Stratified Desks | Stratified Minds | An archaeological Survey | 100th blog post

Originally posted online on 14 May 2014 at rmchapple.blogspot.com

(http://rmchapple.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/stratified-desks-stratified-minds.html)
Facebook, eh?
Dont ya just love it?
Endless streams of Lolcats Im doing this mildly amusing thing for charity events which
18th century Pope are you? quizzes (I got Servant of God Benedict XIII). I can't really
complain - Im as guilty as anyone of contributing to this constant sensory bombardment. My
particular humour niche appears to be the Star Wars pun especially if judged by what people
post to my Facebook wall saying youll like this! (answer: yes, yes I do!). I hope that I post
enough links to solidly interesting, engaging, and though provoking material too to provide
temper and not alienate the entirety of my online friends and family.
Why do I mention this? Well a little while ago I was trawling through Facebook reading
an article here, looking at a funny video there the usual stuff! Along the way there was a link
to Rare Historical Photos on The Slightly Warped Website. Ive seen so many of these over
the last few years, I almost didnt click on the link to have a look. Seriously there are only so
many times you can gawp in wonder at the set of circumstances that brought Alice Cooper
together with Colonel Saunders, the Eiffel Tower under construction, or even Bill Gates mug
shot from 1977. I had no reason to expect that this offering from Slightly Warped would be
anything different. In fairness, it wasnt all that different Id seen the majority of them before
some inspire awe and wonder every time I see them, some less so.
In amongst all these little wonders there was an ostensibly ordinary photograph. A chair at a
desk. Some shelves and a blackboard behind. A few journals are neatly stacked, but a chaotic
spread of books and papers appeared to be the dominant theme. A smokers pipe lay as a
bookmark on an open page. The swivel chair at an angle, as though the occupant has just
stepped out, but will be back in a moment. I had never seen this one before. It caught my
attention precisely because it seemed so ordinary so out of place in the company of some
rather breath-taking and inspiring images. In many respects, it is every bit as ordinary as it
looks. The notable features are that the desk belonged to Albert Einstein and that the
photograph was taken on the 18th of April 1955 the day he died. When placed within these
contexts, the simple snapshot image takes on a much greater significance. As a record of the
personal writing and thinking space of the late, great physicist it has a very human resonance
all the more so at the thought that he has died and that this place can never be used in this
way again by this person. Reconnecting this great mind of the 20th century with his physical
surroundings serves to personalise the experience. No one will understand his works with any
greater clarity for having seen this image, but many will rightly or wrongly feel that they
know him better for having seen where he sat. This was the place where he worked it was
shaped by his physical and intellectual needs, desires, and circumstances. It is as much an
extension of his mind and imagination as his work in physics. While Id not previously
encountered the photograph, I was instantly reminded of the well-known Einstein quote: If a
cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?

Albert Einstein | Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey | More Info
Let's get a couple of things straight: Im no Einstein, and I certainly have no intention of
shuffling off this mortal coil any time soon. Nonetheless, this image gave me an idea. What do
our desks say about us? As archaeologists, much of our time is spent writing for wider
consumption excavation reports, scholarly articles, books, magazine pieces, emails, lectures
even the occasional blog post. In these ways we show part of ourselves to the wider world. I
think its time we showed slightly more!
To celebrate the 100th post on this blog I wanted to do something a little unusual and,
hopefully, a little special. To this end I have asked a group of archaeologists along with an
assortment of affiliated heritage professionals and enthusiasts, from various backgrounds and
specialisms, to take a simple snapshot of their desks as they are right now no clean-ups, no
tidying (and conversely no deliberate messing it up to look more interesting). I dont think
for a second that anyone looking at these images will come away with a greater understanding
of our research, or the academic minutia that excite us, propel us and compel us. I do, however,
think that it may be an interesting piece of outreach to say to the wider world: This is what
were like. These are the spaces and places that we have created. They are where we work,
where we think, where we write. Mostly, I just thought its be fun!
My requirements were simple. Without changing anything about your desk, just go take a
picture right now it can be arty, it can be a snapshot anything so long as its in focus and
youre pointing in the right direction. Email the same to me with your name, your location,
and a link to a bit about you.
I was remarkably heartened by the speed and willingness of the responses. Starting with my
own, I give you my survey of archaeological desks (click on any image to make larger):

