Penny MacConnoran - Archaeological Leather Group

ARCHAEOLOGICAL LEATHER GROUP NEWSLETTER No. 32 September 2010 visit the ALG website at www.archleathgrp.org.uk

Editor‟s note:

a waiting list in case somebody drops out. Alternatively, if you have previously expressed an interest but are not now able to go, please let Diana know so that your place can go to somebody else.

As you will see, we have two interesting meetings coming up shortly and Susanna Harris also includes a Call for Papers for the next conference that the ALG is hosting, a year from now. The theme is “Why Leather?” and we hope to examine the relationship between leather and other materials over the ages, exploring the factors affecting material choice in the manufacture of a range of artefacts.

Spring Meeting, 2011 A visit is being planned to the Deutsches Ledermuseum/ Schumuseum at Offenbach which will be reopening early in 2011 after extensive renovation work. Jutta Göpfrich, who published the Roman leather finds from the fort at Mainz, will be showing us around the museum and there will be a chance to see some of that material.

Since the last newsletter we have learned of the sad death of Penny MacConnoran, who was at the forefront of leather studies in the Museum of London. Jackie Keily writes about her life and career there.

The museum also has important ethnographic colllections. It is intended to stay in Frankfurt and also to spend a day visiting the reconstructed Roman fort at Saalburg, whose museum also has leather and other organic finds.

The newsletter welcomes all contributions from members and others relating to excavations, individual finds, museum collections and reconstruction work where leather is a feature. Copy for the next issue (March, 2011) should reach the editor by the first of that month, please.

The preferred date for the visit at the moment is in the week beginning 27 March. The plan is to travel there on Tuesday 29th and to spend three days (W, Th, Fri) on museum visits, returning on Saturday 2nd or Sunday 3rd April. If you are interested in taking part it will probably be a case of members making their own travel arrangements, although Roy Thomson is looking into the possibility of making a block hotel booking in Frankfurt. Please let Diana Friendship-Taylor (Meetings Co-ordinator) or Roy know if you would like to go; contact details are on the final page.

Sue Winterbottom

Forthcoming events Autumn Meeting, 2010 We will be visiting Cowley's Parchment works at Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire on Thursday, 4th November 2010. We are meeting at 11:00am and will be able to watch the whole parchment-making process.

Conference in Toruń, Poland

Unfortunately, numbers are limited to 15 people so that all can get a good view of the processes involved and currently there are no more places available. If you would like to go, however, please contact the Meetings Co-ordinator Diana Friendship-Taylor and she will add your name to

A conference, Parchment and Leather— research, conservation, restoration, craft is taking place between 21st and 23rd October, 2010. It is hosted by the Nicolaus Copernicus 1

Newsletter 32 September 2010

University, Toruń, Department of Paper and Leather Conservation. The conference will be held in Polish and English and participation costs 100 €. Details of the papers to be presented on each of the three days, covering an incredibly wide range of subject matter, can be found on this website:

pottery or basketry. This leads to a cross over in materials; shoes are known in leather, textiles and basketry versions, body armour may be made with leather, sheet metal or stuffed textiles. Where such variation in materials is found, it brings into question the relationship between craftspeople and supplies, technique and design, practicality, ethics and value.

http://www.zkpis.umk.pl/?conference-2010,27,,,1

So why leather? The aim of this session is to consider the role of animal skin products by questioning the nature of the material itself and the values attached to it in specific contexts of time and place. We welcome papers addressing these issues through examples from archaeology, history, anthropology and the present day.

“Why Leather?” A one-day conference organised by the Archaeological Leather Group on Thursday, 8 September 2011 at the Institute of Archaeology, UCL, London.

Please send abstracts of approximately 250 words to Diana Friendship-Taylor (Meetings Coordinator) at: [email protected]

Call for Papers: The common occurrence of animal skin products, whether leather, furs or rawhide throughout history, prehistory and into the present day attests to their enduring utility and desirability. But why did and do people choose to use these materials? This apparently simple question raises a number of issues.

and Barbara Wills (Chair) at: [email protected] The deadline for abstracts is 31 December 2010. The papers will be made available in electronic format on the ALG website.

