Blog Entry 10 - Goodbye to Blogging

This will be my last entry into this blog, for now at least. It has been quite a novel experience, as I have never had my own blog before. I still consider myself the opposite of a technocrat, much preferring to read from actual books or magazines, although nowadays I do stay up to date in most archaeology news by going online.
This whole blogging assignment has made me realize that there are some interesting blogs about archaeology out there, not all neutral or academical and some even nonsensical, but interesting nonetheless; and also, that there are people out there all over the world that geek out even more when it comes to archaeology than I thought possible,  and are highly committed to sharing information about the archaeology of death with the general public which is quite admirable.

Blog Entry 9- London Rail Project Helps Solve Mystery

Today, I came across an interesting article on the BBC News Website about a site that was discovered while they were working on the London Crossrail Project. The main thing that caught my interest about it was that the finding of this site finally helped figure out the exact location of a burial site known to be located just outside of London in the 14th century ; and because the burials have been dated to the earlier 14th century (thanks to pottery found there) they are helpful in giving a glimpse into the earliest outbreaks of the Black Plage in Europe, and how people who died from it were treated before it became the full blown pandemic which we know about that decimated Europe's population.

Blog Entry 8- A Neolithic Style Burial

A bit off topic considering it is not about mummies or an actual archaeological finding, which is my usual focus when looking at archaeology news, but somewhat pertaining to the archaeology of death.  Something I came across this week which I found interesting involved the building of replica long barrow on a UK farm located in All Cannings.

It touches upon a topic that I have mused about sometimes which is alternative forms of  burial in our modern world. In this case, having your ashes enshrined in a brand new "Neolithic style"  just as it was made 5,000 years ago Barrows.
One thing is having an interesting monument at the cemetery to mark your resting place but this one takes the cake. It makes me think, what does it mean to the people that will want to be placed for eternity in this place (once it is inaugurated) ?
As an archaeology nerd, I find famous monuments such as the pyramids fascinating, so maybe instead of choosing a tree urn when I pass from this mortal coil is thinking too small. I could have my ashes stored in a replica Khufu's pyramid.
Finally, what will future archaeologists make of such a thing in the future ( maybe thousands of years away)? A long barrow revival...?

Blog Entry 7- Assesment of another blog

I chose to asses the blog entry "The Gruesome and Excruciating Practice of Mummifying Your Own Body" using my group's rubric. Since it was one of the few blogs I finally found pertaining to my case study topic,  after endless "mummy blog" search queries all coming to fruitlessness or in suburban moms' ramblings.

I found the entry to have many facts about the sokushinbutsu, but to be incredibly biased. The author was also not very consistent in including their resources, direct citations are not necessary but it would be nice to know where they were getting their information from. Several ways in which the post was biased included : in the way it posted about such a sensitive topic, considering it is not just about people mummifying themselves for their own pleasure but a sensitive religious experience, not just for the sokushinbutsu but also Buddhists; one way this issue could have been avoided would have been to talk about the topic by sympathetic to the people living or dead involved in the issue.
Another way the blog entry was biased was by the descriptions of the self mummification process itself. A clear example which can be found on the title; for as factual as the blog can be, this completely ruins it due to pushing the author's opinion of the process onto the reader.This could have been remedied by addressing the topic in a neutral manner and leaving preconceptions behind

Lastly, comparing it to the rubric;  another point that jumps out and which could have been useful in making a better blog, is the minimal exclusion of multimedia. The entry has only one picture, and about three other links pertaining to sokushinbutsu.

I found this blog entry to treat the subject of sokushinbutsu in a superficial and biased manner, which does not do justice to the people involved and such an interesting topic.

Blog Entry 6- Thoughts on Howard Williams' Blog

Picture of a roadside memorial Howard Williams took and accompanied the post I will be critiquing 

This blog response will be based on my exploration of Howard William's blog.The blog post I chose to read, because the title captured my attention is called " Death and Deposition: Roadside Memorials and Roadpeace";  Reading the title, I thought it would have to do with how bodies of the diseased were placed in regards to travelling back in the day (the deposition part), but instead, I found out some interesting tidbits about roads in the UK and charities associated with deaths due to road collisions and how they commemorate the people affected.
At the beginning, I felt I was transported to that road side by the author in that he was very descriptive and painted a great picture,  not just with words but including pictures of the actual setting. Williams introduces the sensitive topic of roadside deaths so it is more approachable, then moves on into commenting about published academic articles on the topic and also tries to make it parallel to  finds in other parts of England. In summary, he makes a topic that it also pertinent to the archaeology of death, which is the commemoration of roadside deaths with memorials, also approachable to not just academics but the general public.On the other hand, meaning this in the most in a non-offensive manner, I found the blog lengthy and written in a manner more easily understood by someone from the UK, so not necessarily as accessible to all English speakers. 

