Acceptance!

Alright, so it's not graduate schools, but it's a positive step back into the light. This week I found out my thesis abstract was accepted for presentation at the College of Humanities Undergraduate Research Colloquium! Now I just have to get a poster and presentation together! Yikes!!! I'm going to be working on that all day today.

Dear Laura:

Congratulations! Your abstract has been selected for a poster presentation at the COH UG Research Colloquium scheduled for Wednesday, May 4th from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. in the main dining room of the faculty club. As you may know, oral presentations involve a short (5 to 7 minutes) prepared, focused talk followed by a brief question and answer period while the poster presentations, of equal importance at the event, provide the variety of attractions that make these types of gatherings successful. The selection process was a difficult one considering we received many outstanding abstracts and we are very pleased that an interesting and diverse set of oral and poster presentations will be possible at the Colloquium to spotlight the excellent work of our students. As you know, all participants will receive a $50 honorarium to present and very soon you will receive additional details for the May 4th event.

Debra Lowry
Assistant Dean
College of Humanities

It's pretty cool that I am getting paid 50 bucks for this thing!

In other news, I had a phone interview with the chief ranger at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. I applied for the tour guide position that Steve will be vacating to move over to the archaeology department. The interview seemed to go really well. I would really love to work there. It's such a beautiful place filled with the mysteries of the Hopewell. Now maybe I can just get Steve to post something on the Hopewell. While we wait patiently for that, check out my friend Zu's site.

1/2 Million Year Old Mammoth Recovered

It's always amusing to me when geological, archaeological, or in this case, paleontological stories hit the mainstream national media with excitement. Perhaps I'm a snob, but please, if you don't know what you are talking about, SHUT UP. You don't care about any other imporant finds around the world, so why should you care about this one?? The people on the Today show this morning talking about it obviously have no idea what this find means and I would venture to make the judgement they don't know anything about Mammoths. At least they made an effort, I suppose.

Mammoth remains unearthed at California construction site

This is a cool find because it is so old and yet so much of it is still there--this is due to rapid deposition--once this Mammoth got stuck in the mud, it was covered by other mud, thus he preserved. You can't use C-14 techniques to date bones this old, so paleontologists can only make educated guesses as to the date. They used the location of the bones in the ground with relation to the bedrock.

Mammoth finds are rare here in Ohio, though bone fragments and teeth have been recovered. The American Mastodon was much more prominant in Ohio during the Pleistocene, the ice age which began 16,000 years ago, much earlier than the find in California. One of my positions in my interdisiplinary life is to talk to students and guests about the Mastodon on display at the Ohio Historical Society. He is known as the Conway Mastodon, found on the Conway farm in Clark County, Ohio, west of Columbus. He is one of the most complete Mastodon's ever recovered.

Me with the Conway Mastodon 

LIDAR

LIDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging and blows traditional areal photography and RADAR right out of the water with accuracy and cost-effectiveness. It is currently being used in geology and geography because of its ability to accurately record landscapes, including the fine detail of faults and slopes. This is a new way of looking at the earth's surface and one that is going to be important in archaeology for the detection of new sites.

LIDAR is like RADAR only it uses a laser to measure distance between the aircraft and ground. One can create a high resolution model of the landscape with the ability to detect height differences of a few centemeters.

Go to LIDAR Mapping Technology and AreoMap to learn more. Trust me, it's really cool!!

LIDAR's potential in archaeology was brought to my attention by talking with my geomorph professor Dr. Garry McKenzie during his office hours, and now I see myself doing a research project in this area!! Stay tuned!

Archaeologists discover ancient Mayan saltworks

Archaeologists discover ancient Mayan saltworks

Working in Belize has always had interesting potential...

The Intelligent Design Debate

Intelligent Design bill proposed in Pennsylvania. This is something every scientist and member of a scientific organization should be concerned about, including archaeology related fields.

The Importance of Professors: New Doors Open

The pain of rejection from grad school has been replaced by the excitment of potential field and research opportunities. More doors open each day as I practice what I preach to all of the incoming freshmen that I mentor: build relationships with your professors; care about your professors and they will care about you.