News archive

Welcome to New Fellows

The following people were elected to the Fellowship on Thursday, 8 December 2011:

1    Duncan Hawkins, BA. Archaeological planning consultant (has had a long and active involvement in British archaeology, especially through the excavation of sites in London, Surrey and Kent; co-author of The Black Death Cemetery, East Smithfield, London).       
2    Peter Jeremy Lucas, MA, PhD. Emeritus Professor of Old and Middle English, University College Dublin (author of major publications on medieval English and early book history, including an edition of the English alliterative poem, Exodus, and studies on the medieval historian and theologian, John Capgrave).       
3    Jonathan Phillips, BA, PhD. Professor of Crusading History, Royal Holloway, University of London (internationally recognised authority on Crusading studies, on which he has produced major publications, including most recently his Holy Warriors).       
4    Thomas Finan, BA, MA, PhD. Assistant Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology, St Louis University, Missouri, USA (Director of the Kilteasheen Archaeological Project, Co. Roscommon, Ireland; author of A Nation in Medieval Ireland, 1200-1400).       
5    Victoria Thompson, PhD. Independent researcher (well-established scholar and teacher in Anglo-Saxon studies, with a particular interest in burial practice and pastoral care, on which she has published extensively; she is currently working on early medieval sculpture in N England).       
6    Philip Alan Emery, BEng, MA. Archaeological consultant (has made a major contribution to field archaeology through his work in Norfolk and London, particularly St Pancras and Westminster Hall, and has published widely on English medieval and post-medieval archaeology).       

The following people were elected to the Society on Thursday, 1 December 2011:

1    Stephanie Agnes Knöll, MA, PhD. Lecturer and Curator of the ‘Mensch und Tod’ graphic collection, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf (has published widely on tomb monuments in N Europe, representations of old age and on the Danse Macabre).       
2    John Godfrey, MA, DPhil. Chief Executive, Sussex Police Authority (has served on many committees concerned with the heritage of buildings and landscape of Sussex and has published articles and books, including The New Shell Guide to Sussex).       
3    Meriel Elizabeth Connor, MA, MPhil. Tourist guide and independent researcher (highly respected expert on the history of Canterbury Cathedral, especially its monastic priory, on which she has published several articles).       
4    John Wardlaw Hanbury-Tenison, DPhil. Landowner (has excavated at Knossos, Pella and other sites in the Middle East and in Wales; has published numerous articles on Middle Eastern topics; co-author of Pella in Jordan).       
5    Sarah Jane Semple, BA, MSt, DPhil. Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Durham (has made major contributions to the study of the European Middle Ages and published on Anglo-Saxon paganism, landscape archaeology and assembly sites; Deputy Co-Director, Durham Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies).       
6    Andrew Charles Foster, BA. Architectural researcher and author (active in building conservation in the Lichfield Diocese and Birmingham; author of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Birmingham).       
7    Martin David Gibbs, BSc, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Sydney (has published extensively on maritime and historical archaeology and is working on digital repositories for archaeological data; his most recent book isThe Shore Whalers of Western Australia).       
8    Sarah Muriel Colley, BA, PhD. Senior Lecturer, Dept of Archaeology, University of Sydney (has researched and published widely in public archaeology, cultural heritage management, the archaeology of NSW and the application of digital technology in archaeology and heritage).       
9    Øystein Ekroll, Mag.art. Archaeologist and researcher, Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim (has researched and excavated medieval stone buildings in Norway and Scandinavia, both churches and castles, on which he has published numerous articles and books).       

The following people were elected to the Society on Thursday 24 November 2011:

1    Marc Frederick Oxenham, BSc, BA, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology, Australian National University (has conducted extensive fieldwork in SE and E Asia, particularly Vietnam, Philippines and N Japan, and has published widely in refereed journals).       
2    Dougald J.W. O’Reilly, BA, MA, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, Australian National University (has wide archaeological experience in Canada, New Zealand, Thailand and Cambodia; Deputy Director of the Greater Angkor Project; author of Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia).       
3    Trevena Scott Rosoman, BA. Curator of the Architectural Study Collection, English Heritage (combines academic and practical expertise in historic architectural components, especially plaster, woodwork and wallpaper; has published on Chiswick House, Chippendale’s wallpaper designs and English furniture makers).       
4    Mary Alexander, BA. Post-excavation Manager, Cotswold Archaeology (currently working on a Late Iron Age/Romano-British site at Mildenhall; has published on sites in E Anglia and Wiltshire).       
5    Alexander Robert (Sandy) Nairne, CBE, MA. Director, National Portrait Gallery (has held posts at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, Tate Gallery and the Arts Council; recent publications include The Portrait Now and Art Theft and the Tate’s Stolen Turners).       
6    Jason M. Kelly, BA, MA, PhD. Associate Professor of British History, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (historian of 18th-century Britain and expert on art and antiquarianism in the Enlightenment; has published on the Society of Dilettanti and on Nicholas Revett and Georgian neoclassicism).       
7    Sean Geoffrey Francis Ulm, BA, PhD. Lecturer, James Cook University, Queensland (Editor of Australian Archaeology; has published extensively on Australian indigenous prehistory, historical archaeology and the teaching of archaeology).       
8    Robert Hugh David Dixon, MBE, MA. Architectural historian and National Trust curator (founder member of Historic Buildings Council for N Ireland; NT’s Historic Buildings Representative for Northumbria; many publications on Ulster’s building heritage, NW England and Thomas Bewick).       

The following people were elected to the Society on Thursday, 17 November 2011:

1    Michael Anthony Faraday, MA. Retired tax inspector (active local historian, focusing on Ludlow and the surrounding counties; has published the Herefordshire Militia Assessments of 1663 and numerous other early modern records invaluable for local historians).
2    Alison Jane Hicks, BSc. Senior Field Officer, Canterbury Archaeological Trust (has made significant contributions to the history of SE England, especially in medieval ecclesiastical archaeology, and has also worked on archaeological projects in Bahrain and Qatar).
3    Andrew Meirion Jones, BSc, PhD. Reader in Archaeology, University of Southampton (has undertaken ground-breaking research in theoretical and prehistoric archaeology and in archaeological science, especially in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and has published extensively).
4    Sonia Ruth Zakrewski, MA, MPhil, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Southampton (expert in human osteology, especially of Egyptian and Spanish Islamic populations; has both excavation and museum experience).
5    Andrew Niall Gardner, BA, MA, PhD. Senior Lecturer, Institute of Archaeology, UCL (has made wide contributions to Roman archaeology, particularly the role of the military in late Roman Britain, and to archaeological theory; currently co-directing excavations in Caerleon).
6    Edward Rupert Holland, BA. Architectural historian and conservation manager, Prince’s Regeneration Trust (previously worked for Cadw and the National Trust and has long experience in the study and conservation of historic buildings particularly in Wales; has published on Welsh Historic Churches and guidance on conservation).
7    Michael Kevin Riordan, MA, MSt. College Archivist, St John’s and The Queen’s Colleges, Oxford (expert on the history of Oxford University and the study of politics and religion in early modern England; has published widely on these topics and presented numerous papers at archival conferences).
8    Andrew Mudd, BA. Post-excavation Manager, Cotswold Archaeology (specialist in post-excavation management; has published on Iron Age and Saxon settlements at sites in E. Anglia, Northamptonshire and Oxfordshire).
9    Sophie Clodagh Mary Andreae, MA. Architectural consultant and lobbyist (formerly Chair of SAVE and head of the London division of English Heritage; active as a council member or trustee of numerous heritage bodies, especially those connected with places of worship).

The following people were elected to the Society on Thursday, 10 November 2011:

1    Jennie Uglow, BA, BLitt. Historian and biographer (Editorial Director, Chatto & Windus; has made major contributions to history and biography especially intellectual history; author of studies of Thomas Bewick, Charles II, Hogarth, George Eliot and the history of gardening).
2    Nicholas Phillip Branch, BSc, MSc, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Palaeoecology, University of Reading (specialises in the relationships between environmental change and the development of human societies, focusing on the Holocene period in SE England and Ireland, on Peru and on prehistoric salt production in France).
3    Mark Harrison, BSc. Chief Inspector, Kent Police and Policing Advisor, English Heritage (has played a key role in English Heritageís plans to combat Heritage Crime; a well-established community archaeologist with a special interest in WWII defences in Kent).
4    Andrew Frank Richardson, BA, MPhil, PhD. Finds Manager, Canterbury Archaeological Trust (Chair of CBA South-east; has published widely on the early medieval period in SE England).
5    Susan Kathleen Cecilia Palmer, MA. Archivist and Head of Library Services, Sir John Soaneís Museum (has written widely on subjects ranging from the history of Camden to archive matters; author of The Soanes at Home).
6    Matthew Ian Hope, BSc, PhD. Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Archaeology, UCL (field archaeologist specialising in the prehistoric period; Deputy Director of the Boxgrove project and co-ordinator of a multi-disciplinary research project on Ice Age Jersey).
7    David Beevers, MA. Keeper of the Royal Pavilion, Brighton (has published extensively on architecture and the fine and decorative arts, especially on Brighton and Sussex, and curated numerous exhibitions).
8    Anne Louise Irving, BA, PhD. Cultural Resource Manager (expert on post-Roman pottery in Britain; author of the acclaimed new Research Framework for Post Roman Ceramic Studies in Britain).
9    Christopher Neville Rowell, BA, MA. Expert furniture curator, National Trust (author of numerous guidebooks to NT properties and of articles on conservation, porcelain, Grinling Gibbons, stained glass and furniture; currently editing a major work on Ham House).

The following people were elected to the Fellowship on 20 October 2011:

1    Gale Redfern Owen-Crocker, BA, PhD. Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture, University of Manchester (has made significant contributions to Anglo-Saxon studies, especially dress and textiles and the Bayeux Tapestry; co-founder and co-editor of the journal Medieval Clothing and Textiles).

2    Deborah Klemperer, BA. Museum Curator, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent (specialist in the archaeology of Staffordshire and the Midlands; has published on Late Saxon and medieval pottery and worked on the Societyís ëMaking Historyí exhibition; currently responsible for the Staffordshire Hoard).

3    Jerry Charles Podany, MA. Head of the Dept of Antiquities Conservation, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, California (authority on conservation of antiquities especially in areas of seismic activity; major conservation projects include Laetoli Hominid Trackway, Tanzania, Forum of Trajan, Rome and Sphinx, Gaza).

4    Michael Jeremy Hodges, MA. Banker (has strong interests in the study and preservation of English churches and church architecture; trustee of the Wiltshire Historic Churches Trust and founder of the Friends of Wiltshire Churches).

5    Ian Blatchford, MA, MA. Director of the National Museum of Science and Industry (previously Deputy Director, Victoria and Albert Museum and Finance Director, Royal Academy of Arts; has published on James VI and the Basilikon Doron).

6    Beth McKillop, MA, MA. Deputy Director, Victoria and Albert Museum (specialist in books, manuscripts and material culture of China and Korea, on which she has published major contributions; trustee of Asia House).

7    Duncan Sayer, BA, MA, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Central Lancashire (specialist in burial archaeology of Iron Age, Anglo-Saxon and post-medieval periods in England; author of Ethics and Burial Archaeology).

8    Barbara Browning Tomlinson, BA. Curator of Antiquities, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (authority on historic maritime flags and medals and funerary monuments to seafarers, on which she has published several books).

Autumn lectures - summaries

Thursday 27 October
Prior's Hall, Widdington, Essex: an Anglo-Saxon secular building?
Nicola Smith says: 'Prior’s Hall, Widdington, a privately-owned rendered stone-built farmhouse near Saffron Walden, Essex, was in 1988 revealed as an Anglo-Saxon building when the discovery of an unmistakably Anglo-Saxon arch in the centre of its eastern gable end was followed by the removal of the render from the north side, exposing long-and-short work from ground to eaves at either end. Subsequent investigation of the south side has brought to light a triangular-headed doorway, and an excavation in advance of domestic building work confirmed that the structure originally extended further to the east.
Any ‘new’ Anglo-Saxon building represents a significant opportunity to extend our understanding of the period, particularly when it survives as substantially as does this one. Given its plan, orientation and grandeur, the obvious initial expectation was that Prior’s Hall would originally have been a church or chapel. However, the original function of the building remains open to question, and this paper will suggest that is may have been secular. It will be the first formal presentation of the findings: work remains in progress!'

Thursday 3 November
Big Landscapes, Big Questions: the archaeological landscapes of Heathrow, Middlesex and Stansted, Essex compared

To be given by the Society's General Secretary John Lewis, this talk will focus on how commercially funded large scale “landscape” excavations at Heathrow Airport ( in the middle Thames Valley) and Stansted Airport on the Essex clay-lands can contribute to understanding contrasting regional prehistories.  It will offer an example of why regional synthesis and inter-regional analysis of 20 years of excavations under the aegis of PPG16 should be a priority for academic and commercial archaeologists alike, and suggest a way ahead for the future of archaeological publication and dissemination of data. 
 

Thursday 10 November
Built upon a Temple: the influence of a legendary origin on Freemasonry
Mark Dennis, curator at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, looks at how this secular fraternity created in the eighteenth century sought legitimacy through contriving links with the elite craft of stonemasons and the building of the Temple of Solomon. The paper will examine the consequences of this choice by the early speculative freemasons and how the temple featured both intellectually and practically in Freemasonry from the early eighteenth century onwards. He will also highlight the role of freemasons in the archeological exploration of the Holy Land.

Thursday 17 November
‘Between these...a great deal of my time is engaged’: the contribution of Henry Baker (1698-1774) and the Antiquaries to the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
The inexhaustible curiosity and energy of this early antiquarian is the subject of David Allan’s research. He explores how Henry Baker’s activities helped in the foundation of the Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, now known as the RSA. Through a national and international network of correspondence Baker transmitted information on a vast range of scientific, commercial, antiquarian and artistic knowledge. Called the Society ‘that pokes its nose into everything’, the RSA continued its links with the Society of Antiquaries in the later 19th and throughout the 20th centuries. 

If you would like to attend a lecture and are not a Fellow, please contact Jola Zdunek at admin@sal.org.uk, tel 020 7479 7080.

Making History opens in Boston

McMullen Museum of Art director Nancy Netzer and Society President Maurice Howard admire Mary I ; the St Paul's diptych in a specially built case so that it can be seen from both sides

The Society’s exhibition of treasures is set to delight an American audience in Boston where months of hard work by staff on both sides of the Atlantic have culminated in a highly successful opening event.

More than 150 people attended the celebration for Making History:Antiquaries in Britain at the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College on 10 September, including the Society’s President Maurice Howard, Fellows and special guests.Maurice introduced the Society, thanking colleagues at Burlington House and Kelmscott Manor. It is a privilege to share what we have with a wide university audience,' he said. In a presentation of the show's highlights he then talked about the paintings of Tudor monarchs, while American Fellows Bill Stoneman spoke about theLindsay Psalter, Melanie Hall emphasized William Morris’s transatlantic connections, and Robin Fleming about the Winton Domesday.Boston College Law Professor Mary Bilder discussed the influence of the Magna Carta on the U.S. constitution.The tour is the result of a collaboration between the Society, McMullen Museum of Art Director and Fellow Nancy Netzer and Director of the Yale Center for British Art Amy Meyers. As Nancy described in her speech, it tells a ‘fascinating, complex and inspirational story of the writing of history’ as early antiquarians endeavoured to make sense of the past from empirical evidence, not myth.

Based on the Royal Academy exhibition of 2007, It brings together the Society's key messages of research, conservation and dissemination. Around 40 manuscripts and paintings have been added by the Yale Center for British Art.The exhibition design, by Diana Larsen from the McMullen, using background wall colours taken from a palette inspired by those at Burlington House,is so effective that Maurice remarked that he ‘felt he was seeing the portrait of Mary I for the first time’.Situated at the heart of the campus,Making History will be seen not only by the public, but also by a huge number of students at the University as lecturers take advantage of the presence of rare manuscripts and paintings to illustrate key themes. Robin Fleming teaches in the history department there and will be showing a new intake of around 2000 students the exhibition this semester. She enthused:‘I can’t wait to show my students this exhibition. Images are no substitute for the real thing and it means that they are more likely to go to museums for the rest of their lives as a result of seeing these wonderful treasures.’ The museum’s team of docents also has a busy programme of guided tours to inform the public and student groups.

The show will close in Boston on 11 December and reopen at New Haven on 2 February until 27 May 2012.

It has been curated by Elisabeth Fairman, Senior Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Yale Center for British Art and Nancy Netzer, Professor of Art History and Director of the McMullen Museum, Boston College, in association with Heather Rowland, Head of Library and Collections, and Julia Dudkiewicz, Collections Manager, Society of Antiquaries of London. The exhibition has been underwritten by Boston College and the Patrons of the McMullen Museum.                             right:The Roll Chronicle on display at the McMullen opening

Making History: Antiquaries in Britain is based on an exhibition shown in 2007 at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, and curated by David Gaimster, former General Secretary and Chief Executive, Bernard Nurse, former Librarian, and Julia Steele, former Collections Manager, Society of Antiquaries of London; and guest curator David Starkey.

                                                                                                                 

A View from the Battlements: a future for the heritage sector

The seminar held on 4 June was a lively day of presentations and discussion, covering all aspects of the challenges facing the diverse areas of the heritage sector. There were some preliminary ideas about how those areas might begin to co-operate to overcome the effects of the government spending cuts. A fuller report, including transcripts of the talks given by the speakers, is available by going to the link in the green box on the right.

 

Making History exhibition flies the flag in America

Treasures from the Society’s collections will make their first ever trip to America this autumn when the exhibition ‘Making History: Antiquaries in Britain’  is shown at university museums at Boston and Yale.This follows  the success of the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 2007 and its tour to four British museums between 2008 and 2010, which altogether attracted more than 150,000 visitors.

The exhibition will show in the East Coast’s academic heartland at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College from 3 September until 11 December and then the Yale Center for British Art from 2 February to 27 May 2012.

Through objects, historic books, drawings, manuscripts and paintings the exhibition will celebrate the Society’s work and achievements in the discovery, recording, preservation and interpretation and communication of the past. Star exhibits will include a contemporary copy of the Magna Carta (1225), the 15th century Roll Chronicle and the arch-topped portraits of Edward IV and Richard III. 

Alongside the 100 or so objects from the Society will be  exhibits from the wonderful collections at Yale,  including Constable’s dramatic painting ‘Stonehenge at Sunset ‘.

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Society’s ownership of Kelmscott Manor ; William Morris and the Arts & Crafts movement will be celebrated in the exhibition which will include a number of drawings by Edward Burne-Jones from Yale.

Director of the McMullen Museum and Fellow Nancy Netzer said: ‘We are so pleased to be sharing the distinguished and unparalleled collections of the Society of Antiquaries with a North American audience and to have the opportunity to celebrate the Society's contribution to more than three hundred years to the writing of history.’

One of the stated aims of the university based McMullen Museum is to inspire faculty and student-based research based on the visual arts, and they plan to tie the exhibition in to the autumn teaching programme.  The Haskins Society conference held at Boston College in November will have links to the exhibition, and there will be a range of related events including a themed recital of English antiquarian music by soprano Charlotte de Rothschild. Professor Maurice Howard, the Society’s President, plans to attend the opening at Boston and will be giving the opening lecture when the exhibition transfer to Yale. 'We are delighted to be working in partnership with two such prestigious university museums and to have such a wonderful opportunity to introduce the Society to an American audience,' he said.

Both venues have called upon several of our Fellows in the USA for advice and assistance, and to give talks during the exhibition. There are more than 300 Fellows in the USA – the largest regional group outside Europe – and it is hoped to hold at least one Fellows event. Many Fellows in the USA will not have seen the exhibition in Britain, and this tour will offer the chance to see treasures from the Society’s collections for the first time. 'I hope that this exhibition will not only showcase some of the Society's collection and highlight our historic significance in America, but also encourage research into the legacy of British antiquarian studies across the Atlantic,' added Professor Howard.

The exhibition has been organized by the Society of Antiquaries of London in association with the McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, and the Yale Center for British Art. It has been curated by Elisabeth Fairman, Senior Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Yale Center for British Art and Nancy Netzer, Professor of Art History and Director of the McMullen Museum, Boston College, in association with Heather Rowland, Head of Library and Collections, and Julia Dudkiewicz, Collections Manager, Society of Antiquaries of London. The exhibition has been underwritten by Boston College and the Patrons of the McMullen Museum.

Tour Dates

McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College  3  September 2011 to 11 December 2011

the Yale Center for British Art                       2 February 2012 to 27 May 2012

Ballot Results, 19 May to 16 June 2011

The following people from across the heritage world were elected on 16 June. This was the last ballot until the season starts again in October 2011.

1    David Michael Griffith, BA, PhD. Senior Lecturer, Dept of English, University of Birmingham (has carried out important cross-disciplinary research in textual, artistic and material aspects of the period 1100-1580, especially in relation to the English parish church).
2    Kerry Bristol, BA, MA, PhD. Senior Lecturer, Centre for Architecture and Material Culture, University of Leeds (has made significant contributions to the history and historiography of British and Irish architecture and material culture from c. 1600 and British sculpture after the Reformation).
3    Jon Clarke Bayliss, BA. Retired computer analyst (leading authority on English Early Modern church monuments and on brasses and alabaster monuments from the medieval period up to 1700; has published many highly regarded articles and contributions to catalogues).
4    Michael Turner, MVO, BA, PhD. Retired Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings, English Heritage (has spent over 25 years researching and advising on the structure of St James’s Palace, Clarence House and Windsor Castle, and on the Historic Royal Palaces at Hampton Court and Kew).
5    Ian Bayley Curteis. Author and playwright (independent scholar with special interests in medieval architecture and genealogy, and military and political history; past President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain).
6    Jeffrey James West, OBE, BA, MPhil, DipTh. Buildings Conservation Manager (former Policy Director at English Heritage with many senior posts as an inspector of historic buildings; has published on buildings in Shropshire).
7    Kenneth Martin Whittaker, BSc. Archaeologist (long experience in heritage conservation in projects ranging from the Lower Palaeolithic to the contemporary, including the Iron Age chariot burial at Ferrybridge and the Roman cemetery and circus at Colchester).
8    David Livett Prior, BA, MPhil. Archivist (Assistant Clerk of the Records at the Parliamentary Archives; specialist interest in heritage communication and exhibition curation, and in 18th-century British and imperial history; Director of Archives for London).
9    Hugh M J Harrison. Woodwork and furniture conservator (specialises in timber conservation and carving for ecclesiastical projects in the UK and USA, for which he has won many awards; conservator for the 12th-century nave ceiling of Peterborough Cathedral).
10    John Stuart Titford, BA, MA, MA. Genealogist and antiquarian bookseller (has taught and lectured widely on family history and surnames, on which  he has published several books; expert on the dialect of the E. Midlands).

Elected on 9 June 2011

1    Alistair James Barclay, BSc, PhD. Senior Post-excavation Manager, Wessex Archaeology (expert in the prehistoric archaeology of the Thames Valley and has published widely on prehistoric monuments; currently managing the post-excavation work on the ‘Amesbury Archer’ and ‘Boscombe Bowmen’).
2    Joanna Katie Frances Bacon, BA. Archaeologist and archaeological illustrator (has worked on Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon finds from many sites in England and also on pottery from Carthage).
3    Gerard Arthur Damian McQuillan, MBE, BSc. Head of Acquisitions, Export and Loans Unit, Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (has played a vital role in securing many valuable objects for national collections and is an international expert on the export systems for works of art).
4    Susan Kay Harrington, BA, MA, PhD. Freelance archaeologist (has made major contributions to the study of Anglo-Saxon England, especially the material culture of the 5th-7th centuries; also a specialist in the archaeology of Kent).
5    Tarnya Cooper, BA, MA, DPhil. Curator of Sixteenth Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery (leading authority on Tudor and early Stuart portraiture, on which she has published widely and talked in the media).
6    Harwood A Johnson, BA, BS. Ceramic specialist (key figure in the Wedgwood Society of New York; has written and researched extensively on Wedgwood history and collections).
7    Christophe Sand, MA, PhD, HDR. Director of the Institute of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Pacific, New Caledonia (leading archaeologist in the Pacific with a prolific publishing record).
8    Mark Wooldridge Merrony, BA, MPhil, PhD. Director, Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Cannes (expert on Byzantine mosaics in the Levant; excavated and published Ford Roman villa, Pembrokeshire).
9    Christopher William Sprague, BA. Solicitor (former Master of the Worshipful Company of Barbers; has a deep interest in the history of livery companies in the City of London, on which he has written and lectured).
10    Martin Clayton, MA. Deputy Curator, Print Room, Windsor Castle (specialist in Old Master drawings; has been responsible for exhibitions on Leonardo da Vinci, Poussin, Raphael and Canaletto; has played a major part in the Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo project).

