The response to my first call for papers was underwhelming.  A few
people sent me very interesting proposals.  Please forward this to
anyone that might be interested.  If you are interested, please
contact me with a short statement about your ideas.  Once we have
enough papers, I will notify everyone to prepare abstracts, etc.
-----------------------
"Scientific Tools and Techniques in Historical
Archaeology"

This is a call for papers for the 2001 Annual
Meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology
in California.  The conference will be January
10-13 at the Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach.  I am
looking for a diverse group of papers where the
authors explore the use (and abuse) of science in
historical archaeology.  I am seeking papers on
geoarchaeology (Geomorph, geochem, soils, etc.),
bioarchaeology (Floral and Faunal, macro and
micro), DNA, chemistry, GIS, remote sensing,
materials analysis, and such.

If your work involves neutrons or electrons,
microscopic views or computerized calculations of
landscape viewsheds, or if you simply secretly
enjoy wearing a white lab coat, work up an
abstract and submit a proposal for this session!

I have only small requests:
1. You should have a case study at the heart of
your paper.
2. Don't simply build theory for other
archaeologists to use.
3. I don't want papers that use science for
science sake.  You should be able to explain WHY
you were smashing atomic particles or extracting
residues for analysis.  "Just because we thought
this would work" or "Isn't this cool" should not
be WHY you did your scientific testing.  I am
seeking papers that grapple with the application
of techy-scientific study with profoundly
humanistic objectives.
4. Be prepared for hard-nosed discussants that
will take you to task for not paying attention to
item number 2 or 3.

The long term goals of the session include
collecting the papers for publication, and one
leading journal has already expressed interest.

Please be in touch with me by May 5th, so that we
can collect all the essential paperwork for
administrative appeasement.

----------------------------------
Timothy Scarlett
University of Nevada, Reno
Department of Anthropology / 096
Reno, NV 89557-0096

355 West 500 North
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
----------------------------------
"Nothing dispels Canadian stereotypes like a beer add that plays at
hockey games."
         -- NPR's Rewind
----------------------------------