A Diamond in the Rough

Blocky header bars, plain white background, and ads in every margin set off alarm bells in my head the first time I visited sciencedaily.com. I didn't know which of the three title bars I should use to navigate to the archaeology section, and got very close to closing the window when I started to get flashbacks of my time spent on world-mysteries.com. Under the furthest right tab I found what I was looking for, and was brought to a similar looking page filled half with ads and half with black//blue on white text. In a final attempt to access some good information I scrolled down the page, past the small block of google ads, and a long list of recent, relevant, and well cited stories.

 

Most stories are slightly modified media releases from various Universities throughout the world. Although they aren't adding any new material or opinions to the articles, they often post them within one day of the original release. This creates a good one stop source to find information on the most recent archaeological and scientific discoveries. Another extremely helpful feature of sciencedaily is the pre-formatted page citing. All you need to do to reference any science daily article is to scroll to the bottom, copy, and paste. The accurate citations also help readers find other sources on the same topic. As long as you don't care to much for aesthetics, then sciencedaily is a hard to beat online source.

sciencedaily.com

Mayan Photo Tour

MayaRuins.com has a helpful layout for those who are visual learners. I like how simple the website is compared to other websites, which bombard the public with information. It organizes the different sites of the Mayans creatively, but some of the information is not very credible. It appears as though the photographers are two retired women who wanted to have an excuse to travel and have a purpose.

This website provides an interactive map of ancient Mayan civilizations (shown to the left). Each of the sites is a red link that directs the viewer to a new page. This page contains a picture of the Mayan site, description about the site, and a link called "photos." When you click on the photo link, some of the sites provide a site map with arrows pointing to certain objects on the map that you can click on to view photos of the pointed at object. If you click on the arrow highlighted with the red circle, you are directed to the picture to the right of it. This allows the public to read about the sites, see a site map with spacial relationships, then see what they currently look like. This website makes viewing different Mayan sites easily accessible through the internet. 

However, one negative aspect is that this website is made by one individual, Barbara McKenzie, along with one other photographer, which could create bias. Thus, when viewing this website, we must consider that this was her individual take on the Mayan sites. In addition, the site descriptions are inconsistent in length and content. The content differs because sometimes it is exact words from a different source, and other times she uses her own words. All the different sources and her own words do not create parallel descriptions by any means. In order to make it more credible, the website creators could hire an archaeologist with a concentration on the ancient Mayans to create the descriptions of each Mayan site.

Overall, I think this is a creative way to display archaeology to the public, but the information presented should be clearer and more consistent, giving the public main points about the Mayans once living there.

http://www.mayaruins.com/

Search Results for Archaeology May WOW You

When I started looking for archaeological websites to post about, I did what most tech savvy generation z-ers would do: I searched "archaeology" on Google. While the list began with scholarly sources like Archaeology Magazine and the Archaeological Institute of America's website. There were also less academically trusted sites like the Wikipedia and About.com pages for archaeology. The bottom of the first page of results produced an interesting result; the "Archaeology" page of the World of Warcraft website. 

I've never played games like "WOW", but I would definitely not expect them to have any relation to the subject of archaeology. Upon further investigation, I uncovered the fact that WOW has numerous games simulating careers. Why this would be a career anyone wanted to simulate beats me. After hearing all semester how archaeology can be interesting but for the most part is tedious and often dissapointing, I can't imagine why someone would want to play a video game where you pretend to be an archaeologist.

Then I remembered... Most people don't know anything about archaeology as a discipline itself. When people think of archaeology, they think of the information readily presented to them. They think of Indiana Jones and the exciting discoveries detailed in the news in an intense and exciting way. 

So then is this the product of the public's lack of knowledge or is it just another factor driving their naivete regarding the discipline of archaeology? While I hate choosing "all of the above" on tests, I would have to say this really is a mix of the two choices. While it is clearly relatively new and therefore a product of the common misconceptions of archaeology, it is also continuing to feed the idea that the discipline is excitement filled and Indiana Jones-esque.

http://www.wowhead.com/skill=794/archaeology

Nothing But News

Similar to World Archaeology News, Archaeologica is another venue to get the latest news on archaeology. With so many news media outlets putting out secondary coverage of archaeological discoveries, this type of website is truly useful. The news stories here are updated daily with discoveries from around the world. This website is also completely free of ads, which is a plus. However, again the appearance is incredibly drab - a rock like background is the only decoration of the layout, which is clearly designed to come off as basic and functional. This is a place for finding current news on archaeology, plain and simple. There is a resource tab that connects to other archaeological websites, many of which have already found their way onto this blog. The world of archaeology on the internet appears to be smaller than expected. The design of archaeology websites are all starting to look vaguely familiar. Layouts use a large amount of bland colors such as brown, black, tan, and white, sticking to the trend of being generally boring and lackluster. Obviously Archaeologists do deal with brown and tan frequently, but this does not seem an effective attention grabbing color for a website layout. Aesthetically, this website is undeniably boring. Utility wise though, this site is excellent for keeping up to date with discoveries. And viewing the stats of the website, it is clear that it is receiving heavy readership with an average of around 9,000 page views per day. I guess that shows that layout isn't everything.

