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BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: THE STATE SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
ANTHROPOS
VOL.
Department of Anthropology
29, ISSUE 2
GENGHIS KHAN'S MAUSOLEUM FOUND
Archaeologists have
unearthed the site of
Genghis Khan's palace
and believe that the
long sought grave of
the 13th century
Mongolian warror is
nearby.
A team of Japanese
and Mongolian archaeologists announced their discovery on October 7,
2004. Genghis Khan
(1162-1227 AD)
united the Mongolian
tribes in 1206. He
created a conquest
empire that stretched
by the time of his
death from China to
Hungary.
The archaeologists
were able to identify
the site from pottery
unearthed at the site;
the outlines of the site
and its buildings also
matches a description
of it by a Chinese official in 1232.
The palace was
built in the shape of a
square tent supported
by wooden columns
Documents from
the 13th century say
COMMON ANCESTOR LIVED JUST
that court officials
walked daily from the
palace to Genghis
Khan's tomb. This
leads archaeologists to
believe that the tomb
is near the excavated
palace. If discovered,
the tomb may contain
more than Genghis
Khan's remains. By
tradition, 14 great
Mongol warriors
were buried in the
tomb, including Genghis' son, Kublai
Khan. Archaeologists
have sought the site
for decades.
3500
Douglas Rohde of
suits appeared in the
MIT recently anSeptember 2 9 issue of
nounced the results of Natu.re. Rohde asa mathematical calcu- sumed that migration
lation to determine
occurred in the prewhen a common anhistoric past and that
cestor of modern huall modern humans
mans lived. The re-
YEARS AGO?
are linked. Based on
those assumptions,
Rohde traces modern
humans to someone
in East Asia S400
years ago--someone
with a big family I
OCTOBER
2004
SPECIAL POINTS OF
INTEREST:
•
Chinese &..Tibetan Medidne----p. 2
•
Anthropalo9Y Club News- p.
3
•
Archaeolo9Y in Eastern
Eurape----p. 4
•
Thracian Bu.rial Site- p. 7
•
lice May Reveal Human
lnteracrion--p. 7
•
Peoples efthe Caribbean
course----p. 7
•
Anthropalogy Coursesfar
Sprin9 2005- p. 8
•
About Us- p. 8
PAGE
ANTHROPOS
2
CHINESE
& TIBETAN MEDICINE EXPOSED BY TARA lNVIDIATO
"Ni Hao," fellow anthropologists and friendly readers! You might wonder
what "Ni Hao" means and what language it is from. But first let me tell you
about the trip I took along with 18 other people from Bloomsburg that explored Dali, Beijing, Hong Kong, Changria-La, Kunming, X'ian and Zhongdian in China this past summer. You see, "Ni Hao" means "Hello" or "How
Do You Do?" in Han Chinese. Why don't you yell it out on campus to some
of your friends to see their reaction? It should be fun. During my stay in
China, I came across many different ethnic groups. There were the majority
Han people, but there were also Moso, Tibetan, Dru, Bai, Yi, and Wa people,
each with their own language. One country, but many different ethnic
groups with different beliefs on social life, family, education, government
and medicine coexist there.
19
PEOPLE FROM
BLOOMSBURG
VISITED CHINA
AND TIBEST THIS
PAST SUMMER.
,,~ov., . -· ~ ~
(~~
1 ~··}
««<(
.·· ,. ,.•;_
■
:.· ·
~ \i-:',:;>·.·.·."":"
,·
Speaking of medicine, our explorers, as I like to call them, went to two
hospitals or medical facilities to get a better understanding of how the different ethnic groups handled illnesses. One was the largest Han Chinese hospital, and the other was a small Tibetan monastery /healing place. You'll be
shocked when you hear this. When we all stepped into the large Chinese
hospital, we were surprised to see how dark it was and how many patients
were crowded into the halls. The doctors were yelling out in Chinese and
passing out bundles of sage incense to the waiting patients. The bundles
were lit and smoking, and as they waited, the patients breathed the smoke in
and out to ease their pain or discomfort. A Chinese doctor gave us a tour,
showing us massage therapy, acupuncture and acupressure, and the preparation of herbal teas from grinding plants (and some insects) into powders. We
were surprised at how the doctors violated the patients' privacy by allowing
strangers to enter a room where acupuncture was going on to see how it
was done. There the patients sat, half-naked with acupuncture needles sticking in them and talking about what was wrong with them with us. To an
American used to privacy, this was shocking.
