WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.840 Okay, so when you picture an archaeologist in 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:06.960 your head, what is the very first image that 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:09.779 pops into your mind? Probably the classic Hollywood 00:00:09.779 --> 00:00:12.300 version, I guess. Right, exactly. The fedora, 00:00:12.339 --> 00:00:14.769 the whip. The leather jacket. Yeah. Dodging giant 00:00:14.769 --> 00:00:17.410 boulders in a jungle somewhere. Snatching a golden 00:00:17.410 --> 00:00:19.670 idol off a pedestal right before the whole temple 00:00:19.670 --> 00:00:22.289 collapses. That is definitely the grab and go 00:00:22.289 --> 00:00:24.629 school of history. It is. But the reality of 00:00:24.629 --> 00:00:26.629 uncovering history for the listener who really 00:00:26.629 --> 00:00:29.170 follows this stuff, you know, it's usually a 00:00:29.170 --> 00:00:33.969 lot less dodging boulders and a lot more. Reading 00:00:33.969 --> 00:00:37.049 dusty ledgers. Considerably more dirt and considerably 00:00:37.049 --> 00:00:40.109 less glory most of the time. Exactly. And today 00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:43.369 we're doing a deep dive into a figure who is 00:00:43.369 --> 00:00:45.909 pretty much the exact opposite of that action 00:00:45.909 --> 00:00:48.070 hero trope in the best possible way. A completely 00:00:48.070 --> 00:00:50.350 different kind of pioneer. Right. We're talking 00:00:50.350 --> 00:00:52.409 about a man who proves that the real drama of 00:00:52.409 --> 00:00:54.770 history isn't always found in some hidden treasure 00:00:54.770 --> 00:00:56.969 room. No, it's usually found in the trash heap. 00:00:57.289 --> 00:00:59.649 The trash, the backlog of paperwork. And honestly, 00:00:59.770 --> 00:01:02.030 it's found in the basement of a museum under 00:01:02.030 --> 00:01:03.890 a layer of dust that has just been sitting there 00:01:03.890 --> 00:01:06.430 for 50 years. That is a perfect setup because 00:01:06.430 --> 00:01:08.849 the person we're looking at today spent a lot 00:01:08.849 --> 00:01:11.030 of time in those basements. We are doing a deep 00:01:11.030 --> 00:01:13.269 dive into the life and work of George Council 00:01:13.269 --> 00:01:15.250 Boone. And if you haven't heard the name before. 00:01:15.799 --> 00:01:17.939 Don't worry about it. Because by the end of this, 00:01:17.980 --> 00:01:20.459 you're going to realize that much of what we 00:01:20.459 --> 00:01:22.959 know about Roman Britain comes directly from 00:01:22.959 --> 00:01:25.200 his work. How the system actually worked, how 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.319 the average people lived, how they paid for their 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:29.819 bread, how they built their houses. All of that 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:33.400 comes from the sort of patient, almost microscopic 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:36.519 work that Boone dedicated his entire life to. 00:01:36.659 --> 00:01:39.680 He really was a foundational figure. We are calling 00:01:39.680 --> 00:01:42.120 this deep dive the guardian of history because. 00:01:43.010 --> 00:01:44.810 That's really what he was right. He wasn't just 00:01:44.810 --> 00:01:47.129 finding things in the dirt. He was saving them. 00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:49.090 Saving them and making sense of them, which is 00:01:49.090 --> 00:01:51.670 the harder part. George C. Boone, born in 1927 00:01:51.670 --> 00:01:54.950 and died in 1994. And if you look at his resume, 00:01:55.170 --> 00:01:57.689 it is essentially a triple threat. Yes, British 00:01:57.689 --> 00:02:00.930 archaeologist, numismatist and museum curator. 00:02:01.230 --> 00:02:02.950 And we are definitely going to spend a lot of 00:02:02.950 --> 00:02:05.329 time on that word numismatist later. We have 00:02:05.329 --> 00:02:07.569 to. It's a huge part of his legacy. But those 00:02:07.569 --> 00:02:09.969 three roles, the archaeologist, the coin expert, 00:02:10.129 --> 00:02:13.120 the curator. They weren't separate jobs for him. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.080 No, they were all completely integrated into 00:02:16.080 --> 00:02:18.879 the same overarching mission. He spent his career 00:02:18.879 --> 00:02:22.419 primarily focused on two major geographical beats. 00:02:22.680 --> 00:02:25.439 First, the Roman town of Silchester. Right. And 00:02:25.439 --> 00:02:27.800 later, the Roman sites in Wales, specifically 00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:30.560 the fortress at Caerleon. So it's a career that 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.800 really spans the second half of the 20th century. 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:35.479 A period of massive change in how archaeology 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:38.629 was even done. Exactly. What I love about the 00:02:38.629 --> 00:02:41.189 source material for this deep dive is that we 00:02:41.189 --> 00:02:42.729 aren't just looking at a standard biography. 