The Archaeology of the Mediterranean World

Phi Alpha Theta Conference and Other Fun Stuff

If you are in the Grand Forks area, stop by the Red River Valley History Conference today at the Memorial Union at the University of North Dakota.  In particular, stop by my panel at 9:30 am in Medora Room 209.

Historical Idealism & Religion
Dr. W. Caraher, Commentator,
Memorial Union Medora Room 209     

"Croce and Collingwood: Continuities in Idealism"
Dalton Little,University of North Dakota

"A Late Antique Saint"
Kathryn A. Hughes Nedegaard
University of North Dakota    

“Standard of Salvation: The Christian’s Use of Greco-Roman Literary Genre”
Paul Ferderer, University of North Dakota

______________________

And stick around for the other panels and our keynote speaker:  Dr. James Stewart: "The Old Slavery and the New: History, Memory and the Challenges of Human Trafficking"

A few other fun quick hits:

• Some interesting discussion over that Teaching Thursday.  Check it out and leave a comment!
• This is interesting and cool.
• This will be fun to follow.

Student Expectations in an Age of Anxiety

I've had some time to mull over the recent NY Times' article on the growing sense of  student entitlement at American universities.  It has caused some buzz in the blogosphere where a colleague captured some of my immediate reactions.  My gut response is always to side with the students, and it is virtually impossible to shake that perception in this case.  After all the article does not articulate a sense of entitlement without foundation.  The students assume that if they do the work, they will get an above average (i.e. B or better) result.  While many teachers (myself included) think that we can counter this kind of attitude through the careful manipulation in the utopian space of classroom, the historian in me sees many of these notions to be deeply rooted in American culture. The idea that hard work will produce above average results must derive at least in part from long held ideas of American exceptionalism.  The spirit of American exceptionalism translated to a suburban environment where two generations of Americans witnessed how a work-a-day life could produce a steadily rising standard of living and slowly built up the comforting arrogance that the grinding routine of a 40+ hour work week could grant one access to a wonderful world of consumables and luxuries.  This might all change as the worsening "global economic crisis" threatens not only the economic basis for American optimism, but also calls into question the authenticity of the values on which this optimism rested.  Despite these threats, the common paean in the news today is that hard work will bring America back from the brink. 

When we walk into the classroom and confront a group of students who will likely work hard -- if not in our class specifically, then in their classes in general (and if not "hard" by our standards, "hard" by their standards) -- we aren't confronting simply another example of botched communication between student and teacher, but the realities of over 100 years of American culture. 

If a sense of student entitlement is rooted in part in American culture, it is compounded by a university system that can be quite confusing on a number of levels.  Despite efforts to standardize classes across the curriculum, they still represent a bewildering diversity of demands, requirements, expectations, and work loads.  For example, most departments offer courses at different levels (100, 200, 300, 400).  The lower numbers represent "lower level courses", but what exactly does this mean?  Is it that the higher level requires more background and expertise?  Or is the workload in these classes higher?  Are they simply "harder" as many students assume?  Students often seem to think that lower level courses should require less work and upper level course require more work.  But, if upper level course do require different things or are harder or have a greater workload, it's strange that they all count for the same number of credits (generally).  And credits are what the student needs to graduate. And to make matters more complex, credits do not correlate precisely to grades.  I student can get a C in virtually all of their undergraduate classes and still graduate.  And as the NY Times article reports, most faculty assume that a C is the minimum amount of knowledge sufficient to receive credit for the course.  On the other hand, the maximum knowledge gleaned from a course does not, at the end of the semester or academic career, equate to more credits -- the basic standard required for graduation.  (It's interesting to note that the University of North Dakota, like many universities, did experiment with tying grades to credits awarded during the 1920s (I think)).

