Wednesday 30 December 2009

Writing

Taking a pause from the Nantwich pot report to hastily put together roman economy lacture series using material evidence for classicists. I must enjoy setting myself challenges!

Tuesday 27 October 2009

Why does writing something like this
now get you death threats?

Friday 23 October 2009

Over committed

Just as the deadlines for the two articles and big tile report come intoview I sign up for19.5 days of emergency pottery report. When will I ever learn...

Tuesday 15 September 2009

jersey

Hey Ho off to see my Grandmother for a few days

Friday 28 August 2009

Uh oh

This does not bode well for the near future (i.e. after May 2010)


This is a model whose success is based on being the cheapest, and some would say being very misleading about what services you do provide. And with as much evidence as the article provides as justification for this model I would also suggest that it will also repeat what many others have found with no frills airlines it actually cost more when you take in consideration the additioanl costs incurred as you have been flown millions of miles away from where you thought you wee going. It works well for a business man with no luguage but disproportionatelyhits those with children. The more I think about it the worse this idea sounds. And that's before we get to the protection of the historic environment



Friday 7 August 2009

In brighton

A week end in Brighton - and alex's first view of the sea

Wednesday 3 June 2009

's'truth

I think I see where the next stage inthe perpetua reform of school everyyear is going

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Testing

In helsinki

Thursday 14 May 2009

Oh Dear
Peter Wilby in the new statesman gives us this hostage to fortune

 Don’t just think of the government; ask yourself what kind of people you want on the majority benches of the House of Commons. Surely it is better to have MPs whose instincts are to favour public services, the poor (both here and abroad) and a broadly liberal approach to social issues, no matter how often ministers fall short of the ideal. At least you will have MPs who understand and sometimes listen to your concerns.

Yes I do think of how shamefully  labour backbenches  have completely shafted their core vote in the name of power when I contemplate who to vote for. Or indeed not vote for and why I want this government of sponging sycophantic illiberal poseurs gone, ground to dust, the ground salted and expunged from the universe of light even if we have to put up with a short-lived chinless neo-thatcherite revival, without North sea oil and 150 years of capital to make it appear as if the theory works.

Monday 11 May 2009

Falling out of the habit

Well almost into a blogging frame of mind. Mad rush trying to Get A's passport sorted to get out to F at very short notice. I may blog about the expereince, but perhaps like the rat of sumatra the world is not yet ready...

Tuesday 28 April 2009

Fun programme

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jxfqn
but the academic involved has a very slanted and indeed wrong idea about te nature of the commercial sector!

Sunday 19 April 2009

Monday 6 April 2009

Friday 3 April 2009

Tileman and son II

A week since son of tileman enterd out lives - a week into my paternity leave! So far so good - he is sleeping well and survived the doting grandparents, aunts and uncles! and still looks so content whn full of milk and sleepig in his huge cot

Tuesday 31 March 2009

Tileman & Son

Born on 27th March
Excellent!

Tuesday 17 March 2009

Taking the

So TRAC in the UK, after being promoted for a year in Liverpool is now in Southampton
and we have all been given about a months notice. Hmm That will be easy to arrange for easter...

Monday 16 March 2009

Comparing Pay Part 1

People who get paid less than archaeologists:
Teaching assistant
Grave digger (Just)

Sunday 15 March 2009

Saturday 14 March 2009

I don't know why but this is one of those sites which makes me feel wistful

Friday 13 March 2009

er...

That week went fast!
Lets see what did I manage -some more onthe CBM report,
and reading more on the american right going melt down
ho hum if only it could happen here...
but no we look likely to have deranged and disprooven neo-moneterism from next may

Monday 9 March 2009

Another new week.
Once again writing up some coventry medeival bricks.
Just about recoverd from saturdays meeting
I'm glad Jerry wasn't there to see me butcher the firat paper on pottery - lost the plot a bit and missed out the quantification measures i use. ho hum
Still the CBM went ok - with a lot of questioning about ballast cargos.
Must publish thesis!

Wednesday 4 March 2009

IFA Recession seminar

And yes the report is out, in quite a lot of detail.
The 31 talking points have been whittled down. A lot of asperations. 
Throuhout the day a lot was talked about barriers to entry - always a hot potatoe in archaeology - however who is going to invest their own training, or bother to acquire skills if anyone can be given the job because of the lack of knowledge/ interest in a specific topic?