Elected on 2 June 2011:

1    Tobias Emmanuel Capwell, BA, MA, PhD. Curator of Arms and Armour, Wallace Collection (leading authority on arms and armour with a special interest in English Medieval armour and jousting; he has published several major surveys and catalogues).
2    Philippa Jane Bradley, BA, MPhil. Senior Post-excavation Manager, Wessex Archaeology (specialises in post-excavation analysis and publication; has edited major reports on excavations in Dorset, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and at Stansted).
3    Paul Richards, BA, MA, PhD, Hon MA. Historian and lecturer (distinguished local historian who has lectured widely, including for the Open University; has written the authoritative history of King’s Lynn).
4    Nigel George Bumphrey. Gold and silversmith (diocesan advisor for church plate and furnishings, Diocese of Norfolk; has curated exhibitions of E. Anglian silver and church plate).
5    Grace Ioppolo, PhD. Professor of Shakespearean and Early Modern Drama, University of Reading (foremost authority on archives and dramatic manuscripts relating to Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, on which she has published extensively; has in press an edition of the diary of the actor Edward Alleyn).
6    Ruth Harman, MBE, BA. Architectural historian and archivist (retired Principal Archivist of Sheffield City Archives; has played a key role in the preservation of the built environment in Sheffield; co-author of the Pevsner guide for Sheffield).
7    Francis Edward Basford. Finds Liaison Officer for the Isle of Wight (archaeological illustrator who has contributed to publications on the Isle of Wight, where he was an archaeological officer for 25 years).
8    Nicholas Michael Cooke, BA, PhD. Senior Archaeologist, Wessex Archaeology (specialist in the Roman period, especially cemetery studies and coin assemblages; has played a key role in the fieldwork projects at Heathrow Terminal 5 and Stansted Airport).
9    Michael Potterton, BA, MA, PhD. Archaeologist and editor (has made a major contribution to the study of medieval Ireland through his teaching on excavations and at universities in Ireland and abroad, and his work as author and editor).

Elected on Thursday, 26 May 2011:

1    Jeremy William Huggett, BA, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Glasgow (outstanding university teacher with specialist interests in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and computer applications in archaeology).
2    Katherine Jane Peachey Lowe, BA, PhD. Professor of Renaissance History and Culture, Queen Mary, University of London (leading historian of Renaissance Europe who has published major work on law and marriage in the period and on Europe’s relationship with Africa in the Renaissance).
3    Nigel Brian Israel. Gemmologist and jewellery historian (Chairman of the Society of Jewellery Historians and joint editor of its journal; gemmological consultant to the Royal Collection, British Museum, V&A and other collections).
4    Jeremy James Lake, BA. Archaeologist and historic buildings specialist (expert in vernacular architecture, archaeology and modern heritage management with specialist interest in farm buildings and chapels).
5    Ute Elisabeth Engel, PhD. Art historian (specialist in architectural history in England and on the Continent, especially Germany, with publications on Worcester and Rheims Cathedrals and Southwell Minster, and on Nikolaus Pevsner).
6    Marc Marie André Georges Vander Linden, BA, MA, PhD. Archaeologist, University of Leicester (specialist in Neolithic and Copper Age Europe; has carried out fieldwork in W. and E. Europe and Syria and is currently working on the Leverhulme project on British and Irish Prehistory).
7    Michael Douglas Danti, BA, PhD. Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Boston University (expert on Middle Eastern prehistory; has excavated in Syria and published on the archaeology of western Iran and the art of Mesopotamia).
8    Vivian Annette Carruthers, BA. Senior Lecturer in Art History, University of St Andrews (expert on the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and Europe, especially furniture and interiors; her publications include works on Ernest Gimson and Edward Barnsley).
9    Leo James Webley, BA, MA, PhD. Archaeologist, University of Reading (specialist in the later prehistory of NW Europe and the archaeology of domestic space; is currently working on the Leverhulme project on British and Irish Prehistory).

Elected 19 May 2011:

 As Honorary Fellow

1    Charalambos Bouras. President of the Acropolis Restoration Service (has managed the Athenian Acropolis restoration programme for 35 years; prolific author and

authority on Byzantine architecture and churches of Attica; has held posts at the University of Thessaloniki and National Technical University of Athens).

    As Ordinary Fellows
1    William (Bill) Horner, BA. Archaeologist (Deputy County Archaeologist for Devon and Chair of Devon Archaeological Society; has interests ranging from wetland and aerial archaeology to 20th-century defences).
2    Francis Harry Panton, CBE, MBE (Mil), BSc, PhD, PhD. Retired Scientific Civil Servant (Hon Librarian and Vice-President, Kent Archaeological Society; former Chair of the Dover Bronze Age Boat Trust; has researched and published widely on Canterbury and Kent in the 18th and 19th centuries).
3    Luke Schrager, MA, MA. Independent scholar (has published significant research in the Journal of the Silver Society and undertaken research for the College of Arms, Goldsmiths’ Company and Highgate School).
4    Anthony Charles Musson, MA, PhD. Professor of Medieval Legal History, University of Exeter (authority on social aspects of law-making and law enforcement in late medieval England, on which he has published major contributions).
5    Luciana Gallo, BA, PhD. Architect and architectural historian (combines architectural practice with high-level scholarship; has recently published Lord Elgin and Ancient Greek Architecture).
6    Clive Edwin Alexander Cheesman, MA, PhD. Richmond Herald (Roman historian with particular interests in onomastics and numismatics and a distinguished authority
on heraldry; has published in all these fields).
7    Victoria Anne Bryant, BA, MA. Manager, Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service (has held numerous posts relating to the archaeology of Worcester and has published extensively on the pottery of the county).
8    Robert Edward Waterhouse, BA. Field Archaeologist for the Société Jersiaise, Jersey (specialist interests in the vernacular architecture and archaeology of Devon and Cornwall, and in mining research).

Congratulations to the following 10 people who were elected on 10 March 2011:

1    Lisa Michelle Wastling, BSc. Senior Finds Officer, Humber Field Archaeology (expert in medieval and post-medieval ceramics and contributor to artefact studies, especially in Yorkshire and the Humber region).
2    Kevan John Fadden. Amateur archaeologist (active in the archaeology of Bedfordshire; founder of the Ampthill and District Archaeological and Local History Society; Hon Treasurer of the Council for Independent Archaeology).
3    Nathalie Cohen, BA, MA. Cathedral Archaeologist for Southwark Cathedral (has wide expertise of the archaeology of London and has published significant contributions on City churches and Anglo-Saxon London).
4    Roy Davids, BA. Retired manuscript dealer (former Head of Books and Post-Mediaeval Manuscripts at Sotheby's; former contributor to the History of Parliament Trust; has written extensively on literary manuscripts, collectors of Chinese ceramics and Ted Hughes).
5    James H Thomas, BA, PhD. Reader in Local and Maritime History, University of Portsmouth (established scholar of maritime history and English local history, particularly the early modern period).
6    Christopher Anton Powell, BA, PhD. Ancient historian and academic publisher (has written on Spartan society and religion and ancient Greek women, including influential works such as Athens and Sparta; director of the Classical Press of Wales).
7    Mark Steven Anderson, BA, PhD. Founding Director of Marothodi Institute for Archaeology in Africa (has developed an innovative field training school at the University of Cape Town and promotes ways of disseminating finds to African audiences).
8    Andrew James Dunwell, BA, FSAScot. Consultant archaeologist (has published principally on Iron Age and Roman Scotland, particularly in Angus and E Lothian; co-director of recent excavations at Traprain Law).
9    Catherine Elizabeth Karkov, PhD. Chair of Art History, University of Leeds (has made significant contributions to early medieval art and archaeology, especially Anglo-Saxon culture, and has edited volumes in honour of Rosemary Cramp and in memory of Patrick Wormald).
10    Ezra Zubrow, PhD. Professor, Dept of Anthropology, SUNY at Buffalo (has published extensively on archaeological theory, cognitive and social archaeology, origins of music and GIS; has conducted extensive fieldwork in Hudson Bay and Finland).

Moving the Pieces Around: rethinking  the Lewis Hoard of gaming  pieces

Lecture on 10 March 2011 at 5pm

Mark Hall FSA and David Caldwell FSA

The walrus ivory chessmen from Lewis, split between the British Museum and the National Museums Scotland, are amongst the most iconic gaming pieces ever discovered, rightly regarded as works of arts, 'top of the range' luxury items. This status, however, seems to have been responsible for a lack of critical examination since they were first published soon after their discovery in 1831 (by Madden 1832). This paper takes a fresh look at what we know about the circumstances of their manufacture, use and loss. Two key elements of the generally accepted understanding of the Lewis chessmen have never been challenged: their supposed purely accidental loss (by a merchant) on Lewis and that they are only chessmen (most recently and lucidly detailed in Robinson 2004). An exploration of their wider archaeological and historical context suggests that their putative accidental loss by a merchant is the least plausible of explanations for the chessmen being on Lewis. The geographical, political and cultural position of Lewis in the North Sea World suggests rather that the chessmen were found on Lewis because they were used there for a substantial period of their lives; the valued possessions of a high-ranking nobleman or ecclesiastic. As gaming pieces we suggest it is more useful to think of them less in the exclusive vein of chessmen and more in the more comprehensive sense of a hoard of gaming pieces. The presence in the hoard of six tablesmen and a buckle (the latter perhaps for a bag that could have held the pieces) have long argued for this diversity but it is now tenable to suggest that the style and form of some of the abstract pawns as well as some of the figurative pieces, supports the possibility of use in the game hnefatafl, possibly interchangeably as chess pieces. We have found no evidence to contradict the likelihood of Trondheim as the place of manufacture and – significantly aided by the innovative forensic-anthropological analysis of the face piece by Dr Caroline Wilkinson – we suggest that the hands of at least 5 craftsmen were deployed in making the pieces. They were made over a late 12th-early 13th century time-frame and did not necessarily all arrive on Lewis at the same time. The authors have just published (2009) a detailed discussion of these and other issues in relation to the Lewis hoard.

Caldwell, D, Hall, M A and Wilkinson, C 2009 ‘The Lewis hoard of gaming pieces: a re-examination of their context, meanings, discovery and manufacture’, in Medieval Archaeology 53 (2009), 155-203.
Madden, F 1832 ‘Historical remarks on the introduction of the game of chess into Europe and on the ancient chessmen discovered in the Isle of Lewis’, in Archaeologia XXIV (1832), 203-91.
Robinson, J 2004 The Lewis Chessmen, London: British Museum.

If you are not a Fellow and would like to attend, please contact the office on 020 7479 7080 and speak to Jola.

Setting the Scene: nineteenth-century illustrations of the Mabinogion

Lecture on 3 March 2011 at 5pm

Professor Sioned Davies, Cardiff University

In 1849 an English aristocrat, Lady Charlotte Guest, published her translation of the medieval Welsh tales known as the Mabinogion in three luxurious volumes, including illustrations by Samuel Williams. One of her aims was to show the ‘colonisers’ (the English) that the ‘colonised’ (the Welsh) were civilised and in possession of a noble literary heritage although, ironically, she herself was an outsider to Wales. This publication was to determine the Mabinogion's public image and many aspects of its subsequent publishing history. In particular, the wood engravings that Guest commissioned pre-determine scenes and subjects for twentieth-century versions of the tales, both in English and in Welsh, showing how a nineteenth-century illustrated translation is able to dominate subsequent editions in both the target and the source language.

Growing Pains: making and remaking the American Museum in Britain

Thursday, 10 February 2011 at Burlington House

Given by Dr Richard Wendorf FSA

An illustrated lecture in which Dr Wendorf tries to place the American Museum – the only museum devoted to American decorative arts and folk art outside the United States – in its historical and museological context.  The museum was founded in order to educate Britons about American history and culture in order to strengthen relationships between the two countries.  So far, the museum has experienced great success: 95 percent of its visitors come from the United Kingdom and over 3 million people have visited the museum since its founding in 1961.
What were the models for the two founders – one American, one British – fifty years ago?  Why did they situate their institution in Bath – and in an English country house?  How did they assemble a collection of over 10,000 items so quickly?  And why add folk art – and, later, important European maps – to the already impressive collection of decorative arts?
I also propose to talk about important developments during the following decades: a growing emphasis on historically accurate gardens, a separate exhibition gallery (which opened for the institution’s twenty-fifth anniversary), the creation of a heritage centre just a few years ago, and the opening (next spring) of an education centre and a new folk art gallery.
From the moment the museum was conceptualized during an automobile ride through New Hampshire in the late 1950s, the founders and (later) the museum’s directors and curators have attempted to place the material culture of North America in period rooms, temporary exhibitions, and (most recently) virtual contexts.  These attempts have been influenced by changing ideas about the very nature of American culture as well as by the evolution of the contemporary museum.  I would like to conclude my talk by focusing on how much has changed in the past fifty years – especially in British culture, and in Britain’s view of America – and on how the American Museum might best position itself in the decade to come.

Earlier Ballots

The following people were elected to the Society on 3 March 2011:1   

Jelena Josephine Bekvalac, MSc, BA. Curator of Human Osteology, Museum of London (has published on burial sites in London from the medieval period to the 19th century; co-curator of the 2008 ‘Skeletons’ exhibition at the Wellcome Collection).
2    Rebecca Catherine Redfern, BA, MSc, PhD. Curator of Human Osteology, Museum of London (her bioarchaeological research focuses on health, particularly in late Iron Age and Romano-British communities).
3    Michael Patrick O'Neill, BA, PhD. Freelance architectural historian (expert on Irish architecture of all periods, on which he has published extensively, in particular St Patrick’s and Christchurch Cathedrals, Dublin).
4    David Harold Jenkins, MA, MA, MA, PhD. Archdeacon of Sudbury, Suffolk (expert on the topography of religious settlement in the early medieval Irish church; his book on the subject was published in 2010).
5    Michael St John Parker, MA. Writer and historian (significant contributor to English social, educational, and general history, especially of the 18th-19th centuries; author and lecturer on historic buildings; Hon Archivist to Worshipful Company of Masons).
6    Julian M Hunt. Retired manager, Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies (has written and lectured extensively on the history of Buckinghamshire towns and other areas of local history).
7    Vivienne J Coad, BA, MA. Environment Field Adviser, English Heritage (long-standing contribution to archaeology and to the historic environment, particularly in Kent and E Sussex; has published on Mithras and Roman Gaul).
8    Charles Patrick Wagner, BSc, MA. Historic Environment Adviser, English Heritage (particular expertise on conservation areas and local authority heritage assets; extensive research on Lutyens and garden structures in Hampshire).
9    Simon Thomas Green, MA, FSAScot. Architectural historian at the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (has lectured and published widely on the domestic and ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland; Chair of the Architecture Advisory Panel of the National Trust for Scotland).
10    David Melvyn Browne, BA, MA. Head of Publications and Outreach, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (has contributed over many years, through excavation and publication, to the study of Welsh hill-forts, medieval Welsh castles, the archaeology of Roman Britain and of Peru).

The following people were elected to the Society on 17 February 2011:

1    Daniel James Power, MA, PhD. Professor of Medieval History, Swansea University (internationally recognised authority on the history of France and England in the central Middle Ages; author of The Norman Frontier in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries).

2    Nicholas John Pearce, BA, MA. Professor of Chinese Art, University of Glasgow (has held positions in the Far Eastern Dept, V&A and at The Burrell Collection; his recent research has focused on photography in late 19th-century China and the collecting of Chinese art in the West).

3    David William Hayton, BA, DPhil. Professor of Early Modern Irish and British History, Queen’s University Belfast (leading authority on the politics of Anglo-Ireland with major publications on aspects of government, religion and society in Ireland).

4    Paul Holden, BA, MA. House and Collection Manager, National Trust, Lanhydrock House (has published extensively on the history of Lanhydrock and on Cornish history and architecture; sits on the councils of the Cornish Buildings Group and the Truro Cathedral Fabric Advisory Committee).

5    Robert John Mayhew, BA, DPhil, PhD. Professor of Historical Geography and Intellectual History, University of Bristol (has written pioneering work on geographical description in the 17th and 18th centuries, focusing on the work of Johnson, Pope and Gilpin).

6    Stephen David Trow, BSc. Archaeologist (Head of Rural and Environmental Advice, English Heritage; has published extensively on heritage management, especially in relation to agriculture and marine and coastal archaeology).

7    Rodney Mackey. Freelance archaeologist (Lecturer and part-time tutor in archaeology, Dept of Life Long Learning, University of Hull; long experience of excavation and survey in archaeology, especially in the E Riding of Yorkshire).

8    Michael Petraglia, PhD. Co-Director, Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art & Culture, University of Oxford (is undertaking groundbreaking archaeological research in the Arabian peninsular and India, particularly on the Middle Palaeolithic Period).

9    Steven J Malone, BSc PhD. Archaeologist (has directed field projects in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and has recently published on Roman Lincolnshire).

The results of the ballot on 10 February were as follows:

1    Michael Jones, BA, MA, PhD. Professor of History, Bates College, Maine (has written extensively on late Roman Britain and early Anglo-Saxon England; leads an Anglo-American team working on the Shetland Islands Climate and Settlement Project).
2    Janet Nichola Johnson, BA, MA. Director, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (specialist in the history of museums and collections; trustee of the Dulwich Picture Gallery; her publications include London in the Eighteenth Century).
3    Iain Robert MacLean Roffe Morley, BSc, MA, PhD. Lecturer in Palaeoanthropology and Human Sciences, University of Oxford (his research focuses on the archaeological evidence for the emergence of modern human cognition; has conducted fieldwork in Libya, Italy, Greece and eastern Europe).
4    Lynnette Carleen Keys, BA. Consultant archaeometallurgist (particular expertise in iron production and its waste products from the Iron Age to the post-medieval period, on which she has published widely).
5    Ann Brookes, MA, PhD. Art historian (has written a major work on the 17th-century antiquarian Richard Symonds, and has further interests in Bolsover Castle and the Lindsey Chapel, Boston, MA).
6    Henry Ruxton Woudhuysen, FBA, BA, MA, DPhil. Professor of English Literature, University College London (key figure in the rediscovery of English manuscript culture in the later 16th and 17th centuries, with major publications on Philip Sidney and A.E. Housman and A.W. Pollard, and regular articles in the TLS).
7    Greg Walker, BA, PhD. Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, University of Edinburgh (has published widely on late medieval drama and poetry and the cultural consequences of the Henrician Reformation).
8    Nigel Richard Plant, BA, MA, PhD. Lecturer in the History of Art, Christie’s Education, London (specialist in English and German Romanesque architecture, on which he has published widely).

9    Christopher Rupert Starr, PhD, FRHistS. Project Officer for The National Archive’s Manorial Documents Register for Essex (specialist interest in the history of Essex, particularly the gentry and the social and historical background of churches; author of Essex Churches).

The following people were elected to the Fellowship on 3 February 2011:

1    Harry Reeves, OBE, BSocSc, MA. Secretary General, UK National Commission for UNESCO (has particular expertise in the culture sector; previously Deputy Director, Dept of Culture, Media and Sport where he made a major contribution to the Heritage Protection Bill).
2    Stefano Remo Luigi Campana, BA, PhD. Lecturer, University of Siena (specialist in landscape archaeology, aerial photography and remote sensing; has an international reputation for innovation and co-operation with colleagues in Europe and beyond).
3    Bryan John Sitch, BA, MA, MA. Curator of Archaeology, University of Manchester Museum (has particular interests in the history of collecting and has written on various antiquarian and archaeological aspects of Yorkshire).
4    Rachel Moss, BA, PhD. Lecturer and Archives Manager, Irish Art Research Centre, Trinity College, Dublin (one of the leading medieval art historians in Ireland; has published and edited major contributions in the field).
5    Justin Morris, BA, PhD. Director of Strategic Planning, British Museum (key role in the development of the Museum’s international policy; major contributions to the study of the later prehistory of the North-west Frontier Province).
6    Timothy Charles Laurie. Quantity Surveyor (has discovered and recorded numerous early prehistoric sites in N. Yorks and Co. Durham over the last 30 years; won the Thubron Prize for his recording of burnt mound sites).
7    David Samuel Harvard Abulafia, FBA. Professor of Mediterranean History, University of Cambridge (has published and lectured widely on the economic, social and political history of the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, particularly southern Italy and Spain).
8    Katharine Keats-Rohan, BA, MA, PhD. Fellow, European Research Centre, Oxford (medieval historian who has made important contributions to the prosopography of NW France from the 10th to 12th centuries and of Anglo-Norman England).
9    Andrew Derek Warren Richmond, BA, PhD. Consultant archaeologist (has directed excavations in Hertfordshire and Suffolk and acted as a consultant on a wide range of archaeological projects; has published particularly on the Bronze Age).

The following people were elected to the Fellowship following a ballot on 27 January 2011:

1    David Davison, DPhil. Publisher (as a partner in Archaeopress has been responsible for the publication of  c. 1,400 titles of British Archaeological Reports; has himself published on the Roman province of Dalmatia and on Roman army barracks).
2    Nicholas Boyter Aitchison, MA, PhD. Civil servant (has published on the Picts and Scots, on Iron Age and medieval sites in Co. Armagh and on Roman and other coin hoards).
3    Lars Tharp, MA, Hon DLitt. Hogarth Curator at the Foundling Museum, London (ceramics expert and Hogarth specialist; best known for his appearances on The Antiques Roadshow; patron of the VCH project and Vice-President of the Leicestershire Archaeological Society).
4    Peter Anthony Cardwell, BA. Archaeological and heritage consultant (co-founder of Northern Archaeological Associates; active in the archaeology of Yorkshire and has published a pioneering study on Brough St Giles).
5    David Williams. Finds Liaison Officer for Surrey and east Berkshire (has carried out excavations in Surrey and has a deep knowledge of metalwork, especially late Saxon stirrup mounts; his archaeological illustrations appear in major publications).
6    Andrew Birley, BA, PhD. Archaeologist (Director of Excavations for the Vindolanda Trust; has published on Vindolanda and has contributed significantly to the public perception of archaeology through TV and the presentation of the siteís archaeology).
7    Richard William Savage, MA, MA. Retired Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (active in archaeology in Surrey; Council member of the Surrey Archaeological Society and Chairman of the Friends of Woking Palace).
8    Nicola Jennings, MPhil. Lecturer, Dept of Cultural Policy and Management, City University (former Head of Strategic Development Projects, National Gallery; member of the Society's Development Campaign Group).
9    Sam Mullins, MA. Director, London Transport Museum (Vice-Chairman of the Association of Independent Museums; his research interests include probate inventories, early Olympic history and the Victorian passenger's experience of transport).

'One of the most important art historical finds in decades'

Two rare cityscapes of Lisbon before the earthquake in 1755 have been discovered in Rossetti’s personal collections at Kelmscott Manor – and found to be part of the same painting.

During recent research on the paintings at Kelmscott Manor by Collections Manager Julia Dudkiewicz for a forthcoming catalogue of the Society’s paintings collections, the two paintings were identified as the only known visual representation of the most famous trading street in Renaissance Lisbon, Rua Nova dos Mercadores, which was completely destroyed in the earthquake. They had long puzzled the scholarly community, having been previously wrongly catalogued as views of Spain, Italy, and South America.

The location of these cityscapes was definitively identified by the internationally renowned scholars Dr Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, an expert in Portuguese renaissance art and Professor Kate Lowe, an authority on the depiction of Black Africans in the art of Renaissance Europe. Thanks are also due to Fellows Jeremy Warren and Dora Thornton for having facilitated this discovery.

Dr Jordan Schwend described the find as 'one of the most important art historical discoveries made in decades'.

'These paintings will change our knowledge and understanding of the urban typography of Renaissance Lisbon and our understanding of the most significant street in the Portuguese capital at this date,' said Dr Jordan Schwend. 'Rua Nova dos Mercadores was one of the most affluent, significant thoroughfares of Lisbon and the principal commercial street. The Rua Nova was also the financial center of Renaissance Europe, where the shops and residences of Portuguese and foreign merchants were located.'

As demonstrated by Julia Dudkiewicz, these unique cityscapes, generally considered as two autonomous artworks until now, were once part of a larger panoramic composition, as evidenced by the continuation of the railing across the two canvasses. The paintings are the highlight of an exhibition at the Rietberg Museum, Zurich called Ivories from Ceylon:  Luxury Goods in the Renaissance, being curated by Dr AnneMarie Jordan Gschwend and Dr Johannes Beltz. They have already attracted a lot of interest from the press in Switzerland and Portugal and are on display until 13 March 2011.

Before going on display they underwent extensive conservation treatment by conservator Ruth Bubb, including consolidation of flaking, cleaning, relining and conservation framing, which will preserve them for future generations. This conservation was made possible thanks to the Rietberg Museum in Zurich.

The paintings are a rare survival from Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s collection of Old Master pictures and were part of his belongings left at Kelmscott Manor in 1874. There are a number of other old Master paintings in the collections once owned by the pre-Raphaelite artist, including a Breughel and a Bavarian Old Master.

Shipwrecks are thrown a lifeline

A seminar held at the Society has helped chart a course towards gaining the government support needed to protect our underwater heritage.

