Scottish Underwater Archaeologist to Discuss Lives of the Ancient Loch Dwellers

CHESTERTOWN, MD—On Wednesday, October 12, Washington College will welcome underwater archaeologist Nick Dixon, director of the Scottish Crannog Center, for a lecture on “Early Iron Age Loch-dwellers of Scotland: Excavation, Interpretation, and Reconstruction.” The talk will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Litrenta Lecture Hall, Toll Science Center.

The Scottish Crannog Center, a beneficiary of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, is devoted to the research and preservation of historical “crannogs,” artificial islands that served as dwellings for people who lived in the region from about 500 BC until the 17th century AD. The cold, dark, peaty loch waters have helped preserve the organic remains at the sites, including plants, seeds, nuts, animal bones and droppings and insects. In at least one case, excavators discovered a butter dish that still carried remnants of butter. Dixon will discuss the significance of these finds and the insights they provide into the daily lives of ancient peoples.

Dixon has taught at the University of St. Andrews and the University of Edinburgh. He currently is researching Scotland’s Loch Tay and its bounty of well-preserved finds.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is co-sponsored by the Anthropology Club, Lambda Alpha, and the Center for Environment and Society.

"Locavore" Literary Festival Brings Writers, Activists To Town to Dish About What We Eat

CHESTERTOWN, MD—The first ever Chestertown Locavore Lit Fest celebrates local food and cooking Friday and Saturday March 25 and 26 with a satisfying smorgasbord of food journalists and writers talking about agriculture, fishing, recipes and the joys of healthy eating. Special guests will include the New York Times best-selling author Paul Greenberg, NPR contributor Bonnie Wolf and a food activist who challenges the wisdom of the vegetarian lifestyle.

The weekend kicks off Friday at 11:30 a.m. at a special lunch and book signing with Lierre Keith, a former vegan and the author of The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability (2009, PM Press). The event will be held in the Hodson Hall Commons dining room at Washington College, where the staff will prepare a meal based on her philosophy of raising and eating grass-fed beef as an alternative to industrially produced animals. Locally sourced, grass-fed beef and local produce will be on the menu ($6.50 per person for general public). In the evening Keith will lecture about the moral, health and environmental issues that surround our food choices, and then join a moderated discussion about her controversial writings. Her talk will begin at 6 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the Washington College campus (300 Washington Avenue) with the reception scheduled for 7 o’clock and the Q&A to follow at 7:30 p.m.

The Vegetarian Myth has been described as part memoir, part nutritional primer, and part political manifesto. In the book, Keith, who spent 20 years as a vegan, reviews the history of agriculture and the damage it has caused the planet and shares her personal journey back to meat. She argues that well-intentioned vegetarians have been led astray by ignorance. A resident of Humbolt County, California, Keith is co-author with Aric McBay and Derrick Jensen of the upcoming Deep Green Resistance: Strategy to Save the Planet, scheduled for May release from Seven Stories Press.

On Saturday, local bookstores host more food-focused writers in a morning packed with culinary talk. It begins at 10 a.m. at the Bookplate (112 S. Cross Street) with a panel of three local food writers: Author Nancy Robson and bloggers Aundra Weissert and Tara Holste. Robson has written freelance articles for 35 years and authored two books: a memoir of her six years on a coastal tug titled Woman in the Wheelhouse, and the award-winning novel Course of the Waterman. A Master Gardener, she writes and edits sections on gardening and food for the Chestertown Spy.

A healthy living enthusiast, Aundra Weissert explores fitness, local food, sustainable living, and wellness in her Fit for Life blog. A 2008 graduate of Washington College, she serves her alma mater as Assistant Director of Admissions and teaches several Zumba fitness classes in town each week. Tara Holste is a passionate environmentalist and an avid supporter of foods grown on the Eastern Shore. Her "Fish in the Water" blog catalogs her quest to find a better way of living through growing, preserving, and loving food.

From 10:45 to 11:30 a.m., at the Bookplate, Lucie Snodgrass, author of Dishing Up Maryland: 150 Recipes From the Alleghenies to the Chesapeake Bay (2010, Storey Publishing), will share what she learned by visiting 50 to 60 farms, vineyards and oyster ranches to present a portrait of the state’s bounty and kitchen expertise.A native of England who has lived throughout Europe, Snodgrass recently worked in the offices of Senator Barbara Mikulski and now lives and works on a 135-acre farm in northeastern Maryland.

