OCTOBER

Welcome to the all-new Newsletter. We have a new design and layout (not quite finalised!), a new Editor, Lesley Collett, and hopefully some new features to come. We kick off with Richard Sheppard’s report on the recent Conference, held at his own former University.

with its 12th century timber roof, its Conference 1998 courtrooms and undercroft. After a wander to the top of the castle motte, It was with great interest that I Come Saturday morning we were in we were encouraged to visit the excellent motored down to Leicester for this for a treat. Transported to a lecture hall Museum. This stands next to year’s conference, not having seen much on the university campus, our first a remarkable Roman wall, that somehow of the place since my student days back speaker was Victor Ambrus, one of the survived the awful road scheme which in the 1970s. Although the traffic has regulars on Time Team. Although Victor tore the heart out of the historic town in grown out of all proportion, thankfully rarely opens his mouth on the the 1960s. Although the centre of the place has changed very little, including programme, he spoke to us about his Leicester has been badly affected by the I am pleased to say, our venue, Beaumont long experience of historical illustration, later 20th century, our guides introduced Hall, where I was resident for three years. the pressures of working for Time Team us to many of the city’s treasures, and a Half of our contingent came early producers, and the value of keeping up sense of the town’s history. on the Friday and were able to see the with life drawing. This was peppered with The evening lecture by Dr. Graham diversity on offer in the city, as revealed amusing anecdotes and the chance to see Morgan presented the conservator’s on the Belgrave Road. Also known as the some of his pencil drawings at first hand. viewpoint and how it overlaps with that ‘Golden Mile’, the area is renowned for It’s a shame he is not a member. of the finds illustrator. His talk proved its jewellery shops and Asian cuisine. A The next speaker, Steve Dobson, to be thought-provoking, not least number of delegates took the spoke about trends in computer because Graham mentioned the potential opportunity to do a little shopping, visualisation in archaeology. This dangers of handling chemicals on coming away with unusual kitchen continued the morning’s theme of the conserved objects. He spoke as one who utensils and bags of sweets. The Jain importance of making archaeological appreciates objects for their intrinsic Temple (the only one outside India) data visual for the layman. Steve’s worth, not just for their cultural impressed delegates with its beautiful examples included interactive computer significance. Graham then joined us for marble sculptures, stained glass windows, models derived from intensive laser wine in a 20th Anniversary celebration. and the intriguing religious thought scanning, (Giya Project), from total On Sunday, our host, Debbie Miles behind it. For some worshippers this even station survey (Hopi Indian pit-house), Williams, had several of her students means avoiding potatoes in their diet, as and photo-modelling for more realistic come for a portfolio session. Members they are considered live beings. effects (Castell Henlys). Whilst many of of Council were assigned to each Once settled in, we started the Friday the views on show were impressive, VR participant on a one-to-one basis, and night proceedings with the usual still has problems with monotonous comments and advice offered. All agreed introduction to the local archaeological textures, a lack of human scaling and in that it was a useful exercise with practical scene, with a talk by Neil Finn on the justifying the use of powerful computers value for the students concerned. This multi-period site of Eye Kettleby. Here, for limited output. was followed by an enthralling lecture by the Archaeology Following a thankfully brief AGM, Ian Meadows of Northamptonshire Unit has been studying a large area since we now set out on our guided tour of Archaeology, who unfolded the sequence 1993, finding features varying from Leicester in the rain. Nick Cooper did of events that led to the discovery of a Neolithic pits to Anglo-Saxon structures. his best to explain the development of rare Anglo-Saxon helmet on a gravel After this tour through the millennia, we the city from its pre-Roman beginnings, quarry site. A natural speaker, Ian retired to the bar to drink and swap contending with people’s brollies and proceeded to show how the helmet, gossip, amongst faces familiar and new, noisy traffic. His route took us down the initially hidden within a lump of the latter including several friendly and Georgian New Walk, and into the heart corrosion, gradually came to light enthusiastic students. Also in the bar was of the town where we glimpsed some through X-rays and painstaking a gathering of local Tories, one of whom of the older buildings that have survived conservation work. His slide showing two was foolish enough to try discussing the modern era. Richard Buckley took glum-faced managers from the gravel politics with the Oxford contingent - over at Leicester Castle, where we were company Pioneer, peering down at this dangerous indeed! allowed to view the interior of the Hall, lump, was particularly memorable. The 2 Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors