Season's Greetings!

Season's Greetings to all of you in the cultural heritage blogosphere who visited my home in cyberspace this past year, or may do so in 2014. This is just to confirm that I'm still alive, so be prepared for more news and updates on my travels and adventures. As a preview, I can report that I will attend the IPPA (Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association) conference in Siem Reap, Cambodia in January. I am honored to be able to host a small panel on the illicit trade in Southeast Asia, which should bring together speakers who can offer both archaeological and legal/criminological insight as applied to that region of the world.

From there, I am Hanoi bound for two weeks in order to conduct "pilot" research for what I hope will be a long term project to better understand the antiquities trade within and from Vietnam using quantitative and qualitative data (see initial announcement here in the Oct. 1st post). Planning continues apace, but as always with research in this part of the world, some aspects will be played by ear. However, good outcomes are anticipated by myself and all involved.

As a final happy announcement, I am overjoyed to report that I will officially be a post-doctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution from April next year. Yes, this does mean that I am DC bound. I will maintain three affiliations, be engaged in what should be a very exciting bioarchaeology research project, and also be well positioned (I feel) to keep things going in regards to antiquities trade research (and the application of archaeological science to it) and public outreach. So, whilst updates here might be intermittent (more so!) from February through April, once I've arrived I will do my best to tap into the Smithsonian's wider outreach and training programs as a way to share what I do with an even wider audience and do new things to boot. Stay tuned!

As we close out 2013 (where did it go?!), may I take this chance to wish one and all Happy Holidays and a joyous New Year.