00:02:43.110 --> 00:02:45.689 We're looking at the actual output. Right. We 00:02:45.689 --> 00:02:47.650 have his biographical records obituaries written 00:02:47.650 --> 00:02:49.150 by colleagues like William Manning and Marion 00:02:49.150 --> 00:02:51.770 Archibald. But crucially, we have his extensive 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:54.129 bibliography. The list of the books and papers 00:02:54.129 --> 00:02:55.629 he actually wrote. And let me tell you, looking 00:02:55.629 --> 00:02:57.469 at this list, this guy was completely obsessed 00:02:57.469 --> 00:03:00.169 with the tiny details. Because that is the absolute 00:03:00.169 --> 00:03:02.960 key to understanding Boone. How so? He looked 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:04.800 at the macroscopic things, the massive Roman 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:07.159 towns and fortresses, but he understood them 00:03:07.159 --> 00:03:09.560 entirely through the microscopic things. The 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:12.400 small stuff. Yes, the coins, the tokens, the 00:03:12.400 --> 00:03:15.479 tiles. So our mission for you today, the listener, 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:19.840 is to track this career arc to see how a student... 00:03:20.110 --> 00:03:23.110 Digging in a local park becomes this massive 00:03:23.110 --> 00:03:26.370 national authority managing huge collections. 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:28.449 And to understand why someone would dedicate 00:03:28.449 --> 00:03:31.349 years to writing an entire book about brick stamps. 00:03:31.629 --> 00:03:33.750 Which sounds completely dry on the surface. It 00:03:33.750 --> 00:03:35.909 does, but I promise you by the time we finish 00:03:35.909 --> 00:03:37.830 today, you will understand why brick stamps are 00:03:37.830 --> 00:03:40.270 actually thrilling. I am definitely holding you 00:03:40.270 --> 00:03:42.349 to that promise. Fair enough. Okay, let's start 00:03:42.349 --> 00:03:44.610 at the very beginning, Chapter 1, Foundations 00:03:44.610 --> 00:03:47.240 in Bristol. Right. So George Boone was born on 00:03:47.240 --> 00:03:50.740 September 20th, 1927 in Bristol. And his academic 00:03:50.740 --> 00:03:53.159 roots are very firmly planted right there in 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:55.460 that city. He attended Bristol University. And 00:03:55.460 --> 00:03:58.080 this is where we see the first really major influence 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:00.300 on his career trajectory, because he didn't just 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:02.699 go in and study bigging methodology. No, he studied 00:04:02.699 --> 00:04:05.120 Latin. And not just with anyone he studied under, 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:08.560 Arnaldo Momigliano. Which is a crucial detail 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:10.639 for anyone who knows the history of classics. 00:04:10.979 --> 00:04:13.240 Momigliano was an absolute titan of classical 00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:15.780 history, wasn't he? A giant in the field, yes. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.209 So by studying Latin under him, Boone wasn't 00:04:19.209 --> 00:04:21.990 just learning how to conjugate verbs. Exactly. 00:04:21.990 --> 00:04:24.709 He was learning how to rigorously analyze ancient 00:04:24.709 --> 00:04:27.529 texts. Which in the mid -20th century was a big 00:04:27.529 --> 00:04:29.629 deal because archaeology was in this transition 00:04:29.629 --> 00:04:31.769 period. It was moving from being essentially 00:04:31.769 --> 00:04:34.430 a glorified treasure hunt for aristocrats into 00:04:34.430 --> 00:04:37.230 a proper rigorous science. But Boone started 00:04:37.230 --> 00:04:40.050 with that very classical text -based foundation. 00:04:40.509 --> 00:04:42.350 Which gives you a completely different perspective 00:04:42.350 --> 00:04:44.610 when you finally do get out into the field. Because 00:04:44.610 --> 00:04:48.180 before he ever picked up a trowel. He already 00:04:48.180 --> 00:04:50.560 knew how to read the primary sources. He knew 00:04:50.560 --> 00:04:52.899 what the Romans were actually saying about themselves 00:04:52.899 --> 00:04:55.579 in their own words. Right, so when you find a 00:04:55.579 --> 00:04:58.160 coin or piece of an inscription in the dirt, 00:04:58.339 --> 00:05:01.420 you aren't just looking at a pretty object. You 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:03.899 are reading a message from the past. But he didn't 00:05:03.899 --> 00:05:05.660 just stay in the library reading those messages. 00:05:05.939 --> 00:05:08.399 No, the source material specifically mentions 00:05:08.399 --> 00:05:10.560 that while he was still a university student, 00:05:10.779 --> 00:05:14.100 he conducted his first actual excavation. This 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:15.699 really stood out to me when I was reading through 00:05:15.699 --> 00:05:18.220 the notes. That he started so early? Yeah, he 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:20.779 didn't wait for permission or for a degree to 00:05:20.779 --> 00:05:23.180 be handed to him. He just went out to Kings Weston 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:26.360 Park in Bristol to dig up a Roman villa. It shows 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:28.420 an incredible amount of initiative for a young 00:05:28.420 --> 00:05:30.699 student. Kings Weston Park is a pretty significant 00:05:30.699 --> 00:05:33.399 site too, isn't it? It is. And for a student 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:35.939 to be organizing and leading an excavation there, 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.899 it suggests he already had that intense drive. 