The Archive for The New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Volume 3 (2012)

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. 2012

Table of Contents (Top 50 posts by number of page views per day)

Title Punk Archaeology Handbill Small Archaeological Projects and the Social Context of their Data Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age North Dakota Man Camp Project Press Release Teaching Graduate Historiography: A Final Syllabus Redux More from the Abandoned Periphery Byzantine Archaeology: A Marginal Practice Cyprus Research Fund Lecture: In Person or Live Stream First Snow 2012 Two Church Plans Fountains and Water in Late Antiquity Punk Archaeology Revisited Modern and Ancient in Calabria Archaeological Maps Monumentality in Early Christian Architecture Spiros Marinos Human happiness never lingers for long even in the Bakken Oil Patch Text and archaeology in the Greek world (D. Nakassis) Late Antiquity in Greece Popular Byzantium: An Interview with Paul Kastenellos, Part 1 Man Camp Methods Punk Archaeology is Happening A Wall Collapse A Typology of North Dakota Work Camps 1 Presenting My Path to Tenure The Death of the Research Paper The Old Church on Walnut Street The Martyria of Salona Architecture, Access and Agency in Early Christian Greece The End of the Golden Age of Academic Blogging? Do Professors Work Enough? The Anti-Monument The North Fortification Wall Some More Thoughts on Student Writing Collaboration and Work Camps out West The Realities of Archaeological Data from Small Projects Planning my First Trip Out West Date 12/18/12 12/17/12 12/5/12 8/21/12 1/26/12 9/18/12 1/16/12 10/24/12 10/4/12 10/11/12 8/27/12 8/30/12 9/13/12 9/20/12 3/1/12 7/9/12 8/13/12 7/19/12 9/5/12 2/7/12 7/10/12 4/12/12 6/15/12 4/9/12 2/9/12 1/24/12 5/10/12 3/27/12 3/20/12 1/9/12 3/28/12 5/16/12 5/31/12 5/7/12 1/23/12 3/19/12 4/4/12 Views/Day 50 25.5 3.285714286 1.941666667 1.5 1.369565217 1.050295858 0.946428571 0.855263158 0.855072464 0.842105263 0.747747748 0.515463918 0.511111111 0.508532423 0.484662577 0.4609375 0.431372549 0.419047619 0.417721519 0.358024691 0.35059761 0.299465241 0.299212598 0.292993631 0.263636364 0.255605381 0.247191011 0.240875912 0.223188406 0.221804511 0.221198157 0.212871287 0.212389381 0.208459215 0.207272727 0.200772201 Page 343 341 330 217 40 247 25 282 263 269 223 228 243 249 93 191 211 200 234 57 192 328 188 142 65 37 153 127 117 16 129 179 185 175 35 115 137

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The Chlamydatus of Corinth Digital Archaeology and the New Media in 2012 Archaeology of Consumer Culture and North Dakota Work Camps Some Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Byzantine Countryside Program for the Conversations on Byzantine Archaeology II A Faculty Salary: A Historical Case Study From the Corinthia to Sicyon Friday Varia and Quick Hits Popular Byzantium: An Interview with Paul Kastenellos, Part 2 A New Mycenaean Center in the Corinthia Students and Violence in Late Antique Athens Some More Corinthian Bodies The Ottoman Landscape and Pyla-Koutsopetria

4/3/12 5/1/12 3/12/12 1/10/12 1/17/12 1/25/12 2/13/12 1/27/12 2/8/12 2/6/12 1/11/12 1/3/12 1/30/12

0.196153846 0.185344828 0.170212766 0.168604651 0.166172107 0.164133739 0.15483871 0.152905199 0.152380952 0.141955836 0.134110787 0.131054131 0.12962963

135 169 107 18 29 39 69 43 61 55 21 10 45

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<title>My Year in Music</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/my-year-in-music/</link> Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:48:42 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1256 Each Friday this year, I added a "What I'm listening to" section to my Famous Friday Varia and Quick Hits. Here's a little index of what I've listened to over the past year. Music is a huge part of my life and with my subscription Spotify, I can indulge my wide ranging (let's say) tastes without much penalty. In fact, I've toyed with the idea of a Music Monday blog where I have a little space to talk about my music. So far, I've held off taking the plunge, but it's almost a new year... The following list is in the order that I listened to this music over the course of the year. (Of course, I could cheat and go back to listen to something even after the week is over!): Sufjan Stevens, The Age of Adz. No Age, Everything in Between. (http://www.exoticaproject.com/) The Exotica Project Alexander "Skip" Spencer, Oar. Radiohead, The King of Limbs. Cut Copy, Zonoscope. Radiohead, Kid A. Scritti Politti, Cupid and Psyche '85. The Cure, Pornography The Cure, Boy's Don't Cry. Kurt Vile, Smoke Ring for My Halo. Thurston Moore, Psychic Heart. The Strokes, Room on Fire. The Strokes, Is This It. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Belong. Bass Drum of Death, GB City. MellowHype, Blackenedwhite. DJ Quik, The Book of David. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, 100 Days, 100 Nights. Thurston Moore, Demolished Thoughts. Greenwood Rhythm Coalition, Sol Vibrations. Bon Iver, Bon Iver. Gang Gang Dance, Eye Contact. EMA, Past Life of Martyred Saints. The Ravonettes, Lust, Lust, Lust. New Order, Low-Life. New Order, Power, Corruption, and Lies. Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne. Fleet Foxes, Helpless Blues. Femi Kuti, Day to Day. Tinariwen, Aman Iman. Bunny Wailer, Blackheart Man. Yuya Uchida and the Flowers, Challenger!

Culture, Two Sevens Clash. Buju Banton, Inna Heights. Peter Tosh, Equal Rights. Bob Marley, African Herbman. Amon Tobin, Out from Where Out. Amon Tobin, Bricolage. Wilco, The Whole Love. The Mekons, Fear and Whiskey. The Mekons, Rock 'n' Roll. Frightened Rabbit, The Winter of Mixed Drinks. We Were Promised Jetpacks, These Four Walls. Youth Lagoon, Year of Hibernation. M83, Hurry up we're Dreaming. Frightened Rabbit, The Midnight Organ Fight. Hunters and Collectors, Human Frailty. Talk Talk, Laughing Stock. Suuns, Zeroes QC. Atlas Sounds, Parallax. Los Campesinos!, Hello Sadness. The Antlers, Burst Apart. The Antlers, Hospice. Ty Segall, Goodbye Bread. We Were Promised Jetpacks, In the Pit of the Stomach. The Bats, Daddy's Highway. The Bats, The Guilty Office. The Clean, Anthology. War on Drugs, Slave Ambient. The Roots, Undun.

<title>Lucky Inn</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/lucky-inn/</link> Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:01:06 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1260 The shape of the tree in the foreground reminded me of a Christmas tree. The Lucky Inn Motel is probably the least Christmas-y place here in Grand Forks. So I thought maybe the taking a photo the tree and sign would bring it some holiday cheer. <"Lucky.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/lucky.jpg) It's been unseasonably warm here this past week, so I've been walking rather than driving when I need to make quick runs to the store or to campus. The evenings have been quite amazing. As the sun sets, the western sky turns a dark pink color (just slightly visible in the photograph above).

<title>Teaching Thursday: Facts and History</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/teaching-thursday-facts-andhistory/</link> Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:48:10 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1263 It has become popular to challenge the idea that teaching "factual information" in undergraduate history courses has value. After all, facts are easily collected from the so-called internets or a good textbook and remembering fragments of historical knowledge is far less useful than knowing how to construct a compelling argument. Moreover, compelling arguments in history require that a student or scholar deploy "facts" in an effective, consistent, and accurate way. So training a student to make an argument will inevitably result in imparting an appreciation of factual knowledge. The only problem is that, in practice, the processes of organizing, memorizing, and deploying factual information successfully are not separate but deeply related. An active historical mind (if such a thing exists) will inevitably be littered with assorted factoids which have almost no context, but the majority of "factual" organization that a historian knows depend either on its place within a narrative of events or its place within an argument in historiography. I remember, for example, the date of Justin I death because it also marks the date of Justinian's ascension to the throne as solo emperor (527). So my understanding of the historical narrative provides me with a context for remembering a particular date. In other cases, I remember a fact based on its utility in a historical argument. For example, I recall the dates associated with "Theodosian type column capitals" not because I know the narrative for the development of architectural sculpture in the Late Roman East, but because I needed to know the date of that type of capital to make an argument for the date of a particular building. In any event, defining how we remember things is artificial to some extent as we invariably use multiple conscious and unconscious techniques to lodge particular facts in our memory. The issue is that some factual framework is necessary to produce historical narratives or argument. Part of the challenge of teaching the 100 level (that is introductory, undergraduate level) is convincing students to internalize some historical facts at level sufficient that they can deploy this information to support a particular position. Over the past 5 years I've tried almost every technique to do this. I've allowed students to bring notes to tests, I've converted tests to paper and let them work on them with an open book, and, finally, for my online class I require a weekly quiz. The weekly quizzes were multiple choice, and I designed them to familiarize students with the most basic narrative details of the class and to model particular maneuvers in historical argument. The former involved the most basic names and dates type questions and the latter involved more complex questions that required students to select the best facts to support a particular position. These questions, then, ask students to recall facts central to the narrative that I offer in class or to particular historical arguments that we construct over the course of the semester. The quizzes were pretty rough on the students. The average grade on the quiz was around 7 out of 10. This not only tended to discourage the students - mostly non-majors - but also pushed the class average toward the lower end of the C range. More importantly, the quiz scores tended to be lower than the interpretative work where students were successfully deploying factual information to support particular arguments. So this semester, I made a change and let the students take the quizzes up to 3 times. Each quiz is 10 questions, but draws upon a question bank of between 20 and 30 questions. When a student retakes the quiz, around half the questions are likely to be different. The result of this new approach to the quiz component of the class was remarkable. The average for quizzes jumped to over 9 out of 10 and the students appear to have better command over the factual information as

well. It was a pretty easy solution to my quiz problem. Time will tell whether it will produce a greater degree of comfort with the so-called facts of historical analysis.

<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/23/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-24/</link> Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:11:35 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1267 A strangely warm and snow free holiday season here in North Dakotaland, but a holiday season no less (and we did get a few stray flurries yesterday morning as to almost admit that our weather is not at all typical for this time of year)! So here's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus) a little Festivus Day list of quick hits and varia for your Christmastime entertainment: (http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/12/20/3387749.htm) Australian space archaeology. It doesn't get much cooler than that (via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cku74iIi8) A pretty cool series of time lapse photography videos from around Athens. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/16/world/europe/oscar-wildes-tomb-sealed-from-admirerskisses.html) I love the idea that kissing a tomb will cause it damage. That's a very peculiar kind of site formation process. (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/travelnews/2011/12/111215-tsunami-debris-field-travelscience/) Floating fields of tsunami debris is another cool kind of formation process - a floating midden. The death of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has led to the circulation of some hi-lar-ious content on the internets. My favorites are the (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJNBfBr-OGU) North Korea Party Rock Anthem and some great photographs of the (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJNBfBrOGU) Dear(ly Departed) Leader looking at thing. I think among my friends and family who travel frequently, (http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/12/tsa-insanity-201112) the idea that airport security is security theater makes sense. I've been keeping an eye on the discussions around SOPA and PROTECT IP because so many people say that these efforts to policy the circulation of intellectual property on the web are so misguided. (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111122/04254316872/definitive-post-why-sopa-protect-ip-are-badbad-ideas.shtml) This post summarizes most of the more interesting and ridiculous parts of this discussion. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb4YWJgfmQE) This is my wife's favorite Christmas songs (utterly depressing, but with a nice reference to Junior Murvin). It's pretty hard not to be excited about (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india2011/content/current/series/518944.html) this year's Boxing Day Test. And it's impossible not to be excited about the return of (http://www.nba.com/) the Association on Christmas Day. What I'm reading: P. Kastenellos, (http://www.amazon.com/Count-No-Man-HappyByzantine/dp/0983910804) Count No Man Happy (2011).

 What I'm listening to: Nat King Cole, The Christmas Song; Elvis Presley, Christmas Album; Various Artists, A Christmas Gift to You from Phil Spector. A number of readers have asked me what a glass of ouzo would look like in December, in Grand Forks, North Dakota: <"OuzoDecemberNorthDakota.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/ouzodecembernorthdakota.jpg" border="0" alt="OuzoDecemberNorthDakota" width="484" height="600" /> Have a Merry Christmas!!

<title>A Holiday Hiatus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/a-holiday-hiatus/</link> Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:03:01 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1274 Three things have happened over the last few days that led me to take a short hiatus from my blog. First, I woke up Christmas morning and began to think about what I wanted to blog about on Boxing Day. This seemed a bit messed up to me. I didn't think of baby Jesus, the Christmas tree, warm Christmas breakfast by the fire, friends, family, or anything else; I thought about my dumb blog. The great things about blogs is that they force you to write every day or every week or whatever. They're hungry little buggers that need to be constantly fed. The medium creates an expectation that the author ABC (http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php/weblog/til_we_meet_again/) borrowed from Michael Brub via Glengarry Glen Ross): Always be composing. This is really quite a grind. Next, I realized that I didn't really have anything pressing to blog about. I'm an ancient historian and archaeologist, for heaven's sake. If what I need to say hasn't been said for 1500 years, then any sense of urgency is false. Finally, I cut my finger the other night while doing dishes. I dropped a coffee mug and instinctive grabbed for it just as it was shattering. The cold white ceramic cut the tip of my warm, fleshy, finger instantly. As a fourfingered touch typer, my right middle finger is a vital contributor to my workflow. Without this finger, _ am hav_ng tr__ble wr_t_ng w_rds w_th the letters i, o, u, or p, and can barely operate my MacBook Pro's touch pad. I'll be back after the holidays are over! And if you're really missing my Mediterranean musings, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/holiday-gift-idea/) go and check out the second volume of my blog's archive.

<title>2011 in Review from Wordpress</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/2011-in-review-from-wordpress/</link> Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:24:24 +0000 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1279 The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. (/2011/annual-report/) <img src="http://www.wordpress.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/annualreports/img/emailteaser.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /> Here's an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it. (/2011/annual-report/) Click here to see the complete report.

<title>Some More Corinthian Bodies</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/some-more-corinthian-bodies/</link> Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:04:42 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1284 It was a pleasure to see another Corinthian article in this month's American Journal of Archaeology. (http://www.ajaonline.org/article/1063) Betsey Robinson's study of the Eutychia mosaic from Corinth introduces us to this frequently overlooked mosaic and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/other-byzantine-bodies/) another pair of Corinthian bodies. <p style="text-align:center;) <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/newimage.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="333" />Fig. 2 (p. 106) Room C of the South Stoa at Corinth, viewed from the north, showing robbed eastern wall, mosaic, and marble-revetted bench against southern wall. (http://www.ajaonline.org/node/1033) for more pictures go here). The mosaic stood in a room in the Hellenistic South Stoa, but the mosaic dates to the 2nd century. Robinson walks us through the iconography of this mosaic which shows a half-nude seated female with a shield inscribed with the word Eutychia (or fortune) and a nude youth with a victory crown. The central panel is surrounded by corner panels featuring various birds. The mosaic has been traditional associated with the administrator of the Isthmian games (the agonothetes). Robison suggests that this mosaic should be understood as a personification of Corinth and the youth should be associated with the Isthmian games. She is careful, however, to articulate the way in which viewers would have come to these interpretations. Her analysis did not derive from a detached scholarly view of typology, but a careful consideration of ancient ways of seeing and producing art. This grounding in ancient ways of seeing opened the door to significant ambivalence in how ancient viewers might have understood this mosaic. Rather than being a liability, she suggests that such ambivalent relationships with ancient iconography are the inevitable products of the Greek - Roman hybridization that occurred in the provinces. All in all, this is a very clever and subtle reading of a neglected mosaic. By connecting events, cities, and places to bodies, I couldn't help but think about some of Kostis Kourelis' recent posts which find parallels between the Byzantine water altar at the site of the former Asclepeion in Athens and an etching on an architectural discovered at the site (see (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/12/liquid-vessel-byzantine-athens.html) here and (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2011/12/water-cave-altar.html) here). The architectural fragment depicted an individual drinking from a flagon and showed the interior of the vessel flowing into the distended belly of the drinker. Here's Kostis' sketch of the etching: <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/newimage1.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="228" height="320" /> The etching of the drinker conceptualizes the experience of the water altar in distinctly in human terms and space. The prevalence of the body as a spatial metaphor for all kinds of ancient buildings, events, places, and features makes it unsurprising to find water features paralleled with the body. All the same, Kostis' timely post presents a nice parallel as Robinson suggests that the bodily metaphor for Corinth might evoke the personification of Peirene fountain which is sometimes also associated with the Isthmian games (other Panhellenic games have fountains associated with them). Perhaps the appearance of springs with their gaping caverns or the flow of fluid within made them particularly suitable for personifications. Or maybe the association of springs with the nymphs who frolic in their grottos.

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Robinson identified the birds around the central panel as "conventional 'hospitality gifts' " (p. 107). These birds may remind the view that the mosaic itself was a gift and perhaps related to the liturgies associated with the Isthmian games. Various birds are relatively common in Early Christian mosaics across the Eastern Mediterranean and it got me wondering whether the birds that appear in this context draw are likewise to draw a parallel between hospitality gifts and acts of munificence to the church. The other thing that was interesting was that the mosaic was repaired in Late Antiquity. That suggested that the mosaic remained visible for hundreds of years. It is interesting that Robinson was willing to entertain a certain amount of ambiguity in how "contemporary" viewers saw the mosaic, but it is more challenging to understand the "contemporary view" of a mosaic that lasted at least two hundred years. The article, in general, lacked a clear since of "now" for the viewer. My guess is the late antique viewers who chose to renovate the mosaic had different goals in mind, interpretative lenses and local contexts from viewers contemporary with the mosaics original construction. Crossposted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters.

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<title>More Indigenous Archaeology on Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/more-indigenous-archaeology-oncyprus/</link> Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:09:13 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1290 Over the past few years I've played around with the idea of an indigenous archaeology in the Greek speaking Mediterranean. In doing so, I have identified certain practices as drawing on traditions found in hagiographic literature (saints' lives). The most obvious example is the practice of inventio when a pious individual excavates a sacred object, usually an icon. I have written extensively on this blog about inventio and dreams (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/st-augustine-and-dreams/) go here and scroll to the bottom of the post for a little gaggle of links ; (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/more-indigenous-archaeology-and-cyprus/) here's an example of this from Cyprus). There are also practices preserved in hagiography through which local communities mark out ruined buildings as special sites or sacred space. Saints' lives frequently preserves stories that feature commemorative practices associated with long abandoned or ruined buildings. Often these practices are as simple as pilgrimages to ruined churches for prayers. In other cases, saints or pious communities rebuild ruined churches. In Cyprus, we have seen how acts of piety have influenced the archaeology of Christian buildings (for example (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/more-archaeolog/) here and (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/indigenous-archaeology-georgianstyle/) here). Recently I was re-reading part of P. Flourentzos, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/excavationsin-the-kouris-valley/oclc/29521966) Excavations in the Kouris Valley II: The Basilica of Alassa. (Nicosia 1996), and re-discovered this passage (p. 3): During my first visit to the area of Ay;a Mavri to conduct the rescue excavation, I noticedthat two stones in the form of an angle was visible it the north-western side of the area. Moreovera great concentration of loose stones had accumulated on the surface round a modern quadrangular structure with two holes at the front and a little iron door (PI. II: 2). <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/newimage2.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="338" /> Inside the structure was an icon of Ayia Mavri (Saint Mavri), where the villagers often placed lighted candles as offerings. On the surface a small part of the apse of the Holy-of-Holies was also visible. All those features attracted my interest and I decided to open the first trench at that particularpart of the area. This first trench, which I call Trench I, measured 2 X II m. and contained alarge part of the structure of the Holy-of-Holies and its eastern end yielded a small tomb. So I was then sure that this was an area of a church probably of basilica type with a related cemetery. This short passage presents a kind of indigenous archaeology of the sacred and shows how it intersects with modern archaeological practices.

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<title>A Paper on Corinthian Peasants</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/a-paper-on-peasants/</link> Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:42:20 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1295 As regular readers of this blog know, (http://corinthianmatters.com/) David Pettegrew and I have been working on a paper about (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/peasants/) peasants in the Corinthian countryside for a joint APA/AIA panel at (http://aia.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10300) this years annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA. Here's the panel and the details: Session 5J: Joint AIA/APA Colloquium: Finding Peasants in Mediterranean Landscapes: New Work in Archaeology and History 1:30 p.m.4:00 p.m. Independence Ballroom Organizers: Cam Grey, University of Pennsylvania, and Kim Bowes, University of Pennsylvania 1:30 introduction (10 min.) 1:40 Producing the Peasant in the Corinthian Countryside David K. Pettegrew, Messiah College, and William Caraher, University of North Dakota (20 min.) 2:05 Placing the Peasant in Classical Athens Robin Osborne, University of Cambridge (20 min.) 2:30 Not Your Run-of-the-Mill Cereal Farmer? The Evidence from Small Rural Settlements in the Cecina valley in Northern Etruria Nicola Terrenato, University of Michigan, and Laura Motta, University of Michigan (20 min.) 2:50 Break (15 min.) 3:05 Stuffed or Starved? Evaluating Models of Roman Peasantries Robert Witcher, University of Durham (20 min.) 3:30 Excavating the Roman Peasant Kim Bowes, University of Pennsylvania (20 min.) And here's the paper: [scribd id=77226864 key=key-28gg7pjznq4t552z165t mode=list] Crossposted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick HIts</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-25/</link> Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:04:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1311 After a balmy early spring day here in North Dakotaland, we look forward to more nice weather and some harmless flurries today. Most of my archaeological friends are in Philadelphia at the Archaeological Institute of America/American Philological Association Annual Joint Meeting where it'll almost reach 50! Here we'll stay in the more polite (for the season) 30s. If you want to know how folks at the AIA/APA are holding up, follow them all through (https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23aiaapa) the Twitter hashtage #aia/apa. (And be sure to check out (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/a-paper-on-peasants/) our panel and paper !) So, despite the distracted and diminished potential readership, I offer some quick hits and varia (and a big catch up quick hits and varia, since I took last Friday off!). Lots more interesting media coverage (mostly via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus) on the North Dakota oil boom (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45806557/ns/us_newsthe_new_york_times/#.TvuTVyNWrzc) here and (http://theprairieblog.areavoices.com/2011/12/29/someone-is-going-to-die-out-on-the-roads-uphere/) here. Heisman Trophy winner (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/big12/story/2011-1013/baylor-robert-griffin-cover/50765420/1) Robert Griffin III took Latin at Baylor (via (http://rogueclassicism.com/) Rogue Classicism). (http://bwog.com/2011/12/30/an-exciting-new-intellectual-opportunity/) An interesting anthropological, classroom counterpart to our study of North Dakota Man Camps. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/science/emmett-l-bennett-jr-dies-at-93-helped-decipher-linearb.html?_r=2&amp;pagewanted=all) Obituary for Linear-B-ologist Emmet L. Bennet Jr (via Dimitri Nakassis). (http://suratlozowick.com/blog/2011/12/notational-velocity-developer-zachary-schneirov-interview/) An interview with the developer of Notational Velocity. (http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/) Now that the Dear Leader has departed, we are left only with (http://uncomfortablemomentswithputin.tumblr.com/) uncomfortable moments with Vladimir Putin. (http://prettycolors.tumblr.com/) Pretty colors. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/engine/current/match/518951.html) How about this Australia team !? (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-ofquiet.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=all) The joy of quiet (via everyone on the internets). I turn on my laptop first thing in the morning and turn it off last thing at night, but my best days are when I go on a long walk. (http://www.prairieplaces.org/merchandise/) Prairie Churches! Get this book before it goes out of print! (https://secure.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157628703260971/) Public domain WPA posters. They should sell these at the post office to, you know, raise money to keep it in business. (http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.3257&amp;search_word=latin&amp;p p=10&amp;currentPage=2&amp;current_browser_object=12) Oh, and as a bonus, Q.E.D.)

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 A pretty interesting history of Anonymous (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/anonymous101/all/1) part 1, (http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/12/anonymous-101-part-deux/all/1) part 2). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_retailers_of_the_United_States) A depressing and nostalgic list of retailers that have gone out of business. (http://chronicle.com/article/Scholarly-Reflections-on/130191/) Next week, I'll post a response to this article reflecting on scholarly blogging. What I'm reading: D. Scott, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/conscripts-of-modernity-the-tragedy-ofcolonial-enlightenment/oclc/55624555) Conscripts of Modernity. (Duke 2004). What I'm listening to: P.J. Harvey, Let England Shake. <"Spring.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/spring.jpg" border="0" alt="Spring" width="358" height="600" />

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<title>The End of the Golden Age of Academic Blogging?</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/the-end-of-the-golden-age-of-academicblogging/</link> Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:20:16 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1314 This pas week there was (http://chronicle.com/article/Scholarly-Reflections-on/130191/) an interesting article on academic blogging by Andrea Doucet in the emChronicle of Higher Education. Doucet is a "midcareer" scholar, securely tenured, at a research school who decided to take up blogging. The article reflects on her decision to begin blogging and touched on many of the common reasons for wanting to try a new medium. She wanted to expose a wider audience to her work, cultivate the reader-writer audience, and get works into the public eye in a more efficient and timely way than allowed by the traditional peer review process. These are all noble goals and are probably common to most academic bloggers right now. Where her article becomes interesting, however, is in her experiences blogging. First, she made the somewhat unusual decision to limit the length of her blogs to 1000 words. While I have to admit, a 1000 word blog post does hit a kind of sweet spot in terms of web writing (tucking in right beneath the floating "tl;dr" barrier), it is not at all cast in stone. Numerous, famous bloggers write much shorter posts or much longer posts depending on their intended audience and personal style. In fact, there is an entire culture that has grown up around (http://longreads.com/) long form writing on the web. Moreover, scholars frequently write at varying lengths. A conference paper might not exceed 2500 words, a book review 1500, an article 10,000 and a book 120,000 words. Older forms of scholarly writing, like notes, correspondences, and comments, could be less 1000 words in length, yet still contribute to ongoing scholarly discussions. Ironically, these shorter forms of writing have declined at just the time when technologies have made it issues to overcome issues of efficiency and timeliness. Next, she notes that bloggers are like hares, whereas scholars "are like tortoises" who "plod along" through their in-depth research. She goes on to describe her own struggles to write posts quickly. Moreover, she noted that her greatest challenge was to make sure that her work remained high quality and complex while still being clear and concise. I certainly sympathize with her struggle, but I wonder if the distinction between the pace of academic writing and the pace of blogging obscures the real advantages of academic writing in a blog format. Most academic bloggers combine timely commentary with their own, usually pre-existing research. In other words, blogs provide opportunities share the research produced in a plodding, thoughtful way, but, at least from my experience, rarely lead scholars to do new research. What makes academic blogs valuable is that our perspectives are grounded in the tortoise-like research. Blogging, on again, fits into well-established academic traditions such as academic conversations, comments on papers at academic conferences or panels, quick reads by colleagues, and peer reviews. This kind of writing and speaking tends to be shorter in length and less complex than an original article or book destined for peer reviewed work, require a kind of timeliness, and draw upon research expertise acquired from years of plodding. Doucet's commitment to blogging as a medium that requires simplified argument and writing perhaps derives from her expectations that blogs "implore people to read quickly, to "Like," to share, to comment." going so far to ponders whether it is "possible that the move from scholarly writing to blogging constitutes a fundamental ontological shift in who we are as writers and readers?" At this point, I must admit that I'm at a loss. I am not sure how a blog as a medium implores the reader to read quickly any more than a book or article demands careful attention. No scholar would deny that it is possible and often preferable to read articles and books quickly looking for particular ideas or arguments. At the same time, there are (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/04/do-byzantine-archaeologyconversation.html) blog posts that I read slowly, think about for weeks, and return to for inspiration. That

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being said, it is probably safe to say that blogs are read more quickly, but if authors' write quickly and simply, what is the motivation for me the reader to lavish more attention on the work? Interesting, even if we accept that blog posts reward quick reading, Doucet goes to suggest that the experience of blogging and reading blogs seems encourage a dangerous and distracting kind of immersion in the network of links connecting one posts, commentary, and idea, with one another. "When I blog, I find myself getting caught up in that web of "likes" and "tweets." On the one hand, it can feel like an exhilarating roller-coaster ride; on the other hand, it strikes me as completely and uncomfortably at odds with how my work is usually received and appreciated." This, again, strikes me as strange. After all, when I read an article, I often pay as much attention to footnotes and citations as the article's text. I frequently loose myself in the web of associations especially when fortified by a good library where it's easy to have access to a range of periodicals and books. And, while I am not a huge proponent of measuring "scholarly impact, based on citation counts, it is always gratifying to see an article cited by another scholar whose work I respect. Despite the opportunity for immersion, Doucet ultimately concludes that "blogging is fast and thin; the process of academic writing is slow and deep." This is disappointing conclusion. I have always supposed that blogging is what we as scholars make it. If we see it as a place to write quick, easy to digest notes, then I suppose the best we can hope for it providing our readers with a quick, cheap intellectual high. The best we can hope for is that blogging will be an academic gateway drug leading someone's interest toward the harder more life consuming and habit forming drug of full on academic culture. On the other hand, I'm not sure there is anything intrinsic to blogging that insists that it limit its influence and power to being a quick, superficial high. In fact, it seems like most of the criticisms Doucet offered were grounded in her approach and expectations of blogging rather than a technical limitation to the medium or the limits imposed by a strictly enforced generic standards (e.g. like academics tend to enforce on an academic book reviews or certain kinds of conference papers)./p pIn the end, Doucet's reflections made me sad. I suspect her work reflects the narrowing of the horizons of what blogging could be; expectations are becoming ossified. As any number of writers have suggested, the golden age of academic blogging may be behind us, perhaps ushered out by honest reflections like Doucet's.

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<title>Some Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Byzantine Countryside</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/some-perspectives-on-the-archaeology-ofthe-byzantine-countryside/</link> Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:06:57 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1319 Later this week, I head east to the (http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/) Dumbarton Oaks Research Library to a meeting on the state of Byzantine archaeology. This is second such meeting; the first occurred in 2010 in the spring (and Kostis Kourelis provided a useful chronicle of it (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/04/dumbarton-oaks-byzantine-archaeology-in.html) here and (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2010/04/do-byzantine-archaeology-conversation.html) here.) I was invited in 2010, but unfortunate was not able to attend. This year, however, I'll be able to make it to Washington and the organizers of the meeting have asked me to talk about the archaeology of the Byzantine countryside. I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure about the format of the meeting or the expectations people may have with regard to my contribution. I know that I have only 10 minutes to present some kind of perspectives on the archaeology of the Byzantine countryside in a panel that looks at the archaeology of the rural and the urban. After that, I suppose, we just contribute to the conversation as required. Here's my brief contribution. I've tried to avoid being too specific in the text with the feeling that with relatively little time, painting with broad brushstrokes would be more useful than a detailed - but inevitably incomplete - historiography. Any advice on its content and tone would be greatly appreciated. Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Byzantine Countryside It is difficult to emphasize how much we do not know about the Byzantine countryside. While recent work has produced an increasingly complex picture of small sections of the rural Byzantine world and textual sources have offered some perspectives on the economic and social relationships that structured rural society, there remains remarkably little data on everyday life outside the urban centers of the Byzantine world. Archaeologists, however, have some tools at their disposal to redress this. At this point, I should confess my methodological commitment to low or lower impact kinds of archaeological work which emphasize the study of surface material, remote sensing practices, and the publication or re-study of excavated assemblages to address new scholarly concerns. From a methodological perspective, low impact archaeology has found particular favor among those interested in documenting the countryside. It has generally allowed archaeologists to sample larger areas at less expense, time, and overhead associated with storage and processing of artifacts. In Greece and Cyprus they two regions where I am most familiar - work of Tim Gregory, Archie Dunn, Effie Athanasopoulos, Joanita Vroom, Marcus Rautman, Nick Kardulias, and others has begun to slowly populate the countryside with rural sites from all periods including the Byzantine. This work has begun to investigate critically categories of sites that occur faintly in our textual sources including farmsteads, hamlets, and villages. The hope has been, of course, that by documenting artifacts on the ground, often at a regional scale, we can begin to fill in the blank areas on the map between known sites in Byzantine rural areas (typically churches, monasteries, and fortifications) and urban centers. There is also hope that we can begin to describe more effectively the kinds of activities that took place in the countryside and the degree to which rural areas were integrated with urban centers or larger economic

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systems. In particular, survey archaeologists have begun to explore the complexities of the interstitial spaces which formed the fabric of the Byzantine world. Fortified by concepts like "connectivity" and the autonomy of micro-regions, made famous in Horden and Purcell's monumental work on the Mediterranean, scholar have begun to consider how the economic networks that integrate urban and rural, in fact, produce Byzantine society. If this undertaking was as simple as declaring the countryside to be the key to new perspectives on the Byzantine society, there would be very little debate surrounding the priorities for Byzantine archaeology. But, of course, it is not that simple. There is only the most superficial consensus on the difficult issue of how we define the function of rural sites and calls for genuinely siteless intensive survey methods have largely failed to sidestep the complex issue of relating past activities to specific space. Issues related to the chronology of surface assemblages have remained every bit as vexing. Even when we can identify, broadly speaking, fine wares with a fairly decent degree of consistency, coarse, cooking, and other utility wares remain difficult to recognize. Local wares, in particular, remain poorly known and coarse wares without obvious fabrics or surface treatments remain challenging to date without comparanda from local, secure stratigraphic context. Finally, there remains a host of issues related to how we sample the countryside. On a macro scale these issues relate to definitions of the region and sampling strategies that work efficiently and accurately enough to produce substantive generalizations. On a micro scale, there persist issues related to sampling artifact-rich environments in a way that represents chronology and function while at the same time preserves the advantages in efficiency of intensive survey. The general trend in survey archaeology - and some of this is the product of more restrictive attitudes toward survey from host countries - has been toward smaller areas and more intensive methods. These debates contribute directly to our ability to compare survey data across regions (or, even, in some highly surveyed areas like Boeotia or the Corinthia within the same region) to create a synthetic perspective on a singular Byzantine countryside. The work in intensive pedestrian survey often contributes explicitly to the growing interest in landscape as a synthetic term for considering the countryside. Landscape perspectives draw inspiration from a range of disciplines and partake of the so-called "spatial turn" in the humanities. From the perspective of the Byzantine countryside the study of landscapes presents a wide, if unfocused, stage for the critical interplay of texts and material culture. If survey archaeology has reduced the countryside to a set of quantifiable variables, landscape approaches have sought to emphasize the range of experiences crucial to articulating meaning within rural space. For example, elusive media like memory and ritual - preserved in hagiography, architecture, art, and epigraphy grounded Byzantine spirituality in the real countryside and produced recoverable religious landscapes. Landscape perspectives tempt scholars to expand discussions of land tenure, taxation, and production to considerations of kinship, administration, resistance, and control. Economic relationships become roads, paths, and travel through the countryside, and offer human-scaled alternatives to our cartographic perspective of regions, places, and Byzantine rural space. This kind of work has just begun to expand how we see countryside from being largely in economic terms, to being a space where religion, economy, politics, kinship, and connectivity all interact. As one scholar has recently observed, the Byzantine countryside is ripe for reconceptualization as a kind of "third space" that challenges the traditional assumptions about the urban - rural dichotomy, relationships grounded in modern conceptions of production, and cartographic perspectives of the countryside that occlude the complexities of the countryside as lived space.

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From my perspective, landscape approaches and the methods associated with intensive pedestrian survey offer tools that will allow us to gently decenter the urban focus of Byzantine culture. At present, however, these techniques for interrogating and documenting the countryside have remained on the margins of Byzantine studies. Recent synthetic and survey works have spent little time considering rural life in Byzantine, in general, and periodicals that focus on the Byzantine period rarely feature articles related to this kind of fieldwork. Moreover, with a few prominent exceptions, Byzantine archaeologists have remained on the sidelines during the theoretical and methodological discussions central to these new methods. The skills central to survey and landscape approaches - facility in relational databases, Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing technologies remain comparatively rare among Byzantine archaeologists who tend not to be as fluent in methodologies and debates grounded in world archaeology, archaeological sciences, and a more diachronic approach to Mediterranean fieldwork. The resulting absence of a sustained interest in the methods and results of archaeology in the countryside in synthetic works on Byzantine history and the relative detachment of Byzantine archaeology from larger methodological and theoretical debates has made it more difficult for Byzantine archaeologists to secure resources necessary within our discipline or from outside our discipline to design large scale projects or to gain leadership in regional scale projects. If these methods and approaches do have something to offer the archaeology of the countryside, Byzantine archaeology remains on the outside looking in.

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<title>Students and Violence in Late Antique Athens</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/11/students-and-violence-in-late-antiqueathens/</link> Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:33:17 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1324 It was a real pleasure to see (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/) Dallas DeForest 's article in the most recent volume of the (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_late_antiquity/toc/jla.4.2.html) Journal of Late Antiquity : "Between Mysteries and Factions: Initiation Rituals, Student Groups, and Violence in the Schools of Late Antique Athens." Dallas is not only a stalwart participant in the (http://www.pkap.org/) Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project, but also a fellow University of Richmond alumnus and (so to be) Ohio State Ph.D. So we have significant ties from our own student days, which I am happy to report were somewhat less fraught than those he describes in Late Antique Athens (but only somewhat as anyone who has been on High Street after an Ohio State football victory knows). It is also worth pointing out that (http://www2.carleton.ca/chum/people/greg-fisher) Greg Fisher, a PKAP alumnus from the very early days of our project, also has an article in this volume. One of the best things about being involved in an archaeological project is the chance for professional and social networks to intersect. Dallas's article identified three major elements to student life in 4th and 5th century Athens. First, he looks at the fragmentary evidence for initiation rituals which appear to include kidnapping, psychological and physical hazing, a ritual bath, and a feast before the prospective student becomes a member of the student group surrounding a particular philosopher or teacher of rhetoric in the most famous ancient university town. It is remarkable to imagine these brilliant late sophists (Prohaeresius, for example!) sanctioning the kidnapping of prospective students the moment they step off the ship at Piraeus, but this practice was apparently so widespread that students must have expected it. Once the student was among the initiated, he entered a cohesive, hierarchical world centered on the teacher. Students held different ranks and certain charismatic individuals appear to have had leadership positions among their fellow students. From these positions they likely organized the violence that was increasingly part of student life. In most cases, the violence seems to have remained at the level of pranks designed to embarrass rival teachers and their students. It could, however, become more serious. Dallas describes the clash between students of Prohaeresius and Apsines which landed many of the students and their teachers in the court of the governor of Achaea in Corinth. Apparently, such violence was a sufficiently recognized part of student life, that certain confident participants in Athenian student life regretted never being allowed to demonstrate their eloquence in the governor's court. Dallas provides a few tantalizing and speculative glimpses of the wider implications of his view of Athenian student life. Of course, the role that the baths play in initiation rites is hardly surprising, but nevertheless has clear parallels with Christian baptism (or the initiating rites associated with any number of Late Antique pagan mysteries). While Dallas does not go this far, he does recognize that the violence in Athens parallels the violent world of Late Antique cities and noted that student violence or violence between well organized groups might help explain how conflicts between pagans and Christians (or Circus factions) could escalate so rapidly. By linking together initiation, group cohesion and violence, Dallas begins to unpack the complex social world of Late Antique urban life and make clear how these social relations allowed sectarian violence to escalate into such destructive rampages as the Nika Revolt in Constantinople or the burning of the Sarapeion in Alexandria. The interest in Late Antique urbanism almost certainly reflects the influence of Tim Gregory, Dallas's (and my) advisor. Gregory's first book, (http://www.ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?/books/book%20pages/gregory%20vox.htm) Vox Populi:

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Violence and Popular Involvement in the Religious Controversies of the Fifth Century A.D., looked at urban, religious violence in Constantinople in the 6th century. Both focused on the social conditions that might create such violence in Late Antique cities and how the emergence of new groups in Late Antiquity - heresies, student groups, Circus factions, et c. - fortified by new practices designed to ensure loyalty and cohesion could create conditions for more serious confrontations. So, as another semester gets underway, it was strangely comforting to read about the hazing and rituals surrounding academic life in Late Antiquity. I am grateful not to have to organize my most loyal students to kidnap prospective undergraduate majors or graduate students. I am also pleased enough that violence between student groups largely remains confined the gridiron and hockey rink. How's that for a saccharine reflection to start your semester? Yeah, our life is better because we don't have kidnap students to get majors.

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<title>Teaching Thursday Redirect</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/teaching-thursday-redirect/</link> Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:45:42 +0000 http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1330 For those of you wondering where my blog post is today, I am traveling to (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/some-perspectives-on-the-archaeology-of-thebyzantine-countryside/) Washington, D.C. for a conference. But don't be too disappointed, follow (http://teachingthursday.org/2012/01/12/its-all-about-the-brain-stupid/) this link to the first Teaching Thursday of the new semester ! And I'll be back tomorrow for my Friday Varia and Quick hits.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-26/</link> Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:01:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1332 It's a varia and quick hits from the road. It was close to 60 degrees in our nation's capital yesterday, but today it supposed to be a far more North Dakota-like mid-30s. I'm actually glad because I worried I might melt. So a small gaggle of varia and quick hits to wrap up the week: (http://paperlessarchaeology.com/2012/01/10/digital-session-at-the-aia/) Brief notes on the digital session at the Archaeological Institute of America meetings this past weekend. (http://www.historianstv.com/conference/meeting_2012/) Tony Grafton on digital history and the American Historical Association. (http://mattgemmell.com/2012/01/07/comments-commentary/) Some thoughts on blogging with comments and without. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/science/space/a-push-for-historic-preservation-on-themoon.html?_r=3&amp;partner=rss&amp;emc=rss) Some more space archaeology (via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus). (http://www.pruitt-igoe.com/the-film/) The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. (also via Richard Rothaus) (http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/346661/) What happens to a town when almost everyone leaves and the waters of Devil's Lake rise. (http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/real-world-digital-world/) A reference to Actor Network Theory in tech journalism. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/engine/current/match/518952.html) Rough day for Indian Cricket. How about David Warner? If you haven't, check out (http://teachingthursday.org/2012/01/12/its-all-about-the-brain-stupid/) our first Teaching Thursday of the new semester. What I'm reading: R.G. Collingwood, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-of-history/oclc/392272) The Idea of History. (Oxford 1946). What I'm listening to: Dengue Fever, Cannibal Courtship and Venus on Earth.<wp:post_id>1332</wp:post_id>

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<title>Byzantine Archaeology: A Marginal Practice</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/byzantine-archaeology-a-marginalpractice/</link> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:14:21 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1337 I returned yesterday from an interesting meeting on the future of Byzantine archaeology (mostly in the US) hosted by (http://www.doaks.org/) Dumbarton Oaks and the (http://caorc.org/) Council for American Overseas Research Centers. The meeting focused on pressing issues in the health of Byzantine archaeology in the US and the role that the AORCs (American Overseas Research Centers) could play in future development of the field. The meeting had a strong contingent of representatives of various AORCs which support research ranging from archaeology to the social sciences and humanities and rarely focus on one field in particular. Along with representatives of the AORCs and Dumbarton Oaks, there was a range of scholars who represented Byzantine archaeology across various regions, institutions, and sub-periods. The conversation was brisk, if a bit unfocused (wide ranging?), and to my mind, squarely underscored the position of Byzantine archaeology at a variety of margins and fissures in the historical, academic, and institutional world. 1. Byzantine archaeology was certainly marginal in relation to the AORCs represented - even those like the American Academy at Rome, Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, or the American School of Classical Studies at Athens which have a tradition of supporting archaeology. A handful of students, grants, and projects relate to Byzantine archaeology at most of these AORCs, and while there was enthusiasm for supporting more Byzantine archaeological work (and even a rise in the number of projects that could be qualified as such), it was unclear where the resources would come from the support these projects. Many of even the better funded AORCs have significant financial limitations. 2. Byzantine archaeology was also marginal in the institutional structure of US graduate programs. From what I could gather, none of the US based scholars in the room taught in a graduate program in archaeology. Instead, we hailed from history, classics, art history, and religious studies programs. As result, we often found our methods, research questions, and resources limited by the support and emphases present in the disciplinary centers to which Byzantine archaeology has attached itself. This marginal location has made it more difficult for Byzantine archaeology to articulate itself as a particular subfield, forge contacts with archaeologists of other time periods and regions, and train students. This, of course, has made it difficult for us to develop institutional support for projects and to reproduce our field. Moreover, it has fragmented the conversation on Byzantine archaeology and has, I think, put us in a position of disciplinary insecurity. There were some significant statements regarding the relationship between archaeology and "history" or "philology" at the meeting. It was clear that we recognized ourself as being separate from these fields (disciplines? methods? approaches?) and some scholars present even postured in an adversarial way at times, but what was less clear was how Byzantine archaeology was different and whether its lack of distinctive disciplinary status was a good or bad thing for the future of the Byzantine archaeology project in an increasingly postdisciplinary world. 3. The marginal status of Byzantine archaeology at many of the AORCs represented paralleled the often marginal status of Byzantine monuments (and the interest in Byzantine archaeology) among the host countries where we have to do our work. Problematic reconstructions, neglect, lack of well-trained practitioners in host countries, and difficult national archaeological policies were all topics of discussion at the meeting. The marginal position of Byzantine archaeology in both (some) national narratives and the relatively obscure or exceedingly prominent (like in the case of the land walls of Constantinople) status of Byzantine

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monuments provided challenges for Byzantine archaeologists - marginalized in a disciplinary sense and in relation to their host countries - to convert their priorities into national policies and actions. 4. Finally, it was striking how marginal the conversation this weekend was in relation to larger discussions in the discipline of archaeology. Aside from a few comments scattered in a range of papers, the discussion did little to leverage the growing body of scholarship on issues like indigenous archaeology, public archaeology, and other practices emphasized in "world archaeology" as method to articulate the tension between archaeological epistemologies and the "real (political, economic, cultural, and religious) world" where archaeological practices takes place. The discursive isolation from the terminology of world archaeology again places Byzantine archaeology at the margins of its disciplinary home. Certainly some of this is a result of the institutional isolation in which most Byzantine archaeologists work. Kostis Kourelis final remarks on the presentations and conversation at the conference asked important questions about the institutional engagement of Byzantine archaeology and urged us as practitioners to regard our professional position in a critical way. In particular, he evoked Bruce Triggers well known statement that all archaeology is either nationalist or imperialist. While that may hold true, I do wonder whether the marginal position of Byzantine archaeology locates the field in a place where it can escape this dichotomy in some way. For example, the lack of disciplinary entanglements frees it from a rigorous commitment to the kind of empiricism lies at the core of the institutional organization of the university. If one motivation for a postdisciplinary world is to escape from the complex legacy embedded within the institutional memory and organization of the modern university, then the distinct position of Byzantine archaeology at the margins gives it remarkable freedom to chose its methodological, epistemological, and institutional alliances carefully and critically. As E. Said has shown us in Orientalism, institutions carry forward the legacies of national and imperialist practices and have the remarkable ability to remain impervious to critique. As outsiders, like Said, Byzantine archaeologists have the ability to challenge presuppositions embedded deeply in disciplinary and institutional practices. This privileged position for Byzantine archaeology is not without risks, of course. As a number of the speakers made clear, we have often found it necessary to "game" the system which is reluctant to fund projects from the margins that may challenge long held attitudes toward the organization of knowledge. While this is frustrating and limiting, it does, however, limit the entanglements and commitments Byzantine archaeology has to any one ideology, method, or epistemology. Part of what I felt coming out of this meeting was a sense of community forming at the margins. I think we're a ways from challenging institutional attitudes and epistemologies, but a community of like-minded, critical, independent, scholars is an important first step to carving out space for resistance and change that extends far beyond the confines of our fields or our discipline. We just now have to have the courage. 2pm: Welcomes by Jan Ziolkowski and Margaret Mullett 2.15: Mary Ellen Lane (CAORC), Problems and possible solutions I: ACHIEVEMENTS AND ASPIRATIONS chair: Margaret Mullett This session will highlight the major contributions to Byzantine archaeology of the AORCs, discuss what AORCs can and cannot do, and identify the needs of the next generation: discussion will be led by representatives of the Centers or by researchers in the countries of AORCS, and will touch on Byz projects, longer all-period sites/surveys, and publications, by Centers and by others. We expect a wide range of approaches to the issues. 2.30-4.00: Discussion of achievements in Turkey (Tony Greenwood), Israel/Jordan/Palestine (Jodi Magness), Cyprus (Andrew McCarthy), Egypt (Michael Jones) 4.00-4.30: Tea

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5.00-6.30: Discussion of achievements in the Maghrib (Nacera Benseddik) Italy (Richard Hodges) Greece (Guy Sanders), Bulgaria (Todor Petev) 6.30: Commentary by Michael Jones, What I would do if I could and discussion 7.00 for 7.30 Dinner in the Refectory Saturday 14 January II: BYZANTINE ARCHAEOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGIES AND THE ACADEMY chair: Joanne Pillsbury (to confirm) This session will open discussion on what Byzantine archaeology has achieved as against other archaeologies, and what is the place of archaeology in the multi-disciplinary subject of Byzantine Studies. The purpose of these sessions will be, for each separate section, to open a discussion comparing what Byzantine archaeology has done/does with what other archaeologies do; what can Byzantinists learn, and vice versa? How does information presented by archaeology enrich/inform the study of the same topics by scholars working exclusively in other disciplines (philology, history, art history, religious studies, etc.) How can broadening our approach to the field through alliances with the social and medical sciences stimulate planning for funding or strategic thinking? And what has been the contribution of the AORCs and what can it be in future? 9.00: Susan Alcock, Archaeology games the Academy

9.15:

Discussion of Landscapes and Cityscapes, led by Bill Caraher and Scott Redford

10.30: Coffee 11.00: Discussion of Cultural Heritage, and Site Management Conservation, led by Bob Ousterhout and Brian Rose 12.15: Lunch 1.30: 2.45: 3.30: Discussion of Transitions, led by Jodi Magness and Florin Curta Commentary by Kostis Kourelis and discussion Tea

III BYZANTINE ARCHAEOLOGY AND ITS SOURCES OF FUNDING chair: Nancy Micklewright (Freer-Sackler) What governmental/corporate/private sources might support an integrated approach to Byzantine archaeology or discrete needs (NSF, Social Science funding, Luce Foundation, Packard Foundation, Mellon etc.) How can these funding sources partner with established research centers to support the field of Byzantine archaeology? How can we attract seed money for the establishment of positions in Byzantine archaeology? How can Byzantine archaeology be better integrated into diachronic archaeological projects? What specific activities need cross-Center funding? 4.00 4.10 4.40 The issues and a proposed application: Mary Ellen Lane Breakout groups Reports and discussion

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5.00 5.30

The Way Forward: Mary Ellen Lane, Margaret Mullett Reception in the Byzantine Courtyard

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<title>Program for the Conversations on Byzantine Archaeology II</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/17/program-for-the-conversations-onbyzantine-archaeology-ii/</link> Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:28:45 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1340 A few people privately and publicly have asked that I post the program for the Conversations on Byzantine Archaeology meeting this past weekend. I hadn't realized that the program was not public, but it obviously should have been. Hopefully, the comment threads in blogs like this can continue the conversation beyond the meeting. In particular, I suspect that conversations like the one held this past weekend should resolve rather quickly into action. The last conversation, for example, inspired me and Kostis Kourelis to begin work on an edited volume that focused on the intersection of Byzantine archaeology, method, and theory. This year's conversation focused less (it would seem) on the work of Byzantine archaeology and more on the location of Byzantine archaeology at the margins of complex institutional concerns. It perhaps should follow that some kind of action focusing on the marginal and scattered positions of Byzantine archaeology should result. In short, how do we maximize the benefits of standing outside of so many institutional structures. The risks of our position are obvious: I know that I am often comfortable sitting back and waiting for institutions to show value and support for my work. This kind of apathy or more positively (as Nikos put it in a comment on yesterday's post) our "deliberate stance" outside disciplinary structures, could lead our field to wither as tenuous, largely personal networks of scholarly contact succumb to institutional pressures and our dispersed positions rob us of the ability for concerted actions. On the other hand, digital media and the internet provide a space for conversation and action outside of traditional institutional structures. It might make sense for the next conversation on Byzantine archaeology to happen in a series of blog posts or via social media. A recent conversation on blogging archaeology moved almost seamlessly from a panel at the Society for American Archaeology to myriad blogs across the interwebs, to Colleen Morgan's blog (http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/) Middle Savagery (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/more-on-academic-publishing-and-blogs/) here are my concluding remarks with links to Colleen's summaries) and is heading to publication. I was happy to learn that some of my colleagues - many of whom I had never met - read this blog, so I am pleased enough to offer a little space for informal organization and conversation. As most people know, the internet has come increasingly to provide a place for conversations that skirt institutional authority. So, I am willing to offer my blog as a place for people to post their reflections on the place of Byzantine archaeology in the academy (if you do not have a blog of your own!). If the statements are substantial enough, we could look for someplace to submit them for publication or at least self-publish them as a small volume. Oh, here's the program. [scribd id=78516192 key=key-wiwxgcbx79t0y49zamv mode=list]

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<title>SOPA, Blogging, and Scholarship</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/sopa-blogging-and-scholarship/</link> Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:02:37 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1348 I feel like I probably should do something to recognize the potential damage that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) could have on the free circulation of information and knowledge via scholarly blogging. A few months ago when the threat seemed a bit more distant, (http://www.alexandriaarchive.org/blog/?p=832) Eric Kansa offered some observations on the legislation. (https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/) Here's Google's take on it. (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipawhat-you-need-to-know/) Here's a more generic take by CBS News. (http://gizmodo.com/5877000/whatis-sopa) Here's Gizmodo's take (http://gizmodo.com/5877090/the-day-the-lolcats-died-the-ultimate-sopaprotest-song) and a silly song). The biggest concern with an act like SOPA isn't that bloggers will start being dragged from their laptops and thrown into rat-infested jails, but that the infrastructure (companies like (http://wordpress.com/#!/fresh/) Wordpress.com or even universities or companies that provide server space) that supports blogging (for scholarly and, indeed, other untoward purposes) could suddenly become liable for copyright infringements by their users. While I'm in a business that relies, to a large extent, on a profession and largely unpoliced respect for copyright, I also depend regularly on the free circulation of information through the good graces of numerous highly risk-adverse institutions. As Eric has pointed out, universities and libraries seek to implement policies that minimize risk particularly in these difficult financial times. The harsh penalties and expansive view of liability proposed by SOPA would have real implications for those of us seeking to discuss, circulate, and archive copyright information on the web as universities and libraries work to limit their exposure to the vague rules and harsh penalties. While it is unclear how significant the support for this legislation is, several sites on the web are taking it seriously enough to stage a protest. The open web has made my life better. I am not particularly afraid of SOPA passing, but I do think that bloggers should join the chorus of voices who support the open web against organizations and corporations who seek to curtail the free circulation of information to protect the interests of a small group of content producers. In fact, as most scholars' livelihood depends upon respect for intellectual property, it is particularly important for the academic community to speak out when possible to show that rigorous protection of intellectual property and the free circulation of information are not mutually exclusive propositions. <"SOPAWikipedia.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/sopawikipedia.jpg" alt="SOPAWikipedia" width="450" height="304" border="0" /> <"WordPress.com Your Blogging Home.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/wordpress-com-e28094-your-blogginghome.jpg" alt="WordPress com Your Blogging Home" width="450" height="444" border="0" /> <"boingboing.net.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/boingboing-net_.jpg" alt="Boingboing net" width="450" height="259" border="0" /> <"Google.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/google.jpg" alt="Google" width="450" height="256" border="0" /> <"mozillasopa.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/mozillasopa1.jpg" alt="Mozillasopa" width="450" height="257" border="0" />

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<title>Teaching Thursday: Reflective Writing</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/reflective-writing/</link> Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:26:30 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1359 The great philosopher of history, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-of-history/oclc/392272) R.G. Collingwood, famously argued that all history is the history of thought. In Collingwood's estimation, the historian re-enacts that past in his (for Collingwood, the historian was always a "he") own mind when he reads a historical text or studies objects from the past. While rethinking the thoughts of the actors who participated in a past event, the historian is aware and critical of his own thinking about the past. This critical practice distinguished "the best kind of historian" from other people who make it a habit of merely assembling evidence into an orderly presentation and passing it off as some kind of objective or impartial truth. Collingwood saw the ability and responsibility of historians to think past thoughts as key to the role history plays in the production of human knowledge. In fact, he argued that history was the only discipline that produced human self-knowledge. While his arguments for the autonomy of history have not received universal acceptance, Collingwood has contributed to how I think about reflective writing in the classroom. Over the course of expounding his larger argument, Collingwood noted in an offhand way that when he reads something he wrote days before, he acts the part of the historian by reflecting on his own writing and using it to reconstruct a past thought. This was a helpful idea to me as I sat down to struggle with constructing assignments for my graduate historiography seminar. Graduate historiography is a required course for all M.A., D.A., and Ph.D. students in history in our department. Generally, the course elicits a kind of exaggerated dread because it is designed to force students to examine their assumptions and practices as historians. In general, historians regard an ability to recognize one's own disciplinary, historical, and social assumptions about the past as a crucial step in a student's development in the profession. The course, then, insists that students reflect and own up to their own position in relation to the process and methods of historical thinking. Reflective writing has become an important part of encouraging students to write and think about a text, situation, or body of material. Generally, the practice has allowed students a certain amount of latitude in how they approach a subject and has sought to instill confidence in students by recognizing the authenticity of their own engagement with material. This goals of reflective writing are particularly suitable for my graduate historiography class where I introduce the students to any number of challenging texts and push them to embrace often uncomfortable critiques leveled against longstanding academic practices. This can be, as you might imagine, a difficult task as the students tend to resist the most critical challenges to traditional historical practices. To allow students to engage these critiques in a safe place, I require reflective essays each week that respond to the readings assigned. These then become, to some extent, the basis for our discussion in the seminar. Traditionally, graduate historiography seminars require students to, say, write a few critical book reviews and perhaps write a longer paper on a particular aspect of historical practice (e.g. women's history, microhistory, Marxist history, et c.). These are boring things to read and largely reproduce the kind of exercises that students write in their other graduate history courses. On the one hand, historical works tend to be boring, so having students write boring assignments does not make them less useful. And, using an assignment in a graduate historiography class to reinforce skills developed elsewhere in the program can be a good thing. Increasingly, however, I want my graduate historiography seminar to encourage students to engage critically and reflectively with difficult ideas. So, in the spirit of Collingwood, I ask my students to take their reflective writing, compile it into an archive, and to write a historical paper based that uses these reflective texts as "primary sources". The goal is, of

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course, to get the students to think about how they thought about writing history. In Collingwoodian terms, I am asking the students to re-enact, critically, their own learning process. In other words, it's an effort to close the loop. Crossposted to (http://teachingthursday.org/) Teaching Thursday.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-27/</link> Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:36:26 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1363 Winter is here, I think. The high yesterday was 0 (and the low was -16). That was pretty cold. The air in buildings is so dry and no amount of water can keep you hydrated. It's like working in a desert (but it's a dry cold). But, the show must go on here in North Dakotaland! Some varia and quick hits: Can you summarize your research in a tweet? Check out the efforts of graduate students around the work to Tweet their thesis (https://twitter.com/#%21/search/%23tweetyourthesis) #tweetyourthesis). In related news, (http://www.jmir.org/2011/4/e123/) scholarly articles that are tweeted are more likely the be cited. But (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/every-year-jstor-turns-away-150-millionattempts-to-read-journal-articles/251382/) Jstor turns away over 150 million users a year and now they're beginning to explore ways to monetize that. (http://www.jmir.org/2011/4/e123/) Virtual space and learning (a literature review). (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/01/18/corinthian-scholarship-november-2/) David Pettegrew's Corinthian Scholarship in December. (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/01/19/bakken-oil-issues-and-law-enforcement-concerns/) Some more assorted things on the Bakken oil formation, Western North Dakota, and law enforcement. I think it's pretty cool that (http://www.williamsf1.com/) Williams F1 always has Ayrton Senna's double Ss on their car somewhere. And it's a good story that there will be a Senna in a Williams again. I've complained that recent efforts to shape (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/thearchitecture-of-learning/) university learning and (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/making-the-professional-office/) research space at UND have followed paradigms established in industrial era (rather than our own information era). (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/12/29.html) I like the new Fog Creek offices. Perhaps they are not ideal for academic work space, but they offer a different perspective from the open-plan, foosballtable equipped, internet start-up office. (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/226709/publisher_ID/40/) The UND Honors Program turns 50. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan-v-england-2012/engine/current/match/531628.html) Whoa! What happened here? Cricket in Pakistan has had a rough year. This is a great story. (http://www2.und.edu/our/uletter/?p=22164) We rock. (http://video.pbs.org/video/2186238785) Arcade Fire at Austin City Limits.

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 What I'm reading: M. N. Michael, et al., (http://www.worldcat.org/title/ottoman-cyprus-a-collection-ofstudies-on-history-and-culture/oclc/320198165) Ottoman Cyprus: A collection of studies on history and culture. (Wiesbaden, 2009). What I'm listening to: Peter Gabriel, New Blood; So.<wp:post_id>1363</wp:post_id>

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<title>Collaboration and Work Camps out West</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/collaboration-and-work-camps-outwest/</link> Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:00:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1368 Earlier this month, we found out that our Vice President for Research funded (http://www2.und.edu/our/uletter/?p=22164) a collaborative seed grant for a preliminary, transdisciplinary study of work camps and social change in the oil producing counties in western North Dakota. This relatively modest grant will fund a range of initiatives for a range of scholars from Social Work, Indian Studies, Anthropology, and History. (See below for a copy of our research proposal.) As readers of this blog know, my contribution to this interdisciplinary party, is (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) an archaeology of work camps. Last week, we had our first meeting as a team and it was exciting to see what the various collaborators could bring to the table and the challenges that working on this environment would entail: 1. Common vocabulary. One of the most interesting things about our team is that we appear to have some basic shared theoretical assumptions ranging from an understanding of a core-periphery model for the study of resource extraction in boom/bust environments, to an appreciation of the value of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_action_research) participant action research (PAR) and a commitment to the integration of both "indigenous" (broadly defined) and "etic" perspectives. Despite these common intellectual spaces, we do not share a common vocabulary for discussing how we will approach gathering and organizing data from the western part of the state. It is probably not necessary to standardize our theoretical and methodological vocabulary across the entire team, but some kind of concordance would facilitate communication. 2. Perspectives on the Oil Boom. One of the most interesting conversations we had at our first meeting was how to characterize the experiences the oil boom. On the one hand, the challenges facing these western communities are pretty well known (in fact, (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/01/19/bakken-oil-issuesand-law-enforcement-concerns/) this list has gone viral over the past five days; but note well: (http://www.facebook.com/notes/plains-folk/checking-sources/10150564060264841) its authenticity is under review.). But, as one archaeologist who has worked out west a good bit over the past few years remarked: it's nice to work out there because 'everyone' is making money, so 'everyone' is happy. It is clear that ironic edge to most media reporting has emphasized the negative impact of the sudden prosperity experienced by these counties (with echoes of such great documentary studies as (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies) The Beverly Hillbillies). On the other hand, some people have benefited from the oil boom and emphasizing the challenges of the boom as more significant than its benefits will not necessarily be consistent with the experience of participants. 3. Longitudinal Perspectives. Research into the social impact of the North Dakota oil boom has just started in earnest, but the boom itself is at least three years old. As researchers, we are going to insert ourselves into an event that is already underway. While certain kinds of "base line data" are available from state and local agencies, the so-called (http://www.bakkenblog.com/) Bakken counties attracted very little sustained humanistic research interest prior to the oil boom. As a result, it will be challenging to document in a longitudinal way the experiences of individuals in this region. The nostalgia tinged media reports from the counties are already showing signs that local residents are harkening back to a romantic view of the past. While it is vital to give voice to these perspective on the boom, we should keep them in the context of the recent, dramatic changes to the area.

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4. Logistics. When telling people of our project one of the first things they tell us is that it is impossible to work in the western counties. The litany of reasons begins slow - there are no hotel rooms or they are only available at exorbitant prices ($600 for a room at a Hotel 6!!) - and get more dire - 2, 3, and 4 hour traffic jams, empty Wallmart shelves, no toilet paper for 300 miles, and drunken mobs roaming the countryside. These admonitions finally culminate with a series of insane statements like entire counties are closed to traffic (echoes of the candid camera "Delaware is Closed Today" episode), food shortages, and flesh-eating, undead zombies released by (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing) fracking. When sanity returns, we have to accept that doing work out west will be challenging. Basic services are pushed to the limits, many local officials are already experiencing "interview fatigue", and we want to avoid being seen as part of the problem. On the other hand, it is interesting to realize that our own experiences in these areas as researchers will not differ radically from the experiences of individuals who have come from other places to work in this area and live in these communities. More on my contributions to our research goals later in the week. Here's our grant proposal: [scribd id=79091239 key=key-lo8tz4y20acpzhk0rmu mode=list]

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<title>The Death of the Research Paper</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/the-death-of-the-research-paper/</link> Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:09:49 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1385 The poor, benighted research paper. Once the crown jewel of an undergraduate education (a proud little brother to the thesis and dissertation), it is now under attach from both sides. Works like (http://www.worldcat.org/title/academically-adrift-limited-learning-on-college-campuses/oclc/587209637) Arum and Roksa's Academically Adrift have attempted to show that the decline in longer writing assignments and research papers has demonstrable, negative affects on student learning. In their work, the research paper is largely synonymous with sustained rigor in the university classroom. On the other hand, there is a growing chorus of scholars arguing that the research paper no longer represents a meaningful exercise for students. In their arguments, research papers encourage outmoded forms of expression characterized by stilted writing, hours of pointless research, and long form arguments which have very limited applicability in the "real world". Moreover, even if we accept that some good comes from long-from research papers, we rarely have a system for sharing research papers (even those worth sharing) so the design of these works ensure that they have almost no real world impact. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/muscling-in-on-the-term-papertradition.html?_r=1&amp;pagewanted=all) A recent article in the New York Times (h/t Kostis Kourelis) has argued for blogs or some kind of public writing should replace term papers. (http://www.amazon.com/Now-You-See-Attention-Transform/dp/0670022829/) Cathy Davidson, a professor at Duke, has suggested that the formal, mechanistic writing that typifies research papers, serves as "a real disincentive to creative but untrained writers." The research supported in Academically Adrift as well as some research cites in the NYT article points out that high school students, even those at such highpowered institutions as Duke, rarely write long form research papers. Davidson goes on to suggest that term paper writing tends to replace reading and with less reading, the term paper becomes more of a frustrating writerly exercise and less of a opportunity to compose a substantial, long form argument ground in the relative mastery of a body of information. Shorter, more focused blog posts, she suggests provide an opportunity for students to compose sophisticated, highly focused, writing, but without the time-sapping complexities and formalities associated with typical research papers. As you might expect, this position has critics who argue that writing blogs or shorter, public forms of writing will not replace the skills gained through enduring more complex and formal written work and, in fact, we need to start to introduce longform writing earlier in a student's career and certainly before the university level. Of course, these arguments are of significant interest to me as not only do I blog, but I also teach both the undergraduate methods course as well as one of two required graduate courses in history. As (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/reflective-writing/) I explained in a post last week, I have moved away from traditional academic writing in my graduate historiography course in large part because I found this kind of work torturous to read, and I felt that it detracted time and attention from the close engagement with complex texts. In my undergraduate methods class, I've moved from requiring a 1015 page research paper to a 3-5 page prospectus for a longer research paper, in part to give students more time to do focused research on a particular topic and to focus their writing energies on a shorter, but presumably well-honed text. Finally, I am looking forward to teaching my first graduate research seminar in the Fall of 2012. It will be a seminar on world history focusing on landscapes. Traditionally, these research seminars produce a 20-30 page paper over the course of a semester. The pace of doing research, particularly, in an new area or employing a new method, can be brutal. In fact, I can't imagine doing the required research and writing a paper in less than 20 weeks. So I'm on the lookout for a solution to this problem. Traditional historiographical essay or

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even writing a prospectus does not seem appealing to me. These forms of writing are useful exercises for undergraduates when they can have a kind of naive charm, but for graduate students they can often become utterly charmless slogs through piles of scholarship with little creativity and few insights. Perhaps a series of shorter (3 page?), case-study like papers that focus more closely on particular texts, techniques, theoretical positions, and even, in some way, historiography will liberate even the graduate seminar from the research paper induced malaise.

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<title>A Faculty Salary: A Historical Case Study</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/a-faculty-salary-a-historical-casestudy/</link> Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:04:42 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1390 Over the past weekend, during my downtime, I started going through (http://webapp.und.edu/dept/library/Collections/robinson/) Professor Elwyn Robinson's memoirs (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/category/elwyn-robinsons-autobiography/) for more on this project look at these posts) and pulling out financial data. Robinson recorded various bits of financial information in relatively fine detail. For example, I know that a refrigerator in 1941 could cost $60, a used piano would run you around $255 in 1945, and a 1949 Studabaker Champion would run just a bit over $2000. More interesting, of course, are these numbers in relation to Prof. Robinson's salary. He was hired at the University of North Dakota for the princely sum of $1400 a year. By 1951, he earned $5000 a year. While this is an impressive increase in annual earning, comparing it to historic consumer price index figures shows that Robinson's actual earning power remained relatively level. <"RobinsonSalary.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/robinsonsalary.jpg" border="0" alt="RobinsonSalary" width="362" height="218" /> <"RobinsonSalaryCPI.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/robinsonsalarycpi.jpg" border="0" alt="RobinsonSalaryCPI" width="364" height="216" /> At the same time, Robinson consistently takes pride in his salary increases each year and recognized them to be a product of his hard work and the popularity of initiatives like his "Heroes of Dakota" radio broadcasts. It is also striking that when adjusted against the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_price_index) Consumer Price Index for 2011 (itself a problematic measure), Robinson's salary remained lower than the average salary for UND faculty (even in the humanities) for the first 15 years of his career on campus. It is also interesting to see that some years where his salary increased, the actual purchase power of his salary, in fact, decreased (e.g. 1944-1947). Over the next few months, in my spare moments, I hope to collect all the major financial and economic data from Robinson's memoirs and think about how I could present this information in a graphically engaging way.

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<title>Teaching Graduate Historiography: A Final Syllabus Redux</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/teaching-graduate-historiography-a-finalsyllabus-redux/</link> Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:21:01 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1394 Every Spring for the past 6 years, I've taught the graduate historiography seminar at the University of North Dakota. The course is required for all of our history graduate students (M.A., D.A. or Ph.D.) and, for reasons a bit elusive to me, generally dreaded. Every year, I tweak the syllabus a bit as much to keep my own sanity as to improve the course. For whatever reason, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/teaching-graduatehistoriography-a-final-syllabus/) my first post on this class is one of the most viewed posts on my blog. So here is the 2012 updated version: Week 1: Introduction: What is History? Part 1: Introduction to Historiography Week 2: Introduction to Historiography 1 R. G. Collingwood, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/idea-of-history/oclc/392272) The Idea of History. Oxford 1946. Week 3: An Introduction to Historiography 2 E. Breisach. (http://www.worldcat.org/title/historiography-ancient-medieval-and-modern/oclc/237146966) Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern. 3rd edition. Chicago 2007. 1-261. Week 4: Introduction to Historiography 3 E. Breisach. (http://www.worldcat.org/title/historiography-ancient-medieval-and-modern/oclc/237146966) Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern. 3rd edition. Chicago 2007. 261-430. Part 2: Critical Issues in 20th Century Historiography Week 5: History and Memory P. Connerton, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/how-societies-remember/oclc/19517916) How Societies Remember. Cambridge 1989. P. Nora, (http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/89NoraLieuxIntroRepresentations.pd f) Between Memory and History: Les Lieux de Memoire Representations 26 (1989), 7-24. K. L. Klein, (http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/00KleinMemoryHistDiscourseRep.pd f) On the Emergence of Memory in the Historical Discourse, Representations 69 (2000), 127-150. Week 6: History and Marx E. P. Thompson, (http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~salaff/Thompson.pdf) Time, Work-Discipline and Industrial Capitalism, Past and Present 38 (1967), 56-97. E. P. Thompson, (http://libcom.org/files/MORAL%20ECONOMY%20OF%20THE%20ENGLISH%20CROWD.pdf) The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century, Past and Present 50 (1971), 76-136. E. P. Thompson, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/making-of-the-english-working-class/oclc/178185) The

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Making of the English Working Class. New York 1966. Introduction. A. Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks, short excerpts. Week 7: The Nation B. Anderson, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/imagined-communities-reflections-on-the-origin-and-spreadof-nationalism/oclc/23356022) Imagined Communities. London 1991. S. Gourgouris, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/dream-nation-enlightenment-colonization-and-theinstitution-of-modern-greece/oclc/33983165) Dream Nation: enlightenment, colonization, and the institution of modern Greece. Stanford 1996. excerpts. E. J. Palti, (http://www.jstor.org/stable/2677969) The Nation as a Problem: Historians and the National Question, History and Theory 40 (2001), 1324-346. Week 8: Annales School F. Braudel, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/structures-of-everyday-life-the-limits-of-thepossible/oclc/8620584) The Structures of Everyday Life: The Limits of the Possible. Trans. by S. Reynolds Philadelphia 1979. E. LeRoy Ladurie, (http://www.jstor.org/pss/1171054) Motionless History, Social Science History 1 (1977), 115-136. Week 9: Foucault M. Foucault, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-knowledge-and-the-discourse-onlanguage/oclc/23347591) Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. Trans. A.M.S. Smith. New York 1972. M. Foucault, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/foucault-reader/oclc/10021125) The Foucault Reader. Ed. P. Rabinow. 169-238. Week 10: Microhistory, Anthropology, and Cultural History M Shalins, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/islands-of-history/oclc/10996810) Islands of History. Chicago 1987. C. Geertz, (http://www.rochester.edu/college/psc/clarke/204/Geertz72.pdf) Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, in (http://www.worldcat.org/title/interpretation-of-cultures-selectedessays/oclc/737285) The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays. (New York 2000), 412-454. L. Glickman, "The 'Cultural Turn'," in (http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-historynow/oclc/733816018) American History Now. eds. E. Foner and L. McGirr. Philadelphia. 221-241. Week 11: History and Literature D. Scott, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/conscripts-of-modernity-the-tragedy-of-colonialenlightenment/oclc/55624555) Conscripts of Modernity: The Tragedy of Colonial Enlightenment. Durham 2004. H. White, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/metahistory-the-historical-imagination-in-nineteenth-centuryeurope/oclc/700666) Metahistory: The Historical Imagination of Nineteenth Century Europe. Baltimore 1973. Excerpts. Week 12: Women and Gender Judith Bennett, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-matters-patriarchy-and-the-challenge-offeminism/oclc/65207158) History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism. Philadelphia 2007. J. Scott, (http://www.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/~tangsong/reference/96102601.pdf) Gender a Useful Category for Analysis, AHR 91 (1986), 1053-1075. Week 13: History, Space, and Place D. Hayden, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/power-of-place-urban-landscapes-as-publichistory/oclc/31077172) The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge 1995.

