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Jamaican Archaeology with Zach Beier - Ep 113
207 Plays6 years ago
Jamaica is a fascinating place with a rich historic and prehistoric history. Our guest today, archaeologist Zach Beier lives in Jamaica and is passionate about his history. We talk to him about Jamaican archaeology and the technology he uses to decipher it.
LinksBook: British Forts and Their CommunitiesZach Beier Info:Instagram: zakademicTwitter: zakademicThe Department of History and Archaeology at The UWI MonaArchaeological Society of JamaicaInstagram: archaeologyjamaicaApp of the DayWebby: WatchOS Decibel AppPaul: Random notes about Siri, Google News, and iOS 13.ContactChris WebsterTwitter: @archeowebbyEmail: chris@archaeologypodcastnetwork.comPaul ZimmermanTwitter: @lugalEmail: paul@lugal.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
We're excited to announce that our very own podcasting platform, Zencaster, has become a new sponsor to the show. Check out the podcast discount link in our show notes and stay tuned for why we love using Zen for the podcast. You're listening to the Archeology Podcast Network.
Guest Introduction: Zach Byer and Jamaican Archaeology
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Archeotech Podcast, episode 113. I'm your host, Chris Webster, with my co-host, Paul Zimmerman. Today, we talked to Zach Byer about his work in Jamaican archeology. Let's get to it.
Research on Caribbean Archaeology
00:00:32
Speaker
Our interview today is with Zach Byer. He's the archaeology lecturer and lab director at the University of the West Indies, UWI, Mona in Kingston, Jamaica. His research focuses on the archaeology and heritage of the Caribbean at both prehistoric and historic sites in principally the diversity of human encounters in this emergent modern world. Zach's work in the lab and field relies on advanced tools, including scientific dating, 3D and geochemical analysis of artifacts and human burials, aerial drone surveys, and big data.
00:01:01
Speaker
He is currently involved in a number of projects spanning an extensive portion of Jamaica's history, including work at Kingston Harbor Fortifications, and those date to around 655 to 1945. Also a former sugar plantation works yard, 1750 to 1910, on the campus of the UWI Mona, and at one of the largest indigenous villages in Jamaica, the White Marrow Tenayo Settlement, and I'm probably saying that wrong. Tino, Tenayo, Tano, Tino, I think it's Tino.
00:01:28
Speaker
settlement dating from 8900 to 1600. His prior research, including his 2017 dissertation at Syracuse University, examined the diversity of military communities at a British colonial fort on the Caribbean island of Dominica. That dates from 1763 to 1854. Zach combined archeological data with archival research to better configure the role of military labor in the development of African Caribbean societies.
Military Communities in Dominica
00:01:54
Speaker
His work in Dominica, which is featured in the volume of case studies of forts from around the British imperial world, was something he co-edited in 2018, and that's called British Forts and Their Communities, Archaeological and Historical Perspectives. That work exemplifies the applicability of theoretically informed and community focused archaeologist at colonial military sites. All right, welcome to the show, Zach. Thank you, Paul, Chris, Wagwan, archaeo tech viewers, listeners. It's a pleasure.
00:02:23
Speaker
No problem, no problem.
Zach's Background and Academic Journey
00:02:25
Speaker
So let's start with just how you got into archaeology. What got you interested in archaeology? Are you of the Indiana Jones age or was it something else? You know, I think my mom really saw it as that. I've really supported parents and I remember getting into archaeology. My mom was like, oh, now we need to get the hat, we need to get the whip, no fire.
00:02:44
Speaker
No, no firearms allowed in this house, but she was really into it. But it's also a story connected to my parents. They're both Americans, but British historians. I was raised over in England, so raised, you know, around history with historians and just developed this passion specifically for archaeology around what hard work, dirt and remarkable things and stories, I guess.
00:03:12
Speaker
That's what brought me to the field. I should say maybe a bit as a rebellious child. I mean, my parents were incredibly supportive, but as historians, there's a certain way of producing history or talking about the past. I think I came to the school of
00:03:31
Speaker
of rejecting not necessarily what my parents were talking about, but the tradition and among historians, I gravitated towards specifically anthropology. And that all happened for me at the undergraduate level. I had no real inklings before my undergraduate experience beyond rolling around Roman roads and other things like that when I was raised in England.
00:04:02
Speaker
Nice, nice. Well, that's quite the upbringing, I got to say. Getting to experience life like that.
First Caribbean Visit and Taino Site Exploration
00:04:09
Speaker
So having influences over there and being raised in England, what brought you to the Caribbean?
00:04:15
Speaker
That's, look, that's a great question. I mean, I'm now in Jamaica, so former British colony. But like others, I think that go to the Caribbean, my first time was on vacation. It was to Puerto Rico, mainly sun, sand, beaches, some natural heritage sites, those types of things. But through my time in Puerto Rico, got to know the Taino, or at least Taino sites.
00:04:45
Speaker
This is a few of those there around Ponce. And also began a little bit of research as an undergraduate kind of toying around with early kind of
00:04:56
Speaker
what creative anthropological archeology ideas, thinking about what signs that people are, you know, using businesses for a variety of things. What language are they actually written in? So almost like linguistic material culture and looking at the different patterns of when, what, in a bilingual island, imagined as a bilingual island, when Spanish, when English is being used. So that was my, look, that was my introduction. It started off on a vacation and I just kind of stayed, I guess.
