Hal Dalwood (Worcestershire County Council, UK)

The city of Worcester was one of the places where the professional practices and research goals of British urban archaeology were developed in the 1970s. Three generations of archaeologists have now undertaken urban excavations in the medieval city, contemporaneously with a number of substantial academic research projects conceived and completed within different disciplinary fields (including architectural history, historical geography, and early medieval history). The intellectual and organisational effort has been substantial and productive, and current knowledge and understanding of the archaeology of the medieval city can be characterised as extensive. This paper traces the outlines of the current landscapes of knowledge of medieval Worcester, and describes some achievements in overcoming both professional and disciplinary boundaries. The reasons for, and the implications of, the continued dominant role played by (largely untheorised) processual archaeology are analysed: it is argued that one consequence has been the entrenchment of traditional boundaries of urban archaeology, reflecting a common pattern in British medieval urban archaeology. The possibilities of challenges to, and subversions of, the current status quo are outlined.