I’m sitting in a semi-dark room, the electricity has just cut out, and there’s a slight chill in the air. I love being in MohenjoDaro (Sindh, Pakistan) in December. It’s cold at night and it’s hot during the day, unlike the summer, where there is nowhere to hide from the heat. The winter is more playful with the weather. However, living on the site isn’t play. Without being romantic about it, there’s little electricity, hardly any internet, no consistent mobile {+}
An interview with the Black Trowel Collective conducted during the Summer of 2021. June 22nd, 2021 marked a year for the Black Trowel Collective (BTC) microgrants program, and in that time, BTC has distributed $43,500 USD to archaeological students in need from 22 countries, including India and Brazil. The latter two countries were recently centered due to the impact of COVID-19 in those regions. The total to students from India and Brazil since this push at the beginning of May {+}
By The Black Trowel Collective To be an archaeologist is to revel in the diversity of human expression through time. Trans perspectives and voices add necessary further dimensions to our understandings of the past. We are inspired by the high-profile bravery and strength of trans people, such as Olympic weightlifter Laurel Hubbard and soccer player Quinn, and by the everyday resilience and determination shown by our trans and gender diverse comrades, students, friends, family, and colleagues. The Black Trowel Collective {+}
[Content advisory: This article discusses harassment and discrimination in archaeology, including discussion of sexual assault.] On the morning of March 30, 2021, three articles on the culture of harassment within archaeology dropped. And it was epic. Across three articles, Barbara (Barb) Voss reviewed and analyzed current research about the prevalence and patterns of harassment within our discipline. Most useful was her list of proven interventions that have demonstrable results in reducing harassment. Most difficult and heart wrenching to read were {+}
This piece was co-authored and experienced by the following (in alphabetical order): Zoe Crossland, Celine Gillot, Praveena Gullapalli, Sven Haakanson, Christina Halperin, Sarah Jackson, George Lau, Uzma Z. Rizvi, Kisha Supernant, Dawn Wambold, and Joshua Wright. This essay is about ice cream, beading, trust, friendship, and finding happiness in unexpected spaces while being an anthropologist. Collaboratively envisioned and written, we offer these reflections on praxis for a screen-bound contemporary moment, as well as an equitable and critical way to conceive {+}
A few years ago, I wrote a piece on making archaeology popular in which I recounted the ways in which archaeology became part of public discourse through television media, and its impact on peoples lives. In that post I also write about how through archaeology game shows, Sir Mortimer Wheeler’s personality becomes associated with a certain kind of archaeological knowledge, and how he is voted TV personality of the year in 1954. His face, his demeanor, his person becoming a household name {+}