diary

Vikings in Thetford of the Vikings in developing pre- two major new displays will focus on Conquest society was summarised in Boudicca and the Iceni (with some of

Norfolk Archaeology &Environment, the late Sue Margeson's book The the Snettisham gold torcs on long-term as part of Norfolk County Council, is the Vikings in Norfolk and is now supple- loan from the British Museum) and lead English partner in a European mented with a display at the Ancient Norwich Castle Keep.This great building project entitled North Sea Viking

Legacy. This project is seeking to enhance awareness of the range of

House Museum in Thetford. The exhibi-

tion illustrates how archaeologists examine evidence, provides opportuni-

ties for children of all ages to handle

Viking attractions in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Shetland as well material and reach archaeological as in England. In Norfolk, it is assisting development of heritage trails in conclusions for themselves, and contains objects of everyday life,

Norwich and Thetford, exploring the warfare, commerce and industry. . continental influences on the 130 or so is probably the most overlooked of the early Norman keeps, mainly because it was refaced in the 1830s and had a Victorian floor inserted in 1890. The interior, however, retains much original work and, as a result of the development, the ground floor of the Keep has been converted from storage and is now accessible. The public will be able to go down a spiral staircase from the round-towered churches in the county and helping to fund an exhibition on the Vikings in Thetford. Understanding of the Danish impact on Norfolk has increased dramatically in recent years, mainly because of the large number of artefacts which are now reported to the county's Identification & Recording Service. This new awareness of the role

Boudicca and the

Castle Keep principal floor level to the ground floor and examine the remains of the piers which supported the great hall. The museum displays will highlight the construction of the Keep, 'the finest secular building of its generation', and

Norwich Castle Museum is currently closed for an £11million development project utilising funding from the will also put the castle into its urban

Heritage Lottery Fund. The museum will re-open in the spring of 2001 when the contex.t.

diary

John Musty

John Musty, who contributed his inim-

itable Science Diary to the time, and Porton Down was near

Salisbury, sofor some time he carried out

Gilbert and Sullivan's which they eventually rose to the giddy heights of a Nissan hut in the married quarters at Porton.

In the 1950s archaeology beckoned.

He had long been fieldwalking, but he

Current Archaeology since 1986 died on the

8th September aged 77. He had been suffering from Parkinson's disease.

nightmare journey

'crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle',

every day, both ways. Porton Down proved now began digging with Piggott and

Atkinson at Stonehenge. Eventually he began to do his own excavations as he recounts in his farewell dairy in CA 165.

He also went on to get an MA from

I had not really realised until I came to be his 'university': he studied chem-

Bristol University for his study of to write his obituary for The Times just istry at Southampton University on Day medieval pottery kilns based on his how humble a background he came Release, and eventually qualified as an from. His father was a postman at Associate of the Royal Institute of 1966 he saw an advertisement for the excavations at Laverstock. Eventually in

Minety in Wiltshire, but from his very Chemistry. This was the equivalent of a early days, John always had his head in degree and in many ways a better Head of the Ancient Monuments

Laboratory.

He applied and was a book. But it was a household where book learning was not always appreciated, so it was fortunate that John won grounding than a degree, but he never actually had a degree in science.

In 1946 he made the best decision of successful. At the Laboratory he was a huge success, playing the civil servant/politician with supreme skill,

a scholarship to Marlborough Grammar School, which he left at the age of 17 to join the Chemical Defence Experimental his life when he married Vera, a very bringing together the scattered laborahappy marriage that was to last 53 tories and then when civil service years. Her father said they could not get numbers were restricted, placing out-

EstablishmentatPortonDown.Themarrieduntiltheyhadahouses,ohe~ourcingcontract~withvaricu~univ~rsifamily was living near Marlborough at went out and bought a caravan from ties, contracts which in many cases

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