The Bronze Age Forum comes to Leicester
Leicester welcomes lovers of all things Bronze Age
The Bronze Age Forum is for anyone interested in Bronze Age archaeology. From academics to curators, students to the public, excavators to finds specialists, if you love the Bronze Age this is the place for you.
This year’s event will be held in Leicester 11th-12th of November 2023.
Formal booking has now closed for queries please contact Bronzeageforum@gmail.com
Bronze Age Forum Full Programme For download
Please find the full programme and abstracts for download here. Please note we will not be printing programmes or abstract books as part of our commitment to lowering our environmental footprint.
Bronze Age Forum — The Programme is here!
Saturday 11th November
| Timing | Title | Chair/Speaker |
| 9am | Open for registration, posters on display | |
| Session 1 | People and place | Rachel Crellin |
| 9.30-9.40am | Welcome and introduction | Rachel Crellin |
| 9.40-10.00am | Exploring Bronze Age mobility patterns: A comparison of new data on the Ginderup Woman from Thisted (Denmark) in relation to her contemporaries | Samantha S. Reiter and Karin Margarita Frei |
| 10.00-10.20am | The Bioarchaeology of Early Bronze Age Ireland: Health, Disease, Trauma, and Care | Stephanie Robinson |
| 10.20-10.40am | The Plas Maen Panel: landscape and tradition | Rachel Pope and George Nash |
| 10.40-11am | Discussion and questions | |
| 11.00-11.20am | Coffee break | |
| Session 2 | Animals, people and food | Ollie Harris |
| 11.20-11.40am | What’s Cooking? Organic Residue Analysis of Bronze Age pottery from Corrstown (Northern Ireland) in context | Kerri Cleary and Julie Dunne |
| 11.40-12.00pm | The social worlds of Bronze Age animals | Joanna Brück, Floor Huisman, Kate Kanne, Nóra Nic Aoidh and Eleanor Swallow |
| 12.00-12.20pm | Bronze Age animal mobilities at the fen-edge, Lincolnshire | David Osborne |
| 12.20-12.40pm | FOODSEC: new approaches to food security in Bronze Age Ireland | Erin Crowley-Champoux, Meriel McClatchie, Kerri Cleary, Penny Johnston |
| 12.40-1.00pm | Discussion and questions | |
| 1.00-2.00pm | Lunch | |
| Session 3 | Site sequences | Stuart Needham |
| 2.00-2.20pm | Recent Excavation of a Bronze Age Stone Circle in South-west Ireland | William O’Brien |
| 2.20-2.40pm | From funerary activity to domestic space: Emerging narratives from continuing excavations at Trelai Park, Cardiff | Oliver Davis and Niall Sharples |
| 2.40-3.00pm | Recurring Funerary Deposition at Berkely and Camlin, Co. Wexford during the Middle Bronze Age | Ben Spillane and James Eogan |
| 3.00-3.20pm | Discussion and questions | |
| 3.30pm-3.50pm | Coffee | |
| Session 4 | Metalwork and metalworkers | Jo Brück |
| 3.50-4.10pm | The coastal affinity of Early Metal Age multi-object deposits | Stuart Needham |
| 4.10-4.30pm | Dredging up, and re-excavating, the Aylesford gold finds; and looking again at the ornaments in them | John Smythe |
| 4.30-4.50pm | “Ze” Escalles hoard: an important deposit of EBA axes from the British Isles found on the other side of the Channel | Emmanuel Ghesquière, Henri Gandois, Emmanuelle Leroy-Langelin, Cyril Marcigny et Vincent Riquier |
| 4.50-5.10pm | Stories hidden in gold: shedding new light on Early Bronze Age goldworking practices through microwear and compositional analysis | Christina Tsoraki, Chris Standish, Oliver Harris & Rachel Crellin |
| 5.10-5.30pm | Discussion and questions | |
| 5.30-7pm | Wine reception (followed by bar service when wine runs out) |
Sunday 12th November
| Timing | Title | Chair/Speaker |
| 9am | Open for registration, posters on display | |
| Session 5 | Metalwork and Metalworkers (continued) | Jo Appleby |
| 9.40-10.00am | Finding hidden treasure in the Portable Antiquities Scheme database: a study of Bronze Age hoards and find scatters in Oxfordshire | Ed Caswell |
| 10.00-10.20am | Copper supply networks in the Irish Later Bronze Age. An introduction to a recently funded research project. | Carlo Bottaini, Dirk Brandherm |
| 10.20-10.40am | The end of the axe | Roger Thomas |
| 10.40-11am | Discussion and questions | |
| 11.00-11.20am | Coffee break | |
| Session 6 | Materials in the Bronze Age | TBD |
| 11.20-11.40am | Project Ancient Tin: Did British tin sources and trade make Bronze Age Europe? | R. Alan Williams, Kamal Badreshany, Matthew Ponting, Mariacarmela Montesanto and Benjamin Roberts |
| 11.40-12.00pm | Bottoms Up: The Function of Bronze Age Pottery Through Experimentation and Analysis of the Bases. | Clara Freer |
| 12.00-12.20pm | Bowled over: Wood and bark artefacts from the Late Bronze Age settlement at Must Farm – specialism, selection and craft | Michael Bamforth |
| 12.20-12.40pm | Drinking without thirst under the sun of the Gods. Ceramic, social practices and symbolism along the Atlantic coast (2250-1650 BC). | Julien Ripoche, Théophane Nicolas |
| 12.40-1.00pm | Discussion and questions | |
| 1.00-2.00pm | Lunch | |
| Session 7 | From past to present | TBD |
| 2.00-2.10pm | BAF housekeeping and poster prize presentation | Stuart Needham and Jo Brück |
| 2.10-2.30pm | Peggy Piggott and Bronze Age metalwork | Brendan O’Connor |
| 2.30-2.50pm | Cumulative chronontology: Hawkes’ ABC and archaeological history | Steven Matthews |
| 2.50-3.10pm | Bridging the Middle- to Late Bronze Age divide | Arjan Louwen |