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J. Guldi, (http://spatial.scholarslab.org/spatial-turn/) The Spatial Turn. M. Foucault, "Space, Knowledge, and Power" in The Foucault Reader. Ed. P. Rabinow, 239-256. Week 14: Postcolonialism H. Bhabha, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/location-of-culture/oclc/28113876) The Location of Culture. New York 1994). Excerpt. G. Chakravorty Spivak, (http://www.maldura.unipd.it/dllags/docentianglo/materiali_oboe_lm/2581_001.pdf) Can the Subaltern Speak in C. Nelson and L. Grossberg eds. (http://www.worldcat.org/title/marxism-and-the-interpretationof-culture/oclc/15488951) Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. London 1988. D. Chakrabarty, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/provincializing-europe-postcolonial-thought-and-historicaldifference/oclc/43076852) Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Thought and Historical Difference. (Princeton 2000). Excerpts. E. Said, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/orientalism/oclc/4004102) Orientalism. New York 1979. Introduction. K. Davis, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/periodization-and-sovereignty-how-ideas-of-feudalism-andsecularization-govern-the-politics-of-time/oclc/183261811) Periodization and Sovereignty. (Penn 2008), excerpts. Week 15: Digital History Various Authors, (http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/issues/952/interchange/index.html) JAH Interchange, The Promise of Digital History, JAH 95 (2008) K. Fitzpatrick, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/planned-obsolescence-publishing-technology-and-the-futureof-the-academy/oclc/710019002) Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy. (New York 2011) Kristen Nawrotzki and Jack Dougherty, (http://writinghistory.trincoll.edu/) Writing History in the Digital Age. (forthcoming): Week 16: Teaching History S. Weinberg, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/historical-thinking-and-other-unnatural-acts-charting-thefuture-of-teaching-the-past/oclc/45304687) Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts. (Philadelphia 2001). Review (http://www.historycooperative.org/htindex.html) The History Teacher 2000-2010

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-28/</link> Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:59:28 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1397 A few varia on a snowy Friday morning in North Dakotaland. The snow must have come just a few hours ago because the roads were not clear and neither was campus. This is pretty unusual. (http://www.archive.org/stream/americanspecimen00amerrich#page/n9/mode/2up) The American Specimen Book of Type Styles (1912). (http://www.digitalantiquity.org/grants/) Some grants for digital archiving from Digital Antiquity. (http://www.soybomb.com/tricks/words/) Ooooh. Nonsense words !! A fun little journey into the formation of urban (err, rural?) legends. (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/01/19/bakken-oil-issues-and-law-enforcement-concerns/) This list of fun facts about the situation in the western North Dakota Bakken counties has been circulating on the interwebs (and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/collaboration-and-work-campsout-west/) we got a copy on it during a meeting on our work out west), (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/01/23/reality-and-myth-in-north-dakotas-oil-fields/) Aaron Barth and (http://www.facebook.com/notes/plains-folk/checking-sources/10150564060264841) Tom Isern have taken the list apart. One point Tom and Aaron have missed is that the list says Minot has hired 115 Philippian nurses to work at the hospital. They quite logically assumed this to be a misspelling of the word Filipino (i.e. someone from the Philippines), but Philippians are people from Philippi in Greece (e.g. Paul's Letter to the Philippians). And out-migration from Greece has been (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/23/1057721/-When-mythology-becomes-fact:-the-12-millionpeople-who-left-Greece-in-2010) the subject of another body of growing myth. So perhaps this is where global and local mythologies intersect. (I'm mostly kidding) (http://teachingthursday.org/2012/01/26/what-do-students-owe-their-teachers/) Some interesting thoughts over at Teaching Thursday. (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/01/classicists-are-smart/#more-15568) Apparently Classicists are smart (h/t (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus) (http://www.samford.edu/how-to-study/) Some great study tips. (http://archaeology.pugetsound.edu/RedfordConference2012/CFP/index.html) The Redford Conference in Archaeology for 2012 is about Taking Archaeology Digital. Yesterday, my blog got a hit from &lt; (http://www.ajaonline.org/students/blogs) http://www.ajaonline.org/students/blogs &gt; which I am not authorized to access. This could be an interesting development. (http://dougsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/20-awsome-digital-archaeology-and-archaeologytech-blogs/) A nice list of blogs that talk about digital archaeology. (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=127) Whitewashed Tomb on field stone piles. (http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/01/23/columbus-clarmont-restaurant-closes-doors-after-65years.html) The Clarmont in Columbus, Ohio closed this past week. As a graduate student, it was among our

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favorite haunts when we felt like acting like grown ups (and it was the only place in town that felt appropriate before going to the opera). It was the type of place where you could just as easily sit next to a city councilor as a prostitute. And it felt made of scuffed carpets, frayed table cloths, and worn brass. So, my wife became a great aunt last night (and a bloody cute great aunt, at that!). And I discovered the same day, that (http://kottke.org/12/01/president-john-tylers-grandsons-are-still-alive) John Tyler (the 10th President, not the brother of the guy from Aerosmith) still has living grandchildren. I am not sure what (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US0AsCuvfF8) blew my mind more. (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/i-am-lousy-copywriter.html) This is good advice for writers. I have a colleague that I really want to send (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn2xJ2Xh5XE) this YouTube link to (h/t to Chuck Jones), but he (oddly enough) doesn't really have the internets. Another h/t to Chuck Jones: (http://www.photomediacenter.org/Bavaro/Fayum.html) iPhone Fayum portraits. (These can't be authentic. They must have been made using Fayumshop hahahaha...get it?) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan-v-england-2012/engine/current/match/531629.html) England v. Pakistan (and since India has given up on Harbhajan Singh, England's Monty Panesar has become my favorite Sikh cricket player) has been better than (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india2011/engine/match/518953.html) Australia v. India (Kerry O'Keefe when Rahul Dravid came to the crease: " (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-india-2011/content/quote/index.html?object=518944) The stumps have asked for pads ". Ouch.). Oh and if you haven't had enough cricket fun, (http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/550266.html) this is a great story of Garry Sobers getting a test hundred with a "hangover" (actually, he was probably still drunk). What I'm reading: E. Foner and L. McGirr, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/american-historynow/oclc/733816018) American History Now. Temple 2011. What I'm listening to: Foster the People, Torches (total mind sugar) and Cloud Nothings, Attack on Memory.

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<title>The Ottoman Landscape and Pyla-Koutsopetria</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/the-ottoman-landscape-and-pylakoutsopetria/</link> Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:33:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1411 Over the past month, I've been working to draw historical conclusions from the artifact distributions produced through the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. For antiquity this did not prove particularly challenging in that our site conformed in many ways to general patterns of expansion and contraction across the island. By the post-Classical period, however, my job have become a bit more complicated as the quantity of artifacts present at our site is depressingly small and the patterns of settlement across the island are less clearly established. Fortunately, our colleagues at the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project and the Troodos Archaeological and Environment Survey Project (TAESP) have begun to shape their relatively modest finds into some interesting analytical models that may help make some sense of our material. M. Given and M. Hadjianastasis published an article titled (http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/24865/) "Landholding and landscape in Ottoman Cyprus" last year in Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies 34 (2010), 38-60. <p style="text-align:center;) <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/newimage4.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="450" />Ottoman material from Pyla-Koutsopetria microregion In this article, the authors use Ottoman census records to reconstruct the population and arable land available to several villages in the TAESP survey area. Given and Hadjianastasis were able to reconstruct the local pattern of interdependence between villages that produced grain and other crops according to the suitability of the land. Better watered land of the plains tended to feature larger villages with more land per person suggesting grain cultivation. Villages situated in the dryer foothills of the Troodos tended to be not only small, but have less land per person suggesting that residents of these communities had to have land holdings on the plain which they cultivated seasonally and that they were likely more involved in cash cropping in the immediate vicinity of their own villages. The interdependence of these villages reflects that access to larger Ottoman economy as well as the likely demands of larger Ottoman landholders who sought to exploit cash crops in place of subsistence. A similar pattern has appeared in Greece where it is clear that by the Ottoman period an increasingly globalized economy rendered traditional definitions of subsistence inadequate for explaining the organization of Greek agriculture. The relatively arid lands of the coastal plain and the thin soils of the coastal plateau at Pyla-Koutsopetria were probably best suited in antiquity as today for grain cultivation. We do know, however, that the marshy lands of the foreshore saw market gardens as recently as mid-20th century suggesting that some local freshwater was available to the area. Moreover, the rugged slopes of the coastal plateaus produced herbs which while never a substantial part of the local economy, do reflect patterns of land use that sought to exploit a wide range of environmental resources. The sparse scatter of Ottoman period material most likely indicates that no major settlement existed in the area. The small scatter of Ottoman period glazed wares on the northern edge of the Mavrospilos/Kazamas coastal plateau might represent a small seasonal settlement or even an isolated farmstead. The fields were probably cultivated by residents of Pyla village some 1.5 km to the north. By the early 19th century, it is clear that (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/some-more-coolobservations-on-sanctuaries-around-pyla/) some local lands were owned by absentee landowners or stood as part of the endowments of religious officials. It seems likely, then, that the individuals who cultivated the land at Pyla-Koutsopetria were tenant farmers. The presence of a small fortification of Venetian (?) date near the foreshore perhaps suggests that the low-lying lands in the eastern part of the Pyla-Koutsopetria plain continued to serve as a small embayment as late as the Ottoman period. The very slight traces of a road that

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ran along the earlier coastal ridge hint that the coastline had a more pronounced curve in the 19th century than it does now perhaps providing some protection for coasting ships traveling along the littoral. The most interesting part of Given and Hadjianastasis article was not the careful, if general, interpretation of ceramic evidence, village populations, and land use, but the discussion of the experiences associated with living in the diverse villages present in the Ottoman landscape. The call of the muezzin and the sound of church bells (or the more common wooden or metal tsimandro) served as aural limits to the religious landscape. The limited intervisibility of Ottoman period settlements provided another means of defining the extent of a village's land and communicating a sense of community among individuals working the fields (even if these fields were owned by landlords). The village of Pyla is not visible from our site of Pyla-Koutsopetria obscured by the imposing coastal plateau. It seems likely that the settlement at Pyla which dated at least since the geometric period became the center of habitation in the area as much because it was not visible from the coast as because it stood astride a major route north to the Mesaoria and east-west between Kition/Larnaka and Salamis. When coastal settlements became vulnerable to raiding after the decline of Roman hegemony in the Eastern Mediterranean in the mid7th century, the settlement on the Pyla littoral declined rapidly. It is difficult to imagine that the relatively level lands of the coastal remained neglected long. The only evidence for habitation was a small scatter of material on the northern edge of the Mavrospilos/Kazamas plateau. It is worth noting that the southern limits of Pyla village would have been just barely visible from a seasonal shelter in this area and perhaps the fieldworkers could have heard the call to prayer or the church bells (or tsimandro) to orient their daily routines while in the fields. <p style="text-align:center;) <"DSC_0064.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/dsc_0064.jpg" border="0" alt="DSC 0064" width="450" height="301" />View to northeast from the Mavrospilos/Kazamas Ridge As a brief epilogue, it is remarkable that we have almost no photographs looking north from our site. We must have 1000+ photos of the Pyla-Koutsopetria landscape and 80% of these photographs take their orientation from the sea. This probably speaks as much to our preoccupation with the sea as our disinclination to look toward the politically troubled buffer zone between the British Sovereign Base Area, the U.N. Buffer Zone in which Pyla Village sits, and the Republic of Cyprus.

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<title>Playford Thorson and Leadership</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/playford-thorson-and-leadership/</link> Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:09:37 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1416 Prof. Playford Thorson passed away this past week at age of 86. He had been retired for several years by the time I arrived at the University of North Dakota, but his like many retired professors who stayed on in the area, he remained visible on campus at various lectures or public events. When I was working on my Departmental History in 2007, Thorson generously agreed to have a conversation with me about his time in the Department of History. He was hired in 1960, as part of the new wave of faculty members who arrived to help manage the unprecedented growth the University experienced at that time. He was still a Ph.D. Candidate and would not completed (http://www.worldcat.org/title/defense-question-in-sweden-1911-1914/oclc/32359577) his dissertation at the University of Minnesota until 1972, but this was not particularly unusual for that time. (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/227998/) His obituary in the (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/227998/) Grand Forks Herald has a particularly nice testimony to his passion for learning and students, and I don't think that I can add much in that particular area. I can, however, point out that Thorson made several particularly significant contributions to the Department of History, particularly as the leader of a group of faculty who became known as the "Young Turks". This group formed in the early 1960s were instrumental in the final phase of modernizing and professionalizing the university. To do this, however, they clashed with the older generation of faculty who had largely been hired before World War II and, in many cases, had seen the university through the difficult interwar years. By all accounts, Thorson was among the ringleaders of this group of reform minded faculty and they presented to President George Starcher, who had been hired in 1955, a list of demands which focused in particular in the quality of education at UND during a time of rapidly expanding enrollment. (See below for a copy of this manifesto.) The Department was led by Elwyn Robinson and Felix Vondracek. The former led through gentle example and the latter through his position as Department Chair which he had held for over 15 years. Vondracek was largely blamed for the rapid turnover of faculty in the late 1950s, which included many up-and-coming faculty stars like Louis Geiger, George Lemmer, John Harnsberger, and Jerry DeWitt who chaffed under Vondracek's apparently imperious style of leadership. Thorson, who came to the Department during this time of rapid turnover and discontent, stepped into at least an unofficial leadership position. In 1962, he submitted a letter to President Starcher with five other faculty signatures attached demanding the ouster of Vondracek and urging that department chairs served on a rotating basis. This appears to have coincided both with the general policies advocated by the "Young Turks" as well as the opinion of Starcher and his right-hand-man William Koenker, the first Vice President of Academic Affairs. As a result of this letter, Starcher (or perhaps the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Robert Witmer) offered Thorson, then without his Ph.D. the position of chair. Thorson declined the position (or, according to Robinson, Witmer withdrew his offer to Thorson and offered it to Robinson when he - true to his "Young Turk" leanings - had attached to it a list of demands.) As the University looks to get its footing in the 21st century, it is probably useful to reflect a bit on the role that people like Playford Thorson played in forcing the University to adapt to changes in the 20th century. Let's hope that we have the same cantankerous faculty leaders now as we had back then. [scribd id=79971370 key=key-1ymt231olmneoq92ylgg mode=list]

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<title>Mining in Cyprus and Work Camps in North Dakota</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/mining-in-cyprus-and-work-camps-in-northdakota/</link> Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:05:25 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1421 The coincidence between the archaeology of mining in Cyprus and my new (albeit small) research interest in the archaeology of work camps in western North Dakota is exciting. I spent the weekend reading some relatively recent publications from Bernard Knapp and his team who excavated the site of Politiko-Phorades in the eastern Troodos mountains of Cyprus (see (http://glasgow.academia.edu/BernardKnapp/Papers/1244426/The_Archaeology_of_Late_Bronze_Age_C opper_Production_Politiko_Phorades_on_Cyprus) here and (http://www.jstor.org/stable/40024323) here). The site itself was a Late Bronze Age copper smelting site in impressive state of preservation. Discovered in the course of the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project and that team has worked to associated the site with larger systems established to support the extraction of copper from the Troodos mountains. Knapp argued that the site probably only functioned seasonally and was worked by individuals who also contributed to the local agricultural economy. A nearby settlement with access to arable land, then, provided agricultural support for the resource extraction. The system described by Knapp understands mining as a practice that functions at the physical margins of economic systems and remained dependent on longstanding subsistence practices. The emergence of large Late Bronze Age centers like Kition and Enkomi, however, almost certainly influenced the settlement patters that supported the extraction of mineral resources. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/40024323) In a 2003 article in the American Journal of Archaeology, Knapp seeks to take this analysis a step further by exploring how these patterns of production have shaped communities. Drawing on evidence and models from world archaeology, Knapp reflected on the impermanence and marginal status of the Politiko-Phorades production site and its productive and ideational relationship to the surrounding landscape. The marginal position of mining communities forged a tension between social and economic isolation and profound dependence on "other places". No one is from a mining community, but, at the same time, these places must have both generated and depended upon social understandings. Knapp regards the forms of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitus_(sociology)) habitus that emerge in these contexts as central to the formation of "imagined communities" necessary to ensure both social cohesion and economic productivity at industrial sites. The archaeology of mining communities poses another unique set of problems. The disjunction between the social life of a community and the material reality of these sites is particular profound in that the sites are typically occupied for short periods of time and received minimal investments in features that would enable archaeologists to analyze social organization of the community. In fact, the handful of pottery recovered from the site of Politiko-Phorades that could have been associated with domestic activities does not seem to have received anything more than cursory analysis in Knapp's preliminary publications of the site. In other words, the small amount of fine wares that probably derived from basic domestic activities at the site, primarily speak to "the specialized nature of the site" rather than providing the basis for understanding the efforts of Bronze Age metal workers to preserve ties to "the outside world" of socially constructed relationships. In the preliminary analysis and in the preserved evidence, then, the economic world of the mining community seems to overwrite the scant evidence for a social life. Knapp concludes his 2003 article with a series of recommendations for the archaeology of community in an industrial context and suggests that three steps remain necessary: At least three steps are needed to develop further an archaeology of communities:

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1. to engage studies of place in examining the relationship between locality and community. 2. to refine and elaborate the concerted of the "imagined community" 3. to examine more closely and understand more fully the association among people, locality, community, and material culture as the outcome of specific social and historical processes. In western North Dakota, the massive influx of workers in support of the oil industry has energized new discussions on the nature of communities in these otherwise sleepy (and we can say marginal) regions. The attitudes of longtime residents in these areas have centered on the disruptive effects of these new arrivals and this new industry on their communities. There has been less attention, however, on the communities that have formed among the new arrival to western North Dakota. We know, however, that workers in western North Dakota follow longstanding practices common to mining and industrial communities. The investment in habitation is minimal and reflects an interest in maximizing the economic return on their efforts and the limited expectations for the long term sustainability of their activities. The boom in both sanctioned and unsanctioned work camps and the appearance of well-defined work sites provide a material locus for at least some activities central to social organization. There are complemented by less clearly defined areas such ranging from the bars, strip clubs, and restaurants that have grown up to serve the influx of works to jails, schools, churches, and town centers which have become places for the interaction between pre-existing communities and new arrivals. The changes in western North Dakota have led both longtime residents and new comers to re-imagine their communities and establish new ways of viewing the local landscape and their own sense of place. While both groups recognized the local landscape as fundamentally productive (whether in terms of its mineral wealth or in terms of its agricultural potential), they nevertheless recognized fundamentally different relationships between lands, economy, and community. The ties between community and productive space which Knapp underscored in his articles have become contested as both sides read the landscape in an effort to legitimize their own practices and policies. An archaeology of community in the context of western North Dakota will invariably consider the relationship between material objects, settlement, and social organization as set against changing notions of community and the physical and productive landscape.

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<title>Teaching Thursday: Reflecting on Teaching</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/teaching-thursday-reflecting-onteaching/</link> Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:46:45 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1425 One of the key arguments against assigning term papers to undergraduate students is that they have a very limited audience. This argument assumes, of course, that most post-collegiate writing has a significant audience, but anyone with time in academia (or business) knows that many of the things that we write are never read at all. For example, each year, I write a reflective, self-evaluation of my teaching for my annual report. I assume that no one reads it. I include it here so that at least a few people will see it: Teaching Self Evaluation Teaching was my top priority in Spring 2011 and Fall 2011. Over these two semesters, I taught 8 classes, coadvised on one completed M.A. thesis and advised another. The heavier teaching load allowed me to focus more time on teaching by forcing me to spend less time on research and service. In particular, this time with a heavier teaching load made me become more efficient in my course preparation and grading. Additional courses also gave me a chance to experiment with new forms of teaching including a language class and two digital history practica which could enter my rotation on a more regular basis at some point in the future. Both the language class and practica involved one-on-one work with students as they worked to develop the skills necessary to negotiate unfamiliar texts. Theodore Mommsen famously advised historians to study languages and law. Perhaps in our increasingly digital age, historians should be encouraged to understand digital tools and (of course) languages. I discovered that I needed to develop a more robust skill set both in terms of pedagogy and in terms of technical knowledge to coax even senior graduate students through the complex world of digital content development. My own trial and error method for learning software or webbased applications did not transfer successfully to students far more tentative in their approach to technology. Moreover, my own high-flexible approach to research projects, which tends to emphasize highly punctuated, but continual development through breaking large projects into many small tasks, found very little purchase among the students. As a result, both digital history practica did not accomplish successfully their larger goals. Future digital history courses will need to be more highly structured and more directed toward getting the students broadly familiar with digital tools and the range of digital technologies at play in both popular culture and in historical research. Conversely, I was far more successful encouraging Latin students to take a more trial and error approach to translating in Latin 202. I found that teaching Latin gave me invaluable experience in a classroom environment where a range of abilities and aptitudes manifest. Some students required hands on attention to internalize basic instructions, others only learn by doing, and others still can take abstract concepts and apply them in the real world with a minimum of guidance. While I knew this in a conceptual way, I am not sure whether I had a chance to see it play out in as dynamic way as I did in teaching a language. In the Spring of 2012, I plan to bring some of the lessons that I have learned teaching Latin and digital history to play in my History 240: The Historians Craft course. While the course has largely remained unchanged since I made a major revision in 2010, I will add conferences to my course this semester. The conference will involve a one-on-one meeting with each student to discuss the research proposal that they develop over the second half of the class. The idea is that some students will struggle to grasp the techniques

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and principles of research that I introduce over the course of the semester without some required face-to-face time. While I will not require it in the Spring, I will make bonus points available and strongly recommend it in class. If it is successful, I will make conferences a regular part of the course in the Fall 2012. I made a significant change to my History 502: Graduate Historiography course in the Spring of 2011. I eliminated two of the traditional writing assignments - a comparative, critical book review and a longer historiographic essay. The addition of the new History 501: Research Methods course, which was designed to reinforce many of the basic graduate research and writing skills, made these rather routine papers less necessary in History 502. In their place, I moved to a weekly journal which then became the basis for a longer, reflective research paper. This paper asks the students to use their weekly reflections as a source for an reflexive study of their own engagement with various modes of historical thinking. In other words, I am asking the students to recreate a though experiment postulated by R.G. Collingwood who argued that when he re-read his own writing he was rethinking his past thoughts and thus producing history. The reflexive assignment in History 502 not only reinforces the ideas introduced by Collingwood on the writing of history, but also asks the students to reflect on their own learning experience. To use the lingo of the day, this is a form of "closing the loop". My History 101: Western Civilization course has not seen many changes over the course of the 2011 academic year. Most of the changes have been minor tweaks to the delivery and continued work to clarify the structure of the course. While this class has not produced a systematic and reliable body of student evaluations, the outcomes of graded assessments continue to improve suggesting that minor adjustments to how I communicate my expectations and requirements. I am working now with the Office of Disability Services to prepare an edited transcript of each of my podcast lecture. These will form a textbook for the class. From the Fall of 2010 on, I committed to teaching more as an important step to teaching better. Experience teaching Latin and starting the development of a digital history course gave me experiences that were transferable to my History 240 course which is one of the anchors in my rotation. Over the past 5 years, I have gradually made my History 502 more experimental and driven by reflexive methods that involve a meta-cognitive closing of the loop as an important part of the graded assessment. Finally, my online 101 class has continued to evolve based on feedback provided by a careful reading of graded assessment.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-29/</link> Fri, 03 Feb 2012 13:16:48 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1428 We awoke to a foggy morning and our drive to campus saw cloud-burst style snow showers. But the good news is that we'll see balmy temperatures again today with highs in the 30s!!! So with the arrival (once again this year) of spring, it seems like a great time for some quick hits and varia. Guy Sanders has been on a roll lately with the links, so I'll pass them on to you: (http://www.deltionchae.org/index.php/deltion/index) Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society is now available online. This has suddenly made some other journals look really really behind. (Yes, I'm looking at you (http://www.journalofromanarch.com/) Journal of Roman Archaeology). The Onassis Foundation has made available online the lovely (http://www.onassisusa.org/transition/ebook/) A. Lazaridou ed., Transitions to Christianity: Art of Late Antiquity, 3rd-7th Century A.D. (New York 2011). Reading it online (through a rather clunky viewer will save you almost $30!). Finally, (http://phdtheses.ekt.gr/eadd/browse?type=subject&amp;sort_by=2&amp;order=DESC&amp;rpp=20&am p;etal=-1&amp;value=History+and+Archaeology&amp;year=2012&amp;starts_with=) Greece has made available an index of dissertations online and many of them have full text via a clunky online reader. (http://www.nmc.org/news/download-communique-horizon-project-retreat) Ten "Metatrends" in technology and education from the NMC Horizon Project (http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2012-HorizonProject-Retreat-Communique.pdf) pdf here). I am not entirely sure that Horizon needed "100 distinguished thought leaders from all over the world" to come up with this list. The (http://wp.chs.harvard.edu/sunoikisis/2012/01/27/kenchreai/) Sunoikisis Consortium is offering a fellowship for participants in the Kenchreai Archaeology Field School. Get your Corinthia on with Dr. Prof. Big Joe Rife. (http://wahoocorner.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-kdp-select-saved-my-book.html) An interesting tale of how Amazon's clever marketing can help an author get noticed. (http://twitterfall.com/) I sort of like Twitterfall. The AIA might be a bit too ambivalent (for my taste) in their attitudes toward (http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/scholarly-pubs-(%23103)%20Archae.pdf) open access to their scholarly publications (via (http://dimitrinakassis.com/) Dimitri Nakassis), American Journal of Archaeology does offer (http://www.ajaonline.org/students/blogs) a nice list of blogs now on their page. For some reason I am fascinated with these little interviews of famous techtypes. (http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/25/2721249/5-minutes-on-the-verge-jason-kottke) Here's one on Jason Kottke. And (http://kottke.org/12/01/how-to-pronounce-things-hilariously) this post by Mr. Kottke on how to pronounce things hilariously is hilarious. (http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/01/ritte-van-vlaanderen-bicycles/?pid=300) Selling a story then creating a product. This is the essence of the interwebs.

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 (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/surprise-internet-comments-can-be-good-foryour-health/252248/) And the Internets are now GOOD for you, but (http://thewirecutter.com/2012/01/happiness-takes-a-little-magic/) we need to figure out how to use it in order for it to make us happy. Some interesting thoughts on (http://www.sha.org/blog/index.php/2012/02/contemporaryarchaeologies/) Contemporary Archaeologies from the Paul Mullins, the President of the Society for Historical Archaeology (via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus). Yesterday was (http://teachingthursday.org/) Teaching Thursday. (http://www.cricket.com.au/news-list/2012/2/1/the-best-t20-shot-ever) This 6 by David Warner is just amazing. (http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/05/metafilter-russian-sex-ring) A pretty amazing story of how the famous Dan Reetz saved some girls from sex traffickers using Metafilter. (http://trextrying.tumblr.com/) Poor T-rex. What I'm reading: T. F. Tartaron, D. J. Pullen, R. K. Dunn, L. Tzortzopoulou-Gregory, A. Dill, and J. I. Boyce, " (http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.2972/hesperia.80.4.0559) Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project (SHARP): Investigations at Mycenaean Kalamianos, 2007-2009," Hesperia 80.4 (2011), 559-643. (It's almost 100 pages, so cut me a break!) What I'm listening to: Gonjasufi, (http://www.thefader.com/2012/01/19/stream-gonjasufis-album-mu-zzle/) MU.ZZ.LE, Chairlift, Something. Hoar frost <"Hoar Frost.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/hoar-frost.jpg" border="0" alt="Hoar Frost" width="405" height="600" />

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<title>Lovely Winter Scenes</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/lovely-winter-scenes/</link> Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:42:33 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1441 Some lovely photos by my lovely wife of our hoar frost this morning. <"firehydrant.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/firehydrant.jpg" border="0" alt="Firehydrant" width="336" height="500" /> <"soaringeagle.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/soaringeagle.jpg" border="0" alt="Soaringeagle" width="450" height="302" /> <"hoarfrost.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/hoarfrost.jpg" border="0" alt="Hoarfrost" width="450" height="302" /> <"puffball.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/puffball.jpg" border="0" alt="Puffball" width="450" height="302" /> <"kitchenwindowview.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/kitchenwindowview.jpg" border="0" alt="Kitchenwindowview" width="450" height="302" /> <"quad.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/quad.jpg" border="0" alt="Quad" width="450" height="302" /> <"quad2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/quad2.jpg" border="0" alt="Quad2" width="340" height="507" />

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<title>A New Mycenaean Center in the Corinthia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/a-new-mycenaean-center-in-thecorinthia/</link> Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:19:18 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1447 I just finished reading the T. Tartaron, D. Pullen, R. Dunn, L. Tzortsoulou-Gregory, A. Dill, and J. Boyce, (http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.2972/hesperia.80.4.0559) "The Saronic Harbors Research Project (SHARP): Investigations at Mycenaean Kalamianos, 2007-2009," Hesperia 80 (2011), 559-634. I rarely get excited about the Bronze Age, but it's hard not to get excited about a major new site. Extending for over 7 ha and including over 50 buildings, the site of Kalamianos represented a major harbor on the Saronic coast. Constructed primarily of the grey Corinthian limestone, the outlines of the site remained visible on the surface allowing the SHARP team to outline the site and its buildings without excavating. Using the techniques of intensive pedestrian survey they produced a significant ceramic assemblage of material from the site which they feel grounds the site chronologically in the Late Bronze Age. A larger regional survey of the region north and west of the coastal village of Korphos has indicated that the area also had significant activity in the Early Bronze Age and rather little activity thereafter. Extensive survey of the hills and valleys surrounding Korphos has produced additional evidence for a vital Bronze Age landscape suggesting that the region was a particularly prosperous and well-developed corner of the busy Saronic world. On a personal level, the documentation of activities in this area is interesting because the site of (http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4) Lakka Skoutara where David Pettegrew and I have worked for close to a decade is just a few kilometers (as the crow flies) from their study area. The publication of the ancient, medieval, and modern landscape of Kalamianos and surrounding regions will form a key anchor to our analysis of Lakka Skoutara. The most interesting thing to me is the methods used to document the site and the extraordinary transparency of the authors in describing their procedures. The integration of architectural, extensive, and intensive survey in a methodologically consistent treatment of a single area. The use of kite and balloon photography to assist in documenting the visible architecture produced some rather striking images that were effective in conveying both the methods and the character of the preserved architecture. Over the course of intensive survey, the SHARP collected ceramic material using the chronotype system from both specific rooms within clearly defined buildings and across survey style transects. Using a gridded system for the most part, their work follows a similar approach our large site in Cyprus, and this is unsurprising since both David Pettegrew and myself learned the craft of survey from Tom Tartaron, Daniel Pullen, and Tim Gregory over the course of the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey. When the final results are published, the survey work at Korphos will represent another good example of the "4th Wave" intensive survey in Greece which tends to focus intensively on single sites or microregions of a few square kilometers rather than the large areas typical of "Third Wave" regional survey in Greece. <p style="text-align:center;) <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/newimage.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="315" />Figure 40. Satellite image of the Korphos region with the locations of small elliptical stone enclosures indicated by open white ovals, and two larger Mycenaean enclosures indicated by filled ovals. I was gratified to see that their systematic extensive survey produced a preliminary map (above) of the strange round enclosures found on numerous height in the area. In his preliminary study of these enclosures, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/disputed-territories-interstate-arbitrations-in-the-northeast-peloponnese-ca250-150-bc/oclc/45703753) M. Dixon argued that they were Classical or Hellenistic in date and represented a

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series of ad hoc fortifications designed defend a vulnerable landscape from the historically documented threat of the Athenian fleet (in the Classical Age) and the more persistent threat of local raiding during the unstable Hellenistic centuries. The SHARP team found little to support a Classical or Hellenistic date for these enclosures and, noting the absence of any substantial quantity of ceramic material, preferred an Early Bronze Age date on the basis of a few sherds found wedged in the walls. I had the opportunity to look at some of these strange little "fortifications" first hand about a decade ago while documenting the site of Lakka Skoutara. The absence of ceramic material from these sites is, indeed, vexing. And a few Early Bronze Age sherds do little more, at present, than provide a terminus post quem for these rough enclosures. There were any number of interesting tidbits from their preliminary publication, but a few really stood out to me: First, I was pretty interested to see that they used the absence of later pottery collected by the survey to argue for the absence of later activity at the site. To my mind, this is an important step for the field of survey archaeology. We are often relatively confident in arguing from the presence of activity based on the presence of ceramics, but we rarely have taken the next step. The vagaries of site formation and the differential visibility of various periods in the surface record have usually led us to stop short of making arguments ex silentio. But, I suppose the extraordinary geomorphological stability of the landscape around Korphos provided them with the confidence to make this claim. Next, it is remarkable, however, that there is very little discussion of Byzantine material. The site of Stiri features a significant Middle Byzantine church dedicated to the Panayia. It was the katholikon of a monastery that may have been visited by Os. Loukas and is attested in census records as late as the 18th century. It probably functioned in some capacity into the 19th century. Remarkably, the area around the church which is strewn with important Early Bronze Age remains seems to have produced almost no Medieval pottery (according to their admittedly preliminary report). This may be the result of local geomorphological activity the church site in a polje filled with sediment that may have covered the Byzantine surface - or perhaps a preference of non-cermaic material at the site during the Byzantine period (although this seems a bit unlikely). Finally, it is a bit troubling, however, to imagine a Byzantine church leaving almost no trace in the local ceramic assemblage and, then, using that same assemblage to date walls visible on the surface. I have no reason to doubt their confidence in assigning Late Bronze Age or Early Bronze Age dates to features in the landscape, but I anxiously await a more systematic treatment of their results to understand the complexities of site formation in this area. In my informal visits to the area over the years, I've seen significant evidence for Late Antique activity in the area including some Early Christian mullions at the church of Ay. Pantes in the village of Korphos itself. It was interesting to note that the SHARP team found a Late Roman kiln site amidst the ruins. Their suggestion that the center of habitation in the region moved to the location of Korphos town during antiquity seems plausible. One last thing: the color photographs and illustrations in the article are fantastic!

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<title>Popular Byzantium: An Interview with Paul Kastenellos, Part 1</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/popular-byzantium-an-interview-with-paulkastenellos-part-1/</link> Tue, 07 Feb 2012 12:45:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1450 Right before Christmas, I was surprised and excited to receive an unsolicited copy of a novel set in Byzantium: (http://www.amazon.com/Count-No-Man-Happy-Byzantine/dp/0983910804) Paul Kastenellos, Count No Man Happy. (New York 2011). I was even more surprised to discover that Paul Kastenellos was the pen name of Vincent O'Reilly who was a history major at the University of North Dakota in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Needless to say, the intersection between Byzantium and the University of North Dakota is exceedingly rare, so I contacted the author and struck up a conversation about Byzantium, popular culture, and life at UND. I discovered that Vincent had more than just a casual interest in Byzantium. His book is richly textured (with pleasant edge) and historically vivid making it more than suitable for a fictional companion to an undergraduate Byzantine history course. For the uninitiated, Vincent has provided some companion material (http://www.apuleiusbooks.com/) on his website including a lovely (http://www.apuleiusbooks.com/illustrated-guide-to-byzantium-3/) Illustrated History of Byzantium. The following is a lightly edited version of our email correspondence which focuses on that often strange intersection between the academic community and passionately interested lay reader. As most Byzantinists realize, the past two decades have seen a growing popular interest in Byzantium which, so far, most Byzantinists have not successfully captured to our field's advantage. Perhaps this interview with a participant in this popular revival can provide some new insights for us... <"CNMH.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/cnmh.jpg" border="0" alt="CNMH" width="450" height="296" /> Bill Caraher: Thank you so much, Vincent, for taking the time to chat about your book and giving those of us on that academic side of the aisle a perspective on how you came to learn, to love, and to write about the Byzantine centuries, and why (and whether!) we are genuinely experiencing a "Byzantium boom" in the popular culture of the first decades of the 21st century. Paul Kastenellos: I thought I might anticipate your questions with a little general background. I need not tell you how important that is to understanding. I entered UND in 1957. At that time TV was fairly new, most families not getting a set until about 1950. Educational TV was a bore - some college prof in a suit lecturing at a podium. What we learned in high school was mostly English history with a few asides to Charlemagne, Julius Caesar et c. My only recollection of anything Byzantine was the statement in some textbook, talking about the fall of the Roman empire, that it maintained a shadowy existence in the east for another thousand years. Now imagine my shock in Dr. [Felix] Vondracek's class when he,, who saw history as a succession of battles. told us about Adrianople and stirrups, Belisarius and Antonina (Wow); and insisted that we memorize lists of popes and Byzantine emperors (Yawn!). Vondracek had his faults, no doubt about it; but his lectures were never dull. *[Felix Vondracek was a popular and cantankerous history professor at the University of North Dakota.] Fast forward fifty years. Students learn more. High school teachers are better prepared. Television is running out of things to tell people about. Perhaps most important, the comfortable parochialism of my youth is no longer acceptable. Black history was assumed not to exist in those days and we studied American history in a

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vacuum, ignoring anything south of the border after the conquistadors and never realizing that colonial history is intimately interlinked with European. In my college years there were not more than four or five books on Byzantium in print at any time. We had Bury, Diehl, Pirenne, and Vasiliev; and Vondracek was anxiously awaiting a translation of Ostrogorsky. Once in a while Oxford University Press might kick out a new volume but they were pricey and would not long remain in print. But Praeger was creating expensive art books some of which were about Byzantine art. To confirm what I just wrote I looked at my aging Viking Library Portable Medieval Reader (c 1949). In seven hundred pages the only Byzantine author is Anna Comnenaand that is her description of the western crusader knights. With such a dearth of information it should not be surprising that there was little interest even among the educated. We were still stuck in Gibbon's negative view because no one was reexamining it at the high school level. Today Americans have a broader outlook. Most educated people have traveled. TV has run out of fresh Hitler footage. Color images on videotape are much more vibrant than even color film, much less the black and white of 1950s television. Modern art may possibly have made people more willing to look at stuff other than the purely representational. So there is nothing remarkable about the interest in Byzantium. There is also interest in Mongolia and substantially more interest in the Indian cultures of South America than when I was young. In grade school and high school my only knowledge of these peoples was which Spaniard had killed them. Our understanding of Persia was entirely through Greek eyes, and of Spain through British eyes. There was a definite prejudice against Byzantium inherited from Gibbon, just as there was against Spain which we viewed through the filter of Elizabethan English propaganda. One look at the Hearst papers leading up to the Spanish American War will show that. We knew nothing of the Byzantines but then we knew nothing of Japan (see my essay on the Asian War on my website) and what little we knew of India was still through the eyes of Kipling. North Africa was to us Beau Geste and the French Foreign Legion, Africa was witch doctors and safaris, and Egypt was still The Curse Of The Mummy's Tomb. Our parents had at best a high school education as did our newspaper reporters. China was seen through the eyes of China watchers who seem never to have left the bars of Hong Kong. Now all these states are intimately intertwined. My point is that the interest in Byzantium can not be seen as something unique. It is not that somehow it has become interesting, but rather that my youth was a benighted pit from which internationalism and international travel and communication has raised us. We are looking for new interests. But only so far. There is Byzantine stuff on TV but it doesn't go much beyond pretty pictures of Hagia Sophia. The Orthodox church still remains outside the interest of most people. In fact religion generally is something modern secularists don't want to discuss except in a negative way. I do think the Metropolitan exhibitions gave a boost to Byzantine art. I saw the first one and it definitely was broader than the expected bunch of old icons. Why not Russia and Byzantium, Byzantium and the West, The Crusades Through Byzantine Eyes, and of course, The Fall of Constantinople. I just checked Barnes and Noble and am amazed with the variety of material now available. There are many popular books on the Byzantines. I have one on their cuisine (and would readily pass on it.) There is even fiction though the two novels I've read were disappointing (Stock adventure stories with a cross thrown in here and there.) Alternative history is blessed with David Drake and Eric Flint's Belisarius series which I enjoyed. Though it had little to do with Byzantium, I liked their take on the character of Belisarius. One might ask why these authors chose to write six books with Belisarius as the protagonist. I would answer that the motivation was not Byzantium, but alternative history which sells well. I wish it were the reverse.

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BC: So, you became interested in Byzantine history through Prof. Vondracek's classes, but surely not everyone in these classes has gone on to write novels on Byzantium. Was there any other thing that influenced your interest? PK: Let me detail a bit of personal history Vondracek threw a searchlight on my understanding of medieval history which up to then had been entirely western. In a way that was understandable if narrow. Our society does descend from western European. After graduation I had to earn a living. Although I pretended to be as interested in Byzantium as in my college years in truth it faded. I was going for a masters in library Science and working. When my daughter graduated from St John's College in Annapolis she took a job with Bill Moyers and used her first paycheck to give me and my wife, Tamiko, tickets to Istanbul. To my great surprise and delight my interest in Byzantium came flooding back as though it had never waned. Two characters in Vondrachek's lectures had never really left me: BC: Which two characters are those? PK: Belisarius and Constantine VI. BC: Why those two of all the memorable characters from Byzantium? PK: Belisarius is obvious. How can it be that such a notable general went unmentioned in any history of great generals that I had read? Pure western ignorance and bias. That Antonina accompanied him touched the romantic in me and her infidelity to a man who loved her deeply made me curious. (These things I had learned from Vondracek who loved nothing better than to reveal the private lives of famous people.) Vondacek also told us of poor Constantine VI and related how he was blinded by his mother and how Theodote, in his words, followed him around like a puppy dog for the rest of his life. He also told us that he had been infatuated with the daughter of Charlemagne whom he was betrothed to but never met. I have no idea why these things stuck in my mind when so many other things in Vondrachek's lectures have faded out of memory, but they did. Unfortunately, while I remembered both these things about Constantine I somehow had a disconnect in my mind that they were the same person. Nonetheless they stayed in the back of my mind and came back with other things about Byzantium when I first visited Istanbul. Now I had always wanted to write. In fact I entered the news business (United Press Movietonews) in order to simplify and improve my writing style which I was aware had been damaged by too much reading of diverse authors in college. Why had I not gone into a field of history after college? Because my interest was in Byzantium and as the worst language student who ever lived I knew that I could never be a scholar in that subject. I had no interest in simply teaching high school. Somewhere along the line I saw the movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_(1944_film)) Laura wherein a detective falls in love with the portrait of a (presumably) dead woman. I did not think the movie played out the idea all that well but was fascinated by the concept. So somewhere in the mid '90s I started to write a bit of fluff that I jokingly referred to as Constantine VI meets Bettie Page. (It is amazing how many guys of all ages [and even gals] are familiar with Bettie, but one doesn't know that until someone in the group dares to bring up the subject. I even joined the BettieScouts of America fan club.) Then I remembered that Constantine was the same guy whose mom blinded him. Problem. One can't write fluff about someone whose Mom blinded him. I tried writing Beth (inspired by Bettie) out of the story but had come to like the character that I was developing too much. I needed such a character to boost an otherwise depressing tale of Constantine and his mother. I thought to have him dream of someone who'd lived before him. That would not have had to be fantasy but I couldnt find anyone that I could use

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without totally changing her character. So Beth stayed. Of course it means a story that will turn off people with a serious interest in serious history; but whatthehell, to quote Mehitabel the poetic cockroach. ... (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/popular-byzantium-an-interview-with-paulkastenellos-part-2/) Click here for Part 2 of the interview with Vincent O'Reilly author of (http://www.amazon.com/Count-No-Man-Happy-Byzantine/dp/0983910804) Count No Man Happy.

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<title>Popular Byzantium: An Interview with Paul Kastenellos, Part 2</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/popular-byzantium-an-interview-with-paulkastenellos-part-2/</link> Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:48:13 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1458 There was amazingly positive feedback to (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/popularbyzantium-an-interview-with-paul-kastenellos-part-1/) Part 1 of my interview with University of North Dakota alumnus, Vincent O'Reilly, whose first novel, (http://www.amazon.com/Count-No-Man-HappyByzantine/dp/0983910804) Count No Man Happy, appeared right before Christmas. The novel is largely set in 8th century court of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI where it weaves together history, romance, and court intrigue to touch the popular imagination in a way that few scholars have ever managed. Byzantinists ought to support the work of passionate lay-scholars like Vincent, who writes under the name of Paul Kastenellos, and the easiest way to do this is to buy a copy of his book. Compared to the most scholarly publications, Vincent's book is a bargain at $13.95 (and even cheaper on the Kindle at $4.99). <"Corinth First City of Greece.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/corinthfirst-city-of-greece.jpg" border="0" alt="Corinth First City of Greece" width="450" height="175" /> (http://www.amazon.com/Count-No-Man-Happy-Byzantine/dp/0983910804/) So go to Amazon and get a copy. If you don't like it, give it to a student who might be just beginning to be interested in Byzantium or give it to your local library. Making "ordinary people" excited about Byzantium is important. <"CNMH.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/cnmh1.jpg" border="0" alt="CNMH" width="450" height="296" /> B.C.: As you've read more about Byzantium and wrote about it, did your interests changed? P.K.: I'd say rather that they have deepened. At one time I was interested in Alexius Commenus and easily could be again. In truth though, I'm more fascinated by the culture than by battles and heroes. When I saw the Ravenna mosaics my mouth literally dropped open to realize that they were actual portraits. Before the internet, photographs of them were flat, false colored, and uninteresting. The more I see of modern internet images the more I admire Byzantine art. So much in fact that, hard as it may be for someone not immersed in it to believe, I now prefer Byzantine to western art. The problem is that compared with the west there is little left that is in great condition. I did have the pleasure of observing quite a few good pieces in Greece however: Hosias Loukas, some Thessaloniki churches, and Mistra among others, but most of this stuff was late Byzantine. It seems that neither the Turks nor the Greeks particularly treasure what remains. In their defense, who wants to live in a museum? A church should speak to people today and if that means remodeling, well, sometimes that's OK. B.C.: That's interesting, but I wonder whether there is a growing interest in the pervasion of Byzantine monuments. And this might suggest that Byzantium does resonate with people today, don't you think? Why is that? P.K.: I don't know that it does. It remains alien to everything about modern American culture. It was superstitious, less mechanical and technological than the west in the same period, more concerned with feuding over religious dogma than we are or can even relate to. True, individuals could be extremely charitable but they did not make the headlines and even they were intolerant. It was a totalitarian state. In fact I wonder if the spirit of Byzantium wasn't more similar to that of India than to ours. If anything, it is the very

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otherness of Byzantium which fascinates. (Oops, thats your next question.) Truth is, outside of academic circles, if you say Byzantine to someone in the USA, he may at best recognize the word. B.C.: Byzantinist definitely need to do more to improve our "brand" recognition. But, getting back to your book, who speaks most directly to me? P.K.: Definitely Antonina. Her character is not obscured by religious myth as is that of so many Byzantines. As for others, yes indeed there are many interesting people but somehow except for Alexius and Constantine Paleologius, Constantine VI, and Antonina, I've never been attracted that much to individuals. The religious figures are a turn off to a modern person with their narrow mindedness, extremism carried to the point of fetishism (not in a good way), and general lack of Christian love. The military history is a sad story of which we know the sad outcome: the rape of Constantinople by crusaders, and the triumph of Islam with the destruction of everything that made the spirit of the Eastern Empire what it was. B.C.: In your book, you attempt to bridge the gap between Byzantium and our era today by imagining Byzantium as a kind of fantasy world imagined by an "aging", 30something 1950s pin-up model. Did you do this to try to translate the Byzantine world to 21st century America? It is worth noting that Julia Kristeva in her Byzantine themed novel, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/murder-in-byzantium/oclc/61123208) Murder in Byzantium, used a similar strategy. P.K.: You speak of Beth as aging. That is true only in so far as her days as a pinup girl were running low. She is in mid twenties. In spirit she is young and in body and face still beautiful. If I presented Byzantium as a fantasy world, then I failed at what I was trying to do. Beth is Constantine's fantasy but only until fully awake in the morning. The problems he faces were very real. I intended to make the characters of Nicephoros, Stauratius, Khardam and others believable, not fantasy. Their frame of reference is very different from ours but their motivation and behavior is not. I probably should have included more superstition and ignorance, as Cervantes did with Sancho Panza in Don Quixote. I may have depicted Irene as too single-minded about icons but hardly a character of fantasy. In fact I hoped to make them all more believable than medieval people are often depicted. (For example: the monks in The Name Of The Rose.) It bothers me that the middle ages are usually depicted in shades of gray and brown when to simply look at illustrations from that time east and west shows a world full of vibrant color. At the same time, I wanted to avoid making the characters think like moderns (like William of Baskerville, again in The Name Of The Rose.) B.C.: The historian in my has to ask a few technical questions as we get to the end of our interview. What primary sources did you use to write your novel? P.K.: There isn't much in the way of original sources about Constantine. All in all, the sources for eighth century Byzantium are thin compared with the centuries before and after. I relied almost entirely on Theophanes Confessor filling in details from my general understanding of the period acquired over the years. I used the Mango and Scott translation only learning of Turtledove's late in my work. As for secondary sources I would have made more use of Henry Maguire's Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204 had I known of the book when I was writing the basic text. As it is I only used it to confirm and correct some details. One may ask why I was so unaware of available texts? The internet was in its infancy when I wrote the basic text and I did not have ready access to an academic library... And after all, the book is a novel. I try to remain accurate to the history and the mentality of the age, at least in so far as one can when writing for a twentieth century audience. Specifically I tried not to be inaccurate. For example I'd have liked to use the imperial thrones that famously rose into the air, but on checking I discovered that they were not installed until a little after Constantine's time. I give a bit more detail of where I have deviated from the historical record in the Afterword of the text and in the notes which follow.

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My upcoming novel about Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, has an opposite problem. There is too much information and too many conflicting interpretation of events, motivation, et c. Every historian seems to have his own. Everyone admits that Procopius was probably right about most details but is untrustworthy otherwise. It would be nice to have someone else's opinion of Bloody John, for example, or know why so many allegedly black-hearted men were restored to positions of honor by Justinian. If, for example, Bessas was as venal as Procopius pictures him, why was he later given command against the Persians. Procopius chastises Belisarius for not defending his stepson, Photius, when Theodora incarcerated him but he is careful to keep his time-line vague. As I read it, Photius was arrested while Belisarius was in disgrace and suffering from clinical depression. Anyone who has endured such depression or lived with someone who is suffering from it knows that it is just not possible for him to even rise from his bed. There is an unfocused despair that does not respond to reason and cannot be fought. Besides, had Belisarius attempted to intervene directly while under Theodora's wrath he would have made things worse for Photius. Yet most historians just repeat Procopius' slander. Some of Procopius' accusations have been challenged but rarely has his opinion of Antonia been. I have tried to see the events of Belisarius and Antonina's lives through her eyes. Historians have not helped. For your information: this next book will have none of the fantasy and depravity of Count No Man Happy. It will be straight historical fiction but almost entirely historically accurate. (I say almost because I could not resist making Procopius a eunuch although there is no evidence that he was one but then, there is no evidence that he wasn't. Consider it long overdue payback.) B.C.: What secondary authors help you to understand the fragmentary and confusing record of Byzantium? P.K.: For fact checking and specifics there is nothing like Wikipedia. I could spend weeks in a library doing what I now do in a few minutes on the net. There is a popular belief that it is inaccurate but so are books; and it is far more likely that mistakes will be corrected there than when repeated in books. (Not a mistake, but have you ever noticed how much J B Bury is quoted almost word for word by other authors without direct citation? Do they ever check him?) As for secondary sources for Antonina, Lord Mahon is far more readable than Procopius even if not very critical; and nothing can compare with the delight of Thomas Hodgkin's Italy And Her Invaders. Yet one can question conventional replication of interpretation. I see the battle of Daras in Belisarius' first Persian War as essentially a hammer of Roman archers hitting an anvil of Roman infantry with the Persian cavalry caught between them. Why else did Belisarius remain dismounted with the infantry. In my opinion cavalry did not win Daras, the disdained infantry did. B.C.: Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask one last question. What could scholars do better to engage a wider audience for the study of Byzantium? P.K.: A tough question. I have walked the walls of Constantinople and offered a prayer where the last emperor fell in battle. One problem is that neither Greece nor Turkey emphasize their medieval history. Curiously, I have the impression that in recent years Moslem Turkey has done a bit more than Christian Greece which seems preoccupied with its ancient history. I get the impression from the Greeks I've met that they hardly study it in school. My wife and I were alone at Mistra because it is far from the tourist route. Of course, the same to a lesser degree was true of Ravenna in Italy. In Ravenna we saw a group of Japanese art students but few western tourists. If more scholars were willing to mix with non-academics, they could start at home. If UND (for example) offered a guided tour of Ravenna, Cappadochia, Constantinople, and Mistras, perhaps together with a gullet boat trip down the Bosphorus to the Mediterranean; and if the cost were kept minimal, some of us who are not wealthy enough to be attracted to the usual university tours of the Greek Islands might be tempted. You could be the guide and have the group include alumni of other universities. Such a tour could be the basis of a TV documentary. Such a tour would be unique and one hell of a lot more special than Rhodes again.

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We do need more quality fiction about the empire. As noted above what little I've seen is poor academically (excepting Robert Graves' (http://www.worldcat.org/title/count-belisarius/oclc/2553449) Count Belisarius.) Surely historians can team up with the many frustrated writers in English departments to work on this problem. A best seller might even be made into a movie. More art exhibits. The Metropolitan made a great start which should be followed up on. But what I think is most important is to energize students at the high school level. You, as a Byzantinist, could offer to present illustrated lectures in your area. You might even use the (http://www.apuleiusbooks.com/illustrated-guideto-byzantium-3/) Illustrated Guide on (http://www.apuleiusbooks.com/) my website as a starting point. Sorry that I've rambled a lot, not always staying on point. But then, I never was good at answering test questions.

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<title>Presenting My Path to Tenure</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/presenting-my-path-to-tenure/</link> Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1473 I've been asked to be on a panel that will meet with a large group of new faculty members to discuss what we did to get tenure or how we managed the challenges of being a new faculty member or how we balanced life and work. Since, I am not entirely sure what will help new faculty members or what exactly the organizers of this panel expect from me, I thought I would offer some rather generic advice that summarizes what I did to try to ensure that I would get tenure. (Understanding, of course, that this may be different from the reasons why I actually got tenure.) I'll offer five points: 1. Work Hard. Be the first one in the office and the last one out every day. I think my father (who was not an academic) gave me this advice. I try to get into the office by 6 am and leave around 6 pm. I have generally found that the hours from 6 am to 9 am and from 3 pm to 6 pm to be the most distraction free and productive. By making sure that I have at least 6 hours a day that are reasonably free from teaching, students, colleagues, meetings, and other distractions, I give myself the space I need to be a good colleague, teacher, and university citizen. 2. Teaching. I have followed three strategies (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/ateaching-sabbatical/) in my teaching life. (1) I took on courses that other faculty members did not want to teach (e.g. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/teaching-graduate-historiography-afinal-syllabus-redux/) Graduate Historiography). We call these courses "service classes". Teaching these courses provided a disincentive for my colleagues to challenge my teaching too rigorously. After all, if they didn't like how I taught classes that no one wanted to teach, they could teach them. (2) The teaching reviews for service courses tend to be skewed a bit lower. This meant that I had a ready-made and widely accepted excuse for average teaching reviews. And finally, (3) I teach the same courses every semester. This has made prep time far more manageable and given me a chance to develop my courses without interruption. 3. Service. I also have three rules for service. I am temperamentally unsuited for committee work. (1) So I focused my service work on individual projects. For example, I wrote our (http://www.scribd.com/doc/27453496/History-at-the-University-of-North-Dakota-1885-1970) Departmental History for the 125th-a-versary of the University. I created and managed (http://teachingthursday.org/) a teaching blog for our Office of Instructional Development. I transitioned our department's webpage to a new content management system. I often take on departmental writing tasks. When I do have to be on a committee, (2) I try to serve on committee that I have created myself or that my friends have created or serve on. I find friends are far more patient with me and I have more passion for committee work if it is doing something that I find important (i.e. our Working Group in Digital and New Media Lab (http://www.scribd.com/doc/71916928/WGDNM-2011-Annual-Report) here and (http://www.scribd.com/doc/40227454/WGDNM-Annual-Report) here) or creating a microphilanthropy program for the College of Arts and Sciences or brining speakers for the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/cyprus-research-fund-lecture-2011-kostis-kourelisbyzantium-and-the-avant-garde/) Cyprus Research Fund). Finally, (3) if I do have to serve on a committee that is not filled with friends or created at my initiative, I try to serve on committees where there are only a few faculty members. I find that administrators and staff on campus have a far greater respect for one another's time and are better capable of running an efficient meeting. Moreover, on these committees, my job has largely been to represent the faculty rather than to perform actual faculty governance. My experience is that committee work is at its worst when faculty fee compelled to perform governance.

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4. Scholarship. Most of my energies go into teaching, but scholarship remains an important part of being a university faculty member. To that end, I always try to keep four projects going to ensure that I have something underway at all times. (1) I have an almost completed project, and this is whence publications come (e.g. those related to (http://www.scribd.com/doc/42994192/Caraher-Pettegrew-JamesVayiaOffprint-2010) the Corinthia.) (2) I have an ongoing project, and this tends to produce conference papers and publicity (e.g. (http://www.pkap.org/) PKAP). (3) I have a future project that is just getting underway, and this produces grants (e.g. my work at (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/) Polis-Chrysochou). Finally, (4) I have a crazy project that might be a bad idea or is outside of my specific area of expertise (e.g. (http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/) Punk Archaeology or (http://www.scribd.com/doc/30697799/Caraher-Dream-Archaeology-2010) Dream Archaeology or (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) Work Camps in western North Dakota). This is where invited lectures come from. 5. It takes a village. My final point about my path to tenure is that I did not do it on my own. It took good colleagues in my department, in the college, and across the U.S. to help me negotiate my path to tenure. People allowed for my idiosyncratic behaviors, were patient with my failures and shortcomings, and were attentive to whatever successes that I had. To cultivate good colleagues, I found it very useful to ignore one of the most common pieces of advice that I see popping up now-and-again on the pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Instead of learning how to say "NO", I spent far more time figuring out way to always say "yes" when colleagues asked me to help on campus or in the community. The main reason for this is that saying "no" to helping builds no social capital. In fact, I can't think of any time when I admired or thought better of someone for saying "no" to me when I asked them for help. (And I never feel better when they tell me that they are very busy. Obviously, I asked for help because I was very busy. The only people who aren't busy on campus are people no one asks for help, and there is usually a good and obvious reason for that.) When people asked me for help, it was largely because they needed help. By saying "yes", I developed the social capital to ask others to help me when I needed help. It takes a community to bring a junior faculty member to tenure. Central to having community support is the development of a robust network of reciprocal obligations. Saying "yes" builds this network and ensures support when the inevitable crises occur. In effect, it builds a community.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-30/</link> Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:08:41 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1476 It's a cold and blustery Friday here in North Dakotaland. To make matters worse, my day is somehow filled with meetings. And I have a cold. In fact, the inside of my head feels like it's peeling. But, fear not, I still have plenty of energy for a happy little gaggle of quick hits and varia: (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Congratulations to fellow blogger and PKAP-er, David Pettegrew for getting tenure and promotion at Messiah College. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/presenting-my-path-to-tenure/) My musings on my path to tenure seems to have received some "ambivalent" responses (and a few almost hostile ones as well). Earlier in the week, (http://kottke.org/12/02/the-lessons-of-steve-jobs) Jason Kottke posted some reflections on how Steve Jobs' death has influenced the work culture of internet start ups. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/world/middleeast/the-church-that-politics-turned-into-amosque.html) An article on Hagia Sophia at Iznik in the New York Times. (http://www.livescience.com/18020-digitizing-archeology-nsf-bts.html) More from Adam Rabinowitz on digitizing archaeology. (http://www.luckydogfilmworks.com/index.html) Boomtown Girls: a trailer for a reality tv series based on life in the western North Dakota oil boom. (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/02/06/blogging-thebakken-part-1-man-camp-in-dunn-county-north-dakota/) Aaron Barth provides some reality tv of his own from his work in Dunn County. (http://artshantyprojects.org/home) Here's another take on temporary and seasonal settlements in the northern plains. I like (http://putthison.com/) Put This On. (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/228924/) This was a nice gesture. (http://teachingthursday.org/) A good question with precious few responses (much less answers) over on Teaching Thursday this week. (http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20120205,0,639053.column) A few interesting thoughts on the place of high-tech gadgets in the classroom and who really benefits (via (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/) Kostis Kourelis). (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/temple-project-ditches-textbooks-forhomemade-digital-alternatives/35247) I really like project from Temple University to support the creation of homegrown digital textbooks, but I wonder if $1000 is enough of an incentive. (I am currently working very, very quietly on a similar project for my History 101: Western Civilization class). I haven't read (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/02/03/stylized-elements-of-style/) this short history of Strunk and White's Elements of Style, but I'd like to.

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 (http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/product.asp?product=1583) I love this advertisement. Check out the use of quotes: The OM-D is a groundbreaking, new digital interchangeable lens camera perfect for people who want to take part, create, and share. I have always wanted to "take part" and "share". What I'm reading: Y. Lolos, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon/oclc/71285030) The Land of Sikyon. (ASCSA 2011). (It's like (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Democracy) Chinese Democracy, but actually awesome). What I'm listening to: Chairlife, Something.

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<title>From the Corinthia to Sicyon</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/from-the-corinthia-to-sicyon/</link> Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:59:06 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1481 This weekend I spent some quality time with Y. Lolos newly published tome, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon-archaeology-and-history-of-a-greek-citystate/oclc/722450498) Land of Sikyon. Hesperia Supplement 39 (Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 2011). It runs to close to 650 pages and provides a nearly comprehensive view on (as his subtitle states) the archaeology and history of a Greek City-State. With a book of this size and level of detail, I feel a bit like a cat attacking a sofa. The best I'll be able to do is attack various parts of it and then race off. That being said, over the next few weeks, I'll be posting my observations on the book as I work my way through it. Scholars interested in the history, archaeology, and topography of the Corinthia and the northwest Peloponnesus have eagerly awaited this book (so eagerly, in fact, that it's listed in World Cat as having been published in (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon/oclc/71285030) 2006, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon-the-archaeology-and-history-of-a-greek-citystate/oclc/634991137) 2009, and (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon-archaeology-and-historyof-a-greek-city-state/oclc/722450498) 2011). This weekend I took particular interest in Lolos detailed description of the history and land routes through the region. My very first article looked at a series of fortifications on the far eastern end of (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/25067991) Mt. Oneion. In this article I discuss briefly the idea that an army could cross the eastern end of Mt. Oneion in order to enter the Peloponnesus while avoiding the fortifications around the city of Corinth. From that article: In addition, once an army crossed the mountain's eastern end and moved south, it had bypassed the defenses of Acrocorinth and gained ac cess to a complex network of roads leading toward the population centers of the southwest Corinthia, such as Tenea, Kleonai, and Phlius, as well as the Sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea. Thereafter, an army could link up with routes into the Argolid or move toward the west through the uplands of the northeastern Peloponnese to descend into Sikyonia, Arkadia, and Achaia. When I wrote this, however, I had only the faintest idea how a force could descend into Sikonia. Historically, I knew it was possible, as Xenophon tells us (Hell. 7.1.18-19) that the Theban general Epaminondas did just that during his second invasion of the Peloponnesus in 386, despite efforts by the Athenians, Spartans, and Pellenians to hold the eastern side of the mountain. Lolos's book provides some crucial clarification on the route of this invasion. It seems likely that the Thebans must have marched to Phlious before moving south to Sikyon along the route of the Asopos river or alternately veering slightly further west and passing the sanctuary of Titane on a decent to the Sikyonian plateau. Lolos' book provides significant evidence for these routes through his thorough compilation of evidence for wheel ruts and road cuttings that suggest the presence of cart roads. Of course, the army of Epaminondas probably had very few carts as they had entered the Peloponnesus through a rather tricky march over the eastern part of Mt. Oneion. While Lolos has worked out the routes west and south in Sikyonia and (http://www.worldcat.org/title/studies-in-the-topography-of-the-southern-corinthia/oclc/34369379) R. Bynum (http://www.worldcat.org/title/well-built-kleonai-a-history-of-the-peloponnesian-city-based-on-asurvey-of-the-visible-remains-and-a-study-of-the-literary-and-epigraphic-sources/oclc/124083356) Jeanie Marchand, and (http://www.worldcat.org/title/disputed-territories-interstate-arbitrations-in-the-northeast-

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peloponnese-ca-250-150-bc/oclc/45703753) Mike Dixon (all under the watchful eye of (http://classics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=39) Prof. Ron Stroud) have pieced together the road networks of the southern and western Corinthia, as far as I know, no one has worked out the roads running south of Mt. Oneion from the area of Solygeia (and the modern village of Loutro Elenis) to the Xeropotamos River valley. This is a relatively small area, but one where one might expect to find areas of exposed bedrock that would preserve wheel ruts. Moreover, it's tempting to imaging that the hills further south had watch towers to monitoring traffic obscured by the mass of Oneion. As a side note, it feels strange to blog on ancient Greece at a time when the modern Greece is in such turmoil. I wonder whether reading, thinking, and writing about ancient Greece provides me with a safe way to keep that place in my head without incurring the emotional cost of reflecting on its current troubles.

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<title>A Rough Sketch of Work in the North Dakota Work Camps</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/14/a-rough-sketch-of-work-in-the-northdakota-work-camps/</link> Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:24:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1484 As readers of this blog know, I'm slowing articulating a small archaeological fieldwork project that will focus on the material culture, architecture, and landscape associated with work camps in western North Dakota. This project is part of a larger collaborative initiative recently funded by our Vice President of Research that has brought together scholars from Social Work, Indian Studies, and Anthropology to investigate social change in the oil producing Bakken Counties of North Dakota. As part of coordinating our disparate efforts, we all decided to write up a proposal, in informal language, that would describe our goals. We have also begun to collect bibliography using Zotero. (https://www.zotero.org/billcaraher/items/collectionKey/3AHFI9MX) We have a growing bibliography on the social impact of oil booms and the archaeology of work camps and other sites of natural resource extraction. (https://www.zotero.org/billcaraher/items/collectionKey/24C3HQ6R) We are also collecting media reports, newspaper article, blog posts and the like that refer to boomtowns particularly in the western part of North Dakota. Follow the links above to check them out. If you've been putting off using (http://www.zotero.org/) Zotero to collect citation, now is the time to start! They have just released (http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-3-0-is-here/) Zotero 3.0 which is a lovely and powerful stand alone piece of citation management software which integrates seamlessly with Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. It's a pleasure to use and free and open source! Here's my informal proposal: A Proposal for The Archaeology of Work Camps in Western North Dakota Introduction The last 40 years has seen a "boom" in the study of industrial archaeology. Work camps and community have formed central features in the conversation among archaeologist of both the recent and distant past. Work camps and the communities that they housed played a key role in the extraction of natural resources on a global scale and, locally, in the settlement of the American west. Archaeological study of these communities has demonstrated how they both reinforced social divisions based on race, wealth, education, and job, but also allowed for remarkable opportunities for social and economic mobility and transgressive behavior. Most archaeologists have recognized in the material left behind from these camps evidence for resistance to existing social norms at the economic and, indeed, geographic margins of American society. As messy, gritty, discordant Foucualdian heterotopias, work camps - like the frontier itself in Turner's naive imagination provided a model for an American future. Architectural historians, likewise, have begun to develop a sustained interest in short-term housing and settlement prompted in large part by the use of temporary housing in the aftermath of Katrina and the wellpublicized use of camps during the global refugee crises that have dominated the last 60s years. Coincidentally, the recent interest in temporary housing and the structure of highly contingent communities has returned to the American west in the study of dynamic communities in places like Slab City, California and Quartzite, Arizona where two very different groups have availed themselves to the margins of settlement to create dynamic, contingent communities. As some pundits and scholars have noted, the dynamic nature of the communities among refugees, at Slab City and in the Bakken counties find parallels with the flexibility preached in the post-industrial economy, in cutting edge models of American higher education, and in the

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playful workspaces of high-tech start ups. If the 19th century mining camp represented one possible future for American society, then perhaps the post-Katrina refugee camp, the Bakken Man Camp, and the conventicle of RVers gathering in Quartzite suggest another potential future. In the humanities more generally, this interest in short-term or temporary habitation strategies and community echoes the so-called "spatial turn" or "material turn" in the humanities which recognizes the fundamentally spatial and material character of human relations. By documenting the material signature, physical organization, and the complex places that work camps occupy in the landscape of western North Dakota, this project seeks to represent these contingent communities in a spatial way. Methods and Questions From the perspective of methodology, the study of existing work camps has the potential to shed light on the complexities of the formation processes that produce archaeological sites. While contemporary practices and material present significantly different challenges for archaeologists, documenting basic discard patterns associated with short term settlement practices could provide useful archaeological analogues for understanding past site formation. Moreover, it serves as important documentation for future archaeological work in the region which will inevitably have to deal with the remains of temporary and short-term settlement associated with the oils boom. By documenting discard practices, site organization, and settlement patterns, an archaeologist can record the material environment that both shapes and is shaped by social interactions. Archaeologists have long harbored the conceit that objects can tell us things that oral and textual sources cannot. Careful and systematic documentation of work camps provides a way to produce the material signature of social, economic, and political relationships. Ideally this work will include both the sanctioned work camps as well as the myriad alternative settlement practices ranging from "hotcotting" to unsanctioned camps that have appeared in private and public space and various forms of quasi-legal and illegal squatting among individuals and communities working in the Bakken oil fields. Finally, while archaeological documentation has typically focused at the scale of the trench or the site, recent work in the field has sought to step back from the individual site to consider the landscape as a scale of human society. The landscape of western North Dakota has entered a period of particularly dynamic change. These changes are set against a landscape that already wears the marks of human exploitation. Photography of the western landscape - in both its "pristine glory" and as the tamed mistress of American economic exceptionalism - has played a key roll in how we imagine the normative landscapes. By placing man-camps and other installations in their relationship to older images of rural space, we not only problematize the aesthetics of exploitation, but also document the character of rapid change. Any study of the impact and form of economic phenomenon risks being interpreted as subversive or manipulated in such a way as to discredit the authenticity and honesty of the findings. Recognizing that this risk is particular acute in environments where economically powerful interest already feel embattled. To attempt to guard against these pressures, the project will include aspects of "guerrilla archaeology" where lowimpact fieldwork that attempts to document a range of different habitation sites with a minimum of collaboration or collusion with sources of local authority. Procedures My research plan calls for 2 short trips to the Bakken Counties. The first trip will focus on issues of identification and access to proposed study sites. This trip will be guided both by data collected from western sources and through the careful study of recent satellite photographs of the areas around New Town and Williston. Reasonable estimates of distances and some basic procedures for documenting visible material culture will help to determine the equipment and number of people required to document the work camps successfully.

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A second trip will occur in the summer months (July or August) and be a maximum of 7 days. This trip will involve primary data collection from a specific group of sites using GPS, photography, forms, and notebooks. I hope to document I would also like to collaborate, if possible, with a photographer and, if possible, with some local archaeologists familiar with the challenges and opportunities of working in the Bakken counties.

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<title>Three Abstracts for the 2012-2013 Archaeological Institute of America Lecture Program</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/three-abstracts-for-the-2012-2013archaeological-institute-of-america-lecture-program/</link> Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:33:03 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1489 I was invited next year to contribute to the Archaeological Institute of America's annual lecture program. To help local chapter of the AIA decide whether my lectures would fit their needs, drawn an audience, and interest their members, I was asked to offer a few abstract on talks that I could give. So I looked through my "works-out-of-progress" folders and concocted three abstracts from the various projects that continue to float about in my scholarly consciousness. They range from the accessible and popular to the technical and obscure and unresolved. Here they are: Ten Years at an Ancient Harbor in Cyprus This lecture would consider the history and archaeology of the coastal site of Pyla-Koutsopetria on the south coast of Cyprus where a now in-filled ancient harbor served a community that prospered for over 1000 years. While travelers and scholars had periodically visited the site and documented stray finds, including the infamous Luigi Palma di Cesnola, systematic work at the site did not begin until 2003 when the PylaKoutsopetria Archaeological Project began a campaign of intensive survey, remote sensing, and excavation that documented an extensive area of habitation along the coast. With a Iron Age sanctuary, a Hellenistic fortification, a Roman period olive press and town, and an Early Christian basilica, the coastal zone of Pyla village contains a startling assemblage of features common across the island of Cyprus during the historic period. The high-density scatter of ceramic artifacts demonstrates the diversity of activities at the site and the wide range connections between the site and the wider Mediterranean world. Between sea and mountain: the archaeology of a 20th century small worldin the upland basins of the southeastern Korinthia Between 2001 and 2009, a small team of archaeologists investigated a number of geographically well-defined and fertile upland basins or poljes located between the villages of Sophiko and Korphos in the southeastern Korinthia. We conducted intensive pedestrian survey in the largest of these valleys, known as Lakka Skoutara, as part of the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey (EKAS). The results of this survey show that despite its seeming isolation, the valley supported human activities throughout antiquity. The most fascinating aspect of the valley, however, appears in more recent times when it supported a cluster of farmsteads and agricultural and pastoral activities. These small houses are now largely abandoned, but can nevertheless tell us a tremendous amount about the "small places" in the Greek countryside that played a vital role in the 20th century in the subsistence of its local population. The team documented the modern landscape of the valley through a series of regular visits, and these allowed up to observe the continued dynamism of changing land use patterns on a very small scale. In particular, we worked to document formation processes and life cycles of use, reuse, and abandonment connected with the modern structures in the valley. By combining archaeological survey with oral information obtained from local residents, we were able to reconstruct part of the landscape history of this small, low-density rural settlement and its relationship to the wider world. Dream Archaeology

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For over 1000 years excavators have relied upon dreams to guide them to hidden treasures, sacred buildings, and lost relics. St. Helena's excavations of fragments of the true cross and other stories of inventio inspired later Christian archaeologists to follow the inspiration of dream to find sacred relics. The practice was consistent and widespread enough to qualify as a form of Byzantine indigenous archaeology. In more recent times, excavators as revered as Anastasios Orlandos and Manolis Andronikos have recognized the influence of dreams on their own excavations. As Y. Hamilakis and C. Stewart have shown in their recent work that archaeological dreams played a key role in the developing Greek national consciousness. They do not, however, link these modern archaeological dreams explicitly to Byzantine and Early Christian practices. This paper will not necessarily establish an irrefutable connection between modern and Byzantine dreams or argue for the presence of some unconscious continuity. Instead, I will sketch the outlines of an indigenous archaeology in Byzantine times and consider how such pre-modern practices can influence our ideas of archaeological knowledge in more recent times. Which would you pick?

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<title>The Annual Letter from the Cyprus Research Fund</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/the-annual-letter-from-the-cyprus-researchfund/</link> Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:36:17 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1492 Each year I try to produce a newsletter for the various donors and "stakeholders" in the Cyprus Research Fund. The letter tells them a bit about the past year's work, looks to the future, and thanks them for their support. Since all readers of the blog are - in some tiny way - stakeholders, I offer the 2012 newsletter below. Thanks for all the support and encouragement over the past year! (And for reading my blog!). [scribd id=81821377 key=key-a278w43rug4ov03z9b3 mode=slideshow]

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-31/</link> Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:16:37 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1497 It's a bracing Friday morning in North Dakotaland. It's been a long week, but I still have enough energy for a few quick hits and varia... There is so much being written about Greece lately that it's hard to filter or even process it all. The (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/the-way-greeks-livenow.html?_r=2&amp;pagewanted=all) New York Times Magazine article seems decent. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/opinion/do-not-humiliate-the-greeks.html) This seems like a reasonable cautionary tale. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/opinion/do-not-humiliate-thegreeks.html) The museum at Olympia was robbed last night (one wonders whether there is a political message to this). Apparently there was an earthquake just east of the Isthmian canal yesterday. Finally, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=oAR0VRLRGHE) this short "punk economics" video gives a nice overview to the current Greek financial crisis. Tom Tartaron lectured on (http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2012/02/thomas-tartaron-lecture-on-otziiceman.html) the tzi iceman (via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus) If you haven't checked out Chris Cloke's (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/14/chris-cloke-onsurvey-and-agriculture-in-the-nemea-valley/) three (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/15/the-nemeavalley-archaeological-survey-and-manuring/) part (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/16/interpretingceramic-assemblages-from-the-nemea-valley-archaeological-project/) post on the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project (NVAP) survey data and manuring over at (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/15/the-nemea-valley-archaeological-survey-and-manuring/) Corinthian Matters. Do it now. It's the best possible use of archaeological blogging. (http://www.zotero.org/blog/zotero-3-0-is-here/) Zotero 3.0 is out of beta and (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zotpad/id497260579?mt=8) ZotPad is now available to let you run Zotero on your iPad. (http://kottke.org/12/02/henry-millers-writing-commandments) Some more writing tips, this time from Henry Miller. Some good PR for the (http://www.scribd.com/doc/80803115/CORNERSTONE-Newsletter-February) Working Group in Digital and New Media via UND's College of Arts and Sciences Cornerstone magazine. One thing that I hate is when official media from UND insist on calling me William "Bill" Caraher. Who does that in the normal press? Page 12 has a nice little article on Kostis Kourelis visit to UND in the fall. In general, Working Group members dominated the February Cornerstone. (http://tsikbalichmaya.org/) You just have to check out the Maya language cartoons that my buddies Paul Worley and Joel Jonientz have put together. They are amazing. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/world/asia/kabuls-soviet-ruins-offer-a-reminder-of-imperialambitions.html?hp=&amp;pagewanted=all) Some abandonment porn Soviet Afghanistan style. (http://sites.museum.upenn.edu/monrepos/) Awesome digital reconstructions of the temple at Mons Repos, Corfu by Phil Saperstein.

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 It would be (http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/02/15/a-shrinking-piece-of-the-university-pie/) fun - in a profoundly depressing way - to run a similar analysis on the funding on campus here for libraries. Man, (http://rogueamoeba.com/piezo/) I really like Piezo for recording streamed music tracks to mp3. Cheap, fun, and simple. Plus it works. (http://chronicle.com/article/Making-a-Public-PhD/130716/) A public (history) Ph.D. (http://soundcloud.com/dominorecordco/the-kills-pale-blue-eyes) The Kills cover of VU's Pale Blue Eyes. (http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=f4v5lydab&amp;v=001XqiOmN3J1DAOVPsEJoZkI yOsDIHRB7tF88BoPp5tbcMhn4SzJoJSdjWuIJLlxgiyS6rcNaQ7D22ohZRbXOBwBViqbVLe5pk86rSWhHjXup2deaHzhDJh6ZURYSmXdpoi_h2Z9UGVk%3D) This is pretty funny (especially to my Australian friends) (via Susie). (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/14/146872577/why-california-almonds-need-north-dakotaflowers-and-a-few-billion-bees) North Dakota bees and California almonds (via Whit). (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/story/553866.html) Andrew "Roy" Symonds is retiring from all forms of cricket. While he did plenty of amazing things with a cricket bat (and was an amazing fielder), I'll always remember fondly when (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTWOk6slU_Y) he took out the streaker in a ODI at his home pitch. (http://www.foundhistory.org/2012/02/15/game-change-digital-technology-and-performativehumanities/) This is a very thoughtful blog post on whether digital humanities and digital history are "game changers". (http://chronicle.com/blognetwork/castingoutnines/2012/02/13/four-things-lecture-is-good-for/) Why it's sometimes good to lecture. And (http://chronicle.com/article/A-Tech-Happy-ProfessorReboots/130741/) even the highest tech faculty can learn something from great old school lecturers. (http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-workaholics-20120213,0,7464060.story) It so happens that work/life balance may be bad for you (especially if you really like your job and are kind of ambivalent about most parts of life). On the same topic, (http://lifehacker.com/5884439/burnout-is-real-how-to-identify-theproblem-and-how-to-fix-it) a short article on burn out (or as we call it on PKAP, blow out). What I'm reading: Y. Lolos, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon/oclc/71285030) The Land of Sikyon (ASCSA 2011). It's really long! What I'm listening to: Crime, San Francisco's Still Doomed; The Jazz Crusaders, Live at the Lighthouse '66. Isn't it cool that we have local businesses here in North Dakotaland called Odin's (and it's not a place to get all your neo-pagan supplies or comic books! It's a service station.) <"Odins.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/odins.jpg" border="0" alt="Odins" width="358" height="600" />

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<title>A Working Paper on Lakka Skoutara in the Corinthia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/a-working-paper-on-lakka-skoutara-in-thecorinthia/</link> Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:01:19 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1500 With the recent preliminary publication of the work by the SHARP team at the site of Kalamianos in the southeastern Corinthia, it seemed like a good opportunity for David Pettegrew, Tim Gregory, Lita Tzortzopoulou-Gregory and I to dust off a long-in-progress manuscript dealing with the site of Lakka Skoutara. This paper is still very much in-progress, but we have drawn upon it for a paper at the 2010 Modern Greek Studies Association Meeting and at the 2012 Archaeological Institute of America meeting. We have also made available (http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/collections/show/4) our photographic archive from our work at this site. With the growing interest in this particular section of the Corinthia, we thought it would be a good idea to get throw our ideas into the mix and get the history of this "small world" into the conversation. We'll undoubtedly revise this draft over the next year or so and keep an updated draft available. Over the past couple of weeks, David Pettegrew (the editor of (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters) and I have talked about making Corinthian Matters a destination for working papers on Corinthian Matters. The idea of working papers has strong roots in the hard and social sciences where researchers regularly circulate papers prior to publication. It also provides a way to make research available that escapes from pay-walls and other ways that corporations looks to profit from faculty research. If you have a working paper that you want people to see, drop David or me an email. [scribd id=82186248 key=key-21d4l9x8d9a402ff2inw mode=list] Cross-posted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters.

