Hi everyone! This is Reagan. I just made a video about a cool new toy that I made at school. Please watch:
After making the video, me and my Dad did a Google search to find out more about this toy. It is called a thaumatrope. Oh, by the way, I lied: it’s not “more than 10 hundred years old.” It’s less than 200 years old, but for a little kid that’s ANCIENT!
Learn more about thaumatropes here:
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit06.htm.
Tags: fun, Kids Stuff, reagan, thaumatrope, toys, video, youtube
As many of you know, I have previously been involved in archaeological projects in the middle east (the central Jordanian sites of Tall Hisban and Tall Jalul). Well, this year I am digging much closer to home and in a significantly cooler climate. Located just a few miles from our house in Durham, Binchester was the site of a Roman fort along the main North-South road in Britain. Work begins in three weeks, but my participation won’t start until late June.
The project is a joint effort by Durham University’s Department of Archaeology and the Classics Department at Stanford University. The project is a full-scale field school, providing archaeological training to students of both universities. The first three weeks will be undertaken by undergraduate archaeology students at Durham, while the final three weeks will include Durham post-grads and students from Stanford. After the field school phase, an additional four weeks of work will be undertaken by a local archaeological society. The field school project is currently slated for five full seasons.
When my work begins, I’ll try to keep you all posted via this site. For more information on the site, and to keep even more up-to-date than I can promise, be sure to check out the official project blog: http://binchester.blogspot.com. It’s an exciting site, and I’m looking forward to getting to work on it soon.
View of Binchester Fort from Google Earth
Tags: Archaeology, Binchester, dig, Durham, excavation, fort, roman, Stanford
Woohoo!! I wrote a poem in my Year 2 class at school. And, do you know what??
I’m getting published! I got an award. It says:
Talent for Writing
This is a certificate of merit to certify that
Reagan Rohl
has written a creative piece of distinction that was selected for publication in a Young Writers anthology.
Reagan with his Talent for Writing award
I am SOOOO excited and happy about this. I hope I don’t become famous, though.
Here is my poem. It’s called an acrostic, which has a different line for each letter of my name.
fRiend
brown Eyes
I Am sometimes angry
Grumpy
I Am smart
Nice
Do you like my poem? Let me know.
Tags: poem, publication, reagan
I’m sorry that there haven’t been a lot of updates on here recently. More are coming soon, I promise (I need to get Traci and the kids working on contributing too… this is not just a one-man show). Anyways… I’m now done with all the work for my Masters degree, except for the dissertation that is. This is supposed to be a 20,000-word piece of critical scholarship. My topic has been chosen, and I’ve given it considerable thought. For those who are interested, here’s a brief little abstract I wrote for my department:
Arthur’s O’on was a circular stone structure located on the river Carron near Falkirk, Scotland. Widely accepted as a Roman monument, the O’on has variously been interpreted as a temple, shrine or mausoleum. As its name implies, the O’on (= “oven”) has long been associated with the legendary King Arthur; this connection continues to recur from time to time in popular and pseudo-historical dialogues. Unfortunately, due to its destruction in 1743, the monument’s date of construction and original purpose remain uncertain. Fortunately, however, the O’on was the object of intense study by early antiquarian writers who have provided detailed drawings and descriptions, which were used to create a full-size replica atop the stable blocks of Sir John Clerk’s Penicuik House. This reconstruction, and many of the antiquarian accounts remain available, yet the last study to focus on the O’on was published by Ken Steer in 1958. This dissertation seeks to bring Arthur’s O’on back into the dialogue of British archaeology. It will emphasise two key aspects: the historiography of accounts from Nennius’ Historia Brittonum to the present; and an assessment of the archaeological records, comparing the available descriptions, drawings and physical reconstruction to known examples of other Roman temples, shrines and mausolea to arrive at a current interpretation of the monument’s dating and possible purpose. While the archaeological analysis will follow traditional archaeological methods, the historiography will seek to break new ground by framing the O’on’s history of research and interpretation within dialogues of the “archaeology of knowledge,” classical reception and studies of mythical landscapes.
So, now that regular work is done, I need to buckle down and get this thing written. I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading in preparation, and have also been collecting the various sources that I need (which is no mean feat, considering that most of these are more than 200 years old and rather obscure). To give things a little kick-start, though, I spent today preparing technical things like Table of Contents layout, page format, headers, footers, and also got started on the real text. Beyond my 6-7,000 words of notes, I actually wrote some 2,000 words of dissertation text today…. 10% down, 90% to go. Final deadline is 11 September. Wish me luck!
