Poisons in the Palaeolithic?

I've taken this post down for the time being whilst some of the content is under review for publication. Sorry! 

UPDATE

This piece was published in PNAS and can be viewed for free there:

Link to Evans: Arrow Poisons in the Palaeolithic? PNAS

It was quite nice to get it published. Since it was a critique of some questionable work the authors of that original work had the opportunity to reply. This reply can be found here. The conversation really stops there since I have decided not to reply - their reply speaks for itself in many ways.

I can't help but put in the most basic terms how I would respond to their reply if I could see that it doesn't really need it - I think academics reading the reply can see it for what it is but that doesn't stop me continuing to write about it here. In essence they don't accept the criticism and maintain their interpretation. The deflect by questioning my arbitrary line of ethnographic evidence saying that the tribe I cited was from a different region. This doesn't matter since the point was that castor oil can and has been used in different ways that are not poison. The also challenge medicinal use of castor oil which, given that there is strong evidence for this, and it is sold in pharmacies today, is puzzling. They then bang on about my comment on heating and change how there were discussing this originally and note that it could be post-depositional - I agree but this was kind of what I was getting at before since they used the possible evidence for heating as something special.

At this point the only line of "solid" evidence they have for it being a poison applicator is that it looks like one. Literally, this is it.

I'm glad that's sorted out. I'm off on my search for the oldest cricket ball. Plenty of round rocks out there so I should be publishing in PNAS about that any day now.

First kicks

So tonight Lou asked for my hand and places it on her belly. One kick, two kicks. Big smile on my face, I leaned over and said 'hello' - ANOTHER KICK!

I'm aware that I don't want to be 'that guy' who keeps going on about his upcoming baby and posting stuff continually about it - but it's hard to not do that! You quickly recognise that those people who do that are just super pleased and happy and can't help it. And it isn't that they don't have anything else going on in their lives that's interesting - it's just that it really does feel like a top trump.

It isn't that special I know. But this is really special to me. I don't want to keep bleating on about it. There's a little man kicking around in my wife's belly and although that's totally normal (as in the 7 billion people on the planet were all once in that same situation), it's impossible to just brush off as passe.

Now I have to start reading to a belly.

Update

I've spent a great deal of time in Italy recently, and I've got to say - I've had a great time! For a while I was pretty indifferent to staying out there and often outright miserable. I got used to a style of living that worked well once my wife figured out how to get skype working well so we could chat frequently. It also helped that on my last trip to Italy, which lasted over a month I decided to take my bicycle. I have been cycling a lot.

This is me in Tuscany with my bike

Having the bike was a huge amount of fun until this happened:

The worst part was that the bike shop took three weeks to fix it. So for most of my last stay in Italy I didn't actually have it. A good excuse to go back I think. Unfortunately that project is now pretty much finished. Upwards and onwards. I found out a couple of weeks ago that I have been granted some funding from the AHRC for an early career fellowship; looking forward to getting that up and running.

Pisa: This town sucks

'Why all the hate?' I hear you say.

OK. Well in Rome I found this:

It's a weird statue of Batman and Superman. My only interpretation is based on what one can draw from the similarities to The Creation of Adam; in that it suggests that Superman is the creator of Batman. It is possible, while drunk no doubt, to get into a deep discussion of the parallels that can be made here. This modern piece of art is in no way the best thing in Rome; yet there is more cool in it, than in the entirety of Pisa.

I thought I'd give Pisa a chance today, since I've been here five times and have only really seen the inside of the dipartimento di scienze archaeologiche and, naturally, the tower.

The leaning tower

Yes. Pisa is famous for the result of a bad piece of geological survey and poor architectural design. Oh and Superman III which, lets be honest, is the main reason people know of the place.

To be fair, the tower is decent; though it is much more fun to watch tourists posing (nothing wrong with that mind you).

(I stole this pic btw Credit Martin Parr)

The cathedral next to it isn't bad either. In fact lets face it, for all its crappery, the one good thing that religion has given us is some nice looking things. I mentioned Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine chapel earlier, and the duomo in florence is another spectacular example of this:

but I digress.

Pisa is a dump.

From the train station to the tower requires walking down one long street. It's full of the typical high street shops you'll find anywhere and a few coffee places. You could be anywhere. Today I went in search for the nice things in Pisa off this beaten track, and I used a map with places of excitement marked.

The one cool looking thing that I saw was the water wheel and terminus of the aquaduct. I thought there'd be some cool fountain or whatever:

...not exactly the Trevi fountain is it. And that about sums it up. Other places are less spectacular.