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<title>New Idea: Grand Forks Community History Project</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/new-idea-grand-forks-community-historyproject/</link> Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:25:15 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1503 As readers of this blog know, I've gradually been moving into community and local history. It began when I wrote a history of our department for the University's 125th-a-versary. Then last fall, I became involved in writing the history of the last wood-framed church building in Grand Forks when it was slated for demolition. As a result of this second project, I have been courting the (http://www.gfclt.org/) Grand Forks Community Land Trust and seeing if there is the potential for a collaborative project between the Department of History and the Community Land Trust to produce local histories in association with properties that it acquires in the Grand Forks area. Over the weekend, I put together a brief proposal and sent it over the Grand Forks Community Land Trust people to see if they might be willing to take our relationship a bit further. The initial response has been quite positive, but I still haven't heard from all the players. On the University of North Dakota side there is still a good bit of negotiating to do, but I am hopeful that there will be some good will toward this opportunity. So, here's the proposal: Grand Forks Community History Project Introduction The Grand Forks Community History Project is a collaboration between the Department of History at the University of North Dakota and the Grand Forks Community Land Trust (CLT). The goal of the collaboration is to produce a series of community histories for neighborhoods with properties redeveloped by the non-profit CLT. The histories will combine professional scholarly rigor with an accessible language and format. Each relatively short work (10,000 15,000 words) will form a part of a larger series of histories that aspires to a block-by-block history of Grand Forks and brings to life to the stories, dynamism, and architecture of the community. The CLT and the Department of History recognize the power of the past to shape the present. The CLT's work to create strong communities by making affordable housing available in Grand Forks finds common cause with work of local and public historians who strive to tell the story of the entire community. The Department of History and the CLT will present the books to new residents of CLT homes, circulate them to the associated neighborhoods, provide them at no or low cost to civic institutions, libraries, churches, et c., and sell them at cost through local bookstores. The goal from both the CLT and the Department of History perspective is to use these volumes to strengthen the local community. The alliance between the CLT and the Department of History will also work to reinforce the ties between the University, the Department of History and the community through partnering with a local organization. The main authors of the volumes will be doctoral level students or exceptional M.A. students under the guidance of Prof. Cynthia Prescott, Prof. William Caraher, and Prof. Bret Weber. The books will be part of the Department of History's developing program in Public History and serve as a powerful regional showcase for the best work from our department. The Program

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In the Fall of 2011 the first volume of the series was commissioned by Prof. Caraher and the CLT. The volume, authored by, Chris Price, D.A. student in the Department of History documents the history and architecture of the church on 3rd and Walnut St. in Grand Forks, which is a CLT property and slated for destruction this spring. This church is among the oldest standing churches in town and the last remaining wood framed church in Grand Forks city limits. In spring of 2012, the CLT will build a single family house on the lot and we will present the volume on the history of the church along with an architectural drawing of the building to the residence of the home, the local community, and state and local archives and libraries. This volume will be the lasting record of the church. In 2012 we plan to expand this program to include properties acquired by the CLT throughout Grand Forks. For a larger implementation of this program, we will run a seminar for the students on community history and begin to develop the skills and research time needed for producing additional volumes. The resources available at the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections will support the writing of these local histories and serve as one of a number of outlets for making our work available for the community. To manage the overhead of producing a series of books, we were serve as the publisher coordinating peer review, contacting authors, and distributing the books locally. We will produce the books in very small print runs and provide additional copies through a print-on-demand service like Lulu. We will also make the manuscripts available in digital formats as either ebook or pdf. This will be done in collaboration with the Working Group in Digital and New Media. Funding The collaboration with the CLT provided necessary start up money for the initial phase of the project. They subsidized the publication of the first volume in collaboration with private donors through the Cyprus Research Fund. The next phase of the project will require additional support. At present, we envision a series of 15 to 20 volumes each written by an advanced graduate student. Each volume would cost approximate $1000 to produce and distribute. Because the volumes will be tied to particular properties, the full funding will not be necessary from the start. Ideally, a collaboration with the CLT will open doors to community development money not typically accessible to history projects. Next Steps There are three steps necessary to advance this project: 1. There needs to be a liaison between the CLT and the Department of History who will decide which properties will receive the first round of histories. 2. A representative in the Department of History who will work with a representative the CLT to write grants and consider funding options and priorities. 3. A representative to supervise the production of the next round of volumes. Obviously, these three positions can be occupied by a single individual, but this will involve a significant amount of time and energy. Initiating a community development project is not native to the academic programs of most historians. The value of this project, however is significant, and it will reinforce the innovative character of the CLT as well as the growing interest in public history in the Department of History. The opportunity for graduate students to get first hand experience shepherding a project from research to publication is invaluable for their professional development. More importantly, projects like this have the opportunity to make our community stronger.

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<title>On-site and off-site at Pyla-Koustopetria: A Response to Chris Cloke&#039;s Interpreting Ceramic Assemblages</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/on-site-and-off-site-at-pyla-koustopetria-aresponse-to-chris-clokes-interpreting-ceramic-assemblages/</link> Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:49:03 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1510 Last week Chris Cloke generously shared some of his work with the pottery from the Nemea Valley Archaeological Project over at Corinthian Matters in a (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/14/chriscloke-on-survey-and-agriculture-in-the-nemea-valley/) three (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/15/the-nemea-valley-archaeological-survey-and-manuring/) part (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/16/interpreting-ceramic-assemblages-from-the-nemea-valleyarchaeological-project/) post. In a nutshell, he argued that there was evidence for manuring during Late Antiquity. It's a busy week, but I wanted to follow up on his suggestion that (http://www.pkap.org/) PKAP present some of its data to see whether we could detect similar trends. Our work at Pyla-Koustopetria, of course, is rather different in scope than the work of the (http://river.blg.uc.edu/nvap/) NVAP. We focused on one, mid-sized, site rather than an entire region. Moreover, by Late Antiquity the built up area of our study area appears to have been rather large in relation to our overall study area. Nevertheless, there is reason to think that the northern reaches of our study amount to an off-site zone. The distribution of tiles, for example, suggests that only the coastal zone of our study area had tiled buildings. (The tiny numbers in each unit represent the total number of Late Roman artifacts from each unit.) <"LateRomanTile.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lateromantile.jpg" border="0" alt="LateRomanTile" width="431" height="600" /> Moreover, the distribution of fine and kitchen wares, most frequently associated with domestic activities appear to be concentrated in similar area. <"LateRomanKitchFine.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lateromankitchfine.jpg" border="0" alt="LateRomanKitchFine" width="431" height="600" /> In contrast, the distribution of coarse and utility wares, like amphora, extends of a much larger percentage of the study area. <"LateRomanCoarseAmph.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lateromancoarseamph.jpg" border="0" alt="LateRomanCoarseAmph" width="431" height="600" /> Judging by these maps, it would appear that the northern part of our study area which comprised the coastal plateaus of Mavrospilos/Kazamas and Kokkinokremos saw a functionally different kind of activity than the coastal area. Cloke has suggested that the prevalence of less diagnostic sherds - and coarse and utility wares are almost be definition less diagnostic than fine and kitchen wares - might represent material scattered through manuring. Cloke argue, however, that this is a product of smaller sherd size rather than a specific functional difference, and compares the percentages of diagnostic pottery from both on-site and off-site transects to demonstrate

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that similar proportions of diagnostic ceramics appear in both ceramics. Clearly, this pattern does not appear in the PKAP data. Moreover, it does not appear that the average weight of the sherds varied in a consistent way across the PKAP study area. <"LateRomanWeight.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lateromanweight.jpg" border="0" alt="LateRomanWeight" width="431" height="600" /> The map above shows the average weight of Late Roman sherds (excluding tiles) across the study area. It is possible to imagine a slightly higher average sherd weight for the coastal units immediately below the height of Vigla in the left-center of the map, and a slightly lower average sherd weight for the material scattered to the north on the Mavrospilos/Kazamas plateau. While this is slightly suggestive, I wonder, vaguely, whether this has something to do with the greater soil depth on coastal plain that "protects" sherds more. The plateau units tend to have thin soils with patches of exposed bedrock. This seems like a far more hostile environment for sherds and may have accounted for why they are more poorly preserved. In other words, the condition of the sherds has much more to do with postdepositional processes than how they were deposited. I expect that David Pettegrew - the expert on survey site formation processes - might have some observations. Crossposted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters (http://corinthianmatters.com/) .

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<title>Three Teaching Thoughts on Lectures and Textbooks</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/three-teaching-thoughts-on-lectures-andtextbooks/</link> Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:04:55 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1513 A few things over the past few weeks have inspired me to think a bit more about teaching particularly in my larger survey style classes which I have taught online for the past three years. 1. Lectures return? Recently several articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education have hinted that the traditional lecture format might not be as useless as people have generally thought. In fact, a short article about Michael Wesch, long the poster-child for Teaching 2.0, has spent some quality time with a faculty mentor, Christopher Sorenson, who is "decidedly old-school in his approach". Wesch apparently had become concerned that some of his high-tech teaching tactics were not as universally applicable as he hoped and decided to try to understand better why some things work for his students and his classes, but not elsewhere. He comes to (http://mediatedcultures.net/smatterings/why-good-classes-fail/) the conclusion that empathy between teacher and student is far more important than even the most robust set of teaching practices. I reached similar conclusions over the past several years, but articulated empathy as trust (see (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/teaching-thursday-five-teaching-strategies/) here and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/05/17/three-more-observations-on-the-springsemester/) here). Students have to trust the teacher to lead them. I am working toward an idea that one of the key steps to building trust is for teachers to recognize (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/resistance/) student resistance (in all forms) as an authentic, legitimate response. By recognizing and legitimizing student resistance, we can begin to address its root causes, undermine its consequences, and generate space for a productive metadialogue concerning the value of learning. 2. Flipping? In another recent article, the Chronicle discusses the practice of " (http://chronicle.com/article/How-Flipping-theClassroom/130857/?key=GWl2JFA5andDMHFnZjZHNGlSb3JjN0sgZXVLb30iblldGQ%3D%3D) flipping " the lecture classroom. This seems to involve breaking large classes into groups and letting the students in these groups work out problems, analyze texts, and even articulate interpretations. I did this for years in my large (100+) Western Civilization class that met in a traditional lecture bowl. I taught the class for 2 1/2 hours at night and regularly broke the students into groups so that they could wrestle with a text. Then I circulated with my graduate teaching assistant and engaged the groups of students as they tangled with the text and worked to address (or create!) a research question. I really liked the chaotic atmosphere that this kind of classroom environment created. The better students embraced the opportunity to chat with the professor, and I had a chance to get the attention of some marginally engaged students and pull them into the class. Other students, however, resented the chaotic environment, resisted group work by sitting sullenly in silence or ignored the assignments, or just stopped coming to class (or, better still, left class when the students rearranged themselves into groups). At first, this bothered me, but as I grew to expect it, I began to (begrudgingly) accept this behavior and see it as (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdNsltQXTVU) an honest critique of my methods. In partial response to this, I began to make it possible for students to engage material more fully without having to spend time in the flipped lecture. To do this I created a set of podcasts which allowed students to

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listen to my lectures on their own time, I cut back on the amount of flipped time in the classroom, and focused a bit more specifically on the methods of writing and interpreting historical documents. It was at that point that I moved the entire class online, so I was not able to get a clear idea of whether this shift would produce better results, but it did help me reflect on how creating a modular, flexible body of easily recombined course material could provide the foundation for a more dynamic and responsive class. 3. The modular textbook. Recently I was asked to review an almost completed manuscript for a new textbook. As part of this review, I was asked what new trends I saw emerging in teaching survey classes and the survey textbook market. I suggested that the textbook of the future will be a radically modular affair with short sections (1000 words max) linked together by interrelated themes and arguments and complemented with interactive maps (I prefer Google Earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_Markup_Language) kml files), primary sources (preferably openly available), timelines, and images. The era of the long textbook - expensive, daunting, and too rigid for the dynamic and diverse methods in the history classroom - is nearing its end. I am working on a Western Civilization textbook right now built from my Western Civilization podcasts and customized for my course. I have to find ways to make it modular and dynamic. It'll be free.

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/24/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-14/</link> Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:14:56 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1517 It's a snowy and cool morning here at New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Headquarters in its top secret North Dakotaland compound. And we're supposed to get more over the weekend. We have snowblower, but I've never used it. This weekend might be the time to do it. A tiny gaggle of quick hits and varia to keep you busy, educated, and entertained until then: A couple good posts on using Twitter in the classroom (and outside of it) (http://derekbruff.org/?p=881) here and (http://www2.uregina.ca/ctl/2012/02/23/twitter-in-university-teaching-with-twitter/) here. John Fea - one of David Pettegrew's colleagues at Messiah College and a brilliant blogger - felt (http://www.philipvickersfithian.com/2012/02/culture-wars-are-real.html) the wrath of the internets this week. Presumably (http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Vote-for-This-Man-JohnFea-02-15-2012.html) this is the offending column (it is odd that Fea did not link to it in his post on his blog) and here is (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/messiah-college-professor-obama-may-be-the-mostexplicitly-christian-president-in-american-history/) the article from Glenn Beck's The Blaze. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/search/label/Object) Kostis Kourelis' Objects-Buildings-Situations is blowing up these days with found objects collected on his time spend in the area around the Lancaster train station. (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus pointed us toward (http://curiositycounts.com/post/17963986244/a-collection-of-photos-of-objects-embedded-in-new) this, similar, project. (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=165) Richard also has a nice little post on using Evernote in the archives. My Droid Incredible has slowly died over the past 4 months, and the application that I miss the most is Evernote. Finally, my long suffering wife, gave into my whinging and let me get an iPhone. Provided snowpocalype does not stay "these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds", I should be back in the Evernote by the end of the weekend. (http://oldfashioned101.com/) How to make a proper Old Fashioned. The open access battled and recent battles of The Research Work Act (H.R. 3699) has brought in the heavies: (http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/02/23/essay-open-access-scholarship) a letter from 11 of the most powerful university provosts in the country. (http://vimeo.com/37168265) This is pretty funny video. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4EbCkotKPU) And so is this. (One, of course, is real and the other a fairly subtle parody. Credit to Dell, however, for responding to it gracefully.) I'd like to read Susan Heuck Allen's book, (http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=1735600) Classical Spies (Michigan 2011). On Tuesday, I posted on both (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/22/on-site-and-off-site-at-pylakoustopetria-a-response-to-chris-clokes-interpreting-ceramic-assemblages/) Corinthian Matters and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/22/on-site-and-off-site-at-pyla-koustopetria-aresponse-to-chris-clokes-interpreting-ceramic-assemblages/) this blog a response to a series of blogs written by Chris Cloke on Corinthian Matters (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/14/chris-cloke-on-surveyand-agriculture-in-the-nemea-valley/) here, (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/15/the-nemea-valley-

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archaeological-survey-and-manuring/) here, and (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/02/16/interpretingceramic-assemblages-from-the-nemea-valley-archaeological-project/) here). Over that time, Corinthian Matters has seen 421 page views with 25 of them being direct views of my post. This blog, however, has seen on 266 page views with only 5 being direct views of that post. As of 7 am CST today, my post is the most recent on Corinthian Matters which as 178 posts most of which date to 2011-2012; over that same time my blog has 302 posts. Corinthian Matters has 27,777 views; my blog has 29,384. It's only a matter of time before Corinthian Matters has more all time page views than my blog, and the recent daily averages put my blog to shame. Nice work, Dr. Pettegrew!! What I'm listening to: The Twilight Sad, No One Can Ever Know; Frankie Rose, Interstellar. What I'm reading: Y. Lolos, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon/oclc/71285030) The Land of Sikyon (ASCSA 2011).

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<title>More on Sicyonia, fortifications, and Late Antiquity</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/more-on-sicyonia-fortifications-and-lateantiquity/</link> Mon, 27 Feb 2012 13:44:15 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1520 I've continued to work my way through Y. Lolos's massive tome, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-ofsikyon-archaeology-and-history-of-a-greek-city-state/oclc/722450498) Land of Sicyon. Hesperia Supplement 39 (Princeton: American School of Classical Studies, 2011) this weekend while waiting for the rain delayed Daytona 500. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/from-the-corinthia-to-sicyon/) I posted the first part of my review a couple of weeks <span style="color:#0000ee;) <span style="textdecoration:underline;) ago and, so, I suppose this is part two. There are three areas, in particular, which attracted my interest: 1. Rural Fortifications. As I noted two weeks ago, there remains significant work to be done on the rural fortifications of the Peloponnesus, and Lolos's book does its part by documenting a significant number of undocumented or poorly documented fortified sites in the countryside. Of particular interest to me were the irregular fortifications at Kokkinovrachos (pp. 234-240)and the round towers at Profetes Elias hill (p. 231) and at Tsakouthi (pp. 240-244) which my colleagues and I reference in (http://www.scribd.com/doc/42994192/Caraher-Pettegrew-James-VayiaOffprint-2010) a 2010 Hesperia article. While the Kokkinovrachos fortification is much larger than our fortification overlooking Vayia in the southwestern Corinthia, they share the same irregular masonry and both combine a fortification with a free standing tower. Lolos argues that this fortification occupied a height with good views of the crucial intersection between Stymphalos, Phlious, Acrocorinth, and the Sikyonian sites of Titane and Thyamia. Maintaining a substantial stronghold on this hill allowed Sikyonian forces to command several significant routes into the city. The round tower at Tsakouthi resembled closely the round tower at Lychnari in the Corinthia. Lolos suggested that the upper course of the tower at Tsakouthi were likely mud brick, and this construction, in fact, combined with the towers round shape would have made the tower less vulnerable to artillery blows from forces passing on the nearby road. Our tower at Lychnari may have also had a mud brick superstructure, although there is a sufficient stone in the area to allow for a stone tower of significant height. The smaller and poorly preserved round tower at Profetes Elias may be a good parallel for the smaller tower at the site of Ano Vayia. The explanations for building a round tower as opposed to a square or orthogonal tower has never entirely satisfied me. It seems to me that a round tower would entail a significant increase in technical difficulty as each block had to be cut or at least trimmed to match either the interior or exterior diameter of the tower. (Blocks in square towers could fit in numerous different positions.) While it seems likely the round towers were less susceptible to damage by artillery which would only ever inflict a glancing blow, the towers at Lychnari and Ano Vayia (and at Lolos's Profetes Elias) do not seem close enough to major roads to make the additional work necessary. Moreover, there are numerous towers very close to major roads which are square or rectangular in plan. Finally, Lolos contributes little the on going discussions of rural fortifications and land use. In fact, Lolos seems to be content suggesting that the fortification of Sikyonia primary served to allow the city to communicate with and deploy forces to across its hinterland. This may be the case, but for fortifications like the round tower at Tsakouthi, it seems like we should at least entertain the possibility that the tower was part of a agricultural complex serving the valley its overlooks.

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2. The Late Roman Boom. Like most region in the Eastern Mediterranean, Lolos's Sikyonia saw a boom in settlement and sits during the Late Roman times. The number of new sites is truly remarkable with over 60 site with Late Roman material and only 23 having material from immediately earlier periods. While the extensive nature of Lolos's survey which did not sample his study area in a systematic way, makes it difficult to determine whether this pattern he identified would survive a more rigorous sampling regimen, it is nevertheless consistent with findings published from the Eastern Corinthia, for example, which documented the Late Roman period as time of particular prosperity. Of particular note is Lolos's documenting of several previous overlooked or under documented Early Christian churches including a "Early Byzantine Church" at the site of Litharia you Rakka of Poulitsa. The rather small number of Early Byzantine churches in the Peloponnesus alone makes this structure worth additional consideration. The presence of rural church apparently situated apart from significant settlements appears increasingly to be a feature of Late Roman Greece. Lolos's argument that the site of Klisi-Boukoura of Stylia might be a monastic foundation based on its size of over 3,000 sq. m. This would be rather unprecedented in the Peloponnesus in Late Antiquity, but does show how many significant interpretative gaps exist in our knowledge of the Early Christian landscape. Recent work in the Eastern Corinthia has shown that even in the hinterland of a major city, rural churches remain undocumented. 3. Diachronic Survey. Finally, one of the most interesting parts of Lolos's book is his commitment to treating the history of Sikyonia in a diachronic fashion. He not only includes discussions of the Venetian period census record, but also of Medieval, Ottoman, and Early Modern period sites. This includes a brief comment on zevgolateio which are groups of kalyvia, or modest, seasonal dwellings, that form a small hamlet (p. 365). From his short remarks, it would seem that the settlement at (http://www.scribd.com/doc/82186248/Between-Sea-and-Mountain-The-Archaeology-of-a-Small-World-inGreece) Lakka Skoutara in the Corinthia which my colleagues and I are now bringing to publication, represents a zevgolateio. The illustrations that he provides of the interior of a season dwelling coincide closely with those found in Lakka Skoutara, which is unsurprising, of course, considering the geographic proximity and similar ethnic make up of the populations. I have a bit more to read and process from this rich, closely edited, and significant work, and I expect that I'll provide some final words on the book in the coming weeks. Crossposted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters. <title>The Religious Landscape of Post-Antique Pyla-Kousopetria, Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/the-religious-landscape-of-post-antiquepyla-kousopetria-cyprus/</link> Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:53:39 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1528 I've spent the last few weeks working on revising the historical conclusion to the survey volume from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. This conclusions looks at our results from the survey in four different ways: 1. In terms of wider regional trends for each period. 2. In terms of the relationship between the local political and economic center, Kition/Larnaka, and our site. 3. In terms of the relationship between our site an island wide, regional, and trans-Mediterranean communication and trade networks. 4. In terms of the changing religious landscape of our area.

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As readers of this blog know, our site preserved evidence for both an Iron Age and Hellenistic period sanctuary (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/some-more-cool-observations-onsanctuaries-around-pyla/) here and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/28/bordersethnicity-and-the-state-in-archaic-cyprus/) here) as well as a Late Roman basilica style church. After the abandonment of the church in the 7th century and its eventual destruction sometime later, there is little evidence for settlement or religious activity at our site. This does not, however, mean that the site was not part of a religious landscape in the area. In my effort to imagine the changing religious landscape of our study area, I offer the following from a fairly early draft of our conclusion: The wider regions of eastern Larnaka bay preserves considerable evidence for a thriving Christian communities in the Medieval period. There is evidence that the basilica at Pyla-Koutsopetria underwent some late modifications, but these appear likely to have occurred prior to the abandonment of the site. The removal of Cyprus floor slabs and marble revetment from the floors and walls of the excavated annex room suggests that the religious status of the building did not preclude it from being quarried. It also indicates that the building likely stood for some time after its final abandonment. The various graffiti present in the annex room may date to a period after the buildings abandonment suggesting that some religious activity persisted in the area even after its abandonment. Morever, the quarrying of prestigious material from the church may have served to adorn another religious structure elsewhere in the region as occurred at the Episcopal church at Kourion. In later time, the religious landscape of the region was likely closely tied to the economic landscape. There were extensive holding of the Orthodox Church and various Moslem religious institutions in the vicinity of Pyla village. While there is no evidence that the coastal lands fell under the control of either institution, they almost certainly influenced local land values, labor markets, and agricultural prices. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/the-ottoman-landscape-and-pyla-koutsopetria/) As Given and Hadjianastasis have recently noted that rhythm of agricultural life would have been shaped by the church bells or the tsimandro or the call of the muezzin. <"AyPanayia.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/aypanayia.jpg" border="0" alt="AyPanayia" width="450" height="317" /> Finally, the early 20th century base maps for the cadastral survey of Cyprus note that the ruin of Ayia Panayia stood on the route of the coastal road in our study area. There is no evidence that this building was a church, and it is almost certain that this is (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/1232/) the Venetian or Ottoman fortification described by Cesnola and remains overgrown and visible to this day. It is notable, however, that this building was identified at some point as a religious structure suggesting that in the local imagination - or perhaps merely that of the surveyor - this presence of almost any ruin in the countryside evoked the past religious life of the community.

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<title>Fritz at 50 Poster at the Scholarly Forum</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/fritz-at-50-poster-at-the-scholarlyforum/</link> Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:04:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1536 As the final project for (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/27/teaching-tuesday-digitalhistory-and-the-fritz-at-50/) my digital history practicum, I've been asking the students in the class to prepare a poster for the University of North Dakota's Graduate School's Scholarly Forum. The Forum is the largest annual research meeting on campus and it gives us a chance to show off the class's hard work from the previous semester. <"Fritz at 50 posterSM.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/fritz-at-50postersm.jpg" border="0" alt="Fritz at 50 posterSM" width="450" height="337" /> Here is (http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/Digital_History/Fritzat50posterSM.jpg) a bigger version of the poster as a jpg or as (http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/Digital_History/Fritzat50posterSM.pdf) a pdf : Special credit goes to (http://civilwarhistory.wordpress.com/) Daniel Sauerwein, one of our Ph.D. students, who took the lead on preparing the poster and dabbled in the arcane by working with Adobe Illustrator. And special credit also goes to my lovely wife who makes the Scholarly Forum possible every year. The poster session was probably the most dynamic research event held on campus!

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<title>Monumentality in Early Christian Architecture</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/monumentality-in-early-christianarchitecture/</link> Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:44:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1543 In May, I am going to (http://www.iema.buffalo.edu/conference/) a conference on the topic of monumentality in archaeology. When invited, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/monumentality-in-the-archaeological-record/) I fired off a rather superficial abstract that talked about how Early Christian church architecture in Greece both used existing, earlier forms of urban and domestic architecture to communicate the new status of the Christian religious elite, but also subverted these forms by establishing new relationship between donor, visitors, and the social structures that informed traditional elite architecture. This week, I've slowly turned my attention to this paper after completing a revised draft of the historical conclusion to the PKAP Survey Volume. To begin, I re-read Kafka's short story "The Great Wall of China". The fictional narrator of the (obviously fictional) story considers the construction of the Great Wall of China and tells of how it was built piecemeal across China to preserve the moral of the workers. According to the narrator, the very enormity of the task ran the risk alienating the labor of the individual worker by reducing it to something inconsequential by comparison. To combat this, the workers built a single section of the wall - often in a remote location - and returned home for a time of recovery before heading out again like departing heroes to build another section. Thus the wall came to represent the entire community of China - and the narrator himself who hailed from the south, not the north where the wall stood - could take tremendous pride in its construction even though the purpose and extent remained as obscure and paradoxical as the body of the Emperor himself who called for the Wall's construction. In Kafka's story (hardly the only one in his oeuvre that featured architecture), the Wall represented the enormity of the Empire, the incomprehensibility of the Emperor, and the tension between the fragile individual and abyss of time, space, and power that surrounds human existence. (And I have to assume that the story means many other more significant, literary, and existential things!). Monumentality formed the delicate link between the individual and things much larger, more abstract, and more remote. This story contributed to my larger meditation of monumentality in the discourse of Late Antiquity (or the Early Christian period). Shifting attitudes toward monumental architecture has represented a key indicator in social, religious, political, economic, and cultural change in the ancient world. Indeed, scholars often argue that the end of the ancient world came with the neglect and sometimes destruction of the pagan temple and the construction of Early Christian basilica style churches in their place. The widespread abandonment of basilica style churches, in turn, marks the end of the transitional period between ancient and "Medieval" or "Byzantine" forms of architecture, and scholars have neatly synced the transformation of architectural styles with political, economic, and social changes. The link between architecture and social change often comes through the study of patronage practices. If we understand the social practices that led to the construction of Early Christian architecture to be largely identical to those that produced earlier forms of monumental architecture, then we can argue that these shift in building types is largely stylistic or a matter of taste or practice. In other words, we can see monumental architecture as evidence for continuity between the ancient world and Late Antiquity. If we see different social mechanisms producing the Early Christian monumental building boom, then it becomes easier to claim that the shift in large scale building practices represents a shift in the organization of society on a more profound level. Along these lines, scholars have seen Early Christian architecture as evidence for

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discontinuity between antiquity and the Middle Ages. The issue is, of course, that we still do not understand the mechanisms that produced the boom in Early Christian architecture and how these intersect with, say, changing attitudes toward the poor among the same group of people (and the study of Late Antique attitudes toward poverty is a particularly fertile ground for recent study). The flip side of this concern with patronage, of course, is how these buildings were understood by their audiences across the Late Antique world. Not only are did these building represent a point of contact between massive and abstract institutions like the church and the bodies of individuals living throughout the Early Christian world, but they also represent a place of critique around which community responses to new forms of religious or social organization could cohere. As Kafka articulated in a fictional context, monumental architecture had the potential for alienating the individuals responsible for their construction as the tension between their massively concrete appearance comes all too close to the abstract entities, institutions, and ideologies which they represent. This alienation provides fertile ground of critique inscribed on the monuments themselves, on the bodies of the laborers who produced them, and in the attitudes toward the buildings in broader social discourse.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-32/</link> Fri, 02 Mar 2012 13:06:59 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1547 It's an overcast, but vaguely warm Friday morning here in North Dakotaland. We managed to miss the storms this week and had only a few inches on a blustery and snowy weekend. As spring sits poised on the horizon, we are starting to hope just a tiny bit that we have survived the most mild winter in living memory. As hope springs eternal, I offer a few varia and quick hits: (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/news/eventDetails/open-meeting-the-american-school-of-classicalstudies-at-athens-2012/) The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is streaming its annual meeting this afternoon at 11 CST. Clemente Marconi (James R. McCredie Professor of Greek Art and Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University) offers the annual lecture, "New Investigations on the Akropolis of Selinunte, Sicily: The Archaeology of a Greek Colony in the West". And Jack Davis (Director, ASCSA) will review the work of the School in 2011. As well all knew all along: map is not territory. (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/thefirst-google-maps-war/) Check out how Google Maps almost caused a war. I've always considered 8 hours of sleep a night is for the weak, but now, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783) perhaps studies confirm this. (http://hnn.us/node/144771) Is there a movie about the past that historians actually like? Meanwhile, (http://whatuptheodor.tumblr.com/) Theodor Mommsen says "Hey girl". And (http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/where-are-you-at.aspx) Grammar Girl asks "Where are you at?". (http://paidcontent.org/article/419-as-staff-flees-techcrunch-traffic-plummets/) The remarkable decline and fall of TechCrunch. A documentary on (http://wexarts.org/fv/index.php?eventid=6197) Jean Reatard: Better Than Something: Jay Reatard. It'll be screening at the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio with an introduction by Eric Davidson. Davidson is a member of the New Bomb Turks - an Columbus, Ohio institution - who has written (http://www.amazon.com/We-Never-Learn-Undergut-1988-2001/dp/0879309725/) We Never Learn, 1988-2001 about cats like Reatard, the White Stripes, the Oblivians, et c. I listened to a ton of Reatard this summer while assisting Scott Moore in the Polis Archives. Don't tell anyone. (http://www.wimp.com/vegetablemarket/) Very efficient use of urban space. (http://feltron.com/ar11_01.html) Nick Feltron has published a Biennial Report for 2010/2011. It's an event. There is a good bit of buzz about two new television shows that appear to glamorize looting activities at historic sites in the U.S. One is on Spike TV who have often used fake shows to generate viral marketing for their otherwise unremarkable programing. In fact, I think this is a new technique that many niche cable channels use. So I won't like to the shows, but (http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/8256) I will link to the response from the Archaeological Institute of America's response.

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 My wife FINALLY let me get an iPhone. I am still getting it set up. (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus has had a (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=165) couple of good (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=196) posts last week on his digital workflow in the archives. It's pretty impressive, I need to up my game. Via the same Rothaus: (http://livelymorgue.tumblr.com/) The Lively Morgue (photos from the NYTimes). (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01284.x/abstract) A new article on Twitter in the classroom. I definitely think that R. Scott Moore needs to get PKAP (http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/29/2821763/lytro-review) a light field photography camera. Page views this week: New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World = 636 views; (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters = 882. (Total Page Views: New Archaeology = 30,111; Corinthian Matters = 28,736). It's only a matter of time. (http://flavorwire.com/261320/20-beautiful-private-and-personal-libraries?all=1) Sexy private libraries. What I'm reading: P. R. Mullins, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-consumerculture/oclc/711045484) The Archaeology of Consumer Culture. (2011). What I'm listening to: Lambchop, Mr. M.; Field Music, Plumb.

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<title>Method and Material from a Survey on Antikythera</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/method-and-material-from-a-survey-onantikythera/</link> Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:10:23 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1550 One of my first opportunities to shape the research directions of a project came when David Pettegrew and I were allowed to help design the survey methods and goals of Australian Paleochora Kythera Archaeological Survey. I am pretty sure we didn't do anything marvelous there, but I did meet my wife on that project. So, any work done on Kythera or in its general vicinity has continued to pique my interest over the years. The survey conducted by Andrew Bevan and his team on the island of Antikythera - a mere speck in the Mediterranean on the main sailing route between Kythera and Crete - has attracted my attention of late not only because he conducted it on a Mediterranean island, but also because Bevan (and co.) are among the most sophisticated survey archaeologist in the business right now. In an article slated to appear in Archaeometry, Bevan and a group of collaborators proposed some new ways of measuring chronological uncertainty in intensive survey (http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrnahb/downloads/Bevanetal12a_manuscript.pdf) here's a preprint (pdf)). This is a long standing and vexing issue for survey archaeologists where artifacts datable only to broad or multiple periods are common. The absence of stratigraphy makes it impossible to propose narrower dates for these objects, so a number of strategies have developed to document the uncertainly associated with these objects. The Chronotype system, that we have employed at both the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey (EKAS) and, in Cyprus at the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP) has provided one method for documenting artifacts of uncertain date. The Chronotype systems has a wide range of roughly hierarchical chronological categories into which we can group objects. For example, an artifact could be "Late Roman" or "Roman" or "Roman-Medieval" or even "Post-Prehistoric". When we assign an artifact to one of these categories we are assuming that the artifact could appear with equal probability in any year (decade or century) in that chronological span. Of course, in practice, we know that artifact are unlikely to appear with equal probability in each decade or century, but this does provide a way to smooth chronological data and, when mapped across the landscape, it can help identify areas where handfuls of specifically dated artifacts appear alongside larger quantities of artifacts only datable to broad periods. Additional problems with this system, however, arise when artifacts can appear, for example, in one of two non-continuous periods (Hellenistic OR Late Roman). Bevan and his colleagues have suggested a system where the ceramicist assigns a probability to each period in which an artifact might appear. An artifact datable in the Chronotype system to a broad period like Roman might appear in Bevan's system as: 10% Early Roman, 30% Middle Roman, 60% Late Roman. This more subtle way of documenting the probability of an artifact appearing in any given period not only more accurately represents the way ceramicists analyze pottery, but also allows for artifacts appearing in nonconsecutive periods. For example, they noted that certain kinds of chunky prehistoric pottery could date with a fairly good probability to the Bronze Age, but might also date to the Medieval period. Moreover, this method allows for particular classes of artifacts to be identified by their distinct statistical relationships between periods and artifacts identified through these statistical measures could then by plotted spatially. The resulting maps would indicate where similar kinds of localized (un)certainties would appear. Bevan notes that this system also allows for multiple readings of the same group of artifacts by different ceramicists who could assign different levels of chronological uncertainty to each batch of artifacts. This is particularly useful for types of artifacts that could date to discontinuous periods like our prehistoric or Medieval coarse wares.

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(As an aside, its funny to note that Tim Gregory long had a category of "certainty" on his recording sheets. I think I made fun of it and claimed that the category was redundant within the "rules" of the Chronotype system. Now I wonder whether Prof. Gregory continued to keep that category ) This past year the Antikythera team published the Roman period material from their survey in the Annual of the British School at Athens (106 (2011), 47-98): (http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~tcrnahb/downloads/Querciaetal10_manuscript.pdf) here's a preprint (pdf) and (http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FATH%2FATH106%2FS0068245411000037a.pdf&a mp;code=cdd1992a19dafb4d2cf84720c13bb8d5) here it is published form (pdf). While there is little evidence for the sophisticated system of probabilistic dating the assemblage of Late Roman material on the island is interesting to compare to our Late Roman material from Cyprus. The significant quantities of Phocaean fine ware from Antikythera find clear parallels with our assemblage at Pyla-Koutsopetria. It may reflect, as they Antikythera team has noted, the relatively late date for our Late Roman assemblage which was formed after the supply of the ubiquitous African Red Slip became attenuated. It is also interesting to note the ratios of Late Roman 2 to Late Roman 1 amphora on Antikythera are almost reversed from ours on Cyprus. This is unsurprising, of course, since LR2 production sites are most likely in Greece or the Aegean and LR1 sites are in southern Asia Minor or Cyprus. The folks at Antikythera noted that LR1 amphora are commonly thought to transport wine, but they - like the LR2 amphoras - might have also served alternate household purposes like storing water or grain that led to their wide distribution across the island. Finally, they suggest that the absence of material from the post-Late Antique period could indicate that the island was abandoned for a time prior to a Byzantine re-occupation. This fits well within the prevailing ancient (and modern narratives) for the chronology of settlement in the Aegean.

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<title>The Ottoman Period around Pyla-Koutsopetria</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/the-ottoman-period-around-pylakoutsopetria/</link> Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:15:48 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1553 After reading (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/the-ottoman-landscape-and-pylakoutsopetria/) M. Given and M. Hadjianastasis article on the Ottoman period in area studied by the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project (TAESP), I ordered a copy of Y. Sarnay's 2000 edition of the 1831 Ottoman census of the Cyprus (http://www.worldcat.org/title/osmanl-idaresinde-kbrs-nufusuarazi-daglm-ve-turk-vakflar/oclc/48988841) Osmanl idaresinde Kbrs : nfusu-arazi dalm ve Trk vakflar (Istanbul 2000)) published along side a group of related fiscal documents dated to 1833. As Given and Hadjianastasis note, the publication of these records emphasizes the divide between Muslim and nonMuslims, but this may not have been the original intention of the census. These records identify three main communities in the immediate vicinity of Pyla-Koutsopetria: Pyla village, Dimbu (Xylotymvou), and Ormidia. Pyla was (and remains) a mixed village where Christians and Muslims lived side by side; Dimbu and Ormidia were Christian. For Pyla, the census records 31 Muslim males and 51 non-Muslim males For Dimbu, it records: 22 non-Muslim males. For Ormidia: 36 non-Muslim males. The fiscal records show that Pyla village had 16 Muslim houses and 20 non-Muslim houses and 1, 121.75 dnm or about 103 ha (at the rate of 919.3 per dnm). As demonstrated by Given and Hadjianastasis for the Troodos region, the number of hectare per household was low for Cyprus. For Pyla village it was 2.86 per household and that was higher than for the villages in TAESP study area. The fiscal records show that Pyla village had 12 olive trees, 1 mulberry tree, and 1 fig tree. For Dimbu, there was 1 Muslim house and 9 non-Muslim houses with fields of 479.5 dnm (or 44 ha) for a rather more impressive total of 4.4 ha per household. Although the single Muslim household in Dimbu recorded 75 dnm (6.85 ha) for itself and the 9 Christian households a mere 4.1 ha. The village had 2 mandras which I am assuming are animal pens, and 10 dnm of garden plots (ba, bahe), 8 olive trees, and 15 figs trees and an additional 3 dnm of fig trees owned by a Muslim (.28 ha). It would seem that Dimbu was a rather more prosperous village than Ormidia suggesting that even in the early 19th century the rich red soils of the Kokkinochoria villages sustained impressive agricultural outputs. For Ormidia, there was a 1 Muslim house and 10 Christian houses with 635 dnm of land (58.3 ha) or 5.8 ha per household (there was no property recorded for the Muslim resident of Ormidia). In addition to this land, there was a single mandra or animal pen, a dnm of market garden (bahe), 28 olive trees, and a single fig tree. We know that there were several large estates around Pyla village including a large iftlik owned by the bishop of Kition/Larnaka. Judging by some recently published records of this estate, some residents of Pyla village probably earned additional income working on these church lands. The records document a wide range of jobs associated with cultivation (particularly of cotton), tending animals, and various maintenance tasks associated with the upkeep of the iftlik. The presence of large tracks of land available, apparently, for lease in the vicinity is also confirmed by (http://books.google.com/ebooks/reader?id=gC8OAAAAQAAJ&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;output=r eader&amp;pg=GBS.PA357) R. Hamilton Lang's farm of 1000 acres represented about four times the entire land available to the village of Pyla itself.

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<title>Thinking about Teaching History in a Scale-Up Classroom</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/thinking-about-teaching-history-in-a-scaleup-classroom/</link> Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:09:18 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1556 I was pretty excited when I received word that the University of North Dakota's Scale-Up classroom is almost ready and (http://und.edu/academics/instructional-development/scale-up-call.pdf) accepting applications for classes in the Spring of 2013. (http://teachingthursday.org/2010/04/01/involve-me-and-ilearn-an-environment-for-active-learning-at-the-university-of-north-dakota/) The Scale-Up classroom is designed to foster an "active learning" environment in courses that have large "lecture sized" (100+) enrollments. The students are generally seated around smaller tables in groups of 8 to 10 - almost cafeteria style - and typically have access to computers. The design of the room makes it easier to implement collaborative activities and to promote an "flipped lecture" type environment where students teach one another and remain engaged in problem centered learning. To this end, I've begun to propose a rather unconventional history course ideally suited for the Scale-Up environment: The large survey class has changed radically over the last 20 years. The traditional arrangement of the class positions the faculty member as the "sage on the stage" and the students in the audience in order to maximize the number of students exposed to the content in a controlled environment. This organization has gradually given way to more dynamic and interactive arrangements between student and teacher. While the muchmaligned jargon of "active learning" has lost favor in recent times, there is no doubt that a greater degree of interaction between faculty and students has become increasingly normalized within pedagogical literature and day-to-day teaching practices of faculty. At the same time, enrollment pressures, efficiency expectations, and old habits have continued to support the presence of large lecture style classes particularly at the introductory level. Occasional efforts to (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/threeteaching-thoughts-on-lectures-and-textbooks/) flip or invert the lecture have met with the typical difficulties: large classes, lecture bowl style seating, and limited space for students to meet, work, share, or write. In recent years, the rapid expansion of digital technologies has offered ways to overcome the physical limits of the classroom. Discussion boards, integrated social networking components, and the use of new and multi media delivery systems have expanded the educational environment beyond the physical confines of lecture hall, distended the concept of learning communities, and challenged the tension between groups and individual learners. Despite the expansion of the digital frontiers and a continuously renewed commitment to "active learning" and "flipped lectures", traditional textbooks persist as the main way in which students encounter "content". Traditional textbooks are generally linear, unappealing, and expensive obstacles that many faculty feel as compelled to work around as to justify to their students. Remarkably the history textbook of the 21st century is structurally similar to the textbook of the mid-20th century, even if the content has changed to suit new academic fashions and tastes. My proposed use of the Scale-Up classroom is to create a History 101: Western Civilization course where the students write their own textbook. This takes its inspiration from recent discussions of inverting the lecture, conceptual literature projects that compose journals or edited books in a fixed span of time, collaborative spirit behind projects like Wikipedia, and the socially disruptive (http://teachingthursday.org/category/edupunk/) "DIY" practices associated with the edu-punk movement.

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The course itself will be based upon my experiences teaching with both flipped lecture style History 101 class and teaching a similar course online. My flipped lecture classroom met once a week at night and featured 6 break out style groups who would meet weekly prepare responses to discussion questions based on primary sources. In an online version of the class these discussion questions became part of an online discussion board where the students responded both to prepared questions and their fellow student's posts. Both techniques created an environment where students learned from one another rather than from a set lecture. The groups were generally big enough that better students and responses drove out the worse, and better students tended to model the quality for those less clear on the expectations of the class. At the same time, I have experimented extensively with wikis that allow students to produce collaborative, synthetic collections of weekly notes. I have also gained experience with (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/even-more-teaching-with-twitter/) using Twitter in the class to create social networks for the students that allowed them to forge a sense of community and to communicate in a transparent and immediate way. The main goal of the Scale-Up History 101 Course will be to produce a synthetic History 101 textbook. The class will break into 15, 10 person groups, each responsible for a 5000 word chapter in the textbook. Using online resources, collaborative digital and classroom work spaces, and a restructured history lecture which focuses on methods, key interpretative themes, and techniques for writing history, students will be asked to invert the traditional educational process where students go from learning history from a faculty member, a textbook, and other economically and politically repressive arrangement to producing a textbook in a space where the tools and material of history are available in a far more democratized way than traditional introductory history lectures. The advantage of the Scale-up classroom is that it will foster an integrated, simultaneous, realtime physical and digital environment that will allow multiple individuals to develop resources collaboratively. Wiki style text interfaces (even if managed through an off-the-shelf product like Google Docs) allow multiple students to edit a single document simultaneously and allow the faculty to track total contributions to a document. At the same time, students will also have access in a group format to various resources on the web ranging from Google Earth to content sources like Wikipedia, digital primary source texts, digital open access textbooks, and new and multimedia resources. I have a ways to go yet on this proposal and because of tricky time commitments over the summer, it seems unlikely that I'll be in the first cohort to use the Scale-Up classroom. It is still really exciting to be part of the process of re-imagining learning space on campus. <title>Some More Thoughts on the Term Paper</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/some-more-thoughts-on-the-termpaper/</link> Thu, 08 Mar 2012 13:10:59 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1559 In January, I made some offhand comments on the recent movement that has hailed the end to the formal research paper for college students. After some banter with Mick Beltz, the editor of (http://teachingthursday.org/) Teaching Thursday, we thought that it would be an ideal conversation to have in that space. To that end, I put together some very brief thoughts: Since the 19th century, the term paper has stood as a central component of the professional training of historians. Inseparable from the seminar system developed by the first professional historians in Germany,

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the term paper represented the basic method to train aspiring scholars and closely aligned with the standard delivery methods for new historical knowledge. Grounded in primary sources and situated in relation to secondary literature, the term paper encapsulated the professional standard of the discipline and formed a first step in training students to produce theses, dissertation, scholarly articles, and eventually monographs. As higher education democratized and instruction in history shifted away from explicitly professional goals, historians came to argue that term papers introduced students to a number of transferable skills ranging from clear writing and organization to research skills, precise argumentation, and respect for the work of others. The digital revolution and the changing landscape of higher education has continued to challenge the value of traditional terms papers with their roots in professional, vocational training of historians. In my classes, I am shifting to shorter (&lt;1500 word), more structured and focused assignments that have less room for creativity, but also owe less to traditional models for professional training. I suspect that these shorter more focused assignments have more obvious applications in a wide range of non-academic settings (such as web writing, memo and report writing, and other professional areas of work). I am also starting to include more "public" types of writing into my class with students having to prepare discussion posts - for example - that can be read by their fellow students. This not only adds a level of peer pressure to the assignment, but also creates an immediate and easily recognizable audience for their work. One of the most consistent critiques of the traditional term paper is that the audience for this kind of work is ambiguous. Having students write discussion posts for their fellow students clearly defines an audience. I hope to experiment more with this kind of writing in a survey history course that asks students to work as teams to produce a textbook for their peers. This kind of assignment represents my growing interest in more collective writing assignments that would leverage resources like (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/thinking-about-teachinghistory-in-a-scale-up-classroom/) the Scale-up classroom (where students work in teams linked digitally) or using Wiki type interfaces that allow students to produce synthetic works but still get recognized for their contributions to the final product. These kinds of corporate, public, and focused writing assignments mark a serious departure from the traditional practices of term paper writing and the goals of those assignment. In short, we are training students at the intersection of changing professional needs and a particularly dynamic (and unsettled) period in the history of writing. New technologies are changing how our students communicate with one another as well as the nature of knowledge production. While there is no doubt that term papers can provide students with a robust skill set for the collection, organization, and analysis of information (a key skill in the so-called "information age"), I am no longer convinced that this is best or the only way to train these students in these skills. Check out other peoples' perspectives on this issue over at (http://teachingthursday.org/) Teaching Thursday in the coming weeks.

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<title>Friday Varia Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/friday-varia-quick-hits/</link> Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:22:18 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1563 It's a grey, but clearing Friday Morning here at New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Global Headquarters. They say that spring is right around the corner here in North Dakotaland. So it's no surprise that we have a particularly vibrant group of varia and quick hits: The biggest news in The North Dakota is that beloved local journalist Marilyn Hagerty has gone and blown up. (http://boingboing.net/2012/03/08/the-grand-forks-herald-reviews.html) Her review of the new Olive Garden hit Boing Boing and then went viral. Her response is iconic. (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/231591/) When her daughter told about the buzz on the internets : <!--?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?--> I told her Im working on my Sunday column and Im going to play bridge this afternoon, so I dont have time to read all this crap. (http://blogs.villagevoice.com/forkintheroad/2012/03/olive_garden_review_marilyn_hegarty.php) And in the Village Voice. Awesome:<"MHDeadline.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/mhdeadline.jpg" border="0" alt="MHDeadline" width="400" height="400" /> (http://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/2012/02/buzludzha-buzludja-bulgaria/) Some more cool abandonment porn (Bulgarian, Soviet style). For some more serious reflections on abandonment and art, (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/03/wedge-in-architectural-time.html) check out Kostis Kourelis' most recent working paper. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/current/story/556809.html) Rahul Dravid walks away. (http://www.greekamericanradicals.com/) Greek American radicals. I'm always looking to understand prolific writers' creative processes. (http://hilobrow.com/2012/03/05/mark-e-smith/) I'm not sure that Mark E. Smith's (from The Fall) would be all that helpful. (http://www.kottke.org/98/03/why) This is why Jason Kottke blogs. (And notice his sweet new design). (http://hnn.us/cliopatria/entries/144952.html) After over 8 years Cliopatria is shutting down. I wonder why? (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/04/technology/internet-archives-repository-collects-thousands-ofbooks.html) A book ark. (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/03/how-do-you-cite-a-tweet-in-an-academicpaper/253932/) This is how you cite a tweet. So we all know our names COULD form cool anagrams, if we had the time to sort that all out. (http://deanjackson.dj/nameanagram/index.php?n=Bill+Caraher) Now, there is technology to help us. Bill Caraher = Arch Liberal. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/introducing-qgis/38833) I'd be interested in messing around some with QGIS.

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 (http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/03/05/ground-level-crowsourced-funding-formicrobrewery-in-bemidji/) Crowd Sourcing a microbrewery. (via (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Aaron Barth) The (http://archiveswiki.historians.org/index.php/Main_Page) American Historical Associations Archives Wiki. An interesting follow up to recent discussions of long-reading on the internet: (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/books/kindle-singles-genre-between-magazine-articles-andbooks.html) Kindle "Singles" which run about 20 - 25,000 words seem to be filling a similar (if longer) niche in the Kindle reading public. (http://pitchfork.com/news/45658-watch-bradford-cox-terrifies-audience-in-minneapolis-covers-mysharona-for-an-hour/) This is what happens when you make requests. New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World: 683 page views this week and 30,883 over all; (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters : 854 in the past week and 29,739 over all. It's only a matter of time. What I'm reading: M. K. Gold ed., (http://www.worldcat.org/title/debates-in-the-digitalhumanities/oclc/759909869) Debates in the Digital Humanities. (Minnesota 2012). What I'm listening to: The Men, Open Your Heart; Milt Jackson and Coleman Hawkins, Bean Bags.

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<title>Thaw of 2012</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/thaw-of-2012/</link> Sun, 11 Mar 2012 17:39:18 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1571 Over the past four years I usually take a snap shot of the thaw here in North Dakota (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/03/22/thaw/) 2009, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/spring-thaw-and-flood/) 2010, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/the-2011-thaw/) 2011). Here is the 2012 installment. After a mild winter, all signs point to a mild and early spring. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/newimage.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="600" />

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<title>Archaeology of Consumer Culture and North Dakota Work Camps</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/archaeology-of-consumer-culture-andnorth-dakota-work-camps/</link> Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:29:03 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1575 I finished reading Paul R. Mullins' newish book, T (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-consumerculture/oclc/711045484) he Archaeology of Consumer Culture, in the excellent University Press of Florida's (http://www.upf.com/seriesresult.asp?ser=aearch) The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective Series. The book provides a concise and readable overview of archaeology's engagement with the consumption of mass produced goods. Rich in case studies and examples, Mullins' reflects on the intersection of consumer culture and the archaeological indications of wealth and poverty, the mechanisms of demand, the impact of moralizing attitudes toward consumption, as well as issues of identity, gender, and ethnicity. The bibliography alone is worth the very reasonable price of the book. I read this book as I continued to think about my short field season in the western part of North Dakota this summer where I hope to document the material signature of active work camps in the landscape. As readers of this blog know, the Western North Dakota is experiencing an oil boom right now that is bringing unprecedented prosperity, demographic growth, and problems to the communities associated with the Bakken Oil Fields. Among the numerous tropes of circulating about the oil boom, the change in consumption patterns among both local (pre-boom) residents of the affected counties and brought into the region by the newcomers who have arrived to work in the oil fields. Most of our information on these shifting patterns remains at the level of literary trope or fictional constructs. There might be a kernel of truth to the various mythic tales coming from the west, but the stories remain instructive in understanding how the various communities imagine changes in their collective material culture. For example, in a now infamous and largely fictional memo circulated to various media outlets in January, it was reported that the local Walmart no longer restocked shelves, but just moved pallets of goods into the aisles for the newcomers to devour. According to the same memo, some local fast-food restaurants are only operating drive-ins because staff are too difficult to find and retain and those that are open have waits of up to an hour for tables. Finally, the Williston GM dealership is the top seller of Corvettes in the Northern Plains. Investigations of the many of these claims have proven them to be untrue, but the sentiments remain the same: booming economies should strain and change local patterns of consumption. Mullins' book does not look specifically at consumption in boom time economies, but he does look at the way in which patterns of consumption can serve to create or obscure markers of socio-economic differences, produce various local, national, and international identities, and locate core and periphery within the topography of consumption and production. 1. Poverty and Wealth. One of the most interesting aspects of the Western North Dakota Oil Boom is that it has pushed tremendous amounts of new money into the local economies. Both the new workers and local residents have access to more disposable income. Local traditions of modesty - so typical in agricultural communities where prosperity tends to be cyclical and dictated by chance - will shape how residents express newly found wealth. Among newer groups to the community, patterns of consumption will perhaps mark out boundaries between differing reasons for coming to the area and different access to wealth depending on the jobs they performed in the boom economy. Documenting differences in consumption and attempting to correlate variation across the work camps will play a key role in my research this summer. 2. Identity. The outsiders in the Bakken fields bring to the community distinct material and consumption practices. Some of these differences emerge from the relationship between newcomers and their companies (uniforms that feature the name Halliburton, for example). Other patterns in consumption mark out ethnic

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or regional difference (e.g. brand preferences, styles, et c.). It will be particularly useful to attempt to see how different communities of workers mark themselves out as distinct. 3. Cores and Peripheries. It is easy to see the oil boom in Western North Dakota as fitting into a pattern where the core - vested transnational companies and the demands for natural resources away from the region where they are being produced - exploits the periphery. Local residents are then displaced - economically, socially, and culturally - for the needs of the core. On the other hand, the expansion of consumer culture and national chains has blurred the difference between consumption patterns at the core and those at the periphery. This has the potential to obscure the distinction between the newcomers and the long time residents and mitigate the impact of long term community integration. While the difference between local residents and newcomers extend beyond consumption patterns to be sure, the growing integration between core and periphery makes it difficult for outside interest to control variables (i.e. the company town) as well as to distinguish between locals and newcomers based on tastes and practices.

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<title>A Review of Lolos, Land of Sikyon.</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/a-review-of-lolos-land-of-sikyon/</link> Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:13:43 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1578 Regular readers of this blog know that I've been working on a review of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/land-of-sikyon-archaeology-and-history-of-a-greek-citystate/oclc/722450498) Y. Lolos, Land of Sikyon. Hesperia Supplement 39 (2011). I've posted more specific discussions of the book's various sections (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/fromthe-corinthia-to-sicyon/) here and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/more-onsicyonia-fortifications-and-late-antiquity/) here. Here is a working version of the final review: [scribd id=85181224 key=key-1gk1463m5o9bfxlnz3ss mode=list] Crossposted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters.

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<title>Architecture and Social Analysis at Vouni, Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/architecture-and-social-analysis-at-vounicyprus/</link> Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:57:01 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1583 The past few years have seen an impressive gaggles of books and articles re-evaluating Iron Age Cyprus. To this number we should add Catherine Kearns' recent contribution to the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology: (http://www.equinoxjournals.com/JMA/article/view/13581) "Building Social Boundaries at the Hybridizing First-Millenium B.C. Complex of Vouni (Cyprus)" JMA 24 (2011), 147-170. This article hit upon a few key issues for how the intersection of architecture and archaeology contributes to our understanding of ancient (and particularly Cypriot) society: 1. Monumentality. The Late Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Romans periods on Cyprus saw a tremendous interest in monumental architecture. The massive and short-lived Cypro-Classical "palace" at Vouni occupies a fortified hill some 10 km west of the city of Soli. The sprawling structure features two major phases and extends for well over 2500 sq m. The size of this building alone marks it out as a significant monument in the Cypriot landscape and echoes the size of Late Bronze age compounds on the island as well as Roman period "villas" at sites like Paphos and Kourion. Its location, set apart from known urban centers on the island and without clear earlier precedents on the site, have often led scholars to associated the structure with the growing influence of the Persian Empire under whose rule the island fell during most of the Cypro-Classical Age. The presence of so much monumental architecture provides a particularly useful backdrop for the kind of social analysis of architecture that Kearns proposed in her study of Vouni. The highly stratified character of the space within these structures makes them suitable for access analysis. 2. Access. Access analysis considers the social function of space by categorizing and mapping rooms based on their connection to other rooms and their accessibility from the exterior of the building. When I was working on my dissertation, this kind of analysis had just fallen from it 1980s vogue as scholars increasingly questioned the cultural and structural assumptions upon which these kinds of studies were based. Kearns' careful use of access analysis (and, indeed, many of the better examples of this kind of study) avoids this by attending carefully to the archaeological changes to the building and proposing that shifts in the patterns of access between the two phases were relative rather than absolute. Thus, changes in access represent different functions of the spaces and, perhaps, different ideas about the social organization among the groups with access to the building's various rooms and spaces. 3. Hybridity. This careful use of access analysis opens the door to a larger discussion of hybridity in the Cypriot landscape. This terms, derived from the colonial encounter and enriched (and co-opted) by postcolonial theorists, has particular resonance among archaeologists working on Cyprus, which is, in so many ways, a post-colonial state. Kearns suggested that the monumental size and architectural form of the "palace" at Vouni represented a combination of local architectural and building traditions with those from elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean (namely the peristyle courtyard). Rather than this form representing an outpost of Persian influence on the island or an indication of Achaemenid authority, Kearns suggested that site marked a space where those responsible for the site used architecture to mediate between various forms of sovereignty and authority. In fact, the instability of the site and its resistance to interpretation may reflect an intentional strategy designed to protect those responsible for the site and allow them to move with equal efficiency in both local and larger trans-Mediterranean conversations. The growing sophistication with which scholars have come to treat the architecture and archaeology of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Cyprus is remarkable, and should offer a valuable challenge to those of us who have focused on later periods in Cypriot history. The numerous Early Christian basilicas, for example, have

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so far escaped from much sophisticated and theoretically-informed study despite their fine levels of preservation and the presence of several well-documented excavated examples (much better documented, it should be said, than the palace at Vouni).

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<title>Teaching Thursday: The Scale-Up Classroom and Docile Minds</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/teaching-thursday-the-scale-up-classroomand-docile-minds/</link> Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:44:53 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1586 Last week, I re-read (perhaps for the 20th or 200th time) sections of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/discipline-and-punish-the-birth-of-the-prison/oclc/3328401) M. Foucault's (http://www.worldcat.org/title/discipline-and-punish-the-birth-of-the-prison/oclc/3328401) Discipline and Punish and (http://www.scribd.com/doc/84678170/Splitting-Architectural-Time-Gomez-GonzalezHolmesburg-Prison-Project) Kostis Kourelis recent reflections on Patricia Gmez and Mara Jess Gonzlez's installation (http://www.philagrafika.org/gomez-and-gonzalez.html) Doing Time / Depth of Surface. This text is most famous for his analysis of the panopticon. The Panopticon in an architecture form most used in prisons in which all inmates were visible from a central guard position, but the inmates could not determine whether they were being watched. For Foucault, the panopticon presented a metaphor for the way in which modern societies sought to normalize their citizens and to produce docile bodies more susceptible to the requirements of capitalism. He saw similarities in the design of the prison, schools, hospitals, and factories. A couple of years ago, I wrote (http://teachingthursday.org/2010/01/21/the-panopticon-and-onlineteaching/) a short essay on the role of the panopticism in online teaching with (http://teachingthursday.org/2010/02/18/online-teaching-the-panopticon-and-the-unequal-gaze/) my buddy Michael Beltz. In these essays we argued that most online learning systems (e.g. Blackboard) allowed the instructor to have a panoptic view of the students engagement with the course material and assignments. We noted the irony that as the student as individual became less visible because of distance, the student as learner became more visible through their digital trail through the course. Like the panopticon the window onto student learning was one-way. We could see all the students, but they could not see us. Finally, we noted that this arrangement worked well to produce members of an increasingly observed society where workplace efficiency could be managed down the keystroke, our tastes as consumers managed through online bread crumbs left by every transaction or page view, and powerful observers like Google produced for us new identities by continuously mining our emails, calendars, phones, and reading habits. Over the past few weeks, I've been working on (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/thinking-about-teaching-history-in-a-scale-upclassroom/) a proposal to teach and introductory level history class in the Scale-Up classroom. The design principle behind the Scale-Up classroom is that students in large classes are organized to face one another around circular tables in groups rather than the front of the classroom and the professor as in most large, lecture style classes. In effect, the students avert their gaze from the professor and focus it instead on their peers. This practice parallels recent calls to flip or invert the traditional lecture and make the students more fully engaged in their own learning. In these situations, the faculty member becomes the observer and shaper of the learning processes. By observing and molding the "intermediate processes" or the work of so-called " (https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/vkp/) invisible learning " we gain greater access to student habits of mind. In the most sophisticated Scale-Up classrooms, students not only work together with one another under the gaze of the professor, they do this in digitally mediated environments. Unlike the online environment where students are disembodied assemblages of keystrokes, page views, and texts, the Scale-Up classroom allows the professor to observe the human production of digitally mediated practices. Observing practices combined

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with gentle correctives at the level of process rather than outcome, allows the power of the faculty member to extend their power over the classroom and into the intermediate processes of student learning and, ultimately, creativity. By shaping the production of practice (or as Bourdieu would call it habitus) of learning, observation becomes involved in creating the kind of process-oriented, docile minds required for late capitalism where the dynamic and opportunistic economy requires a workforce short on expertise and long on flexibility.

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<title>Stay Tuned!</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/stay-tuned/</link> Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:59:10 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1589 (It's spring break and I'm taking the day off.)

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<title>The Realities of Archaeological Data from Small Projects</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/the-realities-of-archaeological-data-fromsmall-projects/</link> Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:09:57 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1592 Over the weekend, I devoted some thought to a call for papers for a joint colloquium at next years Archaeological Institute of America/American Philological Association meeting. The colloquium is entitled: "Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age: Best Practices and Realities" and it sponsored by the Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeology of Greece Interest Group and the Forum for Classics, Libraries, and Scholarly Communications. That's a mouthful. David Pettegrew and I were nudged to propose a paper that looks at some of the unique challenges facing small projects like our Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project in Cyprus. Our project was new in 2003, documented an archaeological assemblage that was largely independent of earlier work at the site or in the region, and lacked substantial institutional support for custom application development or cyberinfrastructure. In these areas, I suspect, that our project was similar to many smaller archaeological projects in the Mediterranean and my hope is that we should be able to generalize from our case study in three key areas. First, whereas larger projects can create elaborate, bespoke applications and interfaces to collect and disseminate archaeological data, small projects tend to use more off-the-shelf components for data capture, organization, and analysis. As a result, there is the possibility that small project data get tied up more easily in proprietary software formats and require a greater degree of post-processing to produce archival collections. Small projects can often find themselves in situations where they have privileged immediate utility over commitment to complex, platform agnostic best practices. Second, large projects have led the way in creating highly-visible, longterm digital archives for their data. Small projects, in contrast, rarely have the resources to invest in longterm data storage and maintenance. Many small and mid-sized universities continue to lack the necessary in-house cyber-infrastructure and the number and diversity of potential external solutions - from both private foundation initiatives and major research centers and universities - present a bewildering array of options. The key concerns for our small project is ease in data transfer, long-term integrity of the archive, and accessibility. The archive has to be a place where other scholars know to seek out archaeological data from small projects as the future value of smaller datasets will often come from its availability for larger comparative or synthetic studies. The more other scholars place smaller project datasets in a broader context, the more significant that results of smallscale intensive fieldwork become. Where small projects should archive their data and how existing institutions can support these practices in ways to make small project data visible and useful remain open issues without simple answers. Finally, over the past 20 years there are persistent conversations regarding the value of data standards in archaeology. The responses to these conversations are predictable. Some projects value the utility of their own data formats, terminologies, and ontologies arguing that all data serves best to contribute to existing archives and to enjoy compatibility with longstanding, often local, practices. Our small project, in contrast, tended to produce data that answered a particular, limited set of research questions and lacked any obvious and practical obligation to longstanding data conventions. As a result, we employed a vocabulary that was consistent with a larger project on the island - the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project and an established American excavation - Corinth Excavations. Our point is not to recommend that all projects conform to this particular standard, but rather to point out that our project conformed to these two standards in an effort to make our data more accessible for comparison and more immediately comprehensible to scholars not familiar with our particular procedures and methods.

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The future will judge the value of the data produced by small project by its persistent utility.

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<title>Architecture, Access and Agency in Early Christian Greece</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/architecture-access-and-agency-in-earlychristian-greece/</link> Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:07:28 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1598 This past week, I've been working away on a paper about monumentality in Early Christian architecture in Greece. Most of the work has involved re-familiarizing myself with my dissertation (which is almost 10 years old now yikes!), but I have spent some of the week pondering the way in which monumental architecture communicated social, political, and economic ideas to a Late Antique Greek audience. In my dissertation, I suggested that the organization of the Christian liturgy combined with the arrangement of space within the Early Christian basilica served to promote the privileged position of the clergy to the growing Christian community. The clergy had access to the most sacred areas of the church, performed key roles in the liturgy, and wore distinctive clothing in a hierarchically arrange procession. Moreover, the architecture of Early Christian churches presented a series of barriers starting with western narthex which separated the nave and aisles of the church from the atrium or exterior space, to the barriers that separated the congregation in the aisles from the central nave, to the chancel barrier that separated the eastern end of the church from the processional space of the main nave. These barriers typically served to emphasize a sense of privilege dependent upon access and, in combination with the Christian liturgy promoted hierarchical separation between members of the clergy and the laity. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/newimage1.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="302" /> Nothing in this line of argument is particularly novel. In fact, scholars have observed that Late Antique society had a growing interest in hierarchical display ranging from great urban processions and growing emphasis on the social distinction offered by Late Roman paideia to the carefully articulated ritual spaces of the new capital at Constantinople. While some of these practices had roots reaching back to the early Roman Empire, it seems probable that the changing nature of authority in Late Antiquity required more explicit gestures to enforce distinction between groups within society vying for social and political authority. It makes an easy, tidy argument to suggest, then, that the church invested in buildings and rituals that reinforced social distinction by manipulating access and performing hierarchy. The only issue is, of course, that the church was not the only institution that invested in these buildings. A wide range of social actors invested in the construction and decoration of churches in Early Christian Greece. To be sure, some buildings appear to be the products of the institutional church. For example the Church Alpha at Nikopolis appears to have been founded by the Bishop Dometios who celebrated his donation with elaborate mosaics and flowery inscriptions (which quoted Homer!) A later bishop of the same name added some decorative flourishes. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/newimage2.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="311" /> <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/newimage3.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="400" height="404" /> Elsewhere, however, we have buildings that appear to be the product of imperial patronage or constructed by members of the local aristocracy. In some instances, it would appear that the numerous members of the local community chipped in to decorate a building. In one case, a donor provided only a half a solidus to the

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decoration of the church. This would be a modest donation for anyone above the poorest class of urban or rural laborers. So, if the institutional church used architecture to promote the growing authority of the ecclesiastical hierarchy in Greece, they did not do this without the support of members of the elite and the communities in which these churches stood. Are we to understand that the church exerted a kind of hegemony over certain segments of the Greek population which allowed it to leverage the wealth of these communities to promote its interests? Or was this a more complex form of collusion where independent social actors from across Greek society found common cause in promoting the church as a way to gain access to the political, social, and spiritual power vested in that institution? I'm increasingly seeing church architecture as both high permeable to a range of actors and, at the same time, the same time space central to the (re)production of the church's role in Greek and Late Antique society more generally. Looking carefully at these buildings - after some time away - has reminded me how messy the process of social and political change can be and that institutions rarely command unambiguous authority.

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<title>Consumer Culture and Identity: A Case Study from Grand Forks, ND</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/consumer-culture-and-identity-a-case-studyfrom-grand-forks-nd/</link> Wed, 21 Mar 2012 12:13:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1604 Since reading (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/archaeology-of-consumer-cultureand-north-dakota-work-camps/) Paul Mullin's The Archaeology of Consumer Culture (2011), I've been thinking a good bit more about the objects that make up our everyday life. While I've occasionally played with the (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/11/26/archaeology-of-thanksgiving-dinner/) archaeology of my everyday life, it dawned on me that (http://webapp.und.edu/dept/library/Collections/robinson/) Elwyn Robinson 's memoirs provides a rich sources of information on middle class consumer goods during the mid-20th century. During a football game a few months ago, I started to comb his memoirs for references to objects and costs. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/a-faculty-salary-a-historical-case-study/) I posted in January on the salary figures gleaned form this text, and I offer now some observations on the material culture of a middle class family in Grand Forks, ND in the mid-20th century. He appears to have mentioned larger or special purchases (rather than everyday objects) and omitted mundane objects (table ware, everyday clothing, et c.). As a result the perspective here is on objects that somehow contributed to Robinson's identity as a full-fledged member of the local middle class. 1938 (http://mconnealy.com/vintagecameras/argusaf/index.html) Argus AF Camera - $15.00 Enlarger -$12.50 Singer Sewing Machine - $48.10 1939 Eureka Vacuum - $6.93 Silver - $1.50 (per spoon) Crib - $13.95 1940 Travel trunks - $13.00 Mattress - $11.17 Tweed coat - $24.75 Courier and Ives Prints - $1.49 Antique desk and dresser - $10.00 Coaster wagon - $2.44 Rope - $0.98 1941 Table with leaves - $5.00 Washing machine - $15.00 Chair and stool - $12.50 Refrigerator - $60.00 Kitchen chairs - $3.50 Large rug - $4.00 Small rug - $1.00 Chest - $8.00

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Radio table (used) - $2.75 Lamp - $1.00 Bed - $7.95 Bedsprings -$8.95 Lamp - $3.85 Buffet (used) - $8.00 Curtains - $5.93 Chair (unpainted) - $2.50 Gardening book - $1.49 Suit w/ 2 pairs of pants - $32.50 Plastic chess set - $1.49 War Bonds - $37.50 War Bonds - $75.00 Tricycle - $7.20 1942 Parke David Vitamins - $7.00 Chair - $12.95 Wool blanket - $11.59 Iron bed folding - $4.00 1943 Winter coat - $49.50 1944 Davenport recovered - $85.00 Wing back chair - $109.00 Men's suit - $32.50 1945 Piano (used) - $255.00 1946 Britannica (used) - $25.00 Mouton Lamb fur coat - $135.00 Brown suit (women's) - $25.00 Porcelain sink - $97.75 Linoleum on kitchen floor - $61.00 Linoleum on table and cupboard - $18.00 1947 (http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/entry_C318.html) Leica 111b Camera with four filters (used) $175.00 Sled - $2.50 1948 Rug (9 x 20) - $188.00 Play School Toys - $15.00 Occassional table (used) - $5.00 New Piano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiller_Piano_Company) Conover Mahogany Console) - $875.00 1949

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suit (men's) - $38.25 Washing Machine - $155.00 Car (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studebaker_Champion) Studabaker Champion)- $2,082.37 Piano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chickering_and_Sons) Chickering Console) - $1,055.00 1950 Guinea pigs - $4.97 Gasses - $32.00 Jacket for Kids - $9.75 Jacket for Kids - $5.95 Phonograph - $182.00 Attic Insulation - $45.00 1951 Curtains -$17.54

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<title>Teaching Thursday: MOOCs and Collaborative Writing</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/teaching-thursday-moocs-and-collaborativewriting/</link> Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:06:23 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1609 There has been a ton of buzz lately about (http://www.udacity.com/) Udacity. Udacity is a company developed by Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig two other robicists, David Stavins and Mike Sokolsky. They offer Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) on various topics related to robotics and technology to literarily tens of thousands of students per course. This company grew out of Thrun's and another Stanford professor, Peter Novig's, courses in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford which they opened to the world as MOOCs. (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/ff_aiclass/all/1) Here's an article in Wired about it and (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/education/moocs-large-courses-open-to-alltopple-campus-walls.html?_r=2) here's an article in the New York Times. As I have noted before, I find this ideas amazingly cool. I even proposed a similar program focusing on humanities classes here at the University of North Dakota. My theory was that classes in the humanities particularly history - already have a strong following among students who find the topics and stories particularly appealing. After all, we all know the well-worn story about how (http://12byzantinerulers.com/) a series of podcasts on Byzantium attracted worldwide attention. A few meetings with our technology folks convinced me that these courses could be opened to the world without undue strain on our technical resources. Finally, I knew there was (http://www.philosophyinpubliclife.org/IPPL/index.html) a real interest and (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/podcasts-at-the/) tradition of outreach on our campus that would eventually allow a program like this to expand. Unfortunately, as happens to so many ideas, (http://www.scribd.com/doc/37922545/Proposal-for-the-Development-of-OpenLearning-Courses) my proposal never made it through the university administration. One of the recurring concerns with MOOCs is that universities are loath to give students free credits for completing the courses. Students who commit the time and energy to the course, however, want some kind of recognition for their efforts. Recently, Udacity has begun to offer certificates of achievement for completing their courses. As I worked on a proposal for a History 101 class to run in the UND's new Scale-Up classroom (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/thinking-about-teaching-history-in-a-scale-upclassroom/) here and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/teaching-thursday-the-scaleup-classroom-and-docile-minds/) here), I began to wonder whether one approach to giving students a sense of accomplishment for a MOOC would be a collaborative writing project. If a History 101 course introduced students to the basics of historical methodology, grounded that in some basic writing skills, and provided a solid structure for collaborative writing, would it be possible for students to produce a custom textbook for the class? The book writing process would focus student efforts over the course of the semester and produce something of enduring value to the students in the course. There are obvious issues to my plan ranging from potential copyright problems to course design and the technical aspects of shepherding students through the writing process. One consequence of the large size of most successful MOOCs is that the instructor tends to present content and provide far less day-to-day feedback to individual students. A course centered on something as methodologically complex as writing a textbook, would require a course design that encouraged students to collaborate in a critical way and provide one another with the kind of consistent feedback that would usually come from an individual faculty member. With some trial and error, however, I am pretty convinced that it is possible to overcome this

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hurdle. After all, sites like Wikipedia have managed to self-police their content and provide a rather remarkable degree of consistency, accuracy, and perspective. The value in collaborative writing is less in the final product and more in the process. Collaborative writing is a great method to expose students to the diversity of perspectives on the past and to encourage the construction of sound historical arguments. A well-managed MOOC that clearly communicated the core ideas of the historical method could serve as an exciting platform for the collective and collaborative production of knowledge.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/23/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-33/</link> Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:06:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1612 A rainy but warm day here in North Dakotaland. So I have plenty of excuses to stay inside and prepare a nice gaggle of quick hits and varia. (http://www.npr.org/2012/03/14/148602378/800-year-old-frescoes-headed-home-tocyprus?ft=1&amp;f=1001) The 13th century frescoes from the chapel at Lysi which have been on display at the Menil Collection in Houston for 15 years, are going back to Cyprus. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9138296/The-Boneyard-Project-street-artistspaint-aircraft-at-plane-graveyard-in-Arizona.html) A graffiti project in the famous Arizona airplane boneyard is pretty cool. (http://teachingthursday.org/2012/03/22/more-on-the-future-of-term-papers/) Some awesome thoughts on term papers and the terms of the discourse over on Teaching Thursday. If you can't check out the Kostis Kourelis's curated exhibit on George von Peschke, (http://brynmawrcollections.org/peschke/) check out the online gallery - proudly powered by Omeka. (http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/03/a-world-without-people/100264/) A world without people (via (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/) Dallas Deforest). (http://www.undwritersconference.org/wc-authors.html) Next week is the 43rd annual University of North Dakota Writers Conference. Check out an interview on Prairie Public Radio with (http://www.prairiepublic.org/radio/hear-it-now/?post=40261) the director Heidi Czerwiec. (http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/gradhacker/stripping-down-writing-process) Some nice applications to help us write. (http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/amheida-i-otrim-1/) More great stuff from Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU. For all that has been written about the (http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/after-244years-encyclopaedia-britannica-stops-the-presses/) end of the Encyclopedia Britannica's publication on paper, relatively little of it has been (http://metalab.harvard.edu/2012/03/of-dead-trees-living-networks-andencyclopedic-ambition/) particularly interesting. (http://www.stateintegrity.org/your_state) I live in a corrupt state. (http://www.robinsloan.com/fish/) This is an interesting essay both in what is says and how it says it. (http://blog.stephenwolfram.com/2012/03/the-personal-analytics-of-my-life/) A life in numbers, and (http://daytum.com/billcaraher) it makes my modest daily data collection routine seem lame. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116673/Pope-Shenouda-III-Egypt-died-Worshippers-paytribute-DEAD-Coptic-Pope-sitting-throne.html) Living Byzantium. (http://chronicle.com/article/U-of-Illinois-President/131284/) Where have I seen him before?

