Just popping on between conferencing to show you I left our mark on the ALA Midwinter Meeting graffiti wall!

Well my adviser discovered my reddit account, and far from being angry he's decided to appoint me the (to use his words) "Social Media Czar" for the project. Which is pretty cool. Incidentally, we have a new blog post up. It's about consolidation of ruins and the preservation of our site post-excavation.

In other news, one of the archaeologists on the project showed up in Pátzcuaro with the flu. And now literally the entire team is infected -- myself included. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to curl up in a ball and die.

EDIT: Just got back from the doctor. Turns out its not the flu, it's bronchitis. Hooray! Antibiotics for everybody!

What the hell is going on in Ukraine?

Historical re-enactment. Is this a recent phenomena, or have adults throughout history enjoyed getting together and playing dress up?

Also, I was surprised to learn of Vietnam War re-enactment. How soon is 'too soon', in your opinion to do historical re-enactment?

I'm having a bit of a private celebration having made my first (admittedly small) step towards getting back into academia seven years after I got my BA. I finally got my Kings College London alumni online registration sorted out (it's only taken me over half a decade to get round to it!) and it comes with JSTOR access. I've not got around to actually doing any proper searching yet, just contented myself with random browsing and delighting in all the journals at my fingertips. I'm also pretty out of practise at using it, but I hope that'll come back. It's not much compared to a lot of what y'all get up to, but I'm crossing my fingers this is the first step towards getting myself onto an MA at some point in the future.

I was going to save this for Saturday, but I'll be at the library then.

I am in the process of reading Political Anthropology: Power and Paradigms by Donald Kurtz and it is absolutely the book I've been looking for, for a long time. It's a fairly comprehensive and comparative look at existing and "classical" ethnographic data on politics and power, and fashions them into general theories/paradigms for power. It talks not only about kinship and the formation of states, but also legitimation of power, offices, rebellion and a whole host of other concepts that pop up not only in anthropology, but in history when looking to examine at how political structures worked in past entities.

This book is so far, the only one I've found that exists for the express purpose of not simply presenting ethnographic studies in isolation, but binding them together to show the common threads of how power is analyzed "in theory".

I've been asking for a primer on political anthropology for quite some time, and this one fits the bill. Because after all, where there's no text or archaeology, sometimes all you have left to fall back on is anthropology, of which this book fits a very good niche when it comes to power and politics.

What are some good sites or blogs to read new history articles (not necessarily academic journal articles) for free?

A little something I picked up from a power line that served a Black Hills gold mine near Palmer Gulch, South Dakota. An extremely rare style made interesting with it's provenance to early 20th century South Dakota gold mining.

Just stumbled upon this subreddit today and I have to say it's so much fun reading all the information you guys have on here. I've learned so much!

But one question, do you guys know of any good books about the Vikings? I didn't see any on the book list (I could have missed it of course or I'm not looking in the right place). After following some threads about Vikings on here, they seem like a really interesting topic to read about.

Again, thank you everyone for having such an awesome subreddit :D!

In the past week, I've been digging for gold.

I've been looking through the records of the Recorder's office here in Kodiak, seeking records of early 20th century and late 19th century gold mining in the Kodiak archipelago. There was never all that much gold here, but it's fascinating how the records show that the archipelago was a microcosm of the territory as a whole when it comes to gold mining.

Just finished my second week of ceramics analysis in Cuzco. Getting pretty good at it, but goddamn it can get tedious. Who would have thought staring at potsherds for eight hours a day could be so tiring?

Having a blast though!

I finished reading "Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937-1945" by Rana Mitter earlier this month. Haven't seen it mentioned around here before, but it is a fairly-recent release.

I found it to be a fantastic work. Good narrative, well-sourced, touches on an often-overlooked part of history and shows the threads that connect it to modern day.

It's only $3 on Kindle right now (through the end of the month I think). I say it's worth checking out.

I've been playing Crusader Kings 2, which is been great for making me think. They just announced a new expansion that goes all the way to India.

So between 867-1450 how well developed was the trade to India and what routes did it most commonly use?

I'm doing an AP euro project that can be on anything European related as long as it's post-Napoleon, and I want to do British involvement in China. Is there a lot known about British espionage in China during the Cold War?

I recently discover the WWII in HD documentary series. I was initially very impressed with the depth they give, and all 1st person accounts of very well spoken individuals. It seems like a thorough documentary, but after they skipped the battle of Midway I realized the documentary is mostly just focus on specific narratives and don't elaborate on military strategy, economics, politics, etc. The best part is all the color footage. No other documentary has done such a great job of showing only real time color footage. Also, I was disappointed they start pearl harbor and really only focus on the US's role (with exceptions).

I have a question, but I'm not sure if it fits the rules for its own thread.

I've seen numerous pictures of ancient / medieval warriors that all have a very similar style, so they look like they may have been drawn by the same artist, and perhaps appeared in the same book or series of books. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about:

http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/9250/w2x9tbj5hn6.jpg

http://thelosttreasurechest.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hypaspist-officer.jpg

http://larsbrownworth.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cataphract.jpg

Does anyone know where these pictures are from? Is it a book or series of books? If so, are they good sources or not?

I subscribed to this sub a while ago, but I haven't asked a question or anything yet. Just wanted to say I love history, and today I've decided to major in it. Going to University of Memphis right now, which apparently is one of the biggest Egyptology schools in the world, probably what I'm gonna study, too.

I do have a minor question... I have to learn a foregin language for this major. Modern day Egypt speaks Arabic, is that a good language to take?

I look forward too taking part in this sub, not just asking questions, but maybe answering them someday too!

Are any of y'all on Tumblr? Any favorite blogs?