Waiting for the end of the world: perceptions of disaster and risk
Accommodation for this weekend is at Rewley House for Friday and Saturday nights only. Depending on availability it may also be possible to extend your stay, please enquire at the time of booking for availability and prices. All bedrooms are modern, comfortably furnished and each room has tea and coffee making facilities, Freeview television, and Free WiFi and private bath or shower rooms. Unfortunately it is not yet possible to book twin room accommodation online, so if you wish to book a twin room, please send in your completed enrolment form or contact the Day & Weekend Events Office, Email: ppdayweek@conted.ox.ac.uk; Telephone: + 44 (0) 1865 270380 / 270368
OVERVIEW

What happened when natural disasters affected medieval European societies (AD 500-1550)? The roll-call of disasters during this period is lengthy and their effects were sometimes felt across the whole of Europe in a way that has not been observed in modern times. In 1258 the largest volcanic eruption of the last 7,000 years affected the entire continent, while in 1315-1321 the most serious famine in recorded European history was driven by a prolonged period of low temperatures and heavy summer rainfalls associated with abnormally warm North Atlantic sea temperatures. Other events such as the most powerful earthquake in central Europe in 1356, river floods, tsunamis in the Mediterranean and sea surges along north-western coastlines all affected specific regions so that responses by different communities can be usefully compared. How did hazards become disasters, how did societies perceive these events, and how did they react and evolve to reduce their vulnerability?

This weekend conference is the annual conference of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, but is open to all.

FRIDAY 2 DECEMBER 2016

6.15pm Registration (for those who have booked meals and or accommodation)

7.00pm Dinner

8.00pm Registration (for those who have booked as non-residential without meals)

8.15- 9.15pm Fire, Flood and Famine: The archaeology of natural disasters in Early Medieval Europe
HELENA HAMEROW Society Presidential Lecture

SATURDAY 3 DECEMBER 2016

8.00am Breakfast (residents only)

9.15am Social instability and coping with extremes of drought, wet and cold in Medieval Ireland
FRANCIS LUDLOW

10.00am Extreme Winds and High Tides: Responses to storms in medieval England
PETER BROWN

11.00am Coffee / tea

11.30am Disaster or everyday risk? Perceiving, managing and memorizing floods in medieval Central Europe
CHRISTIAN ROHR

12.15pm Drowning in sand: coastal change and crisis in Medieval Britain
DAVID GRIFFITHS

1.15pm Lunch

2.15pm Disaster recovery: new archaeological evidence for the long-term impact of the ‘calamitous’ fourteenth century
CARENZA LEWIS

3.00pm Flooding and water management through the evidence of place names
RICHARD JONES

4.00pm Tea / coffee

4.30pm Risk and adaptation at the edge of the world: Norse settlement of Greenland
ANDREW DUGMORE

5.30pm Break / free time

7.00pm Dinner

8.15-9.15pm Understanding historic risk: a key component of modern day risk assessment for natural hazards
DAVID PETLEY

SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016

8.15am Breakfast (residents only)

9.15am The ArMedEa project. Recent work on the archaeology of Medieval Earthquakes in Europe (AD 1000-1550)
PAOLO FORLIN

10.00am Medieval earthquakes in Italy. Perceptions and reactions
BRUNO FIGLIUOLO

11.00am Coffee / tea

11.30am The experience of disaster in late medieval England: resilience and recovery
CHRIS DYER

12.15pm Fear and Miracles: Coping with disasters through material culture in the Middle Ages
ELEANOR STANDLEY

1.15pm Lunch and course disperses
Date: 2 December 2016, 19:00 (Friday, 8th week, Michaelmas 2016)
Venue: Rewley House, 1-7 Wellington Square OX1 2JA
Speaker: Various Speakers
Organising department: Department for Continuing Education
Organiser contact email address: ppdayweek@conted.ox.ac.uk
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/waiting-for-the-end-of-the-world-perceptions-of-disaster-and-risk?code=O16P187AHR
Booking email: ppdayweek@conted.ox.ac.uk
Cost: From £132.00
Audience: Public
Editor: Laura Spence