| THIS IS A READ-ONLY ARCHIVE FROM THE SORABJI.COM MESSAGE BOARDS (1995-2016). |
|---|
Taking a 500 year old coffin, thats been sitting in earth and dating and locating the wood its made of. Doing carbon tests to date bones....and on and on and on. Its absolutely amazing. so Sem, tell as about what you dig. What do you find? I have another archeologist friend, whom I ask this all the time. What do you dig? (hell what do any of you dig?) |
viola! |
Phase 3 is done when the site isn't significant enough to be avoided by the development but significant enough to warrant a full scale excavation like you see on TV. These type of projects are what every archaeologist loves to do as you get to dig (usually) pretty neat sites with lots of features and artifacts and you get great data with which to publish articles and pad your CV. Ok, that's the background. What I have been specifically digging lately have been the Phase 1 projects, which didn't turn up anything. One was for a wetland restoration and another for a housing project for Naval officers in Mississippi. Before that, we had two of teh big Phase 3 projects, one prehistoric site which actually was a bust (no good features, few artifacts, so there wasn't anything we could say about the site), and the brick factory I was initially hired on for. I'm currently writing the report for the factory and it's up to 102 pages of just text so far, and probably will double at least when the appendices and figures are added. Basically, for each hour in the field, we spend at least 4 in the office working on artifacts and reports. Anyway, we have a couple more projects coming up, another Phase 1 at Parris Island, South Carolina (which means I'm going to Savannah after we finish digging), and a huge multi-site Phase 3 in the best area in Ohio for prehistoric sites, center of the Hopewell Mound builder culture. That should be awesome. |
im diggin in my wallet for a little change. |
|
I didn't get far in archeology because I just couldn't get all worked up about arrowheads and pottery shards. and I learned to loathe cultural anthropology, whose scholars sometimes paid their native informants for stories with firearms. and the paleoanthropologists may be the worst of a bad lot. every time they find another ancient molar in africa, they rewrite the whole story of human evolution. which is fine, but it seems kind of useless to fabricate these intricate histories when the actual fossil record is so limited. I mean, I think they should all admit that they don't know shit. |
so... so... Facinating. I think I wet myself. |
|
|
|
And Czarina, I'll personally back up any of your wild-ass claims, as well as Sem's. |
|
As one civil engineer friend of mine says, "Pave the world!" |
When they run out of ground to pave, they make more land. Extend their island a little, and pave that... Making concrete cities nobody lives in. |
|
Remember this the next time you cross a bridge. |
I also agree that the exfoliated structure ought be preserved. It's far enough in the boonies that little or no development ought reach it in a humndred years. But it is a geological curiosity of undetermined origin. The mounds, as far as we know from journeying and past life stuff and folklore of the area, were mounds used by women during menstruation, and prior to that, for the ritual bloodletting of the sacrificial animals and most likely humans some thousands of years ago in order to assuage and gain favor from the gods of agriculture as well as war. Hell, don't even ask me how I know this stuff. It's all conjecture, Czarina would say, and Sem, you're prolly getting a good laugh. But it is the way the locals have -- for a long time -- understood the meaning of the place. It is sacred space. Yeah, as if some of space weren't. Isn't that the real problem: humanity's attitude toward the dirt we walk on and the air we breath and the water we drink and the heat of the sun reflecting off the ashphalt... don't get me going. I have been good for a long time. Somehow, I think it is nice to be back for the abuse, right? |
Utterly unprovable, but nice. A good way to isolate a menstruating woman, stick her up on a mound. They're probably graves, though. |
|
|
While doing research for my term paper on an old Iron works I realized most history books are pure conjecture and BS on the part of the writer. I mean I had two hundred year old letters in my hands. And, I wasn't coming to the same conclusions as my professor who had written a chapter in his book on the same subject. When you have the Original Documents in front of you and they don't say what history texts say; you know it's pure BS. |
I think the locals are right on this one. And everything I have read on the area, the times of Trails of Tears, and even the conjectures of the prehistory: it's all book stuff. I offer these words I ran across today in my mentor Tom Cowan's writings: "Immerse yourself in nature, observe the seasons, live consciously beneath the night sky, study the habits of birds and animals. Explore your dreams and take them seriously. Find places and ways to see and enter the Other, and remember what you find and do there. And, when you have done these things, if there is time, read books." |
That's pretty amazing that you managed to figure out "most history books" based on one course at a community college. Perhaps you're generalizing just a bit. I saw something that was true on a computer screen once. I guess I should believe everything I see on computer screens, huh? |
