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An ancient lake supported human life in the Namib Sand Sea, say experts

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 11:22:07 +0100

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Desert regions in and the have been well studied by archaeologists as the and as routes of along “”. The archaeology of southern Africa’s west coast desert belt has not received the same attention.

The Namib Sand Sea, part of the Namib Desert, is on the west coast of Namibia. It is a hyperarid landscape of towering dunes, occupying about 34,000km² between the towns of Lüderitz in the south and Walvis Bay in the north. However, there are clues that this environment was not always so dry and inhospitable, suggesting that there is more to be learnt about ancient human life here.

We are part of an interdisciplinary research team of physical geographers, archaeologists and geospatial scientists, interested in the long-term history of deserts and human-environmental interactions.

Our provides a timeframe for the presence of a small freshwater lake that once existed in the Namib Sand Sea. This lake was fed by an ancient river and is surrounded by a rich record of stone tools from the (made between about 300,000 years ago and 20,000 years ago), indicating that people ventured into this landscape and used this occasional water source.

Dating the former lake site, Narabeb, makes it clearer when ancient humans would have been able to live here. It draws attention to the Namib Sand Sea as a place archaeologists should study to learn more about far-reaching and deep human connections across southern Africa.

An ancient lake and shifting sand dunes

Today, Narabeb is a landscape dominated by long sand dunes that tower more than 100 metres high over the former lake site. There is no standing water here and the landscape receives little to no rain most years. However, that’s probably not what our ancient ancestors would have seen here. Away from the lake, they might have seen a relatively flat plain, seasonally covered by grasses, beside a river.

The clue is in sediments at the site: mud layers that were laid down by water. To find out how long ago the lake was at Narabeb, we needed to date these layers.

We used a technique called – basically, making sand glow to tell the time. Sand grains release a trapped signal that builds up when sand is buried underground, and is reset when sand is exposed to sunlight. Using this technique, we can date when different layers were last on the surface before they got buried. We dated the sand beneath and above layers of mud that were deposited by water. Our results show that the lake was present at Narabeb at some point between 231,000 ± 20,000 and 223,000 ± 19,000 years ago and again about 135,000 ± 11,000 years ago.

Another clue is the shape of the landscape east of Narabeb. It is dune free, reminding us that ancient humans were not the only things migrating in the Namib Sand Sea. Have the dunes been on the move? For how long? And how quickly?

Drilling to the centre of these dunes to work that out remains logistically impossible. Instead, we used .

The modelling suggests that it would have taken around 210,000 years to accumulate the amount of sand around Narabeb (those 110m high dunes). This number is remarkably close to the oldest age for the lake. This suggests that the dunes may only just have been starting to form and that a river was supplying the lake with fresh water, supporting animals and attracting people. The sediments at Narabeb also clearly tell us that a river once flowed where there are now dunes.

The winds have pushed dunes from the south and west to north and east, creating barriers for the river and hindering movement of people and animals along the water course.

Ancient human presence

At we have found tools from an earlier species of the Homo genus. This is part of a growing body of evidence, adding to research in the Kalahari desert in the centre of southern Africa, that suggests to the story of human evolution and technological innovation than has been supposed.

The artefacts from Narabeb fit into the Middle Stone Age type of stone tool technology. Narabeb is a particularly rich site for stone tools, suggesting people made tools here for a long time and perhaps visited the site over many generations.

This research illustrates the need for a comprehensive study of areas that have not been on the map of the major routes of human and animal migration. These might reveal exciting records of diffusion, innovation and adaptation to marginal and changing environments.

Our results also make us think about the dynamic nature of environmental conditions in one of Earth’s oldest desert regions. It has long been thought that the Namib has been consistently very and not a place capable of containing “green corridors” at the times of interest for archaeologists. Now we can challenge that idea.

Future steps

Recent funding from the will allow us to extend our fieldwork, documenting archaeological sites and dating these “green corridors” across more of this landscape. along the ancient river course has revealed an expansive artefact-littered landscape. We also need to know more about where ancient populations found the materials they used to make stone tools.

This will allow us to piece together a network of archaeological sites and show where human migration might have been possible in this part of southern Africa. Up to now, it’s been a gap in the archaeological map.

