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Ranger Danger - Episode 27
123 Plays8 years ago
It's the end of field season, so it's time to discuss field work do's and don'ts and then get safety conscious with a talk about the dangers of field archaeology. I also threw in a shorty news piece about glacier archaeology because COOLNESS.
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Transcript
Welcome and Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
Excitement of Field Season
00:00:23
Speaker
It's Jenny and I welcome you back to the podcast. It is The Struggling Archaeologist's Guide to Getting Dirty, episode 27. And I am back to bring you a great summer podcast.
00:00:40
Speaker
because it is finally field season again for all you archaeologists out there. Very exciting time, lots of stuff going on and so of course the pod has to keep up with all of that jazz and so that's kind of what we're gonna be talking about today on the pod. I'm gonna start, I want to start calling it the pod.
00:01:06
Speaker
because that is what John and Hank Green call their podcast on their podcast. And they're kind of like my idols in the world of education and entertainment and new media. So yeah, I want to be just like them.
00:01:25
Speaker
And so Nicole pod just sounds cooler, right?
Advice for Beginner Archaeologists
00:01:30
Speaker
anyways, so Yes today on the pod. We're gonna be talking a little bit about field school about excavation and I'm gonna be going over kind of an interesting
00:01:43
Speaker
Last week I've had talking with some other archaeologists out there about cautionary tales for the beginner or archaeologist who's volunteering maybe or just starting to get into it who hasn't had that much time out in the field. Just some sort of advice going into working in this
00:02:13
Speaker
You know crazy crazy world and especially information about the dangers of archaeology Which you know you I know I did a podcast probably last year the year before
00:02:28
Speaker
I'm giving a lot of advice about what you should bring with you into the field. I answer a lot of emails and questions from people about how they should prepare to go digging and that's great. And we can hash that over too as well on this podcast. But a lot of the times I don't think a lot of people get a lot of proper warning or safety sort of training before they go out there and they think, oh, I'm just gonna go out and I'm gonna
00:02:58
Speaker
trial and a shovel and a dig and it's been great and unfortunately there are a lot of things that you kind of have to be aware of going into this the physical portion of this profession that you may not that may not be on your mind you know so it's always good to sort of have
00:03:19
Speaker
this stuff brought to the surface so that you are aware of it going into these situations so that you can be safer, your team can be safer and just so that's something that you're thinking about as you're preparing and as you're heading out there into the field to dig which a lot of people are doing this summer and so yes, I'm just sort of excited to talk about that with you because I had some really fun conversations about it and I'll explain how all of that went down in a little bit but
00:03:49
Speaker
Anyway, so I don't know, I was thinking of calling this podcast episode 27 Granger Danger, but then again if you've never, if you're not a Harry Potter nerd like me and you've never
00:04:05
Speaker
seeing the very Potter musical on YouTube then you probably don't know what Granger Danger is and you might just, that might go way
Naming the Episode: Ranger Danger
00:04:14
Speaker
over your head. So maybe I'll call it Ranger Danger because a lot of archaeologists work for the National Park Service and they are subject to the same type of dangers as any other type of regular old archaeologist out there. In fact, Ranger Archaeologists
00:04:33
Speaker
Sometimes there's a lot more type of danger because they work in a lot of situations like they work with forest fires and a lot of really interesting geographic environments so maybe they're at more danger than even the average archaeologists.
Podcast Structure Overview
00:04:56
Speaker
So maybe Ranger Danger is a better name for this podcast than an obscure Harry Potter reference that probably none of you will get.
00:05:08
Speaker
So that's what the podcast's going to be and then I think if we have time, depending on how much I talk, we might be able to sneak in a little bit of an old favorite segment that I used to that we haven't had in a while, some shorty news. Yes, shorty news. It would be really fun if I could
00:05:35
Speaker
if I could get some shorty news going on up in here at the end of this pod.
Preparing for Fieldwork
00:05:41
Speaker
So that's what is going to go down. And let us just sort of dive into it. Okay, so field season is upon us. And a lot of archaeologists, if you are doing a field school, you have started your field school, I am assuming. And a lot of archaeologists who are working on research projects in the field are already getting that going.
00:06:10
Speaker
This is probably a little late as far as people who have questions about what to bring or how to prepare for for a dig or a field school or even a volunteer experience because there are many many places and ways that you can volunteer if you would like to be involved in an archaeological project and so I will
00:06:30
Speaker
definitely include some links in the blog post for this on ways that you can find volunteer opportunities not only in places near you but around the world where you could live out your dream as an archaeologist in the fields of
00:06:47
Speaker
Israel or Egypt or Greece or Mexico. I don't know places where people dream about doing archaeology. It depends on who you are.
00:07:01
Speaker
where that might be. For me, it's Scotland. I dream of being an archaeologist on the rainy, muddy, soggy, grey fields and moors and highlands of Scotland. So, yes.
00:07:19
Speaker
I completely forgot what that had to do with what I was talking about. But oh yes, yes, we were leaving our dreams out because you too can be an archaeologist if you would like to volunteer if you're not a professional or in school or anything like that.
00:07:36
Speaker
Yes, and I will provide some information for you guys as to how you might do that. So, yeah, live out your dreams. Be a shovel bum for a summer. There are lots of chances for you to do that. And so, yeah, so even you could benefit from this podcast.
00:08:00
Speaker
Hey, hey there guys, it's Future Jenny. Yes! Woo-hoo! Future Jenny! Jenny from the future of this podcast. And I'm here just to let you know that if this is not something that you're interested in hearing about, maybe you don't have any plans to dig, you don't care what people bring on digs, and you don't have anything to prepare for, and you would rather skip this entire discussion on my advice for heading out into the field for the more non-experienced of us shovel bombs than field
00:08:30
Speaker
free to skip forward in this podcast to about the 16 minute 30 seconds spot where I will change the subject finally to something that may be more interesting to you, which is our discussion on the dangers of archaeology, which I promise is a lot more exciting than why you shouldn't bring a garden trowel to your first excavation. So yes, enjoy that. And now back to the first part of this podcast. Enjoy!
