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For Professor and Channel 4 personality Mick Aston, landscape archaeology remains his first love, because it provides so much information about how ordinary communities lived in the past. Environmental archaeology, experimental archaeology, the archaeology of buildings, and his great project at the village of Shapwick in Somerset are just some of the other subjects brought excitingly to life in Mick's colourful and action-packed pages. Reading this book, it is easy to share the author's basic conviction that "Archaeology is fun."
Most places in Britain have had a local history written about them. Up until this century these histories have addressed more parochial issues, such as the life of the manor, rather than explaining the features and changes in the landscape in a factual manner. Much of what is visible today in Britain's landscape is the result of a chain of social and natural processes, and can be interpreted through fieldwork as well as from old maps and documents. Michael Aston uses a wide range of source material to study the complex and dynamic history of the countryside, illustrating his points with aerial photographs, maps, plans and charts. He shows how to understand the surviving remains as well as offering his own explanations for how our landscape has evolved.
The 'Time Team Dig Book' explains all the key skills the budding archaeologist needs to know. From gaining permission for your dig and surveying the landscape, to locating and excavating your first trench; from identifying pottery, to your final report and the legacy of your dig.
Founded in 1088 by St Bruno at the Grande Chartreuse in France, the Carthusians came to Britain almost a hundred years later. Only nine permanent monasteries were established before the Reformation, and six of these were founded after the Black Death nearly 200 years later.Yet their influence far exceeded their numbers. They were exceptionally well regarded in the later Middle Ages, providing a late flowering of British monasticism when other religious orders were in decline. Supported by the highest levels of society, the Carthusians are remarkably well documented, and we can see how their life was sustained by agricultural estates, bequests from the local laity, and the income from burials and masses. It was they who particularly stood up to Henry VIII, and three of their nine priors were butchered for their beliefs.
The study of monasteries has come a long way since late the late 19th century. The emphasis has shifted away from reconstructing the layouts of monastic buildings to a better understanding of the wider monastic environment. The papers in this volume, partly based on a conference held in Oxford in 1994, are written by some of today's foremost scholars and reflect the diversity of research now being carried out.
How does excavation enable the archaeologist to reconstruct the past? Victor Ambrus, who has been the Channel 4 Time Team artist since the programme's inception in 1994, has selected some of the key excavations from the many series to show how it has been possible to recreate snapshots of the past.
This book is centred around an innovative idea. It follows the development of the imaginary British town of Timechester from prehistory to the modern age, taking as its inspiration the wide variety of British towns which have hosted Time Team digs. As you turn the pages you will see the town grown and change, yet still with some elements remaining. The Team provide a commentary on the gradual development of the town in their familiar style, along with illustrations by the series' resident artist. Victor Ambrus.