More work is also needed to understand the shifts in climate that allowed the rivers to flow into the Namib. This Southern Hemisphere, west coast desert has a very different setting to north Africa and Arabia, which have for understanding their periodic “green corridors”. Ongoing work with the wider scientific community, including climate modellers, may create a clearer picture of the Namib’s “green corridors”.

, Reader in Physical Geography, and , Professor of Archaeology,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

Archaeology tours return to Arthur’s Stone for a final year of excavations

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:00:00 +0100

For a final summer, members of the public will get the chance to get up close to archaeological excavations being carried out at Arthur’s Stone.

Tours of the mysterious and evocative English Heritage site also took place in 2022 and 2023 as part of a project to investigate early prehistoric Herefordshire, undertaken by The University of Manchester, Cardiff University and the American Institute for Field Research, in partnership with English Heritage. The project has significantly changed academic understanding of how the monument was used, and its team hope to uncover more of its secrets in 2024.

Arthur’s Stone is a Neolithic burial chamber comprising nine upright stones and a gigantic 25 tonne capstone. Situated on a hillside of Herefordshire’s Golden Valley, the 5,700-year-old site is most famous for its links to legends of King Arthur and for being a source of inspiration for the stone table in CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

So far, the project has started to unravel a complex sequence of changes to the monument spanning about seven centuries in the early Neolithic (3,700 – 3,000 BCE). We now know that it started as a stone chamber or ‘dolmen’ in the 37^th century BCE encircled by a thick stone ring, with an entrance on the north. It was later re-oriented to face south and remodelled within a long cairn faced by drystone walls, with a false entrance between two projecting ‘horns’ of the cairn.

The archaeologists found evidence for an avenue of wooden posts leading to the new entrance which were replaced some centuries later with standing stones. It now looked more like the Long Barrows at Belas Knap and Stoney Littleton (also cared for by English Heritage). A narrow passage was built into one side of the cairn so that the old entrance could still be reached. Inside the passage they found pottery, bone, pitchstone from the Isle of Arran and rock crystal, probably brought from North Wales.

This year the excavation team will be continuing to trace the course of the timber and stone avenue down into the Golden Valley, as well as investigating a mysterious circular structure that showed up on drone survey in the field to the south of the monument. They will also aim to clarify the sequence of the construction of the stone chamber and long cairn.

Visitors to Arthur’s Stone will be able to join exclusive guided tours between 3 – 25 July that explain the history of the site and share updates on the progress of excavations. Led by a team of English Heritage volunteers, the tours will bring the findings from this remarkable project to life. Tours will take place three times a day and is essential to secure a place.

Ginny Slade, Volunteer Manager at English Heritage, comments: “Over 2,000 people came to our tours and local lectures on the project in 2023 which was incredible – particularly for those lucky enough to see a new discovery being unearthed in front of them. Given that we may not see archaeological excavations on this scale carried at Arthur’s Stone again for some years, we’d recommend coming to have a look if you’ve visited the site before or want to experience its magic for the first time.”

For more information, visit .

The Past at Their Fingertips – Using the Archaeology Lab for Schools Outreach Activities

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 11:58:33 +0000

Colleagues Sonja Bernhard (TLSE Coordinator) and (Archaeology PhD student) ran an Insight Day giving the year 12 students first-hand experience with the archaeology teaching collection in our archaeology lab. Based upon the success of this event we want to promote our labs for use as an outreach space.

Thursday, 25 January 2024 saw the return of SALC’s popular Insight Days for Year 12 students. 200 students from Sixth Form Colleges across the North West (as far afield as Carlisle and Lancaster in some cases) came onto campus to explore History, English and related disciplines via presentations and hands-on workshops. And it does not get much more hands-on than the ever-popular object handling session in the Archaeology lab!

Every last workbench was filled by students eager to learn from our PhD researcher Jane Barker how to handle ancient artefacts safely and what they can tell us about the people who made and used them. With Archaeology no longer offered at A level, it is ever more important to give students opportunities to explore this discipline and make them understand how it links Humanities with a scientific, lab-based approach.

Jane said:

We plan to show off our lab and include handling sessions at future Insight Days and other school events. They are a vital part of showcasing what makes Archaeology at 91ֱ�� special and unique.

