Current Research Projects

• TerraSAgE - Terraces as Sustainable Agricultural Environments uses dating, geoarchaeological techniques, including chemical and micromorphological analysis, and broader landscape survey to revolutionise understanding of past terrace systems and their landscapes, and to reveal and evaluate the societal, economic and environmental strategies that underpinned their construction, evolution and abandonment. Funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council 2020-2022.
• Euro-Dag - The first European Daggers: Function, meaning, and social significance: investigating early lithic and metal daggers from Europe. Funded by a Horizon 2020 Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship 2019-2021.
• The Madinat al-Zahra Survey Project uses innovative survey methodologies to reconstruct the buried city that was the tenth century capital of the Umayyad caliphate at this UNESCO World Heritage site. Funded by the Society of Antiquaries and the British Academy.
• Investigating the nature and timing of the earliest human occupation of North America, using a novel integration of biogeochemistry and micromorphology to study the occupation of the Paisley Caves in Oregon. Funded by a NERC Standard Grant 2016 - 2019.
• Remembering Fido – Tracing the memorialisation of pets in the British landscape, an archaeological investigation into the memorialisation of pets across the British Landscape. Through the ‘Finding Fido’ project, an online archive of all the headstones, plaques, statues and other memorials dedicated to animals is being created to better understand how the relationship between humans and pets has changed over time.
• From the archive to the microscope: an interdisciplinary approach to understanding domestic organization in ancient Greece investigates the organization and use of space in ancient Greek households using a novel combination of traditional artefact research and state of the art geoarchaeology, in comparison with Classical texts, as part of the Olynthos Project.
  
• Biofuels and respiratory health - the potentials of the archaeological record. Funded by the Wellcome Trust 2017 - 2018.
• Daily activities and resource use in Neolithic Orkney: micromorphology of buildings and middens at the Ness of Brodgar. Reported in the Antiquity journal project gallery. Funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Orkney Archaeology Society 2013 - present.
• Bronze Age combat investigating Late Bronze Age sword, spear, axe and shield fighting through field experiments, combat tests, and wear analysis. Funded by Newcastle University and the British Museum.
• BATWEP (Bronze Age Tree-felling and Woodworking Experimental Project) investigating the use-value of Bronze Age axes by field and lab tests and wear analysis.
• EXARN (Experimental Archaeology Newcastle) is a PGR-led research group promoting the study of material culture, archaeo-materials and ancient technologies.

Research Opportunities

The Wolfson Archaeology Lab hosts a range of PhD and postdoctoral projects. Through the McCord Centre for Landscape and the Materiality, Artefacts & Technologies in Culture and History (MATCH) and the Post-disciplinary Experimental Glass Group (PEGG) research groups we have a large postdoctoral community including Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellows and a British Academy Fellow. We have particular strengths in integrating diverse microscopic and geochemical analytical methodologies, and in using GIS to facilitate spatial analysis.

For more information on staff research interests please visit the School of HCA Archaeology website. We also have collaborations with colleagues in geography with interests in geoarchaeology and palaeoecology, and welcome enquiries about cross department projects.

We welcome PhD applicants to the AHRC Northern Bridge programme - get in touch if you would like to develop an application with us.