Chairman of Joint Nautical Archaeology Policy Committee Robert Yorke FSA organized the meeting in November with the Society, English Heritage and the UK National Commission for Unesco. Its aim was explore the case for ratification of the Unesco Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage and, as a result, a strong case is now being formed to persuade the Government to review its position on the Convention.

Stressing the importance of the move, Bob Yorke recently wrote in an article for the Times newspaper: ‘One of the main purposes of the Convention is to prevent historic shipwrecks from being exploited by treasure hunters for commercial gain and to prevent their artefacts being sold to finance their salvage.

‘There is only one opportunity to gather the unique evidence of our past from these time-capsules of history and this should not be squandered for short-term financial gain.’

For a fuller report on the meeting please click here.

Ballot Results - 9 December 2010

The following people were elected on Thursday 9 December in the last ballot of the year, bringing the total number of new Fellows for the Autumn Season to 49:

1    Hilary James Young, BA. Senior Curator, Sculpture, Metalwork, Ceramics and Glass, Victoria and Albert Museum (leading expert in British and European pottery and porcelain of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries; her publications include Masterpieces of World Ceramics).
2    Christopher Webster, BA, MPhil. Retired independent scholar (architectural historian who has published widely on the architecture of the late Georgian and early Victorian period).
3    Katherine Susan Coombs, BA, MA. Curator, Paintings, Victoria and Albert Museum (specialist in painted portrait miniatures; has published The Portrait Miniature in England, 2nd ed., 2005).
4    John Stewart Adams, BA. Director at HR China (has interests in British archaeology, including the Alderley Edge Landscape Project, and in local history; he is currently working on the origin of ford place-names in Britain).
5    Bruno Eloy Jan Stephan Werz, DLitt. Archaeologist and historian (founding contributor to scientific maritime archaeology in southern Africa; author of a number of academic publications).
6    Elisabeth Rose Fairman, BA. Senior Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts, Yale Center for British Art (has built up the Center’s collection to over 35,000 items; currently working on the Society’s ‘Making History’ exhibition to take place in Yale in 2012.)
7    Michael Gavin Bundock, LLB, LLM. Barrister and independent scholar (Editor of The New Rambler, Director of Dr Johnson’s House Trust and expert on eighteenth-century literature and history, especially Samuel Johnson).
8    Jacqueline Glomski, PhD. Lecturer in neo-Latin, King’s College London (previously assistant librarian at the Warburg Institute; has delivered papers and published widely in the UK, Canada, Poland and the Low Countries.)
9    Victoria Jane Avery, BA, PhD. Associate Professor, University of Warwick (leading scholar of European Renaissance sculpture, especially Venetian bronzes, on which she has produced several major publications.)

Ballot Results - 2 December 2010

The following people were elected on 2 December 2010:

1    Adam Nicolson (Lord Carnock), MA, FSA Scot. Historian and writer (has written on English history, landscape and the sea, in particular the King James Bible, Nelson and Trafalgar, and Sissinghurst).
2    Judith M. Barringer, BA, MA, MPhil, PhD. Professor of Greek Art and Archaeology, University of Edinburgh (her work focuses on the intersection of art, myth and religion from the Archaic to Hellenistic periods, especially in sculpture and vase painting).
3    Susan Foister, MA, PhD. Curator of Early Netherlandish, German and British Painting, and Deputy Director, National Gallery (has written on Holbein, Giotto, Dürer and Veronese and been curator of numerous exhibitions).
4    David Sekers, OBE, BA. Lecturer and adviser on industrial heritage, adaptation of historic buildings and museum and heritage conservation (co-founder and past chairman of Association for Independent Museums).
5    Despina Pilides, BA, PhD. Curator of Museums, Dept of Antiquities, Cyprus (specialist in the archaeology of Cyprus, especially of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC, on which she has published widely).
6    David King, BA, MA. Independent scholar (distinguished scholar and conservator of stained glass, especially that of Norfolk and Suffolk; major contributor to the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi.)
7    Christopher John Yates Fletcher, BA, PhD. Head of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library (has published on manuscripts of works by William Morris, Lord Byron and William Stukely; is an adviser to the Reviewing Committee on Export of Works of Art).
8    Gary Brown, BA. Founder and Managing Director of Pre-Construct Archaeology (has published extensively on Roman and Saxon remains, especially in and around London.)
9    Leslie Weller, DL, FRICS. Fine Art historian and valuer (a Vice-President of the Sussex Archaeological Society and Chairman of the Fabric Advisory Committee of Chichester Cathedral; has written many historical articles on Sussex.)

Ballot Results - 25 November

The following people were voted in by ballot on Thursday 25 November.

As Honorary Fellows

1    Christopher Brian Stringer, BSc, PhD, DSc, FRS. Museum curator and researcher, Natural History Museum (champion of the Out of Africa model for modern human origins; co-editor of The Human Revolution and leading figure in public debates on multi-regional and recent African models for our ancestry).
2    K Paddayya, BSc, PhD. Retired Director of Deccan College, Pune, India (India's foremost scholar in the earliest prehistory of the sub-continent; his book, The New Archaeology and aftermath, contributed an alternative perspective to the theory wars of the 1980s and attracted good reviews from both sides).
   
As Ordinary Fellows

3    Beryl Pamela Lott, BA, MA, PhD. County Archaeologist for Lincolnshire (has lectured and published on the medieval buildings of NW England and on sites and monuments in Lincolnshire).
4    Judith Ann Ford, BA, PhD. Local historian and part-time lecturer (Editor, Dorset Record Society Publications; has published on ethnic minorities in Dorset).
5    Christopher Kelly, BA, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Cambridge (classicist and historian whose interests include power in antiquity, the rise of Christianity and the Grand Tour; has written and broadcast widely).
6    Timothy Earle, PhD. Professor of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Illinois (has conducted fieldwork in Hawaii, Peru, Denmark and Hungary and published extensively on prehistoric and Bronze Age topics.)
7    Joern Schuster, MA, Dr phil. Post-Excavation Manager, Wessex Archaeology (expertise in the finds and settlement archaeology of the Roman and medieval periods; has published on metalworking in N. Germany and is responsible for publishing a wide range of excavations).

Ballot Results - 18 November

The following people were voted in by ballot on Thursday 18 November.

1    Caroline Vout, BA, MA, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Classics, University of Cambridge (specialist in classical art and its reception, on which she has written widely, including a highly acclaimed book, Power and Eroticism in Imperial Rome).
2    Annemarieke Willemsen, MA, PhD. Head of the Medieval Dept, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (expert on medieval childrenís toys; also has interest in the Vikings in the Rhine-Meuse area).
3    Joanna Mary Marschner, MVO, PhD. Manager of the Kensington Palace curatorial team (Chair of the Costume Committee of the International Council of Museums; has published extensively on court and ceremonial costume).
4    Stuart Brookes, BA, MA, PhD. Leverhulme Research Fellow, University College London (specialist in the archaeology of medieval Britain and Europe, especially Anglo-Saxon Kent).
5    David Edward Johnston, MA. Retired university lecturer (has particular interests in Roman villas, mosaics and roads in Britain; active as a writer, reviewer and editor).
6    Paul Martin Ruddock, BA, MA. Businessman, philanthropist and collector (leading collector of medieval art; funder of the new gallery of Medieval Europe at the British Museum; Chair of the Trustees of the V&A).
7    Adam Neil Menuge, BA, DPhil. Senior Architectural Investigator, English Heritage (wide experience in the investigation of historic buildings and landscapes and author of major research reports and the standard guide on recording historic buildings).

Ballot Results - 11 November 2010

The following peopled joined the Fellowship on 11 November 2010 after being voted in by ballot:

1 David Michael Brock, BA. Inspector of Historic Buildings, English Heritage (with responsibility for central southern England; lectures on philosophy of conservation and has special interest in the history of thatching).

2 Robert Alan Parkinson, MSc, MScEcon. Historic Buildings Architect, English Heritage (lectures on historic landscapes and conservation and has written on Morris and Rossetti's legacy on public policy; International Secretary, Institute of Historic Building Conservation).

3 John Joseph Wisdom, MA. Librarian, St Paul's Cathedral Library (has deep knowledge of London, the City's ecclesiastical history and the history of St Paul's, on which he has published major contributions).

4 Danielle Caroline Schreve, PhD. Deputy Director, Centre for Quaternary Research, Royal Holloway (leading authority on the mammalian fauna of Pleistocene Britain and Europe and specialist in the Palaeolithic settlement of Britain).

5 Simon William Gardner Davies, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Southampton (international authority on the earliest Upper Palaeolithic occupation of Europe; co-editor of ground-breaking volume, Neanderthals and Modern Humans in the European landscape).

6 FrederiBalck Peter Woodford, MA, PhD, HonDSc. Retired biochemist and civil servant (has strong interest in local history, especially of Camden; Editor of the Camden History Society's publications).

7 Francis Peter Whitford, MA, DrRCA. Art historian (distinguished historian of art and architecture of the German-speaking countries in the 19th and 20th centuries; has curated exhibitions at the Royal Academy, published monographs on Kokoschka and Klimt and contributes regularly to Sunday Times and TLS).

8 Linda Janet Hall, BA. Archaeologist (specialist in rural and vernacular houses, in particular their fixtures and fittings, on which she has written widely).

Ballot Results - 21 October

The following seven people join the Fellowship after being voted in on 21 October 2010:

1 Jane Wendy Laughton, BA, BA, MA, PhD. Independent historical consultant (specialist in the history and archaeology of medieval towns, in particular Chester, with contributions to local and national journals).

2 Max Donnelly, MA, MA. Head of Decorative Arts, Fine Art Society (specialises in late 19th-century decorative arts and has contributed to Journal of the Furniture History Society; contributor to the BBC’s ‘Antiques Roadshow’).

3 Allard Wijnand Mees. Archaeologist and Head Conservator at the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Mainz (major contributor to the study of samian ware, including republication of the Pompeii Hoard and the creation of an online database of samian ware).

4 Martin Charles Newman, BSc. Archaeologist, English Heritage (manages heritage information for EH, including the National Monuments Record, and has published on the application of archaeological theory to heritage management; Hon. Treasurer of the Institute of Field Archaeologists).

5 Aleksander Pluskowski, BA, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Reading (research interests combine medieval and environmental archaeology, including pioneering work on animals as material culture and the archaeology of the Teutonic Order; has published major contributions in both areas).

6 Tomás Ó Carragáin, BA, MA, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, University College Cork (established scholar in the archaeology of the church in early medieval Ireland, on which he has published extensively; Editor of the Journal of Irish Archaeology).

7 Marie-Louise Stig Sørensen, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Later European Prehistory, University of Cambridge (has published extensively on the Bronze Age of temperate Europe, historiography and in gender and heritage studies).

The London Charterhouse - a lecture           

Lecture: Monastery to Mansion: the London Charterhouse in the sixteenth century  By Philip Temple

Thursday 2 December 2010 at 5pm

The Charterhouse, founded as a monastery in the late fourteenth century, has survived against the odds, keeping a separate identity and even retaining some of the monastic buildings. Its survival is attributable in part to the continuity of the past 400 years, though it came close to obliteration in the late nineteenth century and again in the Second World War. During that time it has been principally an almshouse, and for most of that time a school as well (and latterly a medical college). This talk concentrates on the sometimes turbulent period before the almshouse came into being: new developments at the monastery from the late fifteenth century; the use of the buildings after its suppression in 1538, as lodgings and workshops for the king’s servants; their partial demolition and the creation of the great courtyard house which still exists today.

Pictured: Chimneypiece showing sixteenth century interior decoration

4 November Ordinary Meeting

A lecture to be given by Geoffery Dannell FSA

'Edmund Tyrrell Artis FSA: a curious polymath'

Edmund Tyrrell Artis was a nineteenth-century self-taught prodigy, who rose from a rural background in Suffolk to become a Fellow both of the Geological Society, and our own Society. He was employed as the House Steward to the Fitzwilliam family at Milton, then Northamptonshire, which gave him the opportunity to collect fossils from the their coal mines in Yorkshire, and for excavations in the area around the area where he lived. He published two major works: 'Antediluvian Phytology', which dealt with fossils of the coal measures, and 'The Durobrivaeof Antoninus', a series of plates recording his excavations and the  objects found in them.

He also acted as owner and major domo of the Doncaster Race Club, where he entertained such notables as the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. In the 1840s he published seminal papers on Romano-British pottery kilns.

The Jewish presence in Malta during the time of the Roman Empire

Lecture: The Jewish Catacombs of Roman Melite by Professor Mario Buhagiar

Thursday 18 November 2010

The Roman city of Melite on the Central Mediterranean archipelago of Malta had, in common with other provincial outposts of the Empire, a Diaspora Jewish colony for which there is eloquent testimony in a series of hypogea that prominently display the seven branch Menorah.

There is possible evidence for a religious, and perhaps administrative, setup in a Greek inscription  that marks the burial place of a gerousiarch and ‘lover of the commandments’ who might have been the head of the Council of Elders in the Synagogue of the city, and of his wife Eulogia the elder. The title presbytera used in the text has a special significance and suggests that husband and wife held prestigious posts in the running of the colony.

A second inscription incorporates the seven-branch Menorah and commemorates another woman named Dionysia who was known by the ritualistic name Irene. Two other texts appear to be simple farewell messages but are of interest because they are accompanied by a boldly engraved sailing vessel had has the appearance of a Roman ship.

 The lecture takes a close look at these and other possible archaeological material related to  Jewish presence and influence. The hypogea are discussed in the context of the Maltese culture of rock-cut burials, stating in the Prehistoric Period and finds special significance in the prototype influence of the
Romano-Punic tomb.

Ordinary Meeting at York

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Tea at 4.15pm for a 5pm start

'Archaeology and metal-detecting: perspectives from Roman Yorkshire' given by Professor Martin Millett, will be held in the Huntingdon Room, King's Manor, Exhibition Square, York.

Recently there has been two strands of discussion about metal-detecting and archaeology. One represents a pessimistic assessment, focusing on the undoubted problems of night-hawking; the other is optimistic, celebrating the outstanding success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This lecture will explore an area of middle ground. Since the mid-1980s, long-term research on several Roman sites in East Yorkshire has included a systematic study of the value of metal-detecting within archaeological research. The three aspects of this work will be examined: firstly, the value of collating metal-detector finds from an area and relating them to other aspects of landscape research; secondly, the methodological question of how to analyse such data; and finally how the integration of systematic detecting during excavations changes our understanding of object deposition patterns.

If you wish to attend the lecture, contact Philip Lankester of the York Antiquaries on lankester169@tiscali.co.uk.

HMS Victory 1744: Options for the management of the wreck site

In its response to the public consultation on the management of the wreck site of HMS Victory 1744, the Society of Antiquaries has pointed out that ratification of the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage 2001, which the Society has frequently urged in the past, would help resolve many of the complexities involved in this particular case and be of great benefit to UK marine assets generally, providing a much-needed regulatory framework for their proper protection.

Rule 1 of the Annex to the UNESCO Convention gives the principle of preservation in situ as the preferred option where this is practical and this must be the preferred option for the Victory, the Society says. The degree to which the vessel is subject to damage from natural degradation and storm damage, fishing and trawling, and interference from divers needs considerable further evaluation. Insufficient survey has been undertaken so far to reveal anything other than artefact scatter and the preservation and nature of the vessel structure; its degree and depth of burial within sediments is unknown. It is therefore premature to do anything other than adopt the precautionary principle of preservation in situ at least until such time as considerable further work is carried out.

The complete text of the Society's response to the consultation can be downloaded here (Word file: 40Kb).

Welcome to New Fellows

A warm welcome to the following people who were elected to the Society on 17 June 2010. This was the last ballot of the academic year. The next ballot will take place after the summer break on 21 October 2010.

1. Frances Marjorie Harris, BA, PhD. Retired Curator of Manuscripts, British Library (has served as an Expert Advisor on Manuscripts to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport from 2002 to 2010; interests lie in mid seventeenth to mid eighteenth century politics and culture).
2. Aoi Hosoya, BA, MA, MPhil, PhD. Research Fellow, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto (research interests include ethnoarchaeological approaches and the beginning of agricultural domestication in Asia; has published on archaeobotany, and archaeobotanical approaches to Yayoi social structure).
3. Nicola Amanda Jane Richardson, BA, MA, PhD. Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern History, University of Chichester (specialist  in the study of medieval landscape, especially forests and parks; publications include The Medieval Forest, Park and Palace of Clarendon, Wiltshire c.1200-c.1650).
4. Ann N. Brysbaert, MA, BSc, PhD. Archaeological scientist and conservator (Principal Investigator within the Leverhulme-funded 'Tracing Networks' Networks' project based at Leicester University; lecturer at the Diethnes Kentro Ellinikon kai Mesogeiakon Spoudon, Athens; has published on Egyptian and Greek sites).
5. Donald Hankey, The Lord Hankey, Architect and Conservation and Cultural Planning Specialist (founder of the GHK Group of Companies in 1973 andthe All Party Parliamentary Group on Architecture and Planning; has advised government, regional and city authorities throughout the world; has published on conservation on China, Jordan, Pakistan).
6. David Frankel, BA, MA, PhD. Professor of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Australia (has directed numerous excavations at prehistoric sites in Papua New Guinea, Australia and Cyprus; Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities).
7. Margaret O'Hea, BA, D.Phil. Senior Lecturer, Classics, School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, South Australia (authority on the glass of the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Early Islamic periods in the Near East; has directed an archaeological survey in the Jordan Valley).
   

The following people were elected on 10 June 2010:

1. Katherine Victoria Boyle, BA, PhD. Research Facilitator and Conference Organiser, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge (research interests include the Palaeolithic subsistence practices).
2. Robert Francis Willard Elgood, BA, PhD. Research Fellow, Eastern European, Islamic and Asian Arms and Armour, the Wallace Collection (leading authority on Oriental arms and armour).
3. Linda Doran, BA, MA, PhD. Hon. General Secretary, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (expert on medieval settlement patterns and allied communication routes; has published on heritage maps).
4. Julian Michael Charles Bowsher, BA. Senior Archaeologist, Museum of London Archaeology (specialist in the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly London's playhouses; has published on the archaeology of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria; Fellow of the Royal Numismatic Society, former President of the Greenwich Historical Society).
5. Oliver Rackham, MA, PhD. Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and Keeper of the college silver (ecologist and botanist; leading authority on British woodlands and the ecology of Mediterranean Europe).
6. Edmond Campion Southworth, BA, MPhil. Director, Manx National Heritage (specialist in Classical Archaeology; has published on the collections of the Liverpool Museum).
7. Margaret Goodrich, MA. Retired historian and Scholar (has contributed to the study to the Ecclesiastical History of the Diocese of Worcester; has published on medieval nunneries).
   

The following people were elected on 27 May 2010:

1. John Essex Goldfinch, BA, MA. Head of Incunabula, British & Early Printed Collections, British Library (has published on 15th-century printed books, the library of King George III and the history of the British Museum).
2. Derek Leslie Adlam. Early music scholar and practitioner (pioneering figure in early music movement; curator and restorer of C F Colt’s keyboard instruments collection, Bethersden; has published on the Portland family collections).
3. Zoë Crossland, MA, PhD. Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Columbia University, New York (specialist in African archaeology; interests include the history and practice of forensic archaeology in Britain and Argentina).
4. Ioana Adina Oltean, MA, PhD. University Lecturer, University of Exeter (specialist in archaeology of Roman Dacia and in aerial archaeology; has published on these topics).
5. Catrina Anne Appleby, BA, MA. Publications Officer, Council for British Archaeology (her research interests lie in landscape development and later prehistory; projects include excavations at Nadbury Camp, Warwicks).
6. Gillian M. Draper, BA, MA. PhD. Associate Lecturer, University of Kent (has contributed to study of history of Kent and she is the events and Development Officer for British Association for Local History; has published on this area).
7. Sarah Helen Parcak, BA, MPhil, PhD. Founding Director, University of Alabama at Birmingham Laboratory for Global Health Observation (has excavated at Tell Tebilla, and contributed to the Northeast Delta Survey and the Survey of Tell El-Amarna).
   

The following people were elected to the Fellowship on 29 April 2010:

1. Jillian Lyndon Husselby, BA, PhD. Architectural Historian (specialist in the Tudor Period; has made major contribution to the study of the buildings of William Cecil including Burghley House, Lincolnshire).
2. Tara Draper-Stumm, MA, BA. Fundraiser and Events Coordinator, Heritage of London Trust (architectural historian; specialist interests include the work of Robert Adam; has published on historic buildings).
3. Matthew Edgeworth, BA, PhD. Project Officer, School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester (field archaeologist with a specialist interest in the archaeology of rivers; has contributed to the Archaeology of Bedfordshire).
4. Robert James Wallis, BA, MA, PhD. Associate Professor of Visual Culture, Richmond the American International University, London (major contributions to the study of shamans and animism in indigenous and prehistoric art).
5. Eileen Wilkes, BA, MA, PhD. Lecturer in Archaeology, Bournemouth University (prehistorian with specialist interests in the Iron Age of southwestern Britain; excavated in and published on Poole Harbour).
6. Daniel James Garner, BA. Archaeological Project Officer, Cheshire County Council (directed major excavation on Chester’s Roman Amphitheatre and Bridge Street Row; has published on these areas).
7. Carolyn Rosemary Wingfield, BA. Curator, Saffron Walden Museum and Head of the Uttlesford District Museum Service (has published on Anglo-Saxon archaeology; former editor of Bedfordshire Archaeology).
8. Claire Smith, BA, PhD. Associate Professor of Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia (President of the World Archaeological Congress; specialist interests in Australian Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and South Australia).
9. Alexandra Croom, BA. Keeper of Archaeology, Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums (Archaeological Project Manager for TWM Archaeology; has published on Roman costume, furniture and domestic life).

New President Elected

The Society of Antiquaries of London has a new President. Professor Maurice Howard was elected to the post at the Society’s annual anniversary meeting, traditionally held on St George’s Day, 23 April, 2010. The event was attended by the Society’s patron, HRH The Duke of Gloucester and more than 100 Fellows and guests.

Maurice Howard studied at Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute. He is Professor of Art History at the University of Sussex, having formerly held posts at Penn State, USA and St Andrews. He teaches the arts of Early Modern Europe but has specialised in architecture with books such as The Early Tudor Country House: Architecture and Politics 1490-1550 (1987), the co-authored The Vyne: A Tudor House revealed (2003) and The Building of Elizabethan and Jacobean England (2007). He is a former Chairman of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain. At the Victoria and Albert Museum he was assistant curator of the European Ornament Gallery (1991) and senior specialist advisor for the Tudor and Stuart sections of the British Galleries (2001). He was curator of the Barlow Collection of Ceramics, Bronzes and Jades at the University of Sussex from 2003-6. 

As the 43rd President in the Society’s long history, he succeeds Geoff Wainwright who stepped down after three years in the post. The appointment of an art historian after an archaeologist follows the long-established pattern of the Society to alternate between archaeologists and historians, so that the full range of interests of Fellows is represented through the years.

In his acceptance speech, Maurice told a packed Council Room that he first came to the Society as a student to operate the projector for which he earned the grand sum of £3 and 10s. ‘I have never earned a penny from the Society since,’ he joked.

‘It is a tremendous honour to be elected President, just as it has been a privilege to serve as Director,’ said Maurice. ‘As a full-time teaching and researching art historian I am committed to the interpretation and sharing of our knowledge of the material culture of the past. I have spent my professional life learning from the insights of building archaeologists and working alongside curators displaying beautiful and rare objects in our national collections and in country houses.

‘The Society is charged, both at Burlington House and Kelmscott Manor, with making its collections and facilities open to as wide an audience as possible. I hope my experience will help the Society’s plans for the future come to fruition.’

Maurice stressed that the success achieved in his working life had been a result of teamwork with his department, and that he looked forward to doing the same at the Society – ‘both with the team at Burlington House and the wider team that form the Fellowship’.

Maurice also announced that the General Secretary David Gaimster is leaving the Society in September to take up the post of Director of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, Glasgow.

The Herkenrode Glass: The revival of Lichfield Cathedral's Renaissance glass

A symposium to be held at The Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, on Friday, 11 June 2010

The sixteenth century Herkenrode windows in the Lady Chapel of Lichfield Cathedral in Staffordshire are one of the cathedral's great treasures.  They are a brilliant example of Renaissance stained glass and have international significance.  But the glass is in urgent need of conservation and the Lady Chapel stonework is in equally urgent need of restoration and repair. The aim of the symposium is to publicise a major European conservation project and to reassess the cultural context and significance of a neglected masterpiece.

