Over the past four months, I have had the opportunity to explore documents stored away in the Honor Frost Archive at Southampton University with the intent of creating a digital exhibit for the Foundation based around the research notes, photos and personal letters I found. Despite studying at the University for four years, I never had the chance to explore this collection before and so had no idea what to expect.

As I started undertaking regular visits, I found myself particularly drawn to the correspondence Frost shared with multiple archaeologists around the world. These letters emphasised a perspective on archaeological research that is rarely at the forefront of academic papers, the personal connections between researchers that have allowed our understanding of these sites to grow and evolve.

For this reason, I wanted the digital piece to reflect how the Archive is an invaluable asset in understanding this idea by not only showing what documents I could source from it, but how their themes continued in publications outside of it. All of this I found was epitomised in the Cretan site of Phalasarna, and by bringing its story to the forefront I feel it highlights an aspect of archaeological work we should not lose sight of.

You can read more about Isaac’s research and see his Google Arts and Culture exhibition in this blog post.