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 Susie and I watched the last two overs of (http://www.espncricinfo.com/asia-cup2012/engine/current/match/535800.html) Bangladesh v. Pakistan in my office yesterday at lunch (what? huh? who said what?). We were on the edge of our seats. Tamim Iqbal, was practically dropped from the side prior the the tournament. After scoring his fourth 50 in four games, he turned to the Bangladesh bench and counting his four half centuries. Priceless. (http://www.oldspice.com/products/product/101/old-spice-fresh-collection-antiperspirantdeodorantcyprus/) Smell like Cyprus. Ew. (http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/03/spiders-flee-australian-flood/100265/) Spiders fleeing Australian flood waters. Eww. (http://nkwiatek.com/) This is cool, though. (via (http://kottke.org/) Kottke) What I'm reading: D. Scott, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/conscripts-of-modernity-the-tragedy-ofcolonial-enlightenment/oclc/318392567) Conscripts of Modernity. (Duke 2004) What I'm listening to: The Shins, Port of Morrow

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<title>Metadata Monday</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/metadata-monday-3/</link> Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:53:13 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1620 It feels like I haven't done a metadata Monday for a while, so maybe, a slow early spring Monday is a perfect time to rectify this oversight.Since I last metadata-ed, I've made 123 posts for a total of 323 and have moved from right around 56 page views per day to just over 70. There has been a steady climb in page views as the quantity of content grows and my blog has become more visible and as new readers discover the brilliance (cough, cough) of my musings. One of the cooler new features offered by the service that hosts this blog (wordpress.com) tracks the location of various readers. They've been tracking my readers for about a month now, so I have at useful little dataset. <"My Stats Map.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/my-stats-map.jpg" border="0" alt="My Stats Map" width="450" height="240" /> Only 48.6% of my visits come from the United States. The rest comp from a mix of other places. The UK ranks second (8.8%), followed by Greece (8.6%), Canada (3.6%), and, oddly enough, the Philippines (3.3%). Australia ranks sixth (3.2%), with Italy (2.7%), France (2%), Turkey (1.9%), and Spain (1.5%) filling out the top ten. The vast majority of the countries (99%) on the list have more than page view. It's interesting that I don't receive any views from China or Iran. These were countries from which I consistently received views in the past (see (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/metadata-monday-700posts/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/metadata-wednesday/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/metadata-monday-2/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/metadata-milest/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/02/18/monday-metadata/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/11/25/100-posts/) here, and, of course, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/happy-400th-post-from-history-240/) here (which doesn't actually have metadata but was delicious!)). I wonder if my blog is blocked now? UPDATE: I just heard through a friend of a friend that wordpress.com is blocked in China which accounts for the lack of page views from there. Over the same 30 day span, my internet community looks a bit different. The vast majority of page views (72.5%) come from search engines. My old blog, which I leave up as a cleverly set trap for crawling searchers pushes 6.6% of my page views in my general direction. Kostis Kourelis blog send 2.6% my way (although the author has admitted that many of those might be his views; they still count!). (http://researchnewsinla.blogspot.com/) Research News in Late Antiquity, (http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/) Surprised by Time, (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters, (http://paperlessarchaeology.com/) Paperless Archaeology, all send right around 1%. I still haven't quite figured out the extent to which I should use Twitter and Facebook, but the two combined for about 1.6% of my views. So, if you're an regular reader, I apologize for turning you into a number, and I appreciate you taking time to view my little pseudo-literary adventure here! Keep coming back!

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<title>The Martyria of Salona</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/27/the-martyria-of-salona/</link> Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:10:21 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1625 This month, Ann Marie Yasin published (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/v020/20.1.yasin.html) an important reconsideration of the martyria of Salona in the Journal of Early Christian Studies (20 (2012), 59-112 ; (http://128.220.160.198/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/v020/20.1.yasin.pdf) pdf here?). Martyria are buildings thought to be dedicated to particular Early Christian martyrs and the veneration of their remains. Scholars have long associated the centrally planned martyrium with some of the earliest forms of Early Christian monumental architecture. In fact, they have in some cases seen martyria as the key intermediate step between the veneration of Early Christian ancestors and saints in the catacombs and the explosive spread of basilica style churches in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries. As with so much in the study of Early Christian architecture, the material remains for the "evolution", as Yasin puts it, from burial to monumental martyrium have not been subjected to particularly rigorous scrutiny, and the archaeology of the type site of Salona which featured three "early" martyr shrines that are central to how we have understood the development of this kind of building is particularly problematic. Yasin's article, then, subjects the archaeology of Salona to rigorous critique and suggests that the first step to unpacking the complex history of Early Christian architecture is to determine the viability of longstanding arguments for its development at key type sites like Salona. Yasin casts well-justified doubts over the traditional narrative of Christian architectural development and calls for scholars to focus on three particularly problematic areas: 1. The Regional and the Universal. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/architectureaccess-and-agency-in-early-christian-greece/) I am working on a paper on monumental Early Christian architecture of Greece. Following the same lines as my dissertation, I am taking Early Christian architecture in Greece as a more or less unified corpus. To my mind, the most remarkable aspect of Early Christian building is the basic uniformity of Christian architecture. This uniformity reflected the institutional structure of church, reinforced the rising status of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and promoted the universal character of the Christian liturgy. As Yasin points out in her article, this tendency to generalize has caused issues in the past. Scholars have overlooked the particulars of regional development or, more problematic still, the developments of particular sites or buildings. Yasin's work at Salona, of course, also shows some problems with this approach as the archaeological records for many Early Christian buildings - not to mention the attention to detail in the excavation itself - are not conducive to the detailed study of phases. Moreover, in many cases the excavations followed the architecture and was more concerned with demonstrating the validity of longstanding arguments than carefully detailing the remains. Yasin's restudy of the archaeological reports and publications from Solona suggest considerable ambiguity in the traditional phasing of the buildings casting doubt on the neat narrative that assumed the pre-existence of important tombs which received progressive architectural elaboration. 2. The Trouble with Texts. Yasin points out that part of the difficulty in reading the Early Christian architecture is the tendency to see these buildings in terms of the various martyriological and hagiographical traditions. Yasin has suggested that, first, these textual sources are not only problematic in terms of chronology (and this is compounded by chronological ambiguities in the excavated buildings), but they often owe as much to literary conventions and tropes as local conditions. As a result, these texts do not serve as a reliable guide to the history of the buildings and may, in fact, reflect an imagined past that explains the nature

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of a standing structure. In short, past communities had as much invested in explaining the nature of the architecture as modern archaeologists, and both have created stories designed to make a useful sacred past. 3. Ambivalence and Ambiguity. A key point seen throughout Yasin's article is that Christian buildings may not have conformed to the clear evolutionary or ritual outlines supposed by modern scholars. In fact, the ambiguity that characterized the archaeological remains of the martyria in Salona might well reflect the ambiguity and tensions present in the buildings as they stood for their ancient audiences. Buildings could and likely did sustain multiple meanings to their audiences. As a result, inscriptions, floor mosaics, and even hagiographic texts provide little to locate these churches within explicit narratives of development. One is tempted to expand this ambiguity to the architecture itself and note that Early Christian (and later) builders were not above mimicking earlier styles, combining features to create visually discordant and confusing montages, or even fabricating historical inscriptions. The willingness of ancient builders to play with architecture and to engage the viewer in a way that multiple potential narratives become possible and the architecture of the building would actively work to confuse simply interpretations. The tension between the easy readability of Early Christian architecture in general and the complex features, architectural relationships, and narratives associated with specific sites communicated the tension between the general (perhaps universal) and the local in Christian history. The historical nature of the Incarnation, so central to Christian theology, and the universal power of the Christian God found clear parallels with the general power of the institutional church and the local traditions of the sacred.

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<title>Do Professors Work Enough?</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/28/do-professors-work-enough/</link> Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:13:28 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1629 There is so much chatter about (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/do-college-professors-workhard-enough/2012/02/15/gIQAn058VS_print.html) this article in the Washington Post over the weekend, I feel compelled to offer at least a few words. In the article David Levy argues that faculty do not work enough hours and that part of the rising cost of higher education is tied to the inefficiency of university level teaching. In short, he suggests that for a forty-hour work week, faculty could teach 20 hours rather than the 10-12 hours that he frequently sees, and use the rest of the 20 hours for preparation for teaching, advising students, and marking. (http://blogs.swarthmore.edu/burke/2012/03/27/the-last-enclosures/) The best response I've read so far comes from Timothy Burke over at his blog Easily Distracted. He argues - in a post well worth reading - that university faculty are gradually succumbing to the same processes that overtook other late 20th century professions. The professionalization process regarded notions of self-governance, autonomy, and commitment to craft as central to their effective contributions to the industrialized economy. Over the last 50 years the fruit of industrialization - the expanding power of corporate interests - have gradually reined in autonomy of professions such as law, medicine, and in the financial sector and argued that these professions need to come more into line with the standards of efficiency central to industrialized, corporate culture. For Burke, professors are the last in the line of professions to be set into a later 20th century corporate model. This is good stuff. I might add two things, however, to his observations. First, he might have pointed out (in a different post) that growing corporate (let's say "late capitalist") attitudes toward higher education do not stop at an interest to break the professional structure of the faculty. These attitudes have saturated all aspects of university life. The presence of similar attitudes toward student life is particularly striking. The desire to increase the efficiency of the learning process by focusing on student life through increasingly fine-grained assessment processes. The result of this is not just a reconfiguration of faculty time and attention, but also student time. As faculty deploy more robust mechanisms to monitor student actions - from projects broken down into smaller and smaller part to online learning environments that simulate Foucault's famous panopticon student life has shifted from a form of apprenticeship driven by the final results of their time at university to a process and method driving experience. Faculty members have bought into this paradigm shift through their championing of projects like SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) that has frequently reinforced the value of assessment and viewed the student learning experience as a regimented observable series of events. The results of faculty efforts to systematize the teaching and learning experience is student resistance (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-roots-of-student-resistance/) obviously this process is more complex than I sketch in my post today) and this parallels increasing faculty resentment of administrator's efforts to manage their professional lives. Finally, the irony of this is that even as universities attempt to adapt to a 20th century corporate culture, the very structure of innovation in the corporate world is undergoing significant changes. Large corporations like Google and Apple - have increasingly drawn inspiration from the creative freedoms celebrated by 20th century university life. Google's famous " (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/googles-20-percenttime-in-action.html) 20% time " provides employees with the kind of flexibility to be creative that plans like David Levy's would regard as inefficient. The " (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Theory_of_risk) low grid " culture of many dynamic high-tech start ups embrace creative space that actively resists the culture of observation, hierarchy, and the maintenance of docile bodies. In other words, the models of 21st century corporate culture increasingly look toward 20th century university models for inspiration at the same time as

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21st century universities embrace models of productivity associated with the waning glories of an industrial past.

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<title>For a Brief Musical Interlude...</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/for-a-brief-musical-interlude/</link> Thu, 29 Mar 2012 11:53:48 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1635 I usually don't get all "family-oriented" on this blog, but I have to put in a plug for my little brother Fritz (and it is my blog, so I can do what I want!). For the last four years he's run - along with a team of amazing volunteers - the (http://www.surfandsongfestival.com/) Surf and Song Festival in Ft. Myers, Florida. It's not so much that he runs a music festival that's important or interesting, it's that he created this music festival. The thing started when he'd get a few of his buddies with local bands together in a parking lot of bar and play music one afternoon. They'd charge some admission and give the money to a local charity. In the three years since that time, this thing has totally blown-up. Now, it features over 100 bands, national headliners, multiple stages, and it literally takes over downtown Ft. Myers for a weekend. They are raising money for "Navigating Autism" at the Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida. Here's the poster: <"Surf_Song_Poster-1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/surf_song_poster-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Surf Song Poster 1" width="476" height="600" /> And here is the commercial (complete which echotastic voice over): [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPq9hRGX2K8] The coolest thing about this is that my brother isn't some big festival promoter. He's just a singer songwriter guy who liked cross-promoting his bands with other local bands. In fact, producing this festival isn't even his full time job! It's an amazing example of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_soup) stone soup in the real world. So if you're in South Florida, be sure to check it out! <span style="color:#444444;font-family:sans-serif;) <span style="font-size:15px;line-height:24px;) <span style="color:#444444;font-family:sans-serif;) <span style="font-size:15px;line-height:24px;)

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-34/</link> Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:13:29 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1644 It's fixin' to be a cool and clearish day here in North Dakotaland, but the grey morning sky suggests otherwise. We'll see, in other words, but my meteorological skepticism isn't enough to discourage a small gaggle of quick hits and varia: (http://www.cyprus-mail.com/byzantine-frescoes/stolen-frescoes-unveiled-their-new-home/20120328) The stolen frescoes from the little church at Lysi which had been part of the Menil Collection have returned to Cyprus. I'm happy for the frescoes and our friends from Lysi (many of whom live today in Larnaka), but I wish the frescoes could be displayed in a less politically fraught place. (http://www.marriedtothesea.com/index.php?date=032612) This is funny if you think Cricket is hard or really easy to understand. (via Andrew Reinhard) (http://www.sas.upenn.edu/ancient/files/Masons_program.pdf) A conference at the University of Pennsylvania on Masons at Work (pdf). It looks pretty cool. (https://jobs-oclc.icims.com/jobs/2081/job?) A Wikipedian needed for OCLC. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/quantifying-academic-self/38541) This is an interesting little group of thoughts about quantifying oneself. I've done this for the past couple years using (http://daytum.com/billcaraher) Daytum. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/professor-hopes-to-support-free-course-with-kickstarter-thecrowd-funding-site/35864?sid=at&amp;utm_source=at&amp;utm_medium=en) Kickstarter + Massive Online Open Course + EduPunk. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jimgroom/ds106-the-open-onlinecommunity-of-digital-storyte) Check out the Kickstarter page here.) (https://twitter.com/#!/fakeelsevier) This is almost funny. (http://teachingthursday.org/) More on teaching with term papers over on Teaching Thursday. (http://www2.und.edu/our/uletter/?p=24488) Ugh. A failed search. This is a bummer for everyone involved. (http://www.forbes.com/special-report/2012/media-map.html) Who is reading what, where? (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/03/26/fargo-punk-and-historic-preservation/) We may have another Punk Archaeologist on our hands. (http://dhcworks.carleton.ca/history5702/reflections/hoppala-eco-history/) This is a pretty cool discussion of how to use augmented reality to think about alternate histories. If you live in south Florida, be sure to check out the (http://www.surfandsongfestival.com/) Surf and Song Festival this weekend. If you live in North Dakota (which is actually the opposite in every way of south Florida), check out the (http://www.undwritersconference.org/wc-schedule.htm) UND Writers Conference today. (http://greatteachers.harvard.edu/all-videos) Some cool videos on great college teachers.

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 (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/868610.Thomas_D_Isern/blog) Tom Isern, a colleague at North Dakota State University, has started a writing journal. (http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/2254134-home-base) His description of his home office is lovely. (http://electricarchaeologist.wordpress.com/2012/03/29/a-teaching-philosophy-in-practice/) A nicely articulated and eminently practical teaching philosophy. What I'm reading: Judith M. Bennett, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-matters-patriarchy-and-thechallenge-of-feminism/oclc/65207158) History Matters: Patriarchy and the Challenge of Feminism. (Penn 2006). And, (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.81.issue-1) Hesperia 81.1 (2012). What I'm listening to: (how depressing is this?) Nothing.

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<title>Scale Up Grant Proposal Final(ish) Draft</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/scale-up-grant-proposal-finalishdraft/</link> Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:10:11 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1653 This past month I've worked on and off on a proposal to use the University of North Dakota's new (http://scaleup.ncsu.edu/) Scale-Up classroom. Since it has been my top priority for the last, say, 48 hours, I thought I might make my proposal available to the good readers of my blog. I quite like my proposal although I do see it as a bit unfocused. As per usual, I tried to do everything simultaneously rather than any one thing well. I did enjoy citing Bob Marley in the rather more political conclusion. I am sure there are typographical errors. Enjoy: [scribd id=87645562 key=key-tinyng9k9zasaddyc3b mode=list]

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<title>The Chlamydatus of Corinth</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/the-chlamydatus-of-corinth/</link> Tue, 03 Apr 2012 13:23:53 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1657 In the most recent Hesperia, Amelia Brown has offered an intriguing article on a significant group of Late Roman portrait statues ( (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.81.1.0141) Last Men Standing: Chlamydatus Protraits and Public Life in Late Antique Corinth, " Hesperia 81 (2012), 141-176). Chlamydatus statues of Corinth depict men wearing the "distinctive long cloak or chlamys" and this dress typically associates these individuals with imperial office. Brown has assembled a group of 7 largely fragmentary, lifesized statues of this kind from around Corinth with 6 of them appearing in the forum area. These status date to the 4th and 5th centuries and represent both a change in Late Roman portrait style as well as the growing political influence of the imperial center at Constantinople of aristocratic representation at Corinth. According to Brown, these statues appear to be associated with imperial rather than local elite. Corinth's position as the seat of the governor of Achaea probably accounts for the number of imperial elite present, but also made it both an appealing location for the display of honorific statues dedicated to men who had contributed to the safety, urban environments, religious life, and culture of the province. As per usual, I'll let Dr. Brown's work stand on its own merits and recommend it to anyone interested in understand the development and archaeology of Late Roman statuary. Instead, I'll focus on two interrelated but admittedly peripheral aspects of Brown's work. First, Brown does a nice job of arguing that the Lechaion road was the main area for the display of chlamydatus statues. In her reconstruction of this space of display the chlamys clad statues stood along the sides of the main road into forum area of Corinth. A visitor to the forum area would have passed under the impassive gaze of these statues as they walked along the main artery of the Late Antique city. The Lechaion Road provided access to basic civic amenities like latrines and shops as well as places of display like the Peirene fountain which likely served as an important source of water for the city as well as an area for informal recreation, gathering, and meeting. Thus Corinthians and visitors to the city lived their daily life in and among reminders of the city's imperial patrons. The Lechaion Road also likely served as the main route of official processions into the city of Corinth. Important visitors from the west would have enjoyed their official adventus (or ritual of arrival) into the city along the wide, colonnaded, grandiose Lechaion Road. The chlamydatus would have watched the passage of fellow elites and their retinues accompanied by city fathers, fellow imperial aristocrats, and by the 5th century perhaps local representatives of the Christian communities. The position of the statues along the road left the main route into the city open, but also provided a permanent audience for ritual processions. The most important men in the city and perhaps province would always be there, standing to honor their fellow elites. The statue that I was most intrigued by was the so-called Kraneion chlamydatus. This statue was found cut down and reused as a threshold at the Kraneion basilica which dates to the 6th century and stood immediately outside of the eastern Kraneion Gate to the city. The location of the statue near the eastern gate of the city suggests that this might have been an area for display during the Late Antiquity with chlamys clad statues greeting visitors from the east. <p style="text-align:center;) <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/newimage.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="448" height="600" />Hesperia 81 (2012), p. 145

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The reuse of the Kraneion chlamydatus in the Kraneion basilica interesting is that it was cut down for use as a threshold block. It would be easy to recognize in this use of spolia practical concerns; torso of the chlamydatus provided a substantial block of marble suitable for the requirements of a threshold. I do wonder whether there might be some symbolic considerations as well. The cutting down of the statue would have made it difficult for a visitor to the church to recognize the former function of the block. On the other hand, the process of selecting and cutting down the block must have involved a series of ideological decisions. The chlamys clad man had to be recognized as no longer relevant or important and therefore suitable for reuse. The placement of the block as a threshold offers a nice parallel to the original location of the statue near the gate to the city (or the placement of the other chlamydatus along the processional route of the monumentalized Lechaion Road). In other words, the location of the reused chlamydatus at the threshold to the church finds a nice parallel with their original location in liminal spaces like the gate to the city or a processional way. One could even go a step further and suggest that the relocation of the chlamydatus statue at the threshold of the church marked out the boundary between the civic world and the works of the church. The shift is more marked when you consider that within the church the congregation stood in the aisles and watched the ranked procession of the clergy. The congregation may have been accompanied by a passive processions of saints standing in the place of the onlooking chlamydatus along the Lechaion Road while the clergy's liturgical procession echoed the ritualized adventus of Late Roman aristocrats into the city. The physical subordination of the Kraneion chlamydatus at the threshold of the church echoed the gradual suppression of monumental civic space throughout the empire and their replacement with churches tied to the ecclesiastical rather than civic or imperial elite. Crossposted to (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters.

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<title>Planning my First Trip Out West</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/planning-my-first-trip-out-west/</link> Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:05:02 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1660 This weekend I'm going to make my first foray into the wilds of western North Dakota. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) Regular readers of my blog know that this trip is tied to my newest small research project which looks at documenting artifact scatters associated with the contemporary work camps that have grown up in support of the Bakken oil fields. For this trip, my primary goals are: 1. To document the range of temporary settlements present in the area. It is clear that work camps involve everything from formally constructed camps provided by companies like Target Logistics to campers set up in the Walmart parking lot, squatting on public land, and hot-cotting. My hope is that a few days around Williston will help me develop an informal typology of camps. 2. To identify camps or sites for study. If I can create an informal typology, I should be able to identify several potential study sites for a longer and more formal visit to region this summer. My hope is to attempt to organize my future fieldwork to sample in an efficient way the material signature of different kinds of camps. 3. To begin to develop a method for documenting the camps and their material signatures. This will be the most difficult aspect of the weekend. As I become more familiar with the kinds and distribution of materials associated with a living work camp, I will need to develop an efficient method for documenting the objects present. Ideally, we can create a method that would allow the comparison between camp sites while at the same time preserving the unique character of the artifactual assemblages. 4. Background Information. The greatest challenge for me will be to determine a way to collect contextual information on the various camps. For the larger, more formally organized camps, this should not be a particular challenge as they will have zoning records as well as regular paperwork on number of residents, capacity, et c. For the less formal camps, I anticipate the potential issues for documenting site history, the number of residents, and the stability of settlement. The archaeological data will provide a snap shot of a moment in time. Contextual information in the form of interviews, texts, and satellite images will provide information concerning the processes that produced the archaeological assemblage. To collect data this weekend, I will rely on a motley assortment of technologies: 1. (https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=220&amp;ra=true) Garmin Gecko 201. This little, green, GPS unit has been my field companion for close to 10 years. Compared to newer Garmin products, it is pretty lame, but for collecting GPS points for large sites like work camps, it will do just fine. 2. (http://www.evernote.com/) Evernote. I plan to collect preliminary notes using the audio note function on Evernote on my iPhone 4S. This feature has two benefits. First, it lets me collect audio notes and save them directly to the cloud (no need for a separate backup process). And, it assigns the notes GPS coordinates. So I have spatial control. This is a cheap version of what Richard Rothaus has been doing with his field workflow (and I'd link this to his blog description of it, but I can't find it any more). 3. (http://ascsa.net/id/corinth/notebookpage/0985%20s005) A Corinth Notebook. At some point I acquired a small number of "Corinth style" notebooks. I have one left. My plan is to designate this notebook my "North Dakota Work Camp Project Notebook". These notebooks are rugged, clothbound graph paper and designed for archaeological field notes.

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4. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_Coolpix_P6000) Nikon Coolpix P6000 Camera. These little-ish cameras seem to be indestructible (unless dropped from a blimp), allow for geocoding photographs, and reliable. Wish me luck this weekend and check back early next week for a full report!

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<title>Two Events for Next Week</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/two-events-for-next-week/</link> Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:55:48 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1665 There are two great events next week that all my colleagues in North Dakotaland should mark on their calendars. On Tuesday, April 10th at the (http://www.ggfct.com/firehall.htm) Firehall Theatre, the University of North Dakota's Working Group in Digital and New Media will have its first showcase. This will feature digital and new media works. The event starts at 6:30 pm with some lovely Latin American dishes and some adult beverages. The center piece of the evening will be a short (http://tsikbalichmaya.org/) Maya language videos (with subtitles!) animated by Joel Jonientz and collected by Paul Worley. The evening will also showcase music by (http://timpasch.com/) Tim Pasch and (http://www.und.edu/instruct/wittgraf/) Michael Wittgraf, art by Jim Champion, video from Crystal Alberts' &amp; the Chester Fritz Library's UND Writers Conference project, as well as a sneak peak of an exciting new video project from Travis Desell in Computer Science and a documentary by Kathy Coudle-King. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/newimage1.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="400" height="600" /> On Thursday, April 12th at 4 pm, the Department of History will host Prof. David Silkenat from North Dakota State University. He'll present the lecture: Driven Away from Home: The American Civil War Considered as a Refugee Crisis in beautiful O'Kelly Hall 228. Here's his abstract: The Civil War generated one of the largest refugee crises in American history. Throughout the Confederacy, black and white Southerners fled away from and towards Union lines. Far from home, they found themselves living in refugee camps, without adequate food and shelter, and suffering from homesickness, malnutrition, and epidemic disease. A significantly understudied aspect of the American Civil War, this refugee crisis sheds light on the lived experience of thousands of civilians driven from their homes. One of the most important and distinctive features of the Confederate refugee crisis was its diversity, as Southerners of all races, genders, classes, and political alliances chose or were forced to move as a consequence of the Civil War. Recognizing the importance of these voluntary and involuntary migrations should force us to reconsider how we understand the Confederate home front when so many Southerners experienced the war away from home. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/newimage2.png" border="0" alt="NewImage" width="300" height="241" /> So, if you're in the Grand Forks Metropolitan area, make a point of stopping by one or both of these events!

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-35/</link> Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:55:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1668 Even as we speak I was rolling out to Williston to do some research in the Bakken Oil counties. So I'm hopeful that the weather in North Dakotaland continues to be generous to us! So here is a little gaggle of quick hits and varia to keep you occupied over the (western) holiday weekend: (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/2012/04/03/views-of-the-korinthia-from-mtoneion/) Some amazing photographs from the summit of Mt. Oneion in the Corinthia by my buddy Dallas Deforest. (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/saronic-from-the-tip-crop.jpg) The final photo shows the eastern summit of Onieon where there must have been some kind of sanctuary. The shattered remains of a massive pithos still rests where we saw it 5 years ago. Pretty cool. (http://thebrowser.com/interviews/daniel-mendelsohn-on-updating-classics) This is an interesting interview on recent translations and work on Homer. (http://features.pewforum.org/quiz/us-religious-knowledge/?) A pretty cool test of your religious knowledge from the good folks at Pew. I got one wrong. (http://und.edu/calendar/index.php/view/event/detail/11034/21st-annual-elwyn-b.-robinsonlecture) The 21st Annual Robinson Lecture at the Chester Fritz Library will be by Jay Jordan the President and CEO of OCLC. (http://artistryandarchitecture.wordpress.com/) One of Kostis Kourelis' students has some real talent (and an excellent teacher, of course). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_red_slip) Freshly minted ARS knowledge on Wikipedia via Sebastian Heath. (http://teachingthursday.org/2012/04/05/the-last-day-to-withdraw-from-a-course/) Some cool stuff over on Teaching Thursday. (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/03/i-am-very-real.html) Drake, North Dakota meets Kurt Vonnegut. A month or so ago, I linked to the redesigned kottke.com (which remains both one of the iconic blogs and one of the original). It has seen quite a few redesigns over time and (http://kottke.org/12/04/kottke-redesign-by-the-numbers) Jason Kottke talks about how the most recent redesign has improved his stats. (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters is less 500 hits away from passing my blog. (http://melissaterras.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/is-blogging-and-tweeting-about-research.html) This is a cool study of how tweeting or blogging research (and making it openly available) can improve one's visibility. What I'm reading: P. A. Schackel, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-american-laborand-working-class-life/oclc/318874481) Archaeology of Labor and Working-Class Life. (2009).

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 What I'm listening to: Bob Marley and the Wailers, African Herbsman.

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<title>A Typology of North Dakota Work Camps 1</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps1/</link> Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:21:35 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1682 This weekend, I took a trip to western North Dakota to check out "oil patch" were the North Dakota Bakken Oil Boom is consuming several western counties. This trip was part of (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) my newest project focusing on the archaeology of work (aka man) camps and other forms of short-term settlement in the western Bakken counties of North Dakota. It was remarkable. The area included in the Bakken Oil Fields has become a 70 sq mile industrial part. Huge trucks, small trucks, heavy equipment (including equipment associated with the traditional farm economy), buses for workers, and other vehicles filled the roads even on the holiday weekend. My traveling companion, (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/233946/) the indefatigable Bret Weber, assured me that the traffic we witnessed was, in fact, light compared to what he witnessed on an ordinary working day several months before. Prof. Weber is a Ph.D. in history and a licensed social worker with a serious professional interest in housing issues. He and I are going to collaborate on documenting the history and archaeology of these man camps, and he will also bring an eye toward social policy and social justice issues to our work. <"SunDogsBakken.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/sundogsbakken.jpg" border="0" alt="SunDogsBakken" width="450" height="195" /> The purpose of our trip, of course, was not to document the traffic in the oil patch, but to collect some basic data concerning the man camps in the area (and, yes, the local residents call them man camps) and think about how to approach documenting them in a systematic way with a small team. The first step to doing this was to establish a basis for our sampling strategy. While we considered a regional approach that sampled camps in a number of areas (for example, north of Williston, south of Williston, and in Ft. Berthold), but we soon discovered that the there were not vast difference between the camps in various areas and studying camps in a single county - for example Williams County for which Williston is the seat, could help focus any archival and policy related efforts. We also considered the function of the camps - whether they were in support of a particular mission associated with the oil industry or constructed by a particular company, but soon realized that many of the camps housed a range of different types of workers - often from different companies. Finally, we concluded that the best approach to our study of man camps would be a sampling based on a rough typology of camps. We felt like there were clear differences between at least 3 types of camps and I'll attempt to unpack this typology over the next few days. Type 1: This most prominent and best known type of camp. It features prefabricated trailers brought in from outside the area on an industrial scale. The trailers rest on a bed of leveled gravel or pea-rock in neat rows. In some cases there are well-made, poured concrete footings or "rails" on which the trailers rest. Each of the trailers has power, water, and appears to be hooked into a sanitation system. The pipes and cables are typically routed beneath the trailers. In general, the appearance of the units in the Type 1 camp is uniform. <"StanleyCamp.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/stanleycamp.jpg" border="0" alt="StanleyCamp" width="450" height="206" /> Each trailer has two to four windows on the outside and most often a single door. The walls are either wood paneled, aluminum, or fiberglass. The windows appeared either covered with blinds or fabric draperies. Some windows had non-functioning shutters. All of these trailers had a single doors on the long side of the structure. The door was the size and design of standard steel-type domestic doors and were typically reached

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by a small set of wood stair or metal stairs with wood treads. The roofs were either pitched or vaulted with a few examples of flat roofs. In one case, the trailers were designed to be stacked atop one another. Some trailers had satellite television receivers attached to exterior walls. Some had air-conditioning units on their flanks or roof. <"TiogaCamp.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/tiogacamp.jpg" border="0" alt="TiogaCamp" width="450" height="141" /> In the several Type 1 camps that we visited, the trailers had lot numbers neatly painted on the sides or had parking spaces that allowed the residents to pull their vehicles up immediately outside the trailer. Other than this, however, we found few objects outside of the trailers to distinguish one from the next. Very rarely there was a small grill or a set of camping chairs. The areas around the units were clean with little signs of trash or discard. No weeds grew amidst the gravel and the entire camp appeared neat and orderly. Some of the larger Type 1 camps provided secure access. <"EganCamp.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/egancamp.jpg" border="0" alt="EganCamp" width="450" height="193" /> For some of the largest camps, there was common space set aside for the residents and exterior the individual housing units. <"CapitalCamp.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/capitalcamp.jpg" border="0" alt="CapitalCamp" width="450" height="337" /> In most cases, the Type 1 camps were established by either major companies invested in resource extraction in the Bakken oil patch or by companies who specialize in the support of the oil industry. Some of these camps housed workers who came to the area for a single project; for example, a work camp supported the construction of a rail depot near Tioga. In other cases, camps houses individuals working across the patch for different companies with different jobs.

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<title>A Typology of North Dakota Work Camps 2</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps2/</link> Tue, 10 Apr 2012 11:47:41 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1691 (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-1/) Yesterday, I began to detail (and work out) and document the results of my first formal research trip to the Western part of the state. This is tied into (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/workcamps/) my North Dakota Oil Boom project. My goal is to document the work camps that have grown up in the western part of the state to house the workers arriving to support the oil industry. We determined that the best approach to document the existing camps in the Bakken counties was to sample the camps according to a formal typology. Yesterday, I offered a formal typological description of the bestknown type of work camps (Type 1). Today, I'll provide a brief formal description of a Type 2 camp. Type 2: This camp appears to be every bit as ubiquitous as Type 1 camps. The most significant difference between a Type 1 and Type 2 camp is the type of vehicles present in the camp. Type 1 camps consist of trailers or units that are identical, whereas Type 2 camps contain a wide range of vehicles from small "third wheel" type campers to large motor coaches. Type 2 camps offer hookups for electrical and sewage utilities. The appearance of metered electrical posts at these camps indicates that units are charged individually for electrical consumption. The sewage and water pipes show significant signs of insulation. <"Type2_2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type2_2.jpg" border="0" alt="Type2 2" width="450" height="189" /> The arrangement of the hooks-ups for electricity and sewage influenced the arrangement of the camp. Typically the units are arranged into some kind of rough grid pattern and often sit on a level gravel surface. There were few indication of concrete pads or other surfaces around the units. Informal alleys and roads provided access to the units and in many cases it is possible for the residents to pull their vehicles up to their units. In the most informal of the Type 2 camps, units are arranged at angles on their lots or even parallel to the main direction of travel to carve out some private space between units. <"Type2_6.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type2_6.jpg" border="0" alt="Type2 6" width="450" height="225" /> Most units in the Type 2 camp show some signs of modification to make the units more suitable for the North Dakota winter. They often cover the space between the unit and the ground with either wooden panels of various panels of foam insulation. In some cases, the wheels of the vehicle are removed to allow the resident to seal the wheel wells where cold air apparently could enter the unit. It was common to see efforts to seal the windows with either insulation or metal foil to block both light and the blustery North Dakota winter wind. Some more elaborate units have plywood built mudrooms outside the main doors provided a place for the residents to take their boots and winter gear off before entering the more cramped quarters of the unit. Some of these units have satellite television receivers attached to the sides of the trailers or on wooden posts set into the ground. <"Type2_3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type2_3.jpg" border="0" alt="Type2 3" width="450" height="147" /> The diversity of units present in the camp provides a backdrop for a wide range of objects distributed around the camps. Unlike Type 1 camps which tend to be almost sterile in their lack of The object range from

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objects common to any household like coolers, small and large charcoal grills, small propane tanks, children's bikes, camping and patio chairs, and tables. One of the most elaborate units had a rough fence set up around a small grassy area perhaps for a pet dog. Wooden pallets are ubiquitous at Type 2 sites. They provide raised surfaces for storage, pathways from the unit to parking areas and make shift patios. Some units had generators and larger propane tanks. <"Type2_4.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type2_4.jpg" border="0" alt="Type2 4" width="450" height="337" /> Units in Type 2 camps also frequently had discarded or provisional storage of objects associated with industrial work. Large blue barrels, oil cans, tires and wheels from large trucks, and various pieces of equipment. <"Type2_5.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type2_5.jpg" border="0" alt="Type2 5" width="450" height="236" /> Finally, we noted that Type 2 camps sometimes had units without proper hooks up arranged around the periphery of the camp. Called "boondocking" by the RV community, long term camps without hooks ups or with particular informal arrangements for electricity or waste disposal (extension cords, port-a-potties, et c.) are described as Type 3 camps. The combination of both types of units in the same camp presents a hybrid type. At the same time, we did note at least one instance of a Type 2 camp being arranged next to a Type 1 camp that was under construction. <"EganCampType2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/egancamptype2.jpg" border="0" alt="EganCampType2" width="450" height="157" />

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<title>A Typology of North Dakota Work Camps 3</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps3/</link> Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:25:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1701 Over the last three days, I have offered a formal typology of work camps associated with the North Dakota oil boom. This is part of a larger project focusing on (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) the archaeology of contemporary work camps. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-1/) Type 1 camps are the most elaborate, orderly, and - one would imagine - comfortable. These camps feature prefabricated trailers arranged on a leveled slab, designed for northern winters, and offering most of the comforts of home. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakotawork-camps-2/) Type 2 camps represent more ad hoc arrangements of mobile living units. This type of camp typically involves campers with some amenities including electrical and sewage hook-ups, leveled ground, and some efforts at winterizing. Type 2 camps show a whole range of different kinds of units and far less rigorous controls of their immediate environments. As a result there is a greater degree of personalization present. <"Type3_5.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type3_5.jpg" border="0" alt="Type3 5" width="450" height="203" /> Type 3: These camps are the most informal. They involve mobile trailers like in Type 2 camps, but unlike Type 2 camps, these trailers are not set on formally leveled ground and lack electrical or other hook-ups outside of very informal arrangements. These camps tend to be small and often include only a handful of campers clustered around a farmstead or set in a field. The informal nature of these camps makes it difficult sometimes to identify whether it is a work camp or just a few abandoned older campers parked with discarded farm equipment in a back lot. <"Type3_1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type3_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Type3 1" width="450" height="337" /> The arrangement of units in a Type 3 camp ranges from the chaotic to the well-ordered. The lack of any requirements - such as the location of hook-up - for the arrangement of units means that the positioning of the individual units is at the discretion of the residents or the environment. The freedom to locate each unit in whatever way was suitable allowed residents to pull their vehicles quite close to their homes. (It is interesting to note that in most cases, the units are arranged in a line or in some sort of orderly fashion even though there is no real reason to arrange the units that way.) <"Type3_2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type3_2.jpg" border="0" alt="Type3 2" width="450" height="337" /> Like Type 2 camps, each unit tends to be different. There is some evidence for winterizing the units against the cold northern plain's winters. There are also some efforts to personalize the units with chairs, grills, and various other household objects placed outside the camper. Wood pallets served multiple purposes and generally kept objects off the ground. There were also significant amounts of industrial material - like some Type 2 camps - arranged around the units. In some cases, generators or extension cords run to nearby buildings indicate that some ad hoc efforts were made to provide power for each residence.

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<"Type3_3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type3_3.jpg" border="0" alt="Type3 3" width="450" height="337" /> Type 3 camps are often hybridized with Type 2 camps particularly Type 2 camps attracted more units than utility hook ups. It is also worth noting that some Type 3 camps may not be purely residential. In same cases these camps might serve as office space or break rooms for local workers. <"Type3_4.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/type3_4.jpg" border="0" alt="Type3 4" width="450" height="300" />

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<title>North Dakota Work Camps: Some Preliminary Thoughts</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/north-dakota-work-camps-somepreliminary-thoughts/</link> Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:50:26 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1704 Over the last three days I've laid out a typology of North Dakota Work Camps (and successfully killed my page view counts for the entire week). I have tried to be as formal as possible and keep my analysis somewhat separate from these description. In the spirit of this blog, however, I thought it would be worthwhile to offer some preliminary interpretations of these camps. Much of my interpretations here owe something to Paul Shackel's excellent little book, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-americanlabor-and-working-class-life/oclc/318874481) The Archaeology of American Labor and Working-Class Life (2009). So, in my tradition of poorly composed lists, here are five things: 1. Docile Bodies. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakotawork-camps-1/) The most uniform, Type 1, style camps have much in common with company towns and the neatly arranged and carefully monitored mining camps of the late 19th and early 20th century. These camps and towns had both utopian aspirations in that they sought to produce a space that would enforce idealized social and economic relationships. The arrangement of the spaces and the utopian supporting them sought, in part, to create docile bodies among the men and women who labored in the name of capital. The wellordered spaces camp or town reproduced the well-ordered spaces of the factory or the mine and ran explicitly counter to the stereotypical chaos of the working class. 2. Camper Culture. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakotawork-camps-2/) Type 2 and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-northdakota-work-camps-3/) Type 3 work camps move away from the uniformity of Type 1 camps, but nevertheless echo another form of capitalist culture (albeit in a ironic way). The clusters of camper inhabited by oil patch workers have clear parallels with holiday campers clumped along the shores of various lakes across the northern plains (and the west more generally). The needs and opportunities of the oil patch transformed the campsite from a space of middle-class recreation to a place of working class residence. 3. Agency. On our drives around the Bakken range, Bret Weber and I spent considerable time talking about agency in the settlement patterns exhibited in the oil path. The extreme economy of Type 2 and Type 3 camps and the absence of what many regard as the most basic human comforts hint at the significant poverty and suffering. On the other hand, the temporary and ad hoc nature of the work camps may also reflect a series of economic strategies designed to limit risk and investment in the Bakken oil patch. The nature of booms brought on by natural resource exploitation and global markets makes modest, temporary housing a strategically sound decision for both individuals and communities. Moreover, many of the workers in the oil patch maintain primary residence elsewhere, so economizing at a remote work site is a strategy to maximize profits. Determining how much agency individual residents of the camps have and what strategies they use to optimize their time in the oil patch will be a key component of interviews as well as efforts to document the material culture. 4. Community. In many of the discussions of the oil patch, we hear how the arrival of significant numbers of workers, heavy equipment, wealth, and all of the attendant chaos has effected local communities. Rarely have we heard much on the nature of communities of workers in the region. While communities may emerge in any number of places, surely the work camps represent a place where some basic community practices come into play. The arrangement of units, dispute resolution practices, discard behavior, and other issues that impact even the most ad hoc communities, certainly manifest themselves on both the social and material

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levels. The construction of community in the work camps remains a key interest of our project moving forward. 5. Work and Home. One of the more remarkable things at many of the camps was the blurring of the lines between domestic space and space of work. In some cases, Type 1 camps were built on the actual work site. Type 2 and 3 camps were often surrounded with truck tires, industrial equipment, and other indications that the residents used the unit as both a place of work and a place of lodging. Unlike company towns where an effort was made to maintain clear delineations between domestic and industrial space, work camps show a far more fluid and ad hoc relationship between the two spheres. While this is unsurprising perhaps for temporary housing serving an area of rapid industrial expansion, it nevertheless represents another way that life in a North Dakota man camp challenges traditional views of settlement and habitation practice in the U.S. The temporary nature of camps presents a challenge and opportunity to study settlement strategies in a remarkably dynamic corner of the world. None of the 10 camps that we visited this past weekend, for example, appear on satellite images taken in 2010. Documenting such ephemeral and sudden shifts in human settlement should provide insights into economic and social strategies, changing notions of domesticity, and the requirement of early 21st century industrial capital.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-36/</link> Fri, 13 Apr 2012 12:08:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1707 The rain scheduled for Saturday will arrive today making it an idea day for some serious writing in the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Panoptic Think-Tank. But before I start my day under leaden skies, I offer up a fun (to me) gaggle of quick hits and varia. If you haven't checked out the short film, (http://vimeo.com/40000072) Caine's Arcade, it probably means that you don't spend much time on the internets. It's super cute and charming and perfect for a grey end-ofthe-week. One of the coolest things about this is that people - total strangers (http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-caines-arcade-100k-scholarship-fund20120412,0,3981147.story) started to kick into Caine's college fund. If I didn't have equally brilliant nephews, I'd be tempted to do the same. (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/the_bonus/04/12/greek.league/) Depressing news about the Greek Basketball League (via (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/recentnews-on-the-greek-crisis/) Dallas Deforest) Another nice short film which is on the verge of going viral is (http://vimeo.com/39346092) HILL. It's the story of Alan Hill, the man who lives in the abandoned Packard automobile plant in Detroit. It is part abandonment porn and part social commentary. It fits so well into discussions I had with my buddy Bret Weber this past weekend in the oil patch, that he wrote a thoughtful response to it. I ask and he graciously allowed me to quote parts of it: (The film is less than 10 minutes and quite lovely. Bret's comments will make more sense once you see it!):The film suggests and, yes, romanticizes Alan Hills agency in relation to his home, including his comment that it suits his purposes just fine. However, it is implicitly clear that he did not originally choose to go find a large, abandoned factory to live in. In many ways his situation reminds me of a job I had when I was 18. I was a night-time, graveyard-shift janitor for the Colorado State Highway Department. I worked with an old Latino who was using the job to supplement his retirement. After finishing all of our cleaning (which took a couple hours) we crawled into the cabs of large maintenance vehicles and slept until it was time to wake up in the morning and make coffee for the workers that arrived at 7 AM. We actually kept pillows and blankets at work. The point of that little story is that everyone knew that we were drawing full pay for sleeping, but it was cheaper to pay for two sleeping janitors than for security guards. The decision was driven by the insurance companies who needed someone there. The Packard plant may be abandoned, but Im guessing someone owns it and would be liable for problems. I wonder what role Alan Hill is playing in that processwith or without his knowledge. At the very best, Hill has only very limited agency here. At the worst, he could be evicted at any time by any number of authorities (police, health, department of aging or adult protective services, etc.). Beyond those issues, and beyond Alan Hills urban, idyllic home . . . this clearly is not sustainable or possible on any sort of a broad scale. Who is paying for the electricity? Heat? It seems that they filmed during a relatively warm time of the year, but Detroit winters can get brutal. What does Hill do then? What if he becomes ill? Is there any sense of community for Hill (beyond the rabbits and raccoons)? I think this is similar to the situation in the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-3/) Type III camps we saw: at best there is only limited agency, and at worst there is a completely unhealthy, unsustainable situation that raises social justice concerns. Along similar lines, (http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/open-access-article-an-archaeology-of-

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the-contemporary-a-standing-buildings-survey-of-the-chicken-shed-at-catalhoyuk/) check out Colleen Morgan's work in documenting the "Chicken Shed" at Catalhoyuk. The chicken shed was originally built to house the workers brought in to construct other buildings on the site. Once that job was done, it became a part time residence for dig workers and then a storage and break room. There is very little done on the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/archaeology-of-archaeology/) archaeology of archaeology. This looks like a cool conference: (http://www.archaeological.org/events/4718) Byzantium/Modernism: Art, Cultural Heritage, the Avant-Gardes. (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/fanfare-for-the-comma-man/) Some notes on punctuation. (http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/04/you-must-deliver-marketable-goods.html) Some not so nice writing tips. (http://waxy.org/2012/04/instagrams_buyout_how_does_it_measure_up/) An interesting way to think about the Facebook acquisition of Instagram. (http://mickmorrison.com/?p=994#more-994) And some nicer writing tips. (http://teachingthursday.org/2012/04/12/attention-all-und-surveymonkey-users-now-is-the-time-toconvert-to-qualtrics/) A nice Teaching Thursday post on the advantages of Qualtrix. (http://chronicle.com/article/faculty-salaries-data-2012/131431#id=200280) Some mildly depressing news on the status of faculty salaries at the University of North Dakota and elsewhere. What I'm reading: Nothing (it's a writing weekend). What I'm listening to: Orbital, (http://www.nme.com/news/orbital--2/63013) Wonky ; Soft Swells, Soft Swells.

<title>Performing Power in the Late Bronze Age</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/performing-power-in-the-late-bronzeage/</link> Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:26:44 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1710 (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.81.issue-1) The most recent fascicle of Hesperia has been particular distracting over the last few weeks. The quality of articles and strong presence by relatively junior scholars reminds me of the continued vitality in the study of ancient Greece (and is a good tonic to seemingly unending litany of negative stories about the state of Classics). It was particularly fun to read (http://utoronto.academia.edu/DimitriNakassis/Papers/1546622/Prestige_and_Interest_Feasting_and_the_ King_at_Mycenaean_Pylos) Dimitri Nakassis's article on evidence for feasting in the Mycenaean Linear B tables. Over the several decades, scholars of Mycenaean Greece have focused significant attention on feasts and feasting as a key element in the construction of authority in that society. These feasts were often large and elaborate events, and, according to Nakassis' review of scholarship (this is far from my area of specialization!), these social and religious events existed across different contexts in Mycenaean society

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providing a degree of horizontal and vertical ritual integration. The best known feasts centered on the impressive palaces like at Pylos, but we have good evidence that they also occurred in the provinces and among individuals. As Nakassis summarizes, there is significant evidence for these various types of feasts, the contributors, and their contributions in the Linear B tablets from Pylos and elsewhere. While I am sure that it's more complex than what I can understand, it appears that these feasts made manifest (and reinforced) through their ritualized character the social, economic, and potentially political organization of Mycenaean society. The baked hard Linear B tablets preserve a record of donors, donations, and relationships that structured these important ritual events. While a significant chunk of the article unpacks several complex issues surrounding the provisioning of the feast, the more interesting argument to me comes as Nakassis argues that the same individual appears as both king and a private person in the Linear B tables. A single individual then, donated both in his person as king and in his person as a private individual. Nakssis has argued that this seems to indicate a differentiation between there personae of political authority and his identity as a private individual. Apparently both personae had access to independent sources of wealth and could deploy this wealth in a feasting environment to manipulate the social and political outcomes. This, of course, finds nice parallels with differentiation between personal wealth and the imperial fisc in Roman times. Personal wealth became an avenue for patronage outside the administrative functions of the state suggesting that even Roman imperial authority has roots in the personal as much as the political. The contributions of various other members of the elite to these feasts demonstrates a degree of aristocratic competition that the Mycenaean king participates in as a private individual (as well as in his official capacity). If the feast remains a place where both institutional authority of the Mycenaean king and the elite authority of private individuals become manifest, these events have interesting parallels with the construction of Christian authority in Late Antiquity. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/20/architecture-accessand-agency-in-early-christian-greece/) As I have blogged about numerous times, Christian ritual and architecture promoted the institutional authority of the clergy. At the same time, patronage of the church often came from non-ecclesiastical sources. In other words, elites from outside the expanding ecclesiastical hierarchy vied for positions to promote the authority of the new institution. As Nakassis observed: "Participants in the feast were not passive recipients of elite propaganda but instead actively contributed to the processes in various ways Even mere participation in a feast by individuals in the lower orders is an active choice that is subject to subtle manipulation, as James Scott's study of peasant resistance vividly illustrates." (p. 24).

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<title>The Old Church on Walnut Street</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/the-old-church-on-walnut-street/</link> Tue, 17 Apr 2012 10:55:40 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1713 I am really excited to announce that the first volume of the new (http://www.gfclt.org/) Grand Forks Community Land Trust Neighborhood History Series is now in page proofs. The series is edited by myself and Bret Weber, who is also the president of the Grand Forks Community Land Trust. Chris Price, a University of North Dakota, D.A. student is the author of the first volume (with some help from North Dakota State University Graduate Student Aaron Barth) which documents the history and architecture of the Old Church on Walnut Street. This is the old Trinity Lutheran Church and later the Grand Forks Church of God that will be demolished any day now and become the site of a new house financed by the Community Trust. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you've probably seen (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/02/21/new-idea-grand-forks-community-historyproject/) this come together (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/more-on-a-grandforks-church/) here, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/a-neighborhood-church/) here, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/more-on-the-neighhorhood-church/) here, and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/why-no-one-saved-an-old-church/) here). We are already making plans for the next volume and hope to continue our productive partnership with the Grand Forks Community Land Trust to produce some block-by-block history of the Grand Forks Community. [scribd id=89719806 key=key-zumgi448uuraf6ymub0 mode=list]

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<title>Some Photos from the Working Group in Digital and New Media Showcase</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/some-photos-from-the-working-group-indigital-and-new-media-showcase/</link> Wed, 18 Apr 2012 11:32:58 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1722 When I started this blog several years ago, I regularly included more news-like updates about my day to day academic life (whether here in North Dakotaland or in Athens, Greece). At some point, the blog drifted more toward being a research journal. In the end, I don't have a tremens personal or ideological commitment to one form of blogging or the others. So, I'll offer some photographs from last Tuesday's Working Group in Digital and New Media event at the Firehall Theatre in Grand Forks. The presentations were lively and the food was amazing (and generously provided by the Cyprus Research Fund). The photos are by (http://www.ryanstander.com/) Ryan Stander. <p style="text-align:center;) <"TheCrowd.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/thecrowd.jpg" border="0" alt="TheCrowd" width="450" height="300" />The assembled masses <p style="text-align:center;) <"AlbertsasMC.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/albertsasmc.jpg" border="0" alt="AlbertsasMC" width="450" height="300" />Prof. Crystal Alberts served as an able M.C. <p style="text-align:center;) <"Worley.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/worley.jpg" border="0" alt="Worley" width="450" height="300" />One of Prof. Paul Worley's characters from the Yucatan where he works with Prof. Joel Jonientz to produce (http://tsikbalichmaya.org/) Maya language animated films. <p style="text-align:center;) <"Travis.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/travis.jpg" border="0" alt="Travis" width="450" height="300" />Prof. Travis Dessel, the newest Working Group member, discusses the use of volunteer computing to document (http://volunteer.cs.und.edu/wildlife/) Wildlife@home. <p style="text-align:center;) <"Champion.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/champion.jpg" border="0" alt="Champion" width="450" height="409" />Graduate Student Jim Champion presents his marvelous melting sculptures <p style="text-align:center;) <"PaschWittgraf.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/paschwittgraf.jpg" border="0" alt="PaschWittgraf" width="450" height="300" />Prof. Tim Pasch and Prof. Mike Wittgraf make digital music together <p style="text-align:left;) The event saw over 50 people come out to see the fantastic digital and new media works of my colleagues, and we considered that a great crowd for the first effort to showcase the efforts of the Working Group in front of the wider university and local community.

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<title>A Controlled Burn</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/a-controlled-burn/</link> Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:51:00 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1727 I had brilliant blogging ideas this morning as I walked to my office, but I became distracted by a controlled burn occurring in the middle of campus. Now, it would be one thing if this was burning off some prairie grassland in fields adjacent to campus or even behind a biology building, but this was in the middle of campus. Apparently prairie gardens should be burned back every two years. It was very dry this spring and there was a burning ban in place, but the last few weeks have been pretty wet. So, this fire required some encouragement. There was something incredibly matter-of-fact about the entire operation. Growing up in the suburbs and attending a large urban school like Ohio State, I could not imagine something like this taking place without two-thirds of the local fire department on stand-by, policy lines set up to discourage people from playing in it, and several serious looking men in Nomex fire-suits. Here at the University of North Dakota, there was just one guy with a "can-o-fire" and some serious looking work gloves. It was all very peaceful and ordinary. <"ControlledBurn2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/controlledburn2.jpg" border="0" alt="ControlledBurn2" width="450" height="217" /> <"ControlledBurn1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/controlledburn1.jpg" border="0" alt="ControlledBurn1" width="450" height="337" />

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-37/</link> Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:09:03 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1732 It's a pretty grey Friday morning here in the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World global control room, but it looks like tiny slivers of blue sky are desperately attempting to push their way through the clouds. Despite the meteorological struggle playing outside my windows, the Friday Varia and Quick Hits must go on... Byzantium/Modernism: Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Avant Gardes (http://new.livestream.com/yale/byzmod2012) will be streamed live this afternoon starting at 2:30 CST from Yale University. (http://biggert.cul.columbia.edu/) The Robert Biggert Collection of Architectural Vignettes on Commercial Stationery at Columbia University may sound obscure, but it is, in fact, fascinating. (http://chronicle.com/article/Can-CollegesManufacture/131564/?key=QDl1dQNuNHRLNC5naGpGYzxVbyM/Yk57Mn4YPysiblFVGA==) An interesting article on how colleges are assessing and thinking about motivation. (http://joeljonientz.com/) The inestimable Joel Jonientz had a birthday this week. (http://blogs.wabash.edu/fyi/2012/04/19/wabash-always-fights/) Matthew Sears has his hoplite phalanxes and Roman legions out on campus at Wabash College. (http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com/the_penguin_blog/2008/05/covering-bond.html) Cool covers of Ian Flemming's James Bond books. (http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/math-paper-retracted-because-it-contains-noscientific-content/) Doesn't it stink when you discover your journal accidentally published a paper with "no scientific content"? Good thing they can't retract a blog. (h/t Dimitri Nakassis) (http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/561298.html) Some fun facts about the Wisden Almanack. Two more cricket notes: (http://www.espncricinfo.com/west-indies-v-australia2012/engine/current/match/540177.html) this was sort of an annoying test, but this fun story about (http://blogs.espncricinfo.com/iplwatcher/archives/2012/04/chill_she_told_gayle.php) Chris Gayle made me smile. (http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=320418126&amp;teams=philadelphia-phillies-vs-sanfrancisco-giants) I mean, seriously Phillies ? (http://www.samfee.net/PKAP/) If you go quick and look here and don't tell many other people, you can see what Sam Fee and PKAP are dreaming up for an iPad. (http://www.globaldelight.com/boom/) I installed a 7 day trial of Boom. It does make my Mac louder, but I'm not sure better. (http://teachingthursday.org/) Teaching Thursday has begun its annual series of First Year Reflections.

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 New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World = 34,843; (http://corinthianmatters.com/) Corinthian Matters = 34,879. What I'm reading (when it arrives later today): Ian Hodder, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/entangled-anarchaeology-of-the-relationships-between-humans-and-things/oclc/758385613) Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationship between Humans and Things. (2012) What I'm listening to: Sun Araw, The Congos, and M. Geddes Gengras, Icon Give Thank. Frkwys Vol. 9; The Gories, I Know You Be Houserockin' (via (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/) Kostis Kourelis)

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<title>Man Camps: The Poster</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/man-camps-the-poster/</link> Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:36:58 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1738 Next Saturday, I am sending a poster to (http://und.edu/centers/communityengagement/programs/communityconnect/2012-forum/index.cfm) a Community Connect Forum in Buffalo, ND as part of the team studying the social and cultural changes associated with the Bakken Oil Boom. This poster will present (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) some of our work on man camps in Williams County. These forums are meant to foster communication and a sense of community between researchers at UND and residents of the state. So, it's a great opportunity to show our work to people who might be more directly impacted by the oil boom and changes in settlement. This means that over a two week period, I'll be presenting something in (http://www.buffalond.com/) Buffalo, ND and (http://www.iema.buffalo.edu/conference/) Buffalo, NY. I'm not really sure whether this is cool or not, but it's going to happen. So here's the poster: <"ManCampsPoster2012.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/mancampsposter2012.jpg" alt="ManCampsPoster2012" width="450" height="273" border="0" /> (http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wcaraher/WorkingPapers/ManCampsPoster2012.jpg) I've uploaded a legible version of the poster here. I rarely make posters, although they are becoming more and more common in academic settings. I probably used too much text and could have done more with my images, but hopefully it presents some idea of our recent work. The Community Connect forum will also feature the world premiere of Kathy Coudle-King's documentary Off the Map. I mention this because it was edited in the Working Group in Digital and New Media lab. While community outreach has never been the highest priority for the Working Group (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/some-photos-from-the-working-group-in-digitaland-new-media-showcase/) nor is it something that we've particularly avoided), it is cool to see two Working Group members presenting in Buffalo. So, if you're in Buffalo, ND, check out our poster and the other cool stuff going on in the state.

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<title>Introduction to the Pyla-Koutsopetria Survey Volume: Connectivity and Intensification</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/introduction-to-the-pyla-koutsopetriasurvey-volume-connectivity-and-intensification/</link> Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:48:56 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1741 Over the last week or so I've been working on writing the introduction to the publication of our survey work at the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP). I have never written an introduction for a volume like this so David Pettegrew gently nudged me to write on the two issues that have most informed our work: connectivity of sites across the Mediterranean and intensification of survey methods. The former derives from Horden and Purcell's work, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/corrupting-sea-astudy-of-mediterranean-history/oclc/42692026) The Corrupting Sea (2000). The first five chapters of this book argue for a new way to see the Mediterranean based on a dense network of interconnected microregions. A microregion is an area defined by the interplay between the available environmental resources and human efforts to exploit these resources. For Horden and Purcell these microregions are the key constitutive elements of the Mediterranean world. Their connection to other microregions, however, is what allows them to become the locus for human activities. Small scale trade provided by cabotage and other informal types of communication and travel forms the vital links to other microregions. These links ensure that each microregion has economic outlets, social insurance against local environmental risks, and access to larger social and political institutions. The site of Pyla-Koutsopetria corresponds to a microregion as we have been able to recognize a modest set of environmental resources ranging from an small embayment to easily quarried stone, a defensible topography, a location at the periphery of political power on the island, and access to key land routes through the area. These resources provided a context for the responses from the people who made this area home for over 3000 years. These responses - which readers of this blog undoubtedly know - ranged from fortifications to the distinct forms of engagement with trans-Mediterranean markets, hybridized religious sanctuaries, and economic prosperity. Horden and Purcell do not argue for a specific method for the documenting and studying of microregions. Scholars have argued for quite some time that intensive pedestrian survey provides an ideal tool for documenting the human response to their environment of the regional scale. While the differences between region (as defined by intensive pedestrian survey project) and mircoregions (as defined by Horden and Purcell) remains a bit opaque, we argue that the gradual intensification of pedestrian survey methods in the Mediterranean have made this technique well-suited for the documentation of trends over areas larger than those susceptible to excavation, but smaller than the a region of several hundred square kilometers. Much of our discussions on the ground in Cyprus have centered on how we should adjust our methods to document a dense scatter of artifacts that extends for over 40 ha set in a study area of close to 200 ha. In the end, we attempted to balance the need to collect a robust and representative sample of the material on the group against the need to avoid the inefficient collection of redundant or meaningless data. We created units that were either 40 x 40 or 80 x 80 meters in size depending on artifact densities. These units became the primary space for sampling the artifact assemblages on the surface of the ground. In effect, each unit became a context for a specific sample that we could then document in detail and in an efficient way. These units were significantly smaller than those typically used my a regional survey project, but at the same time larger than the most intensive "site based" survey methods designed to document a single village, villa, or fortification. By adjusting the methods of intensive pedestrian survey to the scale of the microregion we were successful in documenting in a rigorous and systematic way the significant surface assemblage present in the Pyla-

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Koutsopetria microregion. We also followed recent trends toward increasing the intensity of survey methods to capture intrasite variations, difficult to recognize periods and artifact types, and the furtive traces of short term or low intensity human activities on the ground. We hope our volume, which is very close to being complete, will demonstrate that at least for our site, intensive survey methods can bring to light the dynamic complexity of Mediterranean microregions.

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<title>Polis Prospects for the Summer of 2012</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/polis-prospects-for-the-summer-of2012/</link> Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:38:50 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1745 I've finally begun to slowly shift my attention from my academic year tasks to my summer goals. I'm just starting to think a tiny bit about our work at Pyla-Koutsopetria this summer (more on that next week), but I'm slowly getting more and more excited about the plan for Polis. Scott Moore and I head to Polis after we wrap up excavations at Pyla-Koutsopetria. Right now we have three plans for the Polis season all involve the continued study of excavated material and architecture from the site of EF2. Last season, we focused primarily on the architecture and stratigraphy of the Early Christian basilica style church at the site. In 2012, we will continue our work to document that building and expand our study to include other contemporary (or potentially contemporary) structures in the larger EF2 area. <"jpg_E.F2 Late Antique Plan with Burials- final (1).jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/jpg_e-f2-late-antique-plan-with-burials-final1.jpg" alt="Jpg E F2 Late Antique Plan with Burials final 1" width="540" height="600" border="0" /> 1. The West The western part of EF2 is perhaps the most complex and interesting part of the site. It has two main features that are directly significant for our work at the EF2 basilica. The first is a Roman period quadraporticus that stands at the intersection of two roads through this section of the city (it is not visible on the plan above). We do not have a clear sense of the chronology of this structure and one of the key questions is whether it continued to stand into Late Antiquity. If it did continue to stand, then it would have formed an architectural complement to the western part of the basilica . We have this lovely vision that narthex of the basilica echoed the arched form of the quadraporticus which was the other monumental building in the area. We are also interested in the small water feature situated immediately adjacent to the southwest corner of the basilica narthex. It is visible on the plan above as a small apsidal structure. We have reason to suspect that this feature was contemporary with the basilica but we have no idea when it was built and when or whether it underwent changes. It seems to have been a spring house and we know that such features would have been important landmarks in the urban fabric. Further west from these features are a number of smaller buildings, perhaps work shops, and what appear to be domestic structures of uncertain date. By starting to unpack the western part of EF we hope to be able to contextualize the neighborhood of the church here and determine how it fit into the social and architectural fabric of the town. We also hope to understand the relationship between Roman structures in the area and the massive leveling effort upon which basilica stood. The material in this leveling course seems to date to the 2nd to 3rd century that is two centuries earlier than the date of the basilica - and it would be valuable to understand whether this dates to the time of the basilicas contraction or an earlier re-organization of this neighborhood. 2. The East Last year, we mistakenly felt like we had the eastern side of the basilica fairly well problematized. The main issues surrounded the portico that ran along the south side of the church and the architectural and

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chronological relationship between the apse and the walls of the aisles and nave. While we have not necessarily come to absolute conclusions on these issues, we at least thought that we knew where to focus our attention. This winter, however, two new structures appeared which might be contemporary with the church. The two rooms immediately to the southeast of the southeastern corner of the south portico may well be contemporary with the church. Their positions suggests that they form the eastern limit to a possible southern atrium to the church which ran between the southern portico and the nicely paved road visible along the bottom of the plan above. This would be more or less consistent with other basilicas on the island which often featured atria surrounded by buildings. In fact, the room that we have worked to study at PylaKoutsopetria is probably exactly such a structure for the south facing atrium of that church. It is also interesting that the ubiquitous graves respect the walls of these rooms in some cases and cut the walls in other cases suggesting that they may have been standing for part of the life of the church and then fallen out of use later. Sorting the relationship between these rooms and the eastern part of the church will be a significant priority for this summer. 3. The Sherds All of our work about relies on getting the ceramics rights. While we can most likely sort the relative chronology of the strata in each trench, we have not had too much luck linking the various level across trenches. As a result, the date of the ceramics present in each strata become vital for attempting to coordinate building sequences across a site excavated over 20 years. As we identify particularly secure strata (that is to say single context strata or strata that represent single depositional events) and particularly diagnostic artifacts in the myriad artifact trays neatly arranged in the Polis storerooms, we also need to illustrate key artifacts and determine whether we can make any arguments from the chronological or typological distribution of artifacts across the entire site. Of course all these more focused research questions depend upon our continued routine work. This involves reading tray after tray of pottery that has not been studied since it was excavated. It also involves digitizing Polis plans, keying notebooks, and building Harris Matrices for each trench. All this is routine work and pretty tedious, but as you can see, the research questions and potential outcomes will shed new, valuable light on the fabric and society of a Late Antique neighborhood on Cyprus.

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<title>Reflections on 100 Walks</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/reflections-on-100-walks/</link> Thu, 26 Apr 2012 11:43:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1749 Today, if I don't come down with the horrible flu that has attacked my wife, I will walk home for the 100th time this academic year. It's not a very long walk - somewhere between 2.5 and 3 miles depending on my route - but it can feel longer or shorter depending on the weather and my energy levels! <"100 Walks.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/100-walks.jpg" alt="100 Walks" width="415" height="591" border="0" /> So to celebrate my 100th walk of the year, I thought I might reflect a tiny bit on what I've learned walking home. 1. I should not wear headphones while I walk. Sometime last fall - right around the time when I installed Spotify on my phone - I started to listen to music a few days a week on my walks home. I had been working harder than usual at the office and had cut back on music listening during the day; so, I started to pop in my headphones and listen to music on my walk. While this certainly made my walks go faster, I found that I lost a tremendous amount of awareness about my environment. The aural landscape - from the sound of cars passing on the street to the grind of the rail yard, the sound of the wind between houses, or the barking of dogs created a much heightened awareness of space. 2. Neighborhoods. One of the most interesting thing about walking home is that each neighborhood prompted a different (and remarkably consistent) feeling in me as I walk through it. The neighborhood closest to campus invariably made me feel old. College age students were always out and about and younger families too with small kids and smaller dogs. When I reached Washington St., the feeling of my walk changed. Here I became very much aware of the social distinction between a walker and someone whizzing by in a car. Other pedestrians in this area tended to be individuals who appeared to be walking not because they wanted to, but because they had to. I felt conspicuous both among these people and my colleagues as they passed by in their cars (and on their mobile phones!). Finally, when I ducked back down into the neighborhoods closer to my own home in the Near South Side, I encountered children and other walkers who clearly were outside because they wanted to be outside. I felt like I was another suburbanite talking an evening stroll and far less conspicuous than I was walking beside the rushing traffic of Washington Street. 3. The Wind and Weather. The expansive skies of the Red River Valley are truly amazing, but they come at a price. The howling winds that can cut through even the most weather-proofed jackets can make even a my casual strolls exercises in resistance training. Mostly, however, they don't. I've come to love the close packed houses of campus neighborhoods and the Near South Side. Many of my colleagues who rarely walk in inclement weather remained skeptical when I tell them that once my walking route gets me into a neighborhood (rather than campus or sports fields or other open spaces that punctuate my route), I can hear the wind, but I generally don't feel it. 4. Fatigue. I live a pretty sedentary existence. Generally, I sit at my desk for around 10 hours a day. Walking is tiring. I am consistently surprised by how tired I feel after walking home. As a historian of the pre-industrial world, I have always recognized that walking was the most common way to get around through most of human history (and maybe the case even today). Walking home has made me all the more aware of how much walking can limit the scope and extent of one's world. Simple detours that I might make in the car stopping at the grocery store or to grab milk at the Quik-E-Mart - seem to be immense inconveniences on my walk even when the additional distance is less than a mile. So while walking brings me closer to my environment, it also makes everything seem much further away.

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5. Paths and Hidden Landscapes. My walks have made me much more aware of the paths inscribed in my local landscape. These range from random staircases that allow a pedestrian to move from a sidewalk to a more elevated, perpendicular side street to the paths through grassy areas between commercial and residential districts. The remains of the streets that were abandoned with the installation of the rail yard and resulting changes in the road network are still clearly visible. Strange little houses converted from garages when such things were still possible under building and zoning codes, abandoned storefronts on now-neglected side streets, and repurposed buildings which clearly straddle the line between commercial and residential. So many of the subtle signs of how communities respond to change remain hidden as I blast around in my little Honda Civic, but become visible when I wander home (without headphones). Finally, there is one additional benefit to walking. I feel better when I get home (albeit more tired) than I do when I leave my office. Less cranky, more relaxed, and usually just slightly (in a pleasant Sunday afternoon kind of way) bored. My feet is my only carriage. So I've got to push on through UPDATE: This is a total coincidence, but a happy one. (http://www.slate.com/articles/life/walking/2012/04/why_don_t_americans_walk_more_the_crisis_of_pe destrianism_.html) Check out Tom Vanderbilts's "Crisis in American Walking" on Slate a couple weeks ago. (via (http://kottke.org/12/04/the-iphone-an-automobile-for-your-mind) kottke.com yesterday)

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-38/</link> Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:06:35 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1756 It is glowing red morning here in North Dakotaland (but fortunately we have very few sailors, so the warning seemed unnecessary). Perhaps the red sky in the morning is to remind our students that there is only one week left of the semester. Or perhaps it was to remind faculty that this week was the calm before the storm. In any event, it is a great day for some quick hits and varia (http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/how-to-be-succinct/32340) How to be succinct. Some interesting push back to the (http://www.archaeology.org/1205/departments/president.html) AIA's statement regarding Open Access in Archaeology Magazine. (http://ancientworldbloggers.blogspot.ca/2012/04/aia-and-open-access-response.html) Here's Chuck Jones and Sebastian Heath. And (http://www.openaccessarchaeology.org/response-to-aia.html) here from the Open Access Archaeology folks. In related news, (http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k77982&amp;tabgroupid=icb.tabgroup143448) Harvard spends $3.75 per year on online periodical subscriptions. More archaeology of archaeology: (http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2012/04/21/archaeology-fieldkit-update/) some cool thoughts on an archaeological field kit. A conversation with (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeYxELLl5YI&amp;feature=share) Chuck Klosterman. (http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/tomorrows-college/lectures/) More criticisms of the lecture as a teaching tool. Does anyone use (http://ifttt.com/wtf) iffttt? It seems cool. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/04/sonic-archaeology.html) Some Sonic Archaeology from the Punk Archaeology section. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/04/spider.html) And even more. (http://washington.academia.edu/PierreMacKay/Papers/1576487/SS._Mary_and_Dominic_Ayia_Paraskevi _The_unique_unaltered_13th-century_Dominican_priory_church_in_Negropont) Pierre MacKay on SS. Mary and Dominic (Ay. Parakevi) in Chalkis. I visited this church with Pierre when I was a graduate students and we pondered it (and it's supposed Early Christian foundation). So, this little article brings back some great memories. For deeply personal reasons I hate Helvetica (and it's sister Haas Grostesk), but (http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/history/) I like this story. I recently submitted a book review to (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/) the Bryn Mawr Classical Review. I got back some revisions this week with, hands down, the funniest editor comments I've ever received. I usually dread reading revisions of my writing, but these made me laugh out loud (in a good way). I like their style! Check out (http://teachingthursday.org/) the next reflection of first year faculty at Teaching Thursday.

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 (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/at-yale-online-lectures-become-lively-books/36162) Online teaching to paper books a cool campus partnership. I keep forgetting why the University of North Dakota can't do stuff like this. (http://daytum.com/displays/223043) 100 Walks. (http://www.averageslob.com/carad_large.jpg) The best used car ad ever. (http://www.mla.org/guidelines_evaluation_digital) Revised MLA guidelines for evaluating work in digital humanities and new media. What I'm reading: Marcus Banks, Jay Ruby, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/made-to-be-seen-perspectiveson-the-history-of-visual-anthropology/oclc/666234899) Made to be Seen: Perspectives on the History of Visual Anthropology (Chicago 2011). (via Kostis Kourelis) What I'm listening to: Spiritualize, Sweet Heart, Sweet Light.

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<title>Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project Prospects for the Summer of 2012</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/30/pyla-koutsopetria-archaeological-projectprospects-for-the-summer-of-2012/</link> Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:58:56 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1764 Last week, I wrote a bit on (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/polis-prospects-forthe-summer-of-2012/) my plans for work at the site of Polis-Chrysochous for the summer of 2012. Before I even get to Polis, however, I will have worked for a little of three weeks at my long term research site of PylaKoutsopetria. This summer a team of Messiah College volunteers will team up with the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project to conduct excavations at the site of Pyla-Vigla. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/newimage5.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="190" border="0" /> The site is the prominent height that towers above the narrow coastal plain of Pyla-Koutsopetria and our work since 2008 has documented the presence of a substantial fortification dating to the Hellenistic period. A preliminary publication of our work at the site should appear in the next volume of the Report of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus A (http://www.scribd.com/doc/51704693/A-Report-on-theExcavations-at-Pyla-Vigla-2011) pre-print is available here (http://www.scribd.com/doc/71134094/WCaraher-and-R-S-Moore-PKAP-Recent-Work-at-the-Site-of-Pyla-Vigla) and a summary conference paper here. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/newimage3.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="309" border="0" /> We excavated at that site in 2009 and 2010, but left several unanswered questions that our work this season will look to resolve. Like the preceding two campaigns at the site our work will be focused and limited. At present we anticipate three small trenches (&lt;10 sq m each) positioned to clarify three distinct questions: 1. Function. The last two campaigns at the site have produced some good evidence for settlement on the top of the Vigla plateau and inside the fortification walls. We have found traces of storage and cooking practices, the manufacture of military equipment (particularly lead sling pellets), the re-use of material from earlier structures including a possible religious sanctuary, and at least two episodes of destruction. We feel relatively confident, then, assigning this settlement to soldiers stationed at the site. At the same time, the extent of the settlement remains unclear and geophysical work conducted in 2008 and 2009 seems to indicate that some sub-surface anomalies extend toward the northern half of the plateau where we have done no excavation. One goal this summer, then, is to locate at least one sounding on the northern part of the plateau to determine whether the settlement extends over the entire area or whether the sub-surface anomalies represent non-domestic architecture or even the remains of earlier or even later activities at the site. 2. Chronology. While we have a relatively secure chronology for the settlement within the fortification walls, the fortification walls themselves have so far escaped our efforts to assign secure dates. In 2009 we conducted a sounding along the eastern part of the fortification and in 2010 along the western. Despite substantial amounts of soil and, at least for the eastern sounding, some complex stratigraphy, we were unable to establish a secure date for the wall. In 2012, we plan to place a trench along the northern side of the wall close to where looters exposed a substantial section of the wall in the winter of 2009/10. The looter trench suggested that there is a good chance for undisturbed stratigraphy in this area and that the walls remains standing to a substantial height (&gt;1 m). We hope that a trench in this area will turn up the so-far elusive foundation deposit. Unfortunately, even this might not produce an easy answer as far as the date of the entire wall is concerned. We have fairly good evidence that the wall saw several phases of construction.

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3. The Southwest Corner. The southwestern corner of Vigla has also seen some looting in the past few winters. The steep slope of the southern side has also seen some substantial local erosion that has enlarged the looter trenches. The most dramatic exposure appears to have been the remains of a tomb perhaps of Hellenistic date. Recent erosion and possible looting has also exposed the remains of a wall that appears very similar to the fortification wall found further upslope. The extent and function of this wall along the southeastern corner and its relationship to burials in the area remain rather unclear. It could be that the wall is a retaining wall for a road that originally made its way from the coastal plain along the western side of the fortification. Or it may have been an outrigger wall that prevented an enemy force from establishing a position below the southern wall of the fortified plateau. If the wall served to fortify the southwestern approach to the height, it would presumably look similar to the fortification wall along the southern side of the plateau. If it was a retaining wall, we might expect it not to be a less substantial construction. Finally, it is possible that the wall has something to do with the burials in this area or even the quarrying activity further to the south. We hope that a small trench in this area can at least tell us whether the wall had two faces and guide our interpretation either toward or away from its function as a fortification. To investigate these issues, we are fortunate to have a great team of trench supervisors this summer: Brandon Olson for Boston University, Dallas Deforest from Ohio State, and Aaron Barth from the joint Ph.D. program in History at University of North Dakota and North Dakota State University. As we have for the last five years, we will document our work via social media and as things going, I'll provide details here! So, stay tuned!

