News and events

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Online Symposium 2025
Communities and Connections
Thursday 20th November 2025

Programme Communities and Connections itinerary

10:00: Introduction and welcome: Matt Hitchcock (LPFG chair)

10:15-11:00: Session 1: Lightning Talks

  • Andrew Lamb (University of Edinburgh) and Matt Hitchcock (University of Leicester) – An Iron Age silver brooch from Whitchurch, Hampshire.
  • Hannah Curry (University of Leicester) – Weird times in tin mines: exploring unusual histories in Cornish streamworks.
  • Andrew Ward (Kent Archaeological Society) – A mystery object.
  • Jacob Metson (University of Leicester) – A rock in a hoard place.
  • Kate Sumnall (London Museum) – Connections with the river: new finds from the Thames.

11:00-12:00: Session 2

  • 11:00-11:20 – Adelle Bricking (Amgueddfa Cymru) – The importance of landscape context for portable antiquities: A pair of La Tène brooches and a banjo enclosure at Boverton, Vale of Glamorgan.
  • 11:20-11:40 – George Prew-Stell (National Museums Scotland) – Beyond the Wall: New Connections between Rome and Scotland through Chance Finds.
  • 11:40-12:00 discussion

12pm-12:40pm Lunch break

12:40-14:00: Session 3

  • 12:40-13:00 – Mike Moody (University of Leicester) – Is that awl? – Rethinking the role of Early Bronze Age copper-alloy awls in craft practices.
  • 13:00-13:20 – Jennifer Beamer (Independent Researcher) – “Spindling for Weaving” — A First Look at Results.
  • 13:20-13:40 – Rose Karpinski (University of Reading/Ashmolean Museum) – An interdisciplinary study of Iron Age copper-alloy material culture.
  • 13:40-14:00 – discussion

14:00-14:20: Coffee break

14:20-15:40: Session 4

  • 14:20-14:40: Matt Hitchcock (University of Leicester) and Dawid Sych (University of Leicester) – Something about deliberate destruction and hoards.
  • 14:40-15:00: Jane Barker (University of Manchester) – People and Ponies: New Perspectives on Human-Equine-Landscape Connections in Iron Age Britain.
  • 15:00-15:20: Tess Machling (Independent Researcher) – ‘From Netherurd to Newark and beyond: tracking torc makers across Britain.’
  • 15:20-15:40: Discussion

15:40-16:00: Coffee break

Keynote Talk: (16:00-17:00)

Sophia Adams (British Museum) – Fabulous bits and masses of metal: the Melsonby hoard

Other upcoming events

We often advertise events that are relevant to our interests and would be of interest to our members here, so if you are organising one feel free to get in touch.

Past events

  • The 2024 LPFG Online symposium was titled Transitions in Later Prehistory and was held online on 8th November 2024.

9:30 – 10:00 Introduction: Matt Hitchcock (LPFG chair)

Session 1: Textiles and Lithics

10:00-10:20: Isobel Harvey (University of Glasgow): Amcotts Woman- An Enchanting Tale.

10:20-10:40: Jen Beamer (Independent Researcher): Textile Tools are Rubbish: Reinforcing the ‘weirdness’ of the textile tool assemblage from Danebury and Environs sites.

10:40-11:00: Jill MacIntyre (University of Edinburgh): The Social Economy of Late Iron Age Textile Production in the Northern British Borderlands and the Impact of the Roman Military Arrival.

11:00-11:20: Reb Ellis-Haken (University of York): Transitions and Temples: the case study of the “The Cults of the Head?” project.

11:20-11:40: Discussion

11:40-12:00 coffee

Session 2: Metalwork

12:00-12:20: Hamish Darrah (University of Leicester): Cutting edge technology: How do Late Bronze Age tools change over time?

12:20-12:40: Wenqing Zhang (University of Edinburgh): Iron Age cauldron hoards: The pattern-shifter.

12:40-13:00: Matt Hitchcock (University of Leicester): Violent Transitions – Two Swords from Must Farm.

13:00-13:20 Discussion

13:20-14:20: lunch break

Session 3: Continental Perspectives

14:20-14:40 Sarah Scoppie (State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg – Outreach and World Cultural Heritage): The Heuneburg – From Early Celtic Centre of Power to World Heritage Candidate.

14:40-15:00 Andrew Lamb (University of Leicester): The later Iron Age inhumation burials of South-West Britain and Armorica, and their potential relationship.

15:00-15:20 Chris Pare (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz): The Bronze/Iron transition: The Great Divide?

15:20-15:40 discussion

15:40-16:00: Coffee

Keynote talk

16:00-16:45 Rachel Crellin (University of Leicester): Find(ing) transitions.

  • The 2023 LPFG Online symposium was titled Leading the Way: Up and Coming Work in Later Prehistoric Finds and was held online on 3rd November 2023
  • The 2022 LPFG Online symposium was titled Innovations and Interpretations:
    New Methods and New Techniques in the Study of Later Prehistoric Finds and was held online on the 7th October 2022
  • The 2021 LPFG conference was titled Performing later prehistory: Recent work on Bronze Age and Iron Age Finds and was held online via Zoom on Friday 1st October 2021
  • The 2020 LPFG conference was titled What’s new with Bronze Age and Iron Age finds? and was held online via Zoom on 6th November 2020
  • The 2019 LPFG conference was titled Crafting Identities: making and using objects in the Bronze and Iron Ages It was held on Saturday 26th October at National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
  • The 2018 LPFG conference was titled The Matter in Hand: New Research on Later Prehistoric Finds. It was held at the British Museum on Monday 29th October 2018, 9.30am to 4.30pm. Download the programme/poster here and see details of the papers below.
  • The 2016 LPFG  conference was titled From Every Object a Story and was held at the National Museum Wales Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru and in University of Bristol Department of archaeology and anthropology on 19th – 20th November
  • The 2015 LPFG conference was held together with the Prehistoric Society and was titled Tales the River tells: Later prehistoric finds from in and around the Thames and was held at the British Museum and the Museum of London on Monday 20th April
  • The 2014 LPFG meeting was held at the WISE centre in Hull and Hull Museum on Friday 24th October
  • In 2013 the first LPFG meeting was held at the British Museum on Friday 11th October

Past IARSS prizes

  • The 24th Iron Age Research Student Symposium (IARSS) was held as a Zoom forum on 2nd-4th June 2021. LPFG awarded a prize for best finds paper to Eleanor de Spretter Yates for her paper ‘Personal Appearance and Identity in Later Prehistory: Bronze Age and Iron Age Razor Blades’
  • The 23rd Iron Age Research Student Symposium (IARSS) University of Manchester 3rd-4th June 2020. LPFG awarded a prize for best finds paper to Matthew Hitchcock, University of Manchester, for his paper “Re-Framing the Shield in Iron Age Britain”
  • The 22nd Iron Age Research Student Symposium (IARSS) University of Cardiff 29th – 31st May 2019. LPFG awarded a prize for best finds paper to Tiffany Treadwell for her paper on “Analysis of Wetland Depositional Practices in Iron Age Wales and Scotland”
  • The 21st Iron Age Research Student Symposium (IARSS) University of Kent, 30th May – 2nd June 2018. LPFG awarded a prize for best finds paper to Meredith Laing for her paper: “Making an impression: using fingerprint analysis to investigate demographics of pottery production”