Matt

Alrighty dudes, back when I was kid I was really into Egypt, Rome and medieval Europe. I was fascinated with everything historical – movies, TV shows, documentaries, comic books. And the Canterbury Museum was our weekly destination. Then through high school it was all about medieval England, and my ultimate life’s goal was to do medieval archaeology. So, after a quick chat to the careers advisor in 7th form, who neglected to actually tell me about the nuances of getting an academic job and who didn’t inform me that doing an arts degree without also doing a STEM field discipline probably wasn’t a good idea, I was off to the University of Otago. Then, long story short, I met my future wife, settled in Rangiora, I needed work, an earthquake happened, and now here I am at Underground Overground Archaeology.

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To me archaeology is cool because it allows you to interact with history in a way that text books can’t. You can hold the actual items that the people you are trying to learn about used and discarded in their day to day lives. And it allows us to learn things about the past that weren’t recorded in the history books, and to confirm the things that were recorded. Without it, our entire history would be based on unconfirmed and potentially biased historical accounts, written by people removed from the events or with their own agendas. Archaeology allows the common people of history to speak for themselves.

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I’m a 6th generation Cantabrian, with my Christchurch ancestry going back at least to the 1860s. So while I’m not in Europe excavating medieval villages, I’m still very much enjoying being able to investigate and interact with the world that my great-great-grandparents lived in.