Newsletter for Archaeology at Southampton | Summer 2013

Artefact

WelcomeArchaeology at Southampton is one of the largest and most highly regarded departments of its kind in Europe. We pride ourselves on the range and quality of our expertise and the commitment we show to providing the very best educational experience for our students. The Guardian 2013 University Guide gives a 96 per cent score for student satisfaction in Archaeology at Southampton and we are ranked in the top five in the Times Good University Guide 2013.

Key to our success is the integration of teaching and research through all our degrees, and the opportunities we provide for our students to be actively involved in the process of discovering and creating knowledge. During the summer, Southampton students took part in fieldwork projects on important prehistoric, Roman and medieval sites in Britain, Croatia, Greece, Hungary and Turkey.

The projects, conferences and publications highlighted in this issue of Artefact show what a busy and exciting year 2012 has been. Our work continues to attract significant media attention. The Portus project, directed by the Head of Archaeology, Professor Simon Keay, recently featured on the BBC 2 documentary ‘Rome’s Lost Empire’; while new dating of the world’s oldest cave art by Dr Alistair Pike attracted press attention from across the globe. 2013 promises to offer even more excitement, with new fieldwork projects and a greater range of student opportunities.

Dr Josh Pollard, Admissions Tutor

The Red Hand GangSouthampton Archaeology’s newest recruit, Dr Alistair Pike, has been in the news for his work dating Spanish Palaeolithic cave art. In a novel application of uranium-series dating, his research involves analysing tiny samples from stalactites that have begun to develop over the artworks. Fifty dates were obtained from 11 caves in northern Spain. His results indicate that caves were being revisited and painted over a much longer period of time (some over more than 20,000 years), and cave painting started much earlier, than had previously been thought. A number of red hand stencils appear to have been made at least 35-37,000 years ago, and a red dot dating back at least 40,800 years is the oldest known cave art in Europe. This was a period in which Neanderthals were being displaced by our own species, raising the intriguing question of the identity of the artists behind these earliest works. Could it have been the interaction of these groups that stimulated cultural innovations such as cave art?

For more information on Alistair’s work, see Current World Archaeology 55: 22-27; Science 336: 1409-1413.

Painted deer from the cave of Altamira; red symbols from the same area yielded dates of 36,000 years.

New publications cover Human Origins from 60,000 years ago to 1901

Two new volumes have been produced this year on the archaeology of early humans, covering the behaviour of Neanderthals 60,000 years ago to Victorian human origins research:

John McNabb, Dissent with Modification: Human Origins, Palaeolithic Archaeology and Evolutionary Anthropology in Britain 1859-1901, Archaeopress.

The period from the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in 1859 to the beginning of the study of genetics in the late Victorian era was one of dynamism in human origins research. Debate, centred around whether our species should be regarded as a single, or multiple, race(s), was interwoven with concerns about the ultimate fate of humans. Dissent thus also looks at Victorian science fiction and how views of human origins were presented to the public through such literature, in terms of the role evolution would play in ending our species.

William Boismier, Clive Gamble and Fiona Coward, Neanderthals among Mammoths: Excavations at Lynford Quarry, Norfolk, English Heritage.

A small lake heaving with mammoths and Neanderthals; a pale sun breaking over a cold steppe; the clink of flint and the sight of buttercups as far as the eye can see: welcome to Britain’s greatest Middle Palaeolithic site. Excavations at Lynford Quarry in Norfolk have uncovered the largest collection of stone tools dated to 60,000 years ago: a time when modern humans had not yet reached Europe, where Neanderthals lived. The finds came from a small lake into which artefacts and mammoth bones had slumped; at least eleven mammoths are present. Did Neanderthals hunt and kill these huge animals? Or did they simply use carcasses that had died of natural causes? Better than any crime-scene mystery, the Lynford excavations confirm that Neanderthals were skilled top predators with a liking for large sources of meat.

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Stepping stones to the Neolithic: South UistOn a small islet off South Uist, at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, staff and students from Southampton and Liverpool excavated a rare group of Neolithic (c. 4000 – 2000 BC) houses. Working in a dramatically beautiful setting, at a latitude where the sun never really sets in summer, we uncovered a complex story of occupation and abandonment. Two stone-built houses, with well preserved box hearths, floor layers and postholes, were revealed. Large quantities of pottery, stone tools and pumice for shaping bone implements were recovered, offering a glimpse into Neolithic life. The site appears to have come to a dramatic end, with multiple complete pots smashed on the house floors and covered over. While a significant site in its own right, the material uncovered also helps to address one of archaeology’s biggest questions.

