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Dig Basing! Coming to a garden near you

If you are interested in the archaeology and history of Basing House, then you may like to know that the Basingstoke Archaeological and Historical Society (BAHS) are organising a community archaeology project called Dig Basing! which will take place during the second half of September 2014. An invitation to participate This exciting venture invites Basing residents to engage in practical archaeology by volunteering to dig a 1m x 1m test pit in their garden. Continue reading →

Basing House Project Joins Pinterest

We’re now on Pinterest! Some of the team are big pinners, and have been busy setting up a Basing House Project Pinterest page. Our intention is to collect pins about all things Basing House related, as inspiration for team members. As a starter, here is our first board, Tudor Objects, which pulls together objects from Hampshire that are the kinds of things that a Tudor visitor to Basing House might have been familiar with. Continue reading →

The 2014 Basingstoke Common Survey

Will Heard, who is about to embark on the Archaeological Computing Masters programme at the University of Southampton, has written a blog post summarising his time with us at Basing House this season. Will was working closely with Dom Barker, who headed up the survey of Basingstoke Common. Will is an important member of our team and we are really appreciative of his volunteering to take part in both the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Continue reading →

The 2014 Small Finds go for Conservation

Last week, we dropped off the 2014 season small finds to the Hampshire County Council Museums Service headquarters to be conserved by their excellent team of conservators. The staff at Museums HQ were fantastic, taking time out of their busy morning schedules to show some of the students the conservation laboratories and the archaeology collection stores. Tilly was so inspired by her visit to Museums HQ that she has written a blog post describing the trip. Continue reading →

Postcards from the field: Studying the Neolithic figurines from Koutroulou Magoula, Greece

Clay Neolithic figurines are some of the most enigmatic archaeological objects, which depict in a miniature form humans, animals, other anthropomorphic or zoomorphic beings, and often hybrid or indeterminate entities. Figurines have excited scholarly and public imagination, and have given rise to diverse interpretations. The assemblage from Koutroulou Magoula, a Middle Neolithic site – 5800-5300 BC – in central Greece (excavated under the co-direction of Prof. Continue reading →

Portraits of Diggers

As per last year, part way through the season I became fascinated by the physicalness of digging. I’m always struck by the way that excavators manipulate their bodies whilst digging, fitting themselves into tiny gaps, like those internet meme photos of cats in glass bowls. The angles necessary to really get your trowel into the corners of a Tudor drain, and the flicking of the wrist needed to excavate the bottom of a 17th century trench, all results in yoga-like positions. Continue reading →