Friday, October 14, 2011

Richard Hall obituary

6:10 AM | Posted by Free Game Zone | | Edit Post

archaeologist leading the Viking Age with a key role in the excavation in New York

Richard Hall, who died of cancer at age 62, was one of the leading archaeologists of the Viking Age. In a career spent almost entirely in the city of York, who not only transformed the understanding of pre-Norman urban development, but has ensured that the technical knowledge and extensive archaeological combined with a touch of increase awareness and understanding.

Only one room dedicated archaeologist, sharpness and ability to lead a team for example, could make the biggest challenge of his career, the excavation of the main site at 16-22 Coppergate in York, between 1975 and 1981. His work there, using methodologies of open space within the cofferdam excavation shoring archaeological record, said detailed log of the depth and waterlogged deposits from Roman times.

The results were dramatic era of the Vikings, especially the remains of wooden buildings housing located in the street flee towards the river Foss, alongside a remarkable wealth of finds within them. In total, some 230 000 pieces of pottery were found during the excavations, as well as five tons of animal bones and "small finds" more than 15,000, many of them exotic imports Baltic amber or scholarship tissue outside the Middle East.

excavation and recording of such complexity of the material was only the first step. Classification of data, monitoring of its analysis, the production of synthesis and especially the publication of information was also critical. Hall has done all these issues with determination, unity, and attention to detail complete. The excavation was carried out with access to both the public as possible, with platforms in situ, exhibits, tours and lectures to all who are part of the project. Hall summarized the results of the search in a best-seller, The Viking Dig (1984), and also provide academic supervision Jorvik Viking Centre, which opened its doors in the Coppergate development in 1984 and immediately became one of top 10 tourist attractions in the UK. Academic publication followed by a series of reports.

Work

Coppergate
Hall was instrumental in a number of ways. He highlighted the valuable contribution of Scandinavian settlers in the development of urban life in England, but also improves the understanding of the scope of business contacts (and very poorly documented) of medieval Europe, but uses a series of innovative techniques, paleoenvironmental research, in particular, then in its infancy, it promotes awareness of archeology, the exciting to the general public, and has formed partnerships that allowed the emotion becomes present through reference Jorvik Centre. For Hall, personally helped build Coppergate on its interest in the Viking Age, not only in Britain, but beyond, Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and the United States.
Hall was born in Ilford, Essex, but moved from one child to Northern Ireland, where his father worked in the flax industry. He was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University of Belfast, where he prepared a study of undergraduate was the Vikings in Ireland. Followed by a Ph.D. from the University of Southampton in the Anglo-Scandinavian Danelaw, under the supervision of Peter Addyman, who soon after left the university to become director of the New York Archaeological Trust. Hall, after the excavations in Dublin, Derby and Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire, followed Addyman York in 1974 as supervisor of the excavations. He worked for the Foundation for the rest of his life, becoming deputy director and director of archeology.

his role with the confidence that it meant that I could not limit their attention to the Anglo-Scandinavian period. In fact, it is likely that oversaw more than 1000 different archaeological projects and was directly responsible for several major excavations, such as Roman sites of Blake Street and Coney. He also worked outside of York, particularly in Ripon, where he recorded the crypt of the seventh century in Saxony in 1974 and became president of the fabric advisory committee and then the cathedral consultant archaeologist. Here he directed the excavations which have enabled him to reconstruct the topography of the Anglo-Saxon monastery. Hall of growing experience led him to work on the Commission fabric and cathedrals as consultant archaeologist from York Minster.

his stature within the profession meant that it was increasingly in demand from other documents. Elected to the Society of Antiquaries in 1981, Hall has its board of directors in 1980 and 1990. He was president of the Institute of Field Archaeologists (now the Institute of Archaeologists) from 1987 to 1989, during his formative years. He was also president of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, president of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society and a trustee and secretary of the Council of British Archaeology. His committee's work was not confined to Britain. In recent years, he served on the board Kaupang excavation project in Norway and as a consultant for the service of archaeological excavations in the old Swedish State Viking town of Birka. He was also in great demand as a guest speaker on cruise ships, the Canadian Arctic in the Middle East.

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