Art+Archaeology

Contributors: Helen Wickstead

Dr Helen Wickstead has been a practicing field archaeologist for over ten years. Her interests include the archaeology of Later Prehistoric Europe, art and visualisation, economic sociology, and, the archaeology of land tenure. She currently co-directs several research projects including the Damerham Cultural Landscapes Project, Trewortha Metallurgical Residues Survey, and, the Shovel Down Archaeological Project. She is coordinator of Artists in Archaeology.

Helen’s monograph ‘Theorising Tenure’ will be published by Archaeopress in 2008. Her recent articles concern the practice of drawing on archaeological sites and the significance of the field in English national identity (see publications list). She has given papers and organized sessions at national and international conferences including the Theoretical Archaeological Group Conference, European Association of Archaeologists Conference and World Archaeological Congress. She successfully completed her doctoral thesis at University College London in 2007. She is currently editing a volume that explores the interface between artistic and archaeological practice.

The Shovel Down and Stonehenge Projects

Contemporary artists are increasingly applying processes to their work which have previously been the preserve of archaeologists: - excavating trenches; recording absences and traces; producing (and reversing) temporal sequences; classifying and exhibiting artefacts. Meanwhile, archaeologists are increasingly fascinated by contemporary art, using art to reflect on their own practice and to help them think about human engagements with material things.

Artists in Archaeology took as its first project the exploration of drawing on archaeological sites, using the technical drawings produced by archaeologists as they excavate. This was the remit of the Shovel Down Project (2003-2005). Artist Varvara Shavrova took up a residency on excavations at Shovel Down, Dartmoor. She conducted a series of drawing experiments involving the archaeological team and visitors to the site and produced artwork based on her research into processes of archaeological drawing.

The Stonehenge project (2007) continued the drawing theme. Artists involved in the first season’s work developed drawing in different ways using archaeological processes. However, as the artists worked in 2007, exciting new ideas began to emerge. Artists played with the construction of pasts and futures prompting new directions that will be extended in the 2008 season.

Our fieldwork in 2008 reflects on temporality; investigating the way drawing orders time, asking how awareness of the deep time of landscapes alters landscape art, and journeying between visions of prehistory and utopias of the future.

Single Authored Publications

Wickstead, Helen (2008) ‘Theorising Tenure: Land Division and Identity in Later Prehistoric Dartmoor, South-West Britain’ British Archaeological Reports, Archaeopress: Oxford (in press).

Wickstead, Helen (2008) ‘Drawing Archaeology’ In L. Duff, and P. Sawdon, (eds) (2008) ‘Drawing: The Purpose’ Intellect: Bristol
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Wickstead, Helen (2008) ‘Ancient Fields and Englishness’. In A. Chadwick (ed.) 2008 Recent Approaches to the Archaeology of Land Allotment. British Archaeological Reports, Archaeopress: Oxford (in press).

Wickstead, Helen (2007) Translocating Tenure: Land Division and Identity in Later Prehistoric Dartmoor, South-West Britain’ Unpublished PhD. Thesis. University College London
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Wickstead, Helen (1996) Prehistory as Polemic . In Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 7, 9-12

Multiple Authored Publications

Fyfe, R., Brück,J., Johnston, R., Lewis,H., Roland T., and Wickstead,H. (2008) Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science (in press).

Pollard, J., Robinson, D., and Wickstead, H (2007) South of Woodhenge: An interim report on the 2007 excavations
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Bruck, J., Johnston,R., and Wickstead,H (2003) Excavations of Bronze Age field systems, Shovel Down, Dartmoor, 2003. Past 45, 10-12
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