So you’ve always wanted to go on a dig

While I meet quite a few people who have always been interested in archaeology and/or have always wanted to go on a dig, this blog post comes at special request, for someone wishing to tick a box on a bucket list.  (Good luck to your mom, Michelle!)

The best place to go on a dig, where you don’t need experience and you get to uncover amazing things, is with SVG Digs on the beautiful Caribbean island of St. Vincent.  Ha, that is a totally biased opinion.  Though SVG Digs is pretty amazing, if we run a third season, it may not be until March 2013 (stay tuned).

If you want to stay close to home and there aren’t any listings below in your local area, try your local archaeological society; they might run volunteer excavations during the summer.  Otherwise, there are a quite few options for volunteering on an archaeological excavation, depending on your interests, location and budget.  The things you will uncover will vary, depending on where you go, how old the site is and how great the site is; plus, you will want to consider location with regard to free-time activities.

1. Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin – The Archaeological Institute of America has postings of volunteer opportunities around the world, ranging in price, location and site type.  Browse this amazing bulletin and see what takes your fancy.

2. Past Horizons Field Projects – Similarly, UK based Past Horizons posts fieldwork opportunities for volunteers and budding archaeologists.  Posts are also international; some likely double up from the AFOB.  This site is also great for other info, i.e., recent archaeology news, a tool store, etc.  They also have a great article on what to know before you go (Dig Survivors Guide).

3. DigVentures – If you can make it to England, DigVentures has great rates on participating on a dig at the amazing Bronze Age site of Flag Fen.  They are currently crowdsourcing to raise funds for this project, so check it out; be a gold digger like me!

I hope this helps people fill some dreams.  If all else fails, Google can be your best friend.  Write me back and let me know!

Why the past is important to the present – Part 1

People will often ask why it’s important to study the past.  “Why is it important to collect and study all those rocks and stuff?  Don’t we have enough?”  Maybe it would seem more important if our “rocks and stuff” were actually coins, statues, jade masks or terracotta soldiers.  But, in reality, the smallest remnant of cultural activity can speak volumes of knowledge, especially when the data is amalgamated and studied as a larger set.  If we stumbled across the second pyramid, for example, and thought, “Well, this is just like that first one.  Meh…” – what would we have learned?  We wouldn’t have gotten to that fifth, tenth, or hundredth pyramid and learned that people travelled in a certain pattern, that people adopted new technologies along the way, and how people learned to live off of the land.  Eventually, it’s those patterns of development that brought us to where we are today… and we wouldn’t be where we are today without the developments of the past.

This TED talk by Deb Roy is what inspired this post (which I found on swissmiss).  While not relating to archaeology at all, it shows how the tiniest piece of information can contribute to a large examination of modern culture… and further shows the importance of each piece of data, regardless of how significant it seems at the time.

Like Steve Jobs said in his commencement address to the Stanford graduating class of 2005,

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”

With that, check out the awe-inspiring TED talk by Deb Roy on The Birth of a Word.  (Thanks to MG for sharing swissmiss, and to swissmiss for sharing this talk, among a LOT of other cool things.)

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

Spring has sprung… or has it?

Question: How long do you have to live in Calgary to get used to the crazy weather?

I spent my childhood here, and have lived here for the past five years.  When the sun shines and the snow starts melting, I think spring has arrived… but that isn’t always the case!  Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking.  As an archaeologist, winter is my enemy.  (Key word: archaeologist; for all you mountain bums out there – I used to be one of you!)  So here’s hoping that the snow melts and the ground thaws, so I can go back to digging holes and finding stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.S. It goes without saying that it’s silly to be wishing for warm weather when there is so much disaster and strife on the other side of the Pacific.  Help out if you can!

The new Listing of Historic Resources

The Land Use Planning Section of Alberta Culture and Community Spirit puts out a bi-annual Listing of Historic Resources, which essentially triggers developments to having impact assessments conducted.  It’s mainly used for small scale oil and gas, but other industries find it quite a useful tool as well.  In our Fall 2010 Newsletter, we analyzed the changes between the March and September 2010 Listings, finding quite limited increases in the number of sections affected by the Listing.  A similar analysis of the September 2010 and March 2011 Listings shows the same results.  Those are some exciting results, huh?

ACCS also encourages developers to recheck the Listing prior to construction, just in case, as it is illegal to disturb historic resources, and some superhero of an archaeologist might have discovered something while you were waiting for your crew to get organized.  When in doubt, contact your local favourite archaeologist.  Hopefully, that’s me.

On a new mission

I just finished reading Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.  If you aren’t aware, Zappos prides itself on its brand culture pipeline, and to sum it all up, all the people that work at Zappos WANT to be there and generally enjoy their job on a daily basis.  This has led Zappos to be a highly successful corporation, so much so that they have recently “married” Amazon with a dowry of about $1.2 billion.  As the proud owner of a start-up company, I like to read about things like this, to try to learn from other people’s mistakes and hear about the lessons they’ve learned along the way.  Hsieh’s book really got me thinking about core values and what our mission truly is.  I’ve always known that core values were essential to a company’s character and brand culture and that it was important to have a mission, but that was about it.  I’m thinking that perhaps I got it a bit wrong.  So over a frittata and a large cappuccino at The Vendome (vendomecafe.com – definitely worth a visit if you live in Calgary), I drafted a new mission, and tweaked our core values.

Old mission and core values: to provide clients with archaeological consulting services that centre around our core concepts: respect, safety, efficiency, open communication and teamwork, creating satisfaction for all those involved in the process… establishing strong, lasting relationships by exceeding client expectations, promoting both cultural preservation, as well as future development.

New mission: to help people understand, appreciate and plan ahead for heritage resources.

Change to core values: delete safety and respect.  Safety goes without saying – always be safe!  Respect must be earned – it isn’t automatic.  Add growth – it’s important to grow as people, w hich helps us to grow as a company.  Add humility – without it, you can’t grow.

Haven’t changed the website yet to reflect this… I think it can get even better.  Input?

Hello world!

I would say that archaeologists are not so tech-savvy, but I might just be speaking for myself.  I started Circle CRM Group in June of 2010 and got some great people to do my website, my logo, my branding (shout out to Charis Web and to James B!)… which helped me get started on my first marketing blitz.  Hurrah… but this world is moving quickly and it seems that the thing to do is tell everyone about your daily adventures.  What?  Wait, I sound like an old person.  Anyway…

This blog is meant to follow in the applicable footsteps of some really great companies, who have found success through great customer service, provided by great people.  The whole premise behind Circle is that strong and proper leadership will make for happy employees, who will provide the best service to our clients, who, in turn, will keep coming back for more.  A circle of happiness, if you will.  Yes, have a bite of cheese.  Tastes good, right?

This is our first WordPress blog entry, but we have been been blogging for a few months now.  We were just a bit ghetto – I said wasn’t tech savvy.  To see our old posts, please visit http://www.circleconsulting.ca/blog