Tags: Archaeology, Arthur's O'on, dissertation, Durham, MA, Masters
In a previous post, I discussed some of the issues I faced with writing a PhD proposal. In this post, I will go further, providing more detail about my proposal and how it evolved from early ideas into the final submission. I hope it will be helpful to others in the process. To provide some important background, though, let me say a few things at the outset: the proposal was for post-graduate research in the UK, where doctoral programs are intended to be only three years in duration and students begin working on their dissertations right away; my proposal was very specifically designed for admission to a particular programme (PhD in Archaeology at the University of Durham, UK) and for highly competitive funding (ORSAS and Durham Doctoral Fellowship); the proposal had to follow a particular format with a maximum 500-word case for support, but could include additional details. My proposal was successful in gaining an offer for a place in the department, but I am still awaiting the funding decision. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: academics, Archaeology, Durham, funding, grad school, grant, phd, post-grad, proposal, writing
Having a car has opened a new world of possibilities to our life in the UK. It allows us to see the city of Durham from a new perspective, but also gives us the chance to visit places further afield. For your viewing pleasure, we’ve recently uploaded some photos from our trips to the Washington Wetland Centre and Vindolanda Roman Fort. You can see these on our Flickr account, here:
Tags: Archaeology, birds, fort, photos, Vindolanda, Washington, Wetland
From 1-24 July, 2009, Andrews University (my alma mater; undergraduate) will host a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute for Schoolteachers (K-12) on Daily Life in Ancient Times: Archaeology of Israel and Jordan. The institute will provide lecture-based and hands-on exposure to the history and archaeology of the ancient near east, along with tools and assistance to develop curricula and teaching plans for K-12 audiences. There are only 30 positions available.
The institute directors are Gloria London and Rhonda Root, professional academic archaeologists with long-established archaeological experience. Additional faculty are all top-notch (I personally know some), and should provide excellent instruction at an appropriate level. The plans for this institute look exciting, and I would strongly urge any interested teachers to apply for this opportunity.
You can find more information at the program’s website.
Tags: andrews, Archaeology, education, history, israel, jordan, k-12, neh, summer
You may not know Paul, but he’s one of my friends here in Durham. Today, we went to see the Treasures of Saint Cuthbert inside Durham Cathedral. In there was Cuthbert’s coffin, gold dishes and cutlery (spoons, forks and stuff), a cross, some books and clothing that once belonged to Saint Cuthbert, a seventh-century (600’s AD) saint from Lindisfarne. After this, we went to the downtown indoor market and ate some pizza at Pizza al Taglio. They had cooked chocolate pizza (pizza with chocolate inside!)!
Then, we went to Paul’s house. We made a few videos. They are called, “The Paul and Austin Show,” “The Paul and Austin Show 2,” and “The Anything We Want Show.” I played with his Legos for a while, then we played Wii. He has the best games ever! 2 of my favorites are: Wii Music
Later, Paul’s friend Thomas came over. We played some Wii Sports and then a cool board game called Lighthouse-Opoly
I can’t wait until we have another fun day together!
I am pleased to announce that I will be attending this year’s Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage. A (now) once-every-ten-years event, the pilgrimage was started in 1850 by John Collingwood Bruce. The event is quite costly, and lasts seven days, moving from the west coast to Newcastle in the east. I am privileged to have won a Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage Bursary from the Robert Kiln Charitable Trust. This bursary will pay my attendance fee, coach fare, accommodations, and meals.
The pilgrimage will take place in August, 8-14 August and will include 3 nights in each Carlile and Newcastle. Leading scholars of the Wall and Rome’s northern frontiers will be in attendance, and I hope to learn alot from them. It will also be an excellent opportunity to make additional contacts and further develop the professional relationships I have been able to make here in the UK. This will be a unique opportunity to visit the length of this important World Heritage Site. I look forward to the pilgrimage, and to reporting on it… if only August would come faster!
Tags: Archaeology, bursary, england, frontier, hadrian's wall, pilgrimage, roman, uk
OK. So, I came to Durham planning to stay for a PhD in Archaeology. That plan is certainly still in place, and I’m even more convinced that this is the place for me. The problem is, I need to apply; the application is for much more than a place in the programme (that’s British for “program” to all my American friends), though… it is also my application for funding. There’s not a lot of that to go around here in the UK, especially for Americans, so getting this proposal just right is key. It’s also highly stressful and mind numbing, but very good at helping to clarify what you plan to do.
I’ve written, and re-written, my proposal several times since mid-November. I have a firm idea of my topic (i.e. the Antonine Wall), the research context and methods I plan to employ. So far I’ve written what I feel are at least 4 knockout versions that are sure to have every funding body on the face of the planet begging to contribute. Who am I kidding, though? When the time comes to be considered, I will be up against a group of incredibly brilliant students who have given just as much thought and effort to their proposals as well. Many of these will be in the “hard” sciences… and physics, maths (that’s just plain “math” where I’m from), biochemistry, etc. generally have a good advantage over proposals that are more social science or humanities based. So, university-wide, I’m at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, this also extends to within my own department, where other proposals for more “scientific” approaches to archaeology may edge me out as well. Let’s hope my intense fine-tuning pays off, and I can somehow stand out from the crowd.
In a future article, I plan to discuss the proposal writing process in greater detail. I will include some of my different versions, and show how the proposal evolved into what I end up submitting. I hope with this to provide a useful resource for other students writing similar proposals, especially for funding at Durham or elsewhere in the UK. Since I’m not yet finished with my final draft (and since there’s still opportunity for someone else to benefit from my advice and beat me!), I will wait on this for a few weeks. Look for this article toward the end of February. In the meantime, please wish me luck and keep me in your prayers.
Tags: Antonine Wall, Archaeology, doctoral fellowship, Durham, england, funding, grant, ORSAS, phd, proposal, research, Scotland, uk, writing