One of the enjoyable aspects of my work is the preparation I do for workshops and projects in terms of finding and making resources.
Lately, this has involved sourcing artefacts from places such as the University of Manchester, the University of Birmingham, and the Derbyshire School Library Service and liaising with the wonderfully helpful staff there – Hannah Cobb, Jo Wright, Ken Wardle, Clare Mullett, Emily Millward and Marilyn, to name but a few. I have also increased my collection of animal bones courtesy of Mycocks the butchers here in Buxton, as well as the hills of the Lake District and Peak District! The summer also saw my children and I scouring the beaches of North Yorkshire for shells of all shapes sizes and types.
However, I have also been rather creative as of late.
I have been making Linear B tablets, cuneiform tablets and the stylus with which to write, psi, phi and tau figurines, spindle whorls and loom weights and fragments of frescoes. This has not only been immensely enjoyable, it has also been quite informative – nothing like experimental archaeology to get you thinking about how people actually made the things we find!
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