Splintered and oblivious to theory- yes but British post-medieval
archaeology has never been especially parochial - a lot less I would say
than the US and certainly many Continental countries. SPMA has had
conferences in Holland and Belgium for example, and even had an almost
forgotten  session at SHA long before the 1997 joint meeting. I can think of
a long list of the over 60s who studied forts, vernacular buildings,
ceramics, and other things on the Continent. It is difficult to go anywhere
where Geoff Egan hasn't visited or David Barker or David Gaimster are not
known. I have been to isolated little museums on the Continent where people
still ask after Ken Barton or John Hurst. There is more contact now with the
US though one reason is the number of middle aged archies in Britain who
haven't got children and cheaper airfares. Also the Americans produce more
books- you couldn't fill a  shelf in the 70s now I have 3 large bookcases
full plus several heaps and I have long stopped buying everything that came
out. The acceptance in academia is new and exciting but one must give due to
those who did international work without the benefit of grants and academic
support. Yes we could do more but people need to do what ken barton did and
study lanuages at night school. However, it is expensive to keep up with
international scholarship. I was also nearly divorced on my honeymoon when I
emerged from a bookshop in Groningen with an enormous copy of Jacob de
Gheyn's exercise of arms book ( we had no car I should add).

paul courtney
leicester, UK



----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Hicks" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2002 8:24 PM
Subject: Re: MA Programs in UK


> D. Babson wrote
> > Interesting that we see these two new programs announced on the same day
>
> Absolutely! These really are exciting and fast-moving times in British
> historical
> archaeology...and these new MAs are one aspect of this.
>
> A glance, for instance, at the programme for the forthcoming SPMA
conference
> in Southampton
> in April (latest version copied below for anyone who missed Adrian Green's
> last posting) demonstrates how historical archaeology in Britain is
starting
> to shake off
> previous parochial perspectives, and to find a new, more confident voice.
>
> Dan Hicks
> University of Bristol
> www.fieldschool.net
>
> ...................
> SPMA PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME FOR SOUTHAMPTON APRIL 2001 - full details from
> [log in to unmask]
>
> DAY 1: Thursday April 18, 2002
>
> The Social World of Urban Places
>
> Out of the Meres: The Emergence of the Fenland Towns
> Quinton Caroll, Historic Towns of Cambridgeshire
>
> Death, Burial and commemoration: an archaeological perspective on urban
> cemetries
> Harold Mytum, York University
>
> Armies, Militias and Urban Landscapes
> Paul Courtney
>
> Sheffield slums / North American contexts
> Paul Belford, Ironbridge Institute
>
> Housing the Eighteenth-century Industrial City: London's workshop
tenements
> Peter Guillery, English Heritage
>
>
> The Material World of Urban Places
>
> Durham City: buildings and social relations 1550-1750
> Adrian Green, University of Durham
>
> Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Walls
> John Nolan, Northern Counties Archaeological Services
>
> Guildford – Historical Archaeology in a Post-Medieval Market Town
> Mary Alexander, Guildford Museum
>
> Manchester – Historical Archaeology in a Northern Industrial City
> Robina McNeil, University of Manchester
>
> Goldney, Bristol – An 18th century urban garden in the Atlantic World
> Dan Hicks, University of Bristol
>
> Adaptation or Appropriation – Housing the Processional City
> Roger Leech, University of Southampton
>
> Keynote Speaker
>
> Politeness and the Shaping of Urban Space in Britain 1700-2000
> Peter Borsay, University of Wales, Lampeter
>
>
>
> DAY 2: Friday April 19, 2002
>
> Resource Issues: Brownfield Sites and the Archaeology of the Recent Past
> Interpreting and Preserving the Recent Past
> Introduced by James Symonds, University of Sheffield
>
> Tales From The City: Brownfield Archaeology - a Worthwhile Challenge?
> James Symonds, University of Sheffield
>
> Stories That Matter:  Material Lives in 19th-Century Boston and Lowell,
> Massachusetts, USA.
> Mary Beaudry,  Boston University
>
> Making City Lives: Urban Archaeology and Australian Social, Cultural and
> Urban History
> Grace Karskens, University of New South Wales
>
> From the Mythical to the Mundane: the Archaeological Angle on New York
> City's Five Points
> Rebecca Yamin, Director of the Five Points Project, John Milner
Associates,
> Philadelphia
>
>
> Urban Places in a Global Context: the Northern Atlantic World
>
> Port Cities in the World: Maritime Urban Networks in Europe's Northern
Seas
> 1850-1914
> Graeme Milne, University of Newcastle
>
> Cultural Politics and Urban Aggrandisement: Newcastle upon Tyne and Malmö
> since 1945
> Natasha Vall, Northumbria University
>
> Nantes, Spain and the Atlantic World in the Sixteenth Century
> Elizabeth Tingle, University College Northampton
>
> Le paysage urbain d'Angers
> Dominique Letellier, le Service regional de L’Inventaire des Pays de la
> Loire, Angers
>
> "Urbanization" on the Periphery: Speculative Development in Ulster and the
> Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century
> Audrey Horning, Queen's University Belfast
>
> Evolution of the Urban Landscape of Oranjestad, St. Eustatius in the
Eastern
> Caribbean
> Richard Grant Gilmore III, Institute of Archaeology, University College
> London
>
>
> Urban Places in a Global Context: Africa and beyond
>
> Cities in Africa
> Mark Horton, University of Bristol
>
> Townsmen in the making: social engineering and citizenship in Dar es
Salaam,
> 1945-1961
> Andrew Burton, British Institute in Eastern Africa
>
> Rural-Urban Interactions: The Role of District Capitals as Small Towns in
> Rural Development in Environmental Determinism, Archaeology and History:
> rethinking the demise of Great Zimbabwe, 1450-1550
> Innocent Pikirayi, University of Zimbabwe
>
> The Changing Views on the Role of Small Towns in Rural and Regional
> Development in Africa
> George Owusu, Norwegian University of Science and Technonology
>
> Central Place Functions and Urban Location Theory: Tools to assess the
> development of towns on a colonial frontier (Australia)
> Gaye Nayton
>
> Landscapes of Memory in the Colonial City: Building History in Imperial
> India
> David Petts, Oxford Archaeological Unit
>
>
> Research frameworks: future directions for the historical archaeology of
> cities, 1500-2000
> Discussion and summing up
> Panel - Historical Archaeologists from Africa, Australia, Europe and North
> America
>
>
> DAY 3: Saturday April 20, 2002
>
> Morning
>
> Walking tour of Southampton – with an especial focus on the maritime city
of
> the 18th to the 20th centuries
>
> Lunchtime – travel by train to Portsmouth some 20 miles to the east of
> Southampton
>
> Afternoon to early evening
>
> Walking tour of Portsmouth (for delegates who missed the Society’s joint
> meeting with the Royal Archaeological Institute in 2000) – with an
especial
> focus on the naval and dockyard city and suburbs of the 17th to 20th
> centuries – with an opportunity to see the Naval Dockyard, the Mary Rose
and
> HMS Victory.