Presidential Signatures, The Dalai Lama, and.... a Blood Splattered Map?

Last week I had the opportunity with a few other interns to take a little field trip to the Archives II facility in College Park, MD. Archives II holds Army and Navy records after 1917, as well a bunch of other stuff. The facility is WAY larger than the facility in Washington, DC, and (my opinion) difficult to navigate. We met with three different archivists dealing with Army, Navy, and Civilian records. We had the opportunity to tour the stack areas dealing with each of the three records.

Comparing Archives I to Archives II is pretty easy to do, simply because of the sheer difference in size and architecture. Archives II is very open, bright, and full of windows and natural lighting. While Archives I… is not. One of the major differences between the two facilities are the large stack areas in AII and the electronic movable shelving that holds the records. The electronic shelving units save a lot of space in the facility as they are designed to close in to one another when not in use, and can be separated when needed. My big question of course, was “How do you not squish people between the shelves??”. Next thing you know we are standing in between two shelving units that are slowly closing in on us. It would not be an exaggeration to say that I felt like I was in some sort of adventure movie caught in a trap and about to be squished flat by a huge stone wall (minus the spikes). Just as my life flashed before my eyes, the wall stopped moving inward. Turns out, there is a sensor at the base of the compartments that is triggered when someone places their foot up against it. Crisis averted.

Apart from the scary shelving (not so scary once you get used to them) we saw some other pretty cool stuff. We saw a ton of presidential signatures, everything from Washington to Clinton. We even got the opportunity to take a look at the first document that FDR signed after he had been sworn into office, and the last document that he signed three days before his death. The difference in the signatures was astounding. On top of seeing presidential documents, we were also able to examine a document signed by the Dali Lama in 1960, and a map that general McNair was reading when he was shot (very CSI). Basically, the trip to AII was amazing, and I am still trying to digest all of the information.

In other news, I had the opportunity to meet with David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States this morning. It was a very casual meeting, we sat in his office and talked about the Archives, digitization, and the future of the records at the National Archives. Additionally, we talked about careers and how he got to where he is today. It was was a good meeting, and it was a pleasure to have met him.

-Emily 

Almost Working

Fun in the field...

Archaeological field projects are a ton of work. We get up early, work long days in the field, and then spend several hours processing data in the lab in the evenings. That being said, they are really fun too! I mean why else would we work this hard?!

Here are a few of my favorite fun picks from the field this summer in Hungary to show how serious we are about science…and having a good time while we are at it! The title of this folder in our project Dropbox is “Almost Working.”

                   Striking a pose

                                                                           Face time

                                 Last day in the field

Lauren's last day:

In this series of photos, Lauren is attempting to raise money for her train ticket to the airport by selling Pogácsa to Dori (a cheesy biscuit snack that we eat in the field). We felt that this needed to be illustrated via photo boards (normally used for photographing excavation units...) Dori refused to pay. Lauren still made it to the airport.

                                                                          András: cutest baby in the world!

                Umbrellas are so much fun...

                           Dogs and cats :)

Mummy Mia!

Holy British Museum, Batman!

     Hello all! I hope this post finds you well.  Caitlyn and I would like to dedicate today's blog post to the British Museum, one of our favorite London spots so far.  You may be wondering why it happens to be a favorite, so we'll simply tell you.  MUMMIES.

Yes, you read correctly.  I said mummies.  

Today Professor Ullinger took us to the British Museum where we viewed many exhibits, but were super excited to see the Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles, the Jericho Tomb and the Jabaliyya Mummy.

Rosetta Stone

                                                                       Jericho Tomb

                                                                  Jabaliyya Mummy

After visiting these displays we then met up Professor Ullinger's good friend, Alma Adler who works at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and then with Daniel Antoine, the curator for the British Museum's division of Ancient Egypt and Sudan for a behind-the-scenes tour!  Little did Caitlyn and I know what we would see...

Since Daniel works mainly within Egypt and Sudan, what better way to introduce us to those areas than to show us an original piece of papyrus from the Book of the Dead depicting the story of the Weighing of the Heart. No joke! My mind is still having a hard time processing what we saw.  If you're curious to know about the story, click on the link to learn more: Book of the Dead .

Daniel then proceeded to show us Ancient Egyptian jewelry, which was really intricate and beautiful (so colorful, too!).  He had wanted to show us the real "bling" but unfortunately didn't have the proper key.  We followed him through various doors, up and down stairs and through hallways I couldn't even have imagined existed.  

To back track a little, upon our introduction to Daniel Caitlyn and I told him what our undergrad majors were and what we are planning to study in the Fall.  Since Caitlyn is pursuing a career in Mathematics, Daniel grinned, then said he had something to show her later on.

