My almost four years of research at Lampeter have probably been the most exciting and satisfying years of my academic life so far. Having completed my first degree in Pre- and Protohistory, Social and Physical Anthropology at the University of Hamburg in 1993, and the Masters in Theoretical Archaeology at the University of Wales, Lampeter, in 1994, I was offered a fully funded Ph.D. by the Department of Archaeology at Lampeter and the British Academy. I am very grateful to both institutions for their financial support. Without it, this thesis would never have been written.
The Department of Archaeology at Lampeter, where my research was supervised by Michael Shanks, proved to be an extremely stimulating environment for my research. Michael has never attempted to control what I was doing and always supported me with encouragement and additional suggestions. He and David Austin (at the time Head of Department) have also backed my more unorthodox desire to submit my thesis in hypermedia format rather than as a paper copy bound in hardback.
My years of research at Lampeter can be traced in different ways.
First of all, there is a selection of changing outlines/abstracts and annual progress reports about my work which I have mostly written for myself, my supervisor, or for the British Academy.
The outline for my (successful) application for British Academy funding in 1994,
Progress reports for myself and for Michael ("How things are g(r)o(w)ing") in 1995 and 1996,
Short formal progress reports for the British Academy in 1995, 1996 and 1997,
Then there is the academic story of how the approach to my research topic developed over the years in my mind.
You can also look at my research diary, which gives you the dates of important events of my research and academic life during the years 1994–1998.
Finally, there is an administrative story to be told: how my thesis was proposed for submission in hypermedia format and on CD-Rom (or on the World Wide Web), and the responses and finally acceptance of my plans (see also Holtorf 1999).
Holtorf, Cornelius J. (1999) Is History going to be on my side? On the experience of writing and submitting a hypermedia Ph.D. thesis. Internet Archaeology 6. URL: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue6/holtorf_index.html.