Tower in the Great Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe   By Andrew Moore from Johannesburg, South Africa - Conical Tower - Great Enclosure III, CC BY-SA 2.0 Planning a Dig  While watching a documentary about an archaeological dig, I noticed how the team decided on first steps in their investigation into the history and development of an ancient huge African city. Instead of looking at the obvious features such as the central enclosure and outer walls, they started on a steep hillside where there seems to be a dump! Why? Because that is where they would find the remains of everyday life of the majority of the people.  We naturally notice the rich, the famous, the powerful--those in the headlines. But as we investigate our families, and the families of our ancestors, where do we find them? Only rarely in the headlines. Instead, we find them in letters, diaries, recipes, snapshots, social columns, legal and other government records, obituaries . And many choose to follow the pat...

    Assyrian clay tablet of proverbs from the Library of Ashurbanipal, Kouyunjik, Iraq. The British Museum, London. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 After watching the final episode of " A Brief History of the Future " on PBS, I recommend everyone watch it. We are surrounded by rapid change, and it can get scary sometimes. This long-form documentary is full of inspiring or even fun examples of people working together to create the world they want to see, in their own corner of the world.  It is an extended look at what It means to be human, which is to say to work in community, thinking together, figuring out how to make change work for all of us. PBS.org  says, “A Brief History of the Future,” [is] a unique PBS documentary series hosted by renowned futurist Ari Wallach. Ari unites perspectives from different fields, professions, geographic locations and walks of life to explore “being human.” From art to architecture, there are plenty of ways to think about our shared humanity and w...