Sydney Learning Adventures Big Dig
What you can expect when you bring school groups to the Big Dig site for Sydney Learning Adventures archaeological programs.
Incorporating archaeology into the development of The Rocks YHA, Sydney - Liam Mannix
Liam Mannix, IWTN Project Manager, The Heritage Council. Liam talks about a project he was involved in when he worked for GML in Australia.
Taken from the 2018 conference 'Dig! the value of archaeology for society and the economy conference'. Dig was a collaboration between the Heritage Council, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Department for Communities NI, Fáilte Ireland, Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, and Dublin City Council. It was project managed by the Irish Walled Towns Network and is receiving support from Creative Ireland. Dig was a key part of the programme of events for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.
ARPA302 Aboriginal Archaeology at Narran Lakes, NSW, Australia
Timothy Murray--Building Transnational Historical Archaeologies of the Modern World
Tim Murray will be coming to speak at the Seminar in Cultural History on Wednesday, October 7, 2015. His talk is entitled “Building Transnational Historical Archaeologies of the Modern World.”
Tim Murray is Charles La Trobe Professor of Archaeology at La Trobe University. A practicing archaeologist with an interest in history and epistemology, his research and publication has focused on the history and philosophy of archaeology, the archaeology of the modern world, and heritage archaeology. His most recent books include World Antiquarianism Comparative Perspectives (co-edited with Alain Schnapp, Lothar von Falkenhausen and Peter Miller, Getty Research Institute, 2013), An Archaeology of Institutional Confinement. The Hyde Park Barracks, 1848-1886 (co-authored with Peter Davies and Penny Crook, Sydney University Press, 2013), and From Antiquarian to Archaeologist: The history and philosophy of archaeology (Pen and Sword Press, 2014). His current projects are based around the general theme of transnational archaeologies in the long 19th century, with particular focus on ‘contact’ archaeology, urban archaeology and technology transfer, and demonstrating the importance of the history of archaeology for building more robust archaeological theory.
The purpose of Dr. Murray’s talk at Bard Graduate center is to explore some particular aspects of contemporary research in historical archaeology, a large and complex field that has grown swiftly in North America, South Africa and Australia since its inception in the USA in the early 1960s. The late Jim Deetz, whose book In Small Things Forgotten remains one of the best introductions to the field, defined historical archaeology as “the spread of European culture throughout the world since the fifteenth century and its impact on indigenous peoples” (1977: 5). Given its genesis as the archaeology of the European colonization of North America, at its core historical archaeology has always sought to deal with two major concerns. First, how to make a contribution to cognate disciplines such as history and anthropology (and to persuade the practitioners of either that the archaeology of the modern world has something significant to offer). Second, how to articulate local, regional, national and global scales in interpretation and analysis. In his talk, Dr. Murray has chosen to focus on just a few issues and context of this very broad field: settler indigenous relations, the establishment of colonies, the transfer of agricultural, manufacturing and managerial technologies, the movements of people and material culture, and the development of cities in the modern world and, in so doing, to explore both national and transnational issues.
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WURDI YUOANG
In Victoria interest is growing around an Indigenous stone arrangement near Melbourne.
The Big Dig - The Rocks, SYDNEY
Small tourist attraction but full of facts. Australia's largest archiological sight began in 1994 when they found 18th Century homes and shops
under an old car park. This is such an interesting sight detailing how
Early white Australians would have lived, not only do they have remnants of the homes it also came with thousands of artifacts found in the area.I think a booked tour would be well worth it, but just reading the signs and information on line is just as good.
Some of the artifacts found can be seen at The Rocks Discovery Museum. The Museum is free of charge. Check out The Rocks Discovery Museum Video coming soon.
Location
110 Cumberland Street, Sydney NSW 2000
contact
T. +61 2 8272 0915
Website
soundtrack
Fiddles McGinty by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (
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Artist:
Rare Bites: A Bunch of Flowers
Join Dr James Kane, lecturer at the University of Sydney discussing Florilegium, in our final rare bites talk of the year.
One of the many types of manuscript in circulation during the central Middle Ages was the florilegium (plural florilegia), a Latin word meaning ‘a collection of flowers’. Medieval writers tended to use florilegia to compile quotations and longer excerpts from works of literature, philosophy, history, and so on by the great classical and patristic authors of the past. Nicholson Ms. 2 is a late twelfth-century florilegium from France that has the distinction of being one of the earliest medieval manuscripts currently held in the Rare Books and Special Collections Library. It contains excerpts from the works of St Jerome, Apuleius, Cicero, Boethius, Seneca, and other Latin luminaries.