The Chinese rely heavily on acupuncture, tai-chi and holistic medicine in
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
PAGE
CHINESE MEDICINE (CONTINUED)
Western antibiotics and surgeries. The Chinese doctors looked like American doctors-white lab coats, stethoscopes around their necks, etc.
By contrast, the Tibetan system was very different. The monks or medicine men wear long cranberry robes with no protection such as gloves or
surgical masks. They do not use medical equipment to analyze the ills of
their patients. They would say "Do you believe in Tibet's way?" If we said
yes, they would take your hands and read your palms. From this they would
predict and analyze whatever was inside of you-your troubles, your pain,
and what's causing them. After the palm reading session, they said prayers
over us and offered us expensive pills of their own creation. They refused to
discuss what the pills contained, unlike the Chinese doctors who talked will-
-ingly about what was contained in their medicines and medicine roomsthe insects, the dried leaves, the ground animal bones, poppy seeds, etc. The
Han Chinese and the Tibetans may have had their differences, but what matters is their clients. Their patients seem to gain satisfaction from their treatments no matter how unorthodox their treatments seemed to us. What
matters is that the Chinese and the Tibetans still practice their traditional
healing practices today, and their patients accept it as part of their culture
and beliefs. But I think that you, the readers, will stick with your American
doctors after reading this. Well, what matters is what you believe.
ANTHROPOLOGY CLUB NEWS
The Anthropology Club is promoting a Support the Troops effort as one
of its service projects for 2004-2005. Donations are sought to support the
814th Battalion, a local unit, as it deploys in Iraq. Donations of the following are sought: dispo_sable cameras, AT & T prepaid phone cards, batteries,
puzzle and word game books, commercially wrapped and individually sized
trail mix, beef jerky, nuts, energy bars, sunflower seeds, candy, packets of
powdered cold beverages, commercially sealed lip balm, individual packets
of moist towelettes (non-alcohol based kinds), and many other items. You
can take your donations to 146 CEH by November 5 for collection. Thanks!
BUT I THINK
THAT YOU, THE
READERS, WILL
STICK WITH
YOUR AMERICAN
DOCTORS AFTER
READING THIS.
3
PAGE
ANTHROPOS
4
ARCHAEOLOGY IN EASTERN EUROPE BY STEVE CONFAIR
(Steve submitted this article last spring, but it didn't make it into ANTHROPOS then. Sorry, Steve)
In the summer of 2003, I spent three weeks in Bulgaria and participated
in a field school with archaeologists from the History Museum in Blagoevgrad, a city of about 78,000 located about sixty miles south of the capital
of Sofia. Students from a university in Blagoevgrad also participated in the
excavation of a Neolithic site from about 5200 B.C. The site was near the
village of Drenkovo, eight miles west of Blagoevgrad and about sixty miles
north of the border with Greece. The topography of the area surrounding
the site was primarily rolling hills covered with fields, some of which were
being worked by a neighboring farmer with a scythe and a horse-drawn cart.
Tall mountains about four miles to the west formed the border with the
Republic of Macedonia.
IN THE SUMMER
OF 2003, I
SPENT THREE
WEEKS IN
BULGARIA
PARTIC IP ATING
IN A FIELD
SCHOOL.