How, when and why the change from hunting and gathering (Mesolithic) to farming (Neolithic) ways of life took place in Britain has puzzled archaeologists for over a century. We know that farming had arrived in northern France by 5000 BC, yet it took a thousand years before it was adopted in Britain, only 21 miles away at its nearest point. The domestic cattle and cereals which mark the Neolithic are not native to Britain, and thus must have

been transported across the sea. In this project we are investigating the prehistoric use of the islands and seaways of Britain to uncover more of this story.

You can read more about the project and see a timelapse video of the entire excavation at www.neolithicsteppingstones.org.

Dr Fraser Sturt

Southampton and Liverpool staff and students excavating a Neolithic settlement on South Uist

The Hebrides and the excavation site

Fishing near Tinnis

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Sinking into the sea: the medieval city of Tinnis, EgyptThe northern fringes of Egypt’s Nile Delta are a beautiful but unstable landscape: land has been reclaimed, islands shift, and some areas are subsiding, sinking into the Mediterranean at a rate of a few centimetres per year. This situation creates an interesting challenge for archaeologists from Southampton and Exeter working on the site of Tinnis, a medieval port

city on an island in one of the Delta’s coastal lakes. How should we visualise the site and its landscape during the city’s heyday in the early medieval period, and since its abandonment in the 13th century? To address this, a series of boreholes was drilled across the island, to look at sediments up to eight metres below the surface, and to examine the processes by which the land was formed. An initial swampy phase was followed by the formation of beaches, leading to the development of the island upon which the city was later built. The boreholes also indicated that a canal that ran into the centre of the town was at least two metres deep while in use, and was maintained by Tinnis’s medieval inhabitants by dredging, before being allowed to silt up as the settlement went out of use. In terms of subsidence, the island has sunk some distance into the lake waters over the last

800 years, and thus must originally have been bigger than it is now, with larger built-up areas outside the city walls than are preserved today.

Dr Alison Gascoigne

Insight from InnovationIn October 2012, the Southampton Ceramics Research Group proudly paid tribute to a long-standing member of Archaeology, Professor David Peacock, by organising an international conference in recognition of his many contributions to the study of archaeological ceramics. David Peacock joined Southampton Archaeology in 1968 and played a key role in the foundation of scientific study of pottery from archaeological sites. The conference Insight from Innovation: New light on archaeological ceramics acknowledged David’s impact on the field and brought together a wide range of innovative approaches and techniques.

The conference programme was extremely diverse and of unlimited geographical and chronological scope. Many contributions were

strongly interdisciplinary, crossing over with chemistry, design studies, ethnography, engineering, and contemporary craft. It brought together prehistoric, Roman and medieval pottery specialists to assess the trajectory of ceramic studies in British archaeology and potentials for future research.

The conference is one of many international events organised by Archaeology’s postgraduate students in recent years. This reflects the enthusiasm and strength of the community and provides ample opportunity for all students, both under- and post-graduate, to gain valuable experience and to hear about cutting-edge research.

Current and former students Emilie Sibbesson, Sarah Coxon, Ben Jervis, Pina Franco

The island of Tinnis, fringed with reed beds and fish traps

The wide, shallow Nile waterscape near Tinnis

Recruitment and Admissions Office, Humanities, University of Southampton, Southampton so17 1bj

ugapply.fh@southampton.ac.uk | +44(0)23 8059 9339

www.southampton.ac.uk/archaeology

For further information please contact:

Croatia dig’s Artist in ResidenceThe Zupanja Museum and University of Southampton Archaeological Project (ZSAP) team of staff and students was joined by artist in residence Professor Stephen Hoskins for the 2012 summer season. Stephen writes of his experience: “I enjoy drawing in an environment where I have captive subjects, few distractions and a process that is not part of my daily round. Working in pencil and watercolour means I can capture the

atmosphere and essence of moments of a collaborative environment which photography cannot convey. The drawings attempt to convey the rapport and cross-cultural dialogue between the team and with the wider community.”

Dr Sandy Budden

The Connected Past: people, networks and complexity in archaeology and history

A symposium held at the University of Southampton confirmed that networks are older and more interesting than Facebook or the internet. In March 2012, 150 archaeologists, historians, mathematicians, computer scientists, physicists and others, from 19 different countries, got together. Their objective: to discuss the application of network and complexity perspectives to archaeology and history. The result was a stimulating and friendly gathering of academics from very diverse backgrounds. Collectively they turned this symposium into an exciting discussion about how recent advances in network science can be applied to the study of the past.

The Connected Past does not end here! We are working hard on publishing the proceedings and planning future meetings, this time supported by an international committee. Read more about The Connected Past and access recorded presentations online: http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/

PhD student Tom Brughmans, Dr Anna Collar and Dr Fiona Coward

Archaeologists at work