PROGRAMME
10.00am Coffee and Registration

10.15am Introduction
by the Dean of Lichfield, the Very Reverend Adrian Dorber and Sir Patrick Cormack FSA  

10.45am The glass today and tomorrow: the current state of the glass and the conservation project
Keith Barley, Barley Studio, York

11.30am The glass at Herkenrode: the history of the glass and its Abbey
Yvette van den Bemden, Emeritus Professor, Facultés Universitaires Notre‐Dame de la Paix (Namur), Belgium

12.15pm The glass in its time: the artistic and historical context of the glass
Kim Woods, Senior Lecturer, Department of Art History, The Open University

1.00pm Lunch

1.45pm The glass on its journey: the stained glass trade between Continental Europe and the UK at the beginning of the nineteenth century
Peter Martin, University of York

2.30pm  The glass in Lichfield: the career of Francis Eginton and the installation of the glass
Martin Ellis, Curator (Applied Art), Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

3.15pm The race to save the Herkenrode Glass: screening of The Herkenrode DVD with an introduction
by Michael Woods, journalist and broadcaster, and Rebecca Dobbs, producer, MayaVision International

4.00pm Closing remarks
by the Rev'd Dr Pete Wilcox, Canon Chancellor, Lichfield Cathedral

Tickets are priced at £20 and include a sandwich lunch, tea and coffee. For tickets please contact Mrs Mithra Tonking, c/o St Mary's House, The Close, Lichfield WS13 7LD; email mithra.tonking@lichfield.anglican.org. Tel 01543 306088.

 

Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library: private view for Fellows and guests

Lambeth Palace Library is one of the earliest public libraries in England, founded in 1610 under the will of Archbishop Richard Bancroft. In celebration of its 400th anniversary in 2010, the Library is mounting an exhibition in the Great Hall of Lambeth Palace from 17 May to 23 July 2010. There will be a private view of the exhibition especially for Fellows and their guests on 19 May 2010 at 6pm with an introduction by the Head Librarian, our Fellow Giles Mandelbrote, plus drinks and nibbles, all for the price of £12 per person, which is only £4 more than the normal admission price of £8. To book, please send an email to Jola Zdunek, the Society’s Administrative Assistant (<admin@sal.org.uk>) or send a cheque made payable to the ‘Society of Antiquaries of London’. Further details can be seen on the Lambeth Palce Library’s website (<www.lambethpalacelibrary.org/>).

Highlights of the exhibition include:

• The MacDurnan Gospels, written and illuminated in Ireland in the ninth century
• The Lambeth Bible, a masterpiece of Romanesque art
• The thirteenth-century Lambeth Apocalypse manuscript
• A Gutenberg Bible printed in 1455, the first great book printed in Western Europe from movable metal type
• The warrant for the execution of Mary Queen of Scots
• Books owned and used by Richard III, Henry VIII, Katherine of Aragon, Elizabeth I and Charles I
• Papers relating to the rebuilding of St Paul’s Cathedral after the Great Fire.

Balloting News

As Fellows may recall, trial balloting procedures were introduced at the Society in the Autumn. The main difference is that there are no longer dedicated ballot meetings and, instead, a small number of candidates are balloted at the beginning of most meetings. Between October and December, 47 new Fellows were elected under the new system. They have brought their expertise in a wide range of subjects to the Fellowship; their names and areas of interest are detailed below.

Elected 15 October 2009

• John M Paddock, BA, PhD. Director of the Corinium Museum (has published widely on Roman antiquities and the archaeology of Cirencester).

• Desmond Robert Fitzpatrick, BA. Independent scholar (has written and lectured extensively on London history, especially the City’s architectural history; Chairman of the City Heritage Society and advisor on planning and conservation to various City Corporation bodies).
• Michael Clifford Turner, BA. Senior Curator, Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney (has written extensively on iconography of classical art and has co-edited Australian volume of Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum).
• Sally Elizabeth Ellen Crawford, BA, MA, DPhil. Honorary archivist and librarian, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford (specialist in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, especially childhood and age-banding).
• Bernhard Emil Woytek, MagPhil, DrPhil. Lecturer at University of Vienna (member of the Numismatic Commission, Austrian Academy of Sciences; extensive publications on Roman Republican and early Imperial coinage).
• Christina Souyoudzoglou-Haywood, MA, PhD. Lecturer, School of Classics, University College Dublin (major research contributions on Mycenaean and early Iron Age Greece and collections of classical antiquities in Ireland).
• Damian Robinson, BSc, MPhil, PhD. Director, Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology (well-known researcher on Roman archaeology; has participated in Anglo-American expedition to Pompeii).
• May Cassar, BA, BSc, MSc. Professor of Sustainable Heritage, University College London (national and international experience in cultural heritage and environmental management projects; papers in UK and international journals). 

Elected 22 October 2009

• Peter Edward Pickering, PhD. Retired civil servant (as Secretary of the Standing Conference on London Archaeology promoted co-operation between archaeologists & raised the profile of archaeology in Greater London).
• Philip Newman, BA, MIFA. Archaeological Investigator, English Heritage (specialist on the archaeology of mining, especially the copper and tin industries of Devon, on which he has published and lectured widely).
• Patrick Vinton Kirch, BA, MPhil, PhD. Professor of Anthropology and Integrative Biology, University of California (foremost archaeologist of the Polynesia; has also contributed to general archaeological theory).
• Gilbert Eric Burroughes. Retired farmer and independent archaeologist (extensive research in archaeology of East Anglia and experimental work on pottery kilns, glass furnaces and production of samian ware).
• Stephen Porter, BA, MLitt, PhD. Researcher, editor and author (has edited and written extensively on English agrarian history, the Civil War and the history of London).
• Paul Thomas Collins, BA, MA, PhD. Curator, Dept of the Middle East, British Museum (responsible for the Museum’s Assyrian and Babylonian collections; participated in the survey of sites in S Iraq in 2008).
• Claude Doumet-Serhal, MA, PhD. Independent archaeologist (Director, since 1998, of excavations at Sidon on behalf of the British Museum; founder of the journal National Museum News; author of major works on the Levant).
• Nigel Charles Tallis, BA, MA. Curator, Dept of the Middle East, British Museum (specialist in ancient warfare and in the Assyrian and Achaemenid Persian periods; has also written on the history of pharmacy).

Elected 12 November 2009

• John Charles Hurd, BSc. Archaeological and architectural conservator (International Conservation Director of the Global Heritage Fund, with a special interest in the Silk Road cities of Central Asia).

• Lorraine Nicola Mepham, BA. Senior post-excavation manager, Wessex Archaeology (specialist in ceramic research of later prehistoric and post-Roman periods; her large corpus of publication includes work on ceramics of the Isle of Wight and sites in Wiltshire).
• Karen Elaine Walker, BA, MPhil. Principal, Wessex Archaeology (where she is responsible for all post-excavation management; important role in the research and publication of all the 20^th-century excavations at Stonehenge).
• Antony Julian Firth, BA, MSc, PhD. Head of Coastal and Marine Projects, Wessex Archaeology (leading authority on the archaeology of the coastal and marine environment; consultant to many national organisations).
• Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey, Bt, MA. Journalist, photographer, publisher (author and exhibition organiser, Machu Picchu and the Camera; museum philanthropist; has served on Advisory Council on Public Records, etc.).
• Hugh Martyn Wayne Borrill, MA. Independent archaeologist (undertaken extensive excavation and fieldwork in E Hertfordshire and N London; has published on Roman casket burials and currently specialises in ceramics).
• Fiona Gale, BA, MA. County Archaeologist for Denbighshire (extensive knowledge of and work in the archaeology of N Wales and in conservation of Clwydian hillforts; publications include pottery reports of sites in Dorset and Herefordshire).
• Rt Hon Sir Timothy Sainsbury. Retired politician (Trustee of the V&A; collector of and expert in British ceramics and 20^th century paintings; major patron of the arts for over 50 years).

Elected 19 November 2009

• Sarah Elizabeth Staniforth, BA. Historic Properties Director, National Trust (Head Conservator at the NT, 2002-5; member and trustee of various national heritage bodies; has written and lectured extensively on preventative conservation).
• John Patrick William (Pat) Rogers, BA, MA, PhD, LittD, DLitt, FBA. De Bartolo Professor in the Liberal Arts, University of South Florida (historian, principally of 18^th-century British literature, politics, society, arts and culture with extensive publications in the field).
• Victoria Coltman, MA, PhD. Senior Lecturer, History of Art Dept, University of Edinburgh (specialist in visual and material culture in Britain in its European context in the 18^th century; Paul Mellon Fellow, British School at Rome).
• Susan Powell, BA, PhD. Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Salford (leading authority on Medieval English literature and culture and the transmission of manuscript to print; notable publications on John Mirk and on Syon Abbey).
• Brian Kerr, BA, FSAScot. Head of Archaeological Projects, English Heritage (major contributions to urban archaeology, castle studies and garden archaeology; oversaw excavation and recording of fire-damaged buildings at Windsor Castle).
• James Leary, BA. Prehistoric archaeologist, English Heritage Archaeological Projects (directed fieldwork for the Silbury Conservation Project; has published on Silbury and the archaeology of London).
• Thomas P Campbell, BA, MA, PhD. Director, Metropolitan Museum of Art (lectured and published extensively on European textiles; his book on Henry VIII and the tapestries at the Tudor Court is the definitive work in the field).
• Jane Annette Roberts, PhD. Professor Emerita, King’s College London (Senior Research Fellow, Institute of English Studies, University of London; major publications on Old English and Anglo-Saxon and on English palaeography).

Elected 26 November 2009

• Geoffrey Douglas Gaunt, BSc, PhD. Geological and geoarchaeological consultant (extensive work and publication in lithology and the geological background to archaeological surveys and also on archery history).

• Timothy Peter Young, MA, PhD. Geoarchaeological consultant (authority on the early history of metallurgy, especially the iron industry in Britain; has undertaken major geophysical surveys at Llantrisant and Caerleon).
• David C Parker, MTheol, DipTheol, ThD. Professor of Theology, University of Birmingham (Executive Editor, International Greek New Testament Project; has published widely on New Testament manuscripts, including the new online edition of the Codex Sinaiticus).
• Stephen Massil, BA, DipLib. Retired Head of Collections and Rare Books, University of London Library (extensive experience in library automation and in cataloguing rare books, especially European languages and Hebraica; has published widely on Huguenot history).
• Thorsten Opper, BA, MSt, DPhil. Curator, Greek and Roman Dept, British Museum (interests include Greek and Roman sculpture and the history of collections; curated the recent BM exhibition ‘Hadrian: Empire and Conflict’).
• John Ashley Null, BA, MDiv, PhD. Lecturer, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin (major contributions to the study of the English and European Reformations, especially through his publications on Thomas Cranmer).
• William Moss, BA, MA. Principal Archaeologist of the City of Quebec (responsible for the city’s innovative programmes of fieldwork, research and heritage management; past president of the Society for Historical Archaeology; visiting teaching posts at the Université Laval and the University of Virginia).

 

Elected 3 December 2009

• Emily V Cole, BA, MA. Architectural historian (in charge of the London Blue Plaques team; has written and lectured widely on architectural subjects, especially the Elizabethan and Jacobean country house).
• Robert Gibbs, BA. Professor of Pre-Humanist Art History and Codicology, University of Glasgow (internationally acknowledged authority on medieval Italian art, especially Bolognese painting of the 13^th-15^th centuries).
• James Wilkinson, BSc. Writer and editor (author of numerous publications and articles, many of them on Westminster Abbey; editor of the The Westminster Abbey Chorister).
• Diana Beattie. Director of the Heritage of London Trust (has played a major and influential role in fundraising for conservation projects in London, including St Pancras Waterpoint, and Poplar Library).
• Julian Mitchell, MA. Author and playwright (in addition to his considerable film and TV work, novels and biographies, has published academic work on 17^th-century Welsh politics, early antiquarian travellers and the Wye Tour).
• Antti Samuli Matikkala, PhD. Research Fellow at the Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki (past president of the Finnish Heraldry Society; has published extensively on heraldry and orders of knighthood).
• Robert James Fitzgerald Cowie, BA, MPhil. Project Manager, Museum of London Archaeology (archaeologist with particular interest in and wide-ranging publications on Saxon London; sessional lecturer at Birkbeck College, University of London).
• Ruurd Binnert Halbertsma, BA, MA, DPhil. Curator of Classical Antiquities, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden (has excavated at Satricum and Pompeii; wide interests in many aspects of classical archaeology).

'Excavating the excavator: Jacquetta Hawkes' biography as archaeology

A lecture to be given on 28 January 2010 by Christine Finn FSA

Jacquetta Hawkes FSA, archaeologist, writer and broadcaster, died in 1996, leaving a legacy little known to contemporary archaeologists. This was a life which needed raising and illuminating, and from the moment that Christine Finn became involved with the assemblage of books, papers, artefacts and memories found and gathered in a variety of locations, she has worked with the material as a form of fieldwork. In this paper, Christine will show how the practices of writing biography and doing archaeological excavation intersect and inform each other, and help to reveal the life and work of Jacquetta Hawkes (see also ‘Jacquetta Hawkes, a life online’ at <http://humanitieslab.stanford.edu/ChristineFinn/home> and Christine’s article, ‘Carnal knowledge’ — on Hawkes’s relationship with J B Priestley, in the Sunday Times of 24 July 2005: <www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article543870.ece>).

Society collections awarded Accredited Museum status

The Society of Antiquaries has been awarded Accredited Museum status for its collections at Burlington House and Kelmscott Manor.

Accredited status was given by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) in December 2009 in recognition of the Society’s high standards in the management of its collections in both buildings.

The assessment panel was impressed with the Society’s joined-up approach to museum provision, with shared policies and a core staff providing a consistent approach to collection care and interpretation across the two sites. As a result, the Society could well be used as a standard setter for museum collections in other learned societies.

MLA’s Accreditation Scheme has set nationally agreed standards for UK museums. To meet the requirements of the scheme, museums must demonstrate that they are addressing the needs of visitors and museum users, achieving clearly defined standards in documenting and caring for collections and in their government and management. The MLA recognises museums who demonstrate a commitment to achieving and maintaining professional levels of care, and being awarded Accredited Museum status is a public acknowledgement that the Society meets those exacting levels.

General Secretary David Gaimster said: “Receiving this award is testament to the hard work of our professional staff and the quality of advice from Fellows. We are very pleased that the work we have done on managing all aspects of our collections at Burlington House and Kelmscott Manor has been recognized by the MLA.’

The MLA accreditation scheme has led the way in raising museum standards in the UK, and has helped over 1,800 museums to identify areas for further work and development. Accreditation status can also benefit relationships with funding organizations and other external bodies.

Preparing the applications was a rigorous process which involved revising policy documents, ensuring procedures for collection management were in place and producing a Forward Plan. The Forward Plan will provide a framework for planning and developing the museum collections, and a real way of ensuring that our aim to “improve public access to and learning about the Society and its historic assets” is fully achieved.

Treasures of British history make first trip to the north of England

RARELY seen treasures from a major London museum collection are to go on show for the first time in the north of England. Making History: 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain will open at the Sunderland Museum & Art Gallery on July 11 after successful stops at Stoke-on-Trent and Salisbury.

Guest curated by the historian David Starkey, Making History celebrates the contribution of the Society of Antiquaries to our appreciation of the past. Among the items on display is the engraving by William Shaftoe (left) of the Corbridge Lanx, or tray, discovered in 1735 by a nine-year-old-girl in the bank of the River Tyne, near Corbridge, a Roman garrison town; dating from the fourth century AD, the tray depicts Apollo, Diana and several other Roman deities, and the lanx itself has recently been purchased by the British Museum.

Also on display will be an 11th-century copy of Magna Carta, a Tudor portrait of Henry VIII and an inventory of his possessions at the time of his death and the Roll Chronicle, a lavishly illustrated scroll dating from the mid-15th century that charts the descent of Henry VI from Adam and Eve.

As well as artefacts of national interest, the local exhibits include the Benwell altar, which was among the first discoveries to have been recorded and preserved from Hadrian’s Wall in the eighteenth century, and site notebooks and finds from excavations at the Anglo-Saxon double Monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow, the UK’s nomination for World Heritage Site status in 2010.

The touring exhibition is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund who awarded £305,500 and has evolved from the exhibition created to celebrate 300 years of the Society of Antiquaries, shown to wide acclaim at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in 2007. It is supported by a fully illustrated website, which contains more detailed information on all the exhibits.

Open House London Annual Event: 19 - 20 September 2009

Open House London, the capital’s biggest architecture festival, throws open the doors of hundreds of buildings - from Westminster to Waltham Forest, Camden to Croydon - giving Londoners the chance to see the best of the city’s architecture.  Great buildings and the city’s public spaces shape our daily lives as we live, learn, work and play.  And this September, Open House, the independent charity dedicated to opening eyes, minds and doors to good design, invites Londoners to share their enthusiasm for the city’s buildings through opening properties of architectural significance across 31 boroughs

This year’s celebration will see over 700 architectural activities from talks and tours, visits and debates and will give visitors direct access to the teams that design, construct and regenerate London.  All events are free and take place over the weekend of 19–20 September 2009. Full details of buildings and events will be published in the 2009 Guide, which can be ordered online via the Open House London website.

For this year’s Open House London event hundreds of fascinating buildings will be open – from eco homes to a Hindu temple, a yacht club to architects’ studios. There will be special focus on examples of sustainable design with the professionals who commission, plan and design them talking about regeneration and urban development and leading site visits. As always, hundreds of volunteers will be on hand to explain more about the aspects of great design that make these properties so important to the way we enjoy our city.

The Society's apartments at Burlington House will be open on Saturday 19 September for regular guided tours on a first-come first-served basis, starting at 1pm, with the last entry at 4.45pm. A fact sheet containing a brief account of the history of the building and a description of some of the rooms that will be open can be downloaded from here: Word file 805Kb.

New Fellows elected in the ballot held on 2 July 2009

As a result of the ballot held on 2 July 2009, we are pleased to welcome the following as Fellows of the Society:

• Peter Rowley-Conwy MA PhD Professor of Archaeology, Dept of Archaeology, Durham University (a historian of archaeology and author of From Genesis to Prehistory; research into animal domestication and the Mesolithic of Europe).
• Pamela Catriona Lowther BA Honorary Visiting Fellow, University of Leicester (contributed to bringing major archaeological projects in the north-east of England to publication, including those of Jarrow and Wearmouth).
• Allan Marshall Brodie MA Architectural Historian, Senior Investigator in English Heritage (specialist in the architectural history of prisons, courts and seaside resorts; research interests in the military defences on the Isles of Scilly and Dover Castle).
• Linda Ehrsam Voigts MA PhD Curators’ Professor Emerita of English, University of Missouri at Kansas City (specialist in medieval science and medicine; published electronically with a collaborator Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English).
• Nicola Jane Milner BA PhD Lecturer, Dept of Archaeology, University of York (specialist in Mesolithic archaeology of Europe with particular interest in palaeodiet, death and burial, settlement and mobility).
• Wayne Douglas Cocroft BA Senior Archaeological Investigator, English Heritage Survey and Investigation Team (specialist in modern military sites; has conducted a national study of the explosives industry; co-author of a study of Cold War buildings for nuclear confrontation).
• Clare Hornsby BA PhD Paul Mellon Fellow, British School at Rome (architectural historian, expert in Grand Tour studies, garden history and the history of collecting; publications include Digging and Dealing in Eighteenth Century Rome).
• Fiona Elizabeth Susan Roe MLitt Freelance specialist in prehistoric stone artefacts (has undertaken extensive research on Bronze Age battle axes and assemblages of Iron Age stone objects; interests include the use of stone in milling).
• Tamar Lewitt BA PhD Director, Special Academic Projects, Trinity College, Melbourne University (leading scholar in interpreting Late Antiquity and especially the economy of the period).
• Kate Wilson BA Inspector of Ancient Monuments, English Heritage North East Region (specialises in conservation of ruins, architectural reconstructions, especially for Roman buildings, eg Segontium, Birdoswald and Bewcastle).
• Richard Falkiner Auctioneer, agent and adviser in antiquities and numismatics (scholar-dealer; has written on the Sevso treasure and Bolton forgeries; panellist for Treasure Act valuations).
• Derek Charles Seeley BA MA Senior Contracts Manager, Museum of London Archaeology (detailed knowledge of archaeology of Roman and medieval London; has published on Winchester Palace, Southwark).
• Elaine Margaret Treharne BA PhD Professor of Medieval Literature, Florida State University (leading scholar of vernacular manuscripts; has published widely on early medieval books, especially English texts and codicology, 1050–1200).
• Kim Shelton MA PhD Assistant Professor, Dept of Classics, University of California, Berkeley (leading archaeologist specialising in Aegean prehistory; extensive fieldwork and excavation at Mycenae).
• Diana Beatrix Tyson BA PhD Honorary Research Fellow, University College London (has held academic posts in Geneva, London and Ohio and has published extensively in medieval French and English history, literature and language).
• David Joseph Field PhD Archaeological investigator, English Heritage (has worked and published on the archaeology of Surrey; specialist in the Neolithic and Bronze Age funerary landscapes and monuments of southern England).
• Beth Ann Williamson MA MA PhD Senior Lecturer in History of Art, University of Bristol (art historian, specialising in medieval iconography and devotional imagery; publications include Christian Art: a very short introduction).
• Pamela Sambrook BA PhD Independent scholar (consultant and academic researcher on the English country house, especially domestic offices; has published widely in the field and has interests in the history of food).
• Peter Thomas James Rumley MA MA DPhil Archaeological consultant (has worked at Ightham Mote, Sissinghurst Castle and other historic properties in south-east England; has published on the conservation of medieval metalwork, historic building conservation and art history).
• David Bowsher BA MA Archaeologist (has worked in archaeology in Britain and abroad for more than twenty years and is the principal author of monographs on the Eastern Cemeteries of Roman London, the Saxon city of Lundenwic and the medieval and later London Guildhall).
• Jonathan Basil Keates MA Musicologist and historical biographer (books include biographies of Handel, Purcell and Stendhal; currently working on a historical study of Worcestershire between 1815 and 1914; journalist and literary critic).
• Tatiana (Tania) String MA PhD Lecturer in the History of Art, University of Bristol (specialist in Tudor art and architecture; has published extensively on sixteenth century English art).
• Marcus Graham Bull BA PhD Professor of Medieval History, University of Bristol (specialist in medieval France, especially belief and the crusades in their social, cultural and political contexts).
• John Ernest Latham BA Archaeologist for the National Trust in Wales (wide experience in producing surveys and research reports; conservation advice on management of archaeological sites National Trust properties in Wales; contributor to many archaeological publications).
• Mario Buhagiar BA MA MPhil PhD Head of the Department of History of Art, University of Malta (expert on the art, archaeology and buildings of Malta, specialising in the medieval period; founder of History of Art department at the University of Malta).

Millefiore dish to be exhibited at the Society's 2 July 2009 ballot

A brilliantly coloured Roman glass bowl, probably made in Alexandria, will be exhibited at the Society's ballot meeting on 2 July 2009, when Jenny Hall, Liz Goodman and John Shepherd, all of the Museum of London, and Guy Hunt, Director of LP Archaeology, will talk about the find, its conservation and its significance. The find is unique in the western Roman empire and is made of sections of millefiori glass rod painstakingly fitted together to form a bowl of translucent blue and red glass in the 3rd century AD. Liz Goodman, one of the UK's most experienced conservators, spent weeks cleaning the fragments and piecing them together again after the bowl fell apart shortly after being discovered at Prescot Street in Aldgate, as part of a cremation burial in the cemetery on the eastern outskirts of Roman London.

The bowl is normally on display at the Museum in Docklands, but will be brought to Burlington House for the Society's ballot meeting on 2 July so that experts amongst the Fellowship can view and discuss the find, in the tradition of 'exhibiting' significant finds that has been a feature of the Society's proceedings since its foundation in 1707.

'Catastrophe' exhibition draws attention to the looting and destruction of Iraq’s past: 15 June to 26 June 2009

As part of a campaign to persuade the UK Government to ratify the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the Society of Antiquaries is playing host to an exhibition that draws attention to the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad during the early days of the Iraq war and the subsequent despoliation of important archaeological sites by looters and by combatants.

The free travelling exhibition, Catastrophe! The Looting and Destruction of Iraq’s Past, is open to the public from 15 June to 26 June 2009 (10am to 5pm daily, including Saturday and Sunday) at the Society's premises at Burlington House, Piccadilly and is funded by the UK National Commission for UNESCO, Newcastle University and North East Regional Museums Hub. The exhibition's opening coincides with the launch of the paperback edition of The Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Iraq, edited by Peter Stone and Joanne Farchakh Bajjaly and published by Boydell & Brewer.

Professor Stone, who is a Fellow of the Society and a member of the culture committee of the UK National Commission for UNESCO, said: ‘A country’s cultural heritage is crucial to its nationhood and is a source of pride and dignity. Archaeologists and those in the heritage community must now engage with the military and politicians to ensure sites, museums and artefacts are protected, or they have no right to complain when that cultural heritage is destroyed.’

New Fellows elected in the ballot held on 4 June 2009

As a result of the ballot held on 4 June 2009, we are pleased to welcome the following as Fellows of the Society.

