

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description of a Medieval ritual route functioned in a different way from an 17th century map of Athens or a modern effort to document the varied communities and topologies surrounding the San Andreas fault. This got me to thinking about [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/making-a-mess-of-maps/] my own primitive efforts at map making. I've become more sensitive to the requirements of legibility over the pressures for precision. That so many archaeologists must now be amateur cartographers, drafts(people?), and graphic designers, the widespread use of GIS has exposed more and more archaeologists to the complex negotiations that go into producing legible maps and plans. As a result, the foibles of previous generations of archaeologists, geographers, and cartographers suddenly seem understandable and our own obsession with precision requires a more critical gaze. A survey of [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/thisve-basinarchaeological-visualization-and-curating-digital-data/] mapping since the wide-spread circulation of GIS applications would certainly be revealing. 3. Three Dimensions and Practice. No collection of articles on re-presenting the past is complete without at least some treatment of both 3D data collecting and 3D rendering of archaeological sites. The contributions ranged from the 3D scanning of Mayan epigraphy to the rendering of archaeological sites in both Second Life and (Autodesk's) Maya software. Very little time, however, was spent considering any aspects of 3D modeling and practice. This was pretty surprising to me because so much of the archaeological discussion has revolved around archaeological methods and practices. I don't mean to suggest that this volume should have been an instruction manual for digitizing a site or producing a 3D environment online, but that the processes of digitizing or creation involves not only positioning oneself in a clear relation to the site or object and moving in a controlled, deliberate way, but also considering issues of corporality and audience in the re-presentation of 3D spaces. Just as I found myself constrained by the limits of propriety and the space in using photographs to document workforce housing in the Bakken Oil Patch, the archaeologist as viewer and creator encounters the site in a different way in the process of 3D production. As another example, [http://blogs.cofc.edu/thearchaeoinformant/2013/06/21/linear-barchives-project-in-full-swing/] my colleague Dimitri Nakassis remarked how preparing RTI (reflectance transformation imagining) images of Linear B tablets from Pylos led him to look at these texts differently. I've been struck by t [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/a-discussion-of-the-analyticalbenefits-of-image-based-3d-modeling-in-archaeology/] he mechanical precision that Brandon Olson effects while taking photographs of a site to produce an Agisoft modeling. 4. Dating this Volume. One of the fun little challenges set up by the editors is for the reader to guess when the symposium that spawned this volume occurred. The volume references the use of ArcGIS 9.1 and Maya 7.0. ArcGIS 9.1 came out in 2005 and Maya 7.0 around the same time. Few entries in the bibliography date to after 2008. Finally (and the clincher) is the reference to a "epic ice storm" in mid-March. Looking back at historical weather trends for Providence, RI, the best candidate for a storm described as "epic" is the snow and ice event on March 17, 2007.

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This volume has gestated for close to 5 years which is quite a long time in the fast moving world of digital archaeology. Hopefully [https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/05/three-dimensional-imagingthursday/] our more conversational contribution to this field will appear more quickly!

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-35/ Fri, 20 Sep 2013 12:34:28 +0000 Bill Caraher It is muggy in North Dakotaland today. The kind of cool mugginess that makes you feel like you need to shower all day. The air is really thick. This must be the last gasp of summer and as good a time as any for some quick hits and varia. [http://backupminds.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/creativity-intellectual-freedom-the-fieldschool/] Thinking critically about archaeological field schools. [http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/16/why-learn-a-deadlanguage?CMP=twt_gu] Learn a dead language! [http://incyprus.philenews.com/en-gb/Top-Stories-News/4342/37172/icons-return] The icons from Antifontis are (finally) returned not to the monastery, but to Cyprus. [http://www.world-archaeology.com/travel/richard-hodges-travels-to-mistra/] Richard Hodges does Mistras. [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/News/newsDetails/the-sanctuary-of-demeter-andkore-the-inscriptions.-an-interview-with-ron-s] Ron Stroud talks about Corinth XVIII.6. The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore: The Inscriptions published this week. [http://www.designersandbooks.com/blog/loeb-classical-library-design] Loeb Library as design. [http://www.thenation.com/blog/176265/greece-assassination-and-responsibility#] More troubling news from Greece and [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/opinion/global/cohen-why-greece-is-notweimar.html?_r=0] another view. [http://www.themarthablog.com/2013/09/a-visit-to-dumbarton-oaks-in-washingtondc.html] Martha Stewart visits Dumbarton Oaks and [http://doakshistory.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/the-swimming-pool/] the tragic and curious history of the Dumbarton Oaks swimming pool. [http://notepad.benfinoradin.info/2013/09/12/it-takes-a-village-to-save-a-hard-drive/] Some computer archaeology: saving a hard drive. [http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=361609&amp;showall=1] An abandoned stretch of the Pennsylvania turnpike. [http://www.standingdog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/fonts31.png] So you need a typeface. [http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/postwar_suburbs_19451965/18881] And the Pennsylvania suburbs.

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 [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1538] Making a mural. [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/273494/] The UND Writers Conference falling on tough times. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTos1IDFNeY] Goodbye, Writers Conference, Goodbye. [http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html] Octopuses are so cool. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vBZmzLXBK8] An interview with Ralph Baer, the inventor of video games. [http://www.papermonument.com/web-only/resistant/] Resistance and modern art. [http://realoilfieldwives.com/2013/09/17/7-not-so-fabulous-things-about-living-in-anoilfieldcamper/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3 A+RealOilfieldWives+%28Real+Oilfield+Wives%29&amp;utm_content=FaceBook] 7 Not So Fabulous Things about living in an oilfield trailer. [http://www.tsfjazz.com/accueil.php] Why did it take me so long to discover TSF Jazz? [http://blogs.research.msu.edu/2013/09/16/why-i-blog/] It's always interesting to see how and why other people blog. What I'm listening to: Youth Lagoon, Wondrous Bughouse; Stan Getz and Joo Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto. What I'm reading: ehhhh long week of writing."IMG_0871.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/img_0871.jpg]"IMG 0871"]

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Man Camps, Media, and Norwegians http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/23/man-camps-media-andnorwegians/ Mon, 23 Sep 2013 11:14:09 +0000 Bill Caraher There is a delegation of Norwegians visiting campus today and the North Dakota Man Camp Project has been invited to present some of their research. This kind of event always brings out the strange in people as the University of North Dakota works hard to put on a good face before international dignitaries and, perhaps more importantly, official across the state who have an impact on resources allocated to the University. This involved a representative of the provost having to see the posters related to our research before we could put them on display, some strange back and forth about our use of our college logos on a booklet that they are preparing for our Norwegian friends, and an almost frantic insistence on collaboration. We did what we could to be team players and suppress a certain degree of cynicism surrounding the undertaking. Clearly, making a good impression during this visit will have a greater direct impact on the University and various administrators than our own work, but as they always say: the rising tide lifts all ships. [http://engineering.und.edu/news/2013/09/norway-energy-delegation.cfm] Here is the schedule of the Norwegian visit. It's vaguely funny that Bret Weber is listed as Sociology rather than Social Work on the page. With that spirit in mind, we prepared a short media guide in collaboration with our in-house marketing guru, Susan Caraher, and put together a rotating slide show to enthrall the delegation. We also decided it best if my erstwhile collaborator and local politician, Bret Weber, take over most of the glad-handing. He's a great public face to our project. Here's the media guide and the slideshow is attached to the end of it. I think it looks pretty good: [scribd id=170147414 key=key-1i4ievxt4xkr9xvp5l28 mode=scroll]

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Does a University Need a Library? http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/does-a-university-need-a-library/ Tue, 24 Sep 2013 12:09:00 +0000 Bill Caraher [http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm] Times are tough in North Dakota and the University of North Dakota is feeling the pinch. Among the many institutions seeing major cutbacks this year is the library. We have no designated book budget for this year and we are cutting back on both online and print journal subscriptions. There is no doubt that most divisions on campus, faculty, and students will feel the pinch. "clfmainreadingroomsmall.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/clfmainreadingroomsmall.jpg]"Cl fmainreadingroomsmall" width="450" height="87" border="0" /> At first, I was mortified that we would be deprived of such a basic resource, but to be frank the collection in my area is weak anyway. I rely on the good will of friends, interlibrary loan, and some of the typical academic trickery in getting ahold of the books and articles that I need. It is not an optimal arrangement, but it is also not something likely to change with a bit more funding this year or next. After all, robust,traditional library collections are built over decades and a year of strong or weak funding will not substantially change my scholarly work flow. Libraries on university campuses have already undergone significant transformations in the last two decades. Coffee shops, cafes, computer labs, and meeting spaces have transformed the libraries from bastions of solitary work to the new social hubs on campus. The new library is rapid coming to replace the venerable student union as the center of student life. To achieve this, libraries have begun to marginalize their traditional function as a repository of books. Libraries have come to move more and more of their stacks off-campus to free up space and to leverage digital access as a way to give access to resources that would take decades to develop in a non-digital world. Digital resources have come to dominate the traditional function of libraries and a larger and larger part of their budget. Librarians, scholars, and students alike have decried the growing expenses of digital (and paper!) journal subscriptions. These costs have strained the budgets of libraries, and they have had to make tough decisions and curtail access to certain databases and digital collections or eliminate them entirely. Moreover, the move toward digital resources has taxed the libraries' traditional role of as a repository and archive. Digital documents have their own technical and legal challenges, and the shrinking budgets of many libraries make it difficult to address these new arrangement while managing the venerable function of "book house". Finally, from the fringe of the digital publishing world come a growing flock of scholars who are intent on challenging the static notion of scholarly resources and imagine the texts of the future to be dynamic, interactive, and remotely hosted documents that are as much a service as a resources. Wikipedia is only the best-known of these dynamic documents. Even more scholars have come to recognize that some form of [http://legacy.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm] open access marks the future of academic knowledge communication. !
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If I am honest, I suspect that only a handful of academic libraries will be able to satisfactory navigate the challenges of legacy collections of physical books and journals, provide access to high-cost digital resources, and cultivate an increasingly dynamic notion of text. As a small case study, I rely on the library primarily for access to resources and less and less for curation. I rarely venture into the stacks (other than the resources housed in our small, but efficient [http://library.und.edu/special-collections/] department of special collections) and even more rarely ask for the guidance of a librarian. The library of the future might look more like our current IT department than a brick-and-mortar collection of objects. To return, then, to the issue of cuts to library funding. Like most scholars, I am officially and publicly appalled. The university powers-that-be have underfunded the [http://library.und.edu/] Mighty Chester Fritz Library for years allowing the once proud "largest library between Minneapolis and Seattle (on the High Line)" languish. On the other hand, extortionate policies of digital publishers, changes in how students and researchers access material, and changes in campus social patterns, have made me willing to admit privately that the library is less vital for our scholarly lives. I'm particular annoyed with the current prices for online subscriptions and recognize that these reflect the willingness of libraries to pay as well as publishers to charge. If libraries stop buying these resources, the economies will have to change. In some ways, libraries are like fossil fuels. There is no doubt that the rumble of the internal combustion engine is a satisfying thing. (I am almost at the end of my patience for people who insist on celebrating the smell and feel of books as an excuse for keeping them around!). Fossil fuels have transformed our world in good and bad ways. They have lifted millions of people from poverty, but also destroyed our environment. The only way to reduce our dependence fossil fuels is to stop using fossil fuels. It'll be a painful process and even the most hardened greeny will catch themselves feeling nostalgic (even if its just for the putter of a Vespa rather than the roar of the muscle car!), but we can all see the change on the horizon. The current economics of libraries is not sustainable and supports a part of the academic publishing industry that is rapacious and, to my mind, unethical. More importantly, perhaps, is that our traditional view of the library has changed with changes to way we access information and curate knowledge and the way in which the university campus works as a space for learning. Change is painful, [http://governor.nd.gov/media-center/news/northdakotas-economic-growth-outpaces-all-other-states-third-consecutive-year] especially in these difficult economic times, but we might be able to see this as an opportunity to transform the basic structure of the knowledge economy.

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Does a University Need a Library: A Response to a Response http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/does-a-university-need-a-library-aresponse-to-a-response/ Wed, 25 Sep 2013 11:49:53 +0000 Bill Caraher Yesterday, I had rare good fortune. A blogger responded to my blog post. Now, I will admit that this blogger, Prof. Jack Weinstein, is a member my local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Academic Bloggers, Podcasters, and Self Promoters, but [http://www.pqed.org/2013/09/does-university-need-library-response.html] a response is a response. [http://www.pqed.org/2013/09/does-university-need-library-response.html] His post is rather straightforward. He argues that a university needs a library because "without one, it is not a university at all", and states that scholars need access to currently library materials to fulfill their responsibilities as researchers and to engooden humanity. (I'll overlook his concern for local issues such as the Exceptional (in a good way!) UND platform and the like. These are largely red herrings.) It's clear that the point I was trying to make was misunderstood. First, for some of us on campus the library is no longer our source of current research material. Through tricks and travel, we have developed creative strategies to gain access to the materials that we need for our research. Our strategies do expend social capital and involve compromises, but there is ample room for reciprocity because many of us find ourselves in the same boat. Next, no amount of funding will likely change this. Libraries are built over decades of sustained funding. The [http://library.und.edu/] Mighty Chester Fritz Library has been slowly strangled for most of the late 20th and early 21st century. Without resources, it has not been able to adapt to the research needs of new scholars on campus, new fields and subdisciplines, and even new directions in teaching. An increase in funding for this year or the next is closing the barn door after the horse has bolted. Third, while I'm in favor of funding the library (actually, I would fund [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/273494/] almost everything), [http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/highest-gdp-growth-states] I recognize that during dire economic times, some sacrifices have to be made. Moreover, funding the library has distinct disadvantages at this present moment. As Prof. Weinstein's link showed, even such elite institutions as Harvard are feeling [http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2012/05/29/academic-journals-are-too-expensive-forharvard-elsevier-is-mega-greedy-and-why-this-stinks-for-future-librarians/] the growing burden of "mega greedy" academic publishers. One way to send a shot across the bow of these groups is to stop buying their journals and shift to open access solutions. Right now, a percentage of our library funding contributes to a exploitative and exclusionist system that does as much to limit access to scholarly work as it does to facilitate it. If Prof. Weinstein's concern is over access the real evil lies not with cutting library funding, but with price !
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gouging of academic publishers. At a moment where the flow of information is less expensive than ever before, the cost of academic journals continues to increase (as do these corporation's profit margins). This prompted me to make an argument comparing funding a library to the use of fossil fuels. As long as fossil fuels are available and funding exists, we will continue to use them. The alternatives seem difficult, unfamiliar, and restrictive. As Prof. Weinstein might argue, ambulances and school buses (and [http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/13/oilproduction-north-dakota-idUSEMS20AO020130913] the North Dakota economy) run on fossil fuels and any effort to curtail access to them is tantamount of telling sick orphans to drag their own debilitated bodies to the hospital. (Ok, perhaps, I have overstated my point but whatever). But we know there are better alternatives even if they are painful. The cuts to the library are disappointing and unfortunate, but I just can't agree that a university needs a library in a traditional sense of being a "book house". In fact, with the exception of the brilliant interlibrary loan department and a handful of journal subscriptions, I manage to keep my admittedly modest research agenda moving forward and I suspect many of my colleagues could say the same thing. (I expect that funding cuts to the library here will accompany a relaxing of teaching and research expectations. After all, tough times require compromises all the way around.) I can see the library continuing to function in the future as a gathering place, access point for information, and an archive. I think that my experiences speak to the future of academic libraries. Funding will continue to decline and this coincides with a change in the landscape of academic publishing. Open access will continue to expand and scholarly access to pay resources will become more personalized and less institutionalized. (In other words, with diminishing institutional resources, academic publishers have already begun to recognize that scholarly materials tend to circulate rapidly and efficiently through social networks (e.g. [http://www.academia.edu/] academia.edu) that cross institutional barriers.) Maybe to rephrase the question a bit in light of Prof. Weinstein's critiques: Do universities need libraries? I still say no. Instead, I'd argue that that students and researchers need access to scholarly materials. Looking ahead, libraries will play a role in this process but they do not represent the only avenue.

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Reconstructing Community from Broken Pots and Ruined Churches on Cyprus http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/reconstructing-community-frombroken-pots-and-ruined-churches-on-cyprus/ Wed, 25 Sep 2013 20:48:41 +0000 Bill Caraher This is a rare and exotic double post! Anyone who has seen me around campus knows that I've been obsessing with a paper that I'm delivering under the Friday night lights (um sort of) at the University of Texas on Friday. This paper is really just the start of three separate things. One is a longer article on our work at Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus probably for [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia] Hesperia. The other is for an article on connectivity during Late Antiquity grounded in the ceramic data from Cyprus and my two projects at Polis-Chrysochous and Pyla-Koutsopetria. Part of this paper looks toward something a bit more conceptual and in some way is an extension of a paper that [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/more-ambivalent-landscapes-ofcorinth/] I wrote a few years ago and delivered in Austin that looked at resistance in an "ambivalent" countryside of Late Antique Corinth. The topics are different, but the approaches are similar and reflect my recent interest how archaeology can reveal social cohesion and conflict. Here it is with the Powerpoint slides at the end: [scribd id=170996218 key=key-1z5uc9c36dkeb4hh40v9 mode=scroll]

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-36/ Fri, 27 Sep 2013 10:06:10 +0000 Bill Caraher It's a traveling Friday for the Mediterranean World machine. You can check out [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/reconstructing-community-frombroken-pots-and-ruined-churches-on-cyprus/] the reason for my travel here or you can just hang out and read some quick hits and varia. It's your call. [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/09/19/unesco-world-heritage-site/] A hat tip and a congratulations to my host tomorrow night for getting Chersonesos the UNESCO World Heritage designation. The Byzantine phase of this site is important. [http://www.utexas.edu/news/2013/09/19/unesco-world-heritage-site/] Really, really, old wine from Dikili Dash. I'll never forget wandering through various Macedonian villages with the American School tour looking for Dikili Dash. [http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/09/20/world/europe/ap-eu-hungarysuleimans-heart.html] An "ancient" Ottoman town in Hungary. Cities that were once large are now small [http://www.archaeological.org/outreach/photocontest/monuments] Archaeological Institute of America 2013 Photography Contest. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9KZDDfQa0M] ASORTV presents "Ask an Archaeologist" staring Angela Berlin from Boston University. [http://www.360globe.net/greece/hosios-loukas/interior.html] Hosios Loukas panorama. Pretty sweet. [http://icfadumbartonoaks.wordpress.com/2013/09/20/motivation-methods-andmeaning-architectural-drawings-of-hagia-sophia/] Documenting Hagia Sophia. [http://apaclassics.org/index.php/apa_blog/apa_blog_entry/4284/] Changing the name of the venerable American Philological Association. [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/19/a-new-seat-for-oxford-bottoms/] New seats for very posh bottoms at Oxford. [http://rbth.co.uk/articles/2012/11/16/abandoned_magnificence_of_karl_faberges_reside nce_20145.html] Abandonment porn: The house of Karl Faberge. [http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/347289?fb_feed_type=story&amp;fb_inviter_id= 6726282] 50 Years of the Ph.D. at North Dakota State University (49 more years and they'll catch the University of North Dakota).

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 [http://www.macfound.org/fellows/class/2013/] The 2013 MacArthur Foundation Fellows. I assume that some of you probably saw the exchange between me and Prof. Jack Weinstein about the future of the library. [http://www.pqed.org/2013/09/does-universityneed-library-response_25.html] If not, here's his response to my response to his response. You can follow the conversation. [http://backupminds.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/openaccess-for-the-few/] This blog post is relevant too and not so great for my argument. [http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/195801/group/News/] Rothaus on sustainable housing in the Bakken oil patch. [http://www.npr.org/2013/09/26/226268651/nbas-g-bo-wants-to-bring-hope-to-greeceand-to-milwaukee] Greece and the NBA. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/jimmy-fallon-joins-sesame-street-gang-tosing-shows-theme-song-on-classroom-instruments_n_3993133.html] The Roots and Sesame Street. What I'm reading: Scott McClanahan, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/crapalachia-abiography-of-place/oclc/783152860] Crapalachia: A Biography of Place. (2013) What I'm listening to: Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II. Minutemen, 3-Way Tie (for last).

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Talking About Machines and thinking about archaeology (and teaching) http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/30/talking-about-machines-andthinking-about-archaeology-and-teaching/ Mon, 30 Sep 2013 12:45:52 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the great things about travel is that I got a chance to read a couple of books. I finished up a fairly recent classic of modern anthropology [http://www.worldcat.org/title/talking-about-machines-an-ethnography-of-a-modernjob/oclc/34906105] Julian Orr's Talking About Machines. Situated at the intersection of [http://www.sociosite.net/topics/texts/Geertz_Thick_Description.php] Clifford Geertz's "thick description" and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aramis,_or_the_Love_of_Technology] Bruno Latour's work on the agency of machines, Orr's classic records the way in which Xerox technicians talk about their work, the machines they service, and their customers. In his field work, he followed a group of technicians to service calls, in the lunch breaks, and with their colleagues. The technicians detailed the both the routines that defined their workday but also the ways in which they adapted to the challenges of balky or difficult machines. The tension between repair procedures proscribed by corporate manuals and those preferred by the technicians is particularly interesting. The heart of the book is the idea that information between technicians is typically shared through informal stories rather than formal meetings, technical documents, or corporate training hierarchies. Since its publication the book has influenced discussion of situated learning and, my new little obsession, communities of practice. Emphasizing the informal spaces and practices of learning that fed the formation of communities, Orr's book shifted the emphasis from various well-defined structures to practice. This got me thinking in three directions. 1. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/sherds-and-churches-lateroman-pottery-on-cyprus/] Communities of Practice on Cyprus. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/reconstructing-community-frombroken-pots-and-ruined-churches-on-cyprus/] In the paper I gave this week at the University of Texas, I rather meekly alluded to the idea that artifact assemblages and architecture might reflect communities of practice. This idea intersected with P. Horden and N. Purcell's notion of the microregion, best developed in their substantial monograph, The Corrupting Sea. They argue that microregions are the basic spatial unit that defines social and economic interaction in the Mediterranean basin. The reason for this has to do with the high degree and intensity of regional variation across the Mediterranean and the concomitant interdependence of these microregions. An approach that would challenge this structural understanding of Mediterranean social geography is on that sees networks of practice. Indeed, these networks could and likely did follow microregional lines as environmental conditions would clearly shape practice. On the other hand, networks of practice could easily follow the organization of craft or even social space of craft people. The difference, for example, between the distribution of certain kinds of churches on Cyprus and the distribution of certain kinds of ceramics suggests that the

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communities of practice constituting these two phenomena are quite different. The microregion is mediated by communities of practice that function along a range of different spatial connections that link together groups defined by shared skills, consumption patterns, and other social relationships. 2. Field Work. I was struck by how similar the stories used by Xerox technicians were to those that circulated among archaeologist. The genre of "war story" has clear parallels in both archaeology. War stories represented a way that technicians communicated solutions to particularly vexing problems, displayed technical prowess, and, ultimately, defined practice. Among archaeologists, war stories often serve established professional competence, to demonstrate the resolution of problems associated with the tricky social environment of encountered in excavations, and to communicate solutions to stratigraphic or documentation problems. While archaeologists maintain a robust body of technical literature (and technicians as a rule do not), war stories nevertheless make up a particularly significant aspect of archaeological discourse. I can recall, for example, telling stories about a having to cut back massive amounts of scarp to protect excavators whose trench was deeper than initially expected, about having to arrange an apology to a very senior archaeologist who we offended during some of our work, and about the stratigraphic situation of some particularly significant finds. Most of these war stories are situated at the fringes of the kind of formal methodological debates suitable for publication, but do at least as much to establish professional credentials and to communicate social wisdom. Most importantly, however, are the war stories surrounding the use of digital technologies in the field and our methods for adapting technological tools for specialized use. Perhaps it is the disparate nature of archaeological publications describing and proscribing the use of digital tools in the field (or perhaps it the community in which I am a part) that leads to the prevalence of digital war stories. Whatever the reason, it certainly defies our expectations that the application of technologies will produce approaches to communicating in and about the field that rely more on practices embedded in craft than more industrialized modes of knowledge transfer. 3. Teaching. One of the things that remains baffling to me is how students organize themselves both inside and outside of class. My experience in the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] Scale-Up room has suggested that forced communities - at tables or in smaller pods - work to some extent, but these communities tend to be fragile and top-down. What would be superior to these top down methods for creating communities of practice is to understand how students organize themselves and socialize outside of class. It seems to me that the most significant challenge in how we understand the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] Scale-Up room is how do we balance imposing classroom order against allowing students to express their own communities of practice. Among Xerox technicians, the lunch tables and the time before meetings are where communities of practice happen. The formal meetings and stylized manuals contribute very little to this discourse. As our university has articulated " [http://und.edu/provost/exceptional-und/gather.cfm] gathering" as one of the priorities of the [http://und.edu/provost/exceptional-und/] Exceptional UND initiative, it would be particularly useful to understand how they have !
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conceived of student gathering and the formation of communities. My most cynical perspective on student behavior sees their communities of practice oriented around spaces of resistance. For example, our department has a lounge space for students, but, in general, students prefer to sit in the hallway and carve out space for work and study in ad hoc ways. I know, however, that there is more to student behavior than simply defying authority just as Xerox technicians did more than simply delay the start of regular meetings with the war stories.

