Happy Father's Day! So whose your daddy? Watch this great video by Jurian Möller a Dutch graphic designer that beautifully illustrates the last 550 million years of evolution of your daddy!  Julian not only gives you a running tabulation of the species visualized and the corresponding dates, but he also gives you a great grandfather+ generation count! The grandfather count tops out around 317,000,000.  The video takes you from your dad (who I is THE modern man) to primate ancestors, amphibian and all the way to Animalia and back again in seconds. IMHO this video is a brilliant depiction of where you came from. Something to reflect on this Father's Day.  I am not affiliated with Jurian in anyway, but if you want to own this animated artwork that he has put into a 30-meter-long book, you can order it from his website here:  http://evoboek.nl/en/       Happy Father's Day (with Ham)     Happy Father's Day (without Ham)...

I do not believe these are OSHA approved. I have said enough.  

In honor of Vince Gaffney & Co announcing the discovery of "Super Henge" near Stonehenge  (aka "Mini Henge") I thought you all might enjoy Ylvis singing "Stonehenge".              

Last time I talked to Vince Gaffney was at an SAA conference late at night hours before his flight when I gave him some Melatonin to try to fight the jet lag on his was back across the pond. Always an energetic bloke it is great to see him and his team continuing to push the boundaries of knowledge with their mad remote sensing skills. For fun you can watch  Ylvis sing Stonehenge! Vince is part of the collective team completing a four year investigation by Birmingham, Bradford, St. Andrews and Nottingham in the UK and  Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Austria and  the University of Ghent. into what lies beneath the greater Stonehenge’s landscape as far out as Durrington Walls. Their combined efforts have resulted in one of the most intense surveys of an  11.7 km^2 area ever conducted by archaeologists. The survey has resulted in the discovery of what is being called a "Super Henge"...

Target Target Target... Archaeologist's Don't Dig Dinosaurs!

{iPhone crashing Bug FYI} If you happen to get a message and your phone restarts there are some easy solutions. Go to your photos and select one and then send it two the # that sent you the text and iMessages will start working again.     An iPhone bug is making phones crash when a certain text is sent     IMAGE: FLICKR,  AFAGEN BY RONALD CHAVEZ 1 hour ago A newly discovered iOS bug is crashing iPhones and leaving users without access to the Messages app. Users who receive a mysterious string of characters in a text are noticing their Messages app will consequently crash, and in some cases, the phone will automatically reboot, according to  9to5Mac . The issue was first  posted to Reddit . SEE ALSO:  7 Ways to Preserve Your Battery Life on iOS 8     The text is partially in Arabic and includes unicode. It's not so much...

So Wyoming, that great bastion of civil liberties, recently passed a new piece of legislation that appears to prevent anyone from documenting "resource" data from public lands that are being leased for grazing, etc... that are outside of city or incorporated boundaries. The Wyoming chapter of the Sierra Club  told Think Progress  that the obtuse language of the law impedes citizen science throughout the state: “We are deeply concerned that this poorly written and overly vague bill will prevent concerned citizens and students from undertaking valuable research projects on public lands, out of fear of accidentally running afoul of the new law (the scope of which no one clearly understands) and being criminally and civilly prosecuted.  There is no need for this new bill, and we can only conclude that it is an attempt by private landowners to scare people away from valid research efforts on public land.” What is your take? The bill is...

Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar   Walt Disney World's  Disney Springs district is getting an aviation themed bar after a classic film series: Indiana Jones called the  Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar (Jock was Indy's pilot) The bar will be opening this fall located between  The Boathouse and Paradiso 37.   Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar will seat 150 guests and feature drinks like mojitos and small plate foods,   said a Disney Parks Blog post. "In the main room, guests will discover an expansive bar, aviation decor filling the room, vintage travel posters covering the walls and correspondence between Jock, Indy and their fellow adventurers on display. Guests can eat, drink and be merry outside as well, in Jocks’ old steamboat, now in permanent dry dock and aptly named 'Reggie," [after Jock's pet snake] and in nearby seating on the adjacent deck," said the blog.  The bar will serve cocktails, alongside a number of "themed small plates,"...

