Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews
We have not been together since February 2020. Heavens. Times, however, will be a-’changing!
Thank you to everyone who responded to the Committee’s letter about the future of the Society. You all seem reasonably happy with what we thought we could offer, for a while longer anyway. The result is below….
Thursday 4 May 2023:
12.30pm Lunchtime get together, with lunch at the Lucas Room, Hitchin Town Hall
There will be a talk, and an opportunity to look around the Museum. RSVP by 28th April.
Tuesday 6 June 2023
8pm. Annual General Meeting at the Letchworth Free Church, Gernon Road.
Annual report (s); Financial Report; Update from Gil Burleigh on work in North Herts since Spring 2020; Cheese and Wine
Summer: Annual Field Trip
Liz Hunter is investigating Colchester
Christmas
Date to be confirmed. Probably the Lucas Room Hitchin. Speaker to be arranged
We are looking to invite a well-known archaeologist for a special lecture in the Autumn 2023 and (probably) Autumn 2024.
Fieldwork
There may be an opportunity for very small-scale test pitting in Pirton in the summer.
CHAS Lectures
Have been wonderful for those of us able to access them on line. Thank you to Kris Lockyer and Laurie Evans in particular for researching and engaging lecturers and for hosting the evenings. We hope that these will continue, they have been so successful not only within Hertfordshire but world-wide.
Internet website: visiting museums.
We hope that you have managed to access special exhibitions, whether on line or in person. Here are some suggestions:
North Herts. Museum
Keith Fitzpatrick Matthews continues to Blog. Look out for Archaeology Tuesdays, all Facebook users.
The British Museum
Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece 4 May to 13 August 2023
“Drawing on dazzling objects from Afghanistan to Greece, this exhibition moves beyond the ancient Greek spin to explore a more complex story about luxury as a political tool in the Middle East and southeast Europe from 550–30 BC. It explores how the royal Achaemenid court of Persia used precious objects as markers of authority, defining a style of luxury that resonated across the empire from Egypt to India. It considers how eastern luxuries were received in early democratic Athens, self-styled as Persia’s arch-enemy, and how they were adapted in innovative ways to make them socially and politically acceptable. Finally, it explores how Alexander the Great swept aside the Persian empire to usher in a new Hellenistic age in which eastern and western styles of luxury were fused as part of an increasingly interconnected world.”
China’s Hidden Century 18 May to 8 October 2023
“In a global first, the resilience and innovation of 19th-century China is revealed in a major new exhibition.
Between 1796 and 1912 Qing China endured numerous civil uprisings and foreign wars, with revolution ultimately bringing an end to some 2,000 years of dynastic rule and giving way to a modern Chinese republic. This period of violence and turmoil was also one of extraordinary creativity, driven by political, cultural and technological change. In the shadow of these events lie stories of remarkable individuals – at court, in armies, in booming cosmopolitan cities and on the global stage.
Exquisite objects are brought together for the first time – from cloisonné vases given by the Last Emperor’s court to King George and Queen Mary for their coronation in 1911, to a silk robe commissioned by the Empress Dowager Cixi. The show illuminates the lives of individuals – an empress, a dancer, a soldier, an artist, a housewife, a merchant and a diplomat.
Visitors will glimpse the textures of life in 19th-century China through art, fashion, newspapers, furniture – even soup ingredients. Many people not only survived but thrived in this tumultuous world. New art forms, such as photography and lithographic printing, flourished while technology and transport – the telegraph, electricity, railways – transformed society.”
The Ashmolean Museum
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality. To 30 July 2023
The palace of Knossos, discovered and excavated over 100 years ago, was the centre of a Bronze Age civilisation of people we now call the Minoans, named after the legendary King Minos.
This will be the first UK exhibition to focus on Knossos. It will include over 100 objects which have never left Crete and Greece before, alongside discoveries from the Ashmolean’s Sir Arthur Evans Archive and an exclusive experience of Knossos Palace from the acclaimed video game Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
Archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans led excavations at Knossos in the early 20th century, and would later re-imagine and partially restore the palace. His archive at the Ashmolean has been central to our understanding of the site of Knossos, and many of his excavation plans, artworks and records will be on display alongside objects from the site.
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
“Islanders – the making of the Mediterranean” to 4 June
Free, but you need to book. tickets@museums.cam.ac.uk or 01223 333230
Open Tuesday to Saturday 10 till 5pm, Sundays 12 to 5pm.
Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
Open Tuesday to Saturday 10 to 5pm, Sunday 12 to 5pm.
Let me know of other sites/museum exhibitions of interest and we will share with everyone.
Jean Campbell
Our very long-standing member, Committee stalwart and staunch friend, Jean, sadly died in 2022. We’re not sure when Jean first became a member, but it was certainly in the early years of the Society. By the mid-1970s, she was a Committee member and continued to be until her death. Jean was a very active and dedicated member, regularly taking part in our field surveys and excavations into her seventies, helping to organise events and was our lead caterer. She was always very involved, enthusiastic, supportive – and fun. We miss her very much. Our condolences to her son Duncan, and daughter Helen.
Jackie Bavin
Jackie died in December 2021. She was one of our earliest members, joining the Society in the 1960s, and also one of the earliest Committee members. Jackie volunteered on many of our early digs, at Blackhorse Road with John Moss-Eccardt, for example, and later on Gil’s Baldock excavations, such as at Wallington Road in 1982. She was very active and supportive of all Society events over many decades, including, not only excavations, but also field trips and lectures, a stalwart in helping to provide tea and coffee at the latter, and sharing the washing and clearing-up afterwards! Jackie will be greatly missed. Our condolences to Mike and her family.
Daphne Coutts Smith
Farewell to Daphne, as she settles in to her new home in Surrey. We wish her all the very best as she adapts to life away from North Herts.
