Archaeology at the University of Sheffield 5 December 2012 · As we all know, absolute dating techniques in archaeology often come with a sizable plus/minus cushion - such is the case with our dating of the foundation of the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at Sheffield - 1976 +/- 1 year. The relative chronology is clear: Robert Hopper retired and Keith Branigan was appointed as Professor of Archaeology but could not take up his position until the following year. During the intervening year, Derek Mosely was acting Head - but it seems that there was some disagreement about what he was Head of: an independent Archaeology department or a group of Archaeology staff within the Department of Ancient History. But everyone agrees that once Keith took up his post in August, the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology most definitely existed! The question is, when did these events take place? Our very own Colin Merrony provides a very helpful terminus ante quem, since he started his undergraduate degree in Archaeology in 1977 and he swears up and down that the department existed when he arrived. Indeed, the Centenary history of the University (published 2005) has the department starting in 1977, but a departmental booklet published in 1979 - to celebrate the department's move to its own building on Clarkehouse Road - says that Keith took up his post in 1976. So in a neat bit of source criticism, we're assuming that the 1979 source is likely to be right - and we have external corroboration from another former staff member, Professor John Drinkwater, who remembers that he married his wife Gillian the year that Hopper retired and that certainly was in 1975. So, the balance of evidence suggests the chronology of events was as follows: 1975: Robert Hopper retires and Keith Branigan is appointed as Professor of Archaeology 1976: Keith takes up his post in August and the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology is formally created 1977: Colin Merrony and John Moreland join the department as BA students, and Sheffield archaeology is never the same again... An anonymous author on the Sheffield Department of Archaeology Facebook page about 2012. Glad to add a name if authorship is claimed.
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