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To view any of our past lectures please visit our YouTube channel.
To view any of our past lectures please visit our YouTube channel.
‘The city in the castle and the castle in the city’: New perspectives on the archaeology and history of Old Sarum
by Dr Alex Langlands FSA
Old Sarum remains one of the most significant monuments in southern England, essential to our understanding of political, administrative and cultural developments in the Anglo-Norman period. But how much can we really deduce from the archaeological evidence? This talk will bring together all archaeological work undertaken to date, published and unpublished, in a synthesis that will address some of the key questions that still hover over our understanding of the site and the chronology of its development. What emerges is a landscape of profound historical and evidential significance in terms of what it can tell us about the Norman colonial project and developments in urbanism from the tenth to twelfth centuries. This research work was generously funded by the Margaret and Tom Jones Research Fund.
Alex is delighted to be sharing some of the key findings from over a decade of research on Old Sarum and its surrounding landscape in the medieval period. The lecture explores many of the commonly held beliefs about the site, its origins in the eleventh century, and the character of the settlements in its hinterland. Previously unpublished archival material and existing archaeological evidence will be drawn together in synthesis to provide an updated perspective on this most important of historic sites in southern Britain.
Dr Alex Langlands is Associate Professor of History and Heritage in the department of History, Heritage and Classics at Swansea University. He has worked in commercial archaeology, broadcast media, and has an academic specialism in medieval landscape studies.
Image courtesy of Hedley Thorne.
Location of lecture: James Callaghan Building, Swansea University, Singleton Campus, Swansea, SA2 8PP. Please see here for a map of the campus.
Information about parking can be found here: Visitors Parking – Swansea University. The overflow for parking is at the Recreation Ground. Both sites require pay and display.
Schedule:
16:00: Arrival, tea, coffee and refreshments served in the Basement rooms, James Callaghan Building, Swansea University, Singleton Campus, Swansea, SA2 8PP.
17:00: Lecture and Meeting in the James Callaghan Lecture theatre.