Blog Entry- 5 South American mummy in Germany

Not too long ago I came across an article about a South American mummy found in Germany.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26357011.

I thought it was interesting that since she was taken away from her original burial context and taken to Germany during the 1800s she did not just become a victim of artifact trafficking but also a case of that mistaken identity because in her new environment it was believed she was a bog mummy.

It is great how much technology has progressed nowadays and how it can contribute to interpretations of the archaeology of death because for more than 100 years, it was unclear where the mummy was from; but now,  thanks to a range of tests such as: CT scans, DNA analysis, stable isotope analysi,  and even the rope in her hairdo, we can finally learn the true origins of the mummified woman and what further information her body can contribute to not just the discipline of archaeology in general but also the current understanding of  parasitic infections which still continue to ravage people in South America. 

Blog entry 4- Gay Caveman?

Following the blog prompts I Googled " Gay Caveman", and what ensued was a trove of sensationalist articles from the media ranging from The Telegraph to Huffingtonpost which all cited different "facts" about the Corded Ware culture, in the site were the supposedly Gay Caveman hailed from ( currently located in the Czech Republic). Quoting two different websites to point out exactly how well the media interpreted the research and blew it out of proportion:

From LiveScience: "men were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their heads pointing towards the west, and women on their left sides with their heads pointing towards the east. Both sexes would be put into a crouching position." (http://www.livescience.com/13620-gay-caveman-story-overblown.html)

From The Telegraph : "Corded Ware males were usually buried on their right sides with their heads facing east. This man, however, was buried on his left with his head facing west — a traditionally female position."
(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html)

Different sites could not even agree on the traditionally accepted positioning for a male burial in the Corded Ware culture. Nor did they consider that the male hailed from a burial dated 2800-2500 B.C. which completely rules him out as being a "caveman". Misunderstandings of gender and sexual orientation aside, the Gay Caveman was not even a caveman.

The Telegraph at least quoted the original statement from the archaeologist that sparked the media furore : " "We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a 'transsexual' or 'third gender grave' in the Czech Republic," archaeologist Katerina Semradova told a press conference on Tuesday."
It serves to take note, that nowhere in this statement is the purported Gay Caveman's sexual orientation mentioned, therefore after all the explosion of articles with a little careful reading without even going into researching academic papers on the subject, one finds out the "Gay Caveman" is neither gay nor a caveman.

 We might never fully find out how that person was perceived in their community back in those days, but the least we can do is consider when coming accross mass media articles like this to read everything with a grain of salt, always look under the surface and have a little more interest in the true archaeology of death.

Blog Entry 3-My Dream Grave Goods

I do not find the topic of talking about my own future death neither morbid nor scary. It is going to happen anyway, hopefully not for many decades, but I guess I am speaking as someone who has come to terms with their mortality so I find myself quite open to talking about it.

I have never really thought of the concept of grave goods for myself, seeing as I do not believe in an after life and have never wanted my body to be buried. The thought of worms and other such things breaking me down while I rot just does not paint a good picture, so inhumation is definitely out of the question.

Coming from a religious family I have always been adamant about being cremated, maybe at the beginning just to watch my mother squirm about how I would deal without a body on judgement day... :P

But ever since I heard about http://urnabios.com/ , I have come to like the idea of being cremated even more, would it not be awesome to become a cherry tree (one of my favourite plants) after death?


The problem then becomes that even if I chose to have grave goods, most of them would not last incineration, but I could probably have a plaque put on my tree after it is tall enough?

At this point in time I would choose to be incinerated with:

My basic personal jewelry, nothing too ostentatious.
My 2 favourite books , my vintage edition of Wuthering Heights and my first copy of The Prisioner of Azkaban (in Spanish).
Lots of chocolate!!
My iPod
If there was any message left to interpret after incineration, it would probably that I was a bookish chocoholic with a love for music and beautiful accessories.