Publications
Gil is continuing to publish academic papers on projects in which this Society and its members have been involved over the years. His latest include:
Burleigh, Gilbert R. 2020. ‘Temples, treasures, heroic burials and deities: a sacred landscape bounding Iron Age and Romano-British Baldock’, in Sacred Landscapes in Antiquity: Creation, Manipulation, Transformation (ed. R. Häussler and G. F. Chiai), 369-99, Oxbow.
https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/sacred-landscapes.html
Burleigh, Gilbert 2022. ‘Archaeology around Ashwell Springhead’, in Ashwell Yearbook.
Burleigh, Gilbert R. 2023. ‘Individual choices in burial ritual and cult activity in and around the Iron Age and Romano-British town of Baldock, Hertfordshire’, in Religious Individualisation : Archaeological, Iconographic and Epigraphic Case Studies from the Roman World (ed. R. Häussler and A.C. King), 162-80, Oxbow.
He’s currently writing a final report on our excavations at Coombe Bottom, Kelshall, in 1977(!), (Ed. 46 years is no time at all to an archaeologist!) which, thanks to recent new discoveries, can now be re-interpreted as a shrine and religious ceremonial centre dating to the early/middle Anglo-Saxon period.
Finally…
Subscriptions. These are due at the AGM on 6 June. Before that is fine, too! Cheques to Diane Burleigh, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton SG5 3RD Rates remain the same:
Adults £19, Families £24, and Concessions (over 65, under 16) £10.
We are afraid that we have postponed the lecture scheduled for Tuesday 17 March as a precaution against the spread of COVID-19. We will let you know when a new date has been arranged.
Happy New Year!
Apologies for the short-notice re the postponement of the January lecture. This was due to Diane and I attending a family funeral. Apologies too to those of you who didn’t receive the emailed notice of postponement. This was due to my email service playing up. The lecture will be given in April instead.
All lectures are at the Letchworth Free Church hall, Norton Way South at 8 pm unless stated otherwise.
Tuesday 18th February 2020: ‘Excavations at Warth Park, Raunds, Northamptonshire’ by Louise Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
Tuesday 17th March 2020: ‘Beacons of the Past – Hillforts in the Chilterns Landscape’ by Dr Wendy Morrison, Project Manager, Chilterns Conservation Board.
April 2020 (date to be arranged): ‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, by Mark Hinman, Director and Regional Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology. This lecture will be probably at the Lucas Room, North Herts Museum/Hitchin Town Hall.
Dea Senuna: Treasure, Cult and Ritual at Ashwell, Hertfordshire by Ralph Jackson and Gilbert Burleigh, published in March 2018, has been re-printed and is, as far as I know, still available for sale at the British Museum bookshop:
http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/invt/cmc91947
The PDF version is available to see/browse/read/download at the British Museum website:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/research_publications_series.aspx
Click on the drop-down menu for Research Publications and you will find the Dea Senuna PDF.
The article on ‘Ashwell’s Lost Roman Goddess’, published in Hertfordshire Life magazine in July 2018 is available online (minus one or two photographs): http://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/home/history-the-goddess-of-Ashwell-1-5646728
There have been now several reviews of the report published in academic journals. I attach them here along with some comments to me from distinguished academics, members and friends for your interest. Remember that the project was largely a community one and could not have been a success and brought to publication without the enthusiastic and dedicated hard work of all the NHAS and other volunteers, as well as the professionals. Any credit in these reviews and comments is due to everyone who participated.
The short article by Charles Higham in Current World Archaeology no. 99, Feb/March 2020 is of particular interest. He is Professor of Archaeology at Otago University, New Zealand, and his brother, Richard, with John Morris, led the excavations in Pricem’s field, Ashwell End, in 1972, the precursor to our Senuna excavations, when they were all Ashwell residents. Incidentally, this was our Keith F-M’s first excavation.
The review by Alessandra Esposito was published in the journal Britannia 2019.
Subscriptions
2019/20 Subscriptions became due on 1st June 2019. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers’ fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Please note 2019/20 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures.
Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.
Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.
Lecture Programme
All will be at Letchworth Free Church hall, Gernon Rd, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise:
Tuesday 24th September 2019: ‘Wimpole at the time of the Roman Conquest’, by Paddy Lambert, Project Officer, Oxford Archaeology East.
Tuesday 15th October 2019: ‘Latest survey results from Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age Hill-Fort’, by Dr Ian Brown, Research Associate, Keble College, Oxford University.
Tuesday 19th November 2019: ‘A Romano-British Woman and her three babies from Baldock’, by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, North Hertfordshire Museum.
Tuesday 3rd December 2019: Members Xmas meeting. Wine & Cheese.
Tuesday 21st January 2020: ‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, Mark Hinman, Senior Project Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
Tuesday 17th March 2020: ‘Beacons of the Past – Hillforts in the Chilterns Landscape’ by Dr. Wendy Morrison, Project Manager, Chilterns Conservation Board.
Other possible lectures (dates to be arranged):
‘A multi-period excavated site at a quarry near Peterborough’, by Greg Farnworth Jones, Project Officer.
‘The Basilica and Portico wall excavations at Verulamium 2018’, by James Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Excavations at Hazel End, Bishops Stortford’, by Louisa Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
CONFERENCES
Council for British Archaeology 75th Anniversary Conference on Saturday 28th September 2019 in Ipswich: Ipswich IP-City Centre 1 Bath St Ipswich, 9.30 am to 5pm £25 including lunch. Lectures include Happisburgh, Verulamium (Kris Lockyer), Must Farm and Colchester contact cbaeast@arcgaeologyuk.orgs.
Society of Church Archaeology Annual Conference, Friday 27th-Sunday 29th September 2019 in St Albans:”Silent witness: The Archaeology of Burials, Churchyards and their contexts”. Friday Evening keynote Lecture by Martin Biddle St Albans Cathedral Archaeologist. See www.churcharchaeology.org/conferences/html for details of prices.
