Monday, August 17, 2009

Mile high archaeology

Here are three things I very much like about Denver:

1) In 1965, during the AAA meetings, it is where the Binfords organized the symposium that would lay the foundations for what came to be known as the "New Archaeology" (Trigger 2006: 393). This symposium was the basis of one the bibles of the New Archaeology, namely the volume "New Perspectives in Archaeology" (Binford and Binford 1968).

2) The first formal conference session I organized as a graduate student was held in Denver, during the 2002 (67th) meetings of the Society for American Archaeology. This symposium formed the foundation of the first volume I would end up co-editing (Riel-Salvatore and Clark 2007), and which you can order here and find reviewed here.

3) My new academic home is the Department of Anthropology of the University of Colorado Denver, where I just started as an assistant professor! To say that I'm thrilled would be an understatement, and I'm very happy to be here with my new colleagues and look forward to the opportunity of working closely with them in the future. Also, as I get settled in in Denver, I will be bringing new life to this blog, which has been at a standstill since February (oh my!).


References

Binford, S.R., and L.R. Binford. 1968. New Perspectives in Archaeology: An Overview of the New Scientific Techniques and the New Theoretical Points That Are Changing the Course of Archaeological Inquiry. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.

Riel-Salvatore, J., and G.A. Clark (Editors). 2007. Transitions great and small: New Approaches to the Study of Early Upper Paleolithic Transitional Industries in Western Eurasia. Archaeopress, Oxford.

Trigger, B. G. 2006. A History of Archaeological Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambrdige.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

But how are the omelets?

Anne Gilbert said...

Julien:

Welcome back to Blogland! I missed your posts. Denver is a very nice place,I'm told. I was in Denver once, on a cloudy day, in summertime, and really didn't see much of it.
Anne G

Stephen Chrisomalis said...

Hey, you're back! Fantastic! I trust everything went well with the move and that you are settling in.

- Steve

John Hawks said...

I'm glad to see you're back and congratulations on the job! UC-Denver's an exciting campus, and I hope it's a good fit. Give my regards to David Tracer!

--John

Julien Riel-Salvatore said...

Thanks, everyone:
Chris: they are most delicious!
Anne: thanks, glad to be back!
Steve: we're still alive, that's what counts, right?
John: thanks much, it's good to be here! I'll be sure to pass on your regards to David.