PROFESSOR GORDON NOBLE, our 2024 Mitford lecturer will tackle the question who were the Picts? Using evidence collected over twelve years of the Northern Picts Project, Gordon will highlight some of the major advances that have been made in understanding the development of the Pictish kingdoms. This includes work on the dating and meaning of Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
PROFESSOR MARTIN BATES, University of Wales reviews the evidence for the earliest people in southern England. Evidence of early human occupation in southern England began to appear in the mid-19th century and by 1900 a number of sites were known in an area of the country south of a line between the Severn and the Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
RACHEL NORDSTROM, Operations Manager, NCAP, Historic Environment Scotland. Part of NCAP's mission is to care for over 30 million military and survey photographs, including many from the Second World War, which hold immense potential for archaeological research and exploration. Recently, NCAP has introduced innovative tools like the Air Photo Finder, which is designed to Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
PROFESSOR DEREK HAMILTON, SUERC, University of Glasgow takes us on a journey into the fascinating world of the application of isotope studies in archaeology. In the past 10 years sulfur isotope analysis has become increasingly used to investigate the movements of prehistoric people and animals. Sulfur isotopes preserved in bone and teeth collagen give us Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
DR ALEX SMITH, Headland Archaeology presents some of the astonishing discoveries made during the UK’s biggest road upgrade. Rich Roman farmsteads, an abandoned medieval village, Bronze Age cemeteries, a number of Neolithic monuments and even mammoths and woolly rhinos are among amazing archaeological discoveries that were uncovered by MOLA-Headland Infrastructure during Highway England’s £1.5bn A14 Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
DR DAVID PETTS, University of Durham presents findings from nine years of excavations on the site of the early medieval monastery of Lindisfarne, by a team from Durham University and DigVentures. He explores what this new work can tell us about life and death at this important monastic site, and challenge some of the myths Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
DEREK HALL, University of St Andrews takes us into Medieval Scotland through its pots. Medieval Scotland always looked towards Continental Europe for its trade and contact and this is probably best expressed in William Wallace’s ‘Lubeck letter’ of 1297 after his victory over the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge telling everyone that Scotland Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
MITFORD LECTURE, NICK CARD This year marks the centenary of the discovery of the original Brodgar stone, a beautifully decorated slab, discovered during ploughing in 1925. We are honoured to have Nick Card, director of the Ness of Brodgar excavations as our 2025 Mitford lecturer. The Brodgar stone was almost forgotten for 80 years but Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
ANTOINE RUCHONNET, Addyman Archaeology Lifting the veil of the future has been a concern for humans from the omens of ancient Mesopotamia to computer-generated horoscopes. As a method, Shang divination of the 13th and 12th century BCE is outstanding in its sophistication, elegance, and organisation. Based on the interpretation of controlled cracks on animal bones Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
DR RUSSELL Ó RÍAGÁIN, University of St Andrews, takes a settlement-based approach to the social processes at work in mid-west Scotland between the Early Iron Age and later Middle Ages, which saw the rise and dissolution of the Dál Riata overkingdom and the emergence of Innsi Gall and Airer Gáedel. Based on a ten-year research Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
DR ANNE CRONE, AOC Archaeology, will be talking about how long-running excavations at Black Loch of Myrton in Dumfries and Galloway have transformed our understanding of Iron Age life. Initially thought to be a crannog, the site is actually a settlement built on a natural promontory, without artificial foundations and accessed via a natural causeway. Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
DR SOPHIA ADAMS, British Museum, tells the story of a remarkable find. In December 2021 a metal detectorist reported a possible in-situ deposit of Iron Age metalwork in a field in North Yorkshire. Investigation by Durham University and The British Museum, with support from Historic England, revealed an exceptional discovery. What at first appeared to Continue reading "https://archsoc.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/wp-content/themes/gridd"
