Monthly Archives: May 2014

Our President, Dr Francis Pryor, of Flag Fen and Time Team fame, well-respected field archaeologist, sent me the following message following the receipt of our next season’s programme mentioning the lecture on Ravensburgh Iron Age hillfort and the excavations there in 1964:

“I was on James Dyer’s 1964 dig at Ravensburgh. Very fond memories. It got me hooked on archaeology!
Francis”.

Wednesday 21st May 2014: Annual General Meeting. Letchworth Free Church small hall, 8pm. Wine & Nibbles £3 per head.

Sunday 13th July: Annual Outing to Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Highlights will include the new Mary Rose Museum, HMS Warrior and Nelson’s Victory. Details to be announced at the AGM and will be circulated separately.

Tuesday 23rd September: ‘Excavations in the 1960s and 1970s by the late James Dyer at the Iron Age Hillfort of Ravensburgh Castle, Hexton, Hertfordshire’, by Dr. Ian Brown, University of Oxford, who is publishing the final report on James’s excavations and is currently conducting a new survey and investigation. Letchworth Free Church main hall, Gernon Road/Norton Way South, 8pm.
James was a Vice-President of the North Hertfordshire Archaeological Society from its beginning in 1960. He directed the 1964 excavation season at Ravensburgh jointly with the late Dr. John Moss-Eccardt, our Society’s founder and former President. James died last year at the age of 80.

Tuesday 7th October: ‘Excavations in the Iron Age and Roman town of Silchester and the origins of towns in Britain’, by Professor Michael Fulford, CBE, FBA, FSA, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading. Letchworth Free Church, Gernon Road/Norton Way South, 8pm. This will be a public lecture for which an admission charge will be made, with a reduced rate for NHAS members.

Wednesday 22nd October: Dr. Carenza Lewis MBE, University of Cambridge, will give a public lecture in Cambridge on ten years of her project investigating the origins and development of English Medieval villages. Go to:http://www.access.arch.cam.ac.uk/calendar/aca-10th-anniversary-public-lecture-by-dr-carenza-lewis

November: ’50 Years Digging – adventures of an archaeologist’, by Gil Burleigh, NHAS Field Officer.

December: Members’ evening.

January: Update on the Norton excavations and fieldwork by Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, NHDC Archaeology Officer.

February 2015: Site Visit to Ravensburgh Castle Iron Age Hillfort, Hexton. A guided tour will be led by Patrick Ashley-Cooper, the landowner, and Gil Burleigh.

In Memoriam: Isobel Laing, our Society’s oldest Member, sadly died on 31st March. She was 98. Isobel had been a member since the 1960s and was a regular attender at lectures and on outings until recent years. She was keenly interested in many aspects of archaeology, and in many other things besides. A memorial service was held at the Letchworth Free Church on 17th April attended by our Member, Tim Jurdon, who represented the NHAS.

Exhibitions:

The British Museum –

The BP exhibition

Vikings
life and legend

6 March – 22 June 2014
Booking essential


Book online

Members free/Open late Fridays

Supported by BP

BP logo
Organised by the British Museum, the National Museum of Denmark, and the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

Discover the Viking world in this major exhibition – the first at the British Museum for over 30 years.

Swords and axes, coins and jewellery, hoards, amulets and religious images show how Vikings created an international network connecting cultures over four continents. At the centre of the exhibition will be the surviving timbers of a 37-metre-long Viking warship, the longest ever found. Read press release