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:41.480 He needed to get his hands dirty. He needed to 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:43.860 see the physical, tangible reality of what he 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:46.199 was reading about in Momigliano's classes. And 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:48.959 that combination of the strict book smarts and 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:51.399 the actual field dirt seems to set the stage 00:05:51.399 --> 00:05:53.279 for literally everything that comes next. It 00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:55.759 perfectly primes him for the reality of professional 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.100 archaeology. Because as soon as he graduates, 00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:01.540 he lands his first real job. Right. Which brings 00:06:01.540 --> 00:06:04.689 us to 1950. He graduates and immediately takes 00:06:04.689 --> 00:06:06.769 a post as the archaeological assistant at Ready 00:06:06.769 --> 00:06:08.730 Museum. And this begins what we are calling the 00:06:08.730 --> 00:06:10.910 Silchester years. The Silchester years, which 00:06:10.910 --> 00:06:14.430 ran from 1950 to 1957. Now, for the listener 00:06:14.430 --> 00:06:16.149 who might not be familiar with the geography, 00:06:16.449 --> 00:06:19.529 Silchester, or Caliva Atrobatum, to use the proper 00:06:19.529 --> 00:06:21.850 Roman name, is an incredibly fascinating site. 00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:24.509 It really is, because it's one of the few major 00:06:24.509 --> 00:06:27.850 Roman towns in Britain that wasn't eventually 00:06:27.850 --> 00:06:31.389 built over by a modern city. Right. Usually if 00:06:31.389 --> 00:06:33.589 you want to find Roman London, you have to dig 00:06:33.589 --> 00:06:35.769 deep under a modern parking lot or an office 00:06:35.769 --> 00:06:37.829 building. But Silchester is just sitting out 00:06:37.829 --> 00:06:39.490 there in the Hampshire countryside. Exactly. 00:06:39.550 --> 00:06:41.889 The modern town moved away over the centuries, 00:06:41.930 --> 00:06:45.110 leaving the Roman footprint largely open. But 00:06:45.110 --> 00:06:48.170 here is the interesting twist about Boone's job 00:06:48.170 --> 00:06:50.490 at the Reading Museum. He wasn't out there digging 00:06:50.490 --> 00:06:52.990 fresh holes in the countryside every day. Right. 00:06:53.129 --> 00:06:55.589 His actual job was to deal with the backlog. 00:06:56.189 --> 00:06:58.550 The dreaded backlog. Okay, let's break that down 00:06:58.550 --> 00:07:00.269 for the listener because it sounds bureaucratic, 00:07:00.290 --> 00:07:02.829 but it's actually vital. What does dealing with 00:07:02.829 --> 00:07:06.009 a backlog mean in this context? The source material 00:07:06.009 --> 00:07:08.490 notes that he was tasked with cataloging the 00:07:08.490 --> 00:07:11.589 massive collection of artifacts from excavations 00:07:11.589 --> 00:07:14.029 that were carried out by the Society of Antiquaries. 00:07:14.209 --> 00:07:16.009 And these weren't recent excavations, were they? 00:07:16.189 --> 00:07:18.290 No, they were done before the First World War. 00:07:18.370 --> 00:07:20.550 Oh, wow. So he is dealing with stuff that had 00:07:20.550 --> 00:07:24.399 been dug up 30 or maybe 40 years prior. Or more. 00:07:24.540 --> 00:07:27.240 Yes. And this is a massive, often overlooked 00:07:27.240 --> 00:07:30.100 part of being a museum curator. It's what you 00:07:30.100 --> 00:07:32.300 could call the archaeology of archaeology. That 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.360 is a brilliant way to phrase it. Yes. You have 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:37.579 these dusty wooden crates full of material dug 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:40.540 up by a Dohertyian gentleman decades ago. And 00:07:40.540 --> 00:07:42.300 maybe their field notes aren't exactly up to 00:07:42.300 --> 00:07:44.600 modern standards. Maybe the organization is a 00:07:44.600 --> 00:07:46.819 complete mess or labels have fallen off. Exactly. 00:07:46.819 --> 00:07:49.730 And Boone had to go into that basement. open 00:07:49.730 --> 00:07:52.329 those crates, organize it all, and make actual 00:07:52.329 --> 00:07:54.670 scientific sense of it using the standards of 00:07:54.670 --> 00:07:57.029 the 1950s. That sounds like an absolutely monumental 00:07:57.029 --> 00:07:59.930 intellectual task. It is, because it's not just 00:07:59.930 --> 00:08:02.329 discovery, it's rediscovery. You are basically 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:04.209 trying to reconstruct someone else's thought 00:08:04.209 --> 00:08:07.629 process from 40 years ago based on a pile of 00:08:07.629 --> 00:08:10.040 sordid rocks and pottery. It requires immense 00:08:10.040 --> 00:08:12.879 patience and a very deep encyclopedic knowledge 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:15.160 of the material culture. And he didn't just organize 00:08:15.160 --> 00:08:16.579 it and put it back on the shelf. He actually 00:08:16.579 --> 00:08:19.759 published it. He turned that chaotic Edwardian 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:22.339 collection into the definitive published record 00:08:22.339 --> 00:08:25.980 of the site. In 1957, he published Roman Silchester. 00:08:26.180 --> 00:08:28.620 Which was a major milestone, but he didn't stop 00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:31.129 there. Looking at the bibliography, he kept going. 00:08:31.410 --> 00:08:33.909 He published a new guide called The Roman Town 00:08:33.909 --> 00:08:36.629 Caleva Atrobatum at Silchester, Hampshire in 00:08:36.629 --> 00:08:40.750 1963. And then even later, in 1974, he published 00:08:40.750 --> 00:08:43.669 Silchester, the Roman Town of Caleva. That 1974 00:08:43.669 --> 00:08:47.230 book really stands out to me. Why is that? Because 00:08:47.230 --> 00:08:49.429 it shows he kept returning to the subject. He 00:08:49.429 --> 00:08:51.649 didn't just write the 1957 book, wash his hands 00:08:51.649 --> 00:08:54.169 of it, and walk away. No, he constantly updated 00:08:54.169 --> 00:08:56.610 his understanding of the site. As new archaeological 00:08:56.610 --> 00:09:00.120 theories emerged... Or perhaps as he just had 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:02.759 more time to analyze that old data, he refined 00:09:02.759 --> 00:09:05.279 the story. It's like he became the official ghostwriter 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.440 for those original Adordian excavators. He gave 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:10.720 a modern, rigorous voice to their raw findings 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:13.529 decades after they were gone. And that right 00:09:13.529 --> 00:09:16.330 there is the mark of a true guardian of history. 