company did eventually pay for all subsequent conservation, and the helmet, Job Seekers 1999 Conference only the fourth to be found in England, When the Association is asked to Following our offer to arrange next is now called the Pioneer Helmet. advertise jobs to its membership we year’s conference, Margaret and I spent Our final speaker was Michael would like, in the future, to be able to a few lunchtimes descending upon Brammen from the Association of target those members who are actively various Halls of Residence around Illustrators. Michael outlined the work of seeking a new position or freelance Reading. As a result, we now have a the AOI and what it offers its 2000 work. This will make the process more venue and dates, so put them in your members in terms of advice and outlet. efficient, saving time and postage costs, diaries NOW. The next conference will The advantages for freelance illustrators and help to improve the response time be on Friday September 3rd to Sunday of having joint AAI&S-AOI to these requests. It always surprises me September 5th 1999. We will be based membership is obvious, and I am pleased how much time it takes to photocopy at Wantage Hall, University of Reading. to say that a number of our Full Members the details, fold and stuff into enve- For those of you who have not been to have now taken up the option (see lopes, add address labels and stamps Reading before, the Hall is off the main Subscription note for details). and stagger down to the post box. (Whiteknights) university campus, After the group photograph the If we can reduce the numbers who about a mile from the town centre and Conference ended on a satisfied note. are sent details, we can then go out and railway station. The Hall dates from Congratulations to Debbie for sell this service on your behalf to the early years of this century, built organizing a successful and enjoyable potential employers, and increase your around a quadrangle with a bar, meeting weekend, and managing it all whilst chances of hearing of your ‘dream job’. rooms and a computer workroom. having her hands full as a new mother. If you wish to be included on the There is a bus service (the main route Thanks also to her band of helpers from mailing list for jobs please contact the serving the campus stops 5 minutes the department, and to all the speakers membership secretary through the walk away). Further details will be sent and guides. The accommodation was central mailing address. Your name will out with the formal conference details comfortable and the food excellent. What be added to the list for the membership when people have booked. more could one want? Next year it’s year, and in order to keep the list up to Reading - can you do it as well? date we would ask you to confirm your Turning to the programme for the interest every November when, of weekend, we have a number of ideas Richard Sheppard (with thanks to Debbie course, we all pay our subscriptions. and people we have in mind to contact. and to Mike Rouillard for sharing their We hope to include speakers and thoughts about the weekend) Rob Read demonstrations of digital building recording, integrated site database systems, ‘hands-on’ computer graphics Conference 2000 - a place in the sun? workshops as well as some more ‘traditional’ subjects. Following on Hazel Martingell has offered to from the last conferences’ well received look into the possibility of organising ‘portfolio’ sessions, we expect to repeat a special conference to mark the the event for other interested parties. millennium on the island of Gozo. For In the meantime, although we have those whose strong point is not several ideas for the programme, if geography, Gozo is south of Sicily, SIC anyone feels they would like to make a ILY adjacent to Malta. It would be hoped contribution along the above lines, they to organise the travel as well as the GOZO are welcome to contact us via central conference itself, probably going for a MALTA mailing or c/o Department of week’s stay. The conference would last an Archaeology, University of Reading, M ane two or three days leaving the rest of editerr PO Box 218, Reading, RG6 6AA. We the time for exploration and relaxation. are open to suggestions or offers! Obviously the Association does not Steve Allen wish Hazel to spend time organising Margaret Mathews this event if the support is not there, and so we would like you to contact us We would hope to confirm as soon as possible if you are interested whether this venue is to be our in going. It is felt that there would need conference base by January 1999 to SUBSCRIPTIONS to be a minimum of twenty delegates. allow for an alternative if it is not a 1998-9 subscriptions are due now. If Hazel feels that the conference is possibility. Interested members Please fill in and return enclosed feasible we would ask at that stage for should contact central mailing by renewal forms as soon as possible. confirmed bookings with a deposit. January 15th at the latest. October 1998 3

