archaeo

Richard discovered archaeology while still at school. He volunteered in his free time to dig on a Roman site at Ashton, Northants, UK - https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1021454

After leaving school, Richard's first job was as a digger at Haverfordwest Priory, South Wales, UK - https://cadw.gov.wales/visit/places-to-visit/haverfordwest-priory

He went from here to a project run by the University of Sheffield archaeology department in the Auvergne, France. This was largely finds work, piecing together ceramics and cataloguing items from excavations.

From here, he found a job with the Department Regional des Antiquites Historiques d'Auvergne at Chapelle de Pessat near to Riom, Auvergne, France. This was a rescue excavation removing skeletons and other material from a medieval cemetery ahead of a road-building project.

Richard took some time out from the French site to dig at Leiden in the Netherlands at a site run by Amsterdam's Institute of Pre and Proto History. The team was digging test trenches to identify the location of a Roman fort on the Roomburg Polder.

Richard's interest in archaeology led him to study Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic with Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

He worked on several sites during his time as a student. In the UK, he worked on the Redfearn Site in York. He also travelled to Ecuador to work on a project in Salango, Manabi run by Presley Norton. The finds from the Ecuadorean excavations are on display in a museum that was built in Salango as part of the project.

Richard found himself working more with computers as part of the recording of the Salango excavations and this steered him towards postgraduate studies in IT when he returned to the UK.