| 3.10-3.30pm | Discussion and questions | |
| 3.30pm-3.50pm | Coffee and close of conference | |
Tickets
You can book your tickets by clicking on this link here! https://shop.le.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/leicester-conferences/school-of-archaeology-and-ancient-history/bronze-age-forum-2023
We offer basic registration for waged (£100) or unwaged (£75). This covers registration, teas and coffees, a hot lunch on both days and a wine reception on the Saturday night.
You can either book just for the conference itself, or you can add on accommodation at our excellent value venue College Court (the conference venue). College Court offers great accommodation in en suite double rooms with wifi, TV, desk space, and tea and coffee facilities. The room fee also includes a great cooked breakfast on site. You can book for one, two or three nights at £50 per night including breakfast. When you book please use the relevant box to make us aware of any accessibility or dietary requirements. The hotel has great accessible rooms on the ground floor with wet room showers.
| Ticket type | Includes | Cost |
| Waged delegate | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches. | £100 |
| Waged delegate plus Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, one night accommodation and breakfast | £150 |
| Waged delegate plus Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two nights accommodation and breakfast | £200 |
| Waged delegate plus Friday and Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two nights accommodation and breakfast | £200 |
| Waged delegate plus Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, three nights accommodation and breakfast | £250 |
| Unwaged delegate | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches. | £75 |
| Unwaged delegate plus Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, one night accommodation and breakfast | £105 |
| Unwaged delegate plus Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two nights accommodation and breakfast | £135 |
| Unwaged delegate plus Friday and Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two nights accommodation and breakfast | £135 |
| Unwaged delegate plus Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, three nights accommodation and breakfast | £165 |
| Two waged delegates plus Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for one night accommodation and breakfast | £270 |
| Two waged delegates plus Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for two nights accommodation and breakfast | £350 |
| Two waged delegates plus Friday and Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for two nights accommodation and breakfast | £350 |
| Two waged delegates plus Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for three nights accommodation and breakfast | £430 |
| Two unwaged delegates plus Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for one night accommodation and breakfast | £190 |
| Two unwaged delegates plus Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for two nights accommodation and breakfast | £240 |
| Two unwaged delegates plus Friday and Saturday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for two nights accommodation and breakfast | £240 |
| Two unwaged delegates plus Friday, Saturday and Sunday night in College court | Registration, teas and coffees, hot lunches, two people sharing one room for three nights accommodation and breakfast | £290 |
Venue
The Bronze Age Forum will be held at College Court, University of Leicester (College Court Conference Centre, Knighton Road, Leicester, LE2 3UF). This modern conference centre features all the elements we need for a great Bronze Age Forum from conference suites to award winning lunches.
Next generation archaeologists
Building on the success of Cambridge last year, we want to continue to encourage the next generation of archaeologists to get involved in the Bronze Age Forum—particularly after the difficulties studying and starting a career during lockdown.
We will be offering three scholarships, prioritising people from particular groups that are underrepresented at Bronze Age Forum, in order to help diversify the kinds of people who come and talk about the Bronze Age. This diversity is intended to be as broad as possible, and includes BAME, LGBTQI+, differently abled archaeologists, first generation scholars, those with caring responsibilities, care leavers, early career archaeologists and archaeologists from working class backgrounds; if you’re wondering ‘Does this include me?’, it almost certainly does. We also want to stress that this is entirely independent of the subject on which you happen to be presenting: it’s your diversity we want to support.
This means if you are a first time Bronze Age Forum speaker, get in touch with us, and flag up to us any diversity criteria (self-defined) that might apply to you. These will be treated in confidence, and whilst we want to sing from the rooftops about these scholarships, we are also happy to keep your scholarship private if you would prefer.
If your paper is accepted we will make sure that you are considered for a scholarship. The Bronze Age Forum scholarships will include free registration and accommodation for two nights.
Bronze Age Forum 2023 