I arranged this trip through the VIR Society, an NGO based in Sofia. I
stayed on the third floor of a house in Blagoevgrad with Elana, a representative ofVIR who was pursuing her Masters degree in archaeology at Sofia
University; Hana, a Turkish girl pursuing a Masters in archaeology in England; and Dinah from New York City who had lived and worked in Macedonia for the past three years; Dinah had no archaeology background. Each
morning were awakened about 5 AM by rooster calls throughout the city
and the sound of the gypsy (Roma) horse-drawn carts on the street outside
windows. We met our ride to the site about 6: 15 AM each day so we could
beat the mid-day heat which was a sweltering 105 F the first several days,
but tolerable thereafter. With the lack of communist government funding,
corporate sponsors are now being sought for archaeological projects. So,
each day before we started work at the site, we would erect a large "Victory"
banner for our sponsor, the Victory Cigarette factory located in Blagoevgrad, even though there were very few passersby who would seen it. We
would usually finish our work on the site in the early afternoon, return to
Blagoevgrad for a late lunch, shower, and then go to the museum to sort
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
PAGE
5
BULGARIA (CONTINUED)
and catalog the artifacts we were finding at the site. On some afternoons we
were given tours of the museum or lectures by the archaeologists. Friday
afternoons were reserved for barbecues, one at a Roman site also being excavated by the museum, and another (which featured fleshly slaughtered
lamb and lamb's head soup) at the town hall at the invitation of the mayor.
With preliminary surveys having been done the summer before, 2003
was the first season of excavation at the site which was along an ancient
route connecting the Aegean world with Central Europe. We had a few slow
days, but generally I was elated by what we found. We found, for instance,
the remains of structures, specifically postholes and "dope," a day-like mortar which still showed the negative impressions of the timbers used in house
construction. The dope would not normally have survived, but it was hardened by fire, of unknown origin, which had destroyed these structures. We
also found charcoal, large quantities of pottery sherds and anthropomorphic
figures. I had the particular pleasure of excavating a portion of a finely
decorated stone altar which was approximately five inches in size with a full
leg and part of a bowl. Numerous seeds were bagged for paleobotanists to
analyze, and finely worked bone-possibly used as a tool-was found as
well. A grinding stone we excavated may have been used to make paint for
the inside of the structures which are believed to have had plaster floors and
ceilings. I found it to be a fantastic, though somewhat eerie or spiritual,
feeling to unearth and be the first to handle these artifacts of daily life used
by families that lived 7200 years ago.
Our weekend excursions were also great. We visited Roman ruins previ- : IIE::C.S:ZZ==
ously excavated by the museum, remote villages not accustomed to seeing
rl!JJIJ'~
tourists (one still had communist era propaganda posted on signs throughout ~ •
~~"'~
the village; one translated to "every collective, every month, should achieve
.
their plan"), and two impressive monasteries. One was the Rila monastery
which is situated in a spectacular mountain setting; its earliest building dated
to 1334. One day five of us hiked to the summit of 9560'
PAGE
ANTHROPOS
6
BULGARIA (CONTINUED)
Mt. Vihren in the Pirin Mountains, taller than any other mountain in the
other Balkan peninsula countries ( Greece, Romania, and the countries of the
former Yugoslavia) where we enjoyed a tremendous 360 view. Another
day we visited another Neolithic site that the museum has been excavating
for the past seventeen years; we spent the night at their base in a three
story former school building located in a nearby village which offered
great views of mountains in Greece about six miles away.
I also enjoyed spending some time in Sofia before and after the field
school. The city is surrounded by mountains, has a population of 1.3 million and has architecture that is a mix of lovely European buildings and very
bland and somewhat dilapidated, communist-era high rise apartments. I visited the Archaeological Museum, located in a former mosque built in 1496.
THIS PROJECT
CERTAINLY MET
MY GOALS OF
BEING IN AN
INTERESTING
PLACE AND
PARTICIPATING
IN AN
INTERESTING
PROJECT.
I also visited the National History Museum and the Ethnographic Museum,
all three of which I highly recommend. I went to the market and also visited
historic churches, including a second century A.D. Roman structure converted to a church in the Middle Ages and the Alexander N evski Cathedral,
the largest cathedral in the Balkans.
Overall, I had a tremendous experience and found everyone to be very
friendly despite the language barrier. Except for a few of the archaeologists
and some students, I rarely encountered anyone who could speak any English, and I had trouble with Bulgarian. I originally came across this project
In the Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin published by the Archaeological Institute of America. This trip, which was done as an internship) certainly met my original goals of going to an interesting place, one I
had not been to and was not necessarily likely to go to; participating in an
interesting project; and being inexpensive-the total cost was $610 including lodging, meals, and airfare.
