Ian Meadows | |
---|---|
Born | Ian David Meadows January 5, 1959 |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Archaeologist |
Known for | Archaeology work; discovery of the Pioneer helmet |
Ian David Meadows (born 5 January 1959) is a British archaeologist. He has worked in archaeology for some 40 years, including as a Senior Project Officer at Northamptonshire Archaeology from 1992 to 2014. [1] During that time he excavated a number of large quarries in England and Wales, [1] and excavated the boar-crested Anglo-Saxon Pioneer Helmet in addition to discovering the first definitive evidence for viticulture in Roman Britain. [2] He has also worked for the Museum of London Archaeology, and has taught archaeology and landscape history for Cambridge University, Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Bath, and the Workers' Educational Association. [1] [3]
Ian David Meadows was born on 5 January 1959. [4] He has worked in archaeology for approximately 40 years. [1] [3] From 1992 to 2014 he worked with Northamptonshire Archaeology as Senior Project Officer, during which time he directed many projects, particularly the excavations of large landscapes in English and Welsh quarries. [1] Starting in about 1993 Meadows began digging in a gravel pit in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, ultimately leading to both the discovery of the first definitive evidence of viticulture from Roman Britain, [5] [6] and the unearthing of the Pioneer Helmet, only the fourth Anglo-Saxon helmet to be found. [2] [7]
In 1996, while leading a team with Tony Brown of the University of Exeter's School of Geography and Archaeology, Meadows discovered the first evidence for viticulture from Roman Britain. [5] [8] [9] The find followed the excavation of a series of farms from the Iron and Roman ages, [10] and was soon followed by the discovery of vineyards in the Nene Valley. [11] [12] By 1999 Meadows had found evidence of seven vineyards: four in Northamptonshire, one in Cambridgeshire, one in Lincolnshire and one in Buckinghamshire. [11] [12] One site alone had four miles of trenches, enough to produce about 10,000 litres of wine annually. [11] [12] The seven vineyards covered a combined 30 acres, suggesting to Meadows that "research may yet reveal that Britain was a major wine producer in ancient times." [11]
The year after discovering the Roman vineyards, in 1997 Meadows discovered the Anglo-Saxon Pioneer Helmet. [7] Also found in Wollaston, it was part of the inhumation of a high-status Anglo-Saxon man, and was found with a pattern welded sword and a hanging bowl. [2] News of the find made newspapers as far away as Australia and New Zealand, [13] for the helmet was only the fourth contemporaneous example to be discovered, [7] coming after those from Benty Grange, Sutton Hoo, and York, [14] and before two subsequent discoveries from Shorwell and Staffordshire. [15]
As of 2016, Meadows is leading the excavations at Chester Farm, a walled Roman town with 10,000 years of history. [3] It has evidence dating back to the Mesolithic, Iron and Medieval ages, as well as farm buildings from the 17th century. [3] He has 4 children.
Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts was discovered. The site is important in establishing the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia as well as illuminating the Anglo-Saxons during a period which lacks historical documentation.
Viticulture or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of Vitis vinifera, the common grape vine, ranges from Western Europe to the Persian shores of the Caspian Sea, the vine has demonstrated high levels of adaptability to new environments, hence viticulture can be found on every continent except Antarctica.
Wollaston is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) south of the market town of Wellingborough. The 2011 census recorded the population of the parish, including Strixton, as 3,491.
The Benty Grange helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the 7th century AD. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The grave had probably been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The helmet is displayed at Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate in 1893.
Eccles is a village in the English county of Kent, part of the parish of Aylesford and in the valley of the River Medway.
Great Addington is a small village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It lies near the west bank of the River Nene, about 5 miles (8 km) east of Kettering. It consists of approximately 100 households; at the time of the 2011 census, the population of the parish was 327 people. It has a school, church, manor house, village hall, a pub called the Hare & Hounds, playing fields and homes. There is a strong bond and rivalry with the neighbouring village Little Addington.
Irchester is a village and civil parish in North Northamptonshire, two miles (3 km) south-east of Wellingborough and two miles south-west of Rushden. The population of the village at the 2011 Census was 5,706 and estimated in 2019 at 5,767. Little Irchester and Knuston also lie in the parish.
Piddington Roman Villa is the remains of a large Roman villa at Piddington, Northamptonshire, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south-east of Northampton, a county in the East Midlands of England.
