"New light on the Early Medieval Archaeology of Holy Island" with Dr. David Petts.

Every year in September a group of volunteers, led by Durham University and DigVentures, gathers on Lindisfarne for the Holy Island Excavation Project. Their excavation aim is to find evidence of Oswald's Anglo Saxon monastery, following a geophysical survey in 2012 revealed some tantalising results. Over the years, some fascinating remains and artefacts have been discovered. With the working title " New light on the Early Medieval Archaeology of Holy Island", the talk will bring BAS members up to date with progress so far.

David Petts is Associate Professor in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University. His main research interests lie in the archaeology of the 1st Millennium AD, with a particular focus on the development of Christianity. He has also excavated at the Roman fort of Binchester in County Durham for some years.

BAS has facilitated the visit of a group of eight international runic scholars to research the runic inscriptions on Lindisfarne and they will be joining us for this lecture. There will be a wine and cake reception after the talk so BAS members can meet the runic team and find out how they got on  with their day on Holy Island.