Isn’t it better to inspire than tear down?

Today as I was paging down on FB I saw a poster that had a photo of a famous guitarist with a PhD in Astrophysics whose story I had never heard before, so I asked google about him, and found his story very inspiring: If one has more than one interest one would like to follow, and starts out making time for both of them, but then one becomes so all-consuming that the other needs to be dropped, it is never too late to go back and pick up the other interest and do well with it. Yes, one can be both a rock-star and an academic researcher, if one devotes one self to each dream in turn (and has the good fortune to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right style to be popular (for the music side of it) and the good fortune to be interested in a research topic that hasn’t already been done to death by the time one has a moment to return to it (for the science side of it).

However, much to my disappointment, the poster that drew my attention to this inspiring story made no attempt to be inspiring, or even positive. Instead of reminding us to chase all of our dreams in turn the poster text just “explained” that the reader wasn’t as “cool” as the man in the photo because we would never have exactly his list of accomplishments. Perhaps not, but most of us don’t want exactly that list of accomplishments; we each have our own dreams and interests, and it is much better to pursue our own interests than those of someone else. Some of my friends may occasionally feel bad because they have set aside a project or paused in progress working on a skill while they devote their energies to something else. You know what? It is ok to set aside one thing while you focus on another, and it is also ok to return to it later, perhaps many, many years later and pick it back up. If you do you may find that you are a success in both fields.

For those of you with a habit of “sharing” things on FB, may I make a request? The next time you see a poster that could have been inspiring, but instead just tried to tear folk down, if you have a moment to spare, instead of “sharing” it, could you please edit it, make it positive, and re-release it to the world?

a golden egg challenge

Inspired by frualeydis's post about her challenge, I have finally made the time to post the below suggestion to the Golden Egg Web page:

I propose the following as a Golden Egg Challenge:

Make and cook with a soapstone pot and then use it for science.

I am somewhat late in getting around to posting this, I have been thinking of this on and off since January, and begun real steps towards this goal in May. Is it still allowed to be a Golden Egg challenge anyway?

I begun researching Viking Age cooking vessels in soapstone in January, as part of my 2nd PhD project, which seeks to determine the source quarries for various archaeological soapstone objects based on the composition of the objects.

The first thing I noticed when I started researching this topic was the contrast between the fact that most Viking Age families were cooking with soapstone, and most Viking Age reenactors I have met aren’t, and I thought it would be cool to give it a try.

Then I wondered if cooking with soapstone would cause any changes in the composition of the stone (either due to the repeated heating and cooling, or due to the food, or some combination thereof) that might complicate my goal to figure out where the stone was quarried? This also inspired me to try it: Make a pot, measure its composition, cook with it for a year or two, measure its composition again. Has it changed? If so, is there a pattern to the change?

Therefore I have started the first steps towards this goal:

* reading about Viking Age Soapstone Vessels (see below)
* reading about Viking Age food stuff
* searching the Swedish Historical Museum’s database for soapstone objects
* travel to the Nidaros Cathedral Restoration workshop to learn the basis of soapstone and obtain a piece to make a pot
* started carving (see profile photo)

It will take time (realistically months, given how little time I have available for the carving) to make the pot. Once it is done I need to learn to cook with it (the woman who taught me says that once one gets water to a boil in her pot one can take it off the fire and it will keep boiling for 10 minutes more).

What more do I need to do for the “Golden Egg” part of this project? Is this even an appropriate sort of project for this group?

Partial reading list for Soapstone artifacts and the composition thereof:

Allen, R.O., and Pennell, S.E., 1978, Rare Earth Element Distribution Patterns to Characterize Soapstone Artifacts, in Archaeological Chemistry—II, AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, Advances in Chemistry 171, v. 171, p. 230–257, doi: 10.1021/ba-1978-0171.ch014.

Torsten DuRietz (1935) Peridotites, Serpentines, and Soapstones of Northern Sweden, with special reference to some occurences in Northern Jämtland, Geologiska Föreningen I Stockholm Förhandlingar, 57:2, 133-260, DOI: 10.1080/11035893509445975

Erwin, J.C., 2001, A prehistoric soapstone quarry in Fleur de Lys, Newfoundland: PhD Thesis, University of Calgary.

Forster 2005, The Soapstone trade in the North Atlantic: Preliminary research of Viking and Norse period soapstone imports in Iceland In: Current Issues in Nordic Archaeology: Proceedings of the 21st Conference of Nordic Archaeologist 6-9 September 2001, Akureyri Iceland Ed: Garðar Guðmundsson • 2005 Publisher: Society of Icelandic Archaeologists. ISBN: 9789979609445

Forster, A., Jones, R., 2017. From Homeland to Home; Using Soapstone to Map Migration and Settlement in the North Atlantic, In: Hansen, G., Storemyr, P. (Eds.), Soapstone in the North. Quarries, Products and People 7000 BC - AD 1700. University of Bergen, pp. 225-248.

Forster, A. K. and Turner, V. E. (Eds.). Kleber: Shetland's Oldest Industry. Shetland Soapstone Since Prehistory. Lerwick: Shetland Amenity Trust, 133 pages ISBN-10: 0954324692

Hansen et al 2017, Soapstone in the North. Quarries, Products and People 7000 BC - AD 1700. University of Bergen.

Hubbard, M.J., 2006, Soapstone vessels in the Ohio River Valley and determining their source of origin using visible/near-infrared reflectance spectrometry [PhD Thesis]: Kent State University.

Rogers, M., Allen, R., Nagle, C., and Fitzhugh, W., 1983, The Utilization of Rare Earth Element Concentrations for the Characterization of Soapstone Quarries: Archaeometry, v. 25, p. 186–195, doi: 10.1111/j.1475-4754.1983.tb00675.x.

Stavsøien 2012, Fra fast fjell til gryte: Å arbeide med kleberstein, - hva skjuler seg i prosessen? (From solid rock to cooking pot: Working with soapstone, - what is hiding in the process?). Bachelor's thesis, BACHELOROPPGAVE BYG819T
Prosjektnr. 13-2012 Eva Stavsøien.

Val G. Steele, Report on the analysis of residues from steatite and ceramic vessels from the site of Belmont, Shetland

Turnbaugh, W., Turnbaugh, S., and Keifer, T., 1984, Characterization of selected soapstone sources in southern New England (Chapter 12) - Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production, in Prehistoric Quarries and Lithic Production (New Directions in Archaeology), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511753244.013, p. 129–138.

Edward W. Wells III, Sarah C. Sherwood, and Kandace D. Hollenbach. Soapstone Vessel Chronology and Function in the Southern Appalachians of Eastern Tennessee: The Apple Barn Site (40bt90) Assemblage. Southeastern Archaeology 33:153–167

Wikki, H.B., 1953. Composition and origin of soapstone: , Bulletin de la Commission Geologique de Finland. Geologinen Tutkimuslaitos, p. 57.

Food Additives and Contaminants Volume 19, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 134-143 Soapstone (steatite) cookware as a source of minerals(Article) Quintaes, K.D., Amaya-Farfan, J., Morgano, M.A., Mantovani, D.M.B.