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Digital Art http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/digital-art/ Tue, 01 Oct 2013 12:29:33 +0000 Bill Caraher This week I was invited to contribute an essay to a volume on digital art published by our venerable literary journal, [http://arts-sciences.und.edu/north-dakota-quarterly/] North Dakota Quarterly. This is a bit of an odd thing for me to consider as I'm not much about art and I don't regard myself as much of an essayist. It is also odd for North Dakota Quarterly; taking a moment to check out [http://arts-sciences.und.edu/north-dakotaquarterly/] their website is probably enough to understand the long and deep engagement with digital matters. Nevertheless, I agreed (eagerly) to contribute in part because the invitation appears to be part of a rearguard action to save some of the pillars of the humanities here on campus. As times have become tough here at the University of North Dakota, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/does-a-university-need-a-librarya-response-to-a-response/] with cuts to the library and other longstanding institutions, various entities have tried to find innovative (and entrepreneurial) ways to save their hides. I am not sure how a volume on digital art composed mainly by UND faculty will help the situation, but I'm still willing to chip into a common cause anyway. I can't really speak to digital art, but the call for contributions assured me that this can be understood quite broadly as in "liberal arts". The only real issue is that we were given a November 15th deadline. That's only 6 weeks! I am a plodder so very little gets done on such a time frame. Fortunately they are looking for 10 pages single spaced (I'm guessing 4000 words). So I started brainstorming right away to come up with some options. 1. Recycling Digital Archaeology. Over the past few years, I've written [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/digital-archaeology/] a handful of moderately well-received conference papers on issue surrounding digital archaeology. I also gave t [http://www.scribd.com/doc/27328060/Digital-Archaeology-Technology-in-theTrenches] he Elwyn Robinson lecture on campus on this topic. I should be able to cull something from these papers to create an essay. Most of them deal with the differences between traditional paper recording and digital methods with an edge of caution tempering the sometimes overly enthusiastic rush to adopt new technologies. The advantage of this is that I have a wealth of unpublished text to draw upon. The disadvantage is that yawn it seems boring, and it might be pretty specialized for an audience wanting a more universal comment on digital art. 2. A Survey of Digital Archaeology. I also thought about writing a survey of digital archaeology. In 4000 words, this will have to be from the upper atmosphere, but it would give me a chance to summarize my thoughts on developments from [http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/blogs/] blogging to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/more-on-polis-notebooks/] !
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digital [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/ipads-in-the-field-andreflections-on-archaeologys-digital-future/] notebooks, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/3d-modeling/] 3D modeling, and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/linked-archaeology-is-punkarchaeology/] innovations in digital and online publishing of both data and analysis. I don't really have expertise in any of these areas (except, I guess, blogging), but I feel like I keep an eye on the field. The advantage of this is that I will have to think carefully about the idea of digital archaeology and determine what I want to include and what's vital to understanding how the field is going to develop over the next decade. This sounds fun. The disadvantage is that the traditional reader of NDQ probably won't care about these things other than in that polite sense I feel when I read the science page in the economist. "It says here that they're synthesizing new proteins in France" 3. Blogging Archaeology. It's been five years since I've written about blogging archaeology or the archaeology of blogging. I linked the [http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/blogs/] my article on Archaeology Magazine's website above. I am vaguely curious how many of the links remain active and how many real archaeological bloggers continue to plug away at the their modest craft. It was nice to see some of my [http://rogueclassicism.com/2013/09/02/dieci-anni-farogueclassicism-is-born/] blogging colleagues celebrate the ten year anniversary of their blogs. It has also been interesting to see how the authors have changed and [http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/blogging-archaeology-afterwords/] the very notion of the blog (and what it's for) has received some sustained critique. As a practitioner, I feel like I know how to use the blogging tool better and can even grow or shrink my audience in a predictable way (and to a point). The advantage of writing about blogging is that this is something that I've wanted to do for a long time and I think that I have some experience with the genre. On the other hand, I am not sure that I could keep my essay from devolving into a self-indulgent critique of a self-indulgent activity. (On the third hand, if you can't be self-indulgent in a literary journal, where can you be). 4. Digital Archaeology and Craft. Over the past few years, I've toyed with this idea of telling the story of how I learned to do digital things. It would begin with my childhood and our old TRS-80 computer and involve frustrating days at the end of the first era of Apple Macintosh computer and finally get me to Greece where some very patient colleagues taught me how to use GIS, databases, and the like to map and analyze data. All this was done through an informal apprenticeship and involved me hanging around and watching people work. I took on some small tasks under heavy supervision and skepticism and finally spent a long few weeks in a small, hot library under the Marinos's house in Ancient Corinth working on an article that drew heavily from my ability to analyze data spatially and, in a primitive way, statically. My approach involved lots of trial and error and plenty of gentle nudges in the right direction by supportive and busy colleagues. This paper would draw upon a kind of auto-enthnography (from someone who worried that writing about blogging was selfindulgent!) to frame digital archaeology as craft. This notion would draw [http://www.academia.edu/944074/The_Craft_of_Archaeology] a seminal article by Michael Shanks and Randall McGuire and [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/audit-culture-and-historyas-craft/] some recent reflections my Michael Herzfeld as well as my own experiences teaching the Historians' Craft to undergraduates. The advantage of this is that it would be !
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fun to write and could be more like an essay than an article if I allow myself some autobiographical license. The disadvantage is that I've never written anything like this and it could be bizarre, nonsensical, and a lot of work. 5. Edge Effects. One of the things that I've thought about on and off for the last few years are the unintended artifacts of digital practices in archaeology. Nothing represents this more vividly than edge effects in spatial analysis. I'm using this term to refer to the strange results that appear along the abrupt edges of analytical space in GIS. For example, the sharp break at the edges of an area subject to nearest neighbor analysis produces fantastic results that have nothing to do with the archaeological situation that this method intended to model or analyze. They are artifacts of the analysis itself and provide an opportunity to discuss other, less obvious artifacts of digital analysis in our both the archaeological and "real" world (e.g. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/punk-rock-materiality-and-time/] how we listen to music, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/whats-inyour-bag/] how we travel, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/ipadsin-the-field-and-reflections-on-archaeologys-digital-future/] how we work, et c.). The advantage of this is that it'll push me to think in new directions and maybe even think more broadly and experimentally about how we think. The disadvantage is that I have 6 weeks to put this all together and it might turn into a pile of doodee which would feel like a missed opportunity. As per usual, feedback, criticism, insights, and mockery are all appreciated.

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Sound and Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/02/sound-and-archaeology/ Wed, 02 Oct 2013 11:21:50 +0000 Bill Caraher I'll interrupt my regular musings on archaeology and the like to open a little window into other parts of my life. This morning [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/about/] Scot Hull over at [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/] Part-Time Audiophile published another of my little pieces on my audiophile habit. "NewImage.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/newimage.png]"NewImage" I've written about four pieces for him over the past few months and he's published two. A 50% acceptance rate isn't quite as good as what I'll get on academic papers, but considering I don't really know what I'm doing as an audiophile, I'll take it. The biggest challenge so far is trying to find my voice as an audiophile essayist(?). I don't have the technical chops to really understand how all the little things in these magical boxes work together to make the sounds I like. I do feel vaguely more qualified, however, to contemplate how we reflect on what we hear and like [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/07/17/a-part-time-audiophile/] my first post at PartTime Audiophile, I think I was able to bring a bit of my training as an archaeologist and a historian to bear on my audiophile listening. So, do me a favor and click through to my (roughly edited!) [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/10/02/sound-archeology-vintage-marantz/] contribution to Part-Time Audiophile this morning. "pta-site-banner.png" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/pta-sitebanner.png]"Pta site banner" width="450" height="94" border="0" />

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Friday Varia and Quck Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/friday-varia-and-quck-hits/ Fri, 04 Oct 2013 13:09:28 +0000 Bill Caraher It may actually be Fall here in North Dakotaland. Not only did we enjoy our first pot of Fall chili, but we few trees here on the prairie are beginning to show a new set of colors. The high this weekend will only just peak about 50 and the academic semester is well and truly underway. There are whispers of snow in the forecast for tonight. It seems like a good weekend to stay indoors, to relax, and to catch up on that pile of reading, grading, or footballing. To get that started, I'll humbly offer some quick hits and varia. (These should be called Quick Hits and Varia: [http://englianos.wordpress.com/] Dimitri Nakassis Edition!) I usually lead with news from the world of archaeology, but [http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/09/28/227188942/greek-neo-nazi-partyarrests-follow-high-profile-murder] the arrest of the head of Golden Dawn in Athens seems more noteworthy. [http://munsell.com/color-blog/punk-soil-color-archaeology-andrew-reinhard/] Punk Archaeology (via Andrew Reinhard) has made it onto the Munsell Soil Color Book website. This is the equivalent of appearing of Jimmy Fallon or Arsenio Hall. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2013/09/30/robotic-snakes-sliver-theirway-into-ancient-archaeology/] Robotic snakes and archaeology. [http://www.archaeological.org/fieldwork/afob/13907] Western Argolid Archaeological Project. [http://gizmodo.com/this-crazy-program-turns-wikipedia-into-3d-models-of-th1440287279] I don't know how this works, but it is amazing. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/3d-modeling/] You haven't been reading 3D Thursday, you really should be. [http://nataliavogeikoff.com/2013/10/01/the-modern-greek-exam-professor-blanksmethod-and-other-stories-from-the-1930s/] More on the American School of Classical Studies at Athens entrance exam and some shady dealings from a mysterious "Professor Blank". [http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/30/cantor-gop-budget-sciencespending-column/2896333/] Some folks are criticizing the NSF for funding Bronze Age Cyprus and [http://blogs.berkeley.edu/2013/10/01/why-fund-studies-of-mayaarchitecture-instead-of-saving-lives/] other folks are responding. [http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20669/lot/227/] A Hellenistic bust of a boy inscribed with a cross at Bonhams.

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 [http://corinthianmatters.com/2013/10/03/build-a-corinth-library-for-almost-nothing/] The American School of Classical Studies is having a sale on their Corinth, Athens, Isthmia, and Hesperia Supplement volumes. Act now while supplies last! Limited time only! [http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/tech/innovation/death-stereosystem/index.html?hpt=hp_c2] The death of the home stereo system. And I finally got [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/10/02/sound-archeology-vintage-marantz/] Scot Hull to publish another of my essays! [http://www.dezeen.com/2013/10/01/from-the-knees-of-my-nose-to-the-belly-of-mytoes-by-alex-chinneck/] A playful facade. [http://www.salon.com/2013/09/30/computer_grading_will_destroy_our_schools/] Computer grading will destroy our schools. [http://binscorner.com/pages/9/9-abandoned-islands-where-time-has-stopp.html] Abandonment Porn Island Edition. [http://www.dezeen.com/2013/10/01/from-the-knees-of-my-nose-to-the-belly-of-mytoes-by-alex-chinneck/] Lou Reed on Kayne West's Yeezus. What I'm reading: F. Infantidis, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeographiesexcavating-neolithic-dispilio/oclc/855026114] Archaeographies: Excavating Neolithic Dispilio. Archaeopress 2013. What I'm listening to: Chvrches, Bones of What You Believe."BeatsontheRoad.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/beatsontheroad.jpg]"Beatsonthe Road" width="200" height="1518" border="0" /><span style="text-align:center;] Beets on the Road</span>

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Writing the past in photographs http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/3373/ Mon, 07 Oct 2013 11:40:55 +0000 Bill Caraher I spent some quality time this weekend with Fotis Ifantidis photo essay: [http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeographies-excavating-neolithicdispilio/oclc/855026114] archaeographies: excavating Neolithic Dispilio (Archaeopress 2013). The book's title refers to the practice of writing (graph) the past. [http://www.visualizingneolithic.com/] The author's work has fascinated me for several years and his interest in photography contributed to [http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/exhibits/show/toposchora] my own effort (in collaboration with Ryan Stander) to bring together images and texts from my project on Cyprus. Ifantidis book present photographs taken during the excavation of the Neolithic site of Dispilio in northern Greece. The site, outside of the medieval town of Kastoria, has been a model for innovative practices in reconstruction, documentation of visitor experiences, and archaeological practices. Infantidis work is just the lastest product at this site. I am hardly qualified to comment on the formal character or technical merit of the photographs other than to say that many of them are visually arresting. The imagery did capture the process of archaeography. A number of the photographs captured the relationship between the individual archaeologists and their field context. Infanidis does this in a number of different ways: he depicts expanses of soil with the archaeologists in the foreground. Tools, hands, and the site are situated in contrasting foci challenging the viewer to consider what is the most important object in the scene. In other photographs, stacks of excavation equipment, laboratory scenes, and artifacts in storage bags provide place the contemporary archaeologist and the archaeological context in the same frame emphasizing the continuity between the modern researcher and the Neolithic. Infantidis manipulates scale as well as focus. Many of the shots are cropped to feature long (horizontally or vertically) shots of earth, scarps, and landscapes locates the archaeologist at a smaller scale than the objects that they study. The manipulation of scale in these photographs contextualizes the archaeological project in the tension between the archaeologist and the context of excavation. A similar approach occurs with the Neolithic objects found in the excavation. The archaeologists hands, eyes, and tools connect the ancient objects to the modern humans. Infanidis interest in personal adornment shows through in photographs that feature either the jewelry of archaeologists or the archaeologist in relation to decorated objects. Contextualizing decoration and adornment in human terms provides, at very least, a useful reminder that individuals existed in antiquity even if they're were realized as they are today. The tendency cut off the faces of individuals in the photos or to keep their faces and bodies out of focus, problematizing the relationship between the individual, the archaeology, and the object. (I have become fascinated by including dramatic skies in my photographs of North Dakota and then cropping these to force the viewer to engage the scale of the sky here. See [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/beatsontheroad.jpg?w=200&am

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p;h=1518] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/31/northdakota-sky/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/03/morningsky-2/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/morninghasbroken.jpg?w=450& amp;h=600] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/springsky/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/rosy-fingereddawn/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/evening/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/cold-walk-home/] here or [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/field-finds/] in a more Infantidis-like way here.) The book lacks texts other than a very brief (&lt;250 word) introduction. This seems appropriate for a work that focuses on the excavation of the Neolithic. The absence of text pushes the viewer to look for arguments in the images and objects. The viewer becomes the reader of the text and puzzles out the juxtaposition of archaeologist, site, and objects to tell the story of excavations at Dispilio. Like the site itself, however, the story is not linear or cohesive, but made up of parts isolated on the page and only rarely connected through certain overlapping (stratified?) contexts. The broken (but remarkably well-preserved) wood posts, the dimpled ceramic vessels, the modern hands and tools of the excavators, and the disjointed scenes of the workrooms and everyday life on a dig provide fragments of a narrative that the viewer can only generalize. The use of black-and-white photographs gives the book a clean, modern, dramatic feel and this was surely the intention of the author. On the one hand, black and white photography has long played a role in archaeological documentation and it long helped to manage printing costs of publications. The black-and-white images also ensure that the focus is on the contrasts both in a technical sense and in the tension between the archaeologist and their context. On the other hand, I can't help but thinking how color remains central to the archaeologists world. The fabric of ceramics, the glint of a "foreign" object in the trench, and the color of soils (not to mention the contrast between the sea, the sky, the mountains, and vegetation) are fundamental to the experience of archaeology and our experience of the past. Maybe Infantidis's point is that by writing archaeology we render the dynamic into a world of contrasts.

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Ambivalent Landscapes of Early Christian Corinth: Final Draft http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/08/ambivalent-landscapes-of-earlychristian-corinth-final-draft/ Tue, 08 Oct 2013 11:25:05 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the last couple of years, I've worked on a series of papers on the role of [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/churches-in-greece-or-why-mydissertation-is-not-a-book/] Early Christian basilicas in constructing new forms of authority in Greece. They form the rough outline of a book (or at least a dissertation) that I never had the time, focus, or energy to write. A few years ago I have a rather adventurous (and perhaps in places ill-considered) paper at the Corinth in Contrast: Studies in Inequality conference held at the University of Texas. This paper reflected on how Early Christian churches around Corinth could provide evidence for resistance and accommodation in the 6th century Corinthia. Here is the full citation: W. R. Caraher, "The Ambivalent Landscape of Christian Corinth: The Archaeology of Place, Theology, and Politics in a Late Antique City," in [http://www.worldcat.org/title/corinth-in-contrast-studies-in-inequality/oclc/859061274] Corinth in Contrast: Studies in Inequality. S. James, S. Friesen, and D. Schowalter eds. Brill: Leiden 2014. Here is [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/more-ambivalentlandscapes-of-early-christian-corinth/] a draft of this article and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/19/archaeology-method-andinequality/] here are some of my thoughts leading up to that draft. And, here's the article: [scribd id=172598249 key=key-14sf71zc8596ay47o9ov mode=scroll]

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Data, Blogging, and the Art of Digital Publication in Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/data-blogging-and-the-art-ofdigital-publication-in-archaeology/ Wed, 09 Oct 2013 12:45:03 +0000 Bill Caraher Last week, I mentioned that I was invited [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/digital-art/] to write something for our local literary journal on digital art, presumably, in the field of archaeology. I decided to take idea of art broadly and focus on some transformations in the world of archaeological presentation and data collection. More importantly, for me, is that I decided to try to write in a reflective and reflexive way about my experience as a blogger. This is very early draft of this effort. It's due on November 15th, so I'll have to try to get something more substantial and sustained together soon. In 2007, I began a blog called [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/mediterranean_a/] the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World (available here in archival form). The goal of the blog was to publicize my research on Cyprus particularly the work at [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetriaarchaeological-project/] the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP). I wanted to think in public space and bring an interested public closer to the experience of archaeology. The daily blog seemed to be a great way to post regular dispatches from both my desk work and my field work. At first, I dutifully posted a few times a week, but before long, I was posting daily. My dispatches started as regular updates on our work at PKAP along side some cursory comments on my research and professional activities to a repository for fieldwork updates, conference paper and article drafts, research quandaries, essays on various topics, and increasingly common guest posts on topics ranging from archaeological publishing to 3D modeling and punk rock. Over this time, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/21/a-restrospectiv/] my blog developed from a few hundred views a week to over 100 per day and gained a degree of notoriety in my profession. 2007 were heady days for blogs. They still dominated the way in which individuals distributed content on the internet. Social media, like Twitter and Facebook [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/the-social-netw/] were in their infancy, and hybrid services like Tumblr which streamlined the social sharing of content among its users was born the same year. Even the mighty YouTube was still relatively uncharted territory among content producers. Blogging was king among Web 2.0 pioneers and the ability to almost instantly modify the appearance and content of a website attracted a generation of intrepid academic content producers. ( [http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/blogs/index.html] I discussed a good bit of the origins of blogging in general and in archaeology here.) Of course, [http://chronicle.com/article/Bloggers-Need-Not-Apply/45022] some remained concerned that an unfettered medium like blogging could undermine the

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professional standing of a young faculty member. At the same time, others began both to discuss blogging in academic publications and to embrace its potential as a publishing platform. My own efforts to understand the medium in which I was working were tentative and halting. A good bit of [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/un_buffer_zone/] selfcensorship was involved, and I only engaged other academic bloggers or scholarship in general in a superficial way. Once I was on staff at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, a gentle reprimand about [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/inside-looking/] a slightly impious post further discouraged me from doing much more than providing a travelogue of my time in Greece and various notes about "goings on". By 2008, however, a growing confidence in the blog as a medium and perhaps a developing awareness of its potential emboldened my blogging efforts. I was committed to being more transparent in my presentation of our archaeological work. I announced our idea that [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/pkap-news-where/] we had discovered an Early Christian Basilica at the site of Vigla, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/category/emerging-cypriot/] published some short video productions, and posted more regularly from the field. The use of podcasts from the site, almost daily updates, and more regular photographs, brought our viewers closer to work and exposed them to the vagaries of real archaeological research. Our "Early Christian Basilica" ended up being a Hellenistic fortified settlement by the end of the summer and the blog had exposed a major interpretative mistake. By 2012, attitudes toward blogging had changed and new approaches to the immediacy of the archaeological experience had emerged. We had begun [https://twitter.com/BillCaraher] to use Twitter in the field and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/ipads-in-the-field-and-reflectionson-archaeologys-digital-future/] to collect data from our trenches using iPads. With Twitter we encountered the immediacy of engaging our network of stakeholders, colleagues, and viewers. With the iPads at trench side, we began the fraught process of directly digital data collection. This opened the door to communicating with our archaeological community not through the interpretative lens of the blog or even the truncated expressions of Twitter. The opportunity to push trench-side results directly to a global audience creates a new way to communicate the immediacy of archaeological discovery to the world. There is no middle step of interpretative or peer-review and mistakes are visible on the edge of the trowel. Data becomes immediate and transparent. Publishing data directly from the edge of the trench is probably still a ways off and a cultural change away. Archaeologists still follow the traditions of social science in their need for neat and tidy data. The hasty conclusions set out in blogs and the immediate, trench side, analysis present in new digital notebooks pushes the social aspects of archaeology from the meeting among staff members to a larger community. In this context, the archaeological process become transparent and ownership of the results moves from the intimate confines of the project to the universal domain of the web community. From the opposite perspective, the limited and specialized academic community has begun to find ways to integrate traditional practices of peer review with the more dynamic space of Web 2.0 content and born digital data. The result is a hybrid space of engagement that !
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recognizes the persistent value of peer review, but also lays bear the process and accommodates the dynamic potential digital content. I have recently begun to experiment with using my blog to introduce and serialize a print publication. From October to December, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/3d-modeling/] I have featured a series of guest posts from scholars around the world on issues related to 3D imaging in archaeology. These posts will eventually form a small volume produced very soon after the last blog post appears. The advantage of this approach is that it can accommodate the rapid pace of change in the world of 3D imaging by immediately circulating the results of very recent work in this area. The ability to post comments or even Tweet responses to these contributions using a designated hashtag ( [https://twitter.com/search?q=%233DMedArch&amp;src=typd] #3DMedArch) exposes these articles to a kind of public peer review. A digital and print-on-demand publication after the last post appears will include any comments or Tweets that shed critical perspectives on the posts. A final publication forms a "publication of record" that conforms to traditional expectations, but the entire process was more transparent and dynamic.

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-37/ Fri, 11 Oct 2013 12:49:33 +0000 Bill Caraher After a lovely late summer week, we will slide into genuinely fall-like weather this weekend. We might even turn the heat on or play my stereo very loud so that the amplifier gives us warmth. Before I offer up my modest serving of quick-hits and varia, I want to thank my readers and contributors to this blog. This has been a great week. The blog has enjoyed close to 250 views per day and this follows on very solid page views for the last two months. I am more than pleased that I can fill a spot in interests of the internet community. And, now, some links: [http://www.medievalarchives.com/2010/08/15/archaeologists-discover-byzantinemonastic-complex-in-istanbul/] A Byzantine monastery in Istanbul. [http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/09/29/3658765/ap-photos-syrians-seeksafety.html?story_link=email_msg] The abandoned villages in Syria reborn (h/t to [http://www.utexas.edu/finearts/aah/about/people/nassos-papalexandrou] Nassos Papalexandrou). [http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/an-ancient-monastery-in-sinai-isisolated-again/2013/10/04/ef426cc8-2ad4-11e3-b141-298f46539716_story.html] St. Catherine on the Sinai and the unrest in Egypt. [http://asorblog.org/?p=5890] Archaeology and Cultural Heritage in Libya. [http://www.heritagedaily.com/2013/10/200-year-old-roman-statue-mysterysolved/99165] Archaeologists with friggin' laser beams. [http://www.nit-istanbul.org/NewCitiesinLateAntiquity.html] New cities in Late Antiquity. Hopefully people had a chance to read [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/closing-gaps-with-low-cost-3d/] Sebastian Heath's nice piece on the democratization of 3D imaging technology in Mediterranean Archaeology yesterday. [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog/sahblog/2013/10/08/alienation-and-education-massive-open-online-courseware-and-thefuture-of-architectural-history-instruction] Architectural history and MOOCs. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/10/07/230069931/how-far-is-it-to-theboondocks-try-the-phillippines] The origins of the term boondocks. [http://ergofabulous.org/luther/?] Luther's insults.

