Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews
Nick Crank (Senior Archaeological Officer, Milton Keynes Borough Council) will talk on “Recent archaeological work in Milton Keynes Borough”, covering discoveries ranging in date from the Upper Palaeolithic to the twentieth century.
Please note
This meeting will take place at 8 pm in the upper room, Mrs Howard Memorial Hall, Norton Way South, Letchworth Garden City.
2011/12 Subscriptions became due on 1 June 2011. If you have not already done so, please renew now. The Society cannot continue to function without members’ subscriptions.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting, when membership cards can usually be issued. Otherwise, subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
New members can download an application form here.
The current subscription rates are Adult £15, Family £20, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £8.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you may be removed from our membership and circulation lists.
Thank you.
North Hertfordshire Archaeological Society
Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Archaeology Officer, North Hertfordshire Museums will talk about ‘The Excavation of a Prehistoric Henge Monument at Norton, Hertfordshire’ on behalf of Norton Community Archaeology Group.
To be held in the Letcure Hall, Letchworth Museum, Broadway, Letchworth Garden City, at 8 pm.
The Members’ Evening and Xmas Party, with wine, cheese and other refreshments.
There will be a short talk on a subject of interest and an archaeological quiz.
If anyone would like to volunteer to give a talk or devise a quiz, contact Diane or Gil, 01462 713654 or email Gil.
To be held in the Lecture Hall, Letchworth Museum, Broadway, Letchworth Garden City, at 8pm. A small charge will be made for the food and drink.
Dr Carenza Lewis of the Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, will talk about her project’s investigations into the origins and development of medieval villages, with particular reference to Pirton.
To be held at Pirton Methodist Church, High St, Pirton, at 8pm.
Tickets cost £4 from the village shop or on the door.
Annual General Meeting with wine and cheese. There will be an illustrated report on fieldwork carried out in 2010/11 by our Honorary Field Officer.
To be held in the Lecture Hall Letchworth Museum, Broadway, Letchworth Garden City, at 8 pm.
Carenza Lewis has teamed up with a Cultural Olympiad project which aims to conduct test pitting excavations in six villages (one in each of six East Anglian counties) over three weekends in September. The project is looking to dig 205 pits, 34 in each village, a pit for each country competing in the Olympics. This suggests we need 100 – 150 volunteers per village, many of whom will be residents. Each participating village will complete its test pits in one day. The idea is mass public participation in a community archaeological event with the theme of ‘Home’ – archaeology of course often finding evidence in the form of house remains, kitchen pottery wares, drinking vessels, cooking pots, animal bones from meals, and other domestic finds.
Gil suggested Ashwell to Carenza and the project organisers and this has been accepted as the Hertfordshire village to be dug. He thought of Ashwell for various reasons, e.g. because very little archaeological work has been undertaken within the village; the origins of the village are little understood (is there any connection with the earlier Romano-British settlement and cult sanctuary?); how and why did it become a borough by 1086 but then decline to village status and not become a town?; the famous graffito in the parish church refers to the terrible effect the Black Death had on Ashwell yet the village apparently continued to flourish – can archaeology reconcile this apparent conflict in the record? And of course large scale test pitting should provide us with much information about the origins and development of the village.
The Ashwell dig will happen on Saturday 10 September 2011. Carenza and her team will be on hand to supervise and encourage. The digging and recording will follow Carenza’s test pitting methodology as set out in her handbook.
If you would like to volunteer to take part in this unique and exciting project and help discover more of the archaeology of Ashwell, contact Gil, who will keep the Ashwell village coordinators informed. They include at least three NHAS members: Sarah Talks, Karen Mills and Peter Greener.
Check out the project website; look under Events and Get Involved for Dig and Sow. You have to register on the website if you wish to take part, using one of the following email addresses: Pacitto or On Landguard Point. If you register your interest in digging/finds processing at Ashwell, you will need to give your contact details and someone from Pacitto should get back to you.
Members may be interested in The Lodge Golden Summer – Time Explorers 2 history and archaeology weekend on 9 and 10 July at Sandy Lodge, the headquarters of the RSPB.
History Cold Case, a programme for BBC2 made by Shine TV, will feature an analysis of an unusual burial found at Baldock in 1989 during its second season. The series starts at 9 p.m. on Thursday 30 June 2011 on BBC2 and BBC HD. The first programme deals with some skeletons from a cave in Yorkshire, the second, scheduled for 7 July, deals with skeletons from York and the third, to be shown on 14 July is about a group of bodies from a medieval well in Norwich.
The Baldock episode, The woman and the three babies, is due to be broadcast on Thursday 21 July at 9 p.m. Here is what the production company Red Planet Pictures has to say about it:
In the sleepy commuter town of Baldock in Hertfordshire the discovery of a wonderfully intact skeleton of a woman dating from early Roman times – buried with the tiny skeletons of three babies – rocked the scientific world as it’s an archaeological first. Buried on the outskirts of a cemetery in what at first appears to be an unceremonious burial, she cuts a tragic picture. Did she die in childbirth? Or are these not her babies? And why was she buried with apparent disregard for the proper burial practices of the day? For the History Cold Case team it’s a unique opportunity to investigate details about pregnancy and childbirth as it was 2000 years ago in a Roman-British settlement – and what they discover is shocking.
2010/11 Subscriptions have been due since 1st June 2010. Please renew urgently. The Society cannot function without members’ subscriptions and we certainly need your support in this 50th anniversary year.
Outstanding subscriptions may be paid in person at any meeting when membership cards will also be issued. Otherwise subscription cheques may be posted to Diane Burleigh, NHAS, 10 Cromwell Way, Pirton, Hitchin, Herts SG5 3RD.
Adult £15, Family £20, Concessions (over 65, under 16), £8.
Please renew your subscription otherwise you will miss out.