[Chacmool-l] November News Update

[Chacmool Archaeology Association]

Hi All!

Here are the upcoming events for the next week or so.

1)	Noon Hour Speaker
2)	Arctic Institute Speaker
3)	ASA Speaker
4)	Field School Workshop
5)	46th Annual Chacmool Conference Proposal Vote
6)	Save the Date: Semester Wrap Up and Gingerbread Competition


SPEAKERS PRESENTATIONS
Undergraduates - here’s a hint on how to impress your professors – Show up
to speaker presentations, they notice more than you think☺. Besides
you learn something new and interesting.

1) Noon Hour Lecture - Middle Stone Age Habitats in the Mozambican Rift
(105-29ka)
	Presenter: Dr. Julio Mercader
	When: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm
	Where: Earth Sciences 859
The archaeological and palaeoenvironmental work conducted in Mozambique
aims to understand the impact climate had on the Middle Stone Age (MSA)
settlement of a particularly important region of the East African Rift
System. In Northwest Mozambique the MSA dates from 105-29ka. Tool kits are
made up of non-microlithic industries based on simple and prepared core
technologies, mostly in quartz, with scrapers and points, and an
infrequent use of bipolar technology. The regional expression of these
Mozambican industries overlaps with the Tanzanian assemblages from Mumba
rockshelter. They represent 70,000 years of technological persistence
whereby ancestral morphotypes were still in use through the final phases
of the MSA and persevered well into the chronological realm of the Later
Stone Age. The identification of local plant landscapes exploited by MSA
hominins remains an essential condition to incorporating human ecological
preference into the larger climatic database that might serve to answer
the broader questions of relationships between palaeoclimate and
behavioral variation. Fossil phytoliths and starch granules from
Mozambican sites embody Zambezian woodlands and forests.

2) Arctic Institute of North America Speaker Series – The Cold War under Ice
	Presenter: Adam Lajeunesse, PhD Candidate in the University of Calgary’s
Department of    History
	When: November 21, 2012 Time: 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
	Where: Science B 144
It is a well-known fact that, throughout the Cold War, the United States
maintained an under-ice military presence in the Canadian Arctic. Yet, the
precise nature and extent of this presence has never been fully
understood. The prevailing opinion has traditionally been that American
submarine operations in this region took place without the knowledge or
participation of the Canadian government and in violation of Canadian
sovereignty. Yet, newly declassified information suggests that this may
not have been the case. This talk will examine the politics behind these
voyages, the effort to develop under-ice detection capability and guard
the region from what both Canada and the US understood to be the common
Soviet threat.

3) ASA Speaker Series - Beach Ridge Archaeology at Cape Espenberg, Alaska:
Investigation the Origin and Development of Thule Culture in the Bearing
Strait Region
	Presenter: Dr. Christyann Darwent, University of California-Davis
	When: Wednesday, November 21st, 2012, 7:30pm
	Where: Tom Oliver Room, ES 162
Located in southwestern Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, Cape Espenberg is a 15
km-long peninsula built of a still-expanding set of dune-covered beach
ridges. Human occupation stretches back 5,000 years and preserved on 12
horizontally stratified beach ridges on the peninsula. The Cape Espenberg
Project (2009-11) encompassed extensive mapping of the ridges,
documentation of the geomorphology, pollen and driwood record, as well as
excavation of six large house depressions spanning from ca. AD 1100-1600
in order to investigate human adaptation to changing climactic conditions
(e.g., Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age). This presentation focuses
on element analysis, architecture, patterns of artifact use and discard,
and dietary animal-bone remains. Recent research on DNA of whale bone from
the site has revealed warmer-water species and subpopulations of whales
exploited by past occupants. Analysis of dog breeds using similar DNA
analysis along with the discovery of a cast-bronze “buckle” provides
evidence for trade with China.

EVENTS

4) Field School Workshop – Friday 23rd from Noon to 1pm in Room 859.
How do I find a field school? What should I be looking for in field
school?  If you find yourself asking these types of questions, this
workshop is for you. The speakers of the workshop will look at field
schools in Canada and around the world and will feature information on
Cluny, Jordan, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Belize. Snacks and coffee will be
served.

Please either check out our Facebook page or put your name on the sign up
sheet in front of the Chacmool Office ES 826.

5) Voting for the 46th Annual Chacmool Conference will happen on Friday,
November 23rd from 8am to 2pm. The proposals are attached and will also be
posted in front of the Chacmool office through the week. The two themes
are: Trading Spaces: The Archaeology of Interaction, Migration and
Exchange. Chaired by Tiana Christiansen and Cheyanne Lepka. AND Evolution:
>From the Rift to the Recent. Chaired by Elizabeth Webster and Christina
Poletto.

Voting will be done at the Chacmool Office (ES 826) and we will also
accept e-mail votes for those who are unable to make it to school that day
at chacmool at ucalgary.ca (on that day only).

6) Save the date: Semester Wrap Up (Everyone) AND Gingerbread Competition
(Members Only) on December 7th from 4pm to 8pm. More information to come!!
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