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 [http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/bakken-activity-transforms-oilfields/article_d2cc794c-2f63-11e3-952f-0019bb2963f4.html] Some Bakken photos from the sky. [http://publichistorycommons.org/tph-preservation-list-invite/] Crowd sourcing the best public history in the Public Historian. [http://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/10880/the-emu-war] Apparently, emus are bulletproof. There are two great web applications: [http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ssanty/cgibin/eightball.cgi] the magic 8-Ball and [http://www.cloudpaint.com/client/index.php] Cloud Paint (for anyone nostalgic for MacPaint around 1988). [http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/07/capturing-the-aura-of-the-scottishhighlands-with-the-iphone-5s/] An iPhone in Scotland. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/678469.html] Sachin Tendulkar will retire after the home series against the West Indies. Hopefully that new will distract everyone from the Australian visit. What I'm listening to: The Radiators, Ghostown. (R.I.P. Phil Chevron). What I'm reading: Thomas Pynchon, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/bleedingedge/oclc/837179750] The Bleeding Edge.I'm feeling nostalgic: "GreekLight1SM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/greeklight1sm.jpg]"GreekLight1S M" "ApolloTempleSM.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/apollotemplesm.jpg]"ApolloTem pleSM"

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Imagined Battlefields on the Dakota Prairie http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/imagined-battlefields-on-thedakota-prairie/ Mon, 14 Oct 2013 12:57:41 +0000 Bill Caraher It was really fun to see Aaron Barth's maiden major publication this weekend in The Public Historian 35 (2013): "Imagining a Battlefield at a Civil War Mistake: The Public History of Whitestone Hill, 1863 to 2013". He tells the story of the monument at [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2013/08/15/directions-to-whitestone-hill-north-dakota/] Whitestone Hill in North Dakota. The monument marks the spot of a particularly heinous assault on a group of Native Americans in September 1863 by Alfred Sully and commemorates the death of some 20 Union Soldiers in the clash. The monument was set up in 1909 as part of a larger project to demonstrate the triumph of "white civilization" and to integrate North Dakota more fully into a national narrative that made the Indian Wars the Western equivalent of the Civil War. "WhitestoneHill.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/whitestonehill.jpg]"WhitestoneH ill" width="450" height="370" border="0" /> Among the more interesting tidbits in this well-researched article is that the founder of the Whitestone Hill monument was a Congressman Thomas Marshall who cut his teeth as a banker, surveyor, and mayor for the town of Oakes, North Dakota. The link between governing, surveying, and settlement is interesting in a North Dakota context as so many towns were established on a speculative basis. The creation of a monument and the surveying of the battlefield contributed to the larger project of defining the North Dakota landscape and partitioning it into understandable parcels that represent economic, commemorative, and administrative area. In short, it is poetic that a surveyor would be interested in creating a commemorative landscape in the state. A series of murals dating to 1912 at the nearby Dickey County Courthouse in Ellendale further reinforced the place of the monument within the North Dakota landscapes. The various images present the history of the region showing Native American hunters, early European settlers, and thriving farms. The north elevation of the mural shows the "battle" of Whitestone Hill embedding this event within a path from hunters to settled farmers in the area. Soon after the monument was erected (and almost certainly during Sully's life), the circumstances of the "battle" came under dispute and a critical conversation emerged surrounding the ruthless acts of the Union troops. Theatrical productions and public comment introduced counter-narratives that challenged the view within 5 years of the monuments dedication. A local clergyman, Rev. Aaron Beede declared the battle a mistake and wrote a play giving voice to Native American perspectives on the event. Barth argued that this play was the first step in publicly articulating an alternate view of the events at the battle.

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I wonder if there was a slightly earlier precedent: on the first Memorial Day event at the monument, the University of North Dakota's own [http://webapp.und.edu/dept/library/Collections/og49.html] Orin G. Libby provided a lecture titled "Our Earliest History." Libby was a student of Frederick Jackson Turner and was generally sensitive to Native American history in the region. Perhaps Libby's address provided the first critique of the site's controversial history. Libby was also an important member of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, which met around the same time on UND's campus. This group sought to emphasize local history, historical sites, and the core values of what would be formalized as public history many years later. If any comments existed amidst his voluminous papers, it would have been a valuable addition to this nice article. By the 1940s, a plaque commemorated the Native Americans who died at the site. By the 1960s, commemorative events featured individuals who represented the Native American perspective. Of course, the continued use of the term "battlefield" to describe the site ensured that earlier narratives continued to influence the site's commemoration. One thing that is notable about this article is that it relied rather heavily on official account drawn from textual sources. Barth is a historian, so I appreciate his wide-ranging research into the history of the site, but he's also an archaeologist. With a site like a monument, as I am sure Aaron knows, dissenting opinions often appear outside of the view of texts. I finished the article wondering whether the monument ever served as a place of protest for Native American groups or as a location of mourning for the massacre that it commemorated. The signs were and are likely subtle. Object left behind, the faint traces of gathering, and alternate rituals that subvert the intended message of the site. As he continues to research this site as part of his dissertation, I'll be excited to see how his work develops. [http://theedgeofthevillage.com/] And check out his blog here.

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A View on a Digital Apprenticeship in Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/3414/ Tue, 15 Oct 2013 11:11:35 +0000 Bill Caraher I am famous for turning relatively straight forward and easy projects into complex and painful ones. I wish I should say that adding complexity makes my work better, but the truth it that it usually just makes my work more complex. True to form, I've been playing with an invitation to write something on digital art in archaeology for a special edition of North Dakota Quarterly. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/09/data-blogging-and-the-art-ofdigital-publication-in-archaeology/] I wrote something last week on blogging as digital art, and I think that will form the third and fourth sections of this relatively short contribution (10 pages, which I'm reading as 3000-4000 words). Linking those sections to a general introduction to the digital art in archaeology will be a short essay on how I learned to do some digital things in archaeology. The hope is to show how learning to be digital in archaeology was less about following a set of disciplinary rules and best practices and more about engaging data in particularly social contexts. This pseudo-apprenticeship shaped my understanding of how digital methods mediated between my experiences in the field and the conclusions that I drew. As my post last week established how certain digital practices could make the act of mediating between field experience and historical and archaeological conclusions more transparent. This is as much a product of social conditions as the tools that we use. So, with that obscure sentiment, here is part 2 of my five part essay: Scholars of my generation (Ph.d. in 2003) emerged on the cusp of the formal definition of a digital archaeology with the increasing reach of the internet and the ubiquity of digital tools in the field. There were obviously earlier implementation of digital methods in archaeology and this drew the abilities of computer specialists and attracted the attention of high tech companies. A famous Apple advertisement from 1985 touted While studying prehistoric Greece, John Cherry discovered the computer celebrated the novelty of computers in archaeology and the humorous tension between modern technology and the ancient past. My first season in the field, in the mid-1990s, was surrounded by computers. The American archaeology team was digitizing notebooks, creating databases, collecting field data using total stations and electrical resistivity rigs, and creating plans using autocad and 3D models. My parents were in the computer business at the time so I was naturally drawn to the computer room beneath a village house where a team of computer guys with special skills labored in front of CRT monitors and nursed devices like the almost mystical Orb Drive through the dust and heat of the Greece summer. By the early 2000s, the magical equipment in that room became part of our everyday routine as archaeologists, wed venture inside in the afternoons to key data collected in the field into databases or to plot our daily progress on Geographic Information System maps. In fact, the digital world dictated a regular movement from the field to the computer keyboard. Our paper field recording forms smeared with Corinthian grime served as holding areas for !
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archaeological knowledge for only as long as it took us to enter the data into the computer. Along they way, patient project directors tutored us on how the GIS and databases worked. The looked the other way as we pulled apart personal copies of the databases and attempted to streamline the endless series of textual reports required of a major archaeological project. Although I hardly realized it then, I was beginning to understand the role that computers played in mediating between my experiences in the field and the past that we so eagerly sought to understand. Some of this came into focus while writing my first scholarly article. David Pettegrew, my colleague and co-author, sat across from one another in a tiny dig library, in plastic chairs, at laptop computers, running and rerunning queries from a database developed over five seasons of archaeological work. From this analysis emerged our conclusions which mostly touched upon archaeological methods and some very modest observations. We learned more that summer than our article every showed. We developed techniques and procedures managing how digital mediated between the field and the past. For example, we quickly discovered a series of queries that revealed how our projects two ceramic analysts regularly interpreted the pottery differently and vowed never to run that query again. We also noted that certain patterns in the distribution of artifacts across our study area revealed the subtle movement of settlement over centuries. These were patterns that were invisible to us in the field as our preoccupation with day-to-day activities and the objects at our feet prevented us from grasping the larger landscape. We understood that the careful analysis of thousands of bits of data collected from the field, mediated by databases and GIS maps, allowed us to make conclusions that went far beyond our individual experiences. At the same time, we understood how the analysis of this data was the product of a social environment that granted us access to tools and expertise. We did not follow a path laid out by our field experiences or the data alone, but navigated our engagement with digital tools through the patient attention of colleagues and co-authors who trained us in software, verified the results of our queries, and discouraged us from hasty conclusions. In other words, technologys role as the mediator between finds in the field and the conclusions that we draw is part of the larger social process of archaeological analysis.

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Thinking about Trash in the Man Camps of North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/thinking-about-trash-in-the-mancamps-of-north-dakota/ Wed, 16 Oct 2013 13:19:45 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the things we've been reluctant to do so far in our work in the Bakken oil patch is look through the trash in a systematic way. Sure, Bret Weber did look through a trash bin early in our trips to the Bakken to determine whether a camp was "really" dry or not. (We found beer cans, so it was not). For those of you new to this blog, I've been working with my colleague Bret Weber and a team of intrepid scholars to document the material and social conditions in workforce housing in the Bakken oil patch. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] You can read more about our work here. "Evernote Snapshot 20120808 110952.jpeg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/evernote-snapshot-20120808110952.jpeg]"Evernote Snapshot 20120808 110952" Trash has been a central consideration in our study of man camps. In fact, one of the key features that distinguish the various kinds of workforce housing in the Bakken is how they discard trash. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-ofnorth-dakota-work-camps-1/] Type 1 camps - typically run by companies like Target Logistics or other large companies - have robust trash management strategies that involve dedicated custodial crews who keep the landscape around the camps and the space within worker housing clean. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-2/] Type 2 camps - which consist primarily of RV parks - typically feature industrial dumpsters. Trash disposal in area immediately around units varies considerably as these spaces tend to be hybrid living, storage, and working areas. As a result, the spaces around individuals units features areas set aside for storage, tools, workspaces, gardens, and recreation. Improvised building techniques encourages provisional discard practices that leave a clutter of "trash" around units. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-3/] Type 3 camps are mostly ad hoc clusters of campers without access to water, electric, or trash removal infrastructure. As a result, they tended to have recourse to rather less regular methods of removing trash from around the living area. We've documented [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/notes-from-the-man-camps-ofthe-bakken/] the scatter of trash left behind at one of these Type 3 camps. Discard practices are one thing, but I think my colleague Richard Rothaus is nudging us to consider more fully the content of the trash around man camps. He sent along a citation to M. Posnansky's recent article in Historical Archaeology 47 (2013), 64-75: "Digging through Twentieth Century Rubbish at Hani, Ghana". This article shows that the study of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbology] garbology (the study of garbage pioneered by William Rathje) is alive and well and has been deployed in the study of colonialism in west !
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Africa (although the author does stress that their work is less concerned with contemporary practices (as garbology has tended to be be) and more concerned with historical practices). Posnansky documented the excavation of 20th century midden mounds surrounding villages near the site of Hani/Begho in Ghana. He noted that local memory of the date and use of these mounds had begun to disappear even through some of the mounds were less than 40 years old. This is an important thing to note in our study of discard in workforce housing. Mundane details like discard practices tend not to feature in written records and, because of the routine nature of the activities, can often slip to the margins of memory. The assemblage from these midden mounds revealed the rather slow adoption of imported goods such as plastic utensils, enamel wares, and metal nails and screws. The material culture, then, remained remarkable unaffected by the status of Ghana part of the colonial world. How much this can speak to the relative impact of colonialism, the autonomy of the groups studied, or the structure of the colonial economy is left open, but the method of documenting activities that fall outside both individual and social memory and textual sources is significant. Now, we just have to find people willing to start going through dumpsters at man camps!

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-74/ Fri, 18 Oct 2013 11:58:04 +0000 Bill Caraher A fitful hotel room sleep and some delightful "brown flavored" waterish coffee almost made me forget the beautiful drive from Grand Forks to Bismarck, North Dakota yesterday. Almost. The drive and hectic week did impoverish my quick hits and varia, but hopefully there is something here to carry you through the weekend. [http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2013/10/archaeological-survey-of-indiato.html] Some dream archaeology from India with an interesting political, religious, and economic aspect (h/t Lizzie Baughan). [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24493177] The long life of a Roman bathhouse (h/t Vincent O'Reilly). [http://www.wmf.org/watch] The 2014 Endangered Monuments Watch list, but fascinating and depressing. Remember to check out the 6th installment in our 3D Thursday series: [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/3d-laser-scanning-withinskoteino-cave-crete-greece/] 3D laser scanning within Skoteino Cave, Crete, Greece [http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/72866/] The North Dakota oil boom is a boom for archaeology too. [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/05/california-s-new-feudalism-benefitsa-few-at-the-expense-of-the-multitude.html] The sounds of New York in the roaring '20s. [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/10/05/california-s-new-feudalism-benefitsa-few-at-the-expense-of-the-multitude.html] Feudalism in California. [http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/17/collegiality-not-implied-tenurecriterion-north-dakota-panel-says] I am declining to comment. [http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/why-david-byrne-wrongspotify-thom-yorke] Some more thoughts on whether Spotify is a good or bad. [https://medium.com/busy-building-things/c6e7b9b5bc1f] Messy desks are important. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan-v-south-africa-201314/engine/match/649087.html] Congratulations to Pakistan for an impressive win over South Africa. [http://workshop.chromeexperiments.com/stars/] 100,000 Stars.

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 Two more links to abandonment porn: [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article2316987/Photographer-Niki-Feijens-eerie-images-abandoned-farm-houses.html] abandoned farmhouses and [http://www.flickr.com/photos/bpdphotography/sets/72157626713779604/with/5711604 063/] a public library in Detroit. Speaking of abandonment. [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/15/scientistsquestion-20000-barrel-north-dakota-oil-spill-estimate/] The oil spill in North Dakota is a mess. And, yes, I just linked to Fox News. [http://hotvvheels.tumblr.com/post/63027591885/2000gt] My wife has a new car (ahem, I wish). I'm a Honda guy, but I have to admit that it's pretty sexy. ( [http://www.audioresearch.com/VSi60.html] Not as sexy as this, though). [http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-long-way-home-with-help-fromgoogle.html] This is a remarkable story. What I'm reading: .... (reading?) What I'm listening to: Miles Davis, Dig."IMG_0926.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_0926.jpg]"IMG 0926"] "IMG_0922.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_0922.jpg]"IMG 0922" "IMG_0930.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_0930.jpg]"IMG 0930" "IMG_0933.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_0933.jpg]"IMG 0933"]

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First Snow 2013 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/first-snow-2013/ Sun, 20 Oct 2013 15:46:10 +0000 Bill Caraher A tradition on this blog is to remark on the first snow the winter season here in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Last year, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/firstsnow-2012/] the first visible flake happened on October 4th. In 2011, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-23/] it was November 10th. [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/firstsnow-winter-2010/] The first significant snow accumulation was on November 21st in 2010 and [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/the-first-snow/] on October 28th in 2008. It is fun to note that I got caught in [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/western-macedon/] the snow in Western Macedonia, Greece on the drive from Kastoria to Florina on September 11, 2007. So in this spirit, I offer a somewhat uninspired photograph of the first consistently falling flake of snow this year: "IMG_0959.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_0959.jpg]"IMG 0959]

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Curation and Mediation at the 2013 Arts and Culture Conference at the University of North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/curation-and-mediation-at-the2013-arts-and-culture-conference-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/ Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:53:15 +0000 Bill Caraher I'm pretty excited about this week's [http://arts-sciences.und.edu/news/2013/10/newmedia-conference.cfm] Arts and Culture Conference. Its theme is Cultures of Curation (and features a super snazzy poster). Archaeologists (and historians) love curation. In fact, one could argue that archaeology is primarily a discipline of curation. We not only spend significant time fussing with publications, but we also are obsessed with the archival aspects of our work. This extends from how we plan to conserve and present the physical artifacts themselves to our interest in the distribution and archiving digital artifacts. [http://arts-sciences.und.edu/news/2013/10/new-media-conference.cfm] "AC2013posterJ.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/ac2013posterj.jpg]"AC2013poste rJ" width="337" height="600" border="0" /> [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1573] And, yes, that is a sexy poster design by Joel Jonientz. Curation is a hot topic these days (as this Ngram view shows): "Google_Ngram_Viewer.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/google_ngram_viewer.jpg]"Goog le Ngram Viewer" width="450" height="237" border="0" /> So, to get myself in the spirit, I thought I'd offer up three things that I want to think about at this week's festivities. 1. Curation as Mediation. One of the most interesting aspects of curation in archaeology is how much it involves the archaeologist moving objects from one system (or context) to the next. This shift from one system to the next serves to make the objects of archaeological study accessible to different kinds of questions. In other words, an object located on the floor of a collapsed building has a different meaning than one on a museum shelf. In its "archaeological context" the object can speak to it use during the lifetime of the building, the history of building, and the formation processes that contributed to presence of the object on the floor. The act of curating prioritizes some aspect of the object's context - whether it be the object's form, the object's context, or the standing of the object as an example for a larger process and recontextualizes it according to this value. The curator translates the objects from one context to the next (in both the Latin meaning of carrying across and the Medieval context of moving a sacred object from one site to the next). Curation, then, is the act of mediation as it emphasized the middle zone between one context and the next and how this unstable middle zone both imparts meaning and captures the inherent instability of meaning.

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2. Curation and the Dynamic Archive. In my thinking about curation, I tend to think of it in the context of the object. I know, though, that the days of stable objects subjected to mediating influences are behind us. New digital objects are unstable, constitute and reconstitute themselves at the demand of the curator, the researcher, the querier, or the audience. The spirit of the linked-data movement see databases, for example, as entities that stretch extend beyond single creators, datasets, and users, and reconstitute themselves constantly and new data constructs new relationships. In keeping with the idea of the curator as a mediator, curation become a decentralized practice the curator focuses on relationships rather than objects in a traditional sense. The managing of relationships within curatorial systems allows for decentralized collections to emerge and to constantly produce new contexts for existing material. The most obvious example of this is a site like Wikipedia which houses perhaps the single largest collection of linked data in the world. The line between curator and contributor is blurred completely, and the links between entries and between the entries and other large datasets on the web (most notably spatial datasets) ensures that the structure of Wikipedia data is a significant as the actual data present in the entries. 3. Curation and the Web. As innumerable web-pundits have argued, the web is the single greatest curatorial enterprise (perhaps) in human history. Social media, blogs, wikis, and the like provide a constant space for individuals to assemble, collect, and mark web content for secondary consumption. With the massive expansion of Facebook and Twitter the web has continued the process of democratizing the culture of curation. Each individual curates a dynamic museum of content and shares it with a complex network of friends, followers, and readers. With this new environment for curation, the curator becomes both more secondary to the act of curation (we're all curators, after all) and more individualized as the standards of curation drift across the varying tastes and practices of millions of users in the web. So the title of this year's conference "cultures of curation" is particularly apt way to describe the practice of curation on the web. Culture perhaps best describes the distributive practices of curation in the 21st century. <strong>UPDATE:</strong> Just for fun, I ran a Google Ngram on the words "curate" and "curator". Curator is in red and curate is in blue. Both show a slight uptick in frequency over the past decade, but nothing like the dramatic ramping up that the word curations demonstrates. "Google_Ngram_Viewer-3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/google_ngram_viewer3.jpg]"Google Ngram Viewer 3" width="450" height="224" border="0" /> My temptation is to argue that the verb "to curate" and the individual, "the curator", fail to capture the decentralized context of curation in the digital age. Curation remains a strong and persistent interest, but curating and curators are actions and agents of an earlier age.

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Three Thoughts on a Teaching Tuesday http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/three-thoughts-on-a-teachingtuesday/ Tue, 22 Oct 2013 12:14:07 +0000 Bill Caraher Some semesters I think about teaching once or twice a week, when I sit down to write about. Other semesters I think teaching every teaching everyday, but only blog about it rarely. That's how this semester has played out. This semester, I'm trying my hand once again at teaching an upper level course. I don't like it one bit, but I'm being a good team player and picking up some upper level credits for our major as two of my colleagues are on sabbatical. I have three little thoughts on my teaching so far: 1. Tests. One of the simplest rules that I tell my students is that I am capable of making a test that nearly everyone fails, but I want to make a test that everyone has a good chance of passing (or even doing well on)! Today I give tests in my require course for majors and my Byzantine History course and I spent a good bit of time trying to make tests that everyone could do well on. I always give essay tests. My struggle is in creating a test that's open-ended enough that students can show what they know and yet narrow enough that I don't leave the students wondering how to proceed. I've attempted to solve this problem by giving students choices for both short and long essay answers, but I'm never quite sure whether the questions all ask the students to engage the course material at a similar level or in a similar way. It also makes it much harder to grade the test fairly. 2. Student Resistance. I typically begin my discussions of texts with some easy questions to get the students into the flow of conversation. Recently, students have been a bit reluctant to engage my questions in my upper level class. At first, I worried that this meant that the students didn't do the reading. So I gave a quiz with the same question that I had been asking my class with no response. The students - generally - rocked the quiz and got the answers right. The reluctance of students to answer very simple question in class (and it's a small class &lt;20 students) suggests that something other than simple shyness is at play. After all, the students are willing to answer more complex interpretative questions and to even - at times direct remarks to one another even during relatively Socratic moments in the course. My conclusion is that the students have found an opportunity to resist my pedagogy where the stakes are low, but the impact is relatively visible. Student resistance is almost always tactically clever. 3. Guest Lecturers. I did one of the best thing I've ever done in class this past week. I invented two rockstar graduate students - Nathan Leidholm and Jordan Pickett - to Skype into my class to talk about the future of Byzantine History. These two guys were amazing. Nathan was laid back and textual introducing the students to his research into the !

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Byzantine genos or (for lack of a better word) clan. Jordan was energetic and wide ranging in his discussion of the future of Byzantine archaeology in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both stimulated student questions and answered them with grace, precision, and charm. It was a brilliant break from my lecture and discussion grind and gave the students a bleeding-edge perspective on the world of Byzantine history and archaeology. So, these are my teaching related thoughts at around the midway point of the semester. I'll come back with more as the semester moves along, and, before too long, I'll have to start to think about [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/scale-up/] Scale-Up 2.0 next semester. Good times!

