Cemetery Walk as an Oral History - Metis Heritage at Pioneer Square

          On Sunday, March 16th I had the fantastic opportunity to participate on a cemetery walk through the Pioneer Square burying ground on the edge of the downtown core. As part of the Old Cemetery Society (OCM) in Victoria, the public is invited every Sunday to join a cemetery walk that looks at a special topic in the capital's history. The particular walk that I joined (dragging my dad along with me as well!), was centered on Victoria's early Metis community and their settlement in what is today the Greater Victoria area. Through my father's side of the family, I have Metis descent and when I got an email from the Metis Nation of Greater Victoria a couple weeks ago about this event, I excitedly decided to tag along! It was a great experience, not only after participating in the "Monument Analysis" project (which makes me feel like something of an officianado when it comes to Victorian era cemeteries now), but also as an opportunity to learn about the past of the first Metis who traveled  across the continent to find work here.

          The walk was led by Sylvia Van Dyk with three other presenters as well as John Adams who runs the Victoria Ghost Walks -- a very notable figure around Victoria! Sylvia and the other three women who presented with her came completely dressed in proper period clothing, with all the 'bells and whistles' of a colonial Victorian woman's attire. Each presenter performed in the character of whoever was buried and being discussed. I found that it added a nice charm to the stories and characters which made it a little more engaging and interacting than a straight-up history lesson -- not that anything is wrong with that! The three women, of whose names I can't recall unfortunately, were all direct descendants of the people and families they presented about! One of them was even the great-great granddaughter of Isabella Ross, an Anishinaabe and French Metis woman who is the namesake of Victoria's most famous burial ground, Ross Bay Cemetery. Her presentation ended up being one of the most remarkable ones for me because of the way in which Metis woman could so easily adapt to settling in a new territory, unlike their husbands who found adjusting difficult and arduous. I thought that these were amongst the most compelling parts of the presentation and I found the stories about Victorian women settlers and their relations with the First Nations to be some of the most interesting stories discussed.

          By including these descendants as presenters in the walk, I think the OCM made a fantastic choice in giving a platform for people to relate their own personal histories with the public. In a way, it almost functions as a sort of oral history; their family histories, like most peoples, were probably continually passed along and will likely continue to be in the next generation of their own descendants. Sharing this history of their ancestors and of their contributions to the community is an awesome way to engage with the past and I look forward to attending more walks in the future. 

A few photos I took of the walking group, presenters and descendants

          One more thing... I spoke with John Adams after the walk and told him a little about my Metis heritage and my interests with archaeology. He enthusiastically suggested that I (and any interested classmates -- yes you!) volunteer over the summer with the OCM and their restoration work -- this is something that I'm definitely considering right now and if any of my classmates do happen to read this I posted the link and some volunteer info at the bottom of this! Hopefully I won't be the only ANTH 397 alumni doing this in the summer!

From: www.oldcem.bc.ca

For current opportunities contact OCS at 250.598.8870 or email oldcem@pacificcoast.net, subject line "Volunteer".

• Office assistance: assist with office and administrative tasks
• Tours: assist with special walking tours and school tours
• Conservation: cleaning and restoring gravestones and monuments
• Recording: measuring markers and describing type, location and inscriptions.

Magazine Review: "Love Archaeology Magazine, Issue 3, Winter 2012"

Our final project in the class has us working on an online project which can be accessible and of interest to the general public. Because all of our projects are different -- some students are working on group blogs, others on websites, or like us, an online magazine -- each group also had to develop a marking rubric for their assignment. This blog post will be a review of a very odd yet surprisingly insightful online magazine, judged according to our groups marking rubric.
          The "Love Archaeology Magazine, Issue 3, Winter 2012" which can be found at issuu.com (see direct link below), appears to be the endeavor of a collective of anthropology and archaeology PhD students as well as those in other related and specialized fields. Their issue is mostly focused on the material culture of the paradoxically immaterial: the videogame Skyrim, J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-Earth, and the fictional horrors of Lovecraft's ethos are the feature stories for this month.
          I'm actually quite impressed with the associations this group of students was able to make. While the topic may sound frivolous or unimportant, especially compared to the many other academic magazines available on issuu.com, the group was very perceptive in using archaeological principles and applying them to a very nontraditional realm. In terms of making an engaging magazine for the general public, I think they were extremely successful, especially in garnering interest from the millions of fans (myself included) who love both Skyrim's Tamriel, Middle-Earth, and the stories of Lovecraft.
          For the academic person, I think this magazine really highlights the way in which anthropology can be applied to almost anything. I'm doing a double Major in anthropology and English and I always look for ways I can use my focus on anthropology to write my English essays -- so far, every prof that I've run this by with has been very enthusiastic to hear how literary criticism might engage with anthropology. I found it quite exciting to see how others applied archaeological theory with the strictly fictional and what kind of interpretations and findings they came up with. What makes this magazine that much more engaging is how effectively they wove the findings of current archaeologists in Britain with articles about odd archaeological discoveries, current restoration projects, and osteological facial reconstructions amongst many, many, other things. Here's a quick sample below:

 A couple pages of the eclectic readings you'll find in this issue.

