Example archaeology dissertation topic 4:

Archaeological digs at Norwich Cathedral 1987-88 and 2001-2007: A review.

Though the second city of England until c.1850, Norwich is now, in many ways, a forgotten backwater. Its cathedral, however, was at the height of the city’s power, surrounded by a mediaeval city that boasted a church for every week of the year. The moving of the Choir School, the rebuilding of the Refectory, and the construction of the Hostry on the site of the mediaeval hostry, over the years 2004-2007, resulted in the largest archaeological dig in and around Norwich Cathedral since the excavation of the north-side of the Cathedral in 1987 – 1988 and the building of the Allisonium. Reviewing the techniques and the discoveries found in both digs this dissertation not only comments on the primary findings but also interviews those who were involved in the digs at one of England’s greatest cathedrals. It also comments on what the results of both digs can tell contemporary archaeologists as to the attitudes and priorities of earlier archaeologists, given the repairs to these sections of the Cathedral that were previously carried out in both the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Bown, J. (1997). ‘Excavations on the north side of Norwich Cathedral, 1987-1988’, Norfolk Archaeology, Vol. 42(4), pp. 428-452.
• Gilchrist, R. (1998). ‘Norwich Cathedral: A biography of the north transept’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, Vol. 151, pp. 107-130.
• Wallis, H. (2006). ‘Excavations at the site of the Norwich School Refectory, 2001-2003’, East Anglian Archaeology, Vol. 16.