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Guest Blog: Will Heard – Spring 2013 Survey Results Part 2

Last week we published a guest post from Will Heard, as a summary of the Spring Survey that the University of Southampton students carried out this April-May. Here is Will’s second and final blog post about the survey results. Will Heard Thanks again to Will! — Basing House Spring Survey Part 2 by Will Heard, 2013 Will is a third year undergraduate student, with interests in survey, geophysics and the use of computers for archaeological purposes. Continue reading →

A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer

There are a lot of things in Neal Stephenson‘s The Diamond Age which I love. If I’m honest with myself I hope to see mediatronic paper and animated digital chops, for example,  become real in my lifetime. There are other aspect of the world created in that novel, for example massive inequality in a post-scarcity society, which I hope we won’t see, but I fear we are already walking down the path towards. Continue reading →

Guest Blog: Will Heard – Spring 2013 Survey Results Part 1

As part of the Spring Survey that the University of Southampton students carried out this April-May, undergraduate Archaeology students who attended the fieldwork were asked to write a report summarising the survey data. One of the students that attended the Spring Survey, Will Heard, has written a summary of his report, and has kindly allowed us to share it with our readers. Continue reading →

Bring Your Bones! Bones Identification Day 8th August

Osteologists Visit Basing House Do you have a mystery bone that you dug up in the garden or found whilst walking the dog? Would you like to find out more about how archaeologists identify bones? We have fantastic news for you! Some lovely skulls to whet your appetite! Can you identify all of these chaps? Bones Identification Day at Basing House 8th August 11am-4pm Ellie Williams and her team will be visiting Basing House on the 8th August to show a selection of bones from the University of... Continue reading →

Guest Blog: Meg Davis – New Ways of Recording Excavations

Introducing Meg Meg Davies, one of our student researchers. We’re very excited that Meg will be visiting us on the 1st August to test out how handheld devices can contribute to archaeological investigations. We interviewed Meg to find out what she is planning. What will you be testing at Basing House? I am planning to test out touch-screen tablets for their uses within archaeological excavation field recording, such as photographing,  drawing, writing context sheets, GPS, etc. Continue reading →

Centre for Digital Heritage #CDH2013

Last Saturday I went to the inaugural conference of the Centre for Digital Heritage at the University of York. The first speaker was Professor Andrew Prescott, who gave us a salutatory reminder that the so-called Industrial Revolution wasn’t quite as revolutionary to those living through it, and that some of what we now realize were world changing developments, were not seen as such at the time. Continue reading →

Plotting the trench

This morning some of our team travelled up to Basing House to finalise plans with the staff at the site, and to look again at some of the things we’ll be working on while we’re digging later this month. First of all though, we couldn’t resist going to look at the recently discovered Tudor fireplace, found by the building contractors whilst they have been working hard to fix brickwork issues on the standing remains. Continue reading →

Our 1960s excavation

The excavation this Summer, we’re reinvestigating excavations carried out by Aldermaston Archaeological Society 1962-3 at Basing House. Reported in the Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club (Pike & Combley, 1964: 11-20), the excavations consisted of a long trench (c.1m x 30m) which ran from the bank and ditch at the back of the earthworks of the main house at a right angle, towards the Basingstoke Common. Continue reading →

Is the narrative in the game, or in the head?

In his post, The Simulation Dream (which I’ll forever thank Twitter for pointing me to), Tynan Sylvester sets out the Player Model Principle, which is “The whole value of a game is in the mental model of itself it projects into the player’s mind.” I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week, wrestling with the sometimes incredibly didactic way in which cultural heritage organisations can tell their stories. Continue reading →