My colleague Eric Poehler will be speaking at the University of North Dakota next week on “Pompeii in the 21st Century.”

How does one ask a novel question about a site that has been studied, nearly continuously for over 250 years? How does one come to new realizations when almost all new excavation is not permitted?

This is the challenge for Pompeian scholars in the 21st century, finding what the great minds of the past overlooked without being able to add large sets of new evidence. Paradoxically, a solution has been propelled by the moratorium on excavation into the areas still buried by ash of Vesuvius. Unable to discover new parts of the city, archaeologists turned to examine those parts already uncovered in both greater detail and in a wider context.

Since 2000, the explosion of personal computing power – especially in commercial statistical, database, and spatial tools – has expanded the ways we approach these questions from counting and cataloging aspects of the urban fabric to using the space of the city itself to derive new visualizations, new queries and new syntheses. The 2011 season of the Pompeii Quadriporticus Project will wholly replace the trowel, drawing board and tape measure with the iPad, photogrammetry, and Geographical Information Systems software. Within 10 years, these tools will also put entire libraries of reference material at our fingertips while inside the ancient city, dissolving the the distinction between fieldwork and library work.

Some additional projects to watch from the NEH awards list announced yesterday.

Items of interest from the April 2011 NEH Awards:

From Heritage Bytes:

Open Context is developing procedures for formalized archaeological data publication in conjunction with print publication. We are seeking scholars who are currently publishing their research and who would like to publish (and archive) the related data simultaneously in Open Context. Open Context will offer data publication for free in return for your feedback to help us improve the data publication process.

See the full post here.

I am putting this on my list of things to watch that include:

• The Archaeology of the Americas
• The ASCSA Publication Office
• Visible Past

This letter came out from Jeffrey T. Clark, the current Chair for CAA North America and Alyson Gill, a candidate for Membership Secretary. This letter outlines some of the changes in CAA for the future. Nick Ryan, for instance will not stand for re-election this year. He has held the Chair post since 1993 according to the archives of the general meetings. This is an exciting time for the CAA and even though I won’t be at the meeting this year I have sent in my proxy for votes. The letter from Clark/Gill is below with links to the attachments for proxy voting and the CVs of the candidates.

April 5, 2011

Dear CAA Colleague,

Over the last several weeks, there has been a lot of discussion within the CAA Steering Committee, and amongst a group of members, about the nature of CAA and its future.  What it boils down to is that we think CAA is in need of a number of changes.  Broadly speaking, these changes would make the organization operate in a more professional manner and with more openness.  The most active members of our group are: Axel Posluschny (Germany), Karsten Lambers (Germany), Philip Verhagen (Netherlands), Gary Lock (UK), Bernie Frischer (US), and us.  Others have been supportive in many ways, though we will not list them all.

CAA is now at an important crossroads with two offices being vacated.  Long-serving Chair Nick Ryan will not stand for re-election in Beijing.  Hans Kamermanns, who was recently elected as the newly created Publication Officer, is also stepping down.  Consequently, our group has submitted nominations for a slate of candidates for the upcoming elections at the Beijing CAA Annual General Meeting (AGM). These candidates, along with nominators and seconds, are:

•    Gary Lock – Chair, proposed by Philip Verhagen and seconded by Axel Posluschny
•    Axel Posluschny – Treasurer, proposed by Philip Verhagen and seconded by Gary Lock
•    Secretary – No nominee (currently, Guus Lange hold this office); endorsed
•    Alyson Gill – Membership Secretary, proposed by Axel Posluschny and seconded by Gary Lock
•    Philip Verhagen – Publication Officer, proposed by Axel Posluschny and seconded by Jeffrey Clark

We know all of these people and can vouch for their honesty, their strong engagement with CAA over the past years, and their strong desire to work to improve CAA as an organization and a conference.  Attached is a pdf with short CVs and statements regarding their view of the position.  We ask that you give strong consideration to voting for each of these candidates, if you are in a position to vote.

You are eligible to vote if you are a current CAA member, which means if you attended CAA 2010 in Granada (you are a member until after the AGM in Beijing), if you attend CAA in Beijing, or if you become a member without attending CAA Beijing (see, http://caa.leidenuniv.nl/caa_membership.htm).

If you will not be attending the Beijing AGM, you can vote by assigning your proxy to someone who will be in attendance.  If you do not know anyone attending, Axel Posluschny and Bernie Frischer have agreed to hold proxies for those who will be unable to vote in person but are in support of these candidates.  If you would like Axel, Bernie, or anyone else, to cast your vote, please fill out the attached proxy form and send it to Guus Lange (guus.lange@gmail.com) in an e-mail with the subject heading PROXY. You must also cc to your proxy (e.g., Axel Posluschny, posluschny@me.com, or Bernie Frischer, bernard.d.frischer@gmail.com) so that they have also have the form. Please note that it is important that you send your proxy forms as soon as possible.

All of the nominated candidates have agreed to support a platform that contains important proposed changes to the way CAA is organized and operates.  The most important thing is to bring these issues up for discussion, arrive at a set of concrete proposals, and bring them to the membership for further consideration and vote.  Among the proposals that we wish to bring forward for consideration are the following:
•    increasing the term of office to three years (currently it is just one)
•    establishing term limits for officers (e.g., two three-year terms maximum)
•    establishing an explicit set of duties and powers for each officer
•    allowing for a Secretariat to have a small staff to help organize the annual meeting, assist the officers in the performance of their duties, provide liaison with the Amsterdam University Press, keep the CAA website up to date, and assist with the activities of the various national branches of CAA
•    implementing the decision taken at a recent AGM to have the Amsterdam University Press handle production and publication of the CAA Proceedings (up to now, each group of local organizers has handled this itself)
•    instituting an active effort to expand membership
•    creating and maintaining an updated webpage that is reflective of the status of CAA as the leading organization for computer applications for archaeology and cultural heritage
•    developing a more comprehensive set of procedures and policies for conference organizers that will facilitate a well run conference.

By voting for these candidates you are not voting for any of these changes, only for officers who will bring them to the entire CAA membership for consideration, debate, and, ultimately, a vote.

So, if you attend CAA Beijing, please remember to attend the AGM on the afternoon of April 15, and we urge you to support any or all of candidates that we have presented here in order to bring about important changes in CAA.  We also hope that you will encourage any of your colleagues who are members to vote as well.

Thank you very much for your consideration of and help with this very important matter.

Sincerely,
Jeffrey T. Clark, Chair CAA North America
Alyson Gill, Candidate for Membership Secretary

 

PROXY FORM FOR CAA 2011

CVs candidates CAA2011