First is the question of materials. For archaeologists, furs are often perceived as one of the earliest body insulators, enabling settlement and expansion into cold climates. But they are more versatile than this. Animal skins have a range of chemical and physical properties. These vary according to the species, age and health of the animal but also in the way they are processed. Processing methods such as rawhide and cuir bouille may emphasise the stiff and solid properties of skins, while tanning or oil dressing may bring out their soft and supple nature. There is also the distinctive visual appearance of leather and furs. Especially with the coat left on, skins serve as an indicator of their animal origins.

Committee Business At the AGM at Bury St Edmunds museum in April Jackie Keily and André Veldmeijer were elected Ordinary Members of the committee for 2010-2011.

Dark deeds in deepest Suffolk: the ALG visit to Bury St Edmunds This year our ALG spring meeting was held in April at Moyse‟s Hall Museum, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. It proved to be memorable for several reasons, not least the general subject matter of the day which had more than a little of „something of the night‟ about it! We started with the AGM and then had the chance to handle a collection of 17th century footwear that formed part of a group of material that had been concealed in a building at Winston near Debenham. This generated much discussion of the practice of concealment both in this country and worldwide. It was commonly undertaken in the past and also in recent memory but seldom talked about by those whose concealed the selected items. Nor often indeed by those who

The desirability or otherwise of leather may attach as much to the qualities of the finished product as to the status of skin acquisition and origins. Skins may be welcome by-products of animals slaughtered for their meat, or may be the sole reason for breeding and killing animals. Fake fur and imitation leather are known in the past and present and we may question why. As resources, leather and furs are readily interchangeable with other materials. When processed as flat, supple sheets they are akin to textiles, paper or sheet metal; as mouldable, tough surfaces they may be more comparable to wood, 2


come across them when undertaking repairs to the buildings in which they have been concealed.

summer and we would like to send Angela and baby Max, all our good wishes.

During the 17th century East Anglia was the hunting ground of the infamous Matthew Hopkins who styled himself „Witchfinder General‟. His endeavours culminated in 1645 in the largest witch trial to be held in the country taking place at Bury St Edmunds and resulting in the execution of 18 people. Members of staff at the museum have a particular knowledge of this aspect of the county‟s history so there was much talk of this sad episode.

Quita Mould

Penny MacConnoran It is with great sadness that we pass on the news of the death of Penny MacConnoran who worked for more than 35 years for the Museum of London‟s archaeological services. Penny was the finds processing manager in both the Museum‟s Department of Urban Archaeology and in the later Museum of London Archaeology. She also had a great interest in archaeological leather and this seems to date back to the beginnings of her career in archaeology. One of her colleagues remembers her digging on Seal House in London in 1974 – one of the large Thames waterfront excavations - and finding a medieval leather shoe – possibly the beginnings of her love for leather! But it may have gone back earlier than that as she also worked on the Wood Quay excavations in Dublin in the early 1970s, which, of course, produced fantastic collections of water-logged leather. Penny produced a number of leather publications over the years, starting with the Roman leather assemblage from St Magnus House and ending with the early medieval shoe assemblage from the City of London Guildhall excavations. Sadly for us in the leather world, her interest in leather often had to take second place to her very demanding job as finds processing manager. Penny was an inspiring and fun boss to work for and a true professional, responsible for many of the finds recording standards that are still used in London (and elsewhere) today. She will be deeply missed by her many colleagues and friends.