I received a link from the Society for American Archaeology today. It was for a survey for why I did not renew my membership for 2015. I had to be honest and tell them that I just could not afford it unless it is a year I can afford to attend a meeting. I have friends in other professions, some science based, and some in the finance industry. And their society fees are quite astronomical compared to the SAA fee's some are 3, 4 even five times as much as the SAA fee's, and the same goes for meeting fees. So I do understand that as societies go, the SAA is genuinely not out there gouging people. HOWEVER these other professions do not have a complete subculture that has a commercial component that includes the income demographics of archaeologists (and related professions) practicing CRM. Most of these other professions with these exceptionally high fee's *only* have...

I was recently a guest on the Archaeology Podcast Network  for a special episode they did on Field Schools in late March and completely forgot to plug it! It is a great episode, #56.1, and you can listen to it here:  http://shovelbums.net/l/fspodcast The entire podcast is excellent (as are all that the APN produces), but if you are in a hurry right now there are some nice highlights at: 56:35 - Find the best field school you can 58:30 - Don’t sleep with you professors (and vice-versa) 1:00:20 - Don’t get crazy with your drinking and do NOT car surf. You do NOT want to wake up in a 3rd world hospital (from personal experience). 1:02:10 - Do NOT be a dick. The connections you make and people you meet in field school are still going to be there 40 years from now if you stay in the career. Also be sure to listen to...

Folks,  Final grades are being tallied. This is your last chance to get OUT of a job this summer and instead sell your family on the fact you are expanding your education!  Seriously. If you can make it work. Go to a field school. It will change your life. As an added bonus I was recently a guest on the Archaeology Podcast Network for a special they did on Field Schools in late March and completely forgot to plug it! It is a great episode, #56.1, and you can listen to it here:  http://shovelbums.net/l/fspodcast The entire podcast is excellent (as are all that the APN produces), but if you are in a hurry right now there are some nice highlights at: 56:35 - Find the best field school you can 58:30 - Don’t sleep with you professors (and vice-versa) 1:00:20 - Don’t get crazy with your drinking and do NOT car surf. You do NOT...

  ShovelBums 16th Anniversary   ShovelBums just turned 16 Years this week.   16 Years?   16 Years?!?! ~6,000 days.  Nearly 17,000 active members.   ~32,000+ positions filled. WTF? Seriously? Tens of thousands of sites located, documented, tested, excavated. So many sites lost to history. Millions of artifacts and features cataloged.  Ungodly numbers of GPS points logged. Kilometers of maps made. Many more Kilometers of TP dropped in the blue lagoons and back filled STP's. A whole hell of a lot of liquor and ice tea (that for you Galen B) consumed. Drones rise in harmony with my beloved Kite Aerial Photography. Kindergartners born then are graduating college and starting their career. Great friends lost to time, space, and becoming what we study. New friends found. First trowels broken or lost after a lifetime of love and respect. First trowels sharpened at field school. Great people leave the profession. New people join the profession. Degrees...

Dr. Mamdouh El Damaty announced the discovery of the remains of the eastern gate of Tharw fortres in Sinai which served as the Egyptian army headquarters in the New Kingdom.   The discovery was made by the Egyptian team working at Tell Habwa in the east bank of the Suez Canal.   The discovery also include mid brick royal warehouse belong to "Ramses II and Thotmoses III" and 26th Dynasty cemetery most of the graves are mud brick and group tombs of contains human remains showing battles injuries.    The discovered part of the eastern gate of Tharw fortress are 3 fragments of limestone with inscriptions of Ramses II of 3 meters length and 1 meter width. The fort is on the famous Horus military road which was the way to secure the eastern Egyptian boarders.   The Egyptian Mission working at the site also uncovered royal warehouses made of mud brick that belonged to...

