Archaeology South-East Digs Deeper Archaeology South-East

Lorna Webb joins the podcast for a look at how women are represented in Early Medieval/ Old English literature for Women's History Month! We talk about Beowulf (obviously) and Lorna makes host Emily try to answer some rather rude riddles. You might be surprised at the breadth of female representation on display!

You can find more Medieval musings from Lorna in her Medieval Corner: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/lornas-medieval-corner

Transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/sites/archaeology_south_east/files/asedd_ep11_lorna_webb_transcript.docx

In this special episode we’re taking you behind usually closed doors for a fascinating discussion about heritage loss, as part of The Seaford Head Project. It features leading heritage practitioners from Historic England, the National Trust, the South Downs National Park Authority and Archaeology South-East, and local councillors from Seaford, East Sussex. We discuss responding to coastal erosion and prioritising at-risk sites, the grieving process of letting go of what cannot be saved, and how we might move forward as a profession and a public to a more nuanced understanding of heritage permanence.

If you’re from Seaford or the surrounds we particularly want to hear from you, so let us know what you think by leaving a comment or emailing us ase@ucl.ac.uk.

You can find out more information about this project and a transcript of the podcast on the project website: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/seaford-head

The Seaford Head Project is funded by Historic England with contributions from the South Downs National Park Authority.

It’s Pride month! And we’re so happy to welcome Drew Lingham to the podcast, a non-binary trans feminine bisexual archaeologist, currently working with our field team in Essex. They talk about what it’s like to explore your gender identity while working in archaeology and what a unique perspective this gives them when thinking about the past. We also talk about gender non-conforming historical figures and some of our favourite sites and archaeological periods.

A note that Drew goes by Sylvia nowadays but still uses Drew as a middle name!

Some of the LGBTQ+ resources we talk about in the podcast are below:
Out @ UCL: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/human-resources/equality-diversity-inclusion-committees-and-networks/outucl

This episode we welcome ASE’s Director Dominic Perring to the podcast! He talks about his new book ‘London in the Roman World’, the power of tree-ring dating, and the essential contribution of development-led archaeology to this sort of research synthesis.
You can order Dominic’s book from Oxford University Press: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/london-in-the-roman-world-9780198789000?lang=en&cc=us

UCL Institute of Archaeology third year student Alex joins the podcast to talk about the placement year he is currently undertaking with us at ASE. We talk about his degree so far, how it prepared him for his year-long introduction to commercial archaeology, and what he’s been up to with us since September! And host Emily spends the whole episode getting increasingly jealous.

Find out more about the BA Archaeology with Placement Year at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology:
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/degrees/archaeology-placement-year-ba

And you can read about our placement students from previous years in these blog posts:
Neehaarika (2019-2020):
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/news/2019/sep/ioa-placement-2019-20-welcome-neehaarika
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/news/2020/feb/ioa-placement-2019-20-boxes-x-rays-and-conservation
Iva (2018-2019):
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology-south-east/news/2019/aug/year-commercial-archaeology-student-placement-complete

Project manager Jon Sygrave is on the show to talk about the Whitehawk Camp Community project. This exciting project, based in Brighton, East Sussex, focussed on archaeological finds excavated nearly a century ago from this Neolithic (c.3500BC) Causewayed Enclosure.

As part of the project, a series of volunteering opportunities, workshops and events were run at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Whitehawk Hill and other venues. Volunteers learnt how to catalogue and examine archaeological finds, undertake geophysical survey, excavate archaeological remains and undertake conservation work to the monument. A series of outreach events also examined themes such as our relationship with food, the bio-diversity of Whitehawk Hill and Whitehawk Hill's relationship with the wider Downland landscape.

Find out more about the project here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/centre-applied-archaeology/whitehawk-hlf
For some really in-depth information, read the project reports here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/centre-applied-archaeology/whitehawk-hlf/Projectreports
And check out this 3D model of an incised stone found at the monument here: https://skfb.ly/6TZYr

Episode Image including Google Earth ©2012. Data S10, NOAA, U.S. Navy, NGA, GEBCO