Further reading!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringfort

https://www.facebook.com/caherconnell/

http://www.burrengeopark.ie/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Types_of_the_Ring-Forts_and_Similar_Structure_Quinn.pdf

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/archaeology/cashels.htm

http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/archaeology/images/statistical_analysis_ringfort_loop_head.pdf


These were the sources I used in order to conduct my research on the relation of the landscape of County Clare and Ring forts. If you are interested in further reading please visit these sites!

The Cashel and the Landscape

The landscape of county Clare, especially near the Burren, is racked with cashels. Cashels are built on high ground and strategically placed to observe potential danger and watch over the family's land. As you can see in the video above at the Caherconnell stone fort, it is elevated compared to the rest of the land. The inhabitants could have clearly seen their sheep grazing and watch for potential intruders. Often, stone fort inhabitants had relationships with neighboring stone fort families and would assist them in times of need, and the forts were built so that you had clear lines of site to neighboring forts. These forts were hot spots for trade and linked to wealthy inhabitants. At the Caherconnell fort, high status items such as gold, sliver, and bronze tokens, pendants, and coins have been found. Not only are ring forts a part of the cultural and functional landscape of County Clare, Ireland, but they also represent a huge part of the symbolic landscape. For many Irish people, these ring forts are a symbol of Irish pride. 

Map of Important sections of County Clare

This is a map of the important sections in County Clare in relation to my field work. The blue polygon shows the Burren section of County Clare. If you look at my previous post, you will see a direct correlation between the Burren and the frequency of cashels. The people were using the environment to their advantage while building ring forts. I have also included pictures and videos of the site and lines of known trade going into the site based on the artifacts found during excavation. 

Frequency of Cashels in County Clare

County Clare is full of many cashels such as the site I worked at this past summer, Caherconnell. This map from the library of County Clare shows all of the known cashel sites within the county. The occurrence of cashels directly correlates with the region of limestone known as the Burren.

Geography of County Clare

                   

Although ring forts are prevalent around all of Ireland, I chose to focus on the county I did my field research in. County Clare, Ireland is on the West coast of Ireland and is famous for its rocky landscape called the "Burren" meaning "great rock" in Irish Gaelic. This landscape is very different from the rest of Ireland's lush green hills and valleys. The Burren is made of limestone and was formed as a part of the sea 350 million years ago. One of the major theories as to why cashels are more prevalent in County Clare is because of the abundance of rock in the landscape. 

The Different Ring Forts

A rath is an earthen ringed fort.

A cashel is a stone ringed fort.

What is a Ring Fort?

To understand the importance of ring forts on the landscape of County Clare, Ireland, we must first understand what a ring fort is. A ring fort is a  circular fortified settlement that was constructed during the Early Middle ages to the year 1000 AD and continued to be inhabited until as late as the 16th century. There are two different types of ring forts : a rath and a cashel. 

Ring Forts: The Research Topic

Over the summer of 2015, I completed my archaeological field school by excavating in County Clare Ireland at the Caherconnell ring fort site. The idea for my research stemmed from the field work I had already completed last summer. The main goal of this research project is to understand the affects of ring forts on the landscape of Ireland, especially in County Clare. Pictured above is the site in which I completed my field school. Caherconnell is a stone ring fort located in County Clare, Ireland.

On November 14, 2015, I accompanied my classmates and professor to tour the community of little Vietnam. The purpose of this trip was to see first hand what we had been discussing in class and to reflect on the way humans have impacted this area of New Orleans. The first thing we did on the field trip was to visit the Vietnamese Farmer's market. Many of the stands had already packed up for the day, but there were still some people selling seafood and vegetables. Not all of the food for sale at the Farmer's market was grown by the back yard gardens as it became apparent from the "Dole" stickers stuck to various fruits, but we did see some of the fruits of the gardens. We then went look at where the levee gardens once were, and I was surprised to see how low the levee was in relation to the street. After, we took a ride though the streets of the neighborhoods, and we went look at the Mary Queen of Vietnam church. We met up with Victoria who was a former student who grew up in little Vietnam. Victoria explained to us her project she's working on with sustainable agriculture and really gave us a lot of insight into the community of little Vietnam. Victoria took us to a store and showed us some traditional foods. An older woman was outside of a grocery store selling winter melons that she had grown in her own garden. While we were there we also went check out a Hispanic store because as Victoria explained, little Vietnam is not only limited to people of Vietnamese decent. Before Victoria left us she explained the impact of environmental racism and how it has affected the community. What I took away from my experience with the time we spent in little Vietnam is that this is an extremely close knit community. The people rallied together with the help of the catholic church to get the levee garden space and then they did the same thing to fight the landfill in recent years. I really enjoyed learning about this culture and how they changed the environment's landscape and make it their own.

;This is a map of important places in little Vietnam, New Orleans according to our research and discussion of levee and back yard gardens in class. The polygons represent the different gardens made by the Vietnamese immigrants. The blue polygon represents the backyard gardens, the red represents the levee gardens, which were destroyed by hurricane Katrina, and the yellow polygon is a possible small field of gardens. I then put place marks down for important places to the history of the Vietnamese backyard and levee gardens or the people themselves such as the catholic church and the Versailles apartment complex.

This is a map of three very important places in Haiti during the earthquake that occurred on January 12 2010. Each of these places played an important role for Haiti has as a "place" in the eyes of the outside world and how each place's role changed through a natural disaster. During the aftermath of the earthquake, there was much turmoil happening in Port-au-Prince. People were hurt, buildings were destroyed, and life was disrupted by 7.0 magnitude earthquake. One of the greatest tragedies that happened as a cause of this disaster was the destruction of the Palace National which was completely destructed and was later demolished. The second important place that was vital in the construction of place during the aftermath was Place du Marron which was used as a place for people to set up camp.

