Margaret Ursula Jones (16 May 1916-23 March 2001) was an English archaeologist, best known for directing major excavations at Mucking, Essex.
Born in Birkenhead, Jones first became involved in archaeology while studying at the University of Liverpool. After graduating she worked as a wartime postal censor and freelance photojournalist, whilst continuing to volunteer on archaeological excavations around Britain.
In 1956, Jones began working for the Ministry of Works as a freelance archaeologist in the burgeoning field of rescue archaeology. She worked at a number of sites, but is best known for her excavations at Mucking, a major Anglo-Saxon settlement and associated cemetery, with finds ranging from the Stone Age to the Medieval period.
The Mucking excavation, which Jones directed from 1965 to 1978, became Britain's largest ever archaeological excavation.
It produced an unprecedented volume of material, although some academic archaeologists have criticized the fact that the results did not appear in print until decades after the excavation had ended. Jones' work at Mucking, as well as her role in founding the campaign group Rescue, was influential in the establishment of modern commercial archaeology in Britain.
More information: Current Archaeology
Margaret Ursula Owen was born on 16 May 1916 to middle class parents in Birkenhead. She attended Calder High School for Girls in Liverpool before going on to read Geography at the University of Liverpool.
At Liverpool, Jones was taught by archaeologist W. J. Varley and volunteered on his excavations of hill forts in Cheshire in the late 1930s. On these excavations she met Tom Jones, another of Varley's assistant excavators, whom she married in June 1940.
Jones worked as a postal censor during the Second World War. Afterwards, she and her husband moved to Hereford and made a living as freelance photojournalists; Margaret wrote articles to accompany photographs taken by Tom.
While working as photojournalists, the Joneses continued to volunteer on archaeological excavations around Britain, and in 1956 Margaret began working as a freelance archaeologist for the Ministry of Works. At the time the Ministry was responsible for the upkeep of Ancient Monuments and, by extension, the large volume of rescue archaeology required to document archaeological sites before they were destroyed by the postwar construction boom. A small workforce of itinerant archaeologists were employed to excavate these sites in advance of development.
Between 1956 and 1965, Margaret Jones directed a number of such excavations in Buckinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire including Old Sleaford.
In 1965, the Ministry of Works asked Jones to conduct an excavation at Linford, a gravel pit near the village of Mucking on the Thames Estuary. The site had been discovered in aerial photographs taken by Kenneth St Joseph and confirmed in a small field walking survey by the Thurrock Local History Society. These initial investigations resulted in the site being designated a Scheduled Monument under the Ancient Monuments Act 1931 and, since it was threatened by gravel extraction, prompted the Ministry to commission an exploratory excavation.
Jones quickly concluded that the crop marks at Mucking represented an extensive site with Iron Age, Roman, Anglo-Saxon and early Medieval remains. On that basis, the Ministry extended her contract and initiated a full excavation of the site.
The Mucking excavation was to become the largest ever carried out in Britain. To keep ahead of its destruction by the gravel company that owned it, Jones, assisted by her husband Tom, directed work at the site continuously for 13 years. Unusually, they excavated all year round, living in a small caravan and employing a shifting workforce of freelance archaeologists and volunteers from around the world.
When it finally completed in 1978, the excavation covered 44 acres and had recorded 44,000 archaeological features, including Beaker burials; a Bronze Age Hillfort; an Iron Age settlement and cemetery; a Roman villa and cemetery; one of the most significant Anglo-Saxon settlements in Britain; two large Anglo-Saxon cemeteries; and a Medieval field system. It involved 5000 archaeologists and volunteers and recovered 1.7 million finds.
After completing the excavations at Mucking in 1978, the Joneses retired from field archaeology and returned to their cottage in Hereford.
Margaret became the patron of the Thurrock Local History Society, the source of many volunteers to the Mucking excavation, and sat on many other archaeology committees in Essex. In this role she regularly gave lectures, guided tours and talks to schoolchildren across the county.
Margaret Jones died on 23 March 2001. In her later years she had suffered from Parkinson's disease, and was predeceased by her husband Tom, who died following a stroke in 1993.
More information: The Guardian
I think, but it's incredibly important to have
this other way of approaching the past
-not just through historical documents,
but through actual physical remains-
objects, buildings and the layout of our towns.
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