We looked around the museum displays amongst which is an exhibit of rather grisly items associated with the infamous case of the „Murder at the Red Barn‟ an incident that took place at Polstead in 1827. The murder of Maria Marten, the discovery of her body buried in a barn and the subsequent trial and hanging of William Corder for the crime captured the country‟s lurid imagination and it became the subject of popular Victorian ballads and melodramas. Of particular interest to ALG members was a copy of the proceedings of the resulting murder trial, bound in leather made from the tanned skin of the convicted man William Corder (you don‟t get to see that often!). Other things also stick out in my mind from the meeting. Transport proved to be something of an issue for several of those attending. The journey there took a little longer than some had planned and a scheduled bus on which one of our number had intended to travel failed to arrive, all common events when travelling in England. One that couldn‟t have been foreseen, however, was the intervention of an ash cloud resulting from the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. Professor Euphrosyne RizopoulouEgoumenidou (Frosso to us now) from the University of Cyprus had travelled all the way from Nicosia to attend the meeting and present her newest book Tanning in Cyprus from the 16th to the 20th Century. She was engaged in several worried telephone calls with her husband during the day relaying doubts as to her return journey home. In the event Frosso was forced to have a rather longer stay than originally planned but she was entertained in royal style by Roy and Pat Thomson for her extended visit.

Jackie Keily Bibliography of Penny‟s reports on leather: MacConnoran, P, 1986, „Footwear‟ in L Miller, J Schofield & M Rhodes, The Roman Quay at St Magnus House, London: Excavations at New Fresh Wharf, Lower Thames St, London 1974-78 LAMAS Special Paper 8, 218-226 - 2001, „The Roman leather shoes‟ in T Brigham with A Woodger, Roman and medieval townhouses on the London waterfront: Excavations at Governor’s House, City of London, MoLAS Monograph 9, 99-105

The meeting was also memorable for the fact that one of our members shared the happy news that she was expecting a baby (you see, we are not all oldies!). The baby, a boy, duly arrived this 3


- with Alison Nailer, 2007, „Leather items‟ in D Bowsher, T Dyson, N Holder & I Howell, The London Guildhall: An archaeological history of a neighbourhood from early medieval to modern times, MoLAS Monograph 36, 479-486

evidence of industrial activity have also been found. The leather finds are thought to be of 2 nd or 3rd century date. The nailed shoes were exceptionally well preserved, some with sizeable parts of upper remaining and with the hobnails showing no sign of corrosion. The discovery is significant, since very little Roman leather has been found so far in Staffordshire or Cheshire, although a distinctive one-piece shoe recently excavated at Nantwich is similar to one of those from Tollgate Farm.

- in prep (2010), CD Cat 2 Complete catalogue of selected medieval leather fragments from 1 Poultry, in M Birch and P Treveil, The development of early medieval and later Poultry and Cheapside: Excavations at 1 Poultry and vicinity, City of London, MOLA Monogr Ser 38, London

The shoes are currently being conserved in York and it is intended to display them at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Hanley, Stoke-onTrent from October or November this year. If you would like more information about the site and these finds, please contact the Secretary of SOTMAS, Helen Outram at: [email protected] There are no photos of the recent discoveries on the society‟s website at present but we will provide a link once they are available.

Some recent publications „The leather drying trial. A comparative study of various impregnation and drying methods for waterlogged archaeological leather‟ This article by Karla Graham and Angela Karsten in last summer‟s English Heritage Research News looks at the cost-effectiveness of vacuum freeze drying waterlogged leather and addresses the perceived reluctance of conservators to consider alternative methods. Criteria used to measure the overall effectiveness of different treatments also included shrinkage, flexibility and the time, effort and equipment required. The project will continue to examine changes in the treated leather during long-term storage.

Penny MacConnoran, as many will remember her.

Surprise find of Roman leather in Staffordshire Members of Stoke-on-Trent Museum Archaeological Society made an unexpected and significant find of Roman leather recently while excavating a clay-lined well on a rural site near Uttoxeter. They recovered some 20 shoe finds in both nailed and one-piece styles and including children‟s sizes. There was also some shoe offcut material and a very large portion of a cow or calf hide – possibly a complete, or near complete, tanned hide.

The article can be viewed online on pp. 26-28 of the pdf version of the newsletter at: http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/ research-news-12/researchnews12.pdf/ ……………………………….

