FREE
for Members
The Archaeology of Burning Man
Monday, February 27, 2012
Each August, cadres of staff and volunteers begin to construct Black Rock City, located in the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada. Every September, tens of thousands of people travel to it and participate in the Burning Man festival, an event dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance, and in the process create the third largest population center in Nevada. By mid-September, the city is fully dismantled and by October, the playa on which the city lay is scrubbed of evidence of its existence. This city is the locus of the archaeological project that examines the Burning Man festival. As a city on the threshold of destruction and on the verge of creation, archaeological techniques are particularly appropriate for understanding the created private and public spaces in the city before, during, and after its use. This talk will present some of the ideas behind the study of the city and its residents, presenting findings from four seasons of archaeological survey, mapping, artifact collection, and analysis to interpret the domestic and public space of Black Rock City.
A reception will precede the meeting at 6:00 pm.
Speaker
Carolyn White
University of Nevada-Reno
Discussant
Brian Boyd
Columbia Center for Archaeology
This meeting is free, but registration is required.
Travel & Lodging
Meeting Location
The Wenner-Gren Foundation
470 Park Avenue South, between 31st and 32nd Streets
8th Floor
New York, NY 10016