CONFERENCE

It was always intended to hold a conference in North Duffield Village hall to celebrate the end of the project, advertise what we had found and the conclusions we had drawn and generally the success or otherwise. As it turned out, we found that we needed to extend the project by a further 12 months to allow for post-excavation analyses of the ‘finds’ and the writing of the book once those results were known. Nevertheless, we decided the conference would go ahead as planned.

A date of 14th June 2014 was picked and the speakers booked. We were lucky that three well respected archaeologists, experts in the Iron Age, especially of The Wolds and Holme-on-Spalding Moor areas agreed to present papers. The remaining speakers were Dr Jon Kenny, our lead archaeologist on the project, Tony Stevens and myself.

A continual drip-feed of publicity by local press and radio, social media and the like resulted in over 60 people confirming their intention to attend.

Skipwith Common and York : some thoughts about the Iron Age and Romano-British settlement of the Vale of York”

Mark Whyman has been involved in archaeological excavation and research in York and Yorkshire since the 1980s. He has been particularly concerned with researching the end of Roman York and other Romano-British towns, and with studying the archaeological evidence for the late prehistoric and early historic settlement of the Vale of York

Jon Kenny


Community Archaeology, Commercial  Archaeology and doing  research”

Dr Jon Kenny began working with communities before he studied archaeology, moving from work in the social housing sector to study archaeology at York in 1992. After having completed a Masters at York in Archaeological Heritage Management and attained his PhD at Lancaster University, Jon settled in York once again to work as a project manager with the Archaeological Data Service. After continuing to support community archaeology groups in his spare time, it was a natural step to become York Archaeological Trust’s Community Archaeologist in 2006.


The community archaeology project at North Duffield is a fine example of community activity adding to our broader knowledge of the past. I work in an organisation, York Archaeological Trust that is both Educational Charity and Commercial Archaeological Unit. In my paper I will look at the contributions that community archaeology and commercial archaeology bring to researching the past and consider the benefits and pitfalls of working together and independently.

CathNeal

“Community participation in the historic environment.”

Cath Neal is a Research Fellow at the Department of Archaeology, University of York, for the Heslington East archaeological project. Her varied interests include landscape histories, particularly the intersection of natural and human processes, fieldwork methods and experiential learning, and the ethics of cultural heritage management. Cath’s first career was in cardiology and she worked as a nurse in the NHS for many years before training as an archaeologist

Melanie Giles

“The chariot in British prehistory”

Melanie Giles is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Manchester. She is a specialist in aspects of death and burial, particularly the Iron Age of East Yorkshire, and her book A Forged Glamour: landscape, identity and material culture in the Iron Age was published in 2012 by Windgather Press.


The chariot is one of the most iconic images of the ‘Celtic’ Iron Age, often seen as a weapon of warfare. Yet the archaeology of Britain, particularly East Yorkshire, tells us that they had many roles, both as highly decorated vehicles of social prestige and performance, as well as objects used to convey the dead to the graveside, and on into the afterlife. By reviewing aspects of their technology and crafting, their decoration, life-use and final deposition, I will conjure a more complex understanding of the chariot as a key symbol of Iron Age power. I will also address whether they provide evidence of invasion or at least, connections with the Continent. Through individual burials, I will also try to tell the life stories of some of those individuals who may have ridden in them, against a wider picture of Iron Age life and death.


The community archaeology project at North Duffield is a fine example of community activity adding to our broader knowledge of the past. I work in an organisation, York Archaeological Trust that is both Educational Charity and Commercial Archaeological Unit. In my paper I will look at the contributions that community archaeology and commercial archaeology bring to researching the past and consider the benefits and pitfalls of working together and independently.

Conference in progress

Tony Stevens gave a presentation on the building of the roundhouse and I gave a report on the excavations at Parkhouse Farm.

At the end of the Conference a lively discussion in which all the speakers answered questions from the floor, raised many interesting issues and it became clear that the attendees had enjoyed their day with us.

Thanks go to the Speakers for giving their time and expertise and the helpers, especially the ladies who cooked cakes and served refreshments.


A full version of this item can be found in the book : ‘North Duffield:Archaeology and the Local Community’ for sale from this website at £12.50(£15 with P & P)