False 35past horizons College London who have helped produce the downloadable activities and worksheets available on the Prescot Street website. The day- to- day activities involved with commercial archaeology are rarely seen by the public. TV programmes such as Time Team and Meet the Ancestors do help to make archaeology accessible, but the public never gets to witness the pre- excavation research, the daily grind of wielding a mattock, shovel and trowel, or the endless paperwork, photography, survey, drawing and fi nds preparation that accompanies any archaeological excavation. Archaeology also uses its own jargon, which can create barriers to understanding relatively straightforward concepts such as contexts, features and artefacts. These barriers can be lifted by reaching out to the public using the endless possibilities that the internet offers. Engaging with people on many levels opens up exciting avenues for the future, and will undoubtedly present a more accurate picture of the rigours of commercial archaeology to the public without taking away the sense of discovery, excitement and adventure that makes archaeology so special to all of us. ? ARK, the Archaeological Recording Kit is an opensource, standards compliant, web- delivered system for the creation, storage, manipulation and publication of archaeological data and media. ark. lparchaeology. com/ 8 Villa Magna represents a unique opportunity to implement the ARK system from the earliest stages, at a site of international importance. www. villa- magna. org/ 8 Çatalhöyük web site designed for those interested in the ongoing excavations. Its aim is to provide information about the activities and the different aspects of the research currently being conducted, as well as educational resources. www. catalhoyuk. com/ 8 Prescot Street website: www. lparchaeology. com/ prescot Learn more Prescot Street website homepageAnies Hassan at work fi lming

False past horizons36 Annie Evans, The Dig Cook The Dig Cook’s website http:// www. digcook. com ? Potatoes are enjoyed all over the world. Consider the mashed potatoes of American Thanksgiving, the baked potato of England with the Sunday roast, and the universal chipped potato or French fry for every day of the year. The humble potato is actually the king of the vegetables. The ranks of potato varieties are very large and I don’t know of anyone who’s done a head count of those available to cooks today. One hundred? Perhaps more, but there are rarely more than a few available in any local area and probably only two or three in any given store, market or supermarket. We have just a fraction of the potato richness that has survived in the Andes where it’s been estimated that more than 4000 different varieties can still be found. We owe a vote of thanks to the Spanish conquistadors, not for their bloody victories in South America in the 16th century, but for bringing back the potato when they returned to Europe. In time, it was worth more than all the gold and silver of the Inca Empire. Potatoes can be fat, skinny, lumpy or smooth; long, short, round, or square; red, yellow, white, green, blue or purple. Their cooking qualities vary greatly. My favourite potato is the one known as the Dutch Cream – and no prizes for guessing where it comes from. It’s found in many places, including Cyprus, the UK ( particularly in London), in Australia and, of course, the Netherlands. With its creamy yellow fl esh, the Dutch Cream is perfect for baking, mashing or chipping. Cheap and cheerful, the potato is the planet’s gift to the fi eldwork cook. If you can’t fi nd Dutch Creams, other excellent varieties include the Nicola, Russet Burbank, Jersey Royal, Yukon Gold and Kipfl er. The potato’s versatility means that you can deal with it very simply, for example by wrapping it in foil with some herbs and oil and cooking it in the coals of a campfi re. You then unwrap it, slash it and add toppings such as sour cream, chopped tomato, avocado, corn and fi nely- cut crispy bacon. But potatoes can also be the foundation of much more ambitious meals. The recipes that follow are not too ambitious because they are designed for use at typical fi eldwork locations. Cooking large quantities of food to perfection, even with quite complex recipes, is easy enough in a restaurant kitchen or a well- equipped home kitchen but a different matter altogether on the often very basic stoves that are the usual run of things in archaeology. Here’s how I cook large quantities of baked potatoes to perfection – even on the dodgy stoves that I generally have to use. As always, the quantities in the recipes that follow are for 30 people. If the numbers at a fi eld project are larger or smaller, quantities will need to be adjusted accordingly. Recipes for Archaeologists