Andy White Anthropology
  • Home
  • Fake Hercules Swords
  • Research Interests
    • Complexity Science
    • Prehistoric Social Networks
    • Eastern Woodlands Prehistory
    • Ancient Giants
  • Blog

Broad River Archaeological Field School: Day 10 (3/24/2017)

3/30/2017

 
Our tenth day in the field was unusual in that the focus of the day (for me, anyway) was a site visit by the board of the Archaeological Research Trust (ART), the landowner and family, and other guests. As I wrote last December, funds supplied by ART are supporting staff wages in the field and laboratory, as well as the costs of expendable field supplies and the lumber required to build protection for the vulnerable parts of the site. It was my pleasure to show them their money in action and try to communicate why what we're doing is worthwhile.
Picture
My presentation about the discovery of the site and what we know so far about what it contains. Yes, I made visual aids. (Photo by Nena Rice).
In terms of the archaeology, we're now to the point were we need to dial in the exit strategy for the semester. We've got four field days remaining, weather permitting.

"Upstairs," the last day will be spent backfilling the units and making sure everything is buttoned up and protected until the next opportunity to excavate. The second-to-last day will be devoted to drawing profiles of all the unit walls. That leaves us just two more days to excavate. Although I'm very curious to see what the deposits look like below the Mack zone, I'm not prepared to alter the piece-plot strategy at this point in order to speed things up. I think continuing to gather high resolution information as we excavate the Mack component will pay off during analysis. At the rate we're going, we may finish just one more 10 cm level in each of Units 4, 5, and 6.

"Downstairs," the end game will include cleaning, photographing, drawing, and describing the 5 m-long, 2.2 m-high profile that will be exposed when Jim Legg completes the excavation of Unit 9. With only one or two more levels to go to expose the base of the profile in Unit 9, we hope to be prepared to remove the wooden buttressing from Units 1 and 2 and clean and photograph the entire profile after one more day in the field. Drawing the profile will take at least a day. Constructing the buttressing to protect the entire 5 m will take at least part of a day. With luck, we'll be done with the downstairs before we're done upstairs.

I'm also starting to formulate my future plans for work at the site. I'll write about those plans when they're done cooking.

3D Model of the Hilt of Sword 23

3/29/2017

 
I've spent the last few days in the thick of a lot of data collection, data entry, and strategic planning. I haven't had much time for writing, but I did manage to cobble together this 3D model of the hilt of Fake Hercules Sword No. 23 (original post here). Enjoy!

Fake Hercules Sword 23 -- Hilt by aawhite on Sketchfab

Anyone Want to Look for Another "Lost City"? I Don't

3/28/2017

 
From time to time I get contacted about potentially playing the archaeologist in this or that reality television production. It was flattering the first time it happened. Now I find it to be annoying.

To be clear, I'm not against the idea that professional archaeologists can do good by appearing on television. I'm an advocate of professionals engaging with the public and being part of the conversation about what archaeology is and what we do and do not know about the human past.  A quick look at the proliferation of pseudo-archaeology online and on TV will tell you that our de facto strategy of non-engagement hasn't worked particularly well. We need to be in the mix.

So, sure, if the right project comes along I'm open to it.

Last week I got an email "reaching out because we’re currently working on an adventure show and we’re looking to cast an archaeologist, anthropologist, or adventurer." 

The email explained that they were going to look for another "lost city," in a part of the world where I have no experience or expertise.

Thanks, but no thanks. What could I possible contribute to this project except an unmerited gloss of credibility because I have letters after my name?

Maybe the food and the scenery would be nice.


If you're a television producer and really want real archaeologists to be excited to participate in what you're doing, you'll have to actually do some work. Believe it or not, most of us don't want to be on television just for the heck of it. I hope that someday someone can figure out how to blend responsible archaeological science with a hook that can draw in viewers and sell enough advertising to create a good program. That would be a nut worth cracking.

