Joan Pye Lecture

Joan Pye is a former Trustee of the Roman Research Trust. On retiring as a Trustee, she offered a sum of money to establish a biennial lecture series to be given by a leading archaeologist or Romanist. The object of the lecture series is to help disseminate knowledge and appreciation of our Roman heritage.

The 12th Joan Pye was presented by Professor Hella Eckardt (University of Reading) on 8th November 2023 on the subject ‘Writing and Power in the Roman World. Literacy and Material Culture’. It was hosted on-line by Cotswold Archaeology. To view the lecture, please follow this link:

https://tinyurl.com/RomanWritingandPower

The 11th Joan Pye lecture was presented by Nick Hodgson (Dept. of Archaeology, Durham University) on 16th November 2022. Nick’s lecture was entitled ‘The end of the Ninth Legion in Britain’. The event was hosted by Cotswold Archaeology and a recording of the lecture can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8wo-3A_SYo

The 10th Joan Pye lecture was presented by Dr Jane Webster on November 4th 2021 on the subject of ‘Seeing slavery in Roman Britain’. The lecture was presented via Zoom and a recording of the lecture can be found by following this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D36LJAV69gs

Nine previous lectures have now been given in the series. The first (13th June 2002) was delivered by Professor Barry Cunliffe on ‘The Romans in Hampshire: Rural Settlement and Recent Archaeology’; the second, ‘Recent fieldwork at Roman Silchester’ (21st June 2004), by Professor Mike Fulford; the third, ‘Fifty years of Roman Inscriptions of Britain’, by Dr. Roger Tomlin (Wolfson College, University of Oxford) (22nd June 2006); the fourth, ‘Understanding Britain as a Roman Imperial Possession’, on 24th June 2008 by Professor David Mattingly (University of Leicester); the fifth, ‘Vindolanda tablets: texts and contexts’, on 27th March 2010 by Professor Alan Bowman (University of Oxford); the sixth, ‘How coin finds are changing the face of Roman Britain: the contribution of the Treasure Act and Portable Antiquities Scheme’, on 29th November 2012 by Dr. Roger Bland (British Museum); the seventh, ‘The Legionary Fortress at Caerleon: recent discoveries and new perspectives’, on 25th November 2014 by Dr. Peter Guest (University of Cardiff); the eighth, ‘Settlement and Economy in the Countryside of Roman Britain’, on 6th December 2016, with talks by Prof. Mike Fulford and Dr. Tim Evans on the Roman Rural Settlement Project. The ninth lecture was given in November 2018 by Prof. Simon Esmonde Cleary (University of Birmingham), who spoke on ‘Chedworth: excavations and reimaginings at a Roman villa 1864-2018’. The lecture looked at recent major advances in understanding of the Chedworth Roman Villa, one of the best known and most-visited in Britain. The next Joan Pye Lecture will take place later this year.