 CLICK ON THIS LINK!!!

http://www.archaeologica.org/NewsPage.htm

Who Wants to Have a Play Date?

Who doesn't love games? That's like saying you don't like fun..

  

We see college kids doodling their names on their planners all the time. We've all seen some spacy daydreamer in a movie writing "Mrs. *Insert Crush's Name Here* over and over and over in their notebook when they think nobody's looking. People have a fascination with writing their names in different ways, regardless of their age. Archeologists have tapped into this psychological phenomena and have been trying to interest kids in their websites.

How? Have hieroglyphic translators.. Duh. 

I'm not going to lie, I was instantly intrigued by this new and exciting toy, and I'm not even in their target market!

The University of Manchester has created a website dedicated to explaining the ancient world to kids. There is an homage to Ancient Greece that starts with a website. It gives background on their writing system and its history. It also provides numerous facts about hieroglyphics and interactive activities! 

I enjoyed how this website presented me with fun, interactive activities with information... Manchester also did a great job designing the website. It runs smoothly and efficiently. 

Here are some of our names!
http://www.childrensuniversity.manchester.ac.uk/interactives/history/egypt/hieroglyphs/

Archaeology: The Noun

ar·chae·ol·o·gy noun\ˌär-kē-ˈä-lə-jē\

Definition of ARCHAEOLOGY

1 : the scientific study of material remains (as fossil relics, artifacts, and monuments) of past human life and activities

2 : remains of the culture of a people : ANTIQUITIES

 

 

In the first few weeks of class, Scott informed us that many people were unaware exactly what archeology was. Dictionary.com provided us with this definition. There are 1,320,000 results on Google when you look up "archeology definition". It also produces 167,000 Google images. 

If so many people use the computer on a daily basis and there are many websites dedicated to the definition of archeology, how can be people be ignorant?

Dictionary.com provides a simple definition of archeology that anyone could understand. Archeology is the study of cultures and relics. It helps us understand and appreciate the past.


Did you know the definition of archeology? 

What cultures fascinate you?

Links on Links on Links

The internet has been overrun with advertising - the margins of websites are now filled with small flashing product images and popups are expected even from the most respectable websites. World Archaeology News defies this status quo - there is not a single add to be found on the website. What can be found, however, is an overwhelming quantity of archaeology links. To be clear, this sight does not write articles or publish news. What it does do is provide an efficient database for both staying up to date with current world archaeological news and investigating archived stories. There are three main pages for archaeological news. On the first, world news, links are uploaded every week about current discoveries. The links here are updated weekly and come from a wide variety of news sources, both from the UK and the United States. The author, Win Scut, is an archaeologist, lecturer, and broadcaster who works out of the UK. There is a separate section of news devoted entirely to Stonehenge which receives more infrequent updating. Finally, there is an archived news section which contains old news organized by publication date. On top of these news sources, the website contains links to buy books, hear BBC radio broadcasts, do further research, and more related to archaeology. One of the most original parts of the website is a way to search through news stories based on location using google maps - simply click on a location and you can see the story from that area. There are a few minor flaws to the website. For one, parts are still under construction which is frustrating.

Also, the layout is lacking, with a huge amount of white space and small text, which although giving a clean streamlined look to the website are not as engaging as they could be. With the exception of these small shortcomings though, World Archaeology News is a fantastic outlet for finding archaeology media.

http://www.archaeology.ws/worldarchnews.html

Lack of Quality is No Mystery Here

     World Mysteries is a website designed to uncover and explain mysteries of all mediums from all locations. With a strong focus on theories behind said mysteries, this site presents its information in a very conspiratorial way. With its sections devoted to unlocking the secrets of the world, past and present, World Mysteries attempts to draw web browsers in with the promise of exciting new discoveries and conspiracy theories. While the prospect of an exciting site to browse may interest and entice some readers, the faults of this website overpower the potential gains. 

     This site is extremely confusing to navigate. There are  links everywhere with seemingly no organization to them. There are links to articles about every possible topic as well as advertisements and even a "Donate" button. While World Mysteries tries to stay consistent throughout each page, consistency here means a page littered with pictures with barely enough information to tell what is what. It seems to me that the hope for these links is to be just interesting enough to draw in the viewer and then hope the promise of great mysteries and exciting discoveries will retain their attention after they click on the link. 

