Tag: reflection
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Rome is Home
When I returned from the 2017 summer field season, I was riding high on optimism for my archaeological career but running on fumes for money. Very fortunately, though, the stars aligned and offered me not one but two promotions in about a month’s time, providing me the means to stabilize my finances. Since this is…
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An Island Called Cyprus
The last 6 months of my life have been a roller-coaster; my physical, mental, and emotional state have hit some new highs and new lows. Without getting into details, that’s my best excuse for the epic delay in concluding my chronicle of last summer’s field season. I’ll be slowly making some changes to The Starving…
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Happens Every Time
What a whirlwind! I’m writing this post after finally making it home to Baltimore from a tiny detour in Rome and, before that, blazing all around the island-nation of Cyprus, where visits and trips included places like the Cyprus American Archaeological Institute (CAARI), and the ancient sites of Kourion and Paphos. These were all after…
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Why Archaeology is Important
In my last post, I set out on the surprisingly complex task of defining Archaeology. To summarize, I concluded that Archaeology is a humanities discipline that uses material remains to study the past and its people so that we might better understand the human experience. And while all that sounds nice to the layperson, often…
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What is Archaeology?
I recently realized that I’ve spent a lot of time writing and discussing the act of doing archaeology, but I haven’t done much to explain what archaeology actually is. At first thought, the question seems simple and obvious: “You know, Indiana Jones and digging and stuff…” Sure, Harrison Ford did play an “archaeologist” in the epic movie…
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My Travel Guide: Getting There
Once you’ve sorted out both the mental preparation and picking a destination, it’s time to start making concrete plans. At this point, budgeting remains a persistent theme. Don’t get discouraged and keep in mind that your adventure can be the ends to a means of saving and working hard! Hopefully, you’ll find these strategies maximize the value…
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My Travel Guide: (Mental) Prep & Conceptualizing
When it comes to travel, I think we often drop the ball on perhaps the most important phase in making it meaningful: preparing ourselves and reflecting on where we want to go. We spend a lot of time buying tickets, coordinating schedules, and scrounging budgets but we fail to do the initial and most crucial preparation. As…
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My Travel Guide
For those that haven’t noticed (or live in a place where it hasn’t happened yet), the weather is changing and we are diving into Spring with the eager anticipation of Summer. Thanks to climate change, that whole process happens a little more unpredictably than a few hundred years ago, but I digress. I can’t help but…
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Ending the Season
Well, my field season is officially over (Cue “This is the End” by The Doors). Friday was my last day digging at Sainte-Candie. A tiny part of me is saying Hallelujah; the other, larger part is a bit melancholy about leaving the field. I’m feeling the same nervousness I had when I was leaving Aeclanum…
The Starving Archaeologist 