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Meet the Team – Peter Driver

What you are going to be doing at Basing House? Peter, our talented Artist in Residence I will be ‘Artist in Residence’ during the excavation. I am not certain yet about what kind of work I will make in response to the project. I imagine it will involve a lot of drawing, possibly making woodcut prints and generating a set of ‘zines’ reflecting the activities and progress of the project. Continue reading →

Meet the Team – Jude Jones

What will you be doing at Basing House? Jude, with a hungry hawk, in Hungary! I’ll be managing finds and training students in finds processing. I also hope to be able to assist Gareth in archive digitisation. What you are hoping to experience at Basing House? I specialise in early modern archaeology and have done various analyses of local Tudor, Stuart and Georgian gentry houses, although my most recent work has been on post-medieval parish churches. Continue reading →

Excavation and Survey at Portus: the first week of the 2013 field school

It isn’t difficult to understand the draw of working in fascinating or beautiful places on archaeological sites which represent pivotal moments in European history, and the case of Portus is no exception. This is a site and landscape close to my heart and research interests, more in terms of the development of the broader Tiber delta, than the Roman port per se. Continue reading →

A very short note on the power of music

This really is a very quick note. I was mowing the lawn this morning, with my phone playing music on shuffle. During a quiet respite while I emptied the grass hopper, Dead Man’s Gun, the elegiac final song from Red Dead Redemption came on. I suddenly felt a sense of loss, and bitterness, and tears came to my eyes. An incredible feeling of nostalgia washed over me, and I wanted to visit again the virtual world of RDR’s west. Now, THAT’S what I call emotional engagement. Continue reading →

Flow

Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced cheek-sent-mə-hy-ee)’s concept of flow has had a couple of mentions in recent posts, so I thought I ought to catch up on it. Back when I was doing my MA I read a lot about it in relation to museum learning (mostly in Hooper-Greenhill’s primer The Educational Role of the Museum), but some of that was written twenty years ago, so I thought I ought to get up to date. Continue reading →

Tudor Fireplace Discovered

On the Basing House Facebook page today, an great find has been reported. The fireplace is only a few metres away from the location of the planned summer excavation. So we’re very excited about the discovery of the beautiful object! The story and images in this post come from the Basing House Facebook page, and the Basing House blog. Please visit and register with these sites to keep up to date with Hampshire County Council Museums Service Basing House news. https://www.facebook. Continue reading →

Festival of British Archaeology

Basing House is taking part in the Festival of British Archaeology Basing House CAT Project is excited to be taking part in the Festival of British Archaeology.  Over the course of the Festival, we will be running open days, with a variety of events for you to drop-in and take part in. There is more information on the Festival of British Archaeology website: http://www.archaeologyfestival.org. Continue reading →

Petworth Big Dig

A quick note for my archeaology chums. My work colleagues at Petworth are very excited about the Big Dig, which will run from the 13th to the 21st July. Led by archaeologist Tom Dommett, this is a major volunteer excavation looking for evidence of the lost history of Petworth House and Park. It’s all part of the national Festival of British Archaeology – Tom will be tweeting, hooting, Facebooking and YouTubing like mad during the week-long project. Continue reading →