User:ZenTrowel

About Me
Hello to all who have come here!

I am 29 years old and a graduate from Boston University with a B.A in Arts and Sciences with a Major in Archaeology and a Minor in Anthropology. I also have my M. A in Historical Archaeology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. I am currently enrolled in Michigan Technological University's Ph.D program for Industrial Archaeology. Most of my experience is in historical archaeology of North America. The majority of the sites I've worked on are in Massachsetts and upstate New York. I do have interests in North American prehistoric sites as well.

For hobbies I do flintknapping and fencing (Sabré is my weapon of choice).

I have interests in Archaeology, Fencing, Anime, Feudal Japan (Pre 1700), Wood Block Art (like Hokusai), Bonsai, Teas from around the world, Cooking, Travel, and Video Games (the more 'old school' the better).

My undergraduate thesis for distinction on the excavation of a 19th century tomb from central Massachusetts.

My M.A thesis involves an 1845-1903 rural iron furnace and the surrounding community from the Hudson Valley.

My current dissertation work involves the Cuyuna Iron Mining Range in central Minnesota.



Contributions
Flintknapper: I added a section on flintknapping as a hobby, some useful readings, and a section on the common tools and methods of shaping stone tools. This page needs some serious love and attention. I'll get back to it periodically and add some more content along with the pictures I just uploaded. Note I also added the same pictures to the pressure flaking and hammerstone articles as well.

ActRaiser: I added a section on awards and recognition. I've been crazy about this game since I was very young and I thought that since it has won praise from gaming gurus that it should be recognized on Wikipedia too.

Sengoku period: I added a listing in the "Sengoku period in modern culture" for a great game I used to play on my Super Nintento called Nobunaga's Ambition. I was happy to see someone had put up a page for it so I just wanted to give it a shout-out on a more visible Wiki page.

Black Walnut: I added a magnified cross section I took of a Black Walnut coffin board I studied for my tomb thesis paper. I also changed the lay-out of the images so they made more sense. I added one text into their readings section that I found useful.

Battle of Fort William Henry: I added a tiny comment about this fort regarding its modern reconstruction. I've also included a few books that might aid anyone's research in to the battle. I excavated here in 1999/2000. There is also a Fort William Henry page and this might need some consolidation. Another task for summer!

Menorca: I visited this island off the coast of Spain in 2004 as part of my archaeological field school for my undergraduate degree at Boston University. I added many pictures of archaeological sites including the famous taula from Talatì de Dalt, the naveta from Naveta des Toudons, and the hand carved caves from Calas Coves.

El Malpais National Monument: I participated in an archaeological survey of the national monument back in 2003 for the University of New Mexico. I have a few good reference books on the monument and the sites that can be found there. For now I've just put a few up as suggested readings. In the future I may add more details from the books into the article.

Galaga: To say I don't love this game is to say I don't love chocolate cake on my birthday! To me, this vintage game is simply the best "easy to learn, but hard to master" arcade game ever. I had to add somthing to this already well documented page. I found a few tidbits of trivia to add from one of my arcade-fan guidebooks.