Ladypants and Archaeology

One of the reasons that I've been posting very little here lately is that I am gearing up to go into the field in July, for some excavation, 3D modeling, and osteological analysis at the site of Oplontis outside of Pompeii. My goal for the summer is to blog here about that fieldwork, although it'll likely take the form of writing about work-life balance. You see, I'm bringing my family to the field for the first time! So I'll send missives about the adventures of traveling and seeing Europe with my 8yo and 3.5yo daughters and software engineer husband.

Found this on Pinterest as a "summer archaeology excavation
outfit". To which I say Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

In preparation, since I really haven't been in the field in a while, save a few weeks every other summer, I've been restocking my archaeological toolkit -- not the actual equipment, since my Marshalltown doesn't age, but my field clothing. Between the changes in site rules in Italy and the changes in my body following two kids, my old field garb isn't cutting it. Shirts are a no-brainer, and Italy requires EU-rated steel-toed boots, but that leaves the question of pants.

Ladies' pants are problematic. I'm currently wearing jeans that fit me well, but that annoy me because they have lady-pockets. You know, the teeny half-pockets (or sometimes no pockets!) that you can't fit anything in except lipstick because of *course* that's the only thing I want to carry with me. I've also found that ladies' khaki pants (no laughing here, Brits!) are woefully inadequate for fieldwork, especially if purchased at a store like Old Navy. The fabric is thin, the pockets are sad, and the worst part is that the men's pants are far more useful and rugged... and usually cheaper. My last pair of field pants was a men's style and size (plus a belt), since I had to prioritize function over fit.

To remedy this, I did what any social media maven would do: crowdsourced suggestions for archaeological ladypants. If you're also looking for rugged but lightweight pants for the field, here's a big ol' list that is only vaguely organized. (Full disclosure: I've not tested any of these except Rothco.)

National Sports/Sportswear Stores

• Columbia Sportswear. Among the recommendations here were the fishing pants. To save on the cost, find an outlet near you.
• REI. Highly recommended were the Sahara pants - there's a regular kind and a kind that can be rolled up when you get hot. Bonus points: these were also recommended by a recently postpartum archaeologist. 
• Eddie Bauer. The zip-off hiking pants, rip-stop pants, and the Horizon pant were recommended (which also rolls up).
• These stores were recommended as well, but no specific pants were mentioned: Academy Sports, Tractor Supply Company, Bass Pro Shops.

Local or Online Sportswear Stores

• Eastern Mountain Sports
• LL Bean, specifically the cargo pants
• Duluth Trading Company
• Kühl Clothing, recommended especially for curvy bodies
• Ex Officio's Bugsaway pants were recommended for folks who work in extremely fly- and mosquito-heavy areas
• GT/5.11 Tactical gear pants (although I note that the ladies' pants are more expensive than the men's in pretty much all categories, which is disappointing)
• Prana pants, specifically the Halle style
• Red Ants Pants, which are heavy-duty pants made specifically for women's bodies by a woman-owned and woman-run company (if they weren't so expensive, I'd totally try them out!)
• Woman Within cargo pants were suggested. It's clothing specifically designed for sizes 12W and up.
• Craghoppers

Other 

• Army surplus was recommended for either hiking combats or paratrooper style pants. I found the Rothco brand of fatigues online at Amazon and ordered a couple, mostly because of the drawstring waist/side tabs at the waist, figuring that would get me through weight fluctuations.
• Workout pants / activewear. I don't think this is allowed where I work, but if you are in a more lax country, sweat-wicking workout capris or other activewear could be a good bet. I was warned, though, that mosquitoes can bite through the thin stuff (see Ex Officio above).

I'm excited to try out the Rothco pants to see how comfortable they are. If they're not, I guess I'll try one of the above. Sadly, archaeologists are not as cool as NASCAR drivers and don't get crazy sponsorship deals. But man, I'd totally list sponsorship on my project page and say nice things about the company if I got free field clothes and backpacks! 

The author in 2003 as "queen of the trench"
at the site of Azoria on Crete. Definitely
can't wear this sort of field gear now!