if you're intelligent, you can come to your own thoughts without having someone else fabricate them for you. the best teachers like it when you raise a valid point and ask them an honest question contradicting what they say. it shows that you think about things. certificates, grades and diplomas mean nothing. that you obey their bullshit rules, yes. that you're a brownnoser, yes. that you actually know the stuff, no.* *said the girl that set the curves on all the tests and failed the class without cheating or guessing. |
(on the mounds: it's pure conjecture here without seeing them, or doing non-invasive remote sensing on them preferably, but from what I know about mounds, especially in Daniel SSSS's part of the country, they predate the history books by a couple thousand years, give or take a few hundred. That whole area was covered with mounds, most got obliterated when the white folks showed up with their plows. Cahokia even had an interstae built through it.) |
it must be a trick you can't learn it all and after you someone new will have to learn it and why? i'm actually most proud of the things i learned about me, maybe this is just our current historical place to learn ourselves |
The two just aren't necessarily linked all that well. But I'm trying to learn to play the game. I have a lot of catching up to do. |
I spent a long ten years in school post secondary, from the first freshman class to the end of my doctoral program and my post doc...but nature is my teacher now, as it was before I went to school in the hills of Appalachia. I still am burdened with books-- buy them, browse them, use them for reference, but by and large I learn from the trees out of which the books are made more than from the pages on which someone's version of this or that is contrived. That's the old druidic vein in me. Regarding the cradle of civilization that most midwesterners simply ignore, Cahokia... Strangely enough, "we" wouldn't have what we have "reconstructed" at Cahokia had it not been for the menace of the interstate threatening it all. The interpretive center there has one of the best displays on what contemporary archeology entails. The entire site is fascinating, and certainly magical to some. There's lots history and spirit there. According to what little I know, most of the mounds in the immediate St. Louis area were either plowed under for agriculture, or later, bulldozed to make way for urban development. St. Louis is interesting for that, and for the catacomb like cave systems underneath it all, and for the Irish pubs built on top of them, and of course, the German influences of the breweries built there as well. There must be a certain amount of Clydesdales' shit there too. The north area of city is even known as "Mound City." The nice thing about the mounds on my teacher's sanctuary/property is that they are undisturbed except for the natural erosion of the watercourse (Crooked Creek) changing its banks countless times over the last 1000 years. Many of the more rural sites, I think, but don't know for sure, have been overrun by lead mines in the area. Keyesville escaped this fate. Off to recycling. |
i understand that it's hard work getting a degree, but you'll have to admit that there's usually a lot of bs involved. |
And don't stop writing no matter what. Speaking of which, |
I will say that one of the big lessons in college is learning to distinguish BS from a distance so that you know which courses and profs to avoid in the first place. |
|
|
but i feel like being surly. |
Ass. |
we could have most people graduating from high school at least two years early if we eliminated a lot of this bs, maybe even more. but right now i need brekkast. foood! fooooooooooD! |
|
but for the sake of argument... what, to you, is uneccessary and bullshit? |
|
ending the school year, doing nothing with math all summer, then relearning half of what you did before just fine. teachers who decide that they'll do no work whatsoever and pile on about four or five mega projects on you just because they can. teachers that teach straight out of the textbook with little or no additional material. i don't mean to dis teachers or anything, but the people who are really interested in their subjects aren't teaching in places that are very accessable. i have no problem with learning,but teachers i have problems with. the science teacher that decided to flunk me senior year because i wasn't "documenting my project time properly" (he knew what i was doing, i spent somewhere around at least ten hours per week on that thing) and told me that he thought i was the smartest person in the class and he'd give me an a if i only did it right but wouldn't explain how if i asked. environmental biology was the class. i liked the topic a lot, the first term i got a b, but the second term he laid us down with so much work i hardly had the time for my ap classes. but anyway. i try to blame others for my own problems. i shouldn't do it. |
to me by someone who made it interesting was forgotten/. I remember my AP English my senior year, that was taught by a guy named Pat Evans. Man was insane, but extreamly good at what he did. I also remember my physics 1 (h), and Physics 2 classes, Mr.Swenson was a true physics geek. He would show up for class wearing sweats no shower and drinking coffee out of a huge mug because he just woke up. And then he would play with fire, or piss the teacher off downstairs by dropping ball bearings on the floor. I miss those parts of highschool, I however don't miss the parts where I sat not learning anything from people who didn't want to be teaching, and when I would do something of my own, they would bitch because their time was more important then mine. Well fuck them, they never taught me anything and thats what they were being paid for so fuck them. Some people's fucking kids. |
