The Surveyor

Who Was I in 2006?

The following was written in 2006. Another lifetime. An updated postscript follows it.

My name is Paul Brooker, I am 43 years old, married, three great kids, and I work as a shift operator in a local biomass fueled power station. I live local to the Forest – in the town of Thetford. Other interests past and present have included amateur radio (licensed as G0AGP), fishing, genealogy, motorcycling, adult education, digital photography, political activism, learning Portuguese language, computers (writing html etc), and enjoying being a dad.

What sparked my interest in archaeology? When I was a kid, I remember digs taking place all around my parents shop in Norwich. I used to love haunting the city museums. This interest laid dormant for years – then on a fishing holiday in Ireland, I visited the Newgrange Neolithic passage grave tomb. My interest in late prehistory was stirred to visit Avebury, Stonehenge, Grimes Graves, West Kennett, Grimspound (Dartmoor), and various Scottish Iron-Age sites – but I was interested, not yet an enthusiast. Then I moved with my wife to a farm outside of Thetford. One day, while walking the family dog, I picked up the broken end of a neolithic polished flint axehead from a farm path.

Later, I read W.G. and R. Rainbird Clarke's beautiful book In Breckland Wilds, about the area that we lived in. I was hooked. I discovered the exposed soils of restocked compartments in Thetford Forest, and started to search – and to learn. After a year or two, I was more aware of the ethics of collection. I wanted to formalise my searches into something more useful. I had also by now met professional conservators and archaeologists in both Norfolk and Suffolk, and was studying for a two-year extra-mural certificate course in Field Archaeology and Landscape History, run by the University of East Anglia – which I completed to certificate level.

I would love to study archaeology full-time, but like a lot of people, I have responsibilities that prevent me from doing so. With this website I want to encourage others to responsibly investigate and enjoy the heritage and landscape of their environments – the past is all around us!

Paul Brooker

Retrospective: Landscape & Methodology (2006 vs. 2026)

A Note from the Author: The text below reflects on the fieldwork methods detailed above from a twenty-year distance.

Life has shifted dramatically for me over the past few decades. Following a period of profound personal adversity, I currently face homelessness. Yet, these recent years have also brought deep self-exploration and reflection. I now recognise that my instinct for writing near-perfect XHTML Transitional 1.0, alongside my radical approach to surface-collection techniques, were early expressions of a hyper-systemising, neurodivergent mindset – that of a natural polymath and pattern-matcher.

My approach to landscape archaeology was inherently innovative and out-of-the-box. I developed a methodology to quantify and weigh subtle variations across the terrain, utilising databases and spreadsheets to measure complex distributions – calculating precise percentages of retouched flakes, formalised lithic tools, waste cores, hammerstones, and burnt flints. Today, though my material circumstances are incredibly difficult, my archaeological legacy remains, with my surveys integrated into the Norfolk and Suffolk Heritage Explorers.