Stonehenge: the last two decades of conflict

This term's seminar series showcases current research by Institute of Archaeology staff tackling critical questions in Archaeology and Heritage.

Mike Parker Pearson will give the next presentation entitled Stonehenge: the last two decades of conflict

In the last two decades research within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site has revolutionised our understanding of this iconic stone circle. Ancient DNA, isotopes and human osteology, for example, are providing new and startling insights into its builders and users. The curation of its human remains, the geological provenancing of the stones, its long-distance links across Britain, the now defunct road tunnel scheme, and excessive media focus all continue to cause vicious debates amongst archaeologists, heritage professionals and the public. 

Open to all UCL staff, students and alumni!

Mike is Professor of British Later Prehistory, undertaking research on British and European prehistory from the Neolithic to the Iron Age; Stonehenge and the British Neolithic; the Beaker people of Bronze Age Europe; the archaeology of the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides); the archaeology of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean; the archaeology of death and burial; public archaeology and heritage.

Programme

• 8 October: Corisande Fenwick - Reframing the early Islamic Mediterranean: archaeology, empire and economy in the not very “Dark Ages.”
• 15 October: Louise Martin - Desert hunting ‘kites’ in the Middle East: challenging concepts of marginality
• 22 October: Johanna Zetterstrom Sharp and J.C. Niala (Oxford) - In a fractured world, what can milk, our first food, tell us about shared loss?
• 29 October: Mike Parker Pearson - Stonehenge: the last two decades of conflict

[Reading Week - No seminar]

• 12 November: Jeremy Tanner - Authoring empire, inscribing power: monumental writing of the first emperors of Rome and China
• 19 November: Andrew Gardner - How do borders shape societies? Imperial borderlands from Roman Britain to New Spain
• 26 November: Yijie Zhuang - Rice fields and the ‘domestication’ of water in prehistoric China
• 3 December: Rachel King - What's preservation by record for? Doing more with data from development-led archaeology