It's Here!!!

I'm delighted to announce that I am now the proud owner of a Very Heavy Tome.  My author's copies appeared on my desk as I was just about to leave the office; I nearly missed horse-riding as a result, what with all the business of slicing open boxes and plucking up the courage to pull out a book and see my name in print. 

I'm rather chuffed.  It looks lovely.  It has a snazzy blue cover (any archaeologists out there will know exactly what I'm talking about...) and the whole impression is good.  After fifteen years of epic struggle, I should blinkin' well hope so!

I can think of a number of uses for my magnum opus.  I could:-

      1) Stand upon it to reach high shelves.

      2) Use it to prop up a shoogly tableleg.

      3) Use it as a mean of self-defence against an intruder.  (Death by Textbook - Ouch!!)

      4) Paper the walls of my house.

This was the icing on the cake, after I'd already had a very enjoyable day playing around with prehistoric pottery.  I drew a Bronze Age pot this morning, then in the afternoon, I moved onto the Neolithic stuff (while listening to The Rite of Spring...).  Now, I must apologise profusely for being rude about Neolithic pottery the other day. In my defence, I must admit that I haven't seen any Neolithic pottery at close quarters for six years and I've never had the opportunity to draw any before.  And, as I said on my post on the Vix Krater, it's only by drawing the object that you can really get to grips with it. 

To say I was impressed was an understatement.  It was well-made, well-fired and robust.  When I'd given it a cursory glance the first time around I'd assumed it was quite late in date (pre-Roman Iron Age, perhaps) on account of it being so NICE!!  But when I looked more closely at it today, I wound up kicking myself, because it's true identity was staring me in the face.  Handmade vessel with everted rims?  Yep, it's Neolithic. 

I remember being told in the past that Neolithic pottery is much nicer than Bronze Age stuff, but I'd forgotten just how lovely it is.  There's no chance of this stuff disintegrating during the drawing process, I can tell you.

The exercise was not entirely trouble free.  Two contexts have, unfortunately, produced parts of the same pot.  This of course is almost guaranteed to cause confusion.  My first attempt at combating this was by trying to stick little sticky post-its onto the rear of the sherds from one context.  These didn't want to stick, but thankfully, plain old masking tape did the trick.

We now have three pots (two Bronze Age, one Neolithic)  from the same site which survive as substantially complete vessels.  Exciting, or what?
 
More from Rosslyn Chapel tomorrow!

It's Here!!!

I'm delighted to announce that I am now the proud owner of a Very Heavy Tome.  My author's copies appeared on my desk as I was just about to leave the office; I nearly missed horse-riding as a result, what with all the business of slicing open boxes and plucking up the courage to pull out a book and see my name in print. 

I'm rather chuffed.  It looks lovely.  It has a snazzy blue cover (any archaeologists out there will know exactly what I'm talking about...) and the whole impression is good.  After fifteen years of epic struggle, I should blinkin' well hope so!

I can think of a number of uses for my magnum opus.  I could:-

      1) Stand upon it to reach high shelves.

      2) Use it to prop up a shoogly tableleg.

      3) Use it as a mean of self-defence against an intruder.  (Death by Textbook - Ouch!!)

      4) Paper the walls of my house.

This was the icing on the cake, after I'd already had a very enjoyable day playing around with prehistoric pottery.  I drew a Bronze Age pot this morning, then in the afternoon, I moved onto the Neolithic stuff (while listening to The Rite of Spring...).  Now, I must apologise profusely for being rude about Neolithic pottery the other day. In my defence, I must admit that I haven't seen any Neolithic pottery at close quarters for six years and I've never had the opportunity to draw any before.  And, as I said on my post on the Vix Krater, it's only by drawing the object that you can really get to grips with it. 

To say I was impressed was an understatement.  It was well-made, well-fired and robust.  When I'd given it a cursory glance the first time around I'd assumed it was quite late in date (pre-Roman Iron Age, perhaps) on account of it being so NICE!!  But when I looked more closely at it today, I wound up kicking myself, because it's true identity was staring me in the face.  Handmade vessel with everted rims?  Yep, it's Neolithic. 

I remember being told in the past that Neolithic pottery is much nicer than Bronze Age stuff, but I'd forgotten just how lovely it is.  There's no chance of this stuff disintegrating during the drawing process, I can tell you.

The exercise was not entirely trouble free.  Two contexts have, unfortunately, produced parts of the same pot.  This of course is almost guaranteed to cause confusion.  My first attempt at combating this was by trying to stick little sticky post-its onto the rear of the sherds from one context.  These didn't want to stick, but thankfully, plain old masking tape did the trick.

We now have three pots (two Bronze Age, one Neolithic)  from the same site which survive as substantially complete vessels.  Exciting, or what?
 
More from Rosslyn Chapel tomorrow!