Last Week
I'm back! Didn't have all that much to post about last week. Same old.
On Thursday, I got to help Jack, the Near East curator, with a class he was holding in the newly opened Antiquities study room. It was a group of 5 or 6 people, and they were looking at some carved ivory panels and some cylinder seals. I'm not sure exactly what culture these came from...but they were pretty cool. The ivory panels were these little post-it sized carvings, which were apparently decorative bits in furniture - like the headboard of a bed, or the back of a chair, etc. They were pretty nice. And the cylinder seals are like a little pieces of fancy rock that have been shaped into a cylinder with a hole drilled through the centre, then carved with a couple images to represent the holder. So they were kind of like seal rings, only instead of stamping them to make the mark, you roll them. Then whoever owned it would tie it on a string or necklace like a bead, and whenever they needed to 'sign' something they had their seal with them. It was pretty interesting to see the types of symbols and imagery people would choose to represent themselves. I guess sometimes the seals would be passed on to family members, but generally each one represents a different individual.
I didn't do all that much during the session - I was kind of like security; Jack had to leave the room occasionally, and so I was just there to just watch the objects while no one else was in the room. You know, In case the seals and ivory bits got too rowdy or something. And then I just helped a bit with cleaning things up at the end. But still, it was a nice break from staring at the computer. After the class, Helen had arranged for us to go on a tour of the Eastern Art Department's storage areas, which were just redone. The antiquities storage areas are planned to be redone as well, so everyone wanted to see what Eastern Art was able to do with their funding. So Thursday at least was a bit more interesting than normal.
On Friday, I finished the auction catalogues report (pending Yannis' approval). It felt good to finish something. I think in the end it was a pretty thorough report, and hopefully someone will find it useful. But now that I'm done, I don't really have anything ongoing to do at work. There are a few things I can do, but I could probably finish all of them in a day or two, and I still have 7 days left in the office. 18 days total until I come home, 12 working days, but 3 of those will be at the Marcham excavation, one will be in the galleries helping with an installation, and one will be in London on an Antiquities staff outing to Southwark. So I need to find a project that will take 5 days or so to finish, then I'll be good.
Yesterday (Saturday) was a fun day. I went to London and met up with Laura and Lindsay from U of T. We went to Portobello Road, which is a famous antiques/doo-dads market. Yep, its the same as the one they go and sing about in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." Saturday is the main market day, so it was crazy busy. At this time of year though, everywhere is crazy busy with tourists, so if you want to do anything you just need to suck it up and brave the crowds. When I left Oxford yesterday, I couldn't believe the amount of people downtown. The worst are these massive bus tours of high-school age kids, who move as a group down the streets. And usually stand the middle of the sidewalk. Its very annoying, actually.
Anyways, Portobello Road was worth it despite the crowds. Lots of interesting shops and booths, and we actually spent probably four hours or more there. I saw tons of things I wanted to buy, but I only bought two and neither of them are antiques. A big seller there are pocket watches - both antique ones and new ones. I bought a new one, its pretty cool. Apparently, pocket watches have become a bit of a fad lately, which I didn't know...oh well, I still like mine. The only antique I came close to buying was a 1930's edition of "Peter Pan and Wendy", which was in really good condition with the original dust cover and everything. But it was 25 pounds, and though the seller said he would come down to 22, it was still pretty pricey. I figured that there were probably lots of old copies of Peter Pan in Canada, if I really wanted one. I've never actually read the book.
Oh, and I got yelled at by a bitter old lady selling ugly little brooches. She had this table piled with these fake gold trinkets and such, and I took a picture of Laura by the table. Then this lady was like "Did I give you permission to take a picture at my shop?" At first I thought she was joking, because her 'shop' was like a little folding table in the middle of the road, and cause it is only natural to take photos at a tourist destination like Portobello Road. But she wasn't, so I apologized and left. What I should have said: "Well, I apologize for not asking. But lady, its 2010, and everything with an electronic pulse has a camera in it. So if you don't like pictures taken of your little folding table, maybe you should think about taking your cheap gaudy junk out of the tourist district." That'll learn her. Its not like she had a sign up or anything, and she was just sitting at this table on the road. Plus, it was mainly a picture of Laura. Anyways, she bothered me, crazy bitter old lady...
After Portobello and a delicious and messy lunch of crepes with nutella and strawberries, we headed over to the Royal Academy, where Laura is doing her internship. Its like a really prestigious art school, with lots of galleries/exhibits of past and present students' work. Quite impressive! Laura showed us the exhibits she helped put up, and there was even a staff exhibit with one of her own prints in it.
Then it was down to Piccadilly, where we had dinner at Pizza Hut, and I left to meet Nicole and see Les Miserables. Our seats weren't great - we were up on the 2nd balcony, and part of the stage was blocked from view. It was a great show though. And Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers was playing the role of Marius...I wasn't sure what to expect but I was actually fairly impressed with his performance. Good job, Jonas brother. And yes, Mom, the story is a bit depressing, but the music is good.
Today my goal is to buy a pair of Wellington boots for the dig. I actually have a pretty interesting week coming up at work, but this is already a very long post so I'll write about it later.