00:05:26
Speaker
I think everybody wishes that would happen
00:05:31
Speaker
And this is how the Caribbean writ large, I guess, is imagined as a place that you vacay, as a place of good music, good food, good beaches. But following that initial introduction to Puerto Rico, I was at Illinois State University for undergraduate. So taking classes from Dr. Charles Orser, Dr. Elizabeth Scott, their definitions of, you know,
00:06:01
Speaker
historical archaeology as an archaeology of the modern world, reading people's work like Kathy Deegan, working on Spanish settlements in Hispaniola and a certain degree in Jamaica. That really, I mean, that was like the homework that got me down here. And I then applied that to British forts, first in Dominica. And then by 2012, I began my work in Jamaica on forts around Kingston Harbor.
00:06:28
Speaker
undergraduate then led into just a just an incredibly valuable albeit lonely depressing hard graduate school experience at Syracuse University where my introduction to that university was meeting a graduate student working in the Caribbean Steve Lenick, Dr. Steve Lenick now I mean he was advised by Dr. Douglas Armstrong who's now my
00:06:55
Speaker
who was my dissertation advisor, and it was just a clear focus on the Caribbean, what's happening at the time of contact among Amerindian groups, European groups, and then also the African diaspora. So Syracuse was a great training point to capitalize on initial vacation experiences, then to the experience of serious archaeology.
00:07:24
Speaker
And what in particular was it about that initial vacation experience that made you think that this was a good place for archaeology? It wasn't necessarily, I guess, when I first started going to the Amerindian sites, pre-Columbian sites.
00:07:38
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I needed to do more work and to better understand settlement patterns and life ways that weren't as apparent above ground, historical archaeology, especially of forts, sometimes you can't miss them. So I needed to better understand the evidence as well as what is a distant time and often, you know,
00:08:02
Speaker
more distant culture than our own. So I need to do a lot more work to get back into there. I'll tell you in Puerto Rico was walking around old San Juan, walking through El Moro, which is one of the
00:08:13
Speaker
the oldest, largest Spanish sports in the region. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and they've done archaeology there, but more so, it's just a tremendously popular heritage site, not only for visitors like me, but locals. I just remember the kite flying activities going on, people just hanging out on
00:08:38
Speaker
on the cleared field on their way into the fort, having their picnic. So, you know, I guess to finish up that is, forts really stuck out to me, but more so the contemporary use of archeological sites and, you know, the value of, yes, having the information about the past, but also the value in letting people explore, enjoy, create new memories in these places.
00:09:03
Speaker
You're calling us from Jamaica. And are you living there full time now and working and studying there? Wow. I started the studying process when I was writing on my dissertation. I mentioned my colleague earlier, Dr. Steven Lennick. He was the lecturer at Uemona. But we began a project at Fort Rocky. It's a fort in Kingston Harbor, 1880s, World War II. So a really interesting time period in terms of
00:09:31
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imagine what's going on in the Caribbean during the World War period, which is so often imagined as kind of an old world European experience. So that was my first introduction to doing work here, 2012, 2013, and then took up the position as lecturer in archaeology, the director of our archaeology lab and curation facility on campus. So since 2014, full time.
00:10:00
Speaker
Nice.
Scientific Tools in Jamaican Archaeology
00:10:01
Speaker
Well, this is the archaeotech podcast, so let's talk about some of the technological developments that have influenced your work and some of the things you're using down there to push this research forward.
00:10:13
Speaker
Yeah, and again, I just appreciate the opportunity to talk about not only Jamaica, the Caribbean, but some exciting work that has been going on down here recently. So look, to begin with, during graduate school, historic archaeology, Syracuse University, one of the first introductions, and not necessarily hands-on, but it was through the work of Mark Hauser and some other folks using
00:10:39
Speaker
Then section petrographic analysis neutron activation analysis of of of low-fire course earth and wears these are typically made in the Caribbean either in by indigenous and or Indian folks, but the context that we're talking about 18th century 19th century you're largely dealing with a
00:10:57
Speaker
enslaved African individuals making these wares for a variety of different purposes, their own use, but also for trading. He did a fabulous study. The Archeology of Black Markets is the book where he showcased the scientific application of scientific methods for revealing just the networks and the levels of what
00:11:19
Speaker
freedom, consumer involvement of enslaved Afghans during a period that you wouldn't consider that happening. So that was a good introduction for me, not necessarily something that I followed up with my own work at British sports, but a really valuable introduction. What we've been doing recently though in Jamaica, I'm involved with
00:11:42
Speaker
a handful of projects, a study of Kingston Harbor fortifications, so you've got a handful of forts there dating between about 1650s all the way up to 1945. Right here on the Uemona campus, we've got the ruins of two former sugar plantations that operate between about 1750
00:12:04
Speaker
So the beginning of the nineteen hundreds and then and then and then really worked and technologies been apparent in those projects but really where it's been apparent at is is our work at the white marl taino settlements very large. Pre colombian hammer indian settlement dating approximately.
00:12:23
Speaker
900 through about Spanish context, so 1500s or so. And at a site like this, that's a well-known site. It's been known about white moral since mid 19th century, right around the kickoff of what I guess we could call scientific archeology, 1950s, 1960s. You had some work by Robert Howard at the site. Unfortunately, he died
00:12:49
Speaker
1964, before he was really able to dig in and publish this. So since 2016, as a result of infrastructural development, highway expansion, or proposed highway expansion, we've been back at White Marl using archaeology.
