The Archaeology Channel - Video Podcast

This podcast is a preview of our ALI-produced documentary on the pre-historic temples of Malta, which you can see in full along with the rest of the video news at http://www.archaeologychannel.org/VideoNews.html

The Shovel Bum saga moves into its third installment, produced by ALIs Guy Prouty and featuring Trent DeBoers drawings and real voice. T-Bone and Betsy have forsaken Arkansas and moved to Washington. T-Bone now runs survey crews on the US Armys Yakima Training Center. Defying unexploded ordnance, flat tires, rattlesnakes, unfriendly MPs, suspicious Canadian soldiers, closed roads, and tank caravans, the crew finds some remarkable prehistoric sites and lost Army gear while enjoying the rugged landscape and winning bowling trophies. Produced by Guy Prouty and Trent de Boer. Copyright 2007 by Dutch Circus and Archaeological Legacy Institute

Alaska is the setting for the fourth Shovel Bum e-zine extravaganza, featuring Trent DeBoers drawings and real voice. T-Bone and friends have hired out for an archaeological survey at Cold Bay, on the tip the Alaska Peninsula. Their first task is to qualify at rifle-shooting as a precaution against the numerous and huge brown bears. Braving this threat along with wolverines, gales, and floating bogs, T-Bone encounters Japanese fishing floats and huge village sites, sips whisky at the local bar, and finally returns home to Betsy with his new long beard.

Life as a cultural resource management (CRM) field archaeologist might not be what you expect. In this sequel to our first video spinoff of the Shovel Bum zine, T-Bone tells about a freeway project near Texarkana, Arkansas. Irate landowners, scenic delights, large snakes, night-screaming roommates, and backbiting co-workers all help to portray the shovel bum lifestyle. In this episode by the University of New Mexicos Troy Lovata, T-Bone (using Trents real voice) and Betsy finally get fed up with the scene in Arkansas and head west to greener pastures.

Ping Yao in Shanxi, China, was the central bank for much of the Silk Road trade during the Ming and Qing dynasties. One of only two Chinese ancient cities with UNESCO World Heritage status, but with over 40,000 low-income residents within its ancient walls, Ping Yao faces unprecedented pressures and deterioration of its core historic Qing Dynasty district and last remaining temples, towers, palaces, banks, and ancient residences. The Global Heritage Fund is developing a plan for conservation, restoration and responsible tourism in Ping Yao.

This edition of the monthly video news from TAC features a recently unearthed fort in Bahrain on the Persian Gulf, an exploration of the cisterns underneath the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and the accurate casting of human fossils in the evolutionary record for museums and researchers being done at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Featured this month is battlefield archaeology from the battle of Oudenaarde in Belgium, the recovery of a lost language in Peru, and an exhibition of Mayan hieroglyphs by Dr. Mark Van Stone, who will be giving the keynote speech at our annual film festival on May 11th.