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Anarchy in the UK…Archaeological Sector? A Brief Introduction into an Alternative Approach to Archaeology
Today’s blog post comes from a paper I presented at the 2018 Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference – you can find the full text here. If you think about the word “anarchist”, you probably have a very specific image that comes to mind – some sort of “punk” masked up and dressed all in black, probably…
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Fighting the Same Fight: Archaeology, Heathenry, and the Alt-Right
Heathenry is a particular movement within neo-paganism that draws upon Nordic mythology and folklore. It is arguably one of the largest alternative spiritualities practiced today. And, unfortunately, it also houses a large population of white supremacists. To understand this phenomenon, we must first look at the roots of Heathenry as a neo-pagan practice. Arguably one…
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“Start at the Beginning, and When You Get to the End, Stop” – The Archaeology of Time
At the time of writing this blog post, we are only three days into 2019. I’ll be honest – I’ve experienced 25 years on this planet and I still make New Year’s resolutions. The usual ones, of course: exercise more, consume less sugar, etc. And, of course, these resolutions usually make it until mid-February before…
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Vampires of Skyrim (and in Real Life Archaeology): Yesterday and Today
In the Elder Scrolls video game series, there are many fantastical creatures and monsters inhabiting the world, both friendly and hostile to the player character. One of these monsters (or perhaps that’s a bit too judgemental?) is the vampire, whose curse (or blessing?) is passed to others through a disease called “sanguinare vampiris”, also known…
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“I Love Dying and Being Dead” – Late Capitalism and Modern Perceptions of Death
Lately, archaeologists have been a bit concerned about memes. No, not because they’re trying to perfect their comedic skills – rather, there’s been a relatively recent rash of popular memes that were derived from several big archaeological finds. For example, a nearly complete human skeleton was recovered in Pompeii, originally interpreted to have been crushed…
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OM NOM NOM or Did I Really Use an Old, Bad Joke to Introduce a Post on Gnawing?
Hi, welcome back to the early to mid 2000’s where we still use jokes like “om nom nom” unironically! Just kidding, I won’t subject you to bad jokes like that for this entire post. Anyway, it’s come to my attention that for a blog called “Animal Archaeology”, I don’t really write that much about the…
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The Perfect Pokemon: A Brief Look at Selective Animal Breeding
Is there a “Perfect Pokemon”? Well, I guess technically there is the genetically engineered Mewtwo…but what about “naturally occurring” Pokemon? Can Trainers “breed” them for battle? A form of “Pokemon breeding” has been a vital part of the competitive scene for years. Players took advantage of hidden stats known as “Individual Values”, or “IV’s”, which…
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Big Game Collector: Collecting Animal Remains in Skyrim (and in Real Life!)
With the addition of Hearthfire as downloadable content, Skyrim allowed players to build and live in their own customisable homes. One of the options for buildable rooms included a “trophy room”, where players can erect trophy versions of some of the creatures that can be killed in-game. This ranges from real world game like bears…
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Creating Cryptozoological Remains in Expedition: Everest
Bigfoot. Mothman. The Loch Ness Monster. Even if you’ve never heard of the word “cryptozoology” or “cryptid” before, you definitely know at least one or two. One of the famous forms of pseudoscience, cryptids are the monsters and creatures that often originate from local folklore and spark the imagination of people all over the world…
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A Lesson in Taphonomy with Red Dead Redemption 2
Note: I struggled about whether or not to write about this game due to the issues surrounding its development and the poor treatment of workers (for more information, please read this article from Jason Schreier). However, I think it marks an interesting development in the ever-growing world of virtual archaeologies, so I proceeded to write…
Animal Archaeology
All things archaeology…but mostly dead animals.