00:13:07
Speaker
Using technology i should say though for all those sites a variety of them are located on on sites that are significant global global history good also sites that have been slated for infrastructural development so.
00:13:24
Speaker
All of this work in Jamaica, I mean our motto here, our national motto is out of many one. I'll tell you what, I am one of many, we need more, trust me, we need more archaeologists down here, but I've been one of many collaborators that have been digging in on these sites, including Leiden University, including local
00:13:48
Speaker
government agencies, Jamaica National Heritage Trust, so I've got to definitely specify their involvement because it's also been a huge impetus for the inclusion of more technology at these sites. I'll tell you, we deal with the digital divide down here in Jamaica, the Global South period,
00:14:09
Speaker
Collaboration has been key, not only whether it's funding, but also bringing specialists down that we may lack, bringing technology down or sending samples out to be able to be analyzed by that technology. So yeah, it's been collaborative use of technology out of those sites.
00:14:30
Speaker
Well, I was wondering, you know, when I look at Caribbean archaeology, I don't even know where to start because it seems incredibly complicated with European colonialism, indigenous groups, African enslaved persons brought across. It seems like you have a lot of different narratives that could
Radiocarbon Dating and Extinction Narratives
00:14:47
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be told. You've got a lot of different settlement types, a lot of different life ways. What kind of technologies do you use specifically that can help you untangle some of that?
00:14:56
Speaker
Yeah, look, recently, I'll tell you, say at White Marl, we've some of the really high level archaeological science techniques that we've been using, including radiocarbon dating, a whole suite of new dates at a site that was last dated in the early 60s. I've been vital to identifying, to better understanding a site that is large, has many different mounds that is
00:15:26
Speaker
Widely just been regarded according to a universal calendar system as well as treated that these populations that live there went extinct relatively quickly right that once Spanish colonization begins within a generation the majority of tiny no
00:15:44
Speaker
what would have been extinct and look what what we're finding radio carbon dating is you've got you've got an extensive site that is occupied differently at different times you've got dates from some of these burials.
00:16:00
Speaker
that extend beyond the point of Spanish contacts. So Spanish contact in Jamaica is 1494 on Columbus the second voyage. The Spanish first set up via, sorry, Seville, La Nueva on the north coast. Early 1500s by 1533, though, they've set up via De La Vega, our Spanish town now, right next to White Marl.
00:16:24
Speaker
We have a burial, so 1533, they set up that new capital. We've got a burial that dates as old as, I don't want to misquote this, but 1620, I think, 1641, actually, sorry. So that really, really throws that extinction narrative into question, which at this point,
00:16:44
Speaker
is incredibly valuable, not only aligning with larger movements in the greater Antilles and internationally with a Taino Renaissance, but for creating a space in contemporary Jamaica for Jamaicans to identify as indigenous, Amerindian, as Taino. And look, advanced technology is just going to aid that case beyond radiocarbon dates even further. We're working on now bringing a project comparing
00:17:12
Speaker
samples of ancient DNA from some of these burial contexts that we've identified or that have been curated in collections in Jamaica, testing the ancient DNA there and then comparing that to contemporary Jamaicans. So we can really address that question of extinction or continuity. I'm one to thank.
00:17:34
Speaker
We're dealing with continuity. And there's other sides to that, what, Taino's story. Out of many, one in Jamaica, that includes these first peoples.
00:17:47
Speaker
Through collaboration, Lyman University, Corinne Hoffman, she spearheaded a project out of that university and involved a number of universities called the Nexus 1492 project. A strong basis of that project is to apply
00:18:06
Speaker
technology and do some serious archaeological science. And three of the burials that we identified in White Marl in 2016, this was recently published in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, a brief report in 2018. We did the radiocarbon dating, but we also did oxygen-isisope analysis on bone collagen, and then starch grain analysis on teeth of burials, finding remarkable things, what these individuals, what a
00:18:34
Speaker
What a 9 to 14 year old girl who passed away approximately between AD 1301, 1409, which was eating, which included the earliest evidence of cacao chocolate starches yet identified in the Caribbean, right?
00:18:55
Speaker
that you are what you eat, right? It's on your teeth. It's also in your isotope, your carbon and nitrogen strontium isotope signatures. And what we're finding with the burial evidence of white marbles, most of the burials
00:19:10
Speaker
The three that we tested so far, they're pretty close to the standard strontium range that you would expect for these populations, largely eating C3 plants. But there was one burial that doesn't match up to that and likely indicating that just because you die at White Marl doesn't mean you were born here or lived the majority of your life here.
00:19:33
Speaker
Perhaps you came from a different part of Jamaica, or perhaps you came from a different island or region entirely. I mean, the interaction networks between the greater Antilles involving Jamaica, but also into Central America, South America, were vital to these civilizations.
00:19:50
Speaker
We're finding out a lot using again, material science, archeological science from these burials out at White Mile to really reinforce this story of the first Jamaicans.
00:20:07
Speaker
Well, on that note, let's, uh, let's take our first break and we'll come back and really dive into some of the technology on the other side, uh, back in a second. Chris Webster here for the archeology podcast network. We strive for high quality interviews and content so you can find information on any topic in archeology from around the world. One way we do that is by recording interviews with our hosts and guests located in many parts of the world all at once. We do that through the use of a Zen caster. That's Z E N C A S T R.
