Christina Unwin’s new book Design and Archaeology [Link] has just arrived. A remarkable path-breaking work, this is the synthesis of archaeology, design studies, material culture studies that we have been waiting for – delivered in elegant case studies of textiles, gold-alloy torcs, shale vessels, and a copper-alloy armband from the world of iron-age and early…
archaeology
The archaeological life of things — Bornholm
Hosts, ghosts, visitors For some years I have been making archaeological visits to Bornholm, the Danish island south of Sweden. Rock art, unique prehistoric sites and monuments, medieval settlement, churches and castles, rune stones, fishing industry, cold war relics, an arts community since the nineteenth century, contemporary heritage and tourism. The mingling remains of many…
Binford — telling stories with the past
The new book Creative Pragmatics for Active Learning in STEM Education (edited with Connie Svabo, Tamara Carleton, Chungfang Zhou) prompted a memory today. The title indicates the collection is about STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) education. And so it is. But this is not a book about regular science education. We come at the topic…
Colin Renfrew, Mark Leone, John Barrett — passing through archaeology
I have been bringing to mind again three archaeological colleagues, friends of long-standing. No longer with us. Passing on. Mundanities in the life of ideas. So much loss in the fleeting ephemeral. Of Colin Renfrew. A sympathy of interest and concern, from when we first got to know each other. We met regularly but not…
Applied Archaeology — Applied Humanities
Studio Michael Shanks Stanford University Newsletter 2024 Stanford Archaeology Center Archaeological mission and vision? Ivory tower as lighthouse? In a recent newsletter for Stanford Archaeology Center [Link] I talked of slow archaeology, of the benefits of long-running projects that afford time for unfolding reflection. Three interrelated projects remain ongoing. A kind of archaeological triptych. —…
A day for Chris Tilley: reflections on the performance of academic life
University College London November 15 2024. This morning I was online at a gathering of colleagues, friends, former students, to reflect upon the life and work of Chris Tilley who died earlier this year [Link]. Appreciative memories; what remains; hindsight and legacy; influences. There were the regular, standardized, and orthodox accounts of Tilley’s part in…