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Investigating the West Hall of the Theater at Corinth http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/investigating-the-west-hall-of-thetheater-at-corinth/ Wed, 23 Oct 2013 11:34:54 +0000 Bill Caraher When [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesperia] Hesperia arrives with a new Corinth article, it is sort of like Christmas (or maybe Columbus Day) in my household. In this most recent issue (82.3), the former director of Corinth Excavations, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.82.3.0487] Charles Williams, documented his recent excavations in the northern area of the theater. The article sought to integrate the results of recent excavations in the larger discussion of the architecture and archaeology of the theater. The theater was among the first buildings excavated at Corinth and the area had a long history from the 4th c. B.C. to the Byzantine period (at least). Williams's excavations in the northwestern corner of the site primarily focused on Roman to Late Roman activity there. "CorinthTheater.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/corinththeater.jpg]"CorinthTheat er" In tone and form, the article was a throwback to the regular reports on Corinth excavations that appeared almost annually in Hesperia. The amount of detail is fantastic. The references to historical events (Actium, the founding of the colony, et c.) punctuate the archaeological findings throughout the text. The author assumes the significance of the site of Corinth and its monuments. Comparanda are minimal. The article begins with a remarkable description of the various major Roman phases of the theater. The unlabeled illustrations make connecting the various features in the phase descriptions to the corresponding plan an exercise in architectural identification. Williams updates parts of [http://www.jstor.org/stable/i403346] Scranton's half-century old study of the major Roman phases of the theater published as Corinth II. For folks interested in the architecture of theaters and the change in their function and arrangement from the Greek to Roman periods, Williams's short survey of the Roman phases of the Corinth theater is a great case-study. The use of the Corinth theater as both an amphitheater and then as a space suitable for some kind of water battles has always fascinated me. Of particular note are the appearance of myriad buttresses and reconstructions marking out the impact of various earthquakes on the structure of the theater. The second part of the article examines the work done during the 2011 excavation season. It begins with a discussion of the west analemma of the west parodos of the theater. (That phrase evoked some rainy afternoon standing with the members of the American School's regular program and looking intently at the theater in some Greek city.) The discovery of this section of analemma helps to establish the shape of the Classical Greek theater that the Hellenistic theater supplanted. Williams then describes in substantial detail the stratigraphy of the excavations of the west parodos detailing the relationship between drains and various

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buttresses necessary to support the earthquake wracked structure of the various associated buildings. Excavations further north revealed more of the West Hall and uncovered more about the complex and curious history of the theater precinct. The West Hall represents a Roman addition to the theater probably dating to the 4th Phase, and its clear relationship to the "backstage" (my term, not Williams's) are of the theater suggests that it served the actors and chorus. The walls of the hall appear to include blocks recycled from the earlier phase of the Roman theater. Like many of the buildings associated with the theater, it received buttresses at some point in its history perhaps in response to earthquake damage in the late-2nd to early-3rd century A.D. The building has a long history of use starting as a well-appointed structure with marble veneers and ending us as a space for industrial activities by the 3rd century. One of the strangest and coolest discoveries the rooms abandonment in the 5th century it apparently became a dumping ground for cow bones slaughtered nearby and dumped over the west wall perhaps near the northwest corner. This massive, unstratified, deposit produced over a ton of bones that appeared to be the product of specialized, large scale butchery rather than urban debris. Excavations in 2011 also revealed more of the "Lesser Plaza" and "North Peristyle Court". Like the West Hall these spaces were Roman in date; the North Peristyle Court followed both the orientation of the theater and the "Theater Avenue" which followed the line of Roman centuriation. The north wall, I believe, of the North Peristyle eventually formed part of the Late Roman fortification of the city. While the Late Roman fortification of the city remains hard to date, but it might have been in the first half of the 5th century. This would make the bone deposit in the West Hall after the construction of the fortification and provide a bit of urban history for the periphery of the Late Roman city of Corinth. Of course, the wall could also be Justinianic in date, and I tend to prefer a later date for the wall owing to my recent publications suggesting that the emperor may have taken a personal, strategic interest in the loyalty of his Corinthian subjects. This article was pretty intense. The amount of detail was staggering and involved constantly moving back and forth between more detailed descriptions and the phase descriptions and plans at the front of the article. I kept thinking how this is a model article for advanced undergraduates to use to decipher a building's history. The article provided more than enough detail for a student to reconstruct a history of the building, but also enough little challenges to separate students who understand architecture and stratigraphic excavation from those who don't. The final section of the article offered some suggestions for future work setting the stage for students to consider the potential of various courses of action. A short paper assignment arguing in favor of one of Williams' recommendation for future work would wrap up the assignment nicely. [http://corinthianmatters.com/2013/10/23/investigating-the-west-hall-of-the-theater-atcorinth/] Crossposted to Corinthian Matters

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A Quick Follow up to Cultures of Curation http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/a-quick-follow-up-to-cultures-ofcuration/ Thu, 24 Oct 2013 04:00:09 +0000 Bill Caraher If you missed the panel discussion earlier this afternoon at the [http://artssciences.und.edu/news/2013/10/new-media-conference.cfm] University of North Dakota's Arts and Culture Conference, you missed an stimulating conversation about curation in the media, art world and film. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/curation-and-mediation-at-the2013-arts-and-culture-conference-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/] As I said in an earlier blog post, curation has come to be a particular important concept in the late-20th/early-21st century cultural lexicon.The panels were relatively conservative in their reading of curation and privileged the curator as a kind of arbiter of creativity. When asked whether curation could occur without a curator, the panel was largely dismissive. (And, yes, it was my question, and I have a blog, so I can respond to my own question here. It's completely solipsistic, I know, but it's hardly my fault that the panel stimulated me to have a conversation with myself.) My idea of curation sans curator was not that curation would occur without any agency, but rather the highly distributed models of agency present on the web challenge our traditional, frankly elitist, notions of the curator as culture-maker.In some ways, the editorial work present at a site like Wikipedia or the crowd-sourced curation present at a site like Reddit demonstrates how effective decentralized models of curation can be. Interestingly, Jennifer Preston, a social media reporter for the New York Times, mentioned how the front page of the Times was among the most intensively curated spaces in media. When asked about curation without a curator, though, she responded by suggesting that this would give rise to massive collections of YouTube clips of people filming the news coverage of on their televisions. She overlooked that the crowd-sourced site Reddit claims to being "the front page of the internet". I also thought about the assemblage of ancient objects present in collections today. The modern curatorial intervention comes only after centuries of human curation. The use of objects in various ancient context, trade routes, modern geopolitics, colonialism, and the unequal distribution of wealth conspired to make available a collection of objects for the modern curator. This clearly does not fit a narrow definition of curation as a reasoned, generative act, but it is reminds us that our current genius is always contextualized by the " [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_hand] invisible hand" of centuries of individual decisions, value judgements, and markets combined with natural, political, and social vagaries that have nothing properly to do with objects, but nevertheless shape their fates. Be sure to check out the final day of the conference tomorrow:Thursday, Oct. 24: David Pagel, Visiting Artist Lecture, 11 a.m.,Witmer 114, UND campus. Kerri Miller Visiting Artist Lecture, 3:30 p.m., River Valley Room, Memorial Union. Closing reception, 7 p.m., at the "Cultures of Curation" Exhibition at 3rd Street Gallery in downtown Grand Forks. <wp:post_id>3456</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>2013-10-23 23:00:09</wp:post_date>

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<wp:post_date_gmt>2013-10-24 04:00:09</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:post_name>a-quick-follow-up-to-cultures-of-curation</wp:post_name> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> <category domain="category" nicename="art] <![CDATA[Art</category> <category domain="category" nicename="the-new-media] <![CDATA[The New Media</category> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[2013-10-24 04:00:09</wp:meta_value> <wp:comment_id>4298</wp:comment_id> <wp:comment_author><![CDATA[Richard Rothaus</wp:comment_author> <wp:comment_author_email>richard.rothaus@gmail.com</wp:comment_author_email> <wp:comment_author_url>https://www.facebook.com/richard.rothaus</wp:comment_au thor_url> <wp:comment_author_IP>66.216.224.138</wp:comment_author_IP> <wp:comment_date>2013-10-24 08:23:55</wp:comment_date> <wp:comment_date_gmt>2013-10-24 13:23:55</wp:comment_date_gmt> <wp:comment_content><![CDATA[In the latest American Antiquity, Sarah Herr discusses changing concepts of curation among the Western Apache. In the pre-reservation period, curation of sites and artifacts meant reuse, and she references one person who called sites "early convenience stores" where you could walk around and find that arrowhead or scraper you needed. Likewise there site were occupied, old ceramics ground up for temper in new ceramics, and so on. In the reservation period, however, curation has shifted strongly to avoidance of these sites (especially burials), or use for ritual activity only.</wp:comment_content> <wp:comment_approved>1</wp:comment_approved> <wp:comment_type/> <wp:comment_parent>0</wp:comment_parent> <wp:comment_user_id>0</wp:comment_user_id>

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Friday Quick Hits and Varia http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-38/ Fri, 25 Oct 2013 12:34:50 +0000 Bill Caraher Its wintertime here on the North Plains: a few days of flurries this week and temperatures in the 20s in the morning. I hope the low, grey clouds that have dampened my spirits lift today and give us back some of the amazing North Dakota sky. In the meantime, Ill remember this is how most people live in the U.S. and Europe (deprived of the most amazing sky in the world), and Ill provide some quick hits and varia to make us all feel just a little bit better. [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/Spiffs/falltrips-have-begun] Fall trips for the regular members of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. If you havent checked out [http://digitalhumanities.umass.edu/pbmp/?page_id=273] Eric Poehlers blog or [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/photogrammetry-on-the-pompeiiquadriporticus-project/] his contribution to our 3D Thursday series, you really should. Pompey never looked cooler. [http://oxfordbyzantinesociety.wordpress.com/international-graduate-conference-2014/] Oxfords International Graduate Student Conference is called The City and the cities: from Constantinople to the frontier. Heres the call for papers. [http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite4_1_23/10/2013_524520] The Greek financial crisis from the perspective of an ancient site. Stephen Miller is proposing an odd plan. [http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/2013/10/remember-slaves-especiallymargherita.html] Slaves in the Morea. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/world/middleeast/pollen-study-points-to-culpritin-bronze-era-mystery.html] Drought in the Bronze Age (but [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/climate-and-collapse/] read this too). [http://gizmodo.com/lasers-drones-and-future-tech-on-the-front-lines-of-a-1447601864] James Newhard of the College of Charleston appears on Gizmodo touting 3D and Drones in archaeology (and showing our 3D Thursday some love!). Maps showing [http://jezebel.com/map-six-decades-of-the-most-popular-names-forboys-st-1450787771] the most popular boy names and [http://jezebel.com/map-sixty-yearsof-the-most-popular-names-for-girls-s-1443501909] the most popular girl names over the past 60 years by state. It is a bit concerning that William is becoming so popular in the south. [http://science.time.com/2013/10/22/the-united-states-of-attitude-an-interactive-guide-toamericas-moods/] You can also check out the range of moods typical across the U.S., but state.

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 [http://www.edickinson.org/] The long awaited Emily Dickinson Archive is now live. [https://www.causes.com/savethedome] Save the Astrodome! [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/23/us/a-front-yard-burial-in-alabama-no-matterwhat.html?pagewanted=all] Apparently it is problematic to bury your wife in your front yard in Alabama. [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/10/fleshing-out-byzantine-house.html] How very unByzantine of them! [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/10/22/flipped-classroomseffectiveness/3148447/] Maybe the flipped classroom isnt better. [http://boingboing.net/2013/10/14/zombiesvsanimals.html] Its nice to know that there is a chance that nature has a failsafe for a zombie apocalypse. What Im reading: What Im listening to: The Walkmen, Heaven."IMG_0963.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/img_0963.jpg]"IMG 0963"]

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Long Drive http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/26/long-drive/ Sun, 27 Oct 2013 00:56:18 +0000 Bill Caraher My wife had a long drive to South Dakota this pass week. It was an opportunity for some inadvertent creativity. "LongDrive.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/longdrive.jpg]"LongDrive]

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R.I.P Lou Reed http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/r-i-p-lou-reed/ Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:17:31 +0000 Bill Caraher Lou Reed will always be the patron saint of the [http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/] Punk Archaeology community. He will be missed. [http://parttimeaudiophile.com/2013/10/27/lou-reed-r-i-p/] "RIPLou2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/riplou2.jpg]"RIPLou2" And curtains laced with diamonds, dear for youAnd all the Roman noblemen for youAnd kingdom's Christian soldiers, dear for youAnd melting ice cap mountains tops for youOh, oh, and knights in flaming silver robes for youAnd bats that with a kiss turn prince for youSwoop, swoop, oh, baby, rock, rockSwoop, swoop, rock, rockSwoop, swoop, rock, rock

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Results from an Accidental Resurvey at Pyla-Koutsopetria http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/results-from-an-accidentalresurvey-at-pyla-koutsopetria/ Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:46:48 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the benefits of preparing the data from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project for publication in [http://opencontext.org/] Open Context is that [http://alexandriaarchive.org/about/people/#eck] Eric Kansa has forced the us to remember all these little irregularities in our dataset. One that Eric noted this past week was that our crack survey team re-surveyed a group of units in 2005 that we had originally surveyed in 2004. "DublicateUnits.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/dublicateunits.jpg]"DublicateUni ts" width="450" height="296" border="0" /> The reason for this had to do with plotting units in an open plowed field about a half a kilometer from our benchmark. In 2005, we accidentally plotted in units that overlapped entirely with a set of units surveyed in 2004 and caught the mistake when we produced our grid in our GIS. The result of our mapping glitch is that we resurveyed 6 units from 2004 in 2005. This mistake produced some interesting results because it allowed us to compare the same general area under two very different field conditions. In 2004 the units were covered in fresh grain stubble and surveyed very late in the afternoon under unfavorable raking light conditions. The survey sheets noted that the glare from the grain stubble and that one unit (maybe 180) was the LAST UNIT of the season. The surface visibility of the units was around 40 (43.3 on average). A year later, the units were almost completely clear of stubble with just a slight scatter of weeds. The visibility was 100% and we walked the units about an hour (and a month) earlier. The walkers did not mention glare or any other difficulties identifying the ceramics on the surface. The results were almost too good to be predictable. The 2004 units produced 1292 artifacts per hectare and the 2005 units produced 2484 artifacts per hectare. Remarkably these units produced slightly over 50% more material in 2005 reflecting the improvement in visibility in something close to a linear fashion. The units produced assemblages that are reassuringly similar. The 2004 survey produced 8 chronological periods and the 2005 units produced 14. Some key periods were represented in 2005 and absent in 2004: Archaic (1), Hellenistic-Early Roman (2), Early Roman (1), Late Medieval (1), and Ottoman sherds (1), but in all these cases it was no more than two sherds. The other periods that appeared in 2005 were all broad units (with time spans over 1000 years) like post-prehistoric and Medieval-Modern. From a chronological perspective, all of

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the narrow periods that appeared only in 2005 were accounted for in broader chronological periods in 2004 (e.g. Medieval and Roman) except the single Archaic sherd. Despite these new periods, the overall chronological distribution of material from both sets of units was similar. The 2004 units produced 35% Late Roman pottery and the 2005 units produced 39%. The Roman material was about 5% for both surveys. Interestingly, the survey in 2004 produced twice as much diagnostic fine ware than the 2005 survey, but otherwise the proportions were almost identical with utility wares (coarse, medium coarse, and amphora sherds) accounting for 83% of the assemblage in 2004 and 86% in 2005. Kitchen/Cooking wares accounted for 4% and 5% respectively. The take away from this little analysis is that despite the significant difference in the number of sherds counted and collected, the two assemblages were nearly identical with only a handful of sherds appearing in 2005 that made any chronological or functional difference in the area. Pretty cool, huh?

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Not a Good Paper: The Art of Digital Archaeology http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/not-a-good-paper-the-art-ofdigital-archaeology/ Tue, 29 Oct 2013 11:09:38 +0000 Bill Caraher As readers of this blog know, Ive been working on some kind of paper for a special edition of North Dakota Quarterly, the long-standing literary journal published at the University of North Dakota. The goal of this special issue is to collect voices of the digital humanities across campus in an effort to demonstrate how the journal is relevant to the community and to make it feel like something that has meaning in the 21st century. Ive blogged about it [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/digital-art/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/3414/] here. Over the past few weeks Ive been struggling with this article and finding a way to articulate the influence of the digital on both traditional archaeological art and the discipline of archaeology. Instead of a traditional article, with footnotes and literature review, I tried to write it as more of an essay. What has resulted, however, feels more like an awkward undergraduate essay than a learned exploration of the issues. Here is, warts and all. I think have about 1000 words remaining for revisions, but I think the structure of the essay will have to stand (as other responsibilities are beginning to catch up with me). <strong>Digital Archaeology as Digital Art</strong> Introduction The study of the old has never precluded embracing the new. Archaeologists have embraced new technologies to document sites, to disseminate the results of their research, and to train the next generation of practitioners. Mediterranean archaeologists have been a bit slower than our colleagues in the New World to adopt the newest advances in technology, but over the last few decades, we have begun to make up for lost time. From the use of iPad to document excavations to open access data repositories, 3D imaging technologies, Geographic Information Systems modeling, and growing engagements with social and new media, Mediterranean archaeologists have moved with growing confidence into the area of digital archaeology. The question driving this collection of essays is what is digital art. Archaeology has generally regarded itself as involved more in the study of art than the production of art. At the same time, archaeology has attracted artists, architects, and even the occasional poet or musician to mediate between the physical material remains present at a site and the wider world. The best-known examples of the archaeologists art featured elegantly inked (and sometimes colored) illustrations. By the 20th century, high-contrast black-and-white photography challenged the utility of illustration. In recent times, color and, now, digital photography have slowly supplanted the austere beauty of black-and-white prints. Illustration software, Geographic Information Systems software, and even typed field notes have replaces the !

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distinct hands of individual archaeologists and skilled illustrators. In comparison to mid-20th century archaeological publications, contemporary works seem impersonal and mechanical with their precise line drawings, standardized maps and plans, and cookie cutter illustrations. A similar trend has appeared in how texts and data serve to describe the archaeological process. Archaeological recording has gone from being personalized notebook sometimes maintained as the private property of the excavator to standardized forms preserved in project-owned databases, presented in elaborate charts, and analyzed using statistical models. The highly-structured data then circulates on the internet where a growing community seeks to integrate it with similarly produced datasets to address to questions that exceed the perspective of single excavators, projects, or sites. The goal of this increasingly standardized art and data is to present in a transparent way the experience and results of field work. Over the past half century, the growing encounter with the digital has sought to standardize the rules of archaeological mediation. If we consider digital art new mode for mediating archaeological work, then we must observe the shift from the distinctive archaeological documentation of the first three quarters of the 20th century to the increasingly standardized practices of our digital era. My essay for this volume considers the remarkable irregular methods through which Mediterranean archaeologists develop the skills associated with digital art and documentation, the intersection of archaeological documentation and new media, and finally how these new practices, both as theoretical expressions of archaeologys arrival in the digital age and as a practical manifestation of the archaeologist craft. Engaging the Digital I received my Ph.D. in 2003 with a generation of archaeologists emerging on the cusp of the formal definition of a digital archaeology. We had experienced from the trenches both the growing ubiquity of digital tools in the field and the increasing reach of the internet. We also understood and had grown to appreciate the first adopters of digital methods in archaeology who they had drawn the abilities of computer specialists to the Mediterranean world and even attracted the attention of high tech companies. A famous Apple advertisement from 1985 touted While studying prehistoric Greece, John Cherry discovered the computer celebrated the novelty of computers in archaeology with the humorous juxtaposition of modern technology and antiquity. We also encountered this juxtaposition first hand. My first season in the field, in the mid1990s, was surrounded by computers. A team of scholars was digitizing notebooks, creating databases, collecting field data using total stations and electrical resistivity rigs, and creating plans using autocad and 3D models. My parents were in the computer business at the time so I was naturally drawn to the computer room beneath a village house where the computer team toiled in front of CRT monitors and nursed devices like the almost mystical Orb Drive through the dust and heat of the Greece summer. By the early 2000s, the magical equipment in that room became part of our everyday routine as archaeologists, we would venture inside in the afternoons to key data collected in the field into databases or to plot our daily progress on Geographic Information System maps. In fact, the digital world dictated a regular movement from the field to the computer keyboard. Our paper field recording forms smeared with Corinthian grime served as holding areas for !
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archaeological knowledge for only as long as it took us to enter the data into the computer. Along they way, patient project directors tutored us on how the GIS and databases worked. The looked the other way as we pulled apart personal copies of the databases and attempted to streamline the endless series of textual reports required of a major archaeological project. Although I hardly realized it at first, I was beginning to understand the role that computers played in mediating between my experiences in the field and the past that we so eagerly sought to understand. Some of this came into focus while writing my first scholarly article. David Pettegrew, my colleague and co-author, and I sat across from one another in a tiny dig library, in plastic chairs, at laptop computers, running and rerunning queries from a database developed over five seasons of archaeological work. From this analysis emerged our conclusions which mostly touched upon archaeological methods. We learned more that summer than our article every showed. We developed techniques and procedures for managing how digital data mediated between our field experience and the past. For example, we quickly produced a series of queries that revealed how our projects two ceramic analysts regularly interpreted the pottery differently. The results of these queries told us much more about how pottery was recored than what was on the ground (and we vowed never to run that query again). We also noted that certain patterns in the distribution of artifacts across our study area revealed the subtle movement of a settlement over centuries. These were patterns that were invisible to us in the field as our preoccupation with day-to-day activities and the objects at our feet prevented us from grasping the larger landscape. We understood that the careful analysis of thousands of bits of data collected from the field and mediated by databases and GIS maps allowed us to make conclusions that went far beyond our individual experiences. At the same time, we understood how the analysis of this data was the product of a social environment that granted us access to tools and expertise. We did not follow a path laid out by our field experiences or the data alone, but navigated our engagement with digital tools through the patient attention of colleagues and co-authors who trained us in software, verified the results of our queries, and discouraged us from hasty conclusions. In other words, technologys role as the mediator between finds in the field and the conclusions that we draw is part of the larger social process of archaeological analysis. Digital Writing on the Web In 2003, after a period of digital apprenticeship on other projects, I began my own archaeological project. We adopted and adapted many of the same basic practices that we had learned through my earlier experiences refining how we used technology whenever we were able and innovating whenever technological allowed. As we did this, we were vaguely aware of the growing body of best practices in archaeology that sought to define more clearly the relationship between digital artifacts and physical artifacts. We also understood that digital practices in archaeology provided a way to introduce new levels of transparency to what we did in the field. The portability of digital data allowed us to continue to share our work among everyone on the team. The reach of the internet and its ability to bring together images, texts, video, and audio also nudged us to consider how digital technologies could make our analytical processes, deliberations, and conversation more visible to the world. In effect, we wondered whether digital portability of the traditional output of archaeological work could extend to the process of archaeological analysis. This is especially relevant for my research focus on methods and interest, to quote Brian Eno, in process not product. !
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This growing interest in blurring the distinct between digital products of field works (themselves a more portable and dynamic version of the earlier analogue products) and our process in creating these products coincided with a the rapid development of social and new media platforms on the internet. Our project, the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus, commenced in 2004. This coincided with Googles purchase of the blogging platform Blogger in 2003 and the appearance of Wordpress in 2004. The rise of easy to use blogging platforms fueled the first generation of academic bloggers who attracted interest in the trade press around the same time. In 2006, Facebook opened itself to the world and a year later, Twitter and Tumblr appeared. These tools made it possible to communicate to an audience in close to real time. Blogs easily accommodated photographs and other media as well as long or short form writing. Social media services like Twitter and Facebook allowed us to communicate immediately with an audience. In 2007, I began our projects first blog, The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, with the explicit goal of keeping our friends, families, donors, and colleagues up to date on our work both in the field and back in the office. The first steps were tentative and halting. It was hard to know how much to reveal and whether wed have an audience. I remember the exhilaration of averaging more than 10 page views a day (over the first 6 months, I averaged a heady 16 views a day!). In my first three months of blogging, I mainly provided mundane updates on the lead up to our work on Cyprus, some daily updates on our work there, and, general notes on activities in the field of Mediterranean archaeology. At a few junctures, I invited my colleagues to post to make blog posts concerning the various debates we had about how our project should run. These posts combined with our regular journalling about our activities to provide a day-to-day view of the project and to capture some of the spirited, but good natured debates about our work. We combined this with some on-the-scene podcasts and some video taken by a professional videographer to bring a slightly more dynamic sense of our work to the blog. Bandwidth restrictions limited how quickly we could disseminate video or even podcasts on the blog. I recognize that blog posts and databases do not typically qualify as art, but archaeologists have made them function in some of the same ways. There are structural similarities, of course, between the archaeological notebook, arranged by date and location, and the organization of the blog. The ability of the blog to integrate text, photographs, and illustrations likewise parallels the nature of an excavation notebooks to use various media to document the relationships present in the field. At the same time, the use of video and audio files extend how we can document field experiences and archaeological reality into new media. Toward a Digital Future in Archaeology Blogging can both embody certain key aspects of the archaeological notebook and extend it in digital form. The practices associated with these kind of digitally mediated expressions of archaeological knowledge derive less from a formal set of best-practices, and more from experimentation and apprenticeship among likeminded colleagues in the field. As a result, there has been a tremendous amount of creativity in efforts to make field experiences and archaeological data available in digital form. If the product of archaeological work fits into a tradition of art - albeit of a technical kind then the emergence of digital practices in archaeology marks the appearance of digital art in !
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the discipline. The traditional emphasis on mediation between field experiences, objects of study, and an audience has shaped certain expectations of transparency. The reader of archaeological art expects to see both the archaeology that they represent and to the past itself. The art mediates the viewer and the archaeological practice and experiences and the history of the site. At the same time, the diversity of digital output from the field ranging from robust, interactive datasets to maps, blog descriptions, video, audio, and 3D images, derives in part from the dynamic nature of digital media and from the irregularity of the social context for the emerging practices of digital archaeology. As this generation of archaeologists comes to terms with the rapidly changing digital media through which we make our experiences and sites known, our output comes into contact, and sometimes conflict with established practices. The publication of peer-reviewed datasets, for example, asks the archaeologist to operate as the curator of their dataset by making it understandable to both their peers and a larger audience. Blogs represent a more ambiguous product as their content can range from momentary impressions to legitimate scholarly material. The former have always fit awkwardly into academic publishing (at least since the demise of short correspondences in academic journals) and the latter tends to defy the expectation of peer review central to our standing as progressional truth speakers. Even photographic images and illustrations, the traditional expressions of archaeological art, have entered a dynamic age where traditional images form the basis for 3D models and illustrations derive as often through sophisticated photogrammetry programs as careful autopsy. The framing question of this collection of essay is what is digital art?. I have offered a response that probably reflected on the how more than the what of digital art in the discipline of archaeology. My experience of the processes at play in the production of digital art range from my first engagement by my colleagues in the first decades of the 21st century to the adoption of digital tools for disseminating their work in blogs and social media applications to the dynamic experimentation with digital forms of publication. Our desire to use digital tools to mediate between our field experiences and the past encouraged the development of a set of digital objects that, like archaeological art from the earliest days, provides a legible and transparent window to our work. Perhaps as a side-effect of this digital age, the product of this generation of digital scholars in archaeology has favored process as much as product. Our work has sought to reveal not only our analytical conclusions about the past, but also the data that produced these conclusions as well as the false starts and contingencies that shape our knowledge. The awareness of digital technology as a tool learned mainly through the informality of experience opened it up as an object of reflexive study. Because it lacked the authority of best-practice or a disciplinary cannon, we were attentive to the idea that we needed to justify ourselves. This ensured that the art of digital archaeology was as much about the art and the process as the analysis.

