The village of Aldborough near Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire is the site of Isurium Brigantum, once one of the most important towns in Roman Britain and the ‘capital’ of the Romanised Brigantes, the largest tribe in Britain at that time.
The RSG AGM will take place by Zoom and the link will be sent out to members a week in advance. Following the AGM we are pleased to be welcoming Karen Jeneson from the Netherlands, to talk to us about Roman activity in and around the town of Heerlen.
Following the great success of the 2018 conference on the transition from Roman to Saxon in the South-East, the Roman Studies Group is arranging another such event, this time focusing on the end of the Iron Age and the start of Roman Britain in our area.
This event was originally due to be held in May 2020 but was cancelled due to the Corona virus pandemic.
Anne Sassin-Allen, Surrey Archaeological Society's Projects Outreach Officer and Community Archaeologist for the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme, will update us on one of her latest projects. A dig over several seasons at Lullingstone villa looked at an area not previously excavated and adds to the fascinating story of the site.
Currently it is intended to allow access to this and other RSG Zoom meetings to RSG members only. As a member you will receive a Zoom link by e-mail a week before the meeting.
Emma Corke, site director, will update us on the excavation held in July-August 2020 on the hilltop site at Abinger. Features uncovered this year have consolidated the layout of buildings found in previous seasons and illuminated a palimpsest of rural settlement activity. Due to Covid restrictions the volunteer team was smaller than usual but if you were not able to be on site this year this is your chance to catch up on what was found.
Part II of the discussion on Surrey's Roman rural settlement project, following on from the November 2020 meeting. Anne Sassin-Allen will kickstart the discussion by highlighting the use of Lidar and how useful it could be in Surrey. She will compare it with Lidar in Kent which is effectivly used as a research tool. David Bird and David Calow will then lead a discussion on how the group can use the available data to research particular areas of Roman settlement in the County and beyond its current borders. Please come prepared to take part.
At the December meeting we normally share mince pies and a glass of wine. Although we are not meeting in person yet, have your mince pie and glass to hand to start off the festive season.
David will discuss two of our known Roman sites, comparing and contrasting the evidence we have for rural settlement and Roman activity in the area.
Currently it is intended to allow access to this and other RSG Zoom meetings to RSG members only. As a member you will receive a Zoom link by e-mail a week before the meeting.
This session will concentrate on tools available which can be used to further our research on Surrey's Roman rural settlement.
The provisional line-up is as follows:
David Calow will show how QGIS, an open source desktop geographic information system, can be used to identify areas of likely rural settlement.
Tim Wilcock will highlight the grey literature data available on the society's website, which plugs the gap between HER, PAS and published data.
We start our winter series of talks with Simon Maslin, Surrey's Finds Liaision Officer talking about how the Portable Antiquities Scheme can be used as a tool in our research on Roman rural settlement in Surrey.
Currently it is intended to allow access to this and other RSG Zoom talks only to members. Members should have received a Zoom access code by e-mail for this talk. If you are a member and haven't received one please let Nikki Cowlard know at nikki.cowlard@btinternet.com
First of all, a big thank you to everyone who helped to make the latest season at Abinger such a success. It may seem odd to say that in view of our failure to finish the trench, but this was a result of finding that there was more surviving archaeology than anticipated. Much of this must be down to your hard work in tackling the difficulties of finding archaeological features in sand. As a result we have a much better understanding of the site and how to approach it in future.