Robert M Chapple | Belfast | More Info

Iestyn Jones | Cardiff | More Info

Marion Dowd | Dromahair | More Info

Monty Dobson | St Louis, Missouri | More Info

"I am editing a series about archaeology so my desk is all monitors and electronics at
present"

David Connolly | Luggate Burn, East Lothian | More Info

Maggie Struckmeier | Whittingehame, East Lothian | More Info

Doug Rocks-Macqueen | Edinburgh | More Info

Conor McHale | Dublin

"Chaos attached. I do tidy (occasionally) and often curse myself for being so unkempt."

Philip I Powell (Megalithic Monuments of Ireland) | Athy, Co. Kildare, Ireland | More Info
"If its messy desks your looking for, well I've got one big, hell of a mess. But, funnily
enough, I seem to know where everything is."

Stephen W Muller | Adelaide | More Info

Adam Stanford MIFA | Harrowfields, Eckington, WR10 3BA | More Info [and here |
and here]
"Taken yesterday before I read your email...."

Ed Lyne | Museum of Copenhagen | More Info

"And yes, its a mess!!"

Aoife Daly | Copenhagen | More Info

John Tierney | Kinsale | More Info [and here | and here]

"The archaeology we do today is community-led and strongly digital (www.eachtra.ie and
www.historicgraves.com). The large screen is for the desktop computer and the laptop is
used in the field/site office. There are two gps cameras on the desk with the most recent field
surveys being copied to the server and archiving folders. A standard Nokia phone cos my
smartphone charger is kaput and the Nokia is doing great. The Brother label printer (back
left) is key for proper labelling of analogue records. The black notebook is a Moleskine and
over 6 years old still in use for passwords and contact details (great when digital contact
lists are not accessible). Back right-hand corner has plastic storage for 'funny' pliers and
spare keys. Also has stack of books and maps used for current projects. The folded sheet of
paper is notes from close of business yesterday reminding me what to continue with
today. Car keys are in the jumble reflecting the fact that we travel a lot on a weekly basis from
our West Waterford offices."

Paul Everill | Winchester | More Info

Graham Hull | Co. Clare | More Info

David Beard | Aschaffenberg, Germany | More Info

Patricia Furphy | Manchester | More Info

"This is my desk at 9.15am, more layers are deposited throughout the day, then scrapped
back at dinner time.
Harris matrix will be complete when PhD ends!"

Niall Gregory | Cashel, Co. Tipperary

"Looking forward to seeing the results - perhaps you Ghant Chart the results or create a
typological sequence through geographic location, sex, urban-rural locations, religion, race,
levels of clutter, etc!"

Philippa E Barry | Discovery Programme, Dublin | More Info

"It looks like I'm having an identity crisis!"

Michelle Comber | NUI, Galway | More Info

"you caught me as I'm about to start cataloguing some Caherconnell artefacts"

James Bonsall | Claremorris | More Info

"Had this been taken a month ago there would have been 50% more paper strewn around"

Eileen Reilly | Dublin | More Info

"Taken as it is right now - nothing moved or tidied!"

Laura Anglica Ortz Tenorio | Mexico City | More Info

Rodrigo A. Islas | Mxico, D.F. | More Info

Rodrigo A. Islas | Mxico, D.F. | Other desk

Tiziana Talocci | Rome | More Info

"this is my desk..."

Isabel Bennett | near Slea Head on the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry | More Info
"The one at work is not much better, but is of the museum curator me, rather than the
archaeologist, so this is the better one."

Colm Moloney | Edinburgh | More Info

"Here is my desk in Edinburgh where I work most of the time now. Its a disaster!"

Sue Carter | Perth, Australia | More Info

"I have just rearranged my office space so it is a bit tidier than usual, but the research folders
in the background will give you some hint as to the amount of work I am doing on Fortified
England, and that is not all the folders, I have more in the other room ;/"

Maura Barrett | Carrick on Suir, Co Tipperary | More Info

David Hunter | Melbourne, Australia | More Info

Duncan Berryman | Belfast | More Info

Here's a photo of my desk, I definitely didn't tidy it for you.

