As my last post probably showed you, I am one of the folks who consider gender issues and think about gender.

If you are getting involved into textile stuff, it's probably unavoidable. There's so much gender preconception still attached to handling fibre, cloth, and textile tools that most of those who do it are... female. And that stretches out into modern jobs regarding textile, both new and old. Most textile conservators? Women. Most ancient textile researchers? Women. Most modern textile crafters? Women.

We still live in a gender-biased world. I am one of the lucky ones who had a course of study where women were neither the majority nor the minority. Even better, on the digs where I were, it was accepted that while the women on the dig might not fill the wheelbarrow completely full, they and their work was just as good and just the same as the menfolk's. You just walk a few more times with the wheelbarrow, and that's it. (And a lot of the menfolk did not want their wheelbarrow filled to the brim. Those things are really hard to push when you fill them up as much as can be!)

I have, however, had my fair share of gender-bias in other circumstances. In bicycle stores, for instance, when the guy doubted what I was saying, or did not want to listen. When selling my old car. The usual, you know?

Now, gender differences are there, and I am not going to deny that. However, they are more fluid than often assumed, and they can change with our culture. (Here's a recent article about that.) The little differences between people - whether they come from their DNA, their upbringing, their culture, personal preferences, talents, or gender - make life the colourful and interesting thing it is. However, when one of those things means that your work will be neglected or belittled, it quickly becomes bad. When it means that you are having it that little bit harder in your life because of something you had no influence over, that is bad. When it means that it may not even be possible to change something by complaining about something bad that happened to you, that is really bad.

And sometimes, sexism hides. Benevolent sexism is what this article calls it - I'd have called it a backhanded compliment, but the effect is the same: It makes you feel good while secretly lowering your self-esteem. Bad. Really bad.

So... I guess if I had a wish in regard to that topic, I'd wish for this: Next time, if you are taken back about the gender, race, ethnicity or whatnot of someone because you did not expect that - don't blurt it out. Think about it. About your preconceptions, your expectations. And then say something that is a real compliment, not a backhanded one. Because it helps nobody to dampen someone's potential by an -ism, any -ism.

Thanks.

Germany has done it again - elections are over, and "the black party" (CDU/CSU) are firmly in the saddle. Not the party I'd have wanted most at the steering wheel - but at least the FDP (sort of the blacks in disguise, and with more capitalism on their flag) and AfD (that weird new party who thinks stuff would get better, and cheaper again, with YET ANOTHER CHANGE OF CURRENCY - hello? You know how the state made money in the Middle Ages? Right. With changes of old currency against new. Because things never get cheaper when you get new money) are out of the equation. Whew.

So now we will sit and wait to see who is going to be in coalition with the black party... green? red? or the other red? (And why do we have two red parties - the SPD and the Leftists?)

Sorry for  going all politicky - I'm not such a politics person usually, but very occasionally I do feel the need for some of it. Tomorrow: back to the important stuff again. Well. The other important stuff. Because even if I don't talk about it much... I think that democracy and being able to elect your country's leaders is something very, very important. The system has its flaws, but we could be worse off - and I'll try to do my little part in keeping it a democracy.

(Very belated blog post due to posting issues - I was convinced that it had worked, but obviously it did not...)

Someone is leaning a ladder to our house, right in front of the front door. Probably to check the roof - and I confess it's a little distracting. (I'm sitting very close to the front door when I'm at my workplace, both the normal one and the summer-workplace in the winter garden.)

Speaking of distraction - there is an archaeological podcast in the internet (in German). It's called "angegraben" and looks quite nice. I have not managed to sit down and listen to it yet... but it's on my list of things to do.

Another thing in German: In Erlangen, the classical archaeologists have a slight problem. With buildings... their own building, to be precise, as it's coming down on top of their heads. For those of you not reading German: the article has pics.

While I'm helping spread the bad news, here's an article about the sellout of the Stralsund archives, in English (with links, many of them to German texts). And that's it for today - more positive stuff tomorrow!

There has been a project recently dressing up ancient statues in modern garments. A photographer and a photo retoucher took some liberties with statues of classical guys and gals, dressing them up (including sunglasses, you're never too old to be cool) and documenting their total kickass modern hipsterness.

It's too cool for words. Go have a look at Léo Caillard's site (that's the photographer), where you can see all the hipstery goodness yourself.

Edit: As Panth rightly comments, the statues were not physically dressed up - it was a photo and photo retouching/shopping action (my wording was a bit ambiguous).