00:09:05
Speaker
If it's your first time digging or you're not a seasoned shovel bum, then I will also link a podcast that I did a while back in which I talked about how to prepare for field school and the type of things that you're going to want to bring with you. And a lot of that depends on where you're digging, what the project is, and what
00:09:28
Speaker
organization you are working with. And if you're in school, a lot of the requirements and materials that you're going to need for the specific project we're working on will be provided to you by your department.
00:09:43
Speaker
And so you will be able to go through them to find out what is most apt or fitting for your situation. But just in general, you know, tips, I'm not going to go over too much. Don't bring a gardening trowel.
00:10:02
Speaker
That is, um, I've seen it done. Don't do that. We don't use gardening trowels in archaeology. You need a very sharp flat surface in order to do the type of excavation that we need to perform. We need to have instruments that are, uh,
00:10:21
Speaker
able to shave very fine layers of soil and deposition. And so we do very detailed work with those trowels. So we actually use a masonry style trowel and there are a couple of different styles. I prefer the rectangular trowel especially for when I'm doing walls.
00:10:45
Speaker
That's my favorite. But you know, you gotta have a regular size and shaped trowel as well. So definitely I can link some of that below as well with the blog. But yeah, just remember don't go with a trowel that is bowl shaped in the middle as a gardening trowel. That is the wrong choice. Don't do that thing. Don't be that person.
00:11:14
Speaker
And so some of the most important instruments besides trowels hopefully Whoever you're digging with will be providing a lot of these like shovels five gallon barrels for which we Transfer dirt to be sifted. They will hopefully be providing mesh Sifters for you and
00:11:42
Speaker
I don't know, any type of heavy equipment or GPS units, total stations for geolocating all of your site information, that type of thing. But personally,
00:11:59
Speaker
You know, you're gonna need probably your trowels, your rulers, a whole array of clothing items to keep you safe and comfortable in whatever environment you're digging in, but make sure that they include a hat and gloves and probably long sleeves and long pants, sturdy.
00:12:27
Speaker
Pants are a must. Boots, oh gosh, you're gonna need really good boots, especially if you're on a survey project and you are gonna be walking around, you're gonna need really comfy boots and make sure you break them in before you get to field school or your dig or wherever you're going. Because if you are hiking miles and miles and miles a day and you haven't broken your boots in yet, that's really gonna suck for you. So yeah, do that. Definitely do that thing.
00:12:56
Speaker
A lot of archaeologists wear fishing style shirts out in the fields. If you didn't know this, we don't all wear the safari style Indiana Jones shirt, although those are nice. A lot of us wear these really great, breathable, lightweight fishing style shirts that have openings for mesh in the back that make them more breathable. They're lightweight, they're moisture wicking.
00:13:22
Speaker
These are the type of shirts that you definitely want to invest in if you're going to be doing a lot of work in hot environments. And long sleeved, always preferable to short sleeved because you never know if you're going to be hacking your way through a forest and you're going to be in the middle of a briar patch, which I have found myself in wearing short sleeves. You don't want to be in that position. You're going to want long sleeves to protect your arms from not only plants,
00:13:51
Speaker
wildlife insects but also the Sun so yeah long sleeves please long sleeves long pants don't ever wear shorts on a dickside that's my new song hope you like it hats bandanas are generally good because you're probably gonna be sweating a lot
00:14:12
Speaker
So bandanas are nice to mop up that sweat. You're gonna need some good shades and some really comfy socks. A lot of people like wool socks with hiking boots. I wasn't a fan of them. So I don't know, you gotta figure that out on your own.
00:14:30
Speaker
Okay, so that's that and then depending on if it's gonna be cold or warm, you can add layers appropriately. But generally, you're not gonna wanna dig in anything much less than sturdy cargo style long pants and a lightweight long sleeve shirt like the ones, like a Columbia or something that I've described previously.
00:14:56
Speaker
And so, I don't know, I'm gonna go in too much detail about all this stuff we're gonna need to bring into the field. We do a lot of measuring, so, you know, metric tape, rulers, three-sided rulers that you can use to map with are always a must, at least for me, because I'm a huge mapper, I love mapping.
00:15:22
Speaker
Lots of Sharpies, pencils, a clipboard to keep all of your paperwork in, a little field notebook that should hopefully be provided for you if you're a part of an organization or a field school, and multi-tool things like you're gonna want a leatherman on your belt, a nice sturdy belt, maybe a machete. I don't know. One of my first projects, the director called that Mechate's
00:15:50
Speaker
And so whenever I talk about them now I have to call them machetes instead of machetes. But that's always a good thing to have because you're probably hacking through some stuff at some point. You're gonna want clippers for roots and
00:16:07
Speaker
scissors for very tiny roots if you're trying to photo clean a unit or something. Oh my lord this could just go on and on and on and you are probably bored especially if you are not someone who excavates or has plans to excavate anytime soon. So why don't I just direct you to what I've said previously on this subject but that's all I'm going to talk about here on the podcast.
00:16:32
Speaker
And so we're going to move into the next topic of the dangers of archaeology. Yes, the dangers. This topic is a little bit more sexy.
Dangers in Archaeological Fieldwork
00:16:43
Speaker
And so hopefully this will be more exciting to all of you non-diggers, shovel bums out there, and shovel bums alike. I like to think that it's sexy enough for all people. So let's get started talking about the things that you're going to keep in mind and
00:17:01
Speaker
prepare for because you do not want to get hurt out in the field this summer my friends and I don't want you to get hurt either so be careful and listen to this and prepare best be prepared just like Scar says in the Lion King and let's go
00:17:22
Speaker
Alrighty then, let's get on with our discussion on the dangers of archaeology. Now this is something if you have always thought archaeology like you hear and you're like many people I say I'm an archaeologist too are like oh that's the most awesome career that's so cool I've always wanted to be an archaeologist blah blah blah blah and you're right it is a cool career we know that.