00:09:16.570 --> 00:09:19.070 It's not about getting your own glory by finding 00:09:19.070 --> 00:09:21.570 a new shiny object. It's about maintaining the 00:09:21.570 --> 00:09:24.009 integrity of the historical record. Making sure 00:09:24.009 --> 00:09:26.370 the work done before World War I wasn't just 00:09:26.370 --> 00:09:29.330 wasted or forgotten in a damp basement. So he 00:09:29.330 --> 00:09:31.649 really makes his name at Silchester, putting 00:09:31.649 --> 00:09:34.110 that town on the modern archaeological map. But 00:09:34.110 --> 00:09:37.730 then in 1957, the exact same year... His first 00:09:37.730 --> 00:09:40.250 major book comes out. He makes a huge career 00:09:40.250 --> 00:09:42.570 move. He crosses the border. He does. He moves 00:09:42.570 --> 00:09:45.470 to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. And 00:09:45.470 --> 00:09:47.990 this kicks off chapter three of our deep dive, 00:09:48.190 --> 00:09:50.590 the move to Wales and the fortress of Caerleon. 00:09:50.830 --> 00:09:53.649 This was a really significant shift for him professionally. 00:09:53.950 --> 00:09:56.590 He started there as the assistant keeper of archaeology. 00:09:56.710 --> 00:09:58.850 And just to quickly track his overall career 00:09:58.850 --> 00:10:01.649 trajectory there for a second, he basically stayed 00:10:01.649 --> 00:10:03.590 there until his retirement. He rose through the 00:10:03.590 --> 00:10:06.450 ranks, becoming keeper in 1976. and eventually 00:10:06.450 --> 00:10:09.970 full curator in 1987. He was a true institutional 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:13.090 lifer. He became an institution within the institution, 00:10:13.289 --> 00:10:15.980 honestly. But geographically and academically, 00:10:16.340 --> 00:10:19.320 he traded a civilian Roman town, Silchester, 00:10:19.559 --> 00:10:22.799 for a hardcore Roman military fortress. Caroleon 00:10:22.799 --> 00:10:25.840 or Isca Augusta? Yes. Caroleon was one of the 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:28.480 three permanent legionary fortresses in Roman 00:10:28.480 --> 00:10:30.720 Britain. It was a massive military base. So the 00:10:30.720 --> 00:10:33.100 material culture, the actual stuff you are finding 00:10:33.100 --> 00:10:35.159 in the ground, is fundamentally different from 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:38.399 a civilian town. You're looking at military equipment, 00:10:38.679 --> 00:10:41.740 weapons armor, specialized barracks, large -scale 00:10:41.740 --> 00:10:44.960 bathhouses. for thousands of soldiers. The source 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:47.039 mentions that almost as soon as he arrived in 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:49.980 Cardiff, he began what are called rescue excavations 00:10:49.980 --> 00:10:53.000 at Carillon. Now, rescue excavation, the phrase 00:10:53.000 --> 00:10:55.799 sounds very intense. What does that actually 00:10:55.799 --> 00:10:58.759 imply on the ground? It is incredibly intense, 00:10:58.860 --> 00:11:01.320 especially in the post -war period. Because of 00:11:01.320 --> 00:11:04.299 all the rebuilding. Exactly. In the 60s and 70s, 00:11:04.299 --> 00:11:06.139 there was massive urban development happening 00:11:06.139 --> 00:11:09.740 across the UK, building new roads, housing estates, 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:12.240 commercial centers. And often those new developments 00:11:12.240 --> 00:11:14.620 are dropping right on top of ancient sites. So 00:11:14.620 --> 00:11:17.519 archaeologists are literally forced to race against 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:19.419 the bulldozers. You don't have the luxury of 00:11:19.419 --> 00:11:22.120 spending three pristine summers gently brushing 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:24.600 away dirt with a toothbrush. Not at all. You 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:27.139 have a very limited, highly pressured window 00:11:27.139 --> 00:11:29.740 to dig, record, and save everything you can. 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.399 Before the site is permanently destroyed by concrete. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:35.019 It requires incredible speed and decisiveness. 