Rescue Project of the Year 2019

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Sponsor of the 2019 Rescue Project of the Year award.
The award for Rescue Project of the Year 2019 was accepted by MOLA Headland Infrastructure for their work along the A14.
The winners of the Rescue Project of the Year 2019 collect their award at the Current Archaeology Awards
Members of the MOLA Headland Infrastructure team collect their award for Rescue Project of the Year 2019 at the Current Archaeology Awards. (Photo: Adam Stanford/Aerial-Cam)

The prestigious archaeological award for Rescue Project of the Year 2019 has gone to MOLA Headland Infrastructure for their work along the A14 – one of the largest and most complex archaeological projects ever undertaken in the UK.

Major road-improvement works on the A14 afforded the opportunity to investigate an entire landscape over six millennia. The finds spanned the Neolithic to medieval periods, and offered a unique glimpse into the lives of the people who once called this region home.

Accepting the award, Russel Coleman of MOLA Headland Infrastructure said:

“Thank you to all the readers of CA on behalf of the nearly 600 people who worked on this project. It was a fantastic team effort, with a fantastic client, curator, and consultant.”

Rescue archaeology is carried out in areas threatened by human or natural agencies. Below are all the nominees in this category:


A shot at conservation: using the latest technology to save the Mary Rose’s cannonballs

(Eleanor Schofield, Mary Rose Trust – CA 337)

Over 1,200 iron cannonballs were recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose, but many were slowly crumbling. So that these important artefacts would not be lost forever, a revolutionary new conservation technique has been developed.

Read the full article here


Andover’s outcast dead: exploring an Anglo-Norman execution cemetery

(Cotswold Archaeology – CA 338)

During construction on the outskirts of Andover, an enigmatic cemetery was discovered. The jumbled graves whose (mostly young, male) occupants were buried in unusual positions, many with signs of decapitation or mutilation, are thought to be the remains of an Anglo Norman execution cemetery.

Read the full article here


A landscape revealed: exploring 6,000 years of Cambridgeshire’s past along the A14

(MOLA Headland Infrastructure – CA 339)

Major road-improvement works on the A14 afforded the opportunity to investigate an entire landscape over six millennia. The finds spanned the Neolithic to medieval periods, and offered a unique glimpse into the lives of the people who once called this region home.

 Read the full article here


Sherford communities old and new: exploring millennia of settlement in Devon

(Wessex Archaeology – CA 342)

The development of a new town in Devon, just east of Plymouth, offered the prospect of exploring a wide multiperiod archaeological landscape, revealing the secrets of the people who had lived in this area centuries before.

 Read the full article here


Sleeping by the riverside: Trumpington’s Anglo-Saxon bed burial

(Cambridge Archaeological Unit – CA 343)

An excavation on the edge of Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, uncovered a cluster of intriguing Anglo-Saxon graves, including the rare remains of a young woman lying on a wooden bed, accompanied by lavish grave goods, hinting at the potential importance of the settlement found nearby.

 Read the full article here


The Hessians of Barton Farm: uncovering when a German army defended Britain

(Pre-Construct Archaeology/Operation Nightingale  CA 345)

An excavation outside Winchester revealed the remains of a mid-18th-century camp, used by thousands of German soldiers who were stationed in Hampshire to help guard against the threat of French invasion during the Seven Years War.

Read the full article here


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