qmackie

@qmackie

Archaeologist (retd.), idiot looking for a village, used to run @uvicanthro on tw*tter, paleocoasts, dog!, yyj

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qmackie@qmackie· 22h

Finally, some attention to the evolution of the male pelvis 🦴 #openaccess #oa #bioanth 🏺 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Geometric morphometric scatterplot from linked article showing distinct groupings of male and female pelvises

qmackie@qmackie· 20d

UK women's voting rights poster from 1913, designed and produced by the Suffrage Atelier. Source: collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75893/... 👩‍⚕️👷‍♀️👩‍🏫👩‍🎓🤵‍♀️

Landscape format poster in green, red and black on white ground. Two strips of five images each, one above the other. The top row has the legend 'What a Woman may be and yet not have the Vote' and five images: Mayor, Nurse, Mother, Doctor or Teacher, Factory Hand. The bottom row has the legend 'What a Man may be & yet not lose the Vote' with five images: Convict, Lunatic, Proprietor of white Slaves, Unfit for Service, Drunkard.

The Women's Suffrage movement in Britain was advanced in 1903 when Emmeline Pankhurst established the Women's Social and Political Union. Voting rights for women over 30 were granted in 1918, but equal rights with men (that is, at age 21) were not granted until 1928. This poster was produced by the Suffrage Atelier, a society formed in 1909, to 'encourage artists to forward the Women's Movement, and particularly the enfranchisement of women, by means of pictorial publications'. The relatively unsophisticated technique of block printing was partly a consequence of limited funds, but it also allowed 'fresh cartoons [to be] got out at very short notice'.

Alt text from V&A

qmackie@qmackie· 21d

Dulux Weathershield poster from 1990 crassly incorporating a modified image of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde area. 🏺 Source V&A collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O233554...

View of Mesa Verde "Cliff Palace," an ancient Puebloan archaeological site / cliffside dwelling community, with one of the structures altered to be intact exterior and bright white compared to the reddish tones of the other structures. The tagline is Dulux Weathershield is Good for Years.

qmackie@qmackie· 29d

A New Yorker in Victoria BC, 1868, unimpressed by the hospitality of then colonial Governor Frederick Seymour, takes it out on the Brits, aka a "DARN BLARSTED DIRTY SET OF BLARSTED ASSES." 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇧 #canadianhistory

Screenshot of a typescript portion reading "So we started with our pants turned up through the mud and mizzling rain back to the ship. Having had rain for four days past, and having on our thin boots, you can imagine how we enjoyed it. The distance we had to walk was over a mile. The English are a "GREAT & MAGNAMINOUS PEOPLE" but you never catch this "chile" in one of their HOSPITABLE houses again. "No, no! Not for Joe." They are a DARN BLARSTED DIRTY SET OF BLARSTED ASSES.

qmackie@qmackie· Jul 21

They don't make archaeology book covers like they used to. 🏺 publications.gc.ca/collections/...

Cover of the book PRELIMINARY ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY,
MACKENZIE CORRIDOR
by
Jacques Cinq-Mars
Archaeological Survey of Canada
for the
Environmental-Social Program
Northern Pipelines
July 1973

Cover is a mosaic of drawn images of moose, fish, fox, etc made in an organic pop-art idiom, brightly coloured in blue, red, white and black.

qmackie@qmackie· Jul 17

Informative brass plaque on the Ok Glacier in Iceland. @historicalmarker.bsky.social #climatechange 🇮🇸🧊🫠

Image of a bilingual Icelandic/English sign at the Ok Glacier in Iceland. English text reads:

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know
what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.
Photo credit: Dominic Boyer

qmackie@qmackie· Jun 17

Checkmate, anthropologists 🏺

Image from twitter asking "why do humans have 206 bones and not just one?", with the image showing one anatomically correct human skeleton and another with all the bones fused into a human-shaped blob.

qmackie@qmackie· Jun 10

New depths in cynicism as Facebook/Meta plans to roll out AI enabled facial recognition in wearable glasses during times of political turmoil, to suppress anticipated opposition (3 month old article here: archive.ph/9tHvo) #AI

Screenshot from linked NY Times article reading: Meta’s internal memo said the political tumult in the United States was good timing for the feature’s release.

“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to the document from Meta’s Reality Labs, which works on hardware including smart glasses."

qmackie@qmackie· Jun 5

Text version of this essay from Jean Fan: jean.fan/2026/01/12/n... @b-thom.bsky.social

qmackie@qmackie· May 20

Now this is how to start off a short subject review "Zooarcheology is a Frankenstein hybrid, born from the ribs of a myriad of disciplines." 🏺🐟🧠 #archaeology library.oapen.org/bitstream/ha...