New archaeological discoveries set to transform understanding of Arthur’s Stone

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 09:00:00 +0100

Archaeological excavations at the Neolithic site of Arthur’s Stone in Herefordshire have uncovered unprecedented remains that will transform understanding of the monument, and of the first farming communities in Britain nearly 6000 years ago.

The project - led by The University of Manchester, University of Cardiff and Herefordshire Council’s Archaeology Section - represents the first investigation of the site, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument cared for by the charity English Heritage. Professor Julian Thomas from The University of Manchester, one of the excavation directors, says “Arthur’s Stone is a well-known and much-loved monument, it has become tied up with Arthurian legend, and provided the inspiration for Aslan’s table in C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’. However, it has never been excavated before, so we have not clearly understood how the stones visible today relate to the monument in the Neolithic, until now.”

The team expected the site to be poorly preserved, as many upstanding monuments like this were targeted by antiquarians and looters in the 18th and 19th century. But to their surprise, the excavations, permitted by English Heritage and Historic England, uncovered substantial new parts of the monument inches below the surface, and completely undisturbed Neolithic deposits.

Dr Nick Overton from The University of Manchester, another of the project directors, said “The stone-build architecture found in our excavations reveal a complex history of construction. The stone monument began as a ‘dolmen’, made up of the giant capstone sitting on upright stones that is visible today, surrounded by a circular bank of stone with a single entrance at the north end, marked by two large upright stones. There are other dolmens from the period in Britain, mainly in the west, but this is, to our knowledge, the first with a bank and entrance. Interestingly, there may be similar examples in Denmark. This was then surrounded by a larger trapezoid-shaped long cairn bounded by dry-stone walling. On the western side of the cairn was an entrance to a passage, leading to a small stone chamber, formed in part by the entrance stones of the earlier phase. After a period of time, the floor of the chamber and passageway was sealed by stoney deposits, and the entrance was blocked up.

Excavations around the entrance, and within the passageway and chamber recovered Neolithic pottery and stone tools, including a piece of worked rock crystal, most likely from North Wales, and a piece of pitchstone, from the Isle of Arran in Scotland. The excavations also recovered deposits of human bone containing multiple individuals; they were most likely introduced to the monument as fleshed cadavers, and later re-arranged, mixed together, and deposited in discrete piles. The local geology is acidic, so the recovery of well-preserved human bone was not expected, and very exciting.

Professor Keith Ray from the University of Cardiff, the third project director said “Collaborative work like this between our institutions, Historic England and English Heritage is so important; it has uncovered evidence that will radically re-write our understanding of the monument, and contribute to new understandings of the Neolithic in Britain. The human remains offer an enormous potential to think about the life and death of these early farming communities in this part of the world, nearly 6000 years ago. The changing styles of the earlier and later stone monuments tells a story of new communities doing things in specific local ways, before becoming wrapped up in broader regional practices. But at the same time, the presence of rock crystal and pitchstone tells a story of communities with networks of long-distance connections. These are all fascinating insights into a dynamic period of Britain’s prehistory.”

Over the course of July, over 2000 members of the public attended local lectures, daily guided tours led by English Heritage volunteers, and the project’s open day, giving visitors the chance to learn about new discoveries at the monument as they happened. Work is now underway to analyse all of the material recovered, with specialist assistance from Historic England, which will further expand our understanding of the monument and the people that built and used it, and guide the future management and presentation of the monument, ensuring the monument continues to be enjoyed for generations to come.

Bill Klemperer, Principal Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Historic England, said “The results of the carefully planned and highly targeted excavation, and the ongoing analysis, will inform future safeguarding and interpretation for the wider public of this site, and also the understanding and potential of similar sites in England.”

Discovery at Arthur’s Stone led by University of Manchester team

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 13:29:09 +0100

A team from the universities have been excavating at Arthur's Stone in Herefordshire, and continue to make exciting discoveries at the site, believed to date to 3700BC.

Professor Julian Thomas, Director of Archaeology at the University of Manchester, is leading the project with Professor Keith Ray of Cardiff University. 91ֱ�� colleague Dr Nick Overton is Associate Director.

When asked about the recent work undertaken by the team, Professor Thomas said:

Members of the public are now able to visit the site and see the work undertaken by the team. Since the BBC’s news story regarding the discovery of the cremated remains, the site has become a popular destination for enthusiasts.

