The past holds a fascination for me

Not so much history (at least not as we were taught it at school - boring lists of acts of parliament, kings, battles and their concomitant dates) more archaeology. But not classical archaeology (also known as treasure hunting!) where the artefacts are the goal. Archaeologists such as John Romer who can use the artefacts to understand, and really commune with, the people that created them, are my archaeological role models.

I studied Field Archaeology as an extra-mural student at the Institute of Archaeology, which was a wonderful experience. Unfortunately due to pressure of work I never got to finish the course (I passed the exams for the first two years, had three attempts at the third year but had to drop out halfway through the middle term each time, and never got to start the fourth year) so I am only half-qualified ;-) and retain my status as an interested amateur. Every subsequent attempt to gain practical experience has been thwarted (usually by clients) - it's obviously not my destiny.

I suppose my motivation originally was to find out more about my Roman ancestors. This led on to an interest in the Etruscans, the Greeks and Trojans. And I've always been fascinated by the Egyptians. Very Mediterraneocentric! Now my son is interested in the Romans, Egyptians, Greeks & Trojans but also the Vikings, so my reading is striking north.

I have been lucky enough to get to work with the Lepcis Magna Excavations team on their web site. If you know nothing about Lepcis take some time to visit the website. It's a Roman city on the coast of North Africa that has been largely untouched until this century since it was sacked by the Berbers in the sixth century. The website includes some Quicktime VR panoramas of parts of the site as well as hundreds of photographs of the site and the excavation work being carried on there.

There is a list of bookmarked sites related to archaeology here if you're interested.

The background is derived from a bust of Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC). As well as a great military commander, he was an inspired , and inspiring, leader of his people, and an effective and vivid historian. History is always written by the victors, so who better to write it than the major protagonist.

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