Ok. Before anything else, while I have your brief attention ;-) It is ShovelBums not “Shovel Bums”. It is a huge pet peeve of mine I have for absolutely no good reason, lol! The pattern is the CamelCase/medial capital convention adopted from computer programming. And I just like it better, it is a 90s thing :-) I don’t expect to ever win this because “Ski bum” is in such common usage, but I had to throw this out there.  Ok, enough ranting about obscure naming conventions. ShovelBums turned 22 this week (Sunday, actually!). Wow. Just wow. At least for me ;-) I would like to call out and thank Jim Colburn who has been eminently dependable over the decades in helping to moderate ShovelBums. It is handy to have an extra set of eyes on the list and to bounce ideas off of. So thank you very much, Jim! I don’t reflect on it until...

Hey folks!   Now isn’t that a kick-ass presumptuous subject for a post!  ? ? ?  (<— Since I am quite NRHP eligible I can use whatever outdated emoji I want ;-)   But like every clickbait worthy POS article online only after you are lured into opening it do you see the full title.   "The state of Archaeology, CRM, Architectural History… in the age of Covid, via my incredibly siloed view of the profession(s) through ShovelBums. Plus, the Mark of the Beast bodes a good omen for us!"   Bonus Material: My Kevin Bacon Number.   I put Architectural History in the title only because that always catches peoples eyes and makes them think it must be interesting because none of us really know what they do. I mean we all know the Architectural Historians write prodigiously, they can talk eloquently about a shocking number of subjects beyond their job title, and they always give that...

    For those of you who live within 4hrs of Albuquerque I would like to encourage you to come to the SAA’s for the Free CRM Expo being held at the convention center tomorrow on Saturday 10-4. The expo will have 50 companies represented( * ), but more importantly will serve as a gathering place for coming across old friends (and therefore likely preceed an evening of anthropologically observed debauchery). Think of it as an excuse to come to the big city for the weekend for the occasional big shopping trip :-) Knowing SW connections I am sure you can find a couch to crash on in ABQ (Loebig & Silcock are threatening to crash me which will likely create a biohazard environment! Lol). And it’s a good excuse to grab an Olympia Gyro!   Yeah yeah I know it is expensive to go to the SAA’s out of pocket. Yeah yeah, it’s a...

TL;DR Is at the bottom:   —> MUST READ:   I always wanted to find myself standing on some dramatic landscape. A vista of foreboding clouds billowing across a distant horizon as a dusky golden sunset beautifully glints off the armor of the vast army behind me waiting for my command as we face our mortal enemy in the final great battle that will see us either victors of the principles we value or smote from the memory of both time and space. Standing before those who have entrusted so much to me I raise my arm to signal our advance, as I utter quietly, to myself:     “And so it begins…”     Welllll now I don’t see that happening anytime soon. So I will take this opportunity as probably the only time I will have the chance to utter those words and actually have some meaning behind them. So here it goes: ...

The greatest tragedy of the Brazil Museum fire? The fire departments are now reporting that when they arrived on scene all of the local fire hydrants were dry. While the design of the building (wood supports and floors) and the apparent failure of any existing fire suppression to contain the fire contributed to some of the loss. The primary cause of the complete destruction was a failing in basic modern infrastructure that allowed for what is effectively a 100% loss of most collections of more that 20,000,000 specimens. This is what happens when societies build without preparing for infrastructure support into the future. There will of course be little stories of miraculous "finds" among the rubble, but their significance pales in comparison to the loss that could have been limited in scale. This is a modern equivalent to the ultimate destruction of the  Library of Alexandria of Brazil. A loss that could have been minimized in scope and scale....

Today is #AskAnArchaeologist day! Share the hashtag and help educate your friends and family on social media about what it is archaeologists really do! http://www.shovelbums.org/gear  

 Good Night Koko Hanabiko "Koko"  (July 4, 1971 – June 19, 2018)  

National Melanoma Day The first Monday in May was designated as "National Melanoma Day" by the American Academy of Dermatology in 1984 to help raise awareness of skin cancer.  Melanoma is one of the deadliest types of skin cancer. And skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the US. According to the American Cancer Society, one person dies from Melanoma every hour. Last year one of those people was a friend of mine. They were bright, vivacious, strong: But then they were diagnosed, and the melanoma came on fast and hard.  On average, a person's risk for melanoma doubles if they have had more than five sunburns. You are smart about so much of what you do. Be smart about taking care of your skin. If are a real ShovelBum and have done time enough in the field to have been exposed more than the average population, then you are at risk: Make...

