St Andrews University Archaeology Society

The St. Andrews University Archaeology Society has been in existence since the early 1950s as a forum for staff, students and townspeople with a general interest in Archaeology to meet for evening lectures. The syllabus of eight or nine lectures given by visiting archaeologists covers a wide field, and provides the opportunity to hear the latest research being conducted in many fields and the results of recent excavations.

2011-12 Office-bearers

Picture courtesy of Perth Museum & Art Gallery

The annual progamme starts with the Mitford Memorial Lecture, when an eminent scholar in the field of classical and, in particular, Cypriot archaeology is invited to visit St. Andrews to give a talk. This is also a social event for all members, who are invited to a reception before hand. The Society also has a Day Excursion in the early summer to sites and places of interest in Fife, Angus or Perthshire.

SYLLABUS OF LECTURES 2011-12

The usual venue for Society meetings is School 1, St Salvator’s Quadrangle, North Street, at 8 p.m.

12 October	Dr Michael Given	University of Glasgow	Funerary Landscapes in the Roman Period of Kourion in Cyprus
10 November	Dr Richard Tipping	University of Stirling	Imaging past landscapes: Environmental Reconstruction and Rock Art in the Kilmartin area
8 December	Dr Rebecca Sweetman	University of St Andrews	Knossos and Crete in the Roman Empire
26 January	Dr Julie Kerr	University of St Andrews	Balmerino: Recent Developments at the Former Cistercian Abbey
17- 18 February	Programme and booking form	Sescentenary Day Conference	600 years of Town and Gown: Archaeology and History in St Andrews
22 March	Ross Noble	Former Curator of the Highland folk Museum	Laying the Sod: the Turf Buildings of the Scottish Highlands
5 April	Dr Noel Fojut	Historic Scotland	What do we really know about Brochs?
10 May	Dr Rebecca Gilmour-Jones	RCAHMS	Roman Temporary Camps in Scotland Joint meeting with the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
June	TBA		AGM

A biennial One Day Conference is held under the auspices of Dark Age Studies and is now an established feature in the calendar of early Medieval Conference programmes in Scotland. They combine lectures on archaeology and history in an inter-disciplinary way. Four have been held, all attended by well over 100 participants from all over Scotland and Northern England. Four publications have promptly followed:

1994 Barbara E. Crawford ed. Scotland in Dark-Age Europe
1996 Barbara E. Crawford ed. Scotland in Dark Age Britain
1997 Simon Taylor ed. The Uses of Place Names
1998 Barbara E. Crawford ed. Conversion and Christianity in the North Sea World

The following later publications may be purchased from the University's online shop.

The Papar in the North Atlantic: Environment and History. Edited by Barbara E Crawford. St John's House Papers No. 10. ISBN 095125734
Landscape and Environment in Dark Age Scotland. Edited by Alex Woolf. St John's House Papers No. 11. ISBN 0951257366
Scandinavian Scotland - Twenty Years After. Edited by Alex Woolf. The Proceedings of a Day Conference held on 19th February 2007. St John's House Papers No 12. ISBN 9780951257371

This series of publications of inter-disciplinary studies in the field of early medieval Scottish history is making a major impact at thecutting-edge of scholarly advance, is widely consulted and all the volumes are becoming standard reference works.