Screenshot of the title and abstract of the linked document PDF. Text reads: Zooarcheology: animals talk, just to complete
the story
Paul Mazza
Abstract: Zooarcheology is a Frankenstein hybrid, born from the ribs of a myriad of
disciplines. Its research focuses on animal remains from archeological contexts under an
anthropological perspective with the primary and ultimate object of gaining information
about human behavior. It has been, and often still is, considered a subdiscipline of
archeology. And yet, it has the potential to greatly contribute to the advancement of
knowledge in archeology. By using a variety of analytical methods, it provides independent
lines of complementary scientific evidence from archeofaunal, geological, and sedimentary
archives. It can yield detailed information on the environments in which past peoples
lived, as well as on the intensity of human impacts on landscapes, on past human diets
and on their evolution through time. It can also provide insights into the nature of the
social organization of the people. All this reveals zooarcheology in a role that has not
often been recognized

qmackie@qmackie· May 18

Geologists in movies: an analysis of gender, cause of death, etc. 35% of them die. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🏺🪨⚰️⚒️

From the linked article, Figure 3, as described below:

The manners of geologist deaths fall into eight categories (Fig. 3), described below:

Category 1: Murder. A good example is the fatal elimination of ‘baddies’ by heroes such as James Bond, such as in the movie Dr No (1962), where ‘007’ kills the evil petrologist, Prof. Dent.
Category 2: Work related. Typical examples are being hit by a volcanic bomb, falling into a crater or an opening fault, drowning in quicksand or lahar, and incineration in an oil pit. Grim stuff.
Category 3: Killed by or because of Extra-Terrestrial encounters. That is, being killed directly by aliens or assimilation by aliens and consequently killed by former colleagues, such as the geologist in Prometheus (2012).
Category 4. Miscellaneous accidents. Such as being crushed by falling crates as in Deep Star Six (1989).
Category 5. Traffic accidents. Killed in exotic events like crashing with a spaceship on the asteroid in Armageddon (1998).
Category 6. Health issues. Such as heart attack suffered by the geologist in Equinox (1970).
Category 7. Suicide. Where it all gets too much, as in Walkabout (1971).
Category 8. Unknown. A good example is the fate of the geologist in Gold (2016): suicide, or did he fake his death?

The causes of eternal passing are highlighted in the bar plot in Fig. 3. Murder is the most common, with 30 of 69 deaths. The numbers for the second and third reasons are close together, with deaths caused by interaction with extra-terrestrial creatures and unforgiving objects leading to 12 of 69 deaths, and with geological hazards (work related) coming in at 12 of 69 deaths. Accidents, traffic accidents and health issues make a total of 9 of 69 deaths. Notably, we count only one clear case of death by suicide, though in three cases, the fate of the geologist is unknown.

qmackie@qmackie· May 17

Images from Dutch doctor Willem ten Rhijne's 1683 work on Japanese and Chinese acupuncture techniques, which he had witnessed. via @publicdomainrev.bsky.social 🪡🇨🇳🇯🇵 publicdomainreview.org/collection/d...

Copperplate engraving derived from Chinese diagram showing acupuncture and moxa points, featured in Willem ten Rhijne’s De Acupunctura (1683) - front side

Copperplate engraving derived from Japanese diagram showing acupuncture points, featured in Willem ten Rhijne’s De Acupunctura (1683) - back side.

qmackie@qmackie· Apr 20

French patios are best patios 🫒🍷🌵🧀

View of a rock garden with succulents at dusk, large threatening clouds in the distant sky

View of patio table in Proven e with two citronelles and a bowl of olives, at dusk

Patio table at night with wine and cheese

qmackie@qmackie· Apr 13

Interesting new ethnographic article by O.P. Singh showing the quarrying and transportation of a #megalithic stone monument measuring 4.87 × 1.31 × 0.88 m, in far NE India. Article seems gated at the moment doi.org/10.1080/1751... @clonehenge.bsky.social @megalithic.bsky.social 🏺#archaeology

Figure Six from Singh 2026 showing schematics of menhir raising using cribwork and ropes on the left, and a photo of the raising of an approximately 4 metre tall stone on the right. Caption reads: Illustrations of the traditional methods of stone erection and the erected stone monument:
a) the stone placed near the erection site; b) the stone lifted using the wooden rod and wooden
support; c) the partially erected stone at the erection site; d) the erected stone; e) the erected stone.