It's not all bad though. This trattoria serves the FASTEST food I have EVER received. And I eat at McDonnalds! It was pretty damn good too. Seriously, they have a time machine or something. Somebody should check that out.

One week to go

My last post was a little downbeat. As I said before, recently these trips to Italy have been less than stellar. However, things are going really well.

There is a whole load of stuff to do in Rome. Number one of which is things to see. Coupled with the size of the place and the less than well designed subway system, it's impossible to run out of stuff to see. Every corner of this city has something new and interesting.

I've met people. Two things have contributed to this. The first is Reddit; These guys hail from the Internet. The second is the yellow bar. It's over the road from where I'm working and full of travelling Europeans, Americans, and Australians. Just show up and it isn't long before I'm having a laugh. So I'm not on my own.

Oh yeah and the stuff I'm working on is good. Without being too technical, sometimes these old tools aren't so well preserved once you start really looking at them. The stuff here in Rome, from Grotta di Pozzo, is in very good condition.

A return to the blogsphere

10% of my posts on blogs have been about how I'm starting back up again after abandoning them or forgetting to post for ages. Here I go again! Will I get back into the swing of it? I don't know. But I'm up for giving it a shot.

Fun fact: I abhor starting sentences with a B. I did it above and while I would usually reword things I'm going to stick it out. I challenge you to find a sentence starting with a B in any of my publications. There are none.

Reason for starting up again

Five things: 1) the social web is getting big, it expects contribution and insight into the lives of people; 2) I enjoy thinking about something that might be interesting to write about; 3) My family and friends are dispersed around the globe, as am I from time to time, and it is a great way of updating them on stuff; 4) I have a ton of other stuff to do and this helps me avoid it; and 5) I'm in Italy on my own for the next 20 days

This last one has quite an impact. This is the third year of my first post-doc, throughout which I have found myself in unusual fieldwork situations. The ones I have been used to, involve working with people and fun. The experience from this post-doc has been somewhat different.

On my own a lot

I do not find myself surrounded by an array of interesting characters as usual. Instead, I find myself sitting in a hotel room with myself and the internet for company. In past fieldwork situations I have been guilty of forgetting Louise wanted me to call to say hi, or even that there was anything to miss at home at all. Previously, I've been out in the Sri Lankan jungle with seriously suspect food and no sign of alcohol for weeks, but camaraderie somehow turned that into the best experience of my life.

On this project I most often find myself surrounded by the stagnancy of solitude; enhanced by a serious lack of local language fluency and my introverted nature. The last couple of years I've found myself lost in translation - and with no Scarlett Johansson; the world can seem a dark, dark place, when you feel/are totally alone.

It's the nature of this specific job. I don't want you to think I'm complaining too hard. This is a very, very good job. It's just this small aspect of it. I'm a one man band most of the time. Some people who don't know me that well might think that that is how I like it. It is not.

The good news is that this time I have WIFI in my room, it isn't a dump, and there's a McDonald's less than five minutes away. McDonald's you say!?! Yes, I am in Italy, the supposed home of good food - why in gods name am I even considering eating at McDonald's? I think the familiarity will keep me feeling close to home and it is one of the few places where I can guarantee there will be some people speaking a language I can keep up with.

I have Skype, Facebook, Google+ (was that an echo), and Twitter to keep me entertained. Louise has managed to get Skype on her phone and this means the previously prohibitive costs of long distance communication are gone.

So, at the start of this trip I feel fairly positive that I will remain healthy throughout. Let's see how it turns out.

Out of Africa

So much for me keeping this thing up-to-date. It was too hard to do.

Recap of the last 4 weeks

• Worked

Yep those ancient lithics are cool to look at under the microscope

• Got ill for an entire week

Some sort of flu

• Did some partying

Where to start - We started fireworks only for a local to come and bust that shit up 'three dogs have died already from running onto the train tracks' - WTF We were too polite to argue but people actually walk to work down those train tracks - there are almost no trains. She called the police - they kept driving by the house. The next weekend we all got sloshed and ran about on the beech firing the remainder of the huge box of fireworks at each other and over the ocean. One of the skipped the waves. I tore a huge ass hole in my jeans and spent the rest of the night exclaiming that it was caused by the tripod effect or 'the dragons wanted to come out' or some shit like that. Epic.

• Almost eaten by lioness

This was sweet, so there we are driving through a reserve and I thought it would be cool to get a shot by one of the signs. Everyone agreed. Here we are:

I particularly like this one

Meanwhile, in the bushes at the other side of the road

The whole trip was awesome and all the guys were cool. Top notch.