A Brief Reprieve

Like the title suggests, this is just a brief reprieve from the lengthy posts SoT has been publishing these past few weeks. In any case I have 3 essays to do this week (or, from another point of view, 8000 words), so something big isn't on the cards this week.

This is a shame, because longer, more ambitious posts apparently do well when it comes to SoT; the three biggest posts on here are also the most viewed (as you can see from the new post-link section on the right). Last week's Sunday Song Special was not only the most viewed of all time, it also boasts the title of the Most Cosmopolitan, attracting as it did people from Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe, North America, Scandinavia and Australia, as well as my own native Britain. No one commented, however, so I can only speculate as to how much you all enjoyed it (hint). At any rate, I consider this an excellent start to the final month of the year, and hope SoT continues to grow in all kinds of ways.

On the other hand, you may have noticed that the 'pages' section has vanished. This is because one of my new essays is covering similar territory to the old one, and I don't want to be accused of plagiarism from the web, even though it's still my own material. In any case the article that was up there was a fairly lengthy piece of hot air that I doubt many people would really want to read, so perhaps an abstract is necessary. I'm envisaging a page that outlines my opinions on all kinds of archaeological matters, with my essay abstracts as a kind of guide. Again, let me know if this is something that will either interest you or bore you. I can't imagine it'll win many awards, but it's worth a try.

My essays this week are on:
- The role of the private sector in archaeology
- The usefulness of the term 'Viking'
- An artefact description

This week's Sunday Song is Nick Drake's 'Place To Be', from his final album Pink Moon:



What I like most about this song is the pace -it seems to drift down along a river, without a chorus or tension or climax. The lyrics fit this exactly -Drake doesn't want to be kept in the same place, but always on the move, looking to be useful somewhere else all the time (just as he was constantly on the move in his own life). Looked at from another perspective there's a lot of sadness in this song, particularly as it suggests that he had no place to be in the first place. The use of similies draw together personal experience and natural symbology in a way that makes this one of the best, most relaxing, and most profoundly moving folk song in existence.

Next week: SoT Christmas special.