Martyn Allen is well known to many in the Roman Studies Group, having talked to us previously, and as a freelance osteoarchaeologist he has provided expert bone  reports for some of our excavations. He is  currently a Post-Excavation Project Manager working for Oxford Archaeology Ltd. His  research focuses on the settlement and agricultural economy of late Iron Age and Roman Britain, with an emphasis on the zooarchaeological evidence.

Sadie Watson is an experienced archaeologist who has extensive experience excavating and supervising complex urban sites. She was responsible for leading the excavations at Bloomberg London 2010-14, and has agreed to talk to us on this work, including the writing tablets found, and to give us an update on the post-excavation work.

A World Heritage Thematic Study on the Roman Frontiers. 

Encircling the Mediterranean Sea, the Roman Frontier is the single largest monument surviving from the Roman World. Dr Marinus Rien Polak, Radboud University Nijmegmen will present case studies on this thematic study.

More details and tickets on: icomos-uk.org/events

Saturday 19^th May 2018 - Lullingstone Roman Villa and Eynsford Castle

Brian Philp, Kent Archaeological Rescue Unit, will lead us around both sites. Brian has spent 10 years digging on the  Lullingstone Roman Villa and 40 years digging in the area.

A CBA SE dayschool led by Dr David Rudling of the Sussex School of Archaeology. this day school will start by examining the development of coins and primitive currencies in different parts of the world, especially in Asia Minor, Greece and Republican Rome. Thereafter participants will look in more detail at the coins and other types of currencies used in Britain during the Late Iron Age and Roman periods. By the end of the session they should be familiar with the main sequences of coin types for these periods.

Another season of excavation will take place in Summer 2018 at Cocks Farm, Abinger. Work will continue in the area of Iron Age and Romano-British agricultural activity, and the dig will run for a month.The dates are as follows:

Saturday 16th - Wed 20th June

Saturday 23rd - Wed 27th June

Monday 2nd - Wed 4th July

Saturday 7th July - Wed 11th July

Saturday 14th July - Tues 17th July

Non-member Price: £15.00         Member Price: £15.00          Student Price: £15.00

Please click on the 'Book' tab above to book for this event and pay online

Venue : Peace Memorial Hall, Woodfield Lane, Ashtead, KT21 2BE (see below for location map)

For the last of our Winter series of talks Harvey Sheldon will be presenting the second part of his presentation on Roman Southwark. 

Harvey is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and  has had extensive experience of excavations in London since the 1960s. Harvey Sheldon has been engaged in archaeological projects in Southwark and other parts of London since the 1960s. Together with Jon Cotton, Harvey directed the Hatch Furlong excavations in Ewell, 2006-9. He is currently Chairman of the Rose Theatre Trust.

Due to unforseen circumstances Martyn Allen, who was originally booked to talk to us on Roman rural settlement in Surrey, is unable to join us. We hope Martyn will be able to join us early in  the next winter series of talks to kick-start the theme of rural settlement, which we hope to follow up with a seminar/workshop. 

Meanwhile David Bird, RSG Chairman, has kindly agreed to talk on the Roman-Saxon transition; his recent thoughts on this subject have been the inspiration for the forthcoming regional conference:  

Site Director, Emma Corke  will be talking about the results of the 2017 excavations that took place on the hill adjacent to the scheduled villa site. A magnetometry survey carried out by RSG uncovered a number of features which have been explored over the last few seasons. Excavations have revealed a human presence on the hill  from prehistory, with evidence for Neolithic and Bronze Age activity, Iron Age enclosure ditches and grain storage pits,  superceded by Roman boundary ditches and agricultural activity.