Mosaic of 8 photos, Figure 4 in the Singh 2016 article, showing the large stone as quarried, moving from the quarry by hand and rollers, and then with the aid of a truck to the place it will be erected. Caption reads: The quarry crew quarries at the quarry site while the organising team supervises the work
progress; (b) the quarried stone is pulled or pushed out from the quarry site; (c) pulling the stone from
the quarry site; d) pushing/pulling the quarried stone on the lower hill slope; (e) forest firing; (f)
loading the stone on the truck; (g) the transportation of stone; (h) people gathered to erect unload
and erect the stone in the evening.

Large menhirs in Willong Khullen village. Hundreds are present in this landscape near the Myanmar border.

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 31

Cool shot of an eagle snatching up fistfuls of herring in Haida Gwaii. From @jagsbean on instagram. #herring #eagles #haidagwaii www.instagram.com/p/DWFVvDeARPm/ @iainmckechnie.bsky.social

Side view of an eagle very close to the water with talons loaded with many herring. In the water behind the eagle, herring are flopping in the air after the eagle had punched into the herring ball.

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 27

Must find a copy of this alien themed woodcut by Drew Meger www.coreypress.com#/die-flucht/ 👽🛸

Woodcut print in the medieval style featuring a nude man and woman running from a looming flying saucer, while an alien with slender limbs and almond eyes beckons to them. Art is by Drew Meger from CoreyPress.com

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 26

Canadian government targeted an 18% reduction in International Students at BC post-Secondary in 2024, received a 66% reduction instead 🤡 #highered. @b-thom.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Bar chart showing the discrepancy between the intended and actual changes in 2024 international student enrolment in Canadian post-secondary institutions.

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 17

A comment from UBC adjunct professor James Hickling on the Cowichan Decision and private property rights in B.C. (PDF) #indigenous #bcpoli @b-thom.bsky.social ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bc...

A text selection screenshot from the linked article.

"It is both troubling and telling, however, that none of the pundits critical of the Cowichan decision have acknowledged the key facts or the legal principles at work in the case. The public has not been informed that the Cowichan case arose because corrupt government officials conspired to illegally claim the lands at issue for themselves. There has been no discussion of the difference between statutory and constitutional rights or the history and role of Aboriginal title in Canadian constitutionalism. If the public knew of the legal-historical context and understood the Cowichan case from a fact-based perspective, the justice of the decision might shine through the criticisms.This case comment offers a counterpoint to those criticisms, and to the online sound bites and click-bait that have tended to distort the decision and exaggerate its significance.7 Put briefly, the Cowichan decision is narrowly limited to the particular historical facts in the case. It is notthe “tip of the iceberg.”8 It does not put private property rights at risk across British Columbia. Instead, the Cowichan decision confirms that our existing constitutional framework provides an opportunity for the Crown to remedy a longstanding fraud by negotiating win-win solutions with Cowichan Tribes."

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 17

My inner curmudgeon woke up a little sassy today 🏺#archaeology

Sketch of an unstable tower, the tower is labelled "All Archaeological Interpretations" while the weakest but of the foundation is labelled "Ethnographic Analogies from Colonial and Postcolonial Contexts". The image is a relabelled verstion of an xkcd comic found at https://xkcd.com/2347/

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 11

Seminar from @sfuarchaeology.bsky.social this week is on human #forensics - decomposition in the ocean, given by Dr Gail Anderson. On campus or by zoom (register in advance) sfu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Announcement of SFU seminar reading:

This week's SFU Archaeology seminar talk will be given (in person and online) by Dr. Gail Anderson (SFU Criminology) presenting: “Eaters of the Dead: The Fate of Bodies in the Ocean"

Thursday, March 12th, 3:30 pm PST

Abstract:
"A great deal of forensic entomology research is concentrated on the terrestrial environment, yet many bodies are found in the ocean. This talk will show some of the marine taphonomic studies I have conducted in the Salish Sea, in Howe Sound, Saanich Inlet and Georgia Strait, at a variety of depths and seasons using pig carcasses as human proxies. The first carcasses were placed in Howe Sound in collaboration with the RCMP Dive Team, Vancouver Aquarium, Canadian Coastguard and the Canadian Amphibious Search Team. Carcasses went through traditional decompositional stages at several depths, but faunal colonization was impacted by depth and season, as well as sediment type. These studies were limited by diver availability, weather conditions, safety and depth. The subsequent studies were conducted in collaboration with Ocean Networks Canada’s Victoria Experimental Network Underseas (VENUS) cabled, underwater laboratory, which involved real-time, remotely operated cameras, vehicles and instruments to monitor carcass decomposition 24/7. Carcasses were scavenged rather than decomposed and skeletonization varied from 3-4 days to months depending on a number of variables, but primarily driven by oxygen levels."
For those attending in person, we’ll be in Saywell Hall 9152 at 3:30pm.

