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Salon: Issue 418
27 November 2018
Next issue: 11 December
The Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter (Salon) is a fortnightly digest of heritage news. It focuses on the activities of the Society and the contributions that the Society's Fellows make to public life. A copy of Salon’s editorial policy can be found on the Society’s website.
Please send news, comment and feedback for publication to the Editor, Mike Pitts, at Salon Editor. Salon doesn't review books, but the Editor is pleased to receive details and cover images of new titles written by Fellows. Scholarly publications are reviewed in The Antiquaries Journal.
Fellows may occasionally find they do not receive email notification of a new Salon. There are suggestions for solving this, and an online archive where new editions are posted. You can also unsubscribe at any point, by following this link.
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Inside this issue
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From the Desk of the General Secretary
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Kelmscott and Morris: Past, Present and Future
 The Country Houses Foundation have awarded a grant of £50,000 towards conservation and repairs of the roof and attic timbers of the Manor House, which was identified in the 2013 Quinquennial survey as at risk. Further deterioration has been recorded since then, with areas of roof leaking and small falls of stone and mortar over the last couple of years. Our policy is for the attics to be returned as nearly as possible to their condition in the Evans photographs. They are the one place where interiors still correspond to the relatively empty house that Morris knew and which is described in News from Nowhere:
the strange and quaint garrets amongst the great timbers of the roof, where of old time the tillers and herdsmen of the manor slept, but which a-nights seemed now by the small size of the beds, and the litter of useless and disregarded matters – bunches of dying flowers, feathers of birds, shells of starling’s eggs, caddis worms in mugs, and the like – seemed for the time to be inhabited by children.
The attics are remarkable spaces, and we plan to use them for learning activities and as an occasional space for on-site conservation work that our visitors can see and ask questions about.
If you would like to support our Kelmscott Manor campaign as a Companion (£500), Benefactor (£5000) or Major Benefactor (£5000) please visit www.sal.org.uk/support-us/kelmscott-manor-campaign or contact Dominic Wallis at dwallis@sal.org.uk or call 0207 479 7092
Image: North East Attic by Frederick Evans 1890's
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Antiquaries Journal Volume 98
Volume 98 of the Antiquaries Journal has published online with over 40 book reviews and 12 peer-reviewed articles on material culture. The print version will be dropping through Fellows' letterboxes shortly. Meanwhile, Volume 98 is available now via Cambridge Core (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal), with Fellows being able to access the journal for free via the links on the Fellow's Area of the Society's website (https://www.sal.org.uk/fellows-area/).
Volume 98 contains the following papers:
- Tara Draper-Stumm FSA re-assesses the British Museum’s group of Sekhmet statues from the reign of Amenhotep III (c 1390–1352 BC: 18th dynasty), as well as a formerly uncatalogued head fragment
- Tanja Romankiewicz uses architectural design theory to highlight the complexities in interpreting Iron Age roundhouses
- Andrew Fitzpatrick FSA discusses the 1857 discovery, and later dispersal, of the finds at La Tène (in Switzerland) in the context of contemporary understandings of the past and collecting practices
- David Swan explores the cross-cultural portrayls of an unusual and striking musical instrument – the carnyx – on the coinage of the Romans and Iron Age Britons and Gauls
- Eric Fernie FSA evaluates what is known of the function and chronology of St Wystan’s, at Repton, one of the most important churches of the Anglo-Saxon period
- Nick Hill FSA & Andrea Kirkham analyse an exceptional survival for a secular building – the decorative scheme applied to the internal gable wall at the ‘high’ end of the hall at Oakham Castle, Rutland
- Matthew Payne FSA & Warwick Rodwell FSA address the question of metre raised by their article published in an earlier volume of the Antiquaries Journal (97), which looked at the dating of the Shrine of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey
- Christopher Pickvance highlights a hitherto unrecognised group of six pin-hinged, clamped, early medieval, wooden chests in East Kent, England, providing data and systematic evidence concerning their origins, construction, decoration, ironwork and locks
- Joanna Ostapkowicz et al draws on contemporary ethno-historical accounts and scientific analysis to examine four native Amerindian clubs (part of the founding collection for the Ashmolean Museum), providing new data that reveals not only the type of wood from which the clubs were carved, but their probable dates of manufacture, use and possible provenance, allowing insights into the lives of the Carib people in the Americas before and during the early Colonial period (1300–1700)
- Peter Lucas FSA examines the use of Anglo-Saxon characters in Early Modern maps printed in England and Amsterdam
- Nicholas Stanley-Price FSA gives a fascinating account of how a rogue archaeologist fell foul of the law in 1870s Cyprus and was prosecuted for exporting antiquities
- Henrik Schoenefeldt highlights the experiences of the 19th-century MPs in the House of Commons by using data from parliamentary archives that shed light on innovator David Boswell Reid’s historic ventilation system of the building (1840–52). The paper shows that, although environmental factors such as climate or air purity formed a more transient dimension of architecture, in the case of the House of Commons, they were key drivers of architectural form.
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Hoard Contained Unique Anglo-Saxon Helmet
On 23 November two identical models of a helmet from the Staffordshire Hoard were unveiled, to become parts of permanent displays at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and Stoke-on-Trent’s Potteries Museum and Art Gallery. The sophisticated reconstructions are based on research by Chris Fern FSA and George Speake FSA, specialists in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and art. ‘We’re sure this stunning new display will capture the public’s imagination,’ said Duncan Wilson FSA, Chief Executive of Historic England. The Society of Antiquaries will publish the full report on the hoard next year (The Staffordshire Hoard: An Anglo-Saxon Treasure, edited by Leslie Webster FSA, Chris Fern and Tania Dickinson FSA), with online files hosted by the Archaeology Data Service.
‘This is going to alter our perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England in the seventh and early eighth century’, wrote Webster, a specialist in Anglo-Saxon art and culture, of the hoard at the time of its finding in 2009, ‘as radically, if not more so, as the 1939 Sutton Hoo discoveries did.’ Kevin Leahy FSA, a Portable Antiquities Scheme advisor, quoted Beowulf. ‘”They let the ground keep that ancestral treasure, gold under gravel, gone to earth, and as useless to men now as it ever was.” Well,’ he said, ‘It’s not useless now.’
A cheek guard (left), parts of a helmet crest and one of its animal-headed terminals, all silver gilt, were among pieces shown to the press when the hoard was first revealed. A second animal terminal was soon identified, and a second cheek guard was found at the site in 2012. But it took years of conservation and research for the other fragments to be recognised and assembled.
