Phil Harding (archaeologist)

Last updated

Phil Harding
Phil Harding Sifting for flint near A46.jpg
Phil Harding sifting for flint in 2009
Born
Philip Harding

(1950-01-25) 25 January 1950 (age 74)
Oxford, England
Occupation Archaeologist
Years active1971–present
Known for Time Team

Philip Harding DL FSA (born 25 January 1950) is a British field archaeologist. He became a familiar face on the Channel 4 television series Time Team .

Contents

Harding trained on various excavations with the Bristol University Extra Mural Department and other bodies from 1966; he has been a professional archaeologist since 1971.

Life and career

Early life

Born in Oxford on 25 January 1950 and brought up in Wexcombe, Wiltshire, [1] Harding was educated at Marlborough Royal Free Grammar School in Marlborough. As a young boy, he became fascinated with the Stone Age. He learned flint-knapping from his uncle, Fred, and in only a few months became a skilled knapper, crafting many hunting tools from pieces of flint. He made his first archaeological finds digging up his parents' garden, much to the annoyance of his mother, Elsie. In 1966, while still at school, he attended a training excavation by Bristol University Extra Mural Department in Fyfield and West Overton. Since then, he has dug every year, though at first his archaeological activities had to be fitted into holidays and any spare time. [2]

Career

Phil Harding (wearing hat) with John Gater filming Time Team PhilHardingArchaeologist.jpg
Phil Harding (wearing hat) with John Gater filming Time Team

After Harding left school, he worked in a puppet factory in Marlborough until he became a full-time archaeologist in 1971. He worked initially for the Southampton City Council Archaeology Unit, combining this with five seasons of excavations (1972–1976) run by the British Museum at the Neolithic flint mines of Grimes Graves, Norfolk. He has since become an acknowledged expert on flint-knapping and is skilled in lithic reduction using both percussive techniques and pressure flaking, in which, instead of striking the flint with blows, pressure is exerted on the edges to shape the tool.

From the mid-1970s, he worked on excavations in Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight for the Department of the Environment (DOE). In 1979, the archaeological section of the DOE for the region became Wessex Archaeology, a non-profit organisation which is one of the biggest archaeological practices in the country. He continues to work for Wessex Archaeology.

He has been a member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists since 1985, and in 2006 was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. [3] On 24 July 2008, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Southampton in archaeology. [4] As a qualified SCUBA diver, he is the president of the Nautical Archaeology Society, a Portsmouth-based charity formed to further interest in nautical cultural heritage. Since 2015, Harding has been an archaeological supervisor for the veteran support charity Waterloo Uncovered, which conducts archaeology on the battlefield of Waterloo alongside veterans and serving personnel. [5] [6] [7]

In 2010, the radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects featured Harding speaking on the creation of pre-historic stone tools. [8]

Television

In 1991, Harding took part in the series Time Signs , which was produced by Tim Taylor, who went on to create Channel 4's popular archaeology series Time Team . Harding was a regular on Time Team from the first series in 1994 until its cancellation in 2013. He also took part in the various spin-off series such as Time Team Extra (1998), Time Team Digs (2002) and Time Team Live . In addition, he has appeared in episodes of Meet the Ancestors (2003) and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night (2009). [9]

He appeared in an episode of BBC's Digging for Britain in December 2016.

Honours

On 15 September 2016, he was appointed Deputy Lieutenant (DL) to the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire. [10] [11]

On 2 May 1985, he became a member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA). [12] Since 2004, he has been president of the Nautical Archaeology Society. [13] On 4 April 2006, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA). [14]

On 24 July 2008, he was awarded a Doctor of the University (DUniv) honorary degree by the University of Southampton. [15] [16]

In 2012, he was awarded the Henry Stopes Memorial Medal by the Geologists' Association: the medal is awarded once in every three years for work on the "Prehistory of Man". [17]

On 5 March 2013, he was named Archaeologist of the Year by  Current Archaeology . [18] 

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustus Pitt Rivers</span> English army officer, ethnologist and archaeologist

Lieutenant General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers was an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist. He was noted for innovations in archaeological methodology, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections. His international collection of about 22,000 objects was the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford while his collection of English archaeology from the area around Stonehenge forms the basis of the collection at The Salisbury Museum in Wiltshire.

<i>Time Team</i> British archaeology television show

Time Team is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned in 2022 on online platforms YouTube and Patreon. Created by television producer Tim Taylor and presented by actor Tony Robinson, each episode featured a team of specialists carrying out an archaeological dig over a period of three days, with Robinson explaining the process in lay terms. The specialists changed throughout the programme's run, although it consistently included professional archaeologists such as Mick Aston, Carenza Lewis, Francis Pryor and Phil Harding. The sites excavated ranged in date from the Palaeolithic to the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silbury Hill</span> Neolithic mound in Wiltshire, England

Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound near Avebury in the English county of Wiltshire. It is part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritage Site. At 39.3 metres (129 ft) high, it is the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe and one of the largest in the world; similar in volume to contemporary Egyptian pyramids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amesbury Archer</span> Remains of an early Bronze Age man

