It has been quiet here, but hazelnut_relations is not dead. I’ve been doing other archaeology things, but I’m not prepared to pull the plug on this blog quite yet. One of the things I have been up to is starting a firm. You can now hire me for all – or almost all things archaeologically. Check out my website here: Archäologie Cornelissen.
Also, I’m still active on e.g. Twitter. Or otherwise hope to see you back here in the future. Take care!
Posted in archaeology
Tagged archaeology, Archäologie, archéologie, archcor, blog, blogging archaeology
It is already the last month of Doug’s Blogging Archaeology Carnival and although I have not been able to join in every month’s instalment, it has been great to see such a large part of the international archaeological blogging community come together and take part. However, it has been mostly bloggers from the English speaking world. And that is something I am a bit surprised about and I would really like to see changed. It would be fantastic to see more archaeologists from non-English speaking countries to start their own blogs and become more active on social media. So I would like to take the opportunity that Doug gave us by asking us where we are going with archaeological blogging or where we would like it to go and take stock of the archaeological social media and blogging situation in the country where I live and work: Switzerland.
Now, I am not sure I have not missed anything here or there, but as far I am aware there are at the moment, beside this blog, only two archaeological research blogs being actively maintained in Switzerland: kAltes Eis, the newest, and Silvretta Historica, which I helped set up in 2011. The Alpine Archaeology blog was part of a course I taught at the University of Zürich in 2011 and 2013. A facebookpage which resulted from that is still maintained by a few colleagues and me. The L’Arkeoblog is, as far as I know, the only other active personal partly archaeologically themed blog in Switzerland. Surprisingly, there no other personal research blogs by research students or other archaeologists that I know of, although I have noticed some MA-students and a few other archaeologists have started posting photos and other information about their research on facebook (e.g. MA dissertation). And the Universität Bern has a facebookpage for their training excavation in Buchs-Chammeren, canton Lucerne.
Quite some private archaeological and heritage firms and museums are present on social media, but most of their content is not research related and are limited to exhibition or event related items. To my amazement no Swiss archaeological university department or cantonal archaeological unit (who do most archaeological field and post-ex work) are present on social media, let alone maintain blogs. Especially the units are very active in public archaeology, but rely solely on the more traditional channels: the print media, TV and radio, as well as open days and guided tours. However, I have to say, when I worked for the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Berne, I was allowed to blog about my work with them here (see the posts here).
The reason for their absence on social media is, I believe, threefold: personal, resource related and the restrictive communication policies of the cantonal governments. To start with the personal, I have the impression that many Swiss archaeologists wrongly (!) do not consider themselves to be tech-savvy enough for using social media. Even the students I taught in two e-learning courses in the past 3 years had very little affinity with technology and social media, except for perhaps being on facebook. Most cantonal archaeological services, even in Switzerland, have limited resources and are struggling to do their core business and thus is an expansion of an, admittedly well-functioning, public archaeology strategy not a priority. Thirdly, the communication policies of the Cantons tends to be very restrictive and very much controlled by their communication departments. Hardly a written word leaves the offices without it having passed their scrutinising eyes. I even wonder if they would allow a blog or social media presence that is not maintained by them instead of the archaeologists themselves. But have a look at all the blogs that take part in this blogging carnival, people. There are so many things you can do with a blog and so many forms, aims, voices and audiences are to be had! Use it!
In the countries around us there are a few blogs from German archaeologists and I know of one Austrian blog. In France there are a few and in Italy there seems to be quite an active archaeological community on social media, esp. of young archaeologists. As an example, historians in the German-speaking world are much more active when it comes to blogging.
I like the way so many museums and other heritage institutions have embraced the possibilities of social media and the web and believe these are an essential tool for them these days. However, I love the personal blogs and social media efforts of individual researchers even more and would like to see more of these from non-English speaking countries (even if they would decide to write in English, as I have done). I believe – and with this I return to my first contribution to the blogging carnival – this could be increased if employers, whether university departments or cantonal units, would start to see the value of this work and would support it.
So, if there are among you readers out there archaeologists who blog or are active on social media but I have not discovered yet, I would love to hear from you. And if you are an archaeologist, a student, academic or in a unit and you would like to join us by starting a blog, a twitter account, pinterest page or anything else, but don’t know where to start, get in touch with any of us. We’re a friendly bunch, really!