Good luck finding that "lost city." I have other things to do.
Picture

3D Model of the Hilt of Sword 22

3/27/2017

 
A 3D model of the hilt of Sword 22 (first posthere) is now available on Sketchfab. Enjoy!

Sword 22 Hilt by aawhite on Sketchfab

Fake Hercules Swords 22 and 23 Have Arrived: They're Wicked

3/21/2017

 
The much ballyhooed journey of Fake Hercules Swords 22 and 23 from Italy to Germany to New Jersey to South Carolina is over: they are now safe and sound in my office. You can exhale.

These swords, currently produced and for sale online by the Ferrara Store (Italy), were spotted by alert Swordgate aficionado Hartman Krug (here are the pages for Sword 22 and Sword 23). The store doesn't ship to the U.S., so I imposed upon a relative in Germany to purchase them for us and then ship them overseas. You can thank Stephen Bridges for his willingness to conspire.

This was an expensive endeavor, draining $187 from the Woo War One war chest. It was money well spent.

I've only had time to take a quick glance at these, but I can tell you we are going to learn a lot from them. There are many features on the swords, and differences between them, that I think will move us a way down the road to unraveling the history and chronology of these things.

I'm not going to do any in-depth analysis in this post: I just wanted to throw some preliminary photos and make a couple of baseline observations up so we can start discussing these.

You'll notice right away that the Hercules figure on Sword 22 (the one with the pugio blade) is both larger and more detailed than the hilt figure on Sword 23. Without picking up a pair of calipers or doing a close side-by-side comparison, my initial off-the-cuff guess is that the Hercules on Sword 22 may be both larger and more detailed than the Hercules on the California sword. It certainly includes at least a few things we haven't seen before (such as dimples on the guard rivets). Although the blade is clearly not the same as that of Sword 21, the pugio shapes are a notable point of similarity. I'm wondering if the currently-produced Sword 22 isn't a design from a generation that pre-dates the California sword.

Sword 23 appears to be superficially very similar to the Design Toscano swords. The figures are about the same size and have a comparable lack of detail, and the blades are very similar (but not identical) in size and shape. My first guess is that Sword 23 and the Design Toscano swords (Sword 5 in the database) are closely related.

There will be more to come on these new swords. I've got Sword 22 on my 3D scanner right now and will make the model available as soon as I can get the data processed.  In the meantime, here are some photos:
Picture
Swords 22 (left) and 23 (right), front.
Picture
Swords 22 (left) and 23 (right), back.
Picture
Sword 22, front of hilt.
Picture
Sword 23, front of hilt.
Picture
Sword 22, front of blade.
Picture
Sword 23, front of blade.
Picture
Comparison of Sword 22 (left), Sword 23 (center), and the Design Toscano sword (Sword 5) (right).
Picture
Sword 22 on the scanner.

Broad River Archaeological Field School: Day 9 (3/17/2017)

3/20/2017

 
After a week off for spring break, the field school returned to the Broad River to continue excavations at 38FA608. We're in the thick of things now. Unfortunately, the student who brings a coffee maker was absent.

It's slow going in the excavation block. During our previous day in the field, we began getting into what appeared to be a Late Archaic / Early Woodland deposit in Units 4 and 6. That day ended with numerous artifacts marked in place on the floors of those units. The crews in those units spent most of the latest field day dealing with those artifacts, plotting and collecting each one. ​
Picture
Work in progress in the "upstairs" excavation block.
Unit 6 (upper left in the photo above) produced the bases of two heavily reworked Mack points in context, along with numerous pieces of chipped stone debris and fire-cracked rock. We've seen nothing yet in those units that suggests a discrete feature. Unit 4 has produced some ceramic debris in the "Mack" deposit, but I have yet to see any large pieces or pieces with decoration (that doesn't mean we won't found them or even that we haven't already -- the students are plotting hundreds of artifacts and I'm not looking at each one as it comes out of the ground).
Picture
The two heavily reworked Mack points from Unit 6 (left) compared to two less reworked Mack points from Aiken County (right). The presence of points that have been worked down to almost nothing but the haft region immediately suggests that one of the things people were doing at this site was retooling -- discarding worn tools as they refurbished their equipment.
Picture
A sample of "in progress" paperwork: this map of Level 8 of Unit 6 shows the XY locations of the artifacts that the students are plotting (the depths are recorded elsewhere). You can see the locations of plots 774 (upper left) and 817 (lower right), the two projectile points shown in the photo above.
Progress in Unit 5 was slowed by the presence of two small features (Features 7 and 8). Feature 7 was a small deposit of dark, charcoal flecked sediment that appears similar to Feature 6 that we encountered in Unit 6. Only a portion of Feature 7 was visible in the floor of Unit 5, with the remainder extending into the unexcavated portion of Unit 3.  We documented and removed the portion in Unit 5, and we will catch the profile of the feature in the wall of the unit.