The Amesbury Archer is an early Bronze Age man whose grave was discovered during excavations at the site of a new housing development in Amesbury near Stonehenge. The grave was uncovered in May 2002. The man was middle aged when he died, estimated between 35 and 45, and is believed to date from about 2300 BC. He is nicknamed "the Archer" because of the many arrowheads buried with him. The grave contained more artefacts than any other early British Bronze Age burial, including the earliest known gold objects ever found in England. It was the first evidence of a very high status and wealth expressed in a burial from that time. Previously, Bronze Age society had been assumed not to have been particularly hierarchical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Sarum</span> Site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury in England

Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about two miles north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest records in the country. It is an English Heritage property and is open to the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carenza Lewis</span> British archaeologist

Carenza Rachel Lewis is a British academic archaeologist and television presenter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marlborough, Wiltshire</span> Town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England

Marlborough is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire on the Old Bath Road, the old main road from London to Bath. The town is on the River Kennet, 24 miles (39 km) north of Salisbury and 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Swindon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stuart Piggott</span> British archaeologist

Stuart Ernest Piggott, was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Hawley</span> British archaeologist

Lieutenant-Colonel William Hawley (1851–1941) was a British archaeologist who undertook pioneering excavations at Stonehenge.

Roger James Mercer was a British archaeologist whose work concentrated on the Neolithic and Bronze Age of the British Isles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liddington Castle</span> Hillfort in Wiltshire, England

Liddington Castle, locally called Liddington Camp, is a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age univallate hillfort in Liddington parish in the English county of Wiltshire, and a scheduled monument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Keiller (archaeologist)</span> Scottish archaeologist

Alexander Keiller was a Scottish archaeologist, pioneering aerial photographer, businessman and philanthropist. He worked on an extensive prehistoric site at Avebury in Wiltshire, England, and helped ensure its preservation.

Michael Parker Pearson, is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of the Neolithic British Isles, Madagascar and the archaeology of death and burial. A professor at the UCL Institute of Archaeology, he previously worked for 25 years as a professor at the University of Sheffield in England, and was the director of the Stonehenge Riverside Project. A prolific author, he has also written a variety of books on the subject.

Below are notable events in archaeology that occurred in 1909.

Wessex Archaeology is a British company that provides archaeological and heritage services, as well as being an educational charity. Apart from advice and consultancy, it also does fieldwork and publishes research on the sites it surveys. The company has had a long association with the archaeological television programme Time Team.

Michael Gordon Fulford, is a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in the British Iron Age, Roman Britain and landscape archaeology. He has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading since 1993.

C. Joshua Pollard is a British archaeologist who is a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton. He gained his BA and PhD in archaeology from the Cardiff University, and is a specialist in the archaeology of the Neolithic period in the UK and north-west Europe, especially in relation to the study of depositional practices, monumentality, and landscape. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battlesbury Camp</span> Iron Age hillfort in Wiltshire, England

Battlesbury Camp is the site of an Iron Age bivallate hill fort on Battlesbury Hill near the town of Warminster in Wiltshire, South West England. Excavations and surveys at the site have uncovered various finds and archaeological evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tim Schadla-Hall</span> British archaeologist (1947–2023)

Richard Timothy Schadla-Hall, was a British archaeologist who specialised in the study of how the archaeological discipline interacts with the public. He was affiliated with the Institute of Archaeology at University College London in Bloomsbury, central London, where he worked as a Reader in Public Archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barrow Clump</span> Archaeological site in Wiltshire

Barrow Clump is an archaeological site in Figheldean parish, Wiltshire, England, about 3+12 miles (5.6 km) north of the town of Amesbury. The site is a scheduled monument.

References

  1. Kerton, Nigel (4 September 2009). "C4's Time Team dig in at Mildenhall". Gazette & Herald. Trowbridge. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
  2. May, Pete (11 July 2009). "My family values". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  3. "List of Fellows". Society of Antiquaries London. 2013. Archived from the original on 4 October 2010. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  4. "Phil Harding awarded honorary degree". Wessex Archaeology. 16 July 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  5. "The Guards Magazine". guardsmagazine.com. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  6. "Mysteries of Waterloo". www.thenakedscientists.com. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  7. "Waterloo Uncovered Needs You! | Waterloo Uncovered". 4 November 2020. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
  8. "Episode 3- Olduvai Handaxe". BBC. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  9. "Phil Harding". IMDb. 2013. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  10. "Deputy Lieutenant Commissions LIEUTENANCY OF WILTSHIRE". The London Gazette. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  11. "New deputy lieutenants include TV archaeologist and Wiltshire College chairman". The Salisbury Journal. 3 October 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  12. "Directory of Accredited Professionals" . Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  13. "President". The Nautical Archaeology Society. 15 October 2018. Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  14. "Dr Philip Harding". The Society of Antiquaries of London. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  15. "University looks forward to Graduation 2008". The University of Southampton. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  16. "Phil Harding awarded honorary degree". Wessex Archaeology. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  17. "GA Prizes and Medals". The Geologists' Association. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  18. Hilts, Carly (5 March 2013). "Time Team archaeologist Phil Harding wins Current Archaeology's prestigious Archaeologist of the Year award for 2013". Current Archaeology. Retrieved 25 June 2013.