Posted in research on Jul 18th, 2009 4 Comments »
Our excavations at Mtwapa have the main research goal of acquiring as many samples of human remains as possible, in order to analyze their DNA and determine who, genetically speaking, was living at the site during the early 2nd millennium AD. For me, it would be wonderful if we find that Arabs and Africans were [...]
Posted in research on Jul 8th, 2009 1 Comment »
I think I’m more oblivious than I should be. For an archaeologist, inattention to detail is kind of an Achilles’ heel… but luckily it doesn’t seem to affect me in the field. I’ll notice minor changes in soil color, or a tiny cluster of disarticulated bone shards—yet somehow it took me almost a week to [...]
Posted in research on Jul 7th, 2009 1 Comment »
Blogs, I think, very often become either diaries or soapboxes. This propensity made me dread blogging a little bit initially; I didn’t want to turn into one of those people who just has too many feelings… One of those people who keeps seven Livejournals to leach the poison of their anguish and turmoil from their [...]
Posted in research on Jun 20th, 2009 1 Comment »
I want to find those you-got-chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter cultural products where it is entirely clear that Islamic traders and traditional Africans both contributed.