Seandálaíocht - Irish for Archaeology

Hopefully a few of the blog's readers have noticed the little 'events' section on this site. This contains a calendar (also above) of archaeology lectures, conferences and other events that I keep regularly updated. It can be perused online, integrated into your own google calendar (by clicking on the plus symbol at the bottom of the calendar above), subscribed to as an XML feed or imported into many calendar applications using ICAL.

2009 was a busy year, particularly November when there were multiple lectures on every week and a number of conferences too. The 2010 calendar is looking fairly bare in comparison (so far) although some upcoming high-lights that I will be attending include the EMASS conference in UCD and the AYIA conference in UCC.

Unfortunately, while I get news about most archaeology-related stuff straight to my inbox quite a few still slip through or I hear about them very late. So, with that in mind I would love to hear from anyone who is organising an event for 2010 and is looking to advertise the fact.

Earlier this week myself and Niall Kenny headed out to cut down some oak trees in preparation for an upcoming experiment Niall is organising to re-create a traditional charcoal making pit. We chopped down one of the trees with a replica bronze axe to see how long it would take to fell compared with the modern iron  axes we had: we took 11 minutes with the bronze axe and only 4 minutes on a similarly sized oak with the modern iron axe. Presumably the difference wouldn't have been quite as acute in the past considering variations in metal alloys and of course in the skill of the axe-wielders. 

Why you ask? In these days of climate change, flooding and general mayhem (as if there has ever been a time when those things haven't been happening!). Well, its all part of Niall's research into early Irish charcoal production which nicely compliments my own work into early Irish ironworking.

Hopefully we will be able to use the traditionally-produced oak charcoal to fuel the furnace for SMELT 2010, which will take place in March.

UCD has, somewhat scandalously, revised its tuition fees for PhD students. Whereas previously fees reduced in the 4th and subsequent years, they will now continue to be set at the astronomically high rate charged for the first three years (something over 5 grand for me I think).

This might sound reasonable at first glance but when it comes to PhD students in Arts at least this must largely be profit for the University. UCD provides only a supervisor and access to a library (not even inter-library loans) which is often poorly stocked. Many students work from home, not even costing the college for heating or electricity.

This is slightly different in the Sciences where the first few years would often involve laboratory facilities but even in the practical disciplines people in the latter years of their research are writing up and using minimal college resources, presumably the rationale for the previous payment structure.

What the changes represent are essentially a tax on PhD students, the supposed vanguard of the "knowledge economy". Most students in the arts would have funding, but only for three years (despite UCD now regarding PhDs as four year courses as per the American model).

Students, like me, who are attempting to finish up within those three years and run over by even a month, now face paying over thousands of euros with no income and only the prospect of signing on when they finally succeed in submitting.

Why the hell would anyone do a PhD in UCD?

Please please please sign this petition online if you think anything I just said made some semblance of sense.

An article I read yesterday on the BBC website about the conveying of complex or non-intuitive information through colours, pictures and graphics got me thinking about how we archaeologists use such things.

I actually think that, on balance, we are instinctively pretty good at attempting to visualise our work: compared with our sister discipline history our conferences are veritable media-fests.

On the other hand we do have a bit of an addiction to PowerPoint; to images of holes in the ground; of random artefacts; and occasionally of insanely stereotypical 'reconstruction' drawings.

So, could we do better? I would argue that we could do far far better, with a little imagination and inspiration, at communicating to both ourselves and (much much more importantly) to the public. Where could we do better? Probably everywhere: in our publications (online and print), our conferences, our teaching and our outreach.

The internet is full of sources of inspiration on how we can present information in innovative ways. The video above, taken from TED.com (if you click that link forget about working for an hour or two) showcases some amazing ways of presenting complex data in a visual way, even converting much-abused charts into moving, interactive objects.

Other sites such as Wordle and Tagul enable anyone to analyze and present text in a visual way. They work by scanning text (from my MA thesis in the case of Wordle and Seandálaíocht in the case of Tagul) and isolating frequently used terms which then appear bigger, the terms then acting as links in the case of Tagul (try clicking on the image below).

Information is Beautiful is a blog about visualising data in an aesthetically pleasing way. It doesn't work with archaeological data but statistics are statistics and I've already nicked a few ideas for the maps I am preparing for my PhD. There are plenty more sites out there with tools to be used and ideas to be borrowed.

Finally, a little rant: why the hell do archaeologists (and I include myself in this) design/commision websites that are useful only to other archaeologists? Sites like excavations.ie, archaeology.ie, the ADS etc etc are just not accessible to the general public. We need to write/design sites that engage, that inform and that convey complex information in a simple way. While it may sound childish; bright colours and simple shapes may be the best tools for doing it.