The Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology
SPMA logo The Newland's Miner.  The logo shows a free miner of the Forest of Dean, depicted on the monumental brass to Robert Greyndour at Newland church, Gloucestershire.  Greyndour died in 1443; the brass was engraved in London at about that time (drawn from a rubbing by Peter Brears).
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Museum in Docklands, London. Sugar exhibition

New Exhibition:

London, Sugar & Slavery

Museum in Docklands, London

Museum in Docklands’ new gallery, London, Sugar & Slavery, reveals how London’s involvement in slavery has shaped the capital since the 17th century.

Personal accounts, film, music, interactives and over
140 objects bring home the complexities and humanity of the issues around the roaring trade in sugar and people, slave resistance and the abolition campaign, and the legacies of the enduring relationship between London and the Caribbean.

 

 

The Society of Medieval Archaeology's banner

 

 

The Society of Medieval Archaeology's banner

Forthcoming Conference:

Looking to the Future of Medieval Archaeology


3rd May 2008, Institute of Archaeology, University College London

In 2007 the Society for Medieval Archaeology celebrated its 50th anniversary with a series of events that reflected on progress over that period. It is now time to look to the future, and this will be the subject of a special workshop to be held at University College London on Saturday May 3rd 2008. The aim of this workshop is to highlight the opportunities and challenges facing medieval archaeology over the coming decade, considering the various ways in which medieval archaeology in the future might build on the achievements of the last 50 years to allow this relatively new discipline to capitalise ever more effectively on its unique potential, linking, as it does, artefact and text, the ancient world and the modern, and lost and living monuments and evidence.

To download the conference programme and book a place click here

 

 

Sir Maurice Berkeley (ob 1581) and his two Wives (ob 1559 & 1585), Brunton St Mary

Forthcoming Conference:

Symposium of the Church Monuments Society

18-20 July 2008, Bristol

The Church Monuments Society is holding its Biennial Symposium next year at the University of Western England, Bristol. Speakers include: Dr Julian Litten: Intramural Burial Practices of the 17th and 18th Centuries; Dr Kerry Bristol: Monuments by James 'Athenian' Stuart, and Dr Clive Easter: Social Status Indicators on Church Monuments from the Post Restoration Period to the Early C17.

A booking form and further details may be obtained from the website or from the symposium organizer: Dr CJ Easter, 55 Bowden Park Road, Crownhill, Plymouth, PL6 5NG.

 

 

Atlantic Worlds Flyer

New Exhibition:

Atlantic Worlds

National Maritime Museum, London

Atlantic Worlds is a new permanent gallery in the National Maritime Museum. The gallery explores the interrelationship, connections and exchanges created between Britain, Africa and the Americas between 1600-1850 and looks at the impact of empire on three continents.

Atlantic Worlds replaces the Museum’s former Trade and Empire gallery and is planned as one of a pair of complementary galleries. The partner gallery will examine the world of the Indian Ocean and will replace the current Art and the Sea gallery. The development of this gallery will begin after the completion and opening of Atlantic Worlds and is due to open in 2009.

SPMA 2007 Prize Winner Sanne Roberts with the Society's President, Geoff Egan

SPMA Dissertation Prize Winner Announced

The winner of this year’s annual prize for the best undergraduate or postgraduate dissertation in the field of post-medieval archaeology was awarded to Sanne Roberts (MA Buildings Archaeology, University of York) for her dissertation, ‘Made in Sheffield: the buildings of the crucible steel industry’.

The prize judges were happy to commend Sanne’s work as a sophisticated approach to the standing building evidence of such an important industry, which explored the development of industrial complexes in eighteenth and nineteenth century Sheffield and their relationship to the wider urban landscape, and we were delighted that Sanne was able to attend the September conference in Exeter to receive her award of £250 in person.

 

 

 

Forthcoming Conference:

Crossing Paths or Sharing Tracks?
Future Directions for the Archaeological
Study of post-1550 Britain and Ireland.


4-6th April 2008, Leicester

The conference aims to bring together representatives from the Society for Post Medieval Archaeology, the Association for Industrial Archaeology, the Contemporary Historical Archaeology and Theory list, the Irish Post-Medieval Archaeology Group, and the Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland to consider the commonalties between approaches as well as the unique contributions made by members of each organisation towards the study of the material heritage of the post-1550 period. Through this discussion-focused conference, we hope to foster enhanced understanding and cooperation between the organisations and their approaches, with in-depth consideration of the future of the broader field of historical archaeology.

To download the conference programme and book a place click here

HMS logo

Forthcoming Workshop:

Nineteenth-Century Ironmaking: Historical Metallurgy Society Workshop

18th April 2008, Sheffield

This Historical Metallurgy Society workshop provides a forum to discuss recent and ongoing investigations into all aspects of archaeometallurgy. This year, the theme is 19th-century ironmaking. The development of coke blast furnaces into the early 19th century is fairly well understood, but what about the archaeology and archaeometallurgy of hot blast, and particularly the massive 19th century development of the forge and foundry sectors - how do we best approach excavation and analysis on these sites? And how do we understand the often 'difficult' evidence that we uncover?.

The workshop is open to all, and we hope that most of those actively involved in the subject will take part. If you would like to present a short paper, please contact Anna Badcock on 0114 222 2957 (a.badcock@sheffield.ac.uk).

