diverse digressions and rambles on English archaeology, landscape and folk traditions with the occasional scenic diversions
View looking northwards towards Staweford (near the trees in the middle distance). Image (C) Google Earth Over the last couple of years, due to my involvement with the Gefrin Trust, I’ve been increasingly thinking about the Anglo-Saxon palace site at Yeavering, which lies on the River Glen in North Northumberland. It is usually described as …
Continue reading “Staweford: Routeways and meeting places in North Northumberland”
I’ve just had a great weekend down on my home turf in Wessex which involved a fair amount of sploshing around in water: paddling in the icy cold crystal-clear waters of the Test in Hampshire and wallowing in a bathing hole near the source of the Thames in West Oxfordshire. As ever, I kept my …
Last week I finally made my first visit to Iona. Having spent so much time writing and thinking about the archaeology of Lindisfarne, it is natural that I had to eventually go back to the source of the monasticism on Holy Island. It was fantastic to make my first foray to the island from where …
I’ve been watching the new BBC folk-horror production TheLiving and the Dead for the last month – it’s good; decent production values, often beautifully filmed, just this side of histrionic and tipping its hat to the ancestors (Wicker Man etc). I enjoy it, and I’ll watch the whole series. It’s just that something doesn’t quite …
Continue reading “The Living and the Dead (and the lack of a sense of place)”
Reflecting on the experience of excavating on Holy Island, it struck me how much of my personal thoughts about the process revolved not about the archaeology as a physical resource or academic product, but the emotional side of excavation. The notion that archaeological site reports are far too dry, focusing solely on the objective record …
Continue reading “Notes from a small(ish) island #2: reflections”
After three days on Holy Island I’ve finally found a chance to sit down and pull my thoughts together. I’ll write about the academic content of the project at a later date, but I want to explore the more personal side of things first. Being involved in a new project is an exciting but nerve-wracking …
Haymaking- Tristram Hillier (1943) (C) York Art Gallery a landscape without people This is the second of my two contributions to the Archaeology Blog Carnival which is asking us to outline what we think are the grand challenges for our field of archaeology. I’ve already written one entry outlining one of the big challenges I …
Continue reading “Archaeology Blogging Carnival- Grand Challenges Part 2: Lives in the Landscape”
Anglo-Saxon burial from West Heslerton This blog entry is in responses to the blog carnival set by Doug’s Archaeology on The Grand Challenges for Archaeology, which asks “What are the grand challenges facing YOUR archaeology?” The first thing to say is that I’m glad that we are being encouraged to home in on our own …
Continue reading “Archaeology Blogging Carnival- Grand Challenges Part 1”
Mumming play- Wantage – 26/12/13 A couple of years ago I gave a paper at a post-medieval archaeology conference in Leicester which conveyed some general thoughts about morris dancing costume and regalia (a topic which I’ve explored in other blog posts). The paper was mainly focussing on the way in which costume was used and …
Continue reading “Distribution of English mumming plays: some first thoughts”
This is the text of a paper I gave at the MR James conference (M R James and Modern Ghost Story) in Leeds earlier this year- it’s unedited, unreferenced (and pretty much unproofread), but hopefully will be of interest to some- if you are interested in a copy of the accompanying Powerpoint just drop me …
Continue reading ““A person of antiquarian pursuits”: M R James and archaeology”
Outlandish Knight 