• CEINWEN PAYNTON MA PDipArch CertEd Principal Keeper, Leeds City Museum (formerly Finds Liaison Officer for Yorkshire; advisor to 'Time Team' and the BBC; Education Coordinator for the Portable Antiquities Scheme; has published on public archaeology and education).
  MARGIT THØFNER MA DPhil Senior Lecturer, School of World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia (specialises in art, architecture and patronage in Europe, particularly in the Hapsburg Netherlands; has published on these subjects).
  NIALL PATRICK FINNERAN BA PhD Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Winchester (research in Ethiopia has lead to major publications, including The Archaeology of Christianity in Africa and The Archaeology of Ethiopia. Has also worked in Egypt, Syria and Cornwall).
  ALAN PHILIP FREDERICK SELL BA BD MA PhD HonDD HonDTh Minister of Religion, philosopher, theologian (Professor of Theology and expert in church history, particularly of nonconformity).
  PETER JEREMY PIERS GOLDBERG MA PhD Reader, Dept of History, University of York (through study of ecclesiastical court records has contributed to the understanding  of late medieval England).
  FRANCIS WENBAN-SMITH PhD Principal Research Fellow, Dept of Archaeology, University of Southampton (specialist in Palaeolithic field archaeology; leading lithics analyst).
  LAURIE ANN WILKIE BA MA PhD Professor, Dept of Anthropology, University of California (historical archaeologist specialising in colonial and post-colonial history of the Caribbean, the American South and California).
  ADAM JONATHAN DAUBNEY BA Finds Liaison Officer, Lincolnshire (an expert on archaeological small finds; has published on finds in the Lincolnshire area and is a contributor to local and national conferences).
  GEORGE HARDIN BROWN BA PhL MA STL PhD. Professor Emeritus of English, Stanford University (a world authority on the Venerable Bede, has served as President of both the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists and the Medieval Association of the Pacific).
  JONATHAN PHILIP CHADWICK SUMPTION MA QC OBE Barrister (medieval historian and expert on the Hundred Years’ War; Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research).
  KAY (CAROLE ANN) SUTTON BA PhD Director, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts, Christie’s International Book Dept. (a leading expert on Italian 14th-century illuminated manuscripts; has added to knowledge of Italian Books of Hours).
  EILEEN MUSONDA MURPHY BSc MSc Ph.D. Senior Lecturer in Osteoarchaeology, Queen’s University, Belfast (specialist in the study of human and animal bones from Ireland and prehistoric Russia; editor of the international journal ‘Childhood in the Past’).
  ALEXANDRA LOUISE BAYLISS BA PhD Archaeologist (scientific dating co-ordinator at English Heritage since 1993; has led teams providing chronologies for world heritage sites, including Stonehenge and Silbury Hill).
  NICOLA JANE WHITEHOUSE BA MSc PhD Lecturer in Environmental Archaeology, Queen’s University, Belfast (specialist in fossil insect remains and in the study of the late quaternary period in Britain and Ireland; co-editor of ‘Environmental Archaeology in Ireland').
  VALERIE ANNE HALL BSc PhD Professor of Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast (specialist in the palaeoenvironmental study of landscape change in Ireland since the end of the Ice Age; joint author of ‘Flora Hibernica’).
  JOHN MCK CAMP II MA PhD Classical archaeologist, American School of Classical Studies at Athens (has directed excavations in the Athenian Agora for twenty years; a scholar of 19th-century travel in Greece, particularly that of Edward Dodwell).
  ANDREW PAUL DAVISON BA MA Inspector of Ancient Monuments and Team Leader North West Region, English Heritage (research interests include Jervaulx Abbey and the archaeology of brewing).
  STEPHEN SYDNEY FORD BA PhD Archaeologist (founder of Thames Valley Archaeological Services; expertise in cultural resource management and lithics).
  CHARLES JARVIS NAPIER TROLLOPE Independent Scholar (leading national and international authority on the history of ordnance, fortification and artillery, and marine and naval archaeology).
  MARK WHITTOW MA DPhil Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, St Peter’s College, Oxford (specialist in the medieval world, particularly the history and archaeology of Byzantium).
  PAMELA MARGARET KING MA DPhil Professor of Medieval Studies, University of Bristol (a leading scholar of late medieval theatre; has published on confraternities as patrons and on cadaver tombs).
  HIROKAZU TSURUSHIMA BA MA DLitt Professor of History, Kumamoto University, Japan (medieval historian specialising in medieval Kent, Domesday studies and ecclesiastical history; co-editor of a comparative study of English and Japanese medieval documentation).
  GRAHAM PHILIP MA PhD Professor in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University (specialist in the archaeology of Syria and Jordan from 4th to 1st millennia BC).
  KATHRYN ROBERTS BA MA PhD Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Cadw (leading authority on the archaeology and heritage management in south-west Wales; edited the CBA research volume ‘Lost Farmsteads’; author of ‘Caring for Lost Farmsteads’).
  MARK JACKSON STANSBURY PhD University Lecturer, Dept of Classics, National University of Ireland (specialist in early medieval biblical commentaries and early insular manuscripts).
  

'Reunite Stonehenge with its landscape' demands Antiquaries' President

Geoff Wainwright, President of the Society of Antiquaries, welcomed today's announcement by the Government that a new visitor centre is to be built at Stonehenge, but he also called for full restoration of the Stonehenge landscape in the longer term: 'Steps must to be taken to restore the site and reduce the impact of traffic', he said, calling on the Government and other stakeholders to go further.

'The Society of Antiquaries supports the Airman’s Corner site for a Stonehenge Visitor Centre and urges everyone concerned to work to make the vision a reality by 2012,'  he said. 'It will be a dramatic improvement for visitors whilst ensuring that the special landscape character of the area is sustained.'

On the detail of the plans he added: 'The A344 must be closed for its entire length between Airman’s Corner and Stonehenge Bottom and we regard the current proposal as a temporary solution until the A303 is also removed from the heart of the World Heritage site and Stonehenge is restored to its landscape.'

Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe, FSA, Chairman of English Heritage, also welcomed the announcement, saying that: 'Our vision has always been to restore a sense of dignity to the setting of Stonehenge and to improve its visitor facilities. English Heritage has now secured, through working with the Department of Culture Media and Sport and a group of stakeholders, an agreed location for new visitor facilities in accordance with the World Heritage Site Management Plan. This will lead to a pragmatic and affordable scheme which will make significant and vitally needed improvements to what we have now.'

The chosen site, Airman’s Corner, is about 2.5km (1.5 miles) west of current visitor centre, on the junction of the A344 and A360. It is at the edge of the World Heritage Site and has good access to the Stones. The decision has also been welcomed by The National Trust, the UK Commission for UNESCO, the South West of England Regional Development Agency and South West Tourism, among others.

What others have said: reactions to the siting of the Stonehenge Visitor Centre

The full text of the Government's announcement can be found on the Department of Culture's website. This statement makes clear that the go-ahead forthe visitor centre has been given 'in principle', and that there are still major hurdles to overcome. The next steps involve further design work, seeking planning permission and raising the £25 million in funds needed to deliver the project. Funding will be provided through a range of private and public sources, including English Heritage, Highways Agency, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Transport.  An application for support from the Heritage Lottery Fund is expected to be submitted shortly.

Reactions from Fellows of the Society are given in an article in The Guardian, written by Fellow Maev Kennedy. Tim Darvill, FSA, says the scheme is good because it avoids archaeologically sesnsitive areas; Julian Richards, FSA, says it is 'the best available solution, but for many people this is going to mean quite a long, and, to be honest, rather dull walk', while Tim Schadla-Hall, FSA, says 'I find it incomprehensible that the centre is going to be so far from the monument ... the open setting of the centre will ensure that it sticks out like a sore thumb'.

'Making History': 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain

Left: George Cruikshank, The Antiquarian Society, 1812, coloured engraving (copyright Society of Antiquaries of London)

Guest curated by celebrated historian David Starkey, CBE, FSA, and based on the widely acclaimed exhibition shown at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2007, the Society's 'Making History' exhibition explores the development of our sense of the past, from antiquarianism to the rise of professional archaeology. As David Starkey says: ‘This exhibition shows how history is made and why it matters’.

The exhibition also celebrates the tercentenary of the Society of Antiquaries of London. It has been adapted, with financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, from the exhibition Making History: Antiquaries in Britain 1707-2007 shown at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, in the autumn of 2007 to widespread media acclaim: Michael Prodger in the Sunday Telegraph called it ‘a delightful and rather brave show’, while Michael Glover in the Independent told his readers to ‘Visit. Marvel.’

Dates and venues

17 January 2009 to 21 June 2009: the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent

11 July 2009 to 4 October 2009: Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens

16 October 2009 to 3 January 2010: The Collection, in Lincoln

Left: King Brutus from the Roll Chronicle, mid-fifteenth century, illumination on vellum (copyright Society of Antiquaries of London)

More about 'Making History'

Right: Attributed to Thomas Underwood, Drawing of the Ribchester helmet, 1798, watercolour on paper (copyright Society of Antiquaries of London)

The touring exhibition Making History: 300 Years of Antiquaries in Britain explores the making of the national heritage over three hundred years since the establishment of the first body concerned with the study of the past and its preservation. The foundation in a London tavern in 1707 of the Society of Antiquaries marked a defining moment in the public consciousness of the importance of antiquity in a rapidly industrializing Britain. Making History examines the contribution of the Society and antiquaries around the country to the formation of our current appreciation of the past. Through objects, monuments and the biographies of leading antiquaries, it reveals how new discoveries, technologies and interpretations have transformed that understanding, from our time when it was based largely on myth and Christian belief, and how they continue to change our perceptions today.

Originally formed at a time before the foundation of the national museums and galleries in the mid nineteenth century, the antiquities, historic books, drawings, manuscripts and paintings of the Society of Antiquaries of London form a timeline for the creation of British history. By linking the collections of the Society of Antiquaries with those of the host museum, the exhibition illustrates milestones in the discovery, recording, preservation, interpretation and communication of our past around England, from the South West to the Midlands and the North.

The birth of prehistory: John Evans and human antiquity

1859, the year that Darwin published his Origin of Species, is a pivotal year in the history of science and one in which archaeologists and geologists played a central role. The Society of Antiquaries will mark this key moment in the history of archaeology with a colloquium focused on one of its greatest Presidents, Sir John Evans (1823—1908), and the circumstances of the famous discovery, with the geologist Joseph Prestwich, that established a remote human antiquity. In assessing the importance of their discovery we will examine the background to their work that helped burst the limits of time, and which involved other antiquaries.

We will explore the friendship that existed between Lubbock and Evans and the networks that used prehistoric data to promote the cause of Darwinian science. Evans’s legacy involves his collections, his methods for analysing and classifying ancient tools and the development of ways to communicate and illustrate prehistoric evidence. We will examine this legacy for its scientific ramifications and its impact on the institutions that came into being after the events of 1859 and which still shape the discipline today. Evans re-visited the Amiens pits many times and their importance was later recalled by his daughter Joan Evans in a recorded interview.

For the first time since Evans presented his findings to the Society on 2 June 1859 the artifact they discovered, and photographed in-situ, will be on display courtesy of the Natural History Museum, where it was identified in 2008. The Hoxne handaxes found in 1797, which Evans rescued from obscurity, will also be on view.

Places at the event cost £20, and include tea and a wine reception. If you would like to reserve a place, please contact the Society (<admin @ sal.org.uk>).

Programme

2pm	Welcome from the President
2.10pm	Martin Rudwick, FBA: ‘The background to the problem of the antiquity of man’
2.40pm	Clive Gamble, VPSA: ‘Evans and Prestwich and the discovery of April 1859’
3.10pm	Heather Sebire, FSA: ‘“The frequent examination of ancient implements has brought to our notice”: the Lukis family of Guernsey and the recognition of human antiquity’
3.40pm	Arthur MacGregor, FSA: ‘After Amiens: Evans in France in later years’
4.10pm	Tea
4.40pm	Janet Owen, FSA: ‘A significant friendship: Evans, Lubbock and a Darwinian world order’
5.10pm	David Gaimster, FSA: ‘Institutionalising Antiquity: learned societies and museums after 1859’
5.40pm	Chris Evans, FSA: ‘Marking time: concluding remarks on the Evans’s legacy’
6pm	Wine reception

Burlington House Courtyard Society lectures

The combined lecture programme of the Burlington House Courtyard Societies (the Society of Antiquaries, the Linnean Society, the Geological Society, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry) can be seen on the Burlington House website.

The next Burlington House Lecture (intended to cross the disciplinary boundaries of the Courtyard Societies) will take place at the Geological Society on 6 May 2009 and will be given by Professor Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University on a topic, yet to be confirmed, that will address this year’s Darwin and Galileo anniversaries - the 200th of Darwin's birth, the 150th of the publication of On the Origin of Species and the 400th since the unveiling of Galileo's telescope.

New Fellows elected in the ballot held on 2 April 2009

As a result of the ballot held on 2 April 2009, we are pleased to welcome the following as Fellows of the Society.

As Honorary Fellow

• Paolo Biagi PhD Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology, Ca’ Foscari Università degli Studii, Venice (research interests in environmental and dating problems of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, in their sites and lithic technologies; has carried out excavations in Europe and the near East; more than 300 publications)

As Ordinary Fellows

• William Vaughan BA PhD Professor Emeritus of History of Art, Birkbeck College, University of London (authority in the art of the Romantic period; Paul Mellon Senior Research Fellow).
• George Macrae Findlater MA PhD Senior Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic Scotland (former Assistant Director Council for British Research in the Levant 1996-1999; has published on Roman and Byzantine Arabia).
• Christine Jennie Margaret Faunch BA PhD Archive Curator, Special Collections, University of Exeter (specialist in church monuments; former Architectural Archive Curator, St Paul's Cathedral).
• Mark Evans BA PhD Senior Curator, Paintings, Victoria and Albert Museum (art historian; has published on medieval and Renaissance painting).
• Nicholas Antony David Molyneaux BA English Heritage Inspector of Historic Buildings (has contributed to the recording and conservation of historic buildings).
• Dorian Fuller BA MPhil PhD Lecturer in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, UCL (has contributed to the field of archaeobotany; domestication and early agriculture in India, China, Africa and Nubian civilisations).
• Carol C Mattusch BA PhD Mathy Professor of Art History, George Mason University, VA, USA (archaeologist; has published on Pompeii and the Roman villa; has organised major exhibitions at the National Gallery, Washington).
• Dale Serjeantson MA Hon Research Fellow, and a member of the Laboratory for Zooarchaeological Research, School of Humanities, University of Southampton (archaeozoologist; her research interests include bird bones).
• Elain Harwood BA Senior Architectural Investigator, English Heritage (historian; has published on England’s post-war listed buildings).
• Tony Albert Trowles BA MA DPhil Librarian of Westminster Abbey, (bibliographer; has published on the bibliography of Westminster Abbey, Westminster School and St Margaret’s Church).
• Majella Franzmann BA PhD Pro Vice-Chancellor, and Professor of Religious Studies, Division of Humanities, Otago University, New Zealand (authority on the Syriac, Coptic and Greek odes of Solomon; Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities). 
• Stephen Lee Dyson MA PhD Park Professor of Classics, The University at Buffalo, State University of New York (has published in the history and archaeology of Roman Italy; former President of the Archaeological Institute of America).
• Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith BA MA PhD Professor of Biological Anthropology, Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, New Zealand (expert in the application of genetic evidence for tracking human migration in the Pacific).
• Adam Gwilt BA Curator of Bronze & Iron Age Collections, Department of Archaeology, National Museum of Wales (research interests include Bronze and Iron Age metalworking and ceramic traditions).
• Terence Austen Brown BSc PhD Professor of Biomolecular Archaeology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester (has contributed to the use of biomolecular techniques to study of the origins, spread and establishment of agriculture in the Old and New Worlds).
• Keri Ann Brown BA MPhil Hon Lecturer, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester (has contributed to biomolecular archaeology; expert in the use of DNA to study sex and gender, kinship relationships and palaeodisease).
• Ian Coulson BA School’s History and Geography Adviser, Kent County Council (has contributed to the teaching and learning of history and archaeology in primary schools; member of the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council on National Records and Archives).
• Colm Francis O’Brien MA Lecturer in History and Archaeology (has contributed to the study of early medieval Bernicia; former Director of the Archaeological Unit for North East England, University of Newcastle upon Tyne).
• Alain Richard Schnapp DLitt Professor of Archaeology, University of Paris (archaeologist and art historian; expert on ancient Greece; former Director of the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Paris).
• John Lowden MA PhD Director of the Research Centre for Illuminated Manuscripts (a scholar of medieval manuscript illumination whose most recent book was awarded the 2002 Gruendler Prize for Best Book in Medieval Studies).
• Brenda J Buchanan BSc PhD Research Fellow, University of Bath (a leading scholar on the history of gunpowder; founding Chairman of the History of Bath Research Group).
• Andrew Walton Moore BA MA PhD Keeper of Art and Senior Curator, Norfolk Museums & Archaeological Service (research interests include the Grand Tour and the Norwich School of Artists).
• Julia Elton BA Former President of the Newcomen Society for the History of Engineering (expert in the history of technology).
• Robert Williams BA Archaeologist (a Director of Oxford Archaeology; expert on the conservation and management of the historic environment).

New Fellows elected in the ballot held on 5 March 2009

As a result of the ballot held on 5 March 2009, we are pleased to welcome the following as Fellows of the Society.

• JACQUELINE ISABEL MCKINLEY Senior Project Officer, Wessex Archaeology (osteoarchaeologist; specialist in cremations from prehistoric to 18th-century sites).
• CHRISTOPHER FOLEY BA Writer (researcher on antiquarian and musical topics; has published extensively on biographical aspects of British artists).
• R NICHOLAS E BARTON BA DPhil Professor of Paleolithic Archaeology, Director of the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford (has directed archaeological projects on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic).
• HOWARD BROOKS BA MA Archaeologist (has directed excavations for Essex County Archaeology and Colchester Archaeological Trust).
• KATHRYN ALEXANDRA LOWE BA PhD Senior Lecturer in English Language, Department of English Language, University of Glasgow (research interests include Anglo-Saxon and post-Conquest charters, wills and 17th- and 18th-century antiquarianism).
• MICHAEL QUIRIN MACKENSEN MA DrPhil Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Provinces, University of Munich (expert on African Red Slip pottery).
• KEVIN C MacDONALD BA PhD Reader in African Archaeology, UCL Institute of Archaeology (has contributed to the study of African societies, the African diaspora, and pottery analysis).
• NICHOLAS WILLIAM MERVYN PICKWOAD BA DPhil Professor of the History of Bookbinding, University of the Arts (adviser to the National Trust and the monastery of St Catherine, Mount Sinai).
• NICHOLAS ANDREW HILL BA BSc Historic Buildings Surveyor, English Heritage (has led repair and conservation projects at Hill Hall, Bolsover Castle and Apethorpe Hall and  published on architectural history and buildings archaeology).
• LESLIE SMITH Church Archaeologist (specialist in church fittings; has published extensively on monumental brasses, stained glass and misericords; Kent Secretary of the Monumental Brass Society).
• EDWARD RICHARD PEARCE EDGCUMBE MA DPhil Senior Curator, Metalwork Department, Victoria and Albert Museum (authority on English silver and jewellery; his publications include The Art of the Gold Chaser in Eighteenth Century London).
• GEOFFREY BRAIN BAILEY Keeper of Archaeology and Local History, Falkirk Museum, Scotland (expert on the Antonine Wall and the historic landscapes of Falkirk).
• HAZEL RILEY BA Archaeological Investigator, English Heritage (expert in the analysis and recording of upland landscapes; has published on the Quantock Hills and the field archaeology of Exmoor).
• JENNIFER M WEBB BA PhD Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University, Melbourne (President of the Classical Association of Victoria; Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities).
• PAUL S C TAÇON BA PhD Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, School of Humanities, Griffith University, Queensland (authority in the field of rock art research; has published on prehistoric art, body art and material culture).
• TIMOTHY PAUL DENHAM BA MSc PhD Research Fellow, School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University, Australia (archaeologist; specialist on the early agriculture of New Guinea).
• PATRICIA ROSALIND ANDREW BA PhD Heritage Consultant (has extensive experience in gallery curatorship and management; has published on 18th-century art history).
• NICHOLAS JAMES HUMBERSTONE MA Independent Scholar (external tutor on the Conservation of the Historic Environment, College of Estate Management, Reading; formerly a chartered surveyor and chartered town planner).
• EMMA CATHERINE PLUNKETT DILLON BA PhD Territory Archaeologist West and Historic Properties Adviser, The National Trust, Wales (former policy officer and chair of CBA Wales; member of the Welsh Assembly Government Historic Environment Group).
• JOANNA CANNON BA PhD Reader, Courtauld Institute of Art (authority on the art and architecture of Italy in the thirteen and fourteenth centuries; has published on art and the orders of friars in central Italy).
• CHRISTINA RIGGS BA MA DPhil Lecturer, School of World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia (former curator of Egyptology, Manchester Museum).
• STEPHEN HODKINSON BA PhD Professor of Ancient History, Department of Classics, University of Nottingham (has contributed to the study of classical Greece and ancient Sparta).
• STEPHEN BANN BA MA PhD Professor of Art History, History of Art Department, University of Bristol (distinguished art historian, author of The True Vine, a leading authority on John Bargrave and his cabinet of curiosities at Canterbury Cathedral and on Ian Hamilton Finlay).
• MICHAEL McCORMICK PhD Goelet Professor of Medieval History, Department of History, Harvard University (expert on the archaeology and history of the fall of the Roman Empire and the origins of medieval civilization).
• CAROLINE STANFORD MA MA MSc Historian to the Landmark Trust (has lectured widely and published on historic conservation).

New Fellows elected in the ballot held on 5 February 2009

As a result of the ballot held on 5 February 2009, we are pleased to welcome the following as Fellows of the Society.

As Honorary Fellow:

• KRISTIAN KRISTIANSEN Chair, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Gothenburg, Sweden (former Director of the Danish Archaeological Heritage Administration, founding member of the European Association of Archaeologists; authority on Neolithic and Bronze-Age archaeology).

As Ordinary Fellows:

• FIONA KISBY LITTLETON, PhD Historian, schoolteacher and musicologist (has contributed to the fields of late medieval and early modern history and musicology; specialist on the Royal Household Chapel in early Tudor London).
• LOTTE HEDEAGER, PhD Professor and Chair of Archaeology, University of Oslo, Norway (Head of the Nordic Graduate School; member of the Research Council of Norway and the Royal Danish Academy of Science; expert on the Iron Age).
• MATTHEW PONTING, BA, PhD Lecturer in Archaeological Science, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool (has published on archaeometallurgy, and numismatics).
• TIMOTHY FAULKNER POTTS, BA, DPhil Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (authority on the art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean).
• JOHN OXLEY, BA Acting Head of Design, Conservation and Sustainable Development, City of York Council (archaeologist; has published on post-Roman towns in Europe).
• MARK JOHN PEARCE, MA, PhD Associate Professor in Archaeology and Head of Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham (formerly professore a contratto, University of Pavia, Italy; has published on northern Italian prehistoric metalwork).
• CHRISTOPHER HAVEMEYER ROOSEVELT, BA, MA, MA, PhD University Teacher (Director of the Central Lydia Archaeological Survey; has published on Lydian archaeology).
• OLIVER FAIRCLOUGH, MA, MA Keeper of Art, National Museum of Wales (authority on British and European applied art; has published on William Morris and the history of Aston Hall, Birmingham).
• GWENLLIAN VAUGHAN JONES, MA Independent Scholar (Secretary of the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association and Gwent County History Association; has published on 19th century archaeological work in Gwent and South Wales).
• HILDEGARD GUDRUN HILKE WIEGEL, MA, DPhil Research Fellow, Ecole Normale Supériere, Paris (has published on sculpture, the reception of antiquity and the antiquarian tradition).
• WILLIAM ROBERT FERDINAND MOUNT, MA Author and journalist (former editor of The Times Literary Supplement; head of the Prime Minister’s policy unit 1982–3; Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature).
• SARAH VERYAN ELIZABETH HEAL, BA Manager of Advice and Information, Historic Environment Service of Cornwall County Council (has extensive experience in the protection, management, investigation and interpretation of the historic environment).
• GILLIAN BEATRICE SHEPHERD, BA, PhD Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, University of Birmingham (has published on Greek settlements in Sicily and southern Italy).
• SUZANNE ELIZABETH HIGGOTT, MA Curator of Glass, Limoges Painted Enamels & Earthenwares, The Wallace Collection (has published on glass and Renaissance Limoges enamels).
• SARAH REES JONES, PhD Senior Lecturer in Medieval History and Co-Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York (has published on medieval urban and domestic histories).
• ELEANOR CASELLA, BA, MA, PhD Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester (specialist in later historical archaeology; Reviews Editor for Post-Medieval Archaeology).
• JOHN HARTLEY BOWMAN, MA, MA, PhD Retired Lecturer, School of Library, Archive & Information Studies, UCL (has published on librarianship and Greek printing types).
• STEPHEN TAFFE DRISCOLL, BA, MSc, PhD Professor of Historical Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow (has published on early medieval landscapes and sculpture, and the archaeology of Christianity).
• ROBERT WILSON-NORTH, BA Archaeologist, Exmoor National Park Authority, Devon (specialist in archaeological landscapes; research interests include monuments in Cornwall and Somerset).
• SARAH JANE BUCKINGHAM, BA, MSc Head of Heritage Protection Reform, English Heritage (research interests include Egyptology).
• SUE COLLEDGE, BSc PhD Hon Senior Research Associate, Institute of Archaeology, UCL (has contributed to the study of archaeobotanical remains and the study of agriculture in the Near East).
• CHARLES PHILIP CLARKE, BA Consultant Archaeologist (directed numerous excavations including prehistoric and Roman sites for Essex County Council; former director of the ECC Field Archaeology Unit).
• JACKIE KEILY, BA, MA Curator, Department of Early London History & Collections, Museum of London (expert finds specialist; Hon Secretary of the London & Middlesex Archaeology Society).
• JAMES BARRETT, BA, MA, PhD Deputy Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge (specialist in Viking Age and medieval Europe).