      Overall, this site is very poorly done. There is no cohesion from page to page. The color scheme and layout varies from page to page and creates a scrapbook feel. Not the kind of scrapbook you can spend hours looking through and stay entertained, however. This is the type of scrapbook made by someone whose artistic abilities are in the negatives on a scale from one to ten. The lack of organization of this site, to me, is a huge no-no. I would advise people looking for reliable  and understandable sources of archaeological information to look elsewhere because finding sensibly presented facts on this site would be very difficult.
      To discover the mysteriously messy and not cohesive site yourself, feel free to visit http://www.world-mysteries.com/

The Society for American Archaeology Brings the museum to you!

www.saa.org

The SAA is an international organization that aims to, 

"stimulate interest and research in American archaeology; advocated and aid in the conservation of archaeological resources; encourage public access to and appreciation of archaeology; oppose all looting of sites and the purchase and sale of looted archaeological materials; and serve as a bond among those interested in the archaeology of the Americas."

For a society that strives to "stimulate interest" in archaeology, their website is rather bland. The entire website has a dark/light tan color scheme, and a simple text based layout. It made me think of a state DMV website, which is something that no website should ever want to be compared to. Once I got past the home page, the first tab to click on is "About the Society". After reading this page a couple of times I still don't have a good idea of what the society actually does, and more importantly for the SAA, no idea why I would want to become a member. While I'm sure that they do interesting, relevant work, it's hard to tell by the website.

Although the appearance is uninspiring, there is a hidden gem on saa.org under the "for the public" tab. Clicking on it brings you to a different website filled with clickable items linking you to other sections of the site or sometimes to different sites all together. Navigation is challenging, but the reward is a wide variety of archaeological papers, stories, articles, press releases, and more. One of my favorite features is on the archaeoBus operated by The Society for Georgia Archaeology. The bus is, "a mobile museum and classroom of interactive activities targeting children and adults" and appears to be a very good tool to expose more people to real archaeology.
Another section that particularly impressed me was the "For Archaeologists" tab on the public page. It encourages archaeologists to explore Public Archaeology. While there is no fixed definition for Public Archaeology, it is a push to open up the archaeological process to everyone. Doing so will help people see what archaeologists really do, and generate interest in archaeology.

The overall appearance of saa.org will scare some people away, and possibly create a "boring, uptight, academic" stereotype of archaeology. But the further you dig, the more you will find in this website. The public page has an incredible amount of information available to those who have the patience to find it. If the SAA spent some more time thinking of a creative, more interesting design for their website it would be a very good resource for archaeologists and the public.

For more info. on the archaeo-bus visit: www.thesga.org

Feeding a Hungry Public

 It is clear that the general public has a strong desire to learn about the past - museums, TV shows, magazines attract the attention of millions. However, with the internet, the ability to distribute easily accessible information for free is now more possible than ever. The mission of the Archeology Channel is to effectively distribute information regarding mankind's origins and development to the public.

Hundreds of audio and video clips are available on a variety of topics relating to archaeology. The information is quality and prides itself on being backed by sound theory and research, even if archeologists are not the authors of the actual material. As the site states, professional archaeologists are not the only people with valuable information to share about past civilizations. The wide variety of media forms and support for archeological education and accurate representation/inclusion of indigenous peoples make this website a great place for free quality information on archaeology.

CLICK THIS LINK
http://archaeologychannel.org/

Center for American Archeology

The Center for American Archeology has been encouraging the public to pursue their past! For over 50 years, this group of archeologists have been encouraging others to explore their surroundings. They have a specific program geared towards female archeologists and internships for college students. They want to expand their field through diversity and awareness. 

Although the layout is somewhat boring (and it looks like it was low budget), their goal is admirable. I also think they are effectively following their mission statement:

"The Center for American Archeology pursues a mission of education, research and public service in archeology. Its purpose is to discover and disseminate the unwritten story of earlier Americans' lifeways, accomplishments and changing natural environment. The Center fulfills this mission by supporting integrated programs of archeological investigation, educational outreach and cultural stewardship."

This website engages archeologists and the general public alike.

Construction; Medieval Style

Searching "Archaeology" on a website geared towards finding strange things called Oddity Central led me to an interesting discovery. Since 1997, there has been a construction site in Treigny, France that is mimicking the construction of architecture in the medieval era. Not only has this project become a major tourist attraction, but "it has created over 55 jobs" and "acts as an educational backdrop for school excursions." The point of the project is to really create the feeling of a medieval environment. The work is done slowly and by hand and the workers even dress in traditional medieval outfits. This site is the perfect hook for people who have not had much interaction with medieval history, it gives a much more hands on experience than any book would. While this article is not as weird as some of the others found on Oddity Central, it is still a very different mode of learning about archaeology than is normally found. It is not often that people get to be immersed in an ancient culture.

 http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/guedelon-a-13th-century-castle-in-the-making.html#OFc8sakQpekUDigq.99