***In connection with this event, on Sunday 29th September, the latest version of the Hitchin Conservation Management Plan, an important planning and development tool, written by Joe Elders and Gil Burleigh, will be launched at St Mary’s Parish Church, Hitchin, with a display put together by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews and Gil on the occasion of a visit by conference delegates at 1.30 pm. The display will be in St Mary’s for some weeks before moving to other venues in Hitchin.
OTHER EVENTS
The Industrial Archaeology of North Hertfordshire’: a talk by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, of North Herts Museum Service. The Friends of Holy Saviour invite you to join them for this “Talk & Tea” event on Sunday 29th September, 3pm, Holy Saviour Church, Radcliffe Rd, Hitchin SG5 1QG. Tickets £10 (Friends of HS £8), which includes tea after the talk, from 01462 646257, or on the door.
Milton Keynes Archaeology Day, Saturday 2nd November 2019 at Christ the Cornerstone Church, 300 Saxon Gate, Milton Keynes MK9 2ES. Nick Crank, Senior Archaeological Officer, Milton Keynes Council, wrote to Gil asking Gil to give a talk: “This year we’re keen to focus on the theme of Community Archaeology, with a view to engaging with local societies and organisations with the possibilities for projects in Milton Keynes and vicinity. We will also showcase some local projects. With this in mind we’re keen to hear from individuals with experience in and perspectives on Community Archaeology. Would you be available to deliver a talk on the Pirton project? We’d be looking for a talk of up to 40 minutes plus questions, pitched at the aspiring amateur. Date and location as above. By the way of further background, I should note that this is a free event and that we try to offer something for all ages. I’m still putting this year’s programme together, but the talks will be in the afternoon with the focus in the morning on stands, displays and activities from local societies and archaeologists.” Gil will be talking about ‘Community Archaeology in North Hertfordshire’, focussing on Ashwell, Great Offley and Pirton. When Gil receives the full programme from Nick, this will be circulated.
Good News! In gratitude for the archaeological advice that Gil gave them in connection with their successful planning application for a new house and for the good work NHAS volunteers did by excavating some test pits on the site, Tom & Christine Gammell of Pirton have generously donated £1000 to our Society which they would like us to spend on a drone so that we may take aerial photographs of local sites.
Even better news! North Hertfordshire Museum, Brand St, Hitchin: do visit the new, now fully open, wonderful museum with its fascinating displays of archaeology, natural, local and social history, art, interactive displays, temporary exhibitions and so much more. There’s even a cafe serving food and drink. Something for everyone of all ages to enjoy and learn. Our grandchildren love it – the eight year old said “museums aren’t boring, they’re fun!” Congratulations to NHDC and especially the dedicated and hard-working museum staff.
Subscriptions 2019/20
Subscriptions became due on 1st June 2019. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership. Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Please note 2019/20 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures. Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.
Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you. www.nharchsoc.org
This summer’s trip will be to Flag Fen, a very significant Bronze Age site, and Crowland Abbey, once an important Benedictine monastery; both sites are east of Peterborough.
Programme for the day:-
8.00am: Pick up point in St. Mary’s Square, Hitchin
8.20am: Pick up point outside Letchworth Library, Broadway, Letchworth
10.00am: Arrive at Flag Fen site, Northey Road, Peterborough. Coffees/teas available at Visitor Centre.
10.30am – 12.30pm: Guided tour in 2 groups of the site: the Causeway remains, the round house and droveway, the mere, the Roman road, the museum with many artefacts & the logboats from Must Farm
12.30pm – 1.20pm: Picnic lunches, or sandwiches from the Visitor Centre café
1.20pm – 2.00pm: Drive to Crowland, c.12 miles north-east of Peterborough
2.00pm – 4.00pm: Guided tour of the present church and the extensive remains of the Abbey. Small Visitor Centre with a video on the history of the Abbey. Small shop. Tea and biscuits in the Abbey pantry
4.00pm – 4.30pm: Optional self- guided tour of the small town of Crowland
4.30pm: Depart Crowland
6.00pm: Drop point at Letchworth Library, Broadway, Letchworth
6.15pm: Drop off point in St. Mary’s Square, Hitchin
Please wear appropriate clothing and footwear. The flat open site of Flag Fen can be very windy! The site is on the level, with grassy and gravel paths.
The Visitor Centre has a small café with a limited stock of drinks, snacks and sandwiches; we may order in advance what we need. Our 33 seater coach will have a toilet on board. The Excursion price includes entry and a guided tour at Flag Fen, and a guided tour with Tea and biscuits at Crowland Abbey.
SOCIETY FINANCES: Your Committee would very much like to fill all the 33 seats on the coach, and thus earn some income for our Society. We do urge all members to come! Non- members are welcome to come, too, thus, please do ask your family, friends and neighbours to join us!
Aerial photograph of the then newly dualled A505 Baldock-Royston road cutting through the chalk escarpment at Slip End, Ashwell, looking north. Parch-marks during that summer’s drought show peri-glacial geological features, especially the wide river-like feature running from top to bottom in middle of picture, with its profile clearly visible in the cutting. Also, four ring-ditches of ploughed-out Prehistoric burial mounds to the left. In the right foreground is a rectangular ditched enclosure on the Herts/Cambs county boundary where in October 1975 NHAS volunteers under my direction for North Herts Museums excavated several late Roman inhumation burials. Photograph by Gil Burleigh taken on the evening of 1st July 1976 from a Cessna light plane flown by Arthur Thorning, who writes: “One never knows when the past may catch up with one! I see in my flying log-book that the picture was taken from a Cessna 150 registration G-AVUH; such a small aircraft that I doubt if I could fold myself into it now!” Gil says “I certainly couldn’t!”
Ashwell Slip End Farm Skeleton 4 & skulls A-C, looking west, 24th Oct. 1975. Photo by Gil Burleigh.
All meetings are at Letchworth Free Church hall, corner of Gernon Rd and Sollershott West, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise.
