Obligatory but Genuine Thanks to the Canadian Museum of Civilization

The Canadian Museum of Civilization has a website with educational resources on ancient civilizations. I poked around the site and can see how it might easily be of interest to grade school teachers or students seeking information on early and ancient civilizations.

I find myself owing a humble bit of thanks for linking to my Egyptian Chariots article on their page that discusses transportation in Ancient Egypt. I get several hits per day from that link and I hope the readers are getting some useful information. If ever anyone wondered why I bother to put citations in a blog post, this is one of those reasons. Hopefully some young (or perhaps old!) scholars have found use for them and were able to find these articles and texts in their local library for more detailed study.

Look beneath the fold for an interesting idea.

Because of this, and in a recent post at Afarensis, I’m thinking of starting a regular feature that highlights some basics of archaeology and anthropology. An “archaeology 101” post, if you will. Actually, I’ve been considering this for months and even have an unfinished post somewhere on pottery and ceramics in the archaeological record. I gather that the ScienceBlogs bloggers are discussing the idea putting together “basic concepts” type posts, and I look forward to seeing what Afarensis and, hopefully, Aardvarchaeology (the only anthropology blogs there) do. These guys constantly put out some great posts anyway, so if you haven’t read them I urge you to go look.

I suggested at Afarensis that we might consider dedicating an issue of the Four Stone Hearth to “anthropology 101,” where each carnival submission highlights a basic concept in archaeology, ethnography/cultural anth, bio-physical anth, or linguistics.

Anyway, I’d be interested in what both the anthro-bloggers and readers think of this sort of thing. Post a comment and let me know, especially if you’ve stumbled on Hot Cup of Joe for the first time 🙂