Looking to the future of medieval archaeology

Abstract

A symposium entitled ‘Looking to the Future’ was held as part of the Society for Medieval Archaeology’s 50th anniversary to reflect upon current and forthcoming issues facing the discipline. One of the deep rifts which continues to run through the practice of archaeology is the division between academic study and research on the one hand, and contract or development-led survey and excavation on the other. The Society for Medieval Archaeology did attempt a somewhat similar initiative in the mid-1980s when it made recommendations to HBMC, as English Heritage was then known, about priorities and policies for the allocation of grants. It is easier to compile a research agenda for specific sites, areas or problems than to create such a thing for a broad subject such as medieval archaeology as a whole. The impact of theoretical approaches has been considerably less far-reaching in the archaeology of the Middle Ages than in prehistory.