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Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, FBA (born 8 July 1941) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, England, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey.
- Why Did You Become An Archaeologist?
- Who Are Your Archaeological Heroes?
- What Would Be Your Dream Site to Dig, and Why?
- What Is Your Greatest-Ever Archaeology moment?
- If You Could Travel Back in Time, What Date Would You Go to?
- What’s Next For Archaeology?
- If You Had A Superpower, What Would It be?
My first great loves were literature and poetry. I had no interest in archaeology until I was about 26 years old, on a military posting in Arabia, and came across a site called Naqab al Haja. I was in the army for 15 years, during which time I read voraciously and eventually worked my way back through time to the epics of the Dark Ages. I finally d...
V Gordon Childe and Stuart Piggott are the two that come immediately to mind, because they wrote well. It matters much more to me that people make sense and inspire, than that they just do things. Both Piggott and Childe race along, feeding you their narrative, making you feel part of the adventure. But heroes do not have to be well known figures. ...
My dream site is Squillace, in southern Italy. Cassiodorus built a monastery there which he called the Vivarium, developed at the site of his wealthy 5th century villa. Many of the great Roman works of scholarship and literature were preserved there, but all we have is basic documentary descriptions of it. I am especially intrigued by the rock-cut ...
Well, it has to be the very first time one finds something, which for me was a small Roman coin at Sparsholt Roman villa in Hampshire, on my first day as a digger. My most important ‘eureka’ moment was finding preserved wattle fences embedded in sand under an old theatre basement at Durham — 10th century, as it happens; something historically preci...
I would go to the early 7th century when the largest Sutton Hoo ship was buried: I would like to have been there to see how they did it. But more than that — for me this was a time for free-thinkers; there were Romans, Britons, Picts, Scots, Angles, Franks, Danes all arguing about the best way to live and experimenting politically — led by poets. F...
I believe that archaeology will survive the recession quite well. We’ve become part of the national fabric — who can imagine a Britain without the archaeological profession? Of course, now in the middle of the slump is not really the time for big statements about the future; but I believe the bad times should bring us together. Commercial archaeolo...
Flight, because it would make commuting so much easier. And I could take my own aerial photographs without having to pay anybody else for them. The past is famously more vivid, viewed from above.
Professor Martin Carver was an army officer for 15 years, a free-lance archaeologist for 13 years and has been an academic for 20 years. His specialities are Archaeological Practice and Protohistoric Europe.
Jun 22, 2024 · An archaeologist who worked at the historical and internationally renowned Sutton Hoo site has been awarded a medal for his work. Prof Martin Carver, director of the Sutton Hoo research project...
- Alice Cunningham
I am Professor emeritus at the University of York and Chairman of the commercial archaeology company FAS-Heritage Ltd. Contact me at email martin.carver [at] york.ac.uk. I live in Ellerton, East Yorkshire with Madeleine Hummler an archaeologist, translator (French, German, Italian) and editor.
First educated as a scientist, he turned to archaeology, studying Anglo-Saxon art, archaeology, history and literature with Professor Rosemary Cramp at Durham. This led to a study of Anglo-Saxon illustrations of artefacts, focusing on BL Harley ms 603, later published in Archaeologia 108 (1986).
Jul 28, 2020 · Martin Carver, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Archaeology, has been named as one of 86 new British Academy fellows in recognition of “outstanding contribution to subjects within the humanities and social sciences”.
