Archaeologist and Writer
Ipswich, in Suffolk in eastern England, is a town brimming with archaeology. Anglo-Saxon evidence is particularly abundant, as Ipswich’s urban origins can be traced back to the 7th/8th century AD, when it was Gipeswic, one of a small number of specialist craft and trading centres (wics or emporia) that arose in Anglo-Saxon England at this … Read More “Days of Beer and Iron” »
Cereal farming emerged around 11 or 12 thousand years ago, in the so-called Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. Over the next 5 or 6 thousands years, arable farming ploughed its way westwards and northwards across mainland Europe, over to the British Isles, up into Scotland, even unto Orkney, Shetland, and the somewhat less fertile … Read More “We’re going on a bere hunt” »
George Ewart Evans (1909-1988), British folklorist and oral history pioneer, has left a rich legacy of insight and information concerning rural life in England before the mechanisation of farming. His books and recordings are chock-full of golden nuggets, anecdotes and rustic remarks from ways of life that are increasingly beyond living memory. Most of his … Read More “An unusual use for ale” »
So there was Earth. And on Earth formed the oceans. In the oceans grew simple-celled life, and these are the prokaryotes. From the prokaryotes grew complex-celled life, and these are the eukaryotes. From the eukaryotes grew multicellular life, some of which photosynthesised, and thus came plants to grow on the land and in the waters … Read More “A brief history of my breakfast” »
I’m thrilled to say that, although I haven’t been able to write much of this blog over the past few months (or even years), I have managed to write a book which has lately been published by the excellent folk at Oxbow Books, in their Windgather Press imprint: It’s called Farming Transformed in Anglo-Saxon England: … Read More “Farming unearthed… and transformed” »
Raise the song of harvest home! The harvest festival is not, it seems, an official fixture in the Church of England calendar. It is deemed a local celebration and permissible on a Sunday only if there isn’t a more significant celebration to be had that day. Some traditions hold that the harvest festival should be … Read More “Come, ye thankful people come…” »
Of course I had consulted it. Of course I’d cited it. But it’s taken a while to sit down and read it – properly, finally – from cover to cover. And it feels like a literary pilgrimage. What am I taking about? None other than “Rackham’s Countryside”, or more formally: Rackham, O. 1986. The History … Read More “The History of the Countryside” »
My phone started ringing before I had unlocked the door. It was my dad. “Quick,” he said. “Turn on the news.” Whatever’s happened? I wondered. Has the Isle of Wight declared independence? As it happened, no, it was bigger than that: agricultural archaeology was on the evening news. You see, there’s a project underway in … Read More “What’s up on the Downs?” »
I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Way back when I started this blog, I commented on how farming seems to permeate archaeology as a discipline – from the Neolithic onwards, it’s a crucial thread in so much of human history. It’s hard to ignore. But equally, it’s often a bit of a poor relation. Farming … Read More “Get off my co-axial field system!” »
So there they were, poised to knock up a retail distribution centre outside Chippenham, when up pops a Roman barn. Turns out there’s a nationally important Romano-British rural settlement on the site, and Historic England (formerly English Heritage) has scheduled it accordingly – so the development has stopped. This news nugget caught my eye in … Read More “Barnstorming in Roman Wiltshire” »