VOLUME
1, ISSUE 1
PAGE
THRACIAN BURIAL SITE UNEARTHED IN BULGARIA
A team of Bulgarian archaeologists have announced the discovery of a
large, intact mausoleum dating to the 5th century BC near the Bulgarian
town of Chipka. The mausoleum is Thracian-modern Bulgaria is seen as
the cradle ofThracian civilization, which extended from the Caucasus to
southwestern Europe from the 4th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The
mausoleum is huge and contains a host of gold, silver, bronze, and earthenware artifacts. Among the artifacts was a golden crown of oak leaves and
acorns and a complete set of bronze body armor. The armor was decorated
with engravings of goddesses and accompanied by a sword with a goldstudded pommel. Very little is known about the Thracians. Since 2000, Bulgarian researchers have discovered a temple and the palace of a king, both in
southern Bulgaria. Thousands of other sites wait to be excavated.
LICE MAY REVEAL EARLY HUMAN INTERACTION
Researchers looking into the genetic structure of human lice have announced that the two contemporary types of human lice had a common ancestor dating to 1.18 million years ago. The fact that two types exist today
suggests to researchers that the types lived on and adapted to two different
kinds of humans, presumably Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. The two
types are very different, making it extremely unlikely that they evolved to
their current state on the same species. But there must have been some kind
of interaction between H. erectus and H. sapiens for both types to be found
on modern humans today. David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural
History believes that the interaction occurred only 25 to 50,000 syears ago.
46.320
PEOPLES
&
CULTURES OF THE CARIBBEAN
This spring semester, Dr. Minderhout will be offering 46.320, Contemporary World CulturesTuTh 3:30-4:45. Despite the generic title, the content of the course will be the peoples and cultures of the Caribbean. The
course will look at the ecology of the Caribbean; the colonial and modern
history of the region; language and the popular arts; social patterns in the
area; and tourism and economic development in the region. The approach
will be topical and will include everything from Columbus' voyages to the
Caribbean to the modern histories of Haiti and Cuba to Rastafarians and
reggae music. See Dr. Minderhout for more details.
HOMO ERECTUS
MAY HAVE
TRANSFERRED
LICE TO MODERN
HUMANS.
7
BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA: THE ST ATE
SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Dr. David Minderhout, Editor
ANTHROPOS, the Anthropology Newsletter, is published
Department of AnthroPology
Room 1SO Centennial Hall
six times during the academic year and is mailed to interested students, faculty, administrators, and alumni. It is also
distributed in anthropology classes on campus and made
Phone: 389--4859
Fax: 389-5015
available on the department's home page. If you would like
to be on the newsletter mailing list, please contact Dr. Dave
Minderhout at the address and numbers on the left.
Email dminderh@bloomu.edu
The Department of Anthropology offers a 36 credit B.A.
WE'RE ON THE WEB:
WWW.BLOOMU.EDU/
DEPARTMENTS/ANTHRO
degree and an 18 credit minor in anthropology. If you
would like to see details, please see any of the anthropology
faculty.
AN11-IROPOLOGY IS 1HE STIIDY OF
HUMANS
ANTHROPOLOGY COURSE OFFERINGS FOR SPRING
Dr. Dauria:
46.101 Introduction to
Anthropology-MWF 10
46.200 Principles of Cultural AnthropologyTuTh 8, TuTh 2
46.333 Ethnic Identity in
the U.S.-TuTh 11
Dr. Froemming
46.102 Anthropology &
World Problems-MWF
1,MWF3
46.200-MWF 12
46.470 Anthropological
Thought & Theory-M
6-9
Dr. Minderhout:
46.200-MWF 9, Tu 6:309:30
46. 220 Human OriginsMWF 11
46.320 Contemporary
World Cultures-TuTh
3:30
Dr. Warner:
46.200-TuTh 2, MW 45:15, TuTh 11
Dr. Wymer:
46.102-TuTh 9:30
46.210 Prehistoric Archaeology-MWF 2
46.311-Archaeology of
NE North AmericaTuTh 2
2005
ANTHROPOS
VOL.