Another article available to read online describes the discovery of a well-preserved complete leather shoe deep inside a cave in southern Armenia. The find has been dated to the 4th millennium BC, making it one of the earliest one-

The nature of the site, at Tollgate Farm, is still not clear although a road surface and possible 4


appearance or flexibility, and would have been especially suitable for the region the Iceman inhabited: A. G. Püntener and S. Moss (2010) 'Ötzi the Iceman and his Leather Clothes', Chimia 64, 315-320 ……………………………….

Bypassing a few thousand years, the following publication describes the meticulous restoration of 18th century polychrome wall hangings from Avignon by French conservators. They belong in the 19th century home of Louis Mantin, a collector from Moulins, who gave his beautiful house and the objects within it to the nation as a museum: C. Bonnot-Diconne et al. ‘Historical and Methodological Aspects of the Restoration of a 18th century French Gilt Leather Tapestry in an Historic House: the Maison Mantin project (Moulins, France)‟, ICOMCC Interim Meeting, Rome 2010 (Leather and Related Materials Working Group)

Armenian shoe find from www.plosone.org piece closed shoe finds. It had been stuffed with grass, apparently to help keep its shape when not being worn (see photo). The article is fascinating and considers evidence for how and why footwear may have originated at even earlier periods, perhaps during the Upper Paleolithic:

The article is available online but only if you are a member or friend of ICOM-CC

Book reviews

Ron Pinhasi, Boris Gasparian et al. „Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands‟, PLoS ONE 5(6) (online journal):

by June Swann

Some truly major books since my last contribution: Marcus Egg & Konrad Spindler, Kleidung und Ausrüstung der kupferzeitlichen Gletschmumie aus den Ötztaler Alpen, RömischGermanischen Zentralmuseums, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-88467-125-2, a 264 page hardback with many colour and black and white illustrations, including 12 large-scale sheets of varying sizes (check the pocket at the back for these, as my sealed copy was one short.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/ journal.pone.0010984 ……………………………….

A recent edition of Chimia, the International Journal for Chemistry has an article looking at the possible tanning methods used on the leather clothes and shoes of the 'Iceman', discovered in a glacier in South Tyrol in 1991. This find, too, dates from the 4th millennium BC.

This volume describes the equipment (including weapons, tools etc) of the Ice-man, with the clothing pp.57-97 by Egg and R. GoedeckerCiolek. Cited literature and bibliography on the Ice Man. There is some revision of the reconstruction of the shoes, with the front-patch now integrated to form a vamp, though I have not yet found an explanation of why a complete net to hold the shoe grass would be necessary if the „vamp‟ were original. Sadly the full-length figure reconstructions still show rather crude footwear. The large-scale sheets include the leggings with a multitude of patches, the much-pieced upper body-clothing and the remains of the grass

Four possible tanning procedures are considered: metal tanning, fat tanning, smoke tanning and vegetable tanning. Analytical methods are described and the findings discussed. The samples were found to contain high concentrations of fatty acid salts which differentiated them from reference leathers treated by known fat tanning methods. The conclusion was that the procedure for treating the clothes was an unusual one and trials to replicate it are described. The method used would have maximised water repellence over other desirable qualities, such as

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rain-cape. The photographs of the original finds show how difficult it has been to interpret and produce these reconstructions, and I suspect revisions may be necessary as more research on hopefully more finds is done.

Concordances and the Tables are an essential reference to the complex history of the objects since excavation. The complexity of the detail and language will ensure the book is not used for quick reference information, though for those involved with other Egyptian footwear, I am sure that patient unravelling of the detail will be invaluable.

André J. Veldmeijer, Tutankhamun’s Footwear, Studies of Ancient Egyptian Footwear, Druk Ware, Norg, Netherlands, 2010, ISBN 978-9078707-10-3, a 310 page hardback, with contributions from 9 other authors, original 1920s photographs and depicted footwear in black and white, most of the shoes, sandals etc and their details in colour. The Glossary, long promised in the author‟s previous articles, comprises 3½ pages. 53 terms are defined with a crucial drawing (Fig. 3 on p.16) illustrating how the terms dorsal/ventral and medial/lateral are used to refer to parts of the shoe or foot.