Tuesday 21st May 2019: Annual General Meeting. Gil Burleigh will present an illustrated report on the year’s fieldwork, including parch-mark sites at Barkway, Great Offley and Pirton revealed by drone photography during the summer 2018 drought and test-pit excavations in Great Offley and Pirton, as well as test pit excavations and geophysical surveys in Ashwell. Drinks buffet £3 per person.
Autumn/Winter/Spring 2019/20:
Tuesday 24th September 2019: ‘Wimpole at the time of the Roman Conquest’, by Paddy Lambert, Project Officer, Oxford Archaeology East.
October 2019: ‘Latest survey results from Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age Hill-Fort’, by Dr Ian Brown, Research Associate, Keble College, Oxford University.
‘A multi-period excavated site at a quarry near Peterborough’, by Greg Farnworth Jones, Project Officer.
‘The Basilica and Portico wall excavations at Verulamium 2018’, by James Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Excavations at Hazel End, Bishops Stortford’, by Louisa Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
Tuesday 17th March 2020: ‘Beacons of the Past – Hillforts in the Chilterns Landscape’ by Dr. Wendy Morrison, Project Manager, Chilterns Conservation Board.
‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, Mark Hinman, Senior Project Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
| We are delighted to officially launch the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology website for 2019- a one-stop shop for Festival event organisers and a showcase for archaeology events from around the UK. Registration for the 2019 Festival of Archaeology 13-28 July is now Open! Visit https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/ to register your event. Our new website includes online registration guides and publicity materials for event organisers- so it’s even easier than before to get involved and host an event or create activities for the summer. We also have a blog page on our website and would be delighted to showcase stories of #FestivalofArch projects for 2019 and those that you may have been involved with over the years. As part of the Council for British Archaeology’s 75th anniversarywe would also like to showcase stories of local, regional or national archaeologists. We are very proud that one of our first blogs on our website records the memories of Elisabeth Quinton, from Alberta Canada, who volunteered on a CBA dig in Canada in the 1950s. Her work on this dig inspired her lifelong interest in archaeology and, as she says, the CBA was the “catalyst for part of my interest in history.” We will be sharing more details of the 2019 Festival of Archaeology events over the coming weeks so please visit the CBA’s Festival of Archaeology website https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/ or follow us on social media. Twitter: @archaeologyuk Facebook: Archaeologyuk Or you can contact us at festival2019@archaeologyuk.org with any enquiries. Best wishes, Gillian Waters Festival Co-ordinator As part of Hitchin Festival July 2019 Hitchin Historical Society will be hosting its third biennial History Day on Saturday July 13th 2019 at Church House Hitchin from 10am to 4 pm. It provides an opportunity to meet with other local heritage groups and the general public. There is no charge to participating organisations and admission is free to the public. Summer Field Trip Message from Committee member Liz Hunter: Everyone The 2019 Summer Field Excursion: At long last, I have made some progress on this. Over the May Bank Holiday weekend, when up in Stamford with my sister, I visited both Crowland Abbey and Flag Fen. Both are possible sites for us to visit. At both sites, there was no one able to make a booking….. However, I now have a name and an email address and/or a phone number for the two people I need to communicate with – HOORAY! The booking for Flag Fen can only be done via a ‘Volunteer’ member of staff at the ‘Vivacity’ department (Leisure and Heritage ) of Peterborough City Council; Janet works only on a Thursday………… (I expected to go through the Museum Service in the city……..) I think my plan for the day will be as follows:- 8.15/8.30am: Leave Hitchin/Letchworth 10.00am: Arrive Flag Fen. Coffee break for c. 10/15 minutes; probable need to order in advance? Guided tour for c.90 minutes of the site. 12 noon: Picnic lunches on the terrace outside the Visitor Centre (not nearly enough chairs/may have to eat sitting on the grass or in the coach; will query this) The VC cafe is v. small; sells sandwiches and snacks, hot and cold drinks; only 16 chairs at 4 tables) 12.45pm: Drive to Crowland; not an easy route – allow c. 45 mins?? Narrow streets for a coach in Crowland, small coach park adjacent to the carpark at the Abbey. 1.45pm: Guided tour of the Abbey and its former extent, now the churchyard; impressive and interesting history, good guidebook; short video in v. small Visitor Centre; well informed volunteer guides. c. 3.30pm: possibly Tea in the small Pantry in the Abbey, or in the hotel across the road from the Abbey, or at a Tearoom, a 5 minute walk from the Abbey. I will give this task some priority this week, so that I can give our members the fullest possible details at the AGM. DATES: The guides at Crowland thought that a visit on a Sunday afternoon would NOT be possible, due to church services and volunteer guides’ other commitments. Thus we may/will have to visit on a Saturday, in July or August. News from Kris Lockyear, Welwyn Archaeological Society I am pleased to announce that a joint project between the Society, Welwyn Hatfield Museums, the St Albans branch of the Young Archaeologist’s Club and the Community Archaeology Geophysics Group has received a £9,600 grant for a project based around the Dicket Mead and Lockley’s Roman villas. The project will involve undertaking some geophysical survey as well as digging some test pits on the west side of the motorway, and looking at artefacts from the original excavations. The project will conclude with an exhibition at Mill Green at which the Society will be putting up a display to celebrate the Society’s 60th anniversary as well as showing the results of this project. I hope members will be willing to join in this exciting project and make it a great success. For more details see the press release: https://one.welhat.gov.uk/RomanBathslotteryfund Best wishes, Kris. Also from Kris: if you are interested in getting some experience of geophysical survey the Community Archaeology Geophysics Group will almost certainly be working at Verulamium again this August. See hertsgeosurvey.wordpress.com for the results of our work. |
Subscriptions
2019/20 Subscriptions become due on 1st June 2019. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Please note 2018/19 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures.
Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.
Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.www.nharchsoc.org
Aerial photograph of the then newly dualled A505 Baldock-Royston road cutting through the chalk escarpment at Slip End, Ashwell, looking north. Parch-marks during that summer’s drought show peri-glacial geological features, especially the wide river-like feature running from top to bottom in middle of picture, with its profile clearly visible in the cutting. Also, four ring-ditches of ploughed-out Prehistoric burial mounds to the left. In the right foreground is a rectangular ditched enclosure on the Herts/Cambs county boundary where in October 1975 NHAS volunteers under my direction for North Herts Museums excavated several late Roman inhumation burials. Photograph by Gil Burleigh taken on the evening of 1st July 1976 from a Cessna light plane flown by Arthur Thorning, who writes: “One never knows when the past may catch up with one! I see in my flying log-book that the picture was taken from a Cessna 150 registration G-AVUH; such a small aircraft that I doubt if I could fold myself into it now!” Gil says “I certainly couldn’t!”
.
Ashwell Slip End Farm Skeleton 4 & skulls A-C, looking west, 24th Oct. 1975. Photo by Gil Burleigh.
All meetings are at Letchworth Free Church hall, corner of Gernon Rd and Sollershott West, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise.
Ashwell Slip End Farm Skeleton 4 & skulls A-C, looking west, 24th Oct. 1975. Photo by Gil Burleigh.
All meetings are at Letchworth Free Church hall, corner of Gernon Rd and Sollershott West, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise.
Tuesday 16th April 2019: ‘ What we can learn from excavated human remains’, Laura Dodd, Project Officer and human bone specialist, KDK Archaeology.
Tuesday 21st May: Annual General Meeting. Gil Burleigh will present an illustrated report on the year’s fieldwork, including parch-mark sites at Barkway, Great Offley and Pirton revealed by drone photography during the summer 2018 drought and test-pit excavations in Great Offley and Pirton, as well as test pit excavations and geophysical surveys in Ashwell.
Autumn/Winter 2019/20:
October 2019: ‘Latest survey results from Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age Hill-Fort’, by Dr Ian Brown, Research Associate, Keble College, Oxford University.
‘Wimpole at the time of the Roman Conquest’, by Paddy Lambert, Project Officer, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘A multi-period excavated site at a quarry near Peterborough’, by Greg Farnworth Jones, Project Officer.
‘The Basilica and Portico wall excavations at Verulamium 2018’, by James Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Excavations at Hazel End, Bishops Stortford’, by Louisa Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Beacons of the Past – the Hillforts of the Chilterns Landscape’ by Ed Peveler or Dr. Wendy Morrison, members of the project team.
‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, Mark Hinman, Senior Project Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
Treasure Act 1996:
A Government Public Consultation is currently underway with a view to revising it and its associated codes of practice. The consultation closes for comments on 30th April 2019.
Festival of Archaeology 2019
We are delighted to officially launch the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology website for 2019- a one-stop shop for Festival event organisers and a showcase for archaeology events from around the UK. Registration for the 2019 Festival of Archaeology 13-28 July is now open! Visit https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/ to register your event. Our new website includes online registration guides and publicity materials for event organisers – so it’s even easier than before to get involved and host an event or create activities for the summer. We also have a blog page on our website and would be delighted to showcase stories of #FestivalofArch projects for 2019 and those that you may have been involved with over the years.
As part of the Council for British Archaeology’s 75th anniversary we would also like to showcase stories of local, regional or national archaeologists. We are very proud that one of our first blogs on our website records the memories of Elisabeth Quinton, from Alberta Canada, who volunteered on a CBA dig in Canada in the 1950s. Her work on this dig inspired her lifelong interest in archaeology and, as she says, the CBA was the “catalyst for part of my interest in history.”
We will be sharing more details of the 2019 Festival of Archaeology events over the coming weeks so please visit the CBA’s Festival of Archaeology website https://festival.archaeologyuk.org/ or follow us on social media.
Twitter: @archaeologyuk
Facebook: Archaeologyuk
Or you can contact us at festival2019@archaeologyuk.org with any enquiries.
Best wishes,
Gillian Waters
Festival Co-ordinator
As part of Hitchin Festival July 2019 Hitchin Historical Society will be hosting its third biennial History Day on Saturday July 13th 2019 at Church House Hitchin from 10am to 4 pm.It provides an opportunity to meet with other local heritage groups and the general public. There is no charge to participating organisations and admission is free to the public. Please let me know if you wish to book a table.
I will provide practical information later.
Kind regards
Gerry Tidy
Subscriptions
2018/19 Subscriptions became due on 1st June 2018. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Please note 2018/19 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures.
Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.
Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.
All meetings are at Letchworth Free Church hall, corner of Gernon Rd and Sollershott West, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise.
Tuesday 19th February 2019: ‘A Late Bronze Age – Early Iron Age Settlement and Prehistoric Precursor to Roman Ermine Street: Excavations at North Buntingford’, by Matt Jones, Project Officer, Pre-Construct Archaeology (Cambridge).
Tuesday 5th March 2019: ‘Excavations at Northstowe, Cambridgeshire: Iron Age, Roman, Saxon and Medieval settlements’, by Alison Dickins, Senior Project Manager, Archaeology Unit, University of Cambridge.
Sunday 7th April 2019: Field Trip to Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age hillfort, Hexton, Herts. Kindly arranged by our Member, Derek Turner, with the Bedfordshire Geology Group. Details to be confirmed.
Tuesday 16th April 2019: ‘ What we can learn from excavated human remains’, Laura Dodd, Project Officer and human bone specialist, KDK Archaeology.
Tuesday 21st May: Annual General Meeting. Gil Burleigh will present an illustrated report on the year’s fieldwork, including parch-mark sites at Barkway, Great Offley and Pirton revealed by drone photography during the summer 2018 drought and test-pit excavations in Great Offley and Pirton.
Autumn/Winter 2019/20:
‘A multi-period excavated site at a quarry near Peterborough’, by Greg Farnworth Jones, Project Officer.