The Festival moves down the block to The Compleat Bookseller (High and Cross streets) where NPR Food Commentator Bonny Wolf, author of Talking with My Mouth Full (2006, St. Martin’s Press), will speak from 11:45 to 12:30 a.m. Wolf contributes a monthly food essay to NPR’s award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday and is editor of “Kitchen Window, ” NPR’s weekly Web-only food column. Wolf has worked several decades as a reporter, editor and food critic at newspapers and magazines in New Jersey, Texas and Washington, DC. In the 1990s she wrote and published The Food Pages, a critically acclaimed food newsletter for the District of Columbia.

Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in the Parish Hall of Emmanuel Church (301 High Street), Paul Greenberg, author of the best-selling Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food (2010, The Penguin Press), will talk about how our love of seafood has influenced the history of four species of fish. Greenberg is a lifelong fisherman and an award winning writer whose book explores the history of the fish that dominate our menus—salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna—and examines where each now stands as a species. By examining the forces that get fish to our dinner tables, he shows how we can start to heal the oceans and advocate for a world where healthy and sustainable seafood is the rule rather than the exception. Greenberg’s Four Fish was a New York Times notable book for 2010.

The Locavore Lit Fest weekend is sponsored by the Center for Environment & Society at Washington College, the Washington College Anthropology Club, Chestertown Natural Foods, and Local Eastern Shore Sustainable Organic Network (LESSON). With the exception of the fee for lunch on Friday, all events are free and open to the public. For more information, please contact 410-810-7162 or tholste2@washcoll.edu for more information or visit http://ces.washcoll.edu.

Friday, March 25

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Signing and lunch with Lierre Keith, Hodson Dining Hall

6:00-7:00 p.m. Lecture, Lierre Keith, author The Vegetarian Myth, Hynson Lounge

7:00-7:30 p.m. Light reception with appetizers and drinks

7:30-8:30 p.m. Discussion and Q&A with Lierre Keith

Saturday, March 26

10:00-10:45 a.m. Get Inspired: Local Authors on Local Foods, Bookplate
10:45-11:30 a.m. Lucie Snodgrass, author Dishing Up Maryland, at the Bookplate.

11:45-12:30 p.m. Bonny Wolf, author Talking with My Mouth Full, Compleat Bookseller.

12:30-2:00 p.m. Lunch break- please visit one of the many restaurants in Chestertown!

2:00-3:00 p.m. Paul Greenberg, author Four Fish, Emmanuel Parish Hall

The Ancient Art Of Hunting: Anthropology Club Hosts Second Annual Atl Atl Throw, April 18

Chestertown, MD, April 9, 2004 — Long before the Atkins Diet was the craze, ancient humans stalked “big game” to keep family and village supplied with their daily requirement of protein. With the invention more than 40,000 years ago of a small but ingenious device—the Atlatl—our ancestors vastly improved their chances of survival in their life-or-death, hunt-or-die existence. Washington College's Anthropology Club, in celebration of Archaeology Month, will exhibit this early advance in hunting technology with a free public demonstration of Atlatl spear throwing, Sunday, April 18, 1-3 p.m. on the Campus Lawn. Tours of the College's Archaeology Laboratory will be held 4-6 p.m. the same day at the Custom House on High and Water Streets in Chestertown.

The Atlatl (from the Aztec word for “spear thrower”) is a device that imparted incredible mechanical and technical advantage to prehistoric humans. Increasing spear velocity 15 times and striking power 200 times, Atlatls were used worldwide prior to the advent of the bow and arrow. The oldest known Atlatl artifact is more than 19,000 years old, although it is believed that the Atlatl was in common use more than 40,000 years ago. An example of how human technology directly affects the natural environment, the Atlatl provided a tremendous hunting advantage and, conversely, might have contributed to the extinction of many large mammals throughout the world. The power that the Atlatl imparted to the spear was so great that the Aztecs readopted the technology for its armor-piercing ability against Spanish Conquistadors in the Sixteenth Century. The Atlatl is now attracting thousands of enthusiasts around the world for sport and competition throwing.