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Speaker
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00:21:37
Speaker
All right, welcome back to the Archeotech podcast, episode 113. And we're talking with Zach Beyer about his work in Jamaica. And Zach, I just like your thoughts on something that really belongs on another show and not the Archeotech podcast, but you mentioned at the end of the last episode, you know, how we can tell where people were, um, uh, where people have lived based on their teeth and their, you know, the strontium isotopes and what's in there and, and, and where they've been and how, while they're not necessarily born or even died in one place, they could have lived somewhere else entirely.
00:22:06
Speaker
And you can tell that. And we often find that in areas like that, I think, because our own, correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like our own biases towards this modern idea that we have of family and, you know, everybody wants to stick around home and stay there. But in an area with relatively abundant resources, you know, why would you do that? Why wouldn't you just move around? You know, so getting out of our own heads and saying, hey, these people explore the area, moved around and stay mobile.
00:22:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. It's people that know the sea, they're using it as a highway. And there's also, and Bill Keegan's work on this topic, there's also a variety of interesting kinship systems. Again, where you're born and who you marry could determine a different part of the island or a completely different island of where you actually stay. Keegan's work in the Bahamas has really, really narrowed down avunculocal
00:23:04
Speaker
residence patterns and how that is then going to be materialized or perhaps reflected in
00:23:13
Speaker
in an archaeological record, right, if we're actually doing anthropology, which one of those folks that, yeah, we're studying culture, we're studying humans, we're studying their experience. So yeah, most certainly, population sizes in the Caribbean, they get quite large, but these are populations on the move and the evidence coming out of White Marl is showing you an extensive site, one that's continuously occupied for
00:23:39
Speaker
almost, almost a thousand years, but with, with populations that are likely quite fluid and moving around the island and, and, and between other other places as well. Okay. Well, one of the ways you can see some of that, hopefully, uh, and we'll find out is, as you mentioned in your, uh, in the bio that we read at the beginning of this.
00:23:57
Speaker
You guys utilize some drone aerial surveys, and we have a mandate on this podcast. Don't we, Paul? To mention drones at least once every episode.
Drone Technology in Archaeology
00:24:05
Speaker
Well, can I talk about drones right now? Absolutely, man. If you don't, Chris will. Yeah, I feel I'm like in a confessional session right now. Drones changed my life. Let's be perfectly honest. That's awesome.
00:24:22
Speaker
And I want DJI Mavic Pro to quote me on that, and maybe cost us a little bit of support down here. I'll tell you, when I began my dissertation research, Island of Dominica, fort site, tremendous, I mean, large site, the aerial views, 3D models, just, you know, amazing looks that I've been able to recently, within the last year and a half is when I first got into it, flying drone in Jamaica.
00:24:51
Speaker
would have just drastically improved my understanding of that site and as well as just the presentation of it. I think drones for me have been a way that I, you know, sites like White Marl I've mentioned, campus archaeology sites, forts around Kingston Harbor, I hope I just don't lose it in the water there.
00:25:15
Speaker
It's been incredible to get, again, the macro view of these places, locate areas that, again, teamed up with historical maps. I'll tell you, we've been doing that recently with Kingston Harbor forts, with permission, JNHT, Jamaica National Heritage Trust, Port Authority of Jamaica.
00:25:35
Speaker
Doing creating orthomosaic images, really detailed aerial views along with 3D models of these areas for study, for research purposes. I mean, one of these forts were now able to pinpoint this very large
00:25:51
Speaker
But only visible from the air soldiers barracks that that once this fort became a female prison in the 1950s, it would have been covered over with a variety of other things. So we have now identified that and that is one of these areas that that that we've pinpointed for.
00:26:06
Speaker
for further excavation. So drones have really opened up that type of research precision, but also tell you when I'm dealing with and collaborating with local developers or government agencies, being able to show them an image of an archaeological site, a feature,
00:26:22
Speaker
with development directly aligned with it or on the way to it, really powerful. So I have to thank all those drone engineers, Mavic Pro, well DJI, but also drone deploy, I use a lot of that, it's way too expensive. The monthly, I'll tell you, we're, you know, university lecturers and archeology in the Caribbean, we're not making much.
00:26:48
Speaker
But I'll tell you, they've designed just a fabulous platform to do this type of work. And I remember an undergraduate, God bless Charles Orser, talking about flying in hot air balloons to get good aerial videos and shots. I don't think that sounds fun. I would rather be on the ground, though, flying my drone. I'll tell you what. So it's been phenomenal with the work that we've recently been doing over in Jamaica.
00:27:18
Speaker
Well, like you mentioned, you hope you don't lose your Mavic Pro in the water, but if you're in a hot air balloon, you might lose yourself in the water. So that's, I'll take the Mavic Pro lost in the water anytime out to sea in a hot air balloon.
00:27:32
Speaker
Agreed, agreed. And my wife, my family, they strongly agreed too. I have queried again. And I, you know, queried solutions to, you know, beyond getting good, what, insurance and a warranty that if you're crashing in a year to return it, but you have to find the thing.
00:27:52
Speaker
Uh, if either it's inundated in water or in deep bush, uh, I need, I need another way of tracking these things. Uh, so I'm going to look to RTO tech, uh, uh, listeners and maybe you all to, to figure out good solutions to find our, our, our drones when they get lost. There you go. Nice. Are there any restrictions on drone use from the government? We've talked to, uh, other people using drones in other parts of the world and.