When later on had come, boy oh boy did we see something spectacular!  Daniel had pulled away a cloth draped over what is known as the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus (1575 B.C.).  You may be thinking, 'Ok, so what?' What is so extraordinarily awesome about this piece of papyrus is that it documents math problems and solutions of building the pyramids in Egpyt, along with the first recorded us of Pi! (That last part is from Caitlyn's mouth, not mine. Remember people, I'm the Psych nerd.)

BUT, that was not the only awesome thing we witnessed today.  We saw mummies. And when I say mummies, I mean lots and lots of mummies!

So here's a joke I thought I'd share: Why do mummies tell no secrets?

Answer: Because they keep things under wraps!

Funny? Not funny? You be the judge. Either way, I got to see some awesome mummies.

So, since I've been harbingering about mummies since the opening to this blog, I will tell you about the mummies we saw.

You'll notice above that I mentioned the Jabaliyya mummy.  Well, the mummy that is on display in the museum is a male.  We saw the female Jabaliyya mummy in the organic preservation room, which monitors the air quality to ensure nothing is damaged further.  Like the male mummy, the female mummy was in a flexed position on her side (think fetal position) with her arms bent and hands just before her face.  The female and male Jabaliyya mummies are from around 5,000 B.C. where bodies were preserved in small pits that were covered with hot sand.  In order to learn more about both mummies, Daniel told us about some neat technology that can actually peel away layers of the body to understand more about the skeleton without having to compromise anything.  That's how he learned that the male mummy was near the age of 18-21 when he died from a stab wound to the back, which is also believed to have affected a rib or two and most likely collapsed a lung. I'll tell ya', technology is simply amazing.

I don't think I was prepared to see what I'm about to tell you all, simply because I had never really thought it was done.  But believe you me, Daniel showed us a preserved crocodile, which was believed to have been done to honor the Egyptian Crocodile God Sobek. Crazy stuff, right?!

We saw detailed tombs that mummies were kept in and learned why a lot of them had the image of eyes on them (it's to watch the outside world from inside their tomb). And finally, Daniel took us to a set of gigantic wooden doors, which held a room behind it with tons and tons of human remains from Sudan. He then showed us several Sudanese mummies from the Medieval Christian period that were in the process of being conserved without any chemicals (you go Daniel and crew!).

After giving many thanks to Daniel for showing us some private super-awesome-stuff, Professor Ullinger, Caitlyn and myself had a wonderful tea time at the museum.  I had Garden Berry, Professor Ullinger had Early Gray and Caitlyn had English Breakfast. It was delicious, as were our scones and the jam and clotted cream spreads they gave us. Mmm, mmm good!  

Take care everyone!

       Lindsay

       

Museum of London

For the last few days, Caitlyn, Lindsay and I have been hard at work at the Museum of London.  We are measuring bones and describing pathology particularly related to a condition called torticollis.  We will also be looking at some trauma, and at skeletons identified as having Paget's disease.

Of course, sometimes we relax a bit. Luckily, the museum cafe has crayons and color pages.

Today, we were excited to have Jerry and two students from University College Dublin join us at the museum.  First, we helped to set up the x-ray equipment, which arrived in containers that look like magicians' boxes.

Jerry had to buy a large transformer in order to ensure that the equipment would safely connect to the power supply.  We were a bit afraid that we might destroy thousands of people's trips to the museum by blowing out the electricity.

At first, Lindsay looked a bit skeptical, and I was hiding in the adjacent room.  Lindsay gives the "thumbs up" sign once we realized that the machine was on, the lights were still on, and no smoke was coming out of the machine.

After that, it wasn't too long before the x-ray system was up and running, and we were looking at digital x-rays!

The museum has a giant tray of inert gravel where photos can be taken.  It is a great system for propping up bones in order to position them for photographs.  But, it's also very "zen," and everyone who goes near it has to put their hands in it and play with it.  Here, Caitlyn expresses QU love for the UK.  I think the trip has been a success!

--Prof. Ullinger

St. Bride's

Lindsay, Caitlyn and I are now working on skeletons from St. Bride's Lower Churchyard, which are housed at the Museum of London.  We are working closely with Prof. Jerry Conlogue, an expert in Diagnostic Imaging.  Jerry has worked with St. Bride's Church and the Museum of London for quite some time.  He and Prof. Shar Walbaum (who is also here to do some research in the field of psychology) showed us around St. Bride's Church, and invited us to lunch at The Tipperary, a pub on Fleet Street, near St. Bride's.  (Note one of the ubiquitous CCTV cameras directly beneath the street sign.)

The site of St. Bride's Church has had a building on it since the Roman era.  The plan below shows the history of growth at the site, and where there are walls dating to earlier time periods.

The church itself, from the 17th-19th centuries housed a crypt where more wealthy people were buried.  Many of them were buried in lead coffins, like the one seen below. There was a nearby cemetery of less wealthy people, as well.

A few fun facts about the church:

The Bare Bones Of It

Hello again!