The last words here, though, should be dedicated to thanking Doug for organising this Blogging Carnival and congratulating him on the success of it!
Posted in archaeology, Archäologie, archeologie, blogging, Switzerland
Tagged archaeology, blogging archaeology, Schweiz, Switzerland
Summer 2010 & 2011 I was part of the field equipe of the Rückwege Project in the Swiss-Austrian Alps. In 2011 we decided to try blogging from the field (go and have a look, there are some great articles and photos, but do go all the way back to the beginning for the posts from the field!) This was not always easy, as we often camped for days on end in the high Alps at 2400 masl, far beyond any internet or mobile phone reception. Still, it worked! The blog was set up by project leader Th. Reitmaier and me, but we encouraged the students and other team members to contribute. We even managed to convince some of the specialists who visited us in the field for a few days to write for the blog. Many people in various countries learned about the ongoing fieldwork and our objectives and the many aspects of a modern, multi-disciplinary archaeological research project through the blog. We were, largely because of the blog, able to reach even more people, by attracting quite a lot of attention from regional, national and even international media.
Alltag auf der Grabung “Eisenzeitliche Hütte” im Fimbatal. From the Rückwege Blog (01.09.2011)
Fieldwork is a very good theme for a blog, it seems. My own research is – and this brings us to the Bad of archaeological blogging – in my experience, well, I am not so sure yet if it is. The initial idea behind this blog was to write mainly about my PhD research, but so far this might have proven to be the most difficult to write about. It seems all these other things you do, the little side projects, the fieldwork that are easy to write about. Maybe it is also, because for so long I have been predominantly a field archaeologists and I feel so at home there. In any case, it is a challenge I hope to address this year as my research reaches another stage and I should be able go get more specific results from the lab. So, considering this a challenge, even this is not that bad.
Now onto the Ugly: Other than repeating what I mentioned in the answer to the first blogging carnival question (that it would be appreciated if there would be some sort of support from my department, faculty or university for blogging and science communication in generall) I am lucky to have very little ugly to say about blogging archaeology so far. So, what have you got in store for us for January, Doug?
Posted in alpine archaeology, archaeology, blogging, e-learning, excavation, Fieldwork, PhD, Universität Zürich
Tagged alpine archaeology, blogging archaeology, Fieldwork, PhD, Universität Zürich
I had seen his post about the SAA 2014 blogging in archaeology session and the archaeological blogging carnival and I thought: shame, interesting but no time. Then I received an email from Doug (thank you for organising this!) And it started to nag me. I could not stop thinking that it’s good to think about these issues once every while. And it nagged and it nagged. Until yesterday morning in the shower the post was writing itself in my head. Bloggers unite and join #blogarch! I will and I will enjoy reading why other archaeological bloggers are blogging. Besides, what better to do on a snowy winter’s morning than blog about archaeology?
How does it work: Each month leading up to the SAA he will post a question. If you would like to answer this question, you blog about it, as will hopefully do a lot of other archaeology bloggers.
Why do I blog?
It all started about six years ago. I was not satisfied with the possibilities my department’s website gave me in developing my on-line presence. Over a few beers with my friend Ben (from the fantastic Version1) we discussed the possibilities and we came to the conclusions, it had to be a blog. So, I went on-line and discovered that there was a small community of blogging archaeologists, mostly young researchers and almost all in the English speaking world. It felt quite exciting to join them. So, I started hazelnut_relations and initially I set it up mostly as an online profile.
Soon it dawned on me this wordpress blog thing allowed me not only to build my own online profile, but that really it is a platform I could write on, about anything I wanted to write about! Ha! I liked writing and thought it might be good practice, if not a bit scary to do so in public. I was going to write about anything in archaeology I was interested in, whether Swiss archaeology, interesting bits of archaeological news, publications, my lost love The Palaeolithic, and my own research of course. My then unfunded PhD research progressed only ever so slowly while I was working pretty much full-time in archaeological services. Slowly, I found my niche in Swiss Archaeology, though. Over time I also felt I was finding my voice and was having more and more fun blogging.
Why am I still blogging?
