Confessions of an Archaeologist
Southampton 09/07/2014Hello!
My name is Laura
Johansson and I am an archaeologist. I am originally from Pargas, Finland, but
moved to the UK in 2010 to do my undergraduate in archaeology at the University
of Wales, Trinity Saint David. My interest in archaeology stretch back to my
early teenage years, and since my passion for archaeology has only grown. My real passion though is for maritime
archaeology and I am currently studying for an MA in Maritime Archaeology in
Southampton. University will start back up in September, but up until then I am
employed as a full-time archaeologist for Southampton City Council Archaeology
Unit and on annualised hours as a museum guide for The National Museum of the
Royal Navy, which is based in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
I’ve chosen to
write an account of one of my days at the Medieval Chantry Dig in Southampton,
working for the SCC Archaeology Unit. We are currently clearing out any
archaeology from an area where the Drew Smith Group is planning to build a new
set of flats. As mentioned before, this site has previously been the location
of a medieval chantry which was connected with St. Mary’s Church, located just
across the road. In this case there is a
substantial amount of documentation connected to our site, which has allowed us
to understand what the different medieval features on the site may be. However,
there are also several Saxon pits, containing a substantial amount of animal
bones.
On this
particular day I had just started digging a new feature. So far the theory is
that the feature is a pit of unknown date which is being cut by a ditch which
seems to be running across a large part of the site. This job is my first paid
full-time position in commercial archaeology (yay me!) and it is refreshing to
get to work in a different side of archaeology (previously I have mainly
participated in digs organised by universities). Surprisingly (to me) it is
quite different! I was told today that in contemporary British Commercial
Archaeology we no longer use trowels for other things than cleaning the mud out
of our boots. However, (if archaeology was a religion) I did feel like a sinner
in church as I was shovelling out the layers of my pit
Unfortunately I
can’t really tell you anything interesting about my feature as I don’t know
much myself. The dig started in the middle of April this year and we are now
running on the last few weeks. Unfortunately time is against us and we are
having speed up the process a bit (we are like digging machines!), but
fortunately it looks like there is not too much left to do. Hopefully the
weather will be with us these last few days as we otherwise will be sat in the
office doing finds washing (which isn’t too bad either!).
It has always
been my intention to pursue a degree in archaeology after university. My
interests are quite wide, but my expertise lies mainly within British and
Finnish archaeology. One of my greatest passions is to promote archaeology to
the wider public, which is something I am hoping to continue to do in the
future. Among other things I am planning to partly base my MA dissertation
project on public outreach so we shall see how it goes! Wish me luck!
Laura
Acknowledgements:
I would like to thank Drew Smith Group, Dr Andy Russel and Emma for their kind
contributions to this piece.
