traffickingculture:

Trafficking Culture researcher Donna Yates just wrote this great piece about Walmart’s destruction of Mexico’s Teotihuacán. Teotihuacán is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, yet Walmart has built a store ON TOP of the 36 sq. km site.

Just my MRes supervisor/friend/drinking buddy getting right down to it. 

P.S. follow the official Trafficking Culture tumblr!

I know that I personally am totally useless for updates on Tumblr these days, but you should DEFINITELY follow the new official Trafficking Culture Tumblr! 

If you’re in the dark here, Trafficking Culture is an on-going study at the University of Glasgow that aims to produce an evidence-based picture of the contemporary global trade in looted cultural objects. We have a really excellent encyclopedia of looted objects, places, terms, and people, but not as many people (read: students) were being exposed to it as there could be. So now there will be bi-weekly posts highlighting certain encyclopedia entries, news, and reblogs on related items and issues. 

And, like, I’m the one running it.

Follow follow follow!

instagram:

Protecting Rome’s Ancient Architecture, with @saverome

Modern Rome is built atop a layer of ancient ruins, many of which are still standing and accessible today. Having worked in Rome as a preservationist and teacher for the last 15 years, archaeologist Darius Arya (@saverome) has a keen knowledge of the city’s rich structural history. Through Instagram, he takes followers along for an up-close, educational look at Rome’s ruins. “I love being able to reveal a lot of information on a well-known structure like the Pantheon or discuss a structure or issue in the shadow of something so well known, like the barely-known Saepta Julia resting against the Pantheon,” he says. “Instagram has helped me focus my message and deliver a variety of styles, from a simple photo to intensely dense informative material.”

In his self-proclaimed quest to make #culturalheritage cool, Darius has opened up a global dialogue about the Roman ruins on Instagram. “I find the feedback from people is great. People are learning, hungry for more. I really enjoy being able to get into the conversation and spur on interest.”

To get your daily dose of Rome’s #culturalheritage, and to follow along as Darius embarks on a 3-year excavation in Ostia Antica this June and July, be sure to follow him on Instagram @saverome!

I don’t like to use this blog for personal things, but it is only Monday and this week has already not been the best. My last big PhD funding opportunity recently fell through, and I’m quickly running out of options that do not involve massive debt, selling my organs, or sex work. So I’m putting it out there: does anyone know of any graduate funding opportunities that I haven’t thought of yet, or some outside-the-box methods for rolling in them dolla billz?

Also, like, full details on everything about my PhD on the trafficking of West African artefacts. 

My gurl Rebekah Junkermeier from the Sustainable Preservation Initiative has written this lovely guest post for me on how she got into cultural heritage and turned it into a career. 

Can you guys say CULTURAL HERITAGE GIRL CRUSH.

Hi I’m Back + Cool Anti-Looting Apparel

I have my reasons.

If you haven’t already seen it, I am really excited to finally be able to share the website for the ERC-funded Trafficking Culture study at the University of Glasgow!

Even if I wasn’t involved in this study (I’m in the People section and feeling like such a rock star), I would think this website is super beautiful and well-designed and incredibly exciting to explore. As a student, having so much access (for free!) to so much information that has been parsed and organized already is immensely exciting. This is the kind of thing that I wished I’d had when I first began studying these issues. The Encyclopedia (with one entry so far by yours truly and more on their way) is a goldmine of information on terms, looted sites, looted objects; the Publications page has a ton of free PDFs of articles and chapters written by the researchers and other related scholars (I’ve downloaded them all); and the Links section points you in the best possible directions for other sources and organizations to be aware of or get involved in. Bookmark it and explore! And if you’re looking to do your PhD with a team this cool, you can shoot off a message and get that conversation started.

And don’t forget to “Like” the Trafficking Culture Facebook and follow on Twitter.

What to read when you’re too busy to eat: My preferred cultural heritage news sources

I divided up a list of all my favorite cultural heritage news sources by how many kinds of social media they use. Because let’s face it, when you have had a 12 hour day and there is pen on your face and a burrito somewhere nearby, Facebook is probably your number 1 news source. So you should know who to follow.

Great news for undergrads looking for something other than coursework to get some experience this fall: theSustainable Preservation Initiative is looking for interns! This is a really fabulous opportunity for any students looking to get their toes wet in the cultural heritage field. I’m personally a big fan of SPI not just because they have great principles, but because the work they do has a discernible impact. In this field, discernible impacts that help communities and preserve cultural heritage are too few and far between. This is an excellent opportunity for students to get experience with an organization employing simple methods with positive results. Also, those are some real nice people they have at SPI, you want to be a part of that.

Get all the info here.

xiphoidprocess:

fuckyeahforensics:

Porvenir, Fortaleza Valley, Peru

Human remains, some stained white from the blistering sun, others burnt black, are set ablaze to keep looters warm at night.

I have no doubt that looters are to blame for some mind-boggling callous treatment of human remains, and may indeed be responsible for this. Still, I found an earlier set of photos of what appears to be the same scene in 2003. The blogger interprets it as a modern shrine, and there is also some additional information about the skulls.

http://vizmat.blogspot.com/2008/08/photo-taken-in-2003-by-margaret-brown.html

(via gwebarchaeology)