letters explanatory text. Another problem is before detailed plans can be submitted.
that SMRentries are cobbled together I live in the village of Meare, Nr Witch bottles from bits of my text to mean something
Glastonbury in Somerset.
completely different.
Obviously I want this conducted as
The Northants SMR is supposed to cheaply as possible, having no money at be among the top 5 in the country. If the moment, until I sell the site, (and my experience is anything to go by SMR without a buyer interested until this dig users nation wide should be anxious is done). Is it possible to get this done as
IT IS OBVIOUS that the witch bottle article was written by somebody either ignorant of, or anti-witches. Witches practise white magic which cannot be used to profit neither to do harm; the witch bottles then were prepared and about what isgoing on.
Or Thomas C Welsh, 46 Kingsway, Kingsthorpe,Northampton NN28HE
a training/student/local society dig? I used by practitioners of black magic ie. could even put up a couple of people demon or devil worshippers. The (students) if necessary, in my house on 'witches' persecuted by witch trials were the site.
usually women skilled in midwifery, a
Ifyou can give me any information I field into which male doctors were keen
Scotland's
Pilgrim would be extremely grateful.
Odette J Brown, The Laurels,60BSt Mary's to expand for purely pecuniary reasons.
King
YOUR REVIEW OF Pilgrimage in Medieval Scotland (CA769) is surely mistaken in describing James IV(1488-
1513) as Scotland's 'pilgrim king par excellence'. He may have visited Whithorn several times but, however one looks at it, this pales beside the remarkable achievements of Macbeth
(1040-1057).
As I discuss in Macbeth: Man and
Myth (Sutton, 7999),having seized the throne from the hapless Duncan only ten years earlier, Macbeth went on pilgrimage to Rome in 1050, where he is recorded as having 'scattered silver like seed to the poor'. Of course, you won't find any reference to this in Shakespeare's Macbeth!
Over four centuries before the reign of James IV, Macbeth was the only Scottish monarch ever to make the pilgrimage to Rome. Ifany Scottish king deserves the accolade "pilgrim king par excellence' it must be Macbeth.
Nick Aitchison, 7 Braeburn Close,
Elmbridge, GloucesterGL20NS
PPG 16
I HAVE RECENTLYobtained outline planning permission in my large garden for 3 houses. However, on obtaining my permission I have been informed that I
must complete a full archaeological dig
Road, Meare, Glastonbury, BA6 9SR Lloyd Lewis, Swn y ffordd, Port Talbot, E-mail=odettebrown@tesco.netSA72UFPSIS@AOL.COM
And while I'mon the subject...
HOWABOUTA tailpiece in CA,where people can sound-off about something archaeological that irritates them? A
dyspepsics' soapbox, perhaps.
The other day I was driving back from a dreary meeting about a site below a bungalow, in the middle of nowhere, when Ifound myself increas-
ingly consumed with irritation. Nearby there had been a larger excavation and I had been obliged to read the report on it, as part of the job. It was a bog standard contractor's report, full of measurements and description, but saying precious little, in a long-winded, semi-literate fashion. A favourite phrase in this report was sub-rectan-
gular. Now what on earth does that mean, and why do only archaeologists use it?
I know what a sub-species is. It's a sub-group within a species. It follows the defining 'rules' of the species, but it differs in certain respects: it may be larger, paler or have an erect tuft of feathers on its bottom. But the species and the sub-species are essentially the same. And they can usually interbreed. One wouldn't describe the White
Horse of Uffington as sub-equine, or the
Long Man of Wilmington as sub-
human, so why treat a poor, inoffensive rectangle with such disdain?
I suspect it's because we're seeking spurious accuracy of description. But why bother? Just as dimensions of ditches reflect the weathered profile and often bear little resemblance to the original outline, so the precise shape of an enclosure doesn't matter, either.
Anyhow, there's always the plan to go by, and besides, modern digital tech-
nology already allows one to make a 100% accurate, if enormously long,
description, pixel by pixel. 50 how about dropping sub-rectangular alto-
gether? Icannot see what's wrong with plain, unadorned rectangular, or I suppose, roughly rectangular. But not,
please not, sub-rectangular.
And while I'm on the subject what about linear ditch, or far worse, linear,
on its own. 'The sub-rectangular enclosure defined by four linears...'
Ugh!
OrDyspepsiaa,kaFroncisPryor,FlagFen Excavations, Fourth Drove, Fengate, Peterborough PEISUR
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87
