Category Archives: Uncategorized

I’ve just finished rereading Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia. I first read it in 1978 or 79, I forget which, and still have my original Picador paperback copy. I remember being impressed by the mystic otherworldliness of Chatwin’s luminous text – … Continue reading →

On 5 September 1607 Hamlet was played on the deck of the English ship Dragon somewhere off the coast of Sierra Leone. The audience included a number of local African notables who were provided with a running commentary in Portugese … Continue reading →

Gold and the Incas is the current summer blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. Billed as following on from their previous summer blockbuster exhibitions, you migh expect it to be a crowded  event where you can hardly see … Continue reading →

Yesterday the Guardian published an article on the use of social media in Saudi Arabia. I’m not surprised. One thing that was very obvious when we were staying at a resort hotel in Habarana earlier this year was the number of … Continue reading →

Hot on the heels of news of discoveries that suggest that Macassar traders were sourcing beads from Dutch and other European spice traders to trade with the Yolngu of Arnhem Land for sea cucumbers, comes news of the discovery of … Continue reading →

Some time ago I started a thread about Vikings and cats. I’ve just come across an interestinf student thesis on the role of cats in viking beliefs. I’ll be the first to admit that I havn’t yet read the thesis … Continue reading →

Over on my other blog, I’ve been writing about how postal services, or more accurately, the letter handling service, is in terminal decline. The universal letter service was one of the great nineteenth century inventions, and in the case of … Continue reading →

I’ve previously written about coins as evidence of contact. The ABC today has an interesting report on the use of beads by Maccassar fishermen to buy access to trepang beds of the coast of Arnhem land from the local population. … Continue reading →

I went to Sydney yesterday – it was a work thing – a meeting about the state of play about data citation. It was valuable, not in the least because of the opportunity to network – one problem about being … Continue reading →

Like many people, I’ve always had a soft spot for the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry – I even had a poster of them on my wall as a student many years ago. I loved the vividness of … Continue reading →