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Thanks muchly to all the ladypants wearers who contributed to my Facebook thread: Traci Ardren, Jo Buckberry, Sarah Levin-Richardson, Julie Hruby, Kate Ellenberger, Erin Stevens Nelson, Claire Terhune, Mindy Pitre, Tanya Peres, Katie Brewer, Amanda Mathis, Beth Koontz, Jane Holmstrom, Liz Berger, Kate Spradley, Megan Perry, Sonia Zakrzewski, Michelle Ziegler, Sheri Pak, Jess Beck, Anna Osterholtz, Sarah Miller, Ruth Beeston, Carlina de la Cova, Sarah Rowe, and Shannon Hodge. And thanks to the menfolk who also suggested pants: Dimitri Nakassis, Andy Danner, Stephen Savage, and Jim O'Hara.

Clearly, the sheer number of people with opinions on this topic means finding good archaeo-pants is a very real concern!

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You guys, I got *another award* for this whole blogging thing!

Tonight at the annual business meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, I received the Award for Excellence in Public Education.

Per the conference program:

Dr. Kristina Killgrove has earned the SAA's Award for Excellence in Public Education for her exemplary contributions to public education and service to the profession. Dr. Killgrove's masterful contributions to writing archaeologically for the general public have included her own website as well as at Forbes.com and at Mental Floss, with some online compositions receiving millions of views. She has produced an extensive corpus of published work on how archaeology, anthropology, and science intersect with our daily lives, as well as having excelled as a teacher and scholar. In particular, she has successfully entered into the public fray on ethical issues related to the treatment of human remains and how nonrenewable archaeological resources can be exploited by television and looting. Finally, her online writing has served as a litmus test for the efficacy of how archaeologists can serve as barometers of the "truth," and how we can actively work against the dissemination of falsehoods like Dr. Ben Carson's patently untrue claim that the Egyptian pyramids were used to store grain. For her storytelling, advocacy, and public outreach, we are proud to nominate Dr. Killgrove for this award.

The spiffy plaque I got is in the upper right. And here's what I looked like receiving it from outgoing SAA president Diane Gifford-Gonzalez... (I'm sure the professional photographer got a better pic, but this was helpfully snapped by Lynne Goldstein):

Last time I got an award for my outreach, I thanked a whole bunch of people. This time is no different. In addition to the awards committee, I would like to thank Megan Perry for nominating me and Lynne Goldstein and Jane Buikstra for writing letters of support. Of course, I appreciate the opportunities that my editors Alex Knapp and Forbes and Jen Pinkowski at mental_floss have given me in terms of a platform to write about why the past is relevant to the present. Thanks to all of my colleagues who have let me cover their latest article or discovery, given me comments on my pieces, and allowed me to interview them.

And last but definitely not least, thanks to all my readers here, at Forbes, and at mental_floss, and my peeps on Twitter and the PbO Facebook page! If you keep reading, I'll keep writing!

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Who needs an osteologist? (Installment 43)

Welp, it seems like I haven't blogged here in two months. Spring semester is always crazy, so while I've been keeping up with my Forbes blog and writing the occasional piece for mental_floss, I haven't been linking to my Bones reviews here (series finale, y'all!).

So I'm going to try to do better, inspired by Roberto Cighetti's tagging me in a photo of a set of skeletons that really need an osteologist:

These are from the Museo delta Antico, which is in Comacchio on the northeast coast of Italy. They shared this image in a Facebook post from March 20.

There's even a closeup that shows just how painful it must have been for that person's left arm to bend entirely the wrong way. ;-)

And as a bonus, I don't even know what's going on here. Is that an... adult fibula in the kid's right arm? An unfused radius that is way too old for the skull?

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Previous Installments of Who needs an osteologist?

