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Ask Time Team America Host Colin Campbell
Artist Colin Campbell was hired to work on Time Team America as a sketch artist, but when the producers saw the kinds of probing questions he was asking, they decided to make him the host of the show instead.
Time Team America is a new series here on PBS that takes viewers on timed archaeological digs around the United States. As a team of diggers, scientists and historians race to find and identify history’s buried markers (each dig must be completed in 72 hours), Campbell guides the audience through each step of the expedition. His background as an artist “gives him an eye for unusual artifacts, an appreciation of the past and the skill to draw an excavation site as it would have appeared years ago,” the show’s website explains.
This week, Campbell is our guest here and he’s taking your questions. He’s a renaissance man, so feel free to ask him about being an artist, learning about archaeology, and hosting a television show. I’ll choose five questions for him to answer and post his responses next week.
The first two episodes of Time Team America are available for online viewing. The next episode airs Wednesday, July 22 (check local listings).
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archeology as a hobby
are there digs people can volunteer/participate in to gain more experience? If so - Where would i find information on that?
Volunteering
There are opportunities out there if you'd like to volunteer on an archaeological dig. Passport in Time is an excellent program run by the USDA Forest Service:
[links to US Forest service not accepted by comment system]
In addition most states have an Archaeological Association, which often run volunteer digs, and there are national organizations such as the Archaeological Conservancy and Institute of American Archaeology. You can find links here:
[link to about dot com not accepted by comment system]
You may also be able to participate in a University-run field school, and if you are retired you might be able to do so at little or no cost, you'll have to check with your local colleges and universities about those opportunities.
The comment system is not accepting links to the USFS website (or anywhere else) for some reason. Not very helpful. If you do a web search on the terms above such as "Passport in Time" and check out the archaeology site on about dot com you'll find some good resources.
Digs
I am very interested in archaeological digs, anywhere. If you can get me there I would go and dig. I am an older person with a few strength problems.. but willing and energetic and full of zeal and passion about discovering anything from the past. When I was young I used to scour attics & backyards & old sheds for old stuff. I have read some wonderful books discussing archaeological digs in Egypt and other places. I also read extensively. I don't horde all the old things but love finding beautiful pieces of pottery and artifacts. I am a single widowed woman and full of passion.. Your team should include one person who isn't a professor, but a lay person, how about me? I am in the second half of my freshman year in college in Mississippi.. I'm enjoying all the history I am learning , didn't know about until now.. very educating.. thanks.. Ms. Cheyenne Hunt..
72 hour dig ??
Do you feel that a 72 hour dig forces you to rush at the excavation site and possibly miss important artifacts or even get sloppy with the work? I think the whole idea behind archeological discovery and research is that a dig team should take their time and properly explore the site, sifting even the smallest amount of soil to discover what has been hiding for so many years.
too hasty?
I have to say, that was my first thought as well I guess the trade-off is that it will get more people interested in history and archeology.
But these sites are precious. When they're dug, they're dug. No going back
on the contrary, people go
on the contrary, people go back to re-dig sites all the time!
don't forget humans aren't perfect and ideas and methods change!!!! you might not set up exactly where you did before but you can still revisit a good site!
Sometimes, you need to test the land to see what the site may yield, for some archaeologists, this is called a phase I. If your initial testing suggests that more information can be collected from the site, than a phase II or even phase III can be conducted. Most field schools are sites that are constantly being revisited, due to budget and size of the site.
:)
hope this helps!
Yes it does, thank you :)
Yes it does, thank you :) Very informative :-)
while 72 hours is not a lot
while 72 hours is not a lot of time to gather all the data. There is more than three days of work done on those projects. GIS prepping, background research on historical information as well as previous archaeological digs done on or around the area. It looks like that team goes in, knowing well where to stick their shovels and trowels for the best result.
Ideally, on a great site, yes, you would want to spend as much time as possible uncovering all that you can, but in most situations the budget cannot afford this. Wages for the workers, permits for access to the land, machinery and equipment, lab time, research time, this all costs money and depending on what the land is going to be used for, most of the time, archeaologists only have about a weeks worth of access before developers come in and destroy the land.
72 hours yields a lot of workable information and after those initial days in the field there is lab work, more research, writing and publishing to be done. You're really seeing the dirty and fun part of the job.
That makes sense! :) I feel
That makes sense! :) I feel awhole lot better knowing that :-)
Clovis
Please get your dates correct. Clovis is not 13,000 years old. The oldest Clovis sites date to around 11,500 years ago. A 13,000 year old site would be Pre-Clovis, and its discovery would (or should) make international headlines as it would be one of the oldest archaeological sites in the Western Hemisphere, surpassing even Monte Verde and possibly Meadowcroft in age.
