Technical skills at the UCL Institute of Archaeology celebrated at Showcase

Technicians at ASE

All archaeologists at Archaeology South-East have technical skills, from our field team to finds specialists to archivists to project managers. Our roles as you can imagine are incredibly varied throughout the company, representing a wealth of archaeological skills and experience. In addition we are actively involved in academic research and many colleagues contribute to UCL teaching.

Our exhibit at the UCL Technical showcase largely revolved around our excavations of the Red Lion Playhouse, the earliest purpose-built playhouse in Britain. Showcase attendees, including Provost Michael Spence, had the opportunity to see some artefacts from the playhouse excavations and were offered the chance to ‘visit’ the site through Virtual Reality. We also showed off our evolving reconstruction of the playhouse and talked about how the excavation site and the discoveries will be referenced in the landscaping and outside spaces of the blocks of flats to be built there.

Stephen White, lead archaeologist on the Red Lion playhouse, gave a presentation on essential archaeological skills necessary to excavate and interpret this highly significant archaeological site. You can watch his Red Lion Playhouse talk online! He said, "It was a lovely experience to be invited to give a talk to our technical colleagues about the work we do at ASE, and share a small insight into the variety of skills that are required to undertake complex archaeological analysis!"

Hannah Faux, illustrator at ASE, brought her digital 3D artist’s impression of the Red Lion playhouse and talked about the process of reconstruction. She said, "It was excellent to be working with such a great team, engaging and sharing ideas with all the other technical departments, and receiving so much interest and enthusiasm"

Gai Jorayev, Research Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, offered to whisk you away to archaeological sites and historic buildings through the magic of Virtual Reality. You can look for yourself on ASE’s Sketchfab page! Gai said, "I enjoyed showcasing our work to UCL colleagues, but more importantly, I really enjoying seeing what other departments are doing with similar technologies. It was a fantastic event to calibrate our approaches and techniques, and to discuss the future with UCL colleagues. From my personal interests’ point of view, I was particularly impressed with exhibition of Mullard Space Science Laboratory and I’m planning to learn about their work properly in coming months"

Emily Johnson, zooarchaeologist (animal bone specialist) at ASE, was helping facilitate the Augmented and Virtual Reality parts of the exhibit and was happy to talk about archaeological animals with anyone who would listen! She said, "It was great to meet so many interesting and interested people at the UCL Technical Showcase! I had some incredible conversations throughout the day and loved hearing everyone’s insightful questions and observations about archaeology. A highlight stand for me was the Institute of Sustainable Heritage’s exhibit on recreating historic smells – I could imagine this technology creating a really immersive public engagement experience"

ASE Director and pottery specialist Louise Rayner brought along some 4000-year-old pottery and her wealth of experience in development-led archaeology. Louise said, "It was great to be at the heart of UCL surrounded by so many amazing technical colleagues. The opportunity to discover the mind-blowing diversity of skills, roles and activities undertaken by technical staff was a highlight and I loved making new contacts to support our project work. But of course the real treat for me, was to see staff from the Institute of Making throwing clay pots!"

Technicians at the IoA

Technical staff colleagues at the UCL Institute of Archaeology (IoA) run labs, manage equipment, lead excavations, undertake experiments and lab work, to name just some of their roles! Their exhibit showcased some of the skills needed and the equipment used to facilitate this work.

Antonio Reis, from the IoA photographic laboratory, was demonstrating multispectral sensors and software that complement teaching and academic research. He said, "What a fantastic time we had at the UCL Technical Staff Showcase day! It was an amazing platform for our team at the IoA Photographic Laboratory to showcase our innovative multispectral sensors and software. Visitors got a glimpse of the various Multispectral Imaging applications for teaching and research in the heritage sector, including conservation, museums, and archaeology. It was an absolute pleasure meeting other talented staff from UCL and witnessing their inspiring work"

Mike Charlton, manager of the archaeomaterials laboratories, talked about remote access to scientific instruments during lock-down and the opportunities it holds for future research. He said, "The technical showcase was an amazing achievement for technical staff across UCL. Archaeology was well-represented and really demonstrated the breadth of our capabilities from excavation of large structures to the scanning electron microscopy of a potsherd. It was wonderful to observe and participate in conversations between people from so many different departments and explore so many shared interests. A personal highlight for me was talking satellite engineers about materials selection...a topic as important to ancient technologists as it is to today’s.

Technical Futures

Today is the 6th anniversary of the Technician Commitment! As a signatory UCL is committed to greater visibility, recognition, sustainability and career development for our technicians, and all technical staff in higher education and research. Find out more about the Technician Commitment in this video, or see how things are changing for technicians since UCL became a signatory on the UCL website.

The Technical Showcase is part of this commitment, and we're already planning for next year! Thanks for everyone who stopped by our exhibits! Don’t forget you can follow ASE and the IoA on social media to see our skills in practice.

Archaeology South-East social media accounts | Institute of Archaeology social media accounts