Though relatively unadorned, the manuscript shows various signs of usage over time and is a perfect example of how medieval annotators could keep books alive by appropriating marginal space. This talk will outline the contents of this florilegium, discuss its script and layout, and explain what its various marginal annotations and other features reveal about how it was used.
Dr James Kane is a lecturer at the University of Sydney, where he currently teaches Old English and Old Norse language and literature. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2016 on the topic of how crusading terminology evolved across various western languages between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries. He is now preparing this thesis for publication under the tentative title Wearing the Cross in the Medieval West, c. 1095–c. 1300.
Welcome to the Body Farm | Explorer
Francesca Fiorentini goes to the Texas State University Forensic Anthropology Research Facility to see how donated bodies help solve crimes.
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Explorer, the longest-running documentary series in cable television history, honored with nearly 60 Emmys and hundreds of other awards, continues as a series of major specials on the National Geographic Channel. In the course of more than two thousand films, Explorer has taken viewers to more than 120 countries, opening a window on hidden parts of the world, unlocking mysteries both ancient and modern, and investigating stories of science, nature, and culture.
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Archaeology: Live from the Vault
Don’t let your students miss out on this special opportunity to meet with a curator and see some rare archaeology, ‘from the vault’ as well as visit a preserved dig.
In this one-off, live event your students will have the opportunity to speak with the curator at Hyde Park Barracks Museum, Dr. Fiona Starr. The artefacts the students will examine include one of the only surviving convict shirts, a convict shoe and more. These artefacts are so fragile they are not displayed in the museum, so they are not usually seen by the public. Students will discuss and analyse these rare primary sources and begin to understand how they give us insights into the experiences of the convicts who lived at the Barracks. They will also learn about how an archaeologist works by visiting an archaeological dig site called Parbury Ruins, where the foundations of an 1820s cottage, and later additions, are conserved beneath a modern building.
WATER DOWN UNDER The Great Artesian Basin Story
Stretching from Cape York in the north, down to Dubbo and across to Coober Pedy, the Great Artesian Basin covers almost a quarter of the Australian continent, and it contains enough water to cover the world over.
Much remains to be known about this valuable recourse that has enabled life in inland Australia to develop over thousands of years.
Water Down Under is the vast and rich story of the Basin, told by the people who live on the Basin it self, and presented by National Geographic's Hayden Turner.
For more information please visit gabcc.org.au
The total video duration is 32 minutes.
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Knowledges Seminar Series 2: Cultural astronomy
This video is of the second in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledges Seminar Series, offered by the University of Sydney Library, in conjunction with the Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services). The seminar focuses on Cultural Astronomy, and includes presentations by James Smith, Robert Fuller & Carla Guedes.
UTS Science in Focus: Inside the Forensics World
Professor Shari Forbes and Dr Xanthe Spindler from the Centre for Forensic Science at UTS discuss their cutting-edge research into decomposition and fingerprinting. As an expert in decomposition, Professor Forbes has been at the forefront of research investigating the chemical processes that occur in soft tissue decomposition. Her research aims to identify the chemical profile of decomposition odour to enhance the capabilities of cadaver-detection dogs. How is she doing this? By studying the decomposition of human corpses at the recently opened Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER)—the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
Dr Xanthe Spindler is a lecturer in UTS Science’s Centre for Forensic Science. A passionate fingerprint researcher, Dr Spindler will take you on a journey through the exciting world of fingerprint science. From the moment of touch, to detection, to identification, find out how latent fingerprints cross the scientific boundaries of biology, chemistry, physics and maths to become a vital puzzle piece in forensic investigations.
Sydney Metro: Central Station metro upgrade, Central Walk
A $955 million contract has been awarded to build new Sydney Metro underground platforms at Central Station and the landmark Central Walk, transforming Sydney’s busiest station.
This upgrade to Central Station is the biggest improvement to the station in decades – making it easier for customers to connect between light rail, suburban and inter-city trains, the new Sydney Metro and buses.
The Central contract includes:
• The excavation and construction of the new underground Sydney Metro platforms at Central beneath platforms 13 and 14;
• Central Walk – a new 19-metre wide underground concourse from Chalmers Street, connecting customers to suburban rail platforms, Sydney Metro platforms, the new light rail and buses;
• For the first time, customers will be able to use escalators to get to platforms 12 to 23;
• Completion of the Central Walk and Central Station metro upgrade contract is expected in 2022, with Central Walk open to customers.