00:28:20
Speaker
sometimes there's, uh, there's pretty heavy restrictions. So do you need a license to do this for academic or commercial work or like you do in the United States or, um, you know, what's, what's the story down there? Yes. I think the official line government Jamaica is, you know, flying around sensitive areas, obviously airports, uh, heavily congested areas against the law. There's, there are, uh, uh, uh, what kind of,
00:28:47
Speaker
I get permission from the agencies that are in charge of archeology or that are controlling these properties, but there's also permitting for professional drone flyers. I'll tell you what, a drone over here hasn't really reached the point of historic preservation and archeology, but for what? For parties, for music events, there's drones everywhere, right? So yes, they do have policies. They do have permitting processes over here
00:29:15
Speaker
dealing with drones, especially following internationally what we're hearing about, what people find drones next to airports and all this kind of stuff. But in the Caribbean, one of the many challenges is going to be actually implementing policy, right? To my knowledge, in the sites that I've worked at, close to what government properties or other kind of protected areas,
00:29:41
Speaker
There hasn't been jammers or trackers or that type of thing. I'm not concerned but obviously those things should be in place. Especially on small island nations with heavily traveled plain corridors.
00:30:01
Speaker
I would think especially too, if you're doing forts, those are frequently next to ports in a lot of ship traffic and therefore you might not be able to fly it directly over that if you have restrictions about flying directly over people as well.
00:30:14
Speaker
And this is, look, and this is why I underscore collaboration, whether it's Jamaica National Heritage Trust monitoring or managing these places or the Jamaica Defense Force, which like you just said, these would be the guys locate some of these forts have been transitioned into JDF properties or, but they're at least zones that they're monitoring. So I don't, I'd rather not get in trouble with the Jamaica Defense Force. They're highly trained and mean. So.
00:30:43
Speaker
Nice. Yeah, so Zach, also reading over your bio, one of the things that stuck out to me is you, you know, we're switching gears here away from drones. Sorry for all our listeners that come here for the exclusively drone content. But you use the term big data.
Big Data in Transatlantic Slavery Studies
00:30:57
Speaker
And I just wanted to highlight that because, you know, when we talk about big data in general, I'm usually a little skeptical as to applications in archaeology. I think, you know, our data sets are too small.
00:31:07
Speaker
And we tend to like very specific things, very concrete measurements, very concrete relationships. The big data tends not to be optimized for. So I was really curious to find out what you meant by that and how you're using it.
00:31:21
Speaker
Yeah, and again, this is my involvement with a database that's based out of Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, you know, World Heritage, well, Heritage Site, I'm not sure of World Heritage. Anyway, they do tremendous archaeology there on that plantation site and now developed a program, the Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery. And so it's based out of labs there, but they've got a very multi-sided United States
00:31:50
Speaker
Caribbean, and they may have even explored areas outside of that now, all based on the comparative study, archaeological, historical analysis of transatlantic slavery. I would argue that the study of that system requires
00:32:08
Speaker
individuals to get their head around big data, right? Analyzing something as global and something as penetrating as slavery from a single site, from a single, what, artifact assemblage. I think that could be troubling. This was a system that changed in the same time across regions, right? So comparing different sites across those regions, I think.
00:32:34
Speaker
I think is valuable. And then comparing change over time. So one of the reasons I worked hard to get involved with those folks, and I just got to bless up Dr. Fraser Nyman, Dr. Jillian Galli for
00:32:54
Speaker
for facilitating that involvement is the inclusion of military sites. Slavery is so often imagined as a very agro-industrial enterprise, so the plantation becomes the main unit of analysis in the store of archaeology of transatlantic slavery, when in reality these forts were built by, maintained by, later actually included
00:33:17
Speaker
enslaved African soldiers. So I wanted to include that data set into the DAX database to contribute what is, like you said, relatively, I mean, we had about 15,000 artifacts, three to four different sites in that in my database, but then comparing that to
00:33:37
Speaker
over 50 probably or more, and I don't want to misquote their reach at this point, but they've been working for well over a decade on the systematic integration of data sets from sites across the transatlantic slavery spectrum.
00:33:56
Speaker
So I would say that's almost a big, I would say, I would argue that is a big data enterprise. It's the archaeology. Yeah. And I don't mean to, you know, kind of, hey, big data archaeology, because I think it is. It's a buzzword. Right. But right. But I think I think if we if we embrace that these big kind of impactful modern world processes takes all the data and collaboration that we can that we can muster.
00:34:25
Speaker
mixed with computer science, query-based kind of analysis, targeting patterns within sites or across sites. I think that's a good look. I think that's a good step in the world of archaeology. No, I think that that's a really good answer because I hadn't considered that. I was only considering on the site or maybe the regional level, but not as a worldwide phenomenon like colonial slavery would be.
00:34:54
Speaker
Well, look, I hope to take that same type of approach, the DAX. I mean, my idea is always not to view any of these forts or whatever the site's in isolation. So thinking about a similar approach to forts that's really embracing this buzzword for this reality of big data. Yeah.
00:35:14
Speaker
and trying to make it work for people. So oftentimes, archeologists, we got really good data. We're just not really good at communicating it. And that's why we need drones and computer science and digital design and podcasts. God bless you all.
00:35:32
Speaker
We're nearing the end of this segment and the end of this show, Zach. I want to know, since this is a technology-focused show, what technologies have you guys tried down there? Everything from tablets, computers in the humidity, whatever, what technologies have you tried that actually failed, that you didn't end up using, or you didn't get the results you expected?
