Re-connecting through place
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 28/10/2018

The proposition of this session is that ‘we’ (the archaeological profession) have become divided and fragmented, to the detriment of what we do. But what is the ‘glue’ that can, or should, bind us together?
As archaeologists and as citizens, we are all interested in the archaeology of places which are in some sense local to us: the places we live in, work or visit. Of course, this interest is shared by large parts of the public. Even people who are not especially concerned about archaeology in an abstract sense, are usually fascinated by knowing more about their locality: what has been found on their housing estate, or in the centre of their town; who lived there and what their lives were like. By engaging more actively with the archaeology of specific places, can we find common ground which will connect us more strongly, both with each other and with the public? This paper will explore this idea, examining some of the challenges which this poses for development-led archaeology, for universities and for the public sector, but also aiming to highlight the potential of such an approach and some current initiatives.

Gill Hey, Oxford Archaeology, Roger Thomas, Oxford University, and Chris Gosden, University of Oxford