Sean O’Connor

I was born, brought up and educated in Maidstone. Firstly at St. Simon Stock RC School, and from the age of 13 At Maidstone Grammar School. It was here that I first had a taste for archaeology, taking part in a training dig at a Roman villa site in Hollingbourne, under the directorship of Brian Philp. The archaeology bug really bit, and after completing A Levels I took my first degree in Archaeology at Durham University.

As an unashamed Romanist, all my specialist interests were directed towards the study of Rome. My dissertation was a coin report on the side finds and hundreds of metal detected coins found on the site of Shiptonthorpe in East Yorkshire, part of an extensive programme of field excavation and landscape survey. My coin report formed the basis of the final written report of the site.

Upon my return to Kent in 1987 one of the first things I did was join the KAS, and I have been a member without break since that time.

Following graduation in 1987 I was employed by the Museum of London, Department of Urban Archaeology, firstly as a field archaeologist on a wide variety of deeply stratified, multi-period urban sites. In 1989 I was promoted to Senior Archaeologist and supervised and produced the post-excavation report for the site in the crypts beneath St. Botolph’s, Aldgate.

Following the decimation of professional archaeology in the economic crisis of late 1989, I joined the large group of ‘resting’ archaeologists in the UK. Having decided that a change of career direction would be the most sensible option for me and my circumstances at time, I embarked upon what transpired to be a full thirty year service career with Kent Police.

During my police career I did not forget my archaeological vocational calling. In 1996 I embarked upon, and obtained, an M.Sc degree in Forensic Archaeology at Bournemouth University. I re-started my archaeological activities in the early 2000’s assisting in geophysical survey of a site near Sudbury on the Suffolk / Essex borders. I then moved on to volunteering on the Canterbury Hinterland Project investigating sites of probable Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman, and Saxon date in the hinterland of Canterbury, using both Geophysics and excavation at Bridge and several other sites to the east of Canterbury. I have also taken part in the 2023 excavation at the Trottisliffe Roman bath house site.