This map shows the data from the Atlantic Slave trade in 1777 and 1778, and records from hurricanes in 1898. The Slave trade is identified by a small blue ship and the Hurricanes are marked by variations of storm clouds based on their progression from a tropical depression all the way to a hurricane which have the hurricane symbol. The red place marks mark the place where slaves died along the journey. The darker colors mean there were higher death counts. The highest death counts were in the beginning and ending of the journey. This could be because of an influx in diseases or resistance. The start and end of the slave trade journey are marked by yellow stars.

This map demonstrates the relationship of rice farming and the relocation diffusion of African rice farmers into slavery. African people along the rice coast were captured and sold into slavery to wealthy South Carolinian families. The plantation owners in South Carolina used slave labor in order to build rice fields. There are several similarities and differences between the two types of rice fields. Both of the rice fields are constructed similarly, and have access to large water sources, levees, and ditches. However, the South Carolina rice fields are much larger in comparison to the African rice fields. Upon examination using the ruler tool in Google Earth, I have found that the South Carolina rice fields are about .15 miles in horizontal length, and .27 miles in vertical length while the African rice fields are only 02 miles in horizontal length and .04 miles in vertical length. In the reading by Sluyter, the size difference can be explained by the use of slave labor. There was more labor forced to do the work, so plantation owners were able to have much larger rice fields, while African rice farmers had limited labor sources and were farming for subsistence not trade goods. During my research I discovered that the African rice fields seem to be more organized and shallower than the American ones. This could be explained by the fact that the South Carolina rice fields were largely abandoned after the civil war,but the African rice fields are still being maintained today. I also observed that the African rice fields are much closer to the coast than the South Carolina rice fields. The South Carolina rice field. The African rice fields are only 2.23 miles from the coast, while the South Carolina rice fields average to be 28.75 miles from the coast. The difference in environment of African and North American may play a role in how these fields are situated.

A Divided Dixie

This map is a representation of the region Dixie as defined by Garreau, the red line, and two other formal forms of regions. The brightly colored pink region that is represented on the map reflects a formal region of dialect. In this region of the south, people refer to carbonated beverages as "Coke" as opposed to soda or pop, which is prevalent in other regions of North America. The other polygons represented on the map reflect the major denominations of the christian religion in the south. The southern united states is majority christian in faith and the two major denominations are Baptists, green, and Catholic, blue.
I have divided Dixie by these two different maps of formal regions. During this assignment I found it very hard to define what makes a culture unique. I chose to divide the region of Dixie by dialect and religion, because I believe that some of the most defining factors of Dixie are religion and language. Because the majority of the South speaks English, it was hard to reflect that on a map. I found a map of America that divided regions based on the Coke vs. Pop/Soda terminology debate. In the south, people are more likely to call a carbonated beverage "Coke" versus "Pop" or "Soda." One of the biggest theories for the difference in dialect  is that Coke was created in the south, in Atlanta, Georgia, and during the great depression, Coke factories provided much needed jobs to poor southerners. This is just one of the quirks that makes Dixie, Dixie and I represent that in the pink polygon on my map. The other polygons represent the other way I chose to divide Dixie. Religion is very important to the people of Dixie, and the most prominent religion is Christianity. I then divided Dixie into the two most popular denominations of Christianity in the south which are Baptist (green) and Catholic (blue). After I created all of the polygons and overlapped them, I noticed that a grey area started to form in the center of the region of "Dixie". I have carved that new region in the yellow line and named it "The Deep South." This is the area that I feel represents "Dixie" better than Garreau's map. It is smaller and more southerly located. From just using two formal regions, dialect and religion, it is clear to see a more defined Dixie.
http://www.vox.com/2015/2/17/7917165/maps-that-explain-america

In this map, according to Garreau, the red line represents the region of Dixie. The points on the map represent different automotive businesses that have the word "Dixe" in their name. The highest concentration  of "Dixie" automotive businesses are within Garreau's Dixie region.  The yellow points are outside the region, and the red ones are within the "Dixie" region.

According to the reading, the Dixie region is formed by all three methods of regions, formal, vernacular and functional. With the mapping of the Dixie Automotive businesses we are attempting to look at Dixie in a formal region. We found that this isn't always an ideal way to map the region Dixie because several variables distort the data. The highest concentration of Dixie Automotive businesses is within Garreau's idea of  the Dixie region, however, there are some businesses outside of the line. Upon further investigation by using google maps street view, many of the businesses in Florida and North of the "Dixie" region are named "Dixie" because of the hwy or street that the business is on, or the family that owns the business is named "Dixie" . These businesses have nothing to do with the south or the Dixie region, and only lend that name to their business because of their location or family name and not their sense of "Dixie pride".

The Concentrations of Vietnamese immigrants in New Orleans

This is a map of New Orleans that depicts the population of Vietnamese immigrants in the New Orleans area. The two orange pins on the map show the two largest concentrations of Vietnamese immigrants to New Orleans. The highest population of immigrants from Vietnam to New Orleans, 442 people, is in little Vietnam, and the second can be found just 7 miles south of little Vietnam with a population of 127 immigrants. Both areas are highlighted in a light purple to make it easier to distinguish between the rest of the parish.

My map of the Versailles Gardens in New Orleans

Hey Everyone!

           This is my very first blog EVER and I am creating this blog for the Human Geography course 2010 at LSU! I don't really know what to say or do for my very first blog, so I guess I'll just tell you about me. I attend LSU and I am an Anthropology major with a minor in Sociology and a special interest in archaeology. I really hope to learn a lot from this course, and hopefully I can use these skills in my future career in Anthropology.