Phil Harding (archaeologist)

Phillip Harding is a British field archaeologist. He has become a familiar face on the Channel 4 television series "Time Team", his trademarks being his long hair, long and dirty finger nails, battered hat and West Country accent. Trained on excavations with the Bristol University Extra Mural Department and other bodies from 1966, he has been a professional archaeologist since 1971.

Born in Oxford, but brought up in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough Grammar School in Marlborough. In 1966, while still at school, he attended a training excavation by Bristol University Extra Mural Department in Fyfield and West Overton. Since then he has dug every year, though at first his archaeological activities had to be fitted into holidays.

After he left school, he worked in a puppet factory in Marlborough, until he became a full-time archaeologist in 1971. He worked initially for the Southampton City Council Archaeology Unit, combining this with five seasons of excavations run by the British Museum at the Neolithic flint mines of Grimes Graves, Norfolk. He has since been an acknowledged expert on flint-knapping and has given many demonstrations around the country.

From the mid-1970s he worked on excavations in Berkshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight for the Department of the Environment. In 1979 the archaeological section of the DOE for the region became Wessex Archaeology, a non-profit organisation which is one of the biggest archaeological practices in the country. Phil Harding continues to work for Wessex Archaeology when not filming.

He has been a member of the Institute of Field Archaeologists since 1985, and in 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. [http://www.sal.org.uk/history/listoffellows/] On July 24, 2008, he received an honorary Doctorate from the University of Southampton. [http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/blogs/news/2008/07/16/phil-harding-awarded-honorary-degree]

When asked during an interview if he would ever consider leaving Wiltshire to live somewhere else, Harding replied "What would be the point of that?"

Also a keen guitarist, Phil regularly jams with other guitarists in the Wiltshire area. He lives in Salisbury.

External links

* [http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/ Wessex Archaeology]
* [http://www.channel4.com/history/timeteam/biog_phil.html Phil Harding: profile from Channel 4]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1165869,00.html The Guardian: Why I love Phil Harding]