Judges have today released the shortlist for this year’s British Archaeological Awards showcasing professional and community-led archaeology projects up and down the country that reveal the story of Britain and its people in exciting, innovative and engaging ways.
Shortlisted projects from across the UK range from large development–led excavations in our cities – such as Oxford Archaeology South’s Westgate project and London’s Lost Graveyard, the Crossrail discovery featured in True North Production’s Secret History programme for Channel 4 – and long-term university-based research projects such as the Silchester ‘Town Life’ project and Dig Greater Manchester, to community projects such as The Whithorn Trust’s Hearth, Home and Farm project in Dumfries & Galloway, and the Battles, Bricks and Bridges project in Co. Fermanagh. Finalists also included cross-community partnership projects producing new teaching resources such as Forestry Commission Scotland’s The Picts: a learning resource and the Ulster Scots Archaeological Services Project in Northern Ireland.
Shortlisted books tell the story of the Welsh Slate industry, explore the rich remains on the Outer Hebridean island of St Kilda, and help us make sense of the theories surrounding Stonehenge, Britain’s ultimate archaeological mystery.
Archaeology is celebrated for harnessing and pushing forward technological innovation, and DigVentures’ Digital Dig Team recording app shares excavation ‘finds’ instantly online and on social media, while the National Geographic Under London feature was accompanied by a paper stop-animation to help readers understand the timeline of archaeology under the city.
Finalists such as the journal Internet Archaeology and the Postglacial Project at the University of York have used Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), 3D modelling and embedded multimedia to help fellow researchers and the public to interpret new findings for themselves and understand what they tell us about the past and the world around us.
See the shortlist