Blog
Indefatigable Attenborough
Written by Lisa Westcott Tuesday, 10 November 2009 15:23
On Monday, 12 October 2009, Sir David Attenborough participated in the Cambridge University Personal-Histories in Archaeology project. I was there, along with a capacity crowd of over 700 guests, to listen to one of television’s great pioneers.
Ashmolean Museum
Written by Andrew Selkirk Monday, 09 November 2009 11:25
It is always a little dangerous to revisit old friends. What will they be like? Will you still like them when you have not seen them for a long time? It was with some trepidation that I returned to Oxford for the opening of the new Ashmolean Museum on 28th October after a major rebuilding campaign.
PAS annual report and the Staffordshire Hoard
Written by Lisa Westcott Wednesday, 04 November 2009 12:43
I attended the launch yesterday of the 2007 Portable Antiquities Scheme annual report. Held at the BM in the new temporary exhibit space housing the few objects from the Staffordshire Hoard that are on display to the public, the meeting was full of the usual luminaries as well as Fred Johnson and his wife - the landowners of the farm where the Hoard was found.
Morris and the Prince - and much more
Written by Chris Catling Tuesday, 15 September 2009 14:08
Morris and the Prince
Having just written a new guide to Kelmscott Manor, your diarist has a growing admiration for William Morris, whose country home this was. Morris was a true radical, and his ideas continue to reverberate, having now caused a rift between HRH The Prince of Wales and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (the SPAB).
Morris founded the SPAB in 1877 to protect ancient buildings, like Kelmscott Manor, from over-restoration. The SPAB’s manifesto, which every would-be member has to sign, is one of the best statements of conservation philosophy ever penned – remarkably, Morris scribbled it down on the back of an envelope as he travelled to Broadway with his family by horse-drawn carriage, angered at what he had just seen going on in the name of ‘restoration’ in Burford parish church.
The Hadrian's Wall Pilgrimage - again
Written by Andrew Selkirk Friday, 04 September 2009 21:29
One should not start a project that one cannot complete. Having started writing a blog on the first day of my pilgrimage to Hadrian’s Wall I must confess that I failed to keep it up. It was not for lack of trying. Every night in my room I wrote up my diary, often over 2000 words long. I dictated it into my computer. I have a splendid new programme called Dragon Naturally Speaking which puts my words onto the screen, but it has its idiosyncrasies. It would call Hadrian’s Wall Hadrian’s War but I am gradually sorting out the results and I hope they will form the basis of a Hadrian’s Wall issue of Current Archaeology.
"BIN09": Digging at Binchester
Written by Lisa Westcott Tuesday, 11 August 2009 15:52
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BIN09' is the site code for this year's season of the major new field project at the Roman fort of Binchester, run jointly by Durham County Council, Durham University and Stanford University, where I have just spent a week digging. In addition to the on-site professional staff (Dr David Mason, David Petts, Jamie Armstrong, Janice Adams and Matt Claydon) and students, many volunteers from Durham and Northumberland Archaeological and Architectural Society and Northern Archaeological Group participated in the work.
The Hadrian's Wall Pilgrimage
Written by Andrew Selkirk Monday, 10 August 2009 00:21
The Hadrian’s Wall pilgrimage is going well. The Pilgrimage is one of the great events of British archaeology. It began in 1849 when a group of young men decided they would ‘walk the wall’ and it has continued every 10 years since then except for the war years: this is now the 13th pilgrimage. For me it is my fourth. I did the first in 1969, I missed out the 1979, but I did the 1989 and the 1999 - all recorded in Current Archaeology. Indeed in looking up CA 15, which was devoted to the 1969 pilgrimage, I see there is a little note at the end apologising for the fact that the magazine was a little late, but this was due to the birth of our daughter Fiona. Well, this year we have just celebrated Fiona's 40th birthday!
Why does the Catholic church oppose suicide?
Written by Andrew Selkirk Friday, 31 July 2009 22:36
In view of the current debate about the rights and wrongs of suicide, Terry Jones in his recent book on ‘Barbarians’ provides some interesting background material.
The Christian doctrine about suicide, he argues, goes back to St Augustine’s attack on the Donatists: “In the early fifth century, very large numbers of poor African Romans converted to Christianity, but the Christianity they adopted had little in common with the religion of Ravenna and Constantinople. Instead, it drew directly on the buried traditions of Phoenician Carthage. Baal, their old god, was now understood to be the God of the Bible. The old religion had at its centre ritual and blood sacrifice; this one had ritual, penance and martyrdom...”
Déjà vu, Stones and bones, Sunspots and destiny, ‘Dr Livingroom, I presume?’, Mosaic funding, A hermit’s life, Leaping to the defence of the church
Written by Chris Catling Tuesday, 14 July 2009 10:17
Déjà vu
The Times published a letter on 2 June 2009 signed by Professors Martin Biddle and Brian Fagan, who called on the nation not to forget the 150th anniversary of the historic lecture given by John Evans to the Society of Antiquaries on 2 June 1859, in which he presented crucial evidence for human antiquity – flint implements found in association with the remains of extinct mammals some 20ft below the ground in a gravel pit in the suburbs of Amiens, the capital of Picardy. This momentous lecture, they said, was in danger of being overlooked in the otherwise very proper tributes being paid to Darwin’s subsequent publication of On The Origin of Species.
How to present your accounts
Written by Andrew Selkirk Tuesday, 14 July 2009 00:00
If your accounts for the year are not quite as good as you might wish— if, for instance, you make a loss of £2.5m on a turnover of £1.6m – how do you convey the news to your members?
The past year has been one when many organisations have had accounts that are less satisfactory than they might wish. The Society of Antiquaries of London has displayed a virtuoso performance in the art of presenting such accounts.
Jargon, beauty, the South Downs, a heritage hero, Robin Hood and dragons...
Written by Chris Catling Thursday, 07 May 2009 14:16
Jargon: which words would you ban?
The Local Government Association has published a list of words and phrases that it thinks council staff and members should not use because they make it harder for the electorate to understand what councils do. In truth, many of them should simply be banned because they are empty of meaning. Much fun has been had at the expense of one particular phrase – ‘predictors of beaconicity’ – which originated in a Department for Communities and Local Government report of 2007 called: Predictors of Beaconicity: which local authorities are most likely to apply to, be short listed and awarded through the Beacon Scheme.
Read more: Jargon, beauty, the South Downs, a heritage hero, Robin Hood and dragons...
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