#i changed work when COVID and its lockdowns hit my antiquarian clientele and we all fell together

[twistedapple]

This whole thread reminds me of one of my teachers back during my master degree in Fine Art restoration and conservation.

See I specialise in ceramics, and one of my teachers (rest in peace sir you were all over the place but fun) was super nice but also the almost Stereotypical Eccentric Scholar type, specialised in the whole technical aspect of ceramics (clay and all, the whole cooking process and why X stuff reacts at that temperature but Y stuff doesn't and how enamel works at a physical level - all the purely physics/chemistry jazz).

Anyway, he told us that he could identify various types of ceramics just by licking them.

I'm not trying to debunk any allegation about archaeologists being weird, there. If anything I'd like to point out that us specialised in ceramics are also a bit of a weird breed (then again there was a hierarchy of fashion at my school: painting restorers with fancy bags and heels, paper restorers with nice sneakers and totbags, and then us with comfy sneakers and sacrificial trousers and a bin bag full of recycled clay lmao ceramic restorers can easily be the Trash Raccoons™️ of Fine Arts restoration).

honey is the only food product that never spoils. there are pots of honey that are over five thousand years old and still completely edible