A Momentary Digression & New Blog

 Found Down The Back of a Digital Sofa.            Just to avoid confusion and to let off steam under the pressure of lock down I have created a new blog as repository for Non Archaeological satire, art, cartoons and photography.

It is called: Found down the back of a Digital Sofa, and represents a few persistent stains on the fabric of time that have proved difficult to remove.   The sort of thing found in my twitter feed. 

When you work is not good enough for sector of Higher Education increasing reliant on Science denial and academics purporting the views and perception of our ancient  dead - you are driven to a satirical view of the world.   

The current post concerns a traditional North East Digital Arts Festival of Vegetable Baiting, thus, given the obscurity and specialist nature of my subject matter, the constant need to contextualise and explain the jokes or humour rather precludes its designation as the latter; similarly, some passing familiarity with the subject matter might be considered a not unreasonable prerequisite for satire; you have been warned.

This is all undoubtedly of no interest and represents the dark side of a warren of rabbit holes so obscure that no reasonable man could be expected to believe that any of it was real.

Red Nose Archaeology

Today is red nose day - for Comic Relief a charity event organised by British comedians.

Archaeology is one those subjects traditionally associated with drinking, it was one of the few compensations for low wages, poor working conditions, and zero career prospects, although quite why well paid academics should be red noses has never been fully explained.

The archaeology of perception

This is my favourite cartoon; it is by the late Bernard Kliban, a New York cartoonist, and one of the founding fathers of the modern cartoon, and in my opinion, a genius of his art. Sometimes the world becomes so strange and distorted, that it takes cartoon to get it into perspective.

Angst, archaeology, and academics

Apologies for the recent break in transmission, but, as this article will hopefully explain, working in isolation for a long period on one topic can take its toll on your well-being. The previous articles form something of a sequence, and we have reached an important juncture, and the cause of much of my stress. But the time has now come to clear the decks of the emotional debris of a difficult journey, re-batten the hatches, get up to ramming speed, and set the controls for the heart of one the most central issues in British Prehistory.

In short, why Woodhenge, and similar structures, were buildings and how they worked.

The idea that previous generations grew trees and placed them in the ground to create a built environment does not, on the face of it, sound like a controversial proposition.

31. Primitive Rituals

I hope you read article no. 30. That’s where I let slip that ‘timber circles’ were buildings, some roundhouses were multi-storey, and Hadrian had a timber wall for while -- so you know I’m not here for the beer. But I wish we both down the pub; we could have a chat about all this, a dialogue where we could respond to each other. It would be good: I like you a lot already; you have had the good sense, taste, and intellectual interest to invest your hard won browsing time in reading this blog.

Speaking of beer, back in some golden summer of British archaeology, before the invention of health and safety, when the only unit of alcohol of note was a pint, muddy people would sit in pubs and have conversations about what they had just dug up, and what it all meant. If it was not obvious, at some point someone would say “it must be ritual then,” and we would all laugh, and then someone would be sent for to the bar for some more inspiration.