2018 Annual Conference Announced

Posted On: October 13th, 2017

Society for Medieval Archaeology 2018 Annual Conference

Grave Concerns: Death, Landscape and Locality in Medieval Society

Dates: Friday 13^th – Sunday 15^th July 2018

Venue: Department of Archaeology and the Calman Centre, Durham University

Organisers: Kate Mees, Sue Harrington, Sarah Semple, Becky Gowland and Brian Buchanan (Durham University)

Since 1990, a series of major conferences and publications have investigated aspects of death and burial in medieval societies in Europe and beyond. Some have delivered state-of-the-art research on early medieval and medieval funerary rites; others have profiled new advances in scientific research on the human body. Throughout all, spatial consideration has emerged as a connecting research strand.

From understanding the distribution patterns of grave types and the use of antecedent landscape features for burial, to charting the rise of commemorative markers in stone, and the arrival of monastic and churchyard burial traditions; from exploring political signalling and polity formation through burial display, to identifying patterns of diseases and health in medieval populations and their mobility, the location of the grave has become a rich stepping off point, stimulating and facilitating new research directions.

This 3-day conference, sponsored by the Society for Medieval Archaeology brings together established and early career researchers working on aspects of death, dying and burial from AD 300-1500 in Britain, Ireland and further afield. Members will be able to register to attend for free. Registration for conference attendance will open on the 1^st of February 2018.

Call for Papers: Deadline 30^th November 2017

Confirmed speakers include: Professor Bonnie Effros (University of Liverpool), Professor Roberta Gilchrist (University of Reading), Dr Duncan Sayer (University of Central Lancashire), Dr Mary Lewis (University of Reading), Professor John Hines (Cardiff University), Professor Christopher Knüsel (Université de Bordeaux) Jean Soulat (LandArc Laboratory and CNRS Research Unit UMR 6273 from CRAHAM), Adrian Maldonado (University of Glasgow) and Catriona McKenzie (University of Exeter).

We welcome proposals or presentations or posters on new research findings, major projects and recent publications. We are particularly keen to include contributions on findings from Europe and the British Isles, AD 300-1500. Topics and themes of interest include mapping funerary rites, plotting grave attributes, interrogating monuments, sculptures and assemblages in spatial and geographic terms, using burials to explore the formation processes of medieval power and political structures and and exploring health issues, diet and mobility with the landscape in mind. Contributions dealing with changes in burial rites from the late antique to medieval worlds, and from early to late medieval society, are also welcome.

Papers will be 30 min in length. A conference publication is planned. Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be submitted by the deadline to kate.a.mees@durham.ac.uk