Castles and Coprolites

Blog readers may be familiar with the botanical terms monocots and dicots. Dicots include many woody species, and monocots include important cereal crops such as wheat and barley (i.e. grasses). These are basics of plant biology that I teach my students in environmental archaeology. Monocots such as cereals of course are central in archaeological research around the origins of agriculture and domestication, whilst dicots feature in studies of ancient fuel use.  One of the major differences between monocots and dicots is the organisation of the stem. Dicot stems, or cambium, have radial growth, that forms the distinct rings that we use for dendrochronology. This growth is controlled by the interaction of two proteins, TDIF and PXY. Monocots do not have a cambium, but they do have the genes for TDIF and PXY. What then, is the function of these genes in monocots, if not to produce cambium? This question is the basis of a major BBSRC funded project I've been involved in for t...

I was delighted yesterday and today to attend the excavations at Auckland Palace, a joint project between the Auckland Project , the  Department of Archaeology at Durham University  and Archaeological Services Durham University . This is actually the first time I've had the chance to meet any of the Durham undergraduate students since I started my new job at the department in April, and it was great to see everyone in action. Field schools are one of the best parts of doing an archaeology degree - the chance to go out on a real archaeological dig and learn the process of excavation and recording first hand with professional practitioners, and be involved in everything that happens afterwards with samples and artefacts that go back to the laboratory for analysis. Durham has a great set up and lots of the students will have the chance to continue working on material from the excavations for lab projects and dissertations.  I was particularly pleased to see this absolutely m...

This post is many years in the making! Back in 2018 I was on an excavation at a site called Cronk Guckley on the Isle of Man with my colleague Prof. Chris Fowler, a brilliant theorist and Neolithic specialist, who is co-director of the Round Mounds project. This is a great project with some really exceptional finds, including this beautiful jet bead necklace. The excavation finished in 2022 and we are now completing all the post-excavation analysis. The project is investigating the nature and timing of Bronze Age ‘round mound’ construction and how funerary practices evolved, on the Isle of Man and surrounding islands. These structure are large earthern monuments that were constructed over the top of a burial. The jet necklace is an exciting piece of evidence, not just because of it's beauty, but because it gives us insights into the people - the jet has been sourced to Whitby, so is great evidence for connections between the Isle of Man and mainland Britain in the Bronze Age, an...