00:17:44
Speaker
And we think it's awesome too. But there are a lot of things that you probably have not considered about exactly what an archaeologist goes through on an average survey or excavation when we're working outside. I will remind you that the majority of archaeologists spend a large quantity of our time working indoors, in offices, at our computers, doing research, writing, publishing, teaching.
00:18:13
Speaker
there is a just a massive amount of work that goes on behind the scenes indoors for every day that you spend outside in the field. And so that is not a very dangerous part of our jobs, thankfully. We do put ourselves into a certain amount of risk once we got into the great outdoors to do what we are better known for in the wider world and the culture for doing.
Risk Assessment and Safety Measures
00:18:40
Speaker
And so I thought it'd be really fun or interesting at least for a lot of people to hear a little bit more of the underbelly side of life as an archaeologist and talk about some of the hazards that we face that you might not have considered or that you should probably know about if you are thinking about a life in this career field.
00:19:02
Speaker
And you probably will find it interesting even if you are not thinking about a life in this career field because it's something that you probably have not put that great amount of thought into. But I feel like you'll have a whole new respect for archaeologists once you hear a little bit more about the stuff that we go through on an average project and how it's just interesting how all of these risks and sort of the things that you have to consider
00:19:26
Speaker
when planning a dig, when going out there, when doing this job, how it differs per season, per part of the world you're digging in, the people who are around you. It's something that is a big part of the job is risk assessment and dealing with the possible things that could go wrong on a dig. So yeah, the
00:19:49
Speaker
The other part of our job, when we dig and we hike and we find things and we record history and we help preserve things for posterity, for heritage, for human culture and all that is wonderful. But yeah, there is a lot of stuff that could go wrong.
00:20:14
Speaker
The CRM Archaeology Podcast brings together a panel of cultural resource management professionals to discuss the issues that really matter to the
Technical Skills and Social Media
00:20:22
Speaker
profession. Find out about networking strategies, job hunting, graduate programs, and much more. We'll often feature interviews with college professors, CRM business owners, and experts as well. Check out the show on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com forward slash CRM Arc Podcast. Let's get back to the show.
00:20:53
Speaker
The interesting story I was going to tell you is that I came up with this topic. I've been working on my technical skills because, you know, besides putting together a podcast, which does sound like a rather impressive technical feat, I'm not the most technically inclined of people.
00:21:09
Speaker
So, you know, I'm trying to work on improving my tech savviness. And so I've been working on some graphic design things lately to work on, you know, to use within this world of e-learning, you know, online education that I love being a part of with this podcast and my blog and educational programs that I would like to design. And so I was working on an infographic. I'm sure you all know what infographics are.
00:21:35
Speaker
and I wanted a very sort of an interesting topic for my infographic about archaeology and for some reason this thought of the danger of archaeology just popped into my head because thinking about a map that I could make and then I was going to plot out all the different parts of the world and what what the biggest hazards are you know differing by continent and all this stuff so I was making this this infographic and I wanted to have a some sort of graph or poll in there and so I decided to post a poll on my twitter at struggling arc
00:22:05
Speaker
And so I came up with this poll and I asked and I got some really interesting responses from the other archaeologists that are in the Twitter world, the Twitterverse with me. And so we had a really interesting discussion on dangers in archaeology, things that people have experienced. And so I thought this was going to be really exciting to bring to you guys and to discuss here.
00:22:29
Speaker
And so my poll only allowed four options. And so my options for the question of what do you consider to be the biggest danger in archaeology were self-injury, insects and snakes under one heading, hostile flora, and then the sun was the fourth part of my poll. And that was largely because the first poll I did did not include the sun as a danger.
00:22:55
Speaker
it included hostel flora and then also hostel fauna and it didn't include the sun and then some people pointed out that the sun is actually one of the biggest dangers to an archaeologist is things related injuries and sickness and things related to our exposure in
00:23:16
Speaker
the world under that big beautiful orb. And so I added that to my second poll and the results were that self-injury came in with the most votes at 41% of the poll. The sun was the second highest votes with 34% of the poll. Insects and snakes came in third with 14% and then hostile flora was 11% of the vote.
00:23:44
Speaker
So there you have it, what all of my archaeology friends on Twitter voted as the biggest dangers to archaeology and then I'm going to read you guys some of the other stuff that they wrote in beneath as other things that they face depending on where they dig and all of that which is very interesting.
00:24:02
Speaker
So I also want to point out in this discussion it's mainly going to be focusing on terrestrial archaeology because that is what I am more experienced in and what the majority of archaeologists in the world are more experienced in and what we're basically talking about here.
Comparing Terrestrial and Maritime Archaeology
00:24:18
Speaker
Although our underwater archaeology and maritime archaeology comes with a brand a whole new bag of risks and hazards and dangers that us terrestrial archaeologists can't even fathom.
00:24:32
Speaker
Get it? Fathom? It's a maritime joke. But yeah, anyway, once you add being underwater and all of the things that can happen when you are scuba diving to the mix, yeah, maritime archeology is quite dangerous and the ocean and rivers and, you know, water bodies in general tend to be dangerous places to hang out and then add that you are, you know, doing all of this scientific,
00:25:01
Speaker
things under the water and and there's boats involved it's a whole thing it's a whole thing and so as someone who has done a little bit of underwater archaeology i'll just tell you that the process to be to to be certified not only in scuba which you do have to do but also within the world of scientific diving is extensive and if you are going to be doing that in in life there are
00:25:29
Speaker
extensive training programs. My alma mater University of West Florida is one of the biggest schools in America for maritime archaeology and so we did have an extensive training program and they're very good at what they do but it does come with a whole buttload of extra inherent risks and so hats off to you my maritime friends.
00:25:53
Speaker
So in the world of terrestrial archaeology, risk assessment is performed before a dig. So what this means is that the people putting on the dig and those that we are working with in the community, if it's on private land or in the public sector, if it's on public land, we all sort of go over the considerations of potential hazards that could come from disturbing the earth during our work in the way that we like to do.
