Remembering Mick Aston

It was with a very heavy heart that I heard the news of Mick Aston's death the other day. As someone who grew up watching Time Team (don't judge me, I'm not ashamed), I will freely admit that it was the work of Mick and his team that made me want to get into archaeology in the first place.

I was lucky enough to meet Professor Mick Aston whilst I was studying archaeology at University. It was during a two week excavation at a Roman villa deep in the Somerset countryside that Mick Aston came up to the site for the day. I had a lovely chat with him, he signed my trowel and allowed me to have a photograph with him. Just FYI, I'd spent the better part of 2 weeks knee deep in mud, living in a tent and getting drunk on a nightly basis...

Professor Aston really helped bring archaeology to the masses, and many households would sit down on a Sunday afternoon to watch the team conduct an archaeological excavation within three days. Whilst some of the methods have been questioned by archaeologists, you can't fault them for making archaeology more popular with the public. Mick Aston was one of a kind, a very friendly man who really knew his stuff and someone who has always had my respect.

Rest in Peace, Mick Aston. You will be sorely missed.

It Really Is Richard III then.

I'm sure you've all heard the news...

This morning, the archaeological team at Leicester University announced the results from their testing of human remains found at the Greyfriars archaeological excavation.

They've found Richard III.

It's all here on the BBC news website. Exciting hmm? At the very least from an archaeological perspective. The archaeologists have been able to look at skeletal evidence alongside DNA from one of his living relatives - the detailed analysis allowed the archaeological team at Leicester to conclude that yep, it was indeed Richard III. I have to say, I'd be very interested to see a facial reconstruction!

Anyway, have a bit of fun. Here's Richard, trying to convince everyone he's actually a nice guy...

There's a documentary on at 9pm this evening, on channel 4 which I shall certainly be watching (bit obsessed with osteoarchaeology, so veeery excited to see the skeletal analysis and the facial reconstruction). I'll be the first to admit that I'm not really all that excited over the whole Richard III thing, however as a (sort of) archaeologist, the implications of this are huge. What I would have given to be part of that excavation isn't even worth listing, because it would be literally everything I own. Except my violin. Because that's my baby. I'm going to stop rambling now.

Please do check out the documentary tonight on Channel 4, and read some of the excellent blogs that have been written today on this news, like this one by MadameGuillotine. Oh, and if you're looking for a good book on Richard, please do check out "The Man Behind the Myth" by Michael Hicks!

Nonsuch Palace - Scale Model Unveiled

I stumbled across a little bit of Tudor related news just now on BBC news which is really very exciting. Professor Martin Biddle, a rather brilliant archaeologist, has managed to design a scale model of Nonsuch Palace, the palace designed and built by Henry VIII. His designs and archaeological drawings of the site have allowed a gentleman by the name of Ben Taggart to build the model. Biddle took part in the excavation of Nonsuch palace in 1959 and has been researching the site of Nonsuch for over 50 years.

Martin Biddle and the new scale model of Nonsuch palace. Image from BBC news.

Work on Nonsuch Palace began in 1538, just after the birth of Henry's son Prince Edward, and took many years to complete although by 1541 substantial building works had taken place. According to Biddle the palace was built by Henry as a celebration of the birth of little Edward, his long awaited heir. Sadly however, when Henry passed away in 1547, his magnificent palace was incomplete. In 1556 Mary I sold the palace to the 19th Earl of Arundel who held the house until the 1590's when it returned into royal hands. However in 1670 Charles II gave the house to his mistress who had it pulled down, its materials being used to pay off gambling debts. Parts of the house were incorporated into other buildings, for example some of Nonsuch's wood panelling can still be seen today in the Great Hall of Loseley Park. Whilst no traces of the building exist above ground, the British Museum holds examples of the building materials.

For the longest time, Nonsuch Palace was only a myth. That was until Martin Biddle, an undergraduate of Cambridge University, and John Dent a local historian set about finding the location of the site. At the time, work was under way on the History of the Kings Works, and the Ministry of Works agreed to fund an excavation so that a ground plan of Henry VIII's famous palace could be included in the works. After all, this famous palace had been the Palace that introduced the Renaissance style of building works into England! In total, over 500 individuals were brought in to work on the site with a huge voluntary workforce of diggers from local schools, colleges and technical institutes lending a hand. The main excavation of the house went ahead as planned and attracted over 60,000 visitors over 12 weeks and a temporary museum was erected in an aluminium hut which attracted over 26,000 people who paid 6d each. This left a considerable amount of funds to allow the excavations to continue and for Biddle & Dent to continue their work.

These excavations were done to complete the ground plan of the Palace, which has led to the scale model of the Palace being completed, and to collect samples of the building materials that had been used in the Palace (which until then had only been seen in the few contemporary paintings of Nonsuch). Both of these objectives were completed and since then there has been an exhaustive study into the documentary evidence surrounding the palace including descriptions of the palace by its visitors, pictorial evidence as well as study of the finds from the palace. All of this work has allowed Biddle to continue his research into Nonsuch and most of all has allowed the first ever scale model of the Palace to be built.

This is a very exciting development in the study of Tudor history and archaeology, and the culmination of many years work. I remember reading the site reports on Nonsuch by Professor Biddle when I was at University and thinking of how magnificent it must have been in its hey-day and wishing more than anything that I could have been involved in the excavations. Alas, it was all done many years before I was born. But thanks to the wonderful work of Biddle we now have a fantastic model of the palace, the first of its kind, which can only open a plethora of new doors for study on this wonderful palace.

The model of Nonsuch will be on public display at the Friends of Nonsuch Museum between 17th September and 5th November. I know I'll be trying really hard to get myself up there to have a look at this wonderful work!