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A11 and Wangford Warren Excavations at the Suffolk Institute Autumn Conference

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We’re pleased to share that Tom Woolhouse and Tom Lucking will be speaking at the Wheeler Conference 2025, organised by the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History, on Saturday 18 October. This year’s theme Re-envisaging Suffolk’s Past: New Discoveries from Development-led Archaeology brings together some of the most recent and significant fieldwork from across the county.

Their paper will draw together results from two recent projects in the Breckland: the A11 excavations and the work at Wangford Warren. Together, these investigations trace thousands of years of activity across what is often thought of as one of Suffolk’s quieter landscapes.

The A11 sites revealed everything from early flint scatters and Bronze Age cremations to Iron Age farmsteads and Roman occupation, showing that this stretch of ground was far more intensively used than previously thought.

At Wangford Warren, excavation of the rabbit warren earthworks and buried soils has brought to light traces of Neolithic and Bronze Age activity, alongside evidence for a Roman farmstead, all preserved beneath the shifting sands of the Brecks.

Event details

Date: Saturday 18 October 2025, 9:30am to 4:30pm

Location: The Hold, 31 Fore Street, Ipswich, IP4 1LN

Tickets: Email chairman@suffolkinstitute.org.uk and use the Donate button on the Suffolk Institute website (please mention the conference in your note).

26th Annual BABAO Conference

By Conferences, News, Outreach

PCA has worked on burial sites for more than thirty years, uncovering thousands of skeletons across Britain. Most reflect expected health patterns, but every so often individuals with striking and uncommon pathologies emerge.

At the 26th Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) this week (18-20 September), PCA osteologists James Young Langthorne and Dr Ariadne Lucia Schulz will present two such cases. The event will take place at the University of Leicester, and will also be available to attend virtually.

One individual, from St Mary Newington in Southwark (pictured here), was a young adult with bowed, shortened limbs and pronounced changes to the spine. Although the missing skull prevented a firm diagnosis, the skeleton suggests a serious congenital or metabolic disorder that would have caused pain and mobility issues.

The second case, from the Saxon cemetery at Sun Lane, New Arlesford, shows features consistent with Klippel-Feil Syndrome: fused vertebrae, spinal abnormalities and restricted movement.

Despite their visible differences, both individuals were buried in the main areas of their cemeteries, suggesting social acceptance within their communities.

📅 26th Annual BABAO Conference, 18–20 September
📍University of Leicester
🎙 James Young Langthorne & Dr Ariadne Lucia Schulz


JOIN CBA LONDON AT THE AUTUMN LONDON ARCHAEOLOGICAL FORUM

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There’s a great lineup at the LAF this autumn – with presentations on topics ranging from the Ice Age to the Georgian period. And the winner of the prestigious London Archaeological Prize – the ‘publication prize’ – for works published in 2022/2023 will also be announced.

When: Monday, November 18 from 6-7:30pm GMT

Where: UCL Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY

Booking is free and anyone with an interest in London’s archaeology is very welcome. Register for your place before 1pm on 18th November.

Here are the contributors and their topics:

  • Matt Pope, Associate Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, will discuss London’s Ice Age archaeology and environments. He will explore the rich record of Greater London’s Ice Age past through key sites and the history of their discovery, from first recorded Palaeolithic tool to be found through to recent professional commercial excavations. He’ll also consider evidence for how London’s landscape was shaped by ice and water, and how early human populations adapted, or not, to the dramatic cycles of climate change evidenced in the gravels and clays of the city’s deep past.
  • Alistair Douglas, Senior Archaeologist and Health and Safety Manager at Pre-Construct Archaeology, will report on PCA’s recent archaeological Investigations on and around Bermondsey Square in Southwark. He’ll focus on the period before the foundation of Bermondsey Priory (later abbey) including tantalizing evidence of Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlement of Bermondsey.
  • John Schofield, who has worked at former Museum of London and as Consultant Archaeologist to St Paul’s, has written extensively about the archaeology of the City, most recently London’s Waterfront 1666 to 1800 and its World. He will describe waterfront excavations of 1974-84 that revealed post-Great Fire buildings and intriguing aspects of London’s crucial involvement in slavery: cowrie shells, found in the floor levels of warehouses near Billingsgate of around 1700.
  • Alison Telfer of MOLA is on the committee of London Archaeologist and coordinates the administration of the London Archaeological Prize, awarded biennially for the best publication of the preceding two years. She will be announcing the winner and awarding the prize at the LAF.

Click here for further details

Evidence for a possible Saxon minster in section during excavations at Bermondsey Square.

PCA Monograph 26 – Bermondsey Square: Prehistoric and Roman Settlement, Medieval Abbey and Post-Medieval Mansion; Excavations 1998–2018 Volume I by Alistair Douglas is now available here

Upcoming Presentation at the 2024 CAS Autumn Conference

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Mark Hinman will be presenting alongside Charlotte Lockwood at the upcoming CAS Autumn Conference in Cambridge. They will discuss their recent excavations of an extraordinary early Saxon settlement at Great Chesterford. The site offers invaluable insights into early medieval life, and Mark and Charlotte look forward to sharing their findings.

