I am (still) surrounded by stacks of things - things to pack, things to get ready, things to sort and things to do. Tomorrow afternoon is set-up time for the Nadelwelt, where Margit and I will be selling our things Friday to Sunday, so it's high time for me to get all the things done.

Meanwhile, here are some links for you...

VAT Moss (or VAT Mess) had a consultation (something like a public questionnaire) last year, and they have closed it now and are (hopefully) taking all the criticism from small traders into account. Here's a little bit of info about it, along with links to the raw data and some more articles.

The Glasgow Textile Conservation blog has an article about storage boxes for textiles.

Doug's Archaeology features a number of conference videos about archaeological mapping.

And speaking of maps, XKCD has a flowchart on dating an undated map.

That's it for today. I'll be off to the fair tomorrow, and I'll be taking off a few days afterwards to make up for the last two weekends, so I'll be back here and posting stuff on Thursday.

And if you're near Karlsruhe - drop by at the Nadelwelt fair and see me at stall F2.3!

Reconstructions are a wonderful thing to show how something actually looked like in the past. However, they are also a dangerous thing - almost all reconstructions require a bit (often much more than a bit) of guesswork or conjecture, which, of course, also means they can include wrong guesses.

When a reconstruction is well made, though, it looks very convincing, no matter whether it includes wrong guesses or not. Which means that a reconstruction might lead to wrong assumptions. There's also the problem of where to reconstruct... and of how much. Building reconstructed houses right on top of their original sites, for instance, was sometimes done in the past, resulting in open-air museums... however, there's a bunch of issues associated with doing the in situ things, one of them being extra disturbance of the ground (where a future dig will not yield anything useful anymore, because of the modern building activities). The same is true for partially surviving buildings - putting the reconstructed part on top of the ruins is not only an issue for the ruin itself, it also usually means that it is hard to tell where the original ends and the reconstruction starts.

On the other hand, reconstructions are invaluable in showing how something actually looked, giving a much better idea of the importance of buildings and objects. Most lay people will need some help in understanding a ruin or bits and bobs from archaeological digs, and reconstructing does give that help, while also putting things into context nicely.

This is easier for artefacts, when you can just place the reconstruction next to the original in a museum case. It's a little more difficult for an ensemble such as a grave find or a large artefact, but still possible. Buildings pose a much bigger challenge - but there's a totally brilliant, easily reversible and very flexible way of showing how something might have looked:

[caption id="attachment_2390" align="alignnone" width="640"] Heidentor, Austria. Photo: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16996191


Placing a glass or plastic sheet with the reconstruction lined out in a place where you can visually overlap them - this really is a wonderful way to show how a building might have looked; easy to update and easily reversible.

I blame the weather for still feeling tired - it's mostly grey outside, and rather cold, though today there is a little more sunshine (which is nice).

There's better news than bad weather, though! A good while ago, I had the opportunity to take a closer look at two braided bands from the Hallstatt salt mines. Ah, it is always a wonderful thing to sit in the basement depot and see the original textiles, dating back to the Bronze Age, all sitting nicely in their little protective boxes and those in turn in a chest of drawers. (It's cold down there, though. I caught more than one cold during my visits... being so wrapped up in fascination that I did not realise I was cooling out too much.)

[caption id="attachment_2385" align="alignnone" width="421"] One of the two bands discussed in the article. This is one of my working photos - the article has nicer images than this, of course.


From that close look and some trials in braiding, plus cooperation with Karina Grömer and Joy Boutrup, the two bands are now finally published in form of a proper, nice article, printed in the latest issue (n. 57) of the Archaeological Textiles Review.
If you have an academia.edu-account, you can find it here.

I'm not a fan of cheese, but this made me smile - some really, really old cheese has been discovered in China, and it dates back to the Bronze Age.

Also archaeology-related: Newcastle University offers a series of Masterclasses, targeted at students, researchers and those working with artefacts. The Material Skills Masterclasses will run this June, so fairly soon - if you are interested, go check their website.

Also, the cat is watching. To make sure I do everything on the list today, of course. Not because she's speculating on something tasty... no.

Last November, a conference about why the world needs anthropologists took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. If that sounds at all interesting to you, here's more info about the conference, and here is a 4.5 hour video taken during the conference, so you can enjoy some of the talks. (h/t to Rainer Schreg at Archaeologik.)

The newest issue of Fornvännen (a Swedish archaeology magazine) is available online.

The archaeology museum in Cambridge has a Roman pot, decorated with art featuring penises, on permanent display - here's a short article about it, of course including pictures.

Finally, thanks to a new shelter, a rare 13th century tile floor is on display again at Cleeve Abbey in Somerset.

I have two links for you this morning - Doug from Doug's Archaeology has attended the conference about Computer Applications and Quantitative Measurements in Archaeology this March, and if you're interested in the presentations that were given, go visit his blog post - there are several videos of presentations from the conference.

More textile-related: Here's a blogpost from a conservation student about washing a 19th century embroidery sampler.

Also? Flowers!


These lovely buttercups hang out on the table in the wintergarden, spending all their effort on looking good. (Also, while looking up their English name, I just learned that they should not be handled extensively, as they can cause contact dermatitis in humans.)

Routledge is granting free access to their archaeology journals (everything after 1997) from today until April 17. The list of free journals (43 altogether) includes Medieval Archaeology, Journal of European Archaeology, and the Journal of the British Archaeological Association, so if you are interested in archaeology, it's definitely worth a look.

Access is possible via this page on Routledge - enjoy!