School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester

04/06/2026

🎉At Loddington, our students have been playing some tunes while hard at work. Today, we enjoyed David Bowie's greatest hits followed by some classic Abba...here's the Anglo-Saxon ditch crew throwing some shapes...

04/06/2026

🪏As our fieldschool at Loddington draws to a close, it's worth profiling the dedicated core team from Archaeological Services, University of Leicester (ULAS) and the SHAC who have organised and delivered a fantastic programme of archaeological training.🪏

🎉Co-directing the fieldschool are the marvellous Philippa Walton, Gavin Speed and Joe Peters. They have put in a tremendous amount of work to make sure the excavation runs smoothly and is an enjoyable experience for students and volunteers. A special shout-out to Joe who has continued to turn up filled with inspiring enthusiasm, despite being really unwell this week!

🏺Then we have our dream-team of ULAS staff who have offered top notch training and support to our students whatever the weather. Tom Clayton, Amber Furmage, Kristophe Michaels and Harriet Coulton have all helped students dig, record and interpret features across the site, as well as identifying ceramics, flint, bone and clay pipe. The fieldschool wouldn't be the same without them.

⚒️And finally, last but not least is Dani de Carle, our unflappable SHAC site technician. She has made sure we have all the right kit from mattocks to hi-vis to 200 litres of drinking water! On top of this, she's trained all the students in finds processing and we're well on our way to washing everything before we even come off site.

👏Thank you to all of you - you're brilliant 👏

03/06/2026

🪏We're mid-way through our second week at Loddington and have made lots of progress on site. We're finally getting to grips with the layout of our building complex and have found some definite floor surfaces under all that demolition. Lots of interesting finds continue to be recovered including more than sixty dress pins, as well as jettons and hooked tags.

👨‍🎓Today was particularly busy for the students as they were not only digging. They enjoyed a RTI workshop with Dr Janie Masseglia in the churchyard deciphering the almost illegible epitaph of an 18th century occupant of the village. The initial results look really promising and we will share with you all soon! 👩‍🎓

☂️In the morning, we had a visit from Chloe Cronogue, Senior Planning Archaeologist at Leicestershire County Council. She kindly talked to students about her role and career path. We also held our Open Day this afternoon which unfortunately coincided with some very wet weather. Even so, we had more than 80 visitors including Leicestershire Fieldworkers, Allerton Project staff and people who live in Loddington. The students had the opportunity to talk to these visitors about the features they have dug and what they've found.

📻This experience acted as a great rehearsal as towards the end of the day Ben Jackson from BBC Radio Leicester interviewed staff and students about their fieldwork experience for his podcast. We'll let you know when it's out!

🤗 Finally, thanks are due to SHAC staff Dr Jo Appleby and Prof. Neil Christie who helped out on site today, digging furiously and supporting students excellently.

03/06/2026

📣The Wednesday Seminar Team would like to invite everyone to the final seminar of the academic year this week Wednesday 3rd June titled Antiquity and the Invention of Whiteness: The Apollo Belvedere in Enlightenment Europe presented by Dr Hardeep Dhindsa from the University of Edinburgh.

💡Hardeep Dhindsa is a curator, art historian, and digital illustrator with a focus on the history and legacies of the British Empire. He is particularly fascinated by the complex histories of everyday objects. His PhD delved into Empire of the 18th century, exploring the overlooked links between the Grand Tour and imperial expansion, illuminating how Greco-Roman antiquity helped shape modern ideas of racial identities. He has recently begun exhibiting his digital illustrations as creative extensions of his research, being influenced by themes like taste, polychromy, and Eurocentrism. He has held research fellowships at King’s College London, the British School at Rome, and the University of Edinburgh. He also contributed to professional networks within the GLAM sector, supporting initiatives around inclusive collections, LGBTQIA+ advocacy, and knowledge exchange between universities and cultural institutions.

☕️A tea reception will be held in the Kathleen Kenyon foyer at 4.00pm (UK Time). The seminar will begin at 4:30pm (UK Time) in George Porter LT A.

02/06/2026

🌤️The weather gods smiled on us today. Despite the terrible forecast, we had very little rain in Loddington and were able to get on with our excavation.

🪏Students have been working hard to excavate slots through the huge ditches we have on site and it's now becoming clear that there there are multiple recuts containing handmade ?Saxon pottery as well as later medieval sherds.

