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Blog Keiller cuttings

Pinning down the Keiller Cuttings – Part 2 (Keiller makes a point)

Last week Mark shared Part 1 of this series – read it here first. Next step is to recreate Keiller’s excavation grid using the step-by-step measurements and drawings in his 1934-5 Plotting Book. I could have taken a digital approach from the outset, but to limber up, and better understand how the grid of planned […]

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Coolest finds of the month

Stuart Piggott working on some pottery in a feature
Stuart Piggott working on some pottery in a feature, from Photo Album B, West Kennet Avenue excavations 1934, accession number 78510301, Alexander Keiller Museum.

This month we had the first volunteers in the archive, here are some of the cool things they found in the photo albums photographed so far. The photos above show workers setting up a pulley system to help lift one of the stones into place in the West Kennet Avenue excavations. This clearly shows that […]

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Blog Keiller cuttings

Pinning Down the Keiller Cuttings – Part 1

Photograph of a page from Keiller's 1934-5 West Kennet Avenue Plotting Book, accession number 78510469, Alexander Keiller Museum. The plotting book is made with graph paper, and on this page are plan drawings of cuttings, or 'trenches', by Keiller, showing measurements.
Photograph of a page from Keiller's 1934-5 West Kennet Avenue Plotting Book, accession number 78510469, Alexander Keiller Museum. The plotting book is made with graph paper, and on this page are plan drawings of cuttings, or 'trenches', by Keiller, showing measurements.

One of the most vexing challenges in relation to the Keiller excavation archive relates to the precise locations of the trenches his team excavated – what he termed ‘cuttings’. One of the goals of the project is to create a series of georeferenced digital trench plans for each of the years of excavation. As to […]

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Blog Press coverage

Avebury Papers on BBC Radio York

Dr Colleen Morgan was interviewed by Ellie Brennan on BBC Radio York on Friday 23 January. Listen to the clip below. Transcript Ellie Brennan: Now, from dissertations and homework, to a very serious and amazing project going on to do with a world-famous stone circle. It’s going to be brought to life online for the […]

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Photographic Equipment Has Arrived

Yesterday our equipment to create a digital photo archive arrived. Lensart has supplied us with the Book2net photographic studio. The setup has a 71-megapixel camera which allows us to take high-resolution images of the documents within our archive. The installation was completed by the lovely Martin French at Lensart. With the installation complete, Martin took […]

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Archive scoping

A flat lay of various items from the Alexander Keiller Museum archive, Avebury.
A flat lay of various items from the Alexander Keiller Museum archive, Avebury.

What comes to mind when you think of a ‘digitisation project’? For me, it’s a vision of a beautiful photography studio, with soft raking light, a camera poised above, the gentle ‘click’ of the foot pedal, and a hard-drive whirring away keeping digital files secure. However, the reality is that digitisation begins far from any […]

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The Avebury Papers

5,000 years of history and heritage will be brought to life and made fully accessible for the first time, as we digitise, explore, and share the unique archive of the Avebury World Heritage site.