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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 →

ACRG at field-school in Estonia

Ten days ago three members of ACRG visited Estonia to participate at the archaeological field-school. It was organised by Marge Konsa from University of Tartu who also spent several months in Southampton as a visiting research student. Field-school took place in Lihula, a tiny village in West Estonia. County of Läänemaa is filled with great archaeology, so we could enjoy little of it as well. 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 →

Portus Field School Week Two: canals, boats and local residents

The second week of the field school started in reflective mood, with a wander down the length of the Roman canal or Fossa Traiana that still forms the principal link between the modern town of Fiumicino, the coast and the Tiber. In spite of the balmy weather and the tranquil evening, the sea was in restless mood, with the waves breakingon the breakwater, and waves channelling up the canal, one after the other, pitching the fishing boats against the edge of the jetty. Continue reading →

What’s your ambition? Archaeology?

Today and tomorrow will see about 24,000 people come to the University of Southampton open days. If you are one of those people we look forward to welcoming you at the archaeology department. As William Davies noted yesterday in his blog post a "range of artefacts and publications by staff will be available for guests to look at, together with a selection of student dissertations, so that people can get an idea of the high quality work our undergraduate students produce. Continue reading →