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Martin Oswald Hugh Carver, FSA, Hon FSA Scot, (born 8 July 1941) is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at the
University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, director of the Sutton Hoo Research Project and a leading exponent of new methods in excavation and survey. He specialises in the
archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...
of early Medieval Europe. He has an international reputation for his excavations at Sutton Hoo, on behalf of the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
and the Society of Antiquaries and at the Pictish monastery at Portmahomack Tarbat, Easter Ross,
Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. He has undertaken archaeological research in England, Scotland, France, Italy and Algeria.


Early life

Carver was born on 8 July 1941 to John Hobart Carver and Jocelyn Louisa Grace Carver (née Tweedie). He was the grandson of Oswald Carver. He was educated at Ladycross School, a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
preparatory school in Seaford,
East Sussex East Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Kent to the north-east, West Sussex to the west, Surrey to the north-west, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement ...
, and then Wellington College, a
private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...
in
Crowthorne Crowthorne is a village, and civil parish, in the Bracknell Forest district of southeastern Berkshire, England. It had a population of 7,806 at the United Kingdom Census 2021, 2021 census. Crowthorne is the location of Wellington College, Be ...
,
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
.


Military service

Having graduated from the
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...
, Carver was commissioned into the
Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...
,
British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
, as a second lieutenant on 29 July 1961. He was promoted to
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in January 1963, and to
captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...
in July 1967. In 1969, he was serving as
Adjutant Adjutant is a military appointment given to an Officer (armed forces), officer who assists the commanding officer with unit administration, mostly the management of “human resources” in an army unit. The term is used in French-speaking armed ...
of the 4th Royal Tank Regiment. On 1 July 1972, he retired from the British Army in the rank of captain.


Academic career

Carver practised as a freelance archaeologist (1973–1986), setting up the Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit (BUFAU), later called Birmingham Archaeology at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
to carry out archaeological contract work. He chairs Field Archaeology Specialists Ltd (FAS), now FAS Heritage, that was created in 1992. FAS Heritage is currently based in York and carries out archaeological research and heritage work in England and Scotland. Carver was the first secretary of the Institute of Field Archaeology, now Institute for Archaeologists. He has developed a number of procedures for archaeological investigation and analytical methods for writing up excavations, and has championed evaluation and project design as key elements in "value-led" archaeology. In 1986 he was appointed Professor of Archaeology at the University of York (Head of Department 1986–1996; Emeritus 2008–). At York he introduced courses on World Archaeology and Field Archaeology, conducted research investigations at Sutton Hoo and Portmahomack, and researched Early Medieval Britain (5-11th century), publishing a comprehensive synthesis of his findings in 2019 as ''Formative Britain''. He has served on UK, British, Irish, Danish and European research councils. Since becoming emeritus he has been researching in early medieval Sicily with Alessandra Molinari (University of Rome Tor Vergata) and Girolamo Fiorentino (University of Lecce) Martin Carver was editor of the world archaeology journal ''Antiquity'' from 2002 to 2012, personally editing some 800 articles. He is a director of The Sutton Hoo Ship's Company, which aims to build a full-size and seaworthy replica of the Anglo-Saxon ship found in Mound 1 at Sutton Hoo.


Broadcasting

From 1986, Carver presented four episodes of the BBC 2 documentary series '' Chronicle (British TV programme)'', which looked at his work at Sutton Hoo and also explained technological developments in archaeology. In the episode first broadcast 16 August 1989, Carver went aboard ''Edda'', a replica of the Viking Oseberg Ship, which promptly sank, and the incident became a favourite anecdote in his public lectures.


Honours

On 8 January 1981, Carver was elected Fellow of the
Society of Antiquaries of London The Society of Antiquaries of London (SAL) is a learned society of historians and archaeologists in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1707, received its royal charter in 1751 and is a Charitable organization, registered charity. It is based ...
(FSA). On
St Andrew's Day Saint Andrew's Day, also called the Feast of Saint Andrew or Andermas, is the feast day of Andrew the Apostle. It is celebrated on 30 November, during Scotland's Winter Festival. Saint Andrew is the disciple in the New Testament who introduc ...
2011, he was elected Honorary Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Hon FSA Scot). On 23 July 2020, he was elected
Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...
(FBA), the United Kingdom's
national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, and serves as a public policy advisors, research ...
for the humanities and social sciences.


Bibliography


Books

* '' Underneath English Towns'' (Batsford, 1987) * '' Arguments in Stone. Archaeological research and the European town in the First Millennium AD'' (Oxbow, 1993) *
Sutton Hoo: Burial Ground of Kings?
' (BMP, 1998, 2002, 2005,2007,2009,2011,2014) * ''Sutton Hoo: A Seventh-Century Princely Burial Ground and Its Context]'' (British Museum Publications, 2005) * (ed) ''The Age of Sutton Hoo'' (Boydell Press, 1992, 1994) * ''Archaeological Value and Evaluation'' (SAP, Mantova, 2003) * (ed.)
The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD 300-1300
' (ed.) (Boydell Press, 2003) * ''The Birth of a Borough. Archaeological studies of Anglo-Saxon Stafford'' (Boydell, 2010) * (ed.)''Signals of Belief. Anglo-Saxon Paganism revisited '' (Oxbow, 2010) * ''Portmahomack Monastery of the Picts'' (EUP, 2008, 2016) * ''Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness : changing ideologies in north-east Scotland, Sixth to Sixteenth Century AD'' by Martin Carver, Justin Garner-Lahire and Cecily Spall (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 2016) * ''Archaeological Investigation'' (Routledge, 2009) * ''Making Archaeology Happen: Design versus Dogma'' (Routledge, 2011) * (ed) ''The Archaeology of Medieval Europe Twelfth to Sixteenth Centuries''(Aarhus University Press, 2011) * ''The Sutton Hoo Story. Encounters with Early England'' (Boydell 2017) *
Formative Britain. An Archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century
'(Routledge, 2019)


Critical studies and reviews of Carver's work

''Portmahomack on Tarbat Ness'': *


References


External links



* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20100117064326/http://www.york.ac.uk/depts/arch/staff/Carver.htm Webpage at the University of Yorkbr>History of Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit/Birmingham ArchaeologyMartin Carver's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carver, Martin 1941 births Living people English archaeologists Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Archaeologists of the University of York Royal Tank Regiment officers Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Alumni of Durham University Graduate Society Sutton Hoo 20th-century British Army personnel Antiquity (journal) editors