Chris Tilley – mythographic triptych (annotated)

Reflections on the work of Christopher Yates Tilley 2 Tilley in the north – with a new kind of magnifying Claude glass or dark mirror. Thomas of Erceldoune, the Rhymer, Thomas the True, poet and prophet who could not tell a lie. 1292 Scottish Borderlands. Favorite of Walter Scott, inventor of the historical novel —…

In Tilley’s garden – a summer long ago

Reflections on the work of Christopher Yates Tilley 1 It seems appropriate to call it a passing, the death of Chris Tilley in March 2024. We worked together so closely on archaeological theory from 1979, when we met at Cambridge, until he left University of Wales Lampeter in 1993, where we were both faculty elements…

Chris Tilley

I heard this morning that Chris Tilley died last night in Brighton UK. A shock of loss and then sadness at what has gone, and also what might have been — he had just always been there, after so much we shared when we were much younger. Intellectual and collegial companionship at its best. From…

Mike Pearson – theatre/archaeology

Mike Pearson died last week. He was a performance artist, theatre director, theorist and philosopher, scholar and teacher. And, as composer John Hardy said, Mike collaborated and connected – visual design, architectural stagecraft, poets, playwrights, composers, experimental jazz musicians, dancers, disability & gender specialists, comics, community art conveners, museum curators, traditional Japanese theatre performers, Patagonian farmers,…

the future of archaeological theory – looking forward with Ben Cullen

On the anniversary of the untimely and sudden death in 1995 of Ben Cullen, archaeologist and anthropologist. Now twenty years past – how time accelerates. And in April 2015 Ian Gollop, his friend who found him that December morning, died in St Dogmael’s, West Wales – [Link] [Link] Previous thoughts – [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]…

Ruth Tringham, performance and creative confidence

Over twenty years ago I was in Paris as a Fellow of the Maison des sciences de l’homme at the Centre d’archéologie classique and the Centre Louis Gernet (Alain Schnapp, François Lissarague and colleagues), combining the connoisseurship of ancient Corinthian ceramics with my discovery of French anthropology of science and technology (Bruno Latour, Pierre Lemonnier,…