00:11:35.259 --> 00:11:37.000 And a very deep, immediate knowledge of what 00:11:37.000 --> 00:11:38.940 you are looking at so you can prioritize what 00:11:38.940 --> 00:11:41.340 to save. You have to know instantly what is important 00:11:41.340 --> 00:11:44.480 and what isn't. And Boone was right on the absolute 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:47.980 front lines of this movement at Kirlian. And 00:11:47.980 --> 00:11:50.440 what is wild is that despite that immense physical 00:11:50.440 --> 00:11:53.639 pressure of rescue archaeology, he was still 00:11:53.639 --> 00:11:56.259 pumping out high -level publications. He was 00:11:56.259 --> 00:11:59.480 incredibly prolific during this time. In 1972, 00:12:00.320 --> 00:12:02.879 He published Isca, the Roman legionary fortress 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:06.419 at Karelian. And then in 1987, he followed up 00:12:06.419 --> 00:12:08.759 with The Legionary Fortress of Karelian Isca, 00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:10.799 a brief account. And there was one specifically 00:12:10.799 --> 00:12:13.600 about the baths too, right? Yes. The Legionary 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:16.440 Fortress Baths at Karelian co -authored with 00:12:16.440 --> 00:12:19.559 J. David Zienkiewicz in 1986. Focusing heavily 00:12:19.559 --> 00:12:21.980 on the buildings themselves. The baths were a 00:12:21.980 --> 00:12:24.820 massive central part of Roman military and social 00:12:24.820 --> 00:12:27.049 life. But what's fascinating to me looking at 00:12:27.049 --> 00:12:29.850 his bibliography is how incredibly specific he 00:12:29.850 --> 00:12:32.269 gets. He wasn't just writing these broad sweeping 00:12:32.269 --> 00:12:34.610 overviews of Roman Britain. No, he was drilling 00:12:34.610 --> 00:12:37.090 down into the absolute minutia of the sites. 00:12:37.289 --> 00:12:39.269 Which is the perfect segue to chapter four of 00:12:39.269 --> 00:12:41.149 our outline, The Specialist or The Master of 00:12:41.149 --> 00:12:42.950 the Small Things. Because this is where I think 00:12:42.950 --> 00:12:44.669 Boone's genius really shines through for the 00:12:44.669 --> 00:12:46.610 listener. He didn't just look at the grand walls 00:12:46.610 --> 00:12:48.950 and the statues. He looked at the everyday trash. 00:12:49.350 --> 00:12:52.590 One man's ancient trash is George Boone's career 00:12:52.590 --> 00:12:55.850 defining treasure. It really is. He looked closely 00:12:55.850 --> 00:12:58.330 at the everyday objects used by regular people. 00:12:58.549 --> 00:13:01.429 The sources list numerous papers on ceramics, 00:13:01.429 --> 00:13:03.649 metalwork, and glass. But the one publication 00:13:03.649 --> 00:13:05.690 that immediately caught my eye, and the one I 00:13:05.690 --> 00:13:07.850 joked about earlier, is the book he published 00:13:07.850 --> 00:13:11.529 in 1984. Laterarium Iscanum. Yes, Laterarium 00:13:11.529 --> 00:13:14.830 Iscanum, the antifixes, brick and tile stamps 00:13:14.830 --> 00:13:17.889 of the Second Augustan Legion. It is a mouthful 00:13:17.889 --> 00:13:20.370 of a title. Okay, lay it on me. Why in the world 00:13:20.370 --> 00:13:22.870 would someone write a whole book dedicated just 00:13:22.870 --> 00:13:25.549 to brick and tile stamps? I know it sounds incredibly 00:13:25.549 --> 00:13:27.970 niche, almost painfully dry, doesn't it? It sounds 00:13:27.970 --> 00:13:29.909 like the kind of book you use to prop up a wobbly 00:13:29.909 --> 00:13:32.549 desk. But think about what a physical stamp on 00:13:32.549 --> 00:13:35.070 a clay tile actually represents historically. 00:13:35.529 --> 00:13:38.250 Okay. The Roman army wasn't just a group of guys 00:13:38.250 --> 00:13:41.110 with swords. It was a massive, highly organized 00:13:41.110 --> 00:13:43.110 industrial machine. Right, they had to build 00:13:43.110 --> 00:13:45.620 their own infrastructure. Exactly when the Second 00:13:45.620 --> 00:13:48.379 Augustan Legion was deployed to build a fortress, 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:51.039 they didn't just go down to the local hardware 00:13:51.039 --> 00:13:53.559 store to buy bricks. They manufactured them themselves 00:13:53.559 --> 00:13:56.259 on site. They made them, and crucially, they 00:13:56.259 --> 00:13:59.139 stamped them before the clay dried. Like a corporate 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:01.419 branding exercise. Precisely, they stamped them 00:14:01.419 --> 00:14:04.980 with Leg II AVG, meaning Ligio Secunda Vesta. 00:14:05.220 --> 00:14:07.659 So if you as an archaeologist map out exactly 00:14:07.659 --> 00:14:10.809 where you find tiles... with that specific stamp, 00:14:11.049 --> 00:14:13.850 you are doing something amazing. You are literally 00:14:13.850 --> 00:14:16.909 mapping the geographic movement and the physical 00:14:16.909 --> 00:14:19.730 influence of that exact military unit. You can 00:14:19.730 --> 00:14:22.149 see which specific buildings they built, which 00:14:22.149 --> 00:14:24.409 older buildings they repaired, and exactly where 00:14:24.409 --> 00:14:27.080 they were stationed over time. So the humble 00:14:27.080 --> 00:14:30.320 clay tile is basically a 2 ,000 -year -old GPS 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:33.840 tracking device. It is administrative and logistical 00:14:33.840 --> 00:14:36.799 history written permanently in fired clay. Boone 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:38.460 understood that if you want to know how the Roman 00:14:38.460 --> 00:14:40.759 Empire actually functioned on a daily logistical 00:14:40.759 --> 00:14:43.059 level... You don't look at the marble statues. 00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:45.019 You look at the bricks. You look at the supply 00:14:45.019 --> 00:14:48.059 chains. That is actually incredibly cool. When 00:14:48.059 --> 00:14:50.840 you frame it like that, it completely transforms 00:14:50.840 --> 00:14:54.320 a boring building material into a dynamic story 00:14:54.320 --> 00:14:57.720 of imperial logistics and power. And that right 00:14:57.720 --> 00:14:59.980 there is the boon touch. He takes the most mundane 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:02.879 object imaginable and extracts a massive historical 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:04.919 narrative from it. But if we are talking about 00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:08.470 small things that tell big stories. We absolutely 00:15:08.470 --> 00:15:11.090 have to move to chapter five. Ah, yes. Chapter 00:15:11.090 --> 