Garry's Blog

  Part Two -Getting involved in Archaeology as an Interest.   Part One looked at archaeology as a profession to get into, this looks at other aspects for people with other ambitions.   The early 19 th C origins of archaeology were from a time when there were no archaeologists – the people that pioneered it were often trained in other fields and many of them were employed in other fields. Now the field seems to be dominated by professionals, with a long path of training and experience needed to become one (See Part One).   Is there now no role for those with an interest in archaeology?   There is.   An Invitation to Archaeology:   “We are all archaeologists now.” ( The Archaeological Imagination . Michael Shanks)   If we have an interest in archaeology, it is because we have been exposed to archaeology in some form. Through that exposure we can start to see that the hand of past people is still with us in the physical world, that forgotten aspects of their exist

  People were asking - how does one go about getting to be an archaeologist – or at least involved in archaeology? Let’s deal with being an archaeologist working or being employed as such.   Part One - The Professional Professional archaeologists in New Zealand generally follow these pathways: ·          University (research and teaching-based) archaeologists. ·          Heritage or Cultural Resource Management archaeologists. ·          Museum (curatorial) archaeologists. University-based Archaeologists These are primarily academic or technical roles based in tertiary institutions. Most are involved in teaching as well as research. This involves archaeological excavations, laboratory work. The number of roles is limited in New Zealand. Heritage or Cultural Resource Management archaeologists . Most archaeologists employed in New Zealand area in the heritage management field. These include: ·          Private consultants. Principals of such firms are full time jo

  Quotes for Archaeologists I used to have these in the page formatting of this blog - but it didn't work on iPhones and the ilk so took it down. Here they are as a post instead.

Bronowski's Easter Island I was helping with clearing a house of old books and the Jacob Bronowski book The Ascent of Man (1973) fell into my hands and it opened at a picture of Easter Island moai, on an ahu with two pages of text about Easter Island. It is a book about the BBC TV series of the same name. shown the same year. I vaguely remembered watching it. You can read about Bronowski here: Jacob Bronowski - Wikipedia   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Bronowski . He was a scholar on the history of science. The series and the book are mostly about that. “ He is best known for developing a humanistic approach to science, and as the presenter and writer of the th irteen-part 1973  BBC  television  documentary  series, and accompanying book,  The Ascent of Man , which led to his regard as "one of the world's most celebrated intellectuals". ” This is the quote which I read with some astonishment. “…   Even so primitive a culture as Easter Island made one tremendou

Conspiracy Theories Over the course of my career and interests I must have been part of three conspiracies. Poisoning the population with Fluoride in water supplies Suppressing evidence of pre-Maori arrivals in New Zealand Creating a new world order by undermining the West with climate change advocacy. Funnily enough while deeply engaged in these issues I was totally unaware of there being any conspiracy. Of course to believers that would only indicate I was a dupe. In the past week I can add a fourth. Apparently the New Zealand Archaeological Association Site Recording Scheme (SRS) and its on-line system Archsite ( http://www.archsite.org.nz/ ) have some nefarious purpose in hiding information about sites / making it available only to an inner circle. What piffle - (and if there was a conspiracy I had to have had a large part in creating it - for I was involved in its evolution to its present form). The whole purpose of the SRS was to make the existence of sites public s

Not archaeology but: 1769 The detailed publication in the 1950s and 60s of the diaries of the British voyagers to New Zealand reduced the heroic version of James Cook to one having a stain of violence to M ā ori. Since then evaluations here have been more nuanced, but a great navigator and mapmaker certainly. The earliest European voyages to New Zealand were met by Māori warriors. There were frequent challenges: Come ashore and we will eat you, was one. With all male crews what were the Māori to make of the ships? –   they were not obviously peaceful. While many contacts resulted in a peaceful exchange many did not. Of the contacts up to and including Cook’s third voyage, of one Dutch, three British and two French expeditions, crew members were killed by Māori on three of them. Retaliation was undertaken in all cases though Māori loss of life is only certain for one. Cook arriving later to one incident had the opportunity for further retaliation. To the dismay of his crew h