|
Her lit tests were fill-in-the-blank, as in "Mr. Rochester's dog was named _____________." AP English. |
people who don't want to be teaching to be teaching to people who don't want to be learning. because the government says so. and they tell you that you won't succeed unless you go to college and end up a doctor or something. how do we measure success, by how quickly a person goes to sleep after work? |
the greatest lesson i learned (and am still learning) that things arent always what they seem. things arent always what they seem pez. |
By that measure, I suck. Works fer me! |
unfortunately, society only talks about valueing education. |
|
|
|
but teaching isn't a good first career for anyone who needs to earn a decent salary in a big or mid-sized city. isn't a starting teacher's salary in the 20s or something? |
this is los gatos, though. |
Bella Rosa Boutique. Im so damned keen when it comes to marketing and sales. I just went to a comparable desginers website, and snagged their retailer list or the "where to buy" list. the database grows. |
|
maybe like low 60s for a normal job? considering winter and spring breaks? days like these i get tempted to sell everything and start new. capitalism is a lot of responsibility. |
|
|
My mom taught in a Catholic school. Took her 15 years to make 45, with a Masters plus 40 credits. Now she's a student and a secretary and makes less than I do and will for a while. |
Most split just like the students do, which is sad in a way. |
Wouldn't you? |
|
ahHAHAH SPIDER. PICTURE ME SHAPING SOME SUBSET OF AMERICA'S YOUTH. AHAHHAH SPIDER! |
have you thought about taking your expertise elsewhere, on a more scholarly level than civil service? if not just simply for the money? |
|
|
and for the free admission to cloned dinosaur themeparks. goddamn Jurrasic Park 2 sucked. |
I am an archaeologist because that's what I like to do. It so happens that I can make a very modest living at it. |
Dont mean to be picky, but heck, I am. The English use Metric, not Imperial measurements! havnt done for years! We have 6 Anglo-Saxon burial mounds near here,local legend has it that they are the remains of giant mud balls an angry giant was throwing, one was supposed to have hit a nearby village church, knocking the tower wonky! Now however, they sit outside an early 80's office block, next to a main road and large roundabout, with a small A3 sized sign telling people what they are. |
wonky? |
tell me that's metric! i used to want to teach, but if i do, it won't be in a public school. seminars or private classes maybe, or homeschooled students. |
wtf |
|
|
Teenagers are easy to manipulate, I know I am one. Its all a matter of how you do it, just use their raging hormones against them for a greater pourpose. . |
|
|
|
It's called "english" measurement here in the States. Go figure. I had a Canadian friend when I lived in Detroit who freaked us out one night while coming back from the bar, using one of the big monster highways. He told us he was doing 120 mph and sure enough, the digital readout in his dash said "120" in big glowing blue numerals. We were all telling him to slow done when he pointed out that his car was also Canadian and we were looking at kph. His nickname was "Bubba." |
and we'd use the british metric system and develop elaborate conversion tables so they'd be better at math than college physics professors. j/k. |
|
|
|
|
I don't think id have the patience to teach anyone. But i have considered having photo workshops for kids at my studio. I love to go on and on about photography, and perhaps when Im older I will do that. |
|
I'm not that hot. I got my hair butchered on saturday. I still don't understand why, when you tell a hairdresser you want your hair to be chin-length, they proceed to pull your wet hair down tight against your chin and cut it there. I mean, come on. I'm not even a hairdresser, but I understand that when you stop pulling on the hair and it dries, it is going to be shorter than where it was cut, you know? my hair is an inch too short. which is fine, I guess. it just means that instead of having good hair now, I will have good hair in a month. (I even showed her a fucking picture, goddamn it.) I've been working on getting into bikini shape. gym five times a week without fail. I've lost ten pounds. still, I wish I had big tits like halter-top girl. |
I mysteriously lost an inch of my flab and five pounds during the last two weeks. I don't know how that happened, it was after I got out of the field, not during. And, my mom was here and we ate the bacon fat potatoes and bbq and chinese food and greek food and Tim Hortons. And I was sick. I don't get it, but I am not complaining. I'm trying to switch over to fruits for snacks, but I find one side effect is that I crave things like cookies and ice cream way more than when I wouldn't snack much. I'm sorry, I forgot what we were talking about. |
she just looks like someone who would have big tits. |
|
almost done, almost done. no, if she had big tits, i wouldnt have said what i said, and im not a big fan big breastesesesesss. have you considered breast work cyst? |
besides, I'm philosophically ok with removal surgery, but I still think it's sort of weird to have anything added. |
|