'Making History' exhibition features medieval tomb showing boy’s tennis ball death

A tragic accident recorded for ever in stone is perhaps the earliest evidence of a death by sporting misadventure. The 1360 monument at St Peter’s Church, Elford, Staffordshire, is a beautifully carved effigy of a young boy holding a wooden tennis ball in one hand and pointing to his head with the other. The boy was John Stanley and with his death the male line of an important local family became extinct. 

A Victorian engraving of the Stanley Child Monument is one of many exhibits to go on show for the first time at The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, as part of the Society of Antiquaries’ touring exhibition, ‘Making History’, which is a rare chance to view treasures from the Society’s rich collection of antiquities, manuscripts and works of art, many of which have never been seen in public before.

Among the exhibits are The Roll Chronicle, an illustrated ‘family tree’ that shows King Henry VI tracing his roots back to Adam and Eve, an enamelled casket made to contain Thomas Becket’s remains that depicts the four knights who killed him and rarely seen portraits of medieval and Tudor monarchs.

The Society’s core exhibition has been given extra local interest by the inclusion of works from the Stoke-on-Trent museum that relate to the area, many of which are on view for the first time, including an exquisite drawing of an Iron Age gold torc, made when it was found in 1848. The torc is now in the British Museum, but many similar finds were not so well-treated and were sold for scrap, making the drawings commissioned by the Society of Antiquaries the only record we now have of a lost heritage.

Full details of the exhibition can be found on our Making History webpage.

Ballot 27 November 2008

The Society is pleased to welcome the following new Fellows, who were all elected in the ballot held on 27 November 2008.

• STEWART AINSWORTH. Senior Investigator, Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team, English Heritage (has extensive experience in field and landscape archaeology).
• YVONNE HARVEY, B.A. Numismatist (specialist in medieval numismatics; has participated in Sutton Hoo and Kaupang excavations; has published on medieval Southampton and the Winchester Mint).
• DANIEL GARETH EDMUND WILLIAMS, M.A., Ph.D. Curator, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum (his research interests include numismatics, land assessment, military organisation and development of kingship in Viking Age Europe).
• KATHERINE BARCLAY, B.Sc. Archaeologist (specialist on ceramics and quantitative studies of finds; has published extensively on English finds and sites).
• NIGEL JOHN BAKER, B.A., Ph.D. Senior Projects Archaeologist, Urban Archaeology, Herefordshire Council (has contributed in urban archaeology developing research methodologies and databases).
• RICHARD SIMPSON, M.A. Managing Editor, Institute of Classical Studies, University of London (has published on the history of architecture of the 16th to 20th centuries).
• RACHEL ELAINE POPE, B.A., Ph.D. Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool (has published on archaeology and architecture of Later Prehistory).
• DOROTHY JOAN CLAYTON, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Head of Scholarly Publications and Permissions, the University of Manchester (editor of the ‘Bulletin of the John Rylands Library’; has research interests in the history of medieval Cheshire).
• TREVOR PEARSON, B.A. Head of Archaeological Graphics and Technical Survey, English Heritage (expert in excavation, survey and landscape analysis; has published on Medieval Scarborough).
• MARY E LEWIS, B.A., M.Sc., Ph.D. Senior Lecturer in Biological Anthropology, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading (authority on the archaeological and forensic anthropological analysis of children).
• ROBERT HANNAH, B.A., M.Phil. Professor of Classics and Associate Dean, Division of Humanities, Otago University, NZ (specialist in Greek and Roman art; his research interests include archaeoastronomy ).
• ROBIN MILLS, M.A. Formerly Risk and Internal Audit Director, The National Trust (has made substantial contribution to the management of historic properties, including Sutton House, Hackney and Osterley Park).
• JAMES MARCUS WALTON WILLOUGHBY, M.A., D.Phil. Research Fellow, Faculty of History, Old Indian Institute, Oxford (medievalist; has published on  medieval books and historical bibliography).
• ALLAN TIMOTHY ADAMS, B.A. Senior Architectural Illustrator, English Heritage (authority on architectural illustration; has published on  medieval houses in Kent and courthouses in early Virginia).
• KASIA SZPAKOWSKA, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Lecturer in Egyptology, Department of Classics, Ancient History & Egyptology, Swansea University (specialist in Egyptian religious practice in Ramesside complexes from Libya to the Levant).
• JANET ELISABETH OWEN, M.A., Ph.D. Arts and Heritage Manager, Southampton City Council (formerly Head of the Curatorial Group at the National Maritime Museum; has contributed to the study of archaeology in relation to the history of science).
• MARLEY R. BROWN III, Ph.D. Former Director of Archaeological Research, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, VA (authority on the historical archaeology in the United States; has excavated in Williamsburg, Barbados and Bermuda).
• JAMES DUGDALE, LORD CRATHORNE, B.A. H.M. Lord Lieutenant for North Yorkshire (has extensive experience in the arts and heritage; has published on Edouard Vuillard, the Royal Crescent Book of Bath and the Parliament).
• ADRIANA TURPIN, M.A., M.A. Academic Director, L’Institut d’Etudes Supérieures des Arts, Paris (former Deputy Director at Sotheby’s Institute; authority on the history and business of art and collecting).
• PAUL BELFORD, B.Sc., M.A. Head of Archaeology and Monuments, Ironbridge Gorge MuseumTrust, Shropshire (archaeologist; specialist in post-medieval, industrial and historical archaeology).
• JOSEPH CASPAR FLATMAN, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. Lecturer in Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, UCL (Heritage Conservation Team Manager for Surrey County Council; specialist in maritime archaeology; has contributed to the development of avocational archaeology).
• DUNCAN WILSON, O.B.E, M.Phil. Chief Executive of the Greenwich Foundation, Old Royal Naval College (former Financial Controller, English Heritage, and Head of Libraries, Department of National Heritage).
• MATTHEW P. CANEPA, B.A, M.A., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Roman and Near Easter Art, Department of Art History, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC (specialist in the interactions between Sasanian Iran and the Roman Empire).
• CRISTINA FRANCESCA DONDI, Ph.D. Incunabulist (expert on the liturgy of the Holy Sepulchre; former incunabulist at the Bodleian Library; her research interests include early printing in Venice).
• ANDERS ANDRÉN, M.A., Ph.D. Chair of Archaeology, University of Stockholm (specialist in Old Norse and later medieval Scandinavian archaeology; has published on medieval urban archaeology, and Gotlandic picture stones).

Ballot: 30 October 2008

The Society is pleased to welcome the following new Fellows, who were all elected in the ballot held on 30 October 2008.

• MARSHAL WEISLER, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.  Head of Archaeology, University of Queensland (a Pacific archaeologist with more than 25 years of experience; has published articles, books and monographs).
• HERBERT REGINALD BRODERICK III, M.A., Ph.D.  Associate Professor, City University of New York (art historian specialising in Anglo-Saxon Old Testament manuscript illustration and iconography).
• ROBERT EDWARD COATES-STEPHENS, B.A., Ph.D.  Archaeologist (has made a substantial contribution to the study of the antiquities and archaeology of the city of Rome in the late Roman and medieval periods).
• IAN ASHLEY LILLEY, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.  Professor of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (has worked in Australasian and Indo-Pacific archaeology and cultural heritage management for thirty years).
• TERRY O’CONNOR, B.Sc., Ph.D.  Professor of Archaeological Science, University of York (a leading zooarchaeologist with a distinguished career; the author of numerous books and papers in the discipline).
• SONIA O’CONNOR, Dip.Arch.Con.  Conservator (author of over twenty major papers and books, her work has included a major contribution to the identification of osseous materials from archaeological deposits).
• KATIE STEVENSON, B.A., Ph.D.  University Lecturer (an expert in areas of heraldry and aristocratic and courtly culture in the fifteenth century; has published several books and a number of articles).
• MICHAEL WOOD, M.A.  Historian and film maker, open scholar in Modern History at Oriel College, Oxford (well-known writer and historian whose illuminating books and films have helped to popularise history).
• LYNN HULSE, Ph.D.  Archivist, Royal School of Needlework and Editor of Text, the Journal of the Textile Society (has published many papers and editor of several volumes; co-curator of several exhibitions).
• NICHOLAS ANTHONY CAMBRIDGE, M.D.  Medical practitioner (has made a major contribution to the history of medicine; author of ‘Electrical Apparatus Used In Medicine Before 1900’ and other works).
• RICHARD FRANCIS OLDING, B.A., M.A.  Heritage officer (former Chairman of the Glamorgan Gwent Archaeological Trust; has written widely on the archaeology and history of South East Wales).
• PHILIP FRANCIS MICHAEL GOFF, B.D.  Clerk in Holy Orders (a distinguished authority on historic and contemporary academic dress; founder of the Burgon Society, consultant to the Archbishop of Canterbury and author of several publications).
• ARTHUR JOHN SCHOFIELD, B.A., Ph.D.  Archaeologist (has worked in the forefront of heritage management and contemporary archaeology for many years; his research interests range from prehistory to contemporary archaeology, has published widely, most recently on military archaeology).
• BARBARA ANN HANAWALT, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.  King George III Professor of British History at Ohio State University (one of the leading medieval economic historians in the Anglophone world and has published extensively).
• PETER MARIUS VETH, B.A., Ph.D.  Professor, National Centre for Indigenous Studies, ANU (one of the most active archaeologists working in Australian Indigenous archaeology; has published more than 130 academic papers and authored several volumes).  
• NIGEL NAYLING, B.A., M.A.  Lecturer in Archaeology, University of Wales (a dendrochronologist and nautical, wetland archaeologist; has published several monographs on the archaeology of the Severn Estuary).
• RICHARD JOHN OLNEY, M.A., D.Phil.  Retired archivist and editor (has an extensive knowledge of British antiquaries’ papers as well as the great collections of private family and estate archives; author of many articles on historical, archival and antiquarian studies).  
• IAN PETER BROOKS, Ph.D, B.A.  Director and Project Manager, Engineering Archaeological Services Ltd (consultant archaeologist with noted expertise in lithics and geophysical survey; author of numerous survey studies and contributor to excavation reports and national and international journals).
• CHARLES ALEXANDER JENCKS, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.  Landscape architect (has written several books on the art and architecture of the last century that have become standard works; Visiting Professor at UCLA and the Architectural Association, has taught courses ranging from Egyptian to Baroque architecture).
• MERLIN WATERSON, M.A.  Curator and historian (expert in the conservation and presentation of historic buildings, sites and landscapes; historian of country house and author of several books on the subject).
• HENRY PHILIP CHAPMAN, B.A., Ph.D.  Surveyor and landscape archaeologist (involved in many wetland projects based at Hull University; author and co-author of many papers on wetland archaeology, palaeoecology, GPS, GIS and archaeological modelling).
• CHRISTOPHER HOWARD PAGE, B.A., D.Phil.  Reader in Medieval Music and Literature, University of Cambridge (best known to the public as the founder of the early music ensemble ‘Gothic Voices’; has written extensively about performance practice and published widely on the subject).
• HARRY MARCUS JECOCK, B.A.  Archaeological Investigator (has studied in depth field monuments and landscapes of all periods and has a particular expertise in the recording and analysis of industrial monuments).
• STEPHEN JAMES SHERLOCK, B.A., M.A.  Freelance archaeologist (professional involvement in the archaeology and heritage of Yorkshire extending over 25 years; has published widely).
• CATHERINE MARGARET OAKES, M.A., Ph.D.  Director of Studies for Art History, (a leading art historian of the medieval period; has published extensively on medieval iconography and Romanesque architecture and sculpture).

John Hopkins FSA 1918–2008: a celebration of his life and work

This bust in bronze of John Hopkins (1918–2008), our late Fellow and former Librarian, was carved by or Fellow David Neal and unveiled by our President Geoff Wainwright at a celebration of John’s life and work held at Burlington House on 10 October 2008. All those who spoke at the meeting said how much John cared for his books but also how much he cared for the readers. He would introduce library users to each other if he thought they might have shared interests – he was thus the instigator of several lifelong friendships. John’s son, Tim Hopkins, said that John loved the Society and found in the Fellowship ‘values that he held dear: intelligence, integrity, friendship and wit’.

7 October 2008: Under the volcano: Sir William Hamilton and Mt Vesuvius

This paper in the interdisciplinary Burlington House lecture series, bringing together Fellows from all the learned societies based at Burlington House, will be given by Dr Chris Kilburn, Fellow of the Geological Society, and our own Dr Jill Cook at the Geological Society of London. Tea is at 5.30pm, the lecture at 6pm, and a reception, with wine from the slopes of Mt Vesuvius, follows from 7pm to 8.30pm. Entry is free to all, but by ticket only: to reserve a place please email <admin @ sal.org.uk>.

This lecture will explore the legacy of Sir William Hamilton, FSA, FRS (1730–1803, British Envoy Extraordinary to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies 1764–1800), who observed and described several eruptions of Mt Vesuvius, and became one of the earliest volcanologists. As well as bringing volcanic phenomena to the attention of the scientific world, his excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum, his work guiding Grand Tour visitors around the sites, and his collection of exquisite vases, brought Roman life and art to the attention of a rapidly industrialising Britain.

10 October 2008: John Hopkins FSA 1918–2008: a celebration of his life and work

On 10 October 2008 the Society will hold a meeting to celebrate our late former Librarian, John Hopkins. Beginning with tea in the Council Room at 4pm, our President, Geoff Wainwright, will welcome everyone at 5pm, and we will listen to a recording of the speech that John gave on his election as a Fellow of the Society in 1983. John’s library assistants – Andrew Pike, FSA, John Kenyon, FSA, Peter Hingley and Adrian James – will each say a few words, and Jonathan Coad, FSA, will talk about John’s work for the Royal Archaeological Institute, before Fellows of the Society share their memories of John, led by Nicola Coldstream, FSA. The meeting will end at 6pm with the unveiling of the bust of John that David Neal, FSA, has sculpted, and this will be followed by a wine reception. To book a place, please call the administration office or email: <admin @ sal.org.uk>. If you would like to make a contribution to the cost of casting the bust, please send cheques to the Administration Office, made payable to the Society of Antiquaries.

The Bill and Beyond: implementing the new heritage protection system

The Archaeology Forum is holding a seminar called ‘The Bill and Beyond’ on Tuesday 7 October 2008, from 11am to 4.30pm, hosted by the Society of Antiquaries of London at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London. The seminar will provide an update on progress with the current heritage protection reforms - both the Heritage Protection Bill itself and much more that is happening alongside it - and an opportunity for discussion of the practicalities of beginning to implement the changes.

The full programme for the day is given below. To book places, please contact the Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BE (tel: 020 7479 7080, fax: 020 7287 6967 or email admin@sal.org.uk). There is a charge of £15 per head to cover refreshments and lunch. Payment should be made in advance by cheque or by telephone / email with credit card details (Mastercard or Visa).

THE BILL AND BEYOND

The Draft Heritage Protection Bill was published in April 2008 for pre-legislative scrutiny. The Department for Culture Media and Sport has consulted widely on it and the CMS Select Committee considered evidence on the Draft Bill in July 2008. The Bill is expected to be included in the Queen’s Speech in November 2008.

The focus is now on preparation for the introduction of the Bill in the next Parliamentary Session and implementation of the measures that it proposes to introduce. The Bill only forms one part of the reforms, however, with a related programme of secondary legislation, supporting guidance documents and a new Planning Policy Statement. Work in all these areas has been advancing over the summer.

This seminar aims to bring practitioners and heritage organisations up to speed with the planned changes in the heritage protection system and to give an opportunity for discussion and questions about how they will be introduced over the next two years.

11.00 Coffee


11.30 Welcome: Dr David Gaimster, General Secretary, Society of Antiquaries of London


IMPLEMENTING THE NEW HERITAGE PROTECTION SYSTEM

Introduction: Dr Mike Heyworth, Director, Council for British Archaeology

The way ahead – implementing the Heritage Protection Bill: Harry Reeves, Department for Culture Media and Sport

Preparing for working with the new heritage protection system: Paul Jeffery, English Heritage

12.30 – 1.15 Questions and discussion

1.15 – 2.00 Lunch

OPPORTUNITES AND CHALLENGES: VIEWS FROM THE SECTOR

A view from local authority archaeological officers: Dr Stewart Bryant, Chair, Association of Local Government Officers, England

A view from local authority conservation officers: Dr Seán O’Reilly, Director, and John Preston, Education Officer, Institute of Historic Building Conservation

A view from practising archaeologists: Peter Hinton, Chief Executive, Institute of Field Archaeologists

A view from the national amenity societies: Dr Ian Dungavell, Director, Victorian Society and Secretary, Joint Committee of National Amenity Societies

Speakers Panel: questions and discussion

4.20 Closing remarks and thanks

Newly elected Fellows: 19 June 2008

The Society is pleased to welcome the following as Fellows, all of whom were elected in the ballot held on 19 June 2008.

• Nadia Durrani, MA, PhD, Editor of Current World Archaeology, specialist in the archaeology of pre-Islamic Yemen and the archaeology of the First World War.
• Koji Mizoguchi, BA, MA, PhD, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, specialist in Japan’s Yayoi period.
• Joanna Story, BA, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Early Medieval History, The School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, specialist in the political and cultural history of Carolingian Europe.
• Richard Luther Caradoc Jones, BA, DPhil, Lecturer in Medieval History, The School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, Director of Clay Hill excavations, Sussex, and castellologist.
• Michael Batt, BA, Archaeologist, French Ministry of Culture, specialist in rescue archaeology and field archaeology in Brittany.
• Conor Newman, BA, MA, Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, National University of Ireland, Galway, former director of the Discovery Programme’s survey of the Hill of Tara.
• Susan Elizabeth Kelly, BA, MA, PhD, researcher, expert on Anglo-Saxon history, has edited major ecclesiastical archives for the British Academy Anglo-Saxon Charter series.
• Tom Richard Grenville Wilson, BSc, MA, Archaeologist, Network Archaeology Ltd, former Senior Archaeologist for the Museum of London, has excavated prehistoric to post-medieval sites.
• Tyler-Jo Smith, MA, DPhil, Assistant Professor of Classical Archaeology, Department of Art, University of Virginia, authority on Greek vase-painting, has excavated in Turkey, Greece and Sicily.
• Alan Charles Lovell, MA, Chartered Accountant, Chairman of the Appeal Committee of the Mary Rose Trust.
• Peter Hughes, BA, Art Historian, former Head Curator of the Wallace Collection, leading scholar of decorative arts, especially furniture and eighteenth century France.
• David Howard Heslop, BA, County Archaeologist, Tyne and Wear, has directed numerous excavation projects and published on Thorpe Thewles and Guisborough Priory.
• Naomi Jane Sykes, BA, MSc, PhD, Lecturer in Zooarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, expert on Roman and medieval animal bones.
• Robert Edward Liddiard, BA, MA, PhD, Lecturer in Medieval History and Landscape Archaeology, School of History, University of East Anglia, with major contributions to the fields of landscape and castle studies.
• Paul Barry Pettitt, BA, MA, PhD, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, specialist in European Palaeolithic technology, rock art and excavations at Creswell Crags.
• Brendan Francis Cassidy, MA, PhD, Reader in the History of Art, St Andrews University, former director of the ‘Index of Christian Art’, Princeton University, authority on thirteenth-century Italian art.
• Francis Owen Grew, BA, MPhil, Senior Curator in Museum Management, Museum of London, publications on Roman London.
• Kirsty Ann Rodwell, BA, Buildings Archaeologist, Chair of the Wiltshire Buildings Record, publications on archaeology and architectural history.
• Oliver Urquhart Irvine, BA, MA, Cultural Property Manager, British Library, publications on the history of art, cartography and international legislation.
• Christopher Hartop, BA, author and consultant, silver specialist, former Chairman and Trustee of the Silver Society, publications on English silver.
• Derek Long, MA, DPhil, scientist and collector, former Co-Director NATO Advanced Studies, authority on Raman spectroscopy.
• Craig Peter Barclay, MA, MLitt, Curator, University of Durham Museums, former Keeper of Archaeology at The Hull and East Riding Museum; interests include Civil War coinage.
• James Adam Fraser Wilkinson, MA, Director of Edinburgh World Heritage, former Secretary of SAVE Britain’s Heritage; has played a crucial role in saving Tyntesfield and Dumfries House for the nation.
• Harry Rodger Allen, BA, PhD, Associate Professor in Archaeology, Department of Anthropology, University of Auckland, New Zealand, expert in the archaeology of South-east Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
• Peter Dixon Hiscock, BA, PhD, Reader in Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, specialist in Palaeolithic technology and Australian archaeology.

Newly elected Fellows: 22 May 2008

The Society is pleased to welcome the following as Fellows, all of whom were elected in the ballot held on 22 May 2008.

• Scott Howard Mandelbrote, Director of Studies in History, Tutor for Undergraduate Admissions, Perne Librarian, Peterhouse, Cambridge, specialising in modern intellectual history).
• James Russell Raven, Professor of Modern History, Department of History, University of Essex, specialising in the history of printing, publishing, bookselling and libraries.
• Robert Tittler, Professor Emeritus of History, Concordia University, Montreal, specialising in on the history of English towns and social context of urban life from the later Middle Ages to the early seventeenth century.
• Thomas Felix Marlborough Pryor, manuscript and archive consultant, assessor of manuscripts for the Reviewing Committee on the Export Works of Art.
• Helen Walker, Archaeologist, Essex County Council Field Archaeology Unit, specialising in medieval and post medieval pottery.
• James Robinson, Curator of Medieval Art and Archaeology, Department of Prehistory and Europe, British Museum, specialising in medieval ceramics.
• Stephen Giles Hudson Freeth, former Keeper of Manuscripts, Guildhall Library, specialising in monumental brasses and funeral monuments.
• Thomas E Russo, Professor of the History of Art, Department of Art and Art History, Drury University, Springfield, Missouri, USA, specialising in classical and medieval art.
• Gillian Swanton, Trustee of Wessex Archaeology, directed of excavations in Wiltshire.
• Preston Miracle, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, specialising in  Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology, director of the Pupicina Cave excavations, Croatia.
• Robert Tear, internationally acclaimed operatic and concert tenor, conductor and writer on musical, archaeological and topographical subjects.
• Charles Peter Kendall, Team Leader for Kent and East Sussex, English Heritage and Inspector of Ancient Monuments for Medway, an authority on Westenhanger Castle and Shurland Hall.
• Judith Alfrey, Historic Buildings and Landscapes Inspector, CADW, and authority on rural buildings in Wales.
• David Clark, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Oxford director of courses in vernacular architecture, specialising in medieval shops.
• George Cunningham, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of Limerick, conservationist and winner of Ireland’s National Trust award for a lifetime contribution to heritage).
• David John Adshead, Head Curator and Architectural Historian, National Trust.
• Holley Martlew, archaeologist specialising in  Bronze Age Cretan coarseware.
• Paul Pattison, Senior Properties Historian, English Heritage, specialising in landscape archaeology and post-medieval fortifications, especially the Western Heights at Dover.
• Christopher Brandon, architect and maritime archaeologist, specialising in Roman hydraulic concrete.
• P Maureen Carroll, Reader in Roman Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, specialising in Roman Europe.
• Gordon Leslie Higgott, architectural historian, English Heritage, specialising in  British classical architecture, Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren.
• Penelope Jane Ellis Davies, Associate Professor, Department of Art and Art History, University of Texas, Austin, specialising in the art and architecture of the Roman republic.
• Gerard A A March Phillipps De Lisle, writer specialising in the history and antiquities of Leicestershire.
• Jeanne-Nora Andrikopoulou-Strack, Director, Prospektion, Rheinisches Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege, director of excavations on Roman military and civil sites.
• Neil Martin Faulkner, Features Editor, Current Archaeology, Director, Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project and co-director of the Great War Archaeology Group, specialising in late Roman Britain.
  