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<title>Digital Archaeology and the New Media in 2012</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/digital-archaeology-and-the-new-media-in2012/</link> Tue, 01 May 2012 12:11:04 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1767 It was about 5 years ago that I started this very blog to "keep our friends, families, donors, and colleagues up to date on our work both in the field and back in the office." (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/mediterranean_a/) Here's a link to that first post tucked away deep in the bowels of the Archive for the Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. Our hope was that we could provide a window into the daily work, social relationships, and experiences of archaeological work to provide a context for the sometimes de-humanized empirical data produced from our time in the field. Since that time, most archaeological projects have developed some social or new media aspect to their work (or have chosen not to for reasons grounded in the discourse of social and new media rather than just naivet or petty resistance). With near ubiquitous mobile phone coverage it is now possible to use microblogging platforms like Twitter from almost every corner of the world. Twitter and its rather more reckless cousin Facebook have provided important places for the circulation of up-to-the-minute updates on projects and for the development of community among the researchers, volunteers, staff, supporters, and interested observers around the world. Projects have worked (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50273885/Pyla-Koutsopetria-BlogGuidelines-for-2010) to produce guidelines to help folks new to blogging and social media negotiate the world of archaeological blogging. Conferences and conference panels, both virtual and real, have occurred discussing the virtues and potential pitfalls of blogging and archaeology. In general, projects have found new ways to use the internet to engage a longstanding fascination with archaeological work among a wide range of people and to feed the almost insatiable hunger among professional archaeologists for news from the trowels edge. Our field staff and volunteers have become more tech savvy. For example, this year, our three trench supervisors - (http://www.theclassicalarchaeologist.com/) Brandon Olson, (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/) Dallas Deforest, and (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Aaron Barth - all have blogs. My two co-directors, (http://corinthianmatters.com/) David Pettegrew and (http://ancienthistoryramblings.wordpress.com/) Scott Moore, are experienced bloggers as well. I expect that we'll continue to provide a platform for our students to blog on their experiences. This may be rather more foreign to them, but our Twitter hashtag for the season (#PKAP12) and our volunteers' Facebook or Twitter accounts will provide them with their own communities and audiences for their reflections on their work. (http://www.youtube.com/user/unctarheel1989) We (well, Scott Moore has) a YouTube channel. This summer, we'll extend our social and new media reach into the field. Messiah College - one of our three co-sponsoring institutions - will provide the project with iPads for the students to use in the field, the museum, and the hotel. They should be able to publish photographs, video, and reflections directly from the field. (http://www.thefee.net/) Prof. Sam Fee from Washington and Jefferson College, has developed (http://www.thefee.net/PKAP/) an application for us that we will test this summer to collect data from our trenches. We are very close to being able to publish our raw archaeological data from the side of our trenches in realtime. In an era where "transparency" is becoming a watchword for academic, political, and institutional integrity, we are very close to achieving complete transparency in archaeological data collection and analysis. Every step of the process could be made visible to an outside observer. There are reasons, of course, to limit some of our transparency and these have little to do with issues of integrity and much more to do with issues of security around a site that has already suffered significant

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degradation at the hands of looters. Moreover, we have done little to provide tools for a wider audience to interrogate raw archaeological data "from the trowel's edge". The data rich immediacy of the trowel's edge perspective rarely serves even an experience archaeologist as any more than a starting point for their own understanding of a trench. It is only in aggregation and comparison of stratigraphy, features, objects, and relationships that real archaeological knowledge emerges. So over five years, we've moved from the rush of providing a window into life and work of an archaeological project to the prospects of almost immediate data transparency.

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<title>The Story of Churchville</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/the-story-of-churchville/</link> Wed, 02 May 2012 11:53:13 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1772 With the (http://www.scribd.com/doc/89719806/The-Old-Church-on-Walnut-Street) first volume of my new Grand Forks Community Land Trust Neighborhood History Series almost off the presses, Bret Weber and I have begun work on Volume 2. This volume will detail the history of the neighborhood called "Churchville" in Grand Forks. It is part of the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Forks_Near_Southside_Historic_District) Near Southside Historic District and ranks as among the first residential subdivisions of the city. <"Churchville.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/churchville.jpg" alt="Churchville" width="450" height="303" border="0" /> The Community Land Trust has received several properties in the area bounded on the east by Belmont Road, on the west by Cherry St, on the south by 4th Ave., and on the north by 1st Avenue. It is home to several of the cities most prominent buildings including (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Lutheran_Church_(Grand_Forks,_North_Dakota)) United Lutheran Church, (http://www.stmarysgfnd.parishesonline.com/scripts/HostedSites/Org.asp?ID=12946) St. Mary's Catholic Church, and the old (http://digitalhorizonsonline.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/uw&amp;CISOPTR=2901&amp; CISOBOX=1&amp;REC=9) Christian Science Church. A number of other churches - including one that served the Greek Orthodox community and the city's original synagogue - has been destroyed or their congregations have moved elsewhere. <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/newimage.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="314" border="0" /> While these buildings are certainly interesting, we will encourage our author to put them in the context of the local community and the developing urban and architectural traditions of the day. We know, for example, that throughout the first part of the 20th century, tucked amidst the churches and homes were small grocery stores and businesses that have all but vanished. The area has also preserved some of the few fragments of the city's (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/the-streets-of/) old wood streets and extensive stretches of granitoid pavement. Moreover, there are some great examples of the wellpreserved early 20th century streetscapes that we seek to document. We'll have more announcements about this project during the summer months. And over the next year, look for the second volume of our little neighborhood history series to appear sometime in the winter.

<title>Patronage and Reception in the Monumental Architecture of Early Christian Greece</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/patronage-and-reception-in-themonumental-architecture-of-early-christian-greece/</link> Thu, 03 May 2012 12:14:58 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1775

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For the past two weeks I've been preparing a working draft of the paper that I'll deliver at the 2012 Institute of European and Mediterranean Archaeology Conference: Approaching Monumentality in the Archaeological Record next week in Buffalo, New York. My initial plans had been to bring together the growing interest in monumentality among Mediterranean archaeologists (particularly those who study the Bronze and Iron Age) and the study of Early Christian monuments. Then I decided that as the only archaeologist at the conference working specifically on Late Antique and Early Christian monuments, I should be more general. Then I tried to do both, and I am not sure that this paper succeeded at doing either. The paper argues that the monumental space of the nearly-ubiquitous, basilica style churches in Greece provides a place where the clergy and laity negotiated a new form of Christian authority through ritual and architecture limits on access, patronage practices, and the form and fabric of Early Christian architecture. Rather than being a sign of Christianization or a mark of ecclesiastical authority in the landscape, the church building became a locus for the intersection of competing (and ultimately hybridizing) discourses of power. I suspect that folks who have read on monumentality in the pre-modern Mediterranean will see the influences of that discourse on my paper. At the same time, I suspect that my observation on Early Christian architecture in general will appear rather uninspiring. Finally, people might notice that this paper could be profitably read with two other papers on Early Christian Greece which share an interest in the process of Christianization, hybridity, ritual, and authority in the architecture (http://www.scribd.com/doc/47591826/Caraher-Ambivalent-Landscapes-2011) here and (http://www.scribd.com/doc/28019578/Epigraphy-Liturgy-Justinianic-Isthmus-Caraher) here). As you'll also notice, the bibliography is not yet attached and some of the citations are incomplete. It is, however, a working paper and largely complete in terms of argument and organization. Feedback is welcome as always: [scribd id=92219782 key=key-1ezhyr2qr6ahmd5luhu8 mode=list]

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-39/</link> Fri, 04 May 2012 11:58:42 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1779 It was another red morning and it was amusing to watch all the sailors take warning on their morning strolls. Let's hope that it was all just precautionary and the grey skies give way to clear blue ones. So as I watch the grey morning sky burn off to blue, I'll offer a little gaggle of quick hits and varia: (http://paperlessarchaeology.com/2012/05/02/ipads-at-pkap/) A nice comment over at Paperless Archaeology on our developing efforts to integrate iPad based data collection into our field procedures this summer. (http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2012/2012-04-60.html) My Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Yannis Lolos, Land of Sikyon: Archaeology and History of a Greek City-State. (http://archaeology.okfn.org/2012/04/30/the-aia-and-open-access-an-open-letter/) More on the AIA's strange stance toward Open Access and (http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/8905) the AIA president's strange-ish response (h/t Dimitri Nakassis). (http://places.designobserver.com/feature/rome-monte-testaccio-landfill-reclamation/33268/) The most famous ancient dump. (http://teachingthursday.org/) Some fantastic first year reflections over at Teaching Thursday. (http://chartsnthings.tumblr.com/) Pretty cool insights into how the New York Times makes their cool charts. I spent time this spring developing (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) a typology of man-camps for the Bakken Oil Patch in North Dakota. Hybrid types of man-camps have begun to materialize already. C (http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/359550/) heck out this recent story on an indoor RV park (a hybrid of my (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-ofnorth-dakota-work-camps-1/) Type 1 and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/atypology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-2/) Type 2 camp). Along similar lines, (http://www.prairiepublic.org/television/local-productions?post=41268) check out Prairie Pubic Television's "Faces of the Oil Patch". Were Depression Era Hoovervilles types of man-camps? (http://mtprawvwdorlna1.nyc.gov/luna/servlet/view/search?QuickSearchA=QuickSearchA&amp;q=Hoove rville&amp;search=Search) Check them out here and (http://depts.washington.edu/depress/hooverville.shtml) here. (http://chronicle.com/article/How-One-InstructorTeaches/131656/?sid=at&amp;utm_source=at&amp;utm_medium=en) Teaching very, very large classes. (http://chronicle.com/article/A-Digital-Boot-Camp-forGrad/131665/?key=HGl6JwRoYycXNClraG5HbGlTOiRiYx0hYiAebHR3blpcFg%3D%3D) And a digital boot camp for humanities graduate students.

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 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304811304577366332400453796.html?mod=e2tw) Some fun advice for graduating seniors. What I'm reading: 10,000 History 101 Papers. What I'm listening to: (http://music.amnestyusa.org/) Chimes of Freedom, The Songs of Bob Dylan. <p style="text-align:center;) <img style="border-style:initial;border-color:initial;display:block;marginleft:auto;margin-right:auto;border-width:0;" title="Granitoid.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/granitoid.jpg" alt="Granitoid" width="450" height="304" border="0" />Because you can never have enough GRANITOID.

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<title>Some More Thoughts on Student Writing</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/some-more-thoughts-on-studentwriting/</link> Mon, 07 May 2012 13:52:34 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1784 Last December, I wrote up (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/01/teaching-thursdayteaching-writing/) some of my observations on undergraduate writing tendencies based on a stack of student papers from the fall 2011 semester. Having just graded over 150, 3 page introductory level student papers, I figured that I should update the list to reflect some of my new observations and to reinforce the validity of some of my older comments. 1. Capitalization. This remains among the most baffling trend in undergraduate writing. Over the past three or four years, I've seen a sustained decline in the use of proper punctuation. Students regularly forget to capitalize people's names, proper places, and (perhaps less surprisingly) institutions. Some have suggested that this is the rise of "text message English" (or text message english) in which almost no words are capitalized. The argument against that, however, is the concomitant rise of random capitalization. In the most recent group of papers, I've seen the word History, Economy, and Politics capitalized. It's baffling. 2. Fonts. Recently, I've started to notice that many papers turned into my feature different fonts in the same text. Sometimes it's as inconspicuous as a different font in the footnotes or in a clearly "cut and paste" block quote. In other cases, the font will change mid sentence or paragraph. As our word processors become capable of doing more and more formatting and layout-oriented work, they increasingly burden the simple task of presenting text with distracting options that ironically produce a less appealing final product especially for inexperienced users. 3. The Semicolon. Semicolons continue to be the bane of this generations' writing. I have banned them in both my introductory and mid-level course, but they continue to make unwelcome appearances in both places. Students not only use them incorrectly (usually to link a complete sentence with a sentence fragment), but even when they do use them correctly they typically produce monstrous, wordily, and complex sentences that obscure meaning. 4. Contractions. I have banned the use of contractions in formal writing in all my classes. But it doesn't seem to matter. Students are inexorably drawn to contracted words. I even explained that one could set one's word processor to automatically change contractions into their non-contracted words, but they still appear throughout papers. 5. In regards. This phrase is a new one to me, but it has appeared in numerous undergraduate papers this semester. It might be related to the tendency to use strangely anachronistic words and British-isms like amongst, whilst, and towards. In 120 some papers, I counted "in regards" used 43 times in 28 papers. I realize that language and styles of typography are ever changing, but sometimes I wish they'd change just a little more slowly and systematically in my students' work.

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<title>Just Before Dawn</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/just-before-dawn/</link> Wed, 09 May 2012 11:04:52 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1788 The results of the recent Greek elections have almost spoiled my use of the word (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dawn_(Greece)) dawn, but on a day of grading, paper editing, and preparing for travel <"Dawn.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dawn.jpg" alt="Dawn" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> It's nice to be reminded that the darkest hour is just before dawn.

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<title>The Old Church on Walnut Street</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/the-old-church-on-walnut-street-2/</link> Thu, 10 May 2012 11:42:08 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1792 I am very happy to announce the publication of the first volume of the Grand Forks Community Land Trust's Neighborhood History Series. As readers of this blog know, it is Christopher Price's The Old Church on Walnut Street: A Story of Immigrants and Evangelicals. You can purchase (http://www.lulu.com/shop/christopher-price/the-old-church-on-walnut-street-a-story-of-immigrants-andevangelicals/paperback/product-20112605.html) a copy of the book for the low, low price of $4.00 here. <"Church_on_Walnut_Street_Cover.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/church_on_walnut_street_cover.jpg" alt="Church on Walnut Street Cover" width="450" height="344" border="0" /> The timing could not be better as the church is slated for demolition next Wednesday. It is the last turn of the century wood-framed church in Grand Forks and for over 100 years it stood as quiet reminder of the early20th century religious, urban, and social landscape. Chris's book has done a brilliant job at putting this building in social and historical context and the lovely illustrations by Bobbi Hepper Olson and Aaron Barth's clear description have ensured that the building was documented as carefully as time and resources allowed. (http://www.gfclt.org/) The Grand Forks Community Land Trust and Cyprus Research Fund collaborated in the publication of this volume. If $4 seems a bridge to far for a book about a church in a town you've never heard of, (http://www.scribd.com/doc/93096768/The-Old-Church-Walnut-Street) then download it for free from Scrbd. [scribd id=93096768 key=key-2ctzty3zj8xwj15wtrq8 mode=list]

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<title>The End of an Old Church</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/the-end-of-an-old-church/</link> Tue, 15 May 2012 12:31:09 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1798 This weekend, I attended a conference hosted by the (http://www.iema.buffalo.edu/) Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Buffalo that focused on monumentality in the archaeological record. At the end of the conference, we had a short but thought-provoking discussion of antimonuments. These were monuments that seemed to subvert the very notion of monumentality (which itself was a tricky thing to define). When I got back to Grand Forks and saw that our old church on Walnut Street was coming down a few days earlier, it got me thinking. (For more on this church, check out (http://www.scribd.com/doc/93096768/The-Old-Church-Walnut-Street) Chris Price's excellent history and, if you feel like it, (http://www.lulu.com/shop/christopher-price/the-old-church-on-walnut-street-a-story-ofimmigrants-and-evangelicals/paperback/product-20112605.html) buy a copy of the book here). <"WalnutStChruch.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/walnutstchruch.jpg" alt="WalnutStChruch" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> The removal of the steeple reminded me of so many mosques in Greece where the top of the minarets have been removed. <"GranitoidChurch.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/granitoidchurch.jpg" alt="GranitoidChurch" width="450" height="600" border="0" /> The famous granitoid pavement in the foreground presents the contrasting issues of conservation in our community. An old church is more expendable than pavement. <"SteepleChurch.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/steeplechurch.jpg" alt="SteepleChurch" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> The de-churched steeple was a depressing sight this morning.

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<title>The Anti-Monument</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/the-anti-monument/</link> Wed, 16 May 2012 12:18:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1803 The church at Walnut Street is gone. <"WalnutStChurchNOW.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/walnutstchurchnow.jpg" alt="WalnutStChurchNOW" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/236555/) There is some press coverage in the Grand Forks Herald. As Emily Wright pointed out, sometimes you need to tear down old buildings to make a neighborhood what it used to be (?!). <"ChurchattheEnd.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/churchattheend.jpg" alt="ChurchattheEnd" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djZFHTa6TfA) But it's hard not to think of this If you'd like a copy of the new book about the church, The Old Church on Walnut Street: A Story of Immigrants and Evangelical by Chris Price you can get (http://www.scribd.com/doc/93096768/The-OldChurch-Walnut-Street) an electronic copy here or (http://www.lulu.com/shop/christopher-price/the-oldchurch-on-walnut-street-a-story-of-immigrants-and-evangelicals/paperback/product-20112605.html) a nice paper copy here.

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<title>PKAP 2012 First Day Challenges</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/19/pkap-2012-first-day-challenges/</link> Sat, 19 May 2012 08:21:49 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1808 Part of the fun of archaeology is that it compels scholars who tend to work in fairly controlled environments to encounter the uncontrollable, the physical, and the real. For example, my lovely GIS maps which seem so secure, accurate, and clear when produced for publications seem incomplete and barely legible when carried out into the real space of the field. A datum that appears so clearly on the map disappears into the tall, dry grain on the height of Vigla. The edges of backfilled trenches are no longer even hints in the baked, buff earth. Features so visible in our geophysical prospecting remain carefully buried beneath half a meter of earth. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/abstractspace.jpg) <img style="background-image:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;paddingright:0;display:inline;border-top:0;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="AbstractSpace" border="0" alt="AbstractSpace" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/abstractspace_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="305) <br>What could this possibly mean in real space? The invisibility of our cartographic landscape has become apparent this year as we are moving from using a very fancy Trimble R8 GPS unit to using a total station. So we need to ground our virtual landscape in a series of visible features to locate our total station in real space. The ideal way to do this is to place it on a known point and back-sight to other known points to check for the accuracy of our placement. Even as I type this, a legion of eager students are combing through the grain stubble looking for a 1 inch pipe that has served as our datum since 2008. This is all in advance of laying out trenches on the height of Vigla for our 2012 excavation season. These trenches will continue the work weve done in 2008 and 2009 to document the history of the fortified Hellenistic site and to establish a clear chronology for the fortification walls there. The additional challenge of working at this site comes from its position on a British military firing range. As a consequence of this location, we will have only very limited time to excavate. In fact, well lose most of our first week of the season to British military exercises. This will necessitate some long days digging when we are allowed to be on the site. Lets hope our students (and the senior staff!) are up for the challenge of&nbsp; a series of 10 hours excavation days punctuated by days when we cant go into the field at all. Compounding the uncertainty of our schedule and the need to reconstruct our geo-spatial orientation is that Im sick. I caught some crazy cold after spending 15 hours breathing other peoples air while on my flight to Cyprus. So, I have been left back at the hotel while the students and staff have gone out to the site for orientation. While I enjoy the challenges that GIS and databases can provide, I do miss it when I dont have a chance to go out into the field. Ill begrudgingly admit that staying out of the sun this morning is probably for the best. The quicker I recover from my cold, the easier the challenges of fieldwork will become.

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<title>PKAP 2012: Left Behind</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/pkap-2012-left-behind/</link> Sun, 20 May 2012 15:18:19 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1812 Everything in Mediterranean Archaeology is better when youre sick. The only time I get to go into the field is when there was when the team needed someone to do something so boring that no healthy person should be subjected to it. <p align="left) So this morning, after reporting a metal detectorist to the local police, we worked to set up the total station. The challenge of this was to establish the total station in relation to our existing site plan established by 5 years of intensive GPS survey. After a few false starts, I think were close to working this out. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dscn0040.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;marginleft:auto;border-top:0;margin-right:auto;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="DSCN0040" border="0" alt="DSCN0040" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dscn0040_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338) UND M.A. alumni Aaron Barth (left) and Brandon Olson (at the Total Station) <p align="left) Fortunately, UND alumnus Brandon Olson (and current Boston University Ph.D. candidate) was willing to be patient with the total station and surf through myriad settings to figure out how to get it set up for on the height of Vigla. It is good to have competent and willing team members. <p align="left) Since I did not venture out into the field after lunch as I try to manage my cold I worked to get things set up for our first day in the museum where we are going to spend some quality time reviewing the Hellenistic pottery from the area that we plan to excavate later in the week.

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<title>Gearing Up for Excavation at PKAP12</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/gearing-up-for-excavation-atpkap12/</link> Thu, 24 May 2012 07:26:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1816 So far the PKAP 2012 season has been a bit start and stop owing to the schedule of the British firing range and problems with our total station. As of tomorrow, however, we feel pretty good that we can begin our first days of intensive excavation. Because of the interrupted schedule were all bracing for a fairly intense field season in which long days of excavation alternate with frustrating interruptions. <p align="left) For now, however, frustrations will take the back seat to excavation, and our intrepid group of trench supervisors have prepared their trenches for excavation. The field atop Vigla has been mowed, the trenches planned, and the teams assigned. All thats left to do now is actually breaking ground. <p align="left) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dscn0054.jpg) <img style="display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" title="DSCN0054" alt="DSCN0054" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dscn0054_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338)

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<title>Tracking the First Days of PKAP12</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/26/tracking-the-first-days-of-pkap12/</link> Sun, 27 May 2012 04:29:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1825 Even the most hardened post-structure, post-processual, reflexive, archaeologist can succumb (in a moment of epistemological weakness) to the giddiness of discovery. We can talk endlessly about how we create landscapes, imagine pasts, and define significance, but when the trowel meets the earth and a trench produces something COOL, we still gather around to see what the ground will reveal. (One of the best things about being the director of the project is the ability to drop everything and race around our site to the most interesting (and, inevitably, problematic) situations. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/discovery.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="Discovery" alt="Discovery" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/discovery_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338) The daily routine of archaeology, however, tends to attract less of an audience. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dailywork.jpg) <img style="display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" title="DailyWork" alt="DailyWork" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/dailywork_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338) Its the daily routine of archaeology that leaves its inevitable marks on the landscape. (On Cyprus, its tempting to compare the massive spoil heaps produced by the mining industry to the mounds produced by trenches). The paths linking our various trenches are one of the most striking ways that inscribe their routines upon the landscape. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/pkap_paths.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="PKAP_Paths" alt="PKAP_Paths" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/pkap_paths_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="600)

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<title>Ancient Archaeology</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/ancient-archaeology/</link> Mon, 28 May 2012 15:31:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1829 As I thought a bit about the archaeological remains left behind by modern archaeologists, we cleaned a scarp produced by looters to reveal clear evidence for another archaeological event in the same area. The photo below shows the remains of a pit dug at some point that provided an excavator (of some description with access to the tomb). If you look carefully at the area between the dotted lines in the photograph below, you can see a series of stones and pot sherds oriented in a consistent direction. This indicates that the hole was probably filled in a single or closely related series of taphonomic processes. (In other words, the dirt in this earlier excavated area was probably filled in through something like erosion). You can probably also see that the fill in the area is a different color than that to its right. (It was a bit challenging to get a good photo of this because immediately behind me to the west was a 8 m drop into a pricker bush.) <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/ancient_archaeology_2.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="" alt="" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/ancient_archaeology_2_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="429) <p align="left) Were hoping that the careful excavation of this deposit will tell us something about past field work at our site. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/1232/) We know that Luigi Palma Di Cesnola excavated some tombs near or on our site in the 19th century. Perhaps this is the remains of his work.

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<title>The North Fortification Wall</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/the-north-fortification-wall/</link> Thu, 31 May 2012 07:36:03 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1839 One of the major research goals for this season of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project was working out the date and arrangement of the fortification wall on the northern side of the height of Vigla. This wall dates to the Hellenistic period and was part of a larger effort to fortify important or vulnerable stretches of the south coast of the island during those politically turbulent days. (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/documenting-the-damage/) A trench dug by looters in 2008 indicated that the wall along the northern side of the coastal height might be very well preserved. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/inthehole.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="InTheHole" alt="InTheHole" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/inthehole_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338) Our excavations in the 2011 season suggests that the level of preservation on the northern side of the height was not consistent. On the other hand, it did nicely confirm the orientation of the wall along the northern side of Vigla. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/digging2.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="Digging2" alt="Digging2" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/digging2_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338) From points collected prior to the backfilling of the looter trench in 2009, we were able to establish the orientation of the wall. This orientation follows exactly the orientation of the wall found in our 2012 trench. The red line on the image below is the orientation of the fortification wall established by the looters trench. It follows closely the north face of the wall excavated this week. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/northwall.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="NorthWall" alt="NorthWall" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/northwall_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="610) While this is heartening, we still dont quite understand how a wall at this orientation joined with the east and west walls to produce a fortified enceinte. It seems like the walls on the eastern and western flanks extended further north than the north fortification wall. We know that a rock cut fosse or taphros (basically a dry moat) complemented the wall along the northern flank of the fortification. Perhaps walls extending north from the northern wall on its east and west side served to force the enemy to cross the rockcut moat by preventing them from circumventing the dry moat and attacking the north wall directly from the relatively level ground between the moat and the wall. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/northwall2.jpg) <img style="display:inline;" title="NorthWall2" alt="NorthWall2" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/northwall2_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="610) This trench is also producing some interesting finds, but more about that in another post

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<title>A Wall</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/a-wall/</link> Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:22:55 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1843 The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project season has finally let up and I can get back to reporting a bit on our work. It was perhaps the most successful season to date. Our field teams were amazing, our trench supervisors independent and brilliant, and my colleague and friend David Pettegrew steered the project clear of any serious methodological problems. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/thenorth-fortification-wall/) The wall that I reported on two weeks ago, manifest itself splendidly. Here it is in final photographs with just a bit of enhancement. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/eu16_final_image.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="EU16_Final_Image" border="0" alt="EU16_Final_Image" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/eu16_final_image_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="600) A slab lined pit stood against the wall to the south and I have outlines some of the neatly cut slabs. The pit and the wall appear to be Hellenistic in date and the architecture, ceramics, and small finds are all very impressive indeed. More as I recover from the season.

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<title>The PKAP12 Field Team</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/12/the-pkap12-field-team/</link> Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:38:25 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1847 Our awesome team of trench supervisors and excavators actually caused my co-director (David Pettegrew) and I to feel bored and superfluous at times. The excavators hailed from Messiah College and our three trench supervisors from Boston University, Ohio State, and North Dakota State. The field teams dug efficiently and carefully and recorded their trenches consistently over the course of some long, and, frankly, frantic days. The firing schedule at the base They showed good humor throughout and put up with my challenging management style. They laughed at my jokes. To preserve their anonymity (and the objective impartiality of archaeological science), I made special effort to assign them randomized names. This will ensure that our results are as unbiased as possible. What more could we all want? (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/img_2386.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;paddingtop:0;border-width:0;" title="IMG_2386" border="0" alt="IMG_2386" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/img_2386_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="300) The PKAP 2012 team with a small fraction of their finds. Left to right: Bill Caraher, R. S. The Closer Moore, Stacy, Brandon, Elisha, Team Crowley, Denver, Bartholomew, Tiffany, Edgar, Mickey, Deborah, Jed, David Pettegrew, Melissa, Stephanie, and Steve-o. &nbsp; (http://mediterraneanpalimpsest.wordpress.com/2012/06/11/pkap-2012-the-season-in-review/) For more on the season check out Dallas DeForests recap here.

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<title>A Wall Collapse</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/a-wall-collapse/</link> Sat, 16 Jun 2012 03:34:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1856 One of the coolest things from our excavations at Pyla-Vigla was not an artifact, but evidence for an archaeological processes. In north scarp wall of (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Aaron Barths trench there was a nicely preserved illustration of wall collapse. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/walltip.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="WallTip" border="0" alt="WallTip" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/walltip_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="249) If you look just below the stone sticking out of the north scarp, youll see a white line. This is a floor. The stones above it was a wall that fell down on the floor distorting the floor on impact. The strange flat stone just right of center is perhaps a gypsum paving slab. If youre very adventurous and imaginative you might be able to see a slight red patch of soil on the far right of scarp wall and inline with the stones. This is mud-brick. This will clarify some: <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/walltiplabeled.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="WallTipLabeled" border="0" alt="WallTipLabeled" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/walltiplabeled_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="249) The earth below the floor is fill put in place to create level surface. You might be able to see how the floor runs above a stone wall just left of center and at the bottom of the photograph. This wall was covered by the floor which in turn was covered by the collapsed wall. So that wall is Phase 1, the floor and wall collapse is Phase 2, and the soil above the wall collapse (right up to the plough zone) is the fairly boring life of the site after the end of phase 2.

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<title>PKAP in Polis&#8230; Processing</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/pkap-in-polis-processing/</link> Fri, 22 Jun 2012 07:03:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1860 People have asked me what Im up to now that Ive relocated to Polis. Well, this screen capture probably give you some idea: (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/processing_.jpg) <img style="background-image:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;padding-top:0;border-width:0;" title="Processing_" border="0" alt="Processing_" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/processing__thumb.jpg" width="450" height="188) Processing and, yes, that is 12 hours.

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<title>Two Sherds</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/two-sherds/</link> Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:18:19 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1866 Scott Moore and I have been spending lots of time with sherds over the last two weeks. So it gets pretty exciting to find sherds like this. <p align="center) &nbsp; (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/lion.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="Lion" border="0" alt="Lion" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/lion_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="379) This is a stamped piece of Phocaea Red Slip Form 3 (probably form H) with a Lion on it. It probably dates to between 550 and 575. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/cross.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="Cross" border="0" alt="Cross" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/cross_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="464) This is a lamp disk with a cross. So we know that there were Christians near our churches at Polis. While we enjoyed these sherds a good bit, we also loved two little glazed Medieval sherds which gave us the date for a wall. (Or at least told us that the wall was not ancient.) These sherds are sexier, though.

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<title>Spiros Marinos</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/spiros-marinos/</link> Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:10:15 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1868 This weekend, I heard the sad news that Spiros Marinos had died. Anyone who has spent time working with Tim Gregory in the Corinthia, or on one the many projects related to the sites of Isthmia, Kenchreai, or the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, or has come through the village of Ancient Corinth and stayed at Rooms Marinos encountered Spiros. He was the patriarch and founder of Rooms Marinos and was a constant at the hotel and in the village for all of my decade and a half of time spent in the Corinthia. This weekend I thought about Spiros some and remembered some of the ways in which he made my life and time in the Corinthia better. First, whenever we as archaeologist began to either feel bad about how many hours we were being asked to work or began to feel too good about our long days, we could look a Spiros as an instant corrective to our self pity or congratulations. It was a rare night that we headed away from the dinner table and Spiros was not still up and working. Each morning (including some inhumane hours kept by a particular archaeological survey), Spiros was up setting the table and bringing out the food. When the hotel was crowded with an archaeological team, a study tour, and various tourists, he appeared in constant motion. He worked long hours and whenever someone quips about the laziness of the Greeks (especially in light of the recent financial crisis), my mind turns to Spiros and the Marinos family. I always appreciated his genuine hospitality offered mainly through simple gestured. There was nothing more pleasant than to be offered a piece of fruit on a hot afternoon or to be teased as I groggily attempted to navigate my breakfast after a late night. When I'd come down to the hotel from Athens in the winter months, I rarely paid for my room and I was invited to take meals with his family. These gestures did not necessarily happen often or regularly, but when they did occur it was impossible not to feel part of something. Finally, and perhaps most academically, Spiros knew an immense amount about the Corinthian countryside. Some of my fondest memories involve him explaining (usually via Tim Gregory) the workings of some obscure piece of agricultural equipment we had stumbled across at a rural site. Or Spiros telling us how to get to some long neglected path through the mountains or to some obscure and half-forgotten archaeological site. It would be interesting to note how many dissertations produced by folks who spend significant time at Rooms Marinos thanked Spiros and his wife in their acknowledgements. I haven't made it back to the Corinthia for the last few summers, and hearing about Spiros passing made me incredibly nostalgic for the long hours in the Corinthian countryside, the mostly drinkable yellow colored Rooms Marinos wine, and the gentle hospitality of the Marinos family. He will be forever part of my memory of that place.

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<title>Man Camp Methods</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/man-camp-methods/</link> Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:53:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1875 As readers of this blog know, I will head out to the western part of the state next month to conduct an archaeological evaluation of man camps associated with the Bakken oil patch in North Dakota. This work will occur in collaboration with colleagues from the Department of Social Work, an architectural historian, a photographer, and a two historian/archaeologists familiar with working in North Dakota. Our plan at present is to work several days in the neighborhood of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley,_North_Dakota) Stanley, North Dakota and then around (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_City) Watford City. Over the next few weeks, I need to come up with a method for documenting (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) the diverse array of camps that serve to house the workers in the oil industry in Western North Dakota. With the diversity of our team, we have a whole series of overlapping research questions from those involving issues of housing to archaeological methods, aesthetics, and historical processes at play in boom areas. Creating a unified method for collecting data (and the inevitable preliminary analysis that comes along with primary data collection), will be a challenge. My gut instinct when confronted with any archaeological data collection from the field is to create a form. This probably comes from my background in survey archaeology and its grounding in the practices of (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processual_archaeology) processual archaeology. The forms I imagine provide a frame work for collecting quantitative and qualitative data on a site. How big is the camp? How many units are in the camp? How are the units arranged?&nbsp; These kinds of questions, of course, are easily addressed on a paper form, well-suited for entry into a spreadsheet or data base, and convenient to summarize in maps, tables or if we collect a sufficiently robust data set in statistical form.&nbsp; On the other hand, I have witnessed the limitations of forms in documenting complex environments. In one of the first seasons with the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey, we used a form called the modern sweep (http://corinthianmatters.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/tartaron1st.pdf) for a brief description of these methods see pp. 441-442 here (pdf)). This was a densely packed one page form designed to document modern material across the survey unit. The concept was sophisticated for its time, but the rub as so often happens was in the execution. The form was long, complex, confusing, and frequently impossible to reconcile with the material on the ground. This was not an issue with how the form was constructed, per se, but that a form was not an ideal way to capture the diverse assemblage of modern material scattered through farmers fields in the Korinthia. After one season, the form was dropped. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/type2_6.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;padding-top:0;border-width:0;" title="Type2_6" border="0" alt="Type2_6" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/type2_6_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="225) <br>How do I create a form to document this? (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tiogacamp.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;padding-top:0;border-width:0;" title="TiogaCamp" border="0" alt="TiogaCamp" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/tiogacamp_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="142) The most challenging thing about documenting the material culture around the man camps is finding the balance between the need to prompt the collection of systematic and comparable data and the urge to produce an unrealistically detailed form. My current thinking is to prompt our recording team to document their observations based on archaeological processes like discard practices, on the one hand, and practices associated with creating social distinctions on the other. While these prompts will invariably rely upon some fairly substantial assumptions, they will also maintain a degree of interpretive transparency that a traditional form might obscure behind a veil of more narrowly descriptive fields.

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<title>Architecture and Stratigraphy at Polis on Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/architecture-and-stratigraphy-at-polis-oncyprus/</link> Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:08:58 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1883 Over the past month Ive once again been spending time at the site of Polis-Chrysochous in Cyprus. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/polis/) My work there over the past two years has focused on documenting the architecture and archaeology of the area called E.F2. The main building in the area of E.F2 is a Christian basilica built in the 6th century and standing at least as late as the 11th. Other features include a kiln, a road, the remains of a complex system of water pipes, wells, and drains, and a other buildings some of which appear to be workshops while others seem to be related to the function of the church. Last summer, a small team of scholars worked to understand the stratigraphy and architecture of the church at E.F2. This summer, we began to turn our attention to some of the other buildings in the area of the church. Our primary goals were to describe the stratigraphy and the architecture of the area to the southeast of the main basilica. In particular, we were interested in understanding the history and function of two rooms situated some 7 or 8 m from the southern wall of the basilica. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bingpolis.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="BingPolis" border="0" alt="BingPolis" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/bingpolis_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="433) These rooms opened onto a road that ran parallel to the south wall of the basilica and probably framed the southern edge of a small open courtyard located just to the south of a porch on the south side of the basilica. The standing outer walls of these two rooms sits atop earlier walls dating, it would seem to the 1st c. BC 1st c. A.D. This earlier building originally had a single large opening facing the street, but sometime during those two centuries, the middle wall was build closing the single large door and dividing the one large room into two smaller rooms. These earlier walls supported later walls that date to no later than the middle of the 5th century. We were able to say this because of a small deposit of fine ware discovered under a bench on the east side of the central wall had a nice assemblage of early 5th c. fine ware. Since this bench rests against the latest phase of the central wall, the latest artifacts in the deposit under the bench provides a terminus ante quem for the wall. In other words, the wall against which the bench rests has to date to before the latest sherd in the deposit under the bench. To make matters more convenient, we were also able to determine that the latest phase of the central wall predates the latest phases of the wall to its north.&nbsp; At some point in the 6th or perhaps early 7th century the rooms appear to have suffered some significant destruction, and this resulted in the rebuilding of the north wall of the two rooms. A deposit post-dating the reconstructed north wall contains no material later than the early decades of of the 7th century. Thus we can say that the central wall of the building dates to between 450 and, say, 750, when the north wall was rebuilt and the material resting again it was deposited. Finally, at some point after the deposit against the north wall, the entire structure collapsed and was replaced by a building of uncertain size that was built atop a layer of rubble effectively sealing the ruins of the earlier two-roomed structure. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/t09_1989.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;marginleft:auto;border-top:0;margin-right:auto;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="t09_1989" border="0" alt="t09_1989" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/t09_1989_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="433) The west wall of this building is labeled as Wall 4 in the picture above. This wall sat atop deposits of pottery that appear to date no earlier than the 7th century. It also rests against the eastern wall of the south portico (an addition to the south side of the basilica that dates to the sometime in the late 6th or early 7th century). So it would seem that this later building was constructed after the 7th century. A

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level of rubble overlying the walls has Medieval (12th?) material in it, so we know that by the Medieval period wall had gone out of use. While it is speculation, it seems plausible to image that Wall 4 was built at the same time that the south portico underwent some significant modifications. At some point after its 7th century construction date, the arches of the south portico were walled up perhaps to create an enclosed space for burials (although this is uncertain since burials began before the portico was modified). A similar process took place in the narthex which we assume to be nearly contemporary with the south portico.&nbsp; So stratigraphy and architecture allows us to reconstruct the history of these small rooms and follow the use of this space from the 1st c. BC/AD to the end of antiquity.

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<title>Collaborative Writing in a Scale-Up Classroom</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/collaborative-writing-in-a-scale-upclassroom/</link> Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:07:36 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1885 One of my main goals for this summer is to prepare my spring 2013 (!!) History 101: Western Civilization I class. I am teaching it in the University of North Dakotas new (http://scaleup.ncsu.edu/) Scale-up classroom. This is a large classroom (150+ seats) arranged to facilitate students engaged in group work rather than passively (whatever that really means) absorbing a lecture. Students are arranged around a series of 9 person tables each with three computers. These computers, in turn, link to a bewildering array of monitors that allow each group of 3 students to instantly display their work to entire class or just one section of the class. These rooms were initially designed around teaching sciences (or more broadly STEM discipline), but I have been given the opportunity to teach a humanities class in this room. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/87645562/Scale-Up-Grant-Proposal) Last spring I posted a copy of my proposed class here. This summer, I am attempting to work on some of the niggling details: 1. Collaborative Writing Software. I am looking for some software that will facilitate some serious collaborative writing. Ideally, it will allow me not only to track contributions from each collaborator, but also have some version control and allow for the neat and easy output into a more standard format (lets say pfd of .docx). Id also like the interface to be as user-friendly as possible and, of course, it needs to be web-based and scalable to allow collaborations of groups of at least 9. We use Blackboard as our LMS here at UND, and, while it has discussion boards, wikis, blogs and other basic collaborative functions, I am not sure that any of these are robust or well-articulated enough to serve as the center piece for an entire class. So any suggestions for collaborative writing software would be greatly appreciated. 2. Enticing Students to Collaborate. When I was a college student, I hated group work, hated collaboration, and probably spent a good bit of time hating my fellow students. (Yeah, I was fun kid). It was only toward the end of my graduate school career that I began to understand the value of collaboration and its potential to produce more than the sum of its parts. These days, most of my scholarly output is collaborative. I want to bring the excitement of collaborative work to my students and prove to them the dreadful experiences associated with most group work are not intrinsic to collaboration, but issues of execution. So my goal over the next week is to create a series of exercises in the beginning of the semester that seduce the students into appreciating the creative potential of collaborative work.&nbsp; As the class focuses on how pre-industrial societies in the West responded to challenges and limitations imposed by their physical environment, I am very tempted to start the class with the classic desert island scenario. In this scenario you ask each student to come up with 5 rules to govern a society of shipwreck survivors on a deserted island. Then, I will ask them to merge their list of 5 with two other students. Then with the other students at the their table. And finally, we will come up with a definitive list of 5 basic rules agreed upon by the entire class. This exercise would then lead to a discussion of Hammurabis early law code and thoughts on how pre-industrial societies adapted to various social and natural limits. 3. Grading Collaborative Work. Part of the dread associated with collaborative work is the fear that someone else will bring you down. In the so-called (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjzC1Dgh17A) private sector , successful collaborative work is grounded in mutual respect, shared priorities, and, of course, trust. These are commodities that do not develop over night or under the watchfully insistent gaze of the teacher, but through sustained interaction, commonly agreed upon goals, and the willingness to compromise individual achievement for the success of the group. This works against the prevailing, individualistic attitudes toward grades. What I need to figure out is a system where individual grades and group grades are balanced out. So, as I work through these things over the next few weeks, Ill report back.

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<title>PKAP 2012 Press Release</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/16/pkap-2012-press-release/</link> Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:41:42 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1888 At the conclusions of each field seasons the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project produces a final report to submit to the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus and for our own records. This report is generally quite detailed and involves lengthy summaries of our archaeological methods and the data collected. These reports also go out to organizations that have provided us with grant money or other resources. As part of the final report, we include a short press release that summarizes the work of our season and attempts to make our field work accessible to a non-expert audience. Every now and then, a Cypriot news outlet picks up the press release, translates it into Greek, and publishes it. Heres the press release: 2012 Press Release <br>PylaKoutsopetria Archaeological Project The 2012 field season of the Pyla-Koustopetria Archaeological Project marked the 10th season of field work and study at the coastal zone of Pyla Village east of Larnaka, Cyprus. This season concentrated on the further investigation of a fortified site of Pyla-Vigla dating to the Hellenistic period (4th c. - 1 c. BC) and situated on an imposing coastal height overlooking both Larnaka Bay and the major north-south and east-west land routes. Four soundings at the site during this season produced additional information on the domestic spaces associated with this extensive fortified settlement. Finds included military equipment and storage vessels as well as table wares and cooking pots which provided important information on the daily life of the residents of this site. The soundings also revealed a stretch of substantial fortification wall the exceeded 2.5 m in width and featured a 3 m x 1.5 m lined stone storage pit. The storage pit was filled with a massive deposit of Hellenistic pottery perhaps associated with clean-up after one of several episodes of destruction at the site. This assemblage of pottery will provide significant information on not only the site of Vigla, but also the Hellenistic period on Cyprus. The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project is a collaboration between the Department of Antiquies of Cyprus, the University of North Dakota (UND), Messiah College, and Indiana University of Pennylvania (IUP) under the direction of William Caraher (UND), David Pettegrew (Messiah College), and R. Scott Moore (IUP). The project works with the permission of the Department of Antiquity of Cyprus and with the support of its Director, Dr. Maria Hadjicosti.

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<title>More from Polis on Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/more-from-polis-on-cyprus/</link> Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:02:51 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1892 Last week, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/architecture-and-stratigraphy-at-polison-cyprus/) I wrote a bit about the area to the south east of the basilica in the area of E.F2 at the site of Polis. This past study season we also turned our attention to the complicated area to the south west of the basilica. Our initial hope was that we could start to understand the diachronic maze of walls, water works, and roads in this area, but after slogging through the notebooks (and more than a little pottery) we conceded any sweeping generalizations and decided to focus on one small area instead. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/g10.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="g10" border="0" alt="g10" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/g10_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="433) Just to the south and west of the narthex of the basilica stands a small apsidal well house. This structure appears to sit atop a Late Roman context suggesting that it was more or less contemporary with the basilica. It opens to the east and fronts onto a road that runs north to south more or less parallel with the western wall of the narthex. This road continues through a monumental quadrafons arch (whose footings are just visible at the bottom of the plan below). If one turned to the east through the arch, one would soon pass by the two rooms discussed in the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/11/architecture-andstratigraphy-at-polis-on-cyprus/) previous post on this topic. The remains of the apsidal well house do not stand much above the foundation courses leaving little to aide our imagination for how this small, but architecturally interesting structure appeared in to a Late Antique visitor to the site. At some point, however, the well was filled with rubble and this included glass tesserae as well as significant quantities of roof tiles. The latest pottery appears to be 12th century. The glass mosaic tesserae may hint that the well house had glass mosaic decoration. It is appealing to picture it topped by a half dome with a brilliant multicolored mosaic that flashed in the morning sun. The infilling of the well at some point during or just later than the 12th century may be consistent with the final destruction of the church, although we know that parts of the church particularly the narthex had collapsed earlier. Soon after the well was capped and filled in, the apsidal structure or whatever part of it survived became a tomb. A body was placed neatly inside the foundations of the well house just above the now capped well. The east-west orientation ensured that the burial conformed the Christian practices. The re-use of such a delicate and recognizable feature in the local landscape as a tomb suggests that the individual buried there might have been a prominent citizen. It is tempting to even imagine a religious dimension to the burial perhaps making the individual a very local saint or person of sanctity from the immediate community, although this is speculation. By this time, the immediate vicinity of the well house appears to have been given over to domestic space. The areas to the south of the well house preserved a series of collapsed mud-brick walls and floor surfaces that are Medieval in date and suggest domestic structures. The practice of burial in and around domestic buildings was not unusual in Medieval times and reflects the changing character of the E.F2 neighborhood. Next year, one of our main goals is to unpack the history of the area around this well house and to the south and west of the basilica. Excavations revealed Roman and Hellenistic levels throughout this area allowing us to trace the development of the E.F2 neighborhood from centuries before the construction of the basilica to after its destruction.

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<title>Documenting Man Camps</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/documenting-man-camps/</link> Wed, 18 Jul 2012 13:06:40 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1897 This week, I have spent some time figuring out how to document the material culture associated with man camps in North Dakotas Bakken Oil Patch. As I mentioned last week, I struggled a bit with whether to document that camps in a highly structured way using a standardized recording form or to embrace a less structured form of documentation using notebooks and sketches. In the end, as almost always happens in archaeology, I prepared a compromise proposal that Ill circulate to my collaborators later today. Basic data will be recorded on a form. North Dakota Man Camp Project Documentation Form <br>Basic Data Camp Number: Date: Location and Access:<br>This field will provide a short description of the location of the camp and the mode of access. UTM:<br>Record a single point in a specific location (i.e. northeast corner, southwest corner, et c.) Dimensions: <br>Using a laser range finder and a compass, measure the basic dimensions of the camp. Number of Units: Basic Features:<br>These fields collect basic features of the camp that inform and test our typology. The comments field allows for general comments on the fit of the camp into our typology and to propose modifications or sub-types. Standardized Units (y/n): Gravel Bed for Units (y/n): Graded Roads or Parking (y/n): Electrical hook-ups for units (all, some, none): Water hook-ups for units (all, some, none): Camp type (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-1/) Type 1, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-2/) Type 2, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps3/) Type 3): Comments: ------ Ill also propose supplementing this basic data with a form designed to standardize to some extent the collection of data about individual units. This form is very basic as well. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/image.png) <img style="backgroundimage:none;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;padding-top:0;border-width:0;" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/image_thumb.png" width="450" height="356) ----- These two relatively standardized forms will be complemented with notebooks. While the individual recorders will certainly be free to document whatever they think important in their notebooks, Ill offer three prompts that conform to some extent to our research questions. Structure of Settlement The organization of the units within the camp can often reveal significant information on the history of settlement. It will also contribute to understanding site formation and the processes associated with forming individual and collective identities The practice of sketching the site holds out the possibility of capturing important interpretative distinctions between units and areas within the camp that photography would not reveal. Time constraints will likely make it impossible to produce scale plans of the camps (and low altitude aerial photography may make these kinds of detailed drawings possible at another time), but sketch plans can nevertheless capture valuable interpretive data. Preliminary visits to the camps have noted that Type 2 and Type 3 camps tend to have far less regular organization. Units are place less consistently sometimes to create private spaces between units, to provide better access to hook ups, or because the camp grew by accretion rather than under a systematic plan. Changes in orientation may well mark additions to the camp or attempts to maximize available space for units as demographic and economic pressures increased in the area. Site Formation and Discard Part of the research goal of the North Dakota Man Camp Project is to document site formation in the context of short term settlement. It might be most useful to use the terms formulated by (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~schiffer/) M. Schiffer to describe site formation with the understanding that Schiffer saw the transformation of objects from system to archaeological context taking place over a rather more extended timespan than the man camps associated with the Bakken Patch. The basic descriptive terms proposed by Schiffer and others creates a consistent interpretative vocabulary for describing a range of practices associated with the systemic use and discard of objects. Lateral cycling (transfers of objects from one user to another), recycling (for a different purpose than originally intended and usually involving some kind of manipulation of the object), secondary use (re-use without altering the object;

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these objects often reside in various forms of provisional discard), and conservation (object preserve for its own sake) mark out the processes of re-use for objects that remain in systemic archaeological contexts. Depositional processes which should also be visible in the man camps, include primary discard (at place of use), secondary discard (away from place of primary use), and de facto discard (as part of the abandonment process). Social Differentiation and Identity Formation A key element in recent conversations about the archaeology of labor and the working class focuses on the relationship between domestic and working space. Industrial housing complemented the assembly line. It offered a structured existence that sought to shape the moral character of the individual and produce docile bodies suitable for the requirements of industrial economy. Workers articulated individual and community distinctions in the interstices between repression and neglect. Documenting the ways that individuals and communities used objects and space to mark themselves as distinct will contributed to ongoing debates in the archaeology of the working class and consumer culture.

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<title>Text and archaeology in the Greek world</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/text-and-archaeology-in-the-greekworld/</link> Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:51:59 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1900 (http://classics.chass.utoronto.ca/index.php/faculty/faculty-list/42) Guest Blogger, Dimitri Nakassis, Assistant Professor, Department of Classics, University of Toronto Every academic year, I teach the "Greek archaeology and material culture" section of the "Research Methods in Classics/Ancient History" graduate pro-seminar that's offered in my department for first-year PhD students in Classics. The students have a variety of backgrounds and interests, but mostly they focus on literature. Few of them have much interest in archaeology. So, one of the things that I tell them is that archaeology is more relevant to Classics than ever before. This is due, I argue, in large part to a shift in the way that most Classicists think about ancient texts. In the past, texts were seen as producers of culture. For instance, in (http://www.jstor.org/stable/631220) a celebrated article published in 1976, Coldstream argued (following Farnell) that later dedications in earlier Mycenaean tombs "arose under the influence of epic poetry from the late eight century onwards." Thus, Homer was first, and under the influence of Homeric epic, certain cultural practices (tomb-cult, hero-cult) were later development. Few (if any) would hold this position today. There has been a shift towards seeing the literary text as a cultural product. So most scholars would argue that tomb- and hero-cult were cultural practices that influenced Homer as much as (or even more than) Homer influenced them. (http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/nagy/BofATL/chapter6.html) Greg Nagy, for instance, points out that Homer and the increase of interest in local hero cults are processes that are intimately linked to each other. This matters for archaeology because if the text is a producer of culture (Homer begets hero-cult), then the role of classical archaeology is minimal--archaeology essentially illustrates the text, perhaps it affirms its accuracy, and perhaps it may even fill in some gaps. If, however, the text is a product of culture (hero-cult influences Homer), then archaeology's role (with respect to the texts) is much more important. Archaeology provides the context necessary to understand the social, economic, and cultural forces that shape our literary texts. This is what I tell our students, both because I believe it, and to encourage them to see archaeology as an important part of their research and not an unrelated sub-discipline of Classics that they can safely ignore. But I keep bumping against the reality that a lot of archaeological research is still driven by the old way of thinking. Texts are not only used to formulate research questions that relate mostly to the text, but are mined for facts around which archaeological narratives are built. Archaeology is used to illustrate the text. Although this can be quite depressing (at least for me), it also provides lots of opportunities for radical reevaluations of archaeological orthodoxies. A good example of this is a paper published in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Archaeology. (http://ajaonline.org/article/1160) The article, entitled "Pharalis: Literary Myth or Historical Reality? Reassessing Archaic Akragas, argues against the standard view that the archaeology of Archaic Akragas can be explained with reference to the tyranny of Phalaris, who ruled Akragas from 571-554 BC. It turns out that most of the material prosperity that archaeologists had associated with Phalaris the city plan and fortification walls, temple building, and territorial expansion -- actually dates to the end of the sixth century BC, too late to date to Phalaris reign. There is an interesting parallel with sixth century Athens. Although some are fond of talking about the building boom associated with the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, it seems increasingly clear that much building both pre-dates and post-dates the tyrants, so that it makes much more sense to think more broadly about sixth century boom in architectural construction (see, e.g., Robert Parkers (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/226261237) Athenian Religion: A History, pp. 67-68). Im not trying to argue here that Classical archaeologists need to liberate themselves from the tyranny of texts, or that there ought to be an adversarial relationship between textual sources and material ones. Quite the opposite: archaeologists should embrace the developments in ancient history and Classics that make their archaeological material sing.

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<title>Population, Settlement, and Sites</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/population-settlement-and-sites/</link> Mon, 23 Jul 2012 15:02:58 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1902 I spent a good bit of time this past week reading A. Wilson and A. Bowmans newest edited volume in the Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy series. The book is titled (http://www.worldcat.org/title/settlement-urbanization-and-population/oclc/75174877) Settlement, Urbanization, and Population and is a follow up to their 2009 volume, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/quantifying-the-roman-economy-methods-and-problems/oclc/316430292) Quantifying the Roman Economy (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/somenew-thoughts-on-the-roman-economy/) for a quick set of reflections see here). Like the 2009 volume, Settlement, Urbanization, and Population continues a strong commitment to quantitative methods in reconstructing patterns in the ancient economy. The contributors to the Bowman and Wilson volume see the Roman economy as inexorably tied to larger trends in demography and settlement across the empire. As a result, they applied quantitative methods to population and settlement patterns as much as, say, efforts to reconstruct trade or taxation levels across the empire. The very reasonable perspective shared by almost all the contributors is that population size contributes to the structure of settlement which, in turn, informs the degree of economic organization necessary in the Mediterranean. Efforts to estimate ancient populations are not new and, in fact, date back (http://www.worldcat.org/title/bevolkerung-der-griechisch-romischenwelt/oclc/778040509) to 19th century efforts by scholars like Julius Beloch. In recent times, the rapidly growing body of archaeological data particularly that produced by landscape and region survey projects would appear to offer a new, more robust body of data upon which to base conclusions. Ironically, this data remains problematic for estimating population as scholars have yet to agree on such basic matters as urban population density. From a methodological perspective, things are even more muddled, as the nature, size, and chronology of non-urban sites documented through intensive survey procedures remains open to significant dispute. The first group of contributions in the Wilson and Bowman book attempt to address some of these concerns while remaining faithful to idea that the archaeological material on the surface of the ground can produce meaningful information regarding specific types of settlement. They continue to see survey data as producing villas, farmsteads, and villages in the countryside and to discuss site recovery rates as a useful metric for considering the relationship between a particularly group of rural sites and the total number of sites existing at any one time. It was interesting to see very little attention paid to the work of socalled siteless survey which regards the artifact as the basic unit of analysis. Unlike survey projects that look for sites in the landscape, siteless survey sees the surface assemblage as a object of study and accepts the inherent ambiguity in the size, chronology, and formation processes of individual variations within the overall distribution of artifacts on the surface.&nbsp; In other words, siteless survey challenges the existence of socalled sites with all the various aspects of human activities. This means, by extension, that analyses of population grounded in recognizing sites as unproblematic loci of human activity has certain significant theoretical limitations grounded in the very assumptions used to generate certain types of survey data. This perhaps explains the absence of data generated from survey projects in Greece where the growing commitment in siteless survey is most pronounced.

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<title>Landscapes and History</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/landscapes-and-history/</link> Tue, 24 Jul 2012 14:51:44 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1905 This fall Im teaching a research seminar in landscapes. Since this is not a reading seminar where I can expect students to read a book a week over the course of an entire semester, but a research seminar where I will ask the students to produce a substantial research paper (or project) by the end, I have to be somewhat selective with what I assign the students as required reading. Right now, I am imagining 5 weeks of readings at the start of the semester that will help the students frame the concept of landscape in a sophisticated way. Because the seminar is a research seminar in world history, I am attempting to frame the readings for the first five weeks in as broad a way as possible. My introductory paragraph to my syllabus reading as follows: This seminar will introduce students to landscape approaches to historical interpretation. Over the last few decades the concept of landscape (and spatial metaphors more broadly) have come to occupy a significant place in the global historical discourse. The spatial turn in the humanities more broadly has opened history to the influence of geography, anthropology, art history, and archaeology. At the same time, there has been a growing willingness to use metaphorical language to unpack the significance of complex historical events. The term landscape has a complex and mottled history. Today, it generally encompasses a wide range of approaches that consider the intersection of the natural and man-made environments. Landscape archaeology, for example, considers how humans have shaped and lived within their natural and cultural environment. In other circumstances the term landscape provides a way to understand the relationship between various forms of genetic expression (fitness landscapes) or the relationship between the range of variables that exist to shape a particular historical context (cf. J. L. Gaddis, Landscapes of History (Oxford 2002). This seminar will encourage students to consider landscape approaches to the past in broadest possible sense. Here are some proposed readings for the first five weeks: Week 1: Historical and Archaeological Landscapes M. Johnson, Ideas of Landscape. Blackwell 2006 Week 2: Landscapes and Place T. Cresswell, Place: A Short Introduction. Blackwell 2004. Week 3: Colonial Landscapes M. Given, (http://glasgow.academia.edu/MichaelGiven/Papers/477460/The_archaeology_of_the_colonized) Archaeology of the Colonized. Routledge 2004. Week 4: Industrial Landscapes W. Cronon, (http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Cronon_Kennecott_Journey.pdf) Kennecot Journey: The Paths Out of Town, in Under an Open Sky: Rethinking Americas Western Past. W. Cronon, G. Miles, and J. Gitlin eds. Norton 1992. pp. 28-51. Week 5: Landscapes in Time F. Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. (Harper-Row 1972-3).

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<title>Modern Greek for Student Travelers</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/modern-greek-for-studenttravelers/</link> Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:04:30 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1908 Anyone who has taken students abroad know how hard it is to introduce students to local languages and give them a chance to gain basic proficiency in those languages. Peter Schultz, a buddy of mine down at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, has made an effort to produce a short primer for students travelling to Greece. Two things to know. Peter is an absolute rock-star. Not only is he completely proficient in Modern Greek (he got his Ph.D. at the University of Athens), but hes also an experienced leader of student trips to Greece. The coolest thing about this is that (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterfane/get-your-greek-on) its being funded through Kickstarter meaning YOU (dear reader) can get in on the ground floor and help fund a great project. By funding it through Kickstarter you can help make the book affordable for students who travel abroad (and who often have saved, scrimped, and spent their precious savings just to get abroad and dont have much left over for an expensive book!). The book has been reviewed by experts and Peters credentials are impeccable. He needs $2,350 to make this happen. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterfane/get-your-greek-on) Go and make a donation to a brilliant project.

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<title>More on Man Camps</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/more-on-man-camps/</link> Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:36:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1911 I know this blog post will strike some of my readers as annoying, but (as the kids say): whatever. If you have a chance to read but one thing over the next few days, check out: W. Cronon, (http://www.williamcronon.net/writing/Cronon_Kennecott_Journey.pdf) Kennecot Journey: The Paths Out of Town, in Under an Open Sky: Rethinking Americas Western Past. W. Cronon, G. Miles, and J. Gitlin eds. Norton 1992. pp. 28-51. It is one of the most lovely environmental, landscape histories that Ive ever encountered. I know for many people recommending a 20 year old article on a copper mining site in Alaska is not exactly why they wander into the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. But this article now sits beside. H. Kosters (http://130.91.81.228/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/191/Koster.pdf) Thousand Year Old Road, Expedition (1976), 19-28 as one of the most elegant explorations of a productive landscape. As I prepare for my trip out west, Ive begun to think more and more about how to capture the experience of the landscape. Our expedition will not feature a local voice or local viewer, which has consistently bothered me as I try to understand how to view a landscape historically without someone to provide a snapshot of what it was before the influx of temporary settler and settlements. On the other hand, Ive begun to wonder whether our experience in Bakken Oil Patch will have a kind of ethnographic authenticity because we are not locals to this place. While we carry a kind of romantic notion of what western North Dakota might have looked like before this most recent oil boom, we really have real idea and certainly no personal experiences to control how we filter the steady stream of news reports decrying the corruption of the glorious North Dakota landscapes. So just as we will stay in a man camp for at least the first few days, we will also see the North Dakota Bakken range in much the same way as new arrivals to this productive periphery will.

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<title>The Corinthian Landscape</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/the-corinthian-landscape/</link> Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:53:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1913 This past week, I spent some time going through past volumes of the journal Hesperia in an effort to identify a small and cohesive group of articles focusing on the Corinthian countryside (as opposed to the extensive research done on the urban center) and suitable for binding together and distributed as an edited collection of reprints. (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesp-open-access) The decision by Hesperia to release almost the entire past contents of their journal online, for free, made this process infinitely easier. At the same time, the availability of the articles for free put added pressure on me and my collaborators to prepare a collection of articles that somehow were worth more then their component parts. As I thought through this process, I began to come up with a series of rules that would shape our collection. First, the articles had to be the primary publication of the site or a particular method for documenting the countryside. In other words, there could not exist a more definitive, final publication of the material or the site. Next, the articles had to focus on a series of key features in the countryside: routes and places of travel (roads, paths, harbors), fortifications, and settlements and rural land use (quarries, cemeteries, aqueducts, et c.).&nbsp; Finally, we had to be able to present a synthetic introduction both to the entire volume and to the individual sections which contextualized the articles and adds value to the assembled re-prints. Over the next few weeks, I hope to roll out the collection of articles to be included in this reprint volume. Additions, critique, and comments are, of course, welcome!

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<title>A View of a Valley</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/a-view-of-a-valley/</link> Tue, 31 Jul 2012 11:46:52 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1916 This week, I re-read sections of (http://www.worldcat.org/title/place-a-short-introduction/oclc/53145436) Tim Cresswells Place: A Short Introduction (Blackwell 2004) and on his recommendation picked up Raymond Williams novel (http://www.worldcat.org/title/border-country-a-novel/oclc/1367210) Border Country (Horizon 1962). This passage is just lovely: When Matthew got back from town, he walked slowly up the lane. In the bus, he had known so few people that he felt like a stranger. Even the faces he recognized were altered, or belonged to a different generation. In Gwenton he had met nobody he knew, and the simple shopping had been difficult, after London: the conventions were different. He had felt empty and tired, but the familiar shape of the valley and the mountains held and replaced him. It was one thing to carry an image in his mind, as he did, everywhere, never a day passing be he closed his eyes and saw it again, his only landscape. But it was different to stand and look at reality. It was not less beautiful; every detail of the land came up with its old excitement. But it was not still, as the image had been. It was no longer a landscape or a view, but a valley that people were using. He realized, as he watched, what had happened in going away. The valley as landscape had been taken, but its work forgotten. Far away, closing his eyes, he had been seeing this valley, but as a visitor sees it, as the guide-book sees it; this valley, in which he had lived more than half his adult life. (p. 89)

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<title>Some Publicity for the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/some-publicity-for-the-pyla-koutsopetriaarchaeological-project/</link> Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:27:26 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1920 We received some good publicity from an unusual corner yesterday. North Dakota State University, my universitys (the University of North Dakota) arch rival (in a playful way, mostly) down the road in Fargo put our Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on the front page of its website. This is because (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Aaron Barth, a UND alumnus and current NDSU doctoral student in joint UND/NDSU Ph.D. Program in History, worked with us a as a trench supervisor. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ndsu-pr.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="NDSU PR" border="0" alt="NDSU PR" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ndsu-pr_thumb.jpg" width="454" height="558) The best part about this, is (http://www.ndsu.edu/news/banner_stories/aaronbarth/) the story produced by NDSU University Relations office, which manages to minimize UNDs involvement (and funding of the project) to the extent that they dont even quote me. Instead, they quote Aaron Barths advisor, Tom Isern, who is a great guy, but not really involved in the project at all. So, the best thing to do right now, is to push tons of click-throughs to (http://www.ndsu.edu/news/banner_stories/aaronbarth/) their story from this page just to remind them. In other words, (http://www.ndsu.edu/news/banner_stories/aaronbarth/) CLICK HERE.

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<title>Manuring and Artifact Distributions at Pyla-Koutsopetria Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/manuring-and-artifact-distributions-at-pylakoutsopetria-cyprus/</link> Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:57:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1923 This week, Ive been making the final edits and read through of the distributional analysis chapter of the monograph I am preparing with David Pettegrew and Scott Moore for the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Projects survey conducted between 2004-2010. Ive blogged a good bit about our ceramic distribution in a series of post two years ago. As I edited the chapter and chatted with David over the past few days, we made some few little observations. So, the first one today: In our Zone 4 which is the top of the coastal height called Kazamas, there are a series of cultivated fields which give way to more rugged terrain where a thin layer of soil atop sits atop a hard horizon of bedrock. Recently this layer of bedrock has been scrapped and broken to allow for some modern efforts to cultivate these fields. What is interesting is that there is an almost continuous low density scatter of pottery across these rocky fields. (For maps and the like, check out (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/artifact-level-analysis-and-places-ofhistory/) this post from The Archive.) In fact, the low density material forms halo around the higher density fields to the south. Based on artifact densities, one could imagine this low density scatter as a classic example of a manuring halo. This is the halo of fields close to the main settlement which received manure in antiquity. The rocky fields on the Kazamas ridge, however, seem hardly suited to intensive manuring. <img src="http://mediterraneanworld.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451908369e20120a61fecf8970c-pi)

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<title>Man Camps Mission Preparation</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/man-camps-mission-preparation/</link> Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:29:19 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1927 The gear is assembled and tomorrow, at the crack of dawn, Bret Weber and I head west in a crew-cab pickem-up truck to study man camps. The team will assemble tomorrow Wednesday afternoon for three solid days of documenting short term habitation practices in Western North Dakota with cameras, notebooks, forms, kites, GPSes, tape recorders, and laser range finders. And two big, masculine trucks. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/cameraroll-1344279836-809131.jpg) <img style="background-image:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;paddingright:0;display:inline;border-top:0;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="cameraroll-1344279836.809131" border="0" alt="cameraroll-1344279836.809131" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/cameraroll-1344279836-809131_thumb.jpg" width="450" height="338) Photographs, details, and scholarship to follow.

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<title>In the Bakken</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/08/in-the-bakken/</link> Wed, 08 Aug 2012 11:46:10 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1935 We toured the Bakken Oil Patch yesterday and identified a dozen or so camps to document in the vicinity of Watford City, Alexander, and Willistion before arriving at a man camp where well be staying just east of the town of Ray, ND. The rest of our team arrives out here this afternoon. When we identified suitable camps for our study, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/planning-my-first-trip-out-west/) I grabbed&nbsp; quick photograph with my iPhone and uploaded it to Evernote where it was geotagged. I can then place the camps on a Google Map of the area. Unfortunately Evernote is being glacially slow and updating my computers database (some of this maybe the limited bandwidth at our mancamp). (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0014.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;marginleft:auto;border-top:0;margin-right:auto;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="DSC_0014" border="0" alt="DSC_0014" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0014_thumb.jpg" width="400" height="268) Our accommodations, however, are better than many folks working here in the patch (such (https://maps.google.com/maps?q=48.02414276175948,+103.66339819515464&amp;t=h&amp;z=15) as the folks living here). <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/williston_type2.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="Williston_Type2" border="0" alt="Williston_Type2" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/williston_type2_thumb.jpg" width="400" height="300) The sky had been pretty spectacular all day and we didnt get substantial rain until after 10 last night. We awoke this morning a little before 6 am to the first group of workers heading out into the fields. It was a good reminder that we are here to work. <p align="center) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/overnightparking.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:inline;border-top:0;borderright:0;padding-top:0;" title="OvernightParking" border="0" alt="OvernightParking" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/overnightparking_thumb.jpg" width="116" height="240)

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<title>Human happiness never lingers for long even in the Bakken Oil Patch</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/13/human-happiness-never-lingers-for-longeven-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/</link> Mon, 13 Aug 2012 12:11:13 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1946 I just returned for a 6 day field season in Western North Dakota. I had to pleasure of working with a great team of archaeologists and historians to document the material conditions and human stories from over a dozen man camps in the Bakken Oil Patch. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0692.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;marginleft:auto;border-top:0;margin-right:auto;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="DSC_0692" border="0" alt="DSC_0692" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0692_thumb.jpg" width="400" height="268) The Team: John Holmgren (Franklin and Marshall College), Kostis Kourelis (Franklin and Marshall College), Bret Weber (University of North Dakota), me, Richard Rothaus (Trefoil Cultural and Environmental), and Aaron Barth (North Dakota State University). The team worked together like a series of experienced professionals and collected a remarkably robust body of data from the man camps including intensive descriptions of each camp and a sample of each units, photographs of individual units and of the entire camp from a kite, sketch plans, gps points, and (perhaps most importantly) over 3 dozen interviews of camp residents. We feel fairly confident in asserting that this is the most detailed study of the man camps in the North Dakota Bakken range to date and we will release a report, a press release, and some images from our work over the next week or so with an eye toward presenting a more comprehensive study in the next 6 to 8 months. This is the cross marking the spot of the now vanished (https://maps.google.com/maps?q=48.26984,+-102.97835&amp;hl=en&amp;ll=48.269862,102.977187&amp;spn=0.003139,0.008256&amp;sll=47.467882,100.302265&amp;sspn=6.528677,16.907959&amp;t=h&amp;z=18&amp;iwloc=A) Betaini Norwegian Lutheran Church in the Betaini Cemetery. The oil pump in the background has brought a new prosperity to the region, a new population, and new challenges, while the metal cross marking a vanished church in an isolated cemetery reminds us that this is not the first boom in the fragile country of western North Dakota. (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0044.jpg) <img style="backgroundimage:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;padding-right:0;display:block;float:none;marginleft:auto;border-top:0;margin-right:auto;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="DSC_0044" border="0" alt="DSC_0044" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0044_thumb.jpg" width="400" height="596) (http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0040.jpg) <img style="background-image:none;border-bottom:0;border-left:0;padding-left:0;paddingright:0;display:block;float:none;margin-left:auto;border-top:0;margin-right:auto;border-right:0;padding-top:0;" title="DSC_0040" border="0" alt="DSC_0040" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0040_thumb.jpg" width="400" height="268) Scenes like this never fail to remind me of Herodotus 1.5: For the cities which were formerly great have most of them become insignificant; and such as are at present powerful, were weak in the olden time. I shall therefore discourse equally of both, convinced that human happiness never continues long in one stay.

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<title>Outsiders in the Bakken Oil Patch</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/14/outsiders-in-the-bakken-oil-patch/</link> Tue, 14 Aug 2012 12:52:37 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1949 One of the most striking thing about my week in the Bakken Oil Patch (and in the reports from the region) is the distinction between locals and outsiders. License plates from around the U.S. fill the man camp parking lots and almost all of the people we talked to identified home as somewhere else. Eating meals at the Type 1 camp where we stayed we heard southern draws, various twangs, and several tables speaking Spanish. In the field, we met folks from Idaho, George, Washington, New Jersey, Utah, California, Tennessee, Minnesota, Montana, Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Vermont, Mississippi, and - in a few memorable instances - no place in particular. The press and public has seized onto the influx of outsiders in some memorable ways. My favorite was (http://www.global-air.com/global/graphics/20120113114642440.pdf) a spurious document circulating several months ago (pdf) that claimed (http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/562449/Trinity--Rumor-of-115-Filipino-n--.html) a Minot hospital hired 115 nurses from "the Phillipians" (point 35 in the document). We all know that the Greek financial crisis has lead to significant strains on their medical system, but I am not sure that the ancient city of Philippi in Northern Greece (to whom Paul wrote (http://ebible.org/bible/web/Philip.htm) his famous letter) had 115 nurses to spare. In any event, the hospital denied the rumor of importing Greek nurses, but the fact that the Paul praised the Philippians for their generosity (4:15-17: You yourselves also know, you Philippians, that in the beginning of the Good News, when I departed from Macedonia, no assembly shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you only. For even in Thessalonica you sent once and again to my need. Not that I seek for the gift, but I seek for the fruit that increases to your account) adds a certain plausibility to the account and makes the alternate reading of Phillipians as Philippines seem a bit of a reach. The arrival of outsiders into these communities, however, is not new. One of the most poignant reminders of this history of new arrivals to western North Dakota came from a cemetery adjacent to one of the oldest camps in the area and in the shadow the massive Hess Tioga Gas Plant. Among the various graves was this: <"DSC_0084.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0084.jpg" alt="DSC 0084" width="400" height="268" border="0" /> Whoever Kono Kitagawa was, she died young and almost certainly died far from home.

