tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46331739849737259862024-03-13T10:43:11.740+00:00 passim in passing archaeology, from a perspective. Mine.brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-91241937592495801692022-05-03T12:33:00.001+01:002022-05-03T12:33:38.684+01:00 Wow, so i have not been very good about maintaining this site, have I? but now I have something new to talk about -- and in really so many of the finest words ;)Yep, new book! If you want to know more about just how monogamous monkeys can be, why grandmothers are so suspicious, and what on earth we are doing as a species taking so long to grow up, then feel free to preorder ;)https://brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-1316168971786037122019-01-22T09:15:00.003+00:002019-01-22T15:32:52.253+00:00News for the New Year - Joining the DKW stable! Also, what happened to 2018.
Q: Uh, you seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. Why is that?
A: I ran away to a Greek island, got a lot of writing done, worked with an honest-to-god group of superheroes volunteering to help the plight of refugees, spent two months in a basement in Turkey, got a lot of writing done, and, you know, stuff.
It's been some time, eh? Not that you would have noticed my absencebrennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-88695309571384889612017-12-05T11:17:00.001+00:002017-12-05T11:17:13.962+00:00Five months, five countries, some fieldwork and a lot of talks. Living the dream, if the dream is to run out of clean socks.So... I realise I haven't updated this, much less ranted, for some time. This is partially excused by the fact that I've been in France, Italy, the UK, Greece and Turkey for varying amounts of time over the last five months. But it's not like I wasn't WORKING. Jeez.
We had an epic field season on Kythera in August, which was a triumph of fieldwalking spirit over footwear-themed adversity. Also, brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-70394360092866543952017-06-23T12:34:00.000+01:002017-06-23T12:34:18.653+01:00Books (not my own) - Times Higher InterviewJust a quick little snippet here to post a link to the Books Interview i gave to Times Higher. Thinking a lot about my reading habits as summer approaches (and interminable drives/flights to field and beyond), thought I'd leave this here as a reminder that there is more to the world than just academic writing...
:)
brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-79730925073361311872017-05-29T16:11:00.002+01:002017-05-29T16:11:49.210+01:00I get my accent back! And other tales of the American tour.
oh HELLO. Welcome to whatever time zone this is (and you will have to work it out on your own because I sure as heck don't know). Finally back from what feels like a very epic bi-coastal tour of the States. Essentially, I seem to plan my travel the same way I bowl -- I start off in the middle, then kinda scatter to either side, totally missing the pins in the middle. All apologies to the pins brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-42410342847458766352017-04-10T19:04:00.002+01:002017-04-11T12:10:58.784+01:00In which I explore Meatspace Google (talk now online)Not so long ago, I got a backstage tour of the magical world of google... meatspace google. It is arguably much prettier than real google, which doesn't have a large section of a London routemaster stuck awkwardly in a corridor. AFAIK.
Anyhow, it was very fun exploring what a global corporate empire might look like if it was allowed to wear whatever it wanted to school everyday (hint: there brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-62473648055690272452017-03-28T12:39:00.000+01:002017-03-28T12:39:07.200+01:00New Podcast! Guardian Science Weekly with Ian Sample. Now out! I had such a terrific time recording this (thanks Max! thanks Ian!). According to Captain Podcast Max S, our long and discursive sound check (I think we got through most of the neolithic) was perhaps the most informative yet recorded, a badge of honour I am sure. Though presumably not actually included on the recording...
https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2017/mar/28/brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-73982097872134778852017-03-25T12:33:00.002+00:002017-03-25T12:33:47.485+00:00Rabbit Holes; or: The Dangers of Writing HistorySo, a little while back I had a terrific time writing this piece for History Today. I was given pretty free reign to charge around talking my second favourite subject (after teeth) -- TrowelBlazers. We had our big Raising Horizons launch coming up and we were all scrabbling away to bring the sheer awesomeness of Women Who Dig to a wider audience. However, in the excitement of telling the story brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-81710501790426735942017-03-14T09:32:00.001+00:002017-03-14T09:36:17.784+00:00Accidental discoveries: Annie Besant, campaigner, socialist, and scourge of phossy jaw. As part of the long process of thinking about the book (especially now that people are reading it, and asking awkward questions like 'wait how do the genetics of pig domestication work again?') I've been doing some additional writing. This was a longer piece for Guardian Cities that I really enjoyed thinking about; I've now decided Annie Besant is one of my personal heroes.