00:26:23
Speaker
And this can result in things like unstable ground surfaces or collapsing trench walls. These are all dangers that if you're an archaeologist who has been digging down into the earth and finds yourself sitting a couple of meters down in the ground, you should be worrying about. And so depending on the
00:26:44
Speaker
type of sediment you're working in, the manner in which you're excavating trenches or units or whatever, you have to think about these things. You may need to shore up your walls. There's a lot of stuff that you may have to do to make sure that you are safe in there and that the surface is not going to disappear beneath your feet or collapse on top of your head. So that's one thing. And then there are all the dangers that we could find underground once we get there.
00:27:12
Speaker
If you think that there's nothing under the surface but dirt and the occasional arrowhead, you are wrong! Wrong! Archaeologists often come across subsurface elements like modern
Risks on Construction Sites
00:27:24
Speaker
elements like pipes, electric and gas lines, bio-hazards like chemical waste,
00:27:30
Speaker
and even unexploded ordnance. And I have been there, people. This is a particular danger on military projects. So you will usually have, if you're working on a military site, some sort of briefing from the military on protocol in these situations and what to look out for and blah, blah, blah.
00:27:49
Speaker
So before we start a project, we will have a plan for all of these potentialities, hopefully, that we have developed along with the people whose sort of home base we're working off of, depending on their experience in these matters. And then there's also a lot of different ways we do archaeology. Some archaeologists work on construction projects from time to time as monitors.
00:28:17
Speaker
And they also have to protect against possible accidents with heavy machinery, chemical and noise pollution. They wear helmets and ear protection because you can obviously experience significant hearing damage after a long time surrounded by all of those machines and that type of world. So that's an extra sort of thing that if you're working in that environment, you have to worry about.
00:28:46
Speaker
Okay, so there's that stuff. Then there's the injury that we can do to ourselves or each other. If you remember when polled, the majority of the professional archaeologists I asked, and if you were wondering, that number was 35 people who answered my poll. I know, not the most scientific of polls, but, you know, it was just an informal little thing. But anyway, the majority of those archaeologists that I asked stated that self-injury was the biggest danger to archaeologists.
00:29:16
Speaker
So being outside comes with its unique set of risks depending on where you are. And then there are also things that can compound the difficulties of maneuvering in dangerous environments like weather conditions, okay? So there's always a risk of falling, some other type of injury from nature that's pretty normal that can be expected. But especially when you've got a 20 pound backpack on or you're carrying some sort of large gear, it can be even
00:29:45
Speaker
more difficult, and if you are in some sort of weather condition, that can just make things worse. And in, you know, my experience, I've had to ford flooded rivers, climb wet rocks, traverse muddy and unstable terrain, make my way through minefields of menacing plants and sinking sands, and yes, actual minefields of unexploded ordnance.
00:30:09
Speaker
Not to the extent you're thinking of. It's just kind of like, oh hey, there may have been a bomb that went off course and landed out here somewhere in these 11,000 acres. So let's hope you don't run into it. But anyway, yes, these are all kinds of things that I've experienced. And they can be dangerous on their own. And then sometimes you get stuck in heavy winds, in rain or snow. And that just makes things even worse.
00:30:33
Speaker
So if you are out in the field and are just thinking, oh, I'm just gonna have a nice little leisurely walk through the fields, it will probably never be that simple.
00:30:46
Speaker
But a lot of that does depend on where you are and what the weather conditions are and what the terrain and the geography is like. So those are some of the things that you just have to kind of worry about with every step you take, you know, watching the ground to make sure you're not tripping or falling over something or falling off a cliff, you know, these type of things. No big deal, right?
00:31:09
Speaker
So that's just in getting around. And then there are the dangers when you are actually on an excavation project, which of course are many because you have pointy and sharp tools around you and in your hands on a daily basis.
00:31:28
Speaker
Things like shovels, trowels, machetes, shears. These can and have all done bodily harm to the user or someone nearby when used improperly. I have definitely heard of more than one archaeologist hacking a machete into their own leg. I'm not lying, that's a true thing that happens and I have heard of happening on many occasions.
00:31:53
Speaker
And then there's just this whole plethora of other risks that come with doing, you know, basically manual labor exposed in the elements throughout the day. So you also can run the serious risk of overexertion, of heat stroke, of dehydration, sunburn, and even, unfortunately, melanoma when working under the sun to the extent that a field archaeologist does without proper water, rests, of course, sunscreen, all of that, etc, etc.
00:32:22
Speaker
I know personally as a small person and as a woman that when I first started in archaeology I often tried to do too much just to prove that I was just as valuable as a man on a site and while the sentiment I think is valiant it can also be really dumb to do more than you're physically capable or to push yourself too hard which is something that
00:32:47
Speaker
I'm not saying only women might do this. A lot of men might try to do more than they probably should just to be the one who gets the most done, to look like the most valuable member on the team, the strongest, the best, all that, I don't know. So yeah, you can definitely lift too much. You can tear and sprain your muscles in this attempt. You can definitely end up putting yourself in danger.
00:33:09
Speaker
And some of this comes because there can be a lot of pressure on a site to get things done by a certain time and to try and finish something before the end of the dig, to find something you're looking for. Hopefully this never results in people being pushed too far. Hopefully everyone on the survey and excavation is taking regular breaks.
00:33:27
Speaker
breaks, drinking copious amounts of water, and being reminded by their supervisors to take it easy and to be responsible. So this type of overexertion, pushing too hard, pushing your crew too hard should hopefully never be happening, end of story. But I don't know, this is not a perfect world.
00:33:48
Speaker
And so these are definitely things that you need to be cognizant of and something that your supervisor, some people who are in charge of this dig should be, should have in mind at all times.