00:15:14.289 five. The numismatist. The coin guy. The coin 00:15:14.289 --> 00:15:16.809 guy. But looking at this extensive bibliography, 00:15:16.929 --> 00:15:18.990 he wasn't just checking the couch cushions for 00:15:18.990 --> 00:15:22.179 Roman spare change. The breadth of his expertise 00:15:22.179 --> 00:15:25.299 here is staggering. It is incredibly wide, historically 00:15:25.299 --> 00:15:27.659 speaking. Obviously working at massive Roman 00:15:27.659 --> 00:15:30.179 sites like Silchester and Carolin. He was a leading 00:15:30.179 --> 00:15:32.000 expert on Roman coins. That was his bread and 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:33.860 butter. That is the baseline expectation for 00:15:33.860 --> 00:15:35.720 someone in his position, yeah. But his published 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:37.659 work shows he went way, way beyond the Romans. 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:40.019 He jumped centuries forward into completely different 00:15:40.019 --> 00:15:42.259 eras. Yeah, I am seeing titles here that are 00:15:42.259 --> 00:15:45.149 wild. Let's look at this one. Coins of the Anarchy, 00:15:45.309 --> 00:15:49.590 1135 to 1154, published in 1988. Oh, this is 00:15:49.590 --> 00:15:52.970 a fantastic and chaotic period of history. The 00:15:52.970 --> 00:15:55.830 Anarchy. Yes, the anarchy was a brutal civil 00:15:55.830 --> 00:15:59.070 war in England between King Stephen and the Empress 00:15:59.070 --> 00:16:02.009 Matilda, or Maude, as she's often called. It 00:16:02.009 --> 00:16:04.870 was a time when, as the famous Anglo -Saxon chronicles 00:16:04.870 --> 00:16:07.929 said, Christ and his saints slept. Complete breakdown 00:16:07.929 --> 00:16:10.690 of law and order across the country. So how exactly 00:16:10.690 --> 00:16:12.590 does a breakdown of law and order show up in 00:16:12.590 --> 00:16:14.830 the coinage? Well, usually in a functioning state, 00:16:15.070 --> 00:16:17.990 the king strictly controls the mints. Right. 00:16:18.049 --> 00:16:20.389 The currency is standardized and stable. But 00:16:20.389 --> 00:16:22.769 in a civil war. In a civil war, that central 00:16:22.769 --> 00:16:25.669 authority collapses. So you suddenly have rogue 00:16:25.669 --> 00:16:28.409 barons minting their own private coins to pay 00:16:28.409 --> 00:16:30.549 their own private armies. You have crude emergency 00:16:30.549 --> 00:16:33.429 coinage being bashed out in local villages. Exactly. 00:16:33.429 --> 00:16:36.029 And Boone, studying this specific era, shows 00:16:36.029 --> 00:16:38.950 he was deeply interested in political chaos and 00:16:38.950 --> 00:16:41.549 how that chaos physically manifests in the economy. 00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:44.320 That is fascinating. He also has a book called 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:47.820 Welsh Hordes, 1979 to 1981, which covers the 00:16:47.820 --> 00:16:50.279 coinage of Cunnet in Wales and the coinage of 00:16:50.279 --> 00:16:52.720 the Empress Maud. So now we have brought Vikings 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.200 into the mix. King Nut, the Viking king of England. 00:16:55.360 --> 00:16:58.679 Yes. And finding Cunnet's coinage buried in hordes 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:00.840 in Wales tells you so much about the interactions 00:17:00.840 --> 00:17:02.840 of the time. It tells you about trade routes 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:05.299 or maybe tribute payments or violent raiding. 00:17:05.769 --> 00:17:08.069 Boone is actively connecting the local history 00:17:08.069 --> 00:17:10.829 of Wales to the much broader Scandinavian and 00:17:10.829 --> 00:17:13.210 European world just through these tiny pieces 00:17:13.210 --> 00:17:16.309 of silver. It's amazing how a single buried coin 00:17:16.309 --> 00:17:19.630 can act as a historical breadcrumb trail linking 00:17:19.630 --> 00:17:22.450 entire cultures. But the thing that really surprised 00:17:22.450 --> 00:17:24.630 me in the sources is that he didn't even stop 00:17:24.630 --> 00:17:26.829 at the medieval stuff. No, he kept going right 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:29.009 into the modern industrial era. He published 00:17:29.009 --> 00:17:32.250 Welsh tokens of the 17th century and Welsh industrial 00:17:32.250 --> 00:17:35.480 tokens and metals, which shed light on... 18th 00:17:35.480 --> 00:17:37.759 and 19th century industrial development. OK, 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:39.700 we need to clarify this for the listener. What 00:17:39.700 --> 00:17:42.380 exactly is a token in this historical context? 00:17:42.460 --> 00:17:45.119 Is it like an arcade token? Conceptually, it 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:47.579 is actually not that far off. Really? Yes. In 00:17:47.579 --> 00:17:50.200 the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries, there 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.700 was frequently a massive shortage of official 00:17:52.700 --> 00:17:55.619 royal coinage. Like small change pennies and 00:17:55.619 --> 00:17:58.220 half pennies? Exactly. The government just wasn't 00:17:58.220 --> 00:18:00.680 minting enough low -value coins for everyday 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:03.200 people to use. So how did people buy things? 