The UCL Institute of Archaeology is delighted to host the 41st annual Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference in December 2019. Founded in 1937, the Institute is one of the largest centres for world archaeology, archaeological sciences and heritage & museum studies in the UK, situated in the heart of the capital.
Venue: UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Have you ever been to Hookland? This lost county, located somewhere in England, has a fine collection of megaliths, standing stones and barrows, but their cataloguing has never been satisfactorily completed, and deeper physical investigations have generally ended badly. In other words, Hookland provides a rare opportunity and starting point to explore notions of archaeology in relation to places of the imagination.The county even has its own museum, The Hookland Museum of Curiosities, which contains (reputedly) only objects found in the County under all manner of circumstances; no comprehensive inventory exists. Yet archaeological interest in this County has increased in recent years, prompted by curious entries in the The Phoenix Guide to England, and the discovery of a complete run of the journal Archaeologia Hookland found in the Ashmolean by author and folklorist C.L. Nolan.
For those intimate with Hookland, we offer the opportunity to explore and celebrate its archaeology, both in terms of its ancient and more recent past (from the Toad Stone to the pylon’s hum), but also the dark history of surveys, excavations, curses and wyrd discoveries that litter the pages of Archaeologia Hookland. For others, we encourage proposals for papers, talks and creative contributions on the themes of folk horror archaeology, the archaeology of lost and fictional places, and all things landscape punk.
Organisers: Kenny Brophy; University of Glasgow • Dr. Katy Soar; University of Winchester
14:00 | Session organisers | Introduction
14:05 | David Southwell, Hookland | The barrow is never empty – ghost soil excavations in Hookland
14:20 | Christopher Josiffe, Independent researcher | Hookland antiquary, Edgar Snell
14:35 | James Mansfield, University of Reading | A fantasy of the lay-by
14:50 | Lee Ravitz, Independent researcher | Lure of the past, Lordly Hole, Intertextuality and Imposture
15:05 | - | BREAK
15:35 | Katy Whitaker, Historic England | The Toadstones of England
15:45 | Sophie Cathcart, University of Glasgow; Kenny Brophy, University of Glasgow | Spooky stone circles and sinister standing stones: megalith exploitation movies 1957-1990
16:00 | Martyn Barber, Historic England | “People of our own blood” – the archaeology of folk horror/the folk horror of archaeology
16:15 | David Petts, Durham University | “Will you search through the loamy earth for me?”: Towards a Psychogeography of Danebury (Essex)
16:30 | Ian Parker Heath, Enrichment Through Archaeology | Wicker's New World - sacrificing yourself for fun!
16:40 | Dr. Katy Soar, University of Winchester | “The place of the treasure-house of them that dwell below”: barrows in folklore and folk horror
16:55 | Rebecca Davies, University of Plymouth | Marshwood Vale Forest – a land apart. Oral history of a Hookland royal forest
