Assignment

This week the assignment concerns the archaeology of the Anglo Saxon period in the East Midlands. Choose at least one of the county-based essays below and read to get a flavour of the period in that county.

• Lincolnshire
• Derbyshire
• Nottinghamshire
• Leicestershire

You will want to make some notes on the themes of evidence for settlement, burial and the broad changes that take place over the period (notionally c400-c850 AD).  We'll spend some time considering these themes in the session on Wednesday 12th February.

You might also want to look at Chapter 7 of the East Midlands Research Framework, the Anglo-Saxon Period, by the late Alan Vince, to get an overall flavour of the period in the East Midlands.

Class 2: Earlier Prehistory of the Midlands

The slides for Class 2: Earlier Prehistory in the Midlands are available to download from here.

Doing Archaeology

If you are interested in getting involved in practical archaeology there are plenty of opportunities in the Nottingham area. Commercial archaeological organisations often run fieldwork projects for volunteers and provide appropriate training.  In Nottinghamshire we are particularly fortunate to have Mercian Archaeology, a Community Interest Company, set up specifically to serve the public by providing training and opportunities in archaeology.  Their training projects are particularly focused on the archaeology of Sherwood Forest.

You can discover more about Mercian Archaeology here.

Trent & Peak Archaeology, based in Chilwell, also often run community led archaeological projects, read more here.

Further afield, University of  Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS; they found Richard III in a car park in Leicester) also provide opportunities for volunteers.  More details here.