Approaches to Archaeological Illustration: A Handbook

Archaeological illustration has changed enormously in recent years, with inked-up plans a thing of the past with the advent of an array of digital tools and programmes. Despite all that, the need to produce an illustration of high quality that accurately reproduces an object remains paramount. This necessary combination of accuracy and aestheticism - we should appreciate both object and illustration - has inspired this handbook. It presents a series of drawings of objects made from a full range of materials accompanied by discussions of the types of illustration most suited to that object-type, the manufacture of the object, how it was drawn and suggestions for further reading. Organised by material, the guide covers objects of bone, ceramic, glass, jet and shale, leather, copper alloy, gold, iron, lead, carved stone, flints and wood, and includes a Roman knife and comb, Ming porcelain, medieval floor tiles and roof finials, Roman and medieval glass, a Roman shoe, Bronze Age dress-fasteners, iron shackles, Scottish carved slabs and an Iron Age wooden shovel. As was Melanie Steiner's intention, the handbook promotes respect for both the skill of the original craftsman and that of the archaeological illustrator.