Presidential address 2008

In his Presidential address given on the occasion of the Society's Anniversary Meeting on 23 April 2008, Geoffrey Wainwright argued that it was right for the Society to be involved in the great debates of the day about public policy towards the heritage and said that we could do so from a position of independence.  'We are independent of government both intellectually and financially', he said; 'we are not beholden to vested interest groups, we are not party political and we are independent of mind.  This has always enabled us to challenge the status quo and be intellectually stimulating.  It has allowed us to offer platforms to controversial speakers and provided opportunities for their views to be challenged.  We must ensure that this precious independence is maintained over the years to come enabling us to tackle ever more controversial issues and provide innovative solutions.' He particularly lamented the lack of progress on a road and visitor centre improvement scheme for the landscape around Stonehenge.

He also awarded the Society’s Medal (given annually by Council to those who have provided outstanding service to the Society or the aims of the Society) to Bernard Nurse in recognition of all that he has contributed to the Society as our Librarian for twenty years.

To mark the Tercentenary, the Society also awarded its Gold Medal, the highest accolade that this Society can bestow, to our Honorary Vice-President Rosemary Cramp, Emeritus Professor at the University of Durham, who was our President from 2001 to 2004. In presenting the medal, Professor Wainwright said that 'Rosemary is viewed with respect as well as affection by those with whom she has worked during her illustrious career at the University of Durham where she built up a modern archaeology department and trained three generations of students. She combines the skills of archaeologist, historian, art historian and Old English expert and her report on the excavations at the Wearmouth and Jarrow monastic sites appeared in 2005 and 2006.  The successive volumes of the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Sculpture have appeared regularly, in which she – as creator, author and editor – and the Corpus Team have produced a work of reference that will inform scholarship for decades to come.'

The full text of the President's address and the medal citations can be read here (Word file 57KB)

Women in the Heritage Day: 4 April 2008

HIStory made way for HERitage on 4 April 2008 when the Society of Antiquaries brought together over one-hundred archaeologists, curators, archivists and art and architectural historians to celebrate the contribution of women, past and present, to our knowledge and appreciation of heritage. Women representing all aspects of the sector took part including the granddaughter of archaeologist Tessa Verney Wheeler, one of the first women to be elected as a Fellow of the Society in 1921, and Beatrice di Cardi, aged 93 and still active in archaeology in the United Arab Emirates.

Also attending was Rt Hon Margaret Hodge, MBE, MP, the Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism, who said 'I am delighted that the Society of Antiquaries is drawing attention to the achievements of women through this event. Women have often struggled to get the recognition they deserve for the work they have done in enhancing society's knowledge and appreciation of heritage.'

Professor Rosemary Cramp, CBE, FSA, chairing the day-long seminar, said: 'Many of these women formed a supportive network as friends, and seized the opportunity to enter the "new" field of archaeology which had not already been exclusively claimed by men.'

Women were first admitted as Honorary Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries in 1920, and in 1921 the first women were elected as Fellows by ballot. Joan Evans, the first woman President of the Society, described these historic events in her History of the Society of Antiquaries, published in 1956:

‘On 19 February [1920] the President "reminded" the meeting that, under the Act [the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act], the Fellowship was now open to women and that it was therefore competent for Fellows to nominate women as candidates for election into the Society.  At the Council of 25 February six ladies were chosen for nomination honoris causa:  Mrs Eugenie Strong, Mrs Ella Armitage, Miss Gertrude Lowthian Bell, Miss Nina Frances Layard, Miss Rose Graham, and Miss Maud Sellers. Mrs Armitage and Miss Sellers refused the nomination: the others accepted.  Mrs Strong and Miss Graham were put up for election honoris causa and elected on 3 June 1920: Miss Bell on 13 January and Miss Layard on 3 March 1921.  The first women elected in the ordinary way were Mrs Reginald Lane Poole and Mrs Mortimer Wheeler.’

Society of Antiquaries celebrates Heritage Lottery Fund success

The Society of Antiquaries has been awarded almost £300,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to take material from its collections on tour to four major regional museums. The touring exhibition will build upon the much-praised 'Making History' exhibition, mounted at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2007 to celebrate the Society's Tercentenary. It will be hosted by the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, the Potteries Museum in Stoke-On-Trent, the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and The Collection: Art and Archaeology in Lincolnshire.

The Society’s President, Geoff Wainwright, said, 'Following the success of our Tercentenary Exhibition at the Royal Academy this generous Heritage Lottery Fund grant will enable us to share the beauty and interest of our collections with others across the country and demonstrate to a wider audience the richness of our common heritage.'

The touring exhibition will, for the first time, enable public access outside London to one of the country’s most important historical collections of paintings, drawings, prints and artefacts. The project will involve local history and archaeology groups and underlines the Society’s commitment to creating learning opportunities and increasing public access to its rich collections and resources.  A virtual exhibition will be hosted on the Society’s website and a series of publications will include a fully illustrated children’s timeline and guidebook.

Antiquaries in Europe: the role of national antiquarian societies today: 16 May 2008

Supported by English Heritage, this international colloquium to celebrate the Society's Tercentenary will take place on Friday 16 May 2008, from 9.30am to 5.30pm. It aims to provide an overview of the intersecting interests and future challenges for independent national heritage bodies (NGOs) in Europe today. By meeting together, we aim to initiate a more formal network of national independent heritage bodies with an eye to future international collaboration and joint initiatives.

The Colloquium will explore the current role of independent national Learned Societies working in the cultural heritage across Europe. Each participant will profile the history, governance, objectives and the work of their respective institution and its membership and will examine the current role of that institution in the national cultural heritage of that country and indeed on the international stage. Contributors include representatives of the The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, the Finnish Antiquarian Society, the Royal Academy of Archaeology of Belgium, the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, the Royal Archaeological Society of Tarragona, Spain, The Archaeological Society of Athens, and the Präsidium der Verbände für Altertumswissenschaften, Germany.

A presentation on the Society’s history and current role will take place on the previous evening, Thursday 15 May, followed by a wine reception. The full programme for both days can be downloaded here (Word file 73KB).

Tickets, including wine and refreshments, cost £15 (Fellows) / £25 (public) and are available from the Society (admin @ sal.org.uk).

Westminster Abbey Chapter House: its history, architecture and context: 4 and 5 July 2008

Booking has now closed: all places have been booked

Over the past decade, much research on the Chapter House and Pyx Chamber has been carried out, leading to some remarkable revelations, including the dating of a door in the vestibule to the reign of Edward the Confessor. This Society of Antiquaries Tercentenary Research Symposium will bring together the scholars involved to present the results of unpublished recent research and to assess our current knowledge of what the chronicler Matthew Paris described as ‘a chapter house beyond compare’, ranking as one of the spectacular achievements in Gothic architecture.

Co-hosted by the Society of Antiquaries and the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, with the support of English Heritage, the symposium will be held at the Society of Antiquaries and will be followed by visits to the Chapter House, Undercroft and Pyx Chamber before the event concludes with a reception in the Abbey Museum. If you would like to take part in the seminar, the conference fee is £40 for both days, £20 for a single day and the number of places is limited to 100. The full programme for both days can be downloaded here (Word file 41KB) and a booking form can be downloaded here (PDF file 102KB) for printing and posting back to the Society.

Newly elected Fellows: 28 February 2008

The Society is pleased to welcome the following as Fellows, all of whom were elected in the ballot held on 28 February 2008.

• Richard Ovenden: Keeper of Special Collections and Associate Director of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, with research interests in English and Scottish antiquaries and book collectors of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
• Gerald Morgan: writer, formerly head teacher and lecturer, specialist in the history of Wales and Celtic Studies
• Edward Sargent: Conservation Officer for Medway Council, Kent, with extensive experience in the conservation of historic buildings and the history and development of London Docks
• Alan George Walmsley: Associate Professor in Islamic Archaeology and Art, Institute of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen, expert in the archaeology and history of the Early Islamic Near East
• Emma Loosley: Lecturer in Art History, School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, The University of Manchester, specialist in Christian art, the archaeology of the Near and Middle East and monastic sites in Syria
• Dieter Planck: Chairman of the German Limeskommission (formerly the Director of the State Archaeology Museum and the State Monuments Service of Baden-Württemberg), expert in the Roman period in Germany
• Christopher James Rowe: Head of the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Durham, a distinguished classicist who has made a substantial contribution to Hellenic studies
• Michael Jeffrey Silverman: researcher and writer, editor of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association’s Handbook, whose research interests include the dating of Anglo-Saxon poetry
• Geoffrey Bond: Master of the Guild of Art Scholars, Dealers and Collectors, Board Member of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council
• Simon Richard Houfe: historian and art historian, formerly editor of the Antique Collector, specialising in Victorian painters and illustrators
• Jane Rowan McIntosh: Senior Research Associate, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge, researching the development of trade in the regions from Mesopotamia to the Indus basin in the fourth and third millennia BC
• Trevor Foulds: Documentary Historian, Nottingham City Council, whose publications have made a substantial contribution to the study of the city and county of Nottingham
• Rainer Wolfgang Grun: Professor of Earth Environment, Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, distinguished in the dating of archaeological sites and application of new dating techniques
• Frederick Wilkinson: Arms and Armour Consultant who has published on firearms collections in the Royal Armouries and the Imperial War Museum
• Timothy James Clayton: author and historian, specialist in eighteenth-century cultural and naval history and in engraved imagery and history of print trade; former Associate Editor for the Oxford DNB
• Richard Silyn Kelly: Head of Sustainable Landscapes Section, Countryside Council for Wales, an archaeologist who has made a substantial contribution in raising awareness of the historic environment within Wales
• Casper Johnson: County Archaeologist for East Sussex and an experienced field archaeologist who has led projects across southern England
• David Anthony Stoker: writer, formerly Senior Lecturer at the University of Wales, who has made an important contribution to the study of the English provincial book trade in the eighteenth century
• Peter Topping: Head of Archaeological Survey and Investigation, English Heritage, expert in field archaeology and landscape studies with publications on prehistoric landscapes in northern England
• Peter Nicholas Poole-Wilson: Managing Director, Bernard Quaritch Ltd, who has played an important role internationally in advancing bibliographical studies and research
• Gerallt David Nash: Senior Curator, St Fagans National History Museum, Cardiff, and an authority on traditional historic building practices and public structures in Wales
• Matthew Reeve: Assistant Professor in Art and Architectural History, Department of Art History, Carleton University, Canada, a specialist in English medieval art and post-medieval antiquarianism
• Anthony Charles Peers: Architectural Historian, Rodney Melville & Partners, Warwickshire, specialist in building conservation philosophy and repair techniques
• Thomas Hugh Moore: Lecturer in Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, specialist in the Iron Age archaeology of Britain and western Europe
• Stephen David Church: Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, University of East Anglia, specialist in kingship and the exercise and perception of royal power.

Newly elected Fellows: 24 January 2008

The Society is pleased to welcome the following, all of whom were elected as Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries in the ballot held on 24 January 2008.

• Kate Heard: Print Room Supervisor, Ashmolean Museum, Deputy Editor of the Journal of the History of Collections, and Honorary Conference Secretary of the British Archaeological Association.
• Rosemary Hill: Writer and historian (author of God’s Architect: Pugin and the building of romantic Britain), Trustee of the London Library and of the Victorian Society.
• Sally Stradling: Heritage consultant and occasional lecturer at Oxford and Warwick universities.
• Martin Joseph Postle: Assistant Director, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, expert on Sir Joshua Reynolds.
• Teresita Majewski: Associate Research Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, USA and Chief Operating Officer of Statistical Research, Inc.
• Anthony Gerard Meehan Sinclair: Prehistorian and Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool.
• David Parham: Senior Lecturer in Marine Archaeology, School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University with specialist interests in prehistoric seafaring and ship construction.
• Neil Robert Thomas Bingham: Architectural Drawings Curator, Royal Academy of Arts.
• Steven James Ashley: Archaeologist and armorist, Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers.
• Robin Fleming: Professor of History, Boston College, Massachusetts, USA, specialising in the political history of Viking and Anglo-Norman England).
• Simon Hancock: Historian and Curator of Haverfordwest Museum, Pembrokeshire, Chairman of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.
• Robert Scourfield: Building Conservation Officer, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.
• Simon Michael Dougal Gilmour: Director, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Vice-President of the Council for Scottish Archaeology, specialist in the Scottish Iron Age.
• George Haggarty: Research Fellow, National Museum of Scotland, specialising in medieval pottery.
• Jurgen Kunow: Director of the Rheinisches Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege, responsible for the State Heritage Agency of the Rhineland, President of the Association of German State Archaeologists.
• Ricardo Joseph Elia: Chairman, Department of Archaeology, Boston University, Massachusetts, USA, specialist in archaeological heritage management.
• Philip Abramson: Historic Advisor, Ministry of Defence, who has managed numerous excavations including Castleford Roman fort.
• Keith Falconer: Head of Industrial Archaeology, English Heritage and Head of the RCHME Regional Office in Salisbury.                     
• David Thomson: Archdeacon of Carlisle and Residentiary Canon of Carlisle Cathedral, adviser on the preservation and presentation of historic churches.
• Jennifer Iris Rachel Montagu: art historian, Honorary Fellow of the Warburg Institute, Trustee of the British Museum, Officier des Arts et Lettres and Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur.
• Fiona Jane Seeley: Finds and Conservation Manager, awarded the John Gillam Prize for her contribution to Roman pottery studies.          
• Alastair McCapra: Chief Executive of The Institute of Conservation, specialist in early Islamic and early British imperial history.
• Lisa Reilly: Professor of Architectural History, School of Architecture, University of Virginia, USA, expert on Romanesque buildings in England and Norman architecture in Sicily.
• Dan Hicks: Lecturer and Curator, School of Archaeology, Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, specialising in historical archaeology, especially sugar estates in the eastern Caribbean.
• John Gater: member of the ‘Time Team’, Archaeological Geophysicist with Geophysical Surveys of Bradford, known for his major contribution to the development of geophysical survey in archaeology.
  

Frankfurt Colloquium: 20 February 2008

As part of our Tercentenary celebrations, the Römisch-Germanischen Kommission and the Society of Antiquaries are hosting a joint one-day colloquium in Frankfurt am Main on Archaeology in central and north-west Europe in the twenty-first century: perspectives and challenges for international co-operation. The colloquium will take place at the Cafe im alten Literaturhaus, Bockenheimer Landstraße 102, Frankfurt am Main, from 9am to 6pm.

9am	Opening address: Geoffrey Wainwright (SAL) and Friedrich Lüth (RGK)
9.15am to 11.45am	Early Monumental Graves: Tim Darvill, Friedrich Lüth Iron Age Oppida: Colin Haselgrove
10.45am to 11.15am	Tea and coffee
11.15am to 12.45am	Iron Age Oppida: Vincent Guichard, Susanne Sievers, Natalie Venclová
12.45am to 1.30pm	Lunch
1.30pm to 3.30pm	Roman Frontiers: David Breeze, Siegmar von Schnurbein Early Medieval: David Gaimster
3.30pm to 4pm	Break
4pm to 6pm	Panel discussion Chair: Geoffrey Wainwright Panel: Herwig Friesinger (A), Hermann Parzinger (D), Willem Willems (NL), Stefanie Martin‐Kilcher (CH), Jean Bourgeois (B), Michel Reddé (F), Kristian Kristiansen (DK/S), Barry Raftery (IRL), Romuald Schild (PL)

The colloquium will be rounded off by a public lecture at 8pm, at the Senckenberg‐Museum, Senckenberganlage 25, Frankfurt am Main given by Professor Lord Renfrew, FSA, on 'The dimensions of prehistory', followed by a reception at the Römisch‐Germanischen Kommission.

Fellows attending the event are invited to a celebratory Tercentenary dinner the evening before the colloquium, on February
19th, to be held in the Römerkeller in Frankfurt.

Fellows who have not received an invitation to the event and who would like to attend should send contact details to <info@sal300.de>.

The Stonehenge decision in full

A303 Stonehenge Improvement Scheme: the following statement was issued by Tom Harris, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department for Transport, on Thursday 6 December 2007.

'Making best use of taxpayers' money is essential in the allocation of funding to transport schemes.  With that in mind the Government announced in 2005 that it planned to commission a review of options for the A303 Stonehenge improvement after a substantial increase in the estimated cost of the proposed 2.1km bored tunnel scheme.  The approved budget for the scheme when it was taken to Public Inquiry in 2004 was £223m.  The latest reported cost estimate is £540m which reflects a number of factors including unexpectedly poor ground conditions, more stringent requirements for tunnelling work and rapid inflation in construction costs.

'The review identified a shortlist of possible options, including routes to the north and south of Stonehenge. After careful consideration we have now concluded that due to significant environmental constraints across the whole of the World Heritage Site, there are no acceptable alternatives to the 2.1km bored tunnel scheme.  However, when set against our wider objectives and priorities, we have concluded that allocating more than £500m for the implementation of this scheme cannot be justified and would not represent best use of taxpayers' money.  I am today placing the final report of the Review on the department's website.

'I am therefore today withdrawing all the draft Orders which were considered at the Public Inquiry and I have instructed the Highways Agency to withdraw route protection for the complete scheme including the proposed bypass of Winterbourne Stoke.

'The Government recognises the importance of the A303 Stonehenge Improvement scheme and that today's announcement will come as a considerable disappointment for the scheme's supporters.  The Highways Agency will investigate possible small scale improvements to the A303 as part of their overall stewardship of route. The department also plans to discuss with the South West region the implications of this decision for the wider strategy for improving the A303/A358 corridor to the M5 at Taunton.

'In addition, the department will work with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and English Heritage on their plans to take forward in consultation with other stakeholders a review of the World Heritage Site Management Plan and to consider alternative options for the development of new visitor facilities at Stonehenge in the light of our decision on the A303 improvement.  This further work will include examination of the case for closing the junction of the A344 with the A303 as part of the investigation of  options for improving the setting of Stonehenge, taking into account the wider heritage and environmental needs, to which the Government remains committed, for  this iconic World Heritage site.    The decision will be subject to a detailed assessment and public consultation, but we recognise the importance of this issue to the sustainability of the World Heritage Site.

'The Government remains committed to working with stakeholders in investigating options for improving the environment of Stonehenge, including new visitor facilities, and exploring possible small scale measures to improve traffic flows and safety along this section of the A303.'

In response, English Heritage issued the following statement:

'English Heritage is very disappointed that the 2.1km bored tunnel scheme for improvements to the A303 will not go ahead.

'The decision signals the end of the project championed by the DCMS and English Heritage over the last eight years which sought to improve both the landscape setting of Stonehenge and the visitor experience. The project, collectively decided upon by a range of national and regional stakeholders, was the best and most practical means by which the agreed vision for the Stonehenge World Heritage Site could have been achieved.

'However, it is encouraging that the Government recognises that improving the setting of the Stones and the visitor facilities is a priority.  English Heritage will work closely with other stakeholders to look into alternative ways to achieve this.'

ICON condemns planned closure of the Textile Conservation Centre

ICON (the Institute for Conservation) has reacted with anger to the news that the Textile Conservation Centre at Southampton University is to close in 2009. ICON’s Chief Executive, Alastair McCapra, described the closure as ‘a serious assault on excellence, and a loss not just for the UK but on an international level, as there are so few centres of excellence in textile conservation anywhere in the world’.

Previously based at Hampton Court, the Textile Conservation Centre merged with the Winchester School of Art at the University of Southampton in 1998, and moved to a new purpose-designed building on the Winchester campus in the summer of 1999. Now Southampton has announced the closure of Winchester School of Art because it is not earning enough to be self-funding and to make a significant contribution to the central running costs of the university.

The Centre itself enjoys an excellent international reputation, attracting many students from outside the UK and sending 97 per cent of its graduates into conservation employment. ICON is supporting the efforts of the Textile Conservation Centre to find an alternative home.

ICON Chair, Simon Cane, said that: ‘The need for textile conservation is clear. At the moment the Victoria and Albert Museum is running a high-profile exhibition called “The Golden Age of Couture, Paris and London 1947–57”. Princess Diana’s gowns have just gone on display at Kensington Palace. The public want access to these fragile and perishable collections and unless they are stored, cared for and conserved properly, there will be nothing to see. If there are no skilled and trained conservators to do the work, public access will suffer.’

New Head of Library and Collections

The Society has appointed Heather Rowland, currently Librarian of the Religious Society of Friends, to succeed Bernard Nurse as our new Head of Library and Collections. Announcing the appointment, our General Secretary, David Gaimster, said: ‘Heather comes to us with a great track record in the management and development of library and archive services, having previously headed the Art and Architecture Library for Westminster (known amongst art historians as the best public library for the field in London) and having worked at the Arts Council of England. Heather will join us on 7 January 2008. Though Bernard retires at the end of 2007, we plan that he will stay with us for a short time in January to provide a handover.’

The Library of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), in Euston Road, London, is just thirty-four years older than our own Society, having been founded in 1673, with the aim of collecting ‘two copies of everything written by Quakers and one copy of everything written against them’. The library now has over 80,000 books and pamphlets, including a unique collection of seventeenth-century Quaker and anti-Quaker material.

William Morris treasures saved from floods

Prompt action by Kelmscott Manor's curatorial staff has ensured that unique works of art made by William Morris have been saved from flood damage at the Oxfordshire home of the arts and crafts movement founder. Tapestries, furniture and paintings were rescued as water lapped at the steps and seeped through the floor of the historic manor house, described in Morris's Utopian novel, News from Nowhere (1890), as 'the only house in England worth inhabiting'.

While the village of Kelmscott was rendered inaccessible by three feet of water, the Manor’s on-site managers, Jane Milne and Tristan Molloy, battled to raise heavy furniture onto pallets and move irreplaceable works to safety, including the important 'Cabbage and Vine' tapestry, woven entirely by Morris himself, and a portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of Morris's wife, Jane, called 'The Blue Silk Dress'.

Jane Milne said they had been helped enormously by residents from the village; in return Tristan Molloy toured the village in his homemade boat dispensing food from the Kelmscott cafe to neighbours who were left without electricity for several days as a result of the worst floods in the area that anyone in the village can remember.

David Gaimster, General Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, which owns and manages the Manor, said: 'Clearly we won’t know the extent of any damage to the fabric of the building until a full assessment can be made, but everyone is very relieved that Jane and Tristan are safe and the collections have escaped damage'.

Because of damage to the house and outbuildings, and the need for extensive work to the floors and plasterwork, Kelmscott Manor will not be open again to vistors until spring 2008, and all events and tours planned for the remainder of 2007 are cancelled. Anyone intending to visit in 2008 should check for an update on this message by phoning the Kelmscott enquiries and bookings line (01367 252486), emailing (admin@kelmscottmanor.co.uk) or visiting our website (www.kelmscottmanor.org.uk).

Slavery: buy now while stocks last

The Archaeology of Greek and Roman Slavery (2003), by the late F Hugh Thompson, FSA, has now sold out in the UK and second-hand copies cost in excess of £150. However the US distributor has six copies left at the bargain price of US$67.50, so if you are thinking of a copy, now is the time to place your order. Full details on the website of the distributor, International Publishers Marketing, 22841 Quicksilver Drive, Dulles, VA 20166, USA. Tel: 703-661-1586.

William Morris’s Kelmscott: landscape and history

Tuesday 8 May 2007 saw the launch of William Morris’s Kelmscott: landscape and history, published by Windgather Press (whose proprietor, Richard Purslow, is shown in our picture with Kate Owen, the Society's Publications Manager, outside the shop at Kelmscott Manor). Edited by Fellows Alan Crossley, Tom Hassall and Peter Salway, the book represents the fruits of the Kelmscott Landcape Project (KELP) established in 1996 to undertake a multi-disciplinary study of the parish that would also inform the Society’s management of Kelmscott Manor and its estate.

The result is a book that embraces every aspect of Kelmscott, including the geology, prehistoric settlement on the Thames gravel terraces, field names and boundaries, the vernacular buildings, the church, the Manor and its garden, the people of the village and the rich legacy of art and furnishings that had its origin and inspiration in the village. This vivid portrait of Kelmscott serves both as a guide to house and village for those who want to go beyond the guidebook, and as a model of how to undertake and present a comprehensive study of a typical English landscape.

Presidential address

In his Presidential address given on the occasion of the Society's Anniversary Meeting on 25 April 2007, Professor Eric Fernie discussed what it means to be an 'antiquary' in the twenty-first century. He also awarded the Society’s Medal (given nnually by Council to those who have provided outstanding service to the Society or the aims of the Society) to Janet and Alan Frost for their contribution to the restoration of Kelmscott Manor, and the buildings of the wider estate. The full text of the President's address and the medal citation can be read here (Word file, 53KB).

Newly elected Fellows: 29 November 2007 ballot

The Society is pleased to welcome the following, all of whom were elected as Fellows in the ballot held on 29 November 2007.

As Honorary Fellows:

• Arturo Carol Quintavalle: Director of the Centro Studi e Archivio della Comunicazione at the University of Parma, author of books that have transformed our understanding of the architecture and sculpture of north Italy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and organiser of annual conferences at the University of Parma that have become a fixture in the medievalist art historian’s calendar.
• Sir David Frederick Attenborough: Naturalist, broadcaster, trustee of the British Museum for over twenty years and an active member of the Sutton Hoo Trust.

