2012 New York State Archaeology Season

Today marks the official start of the 2012 New York State Archaeology season.

New York State has a rich and long history and prehistory. Each year new archaeological sites are discovered across the state. These provide important information for understanding human activity and interaction with the landscape over the last 12,000 years. However, all archaeological sites represent fragile, non-renewable resources that are in danger of being impacted on a daily basis. For more than a decade archaeologists across the state have worked together to help raise awareness of the archaeological resources of the state, as well as to encourage stewardship of these important pieces of our human history and to provide opportunities for the general public to become involved.  In recognition of the fact that important archaeological work continues throughout the year, the organizations involved have decided to celebrate Archaeology Season. Archaeology Season stretches from the Spring through the Fall and offers plenty of opportunities for the public to get involved through visiting excavations in progress, attending presentations on important sites, artifact identification days, and other events.  Events will be sponsored by many individuals and organizations and will take place throughout the season.  A list of events can be found here.

For the next five months I’ll be giving precedence to archaeological happenings in the Empire State.  Are you digging in New York?  Is your research based on the Empire State’s exciting history or prehistory?  Sexy Archaeology would love to help raise awareness!  Send your links, stories and photographs to sexyarchaeology@gmail.com, tag your tweets on Twitter with #NYSArch and #pubarch, and join our Facebook page.

Happy digging!

BBC Radio 4 presents: A History Of The World In 100 Objects

The BBC and the British Museum have joined forces in an original and unprecedented public service partnership, focusing on world history.

At its heart is a landmark series on BBC Radio 4, A History Of The World In 100 Objects which will broadcast from 18 January 2010.

This series is a narrative global history told through the British Museum's unparalleled world collection. The series will tap in to the unique power of objects to tell stories and make connections across the globe.

To produce the series the BBC and the British Museum have come together in an ambitious partnership to ensure the widest possible access and engagement across radio, TV and online.

A History Of The World In 100 Objects is written and narrated by the British Museum Director, Neil MacGregor, and produced by Radio 4.

The 15-minute programmes will be broadcast in the key timeslot of 9.45am from Monday to Friday.  Each programme will focus on one object from the Museum's extensive collection and will include additional voices from a range of contributors including Bob Geldof, Wole Soyinka, Grayson Perry, Madhur Jaffrey and Seamus Heaney – and many others.

Each week of programmes will be tied to a particular theme, such as "after the ice age" or "meeting the gods". Objects have been selected to cover the broadest possible chronological and geographical period, and tell a history of the world from two million years ago to the present day. The 100 programmes will be broadcast in three tranches throughout 2010.

Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, said: "This partnership between the BBC and the British Museum is the fulfilment of an Enlightenment dream. Parliament set up the British Museum to allow all 'studious and curious persons' both 'native and foreign born' to construct their own history of the world and to find their place in it.

"Thanks to the incomparable reach of the BBC – radio, television, World Service and web – as the series develops, everybody across the UK and across the world will be able to participate, using not just the things in museums, but their own objects as well, to tell their history of the world."

Mark Damazer, Controller of Radio 4, said: "The partnership with the British Museum has brought to Radio 4 the most exciting history project in my five years as Radio 4 Controller. The idea of a 'History of The World' told through objects is audacious and it has been endlessly stimulating to see two creative organisations – animated by public service – coming together to produce what I believe will be thrilling programmes – not only on Radio 4, but now across the BBC."

The Radio 4 series has become the starting point for an extraordinarily far-reaching project. Both the BBC and the British Museum were keen to broaden the concept of "A History of the World" and seize the potential for a wider programme of activity focusing on world history.

The project will also seek to encourage listeners to explore not only the global collections of the British Museum but to engage and participate with museums across the country to discover the power of objects.

You can listen to the first installment on the BBC iPlayer website now or check out the amazing website for the complete series at the official website.

October 12th - Discovery Day!

What a lame holiday.

October 12, 2009 is Columbus Day. For those of you who may not be familiar with this holiday, the second Monday in October each year marks the day much of North America celebrates the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas (or the Caribbean if you want to get specific). Columbus' four voyages led to the general awareness of the Americas throughout Europe. As a side note, his discovery also led directly to the death of millions of Native Americans, the extinction of entire peoples (Taino) and the founding of slavery in the Americas. But I'm not here to put Columbus on trial, I'm here to ponder whether or not the man's achievements warrant his own happy little holiday or if this day could be meant for so much more.

This article caught my attention:

Is Columbus Day Sailing Off the Calendar?

The tradition of honoring Christopher Columbus for sailing the ocean blue in 1492 is facing rougher seas than the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria.

Philadelphia's annual Columbus Day parade has been canceled. Brown University this year renamed the holiday "Fall Weekend" following a campaign by a Native American student group opposed to celebrating an explorer who helped enslave some of the people he "discovered."

Already 22 states don't give their employees the day off, according to the Council of State Governments. And in other places, Columbus Day is under attack. "We're going after state governments to drop this holiday for whatever reason they come up with," said Mike Graham, founder of United Native America, a group fighting for a federal holiday honoring Native Americans.

His group's agenda: Rename Columbus Day "Italian Heritage Day" and put it somewhere else on the calendar, then claim the second Monday in October as "Native American Day." South Dakota already calls it that.

Other organizations want to rename the day "Indigenous Peoples' Day," as several California cities, including Berkeley, have done.

Indigenous Peoples' Day? What an excellent idea! Let’s give credit to the Paleo-indians who actually did discover the Americas a staggering 20,000 years before Columbus. Their discovery alone is enough to close the book on the celebration of Columbus Day. But this is America and, as much as I hate to admit it, if there is one thing American’s hate more than changing their beloved ways of thinking, its relinquishing anything to native peoples.

I feel the solution to this problem is finding the happy medium or what amounts to a re-branding of Columbus Day.

I like Discovery Day. That's how the people of The Bahamas commemorate October 12. Discovery Day detaches itself from the accomplishments of just one man and opens the door to celebrating so much more. Honestly, what Columbus did pales in comparison to some of the other exciting discoveries made throughout human history. Sticking with the realm of land exploration for just a bit longer, consider Leif Erikson who is currently regarded as the first European to arrive in the America's (what now Columbus?).  Sure he has his own holiday, but how many American’s actually know when it is? I'll save you the trouble of looking, it's October 9th. What of Jacques Cartier and his explorations of the St. Lawrence River or Abel Janszoon Tasman’s exploration of Australia in 1642? Take a step away from earthbound discoveries and consider the work of Galileo. Consider all of the discoveries in astronomy, the hundreds of thousands of galaxies discovered by the Hubble Space telescope in the past 19 years. Hell, there aren’t enough days in the year to commemorate what has been discovered since NASA was established in 1958. Think of the countless discoveries in chemistry, earth science, mathematics, genetics, medicine, physics, and biology. Think of archaeology. Think of evolution! Think of all of these wonderful fields of study, of the countless individuals whose hard work and dedication have made our current way of life possible, and understand the need to commemorate it all.

Happy Discovery Day.