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<title>Review of Settlement, Urbanization, and Population</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/review-of-settlement-urbanization-andpopulation/</link> Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:28:53 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1952 A few weeks ago (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/population-settlement-andsites/) I mentioned that I was reviewing (http://www.worldcat.org/title/settlement-urbanization-andpopulation/oclc/751748778) the second volume in the Oxford Studies in the Ancient Economy series edited by A. Bowman and A. Wilson. (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/some-newthoughts-on-the-roman-economy/) I discuss the first volume of the series here. Well, here is the completed review for your enjoyment: [scribd id=102932288 key=key-1zos8ysymb0s7v8hz6jv mode=scroll]

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<title>Three Teaching Things for the New Semester</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/three-teaching-things-for-the-newsemester/</link> Thu, 16 Aug 2012 14:33:22 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1957 The new semester looms over me, and I am beginning to shift my attention from field work to teaching related matters. This semester, I'm teaching three classes: two that I've taught every semester for the last few years (History 101: Western Civilization and History 240: The Historians Craft (which is our required midlevel majors course)) as well as a graduate research seminar on Landscape History. I am attempting to do three things a little differently this semester: 1. No Boring Syllabus Talk at the Start of the First Day. I am old school in terms of what I do my first day of class: I usually begin my class by introducing myself and going through the syllabus. This semester - at least in my History 240 class - I am going to begin with a direct question: what is history? And start the course with a discussion rather than a lecture on the technical aspects of the syllabus. What prompted this was an experience I had last semester where my class almost entirely refused to discuss or engage the material that we read and I presented in class during class time. Despite their reluctance to discuss in class, the students performed exceptionally well on the exams and my teaching reviews sparkled. I wondered after this experience whether it was really the atmosphere in the classroom rather than the students' reluctance to engage the material intellectually that caused the problem. As a result, I'm going to change things up on the very first day. 2. No More Dogmatic Dependence on the Graduate Research Paper. I am teaching a graduate research seminar for the first time ever. One of my little causes over the course of the last few years is to help steer our department away from some of the standard expectations for graduates students. For example, I worked to install a non-thesis M.A. for students in public history or who had no intention of continuing their graduate careers. In my research seminar this fall, I am going to let the students opt out of the traditional 30-40 page graduate seminar research paper. In its place, I'm going to propose a series of skill based papers (book reviews, annotated bibliographies, historiography papers, short case studies, et c.) that will ensure that these students get exposure to the basic research skills necessary to be successful in graduate school, but not saddle them with the onerous task of producing (probably mediocre) 30 page paper that no one (other than myself) will (begrudgingly) read. 3. No More Twitter. I am shuttering my grand experiment of using Twitter in my History 101 Online course. It was never particularly successful in improving student engagement in the course and, while it was never very much work for me, I was never able to integrate it successfully into my class. It seems pretty clear to me that students prefer the "walled garden" of the Blackboard Course Management System to the open-ended Twitter interface. In short, it seems like students saw logging into Blackboard as the first step in engaging course material rather than looking at their phone or their Twitter account. <title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/17/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-15/</link> Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:33:30 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1961

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A lovely, cool, sun-drenched day is the perfect time for the first gaggle of quick hits and varia for the new academic year and the new blogging season. (http://libraries.ucsd.edu/speccoll/dsads/#ark:bb45061299) Dr. Seuss advertising Schaefer Beer in 1940. (http://blog.amaliadillin.com/2012/08/in-case-you-didnt-hear-news.html) Congrats to University of North Dakota history alumna Amalia Stankavage Dillin for inking a publication contract for her fiction! (http://www.slate.com/articles/business/transport/2012/08/pallets_the_single_most_important_object_in_ the_global_economy_.html) Pallets are the key to the global economy (something a trip the Bakken Man Camps would certainly confirm) (via Richard Rothaus). (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/08/14/industrial-aesthetics-petroleum-in-western-north-dakota/) The sight and sound of money out west from Aaron Barth. (http://day4.se/how-we-screwed-almost-the-whole-apple-community/) This is a pretty funny demonstration of what the internet can do if you have too much time on your hands. (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/12/08/happy-10th-birthday-daring-fireball/261061/) Here's a nice 10th Birthday tribute to the revered Daring Fireball blog. It's one of the few old-school, linkdriven blogs that still produces. (http://blog.noupsi.de/post/28896819324/why-are-americans-so) According to autofill : North Dakota is so cold, so flat, so windy, and so boring. Delaware is so business friendly, so small, so boring, and so popular for corporations. (http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8271905/philadelphia-76ers-introduce-andrew-bynum) Ah, the Sixers. They plan to run the offense through Andrew Bynum, right after he gets back from an experimental procedure on his knee. Excellent. What I'm reading: M. Johnson, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/ideas-of-landscape/oclc/62728643) The Idea of Landscape. Blackwell 2007. What I'm listening too: Redd Kross, Researching the Blues. Formation Processes: <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/newimage.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="600" border="0" /> <title>Five Camps of Corinth</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/five-camps-of-corinth/</link> Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:54:45 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1967 One of the things that I've been working on over the last few days is trying to find a clear and clever way to explain to people why a Mediterranean archaeologist would be interested (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) in man camps in North Dakota. As I thought through this I came to realize that the place where I learned archaeology was filled with camps - or at least short term, impromptu, seasonal, settlements. In fact, just thinking about the Corinthia for a few

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minutes reminded me that there were at least five camps of varying antiquity (and this is not counting the good old fashioned recreational camps!). 1. The Fortified Camp on Mt. Oneion. This is my favorite because I published it with Tim Gregory. (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf) You can download the publication here.) The camp isn't much to see aside for some rubble walls and a scatter of storage and table wares. Otherwise, its footprint on the landscape is pretty modest suggesting that it was intensely occupied for a relatively (for Greece) short period of time and saw only a small investment in <"00-07-068.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/00-07-068.jpg" alt="00 07 068" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> 2. Lakka Skoutara. Lakka Skoutara is the location of a small settlement to the east of the village of Sophiko. While Lakka Skoutara is not formally a camp, it was originally constructed as a seasonal settlement perhaps to accommodate families during the threshing of grain or during the olive harvest. At times, the seasonal settlement became permanent especially when political and economic events disrupted traditional village life, but for most of the settlement's history it served as a "crew camp" to house the workforce needed for agricultural production. (http://mediterraneanworld.und.edu/items/browse?collection=4) For an archive of images from Lakka Skoutara click here.) <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/newimage1.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="301" border="0" /> 3. The Gypsy Camp. On the road from the village of Ancient Corinth across the Isthmia plain stands a gypsy camp. I've never visited it, but daily we'd see its ad hoc arrangement of rooms and spaces with their corrugated metal or blue tarp walls. Every so often someone designs a research program or some other form of outreach that would provide an opportunity for the camp to intersect with the archaeologists who work in the area. 4. Washingtonia. Washingtonia is the name that the reformer and philhellene Samuel Gridley Howe gave to the refugee settlement that he created near the modern village of Hexamillia in the Corinthia. He describes the first residents of this settlement as refugees from the Greek War of Independence and noted that at least (http://books.google.com/books?id=TRoiAAAAMAAJ&amp;ots=fDCgmS1Igg&amp;dq=Samuel%20Gridl ey%20Howe&amp;pg=PA357#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false) some of them had been living in caverns. Another tradition has it (and I don't have a reference for this) that refugees lived in the remains of the (http://corinth.sas.upenn.edu/gisamphitheater.html) Corinth amphitheater. 5. The Corinth Canal. When I was active in field work in the Corinthia, we would walk down the road from our base at the ancient site of Isthmia to the beach near the canal. (Nothing was more relaxing that to swimming in the balmy bilge water of Russian flagged bauxite freighters as they chug through the Corinth canal). On our walk, we'd see a group of houses that stood out for being oddly situated on their blocks. At some point, someone (probably Tim Gregory, but maybe Richard Rothaus) told me that these were houses built to accommodate foreign workers on the Corinth canal. The houses are clearly visible on this Google Earth image sitting diagonally across their lots in a neat row. If someone can confirm this, it would be great. <"Isthmia_Canal_Houses.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/isthmia_canal_houses.jpg" alt="Isthmia Canal Houses" width="450" height="339" border="0" />

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<title>North Dakota Man Camp Project Press Release</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/north-dakota-man-camp-project-pressrelease/</link> Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:39:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1975 From 7 August to 12 August 2012, an interdisciplinary team of researchers directed by William Caraher (Department of History) and Bret Weber (Department of Social Work) conducted the first field season of the North Dakota Man Camp Project. The goal of the project was to document the social and material conditions present in the growing number of man camps in the Bakken Oil Patch. Over the five days of field work the ND Man Camp Project Team, which included a photographer (John Holmgren, Franklin and Marshall College), an architectural historian (Kostis Kourelis, Franklin and Marshall College), two archaeologists (William Caraher, University of North Dakota; Richard Rothaus, Trefoil Cultural and Environmental), and two historians (Bret Weber, University of North Dakota, and Aaron Barth, North Dakota State University), described over a dozen camps, interviewed a sampling of its residents, took both detailed photographs and aerial photographs from a specially prepared kite, and prepared architectural sketches. <"DSC_0210.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0210.jpg" alt="DSC 0210" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> Kostis Kourelis, an architectural historian from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa explains his involvement: "I first encountered North Dakota during a visit as the 2011 Cyprus Research Fund Lecture, so when Bret and Bill invited me to return to the region to work, I jumped at the chance. Bill and I have worked together on scholarly projects in the past, and it was exciting to bring my expertise in the architecture and settlement of Greece to a project documenting pressing concerns to the global and local community in North Dakota." <"DSC_0541.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0541.jpg" alt="DSC 0541" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> The project is unique in three ways. First, it is the first systematic archaeological and historical study of the man camps in the Bakken. And it combines archaeologists who have worked extensively in the Mediterranean with scholars who work primarily in North America and on the Northern Plains. Finally, the project brings archaeological and historical methods to the study the ephemeral phenomenon of contemporary labor housing. By combining oral history interviews with man camp residents and archaeological documentation techniques the team began to piece together the complex environment of settlement surrounding the Bakken Boom. Caraher, the co-PI on the project with Bret Weber and a Mediterraneanist explains: Having a team of specialists with a global perspective is particularly suitable for doing research in the Bakken Oil Patch because the North Dakota Oil Boom and its Man Camps are part of a global phenomenon. I was drawn to the Bakken because of my commitment to deploying what I have learned in a Mediterranean context where patterns of economic and political expansion and contraction have left clear marks in the countryside to my home state of North Dakota. People often ask how studying Greece and Cyprus matter to my students and fellow citizens in North Dakota. The North Dakota Man Camp Project shows how approaches to understanding long-term and global trends applies to understanding whats going on in our own backyard.

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The team documented over a dozen camps over their field season. These camps ranged from the elaborate prefabricated camps erected by and for multi-national corporations to RV parks which have become the homes to many of the Bakken patch workers. These RV parks include both wet lots where units have access to water and sewage as well as dry lots which sometimes lacked even electrical hook-ups for the residents. The most elaborate camps had units with significant signs of architectural elaboration, winterized insulation, and individual decoration. The most rugged and informal camps featured workers housed in tents or trailers without even the most basic amenities. The residents of these camps told a wide range of stories from tales of hard luck to those of rugged individualism and fierce independence. While we plan to analyze our data over the coming months, the preliminary results of our work identified three types of camps. Type 1 camps were the most regular in design and plan and were constructed by outside companies to house skilled workers who came to the area to work for the major companies involved in work in the oil fields. Type 2 camps are typically composed of recreational vehicles with access to electricity and water. Type 3 camps comprised of units with only irregular access to water and electricity. Type 2 and 3 camps often occurred in close proximity to each other and Type 2 and Type 1 camps sometimes had symbiotic relationships with the workers constructing Type 1 camps living in a Type 2 camp nearby. Despite the distinct material differences between the camps, it is clear that some individuals moved between residences in various kinds of camps. From an archaeological perspective we observed that Type 2 and Type 3 camps allowed for much greater degrees of customization including, at times, elaborate architectural additions, sun decks, fenced yards, gardens, social space, toys, work areas and other forms of personalization that allowed residents to make practical improvements to their lived space as well as present individual interpretations of domestic values. Type 1 camps, in contrast, offered rather austere comforts which sacrificed individuality for efficient living in an ordered, controlled space. This uniformity combined with rules controlling the use of exterior space and designs that reduce the need for practical modifications to individual units to create camps that not only present little indication of the individuals who reside in them, but also will make only a modest contribution to future archaeological record for the region. Type 2 and Type 3 camps, in contrast, preserve a remarkable material record of the complex communities that have formed to support the extraction of oil from under the North Dakota fields. <"DSC_0437.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0437.jpg" alt="DSC 0437" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> The interview team of Bret Weber assisted by Aaron Barth added the invaluable human element to the archaeological documentation by collecting interviews with camp residents focusing on specific to social issues. With three dozen interviews, there is a great deal of data to analyze and there will be much to write about. Preliminary findings need to be tested, but currently include three major areas: 1. Residents in the camps tend to be associated with one of three major categories of labor including 1) various aspects of the oil industry, 2) transportation (primarily trucking), and 3) construction trades. Each of those has their own rhythms and cycles that affect related housing needs. 2. All three types of camps appear to play a role in addressing the rapidly changing needs of the boom and, within limitations, appear to be appropriate solutions to the current, largely temporary problem of the boom. However, rather than a bust, it seems that there will be long-term labor and related housing needs as the region moves from the boom period into a more manageable maintenance phase. Accordingly, housing decisions and policies in the oil patch need to move in steps from temporary to increasingly permanent housingthough at rates much lower than the current situation. 3. Nonetheless, while temporary labor housing is an inevitable and even appropriate response to the current dynamics of the oil boom, community and state leaders, policy makers, and decision-makers connected to

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industry need to be aware of ethical and social justice obligations to address the short-term sanitary and human needs associated with temporary housing. <"DSC_0229.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0229.jpg" alt="DSC 0229" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> Regarding the opportunity to interview the residents of the camps, Weber noted, we went in with an extensive set of often personal, intimate questions and we had some concern about reluctance or even resistance on the part of the interview subjects. Instead, we found that people were willing and even anxious to share their stories. Unlike most of the research-related interviewing that I have done in the past, the people we spoke with generally addressed all of our questions with little or not prompting on our part. It was an extremely successful and exciting research process. Over all, the North Dakota Man Camp Project has begun to document and analyze the unique environment of early 21st century temporary camps in the Bakken. These camps in many ways resemble the endearing character of many of North Dakotas small towns with their talks of triumph, individualism, community, and tragedy - which became the home for the first settlers drawn to the region for the railroad and land booms of the early 20th century. <img style="border-style:initial;border-color:initial;display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;borderwidth:0;" title="DSC_0155.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dsc_0155.jpg" alt="DSC 0155" width="450" height="302" border="0" />

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<title>Some Matters of Method in the Man Camps of the Bakken</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/22/some-matters-of-method-in-the-mancamps-of-the-bakken/</link> Wed, 22 Aug 2012 12:20:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1978 One of the must fulfilling parts of writing up a report from a short field season is working through the successful and less successful aspects of one's field methods and procedures. I am currently writing up the preliminary results of our 2012 summer field season (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) studying man camps in the Bakken Oil Patch in western North Dakota. As I reported in this blog earlier, we recorded the camps using paper forms, architectural sketches, and literally thousands of photographs (as well as interviews conducted by another field team working concurrently with us). The extensive use of photography in the field ensured that we collected a data set that is susceptible to querying in the future if our research questions change. At the same time, the most significant shortcoming to our methodology was the absence of any kind to rigorous standards for our recording practices. While, on the one hand, a certain flexibility in our recording practices was necessary owing to the diverse character of the various camps (particularly (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps-2/) Type 2 and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/a-typology-of-north-dakota-work-camps3/) Type 3 camps) and the very preliminary nature of our research. On the other hand, the absence of a systematic and consistent method for documenting both the camps as archaeological artifacts and individual units in the camps, will make it difficult to aggregate and analyze data in a quantitative way. If we want to do this, we will need to establish a sampling technique for recording individual units within camps (and perhaps eventually camps themselves) in order to produce a representative view of the structure within a given camp. A grab sample of representative and interesting units was successful in producing preliminary documentation of the various camps, but aggregating this data into larger sets would not produce a representative image of each settlement. Future work at the camps will require a more rigorously defined and applied sampling strategy that might well include more comprehensive documentation of several camps to determine its suitability. Documenting a camp of 100+ units could easily take several days and the camps of over 300 individual units . We also have come to realize that our efforts to document man-camps has provided a snapshot of this form of settlement in time. It has not, however, produce significant evidence for change in the individual camps through time, although we certainly documented some indications that changes had occurred at the camps. Return visits to the camps over time will provide valuable information on the development of the camps through time as well as seasonal patterns and strategies to adapt to the challenging winter months. Finally, the rather unstructured nature of our field procedure dictated that each individual worked more or less independently. This allowed us to capture a significant amount of data from each camp, but it made it almost impossible to coordinate our data collection. As a result, we did not capture photographs, for example, of every trailer where folks we interviewed live. We also did not necessary do textual descriptions of every unit that (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/) Kostis Kourelis, our architectural history, documented with sketches or that (http://www.johnholmgren.com/) John Holmgren documented through photography. Future field work will benefit from coordinating the efforts of the various team members to produce synthetic windows which truly integrate oral history and the documentation of material culture.

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<title>The Historians Craft and the Craft of History</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/23/the-historians-craft-and-the-craft-ofhistory/</link> Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:07:48 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1981 For the fifth year running, I am teaching one of our department's two required classes (the other is our capstone history research class). I expect that the class was installed in the late 1950s or early 1960s and evolved from courses like Elwyn Robinson's Introduction to Historical Research which recognized and developed an emphasis on a particular historical methodology. Each year I ask the students to parse our the title of the class: The Historians' Craft. We usually begin with the word "craft" and students usually struggle a bit to understand the baggage attached to that term. Most students recognize that the idea of craft denotes a specific skill which straddles the line between artistry and some notion of "useful" labor. Students typically mention carpentry as the best example of a craft in the modern world. We discussed the idea that a craftsperson imparts his or her personality in an object which they create and, as a result, this object is both functional and unique. As a general rule, students view craft objects as being higher quality and more "special" than mass produced objects even if they both serve the same function, although they will concede that our ability to apprehend the significance of a craft object depends, in part, on some critical training. For example, not everyone can recognize the value of a handmade piece of furniture or a tailored article of clothing. Craft requires an element of critical attention on the part of the viewer. This semester I pushed the students a bit more to consider the place of craft within the modern academy. We contrasted craft with industrial production and reflected on the influence of industrialized models of production on university life. This is not a new line of thinking in this blog or in the humanities (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/audit-culture-and-history-as-craft/) here, (http://www.jstor.org/stable/282303) here, and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/digital-humanities-and-craft/) here). As the core disciplines in the humanities have increasingly come to find themselves at odds with the administrative and pedagogical approaches that privilege efficiency, consistency, and standardization above all else in the Academy. Industrial approaches to learning have produced recent trends toward measured assessment, the willingness to see faculty as largely interchangeable parts whose value is dictated by the market, and views of success as the achievement of a set of a preconceived (typically economic) targets. The notion of craft, however, actively subverts many of these goals. (I was listening the Skip Spence's brilliant album Oar while I write this post. Oar fails to conform to any standard of musical success. The musicianship is uneven, the recording is odd, it is neither low-fi or high-fi, and the lyrics do not always make sense, but it remains a brilliant album perhaps because of these things. The flaws, in all their eddying, frustrating, and almost random character, make this album special and unflinchingly intimate.) In fact, at least some key ideas of craft emerged in response and in resistance to industrial values. So maybe teaching a class called the Historians Craft these days is just a bit subversive.

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-16/</link> Fri, 24 Aug 2012 12:18:51 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1985 It's a warm late summer day here in North Dakotaland with just a few clouds in the sky to give the sunrise some texture. I survived my first day back teaching. I finally got some writing done. So, it seems like a great morning for some quick hits and varia. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterfane/get-your-greek-on) Congratulations to Peter Schultz for getting reaching his goal on Kickstarter. His book, Get Your Greek on will be a boon to any student (or faculty member) heading to Greece on a study tour. (And when Classicists begin to embrace new models for publication, then some kind of change must almost certainly be in the air!). (http://www.bakkentoday.com/event/article/id/34222/) Larry the Cable Guy visits the Bakken Oil Patch and hangs out at Capital Lodge (a Type 1 camp!). (http://dangerousminds.net/comments/joe_strummers_thoughts_on_bruce_springsteen) Strummer on Springsteen. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/08/trailer-vernacular.html) Kostis Kourelis shares some of his sketches from our recent field season in the Bakken. (http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2016/) Beloit College's mindset list for the 2016 graduating class. My favorite: "14. There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles." (https://medium.com/) The Medium is part of the new web. (https://medium.com/c/b969ac62a46b/) Here's what it does. (http://www.theawl.com/2012/08/the-pretty-new-web-and-the-future-of-nativeadvertising) And here's a critique. (http://www.umac.org/images/sensors/CampusFullMosaic.jpg) A really cool, high-resolution aerial photograph of the campus of the University of North Dakota. (http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/) Hybrid Pedagogy. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2012/08/23/the-mooc-ledmeritocracy/?cid=pm&amp;utm_source=pm&amp;utm_medium=en) It appears that some people are still struggling to wrap their minds about what a MOOC (Massive Open Online Class) does. (http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/17/academia-edu/) Academia.edu has enhanced its analytics so that you can see the location of visitors to our page. My page appears to be very popular in Namibia. (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/243312/) The Washington Street underpass in Grand Forks, ND. What I'm reading: (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008YF7DRG) D Hancox, Utopia and the Valley of Tears: a journal through the Spanish crisis. What I'm listening to: Grant Green, Grantland; The Kills, No Wow. <"WashingtonStreetUnderpass.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/washingtonstreetunderpass.jpg" alt="WashingtonStreetUnderpass" width="450" height="337" border="0" />

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<title>Fountains and Water in Late Antiquity</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/fountains-and-water-in-lateantiquity/</link> Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:21:21 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1988 Access to water remains a basic human need. The arid climate of the Mediterranean basin made access to water an even more pressing issue and cities throughout antiquity deployed impressive feats of engineering to provide their citizens with water. As water invovled massive investments in infrastructure, they also became opportunities for display and soon became important opportunities for partonage and highly visible elements of the Classical cities urban fabric. Recent scholarship has come to appreciate the significance of water to life in the ancient city. Works like Brenda Longfellow's (http://www.worldcat.org/title/roman-imperialism-and-civic-patronage-formmeaning-and-ideology-in-monumental-fountain-complexes/oclc/637037226) Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: form, meaning, and ideology in monumental fountain complexes (Cambridge 2011) and Betsy Robinson's (http://www.worldcat.org/title/histories-of-peirene-a-corinthian-fountain-in-threemillennia/oclc/693810990) History of Peirene (ASCSA 2011) have framed fountains as key manifestation of local, civic, and imperial ethos. The most recent volume of the Journal of Late Antiquity features a long article by Ine Jacobs and Julian Richard titled " (http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&amp;type=summary&amp;url=/journals/journal_of_late_antiquity/v00 5/5.1.jacobs.pdf) 'We Surpass the Beautiful Waters of Other Cities by the Abundance of Ours: Reconciling Function and Decoration in Late Antique Fountains " (JLA 5.1 (2012), 3-71) which draws on (http://www.worldcat.org/title/aesthetic-maintenance-of-civic-space-the-classical-city-from-the-4th-to-the7th-c-ad/oclc/699703231) Ine Jacobs' very recent book and a forthcoming volume by Julian Richard looks at nymphaea in the Greek East. In short, the article argues that changes in the social organization of ancient cities and attitudes toward water maintenance led to changes in the aesthetics of the water supply in Late Antique community. In particular, they show a decline the construction of large civic foundations of the kind studies by Longfellow and the growth in both smaller and improvised fountains and the modification (and maintenance) of older monumental fountains. The authors highlight fountains and water supplies from the Greek east in particular and discuss modifications to older fountains that allowed for water to be sent elsewhere from the existing basins as well as new fountains set up in the colonnades of ancient streets or tucked into inconspicuous corners of the ancient city. The modified older fountains and their smaller neighborhood counterparts offered less space and less, perhaps, less occasion for elaborate decorations. Massive displays of larger-thanlife statuary gave way to the use of smaller statuettes, the re-use of earlier decorative elements, and the more practical arrangement of features designed to ensure the well-managed flow of clean water. The authors conclude that the transformation visible in these Late Antique fountains have little do with the deteriorating fabric of urban life, and more to do with practical adaptations to perrenial problems of water supply and management. In fact, the proliferation of smaller fountains and the effort to siphon water away from older monumental fountains in urban area might have been a response to an overabundance of water coming into the city rather than concerns over the absence of water. This articles (along with Richard's forthcoming book) will a useful starting point for a larger study of water in the Late Antique East. There were several issues that piqued my interest: 1. The Church and Water. One of the chapters in my dissertation that I axed fairly late in the process was the role of water - particularly fountains - in church architecture. Numerous monumental Christian churches had fountains in Greece. These often stood in the atrium of the church and were fed by complex water supplies

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or cisterns. It seems probable that the position of the fountains in the atria of these buildings ensured that they were accessible to local residents outside of the ritual life of the church. Moreover, by providing access to water, the institutional church positioned itself in a tradition of civic munificence which complemented its role a patron of the poor and protectors of the community. It is interesting to note that the stadium fountain at Ephesus featured Ionic impost capitals like (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/some-thoughts-on-st-leonidas-andbaptism-at-lechaion-in-greece/) the lesser known nymphaeum at Lechaion. The common appearance of Ionic impost capitals in church architecture suggests that these architectural elements might serve to tie together civic monuments like fountains and religious monuments in a more cohesive landscape. 2. Mosaics. It was curious to me that in the description of decoration of the fountains, the authors do not mention the use of mosaics. I suspect that mosaics formed an important part of the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/more-from-polis-on-cyprus/) decorative program in the small apsidal well-house at Polis. Mosaics were affordable and often graced baths - and responded well to water - as well as various apsidal spaces in Late Antiquity so it makes it difficult to imagine that they would not appear regularly in conjunction with smaller fountains. 3. Settlement and Neighborhoods. One of the interesting things about the transformation of fountains in Late Antique cities is the growth of small fountains in neighborhoods. These fountains - like the little wellhouse in Polis - presumably served local communities that no long gravitated to the larger urban centers with their spaces set aside for displays of civic pride and elite munificence. Instead, local fountains may have stood to serve smaller groups whose identities revolved less around the civic values and more around local landmarks and neighborhood.

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<title>The North Dakota Man Camp Project in the Media</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/the-north-dakota-man-camp-project-in-themedia/</link> Tue, 28 Aug 2012 12:06:40 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1991 One of the thing that I was pretty unprepared for when I became a university professor is learning how to deal with media attention (and, if necessary, create it!). While I like to tell people about my research, as readers of this blog know, my research tends to be relatively inaccessible. (My hope that this blog would open up my work to new audiences has not been entirely unsuccessful.) These days, however, when public patience with and support for academia seemingly at all time lows (whether this is really the case or not, if very difficult to determine), it feels all the more important to make my research not only relevant but also visible to a wider audience. The fact that it is a legislative year in North Dakota makes it all the more important that we connect our position in the public trust and to the work we do. So this past week has been a bit of a crash course in media management as my North Dakota Man Camp Project has (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdciOXroU9o) blown up (this is the locus classicus for this phrase, but it's not rated-pg) in the (local) media. So, here's what's happened: First, I wrote (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/north-dakota-man-camp-projectpress-release/) a press release here. Then, the writers in the University of North Dakota's Office for University Relations turned it (http://undnews.areavoices.com/2012/08/24/und-researchers-probe-north-dakota-oil-patch-man-camps/) into this press release. Some of my colleagues and collaborators have blogged on our work (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/08/27/western-north-dakota-man-camps-poetry-literature-andimmigration/) here, (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/08/14/industrial-aesthetics-petroleum-inwestern-north-dakota/) here, and (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/08/trailer-vernacular.html) here. Then it was picked up by local print media: (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/243613/group/homepage/) the Grand Forks Herald, (http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/60794/) the Dickenson Press, (http://www.jamestownsun.com/event/article/id/167848/group/News/) Jamestown Sun, et c. It was also quickly picked up by the local TV; (http://www.wdaz.com/pages/archive5) it is at the 4:00 mark of this broadcast by WDAZ. The most in-depth coverage came from (http://news.prairiepublic.org/post/research-team-examineswestern-north-dakota-man-camps) Prairie Public Radio here. KFYR in Bismarck followed up with an interview and some coverage yesterday (http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=58934) a short news story is here and (http://www.kfyrtv.com/Video_News.asp?news=58934) TV section here). None of this is likely to change the world or even make much of an impact as hurricanes and conventions have taken center stage in the ever-churning news cycle. On the other hand, it does feel good to play a part in getting some of my research out of the cul-de-sac that is academic conversation.

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<title>400 Posts at the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/29/400-posts-at-the-new-archaeology-of-themediterranean-world/</link> Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:02:35 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=1999 After my post yesterday, I realize that I am running the risk turning this blog into an advertisement for myself, but I did want to note that this is my 400th post at the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. It is fun and vaguely instructive to look back on (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/archaeology-of-the-mediterranean-worldat-400/) my reflections on the 400th post on the old blog. First, some quick stats: The blog has 43, 890 page views all time and since the start of 2012 has averaged about 80 views per day. This is up from 65 views per day in 2011. Over the last 21 months, I have averaged over 100 views per day in 3 of them. I have averaged over 80 views per day in 5 of the last 8 months. The most popular post in terms of number of page views is: (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/archaeology-and-man-camps-in-western-northdakota/) Archaeology and Man-camps in Western North Dakota from January 2011 and (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/teaching-graduate-historiography-a-final-syllabus/) Teaching Graduate Historiography: A Final Syllabus which appeared the very same week. These two posts tend to viewed a couple times a week since the the time that I posted them. <"MoreStats.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/morestats.jpg" alt="MoreStats" width="450" height="143" border="0" /> <"EvenMoreStats.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/evenmorestats.jpg" alt="EvenMoreStats" width="450" height="159" border="0" /> Since last February 2012, Wordpress has begun to track the location of visitors. Over this time the top country for New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World has been the US with 7,877 views. Greece comes next (929), followed by the UK (908), Canada (599), Australia (533), Italy (310), Cyprus (300), Germany (234), Turkey (227), and the Philippines (188). <"NAMWBlogMap.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/namwblogmap.jpg" alt="NAMWBlogMap" width="450" height="356" border="0" /> It is particularly nice to visitors from China re-appear (albeit in very small numbers) after a significant and conspicuous absence. It is disappointing to see that Iran is no longer represented (I always had readers from Iran (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/metadata-monday-2/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/09/14/meta-data-monday/) here, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/04/26/metadata-monday-700-posts/) here, and (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/metadata-wednesday/) here). I do hope that that some clever folks in both Iran and China find ways to keep reading my blog. Unfortunately, since switching to Wordpress.com hosted blog, I no long have access to browser or OS data. I can tell you that I currently write this blog in (http://www.red-sweater.com/marsedit/) MarsEdit on a MacBook Pro with a Retina display although when I'm in the field, I write on a Dell i7 laptop in (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Live_Writer) LiveWriter.

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I've never posted a picture of a kitten nor described what I had for breakfast. Because of that (and many other reasons) (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/happy-400th-post-fromhistory-240/) I expect a cake like the last time I made it to 400 posts. And as always thank for reading.

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<title>Punk Archaeology Revisited</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/punk-archaeology-revisited/</link> Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:21:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2002 One of my disappointments over the last several years is that I never figured out what to do with the content that (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/) Kostis Kourelis and I produced over on the (http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/) Punk Archaeology blog. At one point I grabbed the content and striped the formatting and toyed with the idea of turning it into a book, but that other, more conventional, publication projects absorbed my time and attention. The Punk Archaeology blog, of course, continues to stand on the internet and every now and then someone contacts me and asks about it. Like many of the "newer" punk movements (cyberpunk, edu-punk, whatever), the use of the word "punk" attracts the attention of distopians, counterculturists, and scholars (often from the margins) who are looking to define unique approaches to their work. One such scholar (and (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) fellow blogger) Aaron Barth urged me to consider doing something with punk archaeology in the Red River Valley. So over the last few days we've hastily crafted a proposal for funding a short punk archaeology "meet up" or "round table" this winter. Naturally, we gravitated to a February 2nd/3rd date for the event and somewhere in the Fargo/Moorhead area seems appropriately punk for the event. Here's my proposal: Punk Archaeology is a movement and a set of practices. These practices range from DIY approaches to field procedures to embracing alternate methods for disseminating archaeological data and interpretations, to transparency in interpretive processes and to an interest in the recent past, the ephemeral in the landscape, and subjects that fall outside of and challenge the traditional purview of archaeological investigations. Practitioners of punk archaeology come from all parts of the discipline and many archaeologists embrace aspects associated with this movement without recognizing the connection. Punk Archaeology takes it name from the punk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s. Punk rock represented a new interpretation of traditional Anglo-American popular music produced by a group who sought to capture the anxiety of a rapidly changing world. In some ways, punk concerns had points of contact with those of archaeologists. Changes in the meaning and structure of urbanism, the distopian impulses of Late Capitalism, and the full embrace of the irony as the dominant trope in both popular and academic culture provided ample fodder for a dynamic, abrasive, and experimental sonic landscapes. Cyberpunk novels, steampunk designs, punk film and fashion, punk political movements, and - more recently - edu-punk pedagogies have formally crafted punk ideologies into a transmedia and transdisciplinary discourses which rely on a common conceptual vocabulary without implying a convergent cultural trajectory. In other words, the punk movements provided a group of concepts and terms with connections throughout the 21st century world and infused them with sufficient dissonance to stimulate and support new readings, interpretations, and practices. The Punk Archaeology roundtable brings together individuals who incorporate various aspects of punk practice into their work. Complementing and reinforcing the transdisciplinary discourse of punk, the roundtable will feature punk and post-punk music, take place in a non-traditional surrounding, and intentionally eschew some of the typical conventions of academic conversation. Participants will keep their comments short (to less than 3 minutes), the format will encourage improvised conversation between the participants and the audience, and the dialogue will be recorded to preserve a live transcript of the event. Following tradition of love, low-fi recording and DIY practices the transcription of the proceedings will be

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quickly published as a book with selections from the seminal Punk Archaeology blog supplementing an edited version of the conference transcript. A model for this kind of publication comes from (http://nplusonemag.com/what-was-hipster) N+1s recent small volume titled What Was the Hipster? (2010). ---And, yes, I did call my blog seminal.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-40/</link> Fri, 31 Aug 2012 12:19:49 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2006 The sky was a spectacular shade of pink and blue this morning and the almost-full moon kept a close watch on our as we drove onto campus. In other words, it was another lovely late summer day in North Dakotaland and a perfect Friday morning (of a long weekend) for a little gaggle of varia and quick hits. (http://www.tovima.gr/culture/article/?aid=472675) A very fancy 3rd century Roman tomb from Corinth. (https://www.wepay.com/donations/17419) Only two days left to make a contribution toward making a natural playground at Douglas Wilder Elementary School here in Grand Forks, ND (despite what locals say, we all know that it's named after the first African American governor of Virginia and current mayor of Richmond, Va). This is a good cause. (http://lakesuperiorbarrels.wordpress.com/) Recovering mystery barrels from Lake Superior. If you're into this kind of thing, (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/28/3262089/history-of-dubstepbeyond-lies-the-wub) here's a brief history of dubstep (with a soundtrack). I like how Skrillex mixed some of his first tracks while squatting in an abandoned warehouse in downtown L.A. (http://bywordapp.com/) I really like Byword. Check out the comments on my (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/punkarchaeology-revisited/) Punk Archaeology post yesterday and note two celebrity endorsements. If you haven't had a mild stroke yet this morning, you need to check out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GINCubDZIYU) Richard Rothaus's videos of our kite flights over man camps. The music is by (http://timpasch.com/) Tim Pasch. (http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/the-top-10-most-dangerous-ads/) Amazingly dangerous advertisements (via Richard Rothaus). I learned what Mankading is this week. (http://www.ecbtv.co.uk/video/20120831/somerset-v-surrey-day3_2276246_2905657) Check out this video at the 2:05 point or (http://theshortmidwicket.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/hypocrisy-and-spirit-of-cricket.html) this blog post. (http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2012/08/20/e-books-and-the-personal-library/) Some thoughts on our personal libraries. Good cricket today, though, with (http://www.espncricinfo.com/england-v-southafrica-2012/engine/current/match/534230.html) England v. South Africa and Australia v. Pakistan both on tap. (http://blogs.dickinson.edu/dcc/2012/08/28/the-apa-and-digital-populism/) Here are some interesting reflections on the American Philological Associations recent efforts to embrace the digital. Like many of these large, venerable institutions, there is no real indication that they have a clear idea how to make the digital work for their members. (http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3266268/dave-pell-interview-5-minutes-on-the-verge) Some decent thoughts on web curation.

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 What I'm listening too: Meat Puppets, Meat Puppets II; Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun. What I'm reading: J. Bintliff, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/complete-archaeology-of-greece-from-huntergatherers-to-the-20th-century-ad/oclc/701808393) The Complete Archaeology of Greece: from hunter gatherers to the 20th century. Blackwell 2012. Yesterday's sky: <"Dakota Sky Part 20000.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dakota-skypart-20000.jpg" alt="Dakota Sky Part 20000" width="450" height="337" border="0" />

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<title>Ancient Bees</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/ancient-bees/</link> Mon, 03 Sep 2012 13:03:57 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2015 This weekend, I smoked a whole bunch of pork with a few friends. As we set out the pork for our dinner feast, it was literally swarmed by what I called bees. Some friends corrected me (including one who keeps bees) and told me that they were wasps or (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_jacket) yellow-jackets which is apparently another name for wasp. A pro-wasp or, perhaps more properly, pro-stinging insect lobby has tried to convince people that these insects, in fact, prey on other pests. I reject the clearly politicized attitudes of the pro-stinging insect lobby and regard humans and bees/wasps in a prolonged state of total war. In any event, I was happy enough to read about ancient bee keeping in (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2012.00383.x/abstract) J.E. Francis recent article in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology (31 (2012), 143-159) where she provides a brief overview of ancient authors' knowledge of bee keeping and then considers the ceramic bee hives commonly found on survey project in Greece. The most common examples in my experience are open vessels of a medium coarse to coarse fabric with groves or combing on the interior (rather than on the exterior as is far more common). This distinctive surface treatment make these vessels stand out, although it is interesting to note that the characteristic interior combing does not appear to have been necessary for bees to build their nests and does not appear in more recent examples of ceramic hives. Apparently, this tubular form of ceramic beehive is particularly common in ancient Greece and almost completely absent in Italy. In fact, in Italy some ancient authors complained that the ceramic hives got too warm inside for the bees to survive. The significant quantities of hive ceramic fragments found in Greece and the continued use of ceramic hives into the 19th century offers a significant challenge to this argument. Francis conducted an experiment with a damaged 19th century hive to add strength to the archaeological and ethnographic record. The interior of the hive reached only 38 degree C which was well within the temperature range suitable for bees. The ancient authors who commented on apiculture practices in Italy (Varro, Columella, and Pliny) criticize the use of ceramic hives suggesting that they were not at all familiar with Greek practices where ceramic hives were used from at least the 5th c. BC. In Italy, apparently, wood hives were the norm. It is interesting to observe that these authors must have never encountered ceramic hives in the Greek countryside and this practice never made it from Greece to Italy. It reinforces the distinctly regional character of certain agricultural practices and demonstrates the urban focus of even those members of the literary classes who travelled outside of their home regions.

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<title>The Love of Paper</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/04/the-love-of-paper/</link> Tue, 04 Sep 2012 11:51:45 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2018 (http://www.samfee.net/delirium/it-should-be-hard-to-learn/) My old friend Sam Fee reminded me of (http://chronicle.com/article/The-Benefits-of-Making-It/132056/) an article that appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education in the early summer suggesting that making it a bit more difficult to learn might, in fact, lead to longer-term retention of basic facts and to deeper understanding of complex concepts. The study cited by the Chronicle suggested that a test group who engaged material presented in less familiar fonts found the initial engagement with a text more difficult but also recalled the material more fully when tested later. I teach a mid-sized online class (around 100 students). Three years ago, I abandoned the textbook and replaced the main text in my class with a combination of podcasts, short readings from other books, and public domain primary sources. When I did this, I figured that I would be saving the students money, making the class more portable (all my content can be accessed on a laptop, phone, or tablet), and tailor the reading more specifically to the themes that I emphasized in the class rather than having to work around a generic body of knowledge presented in a textbook. Needless to say, this approach has flummoxed a small, but significant percentage of my students. The most interesting complaints, however, come from students who simply prefer paper books. I can sympathize, of course: I am reluctant to buy an ebook, if I can get a paper version for close to the same price. I mark up my books with notes in the margins and underlines, litter them with page markers, and even enjoy the aesthetic of books stacked shelves. At the same time, I can't imagine any of these benefits being worth the price of a textbook for a history class. I wonder, however, whether encouraging students to read online (even if they hate it) will have benefits for them later. First, more and more of our life will be spent reading texts online. Few jobs for college educated individuals no do not require some significant screen time each week. Second, returning to a point at the beginning of this post, I wonder whether making students have to work just a bit harder to engage the material will improve how well they learn it?

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<title>Late Antiquity in Greece</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/late-antiquity-in-greece/</link> Wed, 05 Sep 2012 12:10:58 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2021 I have a hectic fall, but I could not keep myself from at least delving into John Bintliff's new survey of Greek archaeology. Running close to 500 pages of text and modestly named (http://www.worldcat.org/title/complete-archaeology-of-greece-from-hunter-gatherers-to-the-20th-centuryad/oclc/799805433) The Complete Archaeology of Greece: From Hunter Gatherers to the 20th Century A.D., Bintliff's newest contribution provides an ambitious panorama of Greek archaeology. Bintliff is one of only a small handful of scholars in the hyper-specialized world of Classical and Mediterranean Archaeology who could produce a book like this. While I have yet to read closely most of the book, the sections that deal with the periods I spend most time with - Late Antiquity and Byzantium - are significant. So, in my tradition of lists, here are five observations about his approach to Late Antiquity: 1. Survey Archaeology. This is the first survey of Greek archaeology that moves intensive pedestrian survey practices to the fore of archaeological investigation. Bintliff draws heavily on his own work in Boeotia and other survey projects throughout Greece to construct arguments for settlement, urban change, and the Later Roman economy. It is impossible to exaggerate how significant this in the context of Greek archaeology where large, urban excavations have for so long framed most of the key conversations about archaeology in Greece even for the Late Roman world. Bintliff does not overlook the significance of urban excavations - for example he makes use of salvage excavations in Thessaloniki as well as excavations at the Athenian Agora, Sparta, and Corinth to make arguments for the form and prevalence of Late Roman villas, but he places these discussions alongside sites documented during both extensive and intensive survey. Bintliff's willingness to emphasize the results produced by survey archaeology has had several significant knock-on consequences: 2. Methods. One of the most significant consequences in expanding our idea of Greek archaeology from its traditional emphasis on excavation to include survey archaeology is a renewed interest in connecting archaeological methods to the kinds of conclusions that one can draw from archaeological data. While excavation practices have increased in sophistication over the past 50 years, no where in Greek archaeology has the methodological discourse reached the level of intensity as in survey archaeology. Bintliff makes a particular point of considering David Pettegrew's important 2007 article in Hesperia (76.4: (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25068042.pdf) pdf here) which noted the vast differences in artifact visibility between Early-Middle Roman coarse wares and Late Roman coarse wares. Late Roman amphora sherds with their distinctive surface treatments are simply far more visible in a survey context than amphora sherds from earlier periods. This has obvious consequences for how we understand the extent and nature of settlement and land use over the long Roman period in Greece. Bintliff's willingness to address this fiddly methodological issue brings a level of sophistication to his work that might otherwise be absent in a book focused on the traditional topic of Greek archaeology in the later Roman period (churches, fortifications, urban change, villas, et c.). 3. Town and Country. Intensive pedestrian survey - whatever its current methodological limitations - has shed invaluable light on the Late Roman countryside and, by extension, the Late Roman economy. Bintliff's book does more than any other major survey of Greek history or archaeology to bring the rural economy into the larger narrative of later Greek history. Survey archaeology has brought to light not only the presence of smaller site where saw re-occupation in Late Roman period, but also the appearance of numerous island and harbor sites which undoubtedly reflects vibrant commerce in agricultural goods on small-scale as well as the integration of small rural producers with an economy increasingly geared toward supplying Constantinople and the Danubian provinces.

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4. Periodization. One of the few area where I am willing to question Bintliff's approach to dealing with the Late Roman period is in his decisions to abide by longstanding practices of separating the Late Antique (300650) from the Early Byzantine (650-850). To his credit, he makes explicit the difficulties associated with the tricky practice of periodizing and offers an argument based on demographic change, shifts in architectural practices, and larger geo-politics. On the other hand, archaeologists have increasingly come to see the chronological boundaries of Late Antiquity and Early Byzantium as far from clear. The study of Late Roman ceramics continues to show that various forms traditionally dated to Late Antiquity persist into the 8th centuries. The excavators of most monumental Late Antique buildings in Greece did not publish systematically their stratigraphy and ceramic data making it difficult to associate the dates of these buildings with actual archaeological material. Finally, larger patterns of life - including the well-worn trading paths that integrated Greece with the larger Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean world - may have persisted for much longer than earlier scholars have suspected. The continued vitality of urban areas like Corinth into the 8th centuries offers a significant challenge to traditional periodization schemes. 5. The Hexamilion. Finally, it was gratifying to see the Hexamilion wall and Isthmian fortress occupying a significant place in Bintliff's treatment of the Late Roman countryside. This massive fortification extended across the entire Isthmus of Corinth and formed a formidable (if oddly ineffective) barrier against barbarian incursions from the north. Two fortresses anchored the Hexamilion wall at its eastern and western termini, and the eastern fortress has seen significant archaeological work mainly by teams associated with the Ohio State Excavations at Isthmia. The wall and fortress undoubtedly had a massive economic and visual impact on the Corinthian countryside drawing significant resources to the provisioning of the garrison there and the maintenance of the wall. The site of the Isthmian fortress served as the base of operations for the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Survey and was where I gained whatever modest knowledge I have about archaeology.

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<title>Wood, Permanence, and Dwelling in North Dakota</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/wood-and-permanence-in-northdakota/</link> Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:18:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2024 (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/) Kostis Kourelis sent along a copy of J.B. Jackson's " (http://books.google.com/books?id=l0J4gVZFpqEC&amp;lpg=PR9&amp;ots=Y__47fdA5y&amp;dq=The %20Movable%20Dwelling%20Jackson&amp;lr&amp;pg=PA89#v=onepage&amp;q=The%20Movable%20 Dwelling%20Jackson&amp;f=false) The Movable Dwelling " this week. Kostis joined us earlier this summer in the North Dakota Man Camp Project and brought a cross-cultural understanding of vernacular architecture as well as his skilled eye for architectural illustration. This short essay has helped me solidify one of the arguments that I have been trying to make in our study of man camps in the Bakken Oil Patch. Man camps are the new small towns of the Dakota prairies. In this thought provoking essay, Jackson (the father of American landscape studies) links the use of wood with impermanence in housing. He noted that the wood houses - in contrast to their stone of brick counterparts - required only modest expertise for construction, could easily be stripped to the ground and the valuable lumber reused elsewhere, and prior to the 20th century, were largely regarded as disposable dwellings. The limited investment in materials and labor involved in wooden houses their owner's to abandon them quickly when economic conditions changed for the better or for worse. A drive across the Northern Plains quickly confirms the ubiquity of modest wooden houses on the prairie. (And the very impermanence of their predecessors - sod houses - have with few exceptions has ensured that they leave almost no trace at all in the landscape.) Today, of course, we have come to sentimentalize these houses which stand as lonely reminders of prairie dreams or huddled together in modest communities which attempt to resist the ravages of abandonment, wind, and weather. Jackson reminds us, however, that our willingness to sentimentalize these houses comes from efforts to individualize these dwellings and their romantic stance in the landscape that evokes a lost way of life. (It is interesting that stone buildings and ruins played a key role in the archaeological and architectural imagination of European Romanticism, whereas North Dakota Prairie Romantic look to the ruins of the wooden house as the symbol of a lost, magical past.) Jackson links the practice of building wooden houses directly to the utilitarian architecture common to housing practices at mining and lumber camps across the U.S. and ultimately in to house workers in company towns and in the highly mobile agricultural labor force of the first half of the 20th century. Mobile units in man camps combine wood - the low cost material of the 19th century and earlier - with the low-cost material of the 21st century - fiberglass and aluminum to create landscapes of low-investment housing for the opportunistic communities that both provide labor for the economy while at the same time dancing along its unstable margins. In this short essay, then, Jackson links the hastily constructed (and hastily abandoned) wooden towns of the prairie with the architectural tradition of man camps. So, what began as an impressionistic statement designed to entice the press to seeing man camps less as intrusions in the landscape and more as part of a tradition of dwelling in the Northern Plains has become (in the hands of a much brighter scholar than I) the starting point of a historical argument.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/07/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-41/</link> Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:04:51 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2029 It's a cloudy Friday morning in North Dakotaland and the sun seems to be struggling to make its way through my window and chase the morning darkness from my office. So in the semi-darkness of my office-cave, I'll offer a little gaggle of quick hits and varia. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.81.issue-3) The new issue of Hesperia is out. While there's nothing much in it for me to get excited about, I am sure that it's very nice for those other kind of people. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/science/remnants-of-japans-tsunami-attract-archaeologicalinterest.html) More on tsunami archaeology. Stories like this should make archaeology of the very recent past seem like a more plausible pursuit. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/09/trailer-bibliography.html) Kostis Kourelis on the architecture of trailers. (http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/august/cooling-glove-research-082912.html) Cool gloves from Stanford. My wife recently ran a 10k and her legs really bothered her the next couple of days. So this article on cool gloves was particularly timely. (http://scottfjohnson.com/blog/2012/9/3/if-its-not-online-and-free-then-its-not-published.html) Some brilliant thoughts on Digital Humanities with a Late Antique and Byzantine twist. Is Byzantine Studies on the verge of accepting digital methods? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19444991) Hadrian's Wall, landscape, and balloons. Have I mentioned how good (so far) (http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/2/3283656/the-best-techwriting-of-the-week-september-2) The Verge's Best Tech Writing of the Week feature. I don't know why I haven't linked to it already, but the (http://asorblog.org/) ASOR blog is doing some great stuff. (http://www.lisa.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/content.php?nav_id=3971) Some interesting thoughts on archaeology in Turkey with a particular eye toward the tension between foreign projects and the Turkish government. I've thought (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/archaeologyand-the-tragedy-of-the-commons/) a bit (but just a tiny bit) about archaeology and the tragedy of the commons. (http://scripto.org/about/) Scripto seems really cool. I wonder if could be adapted to transcribing oral history recordings. (http://chronicle.com/article/Historians-Ask-the-Public-to/134054/) Here are some other recent thoughts on crowd sourcing archival work. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idF3Nq11BcM) This video on the YouTubes of detonating World War Two era bomb is intense. (http://chronicle.com/article/Before-You-Jump-on-the/134090/) An interesting gaggle of articles on MOOCs.

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 What I'm reading (still): J. Bintliff, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/complete-archaeology-of-greece-fromhunter-gatherers-to-the-20th-century-ad/oclc/701808393) The Complete Archaeology of Greece: from hunter gatherers to the 20th century. Blackwell 2012. What I'm listening to: (http://coexist.thexx.info/) The XX, Coexist ; Cat Power, Sun; Stan Getz, Jazz Samba.

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<title>Archaeology Stories</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/archaeology-stories/</link> Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:37:41 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2034 This fall Im going to deliver a paper for the Archaeological Institute of Amerca's roving lecture program at Valparaiso titled Ten Years at an Ancient Harbor in Cyprus. The over-arching goal of the paper is to give a lively and entertaining overview of the work of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project. I also want to reflect on how I narrate the projects history and interleave it with the history of the site. I want to figure out how to integrate our archaeological decisions, particularly those that shaped our methodology, with the kind of landscape that we created. Here I am following Michael Given's lead and taking inspiration (in a way) from his innovative introduction to the (http://www.worldcat.org/title/sydneycyprus-survey-project-social-approaches-to-regional-archaeological-survey/oclc/51460580) Sydney Cyprus Survey Project volume. As I toiled to figure out how to deal with telling two stories at once, I finally settled on a few little narrative aids that will (hopefully) help me shift between the various stories that I want to tell in my paper. 1. Telling Stories in Different Directions. Perhaps the most interesting things about narrating archaeology is that when one encounters a landscape or excavates, one starts with the most recent times and moves backward to earlier periods. In effect, this is the reverse of most forms of story telling which moves chronologically through time just as we as humans experience life. So to make the story of our project work with the (hi)story of our site, one or the other needs to be set on its head. I've decided to move from the Late Roman period back in time to the Roman, Hellenistic and earlier periods in my historical descriptions and let my talk follow more realistically the course of our discovery. 2. Making Stories with Mistakes. Among the numerous amusing episodes from our 10 years of work at the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project was our thought process that led to the excavation of the Hellenistic fortified site of Vigla. Our initial argument for the importance of Vigla and our need to excavate there centered on the presence of a fortified monastic complex that (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/pkap-news-where/) we thought we had identified through geophysical work at the site in 2007. Needless to say, we made a mistake, but the logic of this mistake fits within a narrative in which the later Roman material produced a mental overburden that occluded the possible earlier elements of the site from view. It was only with excavation - that literally removed the Roman overburden (such as it was) - and revealed the earlier phases of the site that we realized our mistaken interpretation. 3. Landscapes of Change. These narrational challenges (telling stories in different directions and integrating mistakes) reveal the most difficult aspect of presenting a landscape. Landscapes - whether created by excavation or survey - represent dynamic entities that shift constantly depending on one's perspective. Later discoveries make it difficult to narrate - in an authentic way - earlier assumptions which may end in dead ends or lead to minor episodes taking on surprising significance later. Time shifting through narration, however, brings to the fore the contextual character of dynamic landscapes and reveals through the artifice of story telling how evidence for the past in the present appears through time.

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<title>Terraces and Rural Land Use at Politiko-Troullia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/terraces-and-rural-land-use-at-politikotroullia/</link> Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:06:55 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2037 As I am putting the final(ish) touches on the conclusion to a survey volume based on our work on the PylaKoutsopetria Archaeological Project, I have a good excuse to catch up on reports from other little survey projects on the eastern part of the Cyprus. Yesterday, I read through P. L. Fall, S. Falconer, C. S. Galletti, T. Shirmang, E. Ridder, and J. Klinge, " (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030544031200074X) Long-term agrarian landscapes in the Troodos foothills, Cyprus," Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012), 2335-2347. The article looked at terraced hillsopes at the site of Politiko-Koloiokremmos and, the better known, PolitikoTroulia in the eastern Troodos and argues that at least some of these terrace walls relate to surface assemblages of Prehistoric Bronze Age material in a statistically meaningful way. The authors ground these conclusions in a careful typology of terrace walls (which may become a useful guide to any project confronting numerous terraces on Cyprus) and a systematic surface survey. Their survey covered an area of 20 ha with 174 2 meter radius total collection circles which produced material from almost every period from the Bronze Age to Medieval times. Sherd densities were 30-50 sherds/100 m2. This density ranked higher than the threshold of 20 sherds/100 m2 that the nearby Sydney Cyprus Survey Project suggested for "agricultural background". Geophysical investigation demonstrated that the surface scatter was indeed associated with a tangle of subsurface features and excavation dated these features to the Cypriot Bronze Age. The presence of significant Bronze Age material and the investment in terrace walls seems to indicate an "intensively utilized, but apparently isolated, agrarian locality" dating to before the large scale urbanization of the island in the Late or Protohistoric Bronze Age. Curiously, later material in the surface assemblage does not seem to relate to any of the subsurface features excavated at the site. The authors suggest that the proximity to the later city of Tamassos which emerged as an important political center in the Iron Age might account for the later material on the surface as the site falls within what the authors regard as a plausible manuring halo for residence of the city of Tamassos. They do concede, however, that the low density scatter might represent "dispersed field structures or farmsteads." The presence of Roman or Medieval roof tiles indicates that some of the later, low density scatter of material in the area might be related to a Roman or Medieval structure built atop the low rise of the site. The authors conclude with the observation that the site of Politiko-Troulia/Koloiokremmos has evidence for over 4000 years of continuous agricultural use and investment. The stability of the such long-term agrarian landscapes on Cyprus is, indeed, striking, but not particularly unusual in the Mediterranean basin. The far more pressing issue, of course, is why are these localities so persistently appealing despite shifts in settlement distributions, demographic expansion and contraction, economic fluctuations, and changes in cultural attitudes toward the landscape.

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<title>Byzantine Archaeology and the Archaeology of Greece</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/byzantine-archaeology-and-the-archaeologyof-greece/</link> Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:28:03 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2040 Last week I blogged a bit about working my way through J. Bintliff's new survey of the archaeology of Greece. This week, I reflected on the sections dedicated to the archaeology of Byzantine and Crusader Greece. These three chapters are strong enough to stand on their own as a short survey of Byzantine archaeology. They feature vivid case studies that introduce readers to some unfamiliar places while at the same time providing to the traditional monuments central to long-standing discussions of Byzantine archaeology and architecture. There are a handful of things that really stood out in these chapters: 1. Domestic Spaces. Bintliff does a great job bringing in recent research on Byzantine and "Frankish period" housing (most notably the work of E. Sigalos). Attention to Byzantine housing, of course, is an important step to developing a more sophisticated understanding of the functional character of surface assemblages for this period. While Bintliff offers little that is new, he does provide a very accessible synthesis of recent work on Byzantine domestic space which a student could easily use as a jumping off point for more in-depth research. The only period for which Bintliff's work seems a bit lacking is for the Early Byzantine period or the "Dark Ages" where recent work stands poised to make a serious contribution to habitation practices during this important transitional time. 2. Urban and Rural. A better understanding of both urban and rural housing allows us to begin to unravel the complexities associated with Byzantine settlement. At present, as Bintliff acknowledged, the lines between various types so Byzantine settlements are exceedingly blurry. While the ends of the continuum - say isolated farms and major urban areas - are clear, the differences between monasteries, hamlets, villages, town, and small cities remains difficult at best. Even if we concede that some of these terms may reflect contemporary definitions of settlement more than Byzantine, the organization of space outside of the most monumentalized centers (Mistras, Thessaloniki, Constantinople, et c.) continues to offer a serious challenge to scholars interested in Byzantine economy and society. 3. Texts. It was a bit striking that there was so little appeal to texts throughout these chapters. Byzantine archaeology has long been beholden to texts and the abundance of texts -from the most modest hagiography to various documentary sources like the typika edited and published by Dumbarton Oaks. These texts have long worked in conjunction with archaeological observation to offer a robust perspective on the Byzantine and Frankish material culture. Despite all the difficulties that texts from the Medieval period have created for archaeologists, their absence of this section reflects an obvious oversight to specialists in Byzantine archaeology. 4. No Longer Periphery. Most surveys of Byzantine archaeology - as much as such things exist - regard Greece as somehow peripheral to the Byzantine heartland and part of a larger discussion of "provincial" architecture, archaeology, and traditions. Bintliff's book offers almost no hint of this provincializing discourse and locates southern and central Greece at the center of his discussion of archaeology. This makes some sense, of course, as his book focuses on the archaeology of a particular region defined by both the modern nationstate and earlier concentrations of distinct cultural practices. By focusing on regional practices in their own rights rather than as just pale imitations of the center, Bintliff locates the material culture of Byzantine and Frankish Greece within local traditions and evidence. As his entire book shows, the remains of Byzantine and Frankish Greece fit within a larger and independent narrative of Greek history and archaeology. (This is something that Greek archaeologists have largely recognized, but Bintliff avoids the potential for a nationalist archaeology by treading very critically and carefully the minefield of continuity.)

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The most vexing thing about this otherwise commendable survey is that it's attached to 300+ pages of careful scholarship on the archaeology of earlier periods. This makes this volume not particularly appealing for a course in Medieval or Byzantine history course where it would clearly fill a gap in current offerings. This left me wishing that this book (and others like it) come in a more modular form where an instructor could purchase only particular sections of a text (at I am sure a healthy mark up!).

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<title>Modern and Ancient in Calabria</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/modern-and-ancient-in-calabria/</link> Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:01:47 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2045 One of my favorite scholars of the ancient world and old graduate school crony, (http://www.mcgill.ca/history/michael-fronda) Mike Fronda, has a brilliant little piece in this fall's McGill University's Classical Studies Newsletter. Mike talks about his visit to the home town of his grandmother, Caulonia, in Calabria. This town fit into Mike's recent research on the Italiote League as ancient Kaulonia was the capital of the league. Today, the site is mostly known for the foundations of a Doric Temple. Mike's short essay, however, focuses on the intersection of the ancient and the modern in the methods he used to search for his grandmother's birth date. (http://www.mcgill.ca/classics/sites/mcgill.ca.classics/files/newsletter_2012-13.pdf) The essay deserves to be read in total here, but here's a teaser: Caulonia has a personal resonance for me: thousands of Cauloniesi emigrated to the US in the 1910s and 1920s, among them my grandmother Carmela Maiolo. I decided to visit the historic center to learn more about my origins. Around the central piazza, I found several placards memorializing the five days in 1945 when the townsfolk declared an independent, communist Red Republic of Caulonia, before allied forces suppressed the movement. At last I came to the civic registry office, where I was invited by the director to search through the birth records, organized by decade, to find information on my ancestors. Quickly we found entries for my great-grandparents and my grandmothers seven siblings, but nothing on my grandmother, who was born (according to family lore) in 1902. I immediately began to develop theories: was my grandmother adopted? Did she lie about her name? Did she lie about her age? So I asked the director to look in the records for 1890-1899. She was skeptical and asked, Does your grandmother have a grave? Yes, I answered. What is written on the stone? 1902, I answered. So there, she said. But, I explained, when she died, no one in the family knew for sure when she was born. The director looked dubious but relented, and within in minutes, we found the missing birth record in 1899! As a scholar in ancient history, this experience struck me deeply. The director assumed that the tombstone inscription was an indisputable fact, and indeed ancient historians often put great faith in epigraphic evidence without considering that they are subject to the same distortions, inaccuracies and fabrications found in, for instance, literary sources.

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-17/</link> Fri, 14 Sep 2012 13:05:28 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2050 It was in the 30s when I walked into school this morning, but the deep blue of the morning sky kept me warm on my walk. Fall is coming to North Dakotaland, blog traffic has picked up, and my academic year routine has commenced. For the first time since the start of the semester, I actually got some work done this week in a systematic way. So, to celebrate the end of a productive (if not entirely pleasant) week, some quick hits and varia: There is a remarkable gaggle of activity going on for Late Antiquity lovers this fall. First, there is Manchester's (http://www.arts.manchester.ac.uk/cla/projects/constantinesdream/events/betweenheavenandearth/) Between Heaven and Earth: Law, Ideology, and the Social Order in Late Antiquity conference this week. Next, the new (http://books.google.com/books?id=GKRybwb17WMC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=gbs_ge_s ummary_r&amp;cad=0#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false) Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity has come out with over 1000 pages of Late Antiquity goodness (interestingly its release date is listed as (http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Handbook-Late-Antiquity-Handbooks/dp/0195336933/) October 11 on Amazon, but the book is on Google Books). Finally, I just noticed (http://www.ihc.ucsb.edu/projects/lateantiquity/index.htm) the California Consortium for the Study of Late Antiquity with an impressive line up of scholars. (http://www.the506.com/nflmaps/2012/wk2.html) The most important webpage in my weekly web surfing. I had one of those "holy shit, I'm old moment" when I asked one of my classes who gave Jay-Z his start in the rap game. The answers ranged from Dr. Dre to Tu-Pac. Not a good showing. Anywoo, (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/t-magazine/index.html) I think they should read this nice little article on him. (http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/09/09/who-owns-antiquity-u-penn-s-trojan-gold-andthe-drusus-head.html) Who owns antiquity? (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1035155599/ghosts-of-north-dakota-the-book) I might have to make an individual post on this, but I want to make sure people know that Ghosts of North Dakota guys have started a Kickstarter for a book. It's a pretty impressive ask ($12,175), but they're off to a great start. (http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/10/michael-lewis-profile-barack-obama?src=longreads) Michael Lewis on Obama. A bunch of Rothaus Varia. First, you need to check out (http://www.isaacisms.com/) his Isaacism's page. Next, (http://nymag.com/news/features/housing-projects-2012-9/) he fires off a link to a great article in New York Magazine on the NYC Housing Authority. Finally, he gives us (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=284) some technical details on his kite rig that he uses to produce brilliant oblique aerial photographs. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18623559) If you still need more of the NYC, then take the A Train.

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 (http://istanbuldesignbiennial.iksv.org/a-letter-to-new-city-reader-05-from-orhan-pamuk/) Orhan Pamuk on the Bosphorus Drying Up. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/stanford-u-releases-new-open-source-online-educationplatform/39850) More MOOCing over at Stanford. (http://www.niso.org/publications/isq/2012/v24no2-3/elliott/) A short overview of a recent workshop by the Institution for the Study of the Ancient World at NYU on Linked Ancient World Data Institute (LAWDI). What I'm reading: Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/days-of-destruction-daysof-revolt/oclc/744287755) Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Nation Books 2012. (A book that might be unbloggable). What I'm listening to: David Byrne and St. Vincent, Love this Giant.

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<title>The Abandoned Periphery</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/the-abandoned-periphery/</link> Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:58:30 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2053 The recent fascination with abandonment porn has tended to emphasize the decline of urban areas and the decay and collapse of the once monumental urban infrastructures that supported centralized industrial activities. Less common are discussions of abandonment at the periphery. Some abandoned North Dakota landscapes have attracted attention for the picturesque character of abandoned farms, rusted vehicles, and collapsing fences. Chris Hedges's and Joe Sacco's new book (http://www.worldcat.org/title/days-of-destruction-days-ofrevolt/oclc/744287755) Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt offers another perspective on abandonment. Rather than the picturesque visions of days-gone-by or a center that did not hold, in the third chapter of the book - Days of Devastation - Hedges's prose complemented by Sacco's art looks at the destruction and abandonment in rural West Virginia where the coal that powered the now-abandoned factories was cut from mountains. The ruins of communities, towns, buildings, and the landscape shed devastating light on the cost of prosperity. Interviews punctuate almost archaeological descriptions of the communities left in ruins by the changing fortunes of the coal industry showing how the romantic abandonment of the failed-center drew down periphery through the long tendrils that connect monumental industry to rural communities which provided them with power. Here's a short excerpt describing the town of Gary, West Virginia: "Gary's rutted streets are lined by empty clapboard houses with sagging roofs. Porches fall away from the buildings. Wooden steps are rotted. Rusted appliances, the frames of old cars, tires, and heaps of garbage lie scattered in front of rows of deserted dwellings or clog the brackets water in the creeks, where low-lying branches are tangled with plastic bags and bottles. Broaded-up storefronts, neglected chutes, the bleak brick remains of Gary High School, and the shuttered, flat-roofed stone bank building give the landscape the feel of a ravaged war zone. The spindly remains of chimneys jut up and out of the charred timbers of burned houses. The guts of most buildings, as in Camden, have been stripped of piping and copper for sale in the scrap yards. The gold dome of the empty Orthodox church disappeared one night when a thief somehow commandeered a crane. The train station, the restaurant, and the old company store, meticulously planned by Judge Albert Gary, the architecture of J.P. Morgan's U.S. Steel empire and the man for whom the town was named, are skeletal remains. Mobile homes stand empty along the side of the road, their siding and torn insulation flapping in the wind in tattered strips. There is no supermarket. Canned or packaged food, high in sodium, sugar, and preservatives, and fat along with cheap bottles of liquor, are sold at the local convenience store and gas station, located across the road from the drug market."

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<title>More from the Abandoned Periphery</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/more-from-the-abandonedperiphery/</link> Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:59:36 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2059 This last week, the popular(-ish) blog (http://ghostsofnorthdakota.com/) Ghosts of North Dakota has announced a Kickstarter to fund a book based on their photographs of abandoned and declining towns in North Dakota. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sonictremormedia/ghosts-of-north-dakota-the-book) Here's a link to their Kickstarter page. They're looking to raise $12,175 and are about halfway there with over 60 backers. The deadline is October 10th. The book's authors Troy Larson and Terry Hinnekamp have worked to document photographically the abandoned landscapes of North Dakota since 2003. Their blog has collected their photographs and the photographs of others from various rural sites across North Dakota which they have indexed by place name. The tone of the site is Romantic and the photos often contrast the declining state of buildings with the stark blue of the North Dakota sky. For many small towns in North Dakota, Ghosts of North Dakota becomes a useful reference page including census data and whatever bits of documentary knowledge exist for these towns. We used Ghosts of North Dakota during trips to Wheelock and Appam. In fact, the photo of the Wheelock school on the (http://ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2009/12/08/wheelockschool/) Ghosts of North Dakota page dedicated to the town here. Gave us an idea of what the building once looked like. Presently, the building looks like this: <"DSC_0500.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/dsc_0500.jpg" alt="DSC 0500" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> Often residents of these towns or people with memories of them leave comments or contribute their own photographs or identifications to the pages dedicated to towns. In effect, what started may have started as a place to document declining communities and abandoned towns has become a place where communities can reconnect, share memories, and write their own history. It will be instructive to understand whether the book will capture this aspect of the Ghosts of North Dakota.

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<title>Ten Years at an Ancient Harbor in Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/ten-years-at-an-ancient-harbor-incyprus/</link> Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:59:16 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2062 Next Tuesday, I'll give my first even lecture for the Archaeological Institute of America at Valparaiso University. The talk is titled Ten Years at an Ancient Harbor in Cyprus and will summarize the PylaKoutsopetria Archaeological Project's contribution to the Hellenistic and Late Roman period on Cyprus. To do this, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/archaeology-stories/) as I described in an earlier post, I've tried to emphasize archaeology as "storytelling with things" by interlacing the history of our project and the history of our site. I've built a substantial powerpoint with a number of new images in it and uploaded my rather sparse notes and the power pointer to Scribd for my blog readers to survey. [scribd id=106349732 key=key-jzbmr3vioppaz6pehsa mode=scroll]

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<title>Archaeological Maps</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/20/archaeological-maps/</link> Thu, 20 Sep 2012 13:33:09 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2071 One of my responsibilities with the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project this fall is to produce our final distribution maps. In fact, this was a collaborative effort as David Pettegrew checked all my calculations which were the basis for the first round of maps, caught a few little issues, and then created the GIS layers. All I had to do was to package these and make them legible as maps. I find this part of the process fairly frustrating. My tastes in maps run to the old school and my patience for archaeological maps with incredibly high data density is pretty limited. As I result, I tried to produce maps that communicated a fairly limited amount of data in as clear a way as possible. We collected our data from a fair regularly shaped set of units set up on a coastal plain and a series of flat-topped coastal ridges surrounded by steep slopes and narrow valleys. Here is the survey area with almost no archaeological data except the grid. The different colors of grid outlines represent the different zones that we discuss in our analysis. I have kept the 4 m topo lines rather than using only 8 or 12 m because I think that they communicate the rugged topography more effectively. I made them a rather light gray color so that the survey grid popped out more. I did not include elevation labels on the topolines because the coastline is clearly visible on the bottom of the frame. Finally, I offset the map to the west/left in its frame to make room for the legend, north arrow, and scale on the right side of the frame. <"PKAP_Zones.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pkap_zones.png" alt="PKAP Zones" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> My next map shows the overall artifact density across the site with the colored outlines still representing the different zones. I think the outlines are hard to see against the gray gradient used to indicate different artifact densities. The legend records the artifact densities per hectare. <img style="border-style:initial;border-color:initial;display:block;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;borderwidth:0;" title="PKAP_ZoneDensity.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pkap_zonedensity.png" alt="PKAP ZoneDensity" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> The gray gradient for artifact densities on the next map are made 40% transparent. The distribution of Early Roman ceramics are red. <"PKAP_RomanEarly.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pkap_romanearly.png" alt="PKAP RomanEarly" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> I think this design shows low density scatters (like the Classical period) and high density (like the Late Roman) scatters effectively. <"PKAP_Classical.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pkap_classical.png" alt="PKAP Classical" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> <"PKAP_RomanLate.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/pkap_romanlate.png" alt="PKAP RomanLate" width="450" height="363" border="0" />

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I remain torn about the need for a north arrow.

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-18/</link> Fri, 21 Sep 2012 15:40:56 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2074 A beautiful, crisp, sunny fall morning in North Dakotaland and leisurely walk onto campus put me in the perfect mood for some varia and quick hits. Endless chat about the fragment of papyrus that mentions Jesus's wife. (http://news.hds.harvard.edu/files/King_JesusSaidToThem_draft_0917.pdf) Here's Karen King's paper (pdf). (http://xkcd.com/1110/) A pretty remarkable comic over at XKCD (be sure to scroll around the world!). (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/anonymous-%E2%80%93-t20-cricket-is-watched-just-about-everywherebut-here.html) The ICC World Twenty20 is going on. (http://nymag.com/print/?/news/features/cheating-2012-9/) Some thoughts on cheating. From (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus : (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/aldo-leopold-dawn-chorus/) the sounds of the past. (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/20/arts/design/the-louvres-new-islamic-galleries-bring-riches-tolight.html?_r=3&amp;hp) The new Islamic Galleries at the Louvre. (http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2012/08/06/120806fi_fiction_fitzgerald) New F. Scott Fitzgerald and (http://www.berfrois.com/2012/09/thomas-heise-f-scott-fitzgeralds-depression/) some thoughts about life after 40 (this is a preoccupation of mine). (http://www.thenewathenian.com/2012/09/is-greece-headed-for-crash.html) Some more thoughts on the future of Greece. (http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2012/08/06/120806fi_fiction_fitzgerald) USA Today's new design. Pretty nice. (http://www.mnopedia.org/) MNopedia. (http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/141912) Beatnik Slang. (http://theamazingios6maps.tumblr.com/) Some opinions on Apple's new maps in i06. What I'm reading: M. Veikou, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/byzantine-epirus-a-topography-oftransformation-settlements-of-the-seventh-twelfth-centuries-in-southern-epirus-and-aetoloacarnaniagreece/oclc/776142335) Byzantine Epirus. Brill 2012. What I'm listening to: Grizzly Bear, Shields; Total Loss, How to Dress Well.

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<title>Some Churches in Byzantine Epirus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/some-churches-in-byzantineepirus/</link> Mon, 24 Sep 2012 13:15:34 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2077 I've spent the last week or so perusing M. Veikou's very new book on (http://www.worldcat.org/title/byzantine-epirus-a-topography-of-transformation-settlements-of-theseventh-twelfth-centuries-in-southern-epirus-and-aetoloacarnania-greece/oclc/776142335) Byzantine Epirus (Leiden 2012). It's a monumental tome with over 300 pages of analysis and 300 more of figures, catalogues, and a site inventory. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/more-on-byzantinesettlement/) I've commented on Veikou's work on this blog before so I was pretty excited to get my hands on her book length treatment of Byzantine Epirus to see how she developed more fully some of the themes touched upon in her article length work. While I haven't managed to get all the way through the book yet, she has already offered a few really interesting observations that are not so much novel as well documented and conceptualized. As per usual my short observations this morning are based on what I have found useful or intriguing about the book rather than some kind of universal review of the book's merits. 1. Basilica Cemeteries and Byzantine Settlement. Veikou makes the rather obvious argument that the conversion of Early Christian or Early Byzantine churches into cemeteries in the 7th to 10th centuries - a common phenomenon across the southern Balkans - suggests continuity in settlement between the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Byzantine era (pp. 68-72). As far as I know, she is the first to make this leap and while I have some doubts about its application in specific cases (for example, I could imagine the urge to bury ad sanctos could trump the need to bury bodies in the immediate proximity of a settlement), I think she is probably right. She then takes this a step further to note that the use of earlier churches as places of burial might mark the growing willingness to bury the dead near or within settlements during Byzantine period as opposed to outside of settlements as was more common in the Early Christian period. She does, of course, note that the state of the buildings into which later visitors made burials is often unclear with evidence for churches both with standing walls and completely collapsed. 2. Byzantine Churches on Early Christian Foundations. Veikou also compiles a useful list of later churches built on the foundations of Early Christian (or just earlier Christian) buildings (p. 57). While this is hardly a major emphasis in her work, it is an exceedingly useful list for scholars looking to understand continuity of the religious landscape in Greece. 3. Typologies. Throughout Veikou's section on architecture she proposes numerous typologies or adapts typologies for other authors to describe various architectural features present in both religious and nonreligious architecture in Epirus. Such thorough typology building has long been standard practice in Greek (and more broadly Continental) approaches to documenting features in the landscape, but for many archaeologists the most persistent fear is that we impose typologies on material that, in turn, begin to dictate in unanticipated ways, our interpretations. The most obvious example of the typology-tail wagging the dog is when we have used typologies as the basis for either absolute chronology or the develop of features through time. In these cases, the logic of the typology (in, say, Byzantine architecture) has run the risk of trumping the evidence from stratigraphic excavation or other forms of dating. That being said, typologies of the type that Viekou developed in her book offers the basis for a common vocabulary to describe various features in the Epiriote landscape, and she makes a particular effort to link the typologies she creates with those existing in other literature (e.g. her grave typology on p. 76-80).

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As I said, I've only just started harvesting this book for valuable data and I've only scratched the surface of Viekou's larger arguments regarding the transformation of the Byzantine landscape of Epirus. As a region of the Byzantine world that is both peripheral to the traditional centers of Byzantine control and authority and located in an important liminal zone between the East and West during the Middle Ages, the development of Epirus over these centuries has significant impact on how we understand the limits and character of the socalled Byzantine commonwealth. In other words, more on this book soon.

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<title>Short Term Settlement in Turn of the Century North Dakota</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/short-term-settlement-in-turn-of-thecentury-north-dakota/</link> Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:14:30 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2080 This week has brought big news for folks interested in the impact of the North Dakota oil boom on the communities of North Dakota. Yesterday, (http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-09-24/oil-magnatesupporting-new-und-oil-geology-school) the University of North Dakota announced that Harold Hamm, the oil billionaire, has give $10 million to support a new school of geology and geological engineering which will bear his name. (http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/news/article.asp?docKey=600201209210404KRTRIB__BUSNEWS_51943_500471&amp;params=timestamp%7C%7C09/21/2012%204:04%20AM%20ET%7C%7Cheadline%7C%7CExxon %20buys%20North%20Dakota%2C%20Montana%20oil%20acreage%20from%20Denbury%20for%20%24 1.6B%20%5BThe%20Dallas%20Morning%20News%5D%7C%7CdocSource%7C%7CKnight%20Ridder/T ribune%7C%7Cprovider%7C%7CACQUIREMEDIA%7C%7Cbridgesymbol%7C%7CUS;DNR&amp;ticker =DNR) ExxonMobile has announced that they would buy $1.6 billion of North Dakota and Montana land suggesting that despite a recent decline in the number of rigs operating, companies still see the Bakken oil patch as a major player in onshore oil production. Exxon will own approximately 600,000 acres in North Dakota and half of the production of the Bakken. The news demonstrated how the western part of North Dakota <span style="font-family:'American Typewriter';font-size:18px;) continues to have its place in the global economy. I've been reading (http://www.worldcat.org/title/farms-mines-and-main-streets-uneven-development-in-a-dakotacounty/oclc/27109042) Caroline Tauxe's book on the North Dakota energy boom in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Mercer County. While the boom Tauxe examines was mostly in coal, she does position the boom of the 1970s and 1980s in the long term history of the western part of the state and its engagement in the world economy. My interest is in how the place of North Dakota in the global economy has impacted settlement. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) My recent work on short term settlement in the Bakken range - particularly man camps - has looked at the material and social signatures of these places in the landscape. Popular attitudes toward these settlements regularly contrast them with the more long term settlements. But, as I have mentioned here before, many of the long term places of habitation in western North Dakota developed through the same processes that have produced man camps. Patterns of short term settlement for resource extraction, modest investments in the landscape, and a willingness to move on quickly to take advantage of opportunities elsewhere characterized many of the early towns in North Dakota. Tauxe provides a great window into these processes in a short summary of early settlement of Mercer County: "Over the years, the countys boundaries have been redefined several times, and the composition of its population centers has been even more fluid. Stanton reached a peak of 200 residents in 1888, but had been virtually abandoned ten years later. Mercer City, a town platted by the Lutheran Colonization Bureau of Chicago, never had more than one inhabitant, although 25 lots were sold to gullible buyers in Illinois. Mannhaven and Expansion were both founded by locally formed steamboat-building and -operating companies and survived as grain shipping ports and lumberyard centers until the railroads came through another part of the county. Krem was the only sizeable early town built away from the river, and with its flour mill and two general stores became for some time the busiest trading center in the county, although farmers

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still went to the river to sell their grain. Another victim of shifting transportation structures, Krem was abandoned after 1912 when the new railroad coming through the county bypassed it. Kroenthal and Kasmer, founding in 1900 and 1910 respectively, both began as post offices and then experimented with creameries. Kroenthal died abirthing, however, when it was discovered that butter shipped south to market failed to survive the long wagon journey without spoiling. Kasmer faired better, acquired stores and a bank (the German-American). But it ultimately succumbed with the advent of the railroad in the country, as did Ree (also known as Stoeltingen), founded as a branch of the Expansion Lumber and Mercantile Company and a grain shipping point on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Bigbend, like Mercer City, was another moneymaking attempt by outside speculators that failed almost before it began. There, several hundred lots were sold in Wisconsin by Milwaukee speculators, but only one settler actually took possession." (p. 32-33)

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<title>Valparaiso Chapel</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/26/valparaiso-chapel/</link> Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:52:44 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2092 The hospitality at Valparaiso University for (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/19/tenyears-at-an-ancient-harbor-in-cyprus/) my visiting Archaeological Institute of America lecture was lovely and the audience was large, engaged, and receptive! And the (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapel_of_the_Resurrection) Chapel of the Resurrection was beautiful in the early fall evening. <"Valpo_Chapel.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/valpo_chapel.jpg" alt="Valpo Chapel" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> <"Valpo_Chapel2.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/valpo_chapel2.jpeg" alt="Valpo Chapel2" width="450" height="600" border="0" />

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<title>Cyprus Research Fund Lecture: Paupers and Peasants and Princes and Kings: Reconstructing Society in Late Bronze Age Greece</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/cyprus-research-fund-lecture-paupers-andpeasants-and-princes-and-kings-reconstructing-society-in-late-bronze-age-greece/</link> Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:33:22 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2096 It is very exciting to announce that this year's Cyprus Research Fund Lecture is Professor Dimitri Nakassis from the University of Toronto. Prof. Nakassis will present some of his cutting edge research on Late Bronze Age social organization in Greece. For those who don't know, I've had the good fortune of working in the field with Prof. Nakassis for over a decade, first on the Eastern Korinthia Archaeological Project and then when he stepped in as an expect excavator and critical contributor to the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus. He is a rare breed of scholar who is capable of presenting complex ideas in direct and easily comprehended ways. His talk for the 4th Annual Cyprus Research Fund Lecture is titled: Paupers and Peasants and Princes and Kings: Reconstructing Society in Late Bronze Age Greece. The talk will be in the East Asia Room of the Chester Fritz Library on Thursday, October 25th at 4 pm. A reception will follow. Here's a prcis of the talk: Studies of Mycenaean Greece often focus on the vast divide between the most powerful and the least powerful individuals: the king and the officials of the palace on the one hand, and lowly laborers on the other. Between those extremes, however, were local leaders, administrators, and skilled craftsmen whose activities we can document through texts and the archaeological record. This paper proposes a new model of Mycenaean culture that incorporates evidence about kings, slaves, and the middling ranks of society. Here's the flyer for the talk: <"Nakassis_Cyprus Research Fund-SC.pdf.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/nakassis_cyprus-research-fund-sc-pdf.jpg" alt="Nakassis Cyprus Research Fund SC pdf" width="464" height="600" border="0" />

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-42/</link> Fri, 28 Sep 2012 13:03:35 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2100 Say what you will about the evils of climate change, but I will enjoy an early fall day when the temperature flirts with 80 on the Northern Plains. The last dance of summer provides a nice backdrop for a few quick hits and varia: Dimitri Nakassis pointed out that (http://pelagios.dme.ait.ac.at/maps/greco-roman/) our site of PylaKoutsopetria appears on this digital atlas of Roman sites. Pretty cool. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/cyprus-research-fund-lecture-paupers-andpeasants-and-princes-and-kings-reconstructing-society-in-late-bronze-age-greece/) He's also our 2012 Cyprus Research Fund Lecturer. (http://imgur.com/jpdGk) This is a neat history of scroll bars (via (http://daringfireball.net/) Daring Fireball). (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/category/work-camps/) Our man camp work got (http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/569261/One-part-of-the-big-picture.html) a little editorial press in the Minot Daily News. (http://world.time.com/2012/09/25/an-interview-with-the-discoverer-of-jesus-wife/#ixzz27UOEFRdu) Endless conversations about a very small piece of papyrus. (http://world.time.com/2012/09/25/an-interview-with-the-discoverer-of-jesus-wife/#ixzz27UOEFRdu) It seems that teachers who write are better at teaching writing. Of course, anyone at the university knows that the best teachers are usually the best and most active researchers in their fields. Doing usually precedes teaching. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19648095) The contents of Chinese people's houses. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/09/1829-man-camp-navarino.html) Kostis Kourelis thinks a bit about man camps and archaeology (and obliquely is getting to the archaeology of archaeology). (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/09/26/raw-notes-from-nicosia-cyprus/) Aaron Barth and (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=307) Richard Rothaus have handwritten blog posts. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pmhd0jjZwWM) Awesome preview of the Giro d'Italia (via James Wells). (http://chronicle.com/article/Want-to-Change-Academic/134546/) Some interesting chatter about changes in academic publishing and (http://www.attemptingelegance.com/?p=1765) the consequences of the current model. I know it's cliche, (http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-world-twenty202012/content/current/series/531597.html) but the Super Eights in the World Twenty20 has become pretty exciting. Australia plays today at 9 am and (http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-world-twenty202012/engine/current/match/533287.html) you can watch it streaming in the internets in the U.S. of A. (http://twentytwowords.com/2012/04/18/why-old-books-smell-so-good/) Why old books smell so good.

