Current Archaeology’s January Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 431

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FESTIVAL

JORVIK Viking Festival

York
16-22 February
http://www.jorvikvikingfestival.co.uk

The Vikings will be staging their annual invasion of the city of York in February. Various events will take place, including the traditional ‘March to Coppergate’ when hundreds of Viking warriors parade through the city streets; ‘The Battle for York’, where you can watch an epic fight for control of the city; and the ‘Viking Games’, where the skills, strength, cunning, and wisdom of competitors will be put to the test. There will also be a host of other paid and free events around the city. Check the website for details and to book your tickets.

CONFERENCE

UK Archaeological Sciences Conference 2026

University of Bristol|
30 March-2 April
http://www.ukas2026.co.uk

The UKAS Conference is a biennial event that brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines to discuss the latest developments in archaeological science. This year it is being hosted by the University of Bristol across three schools: Chemistry, Anthropology and Archaeology, and Earth Sciences. Submissions for abstracts are currently open, with students and early career researchers particularly encouraged to apply. Both in-person and virtual tickets are available.

EVENT

A Century of Sounds: Live

Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
27 February
http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/event/a-century-of-sounds-live

A Century of Sounds: Live is a unique event, bringing together the Pitt Rivers Museum’s extraordinary sound collections with 100 artists from around the world to create a new way of experiencing these diverse recordings. The event will feature six live performances reimagining different ethnographic sounds, ranging from conch-shell performances in Vanuatu to traditional music from Afghanistan and wedding music from the Himalayas. Tickets are £10, or £5 for members.

LECTURES

MOLA-Wessex Archaeology Lunch and Learn Webinar

Online
23 January
http://www.tickettailor.com/events/molamuseumoflondonarchaeology/1980900

A team of 90 archaeologists from MOLA-Wessex Archaeology have been excavating in Suffolk on behalf of Scottish Power Renewables (see ‘News’ here), uncovering an entire ancient landscape over an area of more than 24ha (59 acres). Join this free lunchtime webinar to hear from the project team about the latest discoveries and to participate in a Q&A session. While the session is free, it is essential to book tickets at the link above.

A Viking in the Sun: Harald Hardrada as the best documented ‘Viking’ visitor to the Mediterranean

UCL Institute of Archaeology
24 February
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/events/2026/feb/viking-sun-harald-hardrada-best-documented-viking-visitor-mediterranean

Part of the Medieval Archaeology Seminar Series hosted by the Institute of Archaeology with the British Museum, this talk by Dr Gianluca Raccagni from the University of Edinburgh will discuss one of the aims of the ‘A Viking in the Sun’ project, which is to spotlight and assess Harald’s status as one of the best-documented travellers of his time – something that is surprisingly unrecognised – and to consider the larger connections between the Mediterranean and Nordic worlds during the late Viking Age. The talk is free and open to anyone.

HERITAGE FROM HOME

VIRTUAL VISITS

• The Viking World

https://vikingar.historiska.se/index.php?e=no&l=en

Here you can explore all the themes, displays, and objects that are part of the exhibition The Viking World at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.

• The Battle of Agincourt

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/agincourt/

Learn about the famous battle in 1415 through a guided virtual tour of the records held at the National Archives.

• Talking Buildings

http://www.stalbansmuseums.org.uk/index.php/talking-buildings

Learn about the hidden history of buildings in St Albans with this online exhibition from the city’s museum.

• Voices of Textiles: unravelling the personal and the political

https://exhibitions.ed.ac.uk/exhibitions/voices-of-textiles

This student-led exhibition from the University of Edinburgh explores the multifaceted ways in which women have harnessed the art of textile production to express themselves.

EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES

• The Soldier in Later Medieval England

http://www.medievalsoldier.org

Explore this database, which contains all the known names of soldiers who served the English Crown from the late 1350s to 1453.

• Charles Booth’s London

https://booth.lse.ac.uk

Delve into 19th-century poverty maps and search, browse, and download the original notebooks from the Inquiry into Life and Labour in London (1886-1903).

• Histography

https://histography.io

This interactive timeline lets you explore 14 billion years of history from the Big Bang up to 2005. You can view all 14 billion years at once or zoom in to a single year.