Interviews

On Monday the 19th of March I was lucky enough to have two interviews with academics at Latrobe. At 10:00am I had my first interview in the Martin Building in Room 147, with Dr Andy Herries (Australian Research Fellow). Andy Herries is Head of Australian Archaeomagnetism Laboratory and supports the Archaeology Program at La Trobe University. My main goal for the interview was get an idea of what archaeologists are trying to achieve today and how archaeology affects modern society. The information I gathered from the interview was extensive and essential to my project. The questions and brief dot points that I gathered were as follows:


1. What is the importance of archaeology and bio-archaeology?

 In the field it is hard work, remote

 Not enough people in the field
 Archaeology is very expensive
 Human remains are extremely rare to discover
 Technology has assisted Archaeology immensely
 Creation of Google Earth has assisted Archaeology immensely (satellite finds archaeological sites easily)
 Caves are very good at preserving remains (including bones)
 Archaeology is precious
 Having an understanding that people in the future might have better technology (leave some remains in natural landscape)
 Look and learn from the past.
 Understanding Pathology
 Tell us where and how people were using a place
 Where stone comes from
 How far people went to get materials
 Dating
 Learning about our ancestors


2. How does archaeology affect society today?
 A lot of archaeology how climate and other processes that has affected the creation and extinction of species
 Learn from the past
 Climate goes in cycles – learn from climate
 Focuses on trying to understand how people adapted to climate
 Understanding who we are and where we come from
 We are in weird time because there is only one species of humans which should point to extinction but we are so numerous making it hard for us to think that way.
 Humans were originally adapted to the African environment
 Other humans became to specialized (reliant on specific things) and so became extinct – this is especially important to us today.
 There must be change.

3. What motivates archaeologists like you, what do you, as an archaeologist strive to achieve?
 Want to know - learn

4. What are you researching at the moment? Why?
 Field archaeologist – goes out and excavates sights
 Main interest is understanding our fossil ancestors
 Human evolution
 Skulls in particular
 Worked predominantly in Africa
 Dating, excavation, magnetics
 Has a honours student
 Has worked on the recent ‘Red Cave Deer People' project with china


5. How has technology assisted Archaeology?
 Sieve to find smaller things
 Past just hot big stuff
 Palaeomagnetism – history magnetic field changed 180° N – S – N
 Australia leading – luminescence dating
 Used uranium to date back earth 4.6 billion years ago
 Magnetometer – device for magnetic field
 Devices now measure how much sediment iron is in the sediment
 Chemical changes
 Using syncotron to understand chemical in rocks
 Heat – outside dull inside glossy reflective can tell with special machines
 Warm period = high magnet
 Cold period = not much magnetism
 Human remains extremely rare
 Technologies helping to reduce cost of excavation
 Satellites now help
 Google Earth helps immensely
 GPS helps to make really accurate
 Archaeology drives technology
 Older generations are having trouble with new technology
 Technology I expensive to use
 Now work out what brains looked like using CT scan
 Micro CT scanner that can take with you




At 1:30pm I had my second interview in the department of Physical Sciences Four in Room 353, with Eric Quiry.  My main goal for the interview was to begin to understand what motivated anthropologists to do what they do and to expand my knowledge on the controversy that can arise with the discussion of dealing with human remains. The information I gathered from the interview was extensive and essential to my project. The questions and brief dot points that I gathered were as follows:

1.       What motivates anthropologists like you?  What do you, as an anthropologist strive to achieve?

Ø  Trying to understand the human experience

2.       What controversy comes up regarding archaeologists and anthropologists (especially those who deal with human remains) and what they do?

Ø  There are a number of different cultures, perspectives and interests and controversy sometimes arises especially with regards to past interactions

Ø  Part of the issue comes out of the colonial past of different areas, for the most part working with various indigenous groups around the world you try to work with them.  And if they give you permission to work with their ancestors then it is generally permitted to do so, otherwise you are not meant to disturb the remains

3.       What information can you derive from human remains?  What sort of tests prove this?

Ø  A great variety of things

Ø  You can tell about pathologies and bones

Ø  Different activities people would do based on the morphology of their skeletons.

Ø  Chemically or with archaeological science you tell something about diet, nursing during childhood, origin, mobility, seasonality.

Ø  Genetically you can tie different groups to other groups

4.       What do you research?  Why?

Ø  Personally researches dog remains

Ø  Doing this research stable isotope work is a destructive process where you have to take a small piece of bone and analyse it.

Ø  A lot of indigenous groups will not allow you to do that, so I am looking for a proxy or an analogy for human beings and in some context people’s pets would have had a similar diet as they would have eaten the scraps from human meals.

Ø  So is looking at whether or not dogs could be a proxy for human diet in order to reduce the destruction of human remains.

5.       How does anthropology affect society?

Ø  It has affected society in different ways over time,  there are some relatively unsavoury parts of the past which was used to justify things like eugenics, national and colonial agendas which generally had a negative effect on  indigenous groups.

Ø  Today though it add a temporal depth (archaeology) about the human experience over time and where we came from, what has or hasn’t worked in the past.

Ø  There have been a few case studies done, warning us to…respect the earth in some respects