    So, in assessing this project on the grounds of our own rubric... I'd say this easily, hands down, deserves an A+! I really don't see much to complain about with this: their work is extremely well-researched and very accessible. I was impressed page after page at how well they incorporated hard, academic research into a magazine that was also laden with humorous adds, theoretical discussions of contemporary fictional realms and stories, as well as important news about upcoming conferences and events, as well as other exciting archaeological publications to be released soon. The layout was very nicely designed -- think of a blend between National Geographic and Mental Floss. In short, as someone who is very interested in the academic and scholarly understanding of archaeology, this was a blast to read! That being said, I think that this magazine is extremely open to the public, straightforward, and easy to read. I'm definitely going to be digging around for more issues of this after the semester ends!

Link: Love Archaeology Magazine

The New Stonehenge?

A recently discovered burial site on Whitehorse hill in Dartmoor, England, seems to be causing quite the stir. The finding, billed by some as the most important archaeological British Bronze-Age site after Stonehenge, contains the cremated remnants of what was likely a young female as well as several impressively           well-preserved burial goods which included a piece of fur that appears to have come from a species of bear now extinct in Britain for at least 1,000 years.

          Connecting this find to some of our class discussions and readings, it will be interesting to see what kinds of interpretations will be made when the researchers involved begin to publish their work. Personally, I feel hesitant to speculate on the site with most of its research still in the process of development. That being said, one thing really jumps out to me here: that the amber beads found in the grave were traced to the Baltic region. To have evidence of goods travelling this far in prehistoric times must be far and few between. The cultural and social meaning of this item is hard to not be interpreted as evidence for a high status individual but on the other hand, the significance within the context of the individual and their mourners will never be truly grasped. 

          Nevertheless, this site is a stunning example of how new finds and research continue to force revisions of our histories and it provides a great example of how important even the most minuscule materials can be to our understanding of the past. Thankfully, the finds in this site have been anything but minuscule.

Link and photo credit:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/09/dartmoor-burial-site-bronze-age-history

The First Gay Caveman?

          In 2009, Czech archaeologists uncovered an exceptionally unusual burial. Standing out from the other skeletons, this particular male was buried in a position and orientation which had previously been described as 'female.' After the team published their findings, media outlets went wild for their speculation on the gender identity of the individual. Labelled as the first 'gay caveman,' this unnamed and unknown individual became something of a media sensation.
 

        Photo credit: http://abcnews.go.com/US/oldest-gay-man/story?id=13320808

          While nothing is necessarily wrong with this interpretation -- in the end we're only ever able to hypothesize on the cultural meanings associated with his burial -- a couple problems seem apparent with this identification. The cemetery site this individual was found in situates him as a part of the Corded-Ware culture, a large cultural-historic period associated with Neolithic European sites; the title of caveman is something of a misnomer since this individual lived roughly 5, 000 years ago. The term caveman is perhaps a little outdated but is also meant to refer to paleolithic peoples who lived 30, 000 - 20, 000 years ago.
          Another issue with the media's runaway claim is the problematic identification of  the individual as homosexual. Understanding gender in an archaeological context is incredibly tricky and often is not possible. This individual may well have been homosexual but we have no other archaeological evidence to support this other than his body's placement. While it stands a part from the other male burials, making the assumption of his sexual orientation might be revealing of our own culture's biases. The Czech team recognized this in their report when they described their interpretations which included the possibility of the individual being of a third gender status or transsexual. All of these hypotheses are valuable but we have no way to say for certain how the 'gay caveman' saw himself and was viewed by others in his culture.
          In summary, this case study serves as an excellent example of how archaeologists can attempt to identify gender from material remains. Although the tabloids and media outlets may have run away with this story it does raise this issue to a more public platform, and hopefully, more debate and understanding on topics within archaeology like gender roles.

Links

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/04/10/czech.republic.unusual.burial/

My Physical Record vs. My Digital Record

Imagining that an archaeologist might one day come around and excavate my future grave, what would he/she say about me? After studying archaeology for a few semesters I'm not so sure I'd want much in my grave -- after all, who knows what could be wrongly asserted by archaeologists when it comes to the material things we or others chose to connect with our identities in the grave? But where would be the fun in that for all those curious future archaeologists?
          I haven't asked my friends and family what they might include in my grave but I thought about a few things I might want included. As I was thinking about this, I came to a conclusion that I hadn't thought of before. All of the things that I wanted were meant to let people know who I was, and more specifically, how I wanted people to see me. This doesn't sound very far off from the ways we use social media in presenting our identity to our close family and friends, as well as any person with an internet connection. We present the best side of ourselves -- witty statuses, photogenic pictures, 'likes' that supposedly give people (and corporations now) an impression of our interests. For many, social media is like an advertisement of our best aspects and how we'd like people to think of us as.