COUNCIL MATTERS UNIVERSITY OF YORK Mike Rouillard (Membership) and required. The new posts of DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY Phil Newman (Newsletter) stood down Publications Officer, who will monitor from Council this year. Three new the progress of all the Association’s TECHNICIAN/ILLUSTRATOR members were elected to Council at the publications, and Publicity/Liaison Ref: 98/A33 AGM in Leicester (Paul Hughes, Lesley Officer, who will deal with the You must be able to produce Collett and Anne Searight). Association’s website, display material illustrations to a high publication At a Council meeting in September and liaise with other organisations, were standard, and to undertake the the roles and responsibilities of Council accepted by Paul Hughes and Mike various administrative and officers were discussed, and it was Pringle respectively. The full Council technical tasks required to agreed that some modifications were now looks like this: support the Department’s Hon. Chairman ...... Rob Read teaching and research. These Hon. Secretary ...... John Hodgson other duties include photography, laboratory management, and Hon. Treasurer ...... Richard Sheppard teaching archaeological Publications Officer ...... Paul Hughes illustration. Membership Officer ...... Eddie Lyons Training will be provided to Assessments Officer ...... David Williams augment skills as necessary in Publicity/Liaison Officer ...... Mike Pringle this post, which requires Technical Paper Editor ...... Barbara Hurman & Melanie Steiner flexibility, interpersonal skills and Newsletter Editor ...... Lesley Collett organisational ability. A degree Council Member Without Portfolio ...... Anne Searight or equivalent qualification and at Co-opted member: least 1 years relevant experience Journal Editor ...... Seán Goddard is required Conference Organisers ...... Margaret Mathews, Steve Allen Salary will be in the range Jolly Good Fellow £12,867 - £15,361 per annum. Congratulations to Richard Bryant, who was elected the Association’s third Fellow at the For an application form and AGM in Leicester this September. further details for the above post please write on a postcard to: Deirdre Crone writes: Through the standard of his own Personnel Office illustrations, and particularly his Richard may be seen as virtually the University of York championing of reproduced pencil founding father of the Association; it Heslington was he who called that first gathering drawing as the most effective and YORK of draughtsmen interested in economic medium for stone and YO10 5DD archaeology in Manchester in 1977, ceramics, he has consistently raised the touching an amazing number of lonely profile and reputation of illustration Please quote the reference voices across the country, all crying in throughout the archaeological field. number. Closing date for what seemed a wilderness. He This has been enhanced by his applications is Monday 2nd responded to that need, channelling the complementary career in publishing, November 1998 energy of so much creative interest, where he has been able from the frustration and anger into a positive gamekeeper’s side to change attitudes force. Helpers came and moved on, but and aspirations, re-evaluating the whole Richard was the constant figure, even balance and effectiveness of image and standards of archaeological through the lean years when cutbacks text in communication, treating the draughtsmanship,not only among our rather than lack of interest reduced the artwork with care and respect. peers in illustration and design but also conference to an afternoon in London He was also the first illustrator since in the scientific and academic in 1981. Carter, in my experience, to be recorded communities. It could all have died then, but as Site Director and co-author. In Richard Bryant we have a man gradually the Association has become His membership of the Association to whom we largely owe our corporate the professional anchor in spans the full twenty years, in the Chair, existence, whose long service to the archaeological illustration, establishing on the Council or applying his editorial profession on so many levels deserves guidelines, offering support and advice expertise. Without ever resorting to our recognition and our thanks (if only to illustrators, their employers and divine intervention, he has encouraged for his constant, courageous display of their markets. the Association, raising the profile and choice cravats). 4 Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors New Council Members As several new faces have appeared on the Council recently, we thought Membership Officer Eddie Lyons: it might be appropriate to introduce some of them. Unfortunately, most were too shy to supply photographs, despite my threats to substitute “By nationality I am Irish, hailing from the city of Cork ‘artist’s impressions’ in the Republic of Ireland. My background is in technical illustration, having trained as a draughtsman. I worked for Taking over as Newsletter Editor is Lesley Collett. two years (1983 – 85) in small civil engineering firms in Cork, “I graduated from Lancaster in as a draughtsman on small to medium sized construction 1982 with a degree in Archaeology, projects. Apart from construction, the work included basic and spent most of the following few field and building survey, the former for producing plans of years as a circuit digger, or more accident scenes for use in civil court cases. It also included precisely a circuit planner, working work on electrical/mechanical projects. During this time I on various excavations for the started evening courses in mechanics and surveying as Central Excavation Unit, Wessex tentative first steps towards eventual qualification as an Archaeology and others. Though engineer. However, in