Inspired by a shocking story of a list of fake references provided from a senior to a junior scholar, (details redacted obviously) I thought I’d ask ChatGPT to generate 10 references for me. Interestingly, one out of the ten is real (2), the others are not but potentially plausible. I guess, except for me co-authoring with Colin Renfrew: Morgan, C. (2012). Digging digital: Reflections on twenty-first century archaeology. In Clare Mills, Michael Pidd, and Esther Ward (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2012 Digital Humanities Congress (pp. 1-11). Sheffield, UK: HRI Online Publications. Morgan, C., & ..read more

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGerqYusP/ I’ve loved experimenting with different digital media in archaeology over the years, long enough that I remember Hi8 tapes and waiting overnight for videos to render, just to notice a bad edit and having to do it all over again. Honestly, for direct reportage from fieldwork and other archaeological science communication, TikTok seems like a miracle. I’m still very much a newb (do they say that anymore??) with the interface, but it’s certainly not as steep of a learning curve as, say, Final Cut Pro in the mid-2000s. I use Capcut for my editing as I found the Tik ..read more

Dan, my daughter T & Michael walking on a dirt road. “I’m not even supposed to be here today” I suppose that it is appropriate as a member of Gen-X that I think about this line from Clerks from time to time. Dante, an employee of Quick Stop Groceries, is called in to work on his day off and is plagued by disasters. His state of “being there (at work)” is clearly distinct from his outside life (though this is debatable throughout the film). The collapse of these states was endemic for many during the COVID-19 lockdown, but has plagued academics, in the form of a lack of work/life balance. I ..read more

Somehow in the churn of the last couple of years I missed posting about a new (old) book chapter that came out in 2022: Public Archaeology and Engagement in the Origins of Doha and Qatar Project (ODQ). This was a project under the PI Robert Carter that ran from 2012 – 2015, wherein we excavated in Doha and Fuwairit, did a bunch of building recording, oral histories, in person and online outreach, and historical research. The project webpage/blog has a bunch of resources. The chapter gives the background of the project and discusses how critical public outreach became over the duration. We: wor ..read more

I taught a class called “Communicating Archaeology” from 2017 – 2021, and recorded lectures for the 2020 pandemic edition, when we went remote. My good friend and colleague James Taylor actually headed it up, but I wrote and recorded all the lectures. These lectures were intended to accompany a 2 hour hands-on practical wherein students could try their hands at archaeological illustration, mapmaking, filmmaking, making 3D models, and photography. It was created partially in response to the James article regarding the lack of “visual competence” in archaeology, a problem which continues to plag ..read more

Like many academics, I have a two-body problem. Dan’s another archaeologist with a PhD and it’s pretty difficult to figure out a way to stick together as doubly-itinerant archaeologists. Thus I’ve been splitting my time between York and Al Ain, UAE. It’s hard to always be missing someone or something, but there are adventures to be had anywhere you go, and I’ve always loved a desert. T in nearby dunes Shamefully, I’d never heard of Al Ain before living here, but it’s the location of the UNESCO Sites of Al Ain (Hafit, Hili, Bidaa). I have an active archaeological excavation at Hili that focusse ..read more

One of the places that I’ve really loved over the last few years is Discord. Discord evokes old school message boards and is used extensively by gamers to message each other and use VoIP. Yes, another corporate platform that may go completely south, but so it goes. They’ll sell out, we’ll pick up sticks and move on. Anyway, I use Discord to check out new music, to chat with collectives, to manage my lab and Digital Archaeology and Digital Heritage students, keep up with the Open Source Intelligence community, and…assemblage theory. Obviously. I was looking around for ways to revive RSS feeds t ..read more

I put up my adios post on Twitter, which was snagged by Ryan Anderson c/o Anthrodendum, in his post, “Salvaging what is good.” He asks for some breadcrumbs to follow to see where we’re all going in this exodus, so here I am. A few years ago I listed a few reasons why social media (and twitter in particular) was damaging–it’s all still very true. The anxiety. The performance of activism. The passivity. The outrage theatre. I was able to manage it a bit better after changing roles within the University, with breaks and posting in a very limited fashion. This point from my old post remains very r ..read more

Many years ago I had a blog series that discussed fiction that reminded me of archaeology. I’ve collected them all here for reference. Part 1: The Other Perfection – by Jack Gilbert Part 2: A Few Items to Consider – by Sandra Cisneros Part 3: When the Bosphorus Dries up – The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk Part 4: Relative Pitch – by Jack Gilbert Part 5: The Church – Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust Part 6: Burning Buildings – A Softer World comics Part 7: Mission Life– Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Part 8: Some dark holler – Them Old Cowboy Songs, by Anne Proulx Part 9: The Summer Plague – The Whi ..read more

I co-authored a blog post with Dr Fran Allfrey, about pseudoarchaeology and the archives at Avebury. It’s available in full with associated archival materials at The Avebury Papers website, please find an extract here: On Friday 17 September, 1937, BBC Radio aired one of a three-part series titled, “The Unchronicled Past” by antiquarian John Foster Forbes. Foster Forbes was dedicated to the idea that megaliths were built by the survivors from Atlantis. He was noted for his opinions on UFOs, giants, and psychometry, which was the practice of feeling and studying vibrations from ancient mon ..read more