9th October 2008, 11:40 PM
A visit to Kents Cavern aged 4. A book my parents gave to me aged 6 about discovering the past - esp. a story re French/Spanish (?) site with 2 boys rescuing a dog from a cave and discovering marvellous Upper Pal art (very Enid blyton). Climbing around Welsh Borders castles. Visit to Tunisia aged 9 or so - real archaeologists were digging, and one let me scrape soil off a mosaic (THAT WAS REALLY IT). Telly programmes in the 1970s - Horizon, something else with Leakey junior re hominid evolution. History teacher in first year at secondary school - we started with Stonehenge (not great, but not bad). I read a few Leonard Cotterill(?) books as a teenager - face of Agamemnon and all that stuff. Bottle digging Victorian dumps. Archaeology degree but with no thoughts of a career. Volunteering on sites over the summers and getting paid beer money (girls with mattocks, tanned and sweaty...I'll leave it there). Graduating and needing some dosh pdq - what can I do?? 80s MSC schemes - 1st job effectively supervising but paid less than the MSC intake. Few years on the circuit, no great ambition but realisation that I could do a better job than some of my supervisors. Met the archie partner 20 years ago and we're both stuck in it still.
Influenced by a swathe of 'ologists but too knacked to go there at this hour...
Influenced by a swathe of 'ologists but too knacked to go there at this hour...