University of Cambridge

Department Member, Archaeology

About

I am an archaeologist with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit at the University of Cambridge. My research focuses upon the later prehistory of Britain and East Africa, with particular emphasis upon practices of place-making and the interplay of landscape, memory and identity.

Much of my thinking has been influenced by work that advocates non-representational methodologies, particularly within philosophies of science, geography and feminist studies. With these resources my PhD (University of Manchester, 2008) explored the construction and use of early Bronze Age monuments and funerary practices across Wales with particular consideration regarding the transportation and manipulation of unusual substances often regarded as superfluous to monumental architecture.

I have extensive fieldwork experience in Britain (1998-present) and Southern (1997-8) and Eastern Africa (2005-present), and since 2004 I have directed a number of research excavations of prehistoric monumental locations, including the waterlogged later Bronze Age landscape at Flag Fen in the Cambridgeshire fenlands. I draw upon many of these ideas within my current fieldwork in the UK and in Africa. Two primary investigations are currently underway:

1. ‘Prehistory of the Royston District’ examines the Neolithic and Bronze Age monumental landscape along the chalk hills of the north Chilterns.

2. 'Time, Environment and Identity in the Lower Omo Valley, Ethiopia' has revealed a plethora of unique megalithic architecture, past and present, within a region previously famed for its rich fossil record.

Throughout my work I adopt an awareness of the accountability of archaeological narratives to broader social values and heritage politics. I find participative research methodologies to be rewarding in practice, and historiographies of archaeology informative to present-day issues across the profession. Drawing upon themes first explored during archival research for my PhD I am also currently writing about the impact of the First World War upon the value, use and understanding of prehistory prior to 1936, with particular attention paid to town planning, policies concerning minorities and human rights, and the commemoration of conflict in museums.

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