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