The Lost Peking Man

Ross Gellar, the boring and nerdy Palaeontologist

I  took ANTH 250 last semester and absolutely loved it! It is really the reason for why I want to pursue a degree in Biological Anthropology or of Palaeontology. Unfortunately, TV shows like Friends, made Palaeontology boring and only for the super nerds who loved dinosaurs... The pre Homo sapien sapien fossils may be as old as the hills, but I love 'em anyway.
I just read very interesting article about the original fossils of The Peking man that were lost during it's shipment to the US for safe-keeping during WWII, which never made it.

A replica of The Peking Man is all
that we have left of him... or is it?

A recent discovery has been made that a former US Marine, Richard M. Bowen, may have accidentally discovered the fossils in 1947 when he was digging foxholes in China during the Nationalist-Communist Civil War.

Richard M. Bowen

When I was first recounted the story of The Peking Man, I thought that the fossils were probably on the bottom of the Atlantic ocean somewhere, completely decomposed and now fish food. Oh the horror, I thought! The only fossils were found at the time, gone, a part of human evolution, gone!
Now I wasn't going to march over to China and start digging up the ground looking for the fossils; there has to be people a lot more desperate and more financially stable to be able to do this.
I sincerely hope that the Chinese Government allows Archaeologists to try and find the original fossils of The Peking Man, I would love to see him in the 'flesh'.

A website about Hierakonpolis.

This website called Hierakonpolis online is a family friendly website that gives a basic introduction to Hierakonpolis (aka The City of the Hawk). This website is informative and gives some links to other published works and contact information to ask questions about Hierakonpolis directly to the site publishers. This website is based around the idea of the 'firsts of Ancient Egyptian society' and gives a lot of information about the interesting finds from that time period. 

Compared to our rubric, the website is fairly complicated and it took some searching to find a bibliography and links to other websites that may not be as family friendly as this one. 

Here, I have copied the categories from our rubric and will 'grade' the website:

 Analysis (5/8): The website gives “a short description of the site, an analysis and critique of current interpretation(s), and includes one or more alternative interpretations based on different methodological or theoretical approaches” (McGuire, 2012). Although the assignment addresses all of the criteria, the overall analysis is not particularly thoughtful or insightful.

 Visual Presentation (8/8): The images used in the Website represent the authors’ arguments, evidence and conclusions accurately. The images are relevant to the material being discussed, and are connected to the research or interpretation in a clear and understandable manner.

 Outline/Introduction (4/4): The outline/introduction clearly and eloquently identifies the research topic to the Prezi user, and provides a clear sense of the nature of evidence that will follow. It reveals the organizational structure of the project and includes any important research questions. It also includes a statement regarding the appropriate audience for the project.

 Evidence (7/8): The evidence used for the project is well chosen, detailed and all sources are cited correctly. The evidence is distributed throughout the presentation, clearly and effectively supporting descriptions and analysis. As mentioned above, I found the bibliography, but it took some searching and there didn't appear to be any way to identify which sources belonged to which photo or fact throughout the website

 Conclusion (??/4): This website is always being updated by the publishers because they are currently working at Hierakonpolis and are always updating the website with new information and the like so there isn't really a conclusion.

 Organization/Clarity (6/8) The organization of the website as a whole is logical, but there may be some transitions that are jarring or slightly confusing. The text is formatted in such a way that it is easy to read, and the presentation appears polished but there are a few instances where quotes are not sufficiently explained. The website doesn't exactly follow a logical structure and it took me a bit to understand how to navigate it. There are many words that are also links that lead you other parts of the website without a clear way to return to where you were before.

 Mechanics (4/4): There are virtually no spelling or grammatical errors, and no incomplete/run on sentences. Sentence structure is clear, and the wording is precise.

Total: ~34/44


Link: http://www.hierakonpolis-online.org/Default.htm