Author: Admin

Spring Meeting 2017 – Cornwall: West Penwith and Scillies

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SPRING MEETING
11 – 14 MAY 2017
Cornwall: West Penwith and Scillies

The Spring meeting this year will be to the south of Cornwall and the Scilly Isles and will be based in Penzance. Arrival should be on the evening of 11 May, when there will be the usual lectures and social event in Penzance.

Friday 12 May will be spent exploring the sites in West Penwith, of which there are many. So many, in fact, that the route is still being worked out, and if there are any sites you are burning to see, please let me know (jenny.moore@btinternet.com) and I will see if we can include them.

Saturday 13 May will be an early start to get to Land’s End airport to fly to the Scillies, to spend the day exploring the archaeology there, guided by Charlie Johns, one of the authors on the Lyonesse Project publication (see link below). In addition, we will be joined by members of Cornwall Archaeological Society. We return to Land’s End on flights around 6 pm in the evening.

There are recent publications on both West Penwith and the Scillies, which can be found at https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/cornwall-archaeological-unit/publications/

Sunday 14 May we shall be visiting sites as we head north, ending at Trencrom. After lunch, the trip will finish in order for you to start the journey home.

While the programme is being finalised, the travel for trip to the Scillies needs to be confirmed by no later than 27 March 2017. The cost of the flight plus transport on the Scillies is £125 return. This covers the flight and transport on the Scillies only.

There are only 19 seats available for this visit, so please secure your booking early; bookings will be taken on a first-come-first-served basis. Further details (including opportunities for those not travelling to Scilly) and a note of additional local costs for the meeting will be circulated in due course.

Call for papers: Autumn meeting 2018

/ Admin

Neolithic Studies Group
November 2018
Call for papers

Houses of the dead?
Alistair Barclay, David Field and Jim Leary

Despite the chronological disjuncture, LBK longhouses have widely been considered to provide ancestral influence for both rectangular and trapezoidal long barrows and cairns, but with the discovery and excavation of more houses in recent times is it possible to observe evidence of more contemporary inspiration? What do the features found beneath long mounds tell us about this and to what extent do they represent domestic structures? Indeed, can we distinguish between domestic houses or halls and those that may have been constructed for ritual purposes or ended up beneath mounds? Do so-called ‘mortuary enclosures’ reflect ritual or domestic architecture and did side ditches always provide material for a mound or for some other purpose, such as building construction? This seminar will seek to explore the interface between structures often considered for the living with those often considered for the dead, and what role they played in earlier Neolithic society.

Papers that address these issues are welcomed. The organisers will be pleased to hear from potential contributors at an early date.

a.barclay@wessexarch.co.uk
davidjfield1950@gmail.com
j.c.leary@reading.ac.uk