The Sussex School of Archaeology and History
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0
The University of Sussex Archaeological Society
Forthcoming USAS Lectures for 2025​​​​
Wednesday 22nd January 2025
USAS Online Lecture
Heathfield Down: An Alternative Location for the Battlefield of Hastings,1066
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Speakers: Dr Rebecca Welshman and Simon Coleman
Dr Rebecca Welshman and Simon Coleman will present evidence for an alternative location of the 1066 Battle of Hastings. N.B. This lecture is based on Rebecca and Simon’s recent publication of an article in the International Journal of Military History and Historiography (May 2024). The researchers will present evidence supporting an alternative location than at Battle for the battlefield of Hastings. They will examine the military situation and strategic possibilities that arose from the Norman landing, as well as the likelihood that the ‘haran apuldran’ (‘Hore Apple Tree’) mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle D text served as a military assembly point. They propose that ‘Horeappletree Common,’ with its landmark tree, survived for centuries on the downs of Heathfield, marking the boundary between the rapes of Pevensey and Hastings. Numerous overlooked 18th and 19th century texts, along with historic place names and a long-standing tradition of a Saxon-era battle, indicate a specific area once known as ‘Slaughter Common,’ near the town of Heathfield. Some of these texts even refer to the battle as ‘Heathfield’ rather than ‘Hastings.’ The researchers will analyse communication links and the topography to demonstrate how a battlefield at Heathfield Down could have played a role in the fateful 1066 campaign. The speakers hope that their research, as well as possibly relevant finds from the 1970s, will lead to an archaeological investigation of the Slaughter Common site. Should an alternative location for the Hastings battlefield be confirmed through archaeology, it would have significant implications for the broader history of Sussex.
About the speakers:
Dr Rebecca Welshman and Simon Coleman
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Dr. Rebecca Welshman is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Liverpool. She works on projects concerning ‘the literary archaeology of place’ – the study of texts in the context of geography, history and environment. Her PhD (University of Exeter, 2010–13) titled ‘Imagining Archaeology’ focused on nature and landscape in 19th century literature. She has presented papers at the World Archaeological Congress, Archaeology in Conflict (Vienna, 2010), and ‘Theatres of War: The British Commission for Military History’s New Researchers’ Conference’ (Lancaster, 2019) where she presented a new interpretation of ‘The Hoar Apple Tree’ of the Battle of Hastings. She has published in historical, cultural, and literary studies. Her latest essay, which highlights military associations in the works of Shakespeare, will appear in Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain (2024).
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Mr. Simon Coleman obtained a BA degree in Ancient History and then qualified as an archivist. He has worked in various academic institutions, including the British Library and the universities of Bath and Sussex, and is now at West Dean College in West Sussex. His work has largely focused on archives from the 19th and 20th centuries covering subjects such as literature, art and political history. Outside work he has written articles for the Richard Jefferies Society. Before attending university, he developed an interest in medieval and ancient battles and investigated theories regarding the locations of some Anglo-Saxon battlefields. On moving to East Sussex in 2014 he started to explore the question of the site of the Battle of Hastings, looking at issues around interpretation of sources, landscape changes, and the influence of ‘official’ narratives of events on current debate.
About the speaker:
Dr Sean Doherty, University of Exeter
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Dr Sean Doherty is a Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and History at the University of Exeter. His research explores past human-animal relationships through the combination of biomolecular analyses (aDNA, isotope analysis, and radiocarbon dating) with evidence from history, anthropology and cultural geography.
Wednesday 19th February 2025
USAS Online Lecture
The bio-cultural history of the rabbit, brown hare, and domestic cat
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Speaker: Dr Sean Doherty (University of Exeter)
This lecture will present new research that overturns the received wisdom on the timing and circumstances of the rabbit, brown hare, and cat's domestication and their European dispersal. It will also chart these species shifting relationships with people through time, as pets, pests, and divine creatures.
Previous USAS Lectures this academic year (2024/2025)
Lindsey Davis (Author & Historical Novelist)
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Lindsey Davis will talk about her life as a historical novelist, with particular reference to using Fishbourne Roman Palace as a location in A Body in the Bathhouse.
Lindsey is best known for Roman detectives, Marcus Didius Falco, and his daughter Flavia Albia. She has also written standalones, a Quickread and novellas. Her books are translated and have been dramatized on BBC Radio 4. Her awards include the Premio Colosseo (from the city of Rome), the Crimewriters’ Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement, and most recently the Ivanhoe Award, given to historical novelists in Spain. Lindsey has been Chair of the UK Crimewriters, the Classical Association and the UK Society of Authors.