Emergency Preparedness in Archaeology
00:34:00
Speaker
And if you are in charge of the dig, you should definitely be thinking about throughout the day, how are your, how is your team doing? Do they need a break? Have they drank enough water? Have they eaten? You know, are they pushing themselves too hard or doing things that they are not capable of doing? So yeah, these are things that
00:34:18
Speaker
Supervisors should consider, along with many other things. If you're a supervisor, you got a lot to think about. Will any of your team be working alone? How are you gonna deal with that? How far away from the nearest town or hospital or local responders will you be? What if your communication fails? What if someone's bitten by a venomous snake or insect? What if a crew member has a medical emergency? Would you come face to face with an angry bear or bull or a farmer with a gun?
00:34:47
Speaker
What if you get lost? What if you're caught in a terrible storm? What if your truck dies? These are many possible situations that have happened to archaeologists before and probably will happen again. Some of them can be quite scary.
00:35:04
Speaker
And some of them you just get through with laughter. And hopefully preparation. Yeah, yeah, hopefully you've planned, you've prepared, you have first aid kits, you have contingency communication and navigation, you have egress routes, harsh weather gear, etc, etc. But, as our Lord and Savior, Indiana Jones, learned in his adventures, you honestly never know what could happen out there. Hopefully no one tries to rip out your heart and feed you to hungry alligators, but you never know.
00:35:34
Speaker
So be prepared.
00:35:37
Speaker
The good news is that the field and the industries that we often work for have health and safety regulations that work to keep us as safe as possible. This is why you often see archaeologists wearing hard hats and reflective vests on projects, going to safety briefings before heading into the field, and training and basic first aid. And there are some measures you should be taking to look after your overall health if you spend a lot of time outside and in certain environments anyway.
00:36:07
Speaker
like going to your doctor for skin checks, yearly keeping an eye out for ticks and symptoms of Lyme disease, which is a much more common disease in archaeologists than the general population just because of our exposure. And then obviously you should be investing in really good sunscreens, bug sprays, snake guards, boots, protective eyewear and clothing. Being smart and prepared is always the best way to prevent injury and sickness.
00:36:36
Speaker
This has been a PSA from The Struggling Archaeologist. The more you know. And now to wrap this segment up, I thought I would read off some of the things that I heard from the other archaeologists in our Twitter chat about their biggest dangers in the field because I got some really interesting and some actually scary replies that I think you're going to enjoy.
Anecdotes and Field Experiences
00:37:00
Speaker
So starting off from Dr. Donna Yates, she says, it turns out I am way allergic to ichu grass, which covers Bolivia, gloves at all times or balloon hands. Oh, I'm sorry, Dr. Yates, that sounds awful. And I also wanted to point out the, what I just realized is that ichu grass sounds a lot like achoo grass because of the allergies, get it? It's achoo grass.
00:37:29
Speaker
Okay, also Dr. Yates adds, where I work the biggie is altitude. It will mess you up. The only time I've ever had to be rushed to the hospital is altitude. Coupled with inability to sleep and constant fever. Yeah, that definitely doesn't sound like that great of a time. So here's the lesson for you kids. Maybe just avoid Bolivia altogether.
00:37:54
Speaker
Um, from John Lowe, a Texas archaeologist, he says, yikes. Texas has four types of poisonous snakes, feral hogs, alligators, ticks, mosquitoes, chiggers, fire ants, spiders, bears in some areas, extreme heat, poison ivy, and generally crazy pollen. And we also have cougars.
00:38:17
Speaker
I may have added some extra exclamation points in all caps, but I felt like it was kind of worth it because dang Texas, having worked in Texas, I can echo his sentiments. Dang Texas, why you gotta be so crazy? Ugh. So Texas, also a generally dangerous and not fun place to work.
00:38:41
Speaker
From pre-cat lady Kate Ellenberger, first field school got a huge balloon ingrown toenail. Ouch. Add another required mud walking in fields and lithics and sun, which equaled major infection and sun poisoning.
00:38:58
Speaker
So yeah, you're hiking a lot, especially if you're in a survey project. And so you probably haven't, you know, didn't think too much about the effect that that would have on your feet. But being an archaeologist, much like being a ballerina, is very hard on your feet. So expect blisters and infections and rawness and just general awful times for your feet, especially if your job requires tons of hiking.
00:39:28
Speaker
Good boots are a must. So yes, feet are a thing and sun poisoning is probably definitely not fun. So try to avoid those things. Then we have from Dr. Matt Pope of University College London. My nightmares are all about the sea. Tidal cut off and inundation when working the coast.
00:39:48
Speaker
Which sounds terrifying. As much as I love the sea and the coast, I don't know so much about working on the coast. That wouldn't be fun. Thank you for your answer, Dr. Pope.
00:40:07
Speaker
Women in Archaeology is a show about archaeology by the Women of Archaeology. An alternating panel of women archaeologists discuss the issues in archaeology that impact professionals and the public every day. Check out Women in Archaeology for a different perspective on the past today at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com forward slash WIA. Now let's get back to the show.
00:40:33
Speaker
from Colleen Morgan of the University of York, who I know has spent a lot of time excavating in Chadelhojek in Turkey. She says, Heatstroke is number one. Drinking-related accidents or after-works soccer is probably the second.
00:40:48
Speaker
Interesting. Though the urban archaeology stories are pretty bad too, including falling down boreholes, etc. Yes, that's something that we don't consider very often because we just imagine an archaeologist like out there in the wild, you know? But archaeologists also work in urban areas. Urban archaeology is a thing. And so that comes with a lot of its own problems. Falling down manholes and things like that would definitely not be good.
00:41:17
Speaker
And I'm sure a lot of things can go wrong when you are working subsurface in an urban environment. So, yeah, no good. And then we have Jens Notroph, which I think is how you pronounce your name. I'm sorry if I messed that up. A German archaeologist, he says, snakes. Why did it have to be snakes? Ah ha ha ha.
