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Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, (born 8 July 1941) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the
University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, director of the
Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey. He specialises in the
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
of early Medieval Europe. He has an international reputation for his excavations at
Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
, on behalf of the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
and the Society of Antiquaries and at the Pictish monastery at
Portmahomack Portmahomack ( gd, Port Mo Chalmaig; 'Haven of My .e. 'Saint'Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at t ...
Tarbat Tarbat (Gaelic , meaning 'a crossing or isthmus'Place-names of Ross and Cromarty, by W J Watson, publ. The Northern Counties Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., Inverness 1904; p.45) is a civil parish in Highland, Scotland, in the north-east corner ...
,
Easter Ross Easter Ross ( gd, Ros an Ear) is a loosely defined area in the east of Ross, Highland, Scotland. The name is used in the constituency name Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which is the name of both a British House of Commons constituenc ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
. He has undertaken archaeological research in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Algeria.


Early life

Carver was born on 8 July 1941 to John Hobart Carver and Jocelyn Louisa Grace Carver (née Tweedie). He was the grandson of
Oswald Carver Oswald Armitage Carver (2 February 1887 – 7 June 1915) was a British rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics. He died of injuries during the First World War. Carver was born at Marple, Cheshire, the son of William Oswald Carver and ...
. He was educated at
Ladycross School Ladycross was a Catholic preparatory school in Seaford, East Sussex. It was founded in 1891 in Briely Road, Bournemouth, and moved to a purpose-built school in Eastbourne Road, Seaford in 1909. More than 2,000 pupils attended it before its clo ...
, a
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
preparatory school in Seaford,
East Sussex East Sussex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England on the English Channel coast. It is bordered by Kent to the north and east, West Sussex to the west, and Surrey to the north-west. The largest settlement in East Su ...
, and then
Wellington College Wellington College may refer to: *Wellington College, Berkshire, an independent school in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England ** Wellington College International Shanghai ** Wellington College International Tianjin * Wellington College, Wellington, Ne ...
, an
independent school An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British Eng ...
in
Crowthorne Crowthorne is a large village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district of south-eastern Berkshire, England. It had a population of 6,711 at the 2001 census, which rose to 6,902 at the 2011 census. A 2020 estimate put it at 7,808. Cr ...
,
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
.


Military service

Having graduated from the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...
, Carver was commissioned into the
Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...
,
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
, as a
second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...
on 29 July 1961. He was promoted to
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
in January 1963, and to
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
in July 1967. In 1969, he was serving as
Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of human resources in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed forces as a non-commission ...
of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment. On 1 July 1972, he retired from the British Army in the rank of captain.


Academic career

Carver practised as a freelance archaeologist (1973-1986), setting up the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU), later called Birmingham Archaeology at the
University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...
to carry out archaeological contract work. He chairs Field Archaeology Specialists Ltd (FAS), now FAS Heritage, that was created in 1992. FAS Heritage is currently based in York and carries out archaeological research and heritage work in England and Scotland. Carver was the first secretary of the Institute of Field Archaeology, now
Institute for Archaeologists The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA) is a professional organisation for archaeologists working in the United Kingdom and overseas. It was founded in 1982, and at 21 July 2020 had 3,931 members overall, of whom 3,033 were accredited ...
. He has developed a number of procedures for archaeological investigation and analytical methods for writing up excavations, and has championed evaluation and project design as key elements in "value-led" archaeology. In 1986 he was appointed Professor of Archaeology at the University of York (Head of Department 1986-1996; Emeritus 2008-). At York he introduced courses on World Archaeology and Field Archaeology, conducted research investigations at
Sutton Hoo Sutton Hoo is the site of two early medieval cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near the English town of Woodbridge. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when a previously undisturbed ship burial containing a ...
and
Portmahomack Portmahomack ( gd, Port Mo Chalmaig; 'Haven of My .e. 'Saint'Colmóc') is a small fishing village in Easter Ross, Scotland. It is situated in the Tarbat Peninsula in the parish of Tarbat. Tarbat Ness Lighthouse is about from the village at t ...
, and researched Early Medieval Britain (5-11th century), publishing a comprehensive synthesis of his findings in 2019 as ''Formative Britain''. He has served on UK, British, Irish, Danish and European research councils. Since becoming emeritus he has been researching in early medieval Sicily with Alessandra Molinari (University of Rome Tor Vergata) and Girolamo Fiorentino (University of Lecce) Martin Carver was editor of the world archaeology journal ''Antiquity'' from 2002-2012, personally editing some 800 articles. He is a director of The Sutton Hoo Ship's Company, which aims to build a full-size and seaworthy replica of the Anglo-Saxon ship found in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo.