Professor Thomas added:

The project is an important research excavation that acts as a training exercise for British and overseas students. As well as academics, the project is staffed by professional archaeologists taking leave of absence from commercial archaeology units, most of whom are graduates from 91ֱ�� and Cardiff. It also brings together 38 current and recently graduated 91ֱ�� students, who are taking Archaeology-related degrees. There were also 10 students from Cardiff University and five students from a variety of American universities.

Witness archaeology in action at Arthur’s Stone

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 10:12:06 +0100

Throughout July, visitors to Arthur’s Stone will get the chance to witness excavations taking place that aim to unearth the mysteries surrounding the evocative site. Tours will be run by a team of volunteers from English Heritage who will explain the latest findings from the project, run by experts and students from The University of Manchester, Cardiff University, and a series of American institutions.

Situated in the hills above Herefordshire’s Golden Valley, Arthur’s Stone is a Neolithic burial chamber nearly 6,000 years old formed of nine upright stones with an enormous capstone – estimated to weight more than 25 tonnes and measuring 30 feet long by 7 feet wide – on top. Only the large stones of the inner chamber remain today, though these were once covered by a long cairn of smaller stones.

Last summer, archaeologists from The University of Manchester and Cardiff University were granted rare permission to excavate the site, which is in the care of the charity English Heritage, as part of an ongoing project to investigate early prehistoric Herefordshire. The project has significantly changed our understanding of Arthur’s Stone by showing that the monument had a complex structural history.

Originally the chamber may have been set within an earthen platform bounded by a timber palisade and approached by an avenue of upright posts. Later, the long cairn was constructed, bounded by finely-constructed drystone walls. It is now thought that Arthur’s Stone formed part of a ‘monumental landscape’ including the Neolithic long mounds and ditched enclosure on nearby Dorstone Hill.

This year, the excavation team, led by Professor Julian Thomas at The University of Manchester and Professor Keith Ray from Cardiff University, will turn their attention to the passage that enters the monument from the west. This is an area which has never before been excavated. They will also be exploring three areas in nearby fields, which may contain a prehistoric quarry and a previously unknown monument.

Over the centuries Arthur’s Stone has been an inspiration for storytellers as well as historians. The ancient site has links to King Arthur himself who, it is said, slew an almighty giant on the capstone, leaving indentations on its surface. The author CS Lewis is also thought to have been inspired by the Golden Valley and the Wye Valley whilst creating his fictional world of Narnia, taking inspiration for the stone table in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe from Arthur’s Stone.

English Heritage has recruited a team of friendly and enthusiastic volunteers to work alongside the archaeologists to bring the history and stories of the stones to life with free tours of the excavation site. Tours will take place three times daily between 2 – 23 July, except on Saturdays. is essential as the tours are anticipated to sell out. Tours will start from Arthur’s Stone and participants are requested to park in the field next to the site, rather than on the road.

Ginny Slade, Volunteer Manager at English Heritage, comments: “The evocative Arthur’s Stone continues to attract worldwide attention, so it is a real privilege for us to be able to offer the chance for members of the public to come and witness the excavations. The tours proved exceptionally popular in 2022 and we are expecting the same this year, so please do pre-book if you would like the chance to come and listen to our volunteers explain the latest findings in the project.”

For more information on Arthur’s Stone visit .

Archaeologists shed light on the lives of Stone Age hunter-gatherers in Britain

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:10:37 +0000

A team of archaeologists from the Universities of Chester and 91ֱ�� has made discoveries which shed new light on the communities who inhabited Britain after the end of the last Ice Age.

Excavations carried out by the team at a site in North Yorkshire have uncovered the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a small settlement inhabited by groups of hunter-gatherers around ten and a half thousand years ago. Among the finds that the team recovered were the bones of animals that people hunted, tools and weapons made from bone, antler and stone, and rare traces of woodworking.

The site near Scarborough originally lay on the shore of an island in an ancient lake and dates to the Mesolithic, or ‘Middle Stone Age’ period. Over thousands of years the lake slowly filled in with thick deposits of peat, which gradually buried and preserved the site.

said: “It is so rare to find material this old in such good condition. The Mesolithic in Britain was before the introduction of pottery or metals, so finding organic remains like bone, antler and wood, which are usually not preserved, are incredibly important in helping us to reconstruct peoples’ lives.”

