British Museum Lectures: Michael Lewis & Ian Richardson on Everyday Discoveries Reshaping History

Join us as we pair once more with the British Museum to uncover the incredible stories of astonishing treasures found by everyday people and delve into how they are reshaping our understanding of British archaeology and history.

Michael Lewis is Head of Portable Antiquities & Treasure at the British Museum - managing both the Portable Antiquities Scheme and overseeing the administration of the Treasure Act - and Visiting Professor in Archaeology at the University of Reading. He was previously a Special Constable with the Metropolitan Police's Art & Antiques Unit, and is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group.

Ian Richardson is the Senior Treasure Registrar at the Portable Antiquities Scheme & the British Museum.

Michael and Ian join us for Beneath our Feet: Everyday Discoveries Reshaping History.

Every day, new archaeological discoveries are transforming our knowledge of Britain’s rich past. Most of these finds are made by ordinary members of the public rather than by professional archaeologists.

Some are chance finds; others are recovered by the thousands of hobbyist metal detectorists, fieldwalkers, and mudlarks who scour Britain’s countryside and waterways looking for artefacts as a way into the past.

Beneath Our Feet is a celebration of this growing public involvement in archaeology, and of the groundbreaking work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme managed by the British Museum in England and Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales in Wales. Its mission is to encourage public finders to report their discoveries so they can be recorded on a national database to share this new knowledge about the past.

From the 3,500-year-old Ringlemere Cup to the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, a heart pendant connected to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, and a jar of American gold coins buried by a Jewish refugee fleeing the Nazis, these are the stories of astonishing treasures, the people who found them, and how they are reshaping British history.