Awards for the Presentation of Heritage Research 2007

Thursday 13 September 2007: 09.30-19.30at the BA Festival of Science, University of York Biology Department B/B/002PROGRAMME

09.30-09.35

Organiser

Introduction

09.35-10.05

Gavin Simpson Some aspects of product packaging and recycling inlater mediaeval Baltic trade.

10.05-10.35

Lydia Carr Working partners: Tessa Verney Wheeler; MortimerWheeler, and the Caerleon Amphitheatre

10.35-11.05

Linda Hall Dating fixtures and fittings in historic buildings; work towards a typology

11.05-11.20

Break –

Tea and coffee will be provided

11.20-11.50

Colin Martin The silent shores speak: investigating a maritimelandscape in north Argyll

11.50-12.20

John Schofield, CassieNewland, Adrian Myers,Anna Nilsson and GregBaileyThe Van

12.20-12.50

Paula Ware A cautionary tale: conflicts of opinion in theinterpretation of an early medieval battlefield

(12.50-14.00)

Lunch break

– A sandwich lunch will be provided

14.00-14.30

Dominic Powlesland Beneath the Sands of Time: Unravelling the hiddenpast of the Vale of Pickering

14.30-15.00

Vincent Gaffney Doggerland: mapping a lost European country

15.00-15.15

Break

Tea and coffee will be provided

15.15-15.45

Brendon Wilkins Time and tide: five millennia of environmental changeand activity on the banks of the Suir

15.45-16.15

Ian Gibb “Shake, Rattle and Roll: Vibration Effects at theHampton Court Music Festival”

16.15-17.45

Break

18.00-20.00

Reception in the Refectory,

Kings Manor, Archaeology Department,University of York.

Presentations by Julian Richards

The purpose of the awards is to encourage researchers to present their work, much of which isfascinating but often little-known, to a wider public. The audience are invited to help with the judging, and to meet the speakers at a reception at the end of the afternoon when the awardsare presented.Each speaker will speak for 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for questions from the audience.V2: Created 30.05.07

Time and Tide: five millennia of environmental change and activity on thebanks of the Suir.

Brendon Wilkins. Headland Archaeology Ltd. Republic of Ireland.Talking about his dark 1970 Korean War comedy,

M*A*S*H

, the lateHollywood filmmaker, Robert Altman, said that he didn’t direct the film—it justescaped. Looking back on the six months my crew and I spent excavating Site 34,Newrath, Co. Kilkenny, I know exactly what he meant. Affectionately known byour team as ‘THE BOG’, this wetland archaeology site was excavated byHeadland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Waterford City Council, WaterfordCounty Council, Kilkenny County Council and the National Roads Authorityprior to the construction of the N25 Waterford City Bypass (NGR 259040 114340;8 m OD; excavation licence no. 03E0319). As summer turned into winter itdescended into a quagmire. One morning we arrived on site to find the wholearea submerged beneath water over a metre in depth. Freak storms hadcombined with spring tides and you could canoe from one side of the valley tothe other. But miraculously the waters receded and we lived to tell the tale.These may well have been the harshest conditions I have ever worked in, but I also have to admit that it was the best archaeology I have ever excavated.Site 34 was an exceptionally well-preserved multi-period site comprising 21individual wooden structures and 5 areas of activity, with almost every chapterof human history represented in the same excavation. There were Mesolithic flintscatters on what would have been a dryland surface at the waters edge; EarlyBronze Age trackways intended to cross boggy ground to reach the open water; aBronze Age burnt mound on the edge of the wetland area; Iron Age hurdles tocross tidal creeks for saltmarsh grazing; medieval platforms for the samepurpose; and a 19th-century brick kiln, making use of the abundant alluvial clay.Situated in an alluvial and estuarine landscape, the wet conditions of Site 34meant that as well as quantity, Newrath had exceptionally well-preserved

archaeological deposits. In different parts of the wetland area and at differentdepths below the present ground surface, we encountered archaeologicalmaterial and environmental evidence relating not just to different time periods, but belonging to different types of landscape. This posed a technical challenge, but it also presented us with an excellent opportunity to try and understand howcultural and social practices had changed over time.Archaeology bridges both the sciences and the humanities, and we draw ona wide variety of information using a diverse range of skills and techniques to build a picture of our past. Environmental archaeology is a specialist sub-discipline that investigates past human environments using techniquesdeveloped in the life sciences like zoology, botany, geology and geomorphology.By analysing plant and animal microfossils from core samples taken at Newrath,we have been able to reconstruct past vegetation and sea level. These methodsinclude:

•

Pollen grains from plants living close to the site

•

Diatoms: single-celled algae living in the wetland habitats

•

Foraminifera: single-celled animals indicative of water salinityThis research has enabled us to recognise the dramatic environmental changes atNewrath, particularly over the period between 5,000 and 2,000 years ago. As sealevel rose, the dense woodland growing beside the river Suir becameprogressively wetter, killing off the trees and replacing them with reedbed.Further rises transformed this freshwater environment as brackish tidal waterflooded the reedbed, eventually being replaced by open grassy salt mash. Theresults have provided us with a framework or a context to understand what kindof landscape people were living and working in, but it is the structures we findand the artefacts associated with them that provide the tantalising clues as towhat people were doing in those landscapes—how they were living, how theywere working and, sometimes, even how they were thinking.