Society for American Archaeology April 28, 2015 Dear SAA member, Last year a provision was added to the House version of the annual defense authorization bill (NDAA) that would have amended the National Historic Preservation Act to allow any federal land-managing agency to remove National Register-listed properties under its control from the Register, for reasons of national security. It would also have given agencies the ability to effectively veto the future listing of any other property located on federal land that was proposed for the Register. The adverse consequences of such a change to the NHPA would be enormous. This is especially true given the fact that a listing on the National Register does not preclude federal agencies from upgrading, adding to, or even demolishing historic structures for any reason, including national security. The Department of Defense, the National Park Service, and the ACHP all testified in strong opposition to the provision. In addition, a...

  You gotta love the internet.  My cousin   visited an active archaeology excavation in Downtown San Luis Obispo on Friday and posted the pictures over the weekend. I knew a company had posted on ShovelBums for work there a couple of months ago so I was guessing it was them. I threw the pic up on facebook and within an hour the crew was being tagged in it already.   Comments

  SAVE IOWA HISTORY! Restore Funding for the State Historical Society of Iowa Libraries and Archives. Keep physical records of Iowa history accessible to all.   Reorganization plans for the State Historical Society of Iowa (SHSI) endanger the preservation of Iowa history contained in diaries, letters, photographs, maps, oral histories and other materials housed at the Society's two libraries in Des Moines and Iowa City.     Drastic reductions in operating hours and staff, the diversion of resources to unrelated activities, and recommendations to "streamline" the SHSI libraries threaten public access to the state's history.  Iowans risk being severed from their past.  On behalf of all Iowans and others interested in the history of the greater Midwest, we make the following requests of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, which oversees the SHSI:  1) Guarantee accessibility to the  physical records  of Iowa's history at the State Historical Society of Iowa libraries and archives.   Maintain the operation of...

I am putting out the next edition of the ShovelBums Field School Directory tomorrow. If you have already submitted your field school to ShovelBums (or are going to by tonight) and are short on reaching the target number of students you need, or you just want to wave your project flag, and would like your school featured in this edition of the ShovelBums field school newsletter, drop me a note with:   The title of your field school How many positions you have left Deadline for application  Any scholarship or tuition subsidies your program offers An introductory gee-whiz paragraph to get the students attention (see example below) Up to two pages of more in-depth text that extolls the virtues of why your program rocks ~1-5 photos.   Please send the information in just plain text. I will format it to fit my content.     Example introductory paragraph   13th annual Plaquemines Parish Raw Sewage...

This blog was adapted from an original post by  Steven James Walker  that he wrote about an article that appeared on i09 (and other sites) about the "earliest" d2 die.  http://io9.com/5958203/is-this-the-oldest-d20-on-earth . My thoughts? They didn't need the die because they were living Dungeons and Dragons in real time!.  Steven James Walker writes: So this thing about a 3rd century BCE twenty sided die popped up in my feed. The article claims it to be oldest ever d20. Well, it isn't, but it is still pretty cool. The one that appeared on i09 and seems to be making the rounds today was acquired by the Met in 1910, and they have three of roughly the same antiquity (check the 'related objects' on this page:  http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/551072?&imgno=0&tabname=related-objects ). A (very quick) bit of sluthing has revealed very little research on these kinds of objects has been done, but a non-peer reviewed paper seems to have a pretty...

I always told my son. "Never bring a vacuum extension to a broadsword fight!" He didn't listen...        

    Ben Brotemarkle, FOR FLORIDA TODAY Many Florida towns were built around Seminole War forts. Some, such as Fort Pierce, Fort Lauderdale, and Fort Myers, retain their fort names. Fort Shackleford was constructed in 1855 during the Third Seminole War. Archaeologists continue to search for its exact location. Archaeologist Dr. Annette Snapp is operations manager for the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum in Clewiston, and is leading the effort to find Fort Shackleford.Snapp will give a free presentation at 7 p.m. Fridayfor the Florida Historical Society Archaeological Institute at the Brevard Museum of History and Natural Science, 2201 Michigan Ave. in Cocoa. Seminole Indians moved to Florida in the 1700s to avoid the expanding American colonies. Runaway slaves found sanctuary here with the Seminoles. White settlers also began coming to the area after the American Revolution to take advantage of Spanish land grants. The First Seminole War started in 1816, when General Andrew Jackson began...