Lorraine Evans | Highlands/World Domination Mother-ship | More Info [and here]

"just rolled out of bed, grabbed the camera and here you are. One shot of my 'work station'
as is. Couldn't get any closer with the camera as my bed is a foot away from my desk!!"

Margaretha Marie-Lou McFarland Vlahos | Brisbane, Australia | More Info

"Here's a before and after of my desk at Uni. I'm usually a very organized person. But in
this case it's more organized chaos"

Margaretha Marie-Lou McFarland Vlahos | Brisbane, Australia | Other desk

Nigel J. Hetherington | Cairo, Egypt | More Info

Aurlien Burlot | Youghal, Co. Cork | More Info

"It's messy tho, but that's the rule."

Dr Jonny Geber | Post-doctoral research fellow, Department of Archaeology, University

College Cork | More Info
"Im attaching a photo of my desk where all the magic happens! You can tell that I am
Swedish just by counting the number of take-away coffee mugs!"

Ivor Kenny | Wicklow | More Info

"Amateur archaeological explorer/wishful thinker and renowned for ten unsuccessful years
searching for evidence of Bronze Age mining in Leinster, being mystified by stonecutters
marks and being convinced that we know next to nothing about prehistoric life in the Irish
uplands."

Neil Jackman | North Kildare | More Info

"My desk is currently a right state, with books piled up in a sort of stratigraphy reflecting
the sequence of work over the last few days. To be honest it drives me mad and I regularly

clear it all up, but after two days it's back to mess again. I'm currently writing an
Audioguide for Swords and looking into the monastic site there, I suppose one of the things
I like best about creating audioguides and helping to promote heritage sites, is that you get
to see so much of the country and learn about lots of different periods and aspects of Irish
archaeology and history. I really enjoy the variety."

Stuart Rathbone | Achill Island | More Info

"Terribly dull and boring though. You should see me when I'm working at home and it
looks like a bomb hit a library!"

Terry O'Hagan | Dublin | More Info

Terence Meaden | Oxford | More Info

Brian Donnchadha | Portland, Oregon | More Info

Brian Donnchadha, Sagittarius. My turn-ons include inherited wealth, ownership of a
brewery and lose morals. And my dream in life is to cure world hunger through
interpretive dance.
This is my work desk at the Bonneville Power Administration, a federal entity HQed in
Portland, Oregon in the US. Im in the middle of some tribal consultation for a couple of
big projects, hence my desk is currently hidden under 2 ft. of field reports for
dissemination to all our consulting parties (mostly Native American tribes).
Overhead desk includes my reference library as well as compulsory Irish stickered hardhat, a collection of lithics picked up along the way, a sage medicine bundle from the Cowlitz
Indian Tribe and a slothar imprinted with the Galway crest that I can throw at anyone who
needs a sudden jolt to the head.

Adam Slater | Blackfriars, Leicester | More Info

"This is my desk away from office at Blackfriars in Leicester"

Atsushi Noguchi | Tokyo, Japan

"Currently I'm occupying 3 desks. The first one has already lost its original function..."

Atsushi Noguchi | Tokyo, Japan

"The second one is for editorial works but almost kept by me..."

Atsushi Noguchi | Tokyo, Japan

"The last one is set up just yesterday. It should be kept clear for operating 3D scanner, but
I'm confident that it will be messy soon later."

David Mennear | North East England | More Info

"Always a copious amount of books by the bedside, although I hadn't realised how battered
the laptop looks!"

Markus Milligan | London | More Info

Stephen Mandal | Dublin | More Info

"I didn't cheat!"

Bairbre Mullee | Dublin | More Info

"its looking fairly tidy today"

Judith Carroll | Dublin | More Info

JG O'Donoghue | Cork | More Info

JG ODonoghue is an emerging illustrator and artist from Cork, Ireland, who creates
archaeological reconstruction illustration and heritage art. He finished his masters in
Illustration, at Hertfordshire university in 2010, previous to that his degree was in Digital
Design. Since then he has done a variety of illustration commissions, mostly archaeological
but occasionally story based, and his clients include the NRA(National Roads Authority)
and Fortified England. His work has appeared in magazines, newspapers, exhibitions,
seminars and various other media. His blog post about his studio space: here.

