A well-worn joke goes that archaeologists find their careers in ruins. This is sometimes literally true: at least since the 1970s, and in cities on all inhabited continents, crises sparked by deindustrialisation, decay, and dereliction have been an assured portent of large-scale excavations. It is not just that when business goes down, archaeology goes in. In many cases, archaeology is brought in with the express belief that the trowels can offer a hope of regeneration and reinvigoration.
One example of the interplay between archaeology and industry can be found at Wallsend in Britain. This part of urban Tyneside is named for the eastern terminus of Hadrian’s Wall, and was once home to the Roman fort of Segedunum. In more recent centuries, it has played host to coal mining and shipbuilding, with the cranes of the Wallsend Shipyard once dominating the former fort site. The Roman archaeology itself seemed to have been a casualty of the jobs industry brought, as Segedunum disappeared beneath terraced houses. When they were demolished in the 1970s, rescue excavations demonstrated that the Roman fort remained better preserved than anticipated. As a result, large-scale excavations ensued and the fort was spared further development. Though unemployment was rampant, the idea that heritage might ameliorate an ailing economy did not dock at Tyneside at the time, however. It was largely an unplanned side effect of this digging that some unemployed local people were engaged on the project via a job-creation programme overseen by the Manpower Services Commission.
Attitudes had changed by the 1990s, when the fort was transformed into a major heritage attraction, which opened in 2000. As part of this, a former shipyard canteen became an attractive on-site museum, augmented with a spectacular new viewing platform shaped like a ship’s bridge, in commemoration of the town’s modern heritage. This time, aims included urban regeneration and drawing in tourists, at a point when the shipyard was facing difficulties. Although there were some hopes that the industry would rise once more, vessel construction at the yard ceased in 2006.