Another key aspect of the current system is that the expense of college education grows yearly.  Now more students invest more money in their college education than ever before.  The effect is predictable.  As the stakes get higher with the spiraling cost of tuition the tactics students use to get the most obvious public results for their money become more creative and strident.  In part, this is because students feel that they should expect more and more of the university experience, in general, including the faculty.  This puts faculty on the spot as the rapid increase in tuition has not, from what I can tell, corresponded to an similar shift in campus culture.  In particular, we probably need to develop strategies to confront the reality that all students are not all going to learn successfully the material presented in a class, despite the fact that they will pay -- sometimes huge sums of money to learn the material.  While its distasteful to consider on the level of an individual class, could it be that we need to put into place some kind of guarantee that student hard work will allow them acquire or achieve something within a system created by the university itself? 

Of course, much of this debate also reveals the no incredibly contingent nature of so much education in any event.  I see this particularly with graduate education in the humanities where the pressure to come up with a thesis topic, do research, write well and creatively, and complete the degree in a reasonable amount of time can be enormous (Go! Be creative! Quickly!).  The difficult thing, of course, is that it might not be possible to come up with a "good", much less exceptional, thesis topic in set amount of time, and so much good research is at least partially tied to luck.  Of course it's hard to sell luck in an environment where costs continue to spiral upward and hard work is touted as the solution.  A student can work hard, in some cases, and still not succeed. 

These observations should not, of course, serve as an excuse not to communicate our expectations to students clearly.  Nor should it give us reason to grade capriciously and without any attention to the learning processes that take place when a student works hard and comes up short.  What we can learn is that some expectations are not simply the break down in classroom communications or another indication of the decadent or irresponsible student behavior.  The issues that are manifesting themselves in changing attitudes toward classroom grades, the purpose of higher education, and the role of faculty in this process are complex and largely rooted outside what we can immediately control in the classroom.  What we can do is to engage openly and transparently both the root causes of changing student attitudes and adapt our methods to accommodate and whenever coopt these attitudes more effectively into the structure of the university and our classroom.

Cross-posted at the Teaching Thursday blog!

History at the University of North Dakota

I have finally produced a "final" copy of my pamphlet History at the University of North Dakota 1885-1970.  Those of you who read this blog regularly have read bits and pieces of this history over the past few year and know that my interest in the history of our department and the university more generally will persist.  Various observations on the history of history at the University of North Dakota appear here and here.

I include here part of the introduction:   

     The plan for each department to write a departmental history first emerged in conjunction with the Centennial Celebration at the University of North Dakota.  The result was a series of departmental histories which ranged widely in quality and length.  The Department of History, however, did not produce a formal history at that time.  It may have been that the production of a volume celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the University occupied their collective efforts.   While work began on such a publication, it never advanced beyond a rather ramshackle document without any author listed and entitled: "A Centennial Newsletter."   When President Charles Kupchella requested that departments and divisions bring their histories up to date in the run-up to the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the University, I undertook to write a basic history of the department from the first historian on campus until today.  I quickly decided, however, that the task of writing the entire history of the department in a way that would do justice to the methods of our discipline was simply not possible in the time allowed.  Moreover, the material for the most recent history continues in regular use by the department’s officers and, consequently, has not been committed to the University Archives.  In other cases, the faculty did not preserve documents, which at the time appeared to be inconsequently.  Finally, delving into the recent past always runs to risk of re-awakening tensions between members of the department, and it seemed an unwise course for a junior, untenured faculty member.  Consequently, I chose to end my history around 1970.  The significant changes that took place in the department during the 1960s carried the department through the following decade.

     This document follows in the tradition of institutional history.  This largely derives from the reality that I am not an expert on history of the University, the state, or the developments within academia or the discipline over the course of the 20th century.  Numerous names, events, and historical developments sent me scrambling for my copy of Robinson’s, History of North Dakota,  L. Veysey’s, The Emergence of the American University,  P. Novick’s,  That Noble Dream: The "Objectivity Question" and the American Historical Profession,  and above all, L. Geiger’s History of the University of the Northern Plains.   The shadow of this last work, a fine example of institutional history, looms large behind these three chapters. 

     All things being equal, I would have liked to capture more of the experience of studying at the University during the first half of the 20th century.  At the same time, I have also neglected to follow the example of the best kind of modern history which captures the personalities of the main characters in the narrative; for long stretches this history reads like the worst kind of prosopography, where individuals fade away behind an endless litany of credentials, accomplishments, and dissertation advisors. 

