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15th October 2008, 11:03 PM
Complete change of career for me, left school to do hairdressing did that for 12 years, had my daughter at 24, went in job centre when she was a year old saw ad for archaeologists on msc scheme in the late 80s. 21 years later and a very tired and aching body i'm still in the field pondering why the hell i like being cold,wet n muddy...
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18th October 2008, 02:26 AM
A trip to Canterbury Cathedral when I was five did the trick, particularly the Black Prince's accomplishments hung over his tomb, and the spot where Thomas a Becket was martyred. Suddenly the connection was made between history and real places / physical artefacts. Then there were the cut out knights on the back of Kelloggs cornflake packs - the Black Prince and Warwick the Kingmaker were my favourites.
Various things kept me ticking over, I remember reading 'Archaeology of the Holy Land' by Kathleen Kenyon during break at secondary school, puzzling over why I could never see anything in the soil on 'Chronicle', but it never crossed my mind I could be an archaeologist.
Things came to a head in 6th form, I broke down under pressure from the school to apply to any old poly course as long as it looked good for them (by now I had taught myself to read the AS Chronicle in Old English). Dropped out and joined Maggies' Millions. Looking for something to do found a flyer in the local library for Wroxeter. I never joined the dig, but it put me on the right track. Started thinking about Archaeology at Uni. Then in 1984 I got this MSC scheme job at the Sandwell Valley Archaeological Project, and my fate was sealed. Mike Hodder was the director, and Steve Webster taught me how to dig (Hi guys). After college and some circuit digging I went up to read Medieval Archaeology at UCL
Phil Barker was an obvious early influence. Though I never actually dug under him, Steve had. To a lesser extent Rhatz, Carver and Biddle also had a role (met 2, dug for 1). Richard Bradley's works influenced me in college, I enjoyed applying some of his theories to Medieval Archaeology!
Not sure who I would look to now, the divide between PPG16 and research seems like an un-crossable gulf. Tony Robinson and Mick Aston (sharp intake of breath) for educating the masses on how archaeology works - when they first came on I told all my friends and family to watch 'cause this is what I do'. It makes watching briefs so much easier. Alistair Whittle for having the guts to do big digs in big name places, and for the work on applying Bayesian statistics to scientific dating, boy does that get me salivating for more!
Plenty of others have influenced me along the way. Every so often little bits of former interest come back and bite me for more attention. Would love to go back and study some more, but with twa greetin wains to feed it could be challenging!
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18th October 2008, 12:42 PM
Could I ask if I could use some of these in the next edition of Past Horizons Magazine? These are cracking stories.. and one thing is coming through loud and clear.. we love archaeology. Any objections?
"I don't have an archaeological imagination.."
Borekickers
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18th October 2008, 03:18 PM
I grew up on a farm, so got used to soil pretty early on. I particlarly liked digging big holes for no particular reason; I certainly wasn't looking for treasure or anything. I can vaguely recall wanting to be an arch about age 6, but not what inspired that desire. Regardless, it soon faded.
At University, while studying something unrelated (zoology) it became clear that I was not particularly good at academia, so I made a pragmatic decision to switch to studying the one subject I got good marks in, archaeology.
Bizarrely that degree allowed me to get paid to do my all time favourite thing; digging holes! Gotta say the old time archaeologists don't particularly inspire because they got labourers to dig for them. They missed the real fun.:face-huh:
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18th October 2008, 10:12 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by mercenary
Gotta say the old time archaeologists don't particularly inspire because they got labourers to dig for them. They missed the real fun.:face-huh:
Not at all like the new time archaeologists who ran my college digs, then:face-huh:
Actually, that was so long long ago they probably rank as old time now, anyway - some of them are now archaeology themselves.
What made you take up archaeology?