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 (http://www.punkdomestics.com/) Punk Domestics. What I'm listening to: Frightened Rabbit, The State Hospital. What I'm reading: Caroline S. Tauxe, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/farms-mines-and-main-streetsuneven-development-in-a-dakota-county/oclc/27109042) Farms, Mines, and Main Streets: Uneven Development in a Dakota County. Temple University Press 1993. <"Tree.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/tree.jpg" alt="Tree" width="450" height="600" border="0" />

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<title>Man Camps from the Air</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/man-camps-from-the-air/</link> Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:43:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2107 One of the coolest things about being at the University of North Dakota is that they have a (http://www.aero.und.edu/) College of Airplane Flying, and this - every now and then - gives us access to some pretty cool stuff. This past week, I was able to get some time on Upper Midwest Aerospace Consortium's AEROCam to get some .5 m resolution aerial photographs of our man camps. The issue is (as I noted (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/07/more-on-rural-change-in-western-northdakota/) in an earlier post) that Google Earth images simply can't keep up with the changes in the landscape and more recent and regular satellite images are prohibitively expensive or insufficient resolution to document the small scale changes that are taking place there. In any event, we received close to 500 images last week and I have just begun to georeference them (although mostly in a quick-and-dirty way). The two images below are among my favorites. It shows clearly the massive expansion of a man camp in an area that just a year earlier had been rugged and ravine filled land unsuited to local agriculture (but perhaps used at some recent point for grazing). <"ManCampsGIS.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/mancampsgis.png" alt="ManCampsGIS" width="450" height="336" border="0" /> <"ManCampsGIS_11.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/mancampsgis_11.png" alt="ManCampsGIS 11" width="450" height="336" border="0" /> The ground leveled initially for the camp was completely filled in and new areas opened. At present the camp accommodates over 300 units. The masts for power and water run perpendicular to the units and parallel to the roads. The grey in the lower photo is the gravel bedding for the camp in an effort to manage the mud in the spring. The yellow roofed building in the center of the lower photo is an administrative building area housing the camp's offices and providing laundry for the residents. The camp has the rustic name "Foxrun". The next pair of photos show the infilling of an almost abandoned town with RVs housing workers. <"ManCampsGIS_Town.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/mancampsgis_town.png" alt="ManCampsGIS Town" width="450" height="336" border="0" /> <"ManCampsGIS_TownCamp.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/mancampsgis_towncamp.png" alt="ManCampsGIS TownCamp" width="450" height="336" border="0" /> Notice the grey leveled gravel to the east of the town and the infilling of units (without the tell-tale gravel pad) crowded around houses located on the main east-west road. In the upper left of the town grid you'll notice that the school house that appears in the first picture has collapsed in the second. We are preparing our first academic paper on our research for the (http://mwacs.undborderlands.org/) Midwest Association of Canadian Studies Conference this weekend. I'll post a draft of it here when it's decent.

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<title>Two Little Project Updates</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/two-little-project-updates/</link> Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:48:38 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2110 As readers of my blog know, I am famous for side projects. In fact, at some point in the last decade my side projects have simply overwhelmed my not-side projects rendering them all side projects. It doesn't matter. I love them - side or otherwise - all the same. Punk Archaeology took an important step in the right direction last night. We have a venue and are beginning to secure some local "punk rock outfits" to provide us with music. We've sketched out a rough program with an acoustic punk band to open and then a panel that runs about an hour to an hour and a half. It looks like we have 5 or 6 participants in the panel, and true to punk form, we'll ask them to keep their remarks brief to all for plenty of opportunities for audience participation. The point of departure for the speakers remarks will be our (http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/) Punk Archaeology blog, but the participants will be free to take or leave any of our observations there. We have a few technical challenges ahead of us. Our plan is to produce a small publication from the conference that'll include some of the posts from the Punk Archaeology blog and the remarks at the panel. We hope that we can attract some "guest editors" to offer contributors some perspective and the patina of peer review. At present, my plan is to self publish the book. Self publishing has a kind of low-fi, punk, DIY vibe that would appropriate for an evening dedicated to punk archaeology. More than that though, this book will be another step toward establishing a small press on the University of North Dakota's campus. Over the last two years, I have experimented with print-on-demand publishing (http://www.lulu.com/shop/christopherprice/the-old-church-on-walnut-street-a-story-of-immigrants-and-evangelicals/paperback/product20112605.html) here and (http://www.lulu.com/shop/sarah-walker-and-william-caraher/in-the-classicaltradition-essays-in-honor-of-daniel-erickson/paperback/product-15633071.html) here). More recently, I've had conversations with folks across the university to determine whether there would be any support for a small press here on campus. Distribution and marketing will be almost completely digital, low-fi, and, in many cases, ad hoc. The books will be short (embracing the spirit of punk), original, and (as much as I can be a judge) exciting. The small press would focus on three areas. First, we'd emphasize books for local interest (for example, the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/the-old-church-on-walnut-street-2/) Grand Forks Neighborhood History Series that I co-edit with Bret Weber) and perhaps a series of short books or essays on topics loosely associated with "alternative archaeology" (the best example of a collection like this are the offerings from the (http://www.lcoastpress.com/books_subject.php?id=4) Left Coast Press). We'd also work with various faculty authors who have produced their own textbooks on campus and lend our expertise to their work. We have already identified a number of these projects that could be collected under a single imprint and made more visible. Finally, we'd work with various groups on campus (especially the Working Group in Digital and New Media) to create platforms for alternative publications based in social and new media. While this may sounds rather ambitious - and it probably is - I think we have people who both possess basic skills to bring these kinds of modest works to publication, and we recognize the need to commit this idea to some serious study before committing any sustaining resources to this kind of project. In the meantime, however, I think I'll probably keep churning out little books on topics that spark my imagination.

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<title>An Early Draft of a Paper on the North Dakota Bakken Man Camps</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/an-early-draft-of-a-paper-on-the-northdakota-bakken-man-camps/</link> Wed, 03 Oct 2012 12:42:01 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2113 This weekend at the Midwest Association for Canadian Studies Conference, I will present a some preliminary observations on research conducted this summer in the man camps associated with the Bakken Oil Patch. The observations are tentative and the conclusions unremarkable, but it's an important first step toward organizing and synthesizing our research. I should stress that the paper below is my own effort to bring together data collected by our field team and should not be seen as reflecting consensus on the part of the participants or the first or final word on any of these issues.In fact, I am not even entirely committed to the core-periphery framework that I use (largely in a rhetorical way) to organize and understand the data in this paper. The free flow of capital and labor typical to late capitalism may make concepts like the core and the periphery irrelevant. In any event, problems of interpretation and present are all mine and do not reflect the good names of my collaborators. As always, I'm eager to hear some feedback and as I get feedback from my collaborators, I will almost certainly update this paper. [scribd id=108836881 key=key-18w8ar4xs60sf0zbq2hq mode=scroll]

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<title>First Snow 2012</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/first-snow-2012/</link> Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:01:25 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2117 Last winter was famously mild. This winter is getting an early start maybe to make up for last year. On my old blog, I used to publish photos of the first snow (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-23/) 2011, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/first-snow-winter-2010/) 2010, (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2008/10/26/the-first-snow/) 2008). I like that tradition and can't quite recall why I didn't do it more consistently. They say that this storm will give us a fair bit of snow (6-10 inches), but that it won't last long. The snow is wet and slushy and already bending trees. It was 80 degrees here on Monday. So, here's an image of the first snow this year: <"FirstSnow2012.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/firstsnow2012.jpg" alt="FirstSnow2012" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> We're just a bit worried about our apple trees which still had a good many apples on them.

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-19/</link> Fri, 05 Oct 2012 12:06:19 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2123 It's been a miserable two days here in North Dakotaland. A mini-blizzard, blustery winds, chilly temperatures, and footnote editing conspired to make it a long end of the week. But, the week is almost done now, so we move on, and perhaps the best way to move on is to have a little gaggle of quick hits and varia. The (http://m.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/10/destruction-comes-to-aleppo/100381) images and (http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/it-is-our-soul-the-destruction-of-alepposyrias-oldest-city/263255/) stories of destruction and death in Aleppo is heartbreaking. I love (http://www.punknews.org/article/32868/meat-puppets-announce-new-album-tour) Curt Kirkwood's attitude toward recording and wish more scholars would adopt a similar attitude toward scholarly publishing. (http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/isaw/isaw-papers/3/preprint/) Rome and the Economic Integration of Empire by Gilles Bransbourg. A pre-print from an digital journal. My mind is blown. If you haven't yet, check out (http://blackgoldboom.com/) Black Gold Boom from Todd Melby and Prairie Public among many others. Also (http://www.wpxenergy.com/operations/photo-gallery/) check out these scenic photos of the Bakken Oil Patch from WPXEnergy. It's interesting that (http://oxrep.classics.ox.ac.uk/oxrep/index.php?pg=125) publishers are now linking to reviews published on my blog. I've recently thought that book reviews are the kind of thing that could easily be jettisoned from most academic journals (at a significant savings of money) and left to the new media. (http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/10349) This letter from Elizabeth Bartman does not make the Archaeological Institute of America look very clever which is too bad. I wish they would take this letter down and deny that it happened. (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/caves-of-nottingham_11.html) Who knew that Nottingham had such awesome caves ?! The laser scans of these caves are just amazing. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/oct/01/eric-hobsbawm?fb=optOut) R.I.P. Eric Hobsbawm. (http://www.esquire.com/features/drinking/scotch-pronunciation-guide-5836909) How to pronounce the names of Scotch. (http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challengedclassics/reasonsbanned) A list of banned books. Three fun sporting events this weekend. First, <del> (http://www.espncricinfo.com/icc-worldtwenty20-2012/engine/current/match/533297.html) Australia vs. West Indies </del> (forget it), then (http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail/japan_878/) Suzuka (as a Honda guy, it's a very special track), and then Talladega. (And the college football tomorrow night

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(http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/whoa-nellie-keith-jackson-mystified-bylongevity-of-trademark-call?urn=ncaaf,wp3691) whoa, Nellie). (http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/event/article/id/61740/) The moveable man camp. (As if this has never happened before! A similar moveable camp followed the progress of the Los Angeles aqueduct construction.) Along similar lines, (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/an-early-draft-of-apaper-on-the-north-dakota-bakken-man-camps/) I'll be giving this paper (titled: Labo(u)r, Settlement, and Resource Extraction: The Man Camps of the Bakken Oil Patch in Historical and Global Perspective") at the Midwest Association of Canadian Studies conference this weekend. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxh-jYdYCGY) Some cool old video footage of Zagora on Andros with some cool old school jazz. (http://www.nitle.org/help/anvil.php) Anvil Academic publishing here and (http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/a-digital-solution-to-academic-publishing-introducing-anvilacademic/42828) here. I keep hoping something awesome might be happening in academic publishing and scholarly communication and I hope I get to be part of it. Along similar lines, (http://www.plannedobsolescence.net/blog/advice-on-academic-bloggingtweeting-whatever/) some advice on live blogging. (http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3083033-westerners) What it means to be a Westerner. What I'm reading: Raymond Chandler, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/big-sleep/oclc/640087427) The Big Sleep. (1939) What I'm listening to: Miguel, Kaleidoscope Dreams; The Walkmen, Heaven. An October Morning: <"AnOctoberMorning.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/anoctobermorning.jpg" alt="AnOctoberMorning" width="450" height="337" border="0" />

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<title>Archaeology and Cricket</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/archaeology-and-cricket/</link> Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:32:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2129 I spent the last few weeks watching - here and there - the Cricket T20 Worlds. This is the tournament for the shortest form of cricket where each side is limited to 20 overs. The team from the West Indies defeated the hosts, Sri Lanka, yesterday morning. As the West Indian side danced (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0) Gangnam style to celebrate their dramatic win, I got to think about hybridity and the post or, even, trans national moment that we find ourselves living through. As I (and undoubtedly others) have argued that cricket is a paradigmatically hybrid game. As a sport, cricket expanded and developed along colonial lines as all of the most serious cricket nations were former members of the British Empire, and as a result, it has a distinctly post-colonial complexion with the style of play and individuals from the former colonies influencing the metropole as much as the metropole has influenced colonial practice. The popularity of cricket in south Asia where some of the most penetrating critiques of post-colonial nationalism have emerged (e.g. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipesh_Chakrabarty) Chakrabarty, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homi_K._Bhabha) Bhabha, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gayatri_Chakravorty_Spivak) Spivak, et al.) only make the point more obvious. So it is no surprise that the final four teams in this week's tournament - Sri Lanka, West Indies, Pakistan, and Australia - all have their unique histories as both cricket playing sides and as national or post-national entities. For example, the West Indies has a national anthem even though it is a team that represents players from around the Caribbean. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have both had recent and persistent issues surrounding their sovereignty and political and ethnic divisions. In the broader tournament almost every team bears the marks of contested or negotiated nationalism: sides like England which featured South African players, a competitive team from Afghanistan - the quintessential post-national state - and, the South Africa team which continues to see sport as an important place to manifestat the re-imagined nation. In fact, the more Ive thought about it, the more Ive decided cricket forms an intriguing lens for considering the same post-national critiques which have become embedded in recent debates in archaeology. The appropriation of cultural forms at the so-called periphery that were so recently valued by the traditional center manifests the hybrid character of objects in post and transnational discourses. The desire of the Turkish state for the return of objects removed from Asia Minor during Ottoman times makes clear that significance of hybridized meanings to process of nation building. The hybridized objects that emerge as cultural currency in debates over the repatriation involves both challenging the ascribed value of objects at the center and the projection of the nation through time. Artifacts associated with antiquity in Asia Minor mean a different thing to the Turkish state than they do to international museums who include these objects in their collections, but both sides do understand the other side's perspective as both independent from and deeply embedded within their own. Cricket, Gangnam style, and archaeology represent the trade in artifacts whose meaning derives from very particular cultural circumstances. The building of nations and identities in our globalized world involves the intentional and systematic misrecognition of these cultural objects.

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<title>Archaeological Data and Publishing: A Fragment</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/archaeological-data-and-publishing-afragment/</link> Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:01:34 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2132 I spent time thinking about Elizabeth Bartman's (http://www.archaeological.org/news/aianews/10349) recent letter from the Archaeological Institute of America regarding open access to the Institute's journal, the American Journal of Archaeology, and Archaeology magazine. I comment here on this letter knowing full well that other people have far more informed and sophisticated views on this topic. In short, the letter argues that recent legislation requiring that the results of federally funded research be made available online and then for free within six months of publication is not financially sustainable or ethical. She argues that moving the AJA more substantially toward an open access model will erode it subscription base and make the journal financially unsustainable. She bluntly states: "If libraries could get access to its articles free within six months they would rightly cancel their subscriptions and wait." Some have already pointed out that the percentage of articles in the AJA that receive federal funding is rather small (around 5% over the last decade) and in the current economic climate, one can imagine this number shrinking smaller. What I found the most jarring, however, was Bartman's assertion: "Another objection to the proposed bill is to the online publishing of the published research reports. Federal grants usually do not cover publication costs; they normally cover only the acquisition of raw data. Published reports add interpretation and expertise, both the result of years of contemplation and the combined efforts of many scholars, not to mention the involved and expensive publication process itself. None of this is usually paid for by Federal grants. Nor do these grants cover our costs, especially editorial and production. We support the concept of open access and we will encourage and facilitate ongoing discussions with our professional members about what open access entails. But perhaps the public should get access to what it has actually paid for: if raw data (e.g., the photographs of objects) or finished article, both would be available through open access." What Bartman argues here may be technically true: the collection of raw data may be funded separately from its analysis and final publication which may rely on the market to support production and distribution costs. On the other hand, the idea that, somehow, the collection of raw data is separate from the processes that lead to its publication strikes me as rather disingenuous, and, while rhetorically expedient, it dangerously subverts the intent of federal funding, the last 25 years of research on archaeological epistemology, and the spirit of research. After all, no project ever collects data - federally funded or otherwise - simply for the sake of collecting data. Whether implicit in funding models or otherwise, the idea that the research process could be parsed according to the economies of production seems cynical to the extreme, and methodologically unsound. After all, one would not want to press the rights of funding organizations to sequester the particularized products of their labor too widely. Scholars regularly give grants of their time to journals to act as peer reviewers - for example - and to contribute to the value of the journal as a legitimate source of knowledge. While one can certainly argue that a scholar reaps some benefits (financial and otherwise) from the appearance of an article in a prestigious journal like the AJA, one gains very less as an individual from peer reviewing for this journal than the journal gains from having access to high quality peer reviews. (I'd be interested in the more complex argument that the journal's very existence provides value to the profession in which the peer reviewers participate.). As one can see, this would seem to be a dangerous line of argument...

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<title>Some Conclusions from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/some-conclusions-from-the-pylakoutsopetria-archaeological-project-on-cyprus/</link> Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:29:13 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2135 Last week, my coauthors and I largely finished the historical conclusions section of our monograph detailing our intensive pedestrian survey at the site of Pyla-Koutsopetria between 2003-2010. This is far from the last word on the site (and is even unlikely to be the last word from our survey work on the project). That being said, it is a fairly complete statement of our current archaeological thinking. It has not gone through the traditional peer-review process (although it has been read by quite a few colleagues in the field) and it is not quite ready for formal, print publication, but the ideas are all there. In the spirit of this blog which has a similar goal, (http://www.scribd.com/billcaraher) I make pre-prints of my research available in an effort to make more transparent the process of academic production. This text, for example, is not quite ready for prime time, but read judiciously and critically (as all texts should be read), it does have sufficient substance and detail to contribute knowledge, add some ideas to the conversation, and hint at the shape of our final publication. Enjoy. [scribd id=109578735 key=key-dx7rjs87lgrfc5pul6j mode=scroll]

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<title>Two Church Plans</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/two-church-plans/</link> Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:30:56 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2143 Sometimes I don't mind spending a morning with Adobe Illustrator (although most days it's a special kind of torture). So I did that yesterday. The first image is a simplified plan of an Early Christian basilica in Greece. It is loosely based on a plan of Nikopolis Alpha, but I cut out some of the ancillary rooms joining the narthex. <"Figure1_Caraher.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/figure1_caraher.png" alt="Figure1 Caraher" width="450" height="204" border="0" /> I also used the Illustrator to sketch a plan of the church at Kalpsi in Eurytania. This church has a spectacular group of mosaic pavements with dedicatory inscriptions. For my purposes, I was only really interested in the location of dedicatory inscriptions so I decided to create a sketch plan. I think it works for a very simplified representation of where the inscriptions appeared. <"Figure2_Caraher.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/figure2_caraher.png" alt="Figure2 Caraher" width="450" height="299" border="0" /> <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/newimage.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="321" border="0" /> How's that for a Thursday morning before a day filled with grading and grant writing?

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-20/</link> Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:55:41 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2146 It was officially cold today in North Dakotaland, but never too cold for a little gaggle of quick hits and varia (huddled together to keep warm!). (http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2012/10-haunted-libraries-of-the-us/) Haunted libraries are perfect as we approach Halloween (via Chuck Jones). (http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/jesus-wife-fragment-further-evidence-of.html) The tale of the Jesus Wife papyrus is getting more and more curious (http://markgoodacre.org/Watson.pdf) here's a longish article arguing that the papyrus is fake (pdf)). (http://www.thenewathenian.com/2012/10/greek-shame-campaign-seeks-to-banish.html) The use of crowd sourcing to shame corruption in Greece (via Dimitri Nakassis). (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/10/09/punk-archaeology-inspiration/) Some super cool punk archaeology ruminations. (http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/10/wikipedia-maps-inside-encyclopedias-little-knowncache-of-geo-data.php?ref=fpnewsfeed) The vast quantity of geo-data over at the Wikipedias. (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/keys-to-city.html) Sometimes the keys to the city really mean the keys to the city ! (http://corinthianmatters.com/2012/10/11/zotero-a-new-resource-for-corinthian-studies/) David Pettegrew's Corinthian bibliography in Zotero is a monumental achievement ! (https://www.zotero.org/groups/corinthian_studies/items) Here's a link to the library in Zotero.) (http://vimeo.com/50839044) The story of the lost rivers that run beneath our cities. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/108836881/Labo-u-r-Settlement-and-Resources-Extraction-The-ManCamps-of-the-Bakken-Oil-Patch-in-Historical-and-Global-Perspective) I added the images from powerpoint to the paper on man camps that I delivered at the Midwest Association of Canadian Studies Conference last week. (http://tktype.tumblr.com/post/4343344341/a-not-so-brief-explanation-of-chartwell) I don't know why things like this have interested me so much lately. (http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/open-sanshow-do-we-love-thee-let-us-count-the-ways/) And a nice little description of Wordpress's new default font. (http://www.mcgill.ca/classics/) A nice reference on McGill's Classical Studies home page (under Fabulae). Congratulations to Peter Schultz for (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterfane/get-your-greek-on) his Get Your Greek On! book which was funded through Kickstarter. I received the PDF of it this week and it is as advertised. Hopefully, he'll have the PDF available somewhere for download soon! What I'm reading: Joseph H. Reynolds, (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477597999/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00) Measured Out in Teaspoons: A Selection of Martingale Letters. (Ok, this is a shameless plug. The book is by my uncle and is a collection of letters that he sends about once a month to various people in his world. My feeling is that he

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took the idea of being a man of letters quite literally. His letters are full of charm and wit. If I was really nepotistic, (http://theshopinel.com/products/joseph-reynolds-measured-out-in-teaspoons) I'd suggest that you buy your copy from here.) What I'm listening to: Tame Impala, Lonerism; A.C. Newman, Shut Down the Streets and The Slow Wonder.

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<title>Three Ways to Look at the E.F2 area at Polis-Chrysochous on Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/three-ways-to-look-at-the-e-f2-area-at-polischrysochous-on-cyprus/</link> Mon, 15 Oct 2012 14:34:45 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2149 For the last week, I've been working on a grant application for study work next year at the site of PolisChrysochous on Cyprus. It's timely not only because the grant application is due on November 1st, but also because an exhibit dedicated to the work at Polis titled City of Gold: Tomb and Temple in Ancient Cyprus will open this weekend at Princeton Art Museum (http://www.amazon.com/City-Gold-ArchaeologyChrysochous-University/dp/030017439X) the exhibit catalogue is available for pre-order at Amazon). As writing grant proposals tend to do, I began to think through the major possible outcomes of our work. For those of you who don't follow this blog, I've been working with a diverse team of archaeologists at PolisChrysochous for the past two summers. We have focused out work on the Late Roman to Medieval phases of the site particularly those in the area of E.F2. Most of this work focused on the basilica there which was built toward the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 6th century and continued to function into the Medieval period. Last summer, we began to get more serious about integrating material from the earlier periods into the system we created to process stratigraphy from the later phases. So far, we have identified three main research issues that intersect with the analysis of stratigraphy at E.F2. 1. A Neighborhood through Time. The area of E.F2 is defined by the intersection of two roads which is marked in the Roman period by a quadrafons arch. Earlier Hellenistic material seems to respect the orientation of the roads (at least in a general way) and later architecture seems to respect the road and perhaps even echoes the design of the arch. The blocks surrounding this intersection preserve evidence for industrial activity (a kiln), significant hydraulic infrastructure (both to facilitate drainage and to tap subterranean sources of water), habitation, and religious structures (namely, but perhaps not exclusively the Early Christian basilica). The careful analysis of the stratigraphy will allow us to track the transformation of a neighborhood through time and to see the interplay between change and continuity in the urban fabric. 2. Spolia and Reuse. One of the most vibrant and significant conversations in Mediterranean archaeology today centers on the reuse of earlier architectural material in later construction. Recent scholarship has come to emphasize the local context for the reuse of material as an important theater for memory and ritual. In fact, the reuse of material from older buildings on the same site may have served to commemorate the process of transforming the local environment. While studies of spolia have tended to emphasize elaborate and monumental constructions, the neighborhood of E.F2 preserves many other less obvious examples of reuse. The reuse of earlier material in these more modest and less visible ways nevertheless left physical evidence for the process of transforming space. 3. Residuality. Recent work on the persistence of earlier ceramics in much later contexts has challenged the way that we understand ceramic assemblages in an archaeological context. Attention to the presence of earlier ceramics in deposits clearly dated to many hundred years later provides insights both into formation processes and our tendency to understand the use cycle of ceramics as providing important measures for the date of deposits. The range of contexts present at E.F2 provide a veritable residually laboratory. Contexts range from use contexts to a range of small and large scale fills which preserve ceramics dating to hundreds of years.

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<title>Marilyn Hagerty and Latin</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/16/marilyn-hagerty-and-latin/</link> Tue, 16 Oct 2012 11:54:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2152 Every now and then something happens in Grand Forks, North Dakota. This is generally a shock to both local residents and the larger world. So when Marilyn Hagerty's review of the Olive Garden went viral last year and led to appearances on TV, collaborations with Anthony Bourdain, and national renown, it caught the community off guard. It got even more exciting and intentional when she won the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media this fall. This is a big deal. It was really fun to meet and chat with Marilyn Hagerty last week about Latin at UND. Latin is one of her causes that she returns to regularly in her various columns (and North Dakota has a very strong tradition for teaching Latin in high school and several strong programs). (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/246980/) You can read the resulting column here and be sure to notice the shout-out to (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/cyprusresearch-fund-lecture-paupers-and-peasants-and-princes-and-kings-reconstructing-society-in-late-bronze-agegreece/) the 2012 Cyprus Research Fund lecture. One thing that I tried to explain to her was the way that studying ancient languages introduced a sense of cultural quiet to our hectic worlds. Most readers get that studying languages can re-wire our brains, improve critical thinking skills, hone our memory, introduce the basic terms and rules of grammar, grow our vocabularies, and challenge us with a massive new body of cultural, literary, and social expression. What I tried to explain is that the act of reading a Classical language - as much as they can instill panic when introduced in a classroom setting (and there's no kind of panic like a Book Two of Thucydides panic) requires a kind of concentration and quiet that our culturally chaotic world refuses to sanction. This is the first year since I've been at UND in which I'm not doing anything with any ancient languages; even my Latin Friday Morning has fallen dormant. While I miss the camaraderie of toiling through a text with students, more than anything, I miss the quiet that preparing that class would bring. Sitting with a Latin or Greek text blocked out the other noise of the world and forced me to focus on one thing: that text, those sentences, those words. And, even acknowledging that our ways of reading are deeply embedded in our own cultural expectations, connecting with the ancient world through words forced me (quite violently at times) to confront how language works and worked in a way that nothing else has. More than that, however, it allowed me to participate in a ritual of reading that dated back thousands of years and eclipsed for just a moment my otherwise rapid fire, media infused, blogocentric, no huddle, world. (Something that Marilyn Hagerty would certainly appreciate.) So, if you are reading this blog and having taken Latin or Greek, go and sign up for a Latin or Greek class today.

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<title>Corinthian Fortifications</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/corinthian-fortifications/</link> Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:02:26 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2155 This past week, Ive begun to think again about Corinthian fortifications for the introduction to a volume of re-prints on the Corinthian countryside. The fortifications represent over 2000 years of continuous strategical importance to this corridor that links southern and central Greece as well as the Adriatic and Aegean basins on the Mediterranean. Beginning in the Hellenistic period and continuing through to the Italian and German occupations of Greece, fortifying the Isthmus of Corinth was a significant concern for both local residents and occupying powers. The episodes of fortification range from the massive Hexamilion wall and Isthmia fortress to modest earthen barriers or field stone enceintes. The published fortifications have generally appeared in (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/publications/hesp-open-access) Hesperia or in the volumes of the Isthmia or Corinth excavation series. To date, however, there has been little in the way of integrative study of these fortifications across the entire region for any particular period or from a diachronic perspective that emphasizes persistent understandings of the Corinthian landscape. The study of fortification in Corinthia centers on five major, deeply interrelated, issues. 1. Permanent or Contingent. The best known fortification in the Corinthia to scholars of the ancient world is on that has left very little material evidence: the famous transisthmian wall described by Herodotus (8.40). This fortification typified the contingent, emergency work of fortifying the Isthmus as a way to protect the Peloponnesus from threats from the north. The frantic repairs reported in the Byzantine period to the Hexamilion wall represent another episode of short term work designed to address the vulnerability of the open Corinthian plain to forces moving south. The rubble fortifications along Mt. Oneion (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147630.pdf) pdf, (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf) pdf) and on Geranion represented smaller scale efforts to augment the natural boundaries of the Isthmus corridor for defensive purposes. These fortifications took advantage of material at hand and the ceramic evidence and historical situations that would contextualize, at least, the hastily erected fortifications on Mt. Oneion. More permanent fortification include not only the impressive fortifications around Corinth and its acropolis Acrocorinth, but also the massive Hexamilion wall, the long walls linking Corinth to its western port of Lechaion, the substantial Hellenistic wall published by James Wiseman (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147077.pdf) pdf), and various towers of Hellenistic and Venetian date (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf) pdf). While these fortifications may have emerged in response to particular threat, they nevertheless represent a significant investment in the landscape suggesting that the occasion for their construction was part of a larger , systemic effort to fortify the Peloponnesus or the vulnerable communities in the Corinthia. 2. Internal or External. We know that many of the fortifications built in the Corinthia stood not to protect Corinthian lands or residents, but rather to protect polities in the Peloponnesus. The mighty Hexamilion wall, for example, stood to fortify the Peloponnesus and left exposed stretches of the Isthmia plain. Efforts to fortify Mt. Oneion in the Venetian and the Hellenistic periods (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf) pdf) likewise left the Isthmia plain unprotected and mainly served to prevent movement south into the Peloponnesus. Other fortifications, however, clearly served to protect Corinthian territory. The towers at places like Are Bartze in the southeastern Corinthia, the fortifications at Ayia Paraskevi, or the towers at Stanotopi (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147630.pdf) pdf) and Ano Vayia all likely served to protect

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Corinthian interests rather than those of an invading power. The substantial Hellenistic wall documented by Wiseman (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147077.pdf) pdf), for example, appears to bisect some of the most productive and densely built up areas of the Isthmus making it difficult to assign to either the Corinthian state or an external power. In contrast, the reinforced concrete fortifications erected by the Germans and Italians during the Second World War served the obvious interests of an external power. 3. Local or Regional. A key element to understanding the fortifications is determining whether they served to protect a particular region in the Corinthia or were part of a larger systematic network of fortification designed to protect the entire Corinthia (comparable to, say, Ober's arguments for (http://books.google.com/books/about/Fortress_Attica.html?id=8oEeAAAAIAAJ) Fortress Attica). This issue is closely tied to the function of fortifications and whether the fortifications were erected by local authorities or the Corinthian state and fundamental views on how ancient fortifications functioned. It is hard to imagine isolated towers at Are Bartze (for example) or even (http://www.scribd.com/doc/42994192/Caraher-Pettegrew-James-VayiaOffprint-2010) at Ano Vayia contributing to a completely integrated defensive network (as envisioned by J. Marchand on the ArgosCorinth road (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/40205745.pdf) pdf)), but our knowledge of the fortifications in the Corinthian countryside remains fragmentary throughout much of the area. 4. Function. Much of the previous issues have to do with how we understand the various fortifications functioned in the landscape. Simple walls like those constructed by the Venetians at passes through Mt. Oneion clearly could do little to obstruct the large scale movement of troops through the region. On the other hand, hastily con structured fortifications at Stanotopi (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147630.pdf) pdf) and further west on Mt. Oneion (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/25067991.pdf) pdf) suggest fortified camps designed to protect temporary garrisons rather than to block movement (necessarily). The mighty Hexamilion wall and the more fragmentary Hellenistic walls seem to have combined space for garrisons with long stretched of wall designed to stop movement across the plain. The walls of Ay. Paraskevi, Mt. Tsalikas, the Isthmia Fortress, and the city of Corinth (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147980.pdf) pdf) itself likely functioned to protect local settlements. Towers, in contrast, may have stood to allow guards to observe important routes through the area (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/40205745.pdf) pdf, (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/pdf/uploads/hesperia/147500.pdf) pdf), but they may also represent fortified farmsteads or keeps erected by local landowners to protect their lands or slaves. 5. Topography. Finally, the local topography plays a key role in understanding how fortifications in the Corinthia were organized. The rugged topography limited the routes that individuals or groups could use to pass through the territory. The natural limits on travel presented clear opportunities for fortification, but it may have also required a kind of modular strategy because defending forces would suffer the same limitations on movement. While it is unlikely that my effort to pull together the evidence and issues central to the fortification of Corinth through time will produce a kind of Fortress Corinthia, I do hope that it will contribute to a larger conversation about land use through time in this vital communication and population center in southern Greece.

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<title>Teaching Thursday: Rules of Writing (that I should follow too)</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/18/teaching-thursday-rules-of-writing-that-ishould-follow-too/</link> Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:43:43 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2158 I have just finished grading a stack of 100 level history papers and a few graduate student book reviews. A looming stack of 200 level history tests await. The papers were generally pretty good, but I feel like each semester I come up with a little list of observations that not only would help the students write more efficiently, but also help my own writing. So in the spirit of self-critique (as much as anything), I offer them here: 1. Make your thesis obvious. In this regard, I'm old school. I like to see a thesis at the end of the introductory section of a paper. For a short paper (&lt;6 pages), the thesis should come at the end of the first paragraph. The best thesis statements are clear, explicit, and suggest the organization of the paper to follow. 2. Build your paper from paragraphs. I suspect that the art of outlining a paper is nearly lost. The rise of short paragraphs and a journalistic style may have made the tradition of outlining a paper somehow obsolete. I still encourage students to see paragraphs not as long forms of sentences, but as the place for making arguments that support their thesis. In short papers, I recommend that each paragraph carry one supporting argument. In longer papers, divide your argument into clearly demarcated sections of several paragraph. Then, make sure each paragraph support the argument present in the section. 3. Book reviews have three possible arguments. Almost all book reviews have only three possible arguments. (1) The book is good. (2) The book is bad. (3) The book is good, except for The rest of the review should be evidence for these points. 4. The complex sentence. I know the complex sentence is hip these days. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/some-more-thoughts-on-student-writing/) The rise of the semicolon has almost ensured that. I keep telling my students, however, to keep their sentences simple. This not only makes the task of composition easier, but makes papers easier to edit, proofread and revise. The simpler the grammar, the less of a chance of grammatical errors. I suggest that the exercise their desire for complexity at the level of the paragraph. 5. The three "Cs": Capitalization, Contractions, and Commas. I feel like each year these three things cause me more and more grief, so I have come to accept that the rollback coming. First I started to let students use passive voice, then I became less and less concerned with which/that, and finally, I have given up on attempting to control comma use except in the most vital cases (e.g. in a compound sentence or in a complex series (I do try to insist on the (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5yisUInmQs) Oxford comma)). So someday soon, I'll have to accept that capitalization is a matter of individual taste and contractions reflect the changing rules of the language. <title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-43/</link> Fri, 19 Oct 2012 12:05:22 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2161

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It's a windy and damp fall day here in North Dakotaland. Perfect of hunkering down over a hot cup of coffee and ruminating over some quick hits and varia. (http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/) Ottoman History Podcasts. How cool is that? I love that you can now download certain publications from the Metropolitan Museum of Art for free. (http://www.metmuseum.org/research/metpublications/Byzantium_Faith_and_Power_1261_1557?Tag=&a mp;title=&amp;author=&amp;pt=0&amp;tc={F52F45EC-2E28-4BC3-96B6879A33F0B139}&amp;dept=0) Like this. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1135036965/nowheremagazine?ref=NewsOct1812&amp;utm_campaign=Oct18&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ne wsletter) Revisiting Nowhere Magazine for the web via Kickstarter. Sounds like a good idea to me. Two things to put on your calendar next week if you like in the Grand Forks area: (1) (http://und.edu/artsand-culture/) The Arts and Culture Conference: Binary Inventions: Arts and Culture in the Digital Age and (2) the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/09/27/cyprus-research-fund-lecture-paupers-andpeasants-and-princes-and-kings-reconstructing-society-in-late-bronze-age-greece/) Cyprus Research Fund Lecture: Dimitri Nakassis, Paupers and Peasants and Princes and Kinds: Reconstructing Society in Late Bronze Age Greece. (http://m.cyprus-mail.com/paphos/archaeologists-explore-ancient-market/20121014) Some interesting news about recent work around the agora in Paphos. (http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/fire-destroys-bucyrus-moves-west-ofhettinger/article_64e91d7c-18d0-11e2-a628-0019bb2963f4.html) It's sad to hear what happened out in Bucyrus, ND on Wednesday. (http://ghostsofnorthdakota.com/2007/05/28/bucyrus-nd/) Lovely old wood-framed church. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19976841) The situation in Greece produces some of the most unpleasant news. (http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670982/infographic-weve-become-the-united-states-of-starbucks) Geodata on our proximity to Starbucks. I can accept being no more than 150 miles from a Starbucks, but (http://www.mcintoshlabs.com/us/Products/pages/ProductDetails.aspx?CatId=LifeStyle&amp;ProductId= McAire) I am not sure that I'm ready for this. (http://www.news.wisc.edu/21160) It's really interesting to see how the University of Wisconsin is spinning renewed excavations at Troy. (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/digital/sanborn.html) Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps are some of the coolest things ever and this is a particularly cool and well-curated collection. (http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/memorial-to-buried-village.html) This is so cool. (http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/24124/modern-stone-flint-tools-by-ami-drach-dovganchrow.html) Stone tools for the 21st century. (http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/dear-tom-hanks-have-we-got-a-typewriter-for-you/) I love the Olivetti Lettera 25 in RED. (http://vimeo.com/50473835) This is a lovely little movie about how cool it is to drive a street legal Porsche 962C in Japan.

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 (http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/origins/) I've probably linked to this before, but I really like Ohio State's Origin's ehistory journal/magazine. (http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/an-extra-ingredient-in-north-dakota-politics-oil/) My buddy Mark Jendysik dropping NoDak wisdom all over the NYTimes Five Thirty Eight blog. (http://chronicle.com/article/An-Old-School-NotionWriting/135106/?cid=at&amp;utm_source=at&amp;utm_medium=en) More on the revolutionary idea that students learn more when they write more. What I'm reading: (I can't tell you, it's a peer review). What I'm listening to: The Pooh Sticks, Great White Wonder; Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!; The Gun Club, Fire of Love.

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<title>Archaeological Signatures of Byzantine Churches</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/archaeological-signatures-of-byzantinechurches/</link> Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:42:11 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2166 This springs Dumbarton Oaks Spring Symposium is titled (http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/byzantine-scholarly-events/byzantine-spring-colloquium) Byzantine Survey Archaeology: Reflections and Approaches. The symposium will feature speakers covering a range of topics central to discussions about intensive pedestrian survey archaeology in a Byzantine context. My paper is among the last of the symposium and in a session called (http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/byzantine-scholarly-events/byzantine-spring-colloquium/2013spring-colloquium-program) "Reading the Data/Reading the Future". I need to have abstract for my talk which is tentative titled "Looking across Chronological Boundaries". The goal of the talk will be to bring together some of my work (largely with Tim Gregory and David Pettegrew) that explores post-Byzantine archaeological sites and consider how what we've learned in this work can inform out study of Byzantine sites in a survey context. Readers of this blog are familiar with my work at (http://www.scribd.com/doc/82186248/Between-Seaand-Mountain-The-Archaeology-of-a-Small-World-in-Greece) the early modern site of Lakka Skoutara in the Eastern Corinthia. Here's a link to our most recent paper. You may be less familiar with some of my work with David Pettegrew and Tim Gregory in 2001 on the island of Kythera where we collected surface data from around a series of still standing Byzantine churches. The results told us little about the landscape around these churches during the Byzantine period, but shed some significant light on formation processes around these occasionally used monuments in the Greek countryside. Like our work around the deteriorating houses in Lakka Skoutara, our work around these churches revealed a countryside that was in constant transformation. The evidence for the constant transformation of the landscape pushes us to see even the surface record as the product of a series of complex formation processes rather than a palimpsest awaiting our careful gaze to produce a complete but occluded text. The remains in the countryside preserve a complex record of processes. [scribd id=110757102 key=key-gx5dmh8eyyk6o06yj64 mode=scroll]

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<title>Byzantine Survey Archaeology: Looking across Chronological Boundaries</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/byzantine-survey-archaeology-lookingacross-chronological-boundaries/</link> Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:08:51 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2170 As my post yesterday mentioned, I am going to present a paper in the final panel at this spring's (http://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/byzantine-scholarly-events/byzantine-spring-colloquium) Dumbarton Oaks Spring Symposium on Byzantine Survey Archaeology. The symposium is an exciting one and will hopefully initiate an important conversation about the role of survey archaeology (and perhaps even contemporary archaeological practice) in the study of Byzantium more broadly. I've been asked to speak specifically about diachronic approaches in survey archaeology. Since I've spent most of the last 15 years working on various diachronic survey projects which have at least hoped to include a substantial Byzantine chronological component, this seemed like a reasonable request. Over the last week or so, however, I've been struggling with how to think about the place of Byzantine survey archaeology in a diachronic context. As my abstract below points out, the Byzantine period is often grouped in a larger "postancient" category or associate with medieval and post-medieval periods particularly in Greece. This periodization strategy compels those of us interested in the Byzantium to reflect quite explicitly on the relationship between the Byzantine period and periods more close in time to the present day. Not only does this relationship encourage a reading of Byzantium that problematizes the tension between the remote and exotic and the familiar and mundane, but it also tempts us to consider the archaeological processes that create continuity or discontinuity in the archaeological landscape. In effect, it locates our archaeological sensibilities at the intersection of landscapes as historically imagined places and spaces of constant change. <p style="text-align:center;) <"NewImage.png" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/newimage1.png" alt="NewImage" width="450" height="337" border="0" />Speaking of change... Here's the first draft of my abstract. Dumbarton Oaks Spring Symposium Byzantine Survey Archaeology: Reflections and Approaches Looking across Chronological Barriers William R. Caraher, University of North Dakota In some circles, it remains common to group Byzantine archaeology in Greece in the broad category of postantique archaeology or to place it in synthetic works alongside discussions of medieval and post-medieval material culture. This periodization scheme reflects not only long-standing privileging of the Classical and Ancient (and the grouping of other periods as either pre or post this central age), but also coincides with perceptions developed in the field. Byzantine architecture, ceramics, social institutions, and even literary forms extend well beyond chronological periods defined by the political entity known as the Byzantine Empire. This has largely coincided with the tendency of diachronic survey to avoid rigid boundaries that locate artifact, architecture, and landscapes within a single post-ancient period. As result, scholars drawn to research questions more narrowly defined by the fields of Byzantine archaeology or Byzantine Studies have consistently found themselves pushed into dialogue with landscapes that conform to different economic, political, and, perhaps, settlement frameworks. The tensions between different chronological and periodization regimes provides an opportunity to problematize Byzantine archaeology in ways that shed light on formation processes, narrative strategies embedded within the landscape, and practical issues of continuity and discontinuity in place and space. By adopting perspectives and practices that push us to look across

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chronological barriers, Byzantine archaeology moves to a future endowed with significant methodological and interpretive sophistication.

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<title>Cyprus Research Fund Lecture: In Person or Live Stream</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/cyprus-research-fund-lecture-in-person-orlive-stream/</link> Wed, 24 Oct 2012 12:22:09 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2178 As loyal readers of this blog know, tomorrow is the fourth annual Cyprus Research Fund Lecture. The arrival of (http://classics.chass.utoronto.ca/index.php/faculty/faculty-list/42) Dimitri Nakassis from the Department of Classic at the University of Toronto in the great state of North Dakota will official increase the number of (traditionally trained) professional classicists, ancient historians, and art historians in the state by 33% (at least by my count). The talk is at 4pm CST in the luxurious and exotic East Asia Room in the magnificent Chester Fritz Library on campus. The talk is so huge, that (http://und.edu/features/2012/10/greek-lecture.cfm) it has appeared on the University of North Dakota's homepage and in a (http://www.bakkentoday.com/event/article/id/246980/publisher_ID/40/) Marilyn Hagerty column. <"UNDHomePageNakassis.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/undhomepagenakassis.jpeg" alt="UNDHomePageNakassis" width="450" height="422" border="0" /> If you can't make it to campus to hear the talk, do not fear! (https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/cyprus/) You can watch the talk LIVE on the INTERNETS. I would love to see an active and interested online audience. Here's the flyer: <"NakassisJPEG.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nakassisjpeg.jpeg" alt="NakassisJPEG" width="450" height="530" border="0" /> The talk is sponsored by the Department of History and the Cyprus Research Fund. For those of you who don't know, the Cyprus Research Fund began as a fund supported by a loyal group of private donors who are committed to expanding the presence of Mediterranean Archaeology (and related fields) on campus and providing opportunities for University of North Dakota students to get field work experience abroad. Since its beginnings, however, the Fund has sponsored a wide range of related activities. In fact, its first impact was the purchase of server space for digital and new media projects on campus (and this server space ultimately contributed to founding of the Working Group in Digital and New Media). It has also funded eight speakers or exhibits on campus, three artist in residence on Cyprus, and helped to fund over 10 UND students time in Cyprus. This past year the Cyprus Research Fund co-sponsored the publication of a small book documenting the history and architecture of the oldest standing wood-framed church in town before it was demolished. The book was written by a University of North Dakota Doctor of the Arts student Chris Price and is titled The Old Church on Walnut Street: A Story of Immigrants and Evangelicals. Here's a snazzy book mark: <"CRF_BookMark.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/crf_bookmark.jpeg" alt="CRF BookMark" width="450" height="107" border="0" /> One last thing, if you are in Grand Forks, you need to check out the (http://und.edu/arts-and-culture/) Arts and Culture Conference: Binary Inventions. There's a panel discussion today at 3:30 pm in the Memorial

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Union and tonight at 7:30 (with a 7:00 reception) the fabulous Empire Theater. Be sure to check out the closing reception at the Third Street tomorrow night at 7 pm.

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<title>Binary Inventions and the collapsing of space and time</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/binary-inventions-and-the-collapsing-ofspace-and-time/</link> Thu, 25 Oct 2012 13:20:17 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2182 Yesterday I walked across the street to hear the panel discussion hosted by the (http://und.edu/arts-andculture/) 2012 Arts and Culture Series. The panel brought together practitioners of various forms of digital art ranging from music to (http://www.tinyinventions.com/animation/index.html) animation to digital and new media journalism. The panel was packed with smart, thoughtful people. (The screening and conversation with (http://www.tinyinventions.com/) Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata from Tiny Inventions was particular remarkable.) The panel discussion began with an interesting question regarding the place of digital technologies as a kind of "philosopher's stone" that could transform one media to the next. This resonated a bit with some of my thoughts regarding the role of archaeology as a mediating discipline between physical objects and ideas. Texts (and photographs, plans, drawings, and increasingly video) do much of the heavy lifting between object and idea within the archaeological discourse. As Max Porter and Ru Kuwahata and (http://ihnatko.com/) Andy Ihnatko noted at several points in their talks, the goal of the (new) media's philosopher stone is to tell stories and create experiences. Another useful question that the able moderator asked is how digital technologies have transformed the rhythm of life for the artists on the panel. The journalists commented on how the digital age has created a 24 hour new cycle in which they must at least attempt to engage. Others commented on how they could now communicate in realtime with collaborators and partners around the world. Others still noted that the manual components of their work (practicing piano or making prints on paper) seemed to stubbornly resist any of the supposed efficiencies presented by a digital commons. <"ProductiveSpace.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/productivespace.jpg" alt="ProductiveSpace" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> I got to think about our academic pace of life on how digital technologies have transformed it. One thing that the panelists make clear, the ability of the digital world to collapse space has a clear connection with its tendency to compress or collapse time. Global workflows and instant communication have changed work patterns and professional expectations. I blog every day because not only because I think I might have something to say, but also because the digital rhythms of internet-mediated, personal publishing demands a kind of regularity in the production of content that a group of writers would have managed to fulfill the expectations of earlier media. This is all to set up an advertisement for myself (in a round-about way). Check out the Cyprus Research Fund Lecture today at 4 pm CST. Keeping with the theme of collapsing space and time, the talk will be streamed live on the internets. (https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/cyprus/) Click here to get to the talk. If you're old school, stop by the East Asia Room in the Chester Fritz Library at 4 pm to hear the talk live and in-person.

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<title>Cyprus Research Fund Lecture Wrap Up</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/cyprus-research-fund-lecture-wrapup/</link> Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:46:10 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2186 I want to thank everyone who helped out during Dimitri Nakassis' visit this past week. For the fourth year in a row, the Cyprus Research Fund Lecture was successful. We have just over 100 people at his talk on Thursday afternoon, a pleasant discussion during his seminar on Friday, and a few good meals along the way. It was particularly exciting to see a nice crowd of folks join us online and even ask the speaker questions at the conclusions of his talk. <"NakassisTalk.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nakassistalk.jpg" alt="NakassisTalk" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> Nakassis' talk offered a new perspective on the organization of Late Bronze Age society. By following the relationship between previously overlooked names in the Linear B tablets, he was able to identify a group of individuals who possessed significant wealth and power, but were not associated with the palaces. This "middling" group of people filled out the gap between the powerful centralized power of the palace and the toiling masses typically identified in scholarship in Mycenaean society. In his Friday seminar, he noted that the strain of scholarship that sees the Mycenaean palaces as separate from Greek society and as invasive institutions derived from the Near East has roots in Orientalism. According to this view, the collapse of palaces articulated in this way set the stage for the expansion of "western" society with decentralized economies and democracy. Nakassis suggested that a more subtle reading of the evidence and a critical awareness of the meta-narratives in play in many textbook descriptions of Mycenaean society opens the doors to new insights. If you missed his talk on Thursday, (https://conted.breeze.und.nodak.edu/p4wiyi9flee/) you can check out an archived version here.

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<title>A Little Story about Local History</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/a-little-story-about-local-history/</link> Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:24:00 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2191 Yesterday I received an handwritten letter from an older woman who lives in California. She grew up in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. This fall, she returned to town to revisit some of her past, particularly, (as her letter says) the happy times. On her itinerary was the Grand Forks First Church of God where her brother had been married on a snowy Christmas day in early 1950s. The church has also hosted a going-away party for her brother when he went into the Air Force and it was where he received his call to join the ministry. She even recalled the name of the charismatic preacher, Reverend Ray Finley and his successor Rev. Cecil Evans. Finley's efforts ensured that the church survived a devastating fire in the March 1944. When she visited town, she was not able to find the little white church on 3rd and Walnut Street and she soon learned that (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/the-anti-monument/) the church has been torn down a few months before. She says in her letter that she was heartbroken. She contacted me because someone has mentioned to her that I might have some information about the church. She had no idea that the church was over 100 years old. Needless to say, two copies of Chris Price's (http://www.scribd.com/doc/89719806/The-Old-Church-onWalnut-Street) The Old Church on Walnut Street: A Story of Immigrants and Evangelicals are now in the mail to her. While some sense of modesty made me a bit reluctant to share this story on the blog (and, yes, I realize the irony of this statement), I decided to post it because it speaks so eloquently as to how individual buildings and neighborhoods serve to locate memories. Our rapidly changing urban landscape puts ever increasingly pressure on us to find ways to preserve these places of memory whether in brick, mortar, and wood-frame form or as texts, photographs, and plans. The letter that I received yesterday provided a very real experience to confirm that investing in the preserving the past will make a difference to real people. (In my 15 years of studying Late Antique churches, never once has someone from Late Antiquity taken the time to thank me or even politely as about my work (most of them, of course, have been dead for 1500 years).) Moreover, this work is relatively easy to do. Our book took less than 9 months to bring it from a chat over a few beers to text, plans, and paper. With all due respect to Chris Price's efforts, the result book will never win a National Book Award or a Pulitzer Prize. It has, however, served its function. In my 20 some years as a professional historian, I've never been as pleased to share my work as I was the send those two copies of The Old Church on Walnut Street to someone who I've never met in California.

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<title>Jinn and Treasure in Palestine</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/jinn-and-treasure-in-palestine/</link> Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:52:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2194 I might be a bit late noticing this, but a fantastic article appeared this summer in the 2012 volume of the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology: Salah Hussein Al-Houdalieh, " (http://www.equinoxpub.com/JMA/article/view/14759) Archaeological Heritage and Spiritual Protection: Looting and Jinn in Palestine ". As the title suggests, the article explores the role of jinni in the looting of antiquities in the contemporary Occupied Palestinian National Territories (OPNT). Al-Houdalieh argues that looting continues to have roots in economic dispossession, political instability, and religious teachings that might be understood to permit looting or, at least, to remove an significant moral stigma. The role of the jinn in looting practices in Palestine represents an apparently unique phenomenon and involves sometimes well-organized bands of looters collaborating with sheikhs (who are often simply local holy men) who can call up and wrangle jinni. These jinn tend to then speak through a possessed individual and lead the looter gang to a particular buried treasure or explain its location. The jinn evidently protect the treasure so getting their attention and bringing them under control is absolutely vital to get good directions where to conduct a rewarding excavation. However, as some of Al-Houdalieh's informants explained, individual jinni can be duplicitous and tricky moving treasure even after excavations have begun or offering confusing directions. The author points out that these powers tend to make excavations under the direction of jinn particular unprofitable and unsuccessful. What is striking, however, is that a significant number of looters continue to rely on jinn to aid in locating treasures. The notion that excavations with the aid of jinn are largely unsuccessful hints that the motivations for looting may not be as simple as material gain. As scholars have observed among archaeologists and other excavators who rely upon dreams to identify the location of buried treasure, the goal of excavating is often as much about affirming the presence of supernatural involvement in day-to-day life as it is finding particularly valuable objects. The tendency to see looting practices as being motivated by financial gain alone may speak more to the cultures who study looting and are invested in a capitalist worldview that cannot but monetize the perceived cultural value of antiquities. In places like Palestine where the value of antiquities depends on intellectual traditions and markets that exist outside their dominant cultural discourse, a direct relationship between excavation practice and material gain may be overstated. It would appear that the lack of success experienced by looters who looked to jinn to guide them to treasure relates to an economic and epistemological system that does not coincide with prevailing Western ways of thinking. Like the practice of excavating without publishing that is rather more common in Eastern Mediterranean countries or following the guidance of dreams, Al-Houdalieh's exploration of the role of jinn in looting in Palestine demonstrate the limits of archaeology's universalizing claims of "scientifical" practices.

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<title>Sad News</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/sad-news/</link> Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:47:57 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2199 Last night, after the last of the trick-or-treaters had taken away their spoils, I heard that (http://www.adams.edu/news/oct1222.php) Stu Hilwig had died. Stu went to graduate school with me at Ohio State and was one of the world's genuinely good guys. I was never close friends with Stu, but like so many of my colleagues, his presence in the Department of History graduate student offices and at social events was so regular that I have Stu Hilwig stories. I remember when my buddy Mike Fronda and I had a little party at Mike's place where everyone cooked meat together. Stu was extraordinarily concerned that his grill was too small. He must have mentioned three or four times that "it is just a little grill." For years after the event, Mike and I would repeat that line whenever anyone remembered that party. My most vivid memory of Stu, and perhaps the most famous, was his Chris Farley imitations in the graduate student offices. All anyone had to say was the phrase "so you want to be a writer" and Stu would leap out from behind his little graduate student cubicle and regale the room with his version of Chris Farley's memorable "motivational speaker" skit. While this may sound like a trivial thing to remember someone for, but during the those long years between comprehensive exams and completing the Ph.D., Stu's humor and outgoing personality could transform a bleak Columbus, Ohio afternoon into a reason for laughter. His stories, humor, and willingness to stop and chat despite the pressures we all felt to be working at every waking moment, made the graduate school more humane. Even through I did not keep in touch with Stu (and I wasn't even Facebook friends with him), knowing he was in the world made me feel better. His passing in a serious loss for his family, his university, and anyone who cares about a more humane and positive world.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-44/</link> Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:31:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2205 After a week away from varia and quick hits, I have an abundance of links and goodies filling up my Evernote inbox. And this is a good thing for the hardy residents of North Dakotaland who will be asked to endure some snow this weekend. (http://www.doaks.org/museum/online-exhibitions/byzantine-emperors-on-coins) Fresh from Guy Sander's Facebook feed, the entire range of Byzantine Emperors on coins from Dumbarton Oaks, including my favorite emperor, (http://www.doaks.org/museum/online-exhibitions/byzantine-emperors-oncoins/sixth-seventh-centuries-emperors-491-717/solidus-of-justinian-ii-685-695) Justinian II. If you can overlook the funny font, (http://acropolis-virtualtour.gr/acropolisTour.html) this is pretty cool way to look at the Acropolis online (via Dimitri Nakassis). Town of Ghosts. (http://vimeo.com/52370423) This is a striking video (via. Richard Rothaus). (http://blog.evernote.com/2012/11/01/evernote-5-for-mac-beta-is-here/) I'm trying Evernote 5 (beta). It looks pretty sweet. (http://www.sampler.isr.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/NCRCReport.pdf) A paper on how the location of bathrooms can promote interdisciplinary collaboration (via the Chronicle). As someone whose day is punctuated by trips to the bathroom, I can really appreciate how these short contemplative walks can encourage creativity. The dash is perhaps the worst punctuation mark (and has only recently been usurped by the semicolon in terms of popularity among students). (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/22/mad-dash/) That being said, there is still a right and wrong way to us it. My blog crossed the 50,000 all-time page views threshold this past week with my second busiest month on since moving to Wordpress in in 2010. I went to my first University Senate meeting last night as a senator. I am speechless. (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/248267/) So apparently it was illegal to campaign on election day in North Dakota. This was really a remarkable violation of our first amendment rights, and a judge has overturned it. (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/10/31/archaeological-disturbances-in-western-north-dakota/) Barth has some good observations regarding the strange status of archaeological sites in oil-crazed western North Dakota. (http://nplusonemag.com/the-theory-generation) We are the Theory Generation (via Kostis Kourelis). I don't really know whether these month long writing productivity drives work, but (http://www.phd2published.com/tag/acbowrimo/) there is an academic one going on now. (http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/2012/10/why-do-children-hide-by-covering-their.html) This recent paper surely explains why my students who refuse to make eye contact when they haven't done the readings.

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 (http://events.ku.edu.tr/detail.php?i=5407) Waters for a Capital sounds like a cool conference on the water supply of Byzantine Constantinople. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-domestic-2012/engine/current/match/576091.html) This bodes well for next week's big test. Let's how Australia's test batsmen were just saving themselves. What I'm reading: (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/toc/earl.20.3.html) Journal of Early Christian Studies, Everett Ferguson's Baptism in the Early Church: A Forum. What I'm listening to: Mac Demarco, 2; Rodriguez, Coming from Reality. <"WinkingwithMoon.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winkingwithmoon.jpg" alt="WinkingwithMoon" width="450" height="600" border="0" />

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<title>A Few Observations on Early Christian Baptisteries</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/05/a-few-observations-on-early-christianbaptisteries/</link> Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:42:06 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2210 I spent a little time over the last few days reading the most recent volume of the Journal of Early Christian Studies which was a volume length consideration of Everett Ferguson's massive, recent book (http://www.worldcat.org/title/baptism-in-the-early-church-history-theology-and-liturgy-in-the-first-fivecenturies/oclc/318066449) Baptism in the Early Church (2009). Robin Jensen (Grand Forks native, I must add) contributed a lengthy article titled: " (http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/v020/20.3.jensen.html) Material and Documentary Evidence for the Practice of Early Christian Baptism ". There is no way to do justice to Jensen's elegant summary of the main literary and material evidence for baptism (and it is complemented by Ferguson's reply later in the volume). 1. Diversity. In general, Jensen argues for the diversity of baptismal practice. Her argument rests on the architecture of the fonts, the rituals described in the texts, and the depictions in art which show not only variation in the symbolic understanding of baptismal rituals, but also the rituals themselves. The most obvious variations come in whether the baptismal candidate is immersed or simply sprinkled with water. As Ferguson's reply reflects, the variation in practices continues to spur debate. My inclination is to agree with Jensen and to see liturgical practice are largely non-uniform across the Early Christian Mediterranean and that this variation is captured in regional architectural differences as well as variation in the ancient texts. Ferguson admits in his response to preferring evidence from texts to material evidence, and Jensen, it would seem, preferred archaeology to texts. This approach makes sense for her argument for diversity in practice; archaeological and architectural remains have a far wider chronological and spatial distribution across the Mediterranean than our limited corpus of textual evidence. In fact, based on the diversity present in the design of fonts alone, it is almost inconceivable that the actual moment of baptism did not see at least the variation necessary to accommodate the practical reality of different font designs. (As an aside, I was disappointed that Jensen didn't introduce some of her most controversial arguments here including her suggestion that re-baptism may have occurred at certain martyr shines.) 2. Nature. One of the more interesting little arguments that Jensen makes in her treatment of archaeological and decorative evidence for baptism is that the baptismal fonts were sometimes adapted to evoke the original outdoor setting for the rite. In fact, she notes a device in Milan that "simulated rain falling into a pool." (p. 380). The natural context for baptism surely evoked scenes from the New Testament where baptisms all took place outside or the pastoral settings in the Psalms that are regularly invoked in the inscriptions associated with baptisteries. Moreover, the use of mechanical means to conjure up outdoors settings brings together the use of vegetative imagery in mosaics around the font, the starry night in the domed roofs of baptistery buildings, and the need for cool, flowing water to evoke an idyllic Christian landscape of rebirth. (What she does not note, however, is that in some places in the Eastern Mediterranean (Kourion and Lechaion in Greece come immediately to mind), baptisteries were equipped with small furnaces to warm the water. It would be interesting to reflect on this variation in practice.) 3. Baths, Baptism, and Martyrs. One of the most intriguing observations offered by Jensen was the parallel between baptisteries and baths. The need for water made it the location of baptisteries near on atop the site of earlier baths not unusual. The parallel between bathing and washing clean the taint of sin is obvious as well. What is perhaps not so obvious is the link between martyrdom and bath buildings. There are a number of stories that recount the imprisonment of a saint in a bath with the most famous (to me) being the story of Ay.

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Demetrios of Thessaloniki. In fact, the great church of Ay. Demetrios stands atop a bath building where the saint was said to be imprisoned. One example does not make a very convincing argument, but it is intriguing to imagine the complex intersection of narratives that made vivid the intersection of bathing, baptism and martyrdom.

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<title>Starting to Reflect on 5 Years of Blogging</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/starting-to-reflect-on-5-years-ofblogging/</link> Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:08:57 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2213 Next year, in April, this blog turns 6. So by then, Ill have been blogging for five years. So there are children who are going to kindergarten who have never lived in a world without my blog. Or, in statement more appropriate for the day, my blog has run for longer than Barak Obama has been President. In our fast paced, new media world, five years is a long time. In my academic world, however, five years is not a very long time particularly in the humanities. For example, the manuscript for our volume dedicated to the survey we conducted at the site of Pyla-Koutsopetria has existed in some form for close to 5 years and still has not seen publication. The reason Im musing on the life of my blog is that Ive begun to think about what I can do with my 5 years worth of blogging experience. I feel like I should mark this in some way, and I have begun to think about producing some kind of traditional publication reflecting my experiences blogging archaeology. The problem is, of course, translating my experiences to a contribution to the large and growing scholarly discourse on social media, new forms of publication, and new methods for documenting and analyzing research. Part of me wants to write an reflective essay that eschews the limitations and requirements of academic writing, but another part of my wants to put my experiences in a broader and more rigorous academic context. 1. Research Transparency. I wonder what impact increased research transparency has on the academic discourse. Blogging has always been a way for me to make my "creative process" (such as it is) visible to a wider audience. Is there a value to letting people see the man behind the curtain and is this kind of transparency significant across academic life in general? In other words, is my transparency (albeit of a studied kind) significant for how scholars read academic production more broadly? 2. New Forms of Publication. Blogs exist in the uneasy place between the formal standards of academic publication and the more spontaneous social media. As formal publication standards adapt to new media and methods associated with digital publication and social media becomes increasingly fluid and informal, the middle ground of the blog is increasingly emptied of its place in the publishing landscape. It can be more spontaneous than studied, more individual than collective, and more austere than elaborate, but I wonder whether this is enough to keep the practice vital into the second decade of the 21st century? 3. New Forms of Audience. One of the key aspects of digital publication is the ease with which audience behavior can be tracked. Statistics make our readers more visible than ever, but in the spontaneous world of digital publication, they also tempt us to respond to reader and viewer statistics in ways that a previous generation of content providers (in an academic realm) could push into the background. There have been days when I sat at my computer wondering what I should write about and knowing that I need to provide content to my blog in order to keep my reader's attention. Is this a good thing?

<title>Time Constraints and Archaeology</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/time-constraints-and-archaeology/</link> Wed, 07 Nov 2012 14:53:32 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2216

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I've sent a good bit of time this past fall peer reviewing manuscripts. This is a gratifying task which gives me a preview of some of the more interesting discoveries and directions in the field of archaeology. One thing I have noticed, however, in a number of these publications is archaeological projects declaring "time constraints" the reason for various archaeological field decisions. While I have done enough field work to know that time constraints are real. Field work in the Mediterranean often has permit restrictions, limitations on manpower and work days, and logistical constraints that stymy flexibility. Proverbial last day discoveries, of course, can be real, but they are always the produce of a decision to declare a particular day to be the last day of excavations and have limited flexibility to extend excavation beyond that to accommodate last day discoveries. It is impossible, of course, to anticipate every archaeological variable, but in many ways time constraints represent decisions on archaeological priorities. Efforts to maximize data collected in the field regularly push the limits of time and resources. Archaeological field work always has a set of research priorities which attract man power and time. Deciding to pursue one trench over another, to excavate one more context in the waning days of an excavation, or to limit the time spent collecting data at a survey site are all common decisions made it the field. They all recognize the limits of man power and time. They also all represent critical decisions where research priorities meet the contingencies of field work practice. In recent years, archaeologists have endeavored to make the relationship between field procedures, methods, and research goals more transparent. Reflexive documentation practices have increasing come to the fore in archaeological scholarship. It may be time to recontextualize even something as basic and commonsensical as time constraints in light of the archaeological decisions making process.

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<title>Notes on Preparing my Class in the Scale-up Classroom</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/notes-on-preparing-my-class-in-the-scaleup-classroom/</link> Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:35:23 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2219 This spring I will teach History 101: Western Civilization I in the University of North Dakota's new Scale-up classroom. My class will be the only history class in the room - and the only course in the humanities - so I feel a little additional pressure to pull off my rather ambitious plans with at least a modicum of recognizable success. The goal of the Scale-up room is to have students work together in groups of 9 or 3 rather than sit idly and endure a lecture in traditional auditorium style lecture hall. The room is designed around 20 tables with 9 seats and 3 laptops. If you want to read my entire proposal, (http://www.scribd.com/doc/87645562/Scale-Up-Grant-Proposal) go here, but the short version is that I'm going to have students write a History 101 textbook. They will do this by both reading primary sources carefully, but also reviewing current textbooks. Preparing these will give students experience both synthesizing and analyzing as well as in writing, organizing, and reviewing a historical text. The first step is collecting the names of five of six Western civilization textbooks for the book store. Each group will be made of three different students with different textbooks and each table of nine should have all textbooks represented. 1. Jackson Spielvogel, Western Civilization I (to 1500). Volume A. 2. Thomas F.X. Noble, B. Straus, D. Osheim and K Neushchel, Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries. Volume 1 (to 1560) 3. J. Coffin, R Stacey, J. Cole, C. Symes, Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture. Volume 1. 4. J. P. McKay, Bennett D. Hill, John Buckler, et all, A History of Western Society. Volume A: Antiquity to 1500. 5. L. Hunt, The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures. Vol. A (to 1500). 6. B. Pavlac, A Concise Survey of Western Civilization. Prehistory to 1500. (Volume 1). 7. M. Kishlansky, P. Geary, P. O'Brien, Civilization in the West. Volume A (to 1500). If you have additional texts that you think would be well suited to provide basic narratives of Western Civilization, timelines and maps, some notes on primary sources, and serve as the basis for a synthetic study, please do recommend them. I'll supplement these texts with wikipedia pages, my own podcasts and text, a selected group of primary sources, and some secondary sources that provide an overarching structure of the textbook. I've also begun to think about ways to keep students focused on a longterm, collaborative writing project. One of the ideas that I have comes from watching the University of Oregon's football team. They run a very up tempo offense and to maximize the effectiveness of the offensive, they practice in a very up-tempo way. The up-tempo approach to practice not only builds conditioning, but also helps the players realize that they can play through mistakes on the field. In fact, the tempo of play allows Oregon to run more plays and this will mitigate the impact of mistakes that the tempo may induce. I think introducing an up-tempo classroom environment and allowing the students to recognize that mistakes are part of the compositional process. Moreover, it'll keep the students from getting lost and distracted over the course of the many weeks it will take to complete the project. More on the Scale-up classroom as I finish off preparing my class over the next couple of months.

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<title>Working Group in Digital and New Media Open House</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/working-group-in-digital-and-new-mediaopen-house/</link> Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:14:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2225 Today the working Group in Digital and New Media had their third open house. We had a nice crowd throughout the afternoon as various university dignitaries and colleagues came through to check out the newest work. Tim Pasch provided music, Jim Champion prepared a melting sculpture, and various other projects from music, history, and art and design were on display. A few pictures show off the lab space and the projects. <"DSC_0004.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dsc_0004.jpg" alt="DSC 0004" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> <"DSC_0005.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dsc_0005.jpg" alt="DSC 0005" width="450" height="302" border="0" /> <"DSC_0012.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/dsc_0012.jpg" alt="DSC 0012" width="450" height="302" border="0" />

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-45/</link> Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:59:48 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2229 It's an early Friday morning at New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Global Headquarters. We are awaiting a sleet, ice, and snow storm tomorrow, but sitting by the fire and watching cricket from Brisbane to keep warm. The election results and superstorm (which I guess is a word now) have put a damper on the usually fascinating flow of quick hits and varia. (http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/historic-kariye-museum-can-be-visited-virtually-with-anapp.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=33836&amp;NewsCatID=375) The Kayire (Chora) Museum application of the iPhone is pretty cool. It's not as cool as it could be, but it is still pretty cool. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2012/nov/04/coptic-pope-egypt-video?fb=optOut) A little video about the selection of the new Coptic Pope (via Chuck Jones). (http://surprisedbytime.blogspot.com/2012/11/patrick-leigh-fermor-adventure.html) A thought provoking little essay on Patrick Leigh Fermor. (http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/library/new-titles/October-2012) The list of books received from Dumbarton Oaks is almost like having your very own research librarian. (http://davidbyrne.com/radio/) I sort of like David Byrne's playlists. (http://blog.amaliadillin.com/2012/11/mycenaen-greece-and-middle-class.html) A nice summary of Dimitri Nakassis' Cyprus Research Fund Lecture by Amalia Dillin. I hate to be one of "those guys", but I have recent downgraded my iPhone from a 4S to a 4 and the difference is remarkable. Apps that I depend upon every day like Evernote and Spotify simply don't work well on the iPhone 4. The lag is confusing and persistent and applications that were always stable and reliable have developed strange quirks. I can't get my iPhone 5 soon enough. (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-south-africa-2012/engine/current/match/573007.html) South Africa versus Australia. (http://www.archaeological.org/events/10632) A less serious (and hopefully temporary) casualty of Sandy. One of my favorite blog posts over at the now-largely-shuttered Teaching Thursday blog considered (http://teachingthursday.org/2010/02/18/online-teaching-the-panopticon-and-the-unequal-gaze/) the world of online teaching as a manifestation of Foucault's Panopticon. The idea of cultivating increased transparency in the learning process has informed (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/notes-onpreparing-my-class-in-the-scale-up-classroom/) my design of a writing intensive history 101 course in the Scale-up classroom. So I naturally became intrigued when (http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/nowe-textbooks-can-report-back-on-students-readinghabits/40928?cid=at&amp;utm_source=at&amp;utm_medium=en) I saw the possibility of using ebooks to monitor student reading habits.

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 Be sure the check out the photos from the (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/working-group-in-digital-and-new-media-openhouse/) Working Group in Digital and New Media's open house. What I'm reading: R. Jones, (http://books.google.com/books?id=5jvzyz1sI0C&amp;lpg=PP1&amp;pg=PA159#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false) Manure Matters. Ashgate 2012. What I'm listening to: Two great Velvet Underground recordings: The Velvet Underground and Nico 45th Anniversary and The Quine Tapes, and The Walkmen, Heaven. <p style="text-align:center;) <"NDSky.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ndsky1.jpg" alt="NDSky" width="600" height="440" border="0" />This is where I live. Seriously.

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<title>Veterans Day Music and the Culture of Convenience</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/veterans-day-music-and-the-culture-ofconvenience/</link> Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:43:22 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2237 Today is the Veterans Day holiday in the U.S. For much of the Western world, yesterday marked Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. It was particularly moving to see the cricket match between Australia and South Africa stop at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to commemorate the end of the World War I and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In keeping with this theme, I thought I might offer a few songs appropriate for reflecting on the horrors of war. No list of anti-war songs is complete without reference to the Pogues version of Eric Bogles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZqN1glz4JY) The Band Played Waltzing Matilda , which is perhaps the most depressing song ever written. New Orders (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l36eO6BwPq8) Love Vigilantes from their album Low Life is also pretty taxing. For something with a more upbeat sound, one could do far worse than Jimmy Cliffs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OChrbIR6oHs) Vietnam . Almost any track on PJ Harvey's Let England Shake album would work, but I really like " (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO63vb1S7Cw) On Battleship Hill ". Finally, a list of anti-war songs should always include Bob Dylans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w0e6sFLPyI) With God on Our Side which blends a depressing litany of American wars with a cynical view of the future. I have most of these stirring anti-war songs cued up on one of my various (http://www.spotify.com/us/) Spotify playlists (and a couple of them on good old-fashioned CD). Yesterday I (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/11/spotify-and-its-discontents.html) read Mike Spies short article on how Spotify has changed the way that we listen to music. The convenience has not only made me forgiving of its somewhat degraded sound quality (which is evidence even when I listen to song saved in offline mode), but made me nearly addicted to the easy access to almost any song from any album. (In fact, I sometimes get frustrated when an album takes longer than a day to appear on Spotify). The days of special ordering an obscure blues album from the local record store or flipping through rack after rack of CDs to find an album or - even worse - a particular song are certainly over. Reflecting on our culture of convenience is certainly striking on Remembrance Day when we look back over almost a century to the immense sacrifices made in war. Our culture today fixates on the smallest moments of time and the smallest sensations of pleasure or pain that most of us can barely imagine the experiences of soldiers today, much less a century ago. So maybe my bizarre and slightly irreverent juxtaposition between war and convenience can help us reflect on our priorities on a day when we think about people who sacrificed so much.

