Current Archaeology (CA) magazine presents annual archaeology awards. On Monday (30th November), the monthly issue of the magazine (no 310, for January 2016) was delivered to the various members of the Trust team who are subscribers to CA. The Trust is delighted to announce that we have been nominated for two Awards! Our director Philip has been nominated for the award of ‘Archaeologist of the Year’ in a shortlist of three nominees: this is the main category of the Awards. The Trust itself has been nominated in the category of ‘Best Rescue Dig’ for our excavation at the Williams & Griffin store in the High Street in Colchester in 2014. This was where we uncovered the ‘Fenwick treasure’, the remarkable hoard of Roman coins and jewellery which was hidden during the Boudican revolt of AD 61. Trust archaeologist Adam Wightman was our site supervisor and our team of excavators undertook the excavation at the Williams & Griffin store.
The magazine is on sale in shops from today (3rd December), when the nominees are being officially announced: see pages 43-44 of the magazine and the CA web-site for the four categories of Award nominations for 2016. Anyone can vote for the nominees of their choice, by post or online, and the results will be announced on the 26th February 2016 at the Current Archaeology Awards ceremony at the Senate House of the University of London, which Philip and Adam will both be attending.
The CA web-site says: ‘… It’s a magazine devoted to British archaeology; indeed with over 17,000 subscribers, it is by far the biggest magazine dedicated to British archaeology. It’s in full colour, it is focussed mainly on excavations and it covers all periods. It comes out monthly and … we aim to bridge the gap between the amateur and the professional …’.
* Philip’s Award nomination reads: ‘… Philip Crummy is Director and Principal Archaeologist at Colchester Archaeological Trust, a position he has held since 1971. In that time he has dedicated his career to putting Roman Colchester (Camulodunum) on the map, through excavating its remains and working tirelessly to improve public understanding of the city’s past. He has published widely in academic journals, monographs, and in the Colchester Archaeological Reports, as well as in the Trust’s magazine, The Colchester Archaeologist, which he has edited for two decades, and in the pages of CA. Under Philip’s leadership, the Trust’s work has seen Colchester’s archaeology make international news on multiple occasions, from his campaign to buy land containing the remains of the city’s circus, or Roman chariot racing track, to the discovery of the stunning ‘Fenwick Treasure’, a hoard of Roman jewellery dating from the time of Colchester’s destruction at the hands of Boudica’s Iceni army …’.
* The Award nomination for the Trust’s excavation at the Williams & Griffin store is headed The Fenwick Treasure: Colchester during the Boudiccan War of Independence (this is Philip’s title), and it reads: ‘… The discovery of a spectacular hoard of Roman jewellery and fragments of human bone amongst the charred debris of 1st century houses paints a poignant picture of a dark episode in Colchester’s history, when Boudicca’s Iceni army laid waste to the city…’. We successfully completed the excavation within the Williams & Griffin store on a site of complex, multi-period urban archaeology, much of which was significant, while working with several other teams of sub-contractors on the site, on behalf of our client Fenwick.
The Trust is a registered charity and a limited company. We employ an archaeological field unit and we have been working in the construction industry for 50 years. The Trust works principally in Colchester and Essex, but we also undertake projects in Suffolk and even Hertfordshire. We are a CIfA-registered archaeological organisation: for more information on our professional services, please go to www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?page_id=280 . The Trust is now based at the Colchester Roman circus centre, which Philip set up in 2012, and which includes part of the site of the circus, a visitor centre and cafe. Visit our Roman circus web-site at www.romancircus.co.uk/ and read our blog at www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/ – and come and visit the Roman circus!
Well done to the Trust team, and good luck!
Visit the CA web-site at www.archaeology.co.uk/ . See all the Award nominations and cast your vote online at www.archaeology.co.uk/vote . An article from the magazine, about the Fenwick treasure, was posted on the CA web-site on the 1st October 2015: read the article at www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/the-fenwick-treasure.htm .
The images show a ‘vote for Philip’ logo and a ‘vote for the Fenwick Treasure’ (the Colchester Archaeological Trust!) logo – provided by CA, and the front cover of the current issue of the magazine. The featured image is the CA Awards 2016 logo.
Vote now! (!)
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