The Council for Independent Archaeology conference this year was held courtesy of Nottingham University, and although the Sheriff didn't make an appearance, there were almost fifty delegates from a wide and varied number of societies. Four members of our society were enabled to make the journey, courtesy of a helpful grant from our funds. This makes a big difference to the costs involved, which are quite high due to the distances involved, and all the delegates pass their thanks on to the members for their support.
So the four met up on the Friday and with Ed Archer's car full to bursting, we sallied forth, Ed, Malcolm Gair, Ian Borthwick and myself. An uneventful journey south brought us onto campus, and we duly checked in, found our accommodations, and after an excellent meal in a local hostelry, set up our displays. This was well received by many of the other delegates.
On the Saturday, things got under way with an opening address by the CIA president on the subject of charity and grant aided work, and encouraging membership to the professional archaeologist and academia. The subjects of Valetta, County Archaeologists, English Heritage and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, were all broached during the openings by the CIA committee.
The first main speaker was Jennie Laing, who had made efforts to explore and investigate the Roman side of Nottingham, which is relatively uninvestigated in that area. She had identified a site at Barton, and resistivity had shown up a possible villa. Initially the County Archaeologists were uninterested, and Jennie confirmed some of her findings with an initial dig of only some seven cubic feet. At this point the County Archaeologists, and English Heritage decided to veto the plans and the situation is at stalemate, although the funding for the project has faded.
Although good research promised from the initial investigation, on a subject that is not well documented in that area there has been a great deal of stress caused by conflict with the County. A general discussion followed, and in practice a large number of other societies experience similar problems, with one or two exceptions. Alf Webb of Dean explained that they had an excellent relationship with their County and held this as an example of how it should work. In general it was felt that with patience and perseverance, local societies can win but must be prepared to work to the highest possible standards at every turn.
After lunch, David Miles, the chief Archaeologist for English Heritage, gave us a brief biography of his career, and discussed the differing roles of professional and volunteer archaeologists. He feels that there is an important role for both to undertake. He went on to say that English heritage is not advocating the use of licensing under Valetta. A lively discussion followed.
Roger Bland was next and he led a discussion on the Portable Antiquities Scheme and it's role on finds and metal detecting.
Andrew Selkirk, posed some questions on using University Students and post grads to assist local societies, and introduced Don Henson who is the Education Officer for the CBA. He talked about various courses and the changes to university extra mural work. Courses in future will cost more, but there should be more available. It may be possible for this Society to take advantage of the new systems and enrol some of our members on courses that would meet our needs for knowledge on various issues. Stephen Carter of Edinburgh's Headland Archaeology, is doing a survey on educational needs for a national training organisation and this contact may prove very useful for the future.
The afternoon closed with a field demonstration of the resistivity frame and data logger, which our society is purchasing, and I for one cannot wait until it arrives, hopefully by Christmas. The unit is simple and robust, and I believe it will serve us well for a long time.
The formal dinner in the evening was of excellent standard. Unfortunately the scheduled speaker couldn't attend and three worthies, our own Ed included, gave short talks on how I came into Archaeology. Afterwards, as is normal all the problems of British Archaeology were sorted in the bar.
Sunday came, and with the start of fresher's week at Nottingham we had to vacate the rooms early. The accommodation on the whole was basic but comfortable, and the food was plentiful.
Eric Houlder started the day with some superb slides of the dig at St. Aidens. This project was the winner of the Pitt Rivers and was for boat excavations at a large open cast site. This Pontefract group is also to feature in a soon to be televised Time Team programme.
Next on the floor was Geoff Mein and his group had worked on a long used religious site. This project had uncovered cremations, burnt corpses, timber and stone circles. I was impressed with this project and felt that they still have a lot of work to complete for a full understanding of that area of Trostrey's history.
Moving on we the larger than life Albert Daniel's, a character and no mistake. He talked about the Beacon Hill Lime Kilns and was a fascinating account of some interesting industrial archaeology. Steve Young completed the first session, on the Piddington approach to fundraising. They had much success in funding the building of a local museum and education centre, which would serve their community.
After coffee, Sylvia Beamon guided us through her research on Royston cave and some discussion took place on the methods used to date the wall paintings.
Peter Fitzgerald's talk was on a year in the life of the newly formed society based in Aberystwyth, Wales. Their society has come on in great leaps very quickly and has lots of promise.
Whitehall farm roman villa was the topic for Steve Young, and he explained how they have been involving the local community in their work. This was a good talk and is definitely one route forward in respect of obtaining local authority approval, which can help enormously in obtaining funds.
Kevin Fadden presented Lillian Ladle's work at Wareham for the Bestwall Quarry Project. I was fascinated by the amount she had uncovered in a site that is going to be lost. A visit to the website may be of interest.
The conference closed with a buffet lunch before the long drive home. I felt that it was a worthwhile weekend, and the society will benefit from the contacts made and the lessons learned.
The weekend of September 11th and 12th came and found Ed Archer and myself heading to Sheffield for the eighth Congress of the Council for Independent Archaeology.
The organisers had everything well organised and we duly checked in and installed ourselves into the comfortable rooms, (students are obviously spoiled today). The theme for the weekend was Demystifying Field Archaeology and the morning session commenced with the introduction by Andrew Selkirk followed by Neil Faulkner who without any messing about caused some controversy and complimented the independent and local Societies whilst slipping in some criticism of the standards forced upon the professionals by budgetary and time constraints. Ed then gave a brief report on the current work of our society, and after lunch this theme continued with reports from some of the other Societies present.
Among these was a talk by Ruth Richardson of Abbeydore on the subject of Field Names. It was extremely enlightening as to the amount of information which can be gleaned from such a simple subject, and it would be something that would possibly be an interesting project for some of our members who may feel that the thought of fieldwalking or digging in the rain may not be for them.
Another source of information was Air photography, and one talk included some excellent photographs. The biggest problem here is the variance on the results according to the time of year.
Peter Alexander-Fitzgerald of Llanybydder gave an extremely thought provoking lecture on the law for the independent group and some details from this will have to be discussed fully by our committee, in order to make sure that we comply fully for the benefit of our members. A session was held on site photography and I personally benefited from this and now I might even manage to get some pictures that are in focus.
The day ended with chat whilst examining the various exhibits, and getting to know some of the other visitors. On the Societies behalf we became the first society in Scotland to affiliate with Rescue, the British Archaeological Trust. This is an organisation who focus on and advise the Government and businesses to take account of archaeology, formulate. legislation on behalf of the Home Office, but more importantly can provide technical and expert assistance to local and independent groups, such as ourselves. The fee is very small at fifteen pounds, and this can be renewed by consensus at committee.
The evening found us at the Dinner, and some humorous but also some thought provoking speeches. Afterward, I suspect that all that is wrong in archaeology was sorted in the bar.
On Sunday, the famous or should that be infamous Tony Rook gave us a chat on working with the basic tools and reminded us about setting up the dig properly, the importance of using trained and qualified safety people to check and inspect the site before each period of work commences. Neil Faulkner instructed us all how to record the stratification, so that the notes can be interpreted for final publication.
Sessions on Bones, Pottery, Molluscs and Human Remains were absolutely fascinating, and I was even captivated by the speakers on post excavation and cataloguing finds.
The closing speeches were the usual mix of conclusions and hope that we all found the conference helpful, and I have to admit that it was excellent in both content and quality and both myself and Ed would like to thank the society for the financial assistance which made it possible for us to attend. I trust the benefits will filter down to be of use to all the societies members.