00:41:35
Speaker
Better not mess with a Levant viper. Yes, I know he works in the Levant. Those Levant vipers look pretty nasty. I'll put it. I'm definitely gonna try and avoid them at all costs. Although where I work, it's rattlesnakes. Why did it have to be rattlesnakes? Ugh. Then we have Girl with Trial, Kate Armstrong, who says landowners, sheepdogs, more like giant wolves, sunburn, Italian roads.
00:42:03
Speaker
So yeah, even friendly little sheep dogs or more like giant wolf sheep dogs can even be a problem. And as
Region-Specific Archaeological Challenges
00:42:12
Speaker
Kate points out, landowners, you don't generally think that you're going to have problems with people when working out in archaeology, but
00:42:20
Speaker
This is very difficult to deal with ethically and just because you don't want to tread too heavily on landowners or the people who are in the areas that you're excavating. Maybe they have something to do with the history you're excavating, which I have experienced personally. They may not always be very happy that you are there on or nearby property that they may
00:42:48
Speaker
working on somehow or lent or I don't know and maybe they don't like what you are investigating. You never know. So yeah landowners can be a big problem for us. Sometimes they prevent us from continuing our projects.
00:43:04
Speaker
There have been archaeologists approached with guns from angry landowners and people who are against what is going on. So that is always a thing that you have to consider and deal with as best you can, hopefully by egressing, leaving the situation and searching out a diplomatic way to solve it. And so thank you Kate for bringing that up because that's a big one.
00:43:33
Speaker
Then we have Karen Martin Stone, who says, in Northern Territory, Australia, my biggest risks are crocodiles, buffalo, death adders, other snakes, spiders, dehydration, etc. Then she added, I have been charged by a couple of buffalo. They can be very cranky. Ouch. Cranky, I should say. And as someone who has been to Australia, yes, Australia is basically just a giant red
00:44:02
Speaker
Ball of death so good luck to those My fellow Australian archaeologists out there. You are probably all gonna die at some point That is a fact
00:44:14
Speaker
Then we have August McMahon at the University of Cambridge. He's Mesopotamian archaeologist who says, none of the above, tornadoes, Giardia, and car accidents are what he worries about. Yeah, so I've been involved in, I wouldn't say a car accident per se, but a car mishap where our truck got stuck on a humongous boulder.
00:44:37
Speaker
which was kind of funny but also kind of tragic and annoying and took up the entire afternoon trying to fix to get it off and I can just imagine that actual car accidents because we do have to drive or take off-roading vehicles to many of our sites can be a huge danger and yeah things can go wrong wrong wrong
00:44:59
Speaker
tornadoes would be scary. And then there are just diseases in general, you know, depending on where you're working that are, you know, I don't know, transferred in many number of ways that you could be exposed to. So those are things you have to worry about. Spencer Carter of Durham University says permatrace. Yes, that would be bad. Very bad, bad, bad.
00:45:18
Speaker
And then Aesiran archaeology, who's an arctic sort of Canadian archaeologist, writes, in Canada it would be remote working, getting lost or trapped in hypothermia, even in the summer. Actually, I'd like to amend that to car crashes. It's always car crashes.
00:45:35
Speaker
So yes, another second's car crashes, and then the dangers of working in extreme environments, obviously, and when you are in the woods getting lost would be very bad. Working in winter as an archaeologist is not a lot of fun. We are not often imagined to work in winter environments, but we do, so always be prepared for that.
00:45:57
Speaker
Then AM Christiansen, a Roman archaeologist from Utah writes, So yes, another one for self-injury.
00:46:12
Speaker
Then the wonderful, amazing April Bezaw of Fassr writes, Yes, as a Northeasterner,
00:46:29
Speaker
I can concur that insects and ticks in general are very pesky critters and we are having actually a run on ticks at the moment in the Northeast. It's been a very, very bad two years for ticks for us.
00:46:45
Speaker
So that is definitely something to watch out for. I know John Low wrote back and said that he knew, I believe it was three archaeologists diagnosed with Lyme disease or melanoma in the last year or two. So very, very sad things that we all have to look out for.
00:47:03
Speaker
And then I'll just add from my own personal experiences, allergies to insects can be a mother. Personally, I'm allergic to fire ants and guess where they have lots of fire ants? Everywhere I've worked ever in the American Southeast and Southwest. So tons of fun. I didn't know I was allergic to fire ants till my first day when I got bit because I was digging a unit directly next to a fire ant hill.
00:47:31
Speaker
and there was basically no way to avoid them and I learned very quickly that that was ouchy no no bad in the words of how I speak to my 10 month old son.
00:47:42
Speaker
So yeah, it's fire in its bed. Barbed wire, also my enemy. I had to climb a lot of barbed wire fences on my last survey project. I would say at least eight fences a day. I had to cross. And I still actually have scars on my legs from getting eviscerated on them once or twice. They are, believe it or not, even more hazardous when you're heavily pregnant. Now that's surprising, but it's true. So I definitely had to figure out safe ways to get across.
00:48:12
Speaker
Barbed wire fences with my huge belly and lack of balance, which was fun.
00:48:18
Speaker
And then there's lightning. And this is a sore subject for me since I once kind of maybe got zapped by lightning through the groundwater at my site as we were scrambling to escape from a very sudden thunderstorm. So yeah, that's a bad thing. Don't be holding metal objects in your hands when trying to flee an archeological site from a thunderstorm. That can always end badly. So yeah, that's something you have to be very careful about.
00:48:47
Speaker
And then finally, don't ever let an archaeologist who's experimented with flint knapping tell you that they did not shed some blood on a daily basis. Because yeah, there's a reason stone tools and weapons took off and have persisted for 2.5 million years.
Conclusion of Dangers Discussion
00:49:02
Speaker
They are sharp AF. And if you don't know what AF stands for, look it up on the internets, people. I'm not gonna say it on the pod because I'm trying to keep this pod clean. But you know what I'm talking about.
