Once upon a time, long ago, a minor donation was entered into accession records at the Bristol City Museum in England. The well intentioned donation eventually became a challenge in curation for the museum as well as part of a developing legend over nearly a century in the donor’s family. The making of this film helped …
Category Archives: Archaeology
Refining a Pilot Film
Archaeology from the Ashes is a film short about wildfire and archaeology in California. It focuses on the San Diego back country, where a complex topography and a convoluted wildland/urban interface together with older fire suppression practices which are now widely questioned contributed to the ferocity of a string of wildfires between 2000 and 2010. One …
West of the Taff
I have a little book project focused on Cardiff archaeology, legend and folklore. It is going more slowly than originally planned but working on the sections is giving me a chance to re-explore all sorts of archaeological legends and the odd corners of Cardiff folklore run into since first moving here in 1978. Some of …
Ye Sygne of Swanne
Off to the North Country I went to help produce an episode of archaeological television. So, what would be my line? One of the decisions interns have to make is what aspect of the production they most want to work on. A few months ago I might have said camerawork, but I am firmly moving …
A Visit with Lucy, Darwin and Michele Guieu
Michele Guieu is a French artist who recently created a largely ephemeral installation contemplating her own relationship with and influences from palaeontology, Darwinian evolutionary theory and her experiences living in Africa with her parents as a child. The Art Produce Gallery is a small space adjacent to an excellent coffee bar in San Diego. It’s …
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Visiting the Purton Hulks
Last week’s field trip involved the reconnoitre of the Severn foreshore between Sharpness and Gloucester on the eastern side, and then down to Lydney on the west bank. This means we largely looked at maritime and industrial sites, and of those we saw, the most spectacular was the “Purton Hulks”. Also the most interesting in …
Bonekickers
Here’s the problem: They make TV dramas about all sorts of occupations; crab fishermen, lawyers, doctors, ice-truckers. The excellent A Very Peculiar Practice even made academic environments look intriguing and Third Rock from the Sun had some fun with anthropology. So why can’t they make a good dramatic or humorous series about archaeologists then? Bonekickers, a 6 part series shown in …