Hi folks. Thought I’d give some background info on ~~~: ! I live with my partner, Wendie, in Bridlington, East Yorkshire. My main interests lie with studying landscapes and tracing their history, especially with regards 19th & 20thC industrial sites. It’s also almost unavoidable for me to have an interest in the Neolithic period and the Iron Age living where I do, although for some unfathomable reason, the Roman period has never really held much appeal for me. I enjoy nothing more than wandering around the Yorkshire Wolds, especially in winter when there’s nobody else about, tracing ancient trackways or earthworks. I recently discovered what I believe to be some sort of Iron Age hill fort related earthwork near to my home town, although an ‘expert’ identified it as a glacial valley(!). The jury’s still out on that one. Apart from this, my hobbies are walking & camping in the Lake District, the two of us being regular visitors to Keswick, although we also enjoy boating on the Norfolk Broads. I love music, having a small studio in my house, which is very rapidly filling up with equipment and will have to be moved very shortly! I’ve always been interested in cars, owning a series of -ridiculously expensive to insure and run- vehicles since I was 17. Living on the edge of the countryside like I do, I take a great interest in it and the wildlife it supports, although every year quite a bit of it seems to end up at our house in various states of disrepair, usually due to assault by cat or car. Our house sometimes resembles a zoo more than a home! I’ve made many great friends on Northfell, (when I can get it to work) and I am delighted to have found a group of people with whom I can share and discuss subjects about which we share a common interest. Although I know my opinions don’t always coincide with everyone elses, it makes for lively debate! I’m going to send John & Sandy a photo as soon as I can find a sensible one! ‘Vurm’

Special Interest Areas

Neolithic, Iron Age, Medieval, Industrial.

I am doing a full time degree in Archaeology and Anthropology and am currently a second year, having done slightly better in the exams than I expected. I am a member of the Colchester Roman Society which has been involved in research into the Roman Army and providing educational visits to schools for the past 12 years. We also take part in ‘Living History’ events, such as that organised by English Heritage at Kirby Hall. I am particularly interested in Post Roman Britain up to about 800 AD and Roman archaeology. I have excavated in Colchester, Cambridgeshire (as a paid archaeologist – wow), and Georgia (former Soviet Union). I have also managed to do some post-excavation work in Sicily this year and recently visited the Boyne Valley, Tara, and the Book of Kells in Ireland.

As for the degree I am currently concentrating on Roman and Egyptian archaeology, but I hope to do some Mesoamerican next year. This is in addition to the core papers and practicals.

Websites

Auxilia Britannia. This is still under construction. It is dedicated to the auxilia units of the Roman army. Haven’t been able to devote much time recently and would appreciate any help on the incomplete pages.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/grahame.a/

Special Interest Areas

Roman Post Roman Britain Romano-Celtic temples Sacred landscapes – continuity of Mesoamerica Symbolism

I was born paralysed from the waist down. I first become interested in history and archaeology when my school took a group of us charioteers (wheelchairs) to West Kennett Long Barrow and Stonehenge. I was 8 at the time and the barrow was the most frightening place I had ever been too but at the same time I also felt at home. Ever since then I have been reading and learning as much as I can. I have been watching Time Team from the very beginning – I was hooked from the start.

I’m not married and live with my parents in Eastleigh Hampshire. I work for a company that repairs computer monitors. I don’t have my own car so I don’t get to see to many good archaeological sites

I like reading and I spend a lot of time on my computer which I have not had for long. One of the first things I did was look up TT on the web – that’s were I found the forum, at first I just saw what was going on then I started to post the odd comment. I mainly post at weekends as I work in the week. This is the first sort of club I have ever joined see if I make mistakes be gentle with me, I hope to make friends here.

Some people might find my humour a bit on the tough side but I have had to fight all my life for life and my humour reflects that. I hope can bring something to this forum as well as get enjoyment from it.

Special Interest Areas

I am interested mainly in the Roman Egyptian and the Iron Age and the Napoleonic period. I also like the biblical period

From an early age I was encouraged by my parents and teachers to enjoy, question and wonder at life. The natural world, history and literature have always played a prominent role in my life. Especially reading. Give me a good book with an interesting story and I was happy. C.S.Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Enid Blyton, mythology and books of knowledge. All were read again and again. This inquisitiveness & desire for knowledge has continued & grown in strength the older I have become. The most pressing question always being “Why?” In particular, “why are we what we are? Why am I who I am?” Which brings me back to the present, and my interest in archaeology. I am currently in my first year of A level Archaeology. On completion of my A level I intend to do to Uni to study Archaeology full time. After that . . . who knows?  