Once the Central contract is complete, work will continue along the 30km length of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project to lay tracks and fit out stations before services start in 2024.
More than 270,000 people use the station daily, with that number expected to rise to 450,000 in the next two decades.
Work to build the Sydney Metro platforms at Central will happen underground and during Sydney Trains’ scheduled maintenance shutdowns.
As customers get on with their daily lives at Central Station, the Sydney Metro platforms will be constructed right under their feet. The first part of the Sydney Metro City & Southwest project at Central has been completed with major construction finished on a rail access bridge which will be used to safely deliver Sydney Metro, and improve access for ongoing maintenance work at Central.
The bridge was built in 10 months and connects Regent Street with Sydney Yard, allowing trucks easy access within the confines of a working railway.
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A UNE Archaeology Society Guide to Academic Funding
In this video we speak to UNE Archaeology society members and UNE academic staff about their experiences with academic funding. The advice they give in this video will be invaluable to anyone who wants to help bolster their studies with academic funding!
Links included:
UNE OS Help Loan -
Centrelink Relocation Scholarship -
International Student HDR Scholarship -
UNE Mary Doolan Memorial Travelling Scholarship -
New Columbo Program -
British Archaeological Jobs and Resources -
UNE Scholarship Homepage -
UNE Scholarships for Current Students -
UNE Frederick G. White Scholarship for Rural Women -
Golden Key Society -
Music:
Were Australian Aborigines The First Astronomers? ABC Australia 5 February 2011 12:39PM
A stone arrangement known as Wurdi Youang in Victoria between Melbourne and Geelong raises questions about what Aborigines observed and knew about the night sky. The arrangement of stones with respect to the sun's position at the solstices suggests to some researchers that Aborigines has an advanced and very early knowledge of the movement of objects in the sky.
Transcript Extracts
Robert Cockburn: It is now being realised that Australia's Aboriginal people had a great knowledge of astronomy, which was virtually overlooked when white settlers took over, 200 years ago. Much of this knowledge has been lost, but now comes the surprise, a discovery that could change our whole understanding of Aboriginal people.
Duane Hamacher is a student of archaeoastronomy at Macquarie University.
Duane Hamacher: There is a stone arrangement in Victoria about halfway between Melbourne and Geelong called Wurdi Youang. This is special, it's a large standing stone arrangement, very similar to the ones you would see in (the UK). It's egg-shaped, it's about 50 metres in diameter with three large standing stones at one apex that mirror three mountains in the background. And at the apex of the other end, if you stand there and look down, the centre of it, which is exactly east-west, you can see the equinox sitting over these three stones. And if you look down the other side you see two rows that align to the solstices. It looks very similar to Stonehenge in some respects. We've actually labelled it as an Aboriginal Stonehenge.
The problem with a lot of the stone arrangements and the same problem with Wurdi Youang is there are very few Aboriginal records in the literature and nobody to tell us what they meant or what they were used for, so we've got to try and figure that out on our own.
Robert Cockburn: The astronomical significance of Wurdi Youang was first seen by a local cultural historian, John Morieson. But his work had never received the credit it deserved, until now.
Ray Norris: I heard this guy John Morieson who was claiming that there was some alignments there, that if you stood in a particular place you would see the sun setting on midsummer's day or midwinter's day and the equinox.
Robert Cockburn: Professor Ray Norris is one of Australia's top astrophysicists at the CSIRO in Sydney and he is fascinated by Aboriginal astronomy. Norris has now confirmed Morieson's initial findings at Wurdi Youang.
Ray Norris: Wurdi Youang...okay, it's not as big and impressive as Stonehenge obviously, it's smaller stones and so on, but it looks like it's the same sort of process, people starting to get interested in the way the sky works. So I think it potentially changes our view of how traditional Aboriginal cultures worked. It shows that people are getting interested in the sun and the moon.
Robert Cockburn: But of course the big question now is; when where the stones laid? Could Wurdi Youang be older than Britain's Stonehenge?
Ray Norris: It's plausible because people have been in this country for 50,000 years. So if it goes back, let's say, 10,000 years, that predates Egyptians, the pyramids, Stonehenge, all that stuff, and so that would indeed make them the world's first astronomers.
