DIGGING SEDGEFORD

Until the late 1960s or even the early 1970s archaeology was its own worst enemy, presenting itself as straight-laced and tight-lipped. Then, slowly, came important changes, including a slow-burning desire to publish and publicise on a much wider scale; persuading most metal-detectorists to work on the scholarly side of the fence, rather than up against it; adjusting to the concept of well-watched TV programmes popularising the subject; making greater use of enthusiastic amateurs; and, of course, employing that great leveller, the internet, allowing the global distribution of news and finds.
Digging Sedgeford, the book, represents yet another part of this process of evolution.
The Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project began its first excavation in the village in 1996, and every summer since then a team of volunteers has camped for six weeks in a field and spent their time exploring the history of the settlement from the Stone Age to World War One. In the beginning, it was primitive: no money, no staff, smelly loos, tools stored in an old trailer, and lunch a cheese roll sitting on a log. It was also argumentative. But out of the turmoil came what the authors describe as 'democratic archaeology,' which embraces the golden rule that the person who uncovers something interesting should also complete the excavation and help to record it.
This remarkable examination of the parish of Sedgeford still continues, and Digging Sedgeford is an illustrated summary of the first twelve years of exploration, 1996 to 2007. It is packed with unexpected finds and revelations, and questions waiting to be answered, for a village which at first glance had seemed so ordinary has turned out to be quite extraordinary. Of course, this might have been suspected. After all, the location of the Ken Hill 'gold field,' the Icknield Way and the Peddars Way, are all close by, adding their own intrigues to the story.
Indeed, the first twelve years of 'democratic' searching has embraced everything from a Middle Anglo-Saxon cemetery and settlement, and recorded sites from the Iron Age, Roman, Late Anglo-Saxon, Medieval and Modern periods.
Remember news stories of the gold torc terminal which matched exactly a damaged torc found in 1965? The grave of the badly disabled Medieval lady who was nevertheless well-nourished and had lived to a good age? The gold coins stuffed inside a cow bone? And the body of a citizen of the empire discovered inside a Roman grain drying oven? All from an 'ordinary' Norfolk village.
There is even a Boudiccan 'hypothesis,' a question relating to the site of a Late Iron Age farmstead which had been deserted for a time before a Roman landowning elite became established in the area. The suggested dates of the abandonment seem to chime with the aftermath of the Boudiccan revolt when, it is thought, farms went untended and harvests ungathered. But no-one knows for certain, and it is only hypothesis.
The book is like this, however, constantly throwing up ideas and problems in glorious array. Fascinating.
(Digging Sedgeford: A Peoples' Archaeology, SHARP, Poppyland Publications, 2014)