Golan Shalvi, a postdoctoral student in archaeology at the University of Chicago and the lead author of the paper
I don’t know whether this is common usage in America, but a postdoctoral researcher is not a “student”. I find the American use of doctoral “student” and grad “school” infantilising enough.
This is someone with a doctorate who led a research team and wrote the paper.
That said, what a fascinating site and another example of the value of working with legacy data in archaeology.
The archeology paper is here (open access).
Between Israel and Phoenicia: The Iron IIA–B Fortified Purple-dye Production Centre at Tel Shiqmona
I think it’s a good example of why archeological news often needs to be rewritten for a popular audience who might have trouble understanding why dyed pot shards are meaningful.
tl;dw : Time Team will be digging Sutton Hoo this summer, and they’ve got a cunning plan to release a feature-length documentary presented by Sir Tony Robinson in 2025.
I’m posting this article here not because it is about a ground-breaking new study but as an example of the communication problem archaeology still has.
It’s a worthy project, but the thing about this study is that it is completely mundane. It uses techniques invented in the 1950s and widely used in prehistoric studies since the 1990s (especially in French research, which might also be a factor here), namely controlled experimental archaeology, micro wear studies and chaîne operatoire.
That the author thinks this is really cool is good (because it is), but it shows that public perception of the practice of archaeology beyond “we found the oldest/most expensive/most mysterious example of x” is lagging behind by decades.
Nice. It seems like it was contemporary with early humans in the region, so I’ll let it slide as archaeology, even though it would appear there is not (yet) any indication the two species interacted
We don’t have a paleontology thread. Yet?
The team named the animal after a fictional turtle said to have created the universe.
Was there already a turtle named for the Great A’Tuin? Still, Maturin works, also recalling Patrick O’Brian’s Stephen Maturin, a keen naturalist.
Yeah, but he named his giant turtle after Jack Aubrey….
Is Dispilio Tablet The Oldest Known Written Text?
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/dispilio-tablet-the-oldest-known-written-text?format=amp
Professor Hourmouziadis has postulated that this writing system may have served as a means of communication, possibly conveying information related to possessions through symbolic representation.
So, accounting records.
(Actually a good bet, if you ask me. A lot of the oldest records that have been found are basically some sort of inventory or tax records, and so on. They don’t call it bookkeeping for nothing.)
There’s a writing system that ISN’T a means of communication???
Twitter X.
‘Britain’s Pompeii’ reveals Bronze Age village frozen in time
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/20/europe/must-farm-bronze-age-britain-pompeii-scn/index.html
Don’t unfreeze them!
Oh, wait, I read Bronze Age villain. These people were probably ok.
when was villainage established?
Wasn’t it after the French took over? So long after the Bronze Age.