Department of Anthropology
29, ISSUE 2
GENGHIS KHAN'S MAUSOLEUM FOUND
Archaeologists have
unearthed the site of
Genghis Khan's palace
and believe that the
long sought grave of
the 13th century
Mongolian warror is
nearby.
A team of Japanese
and Mongolian archaeologists announced their discovery on October 7,
2004. Genghis Khan
(1162-1227 AD)
united the Mongolian
tribes in 1206. He
created a conquest
empire that stretched
by the time of his
death from China to
Hungary.
The archaeologists
were able to identify
the site from pottery
unearthed at the site;
the outlines of the site
and its buildings also
matches a description
of it by a Chinese official in 1232.
The palace was
built in the shape of a
square tent supported
by wooden columns
Documents from
the 13th century say
COMMON ANCESTOR LIVED JUST
that court officials
walked daily from the
palace to Genghis
Khan's tomb. This
leads archaeologists to
believe that the tomb
is near the excavated
palace. If discovered,
the tomb may contain
more than Genghis
Khan's remains. By
tradition, 14 great
Mongol warriors
were buried in the
tomb, including Genghis' son, Kublai
Khan. Archaeologists
have sought the site
for decades.
3500
Douglas Rohde of
suits appeared in the
MIT recently anSeptember 2 9 issue of
nounced the results of Natu.re. Rohde asa mathematical calcu- sumed that migration
lation to determine
occurred in the prewhen a common anhistoric past and that
cestor of modern huall modern humans
mans lived. The re-
YEARS AGO?
are linked. Based on
those assumptions,
Rohde traces modern
humans to someone
in East Asia S400
years ago--someone
with a big family I
OCTOBER
2004
SPECIAL POINTS OF
INTEREST:
•
Chinese &..Tibetan Medidne----p. 2
•
Anthropalo9Y Club News- p.
3
•
Archaeolo9Y in Eastern
Eurape----p. 4
•
Thracian Bu.rial Site- p. 7
•
lice May Reveal Human
lnteracrion--p. 7
•
Peoples efthe Caribbean
course----p. 7
•
Anthropalogy Coursesfar
Sprin9 2005- p. 8
•
About Us- p. 8
PAGE
ANTHROPOS
2
CHINESE
& TIBETAN MEDICINE EXPOSED BY TARA lNVIDIATO
"Ni Hao," fellow anthropologists and friendly readers! You might wonder
what "Ni Hao" means and what language it is from. But first let me tell you
about the trip I took along with 18 other people from Bloomsburg that explored Dali, Beijing, Hong Kong, Changria-La, Kunming, X'ian and Zhongdian in China this past summer. You see, "Ni Hao" means "Hello" or "How
Do You Do?" in Han Chinese. Why don't you yell it out on campus to some
of your friends to see their reaction? It should be fun. During my stay in
China, I came across many different ethnic groups. There were the majority
Han people, but there were also Moso, Tibetan, Dru, Bai, Yi, and Wa people,
each with their own language. One country, but many different ethnic
groups with different beliefs on social life, family, education, government
and medicine coexist there.
19
PEOPLE FROM
BLOOMSBURG
VISITED CHINA
AND TIBEST THIS
PAST SUMMER.
,,~ov., . -· ~ ~
(~~
1 ~··}
««<(
.·· ,. ,.•;_
■
:.· ·
~ \i-:',:;>·.·.·."":"
,·
Speaking of medicine, our explorers, as I like to call them, went to two
hospitals or medical facilities to get a better understanding of how the different ethnic groups handled illnesses. One was the largest Han Chinese hospital, and the other was a small Tibetan monastery /healing place. You'll be
shocked when you hear this. When we all stepped into the large Chinese
hospital, we were surprised to see how dark it was and how many patients
were crowded into the halls. The doctors were yelling out in Chinese and
passing out bundles of sage incense to the waiting patients. The bundles
were lit and smoking, and as they waited, the patients breathed the smoke in
and out to ease their pain or discomfort. A Chinese doctor gave us a tour,
showing us massage therapy, acupuncture and acupressure, and the preparation of herbal teas from grinding plants (and some insects) into powders. We
were surprised at how the doctors violated the patients' privacy by allowing
strangers to enter a room where acupuncture was going on to see how it
was done. There the patients sat, half-naked with acupuncture needles sticking in them and talking about what was wrong with them with us. To an
American used to privacy, this was shocking.