As Ordinary Fellows:

• Caroline Shenton: Assistant Clerk of the Records, Parliamentary Archives, expert in the court of Edward III and the household and wardrobe accounts of the reign, currently researching book on the 1834 Great Fire of Westminster.
• Monica Mary Jackson: Archaeologist, Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney, New South Wales, author of Hellenistic Gold Eros Jewellery (BAR Int Series 1510 (2006) and The Amisos Treasure (forthcoming)
• Robert Weaver: Senior Assistant Master and Keeper of the Fellows’ Library at Dulwich College (the Rare Book Collection), lecturing widely on manuscripts and mounting exhibitions of palaeographical material at Harrow, Dulwich, Guildford and Oxford.
• Nicholas John Cooper: Post-excavation Manager, University of Leicester Archaeological Services, author of The Archaeology of Rutland WaterThe Archaeology of the East Midlands (2006). Co-ordinator of the East Midlands Archaeological Research Framework.
• (2000) and an edited volume on
• Raimund Karl: Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Heritage, University of Wales Bangor, specialising in ‘Celtic’ social structures from the Iron Age to the early Middle Ages in continental Europe, Britain and Ireland, as well as Iron Age to early medieval chariotry, roads, travel and trade in central and western Europe, and central European Iron Age settlement archaeology.
• Gabor Thomas: Lecturer in Late Antique/Early Medieval Archaeology, University of Reading, an expert on Middle and Late Anglo-Saxon ornamental metalwork, and on early-medieval settlement studies, carrying out fieldwork projects at Bishopstone and Lyminge.
• Paul Raymond Latcham: Retired bookshop owner, editor of the Bookplate Journal, contributor to publications on bookplate art and history, author of DNB articles on military engineers.
• Fiona Macintosh: Senior Research Fellow, Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, University of Oxford, specialising in the reception of classical drama in the modern world, especially the impact of nineteenth-century excavations of ancient sites on the staging of ancient plays.
• Simon Robert Key: Member of Parliament for Salisbury since 1983. Minister for the Environment 1990–2 with responsibility for listed buildings and Founder Minister at the Department of National Heritage responsible for Heritage Lottery Fund legislation. Director and trustee of Wessex Archaeology involved in the campaign to improve management of Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
• Irene Stavros Lemos: Reader in Classical Archaeology, Oxford University, Director of the excavation of the major Late Bronze/Iron Age site at Lefkandi in Euboea with numerous monographs on Lefkandi and Ancient Greek topics.
• Francisco Estrada-Belli: University Professor, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA, specialising in the archaeology of his native Guatemala, director of a major project at the lowland Maya city of Holmul and its dependencies of Cival and Sufricaya, where he has brought to light important mural paintings, ritual deposits and architectural sculptures.
• Seiichi Suzuki: Professor of English and Germanic Studies, Kansai Gaidai University, Japan, author of books on Gothic philology, poetic metre and early Anglo-Saxon metalwork (The Quoit Brooch Style (2000) and Button Brooches (in press), both for Boydell Press).
• Sonja Marzinzik: Curator, Insular Early Medieval Collections, British Museum, with a specialist interest in the archaeology of the early Anglo-Saxon period, and dress accessories.
• Caron Egerton Newman: Archaeological consultant running her own archaeological consultancy, specialising in infrastructure projects and the application of GIS techniques to historic landscape analysis. Medieval period co-ordinator for the North West Regional Research Framework.
• Brian Vincent: Honorary Fellow in the Department of Anthropology, University of Otago, a leader in the analysis of south-east Asian ceramics, author of volumes published by the Society on excavations at Khok Phanom Di, including the most comprehensive study of an Asian prehistoric pottery production centre ever published.
• Richard Walter: Archaeologist, University of Otago, prominent in the archaeology of the Pacific, with extensive fieldwork in the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Niue and the Solomon Islands. His latest monograph on the archaeology of Watom Island, Papua New Guinea, with Professor Roger Green, is a landmark volume for Lapita studies.
• Mike Nevell: Archaeologist, with a special interest in new methodological approaches to the archaeology of industrialisation and standing buildings.
• Jackie Hall: Archaeologist, specialising in monastic and ecclesiastical building analysis, and the assessment and analysis of loose stonework. Council Member of the BAA, Assistant Editor to the Society for Church Archaeology and Consultant Cathedral Archaeologist at Peterborough since 2005.
• Hendrik Johannes Louw: Historian of architecture and construction, School of Architecture, University of Newcastle, former President, European Association for Architectural Education and Chairman of Construction History Society. Co-author of the definitive history of the origin of the sash window with major contributions to the history of building construction and the relations between Dutch and English architecture.
• Mark Wycliff Samuel: Architectural Archaeologist and an expert in recording and analysing British architecture of Roman to nineteenth-century date, with special expertise in medieval masonry.
• Michael Norman Morris: Chester City Archaeologist, whose work has resulted in the publication of a number of monographs on the archaeology of Chester and the recent successful joint excavation project of the Chester amphitheatre with English Heritage.
• Julian Stewart Thomas: Professor of Archaeology, University of Manchester, author of Rethinking the Neolithic (1991), Time, Culture and Identity (1996) and Archaeology and Modernity (2004). Director of archaeological excavations of Neolithic and later prehistoric sites in Dumfries and Galloway (published as Place and Memory in 2007) and co-director of the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

Newly elected Fellows: 1 November 2007 ballot

The Society is pleased to welcome the following, all of whom were elected as Fellows in the ballot held on 29 November 2007.

• Elaine Morris: University researcher at the Centre for Applied Archaeological Analysis, University of Southampton; renowned specialist in later prehistoric European ceramics.
• Elizabeth Bartman: Associate scholar of the Courtauld Research Forum and a specialist in Roman sculpture; author of Ancient Sculptural Copies in Miniature and Portraits of Livia.
• Roger Matthews: Professor of Archaoloogy, UCL Institute of Archaeology, former Director, British School of Archaeology in Iraq and British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara with extensive publications on the archaeology of the ancient Near East.
• Ian Dungavell: Director, The Victorian Society, Hon Sec of the Joint Committee of the National Amenity Societies; editor, with David Crellin, of Architecture and Englishness 1880-1914.
• Mark White: Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, Durham University; prehistoric archaeologist specializing in the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic; author of influential articles on Acheulian, Clactonian, and Levallois tool technologies and their implications for early human behaviour.
• Jeremy Tanner: Lecturer in Classical Archaeology, UCL Institute of Archaeology; author of The Invention of Art History in Ancient Greece.
• Susan Alcock: Director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University, US: author of books on Graecia Capta: The Landscapes of Roman Greece and Archaeologies of the Greek Past: Landscape, Monuments and Memory; co-director of the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, studying Classical, Roman and Ottoman Messenia.
• Michael Hill: Architectural Historian; co-author of Cotswold Stone Homes, a guide to their history and conservation, of The Country Houses of Gloucestershire Vol 3: 1830-2000 (with Nicholas Kingsley, FSA) and of Dorset country houses for the same series.
• Janet Huskinson: Reader in Classical Studies, Open University; authority on Roman and early-Christian art, author of Roman Sculpture from Cyrenaica in the British Museum, Roman Sculpture from Eastern England and Roman Children's Sarcophagi.
• Pamela Jane Smith: Affiliated Scholar, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, specialist in the development of archaeology as an academic discipline, creator of an oral history archive of interviews with more than 150 individuals concerned with the evolution of archaeology in the twentieth century.
• David Went: Archaeologist with English Heritage's archaeological survey team in York with publications on early churches, Martello towers, historic parks and new approaches to heritage management.
• D'Arcy Boulton: Professor of Medieval History, The Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame, specialising in the field of nobiliary culture and institutions, especially knighthood, knightly orders and heraldic emblems and insignia, author of The Knights of the Crown, which laid the groundwork for the study of monarchical orders.
• Karim Arafat: Reader in Classical Archaeology and Director of the Centre of Hellenic Studies, Department of Classics, King's College London, author of Classical Zeus: a study in art and literature and Pausanias' Greece: ancient artists and Roman rulers.
• Vedia Izzet: Lecturer at University of Southampton; specialist in Etruscan archaeology, with published fieldwork at Cerveteri; author of The Archaeology of Etruscan Society.
• Richard Palmer: Librarian and Archivist, Lambeth Palace Library, London; author of books and articles on the history of Venice and northern Italy and two major catalogues: Hunterian Society records relating to John Hunter and Western manuscripts in the Wellcome Library.
• Fergus Gillespie: Chief Herald of Ireland and an expert in Irish heraldry, language, culture and history.
• Eva Panagiotakopulu: University Lecturer, Edinburgh, with extensive experience of archaeology in Egypt, Greece and the North Atlantic islands, specialising in the use of insect remains in the interpretation of archaeological environments.
• Simon Jaggard: Head of Upper School, St Georges School, Cologne, Freeman and Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, a specialist in the art historical collections of that company and an authority on the works of Alfred Stevens.
• Judith Goodison: Furniture Historian, co-author of English Furniture 1500-1840 and author of Thomas Chippendale the Younger at Stourhead. Trustee of the Handel House Museum and Director of the Academy of Ancient Music.
• Raymond Howell: Reader in History and Archaeology, University of Wales; author of Fedw Villages, A History of Gwent, Celtic Wales (with Miranda Aldhouse-Green, FSA), The Romans in Wales and a regular contributor to Archaeology in Wales, Medieval Archaeology and Studia Celtica.
• Nicholas Hardwick: Numismatist, Museum Curator and Honorary Associate, University of Sydney, Australia; specialist in ancient Greek coinage and related subjects in classical art and archaeology, author of papers on the coinage of Chios and Terone (ancient Torone).
  
• Caroline Knight: Independent scholar, researcher and lecturer specialising in the architecture and history of Kensington Palace, the Cecils and Dutch and Flemish architects in Britain.
• John Hargreaves: Retired Head of Humanities, Batley Girls’ High School; former President of the Halifax Antiquarian Society and editor of its Transactions, author of Halifax: the definitive history.
• Kris Lockyear: Lecturer in Archaeology, UCL Institute of Archaeology; numismatist and specialist in the Roman archaeology of the Balkans and statistical applications in archaeology. Director of excavations at Noviodunum (Romania).
• John Barnatt: Senior Survey Archaeologist for the Peak District National Park Authority and Conservation Officer for the Peak District Mines Historical Society, specialist in the archaeological landscapes of the Pennines and the Peak lead mines.

Newly elected Fellows: 11 October 2007 ballot

The Society is pleased to welcome the following, all of whom were elected as Fellows in the ballot held on 29 November 2007.

• Simon Buteux, Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, former Director of the university’s field archaeology unit now running the National Ice Age Network and working on a new research framework for the British Palaeolithic.
• Niall Brady, Director of the Medieval Rural Settlement Project, Discovery Programme, Dublin, who has published widely on medieval agrarian archaeology and medieval settlement.
• Sheila Raven, Archaeological Research Assistant, Department of Continuing Education, manager of the current Marcham (Frilford) training excavation, assistant to Rupert Bruce-Mitford, editor and contributor to his Corpus of Late Celtic Hanging Bowls (2005).
• Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Professor of History, New York University, and a leading international authority on medieval European seals and their administrative, cultural and symbolic significance.
• Michael Anderson, numismatic scholar with a detailed knowledge of the currency of South America, particularly the social and economic background and with special reference to the coinage of Ecuador.
• Peter Didsbury, archaeologist, specialist in the Iron Age to post-medieval ceramics of East Yorkshire and the Humber region and a major contributor to Wharram Percy monographs.
• Fred Scott Kleiner, Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Boston University, specialising in the study of Roman architecture and art, notably on imperial votive and triumphal arches, author of A History of Roman Art (2007) and Art and Politics in Imperial Rome (CUP, forthcoming).
• Chris Gosden, Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford, author of important work on Pacific and European Prehistory, archaeological theory, and the archaeology of colonialism, currently leading a major AHRC-funded research project on British Iron Age art.
• Ian Leith, photographer with the National Monuments Record, specialist in photographic history, and in the  study and conservation of public sculpture through his work with the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association and the Sculpture Journal.
• Friedrich Luth, Director, Romische-Germanishe Kommission of the Deutsches Archeologisches Institute, a leading authority on the north European Bronze Age, and has played a key role in the development of underwater archaeology in Germany.
• Philip Freeman, University Lecturer, University of Liverpool, with a distinguished record of fieldwork in the UK, Jordan, Turkey and the Crimea, co-organizer of the Limes Congress in Jordan in 2000 and author/ editor of numerous publications.
• Martin Bridge, University Lecturer and expert on the use of tree-ring widths as a means of dating historic timbers, author of numerous papers on dendrochronology in Medieval Archaeology and Vernacular Architecture.
• Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator, Historic Royal Palaces, architectural historian, author of The Architectural Patronage of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, 1593 – 1676 (2004) and Cavalier: a biography of the household of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle (2007).
• Nicholas Stoodley, Archaeological Consultant and a specialist in early Anglo-Saxon archaeology, in particular in the fields of gender and the lifecycle.
• Jeremy Haselock, Clerk in Holy Orders, Residentiary Canon, Precentor and Vice Dean of Norwich, specialising in medieval art and architecture, particularly medieval glass.
• John Reay, Senior Manager, Bodleian Library, historian, writer and lecturer specialising in naval history, author of works on the Royal Navy in Catalonia during the Peninsular War, Nelson and the Admiralty.
• Thomas Mannack, Reader in Classical Iconography, Beazley Archive, Oxford University, internationally recognised expert in Greek vase painting and director of the database published by the Beazley Archive.
• Matthew Slocombe, Deputy Secretary, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, architectural historian and the SPAB caseworker since 1991; previously caseworker for the Georgian Group.
• Cyprian Broodbank, Senior Lecturer in Aegean Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, director of the Kythera Island Project, with extensive publications on Aegean prehistory, especially An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades (CUP 2001).
• Susan Hamilton, Reader in Later European Prehistory, Institute of Archaeology, specialist in landscape archaeology and in later British prehistory, especially ceramics, co-director of the Tavoliere-Gargano Prehistory Project, Southern Italy.
• Stephen Bond, archaeologist and chartered building surveyor, joint course director of the postgraduate Conservation of the Historic Environment programme at the College of Estate Management, University of Reading.
• Gabriele Cifani, Lecturer, University of Rome, specialist in archaic and mid-Republican architecture in Rome, patterns of settlement in central Italy and the Romanisation of North Africa.
• David Wilson, Solicitor of the Supreme Court, Chartered Secretary, Director and Chief Executive, The Wordsworth Trust, author of seminal articles on 18th- and 19th-century art and history, particularly sculpture.
• Madeleine Hummler, Reviews Editor, Antiquity, specialist in the European Iron Age and the prehistory of Sutton Hoo.
• Robert Hunter, former Curator of Ceramics, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collections, now editor of Ceramics in America, proprietor of Period Designs and author of numerous papers on early American ceramics.
• Simon Buteux, Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, former Director of the university’s field archaeology unit now running the National Ice Age Network and working on a new research framework for the British Palaeolithic.
• Niall Brady, Director of the Medieval Rural Settlement Project, Discovery Programme, Dublin, who has published widely on medieval agrarian archaeology and medieval settlement.
• Sheila Raven, Archaeological Research Assistant, Department of Continuing Education, manager of the current Marcham (Frilford) training excavation, assistant to Rupert Bruce-Mitford, editor and contributor to his Corpus of Late Celtic Hanging Bowls (2005).
• Brigitte Bedos-Rezak, Professor of History, New York University, and a leading international authority on medieval European seals and their administrative, cultural and symbolic significance.
• Michael Anderson, numismatic scholar with a detailed knowledge of the currency of South America, particularly the social and economic background and with special reference to the coinage of Ecuador.
• Peter Didsbury, archaeologist, specialist in the Iron Age to post-medieval ceramics of East Yorkshire and the Humber region and a major contributor to Wharram Percy monographs.
• Fred Scott Kleiner, Professor of Art History and Archaeology, Boston University, specialising in the study of Roman architecture and art, notably on imperial votive and triumphal arches, author of A History of Roman Art (2007) and Art and Politics in Imperial Rome (CUP, forthcoming).
• Chris Gosden, Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford, author of important work on Pacific and European Prehistory, archaeological theory, and the archaeology of colonialism, currently leading a major AHRC-funded research project on British Iron Age art.
• Ian Leith, specialist in photographic history and in the study and conservation of public sculpture through his work with the National Monuments Record, the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association and the Sculpture Journal.
• Friedrich Luth, Director, Romische-Germanishe Kommission of the Deutsches Archeologisches Institute, a leading authority on the north European Bronze Age, and has played a key role in the development of underwater archaeology in Germany.
• Philip Freeman, University Lecturer, University of Liverpool, with a distinguished record of fieldwork in the UK, Jordan, Turkey and the Crimea, co-organizer of the Limes Congress in Jordan in 2000 and author/ editor of numerous publications.
• Martin Bridge, University Lecturer and expert on the use of tree-ring widths as a means of dating historic timbers, author of numerous papers on dendrochronology in Medieval Archaeology and Vernacular Architecture.
• Lucy Worsley, Chief Curator, Historic Royal Palaces, architectural historian, author of The Architectural Patronage of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, 1593 – 1676 (2004) and Cavalier: a biography of the household of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle (2007).
• Nicholas Stoodley, Archaeological Consultant and a specialist in early Anglo-Saxon archaeology, in particular in the fields of gender and the lifecycle.
• Jeremy Haselock, Clerk in Holy Orders, Residentiary Canon, Precentor and Vice Dean of Norwich, specialising in medieval art and architecture, particularly medieval glass.
• John Reay, Senior Manager, Bodleian Library, historian, writer and lecturer specialising in naval history, author of works on the Royal Navy in Catalonia during the Peninsular War, Nelson and the Admiralty.
• Thomas Mannack, Reader in Classical Iconography, Beazley Archive, Oxford University, internationally recognised expert in Greek vase painting and director of the database published by the Beazley Archive.
• Matthew Slocombe, Deputy Secretary, Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, architectural historian and the SPAB caseworker since 1991; previously caseworker for the Georgian Group.
• Cyprian Broodbank, Senior Lecturer in Aegean Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, director of the Kythera Island Project, with extensive publications on Aegean prehistory, especially An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades (CUP 2001).
• Susan Hamilton, Reader in Later European Prehistory, Institute of Archaeology, specialist in landscape archaeology and in later British prehistory, especially ceramics, co-director of the Tavoliere-Gargano Prehistory Project, Southern Italy.
• Stephen Bond, archaeologist and chartered building surveyor, joint course director of the postgraduate Conservation of the Historic Environment programme at the College of Estate Management, University of Reading.
• Gabriele Cifani, Lecturer, University of Rome, specialist in archaic and mid-Republican architecture in Rome, patterns of settlement in central Italy and the Romanisation of North Africa.
• David Wilson, Solicitor of the Supreme Court, Chartered Secretary, Director and Chief Executive, The Wordsworth Trust, author of seminal articles on 18th- and 19th-century art and history, particularly sculpture.
• Madeleine Hummler, Reviews Editor, Antiquity, specialist in the European Iron Age and the prehistory of Sutton Hoo.
• Robert Hunter, former Curator of Ceramics, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Collections, now editor of Ceramics in America, proprietor of Period Designs and author of numerous papers on early American ceramics.

Newly elected Fellows: 7 June 2007 ballot

The Society is pleased to welcome the following, all of whom were elected as Fellows in the ballot held on 29 November 2007.

• Professor Doctor Johann Michael Fritz as Honorary Fellow (specialist in medieval and post-medieval silver and jewellery)
• Susan Oosthuizen (Director for Community Education and Outreach at the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Vice-Chair of the Universities' Association for Lifelong Learning and President of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society)
• Revd Robin Griffith-Jones (Master of the Temple Church in London, New Testament scholar and historian of the early church)
• John Arthur Davies (Chief Curator and Keeper of Archaeology within Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service and a noted Roman coin specialist)
• Birgitta Hoffmann (Honorary Research Associate at Liverpool University’s School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, and an expert on ancient, especially Roman, glass)
• Mark Bowis (jewellery historian and Associate Director, Jewellery Department, Christie's)
• Peter Charles Nicholas Stewart (Senior Lecture in Classical Art and its Heritage, Courtauld Institute, and specialist in ancient Roman art)
• Simon Paul Burnell (archaeology and history editor and scholar in the field of Merovingian archaeology and history)
• David Barrett (County Archaeologist for Derbyshire)
• Alistair James Peter Campbell (medical practitioner with expertise in numismatics and silver whose important collection of Chester silver is on permanent loan at the Grosvenor Museum)
• Ida Susanne Bangert (Research Assistant, Dept of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, working on the Leverhulme-funded Sir John Evans Centenary Project)
• Heather Mary Jacqueline Jackson (Deputy Director of Excavations at Jebel Khalid on the Euphrates in northern Syria)
• Stephen Edmund Dudley Fortescue (retired solicitor, local historian and Vice President of the Surrey Archaeological Society, for whom he was honorary legal adviser for many years)
• Ian Patrick McClure (Director, Hamilton Kerr Institute, expert on the conservation of English medieval panel painting)
• Thierry Crépin-Leblond (Director of the Musée National de la Renaissance, Château d'Ecouen, France, and a leading historian of French Renaissance art and architecture)
• Susan Davina Mary Jenkins (Senior Curator, English Heritage, responsible for Apsley House and for curatorial research strategy)
• Alan Thomas Howarth (Lord Howarth of Newport) (Minister for the Arts 1998–2001, Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group, Vice-President of the All-Party Arts and Heritage Group)
• Alexandra Katharina Maria Gajewski (independent scholar, specialist in the history of ecclesiastical architecture in Burgundy and Champagne 1100–1300, with a special interest in the Cistercians)
• Jeremy Adam Ashbee (Head Properties Curator, English Heritage, and a specialist in castle studies)
• Peter Michael Meadows (archivist and architectural historian, Under Librarian, Dept of Manuscripts, Cambridge University Library, since 1990, Keeper of the Ely Diocesan and Chapter Archives)
• Adrian James Webb (Research Manager for UK Hydrographic Office Archives, member of the Council of the Naval Records Society and of the Somerset Archaeological and Record Societies)
• Anthony Dudley Beckles Willson (independent scholar, authority on Alexander Pope’s life, in particular his contribution to garden history and landscape design)
• Sabrina Harcourt-Smith (freelance art historian, research assistant to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner on several Buildings of England volumes, currently completing field work in Surrey for the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland)
• Julian Marcus Luxford (University Lecturer, School of Art History, University of St Andrews, specialist in the art and architecture of English Benedictine monasteries 1300–1540)
• Rose Cleary (archaeologist, University College, Cork, outstanding contributor to Irish archaeology, excavator of Lough Gur since 1977).

David Starkey launches Tercentenary lecture series

St James’s Church, Piccadilly, London, designed by Christopher Wren and consecrated in 1684 - just twenty-three years before the Society of Antiquaries was founded - was packed to capacity on 26 September 2007 when Fellow David Starkey gave a lecture on the them of 'The Antiquarian Endeavour', to launch the Society of Antiquaries' Tercentenary lecture series.

David reminded his audience that it was no coincidence that the Society of Antiquaries was formed in December 1707, in the same year that had, on 1 May, seen the Union of England and Scotland; scholars of the day were asking themselves ‘what is this new state called Britain, and what does its history look like?'. The Society was, for 150 years after its creation, the only body to take the British past seriously when the British Museum and the National Gallery treated Britain as a minor provincial diversion out of the great cultural highway of Europe. There were then no classifications of material into phased and dated typographies, no British Library, National Gallery or National Portrait Gallery: the Society acted as a universal repository and its Fellows began the process of naming, ordering and cataloguing the material past into the chronologies that we use today.

Commenting on the role of the antiquary today, he said that the Society was an evangelical body, standing up for the study of the past. 'It is the accumulated evidence of human skill and culture that we address', he said: 'Rootedness matters just as much as future destinations'.

‘Making History: Antiquaries in Britain, 1707—2007’

Royal Academicians, Fellows and distinguished guests from the worlds of heritage and culture thronged the Royal Academy’s exhibition rooms on 11 September for the official launch of the Society’s special Tercentenary exhibition. The Society’s Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Gloucester (in the centre of the picture on the right) toured the exhibition with Royal Academy President, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw (far right) and the Royal Academy's new Secretary, Fellow Charles Saumarez Smith (back right) and said that the Society was one of the UK’s great institutions of learning and scholarship and praised its role in ‘transforming history from mush to precision’.

Our President, Geoff Wainwright (on the left), thanked all those who had contributed to the making of the exhibition and its splendid catalogue, 'the publication that our collections have always deserved but never achieved until now, doing full justice to a collection that is of immense significance in recording milestones in the discovery, interpretation and communication of Britain’s past.'

Geoff’s comments were echoed many times throughout the evening by guests astonished at the collection’s richness and diversity, and even those Fellows who could already claim familiarity with some of the paintings and objects saw them in an entirely new light, cleaned, conserved and displayed to great advantage in the splendid setting of the Royal Academy.