The complete text can be downloaded here.  It text ends around 1970 without a conclusion.  I hope that I can pick it up again in a few years and bring it closer to today.  My ongoing work on Elwyn B. Robinson's Memoirs (or Autobiography) will undoubtedly add to this work as well.

Happy 400th Post from History 240

My history 240 students surprised me with cake (after an innocuous comment on my Friday blog).  Before we cut it, the cake said 401!  It's gratifying to know that some of my students read my blog. 

And the cake was delicious.

Archaeology of the Mediterranean World at 400

Yesterday I posted my 400th post.  Now, some of those posts were not the most substantial things, but I pride myself on some degree of regularity (bordering on obsessive consistency), so maintaining this blog for now over 400 posts does give me a degree of satisfaction.

I began just this morning to reflect a bit on what I am doing with this blog.  In particular, I was thinking about its origins.  It began as an effort to document the goings on the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project.  The goal was primarily to extend what I do to a broader audience and maybe even to impart a modest sense of community among those individuals who shared a common interested in our project on Cyprus, Mediterranean archaeology, and North Dakotiana.  It's hard to evaluate how successful I have been at achieving those goals, but I have met many interesting colleagues through my blog and am occasionally (and pleasantly) surprised when I meet a well-respected colleague in my field who knows a something about my work and my interests through my writing here.  (I am also pleased that, with one or two rather minor exceptions, I have stayed out of trouble!).

As the blog has developed, however, my interests and goals have changed.  Beginning with a well-received article on Blogging Archaeology, I began to think more explicitly about the intersection of archaeology and the "new media".  Over the the life of this blog, I have continued my tinkering with digital video (in collaboration with Joe Patrow), digital audio (via podcasts), and group authored explorations of the archaeological experience (though our "sister" blogs).  This work has made me more aware of the way in which the accessibility of the new media has started to open the doors to new ways of thinking about not only the past but also those processes that allow us to document and explore the past.

Next month I am going to give a talk on the first 6 years of fieldwork at Pyla-Koutsopetria.  I've divided the talk into three sections.  The first one sets out the the basic historical questions that our work has sought to answer with a particular emphasis on those relating to Late Antiquity.  It's a public talk so some of this will need to be simplified, but I start with a critique of the idea that Late Antiquity was a time of decline and settlement contraction, and then go on to place Cyprus in the context of a prosperous Late Roman world.  The second part of the talk discusses archaeological method and methodology.  I set out our tiered approach to the sit and explain how we used intensive survey, geophysical prospecting, and targeted excavation to address specific research questions.

The final section will draw at least part of its inspiration from this blog. I will bring in our efforts to encourage reflexive thought about the archaeological process and to document this reflexive critique in real time.  Our earliest efforts at documenting the reflexive habits have been top down in the spirit of traditional media.  Project directors, team leaders, senior staff wrote blogs, a video documentary organized and funded by the project directors documented many of the day to day activities of the project, and I orchestrated a series of podcast interviews.  These top down approaches presented only a fairly rarified perspective on archaeological decision making and hardly captured the spirit of the new media which has emphasized the democratic nature of the discourse (think: wikis, youtube, et c.), the ability to produce mash-ups that juxtapose different perspectives and visions, and the ultimately the instability of any authoritative discourse.  So, the paper will conclude with a look toward the future where it will be easier to produce kaleidoscopic and multipolar views of the archaeological experience. 

Low cost digital video cameras can produce better images than expensive "pro-sumer" models available just 5 years ago.  Server space for blogs, photographs, and video and audio is now inexpensive and widely available for the storage and distribution of new media content.  The 1+ years and 400 posts on the blog have begun to outline my interest in the opportunities and challenges provided by new media approaches to archaeology.  Hopefully the next 400 posts will begin to embrace more fully the potential of new approaches to old stuff.

