CBA North: October Events

CBA North News
Our CBA North news contains, as ever, a number of notices of events across the CBA North region – but in particular for Cumbria this time. In particular we are especially pleased to send you details of a regional archaeology conference in Carlisle, which your committee has felt privileged to be asked to support and has so agreed to support. We also have a short update on a Cumbrian project previously featured in our emails to you.

In addition our usual listing of events include those to come soon this month. These are from all round the CBA North region. However, also as ever, the sharp-eyed will notice changes on our Events website page (with two slight changes in details and 20 completely new entries), including those of our member groups the Appleby Archaeology Group, Coquetdale Community Archaeology and the Northumberland Archaeological Group.

We hope you that you enjoy these events and that you might contribute something, perhaps of your own local group’s activities this summer?, that you think that others might enjoy or should know of for our next issue.

Best wishes,

CBA North Committee,
01.10.2019

Connected Communities: Northern Prehistory Conference: Tickets now available

The rock art motif and landscape of Long Meg, Cumbria, photographed by, and copyright of, Scott Wrigglesworth

Elsa Price, Curator at Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, has written a further piece outlining the conference which we sent in an earlier email to you. She writes of the two day conference;

‘I am pleased to announce that tickets are now available for the Northern Prehistory: Connected Communities conference at Tullie House in partnership with Durham University on the 12th and 13th October.

Professor Richard Bradley of Reading University, author of many articles and books on prehistory, will be delivering a speech on “North by North West: Sharing Problems and Answers” to set the scene for the conference. This weekend will bring together a range of professionals from archaeological units, curators, museum educators, students, academics and community centred groups and explore the interdisciplinary nature of the connections within Northern Prehistory.

The conference will be a great opportunity to discuss how public-facing heritage sites and projects can interact with and utilise archaeological and academic expertise. With the inclusion of Prehistory to the National Curriculum in 2014 both schoolchildren and the wider public are becoming interested in their prehistoric heritage, making this an important time to inspire new research and engagement that will move Northern prehistory into the 21st Century. Additionally the National Lottery and Heritage Fund is also placing greater stress upon the impact upon and diversity of participants and audiences in their sponsored projects, so I hope that this weekend will inspire further projects.

Tickets are £50 and will give delegates access to a full day of talks on Saturday (12th October), a half day of talks on the Sunday (13th of October) morning with an afternoon of interactive sessions and workshops to help develop your own local group projects. Lunch and refreshments, on both days, are included with the ticket fee. Conference tickets also grant attendees free access to the museum for the weekend of the conference.

Tickets are now available through the Tullie House box office. Please call 01228 618700 or visit Eventbrite (for which a small booking fee applies) here.

Bursaries
The Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society will award four Clare Fell Fund Bursaries of up to £150 each to students to attend this conference.

Applications (no need for an application form) should be made direct to the society treasurer Dr W D Shannon at treasurer@cumbriapast.org giving name, address, age, institution attended, course i.e. graduate/post-graduate and any special interests. Applications for one of these bursaries should be made as soon as possible.

Sponsorship
This conference has been kindly sponsored by the Council for British Archaeology North. 

Further Information and Enquiries
Please see the conference programme below. For further information please visit the Tullie House website. For any other enquiries please contact me, Elsa Price, through my own email address here, or my colleague Kate Sharpe through her email address here‘.

The programme
This is a provisional programme and may be subject to change

Day 1: Saturday 12th October
09:30 Registration, Tea and Coffee served in the function room

SESSION 1 (Lecture Theatre): 10:00 – 10:30
10:00	Welcome: Gabrielle Heffernan
10:10	Introduction: Elsa Price and Kate Sharpe
10:30	Keynote: Richard Bradley “North by northwest: sharing problems and asking questions”

11:15-11:30 Short comfort break

SESSION 2: SETTING THE SCENE Chair: Kate Sharpe Lecture Theatre: 11:30-12:45
11:30	Something for everyone: Early Prehistory in North West England Sue Stallibrass, Historic England
11:55	Prehistory in the Lake District: recent discoveries and future research Eleanor Kingston, LDNPA Archaeology Officer
12:20	Recent landscape studies in Cumbria and the potential for further research Joel Goodchild, Archaeological Research Services Ltd
12:45	Presenting Prehistory Elsa Price, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
13:10	END

