The role of history, heritage, and archaeology in our lives and society is increasingly in the headlines and at the centre of conversations. DVIP Speakers Corner is a major new series of online talks that will explore how different the knowledge we gain from the past can be, when examined with new methods and ethical frameworks, or from new perspectives.
From climate change to gender, upcoming talks will rip straight into the headlines to explore the big ideas we hold about the past, and hold the space for challenging conversations with change-making archaeologists. Because when it comes to archaeology, context is everything.
Hosted by DigVentures, and supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund, all talks will be free to attend. Starting with Martin Carver, lead archaeologist at Sutton Hoo from 1983-2005, the first talk will head straight into the hot topic of how our understanding of the iconic ship burial has changed in the 80+ years since the famous excavation portrayed in Netflix’s recent blockbuster film, ‘The Dig’.
Sutton Hoo is a perfect example of how social context often drives the stories we tell about the past. The conclusions drawn from Basil Brown’s work and the 1930s have evolved, thanks to new excavations and new evidence, but also new and more ambitious research questions. What archaeologists now think and understand about this period of time, and its people, has changed dramatically as a result.
As well as revealing things the Netflix movie never showed, ‘Deeper Than The Dig, with Martin Carver’ will examine how social context changes the questions we ask, the results we get, and whether we’re willing to let it challenge what we think we know about the past, and what that means about who we are today.
It will talk explore how our understanding of the site, the people who created it, and the stories we tell about them, has changed over the last eight decades. What has driven the development of our ideas? Which ones have stuck? And what would archaeologists still like to know?
When understanding of the past underpins so many aspects of culture and daily life, DVIP Speakers Corner is a major new line-up of talks that will help to put the big questions in perspective.
DVIP Speakers Corner begins on Friday 14 May 2021 with more events to be announced throughout the year, whenever the lightning strikes! Make sure you stay tuned…
Got a topic that you’d like to suggest? Let us know in the comments!
Comments (1)
I think it’s important when covering gender to place it in context of sexist culture, aimed at regulating people based on sex. Female people in particular. Sexism and male supremacy, or patriarchy, is a very complicated ideology with ancient roots still with us today. So it is useful to really ground ourselves in the written and material records. To of course include multiple perspectives, no matter how at odds. Even relying on empirical methods can give more than one plausible answer, even if we can say there is a single (if complex) truth hope to find, that doesn’t mean we can find it right away.
Anyway just some reflections on the topic. I recommend Gerda Learner’s book on patriarchy and subsequent scholarship that aims to dig deep on its origins, though the definitive answer is not known and is maybe too much to tell, we must try. Knowing the past and roots of oppression give a key to liberation in future.
This all sounds very interesting and I look forward to it!