Special Collection

The trajectory of medieval and post-medieval archaeology in Britain is contrasted with historical archaeology in the United States and Australia, and the influence of the pre-modern history of the Hungate neighborhood on its development since 1800 is explored.

Makes the case - through the exploration of the influence of neoliberal politics on archaeologies of slum-life - that less emphasis should be placed upon the perceived failings of individuals and more effort should be placed on recovering the complex social networks which sustained community-life within Hungate and other so-called urban slums.

Looks at the recent archaeological evidence for industrial housing in Manchester, United Kingdom, arguing that a fragmented land-holding pattern developed in a number of city-centre areas during the second half of the eighteenth century. This land-holding pattern gave rise to overcrowding as a result of the domestic redevelopment of back yard plots and the conversion of older housing to tenements. This redevelopment was at its most acute during the peak decades of population growth in the city, 1800'“40, and this led to the conditions of poverty, disease, and overcrowding recorded in contemporary accounts from the mid-nineteenth century.

Discusses the built environment of Hungate. PP-B

Examines how the archaeology of historic Ireland has been interpreted. Two approaches to the history and archaeology of Ireland are identified; 'the timeless past', and a nationalist approach which saw an unchanging and pure culture preserved in the west of the country. The continuing impact of these frameworks upon the interpretation of rural settlement in the period 1200'“1700 is examined. It is argued that historians and archaeologists alike have underestimated the quality of buildings.