Archaeology and Geology, Deserts and Harbours
A Celebration of the Life and Career of Professor David Peacock.
This film is a recording of a day held on March 4 th , 2016, to celebrate the life and career of Professor David Peacock (1939-2015), when his family, friends and colleagues came together at the Society of Antiquaries, London, to hear short talks by some of those who knew and worked with him, and who were influenced by his work. The presentations reflect on his career as an archaeologist who used his geological training to establish where many different types of pottery and stone artefacts were produced, overturning many established ideas about their distributions, and therefore of the trade or other exchange systems that had taken them to where they were found. He became interested in how modern potters using traditional methods could illuminate understanding of how pots might have been made and marketed in the past. Transferring his attention mainly to north Africa and Egypt, he worked first on amphorae and then on stone quarries and ports. His identification of the quarries from which imperial porphyry marble had been extracted was an important contribution to the history of the Roman Empire, but he also studied the more everyday quernstones that were essential for turning cereals into flour, from the Neolithic period up to modern times, and how they had been quarried, shaped and distributed.
For his colleagues, friends, family and students, with short talks by some of those who worked with him and for him.
Friday, March 4 th , at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London.
Programme
Introduction by Professor Simon Keay, University of Southampton
Pottery
Professor Michael Fulford, University of Reading
Professor Jeroen Poblome, University of Leuven
Drs Michel Bonifay, CNRS/MMSH, Université d’Aix-Marseille and Dr Claudio Capelli, Università degli Studi di Genova
Dr Ian Whitbread, University of Leicester
Professor Richard Hodges, President, American University of Rome
Dr Emilie Sibbeson, Senior Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University, who will introduce the book of essays prepared as a tribute to David, Insight from Innovation
Quernstones, millstones, marble and quarries
Professor Valerie Maxfield, University of Exeter
Professor David Hinton, University of Southampton
Emeritus Professor Wilfried Van Rengen, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Dr Anna Gutiérrez, Université de Bordeaux Montaigne
Dr Rebecca Bridgman, Birmingham Museums Trust
Ports, harbours and deserts
Dr Roberta Tomber, British Museum
Dr Elizabeth Bloxam, University College London
Professor Stephanie Moser, University of Southampton
Dr Andrew Peacock, University of St Andrews
To commemorate David’s long association with the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, a fund for the support of its postgraduate students is to be launched. Anyone who would like to contribute is asked to contact David Hinton ( dah5@soton.ac.uk ).