00:35:54
Speaker
Well, I will say, again, based on my current location, Global South, we're dealing with a digital divide. The idea of having a funded program where there's a handful of maybe site directors that have access to iPads. I can use my own book grant. I'll get an iPad. But we haven't reached that point yet. But this is, look, this is the goal.
00:36:22
Speaker
This is the goal. I'll tell you recently, and I wouldn't say it hasn't worked for us, but we're still working on it, is we recovered at White Marl this Taino pre-Columbian settlement dating between around 8,900.
CT Scanning in Archaeology
00:36:39
Speaker
It's about, let's say, 1600 through Spanish contact. We recovered the Yui Mona team of archaeologists, along with the Jamaican National Heritage Trust team of archaeologists, a pot burial. So it's a ceramic pot. These have been found before at White Morrow, one other one, but it was during
00:36:57
Speaker
I think it was in the 60s, but it's a ceramic vessel with human remains on the inside, right? Without excavating or essentially destroying this really significant, delicate
00:37:14
Speaker
feature, we tried to do a CT scan. So again, collaboration, we contacted UE medical team. Michael Gardner was my point of contact over there along with specialists from the JNHT and we took in this pot
00:37:30
Speaker
ran it through the CT scan, got the data, and we're now working with bioarchaeology specialists over in Leiden University. Dr. Haley Michelberg, as well, included there. But it's been a bit fuzzy, I'll tell you what. We're getting back mixed readings. Maybe this is the CT scan technology
00:37:51
Speaker
that we have access to over here. It's very hard to separate the bits and pieces of soil, stone, other inclusions from what is likely at this point a pretty fragmented
00:38:06
Speaker
human body, likely a baby, but there's also been pot burials found with adult cranium inside. So we still don't know what it is, and we still don't know if it'll necessarily work, but you don't know if you don't try, right? And these efforts with the use of technology means that that pot burial that was imagined as a forever place, it's a very what,
00:38:35
Speaker
significant spiritual item. It now doesn't need to be dug through, destroyed, as long as we can. And we'll continue trying to use these non-invasive technologies in archaeology. So it hasn't really worked yet, but I hope it does and I hope we have more to talk about.
00:38:58
Speaker
Well, with stuff like that, it might just improve over time as well. Well, and I want to say there's a clear, and I'm sorry to interrupt, but there is a clear divide with the use of CT scan, drones, microscopes in something like archaeology over in the Caribbean, over in Jamaica. I'll tell you what, I'm in the humanities over here. That oftentimes sets you up more to be
00:39:26
Speaker
referred to in the same breath as poetry than in hard science or serious laboratory science, right? So we're dealing with a certain lack of connection that I hope my presence and work over here will benefit. And look, and I'll just say beyond that, in terms of failures, the Sokia Total Station, I think I forgot what series I have,
00:39:53
Speaker
CX series, I think. I'm not trying to put them on blast, but that has been one of the hardest systems to... And I was familiar with Total Stations beforehand, but now I think I've lost it entirely. So for your listeners, Sokia, CX series, that's a hard one to get your mind around. And maybe there's a listener out there that can really help me on the right track. But I've struggled in the field when it's sweaty, it's raining, it's miserable. I need a bit of help from Sokia.
00:40:23
Speaker
Yeah, indeed. All right. Well, that's about
Merchandise Promotion and Conclusion
00:40:26
Speaker
it. All we have for today. So we'll probably get some links from you about where people can learn more about some Jamaican archaeology and what you guys are doing down there. But for now, Zach, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you. Yeah. Paul, Chris and your viewers. I really do appreciate the opportunity to talk about what technology Jamaica archaeology.
00:40:46
Speaker
All right. Perfect. Well, thanks a lot, Zach. And we'll hopefully have you back on again sometime when you improve those CT scan results. Hey, there you go. And I'll have drone stories. Hopefully I don't lose it. That's right. Much respect, guys. Much respect. Thanks a lot. All right. Take care.
00:41:04
Speaker
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00:41:24
Speaker
All right. Welcome back to the architect podcast episode one
Decibel Meter Feature on Apple Watch
00:41:27
Speaker
13. And this is the app of the day segment. And on the last episode, uh, I reviewed the new announcements from Apple and I've had a little time to play with some of those things. And one thing I want to highlight particular that I think is actually really beneficial for everyone, but possibly even for archeologists who are out monitoring or something where they're in a, they're not in a forest or out in the open desert, like they usually are where it's nice and quiet. Um, but it's the new decibel meter on the, um, Apple watch.
00:41:54
Speaker
Now you can download decibel meters for your phone all over the place, but the downside is you, of course, have to pull your phone out of your pocket or your backpack or wherever it's at, open up the decibel meter. And if you've got a case on it, you're probably affecting how the sound is coming into that microphone. And maybe it's not that accurate, especially if you're holding onto it, you've got gloves, something like that. Well, I've got the watch series five, which is the, um,
00:42:15
Speaker
And the minute I say series, all my series devices take off and go nuts. But I've got the watch series five and I updated it to OS six and I updated the phone to iOS 13. And with that, I got the decibel meter on this watch. Now it's really, really cool. Like we were at a, I just turned all this on on Friday.
00:42:35
Speaker
as before we're recording this and we're recording this on a Tuesday. And on Saturday, we were down at a wedding in Las Vegas. And when they were playing the music for the dancing later on, I turned on the decibel meter and it was hanging around 90 to 99, which is like super loud.
