Events

The monumental cross slab at Forres, Moray, at 6.5m high, displays the most graphic visual record of a Viking military onslaught in Britain. Recent carbon dating places its erection in the later ninth century, and new drawings indicate Viking funeral practice. The Bible, old Welsh and Irish literature provide a narrative to the heroic and grisly feats depicted.

Recent claims of Caesar’s landing on Thanet are best countered by Caesar’s Commentaries. These illustrate that the Delfs, an earthwork re-utilised in medieval times as an aqueduct for Sandwich is his described sea defence. A lost inlet behind Calais may be the long-sought Portus Itius (?Guines rather than Boulogne).

Learn about the beginnings of the Phonogrammarchiv and its early phonographic field research.

This lecture presents the headline results of an innovative research project on the archaeology of warhorses, and horses generally, in England between the Saxon and Tudor periods. It will consider the physical remains of horses (bones and teeth, including small samples taken for scientific analyses), equestrian material culture (apparel such as harness pendants, and horse armour), horse breeding landscapes (studs and stables), as well as iconographic and documentary evidence, to present a new and more rounded understanding of the warhorse and unpick its complex, fascinating and ever-evolving interrelationship with medieval society through the centuries.

2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the Council for British Archaeology. We evolved out of a series of meetings held at Burington House under the leadership of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1943 and 1944. To round off our 80th year we are proposing returning to SAL to celebrate our origins and to look to the future.