Castles and Coprolites

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...

It finally happened. After continuously posting since 2012, 2024 was the first year I didn't make a single blog post. To be fair, 2022 and 2023 weren't exactly prolific either, but I did manage a handful of posts. There is an explanation for this. 2024 overall was a incredibly stressful year, and I didn't manage to get much of anything done, as most of my time was taken up trying to solve a rather major problem. Back in 2021 I was lucky to apply successfully for an AHRC Capability for Collections grant , to establish NEMCAS (formerly Newcastle Material Culture Analytical Suite). Over the following 3 years, I worked hard with my technical team and colleagues to build up our portfolio of research in the facility, and build collaborations with museum partners in the north-east. I also worked very hard developing a relationship with the AHRC, as part of my vision for NEMCAS was to integrate into the new RICHeS programme that we knew was on the horizon. RICHeS ( Research Infras...