Traces of the Silk Road in Northwest Europe
Prof Susan Whitfield,
University of East Anglia
Date: 18th of March 2026
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
The Silk Roads is often presented as a trade route between the Chinese and Roman empires but, as with most history, the reality is much more interesting and complex. In her talk, Susan Whitfield will considers the web of trade, military and diplomatic routes by land, river and sea across Afro-Eurasia and show how the activities on these routes even left traces at its very edges: in Japan and in Britain and Scandinavia.
About the speaker:
Professor Susan Whitfield is a leading scholar of the Silk Road, specializing in its historiography, art, and cultural exchange, having previously curated the British Library’s International Dunhuang Project (IDP) and authoring numerous influential books on the subject. Her research now focuses on expanding the understanding of Silk Road interactions and their impact on art and belief, as seen in her current project, Nara to Norwich. She is a Professor of Silk Road Studies at the University of East Anglia and lectures and writes widely on the topic for diverse audiences worldwide.
Image attribution – “Smiling_Buddha_(4995358503)” by Hallgren, Sören. Historical Museum/SHM, (CC BY 4.0)
OTHER EVENTS
The Unlikely Spies of Medieval Europe
Date: 20th of May 2026
Time: 20:00
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Prof Jenny Benham, Medieval History, School of History, Archaeology & Religion, Cardiff University
Spies were a common feature of political, diplomatic and courtly life in the period of early medieval Europe. In this article, Jenny Benham explores some interesting contemporary representations of spies, in both literature and art. These stories and images reveal key features of the culture and practices surrounding these so-called ‘little birds’ who listened to and passed on important secret information.
A Historical Tour of Beaconsfield – LIVE
Date: 17th of June 2026
Time: TBC
Venue: TBC
Speaker: David Green
David Green has been leading walks for the Bucks Historical Association since he was the Historic
Landscape/Townscape Characterisation Officer for Bucks County Council. This year he will be taking
us through the historic town of Beaconsfield.
The Search for American Vikings: Untangling Myth from Reality (Preceded by AGM)
Date:15th of Ocotober 2025
Time: 20:00 (19:35 for AGM)
Venue: Zoom
Speaker: Martyn Whittock, Independent Researcher and Author
For a thousand years, Norse sagas (written in 13th-century Iceland) claimed that Vikings migrated from Greenland to reach a land to the West called ‘Vinland.’ It was, and is, a claim that stimulates the imagination and controversy, for it insists that Vikings influenced lands very far from Scandinavia. In this talk – based on my book American Vikings: How the Norse Sailed into the Lands and Imaginations of America – I explore the evidence for this in the literary sources and archaeology (most notably on Newfoundland); claims regarding runestones ‘discovered’ in the USA; and the way this idea of ‘Vinland Vikings’ has fed into the cultural DNA of North America and especially the USA. In recent times that has led to their co-option by the US far-right as seen in the ‘Unite the Right’ rally at Charlottesville (2017) and on January 6th at the US Capitol. This talk will explore both the evidence for Norse settlement in North America and why it became (and remains) so important in the ‘deep story’ of contested US identities.