Because of the disparate nature of cultural heritage, it seems to me that
many terms are in use and will continue to be used which are academically
important, particularly in specialist fields, but may be less helpful more
widely. Some of the more specialist record holders will continue to use
these terms, and these will need to be referred back to/incorporated with
whatever this conference agrees upon. What does everyone else think about
this? 

Ed referred to a range of types of term that are in use, to which I would
like to add one or two more:

(1) Geographically distinct period terms, such as those for Ireland and
Scotland in the BIAB list, but also in use for smaller geographical areas
(ie beginning of the Roman period may be considered later than 43 AD for
different parts of England).

(2) Obsolete terms, including "three age" terms like Middle Neolithic, may
be used to describe sites investigated when these terms were in use, but
which have not subsequently been reassessed.

(3) Political/historic periods such as Flavian, Tudor, Victorian, etc are in
very common use particularly when recording artefactual evidence. 

(4) Cultural periods such as Beaker, La Tene, Saxon, Viking, Pictish, or
Norman (taking this to its logical extreme, this should include Roman) are
also very common. But these terms may be misleading (does Viking mean of the
Viking period and culturally Norse?), and can be geographically distinct (ie
Pictish is not easily transferable to southern Britain).   

(5) Architectural style such as Romanesque, Decorated, Gothic(k),
Brutalist(!), are all used to describe period, but these may be misleading
(Romanesque and Gothic may be used to refer to more than one period, Early
English might also be used to describe the migration/early medieval period).

(6) Historical events such as the Conquests (Roman or Norman), Napoleonic,
World War 2, etc are all used where 

Many of these terms can be useful in defining the indefinite and
consequently they are helpful in glossing over transitional periods (Beaker
for Neolithic/Bronze Age, Tudor for medieval/post-medieval, Conquest for
IA/RB or early medieval/medieval, etc).

Neither the BIAB nor RCHME periods lists allow for the use of many of these
terms. Perhaps there needs to be some way of identifying them (by type, or
as preferred/non-preferred terms?). I'd also like to know whether there are
schema available for defining these terms more fully and identifying period
spans.

Duncan 



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