I’m pleased to see so many of us survived the Mayan Doom Day known far and wide as the day the Mayan Calender ended, and then nothing of note happened. I hope despite that disappointing climax we all managed to have a happy holiday and new year. I saw the New Year in with an excellent Roller Derby match, but our team rocks so it wasn’t hard to have great match.
Traditionally, the new year is a time to have your fortune read so you know what to expect in the upcoming year, and since we here at Archyfantasies are big fans of astrology and ancient fortune telling methods, lets see what the stars say is in-store for us this year.
2013 is the year of the Snake in China, specifically the Water Snake. According to BILL HAJDU over at Astrology.com:
“Snake is the Yin to last year’s Dragon Yang. That said, Snake does not settle for mediocrity, either. We’re likely to see significant developments in the area of science and technology this year. Research and development are apt to flourish. his is a Water year as well, the element most closely associated with education and research, making 2013 a very special year for scientists and scholars.”
Lucky me, this year I’m working on research in several different related areas. Good to know the universe is with me in this. Should make things easier.
But wait! Wizzley.com has a different story:
“The Mayans got it wrong. It wasn’t 2012 that was going to be a year of disaster but the year of the water snake. Snake years aren’t the best in the calendar for most; and it’s definitely the year lucky charms are going to be a must. Some zodiac animals will navigate the water snake year more smoothly than others. For most it’s going to be a very slow moving year with unexpected obstacles surfacing at the most inopportune moments.”
Oh those silly Mayans, they can’t get anything right. Apparently neither can the Chinese. Or maybe it’s just the people trying to predict the future biased on fables, who knows. Either way, we’re going to accept the first set of predictions, they’re much more friendly, and look at what Archyfantasies has coming up for real.
Look to the year to be filled with a variety of different posts. On top of my random Tales of Grad-School, we’re going to enjoy a more regular posting scheduled filled with more fun debunking of pseudo-archaeology. Next week we’ll have the first in our new series “Columbus was Second-ish: Who Discovered America Anyway?“. In it we’ll be going over the various claims from different cultures about who really got to this rock first. Was it the Vikings? The Chinese? The Polynesians? Aliens? (I’m pulling for the Vikings!) The real winner might surprise you.
We’re also going to flesh out the Women in Archaeology category, focusing the first part of the year on Mothers of the Field. I had a lot of great responses to the Mary Anning post I did last year, and I really want to build on that. Sometimes it’s hard to find information about the early mothers, but even if it’s just a paragraph, it’s worth the effort to illuminate the sometimes hidden contributions of women in the field of archaeology.
New-ish this year is the Weekly Round Ups. I read a lot during the week, and some of it is pretty interesting, so I thought I’d share. I really started this in December, but there’s not reason not to continue it. You can also send me your favorite articles, I like sharing!
The really new stuff is going to happen over at the ArchyFantasies YouTube Channel. I’ve been unhappy with the format of the channel for a long time now, so I’ve sat down a re-thought about it and I’ve come up with some great ideas. We’re going to keep our usual videos that cover our Weird Archaeology and current series, and I’m adding videos about the Women in Archaeology series.
One of the new shows we’re planning is Experiments in Archaeology. Fun little experiments that break down archaeological concepts into understandable pieces for people. I may even have a few special guests over the year. I’m pretty excited about this, on top of being fun I think they will be very informational.
Lastly, We’re rolling out a Q&A video twice a month. If you’ve got a question about pseudoarchaeology or pseudoscience, send it to me at archyfantaises@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to answer them. You might even spark a new Weird Archaeology video/post.
So with that, I hope the year of the Water Snake is more like Bill’s prediction for you, and if not, maybe you just need to get your chakras balanced…or something like that.
Archaeological Fantasies 
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