The TransCanada Keystone pipeline spill of 210,000 gallons/5,000 barrels near Amherst, SD is *NOT* the Keystone XL pipeline that has been in the news so much this last year. The Keystone Xl is not completed yet. { Hat tip to JS for the heads up } The spill reportedly occurred because of a loss of pressure around 6:00 AM CST Wednesday, Nov 16th. The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources  was not notified until 10:30 AM CST.  So how much is 210,000 gallons/5,000 barrels? It's about 500,000 times as big as a Beer Keg. (source: Measure of Things ) It's about five times as big as The Goodyear Blimp. (source: Measure of Things ) It is about equal to 5 days of all coffee drinks sold by Starbucks worldwide (source: Leo Qin ).          Read More: TransCanada updates on the "Amherst Incident"  https://www.transcanada.com/amherst-incident http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/16/us/keystone-pipeline-leak/index.html https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/16/564705368/keystone-pipeline-oil-spill-reported-in-south-dakota https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/keystone-oil-spill-south-dakota-spd/    

  I have been casually following the work of French archaeologist Pierre Tallet and his work with  Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, the University of Ismailia and the University of Paris-Sorbonne on the ancient harbors at  Ayn Sukhna and and the even more remote Wadi el-Jarf for a few years. Channel 4 just produced a neat documentary on the researchers discoveries and translations of the "Diary of Merer". It is fascinating because in this diary Merer (Merrer, Mererer) details the daily work in mining the stone to build the pyramid for Pharaoh Khufu, what would be the tallest man made structures for over 3,000 more years. The diary also definitively answers some of the questions researchers have had about the technology and the process of moving large scale materials for the construction of the pyramids.  My favorite quote from Tallert is: “Most new evidence is found in the periphery.”  Watch the episode here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/egypts-great-pyramid-the-new-evidence/on-demand/67194-001 Read more:...

  Did you see this picture on the History Channel special in July 2017 “ Amelia Earhart – The Lost Evidence ”? It purported to show Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan in Japanese custody. There is a small problem...the photograph was taken two years before they disappeared!  While the History Channel has removed the episode from it's streaming service, they have yet to publicly acknowledge to their audience this error. Please sign this petition  to Paul Buccieri President A&E Networks to get the History Channel to correct this mistake. This is a perfect example of bad science making headlines, but when refuted, there is little coverage or attempt to correct the spreading of misinformation.      Sign the Petition

As a scientist one thing I genuinely appreciate is high quality visualizations of data to give lay people an idea of scale and complexity presented in a format they can understand without specialized training. I believe these wind maps from https://earth.nullschool.net/ do a great job of this type of visualization. They allow you to view interacations on both a regional and a global scale and see how these different scales overlap and influence each other. The maps do not necessarily represent the winds in realtime, but the data is usually no more than a few hours old at most and some of it is very current. Archaeologists can learn a lot from studying other disciplines ways of representing complex information. Or just sit back and chill out and admire the beauty in the organized chaos of global wind patterns.     The start page for https://earth.nullschool.net/     A snapshot from Friday, September 8th 2017...

Well there you go. Ivanka Trump has given her blessing to the White House decision to roll back the Obama initiative to promote pay transparency in companies between genders. This contradict her previous statements, including her tweet on Equal Pay Day in April “Women deserve equal pay for equal work”.   Trumps comment on the rollback:   “Ultimately, while I believe the intention was good and agree that pay transparency is important, the proposed policy would not yield the intended results,” Trump said on Tuesday. “We look forward to continuing to work with [Equal Employment Opportunity Commission], [the Office of Management and Budget], Congress and all relevant stakeholders on robust policies aimed at eliminating the gender wage gap.” So if you are woman at a company and you hear wages come up and with a boss (male or female) telling a female employee something along the lines of: "Your are paid great for your position",...

