CIfA Conference 2016

Between 20 – 22 April, five staff from APS and Heritage Lincolnshire attended the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists annual conference, held at the University of Leicester.  Over 350 archaeologists from across the UK and abroad came to the 3 day event to listen and contribute to a variety of sessions connected to this year’s theme, ‘Archaeology in Context.’

Gail Graham and Denise Drury attended sessions on community and public archaeology; discussions did touch on whether these were one and the same thing or should have strict definitions.  Denise also attended a ‘warts and all’ session on how archaeologists can learn from their mistakes which prompted some lively discussion!

Unsurprisingly, our Finds Specialist Alex Beeby attended the session on Finds Reporting but also dipped into one of CIfAs current hot topics – developing the Chartered Archaeologist.  CIfA is currently consulting on several different models for members to become individually chartered; with no clear current leader, it may be sometime before a final structure emerges.

Our Education and Outreach Officer, Ian Marshman spent time considering archaeology in both formal and informal settings and how we as a sector can do more to raise the profile of the benefits of archaeology as a learning resource.  The key to expanding much of this work is working in partnership at a local level, something which Heritage Lincolnshire is already developing in the county.

The highlight of the conference for Jenny Young, Senior Historic Environment Officer from Heritage Lincolnshire was to understand more about unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).  Drones are becoming increasingly common over archaeological sites and their value of taking high definition images is well known; less well known however is the legislation that governs their use, as several recent (and thankfully non archaeological) high profile cases have shown.