The Chinese rely heavily on acupuncture, tai-chi and holistic medicine in
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
PAGE
CHINESE MEDICINE (CONTINUED)
Western antibiotics and surgeries. The Chinese doctors looked like American doctors-white lab coats, stethoscopes around their necks, etc.
By contrast, the Tibetan system was very different. The monks or medicine men wear long cranberry robes with no protection such as gloves or
surgical masks. They do not use medical equipment to analyze the ills of
their patients. They would say "Do you believe in Tibet's way?" If we said
yes, they would take your hands and read your palms. From this they would
predict and analyze whatever was inside of you-your troubles, your pain,
and what's causing them. After the palm reading session, they said prayers
over us and offered us expensive pills of their own creation. They refused to
discuss what the pills contained, unlike the Chinese doctors who talked will-
-ingly about what was contained in their medicines and medicine roomsthe insects, the dried leaves, the ground animal bones, poppy seeds, etc. The
Han Chinese and the Tibetans may have had their differences, but what matters is their clients. Their patients seem to gain satisfaction from their treatments no matter how unorthodox their treatments seemed to us. What
matters is that the Chinese and the Tibetans still practice their traditional
healing practices today, and their patients accept it as part of their culture
and beliefs. But I think that you, the readers, will stick with your American
doctors after reading this. Well, what matters is what you believe.
ANTHROPOLOGY CLUB NEWS
The Anthropology Club is promoting a Support the Troops effort as one
of its service projects for 2004-2005. Donations are sought to support the
814th Battalion, a local unit, as it deploys in Iraq. Donations of the following are sought: dispo_sable cameras, AT & T prepaid phone cards, batteries,
puzzle and word game books, commercially wrapped and individually sized
trail mix, beef jerky, nuts, energy bars, sunflower seeds, candy, packets of
powdered cold beverages, commercially sealed lip balm, individual packets
of moist towelettes (non-alcohol based kinds), and many other items. You
can take your donations to 146 CEH by November 5 for collection. Thanks!
BUT I THINK
THAT YOU, THE
READERS, WILL
STICK WITH
YOUR AMERICAN
DOCTORS AFTER
READING THIS.
3
PAGE
ANTHROPOS
4
ARCHAEOLOGY IN EASTERN EUROPE BY STEVE CONFAIR
(Steve submitted this article last spring, but it didn't make it into ANTHROPOS then. Sorry, Steve)
In the summer of 2003, I spent three weeks in Bulgaria and participated
in a field school with archaeologists from the History Museum in Blagoevgrad, a city of about 78,000 located about sixty miles south of the capital
of Sofia. Students from a university in Blagoevgrad also participated in the
excavation of a Neolithic site from about 5200 B.C. The site was near the
village of Drenkovo, eight miles west of Blagoevgrad and about sixty miles
north of the border with Greece. The topography of the area surrounding
the site was primarily rolling hills covered with fields, some of which were
being worked by a neighboring farmer with a scythe and a horse-drawn cart.
Tall mountains about four miles to the west formed the border with the
Republic of Macedonia.
IN THE SUMMER
OF 2003, I
SPENT THREE
WEEKS IN
BULGARIA
PARTIC IP ATING
IN A FIELD
SCHOOL.
