[Regia-NA] "what's an Authenticity Officer look like"?

[Nicholson, Andrew]

Well, Kim asked for an opinion, and then a lot of what I would have =
covered
was brought up by Tom in a posting on Wednesday.

You do need to know a bit about everything, and you also need to know =
where
to look, or who to ask, for more specific information on fields which =
may
not be your strongest suit. Over the years I have done spinning, =
dyeing,
warping-up looms, weaving, skinning, tanning, leatherworking,
bronze-casting, iron smelting, silverwork, sewing and embroidery, =
cooking
and food preparation, woodcarving and turning, plough-building(!),
house-building (2 of !!), candle-making, quill-cutting and calligraphy,
bowmaking and fletching, and probably a whole host more things that =
don't
spring immediately to mind. I've sailed longships in the Baltic, the =
Irish
Sea, the English Channel, round Man, and off the Scottish west coast.
However, there are almost certainly people who know specific crafts =
better
than I do, so I make sure I stay on good terms with them all. I also =
have a
significant library at home, and access to two other archaeologist's
personal libraries as well, which makes up for not being near to a =
major
academic library [no ILL here :-(].

Tact is very necessary, as commenting on a piece of 'wrong' kit which
someone has spent hours, maybe hundreds of hours, on, inevitably means =
that
you come in for a lot of flak. A thick skin helps ;-), though =
confidence in
your own judgement is probably more important. Remember that as a last =
ditch
recourse, the custom and practice of Regia is that the member needs to
provenance their kit/new item, not you - "OK, so tell me, where did you =
find
the evidence for Saxons wearing pixie boots?"

One of the other main criteria is the ability to attend events. The =
reason
that the last three National AO's have stepped down was their inability =
to
attend as many events as they felt they ought - in all cases brought on =
by
the advent of small bipedal hominids - Seibhyrt be warned, becoming AO =
is
the first step to parenthood ;-).

Gu=F0rum

PS The simple answer is "I don't know, I just look in a mirror".