24/11/2024
Next ALG meeting: 12th December 2024, 3:00pm (GMT)
‘Leather from the Ice’
On Thursday 12th December we are hoding an online meeting with a presentation by Julian Post-Melbye, a glacial archaeologist working in Norway. The project to recover artefacts from receding glaciers and ice fields there is called Secrets of the Ice and you can read more about it here:
About the webinar Julian writes:
“The ice in the high mountains of Norway is rapidly melting. Permanent features of the landscape for the past 8000 years are disappearing before our eyes. Many of the bodies of ice have been used through-out prehistory as predictable hunting sites and mountain passes. Through the millennia countless objects have been lost here. The ice has preserved even the frailest organic materials in close to pris-tine condition.
Over the course of 15+ years of fieldwork on the Glacial Archaeology Programme we have collected about 100 leather and hide objects from the early bronze age to the medieval period. My aim is to give an overview of the archaeology of these high moun-tain ice contexts in Norway both of their use in the past and our study of them now. I will be keeping an extra focus on objects on leather and hide of particular interest. Hopefully this can inspire both those of us working on the Glacial Archaeology Programme and the participants of the webinar to bring this material more in to focus”.
ALG members will receive a Zoom link in advance of the meeting to enable them to participate. If you are not a member and would like to attend, annual membership of the group costs only £10 (10GBP) and you will be able to attend subsequent meetings. We aim to hold at least two per year and members will also receive two newsletters annually with articles on a range of subjects relating to historical leatherwork. You can join the ALG via the ‘Joining’ page on the site menu.
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September 2024
Forthcoming event: a two day workshop studying and re-creating an Iron Age leather purse from Jersey
The hands-on workshop, to be held at the University of Exeter in April 2025, is a new departure for the ALG. Places are limited but priority will be given to ALG members who wish to attend. Full details can be found here: Jersey Purse Workshop
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Newsletter No. 60 for September 2024
The latest ALG Newsletter is now available to read in the Members’ Section and has been circulated to members. This issue contains an article by Esther Cameron and Quita Mould describing the construction of the Jersey purse which will be the subject of the Exeter workshop. The Iron Age context of the find is discussed as well as comparable material among the leather and metalwork from other sites.
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Index to the ALG Newsletters
1/10/2023
Thanks to the work of Jana Obrocníková there is now an index to the collected newsletters, going back to the first issue in 1986. It is in the form of a searchable spreadsheet which ALG members and non-members alike can access here. Just enter the name of an author, place, type of leather find or conservation treatment etc. in the search box and all corresponding entries will be listed by issue and page number.
Only members, however, have access to copies of all previous newsletters (via the Members’ Section of this website). We hope that once non-members realise the wealth of material they contain, it will persuade them of the value of joining!