early 1985 I was made redundant, and nominally a site supervisor I spent an gave up the classes a while later. After hunting unsuccessfully increasing amount of time producing for other jobs, I did a three-month part-time course in drawings, and by 1985 I was running the drawing office for AutoCAD in late 1985. the Sandwell Valley Archaeology Project. During my annual holidays I worked on the excavations at Bordesley Abbey, In 1986 I moved to Manchester, and in 1987 I started where I was seriously impressed by the plans and elevations part-time work for the Greater Manchester Archaeological produced by Iain McCaig, and David Walsh’s stone drawings. Unit (GMAU) on a Manpower Services Commission scheme I considered such fine drawings to be the best way to record on the Roman fort at Castleshaw, primarily as a draughtsman archaeological evidence – written records seemed so but including some time outdoors on the excavation. This imprecise, so subjective. I resolved to improve my drawing was my first experience of working in archaeology, although skills. I had always had a slight interest in the subject. I spent two formative years at GMAU, with the work expanding to include I did not consider myself an illustrator until the winter of archaeological building survey and construction of museum 1988, when after a brief period with the (now defunct) exhibits. In September 1988 my time with GMAU came to Chelmsford Archaeological Trust I joined Essex County an end, and I spent a brief three-week period working for Council’s Archaeology Section. Here I learned an enormous the (now-defunct) Trust for Lincolnshire Archaeology on amount from Alison McGhie and Sue Holden about finds an evaluation excavation in Boston. illustration, of which I had little previous experience, and about preparing illustrations for print. In the same year I In October 1988 I moved to Portsmouth to start work as joined the Association, and gained full membership in 1992. an illustrator with the Central Excavation Unit (now Central Archaeology Service) of English Heritage, where I remain For the last ten years I have worked full-time for County to this day. My work currently concentrates on publication Council and professional archaeology units, covering the full projects, both managing illustration programmes and range of archaeological illustration. Recently this has meant producing illustrations by hand and on computer, mainly increasing amounts of developer reports, shorter deadlines, using AutoCAD. I am also involved in developing fewer finds illustrations and, increasingly, use of computers. methodologies, such as formulating practical techniques for I have adapted to the use of AutoCAD and Illustrator, learnt using AutoCAD in on-site recording. a bit of typesetting and (not altogether reluctantly) put away my rotrings. I feel it is important that the profession should I first became aware of the AAI&S in 1989, and joined keep up with these developments, and illustrators should as a Licentiate in 1990. I remained a passive member, simply learn to adapt their skills to new technologies, without paying my dues and attending the annual Conference most sacrificing high quality. years, until I was persuaded to stand for election to Council at the 1997 AGM, but I did not take on a specific Council I had toyed with the idea of standing for Council some role during the year that followed. In the recent revamping years ago, but was slightly surprised to be invited to stand of Council I agreed to take on the role of Membership this time. I was even more surprised to find myself suddenly Officer vacated by Mike Rouillard in September. As this is Newsletter Editor (my colleagues were persuasive, only the start of my tenure in this role, I have not yet had flattering and ten to one). I must express my immense time to form any impression of the job, but after originally gratitude to all those who contributed to this edition, being a somewhat reluctant candidate for Council I’m looking especially Richard Sheppard for his eleventh-hour forward to a hopefully productive (first) twelve months as e-mail that saved the front page!” Membership Officer.” October 1998 5 Oxford blues Paul Hughes looks back at some of the problems he has encountered over the years as the profession has developed to cope with constantly-changing technology

I spent 12 years in the National Museum of Wales working 60’s and early 70’s, many of the printers and repro houses began as an Archaeological Illustrator in the Department Of replacing their cameras with new models that could copy work Archaeology and Numismatics under the watchful eye of Colin no larger than A1 and more commonly, A2. Although this Williams, probably one of the best archaeological illustrators change happened 20 years or so ago, I still had archaeologists of the 1970s. Colin worked for GKN steel works as an insisting on having their work drawn on A0 for 25% reduction accomplished draughtsman before turning to museum work. up until about seven years ago. (Some still do. Ed.) We introduced Because of this he had the skill to construct his drawings with a policy of drawing almost everything at A2 for half reduction, unbelievable accuracy using ‘real’ technical and engineering and for a relatively short time, getting the illustrations published principals before rendering them as archaeological illustrations. became almost painless.

