Ancient Bodies, Ancient Lives is a blog by Rosemary Joyce, based on her book of the same title. She is an anthropology professor at UC Berkeley with a PhD in anthropology. The detailed list of her past education, work experiences and publications, in the “About Me” section gives her great authority in this area, and situates her research within a context. Joyce is very interested in collaborative work and her blog is intended to analyze how gender and sex are materialized within the archaeological record. Though heavily focused on women, her audience appears evenly split between men and women, and is targeted at the general public, students interested in her research, and fellow colleagues. Her stories inform readers on a wide range of topics, from Ancient Roman brothels to Neanderthal-Human sexual relations to erotic motifs on seventeenth century Chinese vases, and each have a captivating title that hooks the reader without misrepresenting the story, such as “Bone Deep: Sex and the Skeleton,” or Evolution as Fight Club.” Her posts are written in a very accessible, informal style, but offer offer commentaries and critical examinations of past research through the lens of gender, and often critique media representations. I believe her blog is extremely successful at highlighting interesting stories, which may help readers to approach history with a new, gender conscious viewpoint, and to have a healthy skepticism towards media portrayals of archaeological stories. One possible improvement could be the use of images to make the site itself more lively and engaging, and illuminate some of the topics she discusses.
Middle Savagery was created by Colleen Morgan, an archaeology Ph.D. candidate at the UC Berkeley. Her blog is aimed at the general public, and seems to attract many people who know nothing about archaeology but are very interested in learning or reading about the field. It also seems to target a more youthful audience and other students engaged in the field. One of the greatest assets of this site is her use of photography and digital media. Her artistic photos romanticize archaeology but in a way that still portrays they daily life and less exciting aspects of excavation (such as taking notes, measuring etc). Her use of videos, such as that “Windy Qatar,” draw the viewer’s senses into the world of archaeology, allowing them to experience what the climate is like at a particular site. The posts themselves are written in a very descriptive, yet informal way, that is both accessible for readers, and makes them feel like they are actually in her shoes, feelings every cut and scrape she gets or her dehydration and the dryness of the air. She has a remarkable ability to sensationalize the field, not by descriptions of adventure or treasure, but by her lively detail and the personalized nature of her writing, describing how it feels to be in the field and under such harsh conditions. The ability is best exhibited by a comment by one of her readers: “I just spent a hour going through your posts and I know nothing of archeology, but damn I am enthralled and have seriously enjoyed it.” Thus her blog seems more descriptive than analytical, but does an excellent job of interesting people in the field, both textually and visually recreating the field experience for the reader.