https://brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-9394084128213162002017-03-04T12:27:00.001+00:002017-03-04T12:27:29.211+00:00Great review for BoB from The Times!Properly pleased to see such a stellar review in that rather august instrument, The Times (register for free access), for Built on Bones! Tom Whipple has masterfully identified key draws of the book, primarily chattiness and Alan Rickman references.
brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-91478731744535961452017-02-12T10:31:00.004+00:002017-02-12T10:31:38.406+00:00New writing about all things TrowelBlazeryOk, yes, there was a long hiatus. This has a lot to do with the number of countries I have seen fit to wander through in 2016 (special shout out to the elderly Peugeot convertible for making it around the UK, France, Belgium, Luxembourg--finally!--Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy this summer). This also has to do with the fact that I have been writing a lot -- there was a book, which I may havebrennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-41087674628451993322017-02-12T10:12:00.001+00:002017-02-12T11:25:06.162+00:00First Review for Built on Bones!
So, I spent this week doing a lot of things. One of my favorites was freaking about my photoshopped proximity to lifetime hero author Neil Gaiman and actual cool writer Elif Şafak.
For information: generally, archaeological book reviews are TERRIFYING. People with PhDs in very obscure and nuanced aspects of the past read something you've written, agree with 90% of it, but spend three brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-58363976252286742552016-10-29T06:11:00.004+01:002017-02-08T18:22:03.807+00:00Raising Horizons Crowdfund -TrowelBlazers in the GuardianSlowly, slowly, this blog is creaking back to life; mostly so I have a forum to explain myself when the book eventually comes out (Feb 23, UK / May 7 USA). But there are some amazing things going on in the world of the past that don't involve me digging up skeletons: the Raising Horizons project from TrowelBlazers!
We're in the middle of our first fundraising phase, so talking to all the media brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-84441121187216747872016-07-26T11:13:00.001+01:002016-07-28T15:11:05.145+01:00Thoughts on why #PokemonGO and Archaeological Heritage AR went.So, after an INTENSELY LONG HIATUS due to work constraints, I thought I'd put a quick piece up on the Pokemon Go phenomenon, mostly because any widescale human trend is super interesting, but also because I have a residual interest in Augmented Reality that is probably Neal Stephenson's fault. This is largely brought on by a terrific article in Forbes featuring Andrew Reinhard of #archaeogaming brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-70075185352861108002015-04-24T17:41:00.003+01:002015-04-24T17:41:28.152+01:00The (old) New Churchyard -a way tl;dr excerpt on those Crossrail Skellies
There has been
considerable interest recently in the very large number of burials unearthed in
the excavation of the CrossRail project near Liverpool Street Station. The
CrossRail work is not the first (and may not even be the last) archaeological
excavation of the increasingly inaccurately named New Churchyard*, so I thought
it only fitting that I post a segment out of my by now probably quite brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-47105244411215343892014-04-02T17:03:00.004+01:002014-04-02T17:03:58.715+01:00Repost from the MSU Archaeology BlogHere follows a repost from the excellent MSU Capblog - check them out here!
Hello MSU! And hello followers of this blog. Since I fall into the former category, it's very cool to be asked to share a little bit about what has become a fairly all-consuming obsession project: TrowelBlazers. If you don't know us, please come be our friend. Or not, you know, it's cool.
The TrowelBlazers brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-90614680075922845842014-03-30T19:29:00.004+01:002014-03-31T14:53:03.215+01:00Why Bother? the final #blogarch question. Now with added answers!Ok! Got distracted by other academic commitments, so fell off the #blogarch wagon for a bit, but back on for March and Doug's final question:
where are you/we going with blogging or would you it like to go?
"Where do we go from here?
Is it down to the lake I fear.
Ay ay ay ay ay ay..."
- Haircut 100, sometime in the 80s.