To Colin my background appeared to be quite different to Now, however, we are finding ourselves having to face the his as I had just graduated from Newport College of Art with next set of problems presented by progress. Drawings to print a degree in Graphic Design (Illustration and Printmaking). He followed a well set procedure - drawing is shot (photographed) discovered however, that we had a common background; I had to film, either as a negative or positive depending on the printing spent three years in a school of technical building where applied plate used, the film is planned in with the rest of the pages technical and geometric drawing was taught, along with building making up that spread and the printing plate is exposed through construction drawing. the film. But now - no film. It has become common practice to supply text to printers on disc. We don’t give it a second thought, So back in October 1976 my life as an archaeological we type away on our computers, save to disc and pass it down illustrator began. How pleasurable it was. Days could go by as the line. But a quiet revolution has taken place in the last couple one indulged in the rendering of an artifact. Months could pass of years - plates ready for print direct from disc. No film - no if a hoard of things turned up. We sat and drew them, on Bristol planning - no way of planning in the drawings. Board with a Rotring for the outline and then stippled with a mapping pen. No one told us what we were drawing them for, This was a problem that I encountered last year whilst asking we seldom knew the size of the publication that they were to for printing quotes. One well-known printer of archaeological be printed in and to us it didn’t matter because we were indulging journals has now gone down the ‘disc to plate’ road. Because in our love of drawing and being well paid to do so. of their changeover they could only handle our publication if the illustrations were all scanned in on a high-resolution scanner February 1st 1988 and the first day of work in the Oxford and the scans placed in the publication - an additional cost of Archaeological Unit. Suddenly my world had been turned upside £2500. We couldn’t do the work ourselves unless we shot all down. Gone were the illustrators with real skills and in their the work down to A4 but even then it would not have been place were the ex-MSC scheme youths with work allergies and practical, as the file size of the figures would have been too big attitude. The Unit also had people drawing things with no regard for us to handle on our computers. to the whys and wherefores, but at the same time there was an incredible amount of pressure to complete the work and get it Today the OAU graphics office has two drawing boards, published. Money was always tight but no attempt was being which have sporadic use, six computer stations and various made to become more efficient. scanners, printers and other related bits of hardware. Much of the drawing work is done in Adobe Illustrator 7.0 based on The OAU has come a long way in the last ten years but the information taken from AutoCAD 14 or Gsys and/or scanned road to change has been uphill all the way. The Graphics Office site drawings. Illustrations produced in Illustrator can be placed now has a team of competent and experienced illustrators: most into publications typeset in Adobe PageMaker 6.5 and passed have degrees in archaeology as well as illustration skills. to the printers on disc for direct output to plate or film as Archaeologists who require illustrative work are supposed to required. fill in forms stating what the publication is, the format, time allocated, invoice code and so on. But strangely, it has not Despite our archaeological colleagues getting over-excited become routine, and almost every day we have to ask the same by the idea of publishing on the Internet (always ten steps ahead old questions - what do you want it for? When do you want it of themselves with ideas, but ten years behind in execution) we by? What is it to be published in? are looking at the potential of printing from disc to digital copiers. This should enable us to produce short run, low funded The next big problem to face overlapped with the first. publications efficiently and effectively. Drawings on A0 sized film, usually drawn on the insistence of a field officer, were always a reprographic problem. In the late 6 Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ OPINION Technology on Trial In recent years the world of As more and more printers will rather than pixels. Drawings can be re- commercial publication has moved only accept digital copy these days, we coloured, re-sized and re-shaped in the into the digital age. Computers, ought to consider what is to become computer without diminishing their megabytes and zip-disks are now as of our drawings. Should we scan them, much parts of the modern commercial or draw them on computer in the first illustration tool kit as Rotring pen and place? And what’s the difference? watercolour. Illustrators are now asked Perhaps a comparison might be useful. to integrate illustrations into a product, Right: Pottery drawn by hand on the publication, and the publication is film, reduced to 1:2 on copy camera, no longer solely the book, but the scanned at 1200 dpi and reproduced magazine, web-page or CD-ROM. at 1:4. Placed as a TIF file (Tagged Within the world of archaeological Image File Format). File size: 1233 KB

