2nd December 2019:

We are thrilled to have been nominated in two categories of the 2020 Current Archaeology Awards, voting for which has now opened

Our excavation at St Aldates in the heart of Oxford's city centre is up for Rescue Project of the Year. The site, which featured in the May issue of Current Archaeology, uncovered some of the earliest-known Anglo-Saxon structures in Oxford and recorded aspects of city life away from the colleges in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Most remarkable of all, the excavation and subsequent post-excavation analysis revealed evidence relating to the medieval city's Jewish inhabitants. Animal bone evidence and the results of organic residue analysis were both consistent with Jewish dietry law. In the case of the animal bone evidence, the results represent the first time that a Jewish 'signature' has been recognised in British zooarchaeology. 

The recent publication on the archaeology of Oxford Castle is in the running for Book of the Year. The book, which was reviewed in November's issue of Current Archaeology, reports on the excavations and building recording, carried out at the castle between 1999 and 2009, and the subsequent documentary research, and the specialist finds and environmental analyses. The most substantial results relate to the late Saxon town and its rampart, and to the construction of the Norman motte and bailey castle and its defensive rampart and ditches.

More limited information was obtained for the castle in its later medieval form and for its brief refortification during the Parliamentary occupation of Oxford in the Civil War. Numerous human burials found at the site are reported, including an important group of early post-medieval prisoners who had been dissected (or ‘anatomised’).

We are also pleased that the work of Martyn Allen, Senior Project Manager at Oxford Archaeology, has also been recognised, with a nomination in the Book of the Year category for Life and Death in the Countryside of Roman Britain, which Martyn co-authored.

Click here to read more about the nominations and cast your vote!