00:42:52
Speaker
And it was giving me these warnings saying you're in a dangerous noise environment. You better not stay there very long. And I was like, Jesus, we never know these sorts of things, right? I mean, you know intuitively that it's loud. But are you able to really quantify how much damage is doing to your ears? And the nice thing about the decibel meter is they made a watch face for it where it puts the decibel meter on the bottom with this graphical format and then a few other things that you might want up there that you can kind of change. But it's a really neat watch face for that.
00:43:19
Speaker
I really loved it. And if you've got the decibel meter on all the time with that watch face, it will just, you don't have to actively do anything. You just pull up your watch, look at it, and there it is. And then, um, uh, if you are in a heavy noise environment, it will, it will tap your wrist and ping you and say, Hey, you're in a heavy noise environment. Cause maybe you didn't realize it. Maybe you're drunk. I don't know, but maybe whatever happened, well, I mean, there you go. Um,
00:43:44
Speaker
A wedding in Vegas, no less. I can't even talk about it. Stay there, right? That's right. That's right. So anyway, it was really cool, because for those reasons. Now, one thing that you get with the new OS, the new watch, as I mentioned, is a longer battery life. Which I can tell, you always get a longer battery life, because they always increase battery technology year after year, and they always increase efficiency of the software and the programs. So they actually use less power. So those things increase battery life.
00:44:14
Speaker
By installing the new operating system and this new feature on a watch that doesn't have the increased hardware or hardware acceleration or battery life, my watch almost never dies, but it's died the last three days in a row by like eight o'clock at night.
00:44:29
Speaker
So, and I haven't been doing anything crazy. And the only thing I can think of is I put this new operating system on and the only thing I can think of that's running in the background is the decibel meter. So I took the watch face off and it seems to be doing better now. It's three o'clock in the afternoon. I have my watch on since 5.30 and it's down to 72%. So that's about normal.
00:44:49
Speaker
So, yeah, I don't know. I really like the feature, but I would caution you about battery life, especially if you're not buying the new watch and you're installing WatchOS 6 on an older watch, even the Series 5 like I've got, which is just last year's watch. So,
00:45:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's a short one today, but I didn't actually even think I was going to get it. I was really surprised to see it on there because I thought it was going to be a feature they reserved for the newer watch because of the hardware and the battery, but nope, I got it on mine. And I'm not sure, you know, they have the ability to restrict this farther back. So if you've got like a series three or something like that, or a series four,
00:45:27
Speaker
I don't know if you'll get it or not. So it might not be a problem. But anyway, it's kind of a neat feature. Well, run for a couple of days without it and see if your battery life goes back up and then report back to us so we know.
00:45:40
Speaker
Exactly, exactly. That's exactly what I'm doing. All right, what do you got today, Paul? Well, just a couple random notes. I don't have any new app that I've been playing with lately. I have one that I download today. I might review it next time, but I haven't had the chance to work with it much. I managed to forget my usual microphone in the country, and so I'm speaking on a headset. So if I sound different than normal, that's why.
00:46:05
Speaker
I'm not sure if I had the headset in the house. I downloaded an app called Microphone, which lets me use my iPhone as a USB mic. I'll play with that a little bit and get back to you as to whether or not I find that useful. Aside from that, the notes, I think it's hilarious that Series 5 sets off your series because you're Siri, excuse me.
00:46:27
Speaker
series because it's Syria, multiple things. Never mind. Because that was my one of my notes is that I've started teaching a class here on Wednesday evenings at Cooper Union on the art and architecture of the engineer east and so every time I say Assyrian
00:46:46
Speaker
Yeah, Siri pops on and tries to do some lookup right in the middle of class. It's really disruptive. I know that I can turn it off before class, but I don't think of it. I do put my phone on silent. I put my computer on. I turn notifications off on my computer. I quit out of all my email clients and everything just so I don't have stuff popping up while I'm trying to teach.
00:47:07
Speaker
And yet Siri keeps on chiming in because I in order to turn it off the only way I've been able to find you have to go into settings Scroll down until you see Siri and search and then turn off listen for hey Siri
00:47:20
Speaker
Which apparently, by the way, I say it sounds exactly like a Syrian. Or vice versa. I look to see if there's a shortcut to do it. I look to see if I could add it into the control center, and it doesn't seem like I can toggle Siri on and off easily. So it's just a few extra steps, a little more hassle it needs to be.
00:47:39
Speaker
Another thing, I mentioned Google News a few episodes back that I've been using. I continue to use it and I continue to like it. I still have troubles with opening up things in Safari and now with the new version of the iOS. It buried it just a little deeper when I go to
00:47:57
Speaker
to open something in iOS, I have to hit the share button and then push the panel up to see open in browser. It took me a few times before I realized that because there's no indication there's more stuff down below the bottom edge of the of the screen. So, you know, why would I look there? There wouldn't be. It looked like the entire panel had popped up, but the entire panel hadn't popped up. So that's been tripping me up. I think that's a feature of iOS, not a feature of Google News.
00:48:25
Speaker
because I think I've seen it in similar sort of pop up plus more if you see if you grab that tab and push it up a bit. That's just a heads up for anybody that seems to have lost options for sharing from whatever apps they're using. The other thing about Google News, though, that I found a little kind of perplexing is that every now and then I get news articles that come through from BBC Gehooza.
00:48:53
Speaker
And I don't know what the who's is because as far as I can tell, it's a probably East African language.
