Debating Urbanism: Within and Beyond the Walls
A day conference on life within and around towns from c. AD 300-700

Saturday 15th November 2008, School of Archaeology & Ancient History

Conference menu
Programme
Conference poster

A conference hosted by the School of Archaeology of the University of Leicester and overseen by two PhD students (Denis Sami and Gavin Speed) contained papers and discussion on late Roman and early medieval urban change in Europe from both an archaeological and historical perspective from c. AD.300 - 700.

Recent published conferences have seen a gradual change in focus, from ‘rebirth’ (Hodges & Hobley 1988), to ‘transition’ (Christie & Loseby 1996), and most recently with ‘decline’ (Slater 2000). The focus of this conference shall be more wide reaching by looking at urban centres both within the town walls and at the extra-mural suburbs and hinterland. By framing the urban centres in this way a more rounded image should emerge of activity/inactivity/change.

This conference provided a forum in particular to post-graduate researchers, with discussions framed by established scholars. This will stimulate debate and discussion to illustrate the ways in which towns were constantly changing and evolving or decaying from the late Roman Empire into early medieval Europe. The papers cover a variety of the provinces within the Roman world with a central theme of urban change within the following themes:

* Changing Urban Forms (chair: Dr. Esmonde-Cleary, University of Nottingham)

* Walls and Town Life (chair: Prof. D. Mattingly, University of Leicester)

* Altering Spaces & Economies (chair: Dr. J. Moreland, University of Sheffield)

* Image and belief in the late Antique townscape (chair: Dr. G. Sears, University of Birmingham)

The full programme details can be found here

The conference papers and discussions will be published as part of the Leicester Archaeology Monograph Series in 2009 - watch this space for updates!

Contact

For further information contact:

Gavin Speed or Denis Sami

School of Archaeology & Ancient History

University of Leicester

University Road

Leicester LE1 7RH

Further Links

School of Archaeology and Ancient History

University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS)

Archaeological Excavations in Wallingford 2008

Archaeological Excavations in Cesenatico, Italy 2008