Archaeology Blogs

Publication Drawings

Drawing on site (Simon Keay) At the moment we are working through preparation of drawings for the publication of Portus in both a book and online resource. The site is so big that the drawings are causing a particular headache. Continue reading →

Geoarchaeology at Portus

Coring in actionPhoto: Hembo Pagi / ACRG In 2013, geoarchaeological research at Portus continued in order better to understand the configuration of the harbour itself and its connection to Ostia and Rome by waterways. This work was funded by the Research Innovation Fund of the University of Southampton. Coring the harbour basins On July 2013, three cores were drilled in front of the Grandi Horrea di Settimio Severo at the centre of Portus. Continue reading →

Broadcast of Rome’s Lost Empire and Portus Online Learning in 2014

Viewers in the UK will be able to watch a documentary focused on Portus tonight. The documentary called Rome’s Lost Empire will be on BBC Four at 9:45pm GMT: “Dan Snow attempts to use the latest satellite technology to reveal the secrets of the Roman Empire. Together with space archaeologist Sarah Parcak, Dan sets out to identify and then track down lost cities, amphitheatres and forts in an adventure that sees him travel through some of the most spectacular parts of the vast empire. Continue reading →

Job Advert: Research Fellow in Roman Mediterranean Port Studies

We are looking for a specialist in Roman and/or Maritime archaeology of the Roman Mediterranean at the post-doctoral level to form part of the ERC funded Roman Mediterranean Ports project team for a period of four years from February 2014. You will be researching, recovering and integrating a range of published and unpublished data to compile a web-based port resource. Continue reading →

Portus Field School 2014: 22 June–13 July 2014

Further details of the Portus Field School 2014 hare now available, and registration is open. The Field School offers a combination of hands on practical training and academic content. The academic content of the programme is primarily concerned with Roman imperial history and material culture, with a particular reference to archaeology of the Tiber delta and Rome. Continue reading →

Archaeological science and the new Stonehenge visitors centre.

The new and long awaited Stonehenge visitor’s centre opens today and archaeological scientists from the University of Southampton have worked on one of the highlights of the new exhibition - the excavated remains and facial reconstruction of a Neolithic individual from the Winterbourne Stoke long barrow situated about a mile from Stonehenge. Continue reading →

Using R in anger

I’m expecting to be emailedl the link to my final exam in the Coursera statistics course this weekend, and by way of revision I’m using my own data in R for the first time. The first challenge is making sure my data is R “fit” – I entered it into Excel the first time, and though I made sure that even category data was entered numerically, I did some foolish things. Continue reading →

My introduction to Portus

Sometimes I feel a bit like an impostor. I’m based in the University’s school of Archaeology, but I’m no archaeologist. Which is one of the reasons they asked me to review some of the media content for a planned FutureLearn course based around the Portus project. Continue reading →

Electrical Resistivity Tomography on the Isola Sacra

Further to my last post, the week before last was spent with a team from the British School at Rome carrying out a single Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) profile across part of the Isola Sacra, designed to complement the magnetometer survey of the area, and recent coring undertaken by Ferreol Salomon. The Necropolis di Porto, showing the Via Flavia, between Portus and Ostia Antica. Continue reading →

Contemplating Data Analysis and Narrative

The lengthy period since my last blog post represents a diversion from the usual pattern of fieldwork and rapid turn-around of research reports and has provided some time for reflection on the nature of the types of data we collect as archaeologists and what we do with it. Much of the work of recent months has been related to large-scale research projects, and the analysis and interpetation of varying forms of geophysical and archaeological data to a number of different research agendas. Continue reading →

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