When I was studying anthropology at Cambridge back in the late 70s, Alan Bilsborough, my academic advisor, got me to buy a children’s book on human evolution – Bernard Wood’s “Evolution of Early Man”. Not an undergrad’s text book. Reason – it was the most up-to-date account of a field that changed almost by the…
archaeology
Bulgaria’s golden archaeological hopes
BBC item today Bulgaria’s ancient Thracian heritage has been thrust into the spotlight this year with a number of key archaeological discoveries in the so-called “Valley of the Thracian Kings”. The golden treasures are attracting international attention and there is a push to make the Thracian heritage Bulgaria’s trademark abroad in a bid to boost…
another unique species?
A BBC article on the new species of homo UK | Magazine | Eton or the zoo? raises some excellent questions. How would the new species be treated? If it is such a close relative, would we give these people the vote? The discovery of homo floresiensis reiterates what anthropologists have been saying for a…
remembering Michael Jameson
A sad occasion this afternoon – a remembrance service for Mike Jameson, my colleague in the Department of Classics here at Stanford. He died in August. It was in Stanford Church – first time I had attended any kind of event there. A good turn out. There were some very nice anecdotes told by friends…
intellectual property and copyrighting the past
I am sitting in a colloquium on Open Knowledge and Social Research Networks at Stanford Humanities Center. On the agenda – more of the issues that I summarized the other day in another colloquium at Stanford. [Link] how does open knowledge work with digital technology in academic institutions? how does collaboration at a distance work?…
Ancient Corinth and the stories archaeologists tell of the past
Ok, it’s quite an obscure source for archaeological news of Europe – NEWS.com.au – but they are running a headline at the moment about the discovery of two large sarcophagi in ancient Corinth. The story is that they are so big that ancient Greeks in 900BCE can’t have done it using only human power but…