Historic England, which has contributed significant funds to the hoard project, appointed Barbican Research Associates to manage the research. Leading this, Hilary Cool FSA brought in over 50 archaeologists. Scraps of silver foil from the hoard – many originally in lumps of soil that had been taken unbroken from the field by the detectorist, Terry Herbert – went first to the Department of Conservation and Scientific Research at the British Museum. Here Duygu Camurcuoglu conducted the initial conservation and study, when some of the matching groups were identified. In February 2014, for the first time since its discovery, the entire hoard was brought together in one place in Birmingham Museum. Chris Fern spent ten days there, finding many new connections.
A six-month intensive research phase followed, led by Speake and Fern assisted by Giovanna Fregni, a metallurgist, and Kayleigh Fuller, a conservator. A key breakthrough occurred in April 2015, when Fern assembled enough pieces (some of them of almost microscopic size) to see a silver band that had once encircled the helmet, decorated with kneeling or running spearmen.
When research and fitting were finished, Drakon Heritage and Conservation was given the task of creating two reconstructions for public display. The extreme fragmentation of the original helmet, which remains significantly incomplete in places, meant that it could not be reassembled. Instead, it was felt reconstructions would show the original’s splendour, at the same time acting as an experiment that would throw new light on it. This project was funded by Birmingham Museums Trust and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, and also involved Birmingham City University School of Jewellery, Gallybagger Leather, Royal Oak Armoury and metalsmith Samantha Chilton. Pieta Greaves co-ordinated the assembly and Jenni Butterworth the whole reconstruction programme. The models took 18 months to build.
The hoard is now thought to have been buried soon after AD 650. It is distinguished by the high quality and status of all the objects it contains, most of them martial and related to sword and knife fittings (though among the larger pieces is a gold crucifix). Two things in particular set the helmet apart from other known contemporary examples, of which there are five from Britain and more from elsewhere in Europe. First, its finish was gilt, rather than silvery or leather (contrasting with its decorative gilded silver panels, for example, the Sutton Hoo helmet was panelled in tinned-bronze). Secondly, it had an open rather than a solid crest.
The latter consisted of two channels set end-to-end, but research was unable to identify anything other than beeswax/animal glue paste and tiny slivers of wood inside it. The red horse-hair plume is inspired by the gold and garnet of the hoard and, ultimately, Roman helmets. For George Speake, it was not just a warrior’s helmet: it belonged to royalty, ‘fit for a king.’
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What Would Restitution Mean to World Museums?
‘There is no reason why the Easter Island statue cannot be perfectly reproduced,’ wrote Simon Jenkins FSA in his Guardian column on 24 November. ‘If its spiritual content matters so much to the Easter Islanders, why on earth deny them the original?’ In the week French President Emmanuel Macron said that France will return 19th-century artworks to Benin, and a Rapa Nui delegation came to the British Museum seeking the return of Hoa Hakananai’a, the statue became a poster boy for discussion about museum repatriation.
As I wrote here in October, Hoa Hakananai’a (above, along with the smaller Moai Hava) was taken from Rapa Nui 150 years ago this month. On 20 November a group of people from Chile, including Felipe Ward, the country’s Heritage Minister, talked to the British Museum and saw the statue for the first time; they were joined by Chile’s UK ambassador David Gallagher. The initiative began in August when Pedro Edmunds, Mayor of Rapa Nui, wrote requesting the return of both statues, and the museum invited a delegation to visit. They talked to Hartwig Fischer FSA, Director, and Jonathan Williams FSA, Deputy Director, and others. It was not reported whether they also saw Moai Hava, which is currently on display at the Royal Academy's Oceania exhibition (closing on 10 December).
Ahead of the meeting, reported John Bartlett for BBC News (18 November), Ward had said, ‘We are not demanding anything as yet, just asking to be heard. We believe that when this happens, the museum and its authorities will understand the importance of the moai as the soul of the island.’ Benedicto Tuki, a Rapa Nui sculptor, offered to carve a full-scale replica to swap with the original. Writing in the Guardian (16 November), Bartlett said the trip had been part-funded by Conadi, Chile’s Indigenous Development Agency.
‘It was a pretty positive meeting,’ Ward said in a statement. ‘The fact that the authorities of the British Museum have been able to witness the meeting of the representatives of Rapa Nui with the Moai, opens an important door.’ Artnet (20 November) reported that the museum was invited to visit the island and continue talks. ‘That was accepted on the spot by the museum authorities,’ said Ward, ‘and we are happy with that.’
 Meanwhile a report commissioned last year by President Macron recommended that France return all African artworks taken by colonialists. It was said some 46,000 pieces would leave the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. Written by Felwine Sarr, a Senegalese writer and economist, and Bénédicte Savoy, an art historian, the study recommends changing French law to allow the restitution of these works. Travelling in Africa, said Savoy, they found museum directors had little idea how much material was in France or what it was. ‘Highly knowledgeable researchers and teachers,’ she said, ‘were really incredulous when we told them there were so many of their countries’ objects at Quai Branly.’ Macron said that he hoped returns would start within five years.
'Such a move,’ said a Times leader (22 November), ‘would be sure to heap pressure on Britain to do something similar. The British Museum has just agreed in principle to lend to Nigeria bronzes that were stolen from its Benin City during British looting in 1897. This follows an appeal this week by Tarita Alarcon Rapu, governor of Easter Island, for the return of a carved stone figure, Hoa Hakananai’a, regarded by the island’s indigenous people as a deified spiritual object. “We are just a body. You, the British people, have our soul,” she said. The return of the carving would require an act of parliament.’ ‘There is much to be said for long loans,’ concluded the Times, ‘but it makes no sense permanently to empty museums of their treasures.’
Mark Horton FSA, Professor in Archaeology at the University of Bristol, looked forward to a time when ‘Africa’s rich cultural heritage can be returned, restituted and restored to the brilliant cultures that made it.’ Writing for the Conversation as ‘an archaeologist who works in Africa’ (23 November), Horton said the restitution debate ‘has a very real impact on my research. I benefit from the convenience of access provided by Western museums, while being struck by the ethical quandary of how they were taken there by illegal means, and by guilt that my colleagues throughout Africa may not have the resources to see material from their own country, which is kept thousands of miles away.’
Speaking to Justin Webb on the Radio 4 Today Programme (23 November, starts at 1 hour 51 minutes), Dan Hicks FSA, Curator of Archaeology, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, said many people would welcome Macron's report. There have been national conversations on the subject in France and Germany, he said, and it's good to have it now in the UK. This is not just about ownership, but also knowledge and histories, and an international dialogue about the legacy of empire.
It’s also not just about national museums, Hicks added. A formal case of repatriation needs to be made for every item, which requires a detailed understanding of object histories, for which expertise is needed – in a context of under-resourced university and local authority museums.