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<title>Winter Walk</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/winter-walk/</link> Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:58:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2244 After being cooped up inside the house for the last few days, the sky finally cleared of clouds and I got out for a short walk. The tops of the trees were sheathed in ice sending the low sun through them in brilliant ways. <"WinterWalk1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winterwalk1.jpg" alt="WinterWalk1" width="448" height="600" border="0" /> <"WinterWalk2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winterwalk2.jpg" alt="WinterWalk2" width="450" height="336" border="0" /> <"WinterWalk3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winterwalk3.jpg" alt="WinterWalk3" width="450" height="336" border="0" /> <"WinterWalk4.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/winterwalk4.jpg" alt="WinterWalk4" width="448" height="600" border="0" />

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<title>Sherds and Turds: Some New Thoughts on Manuring in the Ancient World</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/sherds-and-turds-some-new-thoughts-onmanuring-in-the-ancient-world/</link> Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:50:34 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2247 The topic of manuring is near and dear to the heart of many survey archaeologists and particularly those active in Greece and Cyprus. For the last thirty years or so a debate has raged over the role of spreading manure on fields in the distribution of ceramics across the landscape. In fact, for many scholars the lowdensity halo of artifacts around settlements reflects the deposition of household trash along with manure in these fields. They marshall a small, but compelling body of ancient texts to support this perspective. Other scholars, however, have remained skeptical of this process and led by my colleague and collaborator (http://corinthianmatters.com/) David Pettegrew have proposed a wide range of well-attested behaviors from short-term habitation to non-domestic activities in the countryside that would account for the so-called continuous carpet of artifacts common to the immediate hinterland of nucleated settlements. As you might imagine, the conflict between those who see "offsite" sherd scatters as a product of manuring practices and those who see them as the low density remains of past activity areas - including habitation - in the countryside has a significant impact on how we understand both rural life in antiquity and the structure of ancient settlement. In a recent, small volume on manuring in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Hamish Forbes offers an ethnographic perspective on the issue of manuring. Forbes is both a survey archaeologist and an ethnographer whose work has recently focused on the Methana peninsula where he conducted both a survey and a major ethnoarchaeological study. Forbes makes several significant observations concerning the modern practice of manuring on Methana in a ver recent articles " (http://books.google.com/books?id=5jvzyz1sI0C&amp;lpg=PR9&amp;ots=wsMVOlVGtl&amp;dq=Lost%20Souls%3A%20Ethnographic%20Observa tions%20on%20Manuring%20Practices%20in%20a%20Mediterranean%20Community&amp;lr&amp;pg=PA 159#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false) Lost Souls [sic]: Ethnographic Observations on Manuring Practices in a Mediterranean Community," in (http://www.worldcat.org/title/manure-matters-historical-archaeologicaland-ethnographic-perspectives/oclc/761481962) Manure Matters: Historical, Archaeological, and Ethnographic Perspectives. R. Jones ed. Ashgate 2012 (159-172). (Apparently the original title was Lost Soles in reference to the regular appearance of shoes in fields, but it was changed by an overzealous copy editor at the 11th hour.) 1. Manuring as strategy. He emphasizes that the practice of spreading manure is part of a larger series of agricultural strategies. Manuring does not occur on every field, it has an economic cost in that it requires labor to transport the manure to the fields, and has seasonal rhythm that intersects with household behavior and the growing cycle of various crops. Manure is collected from the courtyard of the house and animal stalls in the late summer or fall when it is driest and lightest. Some household trash can be mixed in with manure so long as it does not add significant weight to the manure or run the risk of damaging the bags in which the manure is carried in to the field. Potential sharp objects such as glass rarely would make their way into manure piles because of the risk of cutting the bag or the farmers feet as they may plough barefoot. Finally, the amount of manure produced from the average household is likely to be small so only certain fields receive manure. 2. Rough and Rocky Methana. Forbes tests some of his hypotheses regarding manuring behavior on the scatter of "offsite" material in the Methana survey and found that broad fields more likely to support grain for bread (rather than lesser cereals for feed) tended to produce more ceramics. These fields, Forbes reckons, were more likely to receive systematic manuring because they were easier to cultivate and dedicated to crops important for human consumption. He also notes, however, that Methana is particularly challenging terrain

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for agriculture compared to other places in Greece. In fact, he notes that manuring practices in Boeotia or the Corinthia - two territories where scholars have studied the evidence for offsite scatters - might be significantly different from the more rugged terrain of the Methana peninsula. 3. Manure and Livestock. One of the most interesting observations that Forbes offered was that to produce large quantities of manure, large numbers of animals are required. Large scale animal husbandry rarely occurred on the household level. As a result domestic trash was unlikely to find its way into the manure produced by large flocks of animals. For Methana where the rugged terrain assured generally small fields and limited opportunities for the economical spread of manuring, manuring is perhaps best understood as a household practice. In the larger fields and more level terrain surrounding the nucleated centers of Boeotia, it would be possible to transport larger quantities of manure into the countryside via cart. To collect such substantial quantities of manure, however, one might be better off imagining larger flocks of animals and practices that are less likely to mix manure and household discard. While Forbes does not offer a solution to the manuring problem among survey archaeologists, his work offers some important new perspectives on how we understand manuring as a process rather than as simply the human byproduct of an archaeological reality.

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<title>Text, Textbooks, and Teaching</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/14/text-textbooks-and-teaching/</link> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:53:18 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2249 As I work away on preparing my History 101 class for the (http://und.edu/scale-up/index.cfm) University of North Dakotas new Scale-up class room, Ive had to start to think about textbooks more seriously. This is particularly pertinent for this class as the goal of the course is to not only digest a range of different textbooks, but also to produce a textbook. So it was very helpful that Richard Rothaus pointed me in the direction of the (http://www.saa.org/Portals/0/SAA/Publications/thesaaarchrec/nov05.pdf) 2005 SAA Record which featured a number of articles on comics in archaeology. The most interesting of these came from Mitch Allen who talked about the value of using comic books in the introduction to archaeology classroom. He noted that comic books required a re-examination of how we teach because the shift from the standard dry-as-dust textbook prose to illustration and dialogue forces authors to reflect carefully the relationship between the medium and the message. A comic book that simply inscribes traditional textbook language into the dialogue of illustrated figures fails as completely as a comic book that allows plots, story, or the structure of comic cells to obscure the presentation of the expected content. This short article got me to think about how using different media in my History 101 class might stimulate the students to reflect critically both on what and how information is communicated. Ive envisioned the main medium for communication in my Scale-up class to be individual or collaborative text. For quite some time, I have held the philosophy that our students are text-deprived. They live in a world where it is all too easy to avoid the hard work of reading, analyzing, and producing critical information in formal texts. So despite my disciplinary predilections toward material and visual culture, Ive grounded my introductory level courses in the culture of text as a tool to get students to confront reading and writing as vital parts of our intellectual heritage. Of course, the growing emphasis on critical thinking skills have challenged the primacy of texts as the quintessential medium for critical communication (although, to be fair, a growing body of popular literature that has recognized writing as vital tool in the critical thinkers toolbox.) So on the eve of teaching a course that centers on the critical analysis and production of texts, I have stopped to consider whether pushing the students to work in a different medium could help them think more carefully about the delivery of content, analysis, and interpretation. While producing comic books is probably a bit too much for a 100 level class, I am thinking that I will shift some part of my text producing time to work on maps, timelines, and other graphic forms of communicating the content and analysis of their work. Perhaps, as (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=307) Richard Rothaus has tried, I'll get my students to do some writing by hand with the idea that the change in format can encourage students to think through a problem in a different way. I might also suggest that the students experiment with (http://teachingthursday.org/2011/01/20/concept-mapping-a-tool-for-promoting-deep-learning/) concept mapping as advocated by my buddy Bret Weber.

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<title>LIfe and Times at a Ptolemaic Settlement on Cyprus</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/15/life-and-times-at-a-ptolemaic-settlement-oncyprus/</link> Thu, 15 Nov 2012 12:54:36 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2251 This week the team from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project is presenting a paper and the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research. The paper presents some of our most recent research including preliminary observations on our field work in summer 2012. The paper is a bit of an awkward hybrid bringing together a brief discussion of the technology we used this season including 3D modeling using AgiSoft Photoscan and the use of iPads to record trench data in the field, as well as a brief discussion of our finds. For readers of this blog, nothing in the paper is particularly remarkable, but it is a single document that brings together our work. The usual caveat here: this is a working draft and it is probably going to see a bit more editing before it goes live. I'll post the edited version when it lands in my inbox. [scribd id=113345896 key=key-21lhihyfe8e5axxxzuu0 mode=scroll] This is the beginning of archaeology conference season with the Byzantine Studies Conference happening last weekend, ASOR this weekend, and the Archaeological Institute of America meeting the first week in January. The SAAs meet in April and the College Art Association in February (for our colleagues in Art History). We've been pretty consistent in putting our papers up on this blog and Scribd prior to presenting them at the conference. I wonder what would happen if everyone had to do this?

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-46/</link> Fri, 16 Nov 2012 13:13:37 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2254 The New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Global Headquarters as part of our crack personal management team is departing for the land-down-under in a mere 6 hours. Despite the frantic laundry folding and list making, the show must go on (especially because there are undoubtedly deeply engaged participants in the annual meeting of the (http://www.asor.org/am/index.html) American Schools of Oriental Research who are looking for something to read while waiting "between sessions"). So, on a brisk and frantic Friday morning here in North Dakotaland, here are some varia and quick hits: (http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/index.php/news/newsDetails/late-classical-pottery-from-ancient-corinth-aninterview-with-elizabeth-pem) A little interview by Andrew Reinhard with Betsy Pemberton and Ian McPhee on the publication of the (http://www.worldcat.org/title/late-classical-pottery-from-ancient-corinth-drain1971-1-in-the-forum-southwest/oclc/693811026) Late Classical Pottery from Ancient Corinth: Drain 1971-1 in the Forum Southwest as Corinth VII.6. Some interesting insights in Corinth culture here. (http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/zagora/2012/11/14/archaeological-total-surface-survey-treasurehunt/) Intensive pedestrian survey by the Australian team at the Zagora Archaeological Project. Some abandonment porn with a James Bond twist: (http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/10/29/thebond-villains-lair-skyfalls-abandoned-island/) the Japanese island of Hashima. (http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/ny-times-slams-guy-fieris-restaurant-regular-folks-224800321.html) Everything tastes better (even a bad review) with a bit of Marilyn Hagerty. (http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2012/11/pedestrians-cities-have-become-wilderness/3878/) This is an interesting perspective on walking in cities (via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus). Of course, suburbs and even some small towns are even less pedestrian friendly. My parents live in a subdivision without sidewalks in Florida! (https://www.readmatter.com/) More good quality long reads on the web. One thing that's awesome about my alma mater, the University of Richmond, (and, no, not its $35,000+ tuition) is its president Ed Ayers who is a historian. (http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/thelegacy/Content?oid=1780080) Check out his views on Lincoln. I think ole (http://und.edu/president/) R.Kelley (who admittedly brings the sweet nickname) here at the University of North Dakota needs to step it up. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1984027192/codex) Another North Dakota Kickstarter that is definitely worth supporting. (http://daringfireball.net/2012/11/best_dell_ad_ever) Advertising fail. (http://rollingjubilee.org/) This is so clever that I know it won't last. Two new books: (http://en.unipress.dk/udgivelser/p/patrons-and-viewers) Patrons and Viewers in Late Antiquity and (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674059030) Miracle Tales from Byzantium.

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 Abandonment porn of the digital variety: (http://middlesavagery.wordpress.com/2012/11/06/thearchaeology-of-digital-abandonment/) I'd love to see this paper. I also like the recent vogue in throwback webpages - (http://www.philosophyinpubliclife.org/Why/previousepisodes/episode50.html) like this one that seek to capture the design signature of the early web. (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/2012/11/13/punk-archaeology-joe-strummer-on-diy/) Some more punk archaeology at Aaron Barth's The Edge of the Village. (http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/122762) I love examples of objects from the very recent past that would be rather obscure to "the kids these days" (cf. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/2012/04/spider.html) Kostis Kourelis post on the 45 rpm record adapter.) (http://musicmachinery.com/2012/11/12/the-infinite-jukebox/) An infinite jukebox. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ducking-google-in-search-engines/2012/11/09/6cf3af102842-11e2-bab2-eda299503684_story.html) An alternative to Google and (http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/11/you-google-wrong/59013/) a nice set of tips in how to use Google better. I find search engine literacy is among the greatest weaknesses among my students thesea-days. (Another is how to write (http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2012/10/14/the_elegant_email.html) an effective and appropriate email.) (http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2012/11/venice-under-water/100403/) Venice underwater. (http://www.flavorwire.com/345857/kurt-cobains-handwritten-top-50-albums-list) Kurt Cobains's Top 50 Albums list. (http://chronicle.com/blogs/players/500-pages-in-10-days-i-wouldnt-want-to-do-it-author-says/31708) A pretty stiff reading load for an introductory class. What I'm reading (the long, slow morning of peer reviewing manuscripts is finally giving way to the glorious day light of reading published books): M. Shanks, (http://daringfireball.net/2012/11/best_dell_ad_ever) The Archaeological Imagination. Left Coast Press 2012. What I'm listening to: PJ Harvey, Dry; Clinic, Free Reign. <p style="text-align:center;) <"Outside.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/outside.jpg" alt="Outside" width="450" height="337" border="0" />My new iPhone 5 camera is pretty decent.

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<title>The North Dakota Sky</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/the-north-dakota-sky/</link> Sun, 18 Nov 2012 17:28:54 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2262 Among the greatest pleasures of living here in North Dakota is the sky. Maybe the sky is the same everywhere, but I only notice it here? Or maybe the sky here is something special. These are from my walk yesterday with my iPhone 5. <"NDSky1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ndsky11.jpg" alt="NDSky1" width="450" height="600" border="0" /> <"NDSky2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ndsky2.jpg" alt="NDSky2" width="450" height="600" border="0" /> <"NDSky3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ndsky3.jpg" alt="NDSky3" width="450" height="600" border="0" /> <"NDSky4.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/ndsky4.jpg" alt="NDSky4" width="450" height="600" border="0" />

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<title>Thinking Outside the Box at the Modern University</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/thinking-outside-the-box-at-the-modernuniversity/</link> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:20:22 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2264 For the past three months, I've been working with a group of able and well-meaning colleagues to create a new program in digital arts and humanities. We were prompted by our provost and encouraged by our dean to think big about how this new program will look. The powers-that-be received enthusiastically our initial proposal, which involved faculty from History, English, Art and Design, Anthropology, and Music. The program we envision involves introductory level courses (including my hobby horse: a course titled Introduction to the Digital World that prompts our students not only to get hands on experience with such high-tech procedures as attaching files to email messages, but also to learn to think critically about how digital technologies impact their world), midlevel courses, and upper level "convergence" courses which will be taught collaboratively by faculty with skills in theory and production. Of course, to put together a program like this, we need not only to get buy-in from faculty who will contribute, but also develop the technological infrastructure to support this program. One of the first responses by people in the room was: let's create a department. This, at first, seemed a logical first step. We know we need to hire a program director and hiring is usually done at the departmental level. We also need administrative support and that's usually assigned at the departmental level (and the few non-departmental programs here on campus are notoriously underfunded and lack support). Finally, we need to create courses, have committees, secure commitments from various university areas, and all these things usually manifest themselves on the departmental level. At the same time that all this excitement about creating a department simmered away, some of us wondered whether it might be better to avoid these kinds of institutional entanglements and create a program with an explicit shelf life. What if we created a program in digital humanities and arts that lasted 10 years and then disbanded? 1. Technology. Most of the technology that this program will leverage and explore has a lifespan of 5 years. A ten year program will see this technology through a single refresh. This limits the university's exposure to creating a program with significant recurring expenses and perhaps makes administrators more willing to invest in a program if they feel free from any risk at precedence setting. 2. Four Cohorts. If the average university student completes their major courses over three years. A ten year trajectory will allow us to move approximately four cohorts through the program with two years at the start to get the program settled and a minimum of faculty. Students will have to realize that they need to complete courses successfully because they will not be offered again for a period of two years. 3. Planned Obsolescence. Recently at an archaeological conference, a major scholar opined, in a matter of fact way, that archaeological projects should have a shelf-life of 10 years or so. When a 10 year plan of work is complete, the project directors should make the site available for other scholars to investigate and shift their attention to publishing results or move on to another site and project. A few of us had this idea that we might run a degree program for 10 years. This would allow us to approach the program with a significant degree of intensity, keep on top of a rapidly moving body of scholarship, and invest as little time as possible in empire or infrastructure building. 4. Programs without Departments. The key component of our 10 year program will be the absence of a department. As at most universities, resources and infrastructure are typically (although not always) allocated

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on the department level. Departments require management and the members of the department are usually the individuals who provide this. Programs, on the other hand, can be administratively light on the ground. Our program, with a finite shelf-life and without the need to invest in long-term planning, would focus its energy on students and immediate results. The plan would be for every faculty contributor to the program to have a departmental home (including the program director) and to offer one or two courses a year in the new program for a period of 10 years and to have equal say in design and management of the program. There will be no long term entanglement. 5. Competition. Of course, the absence of a longterm plan for our program could hurt it in the competition for university resources, but we feel like we can make a compelling case for the vitality and significance of our program. And, if we can't do this, perhaps we don't deserve the not insignificant level of funding that our work will require. Our plan here echoes some of the policies proposed by (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/27/opinion/27taylor.html?pagewanted=all) Mark Taylor in his wellknown piece in the New York Times. The main difference in our vision is that we would respect the disciplinary integrity of departments while at the same time offering an alternative perspective to the permanence and administrative rigidity and energy that goes into maintaining these institutional structures.

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<title>Greeks and Romans in Corinth</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/greeks-and-romans-in-corinth/</link> Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:06:37 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2266 Yesterday the two volumes of the Journal of Roman Archaeology 25 showed up in my campus mailbox. It always appears in the fall, and along with college football and Thanksgiving mark the beginning of the indoorliving season. In this year's volume, Kathleen Slane has two offerings - an article and a book review - that examine and critique the ethnic identity of the city of the ancient Corinth after it was "destroyed" by the Roman general Mummius in 146 BC. As she explains in her review of S. J. Friesen, D. N. Schowalter, and J. C. Walters, eds. (http://www.worldcat.org/title/corinth-in-context-comparative-studies-on-religion-andsociety/oclc/714878761) Corinth in Context: Comparative Studies on Religion and Society. (Leiden 2010), the history of the city between this sack and the refounding of the city in the 1st century B.C. Not only is the archaeological evidence complex, but scholars have asked particularly difficult questions of this evidence: namely were the inhabitants of the refounded city Greeks or Romans? Were they descendants of the original Greek inhabitants of the city who returned after Mummius's sack or was the population dominated by Roman immigrants from Italy. Slane considers this tricky issue in a short article titled "Remaining Roman in death at an Eastern Colony" where she looks at evidence from a number of "Roman type" tombs in the immediate neighborhood of the city of Corinth. Work on the National Road and the high speed rail line through the ancient city of Corinth's chora revealed several new examples of Roman style tombs to go along with some tombs excavated in the first part of the 20th century. The tombs date to second century A.D., some 150 years after the refounding of the city. These tombs featured biclinia or a triclinium that echo Roman dining practices. Vaulted construction and wall painting styles evocative of Italian types particularly those around Ostia (and elsewhere associated with Roman colonies in the Eastern Mediterranean). The tombs featured space for both inhumation and cremations indicating that the two practices probably existed simultaneously. It is notable that the Roman style tombs presented here by Slane are quite different from the recently studied tombs at the site of Koutsongilia near Kenchreai. Slane concludes the article with the observation Corinthian elites continued to have contact with Italy for centuries even into the Medieval and Early Modern period as the Corinthian Gulf remained in the orbit of the Italian Adriatic. Later in volume 25, Slane reviews the Friesen, Schowalter, and Walters, eds. Corinth in Context. After nice, brief introduction to history and problems associated with Roman Corinth, she pays particular attention of Ben Millis article on Greek and Roman names. From Slane's review, it would seem that Millis looked at the names and language that appear in Corinthian inscriptions to consider the ethnic (if we can use that word here) make up of the city of Corinth. Slane was rather critical of Millis's arguments. Without going into much detail on these two short contributions, they reflect the ongoing interest among archaeologists in the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural make up of the Roman city of Corinth. There remains very little in the way of theoretical discussion in this scholarship, and this is understandable considering the aversion to theory among Mediterranean archaeologists generally and the complexity of issues surrounding ethnicity in social, historical, and archaeological contexts. At the same time, it will strike a reader more grounded in world archaeology as strange and perhaps a bit quaint to see such careful and fastidious study of ancient material unfettered from larger theoretical questions.

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<title>Archaeological Glitch Art</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/archaeological-glitch-art/</link> Wed, 21 Nov 2012 15:53:02 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2276 Several members of the Working Group in Digital and New Media have been discussing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glitch_art) glitch art. Some of this was inspired by (http://markamerika.com/) Mark Amerika 's glitched contribution to the Arts and Culture gallery show titled "The Eastern Shore of Maryland". The term glitch art refers to digital images that are manipulated by deleting lines of code or through sometimes random processes of data and file corruption. In a few brief conversations I became interested in the performative aspect of glitching art as much as the results. So on a grey Saturday, I started glitching some of the images that I prepared for the final publication of our survey at Pyla-Koutsopetria. The first step was converting the .tif files to .jpg files. Jpegs appear to be more susceptible to glitching and less likely to fail. Once the file is in .jpg format, it it possible to open it up in NotePad or TextEdit to and manipulate the code. I started with an image like this: <"PKAP_ModernCT.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernct.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCT" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> Deleting random code made it look like this: <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitched1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitched1.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitched1" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitched2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitched2.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitched2" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitched3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitched3.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitched3" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitch4.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitch4.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitch4" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> These images are randomly glitched. I have no idea what code I took out and could not replicate this. Each image is effectively unique. Some attempts to produce this kind of glitched image resulted in the file being too seriously corrupted, and it could not be opened. A more systematic effort at glitching involved cutting parts of the code and replacing them. The advantages of this is that its replicable. By swapping out the effectively random letters (to me) that made up the code for the image, I began to think a bit more about how to introduce to the images something less random. In other words, to make the language of the image intersect with the more easily understood forms of verbal communication.

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For this image I replaced the combination "SM", the initials of Scott Moore, our ceramicist, with my initials BC: <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitchedSMBC.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitchedsmbc.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitchedSMBC" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> For this image, I replaced "DP", for our co-director David Pettegrew, with "BC": <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitchedDPBC.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitcheddpbc.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitchedDPBC" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> Finally, I replaced the letter P with the acronym of our project "PKAP" (the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project): <"PKAP_ModernCTGlitchedPKAP.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pkap_modernctglitchedpkap.jpg" alt="PKAP ModernCTGlitchedPKAP" width="450" height="363" border="0" /> The idea of these last three images is to combine computer code and human codes to transform our computer mediate image of archaeological reality in unpredictable ways. The process is remarkably similar to analyzing the site via the GIS where we take the "natural" landscape and transform it into a series of symbols, lines, and text. By manipulating the code that produces these images in both random and patterned ways, we manipulate the meaning of the image and the way in which these images communicate information to the viewer. We problematize the process and manifestation of mediating between the experienced landscape and its representation as archaeological data.

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<title>Happy Thanksgiving</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/22/happy-thanksgiving/</link> Thu, 22 Nov 2012 16:57:04 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2280 I don't usually (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/happy-thanksgiving/) blog on (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/happy-thanksgiving/) holidays, but it's hard to resist following Brad Austin's lead, so I need to post (http://classictvhistory.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/turkeys-away-an-oral-history/) a 5000+ word oral history of WKRP in Cincinnati with particular attention to their famous 1978 Thanksgiving episode. For those of you who need a refresher, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3mgmEdfwg) here's a good excerpt of the most famous moments in that episode. "I guess he thought he could save the day by setting all the turkeys loose. It gets pretty strange after that." Happy Thanksgiving! <"Pie1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pie1.jpg" alt="Pie1" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> <"Pie2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pie2.jpg" alt="Pie2" width="450" height="337" border="0" />

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<title>Friday Quick Hits and Varia</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/23/friday-quick-hits-and-varia-21/</link> Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:26:57 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2283 It's a chilly day here in North Dakotaland, but at least the last of the Thanksgiving Day snowflakes have settled on the ground and the wind seems to have let up. My house was freezing this morning and it was all I could do to get out of my warm bed to provide you (dear reader) with some holiday weekend entertainment. So, here are some lovingly selected and curated varia and quick hits. For my Corinthian colleagues, particularly those who have spend earnest hours at Room Marinos on the east side of the village, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlnwu0Jm2Rw) this video will surely bring back fond memories. (http://archivesoutside.records.nsw.gov.au/resources/digitising-your-collection-pdf/) The Australians have provided us with a nice guide for digitization conveniently available in pdf format. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatosu_and_Goblu,_Ohio) Michigan geography humor (via Dimitri Nakassis). GO BUCKS. BEAT MICHIGAN. (http://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/570928/Area-residents-delve-intoHiddenwood-Cemetery--hidden-in-history.html?nav=5010) A completely charming story about local history (via (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/) Richard Rothaus). Let's say you need a book, but only have $2 and are in Toronto and have no particular idea of what book you want. If that's the case, (http://vimeo.com/53679084#) then there is a vending machine for you. Another link from Rothaus: (http://99percentinvisible.org/post/36086263396/episode-66-kowloonwalled-city) the now destroy walled city of Kowloon in Hong Kong which was formerly the densest settlement on earth. I love the longstanding conversation about how annoying hipsters are. (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/17/how-to-live-without-irony/) First here and (http://gothamist.com/2012/11/18/ny_times_trys_on_thought_catalogue.php) then here. (And all this comes over 2 years after (http://nplusonemag.com/what-was-hipster) an unabashedly hipster publication N+1 declared the hipster dead.) (http://publishingarchaeology.blogspot.com/2012/11/gis-phenomenological-landscapes-and.html) Some thoughts on the recent volume of The Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory from Michael E. Smith. The volume looks at the relationship between experiential practices and GIS in documenting archaeological space. (http://kourelis.blogspot.com/) It's always worth a visit when Kostis Kourelis fire up the ole blog again. Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the slowest days on my blog. Yesterday I had only 31 page views or about 1/3 the average number. (http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/balloon-mapping) Using balloons to give the community access to the sky. The idea that anyone could send up a kind of UAV for under $200 is both terrifying and (in some perverse way) comforting. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

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(http://www.startribune.com/local/180360941.html?refer=y) This, on the other hand, does not fill me with the same confidence ) (http://jameystillingsprojects.com/#/PROJECTS/evolution%20of%20ivanpah%20solar/2/) Some arresting photography of a massive solar installation being set up in Mojave Desert. (It reminds me a bit of (http://www.samfee.net/desert/) the work of my colleague Sam Fee.) I really like (http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/12/john-steinbeck-six-tips-on-writing/) the first writing tip offered here by John Steinbeck : abandon the idea that you're ever going to finish. On small business Saturday (a concept that I whole-heartedly embrace even if I have no intention of shopping at all this weekend), (http://theshopinel.com/) shop at my cousin's store. They have nice stuff. (http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8993-the-cloud/) Some interesting thoughts on the economics of Spotify and Pandora. What I'm reading: Bjrnar Olsen, Michael Shanks, Timothy Webmoor, Christopher Witmore, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-the-discipline-of-things/oclc/816563012) Archaeology: The Discipline of Things. (Berkeley 2012). What I'm listening to: (http://galaxie500.bandcamp.com/album/on-fire) Galaxie 500, On Fire. The Weeknd, Trilogy. <p style="text-align:center;) <"Mango.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/mango.jpg" alt="Mango" width="450" height="600" border="0" />A Mango Tree

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<title>The Archaeological Imagination</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/the-archaeological-imagination/</link> Mon, 26 Nov 2012 13:35:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2287 Michael Shanks is having a banner year in terms of publications. I just finished his work titled (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeological-imagination/oclc/768126318) The Archaeological Imagination. Shanks arranges a series of short vignettes related to his recent fieldwork in the border country between Scotland and England. These vignettes capture the range of archaeological engagements over the course of the 18th and early 19th through the eyes of local antiquarians as well as such literary luminaries like Walter Scott who spent significant time in the area. Shanks is particular interested in the perception of landscapes by intellectuals of various stripes prior to the consolidation of the discipline of archaeology with its methodological constraints. As a result, he is open to identifying impulses and practices that establish the genealogical 18th century roots of the modern, disciplinary archaeological imagination rather than more narrowly defined discursive ones that characterized the mid-19th century emergence of the discipline. As is a common strain in Shankss writing, his arguments benefit from the careful consideration of elaborate case studies and descriptive vignettes and offer only modest outlines. By presenting a wide range of examples, Shanks underlines the diverse range of the pre-modern or proto-modern archaeological imagination. In particular, Shanks shows an interest in the way in which 18th century intellectuals distinguished archaeological remains for the historical. He emphasizes the importance of persistence, ruin, duration, and decay in their perceptions of the landscape whereas the writing of history tends to see time as linear with events flowing into each other or blinking on and off. Shanks goes on to argue that the persistence of a durable, physical past play a key element in the development of community and individual identity. The attention lavished upon the physical past by 18th century antiquarians persists in the disciplinary attention to objects in the field archaeology. (And this fits well with Shanks other 2012 book: Archaeology: The Discipline of Things which makes the case for the importance of studying things.) Narratives of presence and absence, persistence and decay form the narratological context for understanding things and these narratives are mediated by performative practices grounded in the 18th century. Walking landscapes, describing passages, documenting remains all formed the middle ground between things in the social world of the antiquarian and archaeologist. The context for the archaeological imagination, then, is the performative where we as scholar engage with the variegated physical remains of the past. While this brief and chaotic summary does not do justice the range of topics addressed in Shanks short essay (it's barely over 100 pages), I was drawn to the application of Shanks methods to my own start-stop research on dreams. I have agreed (http://www.scribd.com/doc/30697799/Caraher-Dream-Archaeology-2010) to revive my dream archaeology paper a few times this spring and with each return to this paper, I become more and more interested in submitting it for publication. The performative and even liturgical aspect of religious dreams that lead to the discovery of objects or buildings provide another link between pre-modern practices and the modern discipline especially when the two phenomenon come in contact with one another in modern archaeological publication or in (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/jinn-and-treasurein-palestine/) the actions of looters seeking to discover buried treasure for economic gain.

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<title>Balloons and Kites and Watching Archaeologically</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/balloons-and-kites-and-watchingarchaeologically/</link> Tue, 27 Nov 2012 13:30:32 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2289 Balloon and kite photography has increasingly become part of the archaeologist tool kit. (http://www.whitewashedtomb.com/?p=284) As my colleague Richard Rothaus explains, kites provide a relatively inexpensive method for taking aerial landscape photography. Archaeologists have also used balloons for such practices since the early part of the 20th century and balloons with kite-like aspects provide a relatively stable photography platform in even challenging environments. My impression is that kite and balloon photography developed, at least in part, during the 19th century in conjunction with both increasingly scientific map-making and military practices. Archaeologists, particularly those interested in landscapes, followed the lead of surveyors and the military tacticians and adapted both kites and balloons as low-cost alternatives for documenting archaeological remains. (In the 20th century, of course, satellite photographs and even our beloved GPS units are another point in this adapting military tools to archaeological needs. The line between military knowledge and archaeological intent remains quite fine and most archaeologists who work in strategically sensitive areas can tell (sometimes humorous) stories of the tension between local officials and their own easy access to high-resolution images of local strategic assets.) With the growing popularity and sophistication of various unmanned aerial vehicles, the opportunities for low-level aerial photography and documentation have reached a new threshold. The University of North Dakota has been at the forefront of research into the design and use of UAVs and has come increasingly to recognize the potential threats to privacy that these kinds of technologies pose. For scholars in the humanities, however, the threat of a surveillance society is not particularly alarming or new. Since Foucault's landmark Discipline and Punish, scholars have recognized surveillance as a crucial component of late capitalism and the production of a society designed around the optimal efficiency necessary to produce goods and ideas for the market. The expansion of the internet and various wired technologies in our everyday life (mobile phones, tablet computers, cars, et c.) ensures that companies monitor our daily transactions and movements to ensure that we can become perfect consumers. Online teaching - as I have argued elsewhere - has taken many of the ideas that we've learned from the internet, earlier forms of surveillance, and a pedagogy committed to transparency in the learning process and created an environment that prepares our students to move into a even more closely monitored society. In this context, the concern over privacy and UAVs seems an expected way to secure the barn door long after the horse has left. That being said, the concepts of surveillance is not exclusive to corporate or government interests, however. Just as archaeologists have found (http://academia.edu.documents.s3.amazonaws.com/1389412/Myers__2010___Camp_Delta__Google_Earth_and_the_ethics_of_remote_sensing_in_archaeology.pdf) technology developed for military purposes suitable for more subversive goals, we are recognizing low-cost techniques melded to the central tenets of the surveillance society can provide the basis for a subversive critique of at least some of the forces that produced this surveillance (either directly or indirectly). While we are all familiar with the threat that many law enforcement agencies see in citizens' right to photograph or video record their interaction with the police, some colleagues here on the North Plains have begun to discuss using balloon and kite photography to document the activities of the oil companies in the Bakken Oil Patch. In particular, we have begun to think seriously (http://publiclaboratory.org/tool/balloon-mapping) about using new, lowcost balloon kits and open-source software to train residents of the Bakken counties to monitor the activities of oil companies.

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This does two things. First it serves a practical purpose of providing a very recent aerial photographs of the rapidly changing activities in the oil patch. Second (and more significantly, I think), it provides an opportunity for archaeologists to teach local residents how to use surveillance practices to regain some control over their local landscape.

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<title>GIS and Experience</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/gis-and-experience/</link> Wed, 28 Nov 2012 13:56:52 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2291 The recent volume of the (http://www.springerlink.com/content/1072-5369/19/4/) Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 19 (2012) addressed the complex issue of integrating Geographic Information Systems and methods grounded in embodied experiences or phenomenological approaches to archaeological space. In the literature, these two approaches to archaeological space and landscapes have been at odds with each other. Recently, however, a group of scholars have begun to consider a tentative rapprochement between the two techniques of producing knowledge of archaeological space. While the articles in this volume propose a wide range of potential compromises between these two approaches to archaeological space, generally they acknowledge epistemological barriers between the two methods of generating archaeological knowledge. GIS methods tend to ascribe to a kind of abstract determinism that runs counter to forms of archaeological knowledge generated from the human senses. Several scholars, however, proposed ways to reconcile these two approaches by understanding that GIS based analyses provide a point of departure and comparison for more experiential approaches. The issue for experiential and embodied archaeological practices is how far or even whether they can divorce from our cartographic view of the world. Our society (and that includes the part of the world outside of archaeological knowledge) demands that we conceptualize the world through two dimension maps, although not exclusively. Daily weather reports, roads and routes, and even archaeological publications rely in part on a cartographic sensibility that is deeply embedded in our modern world view. Experiential archaeology can almost certainly challenge this perspective, but it remains unclear whether these practices and forms of documentation can ever put the modern genie back in the bottle. A discipline that developed alongside a "god's eye view" of the world does not easily forget this perspective. That being said, the emergence of arguments for the landscape and archaeological space as embodied, lived, and experienced have problematized the sterile character of maps and the modern assumptions that emerge from them. As several articles in this collection suggest, even the most sophisticated maps of viewshed or resource distribution can fall short of capturing in a consistent way the actual experience of humans in the landscape. Rennel's treatment of Iron Age sites in the Hebrides, for example, demonstrated how viewshed maps could not properly capture the experience of sites built on islands in freshwater lochs. According to Rennel, the banks of the lochs provided a sense of security by hiding part of the local landscape from view in ways that that viewshed analysis overlooked. McEwan tested a complex probability model against a known ancient landscape and found it similarly lacking and identified subtle features in the landscape that shaped ancient activities, but were overlooked in probability models. The issues identified by Rennel and McEwan generally centered on notions of scale. GIS and other tools allow researchers to generalize experience across the landscape, but as a result struggle to adapt to highly localized or small scale variations. At times, however, generalized models provide the only access that scholars have to past landscapes. As Millican used aerial photography to document sites preserved as little more than cropmarks. The absence of standing features or even the remains of the ancient topography makes it difficult to argue for an embodied experience in this landscape. Aerial photographs, plans, geological prospecting, and maps brought together in GIS to form the basis for understanding a now vanished landscape. The reconstructed landscape in conjunction with time in the field and on site provides a hybridized opportunity to experience an ancient place. On a larger scale projects such as this which seek to reconstruct ancient places are necessary to contextualize even better preserved ancient landscapes and to understand them in their past human environments. Pillatt's article on early modern weather likewise introduced the tension between our

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generalized knowledge of English climate and the experience of weather. Pillatt used diaries checked against climate data to show how both long term and short term changes in the weather disrupted the daily work of early modern farmers on marginal lands. If generalized climate trends provided the basis for the understanding the margins of risk of crop failure endured by farmers in any particular year, the daily, diary records of weather show how changes in weather on a highly local and individual scale make actualize those risks. Far from a strict cartographic reading of the landscape, many of these articles articulated clearly how our generalized view of the world already informs our understanding and expectations of experience (modern or ancient). As GIS applications make their way from cartographic tools to those informing actual human experiences in the landscape the tension between our generalized expectations and our actual experiences will become more problematic. As S. Eve points out augmented and virtual reality takes the cartographic sensibilities of GIS and allows scholars to make it increasingly visible in the landscape that it purports to describe.

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<title>Almost the End of the Day</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/almost-the-end-of-the-day/</link> Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:23:45 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2294 <"EndoftheDay.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/endoftheday.jpg" alt="EndoftheDay" width="450" height="300" border="0" />

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<title>Civility and Student Resistance</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/29/civility-and-student-resistance/</link> Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:13:05 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2296 At the end of the semester any conscientious teacher is invariably confronted with a series of challenging moral and ethical decisions. Students are panicking, feeling significant pressure, and everything is due (almost by definition) at the same time. The scenes are the same all over the country. Stressed, exhausted, panicked, and flailing students arrive during office hours and ask for some kind of hope. For the better students, hope comes in the way of reassurance that we recognize their hard work and it will produce desired results. For students who have struggled, however, the negotiations become more complex and invariably desperate. Recently, some of my colleagues and I have noticed that the more desperate negotiations have increasingly deviated from that most slippery quality of truthiness. In fact, in a number of cases, students have just lied to us. As often, students over promise and under deliver in ways that are clearly tactical. The end of the semester, then, brings about a series of wholly unpleasant interactions with our students and can sour the memory of an otherwise good learning and teaching experience (for both parties). To mitigate the unpleasant endgame negotiations faculty seem to take two approaches. I have tended to use increasingly soft deadlines for my courses to discourage students from turning in "late" papers by making it more difficult for a paper to be actually late. The only firm deadline is the end of the semester and that is non-negotiable, but the responsibility for the ending date of the semester is beyond my control shifting the responsibility for due-dates from me to the rather less personal institution. The other approach, which is perhaps more common, is to be inflexible about deadlines and enforce increasingly draconian penalties for their violation. Both approaches seem to me to be a response to the break down of any sense of community in the classroom and at the university. The air of desperation at the end at the end among students assumes a certain degree of inflexibility on the part of faculty. At the same time, the willingness of students to connive to get extra time acknowledges that the very limited opportunities for real conversations about the root causes of missing due dates, performing poorly on assignments, and end of the semester panics, and the lack of confidence in faculty taking these issues seriously. Of course, the reasons for this lack of confidence may stem from a kind of classroom "tragedy of the commons" where students have used opportunities to negotiate and shape the course to undermine the pedagogical intent of the course. The failure to recognize and respect the course structure and how it creates an environment best suited to student learning suggests that there is a disjuncture between student and faculty expectations. In this context, negotiations for extra time or exceptional treatment are not compromises between an accepted and appreciated pedagogy and the recognized realities of student life, but something entirely more desperate and misunderstood. Students feel willing to subvert the intent of the class because they don't accept that the course serves their purposes. In this context, faculty look to reinforce deadlines using stricter penalties that reinforce the power differential between student and faculty. This then leads to the idea that the class structure serves as a basis for faculty power and the classroom and the interaction between faculty and students becomes an arena for (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/the-roots-of-student-resistance/) student resistance.

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-47/</link> Fri, 30 Nov 2012 13:34:06 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2298 It's a cold, but warming day here in North Dakotaland. In fact, it's a perfect day to stay in bed just a little bit longer and wait for the mercury to pass the 30 degree (F) mark. So, as you lounge in bed at the start of your day, the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World intergalactic content team is hard at work producing a lovely little gaggle of quick hits and varia. (http://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/greekbasilicas/index.php) An amazing collection of geographic information and images on the Early Christian basilicas of the Peloponnesus (via Guy Sanders). This probable deserves a blog post in its own right. (http://electricarchaeology.ca/2012/11/22/deformative-digital-archaeology/) Some cool thoughts on deformative digital archaeology from the Electric Archaeologist, Shawn Graham. (This is a long-running and remarkably high-quality blog that I just don't link to enough.) (http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/first-ever-microbrewery-found-by-archaeologists-8367734.html) The first microbrewery ever discovered was discovered on Cyprus. (And this naturally called for some experimental archaeology) (http://blog.lib.umn.edu/levin031/transportationist/2011/12/deconstructing-busytown-1.html) Maybe I've linked to this in past, but maybe not, so here's a deconstruction of Richard Scary's Busytown. (http://fargohistory.com/) Speaking of Busytown, check out the new FargoHistoryProject website. (http://www.ottomanhistorypodcast.com/2012/11/turkey-bird-history-thanksgiving-america.html) Why is our Thanksgiving dinner food is named after a country? (http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2012/nov/28/author-examines-life-letter/) A nice little interview with my uncle, the author. Have you started thinking about Punk Archaeology, yet? Stuff is happening. (http://soundcloud.com/charinos/sets/punk-archaeology/) Listen to this. The Australians who are digging at the site of Zagora on Andros have done a great job making their excavation visible, accessible, and understandable on the web. (http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/zagora/2012/11/25/digging-digging/) Check out this blog post on Digging, Digging (and the entire rest of the blog while you're at it). (http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/home-squeezed-home-living-in-a-200-square-footspace/2012/11/27/e1a02858-2f35-11e2-ac4a-33b8b41fb531_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend) How can you not love a tiny house? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLqyuxm96k) This is pretty funny and ironic. Speaking of housing, (http://und.edu/news/2012/11/community-engagement-awards.cfm) congratulations to Bret Weber for receiving a Stone Soup Award for community engagement. There have been a gaggle of recent essays and commentaries on the library arts and the university. All of them more or less make similar arguments and none of them are particularly convincing (unless you're prone

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to agree with them anyway). (http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/250179/group/homepage/) Here are some thoughts from the newish chancellor of the North Dakota University System, Hamid Shirvani. (http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2012/11/26/essay-idea-useful-liberal-arts) And here are the thoughts of William Durden, President of Dickinson College. And (http://www.scu.edu/scm/feature.cfm?b=439&amp;c=14699) here are some thoughts by an adjunct professor in the English Department at Santa Clara University (http://xoxofest.com/video/) Here are all the talks at the super hip and super techie xoxofest. Like the dork that I am, I downloaded iTunes 11 as soon as I could. I hate iTunes so I was desperate for something better. (http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/23/who-still-uses-typewriters-prisons-policestations-and-baby-boomers-it-seems/) I'm not sure iTunes 11 will be the next great thing, but it'll be better. In a similarly technological vein, (http://theopenutopia.org/home/) here is a new social approach to reading Thomas More's Utopia. And, (http://craigmod.com/journal/subcompact_publishing/) a really nice article that presents some to the tools, tricks, and trends in digital publishing. And (http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/art-history-failing-internet/) here's an interesting piece by James Cuno of the Getty Trust on Art History and the web. The opposite of high tech: (http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/11/23/who-still-uses-typewritersprisons-police-stations-and-baby-boomers-it-seems/) who still uses typewriters? What I'm reading: Journal of Roman Archaeology 19 (2012). What I'm listening to: We are Augustines, Rise Ye Sunken Ships; Pela, Anytown Graffiti.

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<title>Friday Evening at 6pm</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/friday-evening-at-6pm/</link> Sat, 01 Dec 2012 18:15:44 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2303 I am playing with a new Canon Eos Rebel T3i. My office at around 6pm on a Friday evening and the hallway on my walk out. Sort of depressing. <"FridayEvening6pm.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/fridayevening6pm.jpg" alt="FridayEvening6pm" width="450" height="300" border="0" /> <"FridayEvening6pm2.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/fridayevening6pm2.jpg" alt="FridayEvening6pm2" width="450" height="300" border="0" />

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<title>Early Christian Archaeology</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/early-christian-archaeology/</link> Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:18:47 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2310 The past few weeks I've worked on a top secret Early Christian Archaeology project (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/considering-early-christian-archaeology/) which is not particularly related to this past from several years ago). As part of that project, my collaborator and I began to think about the term Early Christian Christian archaeology in an Anglo-American academic context, and we both came to the conclusion that, while common the scholarship elsewhere in the world, it is relatively rare among English speaking scholars. Indeed, looking at a Google Ngram for the term, we can see that it is not only rare, but has only begun to appear quite recently. <"ECARchaeologyNgram.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ecarchaeologyngram.jpeg" alt="ECARchaeologyNgram" width="450" height="225" border="0" /> The spike that appears in the mid-1970s derives primarily from a small number of works that appeared between 1965 and 1975. Most of these books looked at the archaeology of the Early Christian period in the U.K. (and one particular book A.C. Thomas's (http://www.worldcat.org/title/early-christian-archaeologyof-north-britain/oclc/500557374) Early Christian Archaeology of North Britain (1971). The continued growth in the term Early Christian Archaeology in more recent decades derives in large part from the growing interest in the archaeology of Late Antiquity and the appearance of William Frend's book (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-of-early-christianity-a-history/oclc/33440800) The Archaeology of Early Christianity (1996) which explores the history of the discipline. Among European scholars, the Early Christian period encompasses the first five centuries of our era. A similar trend is evident in the following Ngram that queries Late Antiquity, Late Roman, and Late Antique. <"LAArchaeologyNgram.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/laarchaeologyngram.jpeg" alt="LAArchaeologyNgram" width="450" height="234" border="0" /> In contrast, Christian Archaeology, in contrast, was a term with greater currency in the 19th century driven by the first generation of professional archaeologists who brought scientific methods to the study of both the Bible and Christian antiquity more generally. <"ChristianARchaeologyNgram.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/christianarchaeologyngram.jpeg" alt="ChristianARchaeologyNgram" width="450" height="226" border="0" /> A similar, if somewhat busier graph appears for the phrase Biblical Archaeology which obviously encompasses the archaeology of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. <"BiblicalArchaeologyNgram.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/biblicalarchaeologyngram.jpeg" alt="BiblicalArchaeologyNgram" width="450" height="228" border="0" /> As I have noted elsewhere the practice of Biblical and, to some extent, Early Christian archaeology are interesting because texts explicitly (in the case of Biblical archaeology at least) drive the narrative. This locates archaeological practices in particular relationship to the textual and material culture of the past and opens the door to some significant rumination on archaeological and historical epistemology. Texts and religion emerge

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as independent variables that define both the practice of archaeology as well as the questions that we ask of the archaeology. The concomitant rise in interest in Early Christian Archaeology (as well as its longs standing roots in 19th century questions of historical and "scientific" validation of Biblical accounts) and in more substantial conversations concerning the nature of archaeology as discipline suggests a field ripe for renewed critique.

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<title>Punk Archaeology is Happening</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/punk-archaeology-is-happening/</link> Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:48:23 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2312 And it will be awesome. I have many projects. Part of my particular limitations as a scholar is my inability to look away from shiny objects or to avoid chasing rabbits. Punk archaeology officially began in February 2008 with a series of posts by myself and Kostis Kourelis on the famous Punk Archaeology blog. Post continued to appear over the next three years and the idea bounced around our heads in an unformed way. Enter (http://theedgeofthevillage.com/) Aaron Barth. Aaron is a graduate student in history at North Dakota State University, and he worked with us in Cyprus this past summer. Over the course of fieldwork in Cyprus, Punk Archaeology came up again and some four or five months later, something has come of these conversations. Thanks to Aaron Barth's prompting, some money from the North Dakota Humanities Council, enthusiastic responses from friends and colleague, interest from an amazing group of bands from the Red River Valley, and an open-minded group of collaborators at both North Dakota State and the University of North Dakota, Punk Archaeology is officially happening. February 2nd/3rd Sidestreet Grille and Pub in Fargo, North Dakota. <p style="text-align:center;) <"PunkArchaeology.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/punkarchaeology.jpg" alt="PunkArchaeology" width="450" height="201" border="0" />Like us on the Facebook (if you want, if you don't that's cool too). Here is the official announcement: Im excited to announce that we have secured a venue, funding, and bands for our Punk Archaeology Event at the Sidestreet Grille and Pub in Fargo on February 2nd/3rd. This is going to happen and it will be awesome. So, in order to get us in the spirit of Punk Archaeology, I thought I might share some of the intellectual background of the movement. The idea came up in conversation between myself and Kostis Kourelis and archaeologist and architectural historian who now teaches at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. We both observed that quite a few archaeologists had some interest in punk rock music. As we considered the causes and consequences of this coincidence, we got to think about how punk rock music - and the larger aesthetic and lifestyle associated with that musical form - influenced archaeology. We then began to document some of these musings in a blog: Punk Archaeology, and, from time to time, talked about turning the blog into something more. This is where Aaron Barth stepped in. He and I had conversations about Punk Archaeology over the course of some collaborative fieldwork and decided to bring Punk Archaeology to reality by hosting a colloquium in Fargo. So far, we have a great group of scholars willing to contribute, an intriguing group of bands, and a fantastic venue for a meeting that will interrogate the borders of the academy, popular culture, and loud, chaotic, and confused social critique. So, whats next?

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Were approaching this event in a completely open-minded way, but offer for some guidance our (http://punkarchaeology.wordpress.com/) Punk Archaeology blog. The event will feature a series of short statements, stories, or vignettes that capture the spirit and critique of punk archaeology. We envision these to be between 800 and 1000 words or 3-5 minutes in length (in the spirit of punk!). After the short statements, the audience will be invited to respond, and after this conversation more bands will play and the participants in the round table meld back into the audience blurring the lines between performance and reception. After the event, we will collect the conference proceedings and some invited contributions including some of the comments by the audience for publication. The book will include essays from the Punk Archaeology blog, from the event, and the responses of the audience. Our plan is to invite Kostis Kourelis and Andrew Reinhard to provide some critical feedback on the paper as a level of peer review, but were also committed to capturing the live aspects of the evening. The book will be published in house and be available as an ebook, a print-on-demand paper volume, and be raw DIY. Finally, here are the details of the event. Music by Andrew Reinhard (feat. Aaron Barth), June Panic, Les Dirty Frenchmen, and What Kingswood Needs. Papers by Aaron Barth (NDSU), Bill Caraher (UND), Kris Groberg (NDSU), Richard Rothaus (Trefoil Cultural and Environmental), Joshua Samuels (NDSU), Peter Schultz (Concordia College), and Andrew Reinhard (The American School of Classical Studies Publication Office). We are working on Kostis Kourelis (Franklin and Marshall College)! We are sponsored by the North Dakota Humanities Council, Laughing Sun Brewery, and The Cyprus Research Fund. The Sidestreet Grille and Pub has graciously provided us with a venue. Graphic art, publication, audio-visual support will come the Working Group of Digital and New Media at the University of North Dakota. Prof. Tom Isern of The Center for Heritage Renewal at North Dakota State University is our Patron of Punk.

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<title>Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/managing-archaeological-data-in-the-digitalage/</link> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:25:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2314 This week I've begun work on a paper that I'll give with my colleagues David Pettegrew, R. Scott Moore, and Sam Fee at the Archaeological Institute of America's Annual Meeting in Seattle in January. The paper is titled " (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/the-realities-of-archaeological-data-from-smallprojects/) Archaeological Data and Small Projects : A Case Study from the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project on Cyprus" and it will be for a panel called (http://aia.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10489&amp;action=display&amp;sid=7G) Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age: Best Practices and Realities. There are three main themes to this paper: first, small projects tend to use more off the shelf software for data collection and distribution; second, small projects have limited resources for high-visibility, longterm archiving of data; and finally, small projects feel more acutely the tension between creating datasets that best fit small scale and sometimes idiosyncratic goals and adopting data standards established by larger projects which often have more substantial resources. In general, these three themes seek to explore how projects with limited resources engage the standards, agendas, and conversations about data management that often originate in larger, better funded, and more established projects. The goal of this paper is not to complain about the "plight" of small projects in a big project world. What I hope to do, rather, is to show how certain technical limitations shape the way in which small project think in archaeological way and produce archaeological knowledge. This is in keeping with recent scholarship that has considered (http://traumwerk.stanford.edu/archaeolog/2010/09/notes_on_archaeology_teaching.html) the organization of a project as a key element in understanding the production of archaeological knowledge. The social organization of archaeological practice both provides a context for and is influenced by the technology available for a project. In other words, the tools at an archaeologist's disposal and the way in which these tools are used both inform practice. As an example of this, small projects tend to rely more heavily on off-the-shelf data recording tools - like Microsoft Access for creating databases and ESRI's ArcGIS for managing spatial data. While this software is easy enough to manipulate in simple ways, it is more difficult to design a data recording in ways that allow multiple users to enter data simultaneously. The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project recorded data in the field on paper forms and individuals then entered this data into our databases either one-at-a-time during the season or after the season had concluded. As a result, data entry became a bottleneck as it conformed to the limitations of our project's technical knowledge and the software at our disposal. So data recording begins in the field where each member of the team is responsible for some part of data collection - whether it is collecting and counting sherds in field survey or participating at the "trowel's edge" in excavation. The trench supervisor or team leader takes the data produced by the field teams and their input to create an authoritative (at least by institutional dictum) account. This account then is keyed into a database and documented spatially in GIS. This last step is done at a significant remove from the field. The collective and collaborative act of generating archaeological field data becomes a more solitary act of converting this data into a form usable by existing technology. The more technically demanding the interface and the analytical tools available, the more attenuated the link between the experience of archaeological work in the field and the data it generates becomes. Projects with more robust technological and intellectual infrastructures have begun to experiment with ways to allow for greater integration between fieldwork and computer work. Using iPads in the field - as our small

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project experimented with this summer - offered ways to streamline the relationship between data collection in the field and the production of digital data. Closing the gap between fieldwork and data production has any number of benefits for the kinds of archaeological knowledge produced, the most obvious benefit is to problematize the tendency for digital technologies to smooth field experiences to fit within limited ontologies of most off-the-shelf digital applications. It becomes harder to accommodate a digital interface or data structure which fails to capture an immediate archaeological reality in the field when holding a trowel, artifact, or observing a stratigraphic relationship. This kind of immediacy, however, comes at a cost of scarce resources at the disposal of most small projects. The tools at our disposal, in this example at least, dictate to some extent the kind of data and the types of archaeological knowledge that our project can produce. My paper will examine a number of these small project examples to problematize the relationship between archaeological tools, social organization, and knowledge. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/27328060/Digital-Archaeology-Technology-in-the-Trenches) For an earlier effort to explore these issues, check out this paper from 2010.)

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<title>Landscape Seminar</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/06/landscape-seminar/</link> Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:53:14 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2315 On Tuesday my (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/landscapes-and-history/) research seminar in landscape history presented the fruits of their labor. There were four paper and they were all wellconceived and researched. Tom Harlow presented on the gendered landscape of YWCA housing in Grand Forks, North Dakota. He looked at the location of women's boarding houses during the 1930s and highlighted one case where an incident at a boarding house run by the YWCA caused that organization to tear the building down and lease it to a used car lot. While the details on the episode are obscure, it presents an example of how the physical structure of the building intertwined by the activities of residents and the reputation of the organization which worked to provide a moral and safe environment for women coming to Grand Forks for jobs during the Depression. Alyson Leas presented her research on abandonment in the North Dakota countryside. This well-known phenomenon has received national attention by photographers and prairie poets, but less attention from scholars. Leas examined the role of mechanized agriculture in Rolette, Towner, and Cavalier counties in the reduction of town size. She paid particular attention to her home town of Rock Lake in Towner county. She argued that the introduction of tractors reduced the need for manpower at harvest time and this undermined local businesses in small towns which depended on season laborers. Chris Grieve considered the landscape of the nuclear test sites in the Nevada desert and considered how the spread of radioactivity from these sites creates new (and nefarious) kinds of landscapes that go far beyond the physical limits of the test site and potential effect every living thing. The site itself appears as both a battle ground for the Cold War and as a place of ecological catastrophe. Grieve makes an effort to interweave these two narratives of the test site into a deeply divided and contested place. The final paper was by Stephanie Steinke who looked at the writing of the 19th century scholar Edward Robinson that describe his trip to the Palestine in 1838. Steinke considered the tension between Robinson's efforts to understand a "scientific" landscape of the Holy Land along side his emotional, experiential, and Romantic encounters with this historic and scared land. Robinson's Congregationalist upbringing, German education, and the early articulations of the field of archaeology shaped his approach to Palestine and formed a scholarly foundation to the study of this place for over a century. The scope and approaches used by these students to interrogate both the concept of landscape and the physical space of human society is remarkable and inspiring. Thanks for all the hard work! <title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-48/</link> Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:07:50 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2317

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Today is "Reading and Review Day" here at the University of North Dakota. So to celebrate the end of the week and the end of the semester, I'll offer up a little gaggle of varia and quick hits for your reading and review. This week I started to post links to my daily blog posts to Facebook. I sort of hated doing this because I was arrogant enough to think that people loved my blog enough to seek it out every day. I also figured that most readers would recognize the pattern. I posted M-F on my stuff. That being said, my daily page views had been slipping a bit lately and I had some absolutely dreadful days where they slipped below 50. The result of making my posts more visible was pretty dramatic with my page views jumping up close to 30%. More than that, people not only went and looked at my blog, but also took the time to comment on it (via email). So the little blow to my ego has paid dividends and made my bizarre blogging labors feel worth it again. Look for links to my blog posts on your Facebooks. (http://www.cooperhewitt.org/object-of-the-day) A different object every day from the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. (http://7thcentury.blogspot.co.uk/) People are getting excited again about the 7th century. I might be overreaching here, but it feels like the 7th century is the next 6th century. How can you not read a book called 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 (http://tropetank.mit.edu/10_PRINT_121114.pdf) especially when it's available for free. (http://patrickbgibson.tumblr.com/post/36041799210/apple-and-twitter) Maybe Apple should buy Twitter. (http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/the_archeology_of_decline_20121204/) A pretty cool article on the archaeology of decline (via Richard Rothaus). Curious about a particular oil or gas well in the Bakken? (http://www.eser.org/) Check this out. (http://ux.opencontext.org/blog/2012/12/05/cyberinfrastructure-in-near-eastern-archaeology/) People are getting some good ideas going on cyberinfrastructure and Near Eastern Archaeology. (http://home.swipnet.se/~w-18278/isthmia/isthmia25.html) Just to show people that I did, in fact, exist around 1997 (and I won't comment any more on this image). (http://www.theawl.com/2012/11/the-rise-and-fall-of-obscure-music-blogs-a-roundtable) Obscure music download blogs had a strange rise and an obscure fall, but for those of us who really like music, they were part of our routines. For all the various efforts to meld music to social media, it's funny to realize that this had already existed. (http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/11/kurt_vonnegut_term_paper_assignment_from_the_io wa_writers_workshop.html) This is a pretty cool paper assignment. (http://www.npr.org/blogs/bestmusic2012/2012/12/05/166230912/npr-musics-50-favorite-albums-of2012) NPR has a pretty cool list of their favorite albums of 2012. (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html) Can you see the Bakken on these new NASA images of the night sky ? Why, yes you can. (http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/29/world/meast/mustache-transplants-middle-east/index.html) Apparently, it is possible to get a mustache implant. Who knew? (via Dallas Deforest)

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 (http://www.academia.edu/2235694/Seven_Years_in_Chelsea) Reflections on seven years around the art scene in Chelsea. And congratulations to the same Matthew Milliner for nine years of blogging at (http://www.millinerd.com/) Millinerd (and check out (http://web.archive.org/web/20040806114006/http://millinerd.com/2003_12_01_millinerd_archive.html) the old skool format of the original!) First Dave Brubeck and (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/06/world/americas/oscar-niemeyermodernist-architect-of-brasilia-dies-at-104.html) then Oscar Niemeyer. It's a tough week to be modern. What I'm reading: K. Eshun, (http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/dan-graham-1) Dan Graham: Rock My Religion. (MIT 2012) What I'm listening to: Andrew Bird, Break it Yourself/Hands of Glory, Now, Now, Threads. <"Grand Forks at Night.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/grand-forks-atnight.jpg" alt="Grand Forks at Night" width="600" height="450" border="0" />

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<title>Sun Frogs</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/sun-frogs/</link> Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:30:40 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2321 I'm traveling for a few days, which is lovely because we're having the first cold snap of the year. The best thing about the really cold weather and the blowing snow and ice are the beautiful (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog) sun frogs that appear. This gives me a chance to spread knowledge. They're called sun frogs because the early white settlers in the area thought that they resembled bizarrely gelatinous frog eggs. They are one of my favorite things. <"SunDog1.jpg" alt="SunDog1" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sundog1.jpg" width="450" height="343" border="0" /> <"SunDog2.jpg" alt="SunDog2" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sundog2.jpg" width="450" height="324" border="0" /> <"SunDog3.jpg" alt="SunDog3" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sundog3.jpg" width="450" height="337" border="0" />

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<title>Bakken from Space</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/bakken-from-space/</link> Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:48:04 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2325 I have a little traveling to do today as I head back east to New York City for an AIA lecture. Ordinarily I'd make some quip about heading to the bright lights of the Big City. But, as these very recent (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html) NASA photographs from space show, the bright lights are now much closer than the east or west coasts. The Bakken Oil Patch now lights up the North Dakota sky, and like the brights lights of New York, it represents both prosperity and heartbreak, affluence and poverty, hopes and miss opportunities. Now, I'm getting carried away. <"BakkenfromSpace.jpeg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/bakkenfromspace.jpeg" alt="BakkenfromSpace" width="450" height="299" border="0" /> The detail of the Bakken Oil Patch is even more insane. The dots immediately to the east of the swarming glow of the Bakken are Minot and Bismarck. The glows on the far right of this photo are Fargo in the lower right and Grand Forks, center right. <"BakkenfromSpace_Detail.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/bakkenfromspace_detail.jpg" alt="BakkenfromSpace Detail" width="450" height="208" border="0" />

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<title>Morning Sky</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/morning-sky/</link> Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:03:26 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2328 The only advantage of having my flight to Minneapolis and beyond cancelled this morning is that I was able to enjoy an amazing North Dakota morning sky. <"NDSkyDec10_2012.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ndskydec10_20121.jpg" alt="NDSkyDec10 2012" width="600" height="422" border="0" />

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<title>Domestic Residuality</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/13/domestic-residuality/</link> Thu, 13 Dec 2012 13:07:46 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2336 I spent some time this fall preparing grant applications for my work at Polis-Chrysochous in western Cyprus. One of the points that I make in most of the applications is that our area of the site provides a tremendous opportunity to study the phenomenon of residuality in ancient ceramics. This is the tendency for ancient pottery to continue to appear in contexts far removed from its original function. I am interesting in considering how it is that broken sherds of tableware appear in fills, floor packing, or in discard context created many centuries after the vessels from which these sherds derived arrived in Cyprus or on a Cypriot table. As I reflect on this very basic and ubiquitous archaeological process, I have become more attentive to residuality in my own life. I have begun to take note of objects that appear far removed in time and space from their original contexts. So, on Tuesday, as I got ready for my quick jaunt back east, I noted this hanger in my closet. <"Residual1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/residual1.jpg" alt="Residual1" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> <"Residual2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/residual2.jpg" alt="Residual2" width="450" height="337" border="0" /> The hanger comes from (http://www.northhillscleaners.com/) North Hills Cleaners in Wilmington, Delaware. I haven't spent time in Wilmington for over 5 years now, have lived in North Dakota for almost 10, and probably haven't been to North Hills Cleaners for close to 20! My parents frequented North Hills Cleaners my entire childhood so it is not hard to imagine how this hanger appeared in my closet, but, on the other hand, it is difficult to track the specific sequence of events that would allow something like this to persist in our household through several moves and probably a complete turnover in hangers. Like (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/quick-hits-and-varia-on-a-holiday-friday/) the Carrefour plastic shopping bag from Cyprus that entered my lunch bag rotation in the spring of 2010, even relatively ephemeral everyday objects can have remarkable histories and life spans. Now, back to grading...

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<title>Friday Varia and Quick Hits</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/14/friday-varia-and-quick-hits-49/</link> Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:03:26 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2340 It's been a cold and hectic few days here at the New Archaeology of the Mediterranean World Global Headquarters. But the semester is winding down, there's a fire in the fireplace, and I might even risk a little Christmas music on the olde tyme stereophone. While I enjoy some contemporary holiday musings, I'll put together a modest list of quick hits and varia for your entertainment. (http://arts-sciences.und.edu/dean-search/index.cfm) So we're looking for a dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Before you rush out to apply, you need to be sure that you "have unquestioned integrity, exemplary interpersonal and communication skills, a commitment to diversity, common sense, and sound judgment." This is so dumb. If you don't have common sense or sound judgement, this sentence will probably not deter you from applying. (http://uchicagoadmissions.tumblr.com/post/37809971913/indiana-jones-mystery-package-we-dontreally) This very odd application (or is it?) packet that arrived at the University of Chicago this week has been making the rounds on the internets. (http://www.pqed.org/2012/12/what-are-college-sports-for.html) What are college sports for? For all the hype surrounding Shane Watson, (http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia-v-sri-lanka2012/engine/current/match/573011.html) the reality is that he's mediocre, if stylish, with the bat and ordinary with the ball. Please, Cricket Australia, move on! (http://www.twincities.com/ci_22152765/) This is the second or third reality TV show that we heard pitched for the Bakken Oil Patch. I just dropped them a line and offer to serve as a consultant. (http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/29/v29i04p289-299.pdf) The other Blegen in Minnesota (pdf). I have to say that I really like (http://www.snapseed.com/) Snapspeed on my iPhone 5. And I like even more because it's free. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY4j8Ow-CTs) Another new Frightened Rabbit single. (http://www.npr.org/blogs/bestmusic2012/2012/12/05/166230912/npr-musics-50-favorite-albums-of2012) The 50 best albums of the year from the NPRs and (http://www.stereophile.com/content/myfavorite-records-2012) a list from Stephen Mejias at Stereophile. (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/12/17/121217taco_talk_menand) The end of homework. Remember that (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/the-old-church-on-walnutstreet-2/) Old Church on Walnut Street that I rambled on about a few months back? Well, (http://www.facebook.com/events/453634984693106/) this is the new house on Walnut Street. Congratulations to the Grand Forks Community Land Trust.

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 The only way I now search the internet involves using (http://www.masswerk.at/google60/) this interface with Googles. (Or if I feel more into the 1980s frame of mind, (http://www.masswerk.at/googleBBS/) I use this.) A couple of nice posts on writer's houses: first on (http://writershouses.com/guest/the-way-life-shouldbe-the-house-of-e-b-white) E.B. White and (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/the-lure-ofthe-writers-cabin/) then on writer's cabins in general. What I'm reading: J. Thomas, (http://www.worldcat.org/title/archaeology-and-modernity/oclc/54679730) Archaeology and Modernity. (Routledge 2004). What I'm listening to: Swans, The Seer; Frank Turner, Love, Ire, and Song; Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights. <"NY1.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ny1.jpg" alt="NY1" width="450" height="622" border="0" /> <"NY2.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ny2.jpg" alt="NY2" width="450" height="600" border="0" /> <"NY3.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/ny3.jpg" alt="NY3" width="450" height="603" border="0" />

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<title>Small Archaeological Projects and the Social Context of their Data</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/small-archaeological-projects-and-the-socialcontext-of-their-data/</link> Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:04:07 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2343 I am still working away on the paper that I will deliver after the holidays at the Archaeological Institute of America annual meeting in Seattle. As with everything this time of year, it is taking me long than I thought it would and my ideas are refusing to coalesce without some rather painful reflexive thinking. My paper is titled " (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/the-realities-of-archaeologicaldata-from-small-projects/) Archaeological Data and Small Projects " and is scheduled to appear in a panel called (http://aia.archaeological.org/webinfo.php?page=10489&amp;action=display&amp;sid=7G) Managing Archaeological Data in the Digital Age: Best Practices and Realities. My goal is to present some of the social and technological realities of how our project, the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project, dealt with the translation of archaeological from the field to the computer. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/managing-archaeological-data-in-the-digital-age/) A very preliminary summary of my paper is here. The goal of my post today is to clarify and expand some parts of this summary as I begin to revise my paper for January. One thing that several commentators have mentioned is that the use of iPads or other digital recording devices in the field increased efficiency in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating archaeological knowledge. These tools made it easier, in effect, to bridge the famous gap between the field and laboratory by eliminating the intermediate step of producing paper field notebooks which are then digitized "back at the lab" for inspection, study, and archiving. Smaller projects have struggled a bit to keep pace with the technology necessary to capture the various kinds of information produced at the edge of the trench (photographs, illustrations, and text) and to synthesize it in an integrated database. Our project captured archaeological information at the edge of the trench or from the survey unit using paper forms. A project director then translated this information into a format suitable for archiving and analysis in a database. While kept paper copies of the original trench notebooks and scanned them for both archival purposes and as a check on our databases, we conducted most of our analysis based on the data keyed into our trench database. (We are currently going through this same process with the trench notebooks from Polis-Chysochous on the western side of Cyprus. As many of my colleagues have pointed out, this particular workflow is inefficient. There are, however, reasons for these practices. First, paper forms or notebooks are almost infinitely flexible data recording tools in the field. A trench supervisor can defy the standards established by even the most rigid form by simply overwriting the expected data type, changing the form midstream, or expanding it to meet a new challenge or observation in the field. While this flexibility constantly threatens to produce data that is incompatible with the information being collected in other trenches or survey units in the study area and runs the risk of losing information, it also allows for trench side innovation, creativity, and ad hoc solutions to the almost limitless variety of objects and relationships encountered in a trench. Moreover, the paper form - when filled out correctly - makes it very difficult to delete or overwrite potentially meaningful mistakes. The record produced by the paper form, then, is in some ways more stable and dynamic than that collected directly in a digital context. I'd like to say that these advantages were our primary motivations for collecting archaeological information on paper forms at the side of the trench, but they were not. We found paper forms easier, less costly, and more stable than using a digital tool to directly gather data from the unit or the trench. Moreover, we knew how to make a good paper form, so the learning curve was quite modest. Conversely, our various database

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were notorious fickle creatures. The few times that we made it possible for a student or even a trench supervisor to key the data into one of our excavation databases, we ended up supervising their work closely, making tweaks to the database, and working with them to figure out ways to accommodate various incompatible or irregular entries on the forms within the more rigid structure of our database. After a short time, we concluded that it was easier for a project director to key the data into the database and use the translation from paper to pixels as a way to review and understand the data coming from each trench. <"IMG_2732.JPG" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/img_2732.jpg" alt="IMG 2732" width="450" height="300" border="0" /> The technical limitations of our project staff and the relatively small areas exposed by our excavation or documented by our survey played a key role in shaping our workflow. It also shaped the process of digital data production by producing a distinct, intermediate step between archaeological documentation in the field and translation of this information into digital data. The documentation work performed at the edge of the trench or by the survey team leader derived from conversations with various team members, experience in the trench or the fields, and the systematic engagement with the stratigraphy or artifact scatters in situ. In contrast, data entry mode involved the solitary keying of field observations into a database. Archaeological information recorded in the field was inevitably smoothed during data entry as I massaged the flexible character of paper forms to conform to the rather more rigid fields in our database without the benefit of trench side observation or collegial conversations with various participants in primary information collection. The field sheets were frequently in a different order than they were produced in the field and the tedium of data entry often invoked a kind of frantically repetitive fugue state. Data entry was strangely satisfying, however, in that one could see the conversion of hours of fieldwork into a quantifiable series of records that became a shorthand for the quantity and quality of information collected from the field. The experience of data entry and field collection were significant different in terms of both the kind of information produced and preserved and the experience of the process. Our method was, of course, inefficient. The massaging of data to fit into a rather less flexible database likely caused some kind of data loss particularly in exceptional cases where the forms did not anticipate the kind archaeological "reality" in the field. Of course, maintaining data entry as a separate, distinct step of the process also allowed for use to adapt our databases on the fly to accommodate archaeological information from the field. Whatever the limitations or advantages of various forms of data capture produced by archaeological projects, the processes put in places by small projects with limited expertise invariably shape the kind of information recorded and analyzes. The tools and social contexts of a project dictate the kind of knowledge a project produces.

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<title>Punk Archaeology Handbill</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/punk-archaeology-handbill/</link> Tue, 18 Dec 2012 12:43:40 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2346 We continue to make progress on Punk Archaeology festivities on February 2, 2013. (http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/punk-archaeology-is-happening/) Here are most of the pertinent details. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/117235653/Punk-Archaeology-Handbill) Here is a handbill so you can begin to spread the word. <"PunkArchaeologyHandbill.jpg" src="http://mediterraneanworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/punkarchaeologyhandbill.jpg" alt="PunkArchaeologyHandbill" width="463" height="600" border="0" /> I handed this to our lovely V.P. of Research last week and her first question was "when will it begin?". I told her that it would be held in the nighttime and that this is Punk Archaeology. I think it will probably kick off around 7 or 7:30 with the panel discussion around 9:00 pm.

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<title>Pilgrimage in Medieval Corinth</title> <link>http://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/pilgrimage-in-medieval-corinth/</link> Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:09:27 +0000 https://mediterraneanworld.wordpress.com/?p=2347 It was a pleasure to read (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/leuven/herom/2012/00000001/00000001/art00008) Amelia Brown's contribution to the inaugural volume of (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/leuven/herom/2012/00000001/00000001) Herom, a journal dedicated to Greek and Roman material culture. She presents a useful overview of some evidence for pilgrimage in Corinth, Athens, and elsewhere in southern Greece. While textual evidence provides the overarching framework for her paper, she does take into account some of the archaeological evidence particularly around Corinth. Using sources, particularly from the West, she established that pilgrims occasionally stopped at the church of St. Andrew in Patras and, following A. Kaldellis' lead, argued that the Parthenon rechristened the church of the Virgin attracted pilgrims drawn by its perpetual light. (In light of Kaldellis' work, Brown's suggestion that "Medievel Athens rebranded their ancient monuments as churches seems a bit simplistic. In fact, in some ways it might be that Modern Athens rebranded their Medieval heritage as evidence for its Classical past.) For Corinth, Brown considers the ring of Early Christian churches around the urban center as potential pilgrimage sites marking not only martyr shrines (such as that of Kodratos), but also major routes in and out of the city. In this way, Corinth seems to be similar to arrangement of martyria around Milan or even Rome. The major pilgrimage church in the area, however, seems to have been the Lechaion basilica at Corinth's western port. Readers of this blog are probably sick of hearing about this building, but its massive size, double atrium, elaborate baptistery, and association with the martyrdom of Leonidas and his female companions, make this building's association with pilgrimage almost certain. In fact, Brown makes the intriguing observation that the importance of baptism at Lechaion might echo Leonidas' death by drowning which at least one life called his "second baptism". Scholars have largely dismissed or overlooked the practice of second baptism in the Byzantine and Late Antique times, but there is a small, but growing body of evidence suggesting that martyr shrines might have served as the location for some form of ritual ablution. More intriguing, of course, is that the association of Lechaion with baptismal rituals persisted into the Byzantine period suggesting that parts of the monumental baptistery and church still grounded the life of the martyr in the local landscape. Brown might have added that (http://mediterraneanworldarchive.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/some-thoughts-on-st-leonidas-andbaptism-at-lechaion-in-greece/) the nymphaion located a few hundred meters south of the church and likely contemporary with the church may have served as a roadside stop for weary pilgrims as they made their way south across the Isthmus. Travelers passing south through the fortress at Isthmia would have encountered inscriptions that invoked the protection of God and the Virgin in conspicuously liturgical language reinforcing the sacred nature of the Isthmian landscape. In this context, all travelers became pilgrims as they encountered the sacred in even the most mundane passages. The most curious thing about this article is that Brown clearly privileges pilgrims from outside of Greece and struggles a bit with the interpretation of more local hagiographic sources. We know, for example, that local pilgrimage practices were common in the Peloponnesus. I have written on (http://books.google.com/books?id=U2KXRCJ3gq8C&amp;lpg=PA269&amp;ots=17Ep0kfLlI&amp;dq= Theodore%20of%20Kythera&amp;pg=PA269#v=onepage&amp;q=Theodore%20of%20Kythera&amp;f=f alse) the obscure St. Theodore of Kythera whose church became a pilgrimage destination after his death. The battle between Nauplion and Argos for the body of St. Peter of Argos after his death demonstrates the significance of relics to the spiritual life of those communities and implies that the saint's remains would

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become a place of pilgrimage. Other lives preserve incidents where travelers stop to visit holy hermits or the remains of abandoned churches. In fact, these lives do more than describe a landscape full of sacred spaces, but they also produced these landscapes and inscribed them with the routes that made everyday movements small acts of pilgrimage. In this context, the Corinthian landscape comes alive with the movement of myriad pilgrims. These include the relatively recent (http://orthodoxwiki.org/Monastery_of_St_Patapios_(Loutraki,_Greece)) monastery of St. Patapios near Loutraki where modern pilgrims go to visit the healing relics of St. Patapios as well as visitors to the church of the Ayia Anagyri in Anaploga who still incubate at the church there during the annual feast to these "penniless doctors" or villagers who decorate the church of Profitis Elias on his feast or celebrate small, local panayri festivals at long neglected chapels. To be sure, the archaeological and textual evidence for this kind of pilgrimage will be faint, but it preserves the everyday and extrordinary movements of pilgrims in the Greek landscape.

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