Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Stories told by trash of the ancestors, digging on Mackinac Island


Literally salvage archaeology in two senses of the term: quick work at the time of major construction to salvage social and cultural information from the exposed ground, and also salvage as in 'junk yard' salvaging value from what has been discarded.

This article describes the work undertaken as part of the relocation of the island airstrip.

Friday, June 26, 2020

language as political hot-potato that is hard to handle (English graveyard, Gaelic text)

excerpt from Church of England refuses to allow foreign language on a gravestone, calling it a "political statement"

...the Church of England pushed back again when they saw the planned inscription on the cross: "In ár gcroíthe go deo," which means, "In our hearts forever" in the Irish language. This didn't seem particularly radical, especially as there are already Welsh inscriptions in the same cemetery. But once again, the diocesan advisory committee denied the family's headstone proposal. "Given the passions and feelings connected with the use of Irish Gaelic," said a Church judge who is also a local government judge, "There is a sad risk that the phrase would be regarded as some form of slogan or that its inclusion without translation would of itself be seen as a political statement."


After yet another appeal, the judge agreed to allow the Irish words only if they're accompanied by an English translation.



Thursday, June 4, 2020

Britain's "Pompeii" time capsule, the Bronze Age site at Must Farm

Awarded the 2020 Antiquities prize for newly published and open access article, "The Must Farm pile-dwelling settlement."

The article provides a site overview and the current interpretations of the archaeology alongside discussing the material found during the 2015-16 excavations.

See https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.38


or look at Facebook for updates to the project, https://www.facebook.com/MustFarmArchaeology/