Courses, Events, Teaching Aids
MINSTER EXCAVATION
The K.A.S in conjunction with the Trust for Thanet Archaeology, will be returning to Minster-in-Thanet to continue with the excavation of the Roman villa complex. This will be our fifth season at this site, and it will be directed by David Perkins, M.Sc., M.I.F.A. The dig will be held over a two week period, those participating will be introduced to the site on Saturday 1st September 2001. The excavation is open to people aged 16 years and above who wish to participate in practical fieldwork. For enrolment details please contact David Bacchus.
COUNCIL FOR KENTISH ARCHAEOLOGY
"The Roman invasion AD 43: Kent or Sussex?"
Saturday 7th April 2001 - 1:45 pm to 5:30 pm
Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Faversham
An illustrated conference about the Roman invasion AD 42 controversy - the main landing place, Kent or Sussex?
Contributors include The Case for Sussex - David Bird BA, PhD
The Case for Kent - Nigel Nicolson OBE OSB FSA
The Roman Landings How and Where - John Smith BA
The Case for Richborough - Brian Philp MBIM, MIFA, FSA
Tickets price £3.00 from C.K.A. 7 Sandy Ridge, Borough Green, TN15 8HP (sae please)
THE FIRST JOINT KENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY AND CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY CONFERENCE
Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Kingship - Saturday 12th May 2001
Many K.A.S members will have attended lectures in the comfortable new lecture rooms at Christ Church University College, Canterbury and for the first time CCUC and the K.A.S are joining forces to offer the first of several planned one day conferences. These conferences will be looking at different historical and archaeological themes of local, national and eventually (hopefully) continental interest.
Although there will be a Kentish input to the five lectures being offered Kent should never be looked at in isolation. In the early Anglo-Saxon period the county was merely one of several kingdoms and from the late seventh century usually dominated by the more powerful states of Mercia or Wessex. After the Norman Conquest to understand the history of government, upstanding architecture or below ground archaeology it is necessary to study what was taking place elsewhere in the country and in many instances with France. It would be surprising if the speakers invited to lecture at this conference failed to put new ideas into the heads of their listeners. Of these speakers only Jonathan Coak has lectured regularly at various conferences on Kent archaeology; Ally Smith will also be of course be known to many of you from his years at the University of Kent. John Newman and Tom James have both lectured for the now disbanded Medway and Gillingham Branch of the K.A.S but never for a larger Kentish audience; Barbara Yorke is well known on the national conference scene but this is her first lecture to a Kent based audience.
The speakers:
Dr Barbara Yorke will be speaking on "The Early Kings of Kent". In many ways Kent is one of the better recorded early medieval Kingdoms thanks to the interest that Bede took in the papal mission led by Augustine that arrived in 597. However, Bede was not very selective in what he recorded or how he presented his information. For instance he does not mention any of the notable royal nunneries (e.g. Minster in Thanet and Minster in Sheppey) founded in Kent, these are only known from other sources. This lecture will look at what is known, and is not known, about the early Kentish kings, and at how historians have reached very different conclusions about aspects of the history of the early kingdom in spite of using the same material. It will consider how far Kent resembled other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the significance of its connection with Francia. Barbara is Reader in History at King Alfred’s College, Winchester. One of her particular areas of interest has been the history of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and she is the author of Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England (1990), Wessex in the Early Middle Ages (1995) and The Anglo-Saxons (1999). She is currently working on a book of royal nunneries.
Professor Tom James will be speaking on the "Palaces of Mediaeval England". Whilst castles, towns and villages have received much attention surprisingly, the royal palaces of medieval England have been a neglected area of architectural, archaeological and historical study. The study of the shattered and fragmentary remains of these structures - usually defined by their unfortified nature - provides an absorbing and challenging topic. Tom is Professor of Regional Studies at King Alfred’s College, Winchester. He has published extensively on medieval palaces over many years. His monograph (with Annie Robinson) on Clarendon Palace, situated just to the south of Salisbury has brought this magnificent site back from obscurity. He is currently leading a five year programme of consolidation of the ruins in partnership with English Heritage and the Landmark Trust. His Medieval Palaces of England was published in 1990. He has lectured widely in Britain and around the world and has several recent radio and television credits including Melvyn Bragg’s 2000 Years of Christianity (1999) and Edward Windsor’s Crown and Sceptred Country (1999).
Professor Ally Smith will be speaking on "Kent and the Kings of Wessex". The final takeover of Kent, Surrey and Sussex by the Kings of Wessex in the ninth century (or the first time in the Anglo-Saxon period saw a unified block of territory to the south of the Thames. The creation of this "greater Wessex" will be one of the themes covered in this lecture. Ally is currently Director of Research at Christ Church University College, Canterbury. His best known publication is a biography of King Alfred the Great published in 1984.
John Newman will be speaking on "Sutton Hoo - A New Era of Discovery" which will concentrate on the recent excavations that have taken place on this, the most famous Anglo-Saxon site in the country. The lecture will explore the growth of status and social differentiation through the sixth and early seventh centuries culminating in the Mound 1 ship burial. In addition he will draw on other work and material, including that from Kent, which throws new light on the complexity of Anglo-Saxon society in this period. John is a Field Officer with the Archaeology Unit of Suffolk County Council.
Service of Suffolk County Council and has a particular interest in the Anglo-Saxon period. In the 1980’s he ran the area survey associated with the Sutton Hoo research programme and he has been involved with various recent cemetery excavations in Suffolk. His work with recording finds made by individuals in Suffolk has thrown considerable light on the Post Roman period (the so called "Dark Ages"). One of his latest publications has been "The Late Roman and Anglo-Saxon Settlement Pattern in the Sandlings of Suffolk in The Age of Sutton Hoo (ed. Martin Carver 1992).
Jonathan Coad will be speaking on "Defending Kent 1066-1588" which to a very large extent will of course entail an examination of the royal fortresses within the county and the development of fortification within that period. Jonathan is an Inspector of Ancient Monuments for English Heritage, Honorary Secretary of the Royal Archaeological Institute and a Vice-President of the Society for Nautical Research. He has published extensively on military and naval topics (e.g. Dover Castle 1995) and directed various excavations perhaps most notably those at Castle Acre Castle, Norfolk.
It is hoped that several other joint K.A.S. and CCUC Anglo-Saxon and Medieval conferences, each with a different theme (e.g. the Common Man; Church and Monastery, Town and Country) will follow in the next few years. If successful further conferences covering both historical and archaeological themes will hopefully also take place. It is also hoped that the K.A.S. will be able to arrange guided tours of Clarendon Palace and Sutton Hoo in the not too distant future.
At the time of writing this note it has not been decided in what order the speakers will lecture. It is hoped that this original and once in a lifetime opportunity to listen to some of the most knowledgeable individuals in their field will be a sell out. Please order tickets on the enclosed ticket order form or by letter and addressed to: Sean Greenwood, History Department (CONFERENCE TICKETS), Christ Church University College, North Holmes Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 1QU. Please enclose a stamped addressed envelope.