Sand

This sand is from the collection of the late Ivor Treby. It was collected at the ruins of Othello’s Tower in Cyprus.

The sand is comprised of echinoid spine fragments, spiral foraminifera (0.8 mm), small bivalve and subfossil terrestrial snail shells. The quartz grains are transparent colourless angular to sub-angular (0.5-3 mm). There are also some fragments of porous limestone containing quartz (calcarenite) up to 10 mm possibly related to Upper miocene Nicosia Formation. Othello’s ower is built of sandstone according to Wikipedia so there is no apparent connection between the sample and the tower.

Ivor was a biochemistry teacher and poet with over 400 published poems. He considered himself to be a gay literary activist.

Ivor took early retirement in the 1980s and dedicated his time to researching two Victorian/Edwardian women poets who wrote under the pseudonym Michael Field. He also spent much of the next 20 years travelling abroad. Wherever he went he collected samples of sand and sediment.

He was meticulously organised. His personal archive of poems, postcards, letters and research is held by the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. For more information on Ivor and the archive please see their website http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/modern/treby/treby.html

Object Summary

Accession Loan No.
27/2013/159
Collection Class
Rocks
Collection Area Region
Southern Europe
Collector Excavator
Treby, Mr Ivor Charles Francis
Common Name
sand
Simple Name
sand
Period Classification
Modern (1900-)

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sand