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Punk Archaeology Project Update http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/30/punk-archaeology-project-update/ Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:10:21 +0000 Bill Caraher Ive been hedging around a bit about a secret project that some colleagues and I have have been concocting here at the University of North Dakota. Its still relatively secret, but since it intersects with the punk archaeology project, I might as well whisper about the one while I update my loyal readers on the other. The most exciting thing is that the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/] Punk Archaeology manuscript is in typesetting and is nearly complete. We have the excellent editorial work of Andrew Reinhard and the layout work of [http://joeljonientz.com/] Joel Jonientz to thank for this as well as the cooperation of all the contributors. The book will consist of 36 chapters with illustrations evenly split between the proceedings of the conference and [http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/] a selection of blog posts written by me and Kostis Kourelis over the past 5 years. Sorry that these images are a bit hard to make out, but it is a teaser. You can read [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/punk-archaeology-update-2/] my introduction here. "table_of_contents1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/table_of_contents1.jpg]"Table of contents1" width="450" height="457" border="0" /> "table_of_contents2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/table_of_contents2.jpg]"Table of contents2" width="450" height="475" border="0" /> "Introduction1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/introduction1.jpg]"Introduction1 " width="450" height="413" border="0" /> "Introduction2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/introduction2.jpg]"Introduction2 " width="450" height="441" border="0" /> "Introduction3.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/introduction3.jpg]"Introduction3 " width="450" height="246" border="0" /> "Introduction4.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/introduction4.jpg]"Introduction4 " width="324" height="483" border="0" />

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The part that Im only whispering about is that this is going to be one of the first two publications of The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota. This is a laboratory press that will focus on things that interest its editors. (This is not the formal statement of the presss intention, but an informal description of what we plan to do). In the meantime, weve begun to learn something about the intricacies of publishing in the digital era and how to implement print-on-demand publication, various digital formats, and a commitment to open access. "DigitalPressLogowhite.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/digitalpresslogowhite.jpg]"Digital PressLogowhite" width="450" height="450" border="0" />

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/01/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-75/ Fri, 01 Nov 2013 11:39:40 +0000 Bill Caraher It is really Friday already? Sometimes it is a relief to get to Friday a little sooner than you expect. Other times it is a shock because you need extra days to get stuff done. The abrupt arrival of this Friday is somewhere between these two positions. Im glad that I survived another week, but also wish I had one more day to be productive. You will be all relieved to know that I did find time to compile a little list of quick hits and varia for your enjoyment. So all was not lost! Before the normal list and so it doesnt get lost, [http://blog.historians.org/2013/10/national-humanities-alliance-action-alert-opposedevastating-cuts-national-endowment-humanities/] we should all do what we can to support the National Endowment of the Humanities. [http://englianos.wordpress.com/2013/10/27/homer-the-iron-age-and-materiality/] Its always good to read what Dimitri Nakassis is writing especially when it involves Iron Age objects, agency, and Homer. [http://worldmap.harvard.edu/maps/ASORmembers] A map of women members of the American Schools of Oriental Research. [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/25/arts/design/byzantine-icons-in-heaven-andearth-at-the-national-gallery.html?pagewanted=all] Byzantium from Greece at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. And [http://www.bsana.net/conference/Program_BSC2013.pdf] heres whats going on at this weeks Byzantine Studies Conference in New Haven (pdf). [http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/10/06/macarthur-genius-robin-flemingusing-archaeology-write-history/1WqSGQ4RuRdscHR6ZoV6VM/story.html] Using archaeology to write history. [http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2013/10/an-erotic-epigram-on-ostrakonfrom.html#.UnOJKZTwJ9v] Love is all you need. Be sure to check out [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/31/3dimaging-in-mediterranean-archaeology-what-are-we-doing-anyway/] yesterdays 3D Thursday!! (And [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/3d-modeling/] the entire series of posts by a stellar group of scholars!) [http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/10/30/241548520/they-want-to-fit-in-anuphill-struggle-for-greeces-roma] Joanna Kakissis (of NPR and formerly of Williston) on the struggles of the Roma in Greece.

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 [http://londonist.com/2013/10/fly-through-17th-century-london.php] Flying through 17th century London. [https://medium.com/war-is-boring/3eccdbe4f753] The plight of Aleppo. [http://corinthianmatters.com/2013/10/29/barrington-atlas-coming-to-ipads/] David Pettegrew on the Barrington Atlas coming to iPads. [http://www.lifo.gr/mag/columns/5992] The oldest house in Athens. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-investigates-nationalgeographic-over-corrupt-payments-to-egypts-keeper-of-antiquities-8909454.html] More Zahi Hawass scandal this time involving National Geographic. [http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/a-real-time-map-of-births-anddeaths/280609/] A realtime simulation map of births and deaths around the world. [http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/08/2012820102749246453.html] More on inequality in American academia. And [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/education/as-interest-fades-in-thehumanities-colleges-worry.html?pagewanted=all] reason to panic about the humanities? [https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/810311-velvet-underground-horrifiespsychiatrists-1966.html] The Velvet Undergrounds debut at Delmonicos horrifies psychiatrists. [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full?sid=e7695e72-e40e-466b-90815fe6a2fb62ff] And problems with peer review. [http://jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js/] If you miss your classic Mac and need yourself some MacPaint. [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/sportingscene/2013/10/why-i-quit-majorleague-baseball.html] Quitting baseball to write. [http://romsdahlfulbright.wordpress.com/] Some great musings on life as a Fullbrighter in the UK. A couple Bakken notes: [http://realoilfieldwives.com/2013/10/28/the-joys-ofwinterizing-your-camper/] the joys of winterizing ones R.V. and [http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/359340250.shtml] a class-action lawsuit against 10 companies who flared natural gas. [http://www.burroughs100.com/2/post/2013/10/mystical-candy-skull-interview-withphotographer-philip-heying.html] William Burroughs and his hatchet-made jack-o-lantern. What Im reading: P. Memmott, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/gunyah-goondie-wurleythe-aboriginal-architecture-of-australia/oclc/154667830] Gunyah, Goondie + Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia. (St. Lucia, Queensland 2007).

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 What Im listening to: Arcade Fire, Reflektor; Lou Reed, Transformer."SDSun.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/sdsun.jpg]"SDSun"A sunrise in South Dakota by Susie

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Working Group in Digital and New Media Open House and Press Release http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/working-group-in-digital-and-newmedia-open-house-and-press-release/ Mon, 04 Nov 2013 12:11:32 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the past 5 years, Ive been active in a group called the Working Group in Digital and New Media. This is a cross-disciplinary, cross-college, and cross-campus group of scholars whose work touches on digital methods, media, and approaches to problems in the arts, humanities, and sciences. Each year, to attract new members we do [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/working-group-in-digital-andnew-media-open-house/] a Fall open house and make a press release. It is often my job to prepare the press release. Here it is for the 2013 open house: On Wednesday, November 6th, the Working Group in Digital and New Media will host its 4th annual open house in its laboratory space in O'Kelly Hall from 11 am to 1 pm. The Open House will feature works-in-progress by members of this transdisciplinary collective of scholars from across the University of North Dakota Campus. The open-house will provide demonstrations of Travis Desell's Wildlife@Home project, the digital music of [http://www.und.edu/instruct/wittgraf/] Mike Wittgraf, [http://www.timpasch.com/] Tim Pasch's innovative digital outreach in, to and from Indigenous Arctic communities, and [http://www.educause.edu/members/richard-van-eck] Rick Van Eck's latest work to use computer games to introduce students to STEM disciplines. Paul Worley will be on hand to discuss [http://www.amazon.com/TellingBeing-Told-Storytelling-Contemporary/dp/0816530262/] his new monograph which makes important contributions to how we understand contemporary Mayan performance in the digital world. [http://arts-sciences.und.edu/english/faculty/alberts.cfm] Crystal Alberts' will present her interdisciplinary collaboration with Katia Mayfield, a Ph.D. candidate in Scientific Computing, James Merrill's "Lost in Translation" Piecing together the Puzzle. Wilbur Stolt will discuss how the [http://library.und.edu/] Chester Fritz Library has become a key space for digitally mediated interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty, staff, and students. [http://joeljonientz.com/] Joel Jonientz, [http://und.academia.edu/KyleConway] Kyle Conway, and Bill Caraher will introduce the first two volumes from the The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, a laboratory press that will curate original research in digital and print forms. For the 2013/2014 Academic Year, the Working Group will host an innovative speaker series featuring global leaders in digital technologies and approaches. "Over the past 4 years, the Working Group has become a regional leader in digital innovation in the arts and humanities," Joel Jonientz remarked. "The members of the group refuse to be fit into disciplinary boxes or conform to outmoded expectations of what it means to be a scholar in this or that field."

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Founded in 2008, the Working Group in Digital and New Media pioneered the vision of [http://und.edu/provost/exceptional-und/] Exceptional UND by facilitating collaborative research in a dynamic gathering space. The uniquely collegial environment of the Working Group encourages faculty and students to experience the digital world as a means of expanding and enhancing their academic, regional, and global community.

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The Bakken Goes Boom: A Collaborative Book Project http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/the-bakken-goes-boom-acollaborative-book-project/ Tue, 05 Nov 2013 12:16:03 +0000 Bill Caraher As I look ahead to my sabbatical year, I hope to have so many projects ready for attention that it is neither regenerative nor focused. So, Im very excited to announce that I will be editing a book with my [http://und.academia.edu/KyleConway] colleague Kyle Conway in the University of North Dakotas Department of English. Titled The Bakken Goes Boom, the book will bring together many of the leading academic voices on recent events associated with the oil boom in the Bakken. [http://bakkenbook.wordpress.com/] We have a snazzy website here. The most exciting thing about it is that the book will be produced in collaboration with a graduate seminar called Communication and the Rural Community. You can [http://bakkenbook.wordpress.com/syllabus/] check out the syllabus here. The students will help us evaluate the contributions, edit them, and have the opportunity to contribute to the volume themselves. Kyle is also hoping to arrange a trip to the Bakken with the class. Here is the Call for Papers: The Bakken Goes Boom: Oil and the Changing Geographies of Western North Dakota. Edited by William Caraher and Kyle Conway In less than five years, western North Dakota has changed so dramatically that many longtime residents no longer recognize it. High oil prices and new mining techniques have made the region, which sits on top of the rich Bakken oil formation, an exciting place to be. While the rest of the U.S. economy has lagged, North Dakotas has boomed. People have flocked to state in search of a better life, and cities such as Williston and Watford City have doubled or tripled in size. The editors of The Bakken Goes Boom are soliciting essays on topics related to the oil boom and its impact on the geography and communities of western North Dakota. The book will address topics from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. Its intended audience includes not only scholars but residents of western North Dakota, newcomers to the area, and policy-makers in Bismarck, all of whom are trying to understand the changes the state is undergoing. Potential topics to address include (but are by no means limited to): History: how does this boom resemble or differ from oil booms of the past? How does the boom fit into the larger history of the state? What are the benefits/cost of the boom (social, economic, environmental, etc.)? How have man-camps changed the physical and social landscape of western North Dakota? !
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 Patterns of migration: where are people coming from, and where are they settling? How are newcomers using social media to stay connected to home or to build ties with North Dakota? What are the environmental advantages/drawbacks of hydraulic fracturing (fracking)? What legal questions does petroleum exploration raise? What impact do international geopolitics (for instance, the negotiations about the potential Keystone Pipeline) have on western North Dakota?Submissions of 5,000 to 8,000 words (formatted following the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style) should be sent to the editors, William Caraher (william dot caraher at und dot edu) and Kyle Conway (kyle dot conway at und dot edu) by February 28, 2014. They should be in .odt, .rtf, .doc, or .docx formats. The Bakken Goes Boom will be published by the Digital Press of the University of North Dakota, a new project run by the UND Working Group in Digital Humanities. It will undergo peer review, and it will be distributed in both electronic and paper formats. The expected publication date is Fall 2014. "DigitalPressLogowhite.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/digitalpresslogowhite.jpg]"Digital PressLogowhite" width="450" height="450" border="0" />The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota

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Digital Publications in Punk and Pottery http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/digital-publications-in-punk-andpottery/ Wed, 06 Nov 2013 12:52:00 +0000 Bill Caraher This week has turned into some pretty exciting for me. If youre in the area, you should certainly drop by OKelly Hall 203 between 11 and 1 to see [http://und.edu/news/2013/11/media-working-group-open-house.cfm] the Working Group in Digital and New Medias Open House. I am very fortunate to have a collegial and creative group of people in the Working Group and it is always exciting to see what theyre doing. First, <strong>POTTERY</strong>. Were getting closer and closer to having the full dataset from the survey component of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project published by Open Context. Ive blogged about this already [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/08/some-other-reasons-to-publishyour-data/] here and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/resultsfrom-an-accidental-resurvey-at-pyla-koutsopetria/] here. While everything is not quite ready with the data, Eric Kansa and the Open Context team has generously made a version of our data available to show off at the Working Group open house this afternoon. [http://opencontext.org/projects/3F6DCD13-A476-488E-ED10-47D25513FCB2] You can check it out here. I will blog about this at greater length next week, but I am very excited to continue to work with the Open Context team to make more of our archaeological data available. I can already envision the data from the [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/new-views-on-old-datareinterpreting-intensive-survey-results-after-30-years/] Ohio Boeotia Expedition, [http://corinthianmatters.com/archprojects/ekas/] the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project Excavations at Vigla and Koutsopetria, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/] Princeton Polis Expeditions work in the area of E.F2, and even (gasp) the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/] North Dakota Man Camp Project. This will, of course, require the permissions and cooperation of a whole group of scholars as well as an infusion of resources for the tedious task of processing the data, but the potential is enormous. Next, <strong>PUNK</strong>. Every day The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota gets one step closer to publishing its first volume: [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/] Punk Archaeology. Yesterday, I reviewed some cover art produced by the talented, flexible, and punk [http://joeljonientz.com/] Joel Jonientz. "PunkA_cover_1.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/punka_cover_1.jpg]"PunkA cover 1" width="450" height="450" border="0" />At first, I didnt get it. I thought: what !
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the hell does a bowling pin have to do with punk archaeology? Then Joel pointed out that bowling is punk, and I began to think about the bowling pin as a good representation of the mundane objects often studied (and elevated to iconic status) by archaeologists. I mean, is a bowling pin any less intrinsically interesting than, say, a transport amphora or a cooking pot? In fact, [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2008/10/punk-archaeology-athens-street-art.html] years ago Kostis Kourelis mentioned the [http://builtinashtrays.blogspot.com/] Built-In Ashtray project in the context of punk archaeology at his blog. I also couldnt help thinking of the mundane objects associated with Damien Hirsts nearly contemporary installation titled [http://www.damienhirst.com/school-the-archaeology-of-lo] School: The Archaeology of Lost Desires, Comprehending Infinity and the Search for Knowledge which includes a comfortable chair, ashtrays, sausages, live birds, and, of course, sides of beef. It is also hard not to think about David Macaulays [http://www.worldcat.org/title/motel-ofthe-mysteries/oclc/5029734] Motel of the Mysteries in this context as well. Published at the dawn of the punk era (1979), this work presents a fictional account of an excavation of a motel archaeologists from the future who ponder the ritual significance of every day objects. So, as I reflected more, I began to think that the bowling pin is the quintessential object of punk archaeology and perfect avatar for our movement.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-76/ Fri, 08 Nov 2013 12:46:39 +0000 Bill Caraher The slow slide from Fall into Winter seems to have accelerated this week in North Dakotaland. The mornings are below freezing and yesterday we enjoyed a short snow shower. Soon, we will get to that place where we have to deliberately go outside and it becomes easier to relax, read, and write by the fire than the brave the elements. In the spirit of that transition, I offer a short list of quick hits and varia. [http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/newsobserver/obituary.aspx?n=henryboren&amp;pid=167677459] R.I.P. Henry Boren. I never met the man, but his Roman Society (1977) was my first Roman history textbook in college. It opened up the world of antiquity to me in new ways. [http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-making-of-the-middle-sea9780199999781?cc=ca&amp;lang=en&amp;] New Cyprian Broodbank: The Making of the Middle Sea (2013). [http://de-vita-sua.blogspot.com/2013/11/teaching-with-orbis-lawdi.html] A nice primer on how to use [http://orbis.stanford.edu/] Stanfords ORBIS tool [http://de-vitasua.blogspot.com/2013/11/teaching-with-orbis-lawdi.html] in the classroom. [http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/against-all-odds-archaic-greek-in-a-modernworld] A cool article on Pontic Greek. [http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collection/acropolismuseum?museumview&amp;projectId=art-project] The Acropolis Museum in Googles (h/t Dimitri Nakassis). [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/three-and-four-dimensionalarchaeological-publication/] Have you checked out this weeks 3D Thursday? If you havent, you should. [http://www.nature.com/news/who-is-the-best-scientist-of-them-all-1.14108] This is an interesting (and vaguely disturbing way) to think about the impact of scholars. [http://opencontext.org/projects/3F6DCD13-A476-488E-ED10-47D25513FCB2] And, have you checked out the survey data from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Open Context? [http://thinkingculture.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/punk-sociology-now-inproduction/] Punk Sociology? Excuse me? [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/277515/] This is not news.

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 [http://idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=94816] The end of a Waffle House. [http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/john-coltranes-handwritten-outline-for-hismasterpiece-a-love-supreme.html] Notes on Coltranes A Love Supreme. [http://theappendix.net/blog/2013/11/american-panopticon] Town as a panopticon. [http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/11/how-china-profits-from-ourjunk/281044/] Provisional discard. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1748303376/99-invisible-season-4-weekly] And if youre into that stuff, you should definitely support 99% Invisibles Kickstarter campaign for season 4. What Im reading: T. Tartaron, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/maritime-networks-in-themycenaean-world/oclc/856515127] Maritime Networks in the Mycenaean World. (2013) What Im listening to: Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism; Los Campesinos! Now Blues."IMG_0974.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_0974.jpg]"IMG 0974"]

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Coastal Sites and Maritime Trade http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/coastal-sites-and-maritime-trade/ Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:40:03 +0000 Bill Caraher Two interesting articles landed on my desk over the last few days. D. Pullens report in the [http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-013-9113-5] Journal of Maritime Archaeology on the site of Kalamianos in the the Korinthia and [http://www.journalofromanarch.com/articlescountry.html#Cyprus] Justin Leidwangers article in Journal of Roman Archaeology documented a 2nd-3rd century shipwreck at the site of Fig Tree Bay on Cyprus. Pullen argues that the impressive coastal site of Kalamianos represented interest of Mycenae in establishing a harbor on the Saronic Gulf in the Late Bronze Age. Situated adjacent to the site of Kolonna on Aigina and perhaps representing the decline in that polity's political and military influence in the area, Kalamianos was a substantial and apparently urbanized (ing?) site situated at a peninsula that provided two relatively secure anchorages. Above the anchorages near the important Byzantine church of the Panayia at a place called Stiri stood a contemporary fortified site. This site clearly provided security for the harbor town as well as offering impressive views of the Saronic and its coastlines. The site of Kalamianos expanded rapidly between LH IIIA to the LH IIIA2/B period, and Pullen suggests that the growth of this town must have been spurred by an external power, probably Mycenae, at this precise moment. The similarities in construction and architecture of both the site of Kalamianos and the nearby fortified site of Stiri as well as the site's location suggests that Kalamianos established a Mycenaean presence on the Saronic perhaps to compete with a similar, contemporary site a Palaia Epidavros to further south which likely served the needs of states at Tiryns, Asine, or Midea. In contrast, the world described in Justin Leidwanger's study of the small shipwreck at Fig Tree Bay in eastern Cyprus was shaped, in part, by small scale coastal commerce that depended upon local producers, small harbors, and small ships. The shipwreck documented by Leidwanger was a mere 5.5 tons and found in shallow waters amidst shallow reefs and eddying currents. The maritime world represented in the small wreck at Fig Tree Bay was substantially decentralized and dominated caboteurs. The range of amphora in the ship suggest that its contents derived from the coast of Cilicia or southwest Syria, but the presence of relatively unusual amphora (Gauloise 4) suggests ties to Western Mediterranean as well. The destination for these vessels was unclear, but Id like to think it planned to stop at Pyla-Koutsopetria before making its way along the south coast of the island. It seems likely that the assemblage of material onboard this small trading craft reflects stops at small ports throughout the region. These two article represent the two prevailing (and in no way mutually exclusive) models of maritime trade. Pullen argues for Kalamianos that administrative and political imperatives exerted a significant control of trade in the Saronic Gulf, and the rapid growth and short life of Kalamianos is a direct result of Mycenaean policies. Our site of [http://opencontext.org/projects/3F6DCD13-A476-488E-ED10-47D25513FCB2] Pyla!
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Koutsopetria near Fig Tree Bay on Cyprus likewise expanded quickly in the late Hellenistic and Roman period. The location of Pyla-Koutsopetria at the margins of the of the powerful Iron Age kingdoms of Kition and Salamis limited its development. The sites location was both militarily vulnerable, as the fortification at Pyla-Vigla demonstrated, but the presence of borders in the area likely limited the economic catchment available for the development of the harbor. The political, administrative, and economic restrictions on expansion of the site only abated with the end of the Iron Age political autonomy and the arrival of Hellenistic and Roman control over the island. The site does not seem to have ever been officially part of the larger administrative structure of the island. The small coastal trader who lost his ship at Fig Tree Bay was taking advantage of the political cohesion of the Eastern Mediterranean and stoping at small sites like Pyla-Koutsopetria that emerged outside of direct administrative control.