I asked my creeped out fiance what he would incinerate me with and why, he got very emotional but I finally got it out of him:

Chocolate (chocolate orange if i can find the regular kind, not the dark one) Pride and Prejudice so you can watch it as much as you like, as well as Beauty and the Beast in Spanish, and Anastasia A picture of us and a letter from me telling you I love you and forever will A bottle of water in case we are not in rainy victoria and when you become a tree you get thirsty Some of my cologne - that's for leaving before me And your wedding ring, because I'm coming to find you and you better still have it on when I do

Other than forgetting my books,music and thinking there will be someplace for us to reunite after death there is not too much of a disconnect between his choices and mine for how I want to be portrayed at death. My fiance's choice's are mainly centered around our relationship and our inside jokes, so other than the movies and chocolate it would be puzzling for someone to interpret in the same way.

Blog Entry 2-Working with Databases for Anth 397

The database assignment was an eye opening experience for me in more ways than one...


First of all, as someone who can barely build a spreadsheet on Excel, I found it challenging to figure out how to use Access and Excel to organize the information required for the assignment. It would definitely have been better to have had a longer adjustment period to Access but thanks to the tutorial and writing down all the directions given to us by the proff, I was able to finish the assignment without becoming completely lost in Access. I am definitely more confident now using Excel, it just took lots of time and practice. Using Access, still not so confident, unless I am building a simple query on an existing database I would probably have to resort to watching YouTube tutorials to save me.

Secondly, I underestimated the emotional impact working with a cemetery database can have. At the beginning, just looking at the plot numbers and how many people were buried in them was not as difficult, but once I got to the part of the assignment where I had to read the inscriptions,such as age at death and cause (of death) it really brought home the magnitude of those people's lives. They all had occupations, and people they cared about (and vice versa) and not all of them got to live long lives, specially the infants and children. Overall it made me appreciate the life expectancy nowadays and also want to pay a respectful visit to St. Stephen's Cemetery to thank the people whose personal information helped me learn how to navigate Access.

Blog Entry 1-Interesting topics related to the archaeology of death

There are plenty of topics related to the archaeology of death that interest me; the main ones that stand out are these:

Forms of mummification
I have been interested in the different ways mummification can take place since I was a child, not just Egyptian or Northern European bog mummies but also high altitude mummification such as that of Otzi or Inca mummies. The natural or culturally devised manner in which to mummify, the context in which the mummies are found, and the (speculated) reasons as to why the mummification took place are all quire interesting. Therefore I try to keep abreast of ongoing investigations about them. One particular subtopic that has captured my interest is the Inca ceremony of capacocha which involved sacrificing children for important events at high altitudes (which led to their incredible preservation). This article has stayed with me for quite some time:Inca Child Sacrifice Victims Were Drugged
Mummies (depending on their level of preservation) give a human face to the people who died thousands of years ago, which to me makes death ever the more inescapable constant no matter the period in time.

Neanderthal burials(?)
It is such a difficult topic to study since we do not have much to evidence to go on but speculation of Neanderthals’ cognitive abilities and how closely they are in the evolutionary tree to us Homo sapiens (depending who you ask).Burials such as the Shanidar flower burial are influenced in their interpretation both by experts’ biases in regard to Neanderthals and what they consider to be taphonomic processes. So what constituted a Neanderthal cultural burial? We can only imagine judging from our own experiences which might be completely off since many cultures vary greatly in their burial methods there is no standard rule. What can constitute to the trained human eye as a natural burial could potentially have been a form of cultural burial for them.

About Myself

Summer 2013. Nesebar, Bulgaria.

Hi!
I am Sabrina. I am third year student majoring in anthropology. I have done most of my growing up here in Victoria, earlier half in Colombia (Spanish is my 1st language) and once I graduate who knows where else I will go...
As you can guess by the title I am fascinated by mummies among other things; within anthropology I am mainly interested in the physical side: bioarchaeology, and palaeopathology , so I thought Anth 397 would be an interesting course to take.
Outside of uni, when I am not busy reading up for assignments I love to read for fun (mainly fantasy and historical fiction). Other things I also like to do to unwind include: bake/cook,write lists,Netflix, hang out with friends or play with my 2 year old Boxer Bandido. I used to have many more hobbies in my younger years before things got crazy with school, so things I would like to do more of are: yoga, paint,make my own clothing/crafts, improve my French(or learn a 4th language) and travel.