I arranged this trip through the VIR Society, an NGO based in Sofia. I
stayed on the third floor of a house in Blagoevgrad with Elana, a representative ofVIR who was pursuing her Masters degree in archaeology at Sofia
University; Hana, a Turkish girl pursuing a Masters in archaeology in England; and Dinah from New York City who had lived and worked in Macedonia for the past three years; Dinah had no archaeology background. Each
morning were awakened about 5 AM by rooster calls throughout the city
and the sound of the gypsy (Roma) horse-drawn carts on the street outside
windows. We met our ride to the site about 6: 15 AM each day so we could
beat the mid-day heat which was a sweltering 105 F the first several days,
but tolerable thereafter. With the lack of communist government funding,
corporate sponsors are now being sought for archaeological projects. So,
each day before we started work at the site, we would erect a large "Victory"
banner for our sponsor, the Victory Cigarette factory located in Blagoevgrad, even though there were very few passersby who would seen it. We
would usually finish our work on the site in the early afternoon, return to
Blagoevgrad for a late lunch, shower, and then go to the museum to sort
VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1
PAGE
5
BULGARIA (CONTINUED)
and catalog the artifacts we were finding at the site. On some afternoons we
were given tours of the museum or lectures by the archaeologists. Friday
afternoons were reserved for barbecues, one at a Roman site also being excavated by the museum, and another (which featured fleshly slaughtered
lamb and lamb's head soup) at the town hall at the invitation of the mayor.
With preliminary surveys having been done the summer before, 2003
was the first season of excavation at the site which was along an ancient
route connecting the Aegean world with Central Europe. We had a few slow
days, but generally I was elated by what we found. We found, for instance,
the remains of structures, specifically postholes and "dope," a day-like mortar which still showed the negative impressions of the timbers used in house
construction. The dope would not normally have survived, but it was hardened by fire, of unknown origin, which had destroyed these structures. We
also found charcoal, large quantities of pottery sherds and anthropomorphic
figures. I had the particular pleasure of excavating a portion of a finely
decorated stone altar which was approximately five inches in size with a full
leg and part of a bowl. Numerous seeds were bagged for paleobotanists to
analyze, and finely worked bone-possibly used as a tool-was found as
well. A grinding stone we excavated may have been used to make paint for
the inside of the structures which are believed to have had plaster floors and
ceilings. I found it to be a fantastic, though somewhat eerie or spiritual,
feeling to unearth and be the first to handle these artifacts of daily life used
by families that lived 7200 years ago.
Our weekend excursions were also great. We visited Roman ruins previ- : IIE::C.S:ZZ==
ously excavated by the museum, remote villages not accustomed to seeing
rl!JJIJ'~
tourists (one still had communist era propaganda posted on signs throughout ~ •
~~"'~
the village; one translated to "every collective, every month, should achieve
.
their plan"), and two impressive monasteries. One was the Rila monastery
which is situated in a spectacular mountain setting; its earliest building dated
to 1334. One day five of us hiked to the summit of 9560'
PAGE
ANTHROPOS
6
BULGARIA (CONTINUED)
Mt. Vihren in the Pirin Mountains, taller than any other mountain in the
other Balkan peninsula countries ( Greece, Romania, and the countries of the
former Yugoslavia) where we enjoyed a tremendous 360 view. Another
day we visited another Neolithic site that the museum has been excavating
for the past seventeen years; we spent the night at their base in a three
story former school building located in a nearby village which offered
great views of mountains in Greece about six miles away.
I also enjoyed spending some time in Sofia before and after the field
school. The city is surrounded by mountains, has a population of 1.3 million and has architecture that is a mix of lovely European buildings and very
bland and somewhat dilapidated, communist-era high rise apartments. I visited the Archaeological Museum, located in a former mosque built in 1496.
THIS PROJECT
CERTAINLY MET
MY GOALS OF
BEING IN AN
INTERESTING
PLACE AND
PARTICIPATING
IN AN
INTERESTING
PROJECT.
I also visited the National History Museum and the Ethnographic Museum,
all three of which I highly recommend. I went to the market and also visited
historic churches, including a second century A.D. Roman structure converted to a church in the Middle Ages and the Alexander N evski Cathedral,
the largest cathedral in the Balkans.
Overall, I had a tremendous experience and found everyone to be very
friendly despite the language barrier. Except for a few of the archaeologists
and some students, I rarely encountered anyone who could speak any English, and I had trouble with Bulgarian. I originally came across this project
In the Archaeological Fieldwork Opportunities Bulletin published by the Archaeological Institute of America. This trip, which was done as an internship) certainly met my original goals of going to an interesting place, one I
had not been to and was not necessarily likely to go to; participating in an
interesting project; and being inexpensive-the total cost was $610 including lodging, meals, and airfare.
