UCL Institute of Archaeology - British Museum Medieval Seminar

09/07/2026

Dear friends and colleagues, notice of a job at the British Museum on a critical project, hands-on with the collection itself. Please feel free to circulate to anyone you feel might be suitable and interested:

05/04/2026

Midlands friends! Rory Naismith, our October 2025 speaker, is giving a talk about his fabulous new book in Nottingham in May. Details and tickets here:

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01/12/2025

*TOMORROW!* It's our last seminar of 2025! We welcome Professor Oliver Creighton (Exeter) for his paper, entitled: Medieval warhorse: the archaeology of a medieval revolution?
Please join us in Room 205 at UCL Institute of Archaeology at 6:15pm for what promises to be a fascinating paper. As always, the lecture is free and open to all. We look forward to seeing you there!

Professor Creighton's abstract:
The image of the armoured knight mounted on his warhorse and charging into battle or to the tournament field is one of the most evocative of the Middle Ages. The horse was central to the image of the medieval warrior-aristocrat and changed the face of warfare. This lecture explores what archaeology can tell us about medieval warhorses, including their size, appearance and equipment. It presents some headline results from a research project on warhorses, and horses generally, in England between the Saxon and Tudor periods. It will consider the physical remains of horses (bones and teeth, including small samples taken for scientific analyses), equestrian material culture (apparel such as harness pendants, and
horse armour), horse breeding landscapes (studs and stables), as well as iconographic and documentary evidence, to present a new and more rounded understanding of the warhorse and unpick its complex, fascinating and ever-evolving interrelationship with medieval society through the centuries.

03/10/2025

An upcoming event that will surely interest many of you, featuring former British Museum exhibition project curator (Thomas Becket: Murder and the Making of a Saint) Dr Sophie Kelly. Details here 👇

Join Dr Sophie Kelly for a talk on the making and meaning of medieval croziers in the decades either side of the Norman Conquest. Croziers, the sceptre-like staffs granted to bishops, abbots, and abbesses across Europe as a sign of authority, are one of the most distinctive symbols of ecclesiastical...

03/10/2025

Friends and colleagues - unfortunately our mailings are being marked as spam by a huge number of recipients :(

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We look forward to seeing you at a future event!