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Plymouth Archaeology Society

Search the PDAS site

Plymouth Archaeology Society

Menu

Search the PAS site

Plymouth Archaeology Society (PAS) consists mainly of amateur members with an enthusiastic interest in a wide range of archaeological disciplines. We wish to share our enthusiasm for archaeology in general and provide better knowledge and support for the abundant local sites in our area.

Visitors are invited to attend any of our regular meetings (coach trips require pre-booking) and we hope you will be tempted to become a full member. PAS is open to all to apply for membership (membership information).

P.A.S. organise monthly winter lectures by invited guest speakers (winter programme). The summer programme consists of visits to local sites of interest. These are usually guided by experts with local knowledge of the site concerned (summer programme). The summer programme is augmented by coach trips to sites a little further afield. These are usually day trips but can occasionally involve a weekend away.

We also organise workshops to benefit those with a practical interest in archaeology. In the past these have included - surveying for archaeologists, geophysics and pollen analysis (archaeology workshops).


Any damage or threats to archaeological sites should be reported urgently to either The City Archaeologist based in the Planning Dept (01752 305433) or the City Museum (01752 304774). Archaeological finds should be reported to the City Museum.


Next Winter Lecture 2024

A Summary of the Symposium

11th & 12th Sept 2021

Click to Open

Page 74

Our lectures are held at 7:00 pm in the Devonport Lecture Theatre, Portland Square Building, Plymouth University. PDAS members and University staff and students (with ID) are admitted free. Visitors are very welcome but are asked to contribute £4. Our lecture theatre facilities will be provided by Peninsula Arts with Plymouth University. We thank them for their support.

4th March 2024

 ‘A persistent place in the Neolithic: thinking through the

Dorchester complex’

Dr Susan Greaney, Exeter University


The area underneath and around the town of Dorchester in Dorset was an important place for Neolithic people, who built a variety of monuments here over a period of 2000 years. From the early Neolithic causewayed enclosure at Maiden Castle and middle Neolithic sites like the Alington Avenue long barrow and the 100m enclosure known as Flagstones, to late Neolithic constructions like Mount Pleasant 'mega-henge' and Greyhound Yard’s 380m-wide palisaded enclosure, these sites form a rich and wide-ranging ceremonial landscape spanning hundreds of years. Recent work as part of the author's PhD has obtained new radiocarbon dates for the major monuments in this complex, enabling a new and detailed chronology for the area to be constructed. This talk will present these results, and discuss their implications for how we understand changes in beliefs, burials and gatherings during the Neolithic period, including how these people may have viewed older monuments. It will also present insights that this new chronology provides into fundamental questions about what happened at the start of the Bronze Age.


Dr Susan Greaney is a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Exeter, specialising in Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and society, and heritage interpretation. In her previous role as Senior Properties Historian for English Heritage, Susan was responsible for exhibitions and interpretation projects at sites including Stonehenge, Tintagel and Grimes Graves. Susan completed her PhD on Neolithic monument complexes last year, and her main research interests are monuments, power relations and society in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age.