Sadie Watson
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drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Sadie Watson
@drsadiewatson.bsky.social
1.2K followers 830 following 290 posts
Archaeologist, social value, fieldwork, developer-funded, Roman London. SE London and Dorset. she/her. 🏺🏛️👷‍♀️My views. Cyclist. Cats and daughters.
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drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Proper treat yesterday listening to Dr Ana Vale of Uni of Porto speaking on her incredible research into social lives in Late Prehistory. Thank you to @bbkhistorical.bsky.social and @lesleymcf.bsky.social for the invitation, the Carena Institute for Sustainable Archaeologies is up and running 🌟
Two women at the start of a lecture, one sitting and the other standing to introduce her. The first slide says: Networks of Sociability in Portuguese Late Prehistory.
November 6, 2025 at 10:59 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
#TinyJoys my dad Mick (left) and his best mate since school & best man
(also Mick), having a Fine Day Out at the Womens Rugby World Cup Final yesterday #WholesomeBoomerContent
Photo of two bearded white guys in their 70s doing a Boomer selfie, at the Women’s Rugby World Cup Final 2025
September 28, 2025 at 10:26 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Bella sends her best to Cyril for a peaceful #Caturday
Tabby cat stretched out on my bed having a glorious snooze
September 6, 2025 at 9:53 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
#TinyJoys my sister in The Times (screenshot, nobody in my family gives a penny to M*rd*ch 😆)

Abbey Farm Flowers, a haven of loveliness in #Dorset if you’re ever nearby - they have to build up their beds as can’t dig on the Abbotsbury Scheduled Ancient Monument complex. 💚🌷🌼
Photo of woman picking sustainably grown flowers on a small holding in Abbotsbury, Dorset
July 9, 2025 at 1:47 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
#TinyJoys London school pupils having PE lessons in public parks on sunny mornings - Shoreditch Park here but it happens everywhere, they were playing cricket and rounders, and seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Photo of school pupils playing cricket and rounders in an inner London park, green grass in foreground, a tower block under construction in the distance. The pupils are too far away to see their faces but I heard them shouting and laughing.
May 22, 2025 at 8:50 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Fitting end to a trip to look at the Tower of London setting, history and the Thames with @bbkhistorical.bsky.social Archaeological Landscapes students, led by me and @drclaireharris.bsky.social
Photo shows Tower Bridge lifting to allow a sail boat with tall masts through. Blue sky, a lovely May evening.
May 15, 2025 at 7:58 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
A map of (post-Beecham) train lines in Dorset. The West Country is a land of cars 🙁
May 14, 2025 at 9:54 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Mine arrived yesterday, along with its sibling by @kayth.bsky.social 🥳
Two new books arrived for me, one is 50 archaeological finds from childhood by Kayt Hawkins, the other is 50 LGBTQ+ archaeological finds by Ben Paites.
May 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Great to see the Austin Friars getting the upper hand in the end #Pope #MedievalLondon

Map is updated Lobel 1270/1300 from the fab @historictownstrust.bsky.social
Map of the northeastern corner of the City of London in around 1300, showing Austin Friars under construction. The new Pope is an Augustinian Friar.
May 8, 2025 at 6:40 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
If you’re at #CIfA2025 this week pop by the Prospect Archaeologists stand and get a copy of our Sexual Safety Charter. Get your CEO to sign it, and hold them accountable.
Poster with Prospect Archaeologist logo and heading: Sexual Safety Charter. There are 8 aims detailed below, ways in which employers can protect staff from sexual harassment at work.
April 30, 2025 at 8:40 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Post a warning ⚠️
Sign with two red circles both crossed diagonally by a red line: No Digging at top, enclosing a person using a shovel, No Metal Detectors below, enclosing a metal detector. This sign is in Abbotsbury, a village in Dorset. UK where there is a lot of buried archaeology.
March 23, 2025 at 9:02 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Annual reminder that some places provide bike racks on buses so everyone can travel on the same vehicle.
Photo of bus with bike rack on the front
March 17, 2025 at 11:02 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
It really wasn’t that odd honestly, here are my mum and her mum with their donkey.
Black and white photograph of a donkey walking away from us down a country path, a little girl sits on its wide back. A woman wearing a white blouse and black skirt leads the donkey from its left.
March 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
The corrections are the best bit of the paper, I saved this from 2018 for cheering purposes.
Text is from Guardian newspaper corrections: ‘A review of Peggy Seeger's memoir quotes her description of her early impressions of Ewan MacColl and how they fell in love, saying he had a "hairy, fat, naked belly poking out, and was clad in ill-fitting trousers, suspenders, no shirt, a ragged jacket and a filthy lid of stovepipe hat aslant like a garbage can". The context we omitted was that MacColl was appearing in a production of The Threepenny Opera (First Time Ever, 30 December, page 5, Review).’
February 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
I reckon they’ve got room for a staircase!