00:49:14
Speaker
Alright, so this concludes my little conversation on the dangers of archaeology and I thank each and every one of my colleagues who took part in that discussion with me on Twitter. I learned many interesting things and I thank
Glacial Archaeology and Climate Change
00:49:28
Speaker
you all. I hope that it's been both entertaining, illuminating, and just fun and good times for everyone listening to take part in it as well.
00:49:40
Speaker
Moving right along, it's time for the last segment of the day, which I promised you in the beginning, and I think I have just about enough time to squeeze it in. Here's an old favorite for you. It's time for shorty news. Shorty news. It's time for shorty news. Today's news is not so much news, really, a news story, as it is something that's been going on and getting some press lately, and I wanted to talk about it really quickly, because I think it's really important.
00:50:09
Speaker
and that is glacial archaeology which I thought also worked really well with our theme today of stranger danger or ranger danger because glacial archaeology is a very dangerous form of archaeology it takes place in very dangerous places
00:50:27
Speaker
And the sheer act of going out into the wilds of Arctic regions of the world to recover and preserve artifacts and sites of cultural heritage importance is really important, but it's also very difficult. And the archaeologists who do this type of work take on a lot of risk just to preserve these wonderful artifacts and sites.
00:50:54
Speaker
That's why I wanted to talk about it today. It seems like it's kind of a new trend in the archaeology of glacial regions, although I'm sure it's not a trend so much. It's been happening for a long time, but it seems to be getting a lot of press right now for very important reasons, and that is because archaeology in glacial regions such as Scandinavia, North America, the Alps,
00:51:18
Speaker
where glacial archaeology takes place, is becoming much more important because of the rapid melting of the world's ice caps due to climate change. So, yes, humans deposited artifacts in these glacial areas of the world throughout the last, oh, I don't know, thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and they have magically been preserved by the sheer luck of the fact that they were deposited in places where they quickly became
00:51:46
Speaker
frozen in snow or ice and have remained that way because, as I'm sure you know, if you've listened to a lot of my podcasts about bog bodies and preservation and things like this, extreme climates are very good for preserving archaeological materials and extreme cold and waterlogged and extreme heat and arid areas are kind of the best places
00:52:10
Speaker
on the earth for the preservation of materials, especially organic materials, which do not preserve very well in other circumstances. And so, yes, we deposited them in these places and then we have also caused kind of their destruction.
00:52:28
Speaker
our potential destruction by our nasty habit of using products that lead to the melting of ice caps due to the increase of greenhouse gases in the environment. And so yeah, a lot of these places that they're not used to experiencing this much loss of ice and snow during the summer months.
00:52:51
Speaker
They're experiencing a lot more lately because of climate change. I hope what I just said it was really ranty and that it made sense to you because it made sense in my head and I'm okay with it so I'm gonna move on. Okay so what I'm speaking about specifically is a project. It's
00:53:10
Speaker
called the Glacier Archaeology Program. It was started in 2011 in Oslo, Norway to work continuously on the rescue of finds from these icy areas, specifically in Norway, but this is also something not this organization, but this type of work is also being done in other areas of the world too. But this one specifically has done a very good job
00:53:33
Speaker
of communicating their work and advertising to the public and trying to get the public involved in this preservation effort. So this program, the Glacier Archaeology Program, is run for the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo and the City Council of Opland. Okay, so, so far 49 glaciers and ice patches in Opland have been examined and have provided artifacts as part of this program.
00:54:03
Speaker
A total of around 2,000 items have been recovered including hunting tools, transportation equipment, textiles, leather, and clothing. And then zoological materials have also been recovered and these are things relating to animals. A lot of these are pack animals like horses. So you have things like bones, dung, antlers, and then
00:54:28
Speaker
Yeah, so that's a lot of really cool stuff to be looking at. And amazingly, these finds range from a little bit more recent in our history all the way back to about 6,000 years ago, which is pretty awesome. So the Glacier Archaeology Program has put together some really stunning videos for a YouTube series on their work, which include videos like, what does a glacier archaeologist do? What's our average day like? What kinds of finds are they running into?
00:54:57
Speaker
has climate change altered the environment they work in etc etc so i highly recommend checking them out i'm going to link them with this blog and i'll have links on my facebook and tumblr pages and so yeah they're just really great videos they really do a great job of explaining what they're doing why they're doing it why it's important and what it's like being someone working in these conditions which are very not
00:55:21
Speaker
necessarily normal conditions for an archaeologist. So that kind of makes the work that they're doing all the more amazing. So a few things about their work. Glacier archaeologists aren't actually, most of the time, excavating actual glaciers or anything, despite what the name sounds like, because artifacts that are caught in the path of an actual glacier don't usually survive it. They get steamrolled and they are either destroyed or they're extremely difficult to recover and they are also much deeper.
00:55:51
Speaker
because the bottom of a glacier is not easy to get to.
00:55:55
Speaker
So instead of actual glaciers, the archaeologists are usually working in areas that were recently occupied by ice patches that have melted or receded. Ice patches, as opposed to glaciers, are static, even though they can often form glaciers in the right conditions, like if they aren't melted prematurely, like we're seeing nowadays. So yeah, the melting of some of these ice patches, which can be millennia old, it poses a lot of problems for archaeologists when
00:56:25
Speaker
they melt, they expose artifacts that were deposited in them when they were forming, and when the artifacts appear, they are exposed to the environment for the first time in a very long time most likely, which can degrade them, it can even destroy them depending on the material that they're made out of, and so it's imperative to get to a lot of these artifacts very quickly because unless they are
00:56:50
Speaker
somehow magically re-engulfed in ice or snow, it might mean that that artifact will be lost forever. So the problem is that these areas are extremely difficult to get to, so fieldwork can often be very perilous. It usually only takes place during a brief period between the cold seasons in these arctic sort of northern regions, and when the cultural materials are uncovered,
00:57:15
Speaker
Once they're uncovered, then they're kind of open game. They can be moved around by rocks, by meltwaters, wind, or wildlife. And so the longer they sit around, the lesser the chance of them being recovered, especially in as good a condition as when they were buried or just recently uncovered.
