Peter was very chuffed when he received a thank you gift from the AIA for helping (mostly) as a volunteer painter. The Australian Institute of Archaeology is now based at Latrobe University, quite close by. The university gave the AIA rooms in an old building complex on land recently acquired from the Victorian Government. Much renovation and painting has been required to bring the rooms back to a reasonable presentation. The library and lecture hall are now functioning well. The artefacts, that many volunteers come to catalogue, are now in a stable and secure environment. The 'museum' part of the project still has a long way to go, so there is a lot of work remaining. Chris, the AIA director, ordered these laser etched crystal prisms from Sydney as mementos for those involved in the work leading up to the opening of the new premises in 2008.The crystal prism features a three dimensional etching of a "cylinder seal" that is one of the Institute's artefacts. The design on the cylinder contains running animals, possible antelopes, with curved horns and long necks. They move to the left (in the wet clay impression left by the roll of the seal). Above the running animals are fish shapes travelling in the same direction. There is also a repeating eye motif between the animals. The cylinder is believed to be from the period around 2,900 B.C.
The new Institute logo and supporting typography is etched into the prism at its base. The logo has adopted the animal horns from the cylinder seal. These horns have been positioned to form the letter 'A' for both Australian and Archaeology. This logo feels like a good choice. It has its own mystique, and its shape stays in the mind long afterward.
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