A view of a beach, with wooden pilings in the background. In the foreground are fossilised sediments showing human footprints, which have been shown to be 900,000 years old, the oldest evidence of humans in Britain
Conferences

Community Archaeology 2024: Coast Climate and Community Conference

6 April 2024 at the University of East Anglia

Norfolk is a coastal county with a vast array of heritage found on its coastal fringe. From tools and footprints, found at Happisburgh, dating from around 900,000 years ago, through to 20th century military installations placed to protect against invasion, much of this heritage is vulnerable to erosion.

With climate change, rates of erosion are set to rise through increased sea level height and
stronger storms resulting more energy in weather systems. Storm and surge events, such as those experienced on the coast in the 1953 floods and 2013 Christmas storms are likely to become more common and their destructive potential will result in loss of archaeological sites and structures. River systems will also change with a likelihood of more volatile events creating more inland floods and in some parts of the county, such as the Fens and the Broads, the salination of underlying freshwater conditions which are currently preserving archaeological and palaeoenvironmental deposits. How can communities deal with these losses?

We will hear from community archaeology practitioners, academics, health specialists, and there
will be an opportunity to take part in a Training Workshop on recording archaeology on the coast
led by the Nautical Archaeology Society.

There will also be an invitation to participate in the inaugural meeting of the Norfolk Community
Archaeology Forum, being proposed as a new space for conversations and skill sharing for all those interested in community archaeology in Norfolk.

Speakers and workshop participants will include:

– Andrew Farrell, Project Director, Broads Authority
– Neil Redfern, Executive Director of the Council for British Archaeology
– Laura Drysdale, Director of the Restoration Trust
– Andy Hutcheson, Research Fellow in the Centre for Archaeology and Heritage at the
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Culture, UEA
– Mike Pinner, Chair of the Caistor Roman Project
– Michael Curtis, Trustee and Executive Board Member of the Nautical Archaeology Society
– Joanne Clarke, Hon Professor of Archaeology at UEA and contributor to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
– Claire Harris, MOLA, Deep History Detectives Re-mixed and Pathways to Ancient Britain

Booking now at https://www.nnas.info/activities/#conferences.

  • Waged tickets £25, including lunch.
  • Unwaged tickets £12.50, including lunch.
  • Virtual attendance tickets £12.50