A DECADE OF DISCOVERY – a conference to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
Over the last ten years, the Portable Antiquities Scheme (www.finds.org.uk) has systematically recorded 245,000 archaeological objects found by members of the public. They range from hand-axes made by early hominids half a million years ago to lead seals from the hitherto little-known nineteenth-century Russian flax trade.
Patterns emerging from this vast resource are beginning to change our ideas about the past. Until now, conventional archaeological methods such as survey and excavation have shown what was lost around ‘sites’ where people in the past lived, worked and died. But papers to be presented at this conference by major British archaeologists show that metal-detecting and field-walking can locate different kinds of objects. Prehistoric hoards, cart and horse-harness fittings, workshop tools and lost brooches can conjure up a subtly different view of the world. Has traditional archaeology got it right? Or will the thousands of finds made by ordinary people change the way we think?
Speakers will include:
Mark Blackburn, Richard Bradley, Duncan Garrow, Fraser Hunter, Jude Plouviez, Tim Schadla-Hall, Gabor Thomas, Martin Welch and staff from the Scheme.
The conference will take place in the Stevenson Lecture Theatre, The British Museum, London on Tuesday 17th and Wednesday 18th April 2007, 10am-5pm, and will cost £10 per day or £15 for both days. There is the possiblity of a concessionary rate which can be discussed on application.
It is planned that the proceedings will be published in 2008.
If you would like to book a place please contact Claire Costin on 0207 323 8618 or email ccostin@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk.
This will be a ticket only event due to demand.