Edited by Rainer C. Schwinges und Regula Schorta, Fashion and Clothing in Late Medieval Europe / Mode und Kleidung im Europa des späten Mittelalters, Abegg-Stiftung Riggisberg, 2010, ISBN 978-3-905014-40-2, a 243 page hardback, colour and black and white illustrations, in English, French and German, with short abstracts. It covers c1200- 16th c., including papers given by 17 authors at the 2006 Abegg conference, under 3 headings, Individual pieces of clothing, Different Social Levels, and Symbolic Aspects: students‟ and nuns‟ clothing, headwear and shoes, royal dress including Spanish and Henry VIII, 14th century London, Scandinavia and Greenland, and body shapes, a fascinating mixture. The pair of platform-soled mules from a Leon tomb of 1187 are an important addition to our knowledge of chapins/chopines.

The Introduction describes the Ancient Egyptian Footwear Project, and its division of footwear into Groups („sandals, shoes, boots etc made with different materials‟), divided into Categories (based on materials and making technology), divided into Types (using „different criteria‟), which are finally divided into Variants. Phase 1 focuses on „manufacturing techniques‟ with other topics discussed only in passing, with preliminary conclusions.

Euphrosyne Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou, Tanning in Cyprus from the 16th to the 20th Century, Cyprus Research Centre 2009, ISBN 978996300-8114-1, a 419 page hardback, many colour and black and white photographs. This may seem an unlikely book for costume people, but the author includes the end-products for which the leather was used, with splendid photographs of boots and shoes in various museums, as well as photographs of them in wear. There is a good set from the 1901 Cypriot Exhibition, now in Athens. In spite of the title, the author begins with leather in Antiquity, and continues through Classical Greece, Byzantine, Frankish and Venetian, before the Ottoman and British periods, which inevitably have more information.

There appears to be a photograph of each sandal from above and below, sometimes with other details, especially lavish for the decorated footwear. Most of the sandals here are Type C, but it would be helpful if the Variants were in the same bold print. They are followed by „the Open Shoes‟, similar to the sandals with the addition of one-piece upper from the joints back round the heel, plus a toe band, with 2 other Variants, all single examples. There are comments on wear, and a brief comparison with other Egyptian finds. Materials are discussed separately, followed by a brief mention of socks with divided toe; useful chapter on contemporary footwear, another on hieroglyph evidence and another on the evidence in Late New Kingdom art, with rather small detail in the drawings.

The families who set up and ran the tanneries are well described, so that we follow the rise and decline of various businesses in major towns and remote villages; a fine description of life on the island emerges, and the thorough use of resources and how that influenced the resulting footwear. The story ends with the predominance of European leather and footwear styles and a turn to importing, which finally killed most of the Cyprus tanneries and shoemaking facto-

The Discussion gives on p.226 „the partial preliminary typology‟, which is a useful reference when reading the earlier chapters, but reveals the few sections where Tutankhamun‟s footwear is placed and rather suggests that footwear in Ancient Egypt, like most countries, is too complex to put into neat typologies. The numbers

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ries, as indeed in much of Europe and North America. We now need comparable books for Greek and Turkish footwear to see their inevitable influences.

patterns. In German, but the pictures speak to all. A longer small booklet edited by Maria-Anne Privat-Sëvigny holds the papers of ICOM‟s Costume Committee 2009 Conference, Costume and the Textile Trade/ Textiles et costumes, échanges commerciaux, Lyon 2010, ISBN 9782-35740-057-3, a 120 page paperback with many colour photographs. Papers by 14 authors, under the headings: Commerce and Textiles, Collections, Accessories (just shoes), and Traditional Costumes. In French and English, with abstracts. The translation of my abstract is inaccurate in 2 places: wedding shoes are rarely the same material as the dress, and the concealed shoes are found in all types of buildings, not just houses. The 19th c. shoes chosen by the editors have lost most of their silk upper (through being in contact with tawed leather) and date from c1860. I always hope French research will eventually be able to date shoes more closely than a royal reign, or century.