• Usborn publishers needs an osteologist.
• DK Publishing needs an osteologist.
• Corvin Castle needs an osteologist.
• Loch Ness needs an osteologist.
• Giant Screen Films/IMAX needs an osteologist.
• The National Museum in Copenhagen and the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo need an osteologist.
• The American Anthropological Association needs an osteologist.
• Greensboro Science Center needs an osteologist.
• Scholastic News needs an osteologist.
• From Darkness on the BBC needs an osteologist.
• The Iraqi National Museum needs an osteologist.
• Halloween stores need an osteologist.
• The New York Times needs an osteologist.
• Morgan's Cove needs an osteologist.
• Dunstable Baptist Church needs an osteologist.
• Once again, Bones needs an osteologist.
• Tampa Bay History Center needs an osteologist.
• The Archaeological Museum of the Castle of Santo Anton needs an osteologist.
• The Gruppo Archeologico della Val Nure needs an osteologist.
• Polish archaeologists at the site of Kamien Pomorski need an osteologist.
• The South Florida Science Center and Aquarium needs an osteologist.
• GitHub needs an osteologist.
• The Telegraph needs an osteologist.
• University Museum in Chieti-Pescara needs an osteologist.
• NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences needs an osteologist.
• Huffington Post and the Mars Rover need an osteologist.
• PBS and Richard III need an osteologist.
• Abbot House Museum needs an osteologist.
• The Zanjan Museum needs an osteologist.
• National Geographic Channel's "Nazi War Diggers" needs an osteologist.
• BBC/NOVA needs an osteologist.
• The Penn Museum needs an osteologist.
• National Geographic needs an osteologist.
• Acura needs an osteologist.
• The "African" woman in Fairford, England, needs an osteologist.
• Museo delle Grotte needs an osteologist.
• Either NPR or Yale needs an osteologist.
• Yorkshire Museum needs an osteologist.
• Staffordshire University needs an osteologist.
• And, of course, Bones needs an osteologist.

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Bioarchaeology TT job @UWF! - Deadline 2/13

We are hiring! If you are a bioarchaeologist (with or without a sideline in forensic anthropology), please consider applying for our tenure-track position. Pensacola has lovely beaches, and the department is full of super friendly archaeologists. Plus, I'm in the process of setting up a light isotope prep lab... so fingers crossed that happens! More details about the job are below.

This Link Takes You To The Job Posting!

We seek a broadly-trained biological anthropologist with an active research agenda and commitment to teaching and mentoring undergraduates and graduate students. Preference will be given to applicants with expertise in bioanthropology, bioarchaeology and/or forensic anthropology. Ability to teach a local forensic or bioarchaeology field school is ideal; ability to include students in some form of field or laboratory research is a necessity.

A Ph.D from an accredited institution in anthropology, archaeology, or closely related discipline with a demonstrated record of achievement in teaching, academic research, and service.

Expertise in bioanthropology, bioarchaeology and/or forensic anthropology; experience teaching a range of courses in biological anthropology; ability or potential to secure research funding; ability to publish in high-quality journals.

The successful candidate will teach three courses per semester that complement our existing BA and MA programs in archaeological, biological, and cultural anthropology; will advise and mentor BA and MA students; will serve on and direct master’s thesis committees; and will engage in service and research activities.

This position will benefit from and strengthen existing collaborations with campus organizations such as the Archaeology Institute, the Florida Public Archaeology Network, and the Virtebra 3D lab, as well as external organizations such as local medical examiners’ offices.

ABDs will be considered if the degree will be completed prior to August 2017.

Candidates must apply online through the University of West Florida website: https://jobs.uwf.edu

Applicants must attach the following documents: Curriculum Vitae, Teaching Philosophy, Letter of Application/Interest, List of References, Statement of Research, Writing Sample

There will be an opportunity to upload these documents during the application process.

Applicants with questions can contact the search committee chair, Dr. Kristina Killgrove (killgrove@uwf.edu / 850-474-3287).

The University of West Florida is an Equal Opportunity/Access/Affirmative Action employer. Any individual who requires special accommodations to apply is requested to advise UWF by contacting the UWF Human Resources Department at 1-850-474-2694 (voice) or 1 850 857 6114 (TTY). A criminal background check is required for successful candidates. E-Verify requirements may apply for employment in certain positions. All records submitted in support of employment applications may be subject to Florida public records law.

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Bones - Season 12, Episode 3 (Review)

Here's a link to my review over at Forbes of:

'Bones' Season 12, Episode 3 Review: 

The New Tricks in the Old Dogs

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Bones - Season 12, Episode 2 (Review)

Here's a link to my review over at Forbes of:

'Bones' Season 12, Episode 2 Review: 

The Brain in the Bot

Read more »

Here's a link to my review over at Forbes of:

'Bones' Season 12, Episode 1 Review: 

The Hope in the Horror

Read more »

Here's a link to my review over at Forbes of:

'Bones' Season 11, Episode 22 Review: 

The Nightmare in the Nightmare

Read more »

Here's a link to my review over at Forbes of:

'Bones' Season 11, Episode 21 Review: 

The Jewel in the Crown

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