Broadcasting

From 1986, Carver presented four episodes of the
BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
documentary series ''
Chronicle (British TV programme) ''Chronicle'' is a British television programme that was shown monthly and then fortnightly on BBC Two from 18 June 1966 until its last broadcast on 29 May 1991. ''Chronicle'' focused on popular archaeology and related subjects, and was consid ...
'', which looked at his work at Sutton Hoo and also explained technological developments in archaeology. In the episode first broadcast 16 August 1989, Carver went aboard ''Edda'', a replica of the Viking Oseberg Ship, which promptly sank, and the incident became a favourite anecdote in his public lectures.


Honours

On 8 January 1981, Carver was elected Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...
(FSA). On
St Andrew's Day Saint Andrew's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Andrew or Andermas, is the feast day of Andrew the Apostle. It is celebrated on 30 November (according to Gregorian calendar) and on 13 December (according to Julian calendar). Saint Andrew is ...
2011, he was elected Honorary Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is the senior antiquarian body of Scotland, with its headquarters in the National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street, Edinburgh. The Society's aim is to promote the cultural heritage of Scotland. The usua ...
(Hon FSA Scot). On 23 July 2020, he was elected
Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...
(FBA), the United Kingdom's
national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humanit ...
for the humanities and social sciences.


Bibliography


Books

* '' Underneath English Towns'' (Batsford, 1987) * '' Arguments in Stone. Archaeological research and the European town in the First Millennium AD'' (Oxbow, 1993) *
Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?
' (BMP, 1998, 2002, 2005,2007,2009,2011,2014) * ''Sutton Hoo: A Seventh-Century Princely Burial Ground and Its Context]'' (British Museum Publications, 2005) * (ed) ''The Age of Sutton Hoo'' (Boydell Press, 1992, 1994) * ''Archaeological Value and Evaluation'' (SAP, Mantova, 2003) * (ed.)
The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300
' (ed.) (Boydell Press, 2003) * ''The Birth of a Borough. Archaeological studies of Anglo-Saxon Stafford'' (Boydell, 2010) * (ed.)''Signals of Belief. Anglo-Saxon Paganism revisited '' (Oxbow, 2010) * ''Portmahomack Monastery of the Picts'' (EUP, 2008, 2016) * ''Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness : changing ideologies in north-east Scotland, Sixth to Sixteenth Century AD'' by Martin Carver, Justin Garner-Lahire and Cecily Spall (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 2016) * ''Archaeological Investigation'' (Routledge, 2009) * ''Making Archaeology Happen: Design versus Dogma'' (Routledge, 2011) * (ed) ''The Archaeology of Medieval Europe Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries''(Aarhus University Press, 2011) * ''The Sutton Hoo Story. Encounters with Early England'' (Boydell 2017) *
Formative Britain. An Archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century
'(Routledge, 2019)


Critical studies and reviews of Carver's work

''Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness'': *


References


External links



* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100117064326/http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/Carver.htm Webpage at the University of Yorkbr>History of Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit/Birmingham ArchaeologyMartin Carver's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carver, Martin 1941 births Living people English archaeologists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Academics of the University of York Royal Tank Regiment officers Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Durham University Graduate Society alumni Sutton Hoo 20th-century British Army personnel