🏘️ The team is also beginning to make sense of the building complex, with thresholds and floor surfaces finally being found. In one room, more than 20 dress pins have been found perhaps items which fell between long lost floorboards

🗺️ Students have also enjoyed a map reading workshop with Prof. Huw Barton, looking at historic mapping for Loddington and matching features with what they could see on the ground. Thank you, Huw!

01/06/2026

🪏We're back on site at Loddington following our weekend off and the students were keen to get digging!

🔍We're still clearing demolition layers within our building complex, but are struggling to identify floor surfaces. We're starting to wonder whether they were flagstones and have been robbed out. There have been some great finds today including several dress pins, buckles and even a shilling of Elizabeth I.

🕍 Alongside our excavation, students had the opportunity to learn about Loddington's church in a practical session with SHAC's Prof. Neil Christie. There was also a medieval pottery workshop with Archaeological Services, University of Leicester (ULAS) staff Kristophe Michaels. Thank you to both!

29/05/2026

🎉It's the end of Week 1 of the Loddington fieldschool and what a week it's been! Despite the scorching weather (and occasional downpour) our students have uncovered some really exciting archaeology aided by our fantastic team of SHAC and Archaeological Services, University of Leicester (ULAS) archaeologists.

🏺In one area, we have several ditches and postholes producing eleventh to thirteenth century pottery and even a possible early Anglo-Saxon sherd. In another, the remains of a substantial complex of stone and brick buildings is appearing including one with a large cellar. Worked stone recovered from demolition layers suggests this is not the stable-block or farm building we originally thought it might be, but a much more high status building!

👨‍🎓 Alongside all today's digging and recording, our students enjoyed a workshop delivered by Ben Donnelly-Symes from the Northamptonshire Archaeological Resource Centre exploring the world of archaeological archives. They had the opportunity to handle a range of objects including Anglo-Saxon brooches, Roman figurines and Iron Age knives and think about how they would record and store them appropriately. Thank you Ben!

🔍We also had a visit from Leicestershire's archaeological legend, Pete Liddle, who kindly spot- dated some of our pottery and marvelled at what we've found so far.

🤞Stay tuned for Week 2 where the weather will be kinder and the finds even more plentiful!

28/05/2026

📢Day 3 at the Loddington fieldschool and our students have made steady progress cleaning, excavating and recording features across the site. A few more medieval finds have been recovered including sherds of Stamford ware pottery and a dress pin, but dating evidence for some of our big ditches, gullies and postholes is yet to appear. We're all hoping it'll be there in spades in the bottom fills! 🤞

🦴In today's workshop, Archaeological Services, University of Leicester (ULAS) star animal bone specialist Will Johnson-Moss treated our students to an overview of medieval animal bone assemblages. They had the opportunity to handle a range of animal bone and think about what they can tell us about the site.

🎉A team of Leicestershire Fieldworkers were also out on site undertaking some geophysical survey to increase our understanding of the area near the church. They very kindly demonstrated the process to interested students who then had a go at using the equipment themselves. Another valuable skill acquired ✅

28/05/2026

🌞As we are heading into the Summer months and with that, another packed programme of events in our area as part of the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology (4th July - 2nd August).

🥳This year’s programme is as full and varied as ever, and details of all the events are now live on the Leicestershire Fieldworkers Festival page: https://leicsfieldworkers.org/festival-of-archaeology/

📣Please do share this widely, come along to some of the events and help support this great success story.

2025 PROGRAMME NOW LIVE! Saturday 5th July – Sunday 3rd August

27/05/2026

👩‍🎓Read more about SHAC student Molly Mather and her fascinating research using sensory approaches to reconstruct the smell of parts of Pompeii👩‍🎓

Romans used urine to clean and whiten their clothes - but how did they deal with the smell?

A Leicester Master’s student explored exactly that in award-winning research into Pompeii’s ancient laundries, where workers trampled cloth in vats of urine to remove stains.

Her research found that features like courtyards and wide doorways may have helped disperse odours - though customers appear to have benefited more than workers.

It’s a brilliant reminder that even the everyday details of ancient life can reveal bigger stories about society and inequality.

👉 https://le.ac.uk/news/2026/may/award-dissertation-pompeii-roman-fullonica