13:10-14:00 Lunch served in function room

SESSION 3A and B (Lecture Theatre + Meeting Room): 13:45-15:15
	3B: TRACES of LIFE and DEATH   Lecture Theatre Chair: Paul Frodsham	3A: EARLY ENCOUNTERS with PREHISTORY Meeting Room Chair: Elsa Price
14:00	Early Neolithic settlement and votive deposition in Cumbria and beyond David Cockcroft, Robin Holgate and Clive Waddington (Archaeological Research Services Ltd Abstract)	Preparing for Prehistory. Creating a schools engagement programme from scratch Kathryn Wharton, Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums
14:25	Monumentality, mortality, metalwork and Morecambe Brendon Wilkins (DigVentures), Stuart Noon (DigVentures), Edward Caswell (Portable Antiquities Scheme), Johanna Ungemach (DigVentures) and Benjamin Roberts (Durham University)	Curating education: A collaborative approach to developing an object-based prehistory offer Katherine Baxter and Emily Nelson, Leeds Museums and Galleries
14:50	Early Bronze Age burial and funerary practices in Cumbria and beyond David Cockcroft and Ben Dyson (Archaeological Research Services Ltd Abstract)	Facing the challenge of teaching Key Stage 2 audiences about Prehistory at the Museum Paddy Holland, Durham University Library and Heritage Collections Learning Team
15:15	Rock art without borders: ‘Cumbrian’ carvings in a wider context Kate Sharpe, Durham University	Researching Museums Collections Gabrielle Heffernan, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
15:40	END	END

15:40-16:10 Tea and coffee served in function room

SESSION 4A and B (Lecture Theatre + Meeting Room): 15:30-17:00
	4A: THE PURSUIT of STUFF  Lecture Theatre Chair: Elsa Price	4B: THE AXE FACTOR  Meeting Room Chair: Kate Sharpe
16:10	People and their pots: the Bronze Age pottery of Cumbria Clara Freer, Exeter University	Searching for hidden treasures: finding and recording Neolithic stone axes in Cumbria Sally Taylor, Oxford University
16:35	Prehistoric Treasures from Cumbria: Tullie House Museum Acquisitions & Artefacts recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme Dot Boughton, freelance archaeological services	Hansel and Gretel in Neolithic Yorkshire: what might they teach us of the stone axe distribution routes? David P. Davidson
17:00	Living among the monuments: lithic scatters in the Vale of Eden, Cumbria Antony Dickson, Annie Hamilton-Gibney and Aaron Watson	“Follow the groove, man.” An exploration of the role of wayfaring and movement in the landscape of the Langdale axe factories, Cumbria Marnie Calvert, University of Glasgow
17:25	END	END

17:30-18:30 Self-guided gallery tour
19:00 Conference dinner. Please either meet in the reception area at 18:30 to walk to the restaurant or meet directly there for dinner at 19:00.

Day 2: Sunday 13th October
10:00 – 10:30 Tea and coffee served in the function room

SESSION 5A and 5B (Lecture Theatre + Meeting Room): 10:00-11:20
	5B: MONUMENTAL LANDSCAPES Meeting Room Chair: Kate Sharpe	5A: STAINTON Lecture Theatre Chair: Gabrielle Heffernan
10:30	Monuments on the mountains: recent fieldwork at boulder-built structures in the Lake District fells Aaron Watson, Peter Style, Peter Rodgers	Stainton West and beyond Fraser Brown and Helen Evans, Oxford Archaeology North
10:55	The brilliance of the Shap prehistoric landscape Emma Watson, Durham University	After CNDR: the bigger Neolithic picture Helen Evans, Oxford Archaeology North
11:20	Long Meg: at the heart of Neolithic Britain Paul Frodsham	Social networking in an age without social media. Understanding variation in lithic technology from Late Mesolithic Structures at the site of Stainton West near Carlisle Robert Rhys Needham, UCLAN
11:45	END	END

 
11:45-12:00 Comfort break

SESSION 6 Closing Discussion (Lecture Theatre)
12:00	Closing discussion: The future of northern Prehistory  Led by Paul Frodsham
12:30	END

 
 12:30-13:30: Lunch served in cafeteria
  

SESSION 7: PREHISTORY IN ACTION Meeting Room
13:30	Workshop – Tullie House Prehistory Schools Session: A Practical Guide Sarah Forster, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
14:30	Workshop – Axe Knapping James Dilley, Ancient Craft UK
15:30	Guided Prehistory Gallery Tour Elsa Price, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery
16:30	Self-Guided gallery time
17:00	END

Regular October 2019 Events
6 October – James IV Memorial Lecture: In the Land of the Giants – a journey through the Dark Ages, Max Adams [TILLVAS]

7 October – Carpow, Corbridge and Carlisle: Roman armour developments in Northern Britain, Dr Jon Coulson [BAS]
9 October – First Farmers in Neolithic Britain: new methods, new interpretations, Prof Peter Rowley-Conwy [NAG]
10 October – Appleby Moot Hall, Marion Barter [APPLEBY]
12 October – An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Church Architecture in Stone and Early Vernacular Buildings focusing on Medieval longhouses and their Post-Medieval derivatives, Alan Newham and Martin Roberts respectively [ALTOGETHER]
12 October – Re-opening the Medieval Castle: micro-stories from material culture, Dr Karen Dempsey [ARCH & ARCH]