Feature 8 was a circular area of light sediment. We documented it in plan and then bisected it. It appears to be a circular pit with relatively straight sides that extend at least 15 cm from the depth at which the feature was defined. Based on the light fill of the feature, its shape in plan and profile, and the fact that it appeared within Zone 2 (the buried plowzone), the feature is almost certainly a historic period post or auger hole of some kind. We'll need to scoop out the remaining fill to keep any intrusive artifacts from plowzone from contaminating the prehistoric deposits.
Picture
Work resumed on the "downstairs" portion of the site with the return of Jim Legg. Jim and a student continued excavating Unit 9 to produce a straight profile wall. There were no diagnostic artifacts and no sign of any features associated with the presumed Middle/Late Archaic deposit, which was a bummer.  There's still a chance we'll find something in what's left of Unit 9 that can give us a firm handle on time/culture deep in the profile, but it's not looking good at this point. Jim wore black instead of paisley, and I can't completely let go of the idea that his wardrobe choice might have hurt our efforts. (Update [3/21/2017]: Legg has promised to return to paisley when we go in the field this Friday.)
Picture
Unit 9, almost to the base of the profile wall.

Heron #1

3/19/2017

 
I used most of my garage time this weekend to work on a bunch of different stuff to prepare for my upcoming (May) show. I fixed my rabbit's head, finally cut and attached plates on a stegosaurus that has been on the back burner for months, and cleaned, wire-wheeled, and clear-coated the rabbit and the triceratops head. I also managed to finish my heron.

This one seemed to go quickly and I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. There are a few things I will do differently if I make another heron (I'm planning on selling this one). Here is the finished product without the final base and less the slight patina it will get by sitting outside for a while:
Picture
Heron #1.

Picture
This one started as a pile of pieces that seemed like they'd quickly go together to make the basic shape. As often happens, though, I ended up using relatively little of the stuff in my heron pile.

he big white triangles are shelf brackets. I originally thought they'd make good foundations for the wings. I ended up using one to help form the interior of the back. I used the tips of both to make the beak.

In this photo, the body is make from the motor from a juicer and a bell, neither of which I ended up using. I did use most of the neck and head pieces 
Picture
To keep the weight down, I used the hood from a desk lamp (green), the shelf from a shower caddy, and some lightweight, circular pieces from a ceiling light to start building the body. I used the handles of butter knives (leftover from making the quarrelling roosters) to make the flight feathers. I formed the neck shape with a pair of metal brackets. The foundation of the head is some kind of spring-loaded clamp.
Picture
This photo shows the body after I added a couple of layers of metal (the lower one is made from old garden edging from my yard and the top one is sheet metal from a filing cabinet) to represent the wing features. The tail feathers are made from filing cabinet parts. I used a grill from an AC unit to make the stringy feathers that extend from the top of the back.

I made the neck almost entirely out of sheet metal, using little irregular pieces that I cut from a something that I'm sure must have originally been from Ikea.
Picture
This view shows the bird almost done. I used various odds and ends to give volume to the upper legs. The black semi-circles where the neck meets the body are from the base of a desk lamp. The black patch on the top of the head is from a lawnmower. I found the key plate that forms the center of the back in someone's garbage pile just a few days ago.
Picture
The finished head.
Picture
I added more sheet metal to give mid part of the neck the distinctive curvature of a heron neck. I used a mixture of bicycle spokes and the spring from a lawnmower starter to make the nuptial feathers on the neck.
Picture
One of the feet.
Picture
Top view.

