2001 saw the loss of one of Archæology's most remarkable, respected and well-loved characters, Dr. Peter Reynolds. As Europe's foremost protagonist of experimental archæology, Peter's scientific interests were prolific, wide ranging and varied, but it is for his work as founder and principal researcher of Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire, England that he is perhaps best known.
In today's four presentations, you will hear how Peter envisioned a wider scope for the Farm, enlarging it from the study of ancient building methods, crop rotation, animal husbandry and the like to encompass a detailed and continuous observatory, exploring the effects of environmental and climatic change, not only on archæological remains, but also on the means and methods of their interpretation.
With this aim in view, a new and prolonged programme of field research was initiated at the end of the last millennium and which, in the years to come, will enable archæological geophysicists to examine with confidence the effects of items outside of our own control. We shall be able to see precisely what effect rainy days, freezing ground, sun-baked clay, silting and erosion have on commonly met geophysical data, and will be able to repeat the analysis month-on-month, season-on-season and year-on-year across a range of pre-specified features.
At Butser, Peter's tangible legacy is all around us, his philosophy incorporated into all our new work, his vision and foresight ensuring that those who are following have plenty to keep them - and science - occupied for many decades to come; it is clear that we are all Peter's beneficiaries since each of us is able to share in and benefit from his vast scientific legacy.