CIfA Cymru/Wales Group virtual finds afternoon

Description

The CIfA Cymru/Wales Group invites you to join us for our virtual finds afternoon from 14:00 until 17:00 on Tuesday 20 May 2025.

Agenda

• 14:00 – 14:10:  Welcome
• 14:10 – 15:00:  Dr Emily Johnson (she/her) BA MSc PhD MCIfA – There’s a Toolkit for that: Artefacts and ecofacts in CIfA’s Toolkit era

CIfA’s Toolkits sit alongside their Standards and Guidance, offering advice for how best to undertake or approach specific archaeological processes and components. This presentation will introduce the Toolkits and discuss how they particularly support archaeological finds work. Whether you are processing, analysing, reporting or archiving archaeological finds – or managing a project that will include them – there’s a Toolkit for that!

Emily is Chair of the CIfA Finds Special Interest Group. She is a senior zooarchaeologist in the development-led sector with Archaeology South-East (ASE), part of the UCL Institute of Archaeology. She completed her PhD in 2017 at the University of Exeter,  which used bone fracture and fragmentation to understand early Neolithic bone fat exploitation in Europe. In addition to her zooarchaeological work, Emily coordinates ASE’s program of digital outreach, managing social media accounts and press releases, and creating blogs, videos and podcasts.

• 15:00 – 15:05:  Break
• 15:05 – 15:55:  Ken Murphy – Discusses his work on the Iron Age chariot burial in Pembrokeshire

In 2018 a group of Late Iron Age chariot and horse fittings were discovered in a field in Pembrokeshire by a metal detectorist. These finds were reported to Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, following which a phased investigation of the site was carried out funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Cadw and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. 

Staff from Heneb-Dyfed Region and Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, with the help of volunteers revealed that the finds had originated from an Iron Age chariot burial, the only one so far discovered in Wales. The burial had been heavily damaged by ploughing and the finds dragged several metres from their original location but some finds including the chariot’s iron tyres, lynch pins and nave hoops were found in situ as were the remains of an iron sword placed between the wheel tyres. Conservators from Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales worked closely with Heneb archaeologists on the excavations. The finds were declared treasure and were subsequently acquired by the Museum. To enable conservation, display, outreach and further research a partnership of the University of Manchester, Amgueddfa Cymru and Heneb made a successful application to the AHRC. This stage of the project will start in June 2025.

• 15:55 – 16:00: Break
• 16:00 – 16:55: Harriet Bryant Buck – Procedures to follow when human skeletal remains are identified during archaeological works

• 16:55 – 17:00: Closing Remarks & Thank You

Additional information

This session counts as 3 hours of CPD if it meets objectives on your personal development plan.

This meeting will take place on Teams; the link for the meeting will be sent in the confirmation email.

Event pricing

This event is £5 for all CIfA members to attend; this includes CIfA Wales Group supporters.

There is a fee of £10 for all non-members of CIfA.

Bursaries

There are complimentary bursary places available. To request a place, please email groups@archaeologists.net. We will offer assistance with registration costs for CIfA members who are students, unemployed, on a low income or for whom the cost of registering to attend would otherwise be prohibitive.