Photo credit: http://www.hastac.org/groups/digital-archaeology-and-ancient-history

          Now, going back to burial goods, the things that I thought of including -- just off the top of my head -- were really not far off from the way myself and others choose to present ourselves online. The goods I thought of besides family mementos/keepsakes were all things like music, books, travel souvenirs etc. that I'm really crazy about. All of these things might be listed as likes on Facebook or possibly be seen on other social media sites I go on. This really made me think about just how similar my physical record could be to my digital record that will be inevitably left behind. In the end, I found it hard to think of my family and friends leaving books, CDs, and other oddities behind with me. For myself, I think I'd stick to the boring old personal and family mementos that I already have and will keep accumulating throughout life. Only a close circle of relatives and friends should be able to understand their meaning and significance to myself and our relationships. HOWEVER, I'm sure I could play some very cruel pranks with future archaeologists, and that too, is very tempting!

Managing an Archaeological Database

Microsoft: “Introducing Microsoft Excel” (1987)

          In class we've been working with Excel and Access to sift through some archaeological data and I'd just like to share some of my experiences using it so far. This is the first time I can say I've actually had to really work with either program. I use Excel at my work every once in a while but my use of it has never gone beyond adding numbers into those tiny fields.

          I'd like to think of myself as pretty tech savvy but I have to admit that I've found both programs fairly challenging to grasp and handle. Not that they're super difficult, though. I think it's more that I've never had experience managing data like this and sorting through it. Excel is fairly straight forward to me. Access seems a little clunky but that's probably because I'm just beginning to understand what it actually does.
          Now that I've really started to consider going into archaeology after my degree, I think it's really neat to see how archaeological data gets represented and how information is recorded. The sheer amount of data that has to be input into these programs as well as taking into account all of the discrepancies / inaccuracies that have to be weeded out sounds daunting! As well, the one database from the Anglican cemetery that we're working with for our project seems a good example of what kind of information can be represented by a database as well as how meaningful that info is to us afterwards. There were quite a few little inaccuracies in the database that people pointed out and that kind of makes me realize how easy it can be to misrecord and then misrepresent data and results accidentally.
          Our projects are probably going to come up really soon so it should be neat to start creating some of our own databases with these programs!

 - Aaron

Photo link: http://www.sadanduseless.com/2010/01/10-funny-old-computer-ads/

Roman Headhunters in London

What isn't fascinating about ancient Rome? I found this extremely current article that was just published today about a research team's new findings on a set of skulls unearthed in London in 1988. According to their work published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, the 39 skulls, which were only now being studied due to several key forensic advancements, were likely victims of battle or even gladiatorial combat. Most of the skulls were young males with healed wounds, suggesting that these individuals lived violent and tumultuous lives. All were deposited in what appears to have been an open, muddy, working yard pit which has strong evidence around it of being used by shoe makers during the era. Some of the skulls also bear evidence of bite marks, likely from dogs chewing on these remains. What I find most fascinating about this new research is some of the possible explanations. From the researchers:

“We believe that some of the heads may be people who were killed in the amphitheatre. Decapitation was a way of finishing off gladiators, but not everyone who died in the Roman amphitheatre was a gladiator, it was where common criminals were executed, or sometimes for entertainment you’d give two of them swords and have them kill one another. Other heads may have been brought back by soldiers from skirmishes, probably on the Hadrian or Antonine walls – again, it would have taken weeks to bring them back, so not a nice process.”

In relation to archaeology and death, this raises some tantalizing questions about what burials and funerals would have been like in Roman London (i.e., Londinium) These "disposals" of bodies are not likely to be found within the history books and in cases like these, archaeologists have the opportunity to really shed some light on these darker sides of history.

- Aaron

Links

News article source: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/01/2014/london-skulls-reveal-gruesome-evidence-roman-head-hunters

Journal publication sourcehttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440313004433

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An Introduction

First things first...

I'm Aaron and welcome to Talking Dead, a little blog I've started for ANTH 397 - "The Archaeology of Death and Burial", a course I'm taking at UVic. Aside from course related posts I'd also like to post some other relevant material I might come across online. I'm seriously addicted to news websites for some reason... if I happen to find any archaeology stories relating to death I'll try and post some current links up also.

Cheers!

- Aaron