Obuv v Historii / The Shoes in History, Proceeding from the fifth International Conference, Zlín 2007, Muzeum jihovychodni Moravy ve Zlín 2009, ISBN 978-80-87130-07-0, a 236 page paperback, in Czech and English, black and white photographs. The papers by 23 authors are grouped under 5 headings: shoe evolution and fashions, shoe collections and famous people, the shoemaking trade and industrial shoemaking (some very useful papers here on Zlín‟s world-renowned industries and shoemaker training in Izegem, Belgium), and restoring and conservation, especially of archaeological footwear. They include a useful preliminary description of footwear for the early Moravian nobility, an account of the Prague exhibition „Footprints of Man, from a Cave to the Moon‟ (no pictures), 15th century shoes from Slovakia, 2 papers on Romanian footwear (one also 15 th century, the other 17th -20th century), a possible 18th century traditional peasant shoe, and some excellent photographs of details of the traditional folk boots of the Podluzi region (knee high, wrinkled leg for women with decorated heels and quarters, fine decorative stitching for the men‟s leg.)

Finally, for English-speaking shoe students and our remaining shoemakers, A.M. Garley has produced a 2nd edition of his Concise Shoemaking Dictionary, self-published, Oakham, England 2009, ISBN 978-0-9541647-1-3, a 96 page paperback, now with line drawings illustrating a high proportion of the terms, 12 page Supplement of relevant websites. I can recommend it to everyone who needs to catalogue shoes, as it is also very helpful for patterns and constructions.

For further afield, papers include the Chinese Terracotta Army, Indo-Malaysia 18-19th centuries, and African footwear in the Zlín shoe museum. Perhaps the most impressive describes shoes and shoemakers in Czech folk literature, with fortunately all the poems translated, though obviously lacking the clever rhyming of the originals – very useful for showing the difference in attitudes compared with our knowledge of the western edges of Europe.

[Editor’s note: the dictionary looks every bit as useful as June suggests and you can see extracts from it online at: http://www.shoe-patter.com/dictionary.htm It can also be ordered from there.]

Correction

The 8th Zlín conference is to be held 12-14 October 2010. Further information from Ms Miroslava Stýbrová:

In the last issue of the Newsletter we reviewed John Parrott‟s book, The Largest Tanyard in the Kingdom: Three Centuries of Tanning in Wantage (AD 1523-1825). Unfortunately John‟s email address, which you can use to order a copy of the book, was given incorrectly. The correct address for ordering is:

[email protected] A well-illustrated little booklet on what have been called the dark ages is Kleidung im Frühen Mittelalter (Porträt Archäologie 3) by S. Walter, C. Peek & A. Gillich, Esslingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-9808926-3-6, 65 pages mostly about the 6 -7th centuries and inevitably much jewellery, with drawings showing how worn, some leather (belts and shoes) and textiles, including weaving

[email protected]

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Don‟t forget your slippers … The Thomsons were deep in Champagne earlier this year – the region of France, you understand. Nothing more exotic. We were close to Langres, the birthplace of Diderot, so it seemed only right to go and pay our respects. After all, those with an interest in industrial history owe a great deal to Diderot‟s Encyclopaedia. Indeed, one feels, some owe everything to the Encyclopaedia. Not far from his splendid statue is the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire and there are one or two objects with associations with leather. Langres was an important Gallo-Roman town and the museum contains exhibits from that period. The pictured object is a stone which is apparently part of the decoration for a bath house. Of particular interest to us were the pairs of bath house slippers. There seem to be two designs; one set looks very like flip-flops. Beneath are the containers for oil and below them, we are told, containers for unguents. The Museum is housed in an interesting building; a light, glass construction, neatly married to the Romanesque former Chapel of St Didier. Annoyingly, it was not in place when we were there, but there is apparently a cobbler‟s stela. Our disappointment was tempered partly by the slippers and partly by the excellent patisserie in the Rue Diderot.

Bath house stone from Langres

Pat Thomson

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Book review

by Roy Thomson

eighteenth century French Cyclopediae and British Commission papers, she has managed to interview some of the last remaining practitioners of the craft.