12 October – My Favourite Things in the Egypt Centre, Carolyn Graves-Brown [NEAES]
13 October – David Dippie Dixon lectures: Exploring an historic townscape and its hinterland: Wallingford from Saxon to late Medieval, and Bell towers: origins, forms and functions, Prof Neil Christie [CCA]
14 October – Binchester Roman Fort, David Mason [LUNESDALE]
29 October – Rock Art of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg in South Africa, Aron Mazel [TAS]
30 October – The Manorial Documents Register For Northumberland, Sue Wood [SOCANTS]

Events & Exhibitions in May & June across CBA North-land

CBA North News
Apologies for the delay in sending you further news of events across CBA North-land for May and June. As you will see it is something of a bumper issue with many different events coming up soon. Another similarly-sized email is already in preparation with yet more events and announcements to come. Some of these events will bring up-to-date findings from recent research and projects following on from previous emails to you, some deal with new topics different again. For some of these events you will need to book up.

As many of you will know the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) will take effect soon. We will be emailing everyone on what GDPR means for us to hold and process your information, and more importantly for you to continue to receive CBA North news and information. Further details for these will appear in time on the CBA North website as well to accord with these regulations. However if you you have any immediate questions, please feel free to let us know of them.

Once again, if you would like to submit anything on your local group’s recent activities or plans for this summer, please let us know. Keep an eye to our Events page on the website for any additions to the regular talks and lectures of various groups across the CBA North region. Additions to this page are made throughout the year as we know of them.

Best wishes,

CBA North Committee
13.05.2018

Events this week
1) Border Archaeological Society lecture: Finding a Lost Lindisfarne Estate 
There are a number of events coming up this week. These are located in all parts of our region, they start tomorrow night at Berwick with the next of the Border Archaeological Society’s [BAS] lectures. Josie McChrystal, their Secretary, gives us some more details of what promises to be an interesting talk.

Josie informs us that;

“In the early years, the Lindisfarne monastery built up a huge land holding in Northumberland and southern Scotland but in the troubled times of the Viking era some of these lands were taken away from them. Later writers referred to these lands without knowing much about them. We will discover one of these estates in mid-Northumberland on Monday evening.  

The renowned archaeologist Colm O’Brien will be the speaker on this occasion. He has excavated in Northumberland and taught at the universities of Newcastle and Sunderland. He is especially interested in the Age of Bede and now, in retirement, he co-directs the Bernician Studies Group, a community learning group with projects in Northumberland and in County Donegal in Ireland.

As ever, the lecture begins at 7.30 at Berwick Parish Church Hall (Holy Trinity) off The Parade, TD15 1DF. Please tell your family and friends about what promises to be a very interesting evening. All are welcome”.

2) The First World War in the Tees Valley Conference
Dave Errickson, Chair of Teesside Archaeological Society [TAS] one of our group members, has let us know of another event. Members will remember our previous note of our Home Front Legacy workshop in 2015 which highlighted ways groups could look out for and record First World War sites. In contrast to Lindisfarne and the north of our region, this concentrates upon these more modern sites in the south of our region and includes work carried out by the TAS group and others on Teesside recording them. All the talks in this free conference relate to the First World War in some way. The conference is in Middlesbrough and on Saturday this week, but you will need to book places for this. They can be obtained from this Eventbrite page here.

3) North East Ancient Egypt Society lecture: Tell Timai and its Terracotta Figures
Also on Saturday, but in Newcastle, is also the next lecture of the North East Ancient Egypt Society on something different again.

The first Tyne and Wear Archaeology Day
Jennifer Morrison, Tyne and Wear Archaeological Officer, has sent us details of the first Tyne and Wear Archaeology Day which is coming up soon in next month on Saturday, 16 June.

Again you will need to book and again this is a fully packed day. However in this case, whilst all are from the Tyne and Wear area, the talks cover a range of topics including;

– Prehistoric settlements found at East Wideopen and West Shiremoor in North Tyneside
– Roman industrial remains found at Dorcas Avenue in Benwell
– The Roman Wallquest Community Archaeology Project at Benwell, Wallsend (including the newly discovered Roman baths) and South Shields
– Industrial archaeology of the Newcastle Pottery found at Pottery Lane/Forth Banks, Newcastle
– Industrial Archaeology of Ambrose Crowley’s Ironworks at Swalwell in Gateshead
– Crypt Archaeology and human remains found under a former Bethel Chapel in Villiers Street, Sunderland
– World War Two and Cold War Archaeology at Blakelaw and Kenton Bunkers

To book places details are given in the poster or through clicking the link here. In a fully packed day. Jennifer notes that “Most of the archaeological projects which will be discussed have been funded by developers through the planning process, and the aim of the day is to pass on the results of these exciting excavations to local residents”.