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Teaching Tuesday: Pace and Teaching http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/teaching-tuesday-pace-andteaching/ Tue, 12 Nov 2013 13:47:19 +0000 Bill Caraher If you pay attention to quality teaching articles online, then you've undoubtedly lingered over [http://harvardmagazine.com/2013/11/the-power-of-patience] Jennifer Roberts' recent piece in Harvard Magazine. She describes - in a remarkably SoTL free article - how she encourages students to slow down and look carefully at a work of art. She introduces the idea of deceleration as a tonic against the immediacy and spontaneity of the modern world. Invariably the technology is to blame for the distracted and impatient state of our undergraduate students, and Roberts suggested that making students slow down to contemplate a work of art for three hours can serve to train students to focus their attention on details and to see things that we tend to miss in our fast-paced world. In [http://allegralaboratory.net/interview-tim-ingold-on-the-future-of-academicpublishing/] a couple of [http://www.pontourbe.net/edicao11-entrevista/268-interviewwith-tim-ingold] recent interviews, anthropologist Tim Ingold reminds us that modern technology - including the tyranny of the keyboard - carries with it risks to how we create and see the world. He prefers to write by hand and requires his students to do so. For Ingold, handwriting has an aesthetic value that challenges the homogenized, regular world of typed work. Both of these scholars are encouraging our students to slow down and become more aware of their experiences, and this is surely commendable. At the same time, both of the techniques these scholars employ to encourage students to decelerate and become more patient with how they experience the world are not singular discrete actions, but processes embedded within a much larger and complex learning environment. Learning from a painting over three hours is not something that most students are prepared to do. To make this a meaningful exercise, students have internalized a series of little acts of viewing that they can repeat for a sustained period of time. For students to benefit from an exercise in handwriting they have to know how to produce a handwritten text. This involves additional steps of planning, composing, and revising that most students raised in the computer era have not internalized. Putting aside the issues of who has 3 hours to do anything in this world, I do think that the skills associated with careful and patient observation are scalable to real world situations. Sustained iterative engagements with texts, objects, and problems is a learned skill. ( [http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/computer-in-delhi-slum-wall-leads-to-million-dollarted-prize-335994] Im profoundly skeptical of approaches that imply students can learn complex skills on their own.) I have thought rather informally about some of the issues of that Ingold and Roberts sought to explode in their methods in my own classes. I agree with them that the pace of the class and of any given activity is an important component of student engagement. My approach !
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was, however, has been the opposite of Roberts but Id like to think had a similar goal. Instead of slowing the student engagement with the course material down, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/teaching-the-historians-craft/] I have worked to speed it up. As I have blogged about in the past, I took some inspiration from Chip Kellys uptempo football practices at the University of Oregon. Instead of walking players slowly and deliberately though formations and plays, he taught his offense almost entirely at game speed. When players required additional coaching, he would rotate the player out of the drill and substitute another play in at that position allowing the drills to continue at top speed. Kellys system encouraged players to think quickly, to adapt, and to build conditioning at game pace. While this might appear completely opposite to Roberts deliberate and patient observation, Id argue that both methods use pace to make their charges more away of how they engage the world. To make this happen in my classes, Ive worked to break assignments into smaller parts and to compress the time allowed for these short assignments as a way to keep students on task. By keeping the class up tempo I attempt to drive out the opportunity for distractions. Some of my colleagues complain that students surf the net, Facebook, or text during class. My usual response is to ask why the students have time to do things like that. Like so much in teaching, I suspect putting students in a place to think consciously about how they engage their own learning is more important than how they actually learn. Being conscious of how we pace learning and alternating between rapid exercises and sustained activities that draw upon these same techniques provides a disciplined environment

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Fracking and Digital Publishing: Publicity for The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/fracking-and-digital-publishingpublicity-for-the-digital-press-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/ Wed, 13 Nov 2013 12:49:52 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the great things about being at a university is that you get to dabble in all sorts of things. Some days, Im a teacher; some days Im a researcher; some days, I get to be on committees and pretend that Im in charge of stuff. Every now and then I get to pretend Im a public relations man and write copy for some semi-glossy publication published by some administrative office. Its fun and gratifying to dash off some public relations copy from time to time. (For other attempts see [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/the-north-dakota-man-campproject-an-executive-summary-for-industry/] here, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/working-group-in-digital-andnew-media-open-house-and-press-release/] here, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/north-dakota-man-camp-projectpress-release/] here, and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/pkap2012-press-release/] here) Heres my most recent venture into [http://www.worldcat.org/title/advertisements-formyself/oclc/181822] advertising for myself. Its for The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota: Digital publishing is like fracking. Thirty years ago the Bakken was all but abandoned by oil companies because the oil was too hard to extract from miles below the earth. The process of hydraulic fracturing changed that and released billions of barrels of oil from the earth and into the North Dakota economy. A decade ago publishing was at a dead end. Major newspapers struggled to adapt to a world of blogs and social media. Traditional publishers hesitated to embrace to ebooks, openaccess publishing, and mix-media publications. As the second decade of the 21st century dawned, however, all this began to change. The struggles of traditional presses to adapt to the digital world and the rapid development of ebook platforms and print-on-demand publishing created opportunities for a new kind of agile, dynamic, and low-cost publishing. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota is a foray into the wild west of of digital publishing. Founded by Bill Caraher (History), [http://joeljonientz.com/] Joel Jonientz (Art and Design), and [http://und.academia.edu/KyleConway] Kyle Conway (English/Communications) and housed in the Working Group in Digital and New Media Lab, The Digital Press is an laboratory press exploring ways to bring content developed both on campus and elsewhere to a global audience. "It's still early days," Bill Caraher remarked about The Digital Press, "but we have the basic pieces in place and have a great group of books in production for the first entries in the !

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catalogue. Our plan is to have these books ready for the holidays!" The Digital Press is an extension of the mission of the Working Group in Digital and New Media which brings scholars from across campus together to explore the digital world at intersection of the arts, sciences, and humanities. The first round of book in the catalogue will feature titles dedicated to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/] Punk Archaeology, [http://www.scribd.com/doc/93096768/The-Old-Church-WalnutStreet] local history, and, of course, the [http://bakkenbook.wordpress.com/cfp/] Bakken Oil Boom. "A press is a basic feature of an exceptional university and The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota fulfills many of the key points articulated in the Exceptional UND vision including collaboration among faculty, experience for students, and expanding UND's presence on a global scale." The Digital Press will focus on works that the small editorial staff finds interesting and exciting and wants to share with a larger audience. Plans are underway to do more than just "traditional" paper and ebooks, and to develop a presence in [http://www.professorfootnote.com/] podcasts and other new media forms as well. Like the Bakken, the world of digital publishing has untapped resources waiting for innovators willing to take risk. The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota is positioning itself to extract the potential from this major new field.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-77/ Fri, 15 Nov 2013 12:56:55 +0000 Bill Caraher Its double digits this morning and it rained yesterday. Maybe winter is holding off for a few more days. (It is still getting dark before 5:30 pm though, so for people who the short, cold, melancholy days of Fall, the short part is still working fine). Dont worry. It is still Fall enough to enjoy a cup of hot coffee by the fire in Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Headquarters and to savor the sweet taste of quick hits and varia. [http://www.sussex.ac.uk/byzantine/mosaic/] The Sussex Centre for Byzantine Cultural History has a database of Byzantine Glass Mosaic Tesserae. [http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2013/11/lefkaditi.html] The Houses of Leukaditi in Greece. [http://www.npr.org/2013/11/11/244452609/greek-shop-owners-resist-opening-onsundays] Never on Sunday. [http://backupminds.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/read-james-scotts-review-of-jareddiamond/] Backup Minds and Dimitri Nakassis urge us to read James Scotts review of the recent Jared Diamond book. [http://asorblog.org/?p=6117] Archaeological research on the Gallipoli battlefields. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/the-work-of-archaeology-inthe-age-of-digital-surrogacy/] If you havent checked out Adam Rabinowitzs epic post on 3D Thursday, you really should. You should also check out the Smithsonians recent 3D work. [http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/11/13/245053489/print-yourown-revolutionary-war-boat-in-3-d] Heres an NPR story on it and [http://3d.si.edu/] heres the Smithsonians page. [http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199602001.do] This looks good, but not 125 good. [http://aporee.org/maps/] I love maps and I love sound, so this is a good site for me. We need to record the sounds of the Bakken oil patch. I know this is a week late, but its worth commemorating: [http://www.regions.noaa.gov/great-lakes/centennial_anniversary_storm_of_1913/] 100 Year Anniversary of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913. [http://www.regions.noaa.gov/greatlakes/centennial_anniversary_storm_of_1913/shipwrecks-damages-casualties/] The list of shipwrecks is sobering. [http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-west-indies-2013-14/engine/match/676527.html] Sachin Tendulkar out for 74.

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 [http://nplusonemag.com/scandinavian-style] Everyday life. [http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/tractors-and-the-end-of-rural-america/] Tractors. [http://cachemonet.com/] Im pretty sure that this is what the internet is for. [http://www.gq.com/life/food/201311/bourbon-whiskey-family-tree] Organizing Americas Bourbon. [http://sweden.identitytool.com/buildingblocks/secondary-building-blocks-alwaysuse#our-main-typeface] My university has been obsessed with branding and identity for years; now I know where this comes from. [http://stet.editorially.com/articles/archive/] STET. What Im reading: M. Thompson, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/rubbish-theory-thecreation-and-destruction-of-value/oclc/5578907] Rubbish Theory. (1979) What Im listening to: "IMG_0978.JPG" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_0978.jpg]"IMG 0978]

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Coin Hoard http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/coin-hoard/ Sat, 16 Nov 2013 22:23:59 +0000 Bill Caraher I always marveled that little groups of coins could enter the archaeological record. Who could be so careless with things of value. Then I started to notice little stacks of coins in my world. "IMG_0981.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/img_0981.jpg]"IMG 0981"]

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Polis, Peyia, and Amathus Basilicas in a Comparative Context http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/polis-peyia-and-amathus-basilicasin-a-comparative-context/ Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:03:26 +0000 Bill Caraher This past year, Ive done a bunch of work on the South Basilica at Polis and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/the-south-church-at-polis/] written [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/reconstructingcommunity-from-broken-pots-and-ruined-churches-on-cyprus/] a few papers on it with my colleagues R. Scott Moore and Amy Papalexandrou. In these papers Ive suggest that our basilica looks a good bit like the Acropolis Basilica at Amathus. In fact, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/polis-and-amathus/] I've even blogged about it. Ive followed several scholars who observed that the Acropolis Basilica was more or less square with a core thats 13 m x 13 m. The aisles are 3 m wide and the main nave is 6 m wide forming a 1:2:1 ratio quite common on Cyprus. "amathusacropolis.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/amathusacropolis.jpg]"Amathusa cropolis" width="450" height="338" border="0" /> My colleague Amy Papalexandrou kept cautioning me on my argument suggesting that superimposing a crude 13 x 13 x box over the dimensions of the church at Polis was not really the kind of careful measurement that these kind of proportional arguments typically depend. I soldiered on with my argument, hoping that repetition alone would make my argument stronger. "ef2polisbasilica13m.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/ef2polisbasilica13m.jpg]"Ef2poli sbasilica13m" width="450" height="433" border="0" /> This weekend, in preparing my paper for the [http://www.asor.org/am/index.shtml] American Schools of Oriental Research annual meeting, I revisited my argument and looked more carefully at the South Basilica's plan. The most significant observation that I could make was that the nave and aisles were closer to 14.5 x 11.2 m than the visually compelling, but not very useful 13 x 13 m square. This is basically identical to the North Basilica at Peyia and similar in size, but not proportion, to the church of Ay. Kononas on the Akamas peninsula (14.3 x 12.4) which was ironically much closer to the 1:1 ratio of the Amathus Acropolis Basilica. The North Basilica at Peyia (or Basilica III): "MaguireDissertation2012Small.pdf.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/maguiredissertation2012smallpdf.jpg]"MaguireDissertation2012Small pdf" width="450" height="319" border="0" />

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Ay. Kononas on the Akamas: "MaguireDissertation2012Small.pdf.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/maguiredissertation2012smallpdf1.jpg]"MaguireDissertation2012Small pdf" width="450" height="389" border="0" /> Good dimensions are difficult to find for the North Basilica at Peyia, but it appears to be closer to the proportions of the South Basilica at Polis with the width of the nave being around 4.5 m comparable to the approximately 5 m wide at Polis. The aisles were a bit narrower at Polis, but the proportions of the width of the nave to the width of the basilica are roughly the same (2.24 for Polis and 2.49 for Peyia). The church at Peyia lacked a portico like both the South Basilica at Polis and the Amathus Acropolis Church. Moreover, the west wall of its narthex at Peyia has a tribelon rather than the arched openings present at Amathus and Polis. These differences make it difficult to see these churches as the products of the same work crew although the similarities proportions may hint at similar units of measurement. Unfortunately, neither the church at Peyia nor the church at Amathus have seen complete and final publications so our understanding of the phases of construction and archaeological dates remains incomplete. The North Basilica at Peyia and the Acropolis Church at Amathus are unlikely to date earlier than the end of the 6th century and are more or less contemporary with the South Basilica at Polis.

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Two Teaching Tuesday Thoughts http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/two-teaching-tuesday-thoughts/ Tue, 19 Nov 2013 12:30:25 +0000 Bill Caraher Today will be a hectic Tuesday full of letters of recommendation, grading, teaching, and preparing for the ASOR Annual Meeting at the end of the week. So, I can only offer a couple quick thoughts on a Teaching Tuesday: First: For the last five years Ive made the final assignment in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/teaching-the-historians-craft/] my undergraduate historical methods course (History 240: The Historians Craft) a prospectus for a larger paper. This required students to assemble a bibliography, identify trends in historiography, and establish a historical problem that subsequent research would solve. I asked that each prospectus included a one-page case study that would draw upon primary source evidence to demonstrate how they intended to address a historical problem. This is a fairly standard assignment for mid-level undergraduates in history. But, it rarely worked for my students whether because of execution of the specific assignment or the preparation leading up to the assignment. Were in the process of reimagining our curriculum in the department right now and adding a required class between the 200-level Historians Craft and the 400-level capstone. Since part of that class is guiding the students through to writing a prospectus, Ive removed that largely-failed assignment from my 200-level course and replaced it with a new assignment. This assignment asks the students to identify a primary source that appears in several different historical monographs and articles and to explore how different scholars use that source. Ideally, they will be able to recognize that different scholars approach a source in different ways. The goal of this assignment is to make the students demonstrate between primary and secondary sources. This is a key element in historical analysis. Well see how it goes. Next: I was pleased to receive a revise-and-resubmit from the History Teacher [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/working-paper-on-teachinghistory-in-a-scale-up-classroom/] for my paper with Cody Stanley on our work in the ScaleUp Classroom last semester. The paper emerged, in part, f [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?s=Scale-Up] rom my blog posts on the topic and was written quickly. Our goal was to get something submitted and to get some feedback on whether our ideas and observations deserved wider circulation. Having never written anything for peer-review remotely related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), I was not particularly confident.

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The revisions suggested by the reviewers are almost entirely structural and stylistic. They recognized the hasty composition and a certain amount of bloat that came from trying to say as many things about our experience to as many different people as possible. (This is related to the throw it all up on the wall and see what sticks method of argument.) They also suggested that we engage the growing body of scholarship on Scale-Up teaching more thoroughly. Finally, both reviewers seemed to want to hear more about the relationship between the content (an intro-level history class) and the actual mechanics of the course. This is all manageable. It was great that the journal gave us a deadline for our revisions. This encouraged us to take their request that we revise and resubmit seriously. But, for now, I need to survive the week.

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Re-imagining the Basilica at E.F2 at Polis-Chrysochous http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/re-imagining-the-basilica-at-e-f2at-polis-chrysochous/ Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:25:50 +0000 Bill Caraher Tomorrow I head off to the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research. [http://www.asor.org/am/2013/documents/2013%20Academic%20Program.pdf] You can check out the full program here (.pdf). Our panel is at 8:20 AM on Friday morning: 5C City of Gold: Archaeological excavations at Polis Chrysochous, Cyprus Theme: This session details the exhibition, City of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus (Princeton University Art Museum, October 20, 2012January 20, 2013), about the cities of Marion and Arsinoe that underlie modern-day Polis Chrysochous, and some of the research developed during the period leading up to the exhibition. CHAIR: Joanna S. Smith (Princeton University), Presiding 8:20 Daniel Kershaw (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), Design Process and Evolution for the Exhibition, City of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus, in the Princeton University Art Museum from October 20, 2012January 20, 2013 (20 min.) 8:45 Nikitas Tampakis (Princeton University), Digitally Reviving the Buildings of Marion for Museum Display (20 min.) 9:10 William A. P. Childs (Princeton University), Cypriot Aesthetics (20 min.) 9:35 R. Scott Moore (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Brandon R. Olson (Boston University)Tina Najbjerg (Independent Scholar), Chasing Arsinoe: A Reassessment of the Hellenistic Period (20 min.) 10:00 William Caraher (University of North Dakota, Grand Forks) Amy Papalexandrou (The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey), Re-imagining the Basilica at E.F2 at Polis Chrysochous (20 min.) Of course, I know my dear readers expect a sneak preview of our paper. Our paper is essentially a slightly tweaked and truncated version of the Polis section of my paper delivered at the University of Texas earlier in the fall. (If you must, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/advertisement-for-myself-talk-atthe-university-of-texas/] you can compare it here.) This paper reflects four seasons of tireless work by some very dedicated collaborators (R. Scott Moore, Brandon Olson, and, of course, Amy Papalexandrou) and the enthusiastic support of the project director Joanna Smith and her predecessor Willie Childs. The ideas in this paper are heading toward a 10,000-12,000 word report for publication that summarizes four seasons of work at the South Basilica. Each iteration involves sharpening our ideas just a little bit.

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Enjoy: [scribd id=185698820 key=key-254609czdtxnmmoq1pvt mode=scroll]

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A Review of Season 1 of the Professor Footnote Podcast http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/a-review-of-season-1-of-theprofessor-footnote-podcast/ Mon, 25 Nov 2013 12:29:25 +0000 Bill Caraher This past weekend, I did a bit of traveling and this allowed me to spend some quality time with the new [http://www.professorfootnote.com/] Professor Footnote podcast series produced by [http://joeljonientz.com/?p=1607] Joel Jonientz and Brett Ommen at the University of North Dakota. I listened to two of the first three podcasts: Leopold, Loeb, Darrow and the Death Penalty and "Hobos, Uncle Sam and Yowzers the Clown" and perused the associated web companions to these programs. Both podcasts ran about an hour, were professionally produced, easy on the ears, and informative. They're ideally suited for a long car trip, a slow evening by a roaring fire, or cross-country flight. "Pfootlogo-700x700.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/pfootlogo700x700.jpg]"Pfootlogo 700x700" width="450" height="450" border="0" /> The general structure of the podcasts are a conversation between Prof. Joel and Prof. Brett on a "marginally interesting topic." Their approach walks the fine line between being truly conversational and a staged dialogue. For example, Joel and Brett shared a vivid narration of Leopold and Loebs crime and court case but also provided a discussion of issues surrounding the psychology of the two infamous criminals, Darrows motivation in defending them, and their larger impact on jurisprudence in America. The alternation between well-wrought narrative and less formal discussion was all very NPR in character (in a good way). To distinguish these podcasts from the glut already available, Professor Footnote have a clever hook. The conversations are riddled with audio footnotes providing references to secondary and primary sources for the information and, to a lesser extent, the arguments presented in their conversations. The footnotes are set apart from the podcast proper by a little sound and traditional footnotes appear a webpage dedicated to each podcast. The audio footnotes define these podcasts as being something different from a traditional radio programing, for example, where the hosts might invite in a guest or other expert to contribute their authority to the conversation. Instead, Professor Footnote functions more like an academic article where outside authority exists in a separate space and largely static relationship (which is not to say passive) with the conversation in the text. Interestingly, in the first two podcasts, the hosts do not particularly engage the arguments offered by the scholars who they cite in the footnotes, but mine these texts for pertinent details. The influence of the texts cited in the notes on the conversation is never entirely clear (with just a few exceptions). This leave the listener to wonder where the arguments from the footnoted authority end and the opinions of the hosts start. This ambiguity should not detract from an otherwise valuable effort to create a hybrid medium that breaches the usually rigid divide between text-based scholarship and new media punditry.

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A listener will come away as curious about the world of clowns and Leopold and Loeb as the potential for these topics to provide points of departure for critiques of our contemporary society. (For those who don't know Prof. Jonientz and Prof. Ommen, this is part of their larger aim to work at the intersection of the media, popular culture, and academia. They were the conveners of the successful [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/10/23/a-quick-follow-up-to-cultures-ofcuration/] Arts and Culture conferences at UND which brought together artists, scholars, media personalities in a series of concerts, gallery shows, public fora, and lectures.). The popular and academic tone of the podcasts, then, parallels their interest in hybridizing the typically popular medium with the inclusion of academic footnotes. Clever guys, Joel and Brett. As for content, the clowns podcast began with a short chat about the origins of clowning, which our host associate with the Shakespearean larikins rather, than, say characters in, say, the New Comedy of Plautus or even ancient and Medieval genre of farce although they do concede the potential influence of the Devil in Medieval theater as a possible influence. They go on the discuss clowning in 19th and 20th century American drawing on famous clowns like the 19th century Dan Rice (who was said to have earned $1,000 a week in the 1860s!) to the rise of the circus "hobo" clowning of the Guilded Age and late-20th century T.V. figures like JP Patches and Bozo. The appearance of Ommen's failed adolescent alter ego "Yowzers" is endearing. The bad clown figures of the 21st century from pedophile Pee Wee Herman to the Joker in Batman represent to Ommen and Jonientz the decline of the clown figure in contemporary society. They associate this decline with the rise of post-modernism, the collapsing social standing of institutions, and our distrust of earnestness (and the concomitant rise in irony). The podcast offers much more than my dry description can capture. I wondered whether they could have spoken to the influence of Carnival and other ritualized efforts to invert social order as an important influence on clowning. The hobo clown champions of the Guilded Age would seem to have provided the kind of safe opportunities for critique in a society struggling to come to terms with the rampantly dehumanizing effects associated with the ethic of industrial capitalism. If the "big top" provided a safe venue to challenge the dominant social ethos, then mass media's demotion of clowns to children's programing in the television age was a key step in the decline of clowning as a recognized form of social critique. The "bad clowns" of the 21st century may hint that we still expect clowns to operate outside of the established cultural structures to represent our ambivalence toward them as adversarial figures standing (and defining) the margins of institutional and social authority. The second podcast interlaced the nicely narrated story of Leopold and Loeb's cavalier murder of a 14 year old in 1920s Chicago with larger considerations of the death penalty, youth culture, and the media. The podcast felt both more polished - in the well-told story and more ragged in the discussion the episode on clowning. This is perhaps to be expected as the complexity of the particularities surrounding the Leopold and Loeb trial offered too many tempting digressions: social class (Leopold and Loeb we wealthy), to comments on homosexuality (they were lovers), education (they graduate college at age 18), ethnic tensions (they were Jewish), Progressivism (Darrow saw his effort to protect the boys from the death penalty as part of a larger social crusade), the media (it was one of a number of blockbuster

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trials of the first half of the 20th c.), and even jurisprudence (Darrow played several ingenious gambits during the trail). My only real complaint is that I would have balanced the discussion on different issues, and this is hardly a real critique, but at times I felt like the conversation darted from one topic to the next without wringing all the genius from it. It took me a couple of hours to "get" that the first two episodes represent the hosts' interest in commenting on the margins of society in a way that was similar to their interest in critiquing academia from the margins. Their choice of media - the podcast - hybridized with an almost flippant use of that most academic affectation, the footnote, define these podcasts as a vox clamatis in deserto just as clowns and the unbearable precious intersection of Leopold, Loeb, and Darrow defined the limits 20th century civilization. But don't take my word for it, [https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/professorfootnote/id748914887] listen to them yourself.

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The Archaeology of Religion and Culture in Late Antique Greece http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/26/the-archaeology-of-religion-andculture-in-late-antique-greece/ Tue, 26 Nov 2013 13:27:09 +0000 Bill Caraher The regular publication of the [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=ARE&amp;volumeId=59&amp;seri esId=0&amp;issueId=-1] Archaeological Reports is a fine thing. Summarizing the work of both foreign and Greek excavators in Greece, these reports provide a birds eye view of recent fieldwork in Greece and shed particularly valuable light on small scale excavation sometimes only published in Greek journals with very limited circulation in the U.S. This years reports included a review of recent field work at Late Antique sites in Greece by Rebecca Sweetman titled [http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&amp;aid=90766 88] Religion and Culture in Late Antique Greece. Sweetman is rapidly emerging as an important scholarly voice for an active and dynamic cohort of scholars working on a range of issues in the archaeology of Late Antiquity in Greece Its only 11 pages so I urge you to track it down and read it, but Ill provide my reaction to it anyway because thats what I do here. 1. Rescue Excavations. The section of most interest to scholars probably focuses on the results of myriad rescue excavations around the country. These small scale and rapidly conducted excavations provide tiny windows into Late Antique levels particularly in urban areas. Unfortunately, rescue excavations rarely receive systematic publication and typically appear only as brief notes in Greek journals. Sweetmans summary of these excavations provides bits of information that alone have little value, but can contribute to larger studies which often depend on robust catalogues to produce overviews of phenomena like domestic architecture, baths, or basilicas. 2. Domestic Space in Town and Country. Sweetman is right when she notes that churches have dominated the archaeology of Late Antiquity and in her subtle assessment that this is not entirely a good thing. Recent attention in Greece to mortuary remains, domestic architecture, baths, and other more mundane spaces like industrial sites holds the potential to expand our perspectives. Work on houses is particularly promising especially in a rural context. While most of the houses noted recently excavated appear to be rather monumental, there were at least three rural farmhouses identified in Achaia, the Argolid, and Epirus. These buildings combined with data collected from intensive pedestrian survey projects will hopefully contribute to ongoing reassessments of the busy Late Roman countryside in Greece. The partial and chaotic state of urban excavations in Greece (and anywhere frankly) parallels nicely our fragmentary and incomplete knowledge of urban life in Late Antiquity. Recent work revealing houses, drains, wells, graves, baths, and commercial spaces in cities from across Greece reminds us just how little we understand about the most basic workings of Late Antique urbanism.