Diane Abbott, Shadow Home Secretary, said the discussion should be led by ‘museum professionals or cultural leaders, not politicians.’ But as a museum visitor, she continued, she was aware that ‘90% of African cultural heritage is held outside,’ and the British Museum has only eight per cent of its holdings on display. ‘That can’t be right.’ Webb asked her about a promise made by Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Opposition, to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. ‘I think it’s a broader issue than the Elgin Marbles,’ replied Abbot, ‘and the African artefacts’ But the principle of returning some things ‘must be right.’
What would restitution mean to the purpose of world museums, asked Jenkins in his Guardian column? ‘They really are the heirs to empire. Their apologists incant the curatorial shtick, that they are global custodians, a scholarly resource, a place that gives context to art. If context really matters, why not put the Lewis Chessmen or the Lindisfarne Gospels or the Parthenon Marbles back where they were meant to be enjoyed? The only real argument museums have, if pressed, is that possession is nine-tenths of the law.’
His column attracted over 700 comments. Fellows who like to imagine a large educated public who engage with heritage and understand the purpose of museums and their histories, the distinction between research and display, and generally how they work, may be in for a shock. Photos in the British Museum are by me.
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Henry Summerson Leaves ODNB
Philip Carter, Senior Lecturer in British History at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, writes:
 ‘In November Henry Summerson FSA stepped down as medieval editor for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography after 25 years' service. Henry joined the Dictionary at its inception in 1993 and, over the next quarter century, he has been responsible for the commissioning, editing and writing of 5,000 biographical entries for the Oxford DNB. Some 1,600 of these lives are new additions to the Dictionary. Many reveal Henry's original thinking on the possibilities for early biography, including a series of “archaeological lives” of the Red Lady of Paviland, Racton Man, Lindow Man and the Worcester Pilgrim.
‘Henry himself has contributed 175 biographies to the ODNB, ranging from a 15,000-word survey of the life and afterlives of St George (d. 303?), to the career of the historian Frank Barlow (1911–2009). Many Society fellows who've written for the Dictionary will have worked with Henry, and will know him as a meticulous researcher and editor. Henry's contribution to the Oxford DNB, and to medieval scholarship more widely, was marked in November by a special event on Medieval Biography, jointly organised by the Dictionary and the Institute of Historical Research.’
• Before he joined the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Summerson, says the Magna Carta Project for which he is a historical researcher, was a historian attached to the Carlisle Archaeological Unit and then worked for English Heritage. Photo MCP.
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Taking Britain Out of Europe
‘The British people don’t want to spend any more time arguing about Brexit,’ said Theresa May, the Prime Minister, on Sunday. If you agree, you might want to skip this piece. But I will continue to report the comments and activities of Fellows on the issue whenever I see them.
‘I was wrong to vote Remain,’ said Chris Skidmore MP FSA in a Times column (16 November). ‘May’s Brexit deal is Britain’s best hope.’ ‘I originally voted to Remain,’ continued the Vice-chairman of the Conservative Party and Chairman of the Conservative Policy Commission, but, ‘it’s clear that the EU of Macron and Merkel want to move in a very different direction and if the referendum was re-run, I’d now vote to leave… Crucially, we are taking back control of our own immigration policy, with freedom of movement finally ending.’
In his Guardian column (21 November), Simon Jenkins FSA wrote that Britain has a history of interrupted relationships with Europe, starting with ‘The ancient province of Britannia,’ which ‘was firmly part of the Roman empire for four centuries before that empire’s disintegration forced it to leave, in 410.’ ‘Like it or not,’ he concluded, ‘globalisation means states cannot sensibly barricade themselves off from their neighbours… You can take Britain out of the EU as often as you like; you can never take Britain out of Europe.’
Her plan for leaving the EU, said Theresa May on 19 November, will mean that ‘It will no longer be the case that EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, can jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi. Instead of a system based on where a person is from, we will have one that is built around the talents and skills a person has to offer.’
‘I came here in 1995,’ tweeted Susanne Hakenbeck FSA in response (@shakenbeck). ‘I'm paying my taxes,’ wrote the Senior Lecturer in Historical Archaeology at Cambridge, ‘I'm educating your children. I'm not jumping any queues, I'm exercising my reciprocal rights which all EU citizens have. Along the way I've been called Kraut and Hun and told I'd get “deported now". I know a dog whistle when I hear one.’
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Fellows (and Friends)
Theodore V Buttrey FSA, classicist and numismatist, died in January.
Nigel Bumphrey FSA, silversmith, died in May.
Appreciations appear in Fellows Remembered below.
Anthea Bell, headlined by the New York Times (31 October) as ‘Translator of Freud, Kafka and Comics’ but by British obituarists as translator of Goscinny and Uderzo’s Asterix books, died on 18 October aged 82. She shared the Asterix task, reinventing some 35 books, with the late Derek Hockridge, a lecturer in French. Over her career, said the Times (20 October), she translated about 250 books, also including works by Stefan Zweig and W G Sebald. She won the Mildred L Batchelder award for a children’s book translated into English and published in the US, seven times, said the Guardian (18 October) – ‘more than anyone else’ – for translations from German, French and Danish. For the Asterix books, said the Economist (1 November) she didn’t just translate, but also renamed the characters. ‘Thus Idéfix (Asterix’s dog) became Dogmatix, Assurancetourix (the bard) Cacofonix, and Panoramix (the druid) Getafix – not, she stressed, because he was on drugs (would she dream of such a thing?) but because he got a fix on the stars.’
*
 Carenza Lewis FSA, Professor for the Public Understanding of Research at the University of Lincoln, gave her inaugural lecture on 22 November, on ‘Publicly engaged research in action: two millennia of discovery through archaeology with and within contemporary communities’. In a tweet, she said she explored how research involving academia, media, national heritage organisations and 1,000s of members of the public, has recovered lost histories, and shown how changeable today's towns and villages were in the past.
 In October Peter Kent, a blogging artist, revealed a ‘disturbing’ rumour that the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College was thinking of rebranding itself as the Royal Palace and Greenwich Hospital. The college has been in the news recently for the conservation of its Painted Hall (pictured), a spectacular baroque monument by Sir James Thornhill, due to open to the public in March next year with a Sackler Gallery and café. The Naval College is a Christopher Wren masterpiece and part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage site, but the proposed name reaches back to the site’s earlier history. The Greenwich, Westcombe and Blackheath Societies are unhappy with the idea. The Foundation told 853, an investigative Greenwich blog, that it wants ‘to become an extraordinary cultural destination that is a relevant and sustainable place for local, national and international visitors for generations to come… In imagining our future for the site, we have re-doubled our commitment to telling more and better the distinct royal and naval histories of Greenwich.’
Jean Wilson FSA has stood down as President of the Church Monuments Society, to be succeeded by Mark Downing FSA. Both were received at Kensington Palace on 20 November by HRH the Duke of Gloucester FSA, the Church Monuments Society’s Patron.