As for my day to day life . . . I live in a small flat with my cat Esther and work as an insurance claims officer. I visit my parents in East Yorkshire when I can. My favourite place in Britain is the North York Moors near Whitby.

I have supported Liverpool FC since the early 70’s and the first time I set foot in Liverpool a few years ago I had to restrain myself from kissing the Liver Building! I also enjoy walking and intend to walk the 290 mile Macmillan Way for the Macmillan nurses in 2001.

When I had a garden I used to enjoy gardening very much, particularly wildlife gardening. I very much believe in conservation and to live and let live. I hope I am a peaceful person. The one quality I know I possess is Hope.

My heroes in life – and they are many – include, of course, my parents, David Attenborough, David Bellamy, Gerald Durrell, Therese of Lisieux, Martin Luther King Jr, and anyone who has ever suffered or died for others.

Two places I would like to visit – Antarctica, and Africa, where we believe it all began.

Special Interest Areas

History of the Church and Monasticism esp the role of women within the Church; and more and more I am looking further into anthropology and ethnology, human origins and evolution. I am interested in how archaeology, scientific method and written records provide evidence for both of the above.

On trying to think where I should start, I figured that the beginning would be a good idea. I used to enjoy history immensely at school and I can’t remember why I chose not to pursue it! I’m not sure I could admit to having been very academic in my ‘youth’, I enjoyed the company of my friends a lot more than the lessons themselves and there were many a school report stating ‘has potential’ and ‘easily distracted’! Despite that, I did leave school with 5 O Levels and 3 CSEs and I went on to study A Levels in Biology and Computer Science, not that they went hand in hand, but I just ‘fancied it. I then went on to Study a Computer Science degree (which I packed in early because I realised that programming bored me silly!) and settled for the Dip. H.E. qualification. I recall a visit to the careers advisor full of ideas of becoming a marine biologist or something; I came out thinking I would make an excellent secretary! As it turns out, I worked my way through IT and e-marketing and it’s great fun. I don’t recall when my fascination for the Time team programs started, but I remember my first full episode was the Fogou in Cornwall somewhere. Since then, I’ve been hooked! My favourite episode to date has to be Coventry, probably because it’s where I grew up. A few years ago, I decided to take it upon myself and study for a foundation course in History to prepare me for acceptance on to the Degree should I ever have the time and the finances. My hobbies include: History, Archaeology (strictly armchair), Films (Sci-Fi, Horror, Thrillers), Reading, Football (go Man U!), Art, Socialising, Ten Pin Bowling, Swimming, web ‘stuff’ and chatting on the net – doesn’t leave a lot of time for much else! I share my life with Dave who is happy to indulge my need for Discovery/History channel programmes.

Special Interest Areas

Tudor, Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, WWII, Titanic

Website:

I live in Corvallis, Oregon, USA. I became a fan of the Time Team through my contact with the Forum, which I discovered after the ’98 Time Team Live!

My interest stems from having been a field archaeologist for 20 years During this time I have worked the Pacific Coast of the United States from the deserts of the southwest to the temperate rain-forests of the northwest and even a little tropical archaeology in Hawaii. The work in Hawaii led to a master’s degree study of the cultural adaptation of the Hawaiians employed at the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trading posts in the Pacific Northwest. My conclusion was that the early employees brought their traditions and left some distinctly Hawai’ian traces in the archaeological record, all while being paid fair wages.

Though I am currently employed as a computer programmer, I haven’t lost touch with archaeology as I am an active flintknapper and my wife is the archaeologist for the Oregon State University Research Forests.

Special Interest Areas

I have a special fondness for Lithic Technology, including ground-stone tools. An Americanist by provenience and experience, my scholarly achievement was a study of the early historic period in the Pacific Northwest. I had hoped to compare the pestles of the Columbia Basin with the poi-pounders of Hawai’i. I was thwarted by the scarcity of data.

Website

http://www.StoneRomance.com is a personal learning space… Some day it will hit the bigtime. The TTFF will always be welcome.

One of the original WWII “baby boomers” I am now a very immature 53. I live in Lincolnshire, spending a very happy life with my wife, Billie. Two children flew the nest long ago – one as far as California.

I started work in a bank at eighteen and hated every minute of it! I left to become a teacher and have spent the last 25 years teaching Primary School children (4 to 11 years of age).