00:49:03
Speaker
But maybe not like a recognized language, but more like a pidgin language. And it's phonetic, it's written phonetically with the ASCII alphabet, and I think BBC are the only ones that use it. So it's odd every time I see a headline come up and it looks like gobbledygook to me, and then I look more closely and I see a little BBC kahoosa badge.
00:49:26
Speaker
I haven't seen that actually for about a week now, but now I get the same thing basically with BBC Samali, transliterated with ASCII.
00:49:36
Speaker
At least Somali I can deal with because of all the time I spent in Yemen, I kind of feel like there's some sort of cultural zone there around the Arabian Sea. Not that I speak a word of Somali, but at least that's interesting to me. At least that I can see why it might possibly, based off of the kind of articles that I have in my feed, it would pull that up. But that BBC go who's a thing just baffles me. So if anybody listening to this can explain to me what that is.
00:50:05
Speaker
All my Google searching turned up absolutely nothing other than, oh yeah, this is BBC doing something for some people somewhere in Africa, which is for me pretty useless. All right then. Well, that's weird. Yeah, really weird.
00:50:20
Speaker
Yeah. Every once in a while, I get a website pull up thinking I'm somewhere totally wacky and I'm wondering, it's based on your URL. Your location services or the route to the website as it detects it, whatever.
00:50:39
Speaker
I feel like if you navigate to a website and you've been on a bunch of other websites and that website is pulling up in French or Italian or something like that because it thinks you're there, that you probably went through some other website that's doing some wacky things to you right now. Like it maybe downloaded some code and it's doing some interesting things. So I think it's time to clear your cookies in history and sending all your search traffic to somebody in Bulgaria.
00:51:05
Speaker
Right. Exactly. So anyway, all right. Well, I think that's it. If you have any questions for Zach, our previous interview, the first part of this episode, then please send them on over. You can comment on the archaeology podcast network page.
00:51:20
Speaker
for this show, arcpodnet.com forward slash archaeotech forward slash 113. You can also send me an email chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com or both Paul and I's Twitter handles and everything is all on the website at that same link I just mentioned. Also, if you have any guest recommendations, if you're working with somebody, if you are somebody that's doing some cool things, even if it's not architect related, we got lots of shows on the APN.
00:51:44
Speaker
And we can find a home for you and a host for you and get your information out to the world. Because like Zach said, archaeologists are really good at collecting data, but they're not very good at disseminating data. And one of the ways we can do that that is really easy for you to do is on a podcast. And we get thousands and thousands of hits from people around the world. And it's a really good way to get your research out there and really just inform the public and other archaeologists about what you're doing.
00:52:07
Speaker
Well, I think that's all we've got this week. Paul, thanks for coming on and invoking everyone's series, and now they're all turning it off. Sure. I hope I did, and I sure I taught them how to turn it off for the duration of the episode, or their lecture, or whatever.
00:52:24
Speaker
Well, unlike Amazon, and I won't say the name, because it will turn everything on if you say it. And I think they like that by design. So if you go into somebody's house, you can actually activate their device by saying the key phrase, right? But Apple actually got rid of that a few years ago on one of the operating system updates. It's now keyed to your voice. Your devices should be. And that's why I can say it, and it doesn't invoke my wife's devices, but she can say it, and it doesn't invoke my devices.
00:52:52
Speaker
It's mostly good. If you have somebody with a similar tone of view, it could still set it off. But I should be able to say, hey, Siri, and only have my watch and my phone. Yep, there they go. Activate and nobody else's. I seem to remember that being a minor plot element in how maybe Neil Stevenson, early one of his books,
00:53:13
Speaker
where he talks about running through the library at the school and turning everybody's computers on or off because they all had voice activation. At the time it seemed kind of ridiculous and now it seems kind of real.
00:53:23
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey, I'll just leave you with this then. We was surfing the Apple TV last night on the trailers. We were looking at movie trailers and there's a movie coming out. I don't, it's coming out sometime in the next couple of months, but it's called death. There's an app for that. And apparently there's this app that everybody downloads. Like it goes viral and people are people are, and it shows the exact second, like how many days, hours, minutes, seconds you have until you die. Just tell you how you're going to die.
00:53:51
Speaker
And then people are joking around. They show in the interview of the trailer, people are like, oh, look, 57 years. Oh, look, 46 years. And then this woman picks it up, and she's like, two days and three hours. And she's like, 25. Wait, why are we laughing at this? Yeah, exactly. Apparently, it turns into a final destination thing. If you try to thwart it, death will find you one way or the other. Nice. So yeah. Anyway.
00:54:19
Speaker
on that note. On that cheery note. Be sure to turn it next time. That's right. That's right. Okay. Well, thanks a lot, Paul. And thanks everybody for listening and we'll see you next time. Thanks, Chris. See you.
00:54:38
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Archaeotech Podcast. Links to items mentioned on the show are in the show notes at www.archpodnet.com slash archaeotech. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com and paul at lugall.com. Support the show by becoming a member at archpodnet.com slash members. The music is a song called Off Road and is licensed free from Apple. Thanks for listening.
00:55:03
Speaker
This show is produced and recorded by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.
00:55:25
Speaker
Thanks again for listening to this episode and for supporting the Archaeology Podcast Network. If you want these shows to keep going, consider becoming a member for just $7.99 US dollars a month. That's cheaper than a venti quad eggnog latte. Go to arcpotnet.com slash members for more info.