ArchInk 2021, Day 4

The prompt for day 4 (clearly I’m a bit behind) was “Past Presented.” This got me thinking about all the terrible “ancient aliens” type of television shows that are really doing a disservice not only to the audience but to the ancient people who should be given credit for the amazing things they accomplished (i.e. not aliens). However, these types of shows are increasingly popular, which further demonstrates how much archaeologists are needed to find new and interesting ways to combat this misinformation! Ribbon dancing?

ArchInk 2021, Day 3

The first thing that popped into my head with the prompt “the languages of archaeology” was all the jargon we use–we really love our delightfully convoluted terms for artifacts!

ArchInk 2021, Day 2: The Best Rubbish

My response to the ArchInk prompt, “The Best Rubbish.” This is one of my favorite historic artifacts I’ve observed while surveying, a small pink tube of women’s underarm and footcream deodorant from the 1930s. I went down a rabbit hole of advertising for these products from that time and they are horrendous! Who knew a lack of deodorant could shipwreck marriages? Make a woman dumb? And so much more! There’s a wonderful article by Sarah Everts in Smithsonian Magazine about how advertising companies tried to convince women they smelled bad and needed their products: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-advertisers-convinced-americans-they-smelled-bad-12552404/.

ArchInk 2021, Day 1

Here’s my contribution for Day 1 of Archaeology Inkotober 2021, the prompt being “Uncommon Ground.” The transition from one’s specialty area to another can feel a bit jarring at times. Yes, the process of analysis is similar across the board when it comes to ceramics and lithics, recording structures, etc. but actually being able to find said artifacts can be tough. I had gotten so used to my high desert environments, where there’s a field house, pueblo, or crazy huge artifact scatter every few meters, that moving to an area requiring shovel tests to see if anything–anything at all–was on the landscape, was a hard shift. But, no matter what, no matter where, there’s archaeology if people were there.

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Ghost’

The final prompt for ArchInk 2020, ‘Ghost.’ What’s more terrifying than a box of unfinished reports? oooOOooo!

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Repair’

Archaeology has a long history of mistakes and exclusionary practices that, hopefully, are on their way to being fixed. ArchInk Prompt #22, ‘Repair.’

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Clay’ and ‘Perspective’

Yup, it’s all ceremonial. ArchInk Prompts 15 and 27.

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Box’

There are so many ways, so many lenses, to understand the past–why just ‘box’ oneself into one kind of interpretation? ArchInk prompt #12, “box”.

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Act’

Essentially the beginning of archaeology . . .Archaeology Inktober 2020 Prompt #11, ‘Act’

ARCHINK2020 (INKTOBER), ‘Season’

I don’t know about you, but I measure my year in bugs. Archaeology Inktober 2020, Prompt #7: Season.