‘The Basilica and Portico wall excavations at Verulamium 2018’, by James Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Excavations at Hazel End, Bishops Stortford’, by Louisa Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Beacons of the Past – the Hillforts of the Chilterns Landscape’ by a member of the project team.
‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, Mark Hinman, Senior Project Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
STOP PRESS: Nicholas Maddex, Chairman of the Codicote Local History Society, invites our members to hear Mark Landon talking about his work in Iron Age and Roman Braughing, particularly on the Iron Age coins and coin moulds, at their meeting on Tuesday 12th February at 8 p.m, Peace Memorial Hall, High St, Codicote. If you know anyone who might be interested in attending do please let them know. All are welcome, for a small charge.
Dea Senuna: Treasure, Cult and Ritual at Ashwell, Hertfordshire by Ralph Jackson and Gilbert Burleigh, published in March 2018, has been re-printed and is still available for sale at the British Museum bookshop:
http://www.britishmuseumshoponline.org/invt/cmc91947
The PDF version is available to see/browse/read/download at the British Museum website:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/research_publications_series.aspx
Click on the drop-down menu for Research Publications and you will find the Dea Senuna PDF.
The article on ‘Ashwell’s Lost Roman Goddess’, published in Hertfordshire Life magazine in July 2018 is available online (minus one or two photographs): http://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/home/history-the-goddess-of-Ashwell-1-5646728
A couple of published academic reviews of the Dea Senuna volume are attached, one short, the other an article, together with some very kind and generous comments to me from Professor Carenza Lewis of the University of Lincoln.
Treasure Act 1996: A Government Public Consultation is currently underway with a view to revising it and its associated codes of practice. The consultation closes for comments on 30th April 2019. Details attached.
Our sincere thanks go to David Dorkings, of St Alban’s, a retired surveyor, for donating his set of ranging poles to the Society. David is a member of the Watford & District Industrial History Society – “your local society for talks, films and trips about industrial history nationwide and beyond”. See www.wadihs.org.uk
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms- Art, Word, War
Now to 19th February 2019.
600 years. 180 spectacular treasures. A once-in-a-generation exhibition.
Treasures
from the British Library’s own collection, including the beautifully
illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, Beowulf and Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, sit alongside stunning finds from
Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard. The world-famous Domesday Book offers
its unrivalled depiction of the landscape of late Anglo-Saxon England while
Codex Amiatinus, a giant Northumbrian Bible taken to Italy in 716, returns to
England for the first time in 1300 years.
The people of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms tell their story, in their own words.
Explore the beginnings of the English language and English literature. Read
some of the earliest-surviving words inscribed in English on objects large and
small. Come face-to-face with manuscripts of Old English poetry and prose and
the first letter written in English. Wonder at the wit and wisdom in the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Entrance £16, British Library Members Free. It is advisable to book in advance, on-line or 0207 412639
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria
8 November 2018 – 24 February 2019
★★★★★
‘Extraordinary’
The Evening Standard
★★★★★
‘Fabulous’
The Times
★★★★★
‘Spectacular’
Londonist
★★★★
‘Staggeringly beautiful’
Time Out
★★★★
‘a gripping fusion of beauty and brutality’
The Telegraph
★★★★
‘blockbuster recreation of Assyria’s might’
The Guardian
Warrior. Scholar. Empire builder. King slayer. Lion hunter. Librarian.
King Ashurbanipal of Assyria (r. 669–c. 631 BC) was the most powerful man on earth. He described himself in inscriptions as ‘king of the world’, and his reign from the city of Nineveh (now in northern Iraq) marked the high point of the Assyrian empire, which stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran.
More about the exhibition
Ashurbanipal proved himself worthy of protecting his people through displays of strength, such as hunting lions. Like many rulers of the ancient world, he liked to boast about his victories in battle and brutally crushed his enemies. However, this vast and diverse empire was controlled through more than just brute force. Ashurbanipal used his skills as a scholar, diplomat and strategist to become one of Assyria’s greatest rulers.
Despite his long and successful reign, Ashurbanipal’s death is shrouded in mystery. Shortly afterwards, the Assyrian empire fell and the great city of Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC, its ruins lost to history until the 1840s. Their rediscovery has allowed us to piece together a portrait of the powerful and complex ruler that was Ashurbanipal.
This major exhibition tells the story of Ashurbanipal through the British Museum’s unparalleled collection of Assyrian treasures and rare loans. Step into Ashurbanipal’s world through displays that evoke the splendour of his palace, with its spectacular sculptures, sumptuous furnishings and exotic gardens. Marvel at the workings of Ashurbanipal’s great library, the first in the world to be created with the ambition of housing all knowledge under one roof. Come face to face with one of history’s greatest forgotten kings.
Who was Ashurbanipal?
Introducing the Assyrians
| Sacrilege! Leading archaeologist speaks out on centenary of Stonehenge gift Expressway legacy threat mars centenary of Stonehenge donation Friday 26th October was the centenary of the gift of Stonehenge to the nation by Sir Cecil and Lady Chubb. This weekend, English Heritage is marking the occasion with a specially commissioned tea party designed by Jeremy Deller and an installation of his work, “Sacrilege”, an almost life-sized inflatable Stonehenge. A joyous public celebration for some, but for many others it could mark impending sacrilege for the nation’s most famous World Heritage Site. A distinguished archaeologist speaks out against the Stonehenge tunnel Professor Mike Parker Pearson, leading expert in British Neolithic archaeology, speaks out about the Stonehenge tunnel in a newly released video to share his profound concerns. At barely 3km long the tunnel would be too short within a World Heritage Site that is more than 5km across, full of prehistoric monuments. Mike reminds us that the UNESCO World Heritage Site is “adesignation of an entire landscape. It’s one of the few places, not just in Britain but in the World, where you can see a special, sacred landscape developed over thousands of years.” Professor Mike Parker Pearson “Stonehenge tunnel sets a bad precedent“ http://https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=qLGBBTt1JnI Will the UK Government finally come to its senses and re-consider the A303 road-widening scheme and the damage it would do to our World Heritage Site? It isn’t too late to call a halt and heed the advice of UNESCO and other internationally acknowledged experts. A less damaging solution would properly and rightly protect the remarkable surroundings of Stonehenge about which we now know so much more than we did a hundred years ago. Short 1 minute clip of the video can be seen here Full briefing about A303 Stonehenge scheme |
| Sign up here to receive updates from the Planning Inspectorate and register your interest in having a say about the Stonehenge Tunnel scheme. |
Subscriptions
2018/19 Subscriptions became due on 1st June 2018. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Please note 2018/19 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures.
Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.
Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.
NORTH HERTFORDSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
All meetings are at Letchworth Free Church hall, corner of Gernon Rd and Sollershott West, 8 pm, unless stated otherwise.
Tuesday 22nd January 2019: ‘Raising the Dead – Kingly curves and Astronomers’ noses: the recent trend for celebrity exhumations’, by Dr. Joseph Elders, Major Projects and Archaeology Officer, Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, Church of England.
Tuesday 19th February 2019: ‘Excavations at Buntingford, Hertfordshire’, by Matt Jones, Project Officer, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
Tuesday 5th March 2019: ‘Excavations at Northstowe, Cambridgeshire’, by Alison Dickins, Senior Project Manager, Archaeology Unit, University of Cambridge.
Sunday 7th April 2019: Field Trip to Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age hillfort, Hexton, Herts. Kindly arranged by our Member, Derek Turner, with the Bedfordshire Geology Group. Details to be confirmed.
Tuesday 16th April 2019: ‘ What we can learn from excavated human remains’, Laura Dodd, Project Officer and human bone specialist, KDK Archaeology.
Tuesday 21st May: Annual General Meeting. Gil Burleigh will present an illustrated report on the year’s fieldwork, including parch-mark sites at Barkway, Great Offley and Pirton revealed by drone photography during the summer 2018 drought and test-pit excavations in Great Offley and Pirton.
Autumn/Winter 2019/20:
‘A multi-period excavated site at a quarry near Peterborough’, by Greg Farnworth Jones, Project Officer.
‘The Basilica and Portico wall excavations at Verulamium 2018’, by James Fairbairn, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Excavations at Hazel End, Bishops Stortford’, by Louisa Moan, Senior Project Manager, Oxford Archaeology East.
‘Beacons of the Past – the Hillforts of the Chilterns Landscape’ by a member of the project team.
‘Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Priors Hill, Pirton’, Mark Hinman, Senior Project Manager, Pre-Construct Archaeology.
Dea Senuna: Treasure, Cult and Ritual at Ashwell, Hertfordshire by Ralph Jackson and Gilbert Burleigh, published in March 2018, has been re-printed and is still available for sale at the British Museum bookshop:
The PDF version is available to see/browse/read/download at the British Museum website:
Click on the drop-down menu for Research Publications and you will find the Dea Senuna PDF.
The article on ‘Ashwell’s Lost Roman Goddess’, published in Hertfordshire Life magazine in July 2018 is available online (minus one or two photographs): http://www.hertfordshirelife.co.uk/home/history-the-goddess-of-Ashwell-1-5646728
|
Sacrilege! Leading archaeologist speaks out on centenary
of Stonehenge gift
Expressway
legacy threat mars centenary of Stonehenge donation
Friday 26th
October was the centenary of the gift of Stonehenge to the nation by
Sir Cecil and Lady Chubb. This weekend, English Heritage is marking
the occasion with a specially commissioned tea party designed by
Jeremy Deller and an installation of his work, “Sacrilege”,
an almost life-sized inflatable Stonehenge.
A joyous public
celebration for some, but for many others it could mark impending
sacrilege for the nation’s most famous World Heritage Site.
A
distinguished archaeologist speaks out against the Stonehenge tunnel
Professor Mike
Parker Pearson, leading expert in British Neolithic archaeology,
speaks out about the Stonehenge tunnel in a newly released video to
share his profound concerns. At barely 3km long the tunnel
would be too short within a World Heritage Site that is more than 5km
across, full of prehistoric monuments. Mike reminds us that the
UNESCO World Heritage Site is “a
designation of an entire landscape. It’s one of the few
places, not just in Britain but in the World, where you can see a
special, sacred landscape developed over thousands of years.”
Professor Mike Parker Pearson “Stonehenge tunnel sets a
bad precedent”
http://https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=qLGBBTt1JnI Will the UK Government finally come to its senses and re-consider the A303 road-widening scheme and the damage it would do to our World Heritage Site? It isn’t too late to call a halt and heed the advice of UNESCO and other internationally acknowledged experts. A less damaging solution would properly and rightly protect the remarkable surroundings of Stonehenge about which we now know so much more than we did a hundred years ago. Short 1 minute clip of the video can be seen here Full briefing about A303 Stonehenge scheme |
| Sign up here to receive updates from the Planning Inspectorate and register your interest in having a say about the Stonehenge Tunnel scheme. |
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
I object: Ian Hislop’s search for dissent
6 September 2018 – 20 January 2019
Members free
We’ve invited Private Eye Editor Ian Hislop (you know, the one from Have I Got News For You) to have a rummage around in the stores. On his search, he’s hand-picked a range of intriguing objects that explore the idea of dissent, subversion and satire (but don’t worry, we made him wear gloves).
A wide variety of objects will be on display in the exhibition – from graffiti on a Babylonian brick to a banknote with hidden rude words, from satirical Turkish shadow puppets to a recently acquired ‘pussy’ hat worn on a women’s march. See what tales these objects tell – sometimes deadly serious, often humorous, always with conviction. Unlock the messages and symbols these people used, and get closer to understanding them. The British Museum doesn’t escape ridicule either – the joke has been on us on more than one occasion.