Tuesday 3 March 2009

Another day and some more maps done
If only I could work the contouring program...

Thursday 26 February 2009

Morning world

well a new morning - back to amphora hunting at ADS
 http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/archive/amphora_ahrb_2005/
a resource which I'm growing to like a bit more, although some of the searches don't really work
and I ought to write the introduction to the Hayton report



Wednesday 25 February 2009

Well thats the drafts done for the two papers I'm meant to be giving on the 7th. The read through of the cbm one is still a bit jumpy, so have to smooth it up still - probablyfriday on the way to cambridge. I didn't have the heart to go through the pot one just yet. The trouble with 30 minute papers is tha the read through takes so long - up until the point when I actually give them and then time just eveaporates.

By way of distraction I finally broke myself imposed exile on bajr as one thread was getting particularly annoying - including the incrdible asinine spectacle of someone complaining about somthingsomeone didnt say at an event they didnt attend. The shear lack of seriousness of these people continues to irritate - Why bother to try to do anythin when you can have a go at the people who do, whlist propagadizing for the rival group you are setting up ( in something which has an unspeakable cthulu like ending assigned to it if I'm any judge of these things.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Bah! something is not right in the early second century - not meant to be getting a dip until 190. ho hum off to make some pancakes I think
Well I think thats most of the Italian pots typed. I hope there arn't too many embarrising mistakes...

Monday 23 February 2009

One thought experiment I keepmeaning to develop is parrallel tracking for the Roman Period and modern Uk Britain V Britannia if you will. The basic frame work is - JC invades 55BC, Claudius AD45, Boudiccan revolt 60-1; Hadrians wall 122, Antonine wall 142-162, big pottery industries 266+ 'barbarian crisis' 367
'look to your own defence '410.
so if we take 2009 as 409 - we allegedly get abandoned next year ( I don't believe it - bu bear with me.) 
so invasion was initailly 464 years ago ( 1545) 'proper' invasion in 1645, Boudican revolyt in 1660-1, Hadrians wall 1722, antonine wall 1742-62, big pottery industries 1866, barbarian crisis 1967, collapse of samian 1790, rise of nene valley 1790. 
that sort of thing. bearing in mind comparitive levels of literacy and how history would be expereience in a very differnt way!
Thoughts? depressing parralles between modeern capatilistic industrial society and collase of roman ciovilisation inthe west are encouraged....
And on the archaeological fromt. Well I'm trying to finish off an Italian fieldwalking site I did the pottery for last year. I now have a consistent paper and digital record - the drawings I made relate to their codes in the database. Just some tweaking to make sure that I have taken into consioderation all the pottery from each pick up area ( the pre roman and the medeival and later) and that the field names were transcribed properly, and then I can relate the field names to the designated sites ( where the nuumbers of finds get into usable numbers and then we can see if we can charecterise site types. 
I have managed a fair few dated parrallels so far. My date distributon follows the same pattern everyone else gets for Etruria - reasonable stable growth, with short wobbles because of civil wars etc followed by steady rise tillthe end of the second century then collapse.
All the villa excavations I could find have the same pattern 0 villas are abandoned at the end of the second century. SOme are resettled say 100 years later or are just never reoccupied.
What is going on? is this the beginning of the C3 'crises or change' ? or is there something about villa economies that don't last beyond 3 or 4 generations? Is that the same for stately homes - often a model for how the highest status villas worked? I keep trying to revisit Brideshead revisted (sorry) Castle then new house then barracks  in WW2. what happens then? the sything of the aristocracy by income tax and irrelevence?
discuss
Ok I think I need to make this into a habit. The main things I'm working on at the moment are archaeological, although the whole about to become a dad thing is also something occupying my time a lot!
So yesturday we were at S&Ms new house (they have just moved reasonably close 15mins by car I reckon 30mins by bike) and their sprog is now 7 months - moving to solids but being fed every two months, with entertaining, napping and keeping an eye on all part of the deal in betwen those two hours. I was tired having just visted them and eaten! Mind you some of that was probably that Sunday Pm feeling but it is all defining the responsibility that U and I are taking on. Gulp!!
ouch, I hate being 41!