First of all, the good news: The 14C-Dating of the Ribe mitten is fully financed, and the initiator is, accordingly, quite happy. Thanks to all of you who helped funding! If you have not helped funding yet and are sort of sad that the others did it without you: You can still pitch in, any extra money will be used for additional analysis of the piece. Ideas on further research are including the stitch type used, wool analysis, and yarn analysis. For the previously blogged English instructions on how to fund on the Danish site, click here.

The petition against the full cut of heritage conservation funding in one of Germany's federal states has led to some political discussion... but with no clear statements yet. You can read a short piece about that on Archaeologik (in German). The petition still lacks about 1.400 signatures to reach its goal, so if you have not signed yet, please do so and spread the word, there are still 30 days left to go. The text on the petition site itself is in German. If you need to get up to date on what it's about first, you can read my blogpost about it or go to the DGUF who initiated it; they have an English translation on their webpage.

And a last one - I have posted a link to the petition against food patenting before, but it seems as if there's more in the works: an EU law to make almost all traffic of non-industrially produced seeds illegal. When I first read about that, I thought it was a belated April Fool joke, but no, it looks like they really mean it. I found a link to the draft proposal here, and I'll keep my eyes open for protests against this. If you know more, please share in the comments!

Crowdfunding has become a thing, and I am quite fond of the idea. It's innovative, it's nice, and it opens up a lot of opportunities for projects that would otherwise have no chance.

So it was only a question of time until some archaeological projects come up... and currently, there is one running to fund the 14C-dating process of a nalebinding mitten found in Scandinavia.

The story behind? Apparently, there's not much known about this mitten. The initiator of the crowdfunding got into contact with the museum, trying to find some more information, and the museum indicated they'd like to do a radiocarbon dating if they could get the funds.

Just in case you wish to refresh your knowledge about radiocarbon dating: Here's an explanation including details about preparation and calibration, courtesy of Oxford. And another info page, with a little poetical citing of scientists at the start. The thing I find most curious, by the way, is the convention of dating "before present" - which means 1950. This is somehow so fitting for archaeology!

Anyway, back to our Ribe mitten: Maria Lind Heel has initiated a crowdfunding project to collect funds for the dating. Radiocarbon dating is not the cheapest of things to do, so the project's goal are 6000 DKK, which translates into roughly 800 €. The page is on a Danish crowdfunding site which means it's all in Danish - but fear not, you can still chip in, since Anne Marie Decker already made English instructions:







The project will run for about another month, and is already a bit more than halfway, funding-wise. Yay for crowdfunding!

We live in a world that has some really weird approaches to some things - such as thinking it would be possible to patent seeds. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Monsanto and its ilk are going for - which, if successful, would be restricting rights for farmers in ways that can only be deemed "not good".

The food, and with it the seed industry, have become something rather weird anyways. Food is shipped around half the world because it's cheaper to ship, process, package, and ship again than to just get it to a neighbouring facility and process it right in the country where it was grown. Or it gets weirdly imported: A good while ago, we tried to buy potatoes and onions in our local supermarket... only to find they offered onions from Egypt and potatoes from Egypt and somewhere else ridiculously far away. I'm living in Franconia, and typical crops here? Potatoes and onions. Really. So typical that folks living in Bamberg still have the nickname "Zwiefeltreter" (those that step onto onions - treading down the onion green a while before harvest was done to further improve crop quality). Why on earth would one want to import owls to Athens, or onions to Franconia? Oh, right - profit. How could I forget. (Fun fact aside: You know where we got those locally grown onions and potatoes? In the Turkish grocery shop. Take that, xenophobes!)

It's even similar for seeds for home gardening. I can totally get that not everyone is willing to grow and harvest their own seed material, and buying it is a viable alternative. But the stuff you can buy? These days, it's mostly F1-hybrids: plants that will not breed true, so even if you take seeds from them, you can end up with about anything. Which might be nice if you are experimentally inclined and like surprises, but not if you are going for a reliable crop of something with a taste you liked from the original produce.

Another weird story connected with the rights to using and distributing a certain variety of plant is the story around Linda. Linda caused an uproar back in the 2000s, because the protection on this variation ran out and the potato was to be taken out of agriculture. Taken out as in "it is not allowed to grow this potato anymore" - and Linda was one of the, if not the, most popular variety at that time. You can read the story here (there's links to two updates at the bottom of the article) or, in another version, here.

Long story short - this should not happen. It's weird, it's absurd, and it is cutting down on variety and possibilities to adapt crops to a region, as well as putting a burden, financially, on farmers. So please go and sign this petition for the European governments to close the loopholes that will still allow the big companies to patent crops and thus restrict access to them.