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Please note this talk was NOT recorded
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Wednesday 27th November 2024
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USAS ONLINE LECTURE
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THE SALLY CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY LECTURE 2024
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‘Down these viae sordidae'
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Speaker: Lindsey Davis (Author & Historical Novelist)
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About Sally Christian
Sally developed a passion for archaeology as a mature student at the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) at the University of Sussex. Before her death, due to cancer, whilst still studying at CCE, Sally very generously established at Sussex University a Fund to help finance similar part-time older students, and also sixth-formers wishing to experience some archaeology before applying to university, to undertake practical archaeology training courses. Following the demise of CCE, the remainder of the Sally Christian Archaeology Bequest was transferred for administrative purposes to the Sussex Archaeological Society. To remember Sally, the University of Sussex Archaeological Society (USAS) holds an annual memorial lecture.
Wednesday 16th October
USAS Online Lecture
Plumpton Place: Research Survey and Excavation 2019 -2023
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Speaker: Diccon Hart (HB Archaeology and Conservation Ltd)
Plumpton Place
Research Survey and Excavation 2019 - 2023
Plumpton Place, East Sussex, comprises a late 16th century manor house, built on the site of an earlier house. It looks onto the nearby north-facing escarpment of the South Downs. A former owner (1972-1985) was Led Zepplin guitarist Jimmy Page. It was used as the main location for the 2019 film adaptation of Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.
This lecture will report and discuss the results of a collaborative approach to work undertaken at the property since 2019, including research, excavations (both within the building and on the moat platform), historic building surveys, geophysics and dendrochronology. This research was undertaken by Diccon Hart (field archaeologist) & Maggie Henderson (buildings archaeologist) of HB Archaeology & Conservation.
About the speaker: Diccon Hart
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Diccon is a field archaeologist with over 25 years of commercial experience. He has spent most of his career working in and around London and the South-East, with occasional early-career forays to more exotic locations in the Middle East. Since 2006 he has been based in Sussex, where most of his work is now focussed. During this time Diccon has developed a strong focus on the later prehistory of lowland Britain, from the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition to the Roman conquest. Since joining HBAC in 2016, Diccon’s work has begun to focus more on medieval and later sites as part of a collaborative approach with his colleague and co-director Maggie Henderson that seeks to better integrate above- and below-ground archaeology.
The South Downs Explored from Above
Gary is Heritage Officer with the National Trust’s Changing Chalk project. He will talk about Changing Chalk, a project looking at the restoration of Chalk Grassland. He works specifically through the lens of heritage and will discuss ‘Downs from Above’, a project that used aerial photographs, both old and new, of the South Downs north of Brighton, together with lidar images from laser scans. Not only have new features been discovered but the true character of existing features is being recognised for the first time. He will also talk about Monument Mentors – How we can work together to ensure that the Monuments on the downland are cared for.
Wednesday 25th September 2024
USAS Online Lecture
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The South Downs Explored from Above
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Speaker: Gary Webster (Heritage Officer, National Trust)
About the USAS
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The University of Sussex Archaeological Society (USAS) was initially set up in 1998 by a small group of part-time students who were studying archaeology at the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE), University of Sussex, for the benefit of other students, staff and members of the local archaeology community. Although the CCE and the teaching of archaeology at the university, both came to an end in 2013, the USAS has continued and has welcomed anyone who has an interest in archaeology, whatever level that interest may be. During the pandemic we took our lectures online, and this proved to be very popular, and so we decided to continue on that route.
Not wanting to see the end of the USAS and the great community of supporters that we have been fortunate to have with us over our 25 years, we decided in 2023 to merge the USAS to become a part of the Sussex School of Archaeology and History (SSA&H). The name USAS remains and we will have this dedicated area of the website for the 'USAS Online Lecture Series'
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We make a nominal charge for registration and attendance at our online USAS lectures. This helps to pay our speakers and zoom fees and any surpluses are added to our reserves to help fund archaeological research in Sussex. You can, however, purchase a 'subscription' of just £15 for the academic year 2024/5 (ie roughly £2 per lecture) which will entitle you to attend all online USAS lectures in the academic year, plus the recordings of those lectures that the speakers allow us to make available - please email for details. In addition we offer discounts on our conferences to subscribers and are hoping to add other offers / benefits as well. Details of our previous lectures can be found on the USAS website.
Booking for our lectures will continue to be through Eventbrite, and those links that are currently available are shown below each event.
The talks will start at 7.30pm and you will need to register online in order to receive the link for the lecture.
We look forward to welcoming you to our lecture series.
The University of Sussex Archaeological Society