00:18:03.619 --> 00:18:05.619 Well, local merchants and massive industrial 00:18:05.619 --> 00:18:08.730 mining companies would literally mint their own 00:18:08.730 --> 00:18:10.829 tokens. They made their own money. They made 00:18:10.829 --> 00:18:13.130 their own private money to pay their workers 00:18:13.130 --> 00:18:15.549 or to allow local people to buy a loaf of bread 00:18:15.549 --> 00:18:18.089 at the company store. So by studying these tokens, 00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:21.230 Boone is actually studying the grassroots economics 00:18:21.230 --> 00:18:23.750 of the Industrial Revolution. He is looking at 00:18:23.750 --> 00:18:26.349 exactly how copper mining companies in rural 00:18:26.349 --> 00:18:29.109 Wales manage their payroll. He is looking at 00:18:29.109 --> 00:18:32.089 the hyper local economy of a village shopkeeper. 00:18:32.480 --> 00:18:35.180 in the 1600s. It drives home the point that Boone 00:18:35.180 --> 00:18:37.420 wasn't just interested in the Romans as a static 00:18:37.420 --> 00:18:39.619 subject. He was fundamentally interested in human 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:42.299 economic systems. Whether it's a Roman legionary 00:18:42.299 --> 00:18:45.440 getting paid in silver denarii or a Walsh coal 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:47.859 miner getting paid in stamped copper tokens, 00:18:48.119 --> 00:18:51.160 Boone was fascinated by how human value was exchanged. 00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:54.680 The Mechanics of Daily Survival Across Two Millennia. 00:18:54.680 --> 00:18:56.480 And speaking of daily mechanics, he wrote one 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:58.460 book that seems to step away from pure academia 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:02.200 and is just purely practical. Ah, yes. 101 Coins, 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:05.500 published in 1973. The subtitle is Some of the 00:19:05.500 --> 00:19:07.819 Varieties Commonly Brought for Identification. 00:19:08.349 --> 00:19:11.309 That title right there is the absolute mark of 00:19:11.309 --> 00:19:14.910 a museum curator who has spent way too much time 00:19:14.910 --> 00:19:17.450 standing at the public front desk. I can vividly 00:19:17.450 --> 00:19:19.930 imagine it just people constantly coming in off 00:19:19.930 --> 00:19:22.369 the street with a rusty shoebox they found in 00:19:22.369 --> 00:19:24.890 their granddad's attic asking, is this worth 00:19:24.890 --> 00:19:27.210 anything? Exactly. They plonk it on the desk 00:19:27.210 --> 00:19:29.609 and say, I dug this up in the garden. Is it Roman 00:19:29.609 --> 00:19:32.769 gold? And 99 % of the time, it's a modern button 00:19:32.769 --> 00:19:35.339 or a tractor washer. But instead of getting annoyed, 00:19:35.619 --> 00:19:38.599 Boone wrote a practical, accessible guide to 00:19:38.599 --> 00:19:41.259 help people actually identify the real stuff. 00:19:41.460 --> 00:19:43.559 It really shows that he deeply valued public 00:19:43.559 --> 00:19:45.880 education. He wasn't just interested in writing 00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:48.680 dense academic papers for a dozen other professors 00:19:48.680 --> 00:19:51.180 sitting in ivory towers. He wanted the general 00:19:51.180 --> 00:19:53.880 public to understand and appreciate what they 00:19:53.880 --> 00:19:55.819 had found in their own backyards. It makes him 00:19:55.819 --> 00:19:58.079 sound incredibly approachable and grounded as 00:19:58.079 --> 00:20:00.440 a scholar. And speaking of his standing as a 00:20:00.440 --> 00:20:03.099 scholar, we need to move to Chapter 6, Professional 00:20:03.099 --> 00:20:14.190 Honor. No, you don't. And his list of honors 00:20:14.190 --> 00:20:17.710 in the source material is extensive. He was what 00:20:17.710 --> 00:20:19.869 we might call a joiner, but in the very best 00:20:19.869 --> 00:20:22.569 sense of that word. He actively served and led 00:20:22.569 --> 00:20:25.509 the core organizations that keep British archaeology 00:20:25.509 --> 00:20:27.450 functioning. Let's run through the list. We have 00:20:27.450 --> 00:20:29.369 the Society of Antiquaries, where he was vice 00:20:29.369 --> 00:20:32.809 president from 1980 to 1984. Which is a massive 00:20:32.809 --> 00:20:35.710 deal. The Society of Antiquaries is the premier 00:20:35.710 --> 00:20:39.119 body for history and archaeology in the UK. Being 00:20:39.119 --> 00:20:41.799 the VP there means you are actively steering 00:20:41.799 --> 00:20:43.660 the ship for the whole discipline. He was also 00:20:43.660 --> 00:20:45.980 vice president of the Roman Society from 1977 00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:50.079 right up until his death in 1994. That is 17 00:20:50.079 --> 00:20:52.839 continuous years of leadership. It shows immense 00:20:52.839 --> 00:20:55.559 dedication and stability. He was clearly a relied 00:20:55.559 --> 00:20:58.079 upon pillar of the Roman studies community. And 00:20:58.079 --> 00:20:59.880 of course, we can't forget the coin societies, 00:20:59.940 --> 00:21:02.099 given his expertise. He was a fellow of the Royal 00:21:02.099 --> 00:21:04.779 Numismatic Society and a council member of the 00:21:04.779 --> 00:21:07.559 British Numismatic Society from 1983 to 1986. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:10.140 He really had a foot in every single camp. He 00:21:10.140 --> 00:21:12.200 was the vital connector between the general field 00:21:12.200 --> 00:21:14.900 archaeologists digging the trenches and the highly 00:21:14.900 --> 00:21:17.819 specialized coin experts in the labs. And that 00:21:17.819 --> 00:21:20.390 kind of cross -disciplinary respect. is quite 00:21:20.390 --> 00:21:23.529 rare. Often specialists just stay strictly in 00:21:23.529 --> 00:21:26.130 their own lane. Boone drove all over the road 00:21:26.130 --> 00:21:28.630 and was respected everywhere he went. We should 00:21:28.630 --> 00:21:31.109 also briefly mention his personal life, just 00:21:31.109 --> 00:21:33.609 as it gives a bit of human context to the man 00:21:33.609 --> 00:21:35.970 behind all these books. Yes. The records note 00:21:35.970 --> 00:21:39.230 he married Diana Martin in 1956. And they had 00:21:39.230 --> 00:21:41.900 a family together. Two sons and one daughter. 