May 2010 Archives

Lecturer Kirk French and Christopher Duffy (Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering) are receiving publicity for their article "Prehispanic Water Pressure: A New World First" which appeared in the May issue of Journal of Archaeological Science.

As reported in the article, French and Duffy discovered the earliest known water pressure system. The  Classic Maya (AD 250-600) constructed a system with the potential to control the flow of water within an urban area.

Their article generated the publication of a piece titled "Under Pressure" in the Random Samples section of the May 14 issue of Science magazine. See attached article.

Under Pressure - Science.pdf

The Los Angeles Times captured the article in their May 7 issue. Click on this link to view the article "Fountain-type system in Maya city may be first in New World".   http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/07/science/la-sci-maya-water-20100508

Additionally, they were featured in a Public Radio International's (PRI) The World-Science podcast. Click this link to hear the podcast.
http://www.world-science.org/podcast/lizard-extinction-climate-change-warming-oil-spill-bp-gulf-mexico-ocean-neanderthals/

Duke University's Cultural Anthropology Department recently invited Jen Wagner to give a Brown Bag Lunch Lecture. The title of her talk was "From Genomophiles to Genomophobes: Identities in a Personal Genomics Age."

Mark Shriver was featured on a news segment of WPVI TV in Philadelphia on May 19. The segment featured Dr. Shriver's work on identifying the Fairmount Park serial rapist by using DNA from the crime scene to shape the suspect's facial features. The newscast can be viewed at: http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7451082&rss=rss-wpvi-article-7451082

Margaret Brown Vega was recently interviewed for an article in the current issue of Archaeology Magazine entitled Fall of a Sacred Fortress: The origins of ritual warfare in ancient Peru, Volume 63 Number 3, May/June 2010, by Zach Zorich.

The article mentions some of her research at the fortification of Acaray, in the Huaura Valley, Peru.

Margaret Brown Vega recently had a chapter published in a bilingual, edited volume entitled Comparative Perspectives on the Archaeology of Coastal South America / Perspectivas Comparativas sobre la Arqueología de la Costa Sudamericana, edited by Robyn E. Cutright, Enrique López-Hurtado, and Alexander J. Martín, published by University of Pittsburgh Center for Comparative Archaeology, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima), and Ministerio de Cultura del Ecuador (Quito), 2010.

Description of the book:
"Thirteen papers by archaeologists from North and South America on the archaeology of coastal Ecuador, Peru, and Chile. The authors have all emphasized comparative approaches to prehispanic societies along the Pacific coast. They give preference neither to high theory nor to case-specific empirical details, but rather attempt to answer theoretically important research questions with appropriate methodologies and empirical datasets--ones that are amenable to a broad comparative view."

The chapter is entitled: Regional Patterns of Fortification and Single Forts: Evaluating the Articulation of Regional Sociopolitical Dynamics with Localized Phenomena.

Daniel Parker recently received the Juan Comas Award for his poster "Modeling Dengue Fever Outbreaks" at the AAPA meeting in Albuquerque.

Ellen Quillen recently received both the American Association of Anthropological Geneticists Outstanding Student Presentation Award and the Ales Hrdlicka prize from the AAPA for an outstanding presentation by a student.

Kirk French and Chris Duffy's work in Palenque, Mexico is featured in a story on Penn State Live: Maya Plumbing, first presurized water feature found in New World