As part of the demonstration, participants will have a hands-on chance to test their ability and accuracy of throwing using the Atlatl by spearing a seven-foot tall straw target, “Murray, the Mastodon,” constructed by the Washington College Anthropology Club. Instruction will be provided and safety precautions maintained. For more information, contact Liz Seidel, staff archaeologist, at 410-810-7164.

Where The Past Meets The Present In Maryland's Suburban Landscape, Talk October 7

Chestertown, MD, September 29, 2003 — Washington College's Anthropology Club and campus chapter of the Lambda Alpha Anthropology Honor Society present “The Suburban Landscape: Where Past Meets Present,” a talk by Julie Ernstein, lecturer in anthropology, Tuesday, October 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.
A specialist in landscape archaeology, Ernstein will address the question “What's so interesting about the mid-century suburban landscape of Maryland?” In an illustrated update on her ongoing research into the Levitt-built suburbs of Maryland, Ernstein will connect the dots between the eighteenth-century, Colonial Revival, Populuxe, and late twentieth-century components associated with Belair Mansion in Bowie, MD. Come and learn why the suburban landscape is a whole lot more interesting than you think and what the integration of historical archaeology, oral history, and documentary research reveals about the suburban landscape as the deliberately fuzzy—but no less real—border between past and present.

Atlatl: Anthropology Club To Demonstrate The Ancient Art Of Spear Throwing April 12

Chestertown, MD, April 3, 2003 — Long before fast food and microwave dinners, ensuring daily meals was a labor-intensive activity that required stalking the big game that kept you, your family, village and tribe alive. Washington College's Anthropology Club will demonstrate one of the earliest advances in hunting technology, the Atlatl, in a free public demonstration Saturday, April 12, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on the College's Athletic Field. All are invited to attend.

The Atlatl (from the Aztec word for “spear thrower”) is device that imparted incredible mechanical and technical advantage to our prehistoric ancestors. Increasing the spear velocity by 15 times and striking power by 200 times, Atlatls were used worldwide prior to the advent of the bow and arrow. The oldest known Atlatl artifact is more than 19,000 years old, although it is believed that the Atlatl was in common use more than 40,000 years ago. An example of how human technology directly affects the natural environment, the Atlatl provided a tremendous hunting advantage and, conversely, might have contributed to the extinction of many large mammals throughout the world. The power that the Atlatl imparts to the spear is so great that the Aztecs readopted the technology for its armor-piercing ability against the Spanish Conquistadors in the Sixteenth Century. As part of the demonstration, the Washington College Anthropology Club has constructed a seven-foot tall Mastodon to use as a target for the spear throwing demonstrations. As part of this Saturday program, the Anthropology Club also will teach the ancient art of flint knapping, breaking and shaping stones into arrow and spearheads. For more information, contact Lisa Holly, president of the Anthropology Club, at 410-810-8310.

When Bones Talk: Bioarchaeology And The African Diaspora

Chestertown, MD, October 8, 2002 — The Washington College Department of Sociology and Anthropology, the Anthropology Club, the Black Student Alliance, the C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, and the Gamma Chapter of Maryland of Lambda Alpha present BIOARCHAEOLOGY AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA, a lecture by Michael L. Blakey, National Endowment for the Humanities Professor of Anthropology at the College of William and Mary. This free talk will be held Thursday, October 17, 2002, at 7:30 p.m. in the Casey Academic Center Forum. The public is invited to attend.
With a crossdisciplinary background in human anatomy and anthropology, Dr. Blakey will discuss how archaeology works with such disciplines to discover how humans lived in the past and were affected by their living conditions. An Adjunct Professor in Anatomy at Howard University College of Medicine where he had for many years been Curator of the W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection, Dr. Blakey currently directs the New York African Burial Ground Project involving interdisciplinary study of 400 skeletons of Africans enslaved in 18th century New York City. In addition to his field work, he has taught at Spelman College, the University of Rome, Columbia University, and Brown University, and has served as a Research Associate in Physical Anthropology in the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. He is a past President of the Association of Black Anthropologists, a member of the Executive Council of the Society for Medical Anthropology, United States Representative to the Council of the Fourth World Archaeological Congress in Cape Town, and Permanent Representative to Washington for the African Bureau of Education Sciences in Kinshasa and Geneva. Dr. Blakey earned his B.A. at Howard University and the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.