The discovery of small ancient tools on the coast of Cyprus has led to big things for Colgate archaeologist Albert Ammerman.
Ammerman leads the research team that has worked along the shores of the Mediterranean island for the past three years.
His team’s research was detailed in The New York Times and numerous other major media outlets, and he was the subject of an extensive profile in Science magazine, in which he was called the “Renaissance man of archaeology.”
Why the attention? Because once again Ammerman has thrown a scientific curveball, this time because his findings on Cyprus have provided the earliest evidence of long-distance seafaring in the Mediterranean, which may change views on how agriculture spread in Europe.
Ammerman, 64, talks about Cyprus and his previous ground-breaking research in Rome and Venice in the latest episode of Colgate Conversations, a series of podcast interviews with members of the Colgate community.
He talks about strolling along a beach on Cyprus, in the midst of a tourist area, and happening across the ancient tools embedded in Aeolianite, a rough kind of “moon rock.” Exploration of that site and another area has since included dangerous underwater excavations by a team of 10 divers.
Members of Ammerman’s dive and research teams come from a range of backgrounds and academic disciplines, something that has served him well throughout his career as he continuously embarks on new approaches that generate new lines of research.
“Many people in academia reproduce the same things,” he says in the interview. “But you have to take risks. There is a certain logic to all this, it doesn’t happen by accident, but there are things that happen that aren’t in your total control.”
His interdisciplinary approach has manifested itself on Colgate’s campus, as well. This semester, Ammerman has been teaching a course called World Archaeology, Material Culture, and Identity with four other professors who specialize in different cultures, ranging from the Oneida Indian Nation just a few miles from campus to the Teotihuacán in Mexico.
To hear more about Ammerman’s work, click to listen now or right-click and “save target as” to download file. You also can go to the Colgate Conversations page or iTunes page for more download options.