Hello all and welcome to Issue 57 of Post Hole in what is an unprecedented and unusual time to be alive on planet Earth. I am the new Editor in Chief of the journal, having taken over from Freya Bates who ran it last year and who has guided me so helpfully in our hand over. The first term is over and although it has been delivered differently, it is certainly still an effective way to learn about all things archaeology. This year has set me thinking about the future of archaeology, and what archaeologists would discover about us from the material culture that we are leaving behind during this pandemic, especially with the escalation of banana bread making and millions of face masks that we discard daily. The future is looking bright in our wonderful city of York, having already had amazing excavations at Jorvic and Hungate, we can now get really excited about a two-year dig on Rougier Street in York. York Archaeological Trust will be carrying out the excavation and they will be looking for keen volunteers which would be an amazing experience. The idea behind it is to excavate and uncover the Roman past of this part of York and create Eboracum along the same lines as the Jorvic visitors centre. Further details about this can be found at https://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/newsblog/roman-quarter-plans which includes how to go about volunteering. It is especially exciting for me as it will look at the 19th century which is my main area of interest. This era is often overlooked during digs, but the ground-breaking excavations at Hungate and especially at Fewston http://www.washburnvalley.org/churchyard-secrets have brought about real change. Fewston was interesting as it included our very own archaeologists Malin Holst and Michelle Alexander in an excavation which revealed details of the lives and deaths of young mill workers from the early 19th century. So, the future looks very promising in York indeed.
More archaeology brilliance brings me to the submissions for this issue which include:-
- Irmine Roshem who has written a very interesting article about sustainability and the environment, and how human cultures shape land management.
- Chris Hayward shows interesting evidence for the Teotihuacán, Tikal, and the Entrada: An Alternative Hypothesis for the ‘Arrival of the Strangers’.
- Eleanor Williams, one of our editors has written an interesting piece on Dr Bridget Allchin who was an expert in lithics and South-Asian archaeology.
- Alex Harvey discusses interesting possibilities and asks, Did the Vikings Ever Reach Mexico?
- Nicholas Parker looks at identity by examining Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon funerary contexts.
- Jack Wilkin has written an interesting piece which question whether the Formation of the Black Sea be Responsible for Near-Eastern Flood-Myths: What does the Geology Say?
I hope that you all enjoy reading them as much as I did. I am now looking for submissions for Issue 58, so if you have written something that you would like to share then please send to submissions@theposthole.org
I would be really interested in seeing articles focusing on the Vikings or on conflict archaeology for a theme focused issue. Articles should be a maximum of 3000 words.
All that is left for me to say is to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and hope that you can all spend it with the people you love.
Merry Christmas
Carol Leyland
