Ancient History Ramblings

Rome in SL

So, back to visiting archaeological and historical sites in SL. As a disclaimer, my thoughts on the sites I visit are always from an educational viewpoint, as in would they be a good site for students to visit? Today I visited Yaroland, a recreation of ancient Rome as visualized by Yaro. I visited it some yesterday and came back again tonight. It is an interesting site, but for some reason I seem to have lag issues when I visit (I guess I need a better computer). I asked another avatar about lag issues and she did not have any at that moment, but as she pointed out, there is an amazing amount of textures on the site. Yaroland has quite a collection of buildings, the Pantheon, an amphitheater, an aqueduct, some temples, a triumphal arch, a bathing complex where you can swim, and the imperial palace. The site has lots of colorful textures as I mentioned, including some nice mosaics. The Pantheon recreation was quite colorful. I did wish that flying wasn't disabled, since it would be nice to fly around the building and look at things from different angles, like you can at Vassar's Sistine Chapel.

I also wish that there was more information available about what was being portrayed and why they were visualized the way they are. Yaro's introductory notecard did say that he wanted "...to experience how it felt and looked to wander through an intact roman city, not only the ruins which are left today." The site certainly fits the bill for that. From an educational standpoint though,  I can imagine that most people visiting the site would be a bit confused about what they were seeing, depending on how much they know about ancient Rome. The site was obviously a lot of work and the creator has put in quite a bit of time to create the numerous buildings. As an aside totally unrelated to the site - I happened to look and up and noticed there were a bunch of platforms floating overhead. It was quite an interesting sight to see.

RSM

PKAP Stuff Today

So, today I am going to take a quick break from the SL archaeology. I found a Roman SL site that I will talk about tomorrow, but I need to do some more exploring - the site has disabled flying and that makes it take longer to check out, especially since I got trapped in a room somehow. Anyway, let's see...on the PKAP front, quite a bit is happening. First, we got back proofs for an article we submitted and somehow our bibliography was switched with another article in the volume. Second, we are working on a letter that we are going to send to the Cypriot Department of Antiquities that will detail our progress and discuss our future plans. Third, we just mailed off a grant application yesterday (our 5th since October) and already it is time to work on another that is due at the beginning of the year. The grant writing process is tiring and to be honest a little depressing especially when you start working on the budget for upcoming seasons - so if there is anybody out there with a bucket of cash that is just sitting around......... email me. Finally, I have been putting off working on our poster for the 2008 AIA in Chicago (hopefully Bill and David don't read this) hoping for an inspiration, and I might finally have one. This will be our second large poster and I hope to do a better job with this one. Our first poster was for the AIA 2006 annual meeting and was well....adequate? I had never done a large (4' X 8') , serious academic poster and I all had to go on was what I found on the web. For some reason, all I could find was information about creating scientific posters and so I figured you must just adapt that for history, and so that's exactly what I did. I was actually quite happy with the finished poster.......until I got to the AIA and put it up. Ours was laid out in columns and had lots, and I mean lots, of information. Everyone who came by said nice things, but they wouldn't come up and say, "Boy, that really sucks!" would they? Well, I know some people who would enjoy saying that to me, but they weren't there. When I looked at the other posters, I was a little intimindated since they all used glossy paper (ours was regular), and were very artistic looking - something I lack. Anyway, I have solved one problem from

last time. That time I scrambled around trying to find a printing place that could print out the poster and ended up paying about $120 to get it printed. This time, I can get it printed at IUP. I collaborated on a successful National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant with Dr. Bev Chiarulli (IUP Anthropology) and Dr. John Benhart (IUP Geography). Some of the first equipment from that grant arrived yesterday and included a large format printer. So, instead of paying to have the poster printed, I can spend a little money and get some nice glossy paper and print it at IUP. The glossy paper alone ensures that it will be a better poster, right? Now, if I could just come up with an idea for the content..........

RSM

More SL Archaeology?

Well, after visiting 2 sites in SL that list "archaeology" as one of their searchable keywords, I thought I was out of sites to visit. After a little poking around and playing with search terms I found the SL site of Chichen Itza. It is a nicely constructed site in a lush tropical setting. The site included a sacred cenote, Temple of the Warriors, and the temple of Kukulcan. There were a couple of information cubes that provided brief descriptions of some of the items. The project was created by the Mexico Tourism Board and was designed to help attract votes so that the real site might be included in the New 7 Wonders of the World campaign that ended last July. The project was successful in that Chichen Itza was voted as one of the new 7 wonders of the world along with the Taj Mahal, Petra, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, Christ Redeemer, and the Colosseum. The SL site is still attracting visitors, I saw 6 other avatars while I was there.

RSM

Okapi Island

Since both Bill Caraher and Sebastian Heath suggested I visit Okapi Island in SL, I decided to take them up on their suggestions. It is a very nice site, well-laid out and interesting to visit. There were some nice recreations and even a sandbox where visitors can practice reconstructing buildings from Catal Hoyuk. This Wednesday (November 28th) there will be a remixing contest at the site where visitors can submit their reconstructions or remixes by 5 PM PST for judging. The winners will received virtual awards and have their work exhibited on the island. I have to say that this is a fabulous idea and a great way to involve the public in an archaeological project. Most people's involvement with archaeology comes from the many cable channels (Discovery, Learning, History, etc.) and they seldom have the opportunity to participate in it and  SL offers that opportunity and it is great to see this site capitalizing on the opportunities that SL offers. For more info on Wednesday's event (which includes tours, lectures, etc) visit wither their web site or their SL site.