I don’t think I have to explain to you how important it is that we, archaeologists, share our work with others. As a PhD student I have no budget for this, but I don’ need to: the blog is free and allows me to share my work and what we are finding out about our past, whether it is my PhD research or other projects I am involved in.
Secondly, blogging allows me to share this, not only with the general public, but also with fellow archaeologists near and far, with my friends and family and with the stakeholders in my project. This latter point has become more important since I became part of a larger project and we got funding for our project in October 2012 and the number of stakeholders subsequently increased significantly (but do you read this blog at all, stakeholders?). Thirdly, this public funding also increases our obligation to communicate our work.
The funding has had an influence on my blogging in yet another way: It meant I am now working full-time on my PhD and only do a few small research projects on the side, allowing me to specialise. Regular readers know that these days I focus mostly on alpine archaeology and on microscopic use wear analysis of Late Mesolithic chipped stone artefacts. As far as I am aware I am the only blogging Swiss archaeology PhD student. And in general, only a few Swiss archaeologists are professionally active on social media. A shame, I think (JOIN ME!), as, really, although I am not originally from Switzerland, I am quite proud of the work that we do here and I am determined to brag about it!
Point five: The Mesolithic is a fascinating part of human history. Be honest, who can resist being intrigued by the changes taking places during the early Holocene, as the ice retreated and new wonderful ideas and foods and knowledge arrived in our parts of the world? So, as a colleague once wrote to me: “Long Live The Mesolithic!”
Why do you blog and still blog? I think to answer that you have to also answer the question: who you write for? However, the question of audience is particular tricky in my case.
I work in country with four official languages and working and living in regions that are officially bilingual, doesn’t make it easier. Working here it is also impossible not to connect with the German, French and Italian speaking regions only a stone’s throw away. Moreover, one of my supervisors is from the UK and the world of use wear analysis is quite international. In the end I decided on writing in English, but even after almost six years I am not completely sure about this decision. On the one side, would you be reading this had I written this in German or French? On the other hand, I fear I now exclude some of the local general public. So, who do I write for?
Actually, although I am truly grateful for and – to be honest – really quite flattered by the small audience I have out there and I really hope you enjoy coming by here once every while (let me know who you are sometime!), I think I mostly write for myself. The writing really is good practice and sometimes writing for my blog about issues I am dealing with in my research helps me thinking them through. It forces me to think clearly and more honestly. It is a bit like a mental purification. Sometimes, I even start writing a blog post that then does not even make it onto the blog and turns into part of my thesis or an article. By now, I see this blog as an intregral part of my PhD and professional identity.
So, that is why I blog and am still blogging and will keep blogging for a while.
P.S. But I would not mind if blogging, or science communication in general, also got some sort of support from my department, faculty or university. (If only it would qualify for an ECTS point. I need 12 for my PhD, thank you very much.)
Dear readers, you might have noticed a small change on this site, on the blogroll to be precise. I would like to briefly explain it. When I started with hazelnut_relations some five and a half years ago (April 2008), there were a quite a few other archaeologists blogging, but only about so many that I could keep an eye on it all. So I compiled a list of links of blogs I particularly liked reading and I thought my readers might like too. The list also served as my not-so-high-tech rss-reader. And it was considered good form to keep a blogroll.
Things have changed since then. A lot, really. There are many many more wonderful archaeological blogs these days. There are rss-readers (maybe they existed in 2008 as well, but I hadn’t discovered them yet – now I use feedly) and there is twitter, which I also use to follow people doing work I am interested in. I thus don’t need this list of links to keep up with things anymore. Fashions change too and so does what are considered good web-manners. Blogrolls appear to be a less essential part of a blog these days. Blogs appear and disappear – they die or whither away – as well. I do not like links that do not work and that means curating. Also, if I’d put all blogs I enjoy on the list, it would be ridiculously long.
I have decided to shorten the blogroll dramatically, and I have to admit I do so with some sadness. I have left only links that are directly relevant (but what is directly relevant and what not?) to my own current research: lithic use-wear analysis of the (Late) Mesolithic in Switzerland and alpine archaeology. And I also spared my “friends without trowels”, because it can’t always be archaeology, or can it?