For those attending online, please register in advance (up until moments before the talk!) at this link:
https://sfu.zoom.us/meeting/register/AmExDiR5TNKE5Z27vzGHuQ
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 4

Today in history #archaeology 🏺

Image of a stereotypical glowing alien holding a laptop type device standing in front of Stonehenge, probably A.I. generated

qmackie@qmackie· Mar 2

According to Mark Collard on Twitter, SFU Professor Emeritus Roy Carlson, a stalwart of NW Coast Archaeology since the early 1960s, has passed away. @sfuarchaeology.bsky.social 🏺

Screenshot showing Roy Carlson and the text: ust heard the very sad news that Prof. Roy Carlson passed away this morning. Roy was the founding chair of the Department of Archaeology at Simon Fraser University, and a major figure in BC and Canadian archaeology. An unfailingly kind, supportive, and intellectually stimulating colleague, he will be much missed. RIP Roy and thanks for everything."

qmackie@qmackie· Feb 26

More info on Dr Der: anth.ubc.ca/profile/lind... 🏺

qmackie@qmackie· Feb 26

SFU Archaeology in person / zoom tomorrow (Thur Feb 26) at 3.30 PST featuring Dr Lindsey Der: Safeguarding for whom? An evidence-based examination of of digital technology as conservation tool for Tadmor/Palmyra @sfuarchaeology.bsky.social Register ahead for zoom: sfu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

“Safeguarding for whom? An evidence-based examination of the use of digital technology as a conservation tool for Tadmor (Palmyra)"

Thursday, February 26th , 3:30 pm PST

Abstract:
"In an era of technological proliferation, digital technologies are being deployed in heritage contexts at an unsurpassed pace. These technologies have been largely embraced by universities, museums, governments, and both intergovernmental and non-profit organizations. In places of armed conflict, their use has been especially heralded for their ability to be rapidly deployed and to mitigate the destruction of cultural heritage. Rather than take digital technologies as a foregone conclusion, my research is an evidentiary-based assessment of their implementation in cultural heritage applications. This seminar shares the results of research evaluating the 3D reproduction of the Triumphal Arch of Tadmor, also known as Palmyra. A foreign intervention, this reproduction was purported to preserve and draw attention to Syrian cultural heritage after its destruction at the hands of DAESH. Using interview and survey data, this paper discusses the reactions, desires and opinions of different groups, including Syrian diaspora communities in Canada and the general public in the United Kingdom. The data suggests that far from being a resounding success, reception has been mixed, with the majority of people considering the replica arch an inadequate substitute for the original."

qmackie@qmackie· Feb 18

Make your own here 🏺⚛️🦖: marshdeer.github.io/xkcd2501-gen...

Two stick figures talking:

Left: carbon dating is second nature to us Archaeologists, so it's easy to forget that the average person probably only knows the Libby half life of 14c"

Right: "And INTCAL20, of course

Left: of course.

At bottom, "Even when they're trying to compensate for it, experts in anything wildly overestimate the average person's familiarity with their field.

qmackie@qmackie· Feb 7

Profile of South African paleontologist Lazarus Kgasi. How many Indigenous BC archaeologists have similar untapped potentials? And could advance in the profession parallel to a traditional academic pathway?🏺 www.npr.org/2026/02/04/g...

Screenshot from the article of text and a picture of Kgasi sitting on an exposed bedrock outcrop, the text reads:

"He did clerical work. He tried his hand as an auto mechanic. Then, on a whim, in 2000, he applied for a job as a fossil digger in the Cradle of Humankind. "I just picked it up as a random job," he says.

Kgasi was joining the ranks of the numerous Black men who, over the years, dug out fossils for white researchers (some from South Africa and others from overseas) who examined and identified them — and then took credit for them.

qmackie@qmackie· Jan 31

R-squared of 0.981 is hard to argue with, really. Source: tylervigen.com 〽️📉

Line graph showing a very close [spurious] correlation between two variables measured from 2008-2022. The two variables are "Distance between Saturn and Earth" and "number of Walmart stores worldwide"

qmackie@qmackie· Jan 31

Another piece on ethics of airborne lidar for archaeological purposes: informed consent, and mapping as a colonial process.🏺 @b-thom.bsky.social (open access in American-Antiquity) www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Images of Indigenous people attending the Metzabok community meeting re proposed aerial lidar mapping in their territory

qmackie@qmackie· Jan 24

Interesting that the laws in question include Indigenous historical sites as being a "latent material defect" in the property. I've often thought the same of Stonehenge, for example. www.bcfsa.ca/media/4571/d...