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3. But What about the Churches. Even Sweetman admits, the discovery of a new Late Antique church is <strong>always</strong> exciting. (110, emphasis added). To be honest, we dont need another church to show that there were more churches in Greece. We know that. What we need, more than anything, is a carefully excavated and published church from Greece. For areas like the Peloponnesus, we have no completely published, stratigraphically excavated examples from the over 100 excavated churches. We can only hope that the handful of churches currently being excavated will produce at least one comprehensively published example with a catalogue of finds, careful stratigraphic documentation, and a thorough discussion of architectural phasing. Until that happens (and it has happened a few times in Greece), scholars of Late Antique Greece should still get excited when a new building comes to light! 4. Survey Archaeology. It was rather remarkable and a bit depressing to see how few traditional intensive pedestrian surveys are currently occurring in Greece. Sweetman notes the work of the [http://www2.arch.cam.ac.uk/keros/] Cambridge Keros Project in the Cyclades and work on Kea. These projects appear to have prehistoric focuses, but they nevertheless offer opportunities to contribute to our understanding of Late Antique Greece. Keros is particular interesting since it is an island without permanent habitation at present (not dissimilar to very small population on the island of [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/fragile-landscapes-and-persistentcommunities-on-antikythera/] Antikythera, for example) that appears to have seen more robust activity earlier. Late Roman activity on now abandoned islands has long been a topic of interest among archaeologists in Greece. 5. The Future is Underwater. One of the most interesting recent developments in the archaeology of the Mediterranean is the boom in coastal and underwater survey projects. As [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/coastal-sites-and-maritime-trade/] recent work around the Corinthia and Cyprus has shown, the growing interest in the economic and commercial world of antiquity has led to a new emphasis on [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeologicalproject/] coastal sites, shipwrecks, and anchorages. The impact of underwater surveys, for example, is still unclear (at least to me), but the potential is certainly there to contribute significantly to how we understand ancient trade. If youre a Late Antiquitist, go and check out Rebecca Sweetmans most recent contribution and, if youre not, go and read up on the interesting and important work going focused on other periods in Greece.

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Landscape and History in the Maeander Valley http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/27/landscape-and-history-in-themaeander-valley/ Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:02:07 +0000 Bill Caraher Over the past few years, Ive thought a good bit about how to approach studying a region. At the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project, Ive worked with my colleagues to write the archaeological history of a microregion on the basis of intensive pedestrian survey. Ive stood by and watched my buddy David Pettegrew bring together a century of excavations, survey, and texts to write the history of the Corinthian Isthmus. This next year, I embark on a project that will hopefully write the history of the Western Argolid. While the site is not dead, regions are where its at. So it was with some excitement that I tucked into [http://www.worldcat.org/title/maeander-valley-a-historical-geography-from-antiquity-tobyzantium/oclc/707967655] Peter Thonemanns book: The Maeander Valley: A Historical Geography from Antiquity to Byzantium. (Cambridge 2011). This book was beautifully written, sweeping in scope, and conservative in approach. This final point is not necessarily a criticism. 1. No Theory. The book was almost completely devoid of explicit appeals to theory. The was no discussion of place and space, of place making, or phenomenology or any other late 20th century method of conceptualizing the contemporary encounter with the past. Ill concede that the lack of theory was jarring, at first, but I soon got over it. In place of theory, the book is filled with careful descriptions drawn from the careful reading of a historical landscape through personal experience and historical texts. At no point in the book do you feel like the author is not intimately familiar with the Maeander Valley. (Thonemann shows his hand a bit more in the epilogue where he appeals to H. Lefebvre, Harvey, and others.) 2. No Archaeology. The books makes almost no explicit appeals to archaeology despite the presence of several long-standing excavations with Miletus and Priene being the being the best known. Throughout the book, Thonemann keeps archaeology at arms length appealing to it selectively such as when he notes the limits of archaeological evidence in documenting settlement change between the Hellenistic and Roman periods in the neighborhood of Miletus. Archaeological evidence is better, he argues, at showing activity in the countryside than explaining the nature of that activity or its causes. More interestingly, he provides little specific discussion of the results of excavations or survey. There is precious little on the details of ceramic chronology, the typology of fortifications, or the distribution of small scale artifact scatters documented by intensive survey. This is probably a weakness of the book, but his use of textual sources compensates for it in a substantial way. 3. Nature and Culture. The book does a remarkable job interweaving the nature of the Maeander River with the reception of this defining feature in the landscape. The discussion of the relationship between the rivers wandering course and its depiction on coins and in art !
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was to be expected. What was more engaging was his treatment of the way in which folks living, exploiting, or moving through the valley floor interacted with the more substantial settlements on the slopes. Thonemann described the symbiotic relationship between, for example, the Turkish herders who brought their flocks in the valley in the 12th century and increasingly fortified Greek settlements on the valley slopes, and between pastoralists and cultivators in antiquity. The two communities negotiated agreements that ensured herders had access to grazing land and provided manure and weed clearance for agricultural fields. This is but the most simple of Thonemanns examples of how the river, the valley, and communities interacted. 4. Diachronic and Dynamic. The most remarkable thing about this book was its diachronic scope. Thonemann is as comfortable talking about the sources of a Byzantine estate in the Maeander delta as presenting the complex prosopography of Roman period elites in the various ancient communities throughout the valley. Moreover, his use of these sources demonstrates a genuine understanding of the differing political and social contexts of these statements and the valley in these periods. In other words, Thonemann manages to study the valley in a diachronic way that does little to flatten the dynamism of the region in varying historical circumstances. This is not simplistic ethnohistory that searches for parallels in different periods to support a kind of environmental determinism. Thonemanns comfort with Byzantine sources is particular commendable. 5. Margins, Borders, and Frontiers. This summer Im going to work in a valley at [http://westernargolid.org/] the very edge of Argolid territory. One of the issues that we will investigate is how these areas at the edge of a polis relate to the core and to the neighboring regions. Thonemanns treatment of these issues through time in the Maeander Valley and argued that even the most seemingly obvious natural divisions between regions rarely reflected the political or cultural borders actually present. Thonemann argues that imperialism, more than anything else, shaped the territory of the Maeander Valley starting in the Attalid period and then continuing into the Roman and Byzantine period. These borders had less to do with the longstanding social practices in the region and far more to do with landscapes of control which the dominant settlement pattern often attempted to defy. Any natural boundaries persisted only because they received cultural affirmation. Finally, the book begins with a paraphrase of Marx and ends with references to Engels and E.P Thompson. That alone makes it worth reading.

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3D Modeling in Mediterranean Archaeology: A Table of Contents http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/28/3d-modeling-in-mediterraneanarchaeology-a-table-of-contents/ Thu, 28 Nov 2013 14:48:47 +0000 Bill Caraher Since for a good percentage of my readers this is Thanksgiving and a holiday, Ill just offer a quick post today."3dthrusday2.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/3dthrusday22.jpg]"3dthrusday2" width="450" height="133" border="0" />We have received almost all of the contributions for our little collection of articles on 3D documentation in Mediterranean archaeology. To make them a bit more accessible to our readers, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-in-mediterranean-archaeology/] Ive created a table of contents and posted it as a page on my blog. You can get to it by the link on the left. Two or three more will appear over the next few weeks and Ill update the table of contents as they go live.If youre in the U.S., enjoy your turkey day. To my international readers, Ill begin posting 3D Thursday again next week.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/29/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-78/ Fri, 29 Nov 2013 12:58:27 +0000 Bill Caraher Its a cold Black Friday here on North Dakotaland, but fortunately, I have a two week supply of quick hits and varia. Enjoy these over the holiday weekend! [http://www.videoman.gr/51609] Ancient Athens in 3D. [http://www.archaeology.org/news/1553-131125-cyprus-basilica-operation-nightingale] This is a very cool basilica excavation on Cyprus ( [http://incyprus.philenews.com/engb/Top-Stories-News/4342/38207/basilica-excavation] more here). [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/dec/05/what-was-greek-tothem/?pagination=false] Deciphering Linear B. [http://corinthianmatters.com/2013/11/22/two-recent-finds-from-the-corinthia/] Some recent discoveries in Ancient Corinth. [http://icfadumbartonoaks.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/in-between-mosaics-getting-toknow-north-africa/] North Africa between the mosaics. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/19/vatican--frescoes_n_4305560.html] Recent restored frescoes from the Catacombs of Priscilla. [http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/audio-video/video/byzantine.html] A lovely short movie featuring five Byzantine churches. [http://eu.greekreporter.com/2013/11/24/feltrinelli-international-prize-awarded-togreek-professor-manolis-korres/] Manolis Korres wins Feltrinlli Prize for his restoration work on Greek architecture. [http://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/to-what-strange-place-b-sides-more-songsof-the-ottoman-american-diaspora-1909-29] Songs from the Ottoman diaspora, [http://canary-records.bandcamp.com/album/to-drive-away-the-vampires-balkan-folkmusics-1930s-70s] Balkan folk music, and [http://canaryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/im-burning-im-burning-urban-greek-songs-1933-37] urban Greek music of the 1930s, all transferred from glorious 78 rpm records. [http://mitpress.mit.edu/blog/university-press-week-blog-tour-%E2%80%93importance-regional-publishing] The importance of regional publishing. [http://www.thebolditalic.com/articles/4056-a-rare-look-at-the-tunnels-under-sanfrancisco] Urban exploring under San Francisco.

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 [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog/sahblog/2013/11/25/podcasting-architecture] Architecture and design podcasts at the Society of Architectural Historians blog. [http://archinect.com/blog/article/86775098/video-kanye-stops-by-studio-to-talk-aboutarchitecture-with-students] Kanye on architecting. [http://bismarcktribune.com/bakken/williams-county-battles-unlicensed-rvparks/article_116d1f44-5566-11e3-8da7-001a4bcf887a.html] The battle against unlicensed R.V. parks in Williams County. [http://religionforbreakfast.com/2013/11/27/why-i-dont-hate-religion/] Why I dont hate religion. [http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/11/minnesota_state_moorhead_could _cut_18_academic_programs_why_do_colleges.single.html] Tough times at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. [http://labs.tineye.com/multicolr/] Search by color. Wanted: [http://www.ndhumanities.org/development-officer.html] a Development Officer of the North Dakota Humanities Council. [http://aoghs.org/] The American Oil and Gas Historical Society. [http://www.twincities.com/national/ci_24604024/unusual-ice-circle-forms-northdakota-river] Spinning ice disk. [http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/11/15/the-forgotten-giant-arrows-that-guideyou-across-america/] Giant arrows can lead you across the U.S. (Really). [http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/11/15/the-diyuniversity/?cid=pm&amp;utm_source=pm&amp;utm_medium=en] Steve Conn on the DIY university. [http://uvamagazine.org/only_online/article/two_roads_diverged_in_a_wood#.UpiDymR Dtpr] An interactive infographic showing the career path of majors at UVa. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/a-review-of-season-1-of-theprofessor-footnote-podcast/] In case you missed it, [http://www.professorfootnote.com/] Professor Footnote has landed. [http://www.flickr.com/photos/maraid/sets/72157594234429063/] 1600 Matchbox Covers. What Im reading: V. della Dora, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/imagining-mount-athosvisions-of-a-holy-place-from-homer-to-world-war-ii/oclc/695008939] Imagining Mount Athos: Visions of a Holy Place from Homer to World War II. Virginia 2011.

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 What Im listening to: Ex Cops, Hallucinations; The Soft Pack, Strapped.

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Analyzing Artifacts in the Field http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/02/analyzing-artifacts-in-the-field/ Mon, 02 Dec 2013 13:13:52 +0000 Bill Caraher The SAA's newest journal, [http://www.saa.org/AbouttheSociety/Publications/AdvancesinArchaeologicalPractice/tabi d/1486/Default.aspx] Advances in Archaeological Practice: A Journal of the Society for American Archaeology is made available for free to SAA members. The most recent issue has an article by Michael Heilen and Jeffrey H. Altschul titled [http://saa.metapress.com/content/qj0k7603k3242611/?p=4fc39d9abe76489990035999e d6ffb73&amp;pi=4] The Accuracy and Adequacy of In-Field Artifact Analysis. It attempts to evaluate the accuracy of the in-field analysis of artifacts collected over the course of survey survey. Heilen and Altschul examine the results of in-field artifact identification, identification based on digital photographs, and hands on study of the artifact in a lab. The study looked at two sites in the U.S. with both ceramic and lithic artifacts and the results are not encouraging. [http://englianos.wordpress.com/] Dimitri Nakassis pointed this article out to me because we analyzed our artifacts in the field over the course of the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey. The decision to do this was largely dictated by the requirements imposed on the project by our Greek permit. Despite the official character of this limitation, the project has been consistently critiqued for this practice since its conclusion nearly a decade ago. It was vaguely heartening to realize that increasingly U.S. agencies responsible for archaeological sites have begun to question the value of collection outside of the exceptional circumstances. The reasons why are complex, but involve a desire to preserve artifacts in their archaeological context as well as the more practical concern for managing long-term storage and curation costs of survey assemblages. As a result, folks in the U.S. have begun to approach the practice of field documentation in a more critical way. The article includes a good bit of reasonably understandable, social-science statistics and it well worth some critical scrutiny. Interestingly, it would appear that identification based on digital photography significantly outperformed in-field artifact analysis and best approximate the accuracy of artifact study in laboratory settings. The most concerning drawback of digital photograph analysis was its tendency to identify types of both ceramic and lithic artifacts that lab analysis did not identify in the assemblage. The authors do note that their sample is rather small, the number of potential variables influencing these patters significant, and that their research is just preliminary. They add the tantalizing remark toward the end that improved 3D imaging techniques might make it possible to produce higher quality digital replicas of artifacts in the field. This study captures digital recording techniques at a particularly exciting point in its development, but recognizes that the next generation of infield digital recording could lead to substantial improvements in how we can analyze artifacts remotely. While false positives are disturbing, perhaps the most important observations from the article note that more common artifacts are more easily recognizable through in-field

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analysis or digital photography. More unusual objects, however, were identified less consistently and successfully without careful lab scrutiny. These conclusions have an impact on the results from our survey in the Korinthia. [http://corinthianmatters.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/pettegrewoffprint.pdf] David Pettegrew has influentially argued that certain very common and highly diagnostic artifact types - namely combed and wheel-ridged amphora sherds typically date the Late Roman period - have shaped how we understand the Late Roman landscape in Greece. These common artifacts have produced, in Pettegrew's words, a landscape with the "lights turned on". In other words, a highly visible landscape as opposed to period characterized by less diagnostic material with the lights turned out or, to use [https://www.academia.edu/481893/Bintliff_Howard_et_al._1999_The_Hidden_Landscap e_of_Prehistoric_Greece] John Bintliffs terminology "hidden landscapes" shaped by material that is either less visible, less diagnostic, or less common in the Greek countryside. As the authors point out, the circumstances that encouraged the increasingly prevalence of in-field artifact analysis are unlikely to change soon. The regenerative character of the surface assemblages is not enough for archaeologists to treat them as renewable resources. More importantly, perhaps, while digital storage continues to become less expensive and more readily available, long-term storage and curation of artifacts remains expensive. Moreover, the expense of storing and managing large assemblages of artifacts produced by survey projects often fall to institutions and communities that will struggle with the financial burden. Developing accurate and repeatable methods for documenting artifacts in the field should be an ethical priority for the discipline.

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Teaching Tuesday: Three Things I Need to Change http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/teaching-tuesday-three-things-ineed-to-change/ Tue, 03 Dec 2013 13:42:32 +0000 Bill Caraher I feel pretty confident when I admit that I'm not the world's best teacher. I like to innovate, behave like a reactionary, and follow idiosyncratic personal policies in equal measures. In most cases, the results are the same. With the semester wrapping up, Im going to admit to three things that I have to rethink over the next year or so. I think most of these issues stem from the misguided and curmudgeonly belief that students should be in charge of their own learning. 1. I don't do drafts. I recognize the long-standing pedagogical buzz about drafts and the value of teaching students that patient art of revision. In fact, as readers of this blog know, I am a tireless drafter, redactor, editor, and reviser. The issue with requiring drafts is that they are tremendously boring to read and mark up. Moreover, Ive never had success convincing students to take a draft seriously. In fact, even in my own writing, I have to cling to the obstinate lie that I might be able to produce a perfect text without revision to push me to write rather than to jot. So, while I'm always happy to read student drafts, I refuse to require drafts students to write drafts as as part of the writing process. Instead of drafts, I ask students to work on various aspects of their writing over the course of several writing assignments. As the semester goes on, the assignments become more complex and I increasingly expect students to have internalized the various editorial suggestions that I offered on earlier assignments. 2. I dont do due dates in my upper level or online course. The more due dates that I assign, the more due dates students miss. At some point in my teaching career, I just go tired of dealing with all the exceptional circumstances that made it impossible for students to consistently turn in work on time. As I moved to online teaching which required far more short assignments like quizzes and discussion board posts, I recognized that monitoring due dates for myriad small assignments would have been a huge time sink and forced me to evaluate the merit of various exceptional circumstances dozens of time each semester. Instead of worrying about that, I just decided to make everything due at the end of the semester. I use this same approach to due dates in my upper level class. I explain to the students that they are free to turn in their assignments whenever they want. The sooner I get them, the more time I have to make comments on them and the more time they have to digest my comments and learn from them. Better students tend to turn work in consistently over the course of the semester. Other students wait and turn everything in at once. It is vaguely annoying that more students dont get their work done earlier than the end of the semester.

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The only class for which I do enforce due dates is my midlevel historical methods course. Since we deliberately build on assignments over the course of the semester (see my point 1), I attempt (in a rather lukewarm way) to keep students on task. 3. I dont do discussion prompts. This has haunted me this semester. My upper level course generally consists of one lecture and one discussion each week. The discussion usually centers on a rather lengthy (ca. 200 pages?) excerpt from a primary source. I begin every discussion by asking the students: what did you think about this text? Depending on the text, the response has ranged from muted to somewhat enthusiastic. Many of my colleagues have elaborate prompts circulated in advance that guide the students to engage with the text in particular ways. I have often thought about doing this, but in the end I have shied away from exerting too much influence over what the students get out of the text on first reading. I usually wait until the actual classroom discussion before I nudge the students to probe the text in new ways to encourage them to consider the particular significance or relevance of particular sections of the text. The result of this approach is predictable. When an unprompted discussion goes well, it often introduces me to new perspectives on a primary source. When it goes poorly, it is involves me wondering whether the students and I have, in fact, read the same document. In my Byzantine History class, where the texts tend to be more challenging and less familiar, the discussions have not always been excellent, but Im still reluctant to exert too much influence on the students as they engage a text. These three policies will likely have to change in the next few years. Students rarely give me drafts to read, they use the lack of deadlines to turn everything in at once, and wander aimlessly through texts without preemptive prompts. Maybe students always behaved this way, and my policies appeal to a romanticized past filled with ambitious self-starters who have dedicated their young lives to the earnest pursuit of the past. On the other hand, sometimes I wonder whether the university would be a nicer place for both students and faculty if we just changed our expectations a little.

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Blogging Archaeology at the 2014 SAA Conference http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/blogging-archaeology-at-the-2014saa-conference/ Wed, 04 Dec 2013 13:49:54 +0000 Bill Caraher This past month I was invited (well, thats too strong a word) to contribute to the conversation that was initiated at the [http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/] Dougs Archaeology blog on blogging in archaeology in the run-up [http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/blogging-archaeology/] to the 2014 Society of American Archaeology conference in Austin, Texas. Im also talking to our new graduate students today in our graduate methods class on the broad topic of digital history. So, Ive been thinking through some of these issues lately. For my post today, Ill follow Dougs [http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/blogging-archaeology/] simple, two question prompt. Why did you start your blog? Why are you still blogging? [http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/blogging-archaeology-blogarch-allof-the-responses-to-why/] Check out his wrap-up of responses to these questions here. I feel like Ive answered these questions quite a few times on this blog. In fact, Colleen Morgan ran a similar blog carnival in 2011 ( [http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/blogging-archaeology-afterwords/] heres a nice wrap-up). At the same time, Ill also admit that my ideas on the second question are always changing, so it probably doesnt hurt to think about them again. [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/mediterranean_a/] I started this blog to publicize my research at the site of Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus, and it gradually expanded to provide a broad overview of my research and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/teaching/] teaching interests. My hope was both to keep various stakeholders appraised of my work, but also to introduce my work to folks who might not be familiar with the activities of a junior scholar on an obscure island. After only a few months, I found that blogging had become a vital part of my daily workflow. Even to this day, the first thing I do every morning is sit at the keyboard and write this blog. On most days, Ive hit send - typos and all - before the sun has come up over the North Dakota prairie. My blog has incubated most of the ideas Ive had for articles, hosted working drafts of these papers, and announced their final publications. My workflow has become routine, public, and more transparent through the medium of blogging. The almost instant gratification that came from watching the number of site visits and page views increase and the spread of a global readership was a powerful incentive to write.

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At the same time, I realized that my blog not only let people know about my work, but also provided a venue for new media projects (like podcasts and videos), a node in our social media outlets (as I slowly embraced Facebook and [https://twitter.com/BillCaraher] Twitter and blogging platforms like Wordpress have become more socially engaged), and a platform to [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-in-mediterraneanarchaeology/] share the remarkable work of my colleagues and [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/does-a-university-need-a-librarya-response-to-a-response/] to debate issues. I think that recognizing the dynamism of the blogging platform and the opportunity for it to be more than just a place for me to express my own ideas led me to begin to understand blogging as gateway to a larger exploration of digital publication. In the winter of 2013, we managed to bring a long running conversation on the topic of [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/punk-archaeology/] Punk Archaeology to a different audience as the topic of a conferences which is now in production as an analogue publication. A series of blog posts on [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-in-mediterranean-archaeology/] 3D imaging in Mediterranean archaeology is poised to become another short, analogue/digital publication in the winter of 2014. As the blogging platform has matured and become more an acceptable part of both academic production and consumption, the line between formal academic publication and merely blogging has become increasingly blurred. Blogging is no longer just a stage in the production of an academic text, perhaps falling just sort of a conference paper, it has become a venue for any form of scholarly production from the intensely provisional to the finalized. Most importantly, it can carry along with this transformation a spirit of transparency and immediacy. The number of readers, the location of readers, and the pace at which readers engage and distribute content all become more trackable than ever before. While this runs the risk of contributing to the growing assessocracy who have come to exert such a strong influence over American universities, it also has the opportunity to bring academic writers more directly involved in understanding their broader audience and community. Archaeology has mass appeal and presents an avenue for academics to engage a diverse, global audience on the larger humanities (and social science) project. As economic pressures, changing social expectations of education, and new cultural paradigms have come to challenge the role of the humanities in Western society, scholars cannot turn their backs of opportunities to speak to larger audiences about the complex contributions of the humanities in the global conversation.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/06/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-79/ Fri, 06 Dec 2013 12:53:09 +0000 Bill Caraher Its cold this morning. On the other hand, the snow has stopped and we had a northern lights show last night. So the world is trying to make it up to us. There is only one more week of classes, so the end is near. This weekend, I have some grading, some grant writing, and some cricket watching. If your weekend is similar, maybe you can make some time for some quick hits and varia? [http://www.omhksea.org/2013/11/canonization-of-two-new-saints-by-the-ecumenicalpatriarchate/] Two new saints in the Orthodox Church. St. Meletios of Lardos was a dream archaeologist. [http://www.cornucopia.net/blog/an-island-settlement-in-late-antiquity-bogsak/] An island settlement in Late Antiquity. [http://phys.org/news/2013-11-controversy-roman-ingots-dark-neutrinos.html] Roman ingots being destroyed in the search for dark matter. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/news/golddiggers-thwartedby-ancient-rome-romania-shelves-plans-to-allow-the-exploitation-of-a-heritage-mining-site8975118.html] Roman gold mines in Romania put the brakes (for now) on development. [http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/GovernmentAffairs/NGC%20Diggers.pdf] The Society for American Archaeology continues to try to get National Geographic Societys attention about their show Diggers (pdf). [http://jezebel.com/anna-komnenes-b-day-cake-is-a-greek-fireball-of-awesom1474376420] Anna Comnenas birthday. [http://frankchimero.com/what-screens-want/] What screens wants. Some Delaware history. On December 8, 1963, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_214] Pan Am flight 214 crashed on the Delaware-Maryland border near Elkton killing all 81 on board. [http://www.oldwilmington.net/photos/news/1963%20plane%20crash/crash%20site.jpg] Heres what the site looks like now. [http://www.oldwilmington.net/photos/news/1963%20plane%20crash/crash%20site.jpg] Heres what the emergency call sounded like. [http://blogs.ubalt.edu/academicinnovation/2013/12/04/the-history-of-distanceeducation-a-timeline/] A distance education video timeline. [http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/12/the-evolution-of-the-collegelibrary/282023/] Libraries.

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 [http://kottke.org/13/12/jay-zs-albums-ranked-by-jay-z] On his 44th birthday, Jay-Z ranks his solo albums. Its like they have visited my house: [http://turntablelab.com/products/grado-thebushmills-x-grado-labs-headphone] Grado Labs + Bushmills headphones. [http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20934/lot/19/] Do you think a Kickstarter to buy me this would work? [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1727921956/the-new-lee-scratch-perry-albumback-on-the-contro?ref=HappeningNewsletterDec0313] How can anyone not support this? I usually dont have much of a sense of humor, but I have to spot these two things: First, [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/01/kyle-kinane-pace-salsa-twitterwar_n_4369662.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009&amp;utm_hp_ref=fb&amp;src=sp&am p;comm_ref=false] check out how Twitter stuff can escalate. And, then, [http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6941975/if-everyone-still-wrote-like-they-did-incollege] this funny little collection of texts written in the style of undergraduate papers. [http://hackeducation.com/2013/11/29/top-ed-tech-trends-2013-moocs/] Some tech trends in higher ed. What Im reading: A ton of student papers (and a few random articles). What Im listening to: Lucky Dube, Prisoner; Lucky Dube, Slave.

