I was excited to see that the latest issue of Hesperia (93.1 for those of you keeping a scorecard) arrived just in time for the weekend. Since there was no Formula 1 this weekend, I was able to read an article during the time that I would have ordinarily been sitting and listlessly watching a… Read More →
We’ve almost over the midgame hump and end game is on the horizon (one way or another). So it seemed like a particularly good time for one, two, three things Thursday that spans teaching, research, and (in the name of symmetry) service. One Thing the First Next week, my Medieval History class discusses the Middle… Read More →
It’s been a long time in the works, but the second Pyla-Koutsopetria volume is almost done and should get submitted this spring. I realize, of course, that this project had been pushed so far to the back burner that some of you may have lost track of it entirely. To rectify this and to maintain… Read More →
Spring break is almost over and I’m not sure that I got what I wanted to do done yet, but I’m still going to take a couple of days to recharge my batteries by watching some boxing and F1 while I catch up on some grading, finish a peer review, and maybe read something for… Read More →
Today’s post is as much an advertisement as anything else and for that, as always, I apologize. On Thursday evening, I’m giving a paper to the Friends of ASOR, which is a bit like the AIA lecture series. The paper will celebrate 20 years at the ancient harbor of Pyla-Koutsopetria on Cyprus and officially mark… Read More →
When scholars think of an archaeology of pseudoarchaeology they’re as likely to think of Foucault as, say, archaeology of the contemporary world or historical archaeology. There’s a long tradition of heresy hunting in academia and the general approach to pseudoarchaeology has followed a model of tracing problematic ideas through the muck and determining their origins.… Read More →
One of the key contexts for pseudoarchaeological thought is religion. Not only have religious traditions long informed archaeological thinking, but contemporary religious practices in their efforts to adapt their thought to the modern world saw archaeology or at very least an empirical understanding of the past as a crucial foundation to modern belief. Within 20th… Read More →
The most recent issue of Historical Archaeology featured a nice gaggle of articles on the historical archaeology of the Mediterranean in a special issue edited by Michael Given and Russell Palmer. As readers of this blog know, this is a topic that is of particular interest to me especially in terms of historical archaeology in… Read More →
I know that I keep saying it, but I also keep meaning it: my semester has been hectic. That said, I do try to keep the very tip of my fingers in my ongoing research. Mostly, this amounts to doing some reading and some noodling around on the ole blog here. I just finished reading… Read More →
This semester will be pretty hectic and I’m trying to maintain realistic expectations on what I can accomplish outside of keeping on top of my classes. My hope is that a certain amount of mindfulness will keep my expectations in check and allow me to continue to focus on what’s in front of me and… Read More →
Years ago, I wrote a bit exploring the idea of “slow archaeology” (you can get a sense of my ideas here). The idea, from what I recall, was to propose an alternative to what I felt to be the accelerating rate of field work and academic publishing as well as the pressures of contract and… Read More →
Over winter break, I had three things to do. First, I had to finish a paper on the Corinthian Periphery, then I had to make sure that my courses were prepped for the spring semester, and, then, I had to finish a draft of the conclusion to Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project, Volume 2 (PKAP2). This volume… Read More →
As readers of this blog know, I’ve been playing around with pseudoarchaeology a good bit lately. I’ve vacillated a bit trying to figure out whether I want to write a short book or perhaps just a series of articles on pseudoarchaeological ideas in the Black and African American community. A few earnest colleagues suggested that… Read More →
It’s the first day of classes for the spring 2024 semester. As usual, I’m pretty excited about the start of classes, but I’m also satisfied that I got some work done over winter break. First, I’ve produced a more or less complete draft of my paper on the Corinthian Periphery during the Roman period for… Read More →
The last month or so has seen a little pair of recent articles on material from the region of Polis-Chrysochous in northwestern Cyprus. Both article take advantage of the remarkable continuity of settlement at the site and in the wider region which appears to have avoided the disruptions associated with the so-called “Arab Raids” in… Read More →
Over the last year or so, I’ve started to think as much about how pseudoarchaeological ideas transmitted as pseudoarchaeological ideas themselves. Over the holiday weekend, I read Zora Neale Hurston’s Moses, Man of the Mountain (1939). The book tells the story of the Exodus, but does it in an idiosyncratic ways that supposes Moses was… Read More →
Winter break is both a nice respite from my teaching and service routine and also a chance to get some research and course preparations done amid the holiday festivities. I’m moderately excited to bring one project in for a landing and substantially move the needle on another before classes start again on January 8th. Grabbing… Read More →
Over the last month or so, I’ve been working to expand my understanding of what I’m coming to call the “pseudoarchaeological discourse.” I’m tentatively using this term to describe the larger conversation in American society that supports the pseudoarchaeological imagination as well as literal pseudoarchaeological practice. As I’ve noted elsewhere on this blog, the goal… Read More →
Readers of this blog know that I’ve been engaged in a self-directed class in pseudoarchaeology. Most of what I’m doing these days is constructing an alternative reading list for the discerning pseudoarchaeologist who wants to explore the outer fringes of archaeological thinking without succumbing to racism, colonialism, or nationalism. In fact, my original goal for… Read More →
