Recent publications

A few of my reports from several years back have been published in the last few months.

The big one that Saxon specialists have been waiting for:

Tester, A., Anderson, S., Riddler, I and Carr, R.D., 2014, Staunch Meadow, Brandon, Suffolk. A High Status Middle Saxon Settlement on the Fen Edge, East Anglian Archaeology 151.


A large group of skeletons from the Scottish Borders, report written in the 1990s:

Anderson, S., 2014, ‘Human skeletal remains’, in Cramp, R., The Hirsel Excavations, Soc. Medieval
Archaeol. Monogr. 36, 163–83.
Recently reviewed in Speculum - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0038713414003066


A few I completed whilst I was working at CFA Archaeology:

Mitchell, S., and Anderson, S., 2012, ‘Excavation of a Roman road and discovery of a cup-and-ring
marked stone near Crawford, South Lanarkshire’, Scottish Archaeological Journal 34–35, 71–80. (published 2014)

Oram, R.D., Martin, P.F., McKean, C.A. and Anderson, S., 2014, Historic Wigtown. Archaeology and Development. The Scottish Burgh Survey, Historic Scotland.

Anderson, S., 2012, ‘Calcined bone’, in Gray, H. and Suddaby, I., ‘Early Neolithic pits, an Iron Age
ring-ditch house and associated features at Coul Brae, Mosstodloch, Moray’, Scottish Archaeological Journal, 34–35, 51. (published 2014)

Fieldwalking and finds

After a wet and windy week, the weather on Saturday was almost perfect for the Snape Fieldwalking Training Day. This was run by Access Cambridge Archaeology with funding from the Touching the Tide HLF project. I went along as the finds specialist for the day, and helped to train members of the Aldeburgh and District Local History Society and other volunteers in the identification of wet and muddy finds.

Many of the finds were pieces of post-medieval brick and tile – the usual detritis which ends up scattered across a field during ploughing. A few pieces of medieval pottery were picked up, and seemed to be concentrated towards the northern part of the field. A number of struck flint flakes were also recovered, along with burnt flint and sandstone 'potboilers', but unfortunately no prehistoric pottery to go with them.

The finds were washed by enthusiastic volunteers back at the church hall, and then we were able to get a better look at the haul.

 

Recording the finds after washing.

Finds viewing at coffee break

Sue and Carenza discussing the finds

Highlights included a body sherd of girth-grooved Ipswich Thetford-type ware (9th–11th c.), some rim and body sherds of local medieval shelly and sandy wares (12th–14th c.), and a piece of Siegburg stoneware which may be as early as the 14th century. Post-medieval pottery included sherds of local glazed red earthenwares and a rim of yellow glazed whiteware from the Surrey-Hampshire border (so-called 'Border Ware'). A few of the more recent sherds included some early modern types, such as Staffordshire white salt glazed stoneware and scratch-blue ware (both 18th c.). Star find of the day was a small copper alloy coin which, on further investigation, turns out to be a mid to late 18th-century Dutch coin, a Duit, with the arms of Zeeland on the obverse.

The 18th-century Zeeland duit showing a lion rampant above waves (the arms of Zeeland)

Latest publications

Some of my papers – a finds report, a discussion of a large tile assemblage and a contribution to the study of an army camp – were published recently (don't let the 2012 date on PSAS fool you, it came out last month!):

Anderson, S., 2012, ‘Artefacts’, in Greig, M., ‘Excavation of an unnamed castle at Cullykhan, Castle Point, Troup’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 142, 317–19.

Anderson, S., 2013, ‘Medieval floor and roof tiles from Melrose Abbey, Scottish Borders, and the ‘Westminster Tilers’’, Medieval Archaeology 57, 238–50. Abstract here

Kirby, M., Ross, A. and Anderson, S., 2013 ‘The Excavation of a World War II Army Camp at Mortonhall, Edinburgh’, J Conflict Archaeol 8(2), 106–35. Abstract here

Good to see them in print now, and looking forward to more of my old reports being published soon!

Feedback

It's always good to know that people are finding my website useful. Sometimes I get feedback from satisfied readers, generally in the form of a request for more information, like this one:

"I would like to educate myself about the  archeology of osseous human remains. When researching the possibilities I came upon your website and enjoyed reading it. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction..." 

I will always respond to genuine queries, and of course it's nice to get a 'thank you' in response. 

This morning, I got an unsolicited 'Thank You' message from a retired lady who is studying archaeology at OUCE:

"I am a retiree taking correspondence classes through OUCE.  At 65 years old , I am really struggling with a course in archaeology because everything is new. I was so fortunate to come across your site where I was able to find a description of not only the burial practices that I was seeking but  I also found a complete time line for the early periods. What a relief. Now I can  make my first time line and can use the periods you prepared on your site. It might seem silly for me to thank you, but I am so grateful to find this information in a straightforward framework."

The best bit of feedback, however, wasn't for Spoilheap itself, but for the subsidiary site run by my colleague, Beany Z:

"As an academic and practicing professional archaeological consultant here in Western Canada, I chanced upon Beany Z's wonderful website. Please tell him/her that both my wife (who works with me and has a degree in Archaeology) love his/her adventures!  ;-)"

Although the Spoilheap website is now aimed more at potential clients, I am glad that the Resources section still has a growing audience and that it has helped many people find out more about archaeology.