A Description of an Early Christian Baptistery

I continue to work with Robin Jensen and Richard Rutherford in an effort to prepare a catalogue of Early Christian baptisteries.  The goal of the catalogue is to present this material in a way that makes it more accessible to a broader audience (than Ristow's otherwise satisfactory work) and with a greater emphasis on regional characteristics, indicators of ritual activities, and their place within their immediate spatial context and built environment.  I've taken a stab at one of the longer entries in this catalog, but may not have struck the balance between scholarly precision and accessibility.

Lechaion

The Lechaion Baptistery ranks among the most architecturally elaborate and lavishly decorated baptisteries in the Eastern Mediterranean and yet remains relatively unknown.  The baptistery sits less than 200 meters from the Gulf of Corinth at the ancient harbor of Lechaion, the Western harbor of Corinth.  The baptistery is situated at the southwestern corner of the Lechaion basilica.  This massive three-aisled basilica with a large atrium and double narthex is the largest and most ornate church in Greece and seems almost certainly to be associated with a prominent local saint.  Today, nothing of the church exists about the lowest reaches of the walls, but these are sufficiently well-preserved to provide a complete floor plan of this impressive building.

The baptistery itself consists of three architecturally distinct compartments.  The largest is a 16.20 m x 7.60 hall with apses on its north and south end.  This main hall was entered from the south end, presumably from the basilica , through the apse.  To the east of this apsidal hall were two additional chambers.  The northern chamber has a central core measuring 5.05 m square with apsidal exedra at the cardinal directions.  Entered from the west through the western apse, this room was identified by the excavator as the apodyterion.  This chamber lacks a font and seemed well positioned for this purpose.  Immediately to the south of this chamber was the octagonal photisterion or baptistery proper which measures 3.15 m across.  It appears to have communicated with the apodyerion to its north through the triangular space formed by the east wall of the long hall and the west walls of the north and south chambers.  The octagonal room featured apses at the corners and square exedra at the cardinal directions.  To the west, the photisterion communicated with the long hall.  To the east projects an usually shaped apse.  Marble revetment decorated the walls of the elaborate buildings and the interior of the font. 

The photisterion preserved two fonts.  The center of the octagonal interior space featured cruciform octagonal font set in the floor with stairs on the northern and southern cross-arms.  It is just under .50 m in depth.  Such cruciform fonts are common in the Corinthia and in Late Roman Achaea more broadly.  A smaller font sits in the southeast apse.  The chronology of the baptistery complex is difficult to ascertain with any certainty.  The basilica has a terminus post quem of 425 leading the excavator to argue that the basilica was largely 5th century in date and destroyed during the 6th century earthquakes.  Recently, however, scholars have been inclined to date the basilica to the 6th century, perhaps during the reign of Justinian or Anastasius, on the basis of ceramics found in nearby graves and architectural cues.  While an archaeological date for the construction of the basilica is unlikely to emerge, it seems probable that the building continued to stand into the second half of the 6th century.  Any clarity regarding the dating of the church sheds little light on the date of the baptistery.  It is on a slightly different orientation to the main church, however, suggesting an earlier date.  The baptistery may have also remained in use later than the main church.  One argument for the second font suggests that it came into use to allow the photisterion to serve as the church after the main basilica became damaged or fell out of use.  This practice appears to have occurred elsewhere in the Corinthia.

The baptistery is striking in that it is close to the main basilica, but they hardly represent an architectural unit.  The entrance on the south side of the baptistery allowed for easy access from the narthex of the main church through a door in its north wall.  Seemingly later and relatively insubstantial walls created a courtyard between the north wall of the basilica and the baptistery.  Ancillary room attached to the northern wall of the basilica may have also functioned in conjunction with the baptistery and provided access to the church’s northern aisle or galleries which are no long preserved.  This may have provided an easy way for catechumens to enter and leave the basilica for the baptistery complex.

Bolonaki, I. (1976). Ta Palaiochristianika Baptisteria tes Ellados. Athens Archaeological Society, Athens, 65-66.

