I have been watching a programme on TV about the methods archaeologists use in trying to date a site, and I have come to realise that it is a similar process to the one we use to try and date old photographs. This photograph of my room way back when provides a good example. Like all old photographs it is full of clues and it is just a matter of dating the individual elements and working towards an overall probable date.
At first I thought I recognised the room - and in particular the wallpaper - which gave me a date of somehow around 1983; as we moved from that house in the mid 1980s. The BBC Micro computer would fit in with that timeframe : I seem to remember acquiring one a couple of years after they were first introduced in 1981. But the rest of technology throws such an estimate into confusion, as that is an Amstrad PC1512 sat next to the BBC and they weren't introduced until 1986. And that is an early modem sat on top of the BBC's disk drives and such things weren't around until the latter part of the 1980s. These later technological finds shift the probable date to the late 1980s which shifts the location about two and a half miles further west than the original estimated location. Now all that remains is for me to somehow place the jaw-bone of the Spinosaurus clearly visible under the table into the likely timeframe.
Good sleuthing Alan; Brett would be proud of you!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to believe that in our life time we went from that hardware with limited access to reach others to smartphones and google that can tell us where dinosaurs are to be found and it seems they continue to discover them.
ReplyDeleteNice photo of our tech past.
Good work!
ReplyDeleteWe are going to send our blueberry mac to the dump. We don't remember how to log on and nothing seems to be capable to what we can capture from it. Saying good by to the good old days but not so great computer.
ReplyDeleteI recognise the circular black table as one that has been in our family for generations. Does that help?
ReplyDeleteYour phone may be the technology that had the longest useful life, but with a rotary dial surely it was replaced in the 90s. I miss the whirring mechanics of twisting a finger in each number hole. It added a compulsory moment of suspense to wait for an international call to connect. {any rude interpretation of that 2nd sentence is purely unintentional!}
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to London in 1967 my mother was amazed and excited to find our telephone was cream just like yours. She had only ever used a black phone before. And our phone number was Speedwell. We dialled 455 but the little paper whatnot in the middle of the dial still said SPE.
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