00:21:42.019 --> 00:21:44.880 So he was balancing a busy family life alongside 00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:47.779 this incredibly demanding career. He passed away 00:21:47.779 --> 00:21:51.839 on August 31st, 1994. at the age of 66. Which 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:54.279 honestly feels quite young considering how relentlessly 00:21:54.279 --> 00:21:56.839 active he was right up to the end. It is young 00:21:56.839 --> 00:21:58.900 he died in Penarth, but when you look back at 00:21:58.900 --> 00:22:01.160 what he managed to pack into those 66 years, 00:22:01.339 --> 00:22:04.559 it is staggering. From his very first eager student 00:22:04.559 --> 00:22:07.099 dig at a park in Bristol, all the way to running 00:22:07.099 --> 00:22:09.319 the archaeology department at the National Museum 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:11.839 of Wales. So let's try to synthesize all of this 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:14.200 for the listener. We have discussed the big sights 00:22:14.200 --> 00:22:16.900 guy, the man who managed Silchester and led the 00:22:16.900 --> 00:22:20.099 rescue digs at Caroleon. And we have discussed... 00:22:20.380 --> 00:22:23.039 The small details guy. The man who could write 00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:26.240 a whole book on Roman brick stamps or Welsh industrial 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:29.380 tokens. I think the true synthesis of his life 00:22:29.380 --> 00:22:32.500 is found in his ultimate job title, curator. 00:22:32.819 --> 00:22:35.539 Curator. Yes. The word curator comes directly 00:22:35.539 --> 00:22:38.799 from the Latin curare, which means to care for. 00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:41.380 Oh, that's perfect. Boone card for history. He 00:22:41.380 --> 00:22:43.619 didn't just extract it from the ground for his 00:22:43.619 --> 00:22:46.240 own personal fame. He painstakingly organized 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:49.220 the chaotic old Edwardian collections when no 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:51.339 one else wanted to do the grunt work. He rushed 00:22:51.339 --> 00:22:53.599 in to rescue vital sites that were literally 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:56.539 under threat from bulldozers. He cataloged thousands 00:22:56.539 --> 00:22:59.079 of coins and tokens so that future generations 00:22:59.079 --> 00:23:01.839 could actually understand the ancient economy. 00:23:02.059 --> 00:23:04.720 He was a true steward of the past. He spent his 00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:07.000 entire life ensuring that the things found in 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.420 the dirt were preserved, understood, and made 00:23:09.420 --> 00:23:11.180 accessible for the future. And that actually 00:23:11.180 --> 00:23:13.099 leads perfectly into a final thought about his 00:23:13.099 --> 00:23:15.559 legacy. A provocative question for the listener 00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.279 to mull over. Exactly. We talked earlier about 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:21.160 how Boone spent years at ready - museum fixing 00:23:21.160 --> 00:23:23.480 up the old silchester excavations all that stuff 00:23:23.480 --> 00:23:26.059 dug up before world war one right dealing with 00:23:26.059 --> 00:23:29.440 the backlog well boone died in 1994 that is 30 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:31.880 years ago now which means it makes you wonder 00:23:31.880 --> 00:23:34.720 right now at this very moment in museum basements 00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:38.539 across the uk are there dusty crates from boone's 00:23:38.539 --> 00:23:40.720 own era just sitting there waiting for the next 00:23:40.720 --> 00:23:43.940 george boone to come along oh wow that is a haunting 00:23:43.940 --> 00:23:46.950 thought history doesn't just stop We're always 00:23:46.950 --> 00:23:49.750 continuously generating more of the past. Boone 00:23:49.750 --> 00:23:52.450 spent his youth clearing the backlog of the Adordians, 00:23:52.509 --> 00:23:55.170 but who is out there right now clearing the backlog 00:23:55.170 --> 00:23:58.410 of the late 20th century? It is an endless cycle. 00:23:58.809 --> 00:24:01.109 The work of a curator is never actually finished. 00:24:01.289 --> 00:24:03.650 Never. There is always more to find, even in 00:24:03.650 --> 00:24:05.970 the boxes of stuff we have already found. That 00:24:05.970 --> 00:24:08.069 is a brilliant note to end on a reminder that 00:24:08.069 --> 00:24:10.470 the guardianship of history is an ongoing relay 00:24:10.470 --> 00:24:13.190 race. One that Boone ran exceptionally well. 00:24:13.390 --> 00:24:15.230 Well, on that note, I think we will wrap up our 00:24:15.230 --> 00:24:18.170 deep dive into George C. Boone, a man who proved 00:24:18.170 --> 00:24:20.390 definitively that sometimes the smallest clay 00:24:20.390 --> 00:24:22.809 tile stamp can tell the biggest, most important 00:24:22.809 --> 00:24:25.150 story. Absolutely. A true guardian of the past. 00:24:25.430 --> 00:24:27.289 Thank you so much for joining us on this journey 00:24:27.289 --> 00:24:30.480 today, listener. We hope you look at the mundane 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.200 objects around you with a little more historical 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:36.359 curiosity now. We will see you on the next Deep 00:24:36.359 --> 00:24:37.660 Dive. Take care, everyone.