VOLUME
1, ISSUE 1
PAGE
THRACIAN BURIAL SITE UNEARTHED IN BULGARIA
A team of Bulgarian archaeologists have announced the discovery of a
large, intact mausoleum dating to the 5th century BC near the Bulgarian
town of Chipka. The mausoleum is Thracian-modern Bulgaria is seen as
the cradle ofThracian civilization, which extended from the Caucasus to
southwestern Europe from the 4th century BC to the 3rd century AD. The
mausoleum is huge and contains a host of gold, silver, bronze, and earthenware artifacts. Among the artifacts was a golden crown of oak leaves and
acorns and a complete set of bronze body armor. The armor was decorated
with engravings of goddesses and accompanied by a sword with a goldstudded pommel. Very little is known about the Thracians. Since 2000, Bulgarian researchers have discovered a temple and the palace of a king, both in
southern Bulgaria. Thousands of other sites wait to be excavated.
LICE MAY REVEAL EARLY HUMAN INTERACTION
Researchers looking into the genetic structure of human lice have announced that the two contemporary types of human lice had a common ancestor dating to 1.18 million years ago. The fact that two types exist today
suggests to researchers that the types lived on and adapted to two different
kinds of humans, presumably Homo erectus and Homo sapiens. The two
types are very different, making it extremely unlikely that they evolved to
their current state on the same species. But there must have been some kind
of interaction between H. erectus and H. sapiens for both types to be found
on modern humans today. David Reed of the Florida Museum of Natural
History believes that the interaction occurred only 25 to 50,000 syears ago.
46.320
PEOPLES
&
CULTURES OF THE CARIBBEAN
This spring semester, Dr. Minderhout will be offering 46.320, Contemporary World CulturesTuTh 3:30-4:45. Despite the generic title, the content of the course will be the peoples and cultures of the Caribbean. The
course will look at the ecology of the Caribbean; the colonial and modern
history of the region; language and the popular arts; social patterns in the
area; and tourism and economic development in the region. The approach
will be topical and will include everything from Columbus' voyages to the
Caribbean to the modern histories of Haiti and Cuba to Rastafarians and
reggae music. See Dr. Minderhout for more details.
HOMO ERECTUS
MAY HAVE
TRANSFERRED
LICE TO MODERN
HUMANS.
7
BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY OF
PENNSYLVANIA: THE ST ATE
SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
Dr. David Minderhout, Editor
ANTHROPOS, the Anthropology Newsletter, is published
Department of AnthroPology
Room 1SO Centennial Hall
six times during the academic year and is mailed to interested students, faculty, administrators, and alumni. It is also
distributed in anthropology classes on campus and made
Phone: 389--4859
Fax: 389-5015
available on the department's home page. If you would like
to be on the newsletter mailing list, please contact Dr. Dave
Minderhout at the address and numbers on the left.
Email dminderh@bloomu.edu
The Department of Anthropology offers a 36 credit B.A.
WE'RE ON THE WEB:
WWW.BLOOMU.EDU/
DEPARTMENTS/ANTHRO
degree and an 18 credit minor in anthropology. If you
would like to see details, please see any of the anthropology
faculty.
AN11-IROPOLOGY IS 1HE STIIDY OF
HUMANS
ANTHROPOLOGY COURSE OFFERINGS FOR SPRING
Dr. Dauria:
46.101 Introduction to
Anthropology-MWF 10
46.200 Principles of Cultural AnthropologyTuTh 8, TuTh 2
46.333 Ethnic Identity in
the U.S.-TuTh 11
Dr. Froemming
46.102 Anthropology &
World Problems-MWF
1,MWF3
46.200-MWF 12
46.470 Anthropological
Thought & Theory-M
6-9
Dr. Minderhout:
46.200-MWF 9, Tu 6:309:30
46. 220 Human OriginsMWF 11
46.320 Contemporary
World Cultures-TuTh
3:30
Dr. Warner:
46.200-TuTh 2, MW 45:15, TuTh 11
Dr. Wymer:
46.102-TuTh 9:30
46.210 Prehistoric Archaeology-MWF 2
46.311-Archaeology of
NE North AmericaTuTh 2
2005