Honorary Professor at BGU publishes memoir detailing life as archaeologist

A new memoir published by Dr Mick Jones entitled ‘Digging Lincoln’, documents his life working as an archaeologist, primarily within the city of Lincoln.

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As a retired archaeologist and current Honorary Associate Professor at BGU, Dr Jones has a prominent history working in the archaeological field.

The book traces his initiation into archaeology at the University of Manchester, and the 1972 establishment of a local organisation to undertake ‘rescue’ archaeology in advance of development, increases in funding, and changing legislation.

Remarkable discoveries were made, expanding our understanding of Lincoln’s origins and development from early prehistory through the important settlements of the Roman, Viking and Medieval periods to the county town and the industrial development of more recent centuries.

‘Digging Lincoln’ also describes the various challenges that were made to the survival of the archaeology team, as well as considerable achievements in terms of public presentation.

More recently, Dr Jones was Director of Lincoln’s Archaeology Unit, and subsequently became City Archaeologist until his retirement in 2012.

His connections to archaeological related courses at BGU trace back several years, having devised and coordinated the archaeology module as part of our previous Heritage Studies degree in 1995, for the following ten years.

Subsequently, Dr Jones was awarded an Honorary D.Litt of Leicester University, via BGU, in 2005.

Having previously held a position as a part-time tutor at the university, Dr Jones is now an Honorary Associate Professor in Archaeology at BGU.

Derwin Gregory, Programme Leader in Archaeology & Heritage and Military History at BGU, shares his congratulations: “From everyone at BGU, we would like to send our congratulations and well wishes to Dr Jones on the publication of his memoir.

“We are privileged to have an academic with such knowledge, experience and expertise, willing to share his time with our students and enrich their experience.

“With this in mind, Dr Jones naturally embodies our social purpose of supporting individuals to realise their ambitions and create positive change in their communities and beyond.”

He has previously been an honorary member of the archaeology departments at both Manchester and Nottingham Universities, and an External Examiner for postgraduate courses at Leicester and York Universities.

Over this long period, appreciation of Lincoln’s historic assets has undergone a transformation, becoming a key element of the city’s economy.

To find out more about Archaeology at BGU, click here.

Digging Lincoln: an archaeological memoir by Michael J Jones is published by Archaeopress (www.archaeopress.com).