flea

I am doing office hours in the Classics department - every Friday, 9:30-10:30 - and this coupled with my other outreach efforts to Classics have reawakened my long-dormant academic interests. If there are no students (or faculty) looking for help - today has been the most quiet I've seen it - I spend my time poking around the Classics and archaeology blogs and web resources, trying to update myself on where things have gone in the 8 years since I've been aware of things. I mean, last time I was actively doing archaeology, blogs barely existed, and the main classical archaeology web site was a collection of links maintained starting in about 1994 by Sebastian Heath at Michigan.

Turns out there are some interesting people - some of whom I know or have met, like Sebs and Charles Watkinson, others of whom I am one degree from, like Chuck Jones - who are thinking about the intersections of classical archaeology, publishing, libraries, and technology (Sebs is a technologist, Charles is a publisher, and Chuck is a librarian). It's very interesting, and it makes me say to myself, hey, this is an area I could have something to contribute to! So. Need to keep reading, and get up to date, and then think about a) sticking my nose out there in the conversation and b) connecting with the archaeologists I know here and elsewhere and bringing these ideas to them.

Okay, it was very rarely muddy in the places where I was an archaeologist, but I can't remember the word for "dust" in French. (I am sure one of you will remind me in comments.)

A coworker spent a vacation in Peru recently, and posted pictures from the trip this weekend. The intricate, massive construction of the Inca walls reminds me so much of the Mycenaeans. And then the Times has a story about domestication of plants. Sigh...

In baby news, Erin and Tom welcomed Theodore Joseph (Theo) on June 23. Big sister is Audrey. This makes two baby Theos I know; it was on the short list for the Dillo, and remains so for any possible future sons I might have, but it seems to be getting too popular! I also know two Audreys.

In the summer of 1996, I spent about 10 weeks in Israel, most of it excavating at the site of Megiddo, in the Jezreel Valley. One of the students I supervised in my trench has sent me a link to his flickr site with pictures from the dig. My observations:

1. Gee, I look older now than I did 10 years ago. I wonder how that happened? http://www.flickr.com/photos/umpleby/388488606/

2. I was surprised then, and am surprised now looking back at it, how completely traditional the dig was. Although we used students and not local workmen (except in a few cases - there was one area where it was dangerous to dig so workmen were used there, presumably because they were expendable), and wore short-shorts, and all the Israelis were glued to their cell phones, otherwise it might as well have been 1966, or 1936, in terms of the dig social structure, bureaucracy, daily schedule (4am-1pm), etc. Especially in black and white: http://www.flickr.com/photos/umpleby/388500015/

3. I had no idea this picture had been taken... http://www.flickr.com/photos/umpleby/388488358/ Luckily there does not seem to be a photo of me in my sports bra on the day we played Xena Warrior Princess on the tell.

My trench was in area H, and we were mostly excavating destroyed houses from the 8th century BCE - lots of collapsed mudbrick debris, and as featured prominently in the photographs, a completely intact cookpot. Cookpots of this kind were fairly common, but as far as anyone could say (and we had a lot of experts) nobody had ever dug one up that was in perfect condition. We were hopeful that there would be some interesting botanical material inside, but there wasn't. The houses had been destroyed when the city was sacked by Tiglath-Pileser III, one of the excitingly-named Neo-Assyrian kings (his buddies included Ashurnasirpal and Ashurbanipal.)

I got a call last night from an old friend from grad school, to tell me she'd defended her dissertation. She took 10 years, and was the second person in her class to defend. It got me thinking about my class...

In the fall of 1995 I entered a graduate program in Classics with 5 other people.
-T. was a Master's only student, in Latin. She didn't get her degree, and left in 1997 to teach high school Latin. She's still teaching in the same place, I'd guess succesfully and happily, though her web page has awful Flash animation.
-Z. was a PhD student in Hellenistic History. He didn't much get on with his chosen advisor, so left in 1997 after a Master's, returned to Greece to do his compulsory military service, and went on to to an M. Phil at Cambridge and a PhD at U. Washington. I'm not sure when he finished. He's now a lecturer at Newcastle.
-W. entered with a Master's, and defended his dissertation in Classical Archaeology in 2000. He was immediately hired at Wisconsin in a tenure-track position. Word is, he's returning to our alma mater in the fall. He's a great fellow, rather shy but very nice, not wildly creative but very solid, hardworking, nether a flake nor a jerk. Very mainstream, safe bet.
-B. enterested as a Master's only student in Classical Archaeology, but was successful and after her MA did a PhD too. She defended in 2001, and returned to Turkey, where she teaches in Ankara. She's doing very well - has a 2005 book with Oxbow and a 2005 article in Antiquity. She was always rather underestimated, as I think Mediterranean women can be; plus, she's not got a geeky/academic sort of personality (she's fun and laid-back), so I think people are surprised by her work.
-R. entered as a PhD student in Prehistoric Greek Archaeology. He defended his dissertation last week (TOTAL perfectionist; not at all a surprise that it took him 11 years.) He's been teaching on 1-2 year appointments since 2001, and is currently at Trent U. in Canada (his homeland). I hope that now he's done he'll be competitive for something more permanent. He does good work and is fun and nice to work with, but he undervalues himself and lacks confidence.

Then there's me; I left the program formally in late 2001, although until recently they still had me on their list of students for some reason. I guess my advisor had hope.

I don't think I made the wrong choice, though I do miss that life sometimes, and wish I was doing something more suited to my talents at the moment.

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