Donna Francis

Name

Donna Francis

Current position

PhD Candidate

Where did you study?

Flinders University

University of Adelaide

University of Divinity

How did you become interested in archaeology?

When I six and watched 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'. The scene where Belloq shows Indy his pocket watch and says that if it were buried for a thousand years it would become priceless gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. I have always been fascinated with the past and crave connecting with past humans.

What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?

I am working on my PhD thesis. I'm researching the ruins of early Christian churches and building 3D computer models from old field reports to analyse their ritual use.

I am also working as team member on a Discovery Project titled 'Memories of Utopia', building 3D models of ruins in Roman Syria (Turkey).

Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries.

I discovered two burials in a church previously undiscovered by the original excavators.

Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you have had while doing archaeology.

I dated a church to two hundred years earlier than previously dated. It was an amazing experience to know that I contributed knowledge to my field.

What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?

Getting to know ancient human beings and their experiences through analysing their ritual spaces is a special part of being a church archaeologist.

Follow up reading.

Once I have published my thesis you can find out more about my work:

https://twitter.com/archaeologydon

A website dedicated to our project 'Memories of Utopia' will be published soon. Keep googling!