This is Archaeology: Breaking Boundaries and Building a Future for Archaeology: Current Research from Early Career Archaeologists Council for British Archaeology

The CBA’s new online lecture series will bring you a range of speakers from across archaeology and heritage. The lectures will be exploring a wide range of themes and ideas around the question, what is archaeology?

Speakers will draw on their own experiences, a range of sites, excavations, techniques, scientific approaches, and museum practice to bring you the latest in archaeological thinking and research.

Collectively the lecture series will sit alongside existing CBA activity such as the Festival of Archaeology and the Archaeological Achievement Awards and contribute to a wider debate on the very nature of archaeology and how we can draw in new audiences and perceptions.

Find out what other lectures are taking place here.

Revised date: Thursday 23rd February 2023 at 7pm

This event was originally scheduled to take place in January, however, due to unforeseen circumstances, it has been rearranged and will now occur on Thursday 23rd February. Apologies for any inconvenience.

January’s This Is Archaeology event is all about celebrating the work of early career archaeologists and their work to develop and expand our understanding of the world around us and what it means to be human using archaeological tools.

This month we will have three short talks following an introduction from Dr Alex Fitzpatrick.

Valuable Visuals: The Roles of Traditional and Digital Imaging in Modern Archaeology by Dr Li Sou
Building Ties Between Archaeology and the Public at Ilorin, Northern Yorubaland, Nigeria: A Nigerian Archaeologist's Perspective by Bolaji Josephine Owoseni
Lessons from the Past: What Can Archaeological Science Teach Us About the History and Future of Farming? by Ayushi Nayak

The talks will be followed by a discussion session chaired by Dr Fitzpatrick.

Further details of each talk:

Valuable Visuals: The Roles of Traditional and Digital Imaging in Modern Archaeology

Dr Li Sou, Cotswold Archaeology

The 3D visualisation of archaeological data has been widely adopted in the discipline over the last decade. There are varied opinions on the value of such recording methods, and whether traditional drawings are still necessary when high resolution digital imaging is so readily accessible. This talk will present an overview of how different techniques can be beneficial and applicable for different archaeological purposes, particularly outreach and dissemination, using findings and case studies from my doctoral thesis and in my role as an archaeological illustrator for Cotswold Archaeology.

Building Ties Between Archaeology and the Public at Ilorin, Northern Yorubaland, Nigeria: A Nigerian Archaeologist's Perspective

Bolaji Josephine Owoseni, University of East Anglia

This talk is based on my doctoral archaeological fieldwork experience in Ilorin, Nigeria, mainly focusing on aspects of how archaeology was utilised to foster collaboration and relationship building between the archaeologist, individuals and organisations encountered during the study period in 2020. The archaeological research which involved surveys, excavations, oral and ethnographic collections and the involvement of the public in certain aspects of the processes resulted in the promotion of deep knowledge sharing and production and created further research opportunities and collaborations during and after the research work.

Lessons from the Past: What Can Archaeological Science Teach Us About the History and Future of Farming?

Ayushi Nayak, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology

Humans have been farming for tens of thousands of years and archaeologists have been studying this since the formation of our discipline to understand when and where crops and animals were domesticated. With applications of archaeological science methods, we go beyond debates of domestication to delve into how past farming was practised.