 Michael Ellis, the Culture Minister, has placed a temporary export bar on an 18th-century Northern Indian miniature painting. Trumpeters, by Nainsukh of Guler, will leave the UK if £550,000 is not offered for it before 15 February 2019, with a possible three-month extension. Peter Barber FSA, a member of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art, in a statement described the miniature as ‘a masterpiece unparalleled in North Indian art. But the exuberant gestures and puffed-out cheeks of the trumpeters bear a remarkable resemblance to the trumpeters depicted some 300 years earlier by the Italian Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506) in his series of paintings, now in Hampton Court, showing the Triumph of Caesar… Did Nainsukh see, and was he influenced by, [reproduction] prints when preparing this watercolour?’
 James Whitley FSA describes An Age of Experiment: Classical Archaeology Transformed, 1976–2014, which he has edited with Lisa Nevett, as ‘effectively a Festschrift’ for Anthony Snodgrass FSA. It brings together articles from most of Snodgrass’ former PhD students, among them Susan Alcock FSA and Gillian Shepherd FSA, and looks back on how Classical Archaeology has been transformed over the past 40 years and forward to the debates which will shape it over coming decades. The papers have been grouped by theme and period (Historiography/Reception, Gender, Religion and Sanctuaries, Early Iron Age/Archaic Mediterranean, Archaeological Science, Landscape and Survey).
 In January, reports Vanessa Thorpe in the Observer (25 November), Neil MacGregor FSA will present a new series on BBC Radio 4 called As Others See Us. MacGregor has visited Germany, India, Egypt, Nigeria and Canada to talk to people in politics, business and culture, and hear how they view the UK and the historical relationships between the countries. ‘We found a quirky but extremely well-informed mix of affection and admiration, irritation and bewilderment,’ said MacGregor. ‘And whether they were for or against, everybody had a very clear view about the decision to leave the EU.’ A second series will follow in September. • The 30 15-minute episodes of MacGregor’s Living with the Gods, first broadcast in 2017, have been packaged into five hour-long programmes. Two can be heard on iPlayer and the others will be broadcast on Fridays up to 14 December.
The Times reported on 13 November that Penny Mordaunt MP, Secretary of State for International Development, wanted Britain to follow the United States and Israel and withdraw from Unesco. ‘Ms Mordaunt’s department,’ wrote Sam Coates, ‘ranks Unesco as its worst performing multilateral agency. She believes that its work does not meet her spending criteria for international aid.’ As politicians and others protested (among them Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary), a spokesman for the Prime Minister claimed ‘There has been no change to our commitment to Unesco.’ Layla Moran MP tabled a written question in Parliament, and on 20 November Alistair Burt MP responded: ‘There has been no change to our membership or funding commitment to Unesco. The UK continues to work closely with Unesco and other member states to ensure it makes crucial reforms to deliver the best results and value for taxpayers’ money. We make ongoing assessments of multi-agency performance, consideration of whether Agencies are providing value for tax payers’ money is an important part of these assessments.’
 Medieval Copper, Bronze and Brass: History, Archeology and Archeometry of Brass, Bronze and other Copper-Based Alloys in Medieval Europe (12th-16th Centuries), edited by Nicolas Thomas and Pete Dandridge, proceeds from the 2014 symposium of Dinant and Namur. Much of the text is in both French and English, and there are three articles by Fellows: ‘Late medieval brass eagle lecterns: historical and geographical context,’ by Christopher Green FSA and Roderick Butler FSA; ‘Relief copper alloy tombs in medieval Europe: image, identity and reception,’ by Sophie Oosterwijk FSA and Sally Badham FSA (‘the survival of three clusters of medieval royal monuments in England has led to the mistaken belief that the use of “gilt bronze” was a specifically royal preference in England, whereas they were actually exceeded in number by such memorials to the nobility and the clergy’); and ‘Brass in the medieval Islamic world and contact with Europe,’ by Susan La Niece FSA.
 David W J Gill FSA has written Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum Curator. Winifred Lamb FSA was a pioneering archaeologist in Anatolia and the Aegean who studied classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and served in naval intelligence alongside J D Beazley in the First World War. Sydney Cockerell, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, invited Lamb to be Honorary Keeper of Greek Antiquities. She created a prehistoric gallery and developed the museum’s holdings of classical bronzes and Athenian figure-decorated pottery. Lamb formed a parallel career excavating in the Aegean. She was assistant director at British School at Athens excavations on Mycenae under Alan Wace and Carl Blegen. She identified and excavated a major Bronze Age site at Thermi on Lesbos, and directed a significant project at Kusura in Turkey. She was recruited for the BBC’s Turkish language section in the Second World War, and later took an active part in the creation of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara.
Eleven members of the Ben Uri Gallery and Museum’s advisory board, among them Bruce Boucher FSA and Peyton Skipwith FSA, resigned in protest against the museum’s decision to sell works from its collection. The museum was founded a century ago, said Javier Pes in Artnet (21 November), by Jewish artists in London’s East End seeking to fund a radical change in direction from its Anglo-Jewish roots. The first sales took place on 20 November, and are planned to continue in December. Around 700 works – half the collection – will in time be disposed of. The Museums Association's Ethics Committee said the Gallery and Museum's sale is in breach of the MA's Code of Ethics. The committee found there to be ‘insufficient evidence’ that the financially-motivated disposals were a last resort. The museum resigned its MA membership and withdrew from the Accreditation scheme in 2016.
 Giovanna Bianchi and Richard Hodges FSA have edited Origins of A New Economic Union, an open access book from Insegna del Giglio, Florence. ‘This is the first report on an ERC Advanced project of which I am the Principal Investigator,’ writes Hodges, adding this seems ‘Rather an appropriate moment to promote European and Mediterranean connections, from a fluvial corridor in western Tuscany. Our fieldwork, archival research and excavations – with teams from the University of Siena – are showing the remarkable collapse of this Mediterranean region in the seventh century, the primitive conditions of the eighth and early ninth centuries, then the extraordinary economic revival in the mid ninth century (seen through the prism of the triple-ditched customs house at Vetricella), with Tuscan urban revival taking off in the later 11th century. You might say this emphasises the dramatic oscillations of the Mediterranean economy. Lessons for today, perhaps?’
Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism by James Stevens Curl FSA has received further long reviews from critics sympathetic to his ‘awkward questions’ and his fondness for tackling ‘difficult or controversial subjects’ – thus Karen Latimer in Perspective: The Journal of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects (November 2018). ‘This is a book to be read, discussed and debated by anyone with an interest in our built environment,’ she says. ‘An incredibly high level of scholarship distinguishes Making Dystopia, concludes Nikos Salingaros at the end of six pages in the International Journal of Architectural Research (November 2018), ‘so that its critics will have a hard time shrugging off its message. This makes Professor Stevens Curl’s work an invaluable resource for academia, the public, and professional practitioners. It could help to trigger a massive re-orientation of the building industry, helped by forward-thinking legislators.’