Analysis of the finds is allowing the team to learn more and change what has been previously understood about these early prehistoric communities. The bones show that people were hunting a wide range of animals in a number of different habitats around the lake, including large mammals such as elk and red deer, smaller mammals such as beavers, and water birds. The bodies of hunted animals were butchered and parts of them were intentionally deposited into the wetlands at the island site.

The team also discovered that some of the hunting weapons made of animal bone and antler had been decorated, and had been taken apart before being deposited on the island’s shore. This, they believe, shows that Mesolithic people had strict rules about how the remains of animals and objects used to kill them were disposed of.

According to : “People often think of prehistoric hunter-gatherers as living on the edge of starvation, moving from place to place in an endless search for food, and that it was only with the introduction of farming that humans lived a more settled and stable lifestyle. But here we have people inhabiting a rich network of sites and habitats, taking the time to decorate objects, and taking care over the ways they disposed of animal remains and important artefacts. These aren’t people that were struggling to survive. They were people confident in their understanding of this landscape, and of the behaviours and habitats of different animal species that lived there.”

The team hopes that future research at this site and others in the area will continue to shed new light on people’s relationship with the environment. Analysis of peat deposits around the site is already showing that this was an incredibly biodiverse landscape, rich in plant and animal life, and as work continues, the team hopes to find out what effects humans had on this environment.

The excavations are featured in episode 5 of the new series of Digging for Britain, which will be broadcast on BBC Two at 8pm on Sunday 5^th February and is currently available on BBC iPlayer.

The project is co-directed by Dr Barry Taylor and Dr Amy Gray Jones from the University of Chester, and Dr Nick Overton from The University of Manchester. The project received financial support from the Royal Archaeological Institute, The Prehistoric Society and the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society, and took place with the help of landowner Mr Sidney Craggs, students and graduates from the Universities of Chester and 91ֱ��, and volunteers from the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society.

Prehistoric Brits used rare rock crystals to mark burial sites, research finds

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 11:18:56 +0100

Distinctive and rare rock crystals were moved over long distances by Early Neolithic Brits and were used to mark their burial sites, according to groundbreaking new archaeological research.

Evidence for the use of rock crystal - a rare type of perfectly transparent quartz which forms in large hexagonal gems - has occasionally been found at prehistoric sites in the British Isles, but little investigation has previously been done specifically into how the material was used and its potential significance.

A group of archaeologists from The University of Manchester worked with experts from the University of Cardiff and Herefordshire County Council on a dig at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, a mile south of another dig at Arthur’s Stone. There, they studied a complex of 6000-year-old timber halls, burial mounds and enclosures from the Early Neolithic period, when farming and agriculture arrived in Britain for the first time.

As well as a range of artefacts including pottery, stone implements and cremated bones, they uncovered rock crystal which had been knapped like the flint at the site, but unlike the flint, it had not been turned into tools such as arrow heads or scrapers - instead, pieces were intentionally gathered and deposited within the burial mounds. The experts say the material was deposited at the site over many generations, potentially for up to 300 years.

Only a few places in the British Isles have produced pure crystals large enough to produce the material at Dorstone Hill, the closest being Snowdonia in North Wales and St David’s Head in South West Wales - this means that the ancient Brits must have carried the material across large distances to reach the site.

As a result, the researchers speculate that the material may have been used by people to demonstrate their local identities and their connections with other places around the British Isles.

“It was highly exciting to find the crystal because it is exceptionally rare - in a time before glass, these pieces of perfectly transparent solid material must have been really distinctive,” said lead researcher Nick Overton. “I was very interested to discover where the material came from, and how people might have worked and used it.”

The researchers plan to study materials found at other sites to discover whether people were working with this material in similar ways, in order to uncover connections and local traditions. They also intend to look at the chemical composition of the crystal to find out if they can track down its specific source.

The paper can be accessed at .

Archaeologists carry out first dig at tomb linked to King Arthur

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 10:01:54 +0100

Archaeologists from The University of Manchester have started a dig at a 5,000-year-old tomb linked to King Arthur, hoping to answer some of the mysteries surrounding the enigmatic site in the process.