00:57:35
Speaker
and their burial contexts are of course more likely to be disturbed. Although this is definitely a constant battle in glacial areas because many artifacts have been uncovered and reburied over the centuries because in these ice patch areas, this is where a lot more of the seasonal changes are taking place as opposed to the glaciers. So yeah, this is, it's something that they're dealing with anyway, which makes site interpretation extremely challenging in these areas to begin with.
00:58:05
Speaker
So when they are getting down to these really old layers finally melting that haven't melted for a long, long, long time and undisturbed materials are beginning to be found, it's unfortunately, I mean it's exciting for archaeologists, but unfortunately it's just happening more and more because there's more areas that are being melted and the snow is retreating further than it usually does. And so that's why it's of such importance that the teams get out there and record as much as possible when the weather is cooperating.
00:58:35
Speaker
And so that's what they're doing out there and the type of stuff they're dealing with. And what are they finding, you ask? Wonderful things, I say. Wonderful things. And these finds are spanning throughout the last 6,000 years. And that's due to the fact that before about 6,000 years ago, the Earth experienced a warmer period in which most of the Arctic regions in these areas thawed for a time.
00:59:02
Speaker
And so when that happened, any artifacts that were deposited then before the melt would not be preserved very well because they were exposed. They'd probably been moved around an awful lot. And when the glaciers did come back, they could have been reburied by them. So a lot of real artifacts prior to that period probably would not be
00:59:24
Speaker
in one piece, they probably would not have survived. But when ice started to come back, those are the really old ice patches that are now starting to be uncovered for the first time since that happened about 6,000 years ago during Norway's early Neolithic period.
00:59:41
Speaker
So they are finding things from that time period, which is really exciting, all the way up through some more recent stuff. There's definitely a lot of Viking stuff in there, which is always exciting. And so a lot of these finds include things like hunting materials, bows, arrows, and spears. A lot of these are complete with wood and sinew, which is not usually recovered with stone or metal.
01:00:08
Speaker
spearheads or arrowheads because the organic material doesn't usually survive except in climates like this. Then you've got clothing and shoes which are amazing because those almost never survive this range of time. It's very exciting to see clothing materials from such an old millenia. Then we have a lot of evidence of travel through mountain passes
01:00:32
Speaker
such as dead pack animals, horseshoes, ropes, and walking sticks. There's even a walking stick that is complete with runic inscriptions on it that they found. It's amazing. The picture is really great. It's on the website. And then they have, yeah, yeah. Well, anyway, that's
01:00:49
Speaker
That's the majority of the type of things that they're coming up with and the collection ranges from the Stone Age to the Iron Age. A lot of it represents early Norwegian hunter-gatherers and then you have the Vikings all the way up to medieval villagers. So
01:01:05
Speaker
And then you have this kind of separate thing where some of the newest levels of ice are also revealing more recent finds, like things like planes from World War II, which is also very exciting depending on what you're into, what type of things you like. Some people really like World War II planes like my husband. Yes, he's just a huge aeronautical history guy, so that would be more exciting for him. I don't know.
01:01:31
Speaker
I get excited by the shoes and the walking sticks and the cooking ware and things like that. So I don't know, we each have our things, you know? Yeah, it's just really exciting to see all of this stuff coming up and to see so much excellent preservation because of their glacial environments. So the fact that they have items like whole shoes and tunics being uncovered
01:01:58
Speaker
is a real treasure and it's an extremely important step in filling in the gaps in Norwegian history that are seldom seen elsewhere in Scandinavia because the conditions are not as good for preservation. So this is just some of the really exciting stuff that is happening in glacial archaeology right now.
Podcast Conclusion and Farewell
01:02:19
Speaker
And thanks to the Glacier Archaeology Program for providing people with a great website and this wonderful YouTube series where we can all get involved to learn a little bit more about what's going on with the environment and how that is affecting our cultural heritage and the items that are coming out of the ice in the world's arctic areas. So I highly recommend you check out their website. I will link that below for you.
01:02:45
Speaker
So that's gonna do it for shorty news, and for the entire podcast everybody, thank you so much for tuning in. I apologize for the long wait between this and our last podcast. If you've noticed, it's probably September now, and field season is most likely over, so this podcast may not be the most timely of things, at least the first portion may not be.
01:03:07
Speaker
But I promise you I actually did start recording it during field season. It's just that things got delayed and you know I kind of have to record during nap breaks now that I have a kid. So it's just a little bit more complicated. But I am going to keep trying to get out some great quality podcast material to you throughout the rest of the year.
01:03:28
Speaker
Make sure you check out the fancy dandy infographic that I created to go along with this podcast. It took me many hours to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator so I can make the dang infographics. I hope you enjoy.
01:03:43
Speaker
That's going to be it for us. I hope you all have a wonderful fall and we will be back sometime soon with another podcast for you. Make sure you check out, by the way, the Women in Archaeology podcast, which is brand new on the Archaeology Podcast Network.
01:04:00
Speaker
I believe we just published episode 8, which is going to come in very handy with the first part of this podcast because it's all about field gear and what we recommend taking into the field with you. I am a guest host on the Women in Archaeology podcast from time to time. I don't believe I'm in episode 8, but you can catch me on quite a few of the earlier ones and some more that are going to be coming out soon.
01:04:26
Speaker
So make sure you go to the archaeologypodcastnetwork.com to download that and check out all of the rest of the amazing podcasts on that site while you're there because there's some really good ones and you're gonna want to listen. And so that's gonna be it for today. Thank you. This has been the struggling archaeologist guide to getting dirty. I am your fearless host, Jenny, wishing you all a happy day. We'll talk to you again soon now. Bye bye.
01:04:57
Speaker
Okay, Harry Potter nerds, sing it with me. I'm falling in love, falling in love, falling in love. I need danger, danger.
01:05:19
Speaker
This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archaeologypodcastnetwork.com Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com