On a different issue, I conducted another interview in SL last night about our work on IUP's Archaeology Island (opening in March). A student from Temple asked me some good questions about our work and plans. The student was doing research on archaeology and collecting in SL for a class in ancient art and the ethics of collecting. I wasn't much help since we are still working on recreating the basic site outline and haven't progressed to artifacts.

RSM

Survey in Cyprus trailer up in SL

I took a few minutes today and set up a video screen in the PKAP Welcome Center on Crimson Island that shows the trailer from our first documentary Survey on Cyprus. To see the video, you have to stand sort of close to the screen and press play on your SL toolbar. The reason I put this up is that I heard from Joe Patrow, PKAP's videographer, that our next installment of Survey on Cyprus is in the mail. This new installment will be delivered over the web in a series of short segments that focus on different aspects of the project. We are very excited about this and hope to make good use of these video clips in our classrooms.Once I receive the package I will put it up on the PKAP website in the multimedia section and announce it here and on the website. Since school starts back Monday, it may take me a few days to get it up, so be patient.

RSM

Second Life and Archaeology

Since work has slowed on IUP's Archaeology Island (see below), I thought that this would be a good time to visit some other Second Life sites that deal with archaeology.

My first stop was Xibalba Maya Site. It is a recreation of the Temple of the Inscriptions, a Maya ruin in Palenque Mexico. It is a picturesque site with a large Mayan temple and a smoking volcano in the background.

At the top of the temple is a museum with a series of 8 vases and 2 photos. The artifacts had a link to both an artifact description and its entry in the Maya Vase Database. As of today, it has had 97 visitors. It looks like it is part of a larger continent of 11 islands that share a similar geography.  There was a lot of geography to explore - I got stuck in the volcano and flew through a lightning storm. I had seen mention of the site on the Second Life Educators List (SLED) According to the list, it was supposed to have underwater caves you can explore, but I was unable to find them or the site has changed. It was a pleasant stop and is worth a quick visit if you like Mayan archaeology.

RSM

SL Workshop

Well our SL workshop at IUP was today and I think it went well. I, unfortunately, was one of the people in charge and had to lead one of the sessions. I know a bit about SL but it is all self-taught and I was very worried about trying to teach it. It reminded me a little bit like when I was learning to teach scuba. I had been diving for quite a while and could do all the scuba skills without thinking about them, but needed to learn how to break the skill down and teach all of the components. I figured that this was the same sort of thing, but it seemed to go ok. I wasn't happy, I could have dome better but everyone seemed ok and left in a good mood.  Anyway, one down one to go. I have to do a presentation for the IUP Council of Trustees in about 2 weeks and need to think about what I want to show them, hopefully inspiration will strike.

RSM

Second Life Ramping Up

It seems that I am spending more and more time in Second Life everyday. It is mainly because I have a couple of important Second Life events coming up. On Monday, we are holding a Second Life workshop at IUP for faculty and staff interested in learning more about it. I say we because we have a Second Life Coordination Committee that has been working very diligently to get IUP up and running in SL. Anyway, I agreed to help and do a brief introduction before the more qualified guys take over and demonstrate some serious SL skills. So I figured that if I was going to be talking about SL and using my avatar to demonstrate things that I ought to do what I had not yet done, find some decent clothes, hair, and skin for my avatar. So for the last two nights I have been shopping in SL looking to create a halfway decent look and not having much luck. Either the look is very hip or very basic, and I have to ask - where is all the stuff for middle-aged guys? Anyway, I have had better luck tonite and finally started finding some stuff and then realized that my inventory is out of control. So, that is what I will be working on tonite, and maybe tomorrow......and Saturday.....and Sunday...

RSM

Pre-Thanksgiving Rush

Well, I managed two days in a row before failing to post, ah well. Anyway, let's see.....the podcast and press release on the Robert E. Cook Honors College foray into Second Life I mentioned earlier came out this evening. I spent some time online updating various webpages that I am responsible for and updated parts of the PKAP webpage to try to keep it up-to-date. I also worked on a budget for a grant Bill is working on for the this summer. The big project I have started working on is the poster for the Archaeological Institute of America's Annual Meeting in Chicago this January. Even though, I guess saying that I have started working on it is a little bit of a stretch. I spent yesterday making sure that I was registered for the conference, renewed my annual membership, arranged my flight, and reserved a hotel room. It is a good thing, I get so much travel money from IUP, this year's amount will be about $100.00 Pretty amazing, huh? No error there, somehow IUP expects us to go to conferences on an amount less than the registration cost for most conferences. Anyway, I started laying out some ideas for the poster and started looking for good images to use in it. That is actually the hardest part for me. Over the last 5 years we have collected an amazing number of digital photos. If anybody has any good ideas or solutions for managing a large image database, please let me know - I spend a lot of time looking for photos I know we have, but can't find them. My New Year's resolution this year will be to get our photos arranged, organized, and tagged before this field season. Well......at least that is what I think it will be, it could change by January 1st.

RSM

2 Days in a row

Amazing, I actually managed to blog 2 days in a row. So, latest news on the SL front - I actually completed an interview in Second Life. Bill Caraher was contacted by a student at Penn State who was researching how history is taught and read Bill's blog on our foray into the Second Life. He contacted Bill to see if he could conduct a brief interview about the project's use of SL and Bill directed him to me. We met at the PKAP Visitor's Center tonite for the interview. It was a short interview but he asked a lot of good questions about how we hoped to involve SL in  our project and what we expected to accomplish.

RSM