The experts are working in partnership with English Heritage, which looks after Arthur's Stone in Herefordshire, to remove turf to expose and record particularly sensitive archaeological remains.

Arthur's Stone is a Neolithic chambered tomb which has never previously been excavated, but English Heritage say that similar examples in the same region have been found to contain incomplete skeletal remains of several people, together with flint flakes, arrowheads and pottery.

Today, only the large stones of the inner chamber remains, which is placed in a mound of earth and stones whose original size and shape remains a mystery. The chamber is formed of nine upright stones, with an enormous capstone estimated to weigh more than 25 tonnes on top.

Like many prehistoric monuments in western England and Wales, this tomb has been linked to King Arthur since before the 13th century. According to legend, it was here that Arthur slew a giant who left the impression of his elbows on one of the stones as he fell.

More recently, the author CS Lewis is thought to have been inspired by the area when creating his fictional world of Narnia - with Arthur’s Stone the inspiration for the stone table upon which Aslan the Lion is sacrificed in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

“Arthur’s Stone is one of the country’s most significant Stone Age monuments, and this excavation gives a really rare and exciting chance for members of the public to come and see archaeology in action,” said Ginny Slade, Volunteer Manager at English Heritage. “Our team of wonderful volunteers will be on hand to explain the latest findings as they happen - we’re asking people to book in advance to make sure everyone has a chance to enjoy this great opportunity.”

The dig follows research undertaken by the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff immediately to the south of the monument last year which has already changed the thinking about the orientation and origins of the site.

It was assumed that Arthur’s Stone stood within a wedge-shaped stone cairn, similar to those found in the Cotswolds and South Wales, but 91ֱ��’s Professor Julian Thomas and Cardiff’s Professor Keith Ray found that the monument originally extended into a field to the southwest, and may have taken the form of a low turf mound with rounded ends. Professors Thomas and Professor Ray will also lead the upcoming excavations, with the participation of students from Cardiff University and a series of American institutions.

English Heritage has also recruited a team of volunteers to work alongside the archaeologists to bring the history and stories of the stones to life with tours of the excavation site. Pre-booked tours are available to now.

Faculty of Humanities to host first British Academy lecture

Tue, 22 Feb 2022 12:18:36 +0000

On Monday, 7 March 2022 the University will welcome David Wengrow FBA, Professor of Comparative Archaeology at University College London.

The lecture, titled ‘For an anthropology and archaeology of freedom’ will draw on Professor Wengrow’s collaboration with the late Professor David Graeber. The lecture will argue the importance of an ethnography of freedom to the foundations of anthropology.

Professors Wengrow and Graeber recently co-authored the New York Times bestselling ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’.

The public lecture will be followed by an audience Q+A and a drinks reception, all hosted at Alliance 91ֱ�� Business School. Tickets are available to book online:

91ֱ�� graduate Harriet McMahon celebrates a twin success

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 14:27:22 +0100

A student from The University of Manchester is celebrating after graduating from her degree only three months after giving birth to twin girls.

Harriet McMahon had just started the final year of her Archaeology & Anthropology degree when she discovered she was expecting twins. She was delighted, but also knew this would make her final year much more complicated to complete.

Against the advice of some family and friends, Harriet decided to carry on with her course rather than deferring until she had given birth. However, she took her studies and her pregnancy in her stride, and university staff and her fellow students offered support wherever they could.

Despite having extreme morning sickness for the first three months of her pregnancy and having to spend a lot of time at home during this, she was closely supported by her academic supervisor Dr Melanie Giles, who met with her one-on-one and prepared her for her final year exam.

She was also supported by her fellow students, who stepped in to help in their group work projects, including their archaeology radio programme.

She thought she would be able to complete her studies before giving birth, but her twins - Florence and Mathilda – actually arrived three weeks early, which meant she had to finish her dissertation while caring for them. Dr Giles ensured she helped with this by meeting with Harriet – and the twins – and helping her to meet her deadlines.

Harriet now plans to take some months off with her new arrivals, but has applied for several graduate schemes and hopes to begin one of these next year.

"When Harriet told me she was not just expecting, but expecting twins, I was delighted - not least because I am also a twin - but also daunted," said Dr Giles. "They were due before the end of term, and we knew we would have to work hard to get all of her assessments completed by the time they arrived. We nearly managed that!"