About this Event
Photo: The Eildon Hills. Photo Credit: Linda Sheridan
This is the first in a series of lectures called Footsteps in our Landscape, which looks at different aspects of how people have moved through our local landscape in the past. The series is organised in association with Berwick Literary Festival and is inspired by some of the themes of 2024's Festival, particularly our local landscape, its history and how we move through it.
Our first lecture, by Dr. Alison Sheridan, deals with movement through our landscape in prehistory. This lecture is in association with Border Archaeological Society.
People have been moving into and around this region (Northumberland and southern Scotland) for 15,000 years, and we will look at who was moving, in which directions, and how and why they were moving, at different periods in the past from the Late Upper Palaeolithic until the Iron Age. Our understanding of prehistoric patterns of movement and connectivity has been revolutionised by recent advances in isotope and ancient DNA analysis of human remains, and this talk will summarise the new and exciting insights that this has produced. It will also examine the other sources of information relating to ancient mobility and connectedness. The long time range of this lecture – from around 13,000 BC to around 500 BC – covers major changes in lifestyles and in patterns of movement, and allows us to see how the landscape (and indeed seascape) was used at different times as a routeway. It looks at the periods when new people moved into the region, and examines the impact of these arrivals. It also explores patterns of connectivity, from the time of the earliest farmers around 4000 BC to the Iron Age, and looks at the changing reasons for this connectivity over time.
Dr Alison Sheridan FBA FRSE FSA FSAScot AcIFA Corr FDAI is a retired Principal Curator of Early Prehistory, National Museums Scotland (where she was part of the curatorial team that created the Early People gallery in the National Museum of Scotland) and is now a Research Associate with NMS, and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. She specialises in the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland and has a particular interest in pottery, stone axeheads, and personal ornaments of jet (and similar-looking materials), faience, gold and amber. She was President of the Prehistoric Society 2010–2014 and is currently Vice-President of Archaeology Scotland, a council member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, and a Board member of Urras nan Tursachan (the Calanais Stones Trust). In 2018 she was awarded the British Academy’s Grahame Clark medal for prehistoric research; in 2019, the Prehistoric Society’s EUROPA prize; and in 2020, she was voted Current Archaeology’s Archaeologist of the Year. In 2019 she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2020, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She delivered the 2020 Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Rhind lectures on Neolithic Scotland (https://www.socantscot.org/event/rhind-lectures-2020/).
Tea and coffee will be served, and all are welcome. There is no need to print out and bring your ticket, as we will have a record of your booking.
All bookings are subject to our Terms and Conditions. If you book this course online, we will hold your personal data in accordance with our privacy policy. If you do not wish us to hold your personal data, please book by post (see www.berwickea.co.uk) and do not supply an email address.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
William Elder Building, 56-58 Castlegate, Berwick-upon-Tweed, United Kingdom
GBP 6.00
