endlessrarities | (no subject)

We've now left the realms of guncotton and nitrocellulose behind us, so let me apologise in advance for next week's scatological theme... When I return to work on Monday, I will be commencing the definitive study of our site's toilets.

Mmm... Lovely... I took a peek inside one today, and it was just as wholesome as it sounds. The fittings dated back to the 1930s, and they looked. Well, let me resort to Scots for this. Manky and bogging were the words that sprang immediately to mind.

I can just see the resulting paper: Down the Drain: Evaluating Gender Divisions in the Lavatory Architecture of Twentieth Century Munitions Factories. Hey, there might even be a thesis in there somewhere...

Sadly, I won't be the one to scribe it. Commercial archaeologists are the bottom feeders of the archaeological aquarium. We hoover up information as if it's so much detritus accumulating amongst the pebbles of the fish tank, then excrete it as masses of raw, undigested data. Some academic can harvest this marvellous guano at their leisure and transform it into wonderful pieces of academic excellence which will win them heaps of praise and accolades from their peers.

Ah, well. I don't suppose I really want to make a name for myself in the study of modern toilets, anyway, though I suppose someone's got to do it.

Today's Simon Schama quote: 'spur-clanking boneheads', used to describe the yes-men of Henry II.

I do like his turn of phrase...

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Today's Simon Schama quote: 'spur-clanking boneheads', used to describe the yes-men of Henry II.

I agree with the hilarity, but it didn't seem to do any good to say no to Henry II. He was just going to do what he was going to do, so if you weren't going to help him, you probably did best by getting the hell out of his way.

I just watched the episode about Edward I. Gawd, it was depressing...

Edward I is another king you didn't say no to.

Not twice, anyway.

I still find him oddly compelling, though. Like watching a house burn down.

Hmmm. More like watching a beloved Listed Building burning down...

Don't get me wrong; I'm not defending Edward. He was a crowned Rottweiler, and I recognize my luxury seven centuries and four thousand miles removed of finding him fascinating.

But my vitriol is reserved for Cromwell and his treatment of medieval architecture and accoutrement.

'A crowned Rottweiler'. I like it...

Love him or loathe him, Edward I was a spectacularly successful medieval king, and undoubtedly top of his league. I think a comparison with the Roman emperors he adulated so much is not unrealistic...

I remember reading how archaeologists had excavated a privy and been able to work out the diet of those who had used it all those centuries ago.
Not a job I would like though...

Once everything's been washed through the flotation tank and only the bits pf fish bone/seeds/worm eggs remain, I suppose it's not too bad.

I've been told that you can tell when you're digging a cess-pit because the soil's bright green in colour.

'Manky' is such a wonderful word. Well used in Yorkshire, too.