Interview from the Society's archives

Reflecting the growing interest in the social history of archaeology, Dr Pamela Jane Smith, of the University of Cambridge McDonald Institute, has undertaken a number of face-to-face interviews with archaeologists whose work over the last sixty years has moved the discipline forward.

The Society of Antiquaries is very pleased that Dr Smith has agreed to provide archive copies of those interviews. Dr Smith is pleased to acknowledge funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research towards the cost of tapes, tape recorder and travel expenses, and the Society of Antiquaries has recently given Dr Smith a grant to enable her to by new tape recording equipment of the same standard as that used by the BBC so that she may continue her valuable work.

In order to make these interviews accessible, the Society of Antiquaries will feature interviews from the archive in the form of digital MP3 files. The interviews can be listened to online or downloaded and listened to on a computer or MP3 player, such as an iPod.

Our first interview of the month features the late John Hurst, FSA, talking about his childhood interest in archaeology, his Cambridge education, his first excavations and his growing interest in deserted medieval villages at a time when historians were denying that they even existed.

Be warned, however, that the digital files are very large and are only suitable for downloading if you have a broadband connection. For those who lack broadband, we have supplied a written transcript of the interview.

The written transcript can be downloaded from here: Word file (75 KB).

The MP3 files can be downloaded here: Part I (11 MB) and Part II (4 MB).