Our programme of talks runs from September each year to May the following year with monthly talks on a weekday evening. The next meeting will be in September 2024. Meetings are on the second Thursday evening in the month and are run both as a face-to-face meeting in the Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury and streamed online simultaneously using Zoom, for those not within travelling distance.
During the summer the society may run some Saturday Lectures.

Thursday 12th Sept 2023
A snapshot of Mesoamerica
Doug Stuckey
A presentation requested by Chiltern YAC members on Aztecs. 700 years of cultural development in central America leading up to the Aztec empire and its nemesis.
Thursday 10th October
Human Remains in Archaeology
Laura Dodd (KDK Archaeology)
What modern osteology can tell us about the lives of ancient peoples.
Presentation from a practicing Osteologist.
Thursday 14th November
Scottish Archaeology Again
Doug Stuckey
Thursday 12th December
AAG Christmas Party and Quiz (for fun)
Doug Stuckey (and Simon Binns)
A review of AAG activity in 2024 and a Picture Quiz (for fun) on Churches.
Post excavation investigations on the Arrow Head found (by Simon) at Great Linford Ha-ha.
The Museum session will include Christmas nibbles (please bring a plate) while the presentation/quiz and good wishes will also be on Zoom.
Thursday 9th January 2025
Making Stained Glass Windows in the Medieval Period
Ian Freestone (UCL institute of Archaeology)
Stained glass windows illuminate the interiors of many of our great churches with brilliant colours and represent one of our major sources of medieval imagery.
When and where did coloured window glass begin? A supply of coloured glass was essential to the glaziers who made these great monuments but where was it made and how did they obtain it? What was the relationship between the glassmakers, who made and coloured the glass, and the glaziers who made the windows? Why do we have no evidence for the manufacture of coloured glass in England? Why are these windows so vulnerable to the weather? In this talk I discuss the production of medieval stained glass and how modern archaeology and science are casting light on many of its mysteries.
Thursday 13th February
Reclaiming the derelict chancel at Bletsoe St Mary
David Baker (Former Beds Conservation and Archaeology officer)
Insight into the work at an early, grade II listed, Church (evidence of Pre-Norman construction).
Register for this meeting Here if you want to attend via zoom, otherwise please come to the Museum.
Thursday 13th March
Warham Camp – all the stuff ‘Digging for Britain didn’t tell you
Simon Binns
The Norfolk dig in 2023 was at Warham Camp, features on Digging for Britain. Simon was there and will tell us what really happened.
Thursday 10th April
Volunteer post- excavation Work at Cookham Priory
Keith Abbott
Keith will discuss working on the finds from the excavations at Cookham Priory.
Uncovering a ‘lost’ early medieval (8th and 9th Century Mercian) site next to the Thames.
Thursday 8th May
TBA
Active Archaeology Talks are held on one weekday evening each month between September and May…
• at the Discover Bucks Museum (formerly the County Museum) in Church Street, Aylesbury, starting at 7.30pm. Entrance is from the footpath on the side of the building that faces St Mary’s Churchyard.
• These illustrated talks will also be streamed on-line, accessible via the web from your living room.
• Meetings are in three parts: a practical archaeology session or speaker on a recent excavation; a break for tea, coffee and biscuits; then reports on the group’s current and recent archaeology projects.
Click here for information about the society’s Active Archaeology Group.