The Coppergate Helmet is an eighth-century Anglo-Saxon helmet found in York, England. It was discovered in May 1982 during excavations for the Jorvik Viking Centre at the bottom of a pit that is thought to have once been a well.
David John Mattingly, FBA is an archaeologist and historian of the Roman world. He is currently Professor of Roman Archaeology at the University of Leicester.
Ancient Rome played a pivotal role in the history of wine. The earliest influences on the viticulture of the Italian peninsula can be traced to ancient Greeks and the Etruscans. The rise of the Roman Empire saw both technological advances in and burgeoning awareness of winemaking, which spread to all parts of the empire. Rome's influence has had a profound effect on the histories of today's major winemaking regions in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually developed a common cultural identity as Anglo-Saxons. This process principally occurred from the mid-fifth to early seventh centuries, following the end of Roman rule in Britain around the year 410. The settlement was followed by the establishment of the Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the south and east of Britain, later followed by the rest of modern England, and the south-east of modern Scotland. The exact nature of this change is a topic of on-going research. Questions remain about the scale, timing and nature of the settlements, and also about what happened to the previous residents of what is now England.
The Sutton Hoo helmet is a decorated Anglo-Saxon helmet found during a 1939 excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. It was buried around the years c. 620–625 CE and is widely associated with an Anglo-Saxon leader, King Rædwald of East Anglia; its elaborate decoration may have given it a secondary function akin to a crown. The helmet was both a functional piece of armour that would have offered considerable protection if ever used in warfare, and a decorative, prestigious piece of extravagant metalwork. An iconic object from an archaeological find hailed as the "British Tutankhamen", it has become a symbol of the Early Middle Ages, "of Archaeology in general", and of England.
The Pioneer Helmet is an Anglo-Saxon boar-crested helmet from the late seventh century found in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. It was discovered during a March 1997 excavation before the land was to be mined for gravel and was part of the grave of a young man. Other objects in the grave, such as a hanging bowl and a pattern welded sword, suggest that it was the burial mound of a high-status warrior.
The Shorwell helmet is an Anglo-Saxon helmet from the early to mid-sixth century AD found near Shorwell on the Isle of Wight in southern England. It was one of the grave goods of a high-status Anglo-Saxon warrior, and was found with other objects such as a pattern-welded sword and hanging bowl. One of only six known Anglo-Saxon helmets, alongside those found at Benty Grange (1848), Sutton Hoo (1939), Coppergate (1982), Wollaston (1997), and Staffordshire (2009), it is the sole example to derive from the continental Frankish style rather than the contemporaneous Northern "crested helmets" used in England and Scandinavia.
The Staffordshire helmet is an Anglo-Saxon helmet discovered in 2009 as part of the Staffordshire Hoard. It is part of the largest discovery of contemporary gold and silver metalwork in Britain, which contained more than 4,000 precious fragments, approximately a third of which came from a single high-status helmet. Following those found at Benty Grange (1848), Sutton Hoo (1939), Coppergate (1982), Wollaston (1997), and Shorwell (2004), it is only the sixth known Anglo-Saxon helmet.
The Guilden Morden boar is a sixth- or seventh-century Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of a helmet. It was found around 1864 or 1865 in a grave in Guilden Morden, a village in the eastern English county of Cambridgeshire. There the boar attended a skeleton with other objects, including a small earthenware bead with an incised pattern, although the boar is all that now remains. Herbert George Fordham, whose father originally discovered the boar, donated it to the British Museum in 1904; as of 2018 it was on view in room 41.
HMG Heat and Waterproof Adhesive is a brand of cellulose nitrate adhesive manufactured by H Marcel Guest Ltd. It is one of the most popular cellulose nitrate adhesives used in conservation and restoration work, and is used on materials such as metal, wood, glass, and pottery. It is sometimes referred to as "the blue tube", in contrast to "the purple tube", the acrylic B72 Restoration Adhesive also manufactured by the company.
The Horncastle boar's head is an early seventh-century Anglo-Saxon ornament depicting a boar that probably was once part of the crest of a helmet. It was discovered in 2002 by a metal detectorist searching in the town of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. It was reported as found treasure and acquired for £15,000 by the City and County Museum, where it is on permanent display.
Leslie Elizabeth Webster, is an English retired museum curator and art historian of Anglo-Saxon and Viking art. She worked from 1964 until 2007 at the British Museum, rising to Keeper, where she curated several major exhibitions, and published many works, on the Anglo-Saxons and Early Middle Ages.