Lecture Series 2020/2021

Lecture Series 2020/2021

Here are the details of the lectures we held in 2020/2021

Wednesday 24^th March 2021, 7.30pm

Coin-rich Roman rural sites in SE England

Speaker: David Calow (Surrey Archaeological Society)

Two wide-area Roman rural sites with over 1000 Roman coins and other Roman artefacts have recently been discovered in Surrey. Geophysics and excavation suggest that, although spread over 10-15 hectares, they are probably not small towns and, since over 50% of the coins are pre AD 260, they differ from much of Roman Britain where coins are usually later. Trying to set the sites in context using the Portable Antiquities Scheme and other databases has shown many other unexplained wide-area coin-rich Roman rural sites in SE England. Each seems to have its own characteristics and whether they were mainly about religion, trade or something else is unclear. This zoom online talk will try to draw some conclusions from the evidence.

The Holleyman Lecture

Wednesday 21^st April 2021, 7.30pm

Henges and Hand Grenades: Discoveries from the Army Basing Project, Wiltshire

Speaker: Martin Brown (Principal Archaeologist, Tetratech)

Martin will talk about the project and discoveries made, including Neolithic double henges, a new Neolithic causewayed enclosure and a Great War (WW1) training landscape. He will also make some points about how collaborative working with the County Archaeologist and Army made it all happen on time, while also shedding new light on the Stonehenge landscape.

Wednesday 24^th February 2021

The Material Culture of Medieval Rural Households

Speaker: Ben Jervis (University of Cardiff)

This talk gives an overview of the findings of the recently completed project 'Living Standards and Material Culture in English Rural Households, 1300-1600', which combined historical and archaeological data to investigate the possessions of non-elite households in this period. The talk will reveal the diversity of objects acquired by rural households, including cooking equipment, tableware, bedding and furniture, and explore some of the factors which influenced the consumption habits of medieval households.

Wednesday 20^th January

A Late Iron Age ‘Warrior’ Burial at Walberton, West Sussex

Speaker: Teresa Vieira of Archaeology South-East (UCL)

Teresa will be talking about a Late Iron Age burial discovered in 2019 during mitigation works, carried by Archaeology South-East, ahead of a house development in Walberton, West Sussex. The Walberton burial represents the second known ‘warrior’ burial and sword of Late Iron Age period ever found in Sussex. How does this burial relate to other ‘warrior’ burials from the same period, and how does it contribute to our understanding of Late Iron Age funerary practices? What questions does this discovery pose for future research?

The Annual Sally Christian Lecture

Wednesday 25 November 2020

The Sally Christian Lecture for 2020

Speaker: David Millum of the Culver Archaeological Project

BRIDGE FARM 2018-2020

Fineware, pits, postholes, brooches and rarities or ‘As seen on TV’

David will hope to achieve his usual lively style on his first ever zoom presentation featuring the most recent investigations of this extensive Roman-period settlement in the Sussex Ouse valley. After a quick recap on the stone-lined well found in 2017 he will move swiftly on to Trench 7 opened in 2018 over the centre of the defended area of the site which proved to be exceptionally rich in fineware pottery including whiteware beakers and Central Gaulish Samian, plus bronze fibula brooches, hairpins and hundreds of plain tile tesserae; all set amidst a perplexing plethora of large pits and postholes. Whilst any final conclusions on this area will have to wait for another year, as the team plan to get back to this trench in 2021 after losing the 2020 season, David will offer some current thoughts on the phasing, origin and purpose of the settlement as well as revealing some new intriguing findings on recent specialist research into some extremely rare finds from 2014 which produced surprising and informative results.

Our inaugural lecture

Wednesday 28th October 2020

Speaker: Sarah Green (well someone had to offer to go first !)

Lawrence of Arabia:

Lifting the Veil - the story behind the film and the man behind the name

In this talk I look at T. E. Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, as immortalised in the film of the same name starring Peter O'Toole. However, there is more to Lawrence than his role in the Arab Revolt and I also look at his early life and his legacy. He was involved in many diverse areas, such as archaeology, art and literature, fine-press printing, motorcycling, the development of high speed rescue boats and more. Perhaps you can recognise some of the characters he is with in the photos below - join me on 28th October to find out more!