 Paul Booth FSA and Andrew Simmonds have written Gill Mill: Later Prehistoric Landscape and A Roman Nucleated Settlement in the Lower Windrush Valley Near Witney, Oxfordshire. The book describes Iron Age and Roman settlement excavated over 25 years in a gravel quarry west of Oxford. The economic emphasis of the main Roman settlement, sited on the floodplain of the river Windrush, seems to have been on cattle management, perhaps operating as part of a larger estate centred outwith the extensive area examined (c 129 hectares, of which some 75 hectares were fully stripped). The main features of the settlement, based around two principal roads, comprised ditched enclosures (some in very regular layouts associated with one of the roads), pits and wells, and about 80 burials. Relatively few buildings were identified: up to five with stone foundations and a variety of more ephemeral structures. The existence of a shrine in the unexcavated centre of the settlement is postulated and carved stone and other religious artefacts were among finds, which include over 1,000 coins, a tonne of pottery and substantial animal bone and environmental remains. Significant occupation ended c AD 370.
 Dendrochronology has dated the Battel Hall retable to around 1410, suggesting it may have been painted by either of John Somerby or John Reyner, artists known to have been working in Kent at the time. It is one of only three such panels surviving in England made for a Dominican altar, reported Maev Kennedy FSA in the Art Newspaper (13 November). The depiction of women, including Catherine of Siena, suggests that it is from a convent. David Park FSA believes it was made for Dartford Priory, the only pre-Reformation house of Dominican nuns in England, and 26 miles from its present home at Leeds Castle, Kent, where it can be seen. The retable was conserved and studied at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Fitzwilliam Museum.
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Fellows Remembered
 Theodore V Buttrey FSA died on 9 January aged 88. He was elected a Fellow of the Society in February 1991.
Ted Buttrey was born in Montana, the son of a retail entrepreneur and a performing musician. He graduated magna cum laude in Classics from Princeton in 1950, where he received his PhD (on the coinage of Marc Antony) in 1953, followed by a Fulbright scholarship to study in Rome.
He taught in the Department of Classical Studies, Yale University, 1954–64. He was Curator of the Yale numismatic collection from 1957, and was Assistant Professor in the Department of Medieval Studies from 1962. He moved to the University of Michigan in 1964, where he became Professor of Greek and Latin. He was chairman of the Department of Classical Studies, and director of the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology (1969–71). He featured in several TV series made at the University Television Center, including ten half-hour episodes about The Iliad, and 15 on The Odyssey.
After retiring from Michigan in 1985, when he was a visiting Fulbright Professor at the University of Copenhagen, he moved to the University of Cambridge. He was an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Classics at Clare Hall College, where he had previously been a Visiting Fellow and Resident Member. From 1988 to 1991 he was Keeper of Coins and Medals at the Fitzwilliam Museum, continuing as Emeritus Professor of Classical Studies.
He published especially on coins of the ancient Mediterranean, including Roman Imperial Coinage Vol 2 (with Ian Carradice). His Guidebook of Mexican Coins: 1822 to Date first published in 1969, was most recently updated (with Clyde Hubbard) in 1992.
In 1996 he initiated what the New York Times (2001) was to call ‘one of the longest-running and most vitriolic disputes in the annals of American numismatics,’ and numismatists dubbed ‘the Great Debate,’ when he claimed that some Western American gold bars in various collections, notably that of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, were counterfeits. The commercial value of the bars, if genuine, was enormously increased by their history; they came with stories ranging from being minted in Mexico for Philip V of Spain in the 1740s to having been recovered from dramatic shipwrecks. Buttrey alleged that named dealers had sold the bars knowing assay marks to have been faked as well as the histories, and he was sued for $6 million for libel. The suit was dismissed
At the Fitzwilliam as well as a scholar and teacher, he was a generous donor to the Department of Coins and Medals, giving 230 items from his personal collection. He amassed the world’s largest collection of numismatic auction catalogues – over 35,000 of them. He was awarded the Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society (of which he was President 1989–94), the Huntington Medal of the American Numismatic Society, the Medal of the Norwegian Numismatic Society, and the Wolfgang Hahn Medal of the Institut für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte of Vienna University. He was an Honorary Member of the International Numismatics Committee.
He was a welcome American lecturing voice on Swan's Hellenic Cruises. An obituary in Ann Arbor News (18 March) suggested he would be remembered ‘for his passion for root beer and cream teas, his propensity to be silly (bringing Groucho glasses for the entire family's Christmas photo), his willingness to try new things (water-skiing for the first time on his sixtieth birthday), and his joyous giggle.’ He married his third wife, Ofelia Salgado who survives him, in October 2017.
Other obituaries: Jonathan Jarrett (21 January); Sarah E Cox, Society for Classical Studies (22 January); Ursula Kampmann, Coins Weekly (25 January). Photos University of Michigan/Ursula Kampmann.
*
 Nigel Bumphrey FSA died on 24 May aged 90. He was elected a Fellow of the Society in June 2011.
He attended the City of Norwich School, and after training at Loughborough, returned to a career teaching woodwork. He was a fine silversmith, goldsmith and cabinet maker, and in 1989 he was appointed to the Norwich Diocesan Advisory Committee to advise on silver and furnishings. He established the Treasury in Norwich Cathedral, where a reliquary chapel is used to display gold and silver communion vessels from many parish churches.
In 2014 a boy walking in woodland in Swanton Abbott, Norfolk, found a silver-gilt chalice. Bumphrey arranged for the Diocese to send an email with photos of the chalice to all churchwardens. The warden at Skeyton recognised it as the one stolen from the church vestry, just a mile from where it had been found.
In 2017 he was appointed MBE for services to the Church in Norfolk. ‘Through his considerable contacts and his own skills,’ said Caroline Rawlings, Church Development Officer for the Diocese, at the time, ‘he has helped repair and conserve for future generations many of these wonderful treasures.’
His wife Eileen died within hours of Nigel’s death, aged 81. She had a distinguished career as an occupational therapist, and advised the Norwich Diocese on ecclesiastical needlework.
*
In the last Salon, I wrote about Brian Smith FSA, who died earlier this month. Christopher Kitching FSA writes with further insights into Smith’s work with archives:
‘Whilst it is correct that Brian Smith moved to Gloucestershire initially as Deputy County Archivist, he became County Archivist in 1968. After his retirement from the Historical Manuscripts Commission in 1992, he went on a short consultative mission to prepare for the government of the Falkland Islands a report on its archives. Having then moved to live in Herefordshire, which incidentally provided an admirable base for his passions of hill-walking and mountaineering, he continued to inspire in others a love of archives and the light they shed on local communities. With Martin Kibblethwaite he founded the Golden Valley Study Group which produced two group-written books, the first on Turnastone and the second on the water meadows developed by Rowland Vaughan from the late 16th century.’
