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Thursday 8 October 2026       Simon Maddison (UCL); The Roman Crossing of the Wye at Chepstow

Thursday 22 October 2026     Prof. James Gerrard (Newcastle University); Travelling Britannia: a materialistic and experiential perspective

Thursday 5 November 2026    Dr. Michael J. Curtis; Roads to the Sea: Exploring the Roman Maritime Landscape

Thursday 19 November 2026  Dr. Eniko Hudak (Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd.); All roads lead to… Mancetter-Hartshill? Mortarium distribution and the                                                     road network in Roman Britain

Thursday 10 December 2026 Dr. Al McClusky (Newcastle University); Finding the 'Hibernian Shore': Strategy and Diaspora in the Irish Sea Province during                                                   the Late and Roman Iron Age

Thursday 7 January 2027         Jnr. Prof. Dr. Catherine Teitz (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz); Streets and Social Life on the Frontier

Thursday 21 January 2027      Dr. David Walsh (Durham University); Sedgefield Romano-British Roadside Settlement

Thursday 4 February 2027       Gail Brownrigg; Working title - Roman draught animals, Roman harnesses and equipment

Thursday 18 February 2027     Dr. John Salvatore; Missing in Action? A possible role for Legio II Augusta at the time of the Boudican revolt.

Thursday 4 March 2027          Paddy Lambert (Oxford Archaeology); Title T.B.C.

Thursday 18 March 2027         T.B.C.

Travelling Britannia: a materialistic and experiential perspective

Streets and Social Life on the Frontier

Thursday 22 October, 2026

Prof. James Gerrard (Newcastle University)

Sedgefield Romano-British Roadside Settlement

Thursday 21 January, 2027

David Walsh (Durham University)

Archaeology has long been concerned with studying the movement of past people. Our approaches have been in part governed by the movement of diagnostic objects. More recently scientific analyses, such as Ancient DNA and isotopes, have been used to answer questions about mobility.

In this lecture, James argued that both approaches have been reductive, essentially provenancing people without paying due attention to the experiences and material needs that are an integral part of mobility and movement. Using the material remains and a broader experiential perspective provides new insights into how people travelled Britannia overcoming the tyranny of distance.

Finding the 'Hibernian Shore': Strategy and Diaspora in the Irish Sea Province during the Late and Roman Iron Age

Thursday 10 December, 2026 (note: revised date -  originally 17th December 2026)

Dr. Al McClusky (Newcastle University)

Roads to the Sea: Exploring the Roman Maritime Landscape

Thursday 5 November 2026

Dr. Michael J. Curtis

Roman roads are often celebrated as one of the greatest engineering achievements of the ancient world, but their importance extended far beyond facilitating travel across land. They formed a vital component of an integrated transport network that linked settlements, agricultural landscapes, industrial centres and military installations with the harbours and anchorages that connected the provinces of the Roman Empire.

This talk explores the concept of the Roman maritime landscape by examining how roads shaped the movement of people, goods and ideas between the hinterland and the sea. Rather than viewing roads and harbours as separate elements of the landscape, it considers how they worked together to create efficient transport and communication networks that underpinned trade, administration and imperial control. Drawing on archaeological evidence from across the Roman world the talk demonstrates how road networks influenced the location, development and success of ports and harbours. By placing roads within their wider maritime context, it offers a fresh perspective on the infrastructure that enabled the Roman Empire to flourish and highlights the enduring relationship between land and sea in the ancient Mediterranean.

Traditional scholarship on the Roman Frontier in Britain often focuses on the more visible and more easily datable Roman material, corroborated by Latin texts. Consequently, the indigenous people on the Frontiers frequently fall from view, with any agency they had in shaping the boundaries between themselves and their boundaries with Rome, absent from the debate. This thesis proposes that alternative ideas on diaspora in war from the related academic discipline of Strategic/War Studies can help resolve this issue. Using the region around the Irish Sea in the Late and Roman Iron Age as a case-study, it will demonstrate how indigenous peoples created and operated diaspora networks across the Irish Sea and Central Britain to negotiate power long before Rome arrived, and how these pre-existing Iron Age networks were central to the ebb and flow of Roman authority and the adaptation of the strategies used by Rome.

