Michael Shanks

Archaeologist at Stanford

My archaeology began in the Roman borders of the north of England and Scotland, excavating Hadrian’s Wall and then the great medieval city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I have delved deeply into the early Greek cities in the Mediterranean, into early farming societies and their monuments in Wessex and Sweden. Archaeology is beginning to produce some fascinating new stories of early agriculture, the first cities and empires, and how much the modern world has in common with antiquity.

My archaeology is a bridging field. For me, archaeologists do not ”discover the past”; they work on what remains. Archaeology is about our relationships with what is left of the past.

We are all archaeologists now …

More of this manifesto in the archaeological imagination – [Link]

Archaeology – design history. Pragmatogony – the geneaology of things. I have always adored the company of artists – my wife Helen works in ceramics (see some of her wonderful work here [Link - Helen Shanks]. I have had the privilege of working with some amazing talents – notably Brith Gof, Lynn Hershman and the members of the Presence Project.

Above all, perhaps, I am currently enjoying a renewed childhood with my children Molly and Ben, who forever remind me of how to be fascinated by the most mundane of things.

More … MS – main site