A weekend of free virtual talks:
all the latest archaeological discoveries and research from Britain and beyond
5-7 March 2021
Free, online
Join us for Current Archaeology Live! 2021, which will run from 5-7 March. While this year’s event will be entirely online, and things will look a bit different to what you are used to, we still have an excellent line-up of leading archaeological experts from across the UK to share their latest thinking on all aspects of the past. The speakers confirmed so far are listed below, and we will be adding more to this line up in the coming days.
In order to make the event as accessible as possible, all the talks have been pre-recorded and then uploaded to the Current Archaeology YouTube channel for you to enjoy at your leisure during the conference weekend. To join in, simply click on the talk titles in the list below, or go directly to YouTube at www.youtube.com/c/CurrentArchaeology. The videos will all be available for at least a week, so you can watch them in whatever order you prefer, at your convenience, with no concerns about sticking to a prescribed timetable (though, unfortunately, you will need to provide your own tea and biscuits for breaks this year!). Titles marked with an asterisk will only be available until 14 March.
Questions for speakers
While we weren’t able to facilitate the usual live Q&A at the end of each talk, we asked you to submit your questions for speakers via our online form during the conference weekend. We passed them on to the archaeologists, and you can see the answers we have received so far here. We will continue to update that page as more come through.
List of Speakers
To watch a talk, click on the linked talk title and it will take you directly to the presentation in YouTube.
Natasha Billson, Behind the Trowel
Archaeologists in Quarantine
Professor David Breeze
Was Hadrian’s Wall an expensive folly?
Professor Joanna Brück, University College Dublin
Keeping the dead close: Bronze Age relics in context
Nick Card, University of the Highlands and Islands
Ness of Brodgar: as it stands
Jo Caruth, Cotswold Archaeology
The Clare Castle Country Park community excavation
[This talk was available until 14 March]
Nathalie Cohen, National Trust
The archaeology of home
Dr Chantal Conneller, Newcastle University
The people at the edge of the world: Ice Age art in Jersey
Dr Abeer Eladany, University of Aberdeen
Rediscovering museum collections: from the Great Pyramid to Aberdeen
Alex Fitzpatrick, University of Bradford
Cave of wonders: ritual and funerary zooarchaeology at the Covesea Caves
Anna Forrest, National Trust
Between the cracks: underfloor archaeology at Oxburgh Hall
Dr Melanie Giles, University of Manchester
Bog bodies: the story of Worsley Man
[This talk was available until 14 March]
Susan Greaney, English Heritage/Cardiff University
Rise of the mega-henges? A new chronology for Mount Pleasant Henge, Dorset
Professor Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott, Newcastle University/Historic England
Maryport: investigating a cult centre on Rome’s north-west frontier
Dr Janice Kinory, University of Oxford
Old images, new perspectives: the HEIR Project
Paddy Lambert, Oxford Archaeology East
The Priors Hall temple-mausoleum
Professor Martin Millett, University of Cambridge
(presenting a talk by Dr Rose Ferraby and Professor Martin Millett)
Roman Aldborough
Dr Coralie Mills, Dendrochronicle
Dendrochronology in Scotland’s archaeology, buildings, and landscapes
[This talk was available until 14 March]
Ayushi Nayak, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Stable isotope approaches to social differentiation in Indus Valley cities
Richard Osgood, MOD/Operation Nightingale
A little house on the prairie: searching for Late Bronze Age settlements on Salisbury Plain
Dr Martin Papworth, National Trust
New dating evidence at Chedworth Roman Villa
Dr Miles Russell, Bournemouth University
In the footsteps of Vespasian: defining the fortress of the II Augusta at Wimborne Minster, Dorset
Jason Sandy & Nick Stevens, Society of Thames Mudlarks
Thames mudlarking
Kate Sumnall, Museum of London
Behind the scenes of the Havering Hoard
Dr Matthew Symonds, Current World Archaeology
Hadrian’s Wall: creating division
Dr Hugh Willmott, University of Sheffield
Dealing with the dead: excavations at the Hospital of St James,
Thornton Abbey
Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes, University of Liverpool/Université de Bordeaux
Neanderthals in the outermost west
Current Archaeology Awards
The winners of the 2021 Current Archaeology Awards were announced by Julian Richards on 5 March over on our YouTube channel. Click here to watch the announcement, and you can find out more about all the nominees by clicking here.