Convegno Ceramica 2008

Forthcoming Conference:

XLI Convegno Internazionale della Ceramica
Ceramica da farmacia
tra medioevo ed età moderna

May 2008, Italy

Click here to go to the Centro Ligure per la Storia della Ceramica website for more information about this conference

Cod and Herring: The Archaeology and Early History of Intensive Fishing

Forthcoming Conference:

Cod and Herring: The Archaeology and Early History of Intensive Fishing

June 2008 Westray, Orkney

The development of intensive cod and herring fisheries in medieval and early modern times has had a profound and ongoing impact on the political economy, social history and historical ecology of the Northern Hemisphere. This workshop aims to bring together archaeologists and historians in order to elucidate the early origins, causes and consequences of commercial fishing for these once superabundant species.

Abstracts for papers are now invited, with a deadline of 31 October 2007. Please note, however, that workshop numbers are limited. It is anticipated that there will be only 24 papers and approximately 30 participants. Early expressions of interest are strongly advised.

Click here for further details on this conference

Old Meeting House, Norwich

Forthcoming Conference:

Post-Medieval Religion

September 2008, Norwich

The Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology and the Society for Church Archaeology are pleased to announce a forthcoming joint conference on the archaeology of religion in Britain from 1580 to 1900.

The call for papers is now closed and booking has opened for this event.

To download a booking form click here.

To view the provsional programme for this event click here.

SAL Exhibition conference poster

Making History: Antiquaries in Britain, 1707-2007

15th September - 2nd December 2007, The Royal Academy, London

This exhibition explored the work and achievements of the Society of Antiquaries of London over the past three hundred years, from its foundation in 1707 to the present day. The exhibition consisted of 190 works, showcasing for the first time treasures from Britain’s oldest heritage organisation, including unique works of art, antiquities and manuscripts of national historical importance, such as a Yorkist processional cross recovered from the battlefield of Bosworth (1485), the inventory of Henry VIII’s possessions at the time of his death and an early copy of Magna Carta. Also on show were paintings of ancient sites and landscapes by Constable, Turner, Blake and an extraordinary collection of English royal portraits from Henry VI to Mary Tudor.

Click here for more information about this exhibition

‘The Last of England’ by Ford Madox Brown. Courtesy of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

CHAT2007
Faith, Hope, and Charity: Finding Belief, Desire, and Benevolence in Archaeologies of the Recent and Contemporary Past

November 2007, Sheffield

The CHAT (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory) conference in Sheffield explored some of the different meanings of faith, hope, and charity in contemporary and historical archaeology (c. AD1500-present).

The Session Chairs and Discussants were Dr John Moreland (University of Sheffield) Dr Harold Mytum (University of York) Professor Mary Beaudry (Boston University) Dr Dan Hicks (Oxford University) and Dr Eleanor Conlin Casella (University of Manchester).

Click here to download the conference programme and poster.

HMS logo

Historical Metallurgy Society Day Meeting:

Changing technology in medieval and post-medieval metalworking.

10th November 2007, Bradford

The aim of the meeting is to discuss the evidence for the evolving metalworking technologies of the medieval and post-medieval periods, with particular focus on iron technology. The period being considered is AD450–1650.

Click here to go to the Historical Metallurgy Website for more information about this conference

Medieval Europe Conference Logo

Medieval Europe

3rd - 8th September 2007, Paris

SPMA members may not have been aware that the Medieval Europe Paris 2007 conference to be held at the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne was subtitled the 4th International Conference of Medieval and Modern Archaeology and thus included sessions and papers on post-medieval archaeology.

A New World.  England's First View of America

British Museum Conference:

European Vision: American Voices

14th - 16th June 2007

This interdisciplinary, international academic conference brought together scholars from many different fields – history, ethnography, literature, natural history, art history - to re-examine the work of John White, Thomas Harriot and Theodor de Bry, in the process, revealing a missing Native American perspective.

To download the full programme click here.

Customs House, Exeter

Pots, Pipes and Glassware in London

Saturday June 2nd 2007

A day meeting was held at the Museum of London Archaeological Archive at Mortimer Wheeler House, Hackney, with leading practitioners of ceramics and glass.

 

To download the full programme click here

Detail from PMA volume 40, part 2

NEW JOURNAL OUT NOW

Volume 40, part 2 of Post-Medieval Archaeology is now published.

Articles include:

The 'Little Dissolution' of the 1520's, Deirdre O'Sullivan
An 18th-century timber wharf in Copenhagen Harbour, Lene Høst-Madsen
The Metropolis Local Management Act and the archaeology of sanitary reform in the London Borough of Lambeth 1856-86, Nigel Jeffries
Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire: the architecture of the Government Code and Cypher School, Linda Monkton

Detail from PMA volume 40, part 1

JAMESTOWN SPECIAL ISSUE

Volume 40, part 1 of Post-Medieval Archaeology is a special issue to mark the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the first permanent English settlement in the USA at Jamestown, Virginia.

Articles include:

Archaeology and the construction of America's Jamestown, Audrey Horning
Jamestown Rediscovery: an introduction, William Kelso
`Unfitt for modern service'? Arms and armour from James Fort, Beverly Straube
Like to perish from want of succor or reliefe: the provisioning of 17th-century Virginia during times of change, Luke Pecoraro and David Givens
Subsistence fishing at Jamestown, 1607-24, Daniel W. Schmidt

SHA 2007 Conference

The Society supported the Society of Historial Archaeology's 40th conference on historical and underwater archaeology 9th-14th January 2007 held in Williamsburg, USA.

The Society was delighted to sponsor the opening reception held on Wednesday 10th January 2007.

View images from the event

 
SPMA is a Registered Charity. (UK Registered Charity No. 281651) ©SPMA 2007