Bradford archaeologists win national award

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, led by Bradford, together with the Stonehenge Riverside Project and the National Trust, received Current Archaeology’s Research Project of the Year Award, in recognition of the pioneering work carried out at Durrington Walls, a ‘superhenge’ located close to the Stonehenge site.

The two research programmes worked with the National Trust to carry out on-site investigations into what exactly lay beneath the gigantic earthworks, revealing a massive and previously unknown palisaded enclosure beneath the banks of the famous Neolithic henge.

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes project, which started in 2010, brought together expertise from the Universities of Bradford, Birmingham, Nottingham and St Andrews, as well as from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, in Austria.

Professor Vince Gaffney, Anniversary Chair in Landscape Archaeology at Bradford, said: “At a time when the future of Stonehenge and its landscape is a matter of public debate, this award is a great achievement for Bradford and testament to the extremely rewarding and productive partnership between all the institutions involved.”

Accepting the award, Nick Snashall of the National Trust said:

“Durrington Walls is a fantastic place to work, really special, and the opportunity to work with these people is extraordinary. To see two such projects [the Stonehenge Riverside Project and the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project] come together with so much knowledge and scientific expertise is a real privilege.”