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