SMA Conference

Society for Medieval Archaeology 2025 Conference: Fresh thinking and new ideas in the archaeology of medieval urban lives (c.600-1600)

This year’s conference will take place at the University of Leicester on the 13th and 14th September 2025, with a keynote lecture on the evening of Friday 12th September. The theme for the conference is Fresh thinking and new ideas in the archaeology of medieval urban lives (c.600-1600).

The development of urban life is a key theme within medieval archaeology, examined from a range of angles and through a variety of archaeological materials. Today, the majority of urban archaeology, at least in Europe, is undertaken in relation to development. The pace of developer-led work means that there are limited opportunities for the synthesis of new excavations, the reassessment of existing urban assemblages, archives and artefacts or for comparative discussions of both sets of archaeological data.

The 2025 Society for Medieval Archaeology conference seeks to facilitate fresh thinking on medieval urbanism. It will provide a forum to better explore new ideas on a range of topics including, but not limited to, the development of urban landscapes, urban environments, standards of living and the economic and political context of urbanisation.

The core themes of the conference are:
• New findings: How has research on existing archaeological archives, finds and datasets, as well as new excavations resulted in new insights into medieval urban life?
• New methods: How have new scientific and field methods opened new directions in medieval urban archaeology?
• New ideas: How do developments in archaeological theory encourage us to think about medieval towns and cities differently?

Our two keynote speakers will be Stephanie Wynne-Jones (University of York) and Søren Sindbæk (Aarhus University). Details of the full programme are still in development but will be available here in due course, along with details on how to book tickets to the event.

Details of previous conferences can be found here.