"Rooster #1" Wins a Prize

3/18/2017

 
Last night I has happy to learn that my rooster sculpture was awarded an honorable mention at the local Trenholm Artists Guild show in Columbia.
Picture
I had never been to one of these shows before, so I didn't know what to expect. I was prepared to deliver at least a portion of the speech from Boogie Nights if I was handed a microphone.  That didn't happen, so . . . no speech, no karate moves. Maybe next time.

Here is what the judge (Dwight Rose, out of Spartanburg, South Carolina) had to say about the rooster:
Picture
My rooster was the only sculpture in a field of canvas and photographs. It was gratifying to have my work recognized among so many nice pieces. It was a good feeling, also, to get a lot of of positive reaction from one of the scrap metal art groups I participate in on Facebook. In my estimation, most of the people who do this kind of thing are, like me, "folk" artists with no formal artistic training or background. If you look at Making something new out of a bunch of old nothing is fairly pure creativity. I like it, and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Three for Thursday: Demography, Swords, and Trophy Bases

3/16/2017

 
Following the spring break hiatus, the Broad River Field School will be back in session tomorrow. We'll be shifting gears a bit to carefully work our way into what appears to be a buried Late Archaic/Early Woodland component. I'm also anticipating continued work on the deeper deposits at the site. Hopefully it will be an eventful day. It's supposed to be sunny and in the mid 60's. I'll just leave it at that.

Here are a few quick updates on other things for those playing along at home: a new modeling paper about the minimum size of demographically viable hunter-gatherer populations, new Fake Hercules Swords en route, and an identification of last Friday's whatzit. 

Picture
How Small is Too Small?

I'm happy to announce that a paper I submitted to the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS) has been accepted for publication.  The paper ("A Model-Based Analysis of the Minimum Size of Demographically-Viable Hunter-Gatherer Populations") uses computational modeling to systematically investigate how large hunter-gatherer populations have to be to survive over long periods of time. Spoiler alert: my results suggest that populations much smaller than the "magic number" of 500 are demographically viable over several centuries under the conditions I explore with my model (in this case, FN3D_V3). JASSS is open access. I'll let you know when the paper becomes available.

Picture
Two New Swords on the Way

Two new Fake Hercules Swords should arrive at my office any day now. Alert #Swordgate enthusiast Hartman Krug spotted these swords, which are currently being produced in Italy. Because the company doesn't ship to the U.S., I asked a relative in Germany to purchase them for me and ship them to South Carolina. After arriving in New Jersey a few days ago, they are currently listed by the USPS as "in transit to destination."

It will be really interesting to have a look at this and delve into the history of the company making them. Could this finally lead us back to the original Mother of All Fake Hercules Swords?

The purchase and shipping of these swords was supported by your contributions to Woo War One. There's still a positive balance there, but it's dwindling. If you'd like to help keep the pressure on and get to the bottom of this, please consider contributing.

Picture
The Whatzit: A Trophy Base?

The "what the heck is this" post I put up last Friday was fun. Within a few minutes of asking the question to an artifact group on Facebook, someone suggested that the item is a base for a trophy. That explanation made sense to me (you can see some new ones for sale here).

Following the post, the owner of the artifact told me he returned to the same creek where he found the original artifact and found another one (left) that lacks the rounded corners of the first one (right). What these things are doing in a creek in Tennessee I do not know.

If you've got a whatzit, send me some photos and maybe we can get it figured out.

Finally, following up on yesterday's post about Against Me!, I would like to encourage you to listen to the song "Rebecca" if you like the rock'n'roll music. It's on repeat in Andyland. 

