A prestigious archaeological award for Rescue Project of the Year 2017 has gone to Cambridge Archaeological Unit and the University of Cambridge for their work at Must Farm. Excavation of a well-preserved Bronze Age settlement, destroyed by fire thousands of years ago, at a brick quarry near Peterborough has revealed a series of prehistoric roundhouses and quantities of well-preserved pottery, tools, textiles, and other finds that paint a picture of daily life in Bronze Age Britain in greater detail than ever before.
Mark Knight, the project’s director from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, also won this year’s Archaeologist of the Year award.
The prize forms part of the celebrated Current Archaeology Awards, which are given each year by Current Archaeology, the UK’s leading archaeology magazine, and voted for by the general public. TV personality and archaeologist Julian Richards (of Meet the Ancestors fame) announced the winners of the 2017 awards on 24 February, during the Current Archaeology Live! annual conference, held at the University of London’s Senate House. This year saw a record-breaking attendance for the event, with over 400 people hearing the latest research and discoveries from archaeology’s leading experts.
Accepting the award, Mark Knight of the Cambridge Archaeology Unit said: ‘This site was the product of good archaeology, of a great group working together. It is a project that was started long ago, we must remember Francis Pryor’s work at Flag Fen. It shows what we can learn if we immerse ourselves in a landscape.’
Notes for Editors: Current Archaeology Awards
• Voted for by subscribers and members of the public, the awards recognise the outstanding contributions to our understanding of the past made by people, projects, and publications featured in the pages of Current Archaeology.
• The 2017 Current Archaeology Award for Rescue Project of the Year is sponsored by Export and General Insurance Services Ltd.
• The project was featured in issues 312 and 319 of Current Archaeology.
• Current Archaeology was launched in 1967 and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
• This year’s conference saw a record attendance, with over 400 people hearing the latest research and discoveries from archaeology’s leading experts.
• Award categories include: Archaeologist of the Year, Book of the Year, Research Project of the Year, Rescue Project of the Year, and Archaeological Innovation of the Last 50 Years.
• For more information about CA Live!, visit www.archaeologylive.co.uk
