We live in an area full of archaeological sites and remains.
We have many pre-historic sites: Neolithic long barrows like Hetty Pegler’s Tump, Bronze Age round barrows, and Iron Age forts, banks and dykes as at Uley Bury and Minchinhampton Common. We have an amazing Roman heritage too: from the palace at Woodchester, as well as the many simpler Roman-era houses and settlements that litter our landscape, such as Whitminster and Ebley.
It’s easy to forget as well the wonderful industrial heritage we have in Stroud. The mills, canals, market houses and ancient weavers cottages are all remnants of former ways of living and working.
That’s one reason why I was pleased to be elected Chair of the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on Archaeology last week. It’s really important to understand and protect our heritage, especially in a time of increasing development and house-building. We have to get the balance right between building homes and looking after our past. We have to retain all the protections of our archaeological heritage.
But there is another reason why I think that it’s important to champion archaeology.
Archaeology is political.
It’s great to know about the big things – palaces, temples and so on– but we need to be mindful that these were the preserve of the elites. Historic societies, whose monuments we marvel at and celebrate, were often, if not largely, based on slavery and exploitation. When we take inspiration from classical culture, we are also, if inadvertently, taking inspiration from the values and behaviours of bygone eras.
When we have relatively little information about a period in history, we understandably tend to think about it in simple terms. Romans are, well, Romans: in togas and tunics, good at fighting and central heating. But they were also an incredibly complex and diverse society, with, it is thought, at least one black emperor. Archaeology helps remind us about the complexity of lives lived, and the heterogeneity of the cultures we come from.
The mills that dominate our valleys are wonders of engineering, but we should remember that they routinely employ children as young as 8 or 9 years old, doing dangerous work in unsafe conditions.
It’s also worth remembering the enormous economic benefits that archaeology and heritage generate. And the joy of digging up something that no-one else has seen for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years. Most finds are small – pottery shards, tiles and flints. Everyday objects used by everyone in their daily lives, so different, and so similar to our own.
Our heritage is important – but that makes it contested. That’s why we need to understand and preserve it, so we can understand its complexity and challenges, and not gloss over them.
