On 24 February, Current Archaeology Live! returned to the Institute of Education, near Russell Square in London, for an archaeology-packed day organised in partnership with the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Talks spanned the Palaeolithic to the present day, and encompassed archaeological projects undertaken at home, abroad, and on screen. We also heard the results of this year’s CA Awards (see below), which saw a record number of votes cast in all categories.
This year’s conference began with Dr Matt Pope (UCL Institute of Archaeology), who spoke about new thinking on the Neanderthals at La Cotte de St Brelade in Jersey. We continued on the theme of ‘lost people and places’ with an account by Ali Cameron and Alice Jaspars (Cameron Archaeology/University of Southampton) of excavations that are helping to illuminate the ‘missing monastery’ at Deer. Session 1 concluded with a talk from Nathalie Cohen (National Trust), who shared some of the latest findings from Smallhythe in Kent – click here to find out more about this site.
Session 2 examined different ways of exploring the past, with talks featuring rescue archaeology, international research excavations, and how archaeology is presented on the small screen. Ashley Tuck (Wessex Archaeology) kicked things off by describing some of the diverse findings uncovered during the Hornsea Project One Cable Route initiative in Lincolnshire, after which Professor Kevin MacDonald (UCL Institute of Archaeology) took us on a tour of the tumuli of Mali and Senegal. Our third speaker was intended to be Natasha Billson (Behind the Trowel), but a last-minute change to the programme saw archaeologist and educator Julian Richards share some of his experiences across 50 years of fieldwork and television archaeology instead. Big thanks to Julian for his contribution on the day, and we hope to hear more about Natasha’s research at next year’s conference.