The Great78 project has released 25,000+ digital copies of early 78rpm records and are continuing their work on digitizing more of estimated 3 million "sides" that play for about 3 minutes.  A gateway to the history of the project and where to download from is here:  http://great78.archive.org   Read more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/internet-archive-78-records-phonograph http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/arts-culture/item/106319-philly-company-digitizes-collection-of-25000-old-records-and-growing-free-to-download

  Today would be the 75th birthday of Mohawk Native American activist and educator. At the age of 30 Richard Oakes was shot and killed by a YMCA camp manager named Michael Morgan. Oakes had confronted Morgan over his reputation of treating Native American children poorly. Morgan, claiming self-defense, shoot him point blank and was acquitted of all charges by an all white jury six months later.  You can read about Richards accomplishments in his life, including helping SanFrancisco State to set up one of the first Native American studies programs and the occupation of Alcatraz (1969-1971): http://heavy.com/news/2017/05/richard-oakes-activist-google-doodle-native-american-bio-facts-75th-birthday/ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/richard-oakes-activist-native-american-rights-alcatraz-google-doodle-mohawk-american-indian-san-a7749221.html http://time.com/4787893/richard-oakes-activist-google-doodle/ http://www.refinery29.com/2017/05/155552/google-doodle-richard-oakes-activist

The trial of Ahmed Al Faqi al-Mahdi, known as Abu Tourab opened today August 22nd at the International Criminal Court (ICC). This trial is important because the ICC prosecutor is only charging Mahdi with the destruction of cultural property, which gives the case significance as it opens the door to helping to prosecute others who have violated cultural property. This charge has not been used before, but the destruction of cultural heritage has had the potential to be prosecuted as a war crime under the Rome Statute of 1998 that established the ICC. Enforcing this statute sets a precedent for similar cases such as ISIL’s destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra last year (which is complicated by Syria not being a signatory) Ahmed Al Faqi al-Mahdi was head of the Ansar Dine Islamic morality brigade during their occupation of Timbuktu, Mali, from April 2012 to January 2013. During this period Mahdi is accused by the ICC of war crimes...

Have you ever been in the field and either known, or suspected, you were exposed to poison ivy or poison sumac? If you have, and act promptly, you can prevent or minimize your bodies reaction to the exposure to the urushiol oils  that cause the inflammation on your skin. Dr. Jim Brauker  has a great video that summarizes how urushiol effects you skin, and how to treat it. If you are short on time or a TL:DW type person the short answer is this. Wash the area thoroughly. Even if you do not have soap available at least use water and a cloth. The important thing is that your finish by using friction and a cloth to remove as much as the oil as possible.  In the video Dr. Brauker implies that for just washing, without using friction to remove the remaining oils, that Dawn dishwashing soap is more effective that Tecnu. I have reached out to ...

  If you are planning on using a GPS in California in this area on June 7, 9, 21,. 23, 28, 30th be advised that there will be a "GPS Disturbance Test" that on these days that could mess up your accuracy. The FAA Notice to Airmen is below.   FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION FLIGHT ADVISORY GPS Interference Testing CHLK GPS 16-08 07-30 June, 2016 China Lake, California GPS testing is scheduled as follows and may result in unreliable or unavailable GPS signal. A. Location: Centered at 360822N1173846W or the BTY VOR 214 degree radial at 059 NM. B. Dates and times: 7 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 9 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 21 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 23 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 28 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z 30 JUN 16  1630Z  –  2230Z C. Duration: Each event may last the entire requested period. D. NOTAM INFO: NAV (CHLK GPS 16-08) GPS...

Following up on the discovery by Yamagata University Institute's Prof. Masato Sakai of 24 new geoglyphs in the Nasca Region of the Peruvian South Coast in 2014 and 2015 the team has identified a new 33m geoglyph that could be linked to a near by major ceremonial center. The new geoglyph is located within the central area of the Nazca pampa, a large, flat, arid region of Peru. The line drawing is of an animal, with many legs, what appear to be spotted markings and which is sticking out its tongue. “It certainly represents an imaginary or mythical creature,” Masato Sakai at the Yamagata University in Japan, said. Most of the geoglyphs are almost invisible on the surface and the team needed to analyze them using a three-dimensional scanner to highlight the images on the ground. As a result, the Yamagata University team was able to identify 24 geoglyphs of animals, some of which probably depict Andean...

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. That is celebrated on September 16. The Cinco de Mayo holiday celebrates an unexpected victory: the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Mexican army won the battle despite being smaller and ill-equipped. Have a great day! ~Gloria Everson