illustration it seems as though we are ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ Tifs are “raster” images, made up split into two worlds. The surveyors of pixels, so quality depends on the have been working with CAD and GIS resolution of the scan, but high for many years now, whereas the resolution increases file size and can illustrators have been seemingly loath become impossibly large.These images to relinquish their pens. However,in the can be edited to some extent using last year or so commercial archaeology software such as Photoshop, but not has begun integrating computer- with the flexibility available to a vector sharpness or smoothness; individual illustration packages within design drawing. elements within a drawing can be studios. This is an international trend Below: Pottery drawn in Adobe moved independently of all other and an area where the British Illustrator, drawing placed directly into elements. The images are resolution archaeological community will need PageMaker. File size: 254 KB independent; image quality depends on guidance from the AAI&S. Packages such as Illustrator and the resolution of the printer, not the It would seem logical that the CorelDraw produce vector image. AAI&S research this area. The graphics,which are composed of lines Lesley Collett archaeologists and publishers need to be contacted to define their needs. Discussion with the AOI would give feedback from those already illustrating digitally. Current software must be tested to find which packages are best adapted to our requirements. Once such research is completed the AAI&S should lay down a set of guidelines available to all within the Association and the wider archaeological community. This is not an area that can be ignored by the Association. The computer will, and for some of us already has become a standard part of the archaeological illustrator’s tool kit, and a standardisation of method and software now may save many of us from wasting money and resolve problems of compatibility in the future. Mike Middleton

Perhaps other computer users would like to respond to this. It would be valuable if users of different packages could review the strengths and weaknesses of their software and share Drawing by their thoughts in this Newsletter. (Ed.) Mike Middleton October 1998 7

AAI&S on the World Wide Web DIARY The Association is about to go global, l MEMBERS contains a list of the Kent Archaeological Field School, with the production of our first World Association’s current members and details School Farm Oast, Graveney Road, Wide Web-site rapidly reaching its final about Council roles. Links to members’ Faversham, Kent stages. The site will contain all sorts of own web pages will be placed here. All Tel: 0181 987 8827/ 0585 700 112. interesting cyber-snippets including current members’ names (not details) will Fees £25 per session electronic copies of information sheets, be listed on this page unless you inform October 31st 1998: membership details, sample images, links us that you do not wish to be mentioned. Archaeological Finds to members’ web-pages, technical paper lHISTORY gives a little background Drawing Course, led by our information and order forms.....to name material about the AAI&S. own Jane Russell but a few. l PAPERS describes all AAI&S November 7th 1998: The site will be hosted on the publications including information sheets Recording of Wooden Ships Bournemouth University web-server and and technical papers. Day course including afternoon will be easily and instantly accessible from lCAREERS outlines some of the subject of practical measuring and any connected computer in the world. The areas that constitute archaeological recording. web-site address will be sent to illustration and describes the sort of work November 21st 1998: archaeological groups, colleges and that is available in the areas. This page also Recording of Vernacular universities and other related organisations includes a list of British Colleges and Buildings with a request for them to place a link, on Universities that offer courses in some of their own web-site, to ours. The site will the subjects. University of Oxford Department also include email links enabling people, lCONTACT gives the AAI&S contact for Continuing Education, Rewley