22nd December 2012, 02:02 PM
Dinosaur - the Bos? In Bournemouth? If so, that was a long time ago!
WRT to RAOs - yes, there's some very good people out there who aren't, and some try and do a proper job. Here in the south midlands, it's hyper-competitive - we have anything up to a dozen or more different contractors working at any one time, and it's utterly cut-throat
WRT to period specialisms, yes it is a problem, but (particularly) Roman and post-Roman are both vast fields. There's only so much space in one brain, and most aren't big enough to hold the knowledge required to do both well. That doesn't stop some from claiming they can though. I often tell clients to send me the lot and I'll separate out the Roman and earlier stuff as I go along. It doesn't take that long, and I don't charge very much for doing so, but a lot seem reluctant to do so. Hand -made stuff can be a b*stard to date - if they were all using the same clay and temper then small bits all look exactly the same. A bit like asking a zooarch to identify the species on the basis of a few splinters of bone. Don't shoot the messenger!
WRT to RAOs - yes, there's some very good people out there who aren't, and some try and do a proper job. Here in the south midlands, it's hyper-competitive - we have anything up to a dozen or more different contractors working at any one time, and it's utterly cut-throat
WRT to period specialisms, yes it is a problem, but (particularly) Roman and post-Roman are both vast fields. There's only so much space in one brain, and most aren't big enough to hold the knowledge required to do both well. That doesn't stop some from claiming they can though. I often tell clients to send me the lot and I'll separate out the Roman and earlier stuff as I go along. It doesn't take that long, and I don't charge very much for doing so, but a lot seem reluctant to do so. Hand -made stuff can be a b*stard to date - if they were all using the same clay and temper then small bits all look exactly the same. A bit like asking a zooarch to identify the species on the basis of a few splinters of bone. Don't shoot the messenger!
\"Whoever understands the pottery, understands the site\" - Wheeler