Archaeology South-East

Introducing our final #ASEat50 conference speaker! Immerse yourself in Later Bronze Age Sussex as Hayley explores fantastic legacy sites - anyone remember these excavations from the 70s? Black Patch, Alfriston, Harting Beacon? Come and find out how they fit with ASE’s recent discoveries on Saturday 5th April in Portslade! Sales for tickets including lunch END TODAY so don’t delay! https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx

Can you believe we’re just over two weeks away from our 50th Anniversary Conference on the 5th April? If you want lunch with your ticket you’ve got until the end of the day TOMORROW (Friday 21st March) to sign up! https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx Today we’re introducing one of the exciting talks you may be digesting over the lunch break – Rob Cullum and Angus Forshaw will have just given their presentation exploring evolving landscapes and shifting settlements in East Anglia. #ASEat50

Public archaeology 🤝 archaeology of pubs The huge #postmedieval #finds assemblages from our Whitechapel Central excavations are full of evidence of smoking, drinking and leisure activities. This evidence and other stories from the site have been the focus of multiple public engagement initiatives. Elke Raemen and Sarah Wolferstan will be telling us all about this fascinating site and its legacy at our 50th Anniversary Conference on the 5th April! Tickets are selling fast so don’t miss your chance! https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx

Introducing our next #ASEat50 conference speaker! Prof Melanie Giles from the University of Manchester will join us to talk about Iron Age weapons burials 🗡️ ⚔️ 🛡️ Melanie has been our academic advisor on weapons burials – sometimes called ‘warrior’ burials – excavated by ASE at Brisley Farm, Kent, and Walberton, West Sussex. Her talk will introduce the Mile Charioteer - an elderly man, laid in the box of a chariot with its pony team still ‘in harness’: poised for flight into the afterlife. How does his discovery fit with the wider weapons burials from the UK – and contribute to our understandings of Iron Age warrior identity? Tickets and more info: https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx See all conference abstracts: https://lnkd.in/ed85WzsV MELANIE GILES - The ‘dragonfly’ charioteer: a middle Iron Age weapons burial from the edge of the Yorkshire Wolds One of the most spectacular Iron Age discoveries to be made in the UK in the last decade is that of the Mile Charioteer: an elderly man, laid in the box of a chariot that was wheeled whole into a grave pit, with its pony team still ‘in harness’: poised for flight into the afterlife. Excavated by MAP Archaeological Projects Ltd. (Stephens 2023), this burial provides a unique opportunity to explore the osteobiography of an individual and his pony team, with the object histories of the different materials buried with him: chariot wheels, linch pins and terrets, a delicate ‘dragonfly’ fibula and joints of roasted pork. The most spectacular object in the grave was a bronze-faced, ash shield, covered with insular Celtic art. This paper will argue these objects should be reconceptualised as weapons in their own right, on the basis of both their practical role in interpersonal conflict as well as their psychologically intimidating artwork. It will discuss aspects of its design and symbolism, linking this to martial values and ideals drawn from the Yorkshire landscape and its non-human communities. It will also compare its shape and materials with other organic shields from the UK and near Continent and explore the La Tène art affinities it shares with other iconic objects from both Scotland and Ireland, suggestive of an extensive network of craft and design ideas. Finally, the study will situate this elderly charioteer within the wider Middle-Late Iron Age ‘Arras’ communities in which he lived, and wider weapons burials from the UK, to re-evaluate how we might reconceptualise warrior identity and martial power and prowess.

Only a month to go until our 50th Anniversary Conference!! Today we’re continuing our speaker introductions with another ASE colleague you can hear from on April 5th. Matt Pope will give his talk “A half century of shaping the early prehistory of the South-East”. It’s sure to be a fascinating journey across half a million years, as Matt explains!! Don’t forget to grab your tickets here!: https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx #Neanderthal #Neanderthals #GiantHandaxe #Mesolithic #Prehistory #ASEat50

#ASEat50 Conference: Introducing guest speaker Paul Garwood, Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Birmingham! Paul started in archaeology as a volunteer in our Sussex Archaeological Field Unit days, and we’re very excited to welcome him back! A key theme of his talk is the emergent picture of the diversity of Neolithic activity across the South-East, built on a synthesis of the rich evidence generated by research-led and commercial fieldwork. Full abstract below! TICKETS: https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx The Neolithic transformed: 50 years of Neolithic archaeology in South-East England Paul Garwood Our knowledge of the Neolithic in south-east England has been transformed in the last 50 years due to advances in investigative technologies, research initiatives, and developer-funded fieldwork at a scale that is paralleled in few other parts of Britain. This paper surveys the changing landscape of South-East Neolithic studies, contemporary interpretative frameworks, and current and future directions in areas such as chronology, isotopic and aDNA research and bioarchaeology. A key theme throughout is the emergent picture of presence/absence and diversity of Neolithic activity across the region, built on a synthesis of the rich evidence generated by research-led and commercial fieldwork. Sustaining recent advances will, however, face serious challenges in the light of academic and policy shifts, and long-term weaknesses in the articulation of academic, curatorial and commercial archaeology agendas. The future of the Neolithic in South-East England will be defined at least partly by how those interests are aligned.

What can you expect at ASE’s 50th Anniversary Conference on Saturday 5 April? Over to ASE Director Louise Rayner to introduce her talk “Archaeology South-East: a short history of 50 years”. TICKETS: https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx #ASEat50

What’s changed in #archaeology over the last 30 years? What’s stayed the same? We caught up with Project Officer Simon Stevens, who has been with ASE for a mammoth 31 years, to get his perspective! You can expect more #ASEat50 stories like Simon’s at our 50th Anniversary Conference on Saturday 5th April – get your tickets now! https://lnkd.in/d2wjvpbx

Looking forward to seeing the first results from this excellent project. Hopefully we will be able to explore some of the many stories in our future work linked to Archaeology South-East's 'Whitechapel Central' excavation. Good luck with the showpiece Tony.

This Valentine’s Day we’re looking beneath the surface and finding that true beauty lies within… and luckily, you can do that with an X-ray CT scanner! This is the sword and scabbard that was found in the Walberton Iron Age ‘warrior’ burial. The XCT scan has given us the most detailed image yet of two rows of staples, with a domed, circular mount between them. These are possibly from a belt, decorated with tiny copper alloy fittings, that was wrapped around the scabbard prior to burial. Thanks to Francesco Iacoviello and colleagues at the UCL - Electrochemical Innovation Lab (EIL) in UCL Chemical Engineering for this amazing image! This scan was taken with a Nikon Metrology XTH 225, and the work was supported by the National Research Facility for Lab X-ray CT (NXCT) through EPSRC grant EP/T02593X/1. Our investigations into the #WalbertonWarrior burial are ongoing, and we’re working with museum curators on how best to display these finds. In the meantime, there’s loads to catch up on if this sword has captured your heart! See a 3D model of the sword: https://direc.to/mrGx Watch a lecture on ASE’s warrior burial discoveries: https://lnkd.in/dhXJZX_z