Greetings.

This is the website for archaeological talks by Harrison (Nick) Eiteljorg, II. I, Nick (I don't really answer to Harrison), have given talks to students at the University of Pennsylvania Museum (and to adults via the Museum) for some time, but in this pandemic time it seemed worthwhile to make the single long-ish talk into multiple short ones (all 15 mminutes or less in length) and to make them available as videos for teachers to download. So that is what part of this site is about.

I begin with some bona fides so you will know who I am academically. To learn about my academic credentials, please look here. I must add to that, however. A looooong time ago I taught younger kids -- fifth grade through ninth grades -- for some years; so my experience is quite broad. As I said above, I have also spoken to older folk (some even older than I) about archaeology; so I think I have a decent notion of what works for what ages, though what works in person is different from what works in any other way, as via a video presentation.

Comments from users about these videos (or anything else that is relevant) should be sent to me at this email address so that I can incorporate users' views here: nickateiteljorg.us. (I know that's the word "at" instead of the expected @ sign; I used it to prevent automated harvesting of my email addrress by programs designed to capture email addresses by looking for the @ sign. The @ sign does actually belong there in place of both characters of the word, "at.")

It is important to understand that I am what is known as a "Classical Archaeologist," meaning that my training involves the civilizations of the area roughly equivalent to the Mediterranean Basin and its adjacent land areas. I have spent most of my time studying the Athenian Acropolis, though I have also worked in Pompeii, in the Etruscan town now known as Orvieto, in a town in southern Italy called Gravina, and in two sites in Turkey. (But I have neither knowledge nor experience in the Western Hemisphere.) I should also say that I spent most of my time from the later 1980s until my retirement in 2014 working on the use of computer technologies in archaeology. To be honest, much of what I worked on in those years is now out-of-date.

Main Line School Night

The videos and some explanation thereof:

An Introduction to Archaeology

The four videos here are intended to provide an introduction to the basic notions of archaeology.

I should note here that I have found the volume of the talks to be a bit low; so you may need to "turn up" your prsentation system. I also think it would be a good idea to look at and listen to the talks before showing them to students. I should also note here that the first talk (the introduction) was updated in September of 2021. The changes were not huge, but I hope it is better.

There are 4 archaeology "lectures" included here (none of which is even close to perfect, though I think the errors are quite small and inconsequential), and, taken together, they are roughly what I used to say in the single, much longer talk to students at the University Museum in Philadelphia beginning in 2015. (That longer talk has also been given to adults.) The first of the four short videos is quite general and has no archaeological excavation work included. It is just 11 minutes long (though the new version may be slightly longer), and the point is to try to explain a bit of how archaeologists think about what they aim for and what they find; it includes some discussion of the idea of finding things in situ or in context. The second talk is about a fictitious murder and burial of me (and children may need to have it emphasized, after watching the video, that the story is fictitious) as an example of an odd find (my body) discovered by accident and needing an explanation/understanding. It is just under 15 minutes long. The third talk is about an excavation in the cemetery (necropolis) in the Etruscan town of Orvieto in northern Italy. This is about an excavation I participated in back in 1967. (It was my first excavation, and, yes, I am that old.) The talk lasts just 15 minutes. The last talk of the group is about an excavation on the Athenian Acropolis — an examination of the information about the entrance to the Acropolis at the time of the Persian invasion in 480 B.C.E. The work arose from my own concerns about what we thought about the building in question (the so-called older propylon on the Athenian Acropolis). The talk lasts just under 11 minutes.

Please note that the last three talks are intended to deal with 3 different kinds of projects: an accidental find that needs explanation, a fairly typical (once upon a time if not today) excavation of a cemetery where one can expect to find many related objects that, because of their proximity to one another both physically and in time, help with the understanding of all, and an excavation that is undertaken to answer a scholar's specific question about antiquity (the entrance to the Acropolis in c. 480 B.C.E.).

I would be very happy to talk with a group of students who have seen these — either in person or via some computer technology — to try to answer questions about the ideas presented, but I think it would be best to do that after all 4 videos have been seen. Please feel free to contact me at the above email address to arrange any such session or to comment (positively or negtively) on the videos.

To downlooad the four talks individually, go to this directory (eiteljorg.us/ArchaeologyTalks/Videos) using this link and download the talks using your browser. If that will not work for you, please send me an email so I can try to help. (Note that the four video files are numbered so as to make sure the sequence is clear; depending upon your browser and computer, the full names of the files may not show when you are using the internet. The full names should show when you have downloaded the files.)

Last updated September 29, 2021.