Low Stakes Archaeology: Exploring Trash & Treasure

Internal employee talk on "Low Stakes Archaeology", from an event in 2021 where GitHub employees shared personal talks with each other.

1. Welcoming Low-Stakes Archaeology Into Your Life Exploring Trash and Treasure Internal employee talk, 2021
2. Kara Sowles Developer Relations Portland, Oregon, USA It’s me, a stranger and your colleague
3. ➔ Archaeology ➔ The Act of Noticing ➔ My Trash Pit Summer ➔ Look Around You And then let’s take a walk together. What lies ahead
4. Part I: Archaeology
5. “ archaeology : the scientific study of material remains of past human life and activities Event / talk title User name / date
6. Archaeology Body copy
7. Archaeology Treasure Hunting Body copy
8. Photograph: David Jones/PA Staffordshire Hoard
9. Staffordshire Hoard
10. Archaeology Body copy Essex post-medieval blackware, uncovered in Jamestown, VA Source: https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/material/epmb/
12. “ I can't see much purpose in archaeology unless you can find out the narrative about that place, or even realise that nobody actually knows what the narrative was. - Tony Robinson, Time Team
13. Archaeology Body copy Really just a context party Source: https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/material/epmb/
14. Essex post-medieval blackware uncovered in Jamestown, VA Source: https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/material/epmb/ Essex post-medieval blackware (EPMB) developed from the medieval English black-glazed pottery type known as Cistercian ware, so called because it was first discovered on Cistercian monastic sites. Blackware was produced in the North of England, the Midlands, and East Anglica, and it is difficult to attribute individual vessels to their place of manufacture. However, it is believed that the few examples from ca. 1608-1624 James Fort features were made just outside of London in Harlow, Essex. Harlow potteries were producing well-turned blackware vessels for London markets by the late 16th century, which were likely transported to London by land, rather than by river. Fabric: EPMB fabrics are fine, dense, hard, and well worked, and contain few obvious inclusions. Upon magnification, quartz and chalk-like inclusions in the fabric are notable. Fabrics are dark reddish-orange to brown in color. Glaze: Lead glazes cover the vessels all over except for the base exteriors, and appear shiny and black from the addition of copper oxides. Glazes under magnification appear to be very dark reddish-brown to black, with mottling from tiny inclusions in the clay. Form: Examples of EPMB from James Fort include mugs and a large, two-handled cup thought to be a posset pot. The vessels are thin-bodied and wheel-thrown, and have vertical strap handles. Decoration: All vessels are decorated with multiple exterior cordons.
15. Trash So ultimately, Archaeology is about trash Most of it is trash Sometimes there’s a hoard or an icon or jewelry and that’s obviously treasure. But the goal of archaeology is increased context about peoples culture, lifestyle, and history, and so that’s the benefit the “treasure” produces. No one is making money off it. It’s going to get studied, information extracted, and displayed in a museum as an educational piece. It’s going to be a poster-image to get further funding for the dig. Event / talk title User name / date
16. “ Much of what archaeology knows about the past comes from trash, if trash is defined as the products of human consumption. Trash is a proxy for human behavior. - Dr. Richard Meadow Director of the Peabody Museum’s Zooarchaeology Laboratory Senior Lecturer on Anthropology at Harvard University
17. Trash The art of talking a broken piece of what someone threw out, and knowing what year it was created. It’s people going through your cans out back dating them by pull tab.
18. “ If our garbage, in the eyes of the future, is destined to hold a key to the past, then surely it already holds a key to the present. - William Rathje & Cullen Murphy Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage
19. Part II: The Art of Noticing Event / talk title User name / date
20. The Art of Noticing
21. CLOVER
22. “ View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery (1984) Sources: [1]https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03 /how-nature-resets-our-minds-and-bodies/274455/ [2]https://www.healthdesign.org/chd/knowledge-repos itory/view-through-window-may-influence-recovery-su rgery [3] full text - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/17043718
23. “ Statistically significant differences were found between the tree-view patients and brick wall-view patients on patient length of stay, pain medication use, and nurse notes.
24. “ I propose that rerouting and deepening one’s attention to place will likely lead to awareness of one’s participation in history and in a more-than-human community. From either a social or ecological perspective, the ultimate goal of “doing nothing” is to wrest our focus from the attention economy and replant it in the public, physical realm. - Jenny Odell How To Do Nothing
25. GRAFFITI
26. Source: TherapistAid.com
27. Part III: My Trash Pit Summer Event / talk title User name / date
32. “ It would be a blessing if it were possible to study garbage in the abstract, to study garbage without having to handle it physically. But that is not possible. Garbage is not mathematics. To understand garbage you have to touch it, to feel it, to sort it, to smell it. - William Rathje & Cullen Murphy Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage
35. Slide of VT archaeology
36. The Beach
48. Slide of VT archaeology
50. Lower your standards Lower your expectations And magically trash will become treasure!
51. You can access the feeling of striking it rich without actually striking it rich! COOL LIFE HACK
52. Part IV: Look Around You Event / talk title User name / date • Embrace noticing • Ask everything • Lower your standards
53. Stuff to Notice Plants Rocks Trash Birds Pick a few Most common in region WTF is that Look up
54. Stuff to Notice (city) Infrastructure Graffiti Architecture Birds Everywhere Humans communicating Archaeology too Look up
55. Urban Infrastructure
56. - Don’t disrupt any sites of actual importance - Know local laws and personal ethics, report any sites - Context is everything - Forget “value” and be open to what you find - Don’t disturb indigneous sites; don’t disturb religious artifacts; have basic respect and avoid colonial-minded archaeology - Basically hang out with trash no one else really wants, that’s archaeology Low-Stakes Archaeology
57. Euro-American Example
58. Soil Examination
59. • Changing constantly • Anything can be there • Usually does not indicate a site (no context to disturb) • Falls under trash & lost items • Deeply satisfying; always something to see Consider Beaches
60. Archaeology Body copy Essex post-medieval blackware, uncovered in Jamestown, VA Source: https://historicjamestowne.org/collections/artifacts/material/epmb/
61. Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. https://jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/
62. Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. https://jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/
63. Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory, Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland. https://jefpat.maryland.gov/diagnostic/
65. Bottle Identification https://sha.org/bottle/
66. Bottle Identification https://sha.org/bottle/
67. Bottle Identification https://sha.org/bottle/
68. Bottle Identification
69. Bottle Identification
118. What I’m advocating for • Indulging in a little moment to notice things • Grounding yourself mentally & locally • Exploring your surroundings through trash • Asking questions of discarded objects • Welcoming low-stakes archaeology into your life
119. @karasowles on Slack @feynudibranch Twitter / Insta Go dig a hole Thanks & bye