This history in 100(ish) objects shows that people have always challenged and undermined orthodox views in order to enable change. They even did so despite the establishment usually taking a pretty dim view – for most of history you could expect a gruesome punishment, up to and including death, for this kind of subversive behaviour. This suggests that maybe we are programmed to dissent – it’s just part of who we are. Ultimately, the exhibition will show that questioning authority, registering protest and generally objecting are an integral part of what makes us human.
The Citi exhibition
I object
Ian Hislop’s
search for
dissent
6 September 2018 – 20 January 2019
Members free
Book tickets
Supported by
★★★★★
‘a rare delight’
The Times
History, as somebody wise once said, is just one damned thing after another. But is it really? Who decides what is ‘history’?
Traditionally, the answer is ‘the winners’. But in this exhibition we’re setting out to investigate what the other people had to say – the downtrodden, the forgotten, the protestors. They left their marks on objects, just as the official view has, and these dissenting objects are also to be found in the British Museum’s collection. You just need to know where to look…
We realise that uncovering a treasure trove of dissenting objects can be tricky. Luckily, we’ve found someone who can help. We’ve invited Private Eye Editor Ian Hislop (you know, the one from Have I Got News For You) to have a rummage around in the stores. On his search, he’s hand-picked a range of intriguing objects that explore the idea of dissent, subversion and satire (but don’t worry, we made him wear gloves).
A wide variety of objects are on display in the exhibition – from graffiti on a Babylonian brick to a banknote with hidden rude words, from satirical Turkish shadow puppets to a recently acquired ‘pussy’ hat worn on a women’s march. See what tales these objects tell – sometimes deadly serious, often humorous, always with conviction. Unlock the messages and symbols these people used, and get closer to understanding them. The British Museum doesn’t escape ridicule either – the joke has been on us on more than one occasion.
This history in 100(ish) objects shows that people have always challenged and undermined orthodox views in order to enable change. They even did so despite the establishment usually taking a pretty dim view – for most of history you could expect a gruesome punishment, up to and including death, for this kind of subversive behaviour. This suggests that maybe we are programmed to dissent – it’s just part of who we are. Ultimately, the exhibition will show that questioning authority, registering protest and generally objecting are an integral part of what makes us human.
Accompanies a series on BBC Radio 4.
Get the exhibition book and shop the range here.
Ian Hislop’s Objecting objects
A bluffer’s guide to dissent in 7 objects
THE BRITISH LIBRARY
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms- Art, Word, War
Now to 19th February 2019.
600 years. 180 spectacular treasures. A once-in-a-generation exhibition.
Treasures
from the British Library’s own collection, including the beautifully
illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels, Beowulf and Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, sit alongside stunning finds from
Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard. The world-famous Domesday Book offers
its unrivalled depiction of the landscape of late Anglo-Saxon England while
Codex Amiatinus, a giant Northumbrian Bible taken to Italy in 716, returns to
England for the first time in 1300 years.
The people of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms tell their story, in their own words.
Explore the beginnings of the English language and English literature. Read
some of the earliest-surviving words inscribed in English on objects large and
small. Come face-to-face with manuscripts of Old English poetry and prose and
the first letter written in English. Wonder at the wit and wisdom in the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Entrance £16, British Library Members Free. It is advisable to book in advance, on-line or 0207 412639
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
I am Ashurbanipal
king of the world,
king of Assyria
8 November 2018 –
24 February 2019
★★★★★
‘Extraordinary’
The Evening Standard
★★★★★
‘Fabulous’
The Times
★★★★★
‘Spectacular’
Londonist
★★★★
‘Staggeringly beautiful’
Time Out
★★★★
‘a gripping fusion of beauty and brutality’
The Telegraph
★★★★
‘blockbuster recreation of Assyria’s might’
The Guardian
Warrior. Scholar. Empire builder. King slayer. Lion hunter. Librarian.
King Ashurbanipal of Assyria (r. 669–c. 631 BC) was the most powerful man on earth. He described himself in inscriptions as ‘king of the world’, and his reign from the city of Nineveh (now in northern Iraq) marked the high point of the Assyrian empire, which stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran.
More about the exhibition
Ashurbanipal proved himself worthy of protecting his people through displays of strength, such as hunting lions. Like many rulers of the ancient world, he liked to boast about his victories in battle and brutally crushed his enemies. However, this vast and diverse empire was controlled through more than just brute force. Ashurbanipal used his skills as a scholar, diplomat and strategist to become one of Assyria’s greatest rulers.
Despite his long and successful reign, Ashurbanipal’s death is shrouded in mystery. Shortly afterwards, the Assyrian empire fell and the great city of Nineveh was destroyed in 612 BC, its ruins lost to history until the 1840s. Their rediscovery has allowed us to piece together a portrait of the powerful and complex ruler that was Ashurbanipal.
This major exhibition tells the story of Ashurbanipal through the British Museum’s unparalleled collection of Assyrian treasures and rare loans. Step into Ashurbanipal’s world through displays that evoke the splendour of his palace, with its spectacular sculptures, sumptuous furnishings and exotic gardens. Marvel at the workings of Ashurbanipal’s great library, the first in the world to be created with the ambition of housing all knowledge under one roof. Come face to face with one of history’s greatest forgotten kings.
Who was Ashurbanipal?
Introducing the Assyrians
Subscriptions
2018/19 Subscriptions became due on 1st June 2018. Please renew. The Society cannot continue to function without all members’ subscriptions. In particular, lecturers fees and expenses and hall hire have to come from subscriptions. Lack of sufficient income from subscriptions may result in fewer lectures. It’s up to us members. Thank you to all who have paid your subscription and renewed your membership.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards can usually be issued also. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Please note 2018/19 Membership cards are now available and may be collected at any of our lectures.
Adult £19, Family £24, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £10.
Non-members are welcome at any of our meetings. There will be a charge of £4 for entry.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.