And that was 2016!!

Happy New Year for 2017, but where did 2016 go?

When I posted my salutation a year ago with the optimism of another year of archaeology ahead, it never crossed my  mind that plans both short and long term can be upscuttled in a moment.

For me 2016 was a strange year, in a sense the events made it a perfect year for removing archaeology from its cosy  compartmentalisation of life, to understanding it for what it really is, nothing more than millions of individual lives and experiences, all equally unique, all equally important, and all equally beginning and ending at the same place.

2016 was eventful for me personally   for the passing of friends and relatives, the  pleasure of a son’s wedding, the sheer hard graft of helping to turn a nondescript house into a home for my son and his new wife, and finally the excitement just after the New Year  of a grandson’s arrival a month early.

So archaeology has had to take a back seat for a while, that’s okay, it isn’t going anywhere.