I recently had the pleasure of serving as co-host for the ArchaeoTech Podcast with Chris Webster while Paul Zimmerman was out of the country for several weeks. In total, I co-hosted three episodes between and August 4. Summaries and links to the episodes are provided below. While the topics generally focus on GIS and 3D applications in archaeology, we also…
Author: AnthroYeti
Satellite Imagery, Disaster Anthropology, & Hurricane Irma
I am teaching Disaster Anthropology during the spring semester of 2022 (January – May). This is the third time teaching the course at UCF, which examines the important part ethnographers and archaeologists play in disaster management, planning, and response. I first offered the course in 2012 at Monmouth University as a response to Hurricane Sandy. In preparation for this semester,…
Creating Textured 3D Terrains (QGIS & Blender)
You’ve probably seen those cool interactive 3D models of landscapes around the web. Lots of folks are using them to illustrate various places. Perhaps you’ve even wondered, “how can I do this? It would be a great way to display my favorite site!” You know, something like the following 3D terrain of the Pinson Mounds site I use to teach…
Building the Virtual Rosewood Cemetery
This post describes the process of building the Virtual Rosewood Cemetery available at Sketchfab (see below). The online, interactive reconstruction of Rosewood’s Black burial ground is based on several digital technologies increasingly used by archaeologists. These include LiDAR, photogrammetry, ground penetrating radar (GPR), and 3D modeling. While this post isn’t a tutorial per se, it might help folks with these…
Chinese Entrepreneurs in 19/20th Century Key West
This is a short post regarding some exploratory analysis for an upcoming book project. It represents a return to some of my earliest interests in historical archaeology. Specifically, the archaeology of the Chinese diaspora. Whereas my earlier work explored the archaeology of this community around the Pacific Rim, my future research seeks to examine a less known aspect of the…
Introducing Open Source Digital Heritage Tutorials
My first foray into YouTube-based tutorials examines QGIS for archaeology. You can view those here. More recently, I’ve begun a second YouTube playlist regarding other open source tools for digital heritage. As with my QGIS for Arch tutorials, these tutorials include sample data and in-depth instructions. While geared for beginners, even experienced users will likely get something out of them…
QGIS 4 Archaeology Online Course
QGIS – the world’s leading open source geographic information systems (GIS) software – has a lot to offer archaeologists and other cultural heritage workers (e.g., historians, architectural historians). QGIS is freely available online and runs on most operating systems. The following educational materials resulted from the disruption of my field school in summer 2020 due to COVID. Initially disappointed, I…
Cedar Key’s African American Burial Ground
The following is based on preliminary research regarding the presence of African American burials in Cedar Key, Florida. This research is motivated by my previous research on Rosewood, and my recent election as President of the Cedar Key Historical Society. The society manages the Cedar Key Historical Museum, and I’m excited to work with a great group of folks on…
Parramore: Segregation in The City Beautiful
This month’s mini documentary discusses the history of Parramore, Florida. This community is home to one of Orlando’s oldest African American neighborhoods. The video divides this history into three sections. The first focuses on the 18th century and early efforts to segregate Orlando. The second section explores the growth of Parramore and continued efforts to restrict it during the 20th…
Mapping African American Travel During Jim Crow
The remarkable Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has digitized versions of their Green Book collection. These books are part of the public consciousness following the 2018 Green Book movie and will be a part of the forthcoming HBO series Lovecraft Country, based on Matt Ruff’s book of the same title. Published between 1936 and 1966, these books provided…