Through a fortunate series of events, Judy Jarvis recently re-joined NAS. Here she shares her story, including a bit of office draw excavation!

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Here’s a story that made me smile this morning. I‘ve just re-joined NAS this year after many years absence but couldn’t remember how along ago it was since I started with NAS.

 

Thanks to Jane Maddocks and some of the NASAC members, I managed to dip in and out of underwater archaeology over the years that I lived on the south coast, so the subject was never far from my thoughts.

 

Judy Jarvis on Spyros Shipwreck, 2012

 

But some significant events happened in the last year that led to me coming back to NAS. My husband retired, we moved to Scotland, and during COVID lock down I partially retired. It was at that time I rediscovered NAS through the CovED talks. What a great series they have been, and I’ll miss my weekly fix of fascinating talks.

 

The talks spurred me on to rejoin NAS, sign up for the elearning on Marine Archaeology and do the online delivered courses on how to use the Lloyd’s Register and another one on identifying coastal defences. So, where am I going with this?

 

Today, I decided to tidy away my paperwork from the courses and found an old folder in the bottom of the office drawer called ‘Nautical Archaeology’. It’s been many years since I rooted around in there, and certainly didn’t remember a folder. In the folder I found the answer to my question of how long ago it was since I first experienced NAS.

 

 Programme for Archaeology Underwater Part 1, Course number 107. August 20-22 1993

You can see that I kept the programme for Archaeology Underwater Part 1, Course number 107. August 20-22 1993. Then, I looked at the names of the tutors at the bottom of the programme: John Adams, Chris Underwood and Alex Hildred - What a team!

 

It was a particularly poignant moment as the last CovEd talk in the series was given by Chris. I have to say, it was one of the most fascinating talks. How great it must have been to see those amazing finds in situ, trek along the Patagonia coast, and how I wish I could do it!

 

Anyway, that small discovery has me with a grin from ear to ear. I hope the story makes you smile too.

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