SEAArch - The Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog » Personal

Who’s reading this blog?

noelbynature — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:55:37 +0000

I’ve been running this blog for nearly six years now, but for most part I don’t know who my readers are! Over the last couple of years I’ve had interactions with a few of you, either in-person at conferences or over an email conversation.

So, for the first time, make yourself known! Leave a comment at the end of this post. Introduce yourself and what you do, and what you would like to see more of in this site. If you’re reading this on Facebook, you can comment directly on this post. If you are reading this via email, click on the title of this post (Who’s reading this blog?) to get sent to the website so that you can leave a comment here.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Introducing the archaeograph

noelbynature — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:00:46 +0000

I mentioned working on another web project. Over the past couple of years I’ve been thinking more and more about the craft of photography in the practice of archaeology. Mostly because I work with rock art where digital photography has become the most common (and sometimes the only) way of recording them. So I’ve set up a thinking space for archaeological photography, and thus, the Archaeograph:

www.archaeograph.com

This blog has a decidedly more tech and geek slant to it, talking about equipment, techniques and photographic experiments. Check it out, and if you’re so inclined, subscribe to it.

Hmmm… Eventually I’ll have to fit writing a thesis in between of all this!

Redesign update

noelbynature — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:29:28 +0000

I think I’m just about done with the blog redesign. I didn’t mean to, but last week’s problems with the comment spam eventually forced me to shut the site down for a while (hopefully you didn’t notice!) and reinstall everything from scratch. Besides the cosmetic retouch (which still looks very close to the old site), here are some other tweaks and details from the back-end:

I’ve installed a broken-link checker. Many of the stories that I once posted have since expired, so I’ve removed the links to them to prevent confusion and the nuisance of reaching a 404 page.
A good deal (most, practically) of the images on this blog have been lost. Unfortunately, this may be permanently situation.
Posts now can be geotagged. Now I’ll be able to link stories with locations on a map and you can see how it works with my most recent post.
I’ve updated all the pages on the top menu, too.
A mobile theme has been enabled on this site, so you can read SEAArch from your smartphone as well, on a less image-intensive theme.
A new Facebook page, upgraded from our previous Facebook group which is scheduled to be archived. If you’re a member of the Facebook group you would have received a message about the new page with instructions about how to move there. I’ll close the Facebook group by the end of the month.
I’ve cleaned up the advertising on the site. The pages are less cluttered now, although the ads are the only way the site pays for itself (and only just barely). Your continued support (especially doing your shopping through the Amazon.com links via this site) would be most appreciated!
I’m working on another web project having to do with archaeology, and I’ll be announcing that very soon!

Your comments and suggestions would still be most welcome!

Live from Singapore

noelbynature — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:57:42 +0000

2012 for me looks set with plenty of movement. This year is meant to be my fieldwork year and I hope to be working in a number of sites in Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. Rather than flying out of Canberra for these separate trips, I’m basing myself back in Singapore for a good part of the year where travel times are a lot shorter and fares a lot lower too. While in Singapore, I’ll be spending some time at the new Archaeology Unit at the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies as well.

I’m still sorting through my news feeds, and I hope to return to normal updates next week. I also have some pictures from Vietnam that I hope to share soon too!

Using the iPad to record rock art

noelbynature — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:02:56 +0000

This past year I’ve been working on a side project to use the iPad as the primary data collection device for recording rock art in the field, replacing paper forms that can number in the hundreds. Last week I presented the idea and the results of field testing at the Australian Archaeological Association Conference.

The premise is fairly simple, to use a database app (I used Tapforms, but there are a number out there of various functionalities and prices) and translate existing paper forms into digital ones. The great advantage of the iPad is that one can integrate the camera and GPS functions into the form, so sketching the rock art becomes unnecessary when you can just snap a photo. The biggest advantage is the post-fieldwork paperwork – where before I would have taken me two months to backup the forms and move the data into a table, it now takes two minutes.

Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that, and there are some interface and user considerations. The iPad is still an expensive piece of equipment to bring out to the field and there’s the perpetual fear of dropping the device. Most users (not just archaeologists) complain about the glare of the screen under sunlight, and the key thing to remember about the difference between an iPad and a paper for is the way one interacts with both. On a paper you can write and draw, on an iPad you’re limited to tapping on glass so it’s not one for scribbling notes on. How do we get round that? I used voice memos for all long chunks of texts.

You can see my presentation slides here, or by clicking on the image.

The Rock Art at Yankee Hat

noelbynature — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:47:12 +0000

Being in Australia now I am keen to take a look at the many examples of rock art here. On a bushwalk a couple of weekends ago, I was at the Namadgi National Park south of Canberra, on a walking trail called Yankee Hat, which contains the only known rock art found in the Australian Capital Terrritory.

The Yankee Hat Trail at the Namadgi National Park

Yankee Hat is the name of a mountain – presumably named because it looks like a yankee hat – at the site is a group of boulders located at its foot. The walk to the boulders took aout an hour and a half.

Yankee Hat Rock Art Site

Sign near the boulders

Rock art is notoriously hard to date, but dates taken from deposits found in the shelter suggest that the Aboriginal People have been using the site for at least 800 years, while dates from other nearby sites suggest that people have been in the area for around 3,700 years.

Yankee Hat Rock Art

The red paints are made from ochre, while the whites are of clay. This is all the rock art there is, so it’s a fairly small site. Some of the depictions include:

An 'emu' or 'brolga'

A 'goanna' or 'turtle'

A 'kangaroo'

Kangaroos are a common sight through the bush – one encounters many groups of them while walking the trail.

For more information about the Yankee Hat Rock Art site, click here.

Reporting, 'live' from Canberra

noelbynature — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:01:16 +0000

You might be wondering why I haven’t posted up anything over the last two weeks, especially with the situation at Preah Vihear erupting again last week. Well, besides the Chinese New Year festivities and holiday, I have also been busy moving from Singapore to Australia. I am now in Canberra, and I have started my candidature in the graduate programme at the department of Archaeology and Natural History at the Australian National University. It’s a great university with solid strengths in archaeology and Asian studies, and a great place to be for the next few years.

I’ll have a round-up of the posts I missed later today. Watch this space!

Goodbye, 2010!

noelbynature — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:33:41 +0000

The last two weeks of December have been pretty low on stories, and no surprise there since it’s the holiday season (even though most Southeast Asians don’t celebrate Christmas in the Christian sense). I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s worth of archaeology news from Southeast Asia, and we’ll see you again next year!

It is done!

noelbynature — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:17:15 +0000

It is done!

Now, onto phd applications…

Off to Hanoi!

noelbynature — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:41:32 +0000

For the next two weeks I’ll be away in Hanoi for the 19th Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Congress in Hanoi, so I probably will not have time to write as much here. If you are headed for the IPPA Congress as well, hope to meet face-to-face and say hi!