Duane Hamacher: So further research would be to do some geophysical archaeology to see how old the stone arrangement is.That is notoriously difficult. One of the techniques that was actually used at Stonehenge was to take a sample of soil from underneath one of the stones that may have a twig or a leaf or something like that in it and radiocarbon date that, and that was one way that they were able to determine at least one line of evidence they had for gathering an age of Stonehenge. That may be possible here, I'm not sure. Being an Aboriginal site, you don't want to go in and you don't want to disturb it, so it's very difficult to be able to date these types of sites. And we don't have any contact with any Aboriginal elders in the area who know anything about it as well.
Robert Cockburn: Wurdi Youang's traditional owners, Bryon Powell and Bonnie Fagan, are elders of the Wathaurong people. They say the traditional knowledge concerned in the site has been lost through the banning of their language by white settlers and the government policy to remove Aboriginal children. Thousands of years of knowledge gone in a matter of decades. The challenge now it seems is for the Aboriginal and scientific communities to share what they do know and just maybe work out some more of the puzzle of Aboriginal astronomy.
Note - This podcast is publicly available at and is reproduced here under the provisions of the copyright act for the purposes of review and comment.
Metamorphosis- Ayahuasca Documentary
Ayahuasca has been used by Shamans and those they help for hundreds if not thousands of years. Found all over the Amazon, Ayahuasca and it's incredible ability to heal has been slowly but steadily creeping into western consciousness. Metamorphosis is a documentary that follows several westerners as they undergo five Ayahuasca ceremonies and experience the gamut of emotions - from utter fear to outright ecstasy. It also explores the shamans who work with the medicine as well as all the key elements of an Ayahuasca ceremony. The film also tells the story of Hamilton Souther, who earlier in life had no belief of and in spirit. After having a spiritual awakening, Hamilton is led to the Amazon where he apprentices as an Ayahuascero, or person who practices medicine with Ayahuasca. Hamilton and Maestro Don Alberto (an indigenous master shaman for over thirty years that practices with Hamilton) take us through the ceremonies as well as explain the meaning behind them.
Climate Change and Australia: Where to Now?
Climate change is regarded by many as the gravest problem humankind has ever faced. Unless fossil fuels are replaced by renewable sources of energy in the next decade or so, future generations will face a ruinous post-industrial revolution rise in global temperature of 3 degree Celsius or something even higher. It's also an almost uniquely difficult problem. The Paris ambition to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees relies upon a level of international co-operation never before achieved. If humankind fails to take the action now required the consequences will be irreversible. It is no hyperbole to say that the future of the Earth lies in our hands. What happens in Australia matters greatly. If our domestic energy consumption and our exports of coal, oil and gas are taken into account, we are responsible for 5% of global carbon pollution. Climate Analytics has calculated that if all the fossil fuel developments now proposed were to proceed, Australia would be responsible for a staggering 13% of worldwide carbon emissions.
For those fighting for the radical changes required, climate change poses a daunting political challenge. According to the conventional interpretation, in the recent federal election those Queensland Coalition candidates cheering on the Adani coal mine polled unusually well. In the short term at least, the anti-Adani protest march failed to sway local public opinion.
Our Ideas and Society event brought together four frontline fighters across the generations to reflect on recent experiences of climate change action and discuss future strategy.
???????????? ????????????????????, former leader of The Australian Greens,and revered father of the environmental movement in Australia; ???????? ???????????????????????? ????????????????????????, a Queensland grassroots analyst and activist, founder and chief executive of The Next Economy; ???????????????????? ????????????????????????, leader of the pioneering world-wide environmental movement, Greenpeace Australia Pacific. ???????????????????????????? ???????????????? is a brave leader of one of the most hopeful recent climate change developments, the school strike movement (taking place 20 September).
The discussion is moderated by Professor Katie Holmes and an introduction by Natalie MacDonald.
Museum Dance off 3: Monticello - Welcome to our House!
Our Education, Gardens and Grounds, Archaeology, Curatorial, and Human Resources Departments had the best time ever making this!! Vote for our video for the When You Work at a Museum Dance-Off, Tokyo Drift! We are excited to welcome you all to our house and show you all the great resources we have to offer!
NPS: Linking Hispanic Heritage Through Archeology - Tucson Program Trailer
A wonderfully creative trailer put together by one of the teachers from Tucson High School, Karriauna who clearly has a flair for the theatrical side of archeology!
Breaking Open Geodes
Watch us crack open some geodes! Geodes are ordinary-looking rocks with beautiful crystals inside. Check out our Rocks & Minerals kits at