Resources

This page provides links to a number of interactive teaching and research resources for material culture studies. The list reflects the research interest and expertise of the staff and postgraduate students at Newcastle University, and is by no means omni-comprehensive.

Reading Group

We run an interdisciplinary Reading Group, open to postgraduates and staff from across the University and covering an extraordinarily wide range of material culture topics suggested by participants. The Group is managed by MATCH Steering Committee member Jerome Ruddick.

The reading group is now run monthly on Tuesdays. The format is a relaxed discussion lead by the person who has suggested the text. We aim to circulate the text a week in advance. If you have a text that you would like to put forward for discussion, please send a brief description of it and a link to the full text to Jerome Ruddick.

For a link to an electronic version of any of the texts and the zoom link please contact Jerome Ruddick.

Upcoming meetings:

14th March 2023 Chapter 4 The Use of Craft Skills in Historical Textile Research: some examples drawn from a study of Medieval tablet weaving by Viktoria Holmqvist in Ancient textiles, modern science : re-creating techniques through experiment : proceedings of the First and Second European Textile Forum 2009 and 2010.

Previous meetings

25 February 2022 The Contemporary Archaeology of Nuclear Waste: Communicating with the future by Cornelius Holtorf & Anders Högberg, Linnaeus University, Sweden 31 | Arkæologisk Forum nr.35 | November 2016

14 March 2022 (Please note this is a Monday) Lorenz, K. (2016). Ancient mythological images and their interpretation : an introduction to iconology, semiotics, and image studies in classical art history. Chapter 10 - The study of mythological images as threesome – assessing the experiment. p.236-245.

POSTPONED 25 March 2022 The Death Collectors: The Material Culture of War as a Means of Reclaiming Agency in Eastern Ukraine

by Alisa Sopova (a new date will be given as soon as possible)

6 May 2022 Andrea Dolfini will be introducing the text: The Mobile Phone in Late Medieval Culture by John Robb

20 May 2022 Postponed until 27 May. Gulfareen Chohdry will be introducing the text: The Death Collectors: The Material Culture of War as a Means of Reclaiming Agency in Eastern Ukraine by ALISA SOPOVA

10 June 2022 Steve Kendall will be steering the discussion around: Vision, Media, Noise and the Percolation of Time: Symmetrical Approaches to the Mediation of the Material World by Christopher L. Witmore

24 June 2022 Jorge Boehringer will be introducing Notes on Art as/and Land Reclamation by Robert Morris. This text is a bit longer than the approx. 8 pages that we usually try to limit reading to, so if you don't have time to read it all Jorge suggests that reading pages 6 to 14 will fuel the discussion sufficiently.

15 November 2022 Michael Squire’s ‘Figuring Rome’s Foundation on the Iliac Tablets’

13 December 2022 Impressions at the edge: belonging and otherness in the post-Viking North Atlantic by E. Pierce, in Creating Material Worlds: The Uses of identity in Archaeology.

7 February 2023 Sheila Harper's "I’m glad she has her glasses on. That really makes the difference’: Grave goods in English and American death rituals"

Research Laboratory

Wolfson Archaeology Laboratory

Research Resources

Published by W. H. Manning in 1976, the Catalogue of Romano-British Ironwork in the Museum of Antiquities is the complete catalogue of the Romano-British ironwork held in the collections of the Museum of Antiquities of Newcastle University and the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (now the GNM).
The Cutting Edge website provides access to thousands of records for archaeological and ethnographic tools and weapons held by the Great North Museum: Hancock and Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums. The records include high-resolution images of the objects and their cutting edges, which enable artefact specialists and use-wear analysts to plan their research from remote work-stations.
The Portable Antiquities Scheme encourages the voluntary recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales. Its website hosts a large database of small finds and a number of useful resources including a Bronze Age Object Guide.
The British Museum website hosts one of the largest searchable databases of world archaeology artefacts.
The Historic England website hosts a wealth of useful information concerning archaeology in the UK including downloadable publications about heritage protection, artefact conservation and scientific methods of artefact analysis.
The Archaeology Data Service supports archaeological research with freely available, high quality digital resources. Its website hosts a great number of searchable archives and a wealth of ‘grey literature’ concerning archaeological sites and material culture studies in the UK.
Potsherd is an Atlas of Roman pottery which also provides further links to important resources for Roman pottery studies including archives, maps and databases.

Teaching Resources

Identifact is an interactive learning resource that aids the study of Classical Architecture, Greek pottery and Roman artefacts through digital flash-cards [Identifact is temporarily unavailable.]
Inscripta is an e-learning resource aimed at teaching students to transcribe, transliterate and translate Romano-British inscriptions, using examples from the collections held in the Great North Museum: Hancock
E-companion to Greene and Moore Archaeology, 5th Edition (Routledge). This website contains an array of online resources for students and teachers linked to a classic archaeology textbook (written by former Newcastle staff Dr Kevin Greene). These include updated links to resources, archives and documents, an online glossary to test knowledge of key concepts, student multiple choice questions, and a Time Team game.
Roman Finds Group Videos. Twelve videos that provide insights into the role of artifacts in Roman life and society.
Newcastle University Teachers’ Toolkit. This website hosts an extensive range of innovative online resources for teachers including short interactive exercises, images and videos developed by Newcastle staff. The Archaeology and History resources include artefact-centred activities about Greek warfare, 20th century conflict and many other topics.
Experimental Archaeology at Newcastle University. This documentary illustrates the work of EXARN, the Experimental Archaeology Newcastle group. EXARN are a cohort of PhD students specialising in experimental ways to conduct archaeological research. This documentary was created by a team of Creative Arts Practice MA students at Newcastle University's Culture Lab. In this documentary you'll learn about the unique and vital ability of experimental archaeology to connect people in an exciting, tangible and meaningful way to the past.
Explore the Past with Us. This website provides a series of teaching and learning resources developed over the years by scholars and researchers based at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, at the School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University and at the Great North Museum in Newcastle.