Katrien Janin | University of Leicester | More Info

"as you will see in my case my desk is not large enough and my research tend to spread out
over my flat. This is a normal occurrence when finishing a report."

Seosaimhn Bradley | University of Central Lancashire | More Info

"not as interesting as Einstein's, although he didn't have a knitted Star Carr frontlet"

Michael Gleeson | Leitrim | Mature (45) student at IT Sligo studying Applied Archaeology
"Decided on this profession post redundancy when my wonderful wife sat me down and
asked me "What would you like to do when you grow up?""

Edward Bourke, National Monuments Service | Dublin | More Info

"I spend one hour every morning testing this latest database. The idea is that we will get
interns in to read and set kewords for each file and to tie this into the SMR database so that
each file which is located to a monument will be searchable on that basis. Eventually
leading to a situation that if there is a file on a monument, the basic details will be available
online through our
system http://webgis.archaeology.ie/NationalMonuments/FlexViewer/ the hope is that
such a system could be up and running in about 2-3 years. The latest plan of many, but we
live in hope.
The file being added is Wexford, Templeshannon (Windmill on Vinegar Hill) Guardianship - NM No. 392" which is tied in to SMR WX0220-032----"

Caterina Pisu | Viterbo, Italy | More Info

Spencer Gavin Smith | Nannerch, North-East Wales | More Info

Let me talk you round it.
Chair: Bought by my great-grandmother from a bodger who called at her door sometime
before 1911. It has the letters JW carved on the underside of the seat.
Spotted Box: Paper archive of the two excavations I directed for a TV series in 2003 and
2004.
Picture above Desk: 'Goldfinch' Artist Unknown
Lamp: As close as I could get to an Anglepoise without breaking the bank.

Items on desk from left to right: Glass Paperweight / Lancia Stratos model car / Pen in the
shape of a Penguin / 'Spencer' train from Thomas the Tank Engine series / Alfa Romeo Giuila
Sprint Gta model car / Portable Hard Drive / Wireless Mouse (weirdly I use one at my desk)
/ USB Multiport / Mug coaster in the shape of a tropical fish / Unfinished thumbnail scraper
found in Lincolnshire / 'Spitfire' postage stamp.

Thomas Kador | University of Bristol, England | More Info [and here]

Brian Kerr | Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth

"It's got books, papers, files, plants, some art, and post-it notes. Quite a nice room, really,
in the officers' houses of 1862-3"

Gillian Boazman | Rosscarbery, West Cork | More Info

'I was finishing an article at the time but really it's seldom much different'

Toms Pdraig Niallagin | Co. Laois| More Info

'while I run TheStandingStone I actually specialise in ancient literature and did my
doctorate on New Testament texts'

Robert Hensey | Glencar, Co. Sligo | More Info

'One thing that occurred to me while doing this was that the computer has now truly
usurped the desk - how much of Einstein's paper mountain from his famous desk picture
would now be on his computer desktop if photographed today? That was one reason I
focused more on my computer screens rather than the desk proper. The screen image on
the left is the second most famous waterfall in Glencar. It is known as Sruth in aghaidh an
aird which translates as Stream against the slope as it appears to blow upwards when
the wind blows hard from the south-west. The one on the right is of Clegnagh passage tomb
Co. Antrim'
Finally ... for all of you who have persevered and made your way to the end ... or even just those
of you who just scrolled to the end to see if there was anything here! I give you a bonus image
... a broad view of my desk within its office landscape setting.

If youve scrolled this far, youll have seen (if my math is correct) 64 desks from 60
archaeologists. Two have provided photos of their two desks, and one has three desks in
increasing levels of chaos. When I started this process, I had wondered if there would be some
easy commonalities that could be drawn from these images. I had presumed that wed be a
pretty messy, disorganised-looking lot but with order beneath the apparent pandemonium
which is how I like to imagine my desk appears. True, some of my correspondents lived up to
that stereotype but many didnt. Almost everyone had a computer of some kind quite a
few even had two screens but not all. A select few have shown an admirable attraction to
decorating their desks with skulls of various types and other archaeology-related
paraphernalia. Some of these places appear (to me) quite Spartan, while others are
sumptuous, rich, and inviting. I was interested to note that there is only one obvious smoker
in this number, with cigarettes clearly on the desk. Years ago I would have been the same I
had a number of ashtrays on my desk and rarely ever sat to write without first lighting up.