Tanning in Cyprus from the 16th to the 20th Century. From traditional tanneries to modern industries. Euphrosyne RizopoulouEgoumenidou. Nicosia: Cyprus Research Centre, 2009. €40. 419pp, 302pl. ISBN 978-99630-8114-1 (In English)

She covers leather in antiquity, the Byzantine, Frankish and Venetian periods, the periods of Ottoman and British rule and the years of independence, discussing sources of raw materials, tanning techniques and the objects made from the leathers produced. She highlights the similarities and differences between Greek, Turkish and Armenian traditions. The later chapters outline the attempts to introduce modern industrial techniques under British rule.

Professor Rizopoulou-Egmenidou, a member of ALG, is an archaeologist, historian, ethnographer and much more. In 2001, she started to study Cyprus‟s traditional skin processing industry. Nine years later, this has resulted in an account so carefully detailed and comprehensive that it must surely stand as a definitive model for all such projects. In addition to examining sources as varied as early Greek writers, letters home from medieval travellers, monastic tax returns, formal reports from foreign embassy officials,

Perhaps the most interesting sections to someone who has worked in a tannery are the contents of the oral historical studies which give small but essential technical details known only to the practitioners themselves. They also re8


Back cover: Nikolas Pittaros filling a skinbag in his tannery in Psimolofou, 1984

Front cover

veal the feelings of the people, both men and women, who carried out the processes. They show an intense sense of pride in their skills and indicate that, despite the fact that it was long, cold, hard work, it was fulfilling and enjoyable.

Javascript disabled. If you bookmark the link below you can then use it to access the newsletters directly, without needing to enter a password: http://www.archleathgrp.org.uk/members/ scabbard.htm

This wide-ranging book will be of special interest to social and industrial historians as well as those with an interest in the huge range of artefacts made from leather by the craftsmen of Cyprus.

The ALG online bibliography

The book is obtainable from:

A reminder that the group maintains an extensive bibliography of leather-related publications, which can be viewed online at:

http://www.moufflon.com.cy/ [see under „Books on Cyprus‟ ]

http://www.archleathgrp.org.uk/biblio/ algbibliog.htm

The ALG Newsletter online

Members are encouraged to add to it any relevant new (or, for that matter, old) publications they may come across, either by using the space provided on the subscription form when renewing their membership or by emailing them directly to the Editor or Treasurer. If you visit the web page you will find that there is a section dedicated to recent additions to the bibliography. It is worth checking this from time to time for any works you may not have come across.

Newsletters from March 2002 onwards are available online as pdf files in the Members‟ section of the ALG website. The password to access the Members‟ section is scabbard (upper or lower case) but due to added levels of security in later versions of Internet Explorer the process of entering the password can be quite laborious and may not work at all if, for example, you have

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Committee Members, 2010-11 Chair Barbara Wills, British Museum, Organics Conservation Section, 48-56 Orsman Road, London N1 5QJ, Tel 01223 509738, Email [email protected]

Secretary Susanna Harris, Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY, Email [email protected]

Treasurer Roy Thomson, The Long House, Behind 43 West Street, Oundle, Peterborough PE8 4EJ, Tel 01832 272048, Email [email protected]

Editor Sue Winterbottom, 48 Lyndhurst Street, Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 4BP, Tel 01782 833213, Email [email protected]

Meetings Co-ordinator Diana FriendshipTaylor, „Toad-Hall‟, 86 Main Road, Hackleton, Northants NN7 2AD, Tel 01604 870312, Email [email protected]

Ordinary Member Mike Glasson, Walsall Leather Museum, Littleton Street West, Walsall WS2 8EQ, Tel 01922 721153, Email [email protected]

Ordinary Member Jackie Keily, Department of Archaeological Collections and Archive, Museum of London, London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN, Tel 020 7814 5734, Email [email protected]

Ordinary Member André Veldmeijer, PalArch Foundation, Mezquitalaan 23, 1064 NS Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tel 0031 (0)20 6137940, Email [email protected] ___________________________________________

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