The conference will take place on Saturday 9th November at Cripps Court Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Click here for further details.

Cambridge Archaeological Society Autumn Conference

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The CAS Autumn Conference will take place on Saturday and Mark Hinman would like to invite you to his final event as conference secretary – non members are welcome!

WHEN: 18th November 2023 @ 10:30 am – 4:45 pm
WHERE: Law Faculty, Sidgwick Site, Lecture Theatre LG17, The David Williams Building, 10 West Rd,
Cambridge CB3 9DZ

Please click here to view the programme, break times and entry fees and to see a map for the venue.

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Among an array of interesting topics, Tom Woolhouse will be giving a talk on PCA’s excavations at Lucy Cavendish College in Cambridge. Our work here, on the edge of the Roman walled town, confirmed the projected alignment of Akeman Street (pictured above), which led from Cambridge (Duroliponte) to the Roman ‘small town’ at Arrington Bridge on Ermine Street.

Refreshments and displays by local archaeology and history groups and a book stall, will be in the atrium to the lecture theatres.

If you need to use a lift to access the lower ground floor please ask at reception for someone to operate the lift for you. It requires a card to be inserted and takes a little time.

 

Spring London Archaeological Forum

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The Spring London Archaeological Forum will take place in person and online at UCL Institute of Archaeology’s lecture theatre in Gordon Square on Monday 22nd May 2023 following the CBA London Annual General Meeting.

If you plan to come along in person, registration is required via Eventbrite here:

or contact Becky Wallower (becky.wallower@dial.pipex.com) by 12 noon on the 22nd May.

You can also sign up to attend online via Zoom on the Eventbrite site.

There will be an excellent line-up of presenters with interesting topics:

Kathy Davidson, supervisor at PCA, will discuss recent excavations at Newgate Street, an important Roman to post-medieval site largely excavated during the 1970s by the Department of Urban Archaeology that has been subject of further recent excavations. How has our understanding and analysis developed?

Ian Hogg is a Senior Archaeologist at Archaeology South-East within UCL. In his talk ‘Waste and Wasters: Industrial and domestic deposition at the Priory of St John, Clerkenwell’  he will discuss the findings from Benjamin Street which once lay within the outer precinct of the Hospitaller Priory. The high level of preservation allows a glimpse of both daily life at the Priory and industries taking place around it.

Roy Stephenson, well known in senior roles at Museum of London, will be talking on Netflix’s ‘The Dig’ and Rebecca Stott’s novel ‘Dark Earth’. His overview will concentrate on advice he’s provided to film producers and an author about archaeology and artefacts, and he’ll consider insights into how film companies operate that might be useful to museums.

It’s all free, of course, and we hope to see you at 6pm on the 22nd May – if you come along, you’ll be able to catch up with others when we adjourn to the pub afterwards.

LAMAS 59th Annual Conference of London Archaeologists

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This year’s conference takes place on Saturday, 25th March 2022 from 11am to 5pm, via zoom.

The morning sessions are, as usual, dedicated to a series of papers covering recent major excavations, including two PCA sites:

Fine dining, quarrying, and manufacturing. Medieval and later landuse beyond Aldgate

by Dougie Killock

Roman London West of the Walbrook: Preliminary interpretations on recent excavations between Coleman Street and Moorgate.

by Ireneo Grosso

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Click here for further details and a programme of the day’s talks.

Current Archaeology Live! 2023 – featuring our discovery of Turret 3a

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In the summer of 2021 our Durham office was lucky enough to discover Hadrian’s Wall in urban Tyneside. Excitingly, we found Turret 3a, perhaps the largest yet discovered, and the northern defensive ditch and six berm obstacle pits. Scott Vance will present our findings at the forthcoming Current Archaeology Live! conference, which will be held at UCL Institute of Education in London on 25 February. 

Tickets are selling fast but are still available through the Current Archaeology website:

https://archaeology.co.uk/live

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Urban Tyneside sounds like the last place to uncover surviving elements of Hadrian’s Wall, however what it lacks in picturesque beauty, it more than makes up for in opportunities for archaeological investigations due to intensive modern development. This makes the extreme eastern sector of the wall one of the most dynamic and interesting sections along the whole frontier. Our investigation demonstrates that significant remains relating to the wall can and do survive within the more built-up areas of urban Tyneside. The discovery of Turret 3a also indicates that local factors were allowed to influence the positioning of structures along the wall. The exact positioning of milecastles and turrets within the Newcastle to Wallsend section has always been unclear, with the structures not appearing to follow the assumed spacing. Measurements suggest that Turret 3a should be some way to the south-west of its actual location, which is on a hill with a commanding view over the valley. Interestingly, this shows that strategic interests had outweighed the original spacing scheme during the construction of the wall.

Scott is currently writing an article about Turret 3a which will be published in Current Archaeology in due course; in the meantime you can read more about our discovery here:

https://www.pre-construct.com/news/turret-3a-hadrians-wall/