Ristow,S. (1998). Früchristliche Baptisterien, Aschendorffesche Verlagsbuchhandlung.  Munich, pp. 155-156, no. 249

Sanders, G. D. R. (1999). A Late Roman Bath at Corinth: Excavations in the Panayia Field, 1995–1996. Hesperia 68: 441–480.
Sanders, G. D. R. (2005). "Archaeological Evidence for Early Christianity and the End of Hellenic Religion in Corinth," in D. N. Schowalter and S. J. Friesen, Urban Religion in Roman Corinth. Harvard Theology Studies, Cambridge, MA., pp.. 419-442.

Varales, I. (2001). E epidrase tes theias leitourgias kai ton ieron akolouthion sten ekklesiastike architectonike tou anatolikou Illyrikou (395-573). Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Thessaloniki.

Friday Varia and Quick Hits

Some fun or at least interesting readings this Friday:

• An article on grades and student expectations in the New York Times.  I'll be very interested to see my colleagues have to say about this article.  It' just the kind of thing that gets folks excited and can generate some valuable conversation.
• And, our newest venture in the blogosphere: Teaching Thursday would be a great place for the University of North Dakota community to engage this topic.
• And keep an eye out here as well.
• Rangar Cline posted a thoughtful comment on my Teaching Thursday post from yesterday.  Rangar should blog.

Other stuff:

• A cool piece on modern middens which links the recent collision between two satellites and the rise of deadly trash with B. Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. It feels like people are using archaeology more recently to explore our world.  The idea of space middens resonates a bit with a recent archaeological reading of foreclosures over at Archaeolog.
• I've received several hits from this site lately.  It seems like a useful destination for interested archaeologists and museum types and I like the idea of Mash-ups in all forms.
• I can't say enough about the content and links that Shawn Graham posts over at Electric Archaeologist.
• For those keeping track at home... Monday will be my 400th blog post.  Bake a cake!

Have a good weekend! 

Teaching Thursday: Teaching in the Field

Some of the most valuable experiences that I have had as an archaeologist have come when my advisor, Tim Gregory, or another senior or more experienced colleague (here I am thinking of David Pettegrew, Tom Tartaron, Richard Rothaus, Sarah Lepinski, and others) took the time to show me how to do something or study an object in the field.  This taught me more about the archaeological process and the techniques and methods of archaeological research than any seminar or book.  Over the past year or so, I've been thinking about how to replicate this process in the field of history.  While mindful of Mommsen's famous observation:

"It is moreover a dangerous and harmful illusion for the professor of history to believe that historians can be trained at the University in the same way as philologists or mathematicians most assuredly can be. One can say with more justification of the historian than of the mathematician or the philologist that he is not trained but born, not educated but self-educated."  (From his Rectorial Address at the University of Berlin in 1874).

I couldn't help but think that my Historian's Craft class relied fairly heavily on teaching the students techniques in the abstract and doing very little to help them implement these techniques is a practice, real-world way.  Telling them how to perform a Google search or look up a book review in J-stor is different from actually walking them through the process.  The same goes for archival work.  Telling them how to get boxes and files from the archives is different from being on hand to help them understand how particular sources could work to advance particular arguments.

So, I have tried something new this semester: supervised archival work.  Instead of just sending the students over the archives to rely on their own devices, I am running four classes this semester in the archives themselves.  I leave over an hour for the students to get down to work with their materials and then circulate to trouble shoot specific issues, talk to the students about their successes and struggles in the research process, and make myself available for more broad reaching and spontaneous issues related to working in actual archives.  I've been lucky to have to complete support of the university archivist and his staff.  They've made our small (<15) class feel at home in the archives and gives them ample space to pull their materials.

Talking with the students while they are conducting their research has exposed me to the various frustrations of the students in ways that talking with them in office hours does not make as visible.  It also makes visible their successes at the moment of discovery and allows students to share the enthusiasm and energy that more solitary research environments keeps hidden away.  And this seems to be particularly an issue here at the University of North Dakota where, at least according to what my students tell me, they don't tend to study together or even necessarily see any value in it.  (This may be tied to the myth of the solitary, self-sufficient farmer making their own way on the Northern Plains which in some ways has superceded the myth of the progressive, community oriented farmers who band together to succeed in an inhospitable environment.)

