Welwyn Archaeological Society

A photograph of Welwyn Garden City railway station. A young boy is standing in the foreground pointing up at the light with the station name on it. To the right is his brother with long hair. In the background are the station buildings and to the left the tracks.

Fifty years ago today, as an 11 year old, I attended a WAS lecture by Francis Pryor entitled "Prehistoric Excavations at Fengate, Peterborough". I joined the society that evening. To celebrate I'm going to post a series of 50 photos. The first was taken on a trip to the Tower of London, c. 1976.

Repairing a 1930s Roman Catholic church.

Rachel Morley, our Director, speaks to Contracts Manager Martin Nee from Messenger Construction about the repairs at St Mary of the Angels', Brownshill, Gloucestershire.

A museum display case with small white clay figurines arranged in a circle: several birds and two seated dogs on grey plinths surround a slightly taller nude female figure standing on a red pedestal at the back, with a few pottery fragments and a coin laid flat in the center on a grey surface against a neutral background.

Some 1,900 years ago a child was buried with an array of terracotta figurines in the #Roman town of Arae Flaviae, #Rottweil: 2 pigeons, 2 dogs, 2 roosters, a chicken, a duck, and a female figure, commonly identified as Iuventas, the personification of youth. Rather than....🧵1/2

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📷 me

In many ways being unfinished is very informative. It gives us some super info on how these things were built. Super photo too!

I love those hand drawn hachure plans. So much elegance and information in a map. Just wonderful.

Great culture can save lives. Literally.

Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

Trull, Somerset... others got there before me!

The Good Old Days   Pity the poor children of today, with their calendars stuffed with chocolates,   never to know the thrill of opening a small cardboard door and discovering behind it   a picture of a bell. Brian Bilston

This poem is dedicated to anyone making a start on their advent calendar today.

Me and a dalek

More perilous adventures in time and space.

🌍🪐✨ St. Mary Lastingham, Yorks - out of this world.

"This place - the journey to it, the aura, the echoes, the muted light, the Saxon remnants and the Romanesque - has lifted my anxious self into a more rooted sense of the world."

More words and 📸:

👉 www.digest.andymarshall.co/andy-marshal...

Still places available for what should be a wonderful talk.

Tonight! (28/11/25) Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews will be talking about Wilbury: the ‘willow fort’, one of the lesser known Iron Age Hertfordshire. United Reformed Church hall (op. Sainsburys), Welwyn Garden City, 7.45pm. #IronAge #archaeology @ehasarch.bsky.social @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social

It’s supposed to be a winged face, but it kind of looks like the turkey craft project that my first grader brought home from school yesterday. It marks the grave of Hannah Kingsbury (d.1769) at North Cemetery in Hampton, Connecticut, and it was made by Joseph Marsh.

Authors! Please consider what your publisher will charge. A Routledge book of direct interest to me is £145 (or £108.75p as a "Black Friday" offer). As I'm at a University, I have other ways to get it, but not everyone has that privilege. #ExpensiveBooks #WhatARipOff #SillyPrices #AcademicMadness

The Melsonby Hoard: a talk by Sophia Adams The Melsonby Hoard is a highly significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork from nearly 2,000 years ago discovered in late December 2021.

Next Monday 1 Dec 25: Sophia Adams will be talking about "The Melsonby hoard" for the Combined Hertfordshire Archaeological Societies. Lecture on zoom, free tickets from Eventbrite. www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1777827874... #IronAge #prehistory #archaeology #HorseGear #AmazingFind @ehasarch.bsky.social

Does anyone has a suggestion as to where I can get a backpack with a fitting to hold a GNSS (aka GPS) receiver over my head? I need to take readings which are more accurate than a phone, don't really need to be RTK, and leaves my hands free to operate other bits of equipment. Thanks. #surveying

one of the coolest things about ChatGPT is how you can actually just never use it. you can fill your whole entire life with simply not once using it. it's incredible.

I understand the idea of "predatory journals", pay the fee, get an (probably AI-generated) article published with minimal if any peer review, add it to your CV. But how do "predatory conferences" work? Is there actually an event? Do people fly there and find nothing? Or just go and have a holiday?

Wall monument with semi-effigy figures and ornate surround

Our latest Journal is out! Verminous cadavers, all sorts of monuments and wide-ranging reviews. Details at churchmonumentssociety.org/the-journal. Free to members - or click the links to read abstracts and order a copy

Roman coin find in Dorset field sells for over £16,000 A hoard of 97 Roman coins found in Dorset by metal detectorist Trenton Oliver sold for £16,625 at Noonans Mayfair auction, exceeding estimates.

*Archaeological find of national significance broken up and dispersed overseas*

There, fixed that headline for you

www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/2562811...

A fascinating talk about a truly stunning Iron Age discovery 👇

The Melsonby Hoard: a talk by Sophia Adams - East Herts Archaeological Society The Melsonby Hoard is a highly significant collection of more than 800 pieces of Iron Age metalwork from nearly 2,000 years ago.

The next CHAS lecture is a not-to-miss event! Join us on December 1 to hear British Museum curator Dr. Sophia Adams talk about the amazing Melsonby Hoard - and, as always, it's free!
More info and a link for tickets here:
ehas.org.uk/ehas.org.uk/...

#archaeology #ancientBluesky

The CHAS lecture programme Combined Hertfordshire Archaeological Societies (CHAS). The CHAS lecture season for 2025-2026 has now been set.  The first lecture is on 6th October 2025.  Members of CHAS are: The Welwyn Archaeolo…

All the CHAS lectures with links are here: welwynarchaeologicalsociety.wordpress.com/chas/

Just checked their website and vol1, no 1 is 1997 so after my ref. I'll email them and see if there was an earlier series. Many thanks for the suggestion.

I have a reference to "American Archaeology", vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 27--34. I cannot find any reference to such a journal, and it doesn't appear to be any of the likely mis-cites like the American Journal of Archaeology. Any suggestions? [and before someone asks, no it isn't a chatGPT invention]. Ta

St. Thomas à Becket Church stands alone on Romney Marsh, its weathered timber and brick glowing in soft light, surrounded by flat, waterlogged fields and wide sky.

☄️Out of this world. 🔆A bit of warmth and light for the darker days.
The medieval St. Thomas Becket, Fairfield, Romney Marsh—once part of a thriving village, now isolated by time and circumstance.

NEW: Epstein survivors release the most powerful PSA I have ever seen.

Make this go viral so every member of the House of Representatives sees it.

Those who study history...

AI Is Hollowing Out Higher Education Olivia Guest & Iris van Rooij urge teachers and scholars to reject tools that commodify learning, deskill students, and promote illiteracy.

“While the AI industry claims its models can “think,” “reason,” and “learn,” their supposed achievements rest on marketing hype and stolen intellectual labor. In reality, AI erodes academic freedom, weakens critical reading, and subordinates the pursuit of knowledge to corporate interests.”

Roman Intaglio ring carved from carnelian, depicting a dwarf killing a grasshopper (1st Century BC) ....

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

#archaeohistories