    While the title is misleading (I'm pretty much going to tell you everything that has happened thus far in extensive detail), I quite liked the ring of it and decided to use it for my own personal pleasure. 

First things first: I hope this blog post finds you well, whoever you are that is reading this! Secondly, London is spectacular and if you can ever find time to take a vacation, I highly suggest visiting the UK.

Now that those are out of the way...

As Professor Ullinger previously stated in her most recent post, the three of us worked in Cambridge on Monday and Tuesday at the Department of Biological Anthropology (can you say awesome!).  We helped make dental molds of various teeth in the mandible and maxilla, which was super cool but super scary.  Everything has to be done with a gentle touch because the teeth and bones alone were close to 5,000 years old.  

This is the finished product after making a mold! 

After finishing all of our work on Tuesday, the three of us walked around Cambridge and grabbed dinner. I snapped a lot of photos from that day and will spare you all of them. Below are a few select favorites.

After building an appetite from walking around so much, Professor Ullinger took Caitlyn and I to a very well known place in Cambridge: The Eagle.  It is a glorious place for two reasons: One, James Watson and Francis Crick announced their discovery of the DNA double Helix (see below).  Side note: while her name is not on the plaque, Rosalind Franklin did helped both men in this discovery but is unfortunately note always recognized. Here on ANEW equality is important, so you go girl!

After an incredible two days of working at Cambridge I spotted this piece of street art that I thought was pretty neat.  Everything about the image just makes me feel happy inside so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

On Wednesday we had "Nerd Day", which was insightful and peaceful.  We started our adventure that day at the Hunterian Museum and learned a great deal about how early surgeons got their bodies to work on, the types of exploratory surgeries done to advance their knowledge of animal and human anatomy and some interesting abnormal and pathological diseases. My favorite was the skeleton of the "Irish Giant" whose height was 7'7! His femurs alone were almost taller than myself. No joke.

Later on we ventured over to Highgate Cemetery and had a peaceful walk around.  It was amazing to see all of the different types of headstones and plots.  I even got to see a potential family member, Sir Sidney Nolan, an Australian painter famous for his Ned Kelly images.

We also met a fox friend who posed exceptionally well for this image. I would have thanked him but he hurried off before I could.

Here is a picture for all of you Karl Marx fans. 

On Thursday Professor Ullinger, Caitlyn and myself went to meet Professor Conlogue and Professor Walbaum for lunch at the Tippery on Fleet Street in London.  It was within walking Distance of St. Brides Church, which is where Professor Conlogue has been doing previous x-ray work on bones from the church's crypt and took us there afterwards.  

I learned that the church has had a rough history and that the renovations being done to the building are in an attempt to restore it's natural glory. In 1666, the church was left in ruins due to the Great Fire and then in 1940 was attacked in WWII by Germany.  We were lucky enough to go down into the crypt and see those ruins and also a separate area dedicated to the history of the church, which held pieces of roman coins, stained glass and other objects from the time. 

The five of us then walked to the Museum of London, and became familiar with our newest place of employment.  We haven't been able to see any of the exhibits yet, but when we do I will post on the blog!

This then brings me to Friday, which was the first official work day at the Museum.  Professor Ullinger searched through the Museum's database to look for skeletons from Farmindgon who were noted to have a specific pathology we were interested in.  Caitlyn and I then examined the skull, arms and vertebrae, taking measurements and recording them to better aid our research.

Caitlyn and I used this weekend to do some fun touristy things, which included: The Original Tour Sightseeing Bus around London, the Pride Parade in Trafalgar Square, going shopping in Covent Garden, riding on the River Thames Cruise, taking a Haunted London walking tour and visiting Windsor Castle. As I type this right now, the soles of my feet are still pulsing from all of the walking we have done!

Tower Bridge

Guild Hall

The London Eye

Big Ben

Thames River at night

Countryside on our way to Windsor

 London Tower

Tomorrow marks the last week I will be here in London and I am already feeling sad. But alas, I am having a wonderful time here and am very thankful for the opportunity to help conduct research.

Best,
    Lindsay

Update from London

What a week!   Due to a last-minute snafu, Caitlyn, Lindsay and I ended up working on skeletons at Cambridge for a couple of days last week instead of starting at the Museum of London.  Here they are, sorting skeletal material and making molds of teeth that will be brought back to QU for further analysis.

We had "nerd day" on Wednesday and visited the Hunterian Museum, which houses thousands of pathological anatomical specimens.  Unfortunately, you cannot take photos inside of the museum.

We also visited Highgate Cemetery, one of London's "Magnificent Seven" -- seven grand cemeteries used during the Victorian era.  This cemetery is most well-known for housing the tomb of Karl Marx.

We discussed the use of several Victorian motifs, including Egyptian obelisks (Victorians were quite the Orientalists!) and angels.

The cemetery has also buried people more recently.  A contemporary grave that caught our eyes:

Lindsay also spied one of London's notorious foxes at the end of our visit.