The Portable Antiquities Scheme: Revolutionising Research

Published: 20 years ago Author: Michael Lewis

The Portable Antiquities Scheme: Revolutionising Research

Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Great Court, British Museum, 12 February 2004

A one-day seminar at the British Museum looking at the way in which the systematic recording of finds made by the public - as facilitated by the Portable Antiquities Scheme - has revolutionised our knowledge of artefacts and their contexts from the prehistoric times to the post-medieval period. Speakers to include Steven Ashley, Mary Chester-Kadwell, Nina Crummy, Geoff Egan, Helen Geake, Adam Gwilt, Adrian Marsden, Andrew Rogerson and Sally Worrell; chaired by Richard Brewer and Roger Bland. Admission free. For further details and to book contact Claire Costin, Portable Antiquities Scheme, British Museum, London WC1B 3DG, tel.: 020 7323 8618, or e-mail: ccostin@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk

Programme

10.00 Registration: outside Stevenson Lecture Theatre, Great Court

Morning (Chairman, Roger Bland, Co-ordinator, Portable Antiquities Scheme)

10.20 Roger Bland: Welcome
10.25 Adam Gwilt, National Museums and Galleries of Wales
Axes, Cauldrons and Weapons: making sense of the recent late Bronze Age discoveries from South Wales
10.50 Sally Worrell, Finds Adviser, Institute of Archaeology, University College
London Everything but iron; a regional analysis of the Iron Age artefacts recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme 

11.15 Coffee

11.45 Nina Crummy, Roman Finds Expert
Using the Portable Antiquities Scheme data for research: success and
failure for the Roman period

12.10 Adrian Marsden, Finds Liaison Officer, Norfolk County Council
The so-called barbarous radiate series in Norfolk; formulating new answers
to some old questions

12.35 Mary Chester-Kadwell, University of Cambridge:
Early Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries in the Landscape: Metal Detector Finds in
Context

1.00 Discussion

1.10 Lunch (please make your own arrangements)


Afternoon (Chairman: Richard Brewer, Keeper, Department of Archaeology and Numismatics, National Museums & Galleries of Wales)

2.10 Kevin Leahy, North Lincolnshire Museum / Finds Adviser - Portable Antiquities Scheme
Discovering the Middle Saxon period in Lincolnshire

2.35 Steven Ashley, Norfolk County Council
The mobility of the nobility: heraldic horse-harness pendants from Norfolk

3.00 Geoff Egan, Museum of London
Keeping tabs, searching and sealing: the archaeology of regulation

3.25 Tea

4.00 Andrew Rogerson, Norfolk County Council
Through objects to landscapes: making archaeological finds data
contribute to the study of past land-use

4.25 Andrew David/Paul Linford, English Heritage
Providing Context: the role of geophysical survey

4.50 Discussion

5.30 Close (and also an opportunity to view the Buried Treasure exhibition)

Contact: Michael Lewis