Archive by category | Society for American Archaeology

SAA: The archaeology of intoxication

Meeting planners were smart and put the session on ‘the archaeology of intoxication’ in a relatively large room in the convention center. It attracted an early-afternoon crowd who were probably looking forward to a little bit of every archaeologist’s favorite intoxicant – alcohol – by the end of the day.  Read more

SAA: Life and death at Stonehenge

Although this is a meeting of American archaeologists held on Canadian soil, the common link of Great Britain made an appearance in a special session on Stonehenge, the iconic standing stones in southern England that were constructed starting around 2600 BC.  Read more

SAA: Stacking the deck to save world heritage

SAA: Stacking the deck to save world heritage

It’s a little hard to figure out how to think about last night’s session on ‘consideration for archaeological property during military conflict’. In essence, we heard Army archaeologist Laurie Rush talking about how she tries to train US soldiers not to destroy significant archaeological sites in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is of course a noble goal, but one cannot help but wonder whether, as her colleague James Zeidler of Colorado State University quoted the critics, this is too little, too late. The US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 led to the looting of innumerable artifacts from the Iraqi national museum and elsewhere, though many were later recovered under the guidance of Col. Matthew Bogdanos and others.  Read more

SAA: How to title your paper

SAA: How to title your paper

The Society for American Archeology meeting kicks off today in lovely Vancouver, Canada (the picture is of the scenic convention center here). Of all the scientific meetings I’ve been to — these include geology, physics, neuroscience, astronomy, you name it — the archaeologists are by far the best at coming up with paper titles.  Read more