Or, as several of my colleagues brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-27340652700176303972014-03-26T18:58:00.000+00:002014-03-26T19:01:10.923+00:00Some #MuseumMemories for #MuseumWeek - Decommissioning MedusaAs it's #MuseumWeek in the world defined by the extent of hashtags this week, I thought I could follow up on @HenryRothwell's suggestion that I, ahem, explain myself. Or rather, I explain this photo:
I've managed to bring home my very own permanent installation, formerly a statue in the Natural History Museum Earth Gallery. It used to live amongst its fellows, God/Babbage, Atlas, Spaceman, brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-52869848485066482072013-12-27T13:26:00.000+00:002013-12-27T13:26:49.677+00:00we be #blogarch December: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Welcome to round two of the #blogarch adventure, orchestrated by Dougsarchaeology. This month, the question posed to those of us who still do this blogging thing is more reflective: what's been good about blogging? Bad? And what's been downright ugly?
Well geez.
The Good
Friends! Contacts, networks, people to talk to. But I think more importantly, blogging offers a longform elaboration of the brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-52574961418468537372013-12-03T18:22:00.000+00:002013-12-03T18:27:28.846+00:00ah, but what have you done for me lately? a response to the #saa14 #blogarch carnival...in which your correspondent participates, not for the first time (those were the good ole' days, eh Colleen?) , in the digital round robin that is a blogging carnival, with the hopes of someday seeing it at the SAAs.
Follow along with the carnival through the #blogarch tag or Doug's blog here.
November's question:
Why blogging? – Why did you, or if it was a group- the group, start a blog?
brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-4733151007232483882013-11-27T10:45:00.001+00:002013-11-27T10:45:06.817+00:00My TrowelBlazers post for the BGS GeoBlogyHello! This is a crosspost from our TrowelBlazers guest spot over on the British Geological Society's blog.
Mary Anning, trowelblazer
Thinking geology? Thinking science? Thinking crinolines, bonnets, and muddy skirts? Probably not! However, if you discount the damsels in the discipline, you actually lose quite a bit of history-and that's what our project 'TrowelBlazers' is all about. We're a brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-67553192488021802142013-10-22T16:33:00.002+01:002013-10-23T12:56:16.626+01:00Adventures in Outreach: #SU2013 at the Natural History MuseumFor those of you who have somehow found this blog without either being personally shown it with my hand on the mouse, or through my highly serious and infromative twitter feed (@brennawalks -- or even @trowelblazers, which is my identity 1/4 of the time), welcome. I always enjoy meeting new spambots.
For the rest of you, I'll assume you have an interest in either a) museums b) outreach or cbrennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-11740520736169470642013-10-15T10:04:00.001+01:002013-10-15T10:04:30.558+01:00A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention - now with 100% more #trowelblazingWell as you may have guessed from the slightly OTT twitter/facebookage, we at @TrowelBlazers Towers (shout out to Drs Wragg-Sykes, Birch, and Herridge!) are so excited to have a chapter in the excellent new book 'A Passion for Science: Stories of Discovery and Invention'.
Suw Charman-Anderson (@Suw) is the driving force behind the truly inspirational Finding Ada project. It's all about brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-87232507140302086542013-07-25T15:28:00.000+01:002013-08-02T10:25:43.949+01:00I, Dental Anthropologist. Day of Archaeology 2013 #dayofarch It's that time again! Third year of my #dayofarch posts... repost now from Day of Archaeology! If you're dying to see how they've changed over the years, have a look at 2011 (augmented reality!) and 2012 ( i reveal myself to be the tooth fairy)...
Really, I work at the Natural History Museum in London (and tweet at @brennawalks). And if you didn't already know, I'm part of the collective Tumblr brennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4633173984973725986.post-56584631915900141902013-07-22T14:00:00.000+01:002013-07-22T14:00:08.169+01:00Halet Çambel: Olympian, Activist, Archaeologist #trowelblazer repostrepost of my favorite ever #trowelblazer post! Gearing up to go into the field, so it's all about Turkey at the mo...
Halet Çambel, third from left, at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Image: Murat Akman Archive.
Professor Halet Çambel is one of the most fascinating #trowelblazing women you never heard of. From a family of staunch friends of Atatürk himself, she was encouraged to participate inbrennawalkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09988041845006589423noreply@blogger.com0