Whither Roman Archaeology? Or Thither Roman Archaeology! Another London Perspective

Jenny Hall

doi:10.5334/pia.231

Abstract

Wither Roman Archaeology? Nobody Likes Change! When I began working at the Guildhall Museum (now the Museum of London) in 1974, London archaeology was buzzing. The museum’s archaeological unit, the Department of Urban Archaeology, had been formed the previous year, and the Institute of Archaeology (IoA) was pre-eminent in its teaching of Roman archaeology, with the result that the IoA was feeding trained archaeologists through to the Guildhall Museum, which was responsible for excavating many Roman and medieval sites. Gradually in academia, however, studying Roman Britain came to be regarded as politically incorrect, and with vociferous exponents of theoretical archaeology and other spheres of research, Roman archaeology was no longer fashionable.

Highlights

Wither Roman Archaeology? Nobody Likes Change! When I began working at the Guildhall Museum in 1974, London archaeology was buzzing
The lack of funding for postgraduate research decreased the opportunities for object research and, as a consequence, few finds specialists remained in the universities
Perhaps Mark is right and Roman archaeology is dying on its feet

Summary

Introduction

Wither Roman Archaeology? Nobody Likes Change! When I began working at the Guildhall Museum ( the Museum of London) in 1974, London archaeology was buzzing. The lack of funding for postgraduate research (which only seemed available for theoretical archaeology) decreased the opportunities for object research and, as a consequence, few finds specialists remained in the universities. Museums are very much aware of the need for public accessibility – our funding depends on it.

Results

Conclusion