For a full list of Teaching Thursday post click here.  And stay tuned to our newest project: www.teachingthursday.org.

PKAP News 2009

From the first season of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project, the directors, Scott Moore, David Pettegrew, and myself, committed ourselves to archaeological outreach.  Over the years, this has taken various forms ranging from public lectures, to blogs, podcasts, and documentaries.  One aspect of outreach that PKAP has produced each year is the PKAP Newsletter.  Each year in the late winter, we produce a two page newsletter that communicates what the project accomplished in the previous season and what we plan to do in the coming summer.  Here is last years letter.

So, introducing the (first draft) of the 2009 PKAP Newsletter.  Click on the image below to download it.  Or look for it in the mail soon!

And be sure to check out our website which Scott has spent some time updating recently to include the usual array of reports, photographs, and links. We'll hopefully have links to past PKAP Newsletters up soon.

Four Miniposts on a disjointed Tuesday

I usually wake up, become oriented, and think about what I will do and blog about for the day.  This morning, I slipped into some kind of overload.  I could not put together a coherent blog post, plan for the day, or strategy for the week.  This semester has presented me with a whole series of mini-tasks.  None takes more than a day or two and none provides any sense of accomplishment. 

So, in the spirit of the mini-task, I offer four mini-posts:

1. Video and the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project.  So what would happen if we distributed 5 simple HD cameras to folks on PKAP this summer.  They were told to video anything of interest to them and at the end of each day, we downloaded the video onto a hard drive and marked with the individual's name.  On the return to the US we turned it all over to another group of students, faculty, folks, people, scholars, whoever, and asked them to produce a mash-up, narrative, montage, or whatever.  What would we learn?  What would we see?  Who would be the author? Most importantly, what would this exercise or experiment tell us about the experience of archaeology on Cyprus with the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project?

2. Military History in Murfreesboro.  In April, I am going to the Society for Military History's Annual Meeting in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  I was invited to comment on papers offered by a group of graduate students from Penn State on topics related to archaeology and the Battle of Issus where Alexander first defeated the Persian King Darius III.  This is pretty far from my comfort zone, although I did write my M.A. Thesis on Alexander the Great and I have worked on Hellenistic fortifications.  I have to be honest when I say that I am a bit nervous about this, but the idea of the archaeology of ancient battlefields, has begun to intrigue me.  The most recent wave of intensive pedestrian survey archaeology has done little to clarify the topography of battle in the ancient world, and, in this regard, stands in contrast to its predecessor -- extensive survey, which often sought to localize ancient battles within the modern topography.  So, I think that I will be able to say something...

3. Cyberpunk Space and Archaeology.  This is a tiny post for our Punk Archaeology project.  I had a habit of reading William Gibson on flights to conduct archaeological work in Greece and Cyprus.  Gibson was among the founders of the Cyberpunk movement and many of his books are characterized by vivid "post-urban" landscapes.  While all his books work at the intersection of material culture, punk, and identity, his Bridge Trilogy (Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties) was the first to draw me in -- if for no other reason than one of the books was titled All Tomorrow's Parties and any book with a title from a Velvet Underground song deserves to be read.  One of the key settings in these works (which I have not read for at least 5 years) is Bay Bridge in San Francisco which after being damaged in an earthquake became an interstitial settlement.  Spolia, the re-use of urban space, cultural and political dystopia, and the shadow of natural disasters evoke themes common to literature on Late Antique archaeology. 

4. An Encyclopedia of Baptisteries.  I've recently returned to thinking about Early Christian baptisteries. Hopefully I will have a few early drafts of encyclopedia type entries done in the next week or so. As I write these relatively short entries, I've had to think about what to include and exclude in each and who my audience will be.  It reminded me of site reports from my time at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.  Do I  include dimensions?  Do I include scholarly debates?  How much bibliography should I include?  Should I interpret as much as I describe?  More?

So, four mini posts for the day.