So, if you find the link to your website/blog has disappeared or your favourite links have disappeared, it is not a sign of me not appreciating your blog anymore, it’s more a sign of the time and a sign of me not having more time to curate the blogroll. Things change, maybe it will all be different again in 5 and a half years from now. If I am still blogging then.
So, here the unfortunates are for a last performance:
A hidden view afarensis anthropology.netMany archaeologists identify themselves rather strongly with their profession and I guess I stand accused. However, even archaeologists can’t always be archaeologist. I was being distracted from archaeology for a while working on our house. It’s about finished now and we’ve moved in. As I returned to the world I noticed I have missed two big events in archaeological blogging and visualisation: Okay, I knew I sadly sadly would not be able to make it to the VIARCH-Conference. The Archaeological Eye has more infos on this.
Secondly, as a prequel to the SAA conference session on blogging archaeology, Colleen Morgan of Middle Savagery, held a blog-carnival. For four weeks, she each week posted a question which was answered by various archaeological bloggers on their blogs. These she collected and synergised. A shame I missed it. However, I think it was a fantastic effort and it’s great to see such a self confident and reflective bunch of blogging archaeologists.
Much of my thoughts were voiced by the many contributors, so I’ll only highlight a few issues here and give a Swiss/continental European perspective on some. (Better late then never!) That actually brings me to the first point. It seems there are not many non-English language archaeology blogs around, or they are not well integrated with the English language bloggers. In fact, I know that there are only very few German language archaeology blogs. And I guess, I once again stand accused as I decided to blog in English and not in German (or any of the other Swiss languages or my native language). It would be great if the interaction could become more international.
The questions C. Morgan asked were: 1.) What is the place of this conversation within academic, professional, and public discourse? Simply put, what can the short form do for archaeology? 2.) on the risk of blogging archaeology. What does one share, what not? 3.) are we really changing opinions or moving the field forward? Who is your audience and how to you interact with this audience? What do you want out of interactivity by means of blogging about archaeology? 4.) and lasty she asked how people feel about publishing the blog-carnival. Continue reading
Posted in archaeology, blogging, Universität Zürich
Tagged archaeology, Archäologie, blogging archaeology, Schweiz, Switzerland
Last Friday (the November 12th), the Geschichtswissenschaften en Web 2.0 (historical sciences and web 2.0) workshop took place in the beautiful Wildt’ischenhaus in Basel. The day was divided into two parts. After an introduction, followed a theoretical paper by M. Thaller. S. Zala then presented his work for dodis.ch. Both talks centred around the theme of publishing primary historical sources and subsequently working with these on the web. Although this appears to be commonplace, the historians present in Basel still see it as a sensitive issue. As an archaeologist, I do not really see the problem: as long as it is clear that the sources are or are not edited, and whether there is any kind of bias, it should only be an advantage to researchers. For archaeology it is still rather uncommon to instantly publish our equivalent of historical sources – our raw excavation data – online (databases, recordings sheets, photos, day reports etc.). I can only think of very few examples (Silchester, UK & Çatalhöyük, Turkey).
The introduction by Peter Haber and the afternoon dealt mainly with blogging and – to a lesser extend – to other web 2.0 application, which was in my eyes rather disappointing. M. Kelly (edwired), C. Sarti (zwergenblick), M. Brendel (geschichtskombinat) and A. Tantner (addresscomptoir) all gave a more or less brief peek into their blogging life, followed by an interesting but slightly tame discussion which did not really looked beyond the garden fence.
There appeared to be four main reasons for blogging: (self-) reflection, networking, marketing and blogging used as a thinking-/writing-aid. Surprisingly, except for M. Kelly, none of these bloggers see blogging as a way to profile themselves academically. In the archaeological/anthropological blogosphere, I get the impression, that this is definitely different. The – mainly Anglo-American – archy & anthro bloggers (I sadly know very few blogging archaeologists in the German speaking world) seem to use blogging at least partly as a way to profile themselves, while the supervisors of the PhD-candidate bloggers at the workshop do not even know of their student’s blogging activities…
The question was raised whether blogging should be considered scholarly or scholarship. M. Kelly describes Scholarship as work that is:
Most bloggers at the workshop see their blogging as mostly scholarly, if at all. It touches on their academic work. However, it is not always completely referenced and often not fully developed work. Also, their audience (the one they reach or aim to reach) is not a scientific audience per sé.