Road transport in the distribution of pottery across Roman Britain has long been considered to be a significant, but largely constraining factor. Within the neoclassical economic models for Roman Britain, and the Roman Empire, road transport has been defined as a relatively accessible but rather costly method of transport. This talk challenges this view through the distribution of Mancetter-Hartshill mortaria, which appear to have benefited from and intricately linked with the Roman road network. It proposes a new model for socioeconomic interactions for the ancient world based on scale-free small-world networks, Behavioural Economic Theory, and complexity theory.

All roads lead to… Mancetter - Hartshill? Mortarium distribution and the road network in Roman Britain

Thursday 19 November, 2026

Dr. Eniko Hudak (Pre-Construct Archaeology)

We are pleased to announce another outstanding list of speakers for our seventh season. As usual, all talks are online, open to the public and free of charge, although donations towards running costs are always welcomed. Please note that this season bookings can only be made through Eventbrite, with links posted on this page as they become available. As usual, talks will be recorded and made viewable after the event on YouTube - please be patient since this can take several days.

Missing in Action? A possible role for Legio II Augusta at the time of the Boudican revolt.

Thursday 18 February, 2027

Dr. John Pamment Salvatore

Only one of the four legions stationed in Britain at the time of the Boudican revolt of A.D. 60/61 appears, from the historical account of Tacitus, not to have engaged in direct hostilities with the rebel army. That legion was Legio II Augusta. This talk proposes that, following an examination of the relevant historical and archaeological sources,  II Augusta may not have been entirely inactive during the relatively short period of the rebellion and was otherwise engaged on defensive works at civilian sites at Exeter.

Thursday 7 January, 2027

Jnr, Prof. Catherine Teitz (Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany)

Movement and trade, encounters and performances - the street is a space for social negotiation. Juvenal satirized the experience in Rome, while archaeological evidence offers a glimpse of where and how these interactions played out on the frontiers. This talk will start by considering the street, from Roman and modern perspectives, and the ways in which the street network was interwoven into social life. Shifting from the Mediterranean to the frontier, the flagstones at Vindolanda and Corbridge offer an opportunity to 'stand in the street' and to explore how the architecture shaped the streetscape, and in turn how the inhabitants reshaped the architecture to make the streets their own.

In June 2026, Durham University undertook several weeks of excavation at the Roman roadside settlement that was situated to the west of Sedgefield, County Durham. The settlement, which was occupied from the 2nd to 4th centuries, developed alongside Cade's Road, a major route that linked Brough-on-Humber (Petuaria) to York (Eboracum) and Newcastle (Pons Aelius). Previous excavations and geophysical surveys indicate the settlement grew to a substantial size and hosted various industrial activities, although much of the site remains unexplored. In this talk David Walsh will illustrate how the recent excavation, which he co-directed, has shed further light on the development and organisation of this settlement, as well as the lives of those who lived here.

The Roman Crossing of the Wye at Chepstow

Thursday 8 October, 2026

Simon Maddison (UCL)

In August 2023, the Chepstow Archaeological Society successfully excavated a timber structure at the spring low tide mark, on the line of the Ancient Crossing of the Wye about ½ mile upstream of Chepstow Castle. C14 tests on timber samples gave dates of the 1st Century AD. This clearly confirms the structure to be Roman. A further excavation took place at a super low tide event in July 2024 where more of the structure was exposed and detailed measurements made. This work forms the core of our exploration of the Roman Crossing, including very recent work on the approach roads on either side of the river.

In June 2026 the Society was awarded a RICHeS grant to carry out an extensive Sonar survey of the lower Wye, working with Southampton University's Marine Research Unit. This work will hopefully reveal more details of the crossing, both within the river and beneath the mud banks. It is currently expected to take place in October.

Simon Maddison has been leading this project for the Society and will present an up-to-date summary of these very exciting results.

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Thursday 4 February, 2027

Gail Brownrigg   

Our 2027/8 schedule is currently in preparation. If you may be a potential future speaker, or have any suggestions for future talks and seminars, please contact us.

Working Title - Roman draught animals, harnesses and equipment

A paved street at Vindolanda.

T.B.C

Thursday 4 March, 2027

Paddy Lambert (Oxford Archaeology)

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A Roman bridge pier emerges from the mud beside the River Wye

A Romancavalryman

Part of a Roman funerary monument found in Augsburg, southern Germany, in 1990. It is thought to date from about A.D. 200 - A.D. 230