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Danielle Silverman
MPhil student of Archaeology at Cambridge
My interest in archaeology began when I spent three weeks in Tuscany on a field school excavating a Roman villa. I was only 17 at the time but I knew after those long days trowelling away that this was the career path for me.
While looking at universities I realised that some of the best were in the U.K. so I applied to study abroad, ended up at Durham University and now am studying my MPhil in Archaeology at the University of Cambridge.
If there is one thing I learned from digging dirt for three weeks, it is that one can never understand a place until one is lost in its mysteries.
From my first excavation in Italy all those years ago I am very proud of where my work has taken me and I am always looking forward to the next archaeological adventure.
I am currently working on my thesis on South Asian Archaeology. My work specifically is looking at pilgrimage material culture in Sri Lanka between the Early Historic to Early Medieval periods.
Archaeological work holds a great importance for me as it has truly changed how I visualise and interpret not only the past but how events unfold and people interact in the present.
The common axiom of history repeating itself can be seen in the bad and the good. From sorting fish bones from middens to uncovering ceramic sherds with fingerprints from the potters' hands it is hard not to develop a strong connection and understanding of the continuity of practices and people over time.
Image: Danielle Silverman, Interview: Elle Crawshaw