• I noted Brian Smith’s History of Bloxham School (1978), which lists in its bibliography an article about the Egerton family of Adstock (in Family History) by Duncan Harrington FSA. He writes:
‘As an OB of Bloxham, I was intrigued to discover more about the writer of the school history, and delighted to see that he had found my rather obscure work on the school founder and his family. I have sent a copy of your Fellows Remembered to the school for their archives.’
‘He was extremely encouraging and helpful to me when I was writing the latest history of Bloxham School in 2010,’ responded Simon Batten, Archivist, Bloxham School, ‘not to mention unfailingly modest about his own effort.’
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The Wisdom of Fellows
‘I read your Stonehenge centenary comments with interest,’ says Peter Fowler FSA, referring to a piece in the last Salon. ‘I too think it an excellent idea to try to collect family pictures of Stonehenge, not least since over many years I have secreted photographs of unidentified members of my family at Stonehenge into books where I have had some say over the illustrations.
‘One of English Heritage's web page photographs for the centenary you note had a mistake in its caption, which I sought to correct telephonically on the day. The 1958 photograph showed five people at Stonehenge, all known to me but only one of them identified by name and title, the latter wrongly. All five are now dead and I was forcibly struck by the inevitably of the ever-smaller number of people being able to name all of them. Memory is short, and increasingly caption writers and other users will not know what they are looking at without full and accurate documentation. Even then, the significance of what they are looking at may not be apparent to them. In this case, for example, the names Piggott and Atkinson meant nothing to the helpful person I spoke to at English Heritage.’
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Fellowship Subscription
Subscription Rates for 2019
Council have agreed that the Fellows’ subscription for 2019 should increase by £6 to £178.00, having remained at the present rate for the last three years. The decision was taken in the light of RPI presently running at 3.5%, and it is forecast to remain at this rate in 2019. However, the Society continues to face considerable financial pressures outside its control and Council will need to take into account those pressures as well as the rate of RPI when determining future subscription rates.
The annual subscription will fall due for payment on 1 January 2019.
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Christmas Cards
Our Society Christmas Cards are now on sale.
The Society has a wonderful selection of Christmas cards for sale – each design inspired by items from our own library and museum collections. Visit the ‘Society Christmas Shop’ section of our online shop for a full list of available Cards.
To order Christmas Cards please contact us: Call +44 (0)20 7479 7080 / Email admin@sal.org.uk. Pay online: www.sal.org.uk/shop
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Forthcoming Events for Fellows
You can catch up on meetings you've missed by visiting our YouTube Channel.
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Ordinary Meetings of Fellows
Interested in proposing a lecture? Please download the Lecture Proposal Form, and email it to Danielle Wilson Higgins, Communications Manager (dwilsonhiggins@sal.org.uk).
- 6 December: Christmas Miscellany "The Use of Converted Scythes in Early Modern Warfare" by Dr Edward A M Impey FSA & "The Lions of England" by Dr Paul A Fox FSA
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Introductory Tours for Fellows
If you've never visited Burlington House or had an introduction to the Library and Collections, please join an introductory tour. You'll meet the Society's staff, learn about your Fellowship benefits, and discover more from the collections at Burlington House.
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Forthcoming Public Events
Conferences and Seminars
Public Lectures
Public Lectures are held from 13.00 to 14.00 on Tuesdays, with advance booking advised to be sure of a place.
Our public lecture series resumes in 2019,
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Regional Fellows Groups
South West Fellows
Further information on talks at Exeter can be found here.
Want to join the South West Regional Fellows Group? Events are not currently being organised, but you can sign-up to hear about future activities, here.
Welsh Fellows
- 18 January 2019: The Davies Family of Llandinam with its Burry Dock connection, by David Jenkins FSA
- 11-13 October 2019: Weekend visit to the Pembrokeshire area. Programme to be arranged.
Want to join the Welsh Regional Fellows Group? If you would like to attend any current events, please email Bob Child at bob.child@ntlworld.com. If you wish to be added to the mailing list, sign-up here.
York Fellows
- 29 November 2018: 'Surveying Shakespeare's Guildhall: a public building in pre-modern England' (Out of London Ordinary Meeting of Fellows, held in York). Find out more online.
Want to join the York Regional Fellows Group? If you would like to receive email updates about forthcoming meetings in York, sign-up here.
York Antiquaries Christmas Lunch: Saturday, Dec 8th 2018
As we approach the Festive Season, Fellows and their guests are again most cordially invited to a pre-Christmas lunch in the McLeod Suite at the Dean Court Hotel, Duncombe Place, York on Saturday, December 8th, 12.30 for 1.00pm. The cost this year is a very attractive £23.50 per head for a three-course lunch, excluding drinks, and bookings should be made using this form. Confirmation of receipt of payment will be sent by email. Any queries, please contact the Hon Steward (Jim) at spriggs.conserve@hotmail.co.uk Bookings by Nov 19th please. As usual, we invite Fellows to bring objects, documents, photos etc. of antiquarian interest for the purposes of post-prandial entertainment and erudition.
We plan to follow the lunch with the usual informal short presentations and briefings and Fellows are invited to bring exhibits (advance notification would be helpful but is not essential).
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Other Heritage Events
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28–30 November: Public Inquiry Workshop (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is a practical workshop designed to improve the performance of anyone who might be called to participate in a Public Inquiry concerned with the historic environment. A mock Public Inquiry will be mounted using a genuine case study, with training for potential witnesses. Details online.
3 December: Ancient Sculpture and the Narrative of Collecting: Legacy and Identity in Museum Display (London)
A talk by Nicole Cochrane, PhD Student, University of Hull, in a monthly series given by curators, academics, and PhD researchers in the Virginia Woolf Building, King's College. A new PhD-led research group, Exploring the Institutionalisation of Archaeology, is examining the historical and contemporary intersections between archaeology, museums, and collections, hoping to bring to light hidden histories which shaped the discipline of archaeology. Details online.
6 December: Whose Ancestors are Buried at Stonehenge? (Bristol)
Mike Pitts FSA gives a Bristol Museum and Art Gallery free winter lecture. Stonehenge is ancient Britain, an iconic world-famous monument. It was famous when it was created too, and people came to the stones from across the country. We have learnt a great deal about all this from new excavation and research, but a large ancient DNA study raises an unexpected question. Could it have been built by immigrants? Details online.