(This is marvellous Meg, on site on Thames waterfront 2015)
Photo shows a metal staircase going down into an archaeological trench with metal shoring behind against the trench edge. A woman archaeologist wearing a red hard hat carries a plank down the stairs on her shoulder, she is smiling.
February 15, 2025 at 5:18 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
For #FaunaFriday with a Valentine’s Day angle, evidence of a close human-animal relationship. On the animal’s terms of course, ‘pet’ is a relative term with a 🐈‍⬛
Photo of a tabby cat with its head on my knee, its eyes are open but snoozy.
February 14, 2025 at 1:32 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
UK law has changed, putting the onus onto employers to proactively prevent sexual harassment at work. Sadly it’s still a major issue.

Prospect Archaeologists Branch (UK trade union) have launched a campaign and are providing advice and support, info and materials here: linktr.ee/prospectarchs
Poster from Prospect Union Archaeologists Branch with a trowel sticking out of the earth and yellow writing saying Get Sexual Harassment out of my Site. It’s a pun, archaeologists work on sites and we’re fed up with being sexually harassed at work. Four pie charts with results of question ‘have you suffered from everyday/minor sex based psychological or physical violence whilst at work? Women 83%, Men 56%, outside gender binary 90%, Transgender 100%. Four flags showing statistics: if you reported the harassment, were you satisfied with the outcome? Outcomes were as follows: Action not taken 15%, Completely disregarded 45%, No change 31%, Ridiculed 9%.
February 12, 2025 at 2:23 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
When @rakshadigs.bsky.social asks you to write for British Archaeology you do not refuse!

In with a cast of stellar colleagues, my article asks ‘What is archaeology good for?’ Not a Pollyanna piece, more of a look at wider benefits, current challenges, and how to advocate for our discipline.
Front cover of British Archaeology magazine. Photo shows a pile of silver coins from a hoard, dating from the mid 11th century AD. Contents page of British Archaeology magazine, a list of articles including one on Romani Archaeology, one on the Chew Valley coin hoard, and one by me on the various benefits offered by archaeology. The first page of article in British Archaeology magazine: What is Archaeology good for? Two photos, one of people attending a conference into Well-being and Heritage, the other shows the Youth Advisory Board of the CBA.
February 7, 2025 at 4:27 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
An excuse to share my favourite #Mithras photo- Audrey Williams and her peerless ‘digging while smoking’ technique. Excavating the Head of Serapis with volunteers in 1954. Audrey ran the site while Professor Grimes was elsewhere. #RomanSiteSaturday

Report: www.lamas.org.uk/images/docum...
Black and white photo of excavation of marble sculptures from the Temple of Mithras, London 1954. Audrey Williams is supervising with a cigarette in her mouth, wearing a wool cap and looking every inch the absolute boss (which she was).
November 30, 2024 at 11:18 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
And Prospect Heritage report showed that heritage (with archaeology as a contributor) was a bigger contributor in 2019 than some industries who have loud voices:

library.prospect.org.uk/download/202...
Graph from Prospect Union showing Gross Value Added contribution in billion of GB pounds in 2019. Motor vehicles manufacture is largest at £16bn, heritage is at over £14bn, manufacture of pharmaceuticals is lower at below £14bn and agriculture, forestry and fishing is at £13bn.
November 23, 2024 at 12:12 PM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
Thanks to @theduncanmackay.bsky.social we have #BoudicaFriday and I’m also here for it, having trowelled the fire debris on #London sites over the years.

Here’s one for #stratigraphy fans, a land use diagram from Newgate St showing the fire’s complete destruction of buildings in its path.
A land use diagram, used by archaeologists to illustrate spatial and chronological information on a simplified matrix. This is from Newgate Street, City of London, highlighting the Boudican Fire layer of AD60, or 61! The buildings have been completely destroyed. There is a short period of external activity before more buildings are constructed.
November 22, 2024 at 9:27 AM
drsadiewatson.bsky.social
For #epigraphyTuesday, here’s the earliest known reference to London (65/70-80 CE), from one of the waxed writing tablets excavated in 2013. 🏺

To Mogontius in #London, it’s incomplete but addresses were short and he probably received it!

Mogontiacum was pre-Roman Mainz (in modern Germany). 1
Small but beautiful strip of silver fir used as writing tablet address label. Addressed to Londinio Mogontio or To Mogontius in London, in cursive Latin script.
November 19, 2024 at 12:23 PM