Following on from previous emails…
1) The next Dig Deeper talk
Previous CBA North emails have announced talks on forensics and facial reconstruction, as well as osteoarchaeology, for the meetings of various groups. The next Dig Deeper talk at Durham, later this month, will discuss some of the new approaches to looking at and recording old bones – sometimes at a distance to the original samples. 

2) Bodies of Evidence: How science unearthed Durham’s dark secret
Also bone-related our last email carried information about a talk on the Scottish soldiers from the 1650 Battle of Dunbar who had died and been buried at Durham by Richard Annis, once again at Berwick to the Border Archaeological Society in April. Andrew Millard, also of Durham University and involved with the Scottish Soldiers project, has written to us a bit more about the forthcoming exhibition and events associated with that project.

He writes on behalf of the project team in an update to April’s talk with what planned for this summer;

“This exhibition shows how the latest scientific techniques have revealed the soldiers’ story – how they lived, why they died, and what became of those who survived.

Their skeletons were discovered during excavations in Durham in November 2013 and, for the first time, visitors to Palace Green Library will come face to face with a 3D reconstruction of the face of one of these men in the exhibition. The exhibition also tells the story of those survivors who were transported across the Atlantic to the edge of the known world. These men lived to have families and we are proud to have connected with many descendants, and we hope that descendants will be able to visit us and the exhibition in Durham this summer.

Running alongside the exhibition will be a programme of events, including family activities, public lectures, and the new production Woven Bones from Cap-a-Pie theatre company. The play will tell the story of the Scottish soldiers, and will tour venues along the route marched from Dunbar to Durham. Details of the production can be found on the Cap-a-Pie website.

Key highlights of this programme of events so far include:

– 18th June: Evening gallery opening with Professor Chris Gerrard, Project Lead for the Scottish Soldiers Archaeology Project
– 30th July: Evening lecture by Dr David Caldwell, President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
– 13th August: Evening lecture by Professor Caroline Wilkinson, Director of Face Lab, Liverpool John Moores University, which produced the facial reconstruction
– 3rd September: Evening lecture by Arran Johnston, Founding Director of the Scottish Battlefields Trust

The Scottish Soldiers Archaeology Project Team would be delighted to welcome descendants to the exhibition and would be pleased to arrange private tours with members of the Team, so please do let us know if you are planning a visit by emailing Scottish.soldiers@durham.ac.uk. We recognise that Durham is a long way to travel for many of you, and so we are developing a small sister touring exhibition which will visit venues in the United States. More information about this touring exhibition will be made available in due course.

Further details and more events will be announced soon. Visit our website to find out more about the exhibition.

A book documenting the archaeology of the discovery, the process of analysis, and the history of the Scottish soldiers, including stories of the survivors, has also been produced by the Project Team and will be available in the coming months. Visit Oxbow Books to find out more about the book here.

We hope to see you this summer.

Kind regards,

The Scottish Soldiers Archaeology Project Team & Exhibition Curatorial Team”.

Further February events across CBA North

CBA North News
A quick email to update Members and Followers of two events this week – more to come later!

Best wishes,

CBA North Committee,
13.02.2018

Newcomen Society lecture: the Spadeadam space age


Durham Museum of Archaeology lecture: Bronze Age treasures

The Late Shows 15 & 16 May

So much happening with the Late Shows this weekend!

The Late Shows is an inspiring, after dark programme of events and exhibitions centering on the cultural venues in NewcastleGateshead that are usually closed in the evening. The Late Shows began in 2007 and now, in its ninth year, has doubled in size since its beginning.

Museums, galleries and visitor attractions stay up late to encourage people to do something cultural with their evening – in celebration of the international event ‘Museums at Night’.

In the first year, 14 venues took part, rising to more than 50 in 2014.  The Late Shows 2014 was the biggest and most successful yet with 33,000 visits across the weekend.

The Late Shows’ main objective is to encourage people to visit a museum or gallery that they may not have visited before. In particularly, our aim is to attract a younger audience and share loyal audiences between venues.

Venues involved in the evening are asked to programme an event or activity that would be different to their normal offering and over the years we’ve seen everything from interactive art, treasure trails, behind the scenes tours and exhibition previews to live music, DJs, discos and artist talks.

The Late Shows 2015 will take place on Friday 15 and Saturday 16 May 2015.

For further details have a look at: http://www.thelateshows.org.uk/home.html