6 December: Commissioning Archaeology (Oxford)
One of a series of short courses for the historic environment put on by Oxford University Department for Continuing Education at Rewley House. This is designed for non-archaeologists who need to work with archaeology within the design and construction process, including architects, surveyors, engineers and other design professionals, planners, and project managers and developers. Details online.
7 December: The Elizabethan Garden Reimagined and Reinvented (London)
We don’t really know what Elizabethan gardens were like; we have almost no images, and poets were general and metaphorical. That has not people imagining their design, decoration and detail. The absence of hard fact has permitted unbridled speculation. Hence this talk is less about actual gardens than how romantic-minded writers have repeatedly reinvented the idea of them to accord with their predilections concerning the customs, manners, moods and delights of the time. The talk by David Jacques, Garden Historian and Conservationist, is part of the Gardens Trust’s Winter Lecture Season 2018–19. Tickets can be bought for each lecture, or a discounted season ticket is available. Details online, and contact Sally Jeffery FSA, sally.jeffery2@gmail.com or 0208 994 6969.
10 December: The Picture Collection of Stephen Alers Hankey (London)
In the bicentenary of Richard Wallace’s birth, the Wallace Collection is focusing on collecting in London and Paris in the later 19th century. In a series of Monday History of Collecting Seminars organised by Suzanne Higgott FSA, Robert Wenley (Deputy Director, Head of Collections, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham) will speak on ‘Rare and Most Magnificent’: The Picture Collection of Stephen Alers Hankey (1809-1878). Details online.
13 December: Space: The Final Heritage Frontier (London)
Bryan Lintott, from the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, will give ICOMOS-UK's Annual Christmas Lecture. The UK’s Space heritage extends to Mars, where the Beagle 2 lander rests on the surface of the red planet. In recent years the Google Lunar XPRIZE and current plans for humans to return to the Moon have transformed theoretical academic interest in the many objects sent beyond the Earth and in their associated sites. Based on the history of heritage conservation in Antarctica, the lecture will consider options for the governance, management and in-situ conservation of space heritage, and the roles that the UK and ICOMOS could have in developing approaches to its conservation. Details online.
13–14 December: Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms (London)
The British Library is hosting an international conference with 22 leading experts in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts to coincide with its Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition (19 October–19 February 2019). Keynote lectures will be given by Lawrence Nees FSA, University of Delaware, and Julia Crick, King’s College London. Confirmed speakers include Catherine Karkov FSA, Simon Keynes FSA, Rosamond McKitterick FSA, Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Susan Rankin FSA, Joanna Story FSA, Elaine Treharne FSA and Tessa Webber FSA. Details online.
14–15 December 2018: Interpreting and Preserving the Cultural Heritage (York)
A conference in honour of David Park FSA’s contribution to the study and preservation of Medieval art, at King’s Manor, University of York. Christopher Norton FSA and Sharon Cather FSA are keynote speakers, and other speakers include Jessica Barker FSA, Michael Carter FSA, Anna Eavis, Eric Fernie FSA, Sandy Heslop FSA, Francesca Piqué, Stephen Rickerby, Lisa Shekede, Géraldine Victoir, Paul Williamson FSA and Christopher Wilson FSA. Details online.
19 January 2019: New Insights into 16th-and 17th-Century British Architecture (London)
The ninth meeting of the New Insights series takes place at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly. Organised by Claire Gapper FSA and Paula Henderson FSA, the conference has the themes of Architecture on the Celtic Fringe, Timber, Plaster and Paint, Inigo Jones and Recreating the Antique, and Documents and Recovery. Speakers include Gerry Alabone FSA, Hentie Louw FSA, Nicholas Cooper FSA and Edward Town FSA. Details online.
28 January: Domenico Brucciani and the Formation of Museums of Classical Archaeology (London)
A talk by Rebecca Wade, Assistant Curator for Sculpture, Henry Moore Foundation, Leeds, in a monthly series given by curators, academics, and PhD researchers in the Virginia Woolf Building, King's College. A new PhD-led research group, Exploring the Institutionalisation of Archaeology, is examining the historical and contemporary intersections between archaeology, museums, and collections, hoping to bring to light hidden histories which shaped the discipline of archaeology. Details online.
30 January: The Elizabethan Garden at Kenilworth: History and Restoration (London)
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester created a remarkable garden at Kenilworth Castle in the 1570s. Perhaps the best recorded Elizabethan privy garden, it was at the heart of Elizabeth I’s long visit to the castle in 1575, and the subject of an ambitious restoration by English Heritage in 2009. The talk will discuss the garden and its significance, the research and investigation process that informed the project and the challenges and issues which were tackled in realising the re-created garden. The talk by Anna Keay, formerly Curatorial Director at English Heritage, now Director of the Landmark Trust, is part of the Gardens Trust’s Winter Lecture Season 2018–19. Tickets can be bought for each lecture, or a discounted season ticket is available. Details online, and contact Sally Jeffery FSA, sally.jeffery2@gmail.com or 0208 994 6969.
1– 3 February: Chapels Royal in England: Architecture, Music and Worship from the Middle Ages to the Restoration (Oxford)
This weekend at Rewley House will explore the English Chapel Royal from the Middle Ages to the end of the Stuart period. Starting with an introduction to the Medieval chapel royal, the programme consists of three pairs of talks by architectural historians and musicologists, each considering a different period, and will conclude with an examination of the importance of preaching in the 16th and 17th centuries. Speakers include Maurice Howard FSA and Rory O’Donnell FSA. Details online.
18 February: Plaster Casts, Restoration, and the Interpretation of Classical Sculpture (London)
A talk by Emma Payne, King's College London, in a monthly series given by curators, academics, and PhD researchers in the Virginia Woolf Building, King's College. A new PhD-led research group, Exploring the Institutionalisation of Archaeology, is examining the historical and contemporary intersections between archaeology, museums, and collections, hoping to bring to light hidden histories which shaped the discipline of archaeology. Details online.
20 February: Oxford Botanic Garden: Past, Present and Future (London)
Oxford Botanic Garden, founded in 1621, is the oldest botanic garden in the UK. This talk will reflect upon the Garden’s history, its current status and challenges, and ambitious plans for the future as the Garden approaches its 400th anniversary. The talk by Simon Hiscock, Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum, is part of the Gardens Trust’s Winter Lecture Season 2018–19. Tickets can be bought for each lecture, or a discounted season ticket is available. Details online, and contact Sally Jeffery FSA, sally.jeffery2@gmail.com or 0208 994 6969.
