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Current Archaeology Live! 2019
8-9 March 2019
Senate House, London
» Timetable
» Bonus Activity
» Editor-in-Chief's Dinner
» Current Archaeology Awards
I have been attending CA Live! for 5 years now, and this has been the best one yet!
– CA Live! 2019 attendee
On 8-9 March, we returned to the University of London's Senate House for a weekend filled with all things archaeological, from prehistory through to medieval and modern finds, exploring some of the most significant fieldwork from the past year – both in Britain and abroad.
The first session explored prehistoric Britain, delving deep into our distant past, from Beaker burials and experimental archaeology to Iron Age Poulton. Talks hosted by our sister magazine Current World Archaeology took us on a tour of Petra, Keros, and the world of archaeological textiles. This was followed by a spotlight on rescue archaeology, featuring recent excavations along the A14, on the MoD estate, and at Hampton Court Palace. This year's keynote lecture was given by Dr Jane Sidell, Inspector of Ancient Monuments for London. She guided us through the ever-evolving role of inspectors, from the early days of Augustus Pitt Rivers, with his struggle to get landowners to hand over monuments to state protection, to the modern-day challenges of conserving archaeology in the face of development.
The second day kicked off with a new session showcasing archaeological science, which discussed population diversity in prehistory and Roman Britain, as well as how protein analysis can be used to assess ancient manuscripts. Our trio of medieval talks brought us the latest news from Anglo-Saxon Trumpington and Scremby, and Viking-Age Repton, while the Roman session explored evidence for literacy across the Empire, military camps in Scotland, and the latest work at Venta Icenorum. To cap things off, Helen Johnston from the Thames
Discovery Programme, which also hosted our Sunday bonus activity, told us about their vital work recording archaeology on the London foreshore.
Timetable: 8-9 March 2019
Bonus Activity: Sunday 10 March
Conference participants were able to join archaeologists from the Thames Discovery Programme for a guided walk to explore the archaeological remains on the Thames Foreshore in London. We ran two 90-minute walks for CA Live! attendees – one exploring the north bank of the river and one the south.
For more details about the activity, click here.
Current Archaeology Awards
The winners of the 11th annual Current Archaeology Awards were announced on Friday 8 March, as part of Current Archaeology Live! 2019. The awards celebrate the projects and publications that made the pages of the magazine over the past 12 months, and the people judged to have made outstanding contributions to archaeology.
These awards are voted for entirely by the public – there are no panels of judges.
The winners were:
Archaeologist of the Year 2019:
Richard Osgood
Research Project of the Year 2019:
Prehistoric pop culture: deciphering the DNA of the Bell Beaker Complex
Iñigo Olalde et al.
Rescue Project of the Year 2019
A landscape revealed: exploring 6,000 years of Cambridgeshire's past along the A14
MOLA Headland Infrastructure
The Old Stones: a field guide to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland
By Andy Burnham
Click on the links below to find out about all the nominees in each category:
Archaeologist of the Year
Research Project of the Year
Rescue Project of the Year
Book of the Year
Current Archaeology Live! 2020 will be held at the University of London's Senate House, on 28-29 February 2020. We hope to see you there for another fascinating and entertaining two days! Tickets will go on sale here on this page in the autumn of 2019.
What to Expect at CA Live!
Our previous conferences have been great successes – watch the video below for a flavour of what to expect from these celebrated CA Live! events, and read on to see a few of your comments below. We look forward to seeing you all again at this coming one!
Exceeded expectations. I was expecting a lot and got more – it's good to have access to good speakers and key personnel in the projects.
I flew all the way from Dubai for the conference and thoroughly enjoyed every presentation. It was an excellent weekend in a superb building with great biscuits.
I've been to every conference: I always expect to enjoy it, and I always do.
The event exceeded our expectation. We have an amateur interest in archaeology, mainly through television, and did have a concern that the event might be overly academic. This was not borne out, and we thought that all the speakers delivered interesting sets with Time Team presentation skills – and I mean that in a good way!
The organisers are to be congratulated for putting on a stimulating and wide-ranging programme.
View of the Beveridge Hall at Senate House during one of the sessions at CA Live!.
It entirely lived up to my expectations. The venue was excellent; a magnificent art deco building. The awards ceremony and drinks reception (with nice pastries, rather than just crisps) – and the rock group – was an enjoyable way to close the first day.
It was my first attendance and I was highly impressed. The organisation was very smooth and professional, the content of excellent quality and superbly presented, the venue accessible and comfortable.
Excellent speakers and presentations. Also met up with old friends and made new ones – a friendly atmosphere.
Richard Buckley of University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) gives a talk on how his team discovered Richard III, and the archaeology behind it, during the CA Live! conference in 2013.
Event was excellent value for money!
It was very interesting to hear current updated views from the contributors, all people qualified in their own disciplines. The event was well organised and gives one the opportunity to attend a centre where like-minded people can congregate and listen to current debate on topics.
Julian Richards (Meet the Ancestors) presents Phil Harding (Time Team) with the Archaeologist of the Year award, as part of the CA Archaeology Awards held during the evening reception on the Friday night each year.
Well-organised, well-run, and a superb range of speakers.
I have been to every conference since they began, and the range and variety of topics has been superb I can offer no improvements.