including those in other countries, to address and details. The page also includes House, 1 Wellington Square, contact the Association at the click of a email links. Oxford OX1 2JA button. (Tel: 01865 270380) The content of the site is fairly If you have anything you would like to Publishing Archaeology on comprehensive and is categorised under see on the web-site, please forward it to us the Web – an Introduction the following headings: NOW! This can include images, e-mail Two-day course to be held at addresses, links to other websites, Rewley House, Oxford, on 7th lGENERAL describes the overall aims and suggestions for content. In fact just about - 8th December 1998. functions of the Association, as well as anything - we can even include sound, video Fees from £95.50. outlining services offered, Conference etc. or virtual reality! If you want to ask or lJOINING gives details of the various suggest anything just pick up the phone and The Prehistoric Temples of levels of membership available in the talk to Mike Pringle on: Malta AAI&S. 01722 333817 or 01793 785204 Saturday 23 January 1999, l IMAGES is a collection of reduced or, if you’re already connected, send Rewley House, Oxford resolution images produced by members. The an e-mail to (Ideal preparation for Gozo page contains a selection of thumbnail icons - [email protected] conference!) clicking on these will load up a larger version of the image Mike Pringle Pitt Rivers – The Man and the Museum Dayschool on one of the LOOKS FAMILIAR? founding fathers of archaeology Does anyone know who did these and anthropology illustrations for a little book on British Saturday 20th February, Oxford Prehistory, probably published in the fifties/ University Museum of Natural sixties, and who wrote it? I found a copy in History a library when I was a student and Fees from £25.50 photocopied the illustrations (about ten, all black-and-white). I’d love to get hold of a Aspects of Prehistory in SE copy as the illustrations were very inspiring. England I don’t remember the text! 14th November 1998, Christ’s Church College, Canterbury Sam Potter (Ms) Full details from Angie Kin, Drawing Office, 7, Sandy Ridge, Borough Oxford Archaeological Unit Green, Kent TN15 8HP Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0ES 8 Association of Archaeological Illustrators and Surveyors

Mystery Object DIARY Before Hadrian’s Wall: The This object was found in Stanegate the excavations at Yarnton, 14th November 1998, The Oxfordshire last year. It Customs House, Mill Dam, appears to have come from a South Shields. Details from: waterhole adjacent to a ‘Burnt The Society, Arbeia Mound’, and is apparently of Roman Fort, Baring Street, early Bronze Age date. The cross South Shields NE33 2BB section and form of the ‘blade’ would tend to suggest that this is Essex Archaeological a weaving sword. The two notches Symposium 1998 towards the end, though, are 14th November 1998 unusual. They are relatively freshly Essex Archaeological & cut, compared to the rest of the Historical Congress’ annual worked surfaces. Tools similar to jamboree at the Thameside this have been identified at the Theatre, Thurrock, Essex. early medieval site of Contact Pamela Greenwood, Novgorod as ‘scutches’, also Newham Museum Service, 31 used in weaving. These Stock Street, Plaistow, London examples, though, have teeth E13 0BX cut along the whole length of the blade. It is possible that TAG ’98 this is therefore an old Annual conference of the weaving sword undergoing Theoretical Archaeology Group, conversion to a ‘scutch’ when, 19th- 21st December 1998 for whatever reason, it was Details from: BUFAU, discarded. As mentioned, University of Birmingham, the parallels for this are early Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 medieval. Bronze Age 2TT examples from Ireland have Tel: 0121 414 5515 a more traditional sword- Web: www.bham.ac.uk/tag98 style grip rather than this form of handle. Has anyone 11th January 1999 any better ideas or parallels? Leather Clothing Steve Allen A meeting of the Archaeological Leather Group at the Museum of London. Apologies for poor quality of the For details contact Quita scan - my fault! (Lesley) scale 1:4 Mould, Christmas Cottage, Choseley, Docking, Kings ©Oxford Archaeological Unit Lynn, Norfolk PE31 8PQ. Tel: 01485 512443

CONTRIBUTIONS CENTRAL MAILING Letters and articles on any loosely relevant subject are welcome. Please send AAI&S, c/oUniversity of Exeter any material to me c/o Central Mailing or e-mail it directly to me at: Department of Archaeology, [email protected]. Drawings and graphics of any kind are Queen’s Building, especially welcome. Deadline for next issue: February 1999. The Queen’s Drive, EXETER The personal views expressed here by Association members and non-members EX4 4QH may not be those of the AAI&S Council e-mail: [email protected] ©AAI&S,October 1998