27–28 February: Braving the Dragons: Art and the Archaeological Imagination (Aberystwyth)
This conference will explore the uncharted territory where art and archaeology meet. Leading practitioners will meet at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre to explore ways in which artists are inspired by archaeological methods and discoveries, and ways in which archaeology is, in many respects, an artistic endeavour. Carmen Mills, artist in residence with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, believes this is the first time that archaeologists and artists have met to engage in what she hopes will be a fruitful exchange of ideas that will help to define new fields of academic study and artistic practice. Speakers include Colin Renfrew FSA, Jennifer Wallace, Michael Shanks, Kate Whiteford, Julia Sorrell and John Harvey. Details online.
March (date TBC): Museums and Decolonisation (London)
A talk by Alice Procter, Independent Tour Guide, in a monthly series given by curators, academics, and PhD researchers in the Virginia Woolf Building, King's College. A new PhD-led research group, Exploring the Institutionalisation of Archaeology, is examining the historical and contemporary intersections between archaeology, museums, and collections, hoping to bring to light hidden histories which shaped the discipline of archaeology. Details online.
6 March: Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Designs for the Gardens of Castle Howard (London)
Among documents formerly at Wilton House are four sketches for streams and rockwork attributed to Nicholas Hawksmoor, recently identified as projects for the garden in Wray Wood, Castle Howard. This naturalistic woodland garden was much admired by early visitors for its innovative features, including a cave, an artificial stream with cascades and rockwork, and much classical sculpture inspired by Ovid. Little now survives, but using these drawings and other records, a picture of the garden can be constructed, and Hawksmoor’s role in the design can be better appreciated. The talk by Sally Jeffery FSA, Architectural and Garden Historian, is part of the Gardens Trust’s Winter Lecture Season 2018–19. Tickets can be bought for each lecture, or a discounted season ticket is available. Details online, and contact Sally Jeffery, sally.jeffery2@gmail.com or 0208 994 6969.
27 March: John Brookes: His Landscape Legacy (London)
John Brookes is most often associated with the ‘room outside’, the subject of his seminal book of 1969 inspired by his early work in small London gardens. This talk will demonstrate how over the subsequent 50 years he remained at the forefront of design by creating distinctive gardens and landscapes increasingly based on ecological principles and designing in harmony with nature and the local vernacular – without losing sight of his belief that a garden is a place for use by people. The talk by Barbara Simms, Institute of Historical Research, University of London, is part of the Gardens Trust’s Winter Lecture Season 2018–19. Details online, and contact Sally Jeffery FSA, sally.jeffery2@gmail.com or 0208 994 6969.
April (date TBC): Scripting Spadework: Publishing Archaeology in the Late 19th and early 20th Centuries (London)
A talk by Amara Thornton FSA, Honorary Research Associate, UCL, the last in a monthly series given by curators, academics, and PhD researchers in the Virginia Woolf Building, King's College. A new PhD-led research group, Exploring the Institutionalisation of Archaeology, is examining the historical and contemporary intersections between archaeology, museums, and collections, hoping to bring to light hidden histories which shaped the discipline of archaeology. Details online.
10 April: Studying Orchards in Eastern England (London)
Orchards have formed an important part of our culture for centuries, but investigations of their history are hampered by persistent myths concerning the age of particular examples, and about the antiquity of the fruit varieties they contain. These issues are being addressed by a research project based at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. This talk will discuss the history of different kinds of orchard – farmhouse, institutional, commercial, and as elements in designed landscapes. It will also explore a range of related issues, including the age and origins of ‘traditional’ fruit varieties. The talk by Tom Williamson, University of East Anglia, is part of the Gardens Trust’s Winter Lecture Season 2018–19. Details online, and contact Sally Jeffery FSA, sally.jeffery2@gmail.com or 0208 994 6969.
14–26 April: UK Archaeological Sciences Conference 2019 (Manchester)
The UKAS 2019 conference will take place in the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology (MIB). Themes include site interpretation, cultural heritage resource management, trace element analysis and material sourcing, origins and spread of agriculture, health and disease, isotopes and subsistence strategies, imaging techniques, portable techniques and environmental archaeology and geoscience. Details online.
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Call for Papers
Antiquarian ‘Science’ in the Scholarly Society (Society of Antiquaries, London)
This is workshop two of the AHRC International Networking Grant: Collective Wisdom: Collecting in the early modern academy which will be led by Anna Marie Roos (Lincoln) and Vera Keller (Oregon) in April 2019. They will explore how ‘antiquarian science’ informed collecting in the early modern scholarly academy, as many members of these societies like astronomer Martin Folkes FSA (1690-1754) also were connoisseurs and antiquaries. We welcome papers of 25 minutes duration from established and early career scholars on the themes above. Please send an abstract of 200 words to Anna Marie Roos (aroos@lincoln.ac.uk) by 30 November 2018. Details online.
14–26 April: UK Archaeological Sciences Conference 2019 (Manchester)
To submit an abstract for talk or poster format, find the UKAS 2019 abstract submission form online and send it by 21 December 2018 to ukas.manchester@gmail.com.
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Research Fellowships
Warburg Institute Funded Research Fellowships are now open.
Long-term Research Fellowships in Cultural and Intellectual History (of nine months to twelve months) for tenure during 2019-20.
Short-term Research Fellowships in Cultural and Intellectual History (of two, three or four months) for tenure in 2019-20.
The closing date for receipt of applications is 10 December. Full details here.
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Vacancies
The William Morris Society seeks a Magazine Editor, to be in place after publication of the Spring issue in February 2019.
The Magazine is published three times a year, and is the Society’s most comprehensive method of communicating with our membership. It includes features on Morris and his circles, and covers news and updates on the Society’s activities and Morris-related events.
We are looking for someone with editorial experience and a desire to communicate all aspects of Morris’s life and works, who can commission articles and manage members’ submissions. The post is unpaid, but travel and subsistence costs are reimbursed. Our hope is that the role will be filled by someone who can continue to inspire the wide appreciation of Morris’s multifaceted career, and foster fellowship between Society members. For more details contact the current Editor, Susan Warlow, susanwarlow.morris@gmail.com. Applications to societymanager@williammorrissociety.org.uk
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Propose a Lecture or Seminar
Please download and complete the Lecture Proposal Form, and email it to Danielle Wilson Higgins (dwilsonhiggins@sal.org.uk), the Society's Communications Manager, if you are interested in giving a lecture at one of the Society's Ordinary Meetings (Thursday evenings at 17.00) or as part of our Public Lecture series (occasional Tuesday afternoons at 13.00). We welcome papers based on new research or themes related to the Society's field of interest: the study of the material past. You can view our current lecture programme in the Events section of our website.
Fellows are also encouraged to propose topics or themes for conferences or seminars that bring scholars and professionals from a variety of disciplines together to explain, discuss and debate our material culture. Please download and complete the Conference Proposal Form, and email it to Danielle Wilson Higgins (dwilsonhiggins@sal.org.uk), if you are interested in helping us organise such an event.
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