Thanks for the ping!

I enter and choose Zombies!

in case you want to enter. :)

It's not too bad, actually. The end has been in sight for a long time, and I've been looking forward to having some time to myself and getting my weekends back and not leaving the office at 7pm. It's not the massive rush of freedom I thought it might have been, though. But it is pretty weird having my whole routine come to an abrupt end like that. I don't know what to do with myself!

Thanks for the ping!

I'll go with pirates please!

I'll choose Pirates please!

Congrats! Dude, that's awesome. So much work! When will you be a doctorate then?

And I'm a zombie! thanks for the ping, love!

I'm not sure exactly. I don't know when my viva is going to be, but it should happen before Christmas, hopefully. Then provided I only get minor corrections, I'll get three months to complete them. I'll only be able to officially call myself 'doctor' once my corrections are officially accepted, so I've still got a few months until the whole thing is properly over.

What is a viva? (Sorry, I'm German...) In Germany people have to "defend" their thesis, aka present it and themselves to a jury of professors and stand up to any questions. Is it like that?

It's short for 'viva voce' which is Latin for "with living voice" or "by word of mouth", which is just a fancy term for the oral part of the thesis examination, so the same thing as a defence, essentially. I'm English, and I think that our form of thesis defence is a lot nicer than those they have on the continent or in America, from what I can tell. We only have two examiners (one from inside the university, and another from outside), and no presentation aspect. I'll still have to answer question and justify my position of a few things I've done, but it's not especially formal.

I choose pirates!

Congratulation on submitting your PhD thesis! :D

ah ok. So for the moment, you're finished c: Take some free time, and good luck for your viva then!

ohoho zombie eh???

IM A PIRATE >:'D (i'd like to choose pirate section please!)

c: ❤️

I choose pirates cool giveaway

Congrats on your thesis ^^ I have to chose pirates, I'm a bit obsessed with that theme, lol xD

Congratulations on your thesis! What is it, if I may ask? (Pirate, btw).

Thank you, !

Broadly speaking, it's archaeological. I was looking at objects deliberately concealed in 16th and 17th century houses in England. Objects properly built into walls and under the floor etc. I was examining patterns of use, types of objects used (there's some fairly unusual stuff, but a lot of it is shoes), trying to work out what it means in relation to people's relationship to both these items and the house structure itself. I don't know what the real intention was in placing these items (I don't think there was any singular reason across all cases, but I also don't think it's ever possible to truly know any of them), but I think I cleared up a few myths and assumptions some people have about this sort of thing.

That's fascinating, I didn't even know that was a thing. What kinds of myths and assumptions did you address, and what are the facts?

thanks for the ping

I choose to be a pirate YARRR

Don't have time now, but maybe I'll check it out later! Thanks for thinking of me sweetie. <3

[edit]

- CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING YOUR STUDIES! WOW... and you are a sweetheart for doing this,so, good to know there are thoughtful potential Phd's out there! :D <3

So, I choose, Pirates.

My friend was kind enough to ping me here, so, pinging, & . Good luck!

(This could get long...) The time period I was looking at overlapped with the hight of the fear of witches, so people too commonly see something unusual or out of place, and assume that it's got something to do with the supernatural, or was supposed to be protective, of was generally something superstitious. I can see why people would want to look at them this way; it's quite romantic and dramatic, and there are a few types of items which help reinforce that view (such as dried cats, horse skulls, and a few of these babys. But there are a lot of other objects treated the same way that get pushed aside because they don't correlate with the view; just ordinary household stuff like old clothes, ceramic pots, clay pipes. Ultimately, there is no basis for the association with witches beyond modern perceptions (except the witch bottles - I concede that those are intended to be magical). I looked at accounts of counter-witchcraft charms, and the types of objects people might have used as good luck or protection charms, and a lot of it just doesn't tally up. The range of items used overall is far to broad to relate just to one aspect of superstition/belief in magic. Although cats were the most common type of animal deposit, I counted eighteen different species overall. Another thing which gets thrown around is that these items were hidden in or around "vulnerable" parts of the house, so near doors, windows and the chimney. Nope! Deposits in walls were the most common. Items are found in all sorts of areas throughout the house; there really isn't a particular focus on one area. There are a lot of deposits in chimneys, but these were new structural features in houses at the time, and it's probably the case that the building of one provided an ideal opportunity to hide some items. Comparatively, there are hardly any deposits associated with doors or windows.

Thank you for pinging me but how can I choose? I'm a zombie pirate. ;_;

Pinging my lovelies