CHAT conference

Past and present members of the Ironbridge Archaeology team were out in force at the CHAT conference in Bristol. A more comprehensive impression of the conference will shortly be posted on our contemporary archaeology blog.

Saturday saw the presentation by William Mitchell and Emma Dwyer of a paper on the work we have been doing at Wednesbury Forge, and specifically the issues raised in attempting to record contemporary social archaeologies. As with Jim Dixon's paper we were trying to present the perspective of contracting archaeology within an overwhelmingly university-led conference.

Star of the series of films on Saturday night was of course the Archaeology Van. This was the first showing of the film by Greg Bailey, following the project by the University of Bristol in excavating the van. The film raised a great deal of comment, and will also be shown at the forthcoming TAG conference in Exeter.