Against Me! is Saving Rock & Roll

3/15/2017

 
Anthropology is the biggest, baddest science on the planet. Humans, human societies, and human cultures are far and away the most difficult things one can try to understand: they're complex, chaotic, layered, and historically and environmentally contingent. They're a pain in the ass to study. They're also a whole lot of fun.

I've been meaning to write a post about Against Me! since the summer of 2015. That July, I took my daughter to see them in Grand Rapids, Michigan (you can see a photo of me with Laura Jane Grace after the show here). I knew next to nothing about the band at the time, but was blown away by what I saw and heard. I became an instant fan. Two of their albums went into heavy rotation on my walk-to-work soundtrack. 

I never found the time to write the original post.  I wanted to write about the binary oppositions/tensions/categories (life/death, male/female, etc.) I heard embedded in the lyrics, the influences I detected in the music, and the extraordinary energy I felt in that room in Grand Rapids. In case you don't know, Laura Jane Grace was born Thomas James Gabel, coming out publicly as a transgender woman in 2012 (you can get an outline of the band's history here). Listen to 2014's Transgender Dysphoria Blues with that history and context in mind, comparing it what you hear on 2010's White Crosses. If you just want to dip your toe in the water, listen to "White Crosses" and "Bamboo Bones" from 2010 and then "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" and "Black Me Out" from 2014.  Compare "Because of the Shame" (2010) with "Dead Friend" (2014). 

There is something amazing, unmistakable, and unfakable about artistic honesty. I've been listening to music, playing music, and going to concerts for much of my life. Against Me! is the real deal. Period.
Picture
Against Me! performing at the Throne Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina (3/11/2017).
I took my daughter to see them again last weekend, this time at the tiny Throne Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina. Because of that, I now "get" the appeal of the communal energy in live punk music in a way that I never did before. Near the stage all night, I was simultaneously shoved and supported, lifted up and pushed down. There were strange hands holding on to my shoulders and resting constantly against my back. Everything was moving, all the time. In the interconnected crowd, you can physically feel the ripples of energy because you're a part of it, as is everyone else. And once I got used to the culture, once the touch of strangers was no longer strange, it was exhilarating. Someone always, literally, had my back.  I knew I wouldn't fall down because I could feel an anonymous hand there to hold me up. 

As a person who grew up on hard rock and heavy metal, this sense of community was new to me. The crowds at the big concerts I went to as a kid (AC/DC, Metallica, Guns & Roses, blah blah blah) skewed hostile. To me, it seemed like most of the people there were angry and hoping to take it out on each other. You passed time before the show watching people get hauled out by security. I tried not to look anyone in the eye. I'm pretty sure the guy behind me at an AC/DC concert flicked his cigarette ashes on my hair -- I wouldn't know, because I didn't turn around for fear of getting punched in the face.


Being in that crowd at the Throne also helped me understand why there's so much bad punk music: because it doesn't matter. As long as there's a beat, the crowd takes care of itself. It does its own thing, even if there's no melody, even if there's not a catchy hook, even if the lyrics are a bunch of shouted garbage. This has always been a mystery me. I've watched a lot of documentaries about punk music, and I never "got" the appeal until I was in a crowd myself. That's anthropology for you. (See that? Participant observation -- get in there and experience it to learn about it -- this post actually is about anthropology.)

If you liked rock music in the 90's but have checked out, I urge you to check back in for a few minutes and give this band a try.  Against Me! is bigger than the sum of its parts. The energy is there, but so is the music, so is the honesty, so is the bravery.  It's not a sob story or a pity party. It's a force for good.  It's gender, it's anger, it's tenderness, it's human, and it kicks ass. Rock and roll isn't dead.

Here are some videos I took of some of my favorite songs. The camera moves not because I'm unsteady, but because the whole crowd is in motion. Enjoy!
<<Previous

    All views expressed in my blog posts are my own. The views of those that comment are their own. That's how it works.

    I reserve the right to take down comments that I deem to be defamatory or harassing. 