My interest in archaeology began at college when I helped with a dig in the college grounds. It turned out to be a medieval well. I spent 15 years abroad, working in schools attached to the British army, in Gibraltar and Germany and discovered a Victorian rubbish pit next to the school, which we excavated. When I became Headteacher of my present school I wanted to build up a school museum. I contacted a firm who make metal detectors and persuaded them to give us one.

Eight years later I am still detecting and have built a super little school museum, with artefacts from every age from the Stone Age (Mortlake pottery) to WWII (part of a crashed Lancaster bomber). All finds are reported to the local museum with grid references.

I was contacted recently to take part in a Time Team programme in Lincolnshire. I spent three fabulous days detecting all over the site.

Special Interest Areas

Having a name with a Viking ending, my favourite period has to be Viking, but I am also a great fan of anything Anglo-Saxon.

I was born in Dundee, Scotland but as part of an Army family moved house on a regular basis due to Dad’s postings and by the age of 16 I had attended 13 different schools around the mainland and Northern Ireland. When my Dad left the army, the family moved back to Scotland but I decided to stay in Surrey at the ripe old age of 17……..

Workwise, I have been involved in Credit Management and Revenue Accounting within the Travel Industry for most of my working life , but decided a couple of years agoI needed a complete change and a challenge and now work as a Business Support Executive and Quality Manager for a Business Travel Management Company based in Woking – although I now live in North Essex where I’ve now bought a house by the “seaside” and am living life to the full.

I’m bestest friends with Ria from the Hague so visit her in Holland as much as I can – working in the Travel Industry has its benefits! On my trips there we often venture out to Roman sites within Holland and Germany and have been known to spend hours and hours in Museums……………………….

I am also a member of Colchester Roman Society.

Special Interest Areas

My passions in life are: Roman archaeology, antiques, especially 18th Century Chinese porcelain, reading, researching family history , North Fife Iron Age hill forts and of course archaeology of all sorts.

My websites:

Ourpasthistory.com

Exploratio – Exploring the Roman World (joint project)

Talking History Forum and chat (joint project)

I’ve been a committed armchair archaeologist since series one of Time Team and glad to say my family now shares that interest also. Highlight for us, was meeting the team at the live dig in Canterbury. Think my interest developed from my love of history during my school days. Have had the notion to participate further within my local area and perhaps do a course or two but as yet have not found the time

I’m 32 married to Donna with 2 boys and stay in Paisley, near Glasgow, Scotland. My day job is as a Customer Service Manager with an electronics company, though thinking that a career change is nigh and would like to move into Computing/Web design. I have a great fascination for Roman and Medieval periods in particular never ceases to amaze me how much of an insight can be gained into the past from archaeology and the wealth of knowledge that can be gained by investigation.

My wife and I share an interest in genealogy and have been working away on our family trees which is proving a challenge. It’s fascinating and great fun to be able to record and trace your origins then be able to pass these onto relatives and family. My interests also include non-fiction historical Reading, Aviation, Computing and Travel when I get the chance, stayed in Australia as a teenager, hostelled round Europe and had six months working in Holland recently.

I enjoy taking part in the TT forum and chat which I’ve joined recently, great to share views and opinions as well as common interests and a lot of laughs with fellow forum members.

Special Interest Areas

Roman & Medieval History in Britain.

I guess it’s time to give myself up and submit a biography! I’m a Blackpool sand-grown ‘un (though now living just outside the place because it’s gorn orff in recent years.) I’m old enough to have just celebrated my Silver Wedding anniversary to Peter the Philistine, though I was of course a child bride. As the daughter of two teachers there was no way I could escape childhood without a heavy smattering of culture, and I spent much of my early years around old buildings and sites. I was mad keen on archaeology, asking for “Digging Up The Past” for a school prize at the age of 11, but my enthusiasm was dimmed a bit by a sadist of a history teacher who clearly thought the Corn Laws were the height of human achievment, and regularly bombarded me with chalk and occasionally the board rubber too. However, my total and inevitable failure to gain an “O” level in History did not put me off. I’ve remained a mainly armchair archaeologist all my life, though I’ve done one short course at the local college. I’m in management at a large comprehensive school, and I don’t have much time at the moment. However, I do write in what little spare time I get (just had a children’s play published) and have three cats, which is timeconsuming in itself.

I love Time Team, and really enjoy the Forum. Long may both continue!

Special Interest Areas

Pre-history, Dark Ages, Medieval, Elizabethan, Late 19th Century