The Conference will look beyond 2009 and assess how effective our current strategic and legislative provisions are in securing the sustainable development of our landscapes and in providing for effective landscape planning, landscape management and landscape conservation. The purpose is to see to identify the most appropriate mechanisms to secure long-term benefits for communities and their landscapes alike. Examination of the relevance of our landscapes to the lives of the communities and individuals who live in, work in and visit all our landscapes on a daily basis will be a central theme for discussion.

The ability to obtain increasingly precise dates for material from archaeological sites is so widely accepted that not to have this facility would be unthinkable today. Although obtaining dates from techniques such as radiocarbon is a routine part of many archaeological projects, choosing what to date, from which contexts, and how best to analyse and use the results is fraught with problems. This workshop will allow practitioners to hear guest speakers from the consultancy and research sectors talk about how dating is being used to answer archaeological problems and improve our understanding of past. Hands on experience and guidance in the use of tools for calibrating and modelling dates is also provided through computer based practicals run during the afternoon session. A tour of the dating facilities at 14CHRONO centre QUB is also provided. The workshop will be of use to anyone dealing with archaeological dates and is aimed primarily at those working in and with archaeology consultancies and agencies, early-stage researchers are also welcome. Although the morning session will be open to all applicants, lunch and the afternoon workshop will be limited to 50 selected on the basis of the registration form.