While I was on the verge of lamenting my inability to find some thread that drew us all
together, I began to think back on how we as a group are regularly portrayed in the media. All
those stories that start Archaeologists have found a or Archaeologists now believe that
where we appear to be a vast homogenous lump. Looking at these desks reminds me that we
may be united in our professional and personal interests in all things heritage, but we remain
a diverse bunch of individuals, with different specialisms, research agendas, and all that goes
with that. From a personal point of view, I know the contributors at different levels some are
long-term friends and colleagues that Ive worked with and drank with; some I know only
professionally weve rarely, if ever, met in person, but I know and respect their published
works; some are known to me only through social media of one form or another theres even
one or two that were totally unknown to me, but heard about my project through a third party
and felt like joining in.
However they have come to be here, I thank them all for being willing to engage with this little
project. I would encourage anyone reading this post to go sample some of our collective
diversity by clicking on some of the More Info links that accompany many of the images.
Youll see how we represent a huge spread of approaches, thinking, geography, and time
periods. In that same spirit of thanks, I want to express my huge appreciation to all readers of
this blog. If no one had been interested to read what I put up here, this endeavour would have
quickly faded. But the readers came and so have guest bloggers and I thank you all! Without
developing an audience this little blog would never have survived, and would certainly never
have come to celebrate its 100th post. Long may we continue together!
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you all!
Robert M Chapple
Late Additions to the survey - please feel free to send me your pics!

Spencer Carter | London | More Info

I forgot to send these. Can I be grandfathered? They're not contrived.
They are of a moment. Lithicists-cum-Editors move slowly and systematically

Spencer Carter | London | Second Desk

Telizhenko Sergey | Kiev | More Info

Before annexion of Crimea I worked at Crimean branch of Institute of
Archaeology National Ukrainian Academy of Science (department of
prehistory archaeology). From April 1-st I working in Kyiv in Institute
of Archaeology in department of Crimean archaeology. Here you
can see my workplace when I came back from excavations of

Late Neolithic site Novoselivka-VI. Ceramics are everywhere.

Tom Gardner | Edinburgh | More Info

I'm a 4th year undergrad in archaeology at the University of Edinburgh.
On [the desk] are some papers on animal coprolites, and plans from the Bradford
Kaims site, which I supervise for the Bamburgh Research Project. Other than
that its a relatively empty desk, hopefully not evidence of an empty mind.

Candace Weddle | Greenville, SC | More Info

Mine is fairly organized, which is undoubtedly an indication of some sort of mental
illness. I like to say that I have CDO - It's like OCD, but in alphabetical order.

Genavie Thomas | Portland, Oregon

The wine bottle was from last nights binge reporting, and the coffee is this mornings cup.
I just got a new tool, note the auger on the guest bed.

Hanno Conring | Norden, Lower Saxony, Germany

Peter McCrone | near Poulton-le-Fylde

Current Count:
People: 67
Desks 72
Notes:
A notice of this post has appeared on the superb These Bones of Mine blog (here). It's a lovely
tribute to this piece, but quite a bit more eloquent and better written than mine. Another one
is to be found on the wonderful The Lorraine Evans Blog (here)
Bob Muckle at Capilano U in Vancouver (definitely worth a follow on Twitter - here) has, in a
parallel endeavour, shared his own desk, crammed with fantastic bits and pieces: here.
The most wonderful and interesting Ivor Kenny has sent me
engaging MindNode map of the desks in the survey (up to May 20th 2014).

this

very

Inspired by this post, the Rantin' and Rovin' blog has posted a lovely piece about how they
don't have a desk, but move from Starbucks to Starbucks with a laptop ... a lovely, lovely read
that I can't recommend highly enough! See it: here