I guess, this is all roughly how I see my blogging. It serves a small collection of purposes: The main aim of this blog was to be a showcase for my PhD (I guess that fits under networking), only afterwards it really turned into a blog, at least in my mind. It allows me to show what I am working on, not unlike e.g. a conference poster. The blog gives me a place to write about what interests me, but does not always fit exactly in my research. I also hope it helps me practice my writing skills and aids me in my thinking. The blog may also help record the research-process behind my phd-work. Even though, I try to post informative pieces, I aim to be scholarly, not necessarily to post scholarship-work.
All agreed, though, that we love our subject and love talking about it. Doing it on our blogs might save our nearest some tedious hours. At least sometimes! It was an interesting, if tame day and I thank hist.net and infoclio.ch for organising the day! Not a bad start. I’m curious what comes next.
Infoclio.ch has an extensive piece on the workshop with links, streamings of most of the talks and the accompanying slides. So go and have a look!
Update 22.110.2010: on hist.net J. Hodel does a bit more soul searching.
I have just posted two posts concerning the e-learning course “alpine archaeology: tools and techniques” on the alpinearchaeology-Blog.
One illustrates the content of the Oral History Film and shows a slideshow of the alp hut where the interviewee spend a number of summers 70 years ago – as a young boy – working as a shepherd and cheesemaker.
Sadly, this older generation is moving to nursering homes and dies and the agricultural practices in the Alps are changing dramatically. Much knowledge about alpine agricultural practices and crafts as it existed over the past centuries is literally dying out. Oral History is one of the best methods for trying to preserve some of these traditions and knowledge before it is too late.
The alp huts in the slideshow are restored by volunteers as they were when given up ca. half a century ago. They give an intriguing look into the experience the shepherds and farmers must have had, living and working there in such a remote location for many a generation. Go over to the alpinearchaeology-blog and have a look at the post and many more photos. You find it here.
The other post shows a wordcloud. It shows the results of an assignment I gave the students. They listed the threats to potential archaeology in an alpine environment. It is one example of how it can be tried to incorporate and make use of opensource software (in this case wordle.net) and wordclouds into teaching and especially e-learning. I hope soon more of such examples will appear there.
On the 12th of November 2010, I will take part in the workshop “Geschichtswissenschaften und Web 2.0” organised by Infocli.ch & histnet.ch. 
I am not sure whether I myself consider archaeology as part of history as a discipline, although the Dep. of Pre- and Protohistory in Zürich is part of the “historische Seminar”. I’m looking forwards to it anyway.
The workshop doesn’t cost anything, but one has to register. Will we see each other there?
It has been a little quiet on hazelnut_relations lately. That is partly due to some deadlines for various projects. However, I have been visiting the Alpine Archäologie Blog regularly, so have a look there. You can also find links at the haz_rel @ alpine arch-page above. But bear with me, you’ll find me back here soon!
Posted in alpine archaeology, archaeology, Archäologie, blogging
Tagged Alpine Archäologie, blogging archaeology, link, Switzerland
From today the Alpine Archaeology-Blog is up and running. The Department of Pre- and Protohistory of the University of Zürich, Switzerland has got a long history in teaching and researching the archaeology of mountainous areas. There are e.g. the Leventina Project (Della Casa, in press, Hess et al., 2010) and the projects in the Andes by my collaegues M. Kolb-Godoy Allende and P. Fux (Fux, 2007) and colleagues. A current example is the “Rückwege” project in the Silvretta (Reitmaier, 2009, Reitmaier, 2010, Reitmaier and Walser, 2008).
During the 2010 autumn semester almost all taught courses will be solely devoted to Alpine Archaeology. As part of this alpine semester I will be teaching an e-learning course on the methods and techniques of archaeological research in alpine environments. To be able to enhance not only this course, but the learning and teaching experience throughout the department (for lecturers and students alike) we decided to start a blog. All students and teaching personal are encouraged to use this blog to exchange knowledge, document their work and have fun posting and reading the blog.
Both the blog and the e-learning course will be an experiment in how to integrate digital media into teaching. Of course, we are not the first to do this. Continue reading
hazelnut relations 