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Work and Home in the Bakken http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/work-and-home-in-the-bakken/ Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:25:17 +0000 Bill Caraher One of the most engaging aspects of my research in North Dakotas Bakken oil patch is observing the flexible relationship between domestic space and work space. Over the past few weeks, I have been working on an article length summary of our research on the archaeology of workforce housing in the Bakken. As part of that project, I have considered the way in which workforce housing both reinforces an ideas of domestic space that emerged over the course of the late 19th and 20th century process of industrialization and defies these norms. As [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/domesticity-and-the-mancamp-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/] I have blogged about before, many [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-workcamps-1/] Type 1 camps attempt to reinforce a strict division between domestic and work by creating spaces for workers to shed their heavy and dirty work clothing before entering the facility, by preventing work activities from taking place in the camp itself or in its parking lot, and by providing food, recreation, and sleeping space away from the work site. The less formally constructed [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-2/] Type 2 camps, on the other hand, show more flexibility. In some cases the workers live on the work site itself and their mobile homes and RVs are interspersed with truck parking and other industrial spaces. To make this point more clear, I created digital plans of a couple camps. The first camp is a Type 2 camp documented in August 2012 and numbered MC9. Here is my illustration: "MC9.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/mc9.jpg]"MC9" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> It is based on an NAIP (National Agricultural Imagery Program) aerial photo from the summer of 2012 and a site visit. Kostis Kourelis also illustrated this camp (see the occidented plan below). What is interesting is the from high in the air, the RV units of the workers are indistinguishable from the trucks arrayed around the worksite. You can see that I have identified units 1 and 2 on Kostiss map as Trucks, but theyre actually RVs. By the time the aerial photo that I used was taken unit 7 had moved and unit 8 was hidden by a shelter belt. "MC09Kourelis.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/mc09kourelis.jpg]"MC09Koureli s" width="450" height="324" border="0" /> The differences between our sketch plans provide a nice - if somewhat accidental commentary on the blurry relationship between domestic space and work space in the !
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Bakken, and despite the differences, both plans show RVs arrayed around a truck maintenance shop. The shop itself is carved out of a farm and the farmer lives just to the south of the work area. The employees of the shop live in RVs and have access to showers, bathrooms, and even a laundry in the shop. This is not an isolated example. Another truck maintenance site that we documented in the winter of 2013 shows a similar arrangement of RVs around workspace. "MC25.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/mc25.jpg]"MC25" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> Here the RV park clearly expanded beyond merely serving the needs to the truck maintenance shop. In fact, this sketch, based on the 2012 NAIP aerial photographs only captures the southern section of the camp which has subsequently expanded to the northeast to include another group of RVs. Unlike the neatly arranged rows of units in some of the larger RV parks, this man camp showed a good bit of variation in the orientation of the units. Note the orientation of units in the southeastern corner of the camp. This may reflect the organic development of the camp or the rather limited space available for owners to back their units up to the plumbing and electrical hook ups. Whatever the reason for the rather helter-skelter arrangement, this camp is similar to MC9 in that the units are arrayed around a work site blurring the distinction between traditional domestic space and work space. In a historical context, man camps have always been strange features. On the one hand, camps for workers engaged in resource extraction typically were set apart from the actual site of mining. The separation between the space of the mine and the bunks of workers echoed the division between the factory and the bedroom communities sometimes funded by factory owners. The more developed mining camps maintained a division between management and workers that mimicked the division between worker housing and management housing in urban communities and further emphasizing the role of status and class in the formation of domestic enclaves. Pre-industrial models of domestic life, however, often blurred the distinction between domestic space and the space of work. The organization of labor by household and the shared space of shops and living quarters spoke to the artisans ownership and control of all aspect of production. While it would be difficult to make this argument for the average Type 2 camp, it seems likely that the close relationship of the worker housing to the place of work represented a closer relationship between the workers skills and tools and employment.

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SAA Blogging Carnival: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly about Blogging http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/10/saa-blogging-carnival-the-goodthe-bad-and-the-ugly-about-blogging/ Tue, 10 Dec 2013 13:06:30 +0000 Bill Caraher Last week, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/blogging-archaeologyat-the-2014-saa-conference/] I offered a post on Why I blog? in the run-up to the 2014 Society for American Archaeology panel on blogging at their annual meeting. [http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2013/12/03/blogging-archaeology-blogarch-allof-the-responses-to-why/] The responses were collated and commented on over at Dougs Archaeology blog where he has also offered us another round of prompts. Here are Dougs prompts: The theme is the good, the bad, and the ugly of blogging. Blog about one or all of these themes. Instructions on how to participate can be found here. The Good- what has been good about blogging? I know some people in their why blogging posts mentioned creating networks and getting asked to talk on a subject. But take this to the next level, anything and everything positive about blogging, share your stories. You could even share what you hope blogging will do for you in the future. The Bad- lots of people mention it feels like talking to brick wall sometimes when you blog. No one comments on posts or very few people do. What are your disappointments with blogging? What are your frustrations? What do you hate about blogging? What would you like to see changed about blogging? The Ugly- I know Chris at RAS will mention the time he got fired for blogging about archaeology. It is your worst experiences with blogging- trolls, getting fired, etc. Im pleased enough to observe that most of my blogging experiences have been good with few in the other two categories, but Ill offer a few comments none the less <strong>The Good</strong> 1. Writing. As I mentioned in [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/blogging-archaeology-at-the2014-saa-conference/] my why I blog post last week, the best about blogging for me is that it has helped me learn to write more quickly and efficiently. With all the disruptions present in a traditional academic career (students, meetings, colleagues, books, et c.), there is nothing more rewarding than having an hour or so to write each morning with a cup of coffee. I have found that this writing time sets the tone for my entire day. More mornings last a little longer and I am far more willing to set aside some pressing task and spend some time on a long term project. 2. Contact. Like many bloggers, Ill complain that my blog has not necessary attracted the boisterous community of readers who fill my comments with untold riches. That being said, !
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there are few things more gratifying than getting an email from a reader letting me know that my blog has brought something to their attention. [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/a-little-story-about-local-history/] This is perhaps the most heartwarming of those stories. 3. A Platform. Recently, I have been more willing to turn my blog over to other people, and Ive come to realize that my blog is both an outlet for my writing, but can be used as [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/3d-modeling-in-mediterranean-archaeology/] a platform to bring the writing of other people to a wider audience. Since part of what gives a blog exposure on the web is a regular (and constant) stream of good content (good being adjusted to the standards of the interwebs), a regularly updated blog tends to attract more attention than one that is only updated occasionally. My blog is updated five days a week, and it is immensely gratifying to be able to use my blogging habit to provide a platform for other peoples writing. 4. Citation and Credit. Ive never asked for any direct credit for my blog at my institution. I think I could probably get some kind of credit for it, but since the blog is part of my workflow, it seems unnecessary to me. Occasionally, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/890/] someone cites my blog in a traditional academic publication, and this is incredibly gratifying because it means that someone sees my work here as a meaningful contribution to the scholarly conversation. <strong>The Bad</strong> 1. Comments. As with all bloggers, I wish there were more comments on my blog. I also wish that panels at conferences were more vibrant and interactive. I wish that academic journals published responses to articles more frequently and that scholars took the time (and had the opportunity) [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2002/2002-09-18.html] to respond [http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2002/2002-10-31.html] to reviews of their books. But, honestly, these things rarely happen. The optimist in me sees something in academics that pushes them to read, process, and look ahead leaving little time to engage in conversations. The pessimist in me recognizes that we tend to see reading - even on the web - as a largely passive exercise. 2. Am I a Blogger? There are still people who think that blogging is silly and a waste of time. This is a perspective that I generally respect except when blogging is wrenched from its place within an evolving workflow of academic production. In other words, if blogging is a waste of time, then surely conference papers are every bit as much of a waste of time. To this I could add other forms of informal writing (some festschrifts, non-peer reviewed proceedings, correspondences, working papers, and popular publications) that have long held a place in the accepted typology of academic productions. Moreover, the idea that a blogger is somehow less serious as a scholar because they produce a regular stream writing in a digital format, relies on a view of writing and production that is not only outdated, but also privileges elitist forms of scholarly communication. <strong>The Ugly</strong> I began blogging when the long shadow of scholarly skepticism was still retreating. People still conceived of bloggers, like forthright Bitch Ph.D., as transgressive rebels who were

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willing to put their academic career and intellectual credentials on the line to speak truth to power. Earnest commentators urged scholars to consider carefully their decision to blog because it might jeopardize their academic or professional careers. I am sure that there are still those who feel that expressing themselves at all on a blog is intrinsically risky. Ill admit that every now and then, I do get a tingle that tells me not to blog something. Sometimes, like when [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/thevanished-ba/] I eagerly announced the discovery of an Early Christian basilica on the hill of Vigla at our site on Cyprus (it was a Hellenistic fortified settlement), I probably should have followed those instincts. In other cases, [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/inside-looking/] like when I referred to the Regular Program at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens as approach[ing] a kind of hazing, I will stand by my critique, but admit that it wasnt the nicest thing to say while they were funding my term as a professor there. On the other hand, there are things that I havent blogged about when I really wanted to. Maybe this kind of tingly blogger-sense has kept me sheltered from the ugly side of blogging. Maybe it is the memory of the early blogging days when we feared the new medium and the free flow of information that it promised. Maybe there are only two kinds of bloggers: those who have quit blogging and those who havent quit yet. Whatever the reason, Ive yet to encounter the ugly side of blogging.

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The Real and Imagined Mount Athos http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/11/the-real-and-imagined-mountathos/ Wed, 11 Dec 2013 13:43:29 +0000 Bill Caraher Over Thanksgiving I had a chance to do some more fun reading and tucked into [http://www.worldcat.org/title/imagining-mount-athos-visions-of-a-holy-place-fromhomer-to-world-war-ii/oclc/695008939] Veronica Della Doras Imagining Mount Athos (University of Virginia Press 2011). The book examines how outsiders have imagined the Holy Mountain from antiquity until modern times. The Mt. Athos peninsula, as many readers of this blog will know, has been a self governing monastic preserve since the 9th century A.D., and today continues this tradition as the home to 20 monastic houses and assorted hermitages. Women are banned from the peninsula as are most modern technologies and visitors who might distract the monks for their life of work, worship and pious contemplation. Della Dora, as a woman writing on Athos, embraces perhaps the essential characteristics of how the Mt. Athos peninsula has appeared through the ages by emphasizing the tendency to see it as a place of exclusion and seclusion. She is careful to note that this is not the only Athos, but the one that she has chosen to write about. She is able, then, to analyze a powerfully imagined Athos that stood outside of an Athos familiar to its monastic residents. The book begins with a treatment of ancient Athos and explores how ancient views of the mountainous peninsula shaped its appearance throughout the Renaissance. She explores the influence of Dinocrates legendary proposal to turn Mt. Athos into a massive statue of Alexander the Great providing for newly founded communities at its base. This Dinocratic Athos formed an important backdrop to numerous Renaissance sculpture who saw in it both the power of man to shape nature and, like Xerxes famed canal, a testimony to human arrogance. This Mythic Athos may have extended to an Athonite influence in Thomas Mores 18th century Utopia as well as earlier views of the peninsula as an edenic paradise. The prominence and wealth of the monastic communities that come to dot this peninsula become points of reference and meaning with the mountain itself retreating to become a dramatic backdrop. Of particular note is the significance of Athos in Russian pious imagination and iconography. The second half of the book ventures onto the peninsula itself with discussions of how the outside world discovered and coveted the architecture, libraries, and even landscapes of this secluded monastic preserve. The brief appearance of Athos at the margins of the Grand Tour and the arrival of travelers and scholars like [http://www.worldcat.org/title/art-ofthe-byzantine-era/oclc/1005192] David Talbot Rice and [http://www.worldcat.org/title/station-travels-to-the-holy-mountain-ofgreece/oclc/704277301] Robert Byron opened the treasures of Athos to the world at a moment when Byzantium was seeping back into academic and popular consciousness. The

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place of Athos as a cultural preserve influenced views of it as a scientific preserve and attracted scientists as well as Byzantinists to study the indigenous plant life and geology. The scholarly and popular veneration of Athos ensured that it stood as an island in the stream of global geopolitics from the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkan Wars, and the German invasion in World War II. The arrival of the Nazis in Greece in 1941 and the well-known [http://www.worldcat.org/title/monchsland-athos/oclc/344047] Dlger expedition to Athos demonstrates the intersection of geopolitics and scholarship. The willingness of Athonite monks to both recognize the German authority in Greece and to work to shepherd allied soldiers to Turkey and Egypt reveals the delicate balance and vulnerable position that Athos occupied in the modern world. This is a theme engaged again in the epilogue where Della Dora discusses the world of Athos as part of the European Union. The role of Athonite monasteries in the economic crisis in Greece is well-known. Books like this are remarkable in our age of academic specialization. Della Dora has followed the imagine Mt. Athos from the ancient texts to Renaissance sculpture, Early Modern science, Russian icon painting, and beyond. As someone who struggles to master my little section of the academic universe, books like this are really humbling. At the same time, Id be remiss not to note that the absence of the monks of Athos left me a bit disappointed. In Della Doras work, Athos is largely imagined by the West with very little influence from its closest neighbors in Thessaloniki or among the monks themselves. While, on the one hand, even such sweeping studies as these need some boundaries, on the other hand, the book feel strangely Orientalizing in its perspective. Its as if Athos as a space of exclusion and seclusion prevented the monks themselves from shaping how others perceived it. This is surely not the case as Athonite monks exerted a profound influence on the ecclesiastical and monastic world across both the Eastern Mediterranean and the world. It would be valuable to understand how their imagining of Athos compares.

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MOOCs at the University of North Dakota http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/12/moocs-at-the-university-of-northdakota/ Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:24:41 +0000 Bill Caraher This past week our new(isn) provost [http://blogs.und.edu/provost/?p=393] challenged the University of North Dakota community to consider the role of MOOCs in higher education in the state. As he undoubtedly knows, the University of North Dakota has long considered remote and "correspondence learning" a part of its mission. The sparsely settled character of the state and the concentration of resources in the eastern Red River valley has pushed the two large universities in the state to innovate in how they reach diverse stakeholders across the state. Despite that tradition, when the idea of MOOCs were floated on campus several years ago ( [http://www.scribd.com/doc/37922545/Proposal-for-theDevelopment-of-Open-Learning-Courses] the ambitious, but still born UND for Free initiative), the reception was chilly and skeptical. How times have changed! As the provost noted, 2012 was called, by some, [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-online-courses-aremultiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html] the Year of the MOOC ( [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/education/edlife/massive-open-onlinecourses-are-multiplying-at-a-rapid-pace.html] and recent coverage ahem trumpeted MOOCs transformative potential). MOOCs offer the potential to expose anyone with an internet connection to the faculty and at least some of the resources available at UND. They have obvious potential to continue the tradition of serving the state by providing the underserved communities of the Northern Plains with quality content. It is hardly surprising that our neighbors to the north at the University of Manitoba were the pioneers in the development of this form of learning. The platform and approach offers a unique opportunity to communicate what's good about the University of North Dakota to a larger regional and national audience. If UND became involved in MOOCs, however, it would cost money, time, and expertise. Whether we rely on existing MOOC platforms or develop our own, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/some-thoughts-on-moocs/] deploying technical knowledge, production savvy, and faculty expertise will necessarily detract from other priorities at the university. At a time when the university is scaling back its commitments to programs as [http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/273494/] the UND Writers Conference and core infrastructure [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/24/does-a-university-need-a-library/] like [http://www.pqed.org/2013/09/does-university-need-library-response.html] the [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/09/25/does-a-university-need-a-librarya-response-to-a-response/] library, shifting resources to MOOCs will likely leave faculty with a mixed message and suggest a confused set of priorities.

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The concern will be, of course, how this kind of outreach program will produce a return-oninvestment that will benefit the entire campus community and replenish the resources from which it draws (i.e. faculty time, access to research materials, and technical support). We all know that during tough economic times, we have to do more with less, but it seems hard to imagine entering the competitive MOOC market will result in a net gain for the core mission of the university. Even if we insist on calling ourselves [http://und.edu/provost/exceptional-und/] Exceptional (and Ive come to recognize that we mean exceptional in a good way!) and maybe on a good day believe it, we will have to deliver a product that can compete with truly remarkable institutions in the U.S. Perhaps there is something that I dont see or understand. So I think that the next step will be for the administration to bring a sustainable business plan to various stakeholders and provide clear evidence for how this initiative will benefit the campus community. (This is a bit of an inside joke. The administration has been asking faculty initiatives to produce sustainable business plans for the last 6 months, so I thought it would be clever to ask them to do the same thing.) The flip side of the MOOC equation is whether instruction at UND could benefit by collaborating with MOOC providers. This has famously caused controversy at other institutions, but there are benefits to leveraging resources from other schools and institutions to engooden student experience at our own. On a simple level, bringing world renown faculty into UND classrooms and dorm rooms via the internet is remarkably appealing. In fact, the Working Group in Digital and New Media has a lecture series where we use Skype (or similar technology) to bring in world renown speakers on issues of digital humanities, history, and new media studies. At the same time, this use of technology serves to complement existing conversations and commitments on campus rather than replacing them. Using MOOCs on campus has generated a good bit of consternation and several major [http://chronicle.com/article/A-MOOC-Star-Defects-at-Least/141331/] players in the movement have backed away from continuing to develop them. A well-grounded fear is that without substantial on-campus support MOOCs risks viewing education as a [http://mfeldstein.com/the-four-student-archetypes-emerging-in-moocs/] passive process and see education as a commodity to be consumed rather than a process requiring engagement. A perspective that encourages a passive consumption of content or even content providers runs the risk of setting higher education back 100 years. On the other hand, [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/somethoughts-on-moocs/] MOOCs may serve as a kind of dynamic textbook that supplements classroom instruction and existing course material. Many faculty members already prepare substantial new and multimedia components to their classes or leverage existing multimedia content on the web or provided by traditional textbook publishers. The issues with this approach to using MOOCs are largely practical and logistical. For example, MOOCs may or may not follow the traditional semester schedule used at UND. They may or may not make course material available prior to the start of the course to allow MOOC instruction to be integrated into local course design. This is all stuff that most people who have spent more than a moment thinking about MOOCs knows.

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What I think is most exciting about MOOCs is this. MOOCs, like so much in higher education, are unstable creatures. Theyve yet to endure the full scale scrutiny of a rapacious and soul-killing [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfS5N8V0zjo] assessocracy that has come to push university education into the bleak reality of modernity. The variety, practicality, curiosity, and frivolity of MOOCs are part of their charm. They embrace the concept that education can be life changing, important, and a goal unto itself and that student outcomes can vary widely and be totally unrecognized. It is interesting to see the divergence between, on the one hand, education leaders who see MOOCs as ripe for the plucking and search for ways to monetize, commodify, assess, and validate these rather untamed creations. And, on the other hand, the emergence of a diverse community around MOOCs that harkens back to radically democratized (and largely romanticized) ideals of education where people come as they are to learn what they want. Perhaps some of the appeal of the MOOC is the realization that the industrial models of higher education no longer suit the post-industrial models of contemporary capitalism. (As an aside, I remember a former dean who wanted desperately [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/making-the-professionaloffice/] to convert our offices in O'Kelly Hall into perfectly uniform corporate cubicles at the very moment when [http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/category/headquarters] the most dynamic and innovative companies in the U.S. had offices that looked like a combination of artist studios and frat houses.) If the formal American university is designed to create productive little capitalists who do work on schedule and on specification. The MOOC began as the ad hoc answer to the failing of this system. Students came to MOOCs to get what they wanted; instructors taught MOOCs in the confidence that what they said and did had value. The relationship between these two ideals did not require assessment or validation. Students, like their Medieval predecessors, voted with their feet (and clicks); Professors did what they have done from time immemorial, professed. Engagement was voluntary, outcomes varied, learning styles, patterns, and practices swirled. Even something as simple a [http://moocnewsandreviews.com/why-cheat-plagiarism-in-moocs/] plagiarism (which must be seen as the product of the professionalization of the disciplines) could be tolerated because the stakes and accountability were purely personal. So, the most exciting about MOOCs is that beneath the hype, there are the seeds of a radical departure from the relentless move toward modernity (typified by the assessocracy where we [http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tacitus] assess everything and call it peace). MOOCs are the wild west and require a tremendous amount of trust and faith on the part of the administration to cultivate this foreign body in their well-oiled industrial education factory. [http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/05/10/new-study-low-mooc-completionrates] Completion rates, [http://illinois.edu/blog/view/915/84723] learning outcomes, student engagement, efficiency studies, and other conceptual tools run counter to the radically democratized spirit of the MOOC.

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Friday Varia and Quick Hits http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-80/ Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:03:45 +0000 Bill Caraher <guid isPermaLink="false] https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=3617</guid>

Its cold and there might be some flurries, but at least its only -7 this morning not -20. So Im going to score this as a win for the kind residents of North Dakotaland. For my academic readers, the balmy weather makes a nice end of the semester treat as classes give way to final exams, end of the year deadlines, and the hectic grading period at the end of the semester. So as we count down the days to the end of the year, I offer some quick hits and varia to speed time along [http://www.sah.org/publications-and-research/sah-blog/sahblog/2013/12/12/recent-news-on-the-conversion-into-mosques-of-byzantine-churches-inturkey] An update on the conversion of museums to mosques in Turkey. [http://www.mjcb.eu/] Mapping the Jewish communities of the Byzantine Empire. [http://www.digitiseddiseases.org/preview/] Medieval diseases and deformities in 3D! [http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/News/newsDetails/videocast-how-the-mycenaelion-gate-relief-was-made-new-evidence-and-implic] How the Lion Gate at Mycenae was made. [http://www.stoa.org/archives/1829] Volunteers with good Latin needed!! [http://chronique.efa.gr/index.php/fiches/maps/The] An interactive map of Chronique des fouilles from the BCH. [http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/blog/?p=931] Eric Kansa on Neoliberalism, Open Data, and Academia. This is important. [http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/09/nobel-winner-boycott-sciencejournals] The case for boycotting top journals in science. [http://romsdahlfulbright.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/the-bigger-picture/] A very good travel and research blog. [http://www.sparkandecho.org/untitled_ryan-stander/] Some Ryan Stander. [http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2013/10013-english.pdf] The climate of Middle Earth (pdf).

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 [http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2013/12/08/magazine/08greatplains_ss.html?smid=f b-share&amp;_r=3&amp;#16] Workforce housing from the air. [http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3651581.htm] Don Bradman in North America. [https://medium.com/nelsons-errata/c100ebe0158f] What is the Medium for? [http://hughrundle.net/2013/11/25/antifragile-libraries-pt-1-antifragility-andcollections/] Antifragile Libraries. [http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/from-blimp-to-page/] Ive always argued that [http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/09/business/airship-cargorevolutionize-arctic-transportation/index.html?hpt=hp_c3] the future is in BLIMPS. [http://www.anxiousmachine.com/blog/2013/12/10/placibo-philes] Audiophile or placebophile? [http://deadspin.com/man-applies-for-und-head-coach-job-cites-playing-madde1481626884] UNDs next head football coach? What Im reading: Brent Shaw, [http://www.worldcat.org/title/sacred-violence-africanchristians-and-sectarian-hatred-in-the-age-of-augustine/oclc/651916826] Sacred Violence: African Christians and Sectarian Hatred in the Age of Augustine. Cambridge 2011. What Im listening to: Francis and the Lights, Itll be better; Bad Religion, Christmas Songs.This is what happened when the [https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofnorthdakota] Ghosts of North Dakota Facebook page featured [http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2013/05/20/man-camps-in-may-some-moreobservations/] one of my posts: "My_Stats___WordPress.com.jpg" [http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/my_stats___wordpresscom_.jpg]"My Stats WordPress com" width="450" height="196" border="0" /> <wp:post_id>3617</wp:post_id> <wp:post_date>2013-12-13 07:03:45</wp:post_date> <wp:post_date_gmt>2013-12-13 13:03:45</wp:post_date_gmt> <wp:post_name>friday-varia-and-quick-hits-80</wp:post_name> <wp:is_sticky>0</wp:is_sticky> <category domain="category" nicename="varia-and-quick-hits] <![CDATA[Varia and Quick Hits</category> <wp:meta_value><![CDATA[2013-12-13 13:04:05</wp:meta_value>

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