Excavations of The Insula of The House of the Fountains in Beirut, Lebanon.

First two chapters of unproofed first draft completed in 2007 awaiting refereeing and editorial input

The background to the excavation of one Insula excavated by Anglo-Lebanese team of archaeologists between 1994 and 1996 is described along with a synthetic narrative of the stratigraphic sequence and sequence of structural change within the insula between the 2nd cent BC and 6th cent AD. Only the first two chapters and some of th illustrations are presented. Text and illustrations by Reuben Thorpe.

Often Fun, Usually Messy: fieldwork, recording and higher orders of things

Very draft but to be publishesd later in 2010

The author engages in a critique of post processual approaches to fieldwork, examines and questions the underlying historiography of archaeological fieldwork in Britain and questions the new-ness and radicalism of post-processual fieldwork. Finally the author wonders whether reflexive method has engaged adequately with the socio-economic context of the production of most archaeological data in the UK.

The archaeologists of Chesterfield: realising their legacy

Full Ref. Thorpe, R. & Cumberpatch, C. G. 2005. The archaeologists of Chesterfield: realising their legacy. Archaeology and conservation in Derbyshire, 16-17.

The Devil is in the detail: strategies, methods and theory in urban archaeology

Full ref. Thorpe, R. 2004. The Devil Is In The Detail: Strategies, Methods and Theory in Urban Archaeology. In G. Carver (ed.) Digging in the Dirt. Excavation in a new millennium (BAR International Series S 1256), 87-95. Oxford: Hadrian Books.

BEY 045 Preliminary Report on the Excavations

Full Ref. Thorpe, R. 2000. BEY 045 Preliminary Report on the Excavations. Bulletin d'Archaéologie et d'Architecture Libanaises 3 (1998-1999), 57-84.

Interim report (stratigraphic sequence only) written in 1997 on the excavations of cemetery, later Hellenistic possible Gymnasium, 1stcent BC/AD bathhouse,  later Thermes, and later still elements of a Hammam and/or Khan with European medieval material also.

A note on excavations in Central Beirut 1994 - 96

Full Ref. Butcher, K. & Thorpe, R. 1997. A note on excavations in Central Beirut 1994 - 96. Journal of Roman Archaeology 10, 291-306.

An Iron Age and Romano-British Enclosure System at Normanton le Heath, Leicestershire.

Full Ref. Thorpe, R., Sharman, J., & Clay, P. 1994. An Iron Age and Romano-British Enclosure System at Normanton le Heath, Leicestershire. Transactions of The Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society LXVIII, 1-64.

Why Here? Why Now?

Poster produced to stand at memorial to 22nd British Division on the Grande Couronne on teh British Sector of the Salonica Front (1915 - 1918)

Look! Don’t Dig: Cultural Resource Management, Non Intrusive Survey and Hierarchies of Information. A pilot project at Scupi, Republic of Macedonia.

Very very unfinished draft paper on work I did in Macedonia

Some notes towards a characterisation of archaeology as a social practice

Draft of an unfinished and abandoned paper started in 1997 draft dating to 1998 co-authored with Chris Cumberpatch

Geophysical Survey at Konju, Republic of Macedonia

Draft client report on geo-physical survey of late Roman town in FYROM by Macedonian NGO.

An Archaeologcal Evaluation at Church Farm, Northmoor, Oxfordshire

Full ref. Thorpe, R. 1992. An Archaeologcal Evaluation at Church Farm, Northmoor, Oxfordshire. (CAS Site 469). Unpublished Evaluation report for English Heritage

An evaluation excavation on the site of a scheduled ancient monument at Church Farm, Northmoor, Oxfordshire, revealed multi-phase, well preserved and potentially complex archaeological deposits. Pottery dating from the Bronze Age through to the third century A.D was also recovered.

Excavations of the Lincolnshire Car Dyke, Baston.

Full Ref: Thorpe, R. & Zeffert, T. 1989. Excavations of the Lincolnshire Car Dyke, Baston. Fenland Research 6, 10-16.

Evaluation of the Sheen Barrow, Staffordshire

Full ref. Thorpe, R. (1988) Excavations at Sheen, Staffordshire. Unpublished internal Peak Park archaeological evaluation report

Excavations on a Late Roman Farm House at Roystone Grange, Derbyshire, 1988/89, an interim report

Unpublished hand written draft of archive report on excavations I supervised while a student for 2 weeks and following year between jobs for 2 weeks.

Which way is up? Context formation and transformation: The life and deaths of a hot bath in Beirut

published in Assemblage in 1998

The paper narrates the stratigraphic sequence within one room of a Roman and Byzantine bathing complex. It goes on to explain the structure used used to interpret the room as a means of illustrating how (in their strictest sense) the Laws of Archaeological Stratigraphy (Harris 1979, 1989) and the archaeologists who apply them are challenged by sites that exist as partially extant, though essentially buried, ruins. The final sections of the paper considers issues of archaeological methodology and the recognition of stratigraphic complexity complexity, concluding that more traditional methodologies, as practised on the archaeology of the Middle East, and more recent thinking on archaeological method, as expounded by Hodder 1997, fails to address deposit, site and stratigraphic complexity adequately.