    Andy White

    Email me: [email protected]

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner


    Picture

    Sick of the woo?  Want to help keep honest and open dialogue about pseudo-archaeology on the internet? Please consider contributing to Woo War Two.
    Picture

    Follow updates on posts related to giants on the Modern Mythology of Giants page on Facebook.

    Archives

    May 2024
    January 2024
    January 2023
    January 2022
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    March 2021
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    Categories

    All
    3D Models
    AAA
    Adena
    Afrocentrism
    Agent Based Modeling
    Agent-based Modeling
    Aircraft
    Alabama
    Aliens
    Ancient Artifact Preservation Society
    Androgynous Fish Gods
    ANTH 227
    ANTH 291
    ANTH 322
    Anthropology History
    Anunnaki
    Appalachia
    Archaeology
    Ardipithecus
    Art
    Atlantis
    Australia
    Australopithecines
    Aviation History
    Bigfoot
    Birds
    Boas
    Book Of Mormon
    Broad River Archaeological Field School
    Bronze Age
    Caribou
    Carolina Bays
    Ceramics
    China
    Clovis
    Complexity
    Copper Culture
    Cotton Mather
    COVID-19
    Creationism
    Croatia
    Crow
    Demography
    Denisovans
    Diffusionism
    DINAA
    Dinosaurs
    Dirt Dance Floor
    Double Rows Of Teeth
    Dragonflies
    Early Archaic
    Early Woodland
    Earthworks
    Eastern Woodlands
    Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
    Education
    Egypt
    Europe
    Evolution
    Ewhadp
    Fake Hercules Swords
    Fetal Head Molding
    Field School
    Film
    Florida
    Forbidden Archaeology
    Forbidden History
    Four Field Anthropology
    Four-field Anthropology
    France
    Genetics
    Genus Homo
    Geology
    Geometry
    Geophysics
    Georgia
    Giants
    Giants Of Olden Times
    Gigantism
    Gigantopithecus
    Graham Hancock
    Grand Valley State
    Great Lakes
    Hollow Earth
    Homo Erectus
    Hunter Gatherers
    Hunter-gatherers
    Illinois
    India
    Indiana
    Indonesia
    Iowa
    Iraq
    Israel
    Jim Vieira
    Jobs
    Kensington Rune Stone
    Kentucky
    Kirk Project
    Late Archaic
    Lemuria
    Lithic Raw Materials
    Lithics
    Lizard Man
    Lomekwi
    Lost Continents
    Mack
    Mammoths
    Mastodons
    Maya
    Megafauna
    Megaliths
    Mesolithic
    Michigan
    Middle Archaic
    Middle Pleistocene
    Middle Woodland
    Midwest
    Minnesota
    Mississippi
    Mississippian
    Missouri
    Modeling
    Morphometric
    Mound Builder Myth
    Mu
    Music
    Nazis
    Neandertals
    Near East
    Nephilim
    Nevada
    New Mexico
    Newspapers
    New York
    North Carolina
    Oahspe
    Oak Island
    Obstetrics
    Ohio
    Ohio Valley
    Oldowan
    Olmec
    Open Data
    Paleoindian
    Paleolithic
    Pilumgate
    Pleistocene
    Pliocene
    Pre Clovis
    Pre-Clovis
    Prehistoric Families
    Pseudo Science
    Pseudo-science
    Radiocarbon
    Reality Check
    Rome
    Russia
    SAA
    Sardinia
    SCIAA
    Science
    Scientific Racism
    Sculpture
    SEAC
    Search For The Lost Giants
    Sexual Dimorphism
    Sitchin
    Social Complexity
    Social Networks
    Solutrean Hypothesis
    South Africa
    South America
    South Carolina
    Southeast
    Stone Holes
    Subsistence
    Swordgate
    Teaching
    Technology
    Teeth
    Television
    Tennessee
    Texas
    Topper
    Travel
    Travel Diaries
    Vaccines
    Washington
    Whatzit
    White Supremacists
    Wisconsin
    Woo War Two
    World War I
    World War II
    Writing
    Younger Dryas

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Proudly powered by Weebly