On Thursday, I got to help Jack, the Near East curator, with a class he was holding in the newly opened Antiquities study room. It was a group of 5 or 6 people, and they were looking at some carved ivory panels and some cylinder seals. I'm not sure exactly what culture these came from...but they were pretty cool. The ivory panels were these little post-it sized carvings, which were apparently decorative bits in furniture - like the headboard of a bed, or the back of a chair, etc. They were pretty nice. And the cylinder seals are like a little pieces of fancy rock that have been shaped into a cylinder with a hole drilled through the centre, then carved with a couple images to represent the holder. So they were kind of like seal rings, only instead of stamping them to make the mark, you roll them. Then whoever owned it would tie it on a string or necklace like a bead, and whenever they needed to 'sign' something they had their seal with them. It was pretty interesting to see the types of symbols and imagery people would choose to represent themselves. I guess sometimes the seals would be passed on to family members, but generally each one represents a different individual.
I didn't do all that much during the session - I was kind of like security; Jack had to leave the room occasionally, and so I was just there to just watch the objects while no one else was in the room. You know, In case the seals and ivory bits got too rowdy or something. And then I just helped a bit with cleaning things up at the end. But still, it was a nice break from staring at the computer. After the class, Helen had arranged for us to go on a tour of the Eastern Art Department's storage areas, which were just redone. The antiquities storage areas are planned to be redone as well, so everyone wanted to see what Eastern Art was able to do with their funding. So Thursday at least was a bit more interesting than normal.
On Friday, I finished the auction catalogues report (pending Yannis' approval). It felt good to finish something. I think in the end it was a pretty thorough report, and hopefully someone will find it useful. But now that I'm done, I don't really have anything ongoing to do at work. There are a few things I can do, but I could probably finish all of them in a day or two, and I still have 7 days left in the office. 18 days total until I come home, 12 working days, but 3 of those will be at the Marcham excavation, one will be in the galleries helping with an installation, and one will be in London on an Antiquities staff outing to Southwark. So I need to find a project that will take 5 days or so to finish, then I'll be good.
Yesterday (Saturday) was a fun day. I went to London and met up with Laura and Lindsay from U of T. We went to Portobello Road, which is a famous antiques/doo-dads market. Yep, its the same as the one they go and sing about in "Bedknobs and Broomsticks." Saturday is the main market day, so it was crazy busy. At this time of year though, everywhere is crazy busy with tourists, so if you want to do anything you just need to suck it up and brave the crowds. When I left Oxford yesterday, I couldn't believe the amount of people downtown. The worst are these massive bus tours of high-school age kids, who move as a group down the streets. And usually stand the middle of the sidewalk. Its very annoying, actually.
Anyways, Portobello Road was worth it despite the crowds. Lots of interesting shops and booths, and we actually spent probably four hours or more there. I saw tons of things I wanted to buy, but I only bought two and neither of them are antiques. A big seller there are pocket watches - both antique ones and new ones. I bought a new one, its pretty cool. Apparently, pocket watches have become a bit of a fad lately, which I didn't know...oh well, I still like mine. The only antique I came close to buying was a 1930's edition of "Peter Pan and Wendy", which was in really good condition with the original dust cover and everything. But it was 25 pounds, and though the seller said he would come down to 22, it was still pretty pricey. I figured that there were probably lots of old copies of Peter Pan in Canada, if I really wanted one. I've never actually read the book.
Oh, and I got yelled at by a bitter old lady selling ugly little brooches. She had this table piled with these fake gold trinkets and such, and I took a picture of Laura by the table. Then this lady was like "Did I give you permission to take a picture at my shop?" At first I thought she was joking, because her 'shop' was like a little folding table in the middle of the road, and cause it is only natural to take photos at a tourist destination like Portobello Road. But she wasn't, so I apologized and left. What I should have said: "Well, I apologize for not asking. But lady, its 2010, and everything with an electronic pulse has a camera in it. So if you don't like pictures taken of your little folding table, maybe you should think about taking your cheap gaudy junk out of the tourist district." That'll learn her. Its not like she had a sign up or anything, and she was just sitting at this table on the road. Plus, it was mainly a picture of Laura. Anyways, she bothered me, crazy bitter old lady...
After Portobello and a delicious and messy lunch of crepes with nutella and strawberries, we headed over to the Royal Academy, where Laura is doing her internship. Its like a really prestigious art school, with lots of galleries/exhibits of past and present students' work. Quite impressive! Laura showed us the exhibits she helped put up, and there was even a staff exhibit with one of her own prints in it.
Then it was down to Piccadilly, where we had dinner at Pizza Hut, and I left to meet Nicole and see Les Miserables. Our seats weren't great - we were up on the 2nd balcony, and part of the stage was blocked from view. It was a great show though. And Nick Jonas from the Jonas Brothers was playing the role of Marius...I wasn't sure what to expect but I was actually fairly impressed with his performance. Good job, Jonas brother. And yes, Mom, the story is a bit depressing, but the music is good.
Today my goal is to buy a pair of Wellington boots for the dig. I actually have a pretty interesting week coming up at work, but this is already a very long post so I'll write about it later.