2024 RFG Spring Meeting

Save the date for the next RFG conference, to be held on Friday 8th and Saturday 9th March 2024.

Tickets: scroll to the bottom of the page to purchase the tickets

This year’s spring Conference is being held in association with the University of Reading, and will take place in the Department of Archaeology, Whiteknights Campus, Reading, RG6 6AB.

It will be a ‘blended’ meeting with the opportunity to attend live lectures and an evening reception in the Department of Archaeology or to listen online, starting at 13.00 on Friday 8th March, and finishing at 15.40 on Saturday 9th March 2024. The meeting is being organised jointly by Hella Eckardt and Philippa Walton of Reading University and Denise Allen and Katie Mountain of RFG.

There are five sessions of papers, with 19 illustrated talks on various aspects of finds from recent work at Reading on Roman finds from the surrounding area, across Roman Britain and the wider Empire.

Please note that numbers will be restricted so you are advised to book early. The cost of the meeting is £20 for fully paid-up RFG members and students (for one or two days), £52 non-members for both days and a £30 day rate. Access by Zoom to the streamed event will cost £5 for RFG members and £20 for non-members (Please note that it is cheaper for non-members to join the society for a year and attend the conference either in-person or online than to pay separately for attendance as a non-member! Details on how to join can be seen on our Membership page).

In-person event. What’s included?

• Access to all conference sessions, finds and poster viewings.
• Teas and coffees as in the programme.
• Wine reception Friday evening and a private Roman Finds Group viewing in the Dept of Archaeology.
• Access to the Conference meal (separate charges apply).

Meeting Programme and Timetable

Day One: Friday 8th March 2024

• 13.00 Registration and Tea/Coffee
• 13.20 Welcome and Introduction: Hella Eckardt

Session One: Roman finds from the Reading area (& beyond)

Chair: Hella Eckardt

• 13.30 Philip Smither (Portable Antiquities Scheme): Roman Finds on the PAS in Berkshire, 2023-2024.
• 13:55 Miles Clifford (University of Reading): Not the Same River:  An examination of Late Prehistoric and Romano-British finds from the Thames.
• 14.20 Matt Fittock (Finds Liaison Officer for Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire): Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire PAS Update.
• 14.45 Thomas Matthews Boehmer (Roman York Beneath the Streets Project, University Cambridge): Spatial Zoning and City Planning in Roman-period York.
• 15.10 Tea/Coffee – viewing of finds and posters

Session Two: Roman finds from across the Empire

Chair: Denise Allen

• 15.40 Katie Manby (University of Reading and British Museum): From Roman shrines to collectors’ cabinets – The British Museum’s collection of copper-alloy statuettes.
• 16.10 Richard Henry (Doctoral research student, University of Reading): Fractured Britannia – Material culture and the end of Roman Britain.
• 16:35 Ruth Shaffrey (Oxford Archaeology): A guide to the metal fittings associated with querns and millstones.
• 17:00 Prof Michael Fulford (University of Reading): Silchester finds with a particular focus on the intramural human remains

Evening – Reception in Dept of Archaeology and conference meal

• 17.20 Wine reception and private viewing of Silchester finds
• 20.30 Dinner at Bill’s, St Mary’s Church House, Chain Street, Reading (see arrangements above

Day Two: Saturday March 9th 2024

Session Three: Recent work on Roman burials

Chair: Philippa Walton

• 08.55 Welcome
• 09.00 Rebecca Pitt (University of Reading): The impact of the Roman occupation on foetal, perinatal, infant and maternal health in Britain. (pre-recorded)
• 09.25 Andrea Mobbs (Doctoral Researcher, University of Reading): The contextual analysis of Romano-British lead coffin burials.
• 09.50 Dr Richard Hobbs (British Museum): The Teynham Triton – a remarkable discovery from Roman Britain. (virtual)
• 10.15 Alex Smith (Head of Post-excavation, Headland Archaeology): A Sarmatian in Britain? Re-tracing the story of an A14 Roman burial. (virtual)
• 10.30 Tea/Coffee – viewing of finds and posters

Session Four: Roman finds across the Empire

Chair: Hella Eckardt

• 11.10 John Pearce (King’s College London): Oceanus from Old Basing ­– a fragment of an arca ferrata?
• 11.35 Dr Peter Bray (University of Reading): Introducing the Roman and Early Medieval Alloys Defined (REMADE) project –how (a lot of) chemical analysis of Roman objects can (hopefully) help.
• 12.00 Dr Philippa Walton (University of Leicester): Analysing the Cunetio Hoard, AD 260-275 – new chemical and numismatic insights.
• 12.25 Hella Eckardt, University of Reading: A thousand forgotten flowers: new work on millefiori
• 12:50 Lunch

Session Five: Roman finds across the Empire

Chair: Barbara Birley

• 14.00 Carolina Rangel de Lima (British Museum): Life in the Roman army – objects telling stories in exhibitions.
• 14.25 Dr Owen Humphreys (MOLA): Sadomasochistic fantasy or sexist banter? An erotic gladiator lamp from Southwark.
• 14.50 Michael Marshall (MOLA): Torc talk ­– recent work on the typology, contexts and significance of neck rings in southern Roman Britain.
• 15.15 Conclusion and End.