The comment about Pleistocene horse and camel killsites is false. There have been no such killsites discovered. Clovis people may have occassionaly preyed upon these animals when the opportunity presented itself, but no such "killsites" have ever been unearthed.
There is little evidence to support the idea of a comet collision causing the onset of the Younger-Dryas period. This idea makes the headlines and grabs attention but there is no really good evidence for it having occured. Evidence of such a collision would appear everywhere, not just in archaeological sites, and such evidence has not been found.
Clovis dates
Ok, I just couldn't resist making a comment here. Yes Clovis dates to 11,500 but that is (rcbp) radiocarbon years ago. Which is roughly 13,000 calender years. IT is easy to get confused with all the different dates used today including BC/AD and BP. But to say Clovis culture existed 13,000 years ago is not necessarily incorrect. I must also say that there are actually several sites with pre-clovis components in the US and disputed between many archaeologists much as Monte Verde and Meadowcroft are even today. Don't know much about Pleistocene horse and camel kill-sites but Just b/c its not yet fully published doesn't mean there aren't any.
Strong Evidence of Comet for Younger Dryas Period
"There is little evidence to support the idea of a comet collision causing the onset of the Younger-Dryas period. This idea makes the headlines and grabs attention but there is no really good evidence for it having occured. Evidence of such a collision would appear everywhere, not just in archaeological sites, and such evidence has not been found."
The evidence have been found! I don't believe that any of those researchers that have done research really addressed looking for a number of craters. They proposed that the comet or swarm of comets exploded upon entiring the earth's atmosphere, yet, people expect there to be huge crater and not a series of say, medium and smaller impact structures.
Well, there is strong evidence here, www.meteoriteimpactsite.com, in my neck of the woods in North America. Evidence that include impact structure, a 2cm layer of glass-like graphite with transparent crystal in cylinder drill core and cometary fragments.
That's great but...
The show is great, I'm glad to see some form of archaeology getting a spotlight! I just wish you would stop calling it archaeology and call it by what it really is, CRM. Just so the general public is aware. It would be the equivalent of a show called Neurosurgery, and just showing people getting CAT scans and then taking pills to fix the problem. Next thing you know everyone Joe and Jane wants to be a neurosurgeon because they think it just involves dispensing pills.
So here is my question...
Since archaeology is a meld of science and the arts, which is your favorite aspect, and why?
The Best Part?
What is the best thing about being the host of Time Team America? As someone who was hired to be the artist for the show, how has this job changed you?
New Philadelphia
Is there any evidence that "a group of white businessmen saw to it" that a railroad bypassed New Philadelphia? Is this anything but anti-white racism? Railroads bypassed lots of places. New Philadelphia survived and grew before there was any question of a railroad. That its black inhabitants later abandoned it, voluntarily, is a fact that stands on its own. It's inadmissable and disgraceful to blame this on demonized white people.
I fear that Time Team will go the way of History Detectives- politicized, Politically Corrected, ruined and unwatchable.
It's about time...
It's about time someone showed archaeology in a more accurate light. At least in some manner, for now... Being in the profession myself, I have seen incredible heart-warming burials that are several thousand years old, the mine-fields created by competing beaucracies, the 'true' face of CRM 'shovelbums' (good and bad), and all of the bugs, snakes, lyme disease, and unknown illnesses that we as archaeologists come across to bring light to the mysterious and unknown. I sacrifice my health daily to change our outdated history books, and I'm pretty sure I have West Nile right now. The general public has NO IDEA how difficult it can be looking for the truth so that our children (and mine) don't continue being lied to in school.
Did you know that a 'history book' is considered accurate for our schoolchildren if it was copied from a previous 'history book'? Doesn't matter at all what's in it. That's the Dept. of Education's stance on kid's textbooks.
I could go on and on with true life work experiences, but I probably need to save them for my show I'll put together in a few years...
I wish you the best. We all watch you, thank you.
DD
BTW
BTW - Because of politics and 'red tape', I can't talk too much about many fantastic sites I've seen that would make shows in themselves. It's sad to me not to be able to share them with the rest of the world. People would feel so connected to our past... It's just sad...
DD
Fascinating episode on New Philadelphia.
I am interested in the oral history of Frank and Lucy. This story is so unique and shows two communities living closer together. Communication through singing is also significant.
Also I am interested in more information on the significance of brick at the site. Thanks Wendy
LOVE THE SHOW- VERY
LOVE THE SHOW- VERY INTERESTING. SUSAN LABAR
Role of geophysics in the project
I am a geophysics student working on environmental remediation sits, hydrological site, and archaeological area as well. So great to see this on public media. And I'd like to ask Colin the same question Ryan asked, which is your favorite aspect of this project/archaeology?