Ha. I remember that tissue paper, Alasdair, but I don't remember you
'fessing up to collecting it at the time!

>>> Alasdair Brooks <[log in to unmask]> 10/06/06 3:06 AM >>>
A little behind the times here - I've been in the field recently.

1) Who are you?
Alasdair Brooks, A post-doctoral research fellow at La Trobe
University,
Melbourne, Australia and lab archaeologist/material culture person who
has
also previously worked in the UK and the eastern USA.  Most
Histarchers
probably know me better in one of those previous UK or US
incarnations.

I've been on histarch since 1994 or 1995, though I'm considerably
quieter
these days than I used to be, largely because

A - I now subscribe to the digest version, which makes immediate
unnecessarily snide off-the-cuff answers less of a temptation

B - Histarch's a lot tamer these days than it was in the first 5 years
or so.


2) Dirtiest moment in the field.
I was working on a phase II contract project in upstate New York as a
mere
field tech.  Our site supervisor kept shouting 'keep everything' when
questioned about modern plastic, etc. found on or near the surface. 
My
field partner and I found ourselves digging test pits near what had
clearly been the ad hoc toilet for the phase 1 crew.  One shovelfull
in,
and I had soiled toilet paper in my screen.  I jokingly called out 'do
we
need to keep....'  Before I even finished, the supervisor called out
'keep
everything!.  So I did, and I bagged the paper.

Problem was, by the time that bag made it into the lab, I'd made the
transition from field tech to lab rat, and guess whose desk that bag
landed on?

It was a particularly lurid shade of purply green by then.


3) Your idea of the best dressed archaeologist, i.e. what practical
gear should they be wearing?

When in the field in a hot Australian summer, near that nasty
Antarctic
ozone layer hole, I wear - in no particular order...
A - A flexible lightweight leather hat I picked up in Marrakesh in
1989
B - One of two long-sleeved green shirts, worn buttoned or unbuttoned
(depending on temperature) over...
C - A plain (usually) t-shirt.
D - Plenty of sunscreen on the exposed bits, even if I do spend most of
my
time in an artefact tent/trailer
E - light sensitive glasses with transition lenses

I never wear shorts.  Men always look stupid in shorts.  There are no
exceptions.

Alasdair