Why I dig the past

WHEN it comes to having fun, there is nothing, insists John Walker, that beats looking down holes. It is, he says, obviously enjoying the pun, "life's deepest pleasure."

It's a good job he feels that way, because as the newly-appointed chief executive of the York Archaeological Trust - he takes over from the retiring Peter Addyman at the end of September - he will probably spend a good deal of his time down holes.

Or maybe not. He still loves going on digs, he says. "But over the years I've become more someone involved in the management of archaeology. I do still go out on digs, but one look at my body shape will tell you it's not very often."

Peter Addyman will, he admits, be a hard act to follow. He recognises the scale of Dr Addyman's achievement in setting up the York Archaeological Trust.

"It is difficult to even start to sum up what he has done and what he has achieved. In the end you can only feel humble as an archaeologist in the face of all that."

So trying to fill those shoes will be a tall order. But the 49-year-old never had any doubt he wanted the job. "It is like being offered the managership of Manchester United!"

An interesting analogy, given that he's working in Manchester at the moment. Moving to York won't be any hardship, however, he says. Simply being in the city is a joy. "Every step you take, it's 'ooh, ooh, look at that!'"

That's especially so because his wife Lynne already works here, at the British Council for Archaeology in Walmgate. "She's their historic buildings officer. She has a real passion for historic buildings!"

His credentials to take over the 'Manchester United' of archaeology jobs are impeccable. As head of the Field Archaeology Centre at Manchester University he runs one of the biggest training excavations in the country at Besthorpe, Nottinghamshire. More than 100 undergraduates are working there on a series of Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon digs.

He is also Secretary of the Standing Conference of Archaeological Unit Managers and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and has published a number of books on the archaeology of the 17th century.

As an archaeologist, his particular areas of interest are the Romans and the industrial period. It seems an odd combination.

"They are both periods when suddenly society takes a huge leap in wealth," he explains. "The question is, what do people do when they get more wealthy? One thing they do is waste money. The second thing is that societies get more complex."

That increasing complexity, he says, can be traced in the archaeological record. You can see it in medieval buildings. At first, a single room is used as living, sleeping and working space. Then, as society gets more wealthy, there is a different room for each. Eventually, the workplace will move to another building altogether.

But while greater wealth and complexity bring greater comfort, it is at a price, he says. The more complex a society grows, the less flexible it becomes. Because each part of the structure of society depends on each other part, even small problems can have big effects.

"A classic example is the A64. I've already noticed how people are saying how just a series of roadworks are having a profound effect - at least according to some people - on the trade of the city."

Ultimately, he says, a society can become so complex it collapses. Which may be what happened to the Roman Empire - with a little help from barbarian hordes.

It's still early days - he doesn't even begin his new job for four months - so he makes clear he won't be drawn on details of what his plans for the Trust are, even supposing he has any yet.

But naturally he has his own areas of interest. One thing he'd obviously like to do is begin filling in the gaps in York's history.

There are reasons why York is known as a Viking city, he agrees. "It has some of the most important Viking archaeology found in Europe."

So the emphasis on the Vikings will continue. But the Viking age was a comparatively short period. "We're talking about a city with thousands of years of history and there are still many strands waiting to be pulled out of the city's past. Richard III, the whole civil war thing, right up to the present day, the railways and everything else."

He is also keen on is giving ordinary people the chance to get involved in archaeology - possibly by taking part in digs.

He believes the archaeological trust has a major educational role to play - for professional and amateur archaeologists alike. "Taking part in a dig is a little like taking part in an expedition," he says. "It's not just about learning how to be an archaeologist, but also about learning lots of other skills."

It probably goes without saying he also wants to continue building on what has been achieved in the past 30 years and confirm York as one of the archaeological centres of excellence in the UK, if not the world. There are, he points out, some outstanding archaeologists working with the Trust. Combine their talents with those of archaeologists working with other organisations with bases in the city - York University, English Heritage, the Council for British Archaeology, City of York Council - and you have a pool of archaeological excellence second to none.

"We have a marvellous resource here and I would like to think that, when people think archaeology, they think York," he says.

And finally there is his interest in flooding.

The digs he is supervising in Nottinghamshire lay emphasis on the effects of flooding on past societies. It's an issue very relevant to York today, he recognises.

Historically, he says, the River Trent in Nottinghamshire was one of the most 'flood happy' rivers in the country. That makes study of how past societies living along its banks coped with flooding especially relevant in today's climate of worries over global warming.

"The issue today is, how long can modern man cope with certain amounts of flooding before giving up constantly trying to rebuild?

"Archaeologically, what you find is that depending on how complicated a society is, they can put up with a certain amount of flooding and they recover. But if you increase that beyond a certain threshold, they have to abandon an area.

"Some societies like the Romans seemed to adjust very well to increased rates of flooding - until it reached a critical point. Then what we find in the Trent Valley is that a lot of villages moved back from the flood plains. If we believe in global warming that's very relevant today."

Not surprisingly, he'd love to find out how York coped with its own floods down the ages. "It would be very interesting to delve into past flood events in York and see how the shape of the city has changed and whether that was dictated by those events," he says.

It would indeed.

Updated: 12:12 Friday, May 17, 2002