Introducing myself briefly..
Oliver Ruffles
I am a 19 year old BA Undergraduate student reading Archaeology and Heritage at the University of York attached to the Department of Archaeology based in King’s Manor, York (home page header).
I have been encapsulated by Archaeology from about the age of 13 when I could fully appreciate it’s significance. Before this age, I had practically grown up on some of England’s and world’s most important archaeological sites with my farther, a keen naturalist and historian. Being unaware of the archaeological importance of the sites, I saw them with no prior knowledge and in so learning about them I was hooked. However, this learning process is still ongoing and you can imagine the monumental picture which began to build itself up in my mind which only further cemented my enthusiasm for the study.
I am a southerner from the historical, heritage and treasure rich Suffolk on the South East coast of England where the world famous Sutton Hoo ship burial was discovered by Basil Brown in the 1940’s. Having this National Trust property on my door step and my farther’s keen interest in the discovery it wasn’t long until I was volunteering there at age 16 and eventually working in the exhibition hall on “Out of the Case” demonstrations and on guided tours of the Burial mounds which Prof Martin Carver of the Department had worked on in the 1980s.
To my surprise I also had my first ever taste of professional archaeological work here. Suffolk Archaeology was doing a geophysical survey of the field to the right of the exhibition hall previously used for sheep. Here I was able to help with the labour of walking the magnetometry and resistivity technology up and down the already set-up grid. In the exhibition hall where they had setup the results look complicated to a 16 year old me however they said they had detected where their staff had their bomb-fire for Guy Fawkes last year.
I had the now unique and rare opportunity to study A-Level Archaeology at Colchester (Roman Britain’s Capital Camulodonum – Britain’s Oldest Recorded Town) from the age of 16 – 18 before it was discontinued because of the limited number of institutions which taught it. This gave me a good foundation to my academic archaeological knowledge to which I could kick off from at University.
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My fieldwork experiences so far…
- SHARP Archaeology –
My first ever professional excavation at age 16 at Sedgeford, North Norfolk, UK excavating an Anglo-Saxon settlement and associated cemetery with friend Hector. It was with academics such as Neil Faulkner, Julian Richards and Prof John Jollies. B.E.R.T. – Basic, Excavation, Recording Techniques – establishing the foundation of my archaeology field-work experience.
2. Fordham Hall Phase I –
Fordham, Nr Colchester, Essex. This excavation was happened upon studying A-level Archaeology at Colchester while visiting the Colchester Roman Circus Centre. Colchester Archaeological Group and Fordham History Society combined to excavate a small area on purely self raise funding. This was a much smaller excavation made up of amateurs and budding enthusiasts but was a nice progression from the big dig at Sedgeford being told what to do all the time to being an independent digger. I also found a few Roman bronze coins and a tile with a cat footprint in it which really brought the archaeology alive.
3. Culver Archaeological Project – June 2017
This excavation, again with Hector, I wanted to excavate on at a Roman site being from near Colchester and finding Roman coins and pottery the Bridge Farm Excavations in Lewes, Sussex seemed the next logical step.
4. Malton Roman Fort – May 2018 – University of York – Department of Archaeology.
My fourth excavation, so I felt I knew what I was doing and therefore was more at home with the process of excavation and the use of the equipment.
Savelock Water Archaeology / – Summer of 2019 – to do…
The Archaeologist Article 