Archaeology and History

Photo of Professor Stephen Rippon

Professor Stephen Rippon

Professor of Landscape Archaeology

S.J.Rippon@exeter.ac.uk

4353

01392 724353

Overview

I am a landscape archaeologist with interests focused on the Roman and medieval periods in Britain and mainland North West Europe. My early work focused on the history of wetland reclamation and explored how human communities changed from simply exploiting the rich natural resources that wetlands have to offer, through modifying these environments to make them more suitable for agriculture, to fully transforming them through reclamation. 

My current research is exploring the origin and development of regional variation in landscape character from the Roman period through to the present day. I use interdisciplinary analysis of archaeological, cartographic, documentary, place-name and architectural evidence, with examples published in Beyond the Medieval Village: The Diversification of Landscape Character in Southern Britain (2008),  Making Sense of An Historic Landscape (2012), The Fields of Britannia (2015), and Kingdom, Civitas and County (2018).

I am also developing a range of interdisciplinary approaches to studying the landscape, some of which are included in Historic Landscape Analysis (2004 [reprinted 2008; Second, revised Edition 2013]). I have worked collaboratively with historians, for example with Peter Claughton in Mining in a Medieval Landscape: The Royal Silver Mines of the Tamar Valley (2009), and John Blair in  Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape (2020).  I also work closely with palaeoenvironmental specialists, for example in reconstructing past patterns of land use (eg my current project Manifestations of Empire with Tudur Davis and Andy Season; and see  'Beyond villages and open fields: the origins and development of a historic landscape characterised by dispersed settlement in South West England': Medieval Archaeology 50, 2006).

My recent major AHRC-funded Exeter: A Place in Time project was a collaboration with the University of Reading, Cotswold Archaeology, Exeter City Council, and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum. We have written up four of the major excavations carried out in Exeter during the 1970s, and carried out programmes of modern scientific analysis on a range of artefact types including pottery, archaeometallurgical debris, and animal bones. Other contributions to the two volumes (published by Oxbow Books in 2021) include an overview of the dendrochonological work carried out in Exeter, studies of the Roman animal bones, coins, querns and pottery, and the medieval pottery and human remains from four cemeteries.

I also hold a Heritage Lottery Fund grant to support public engagement in achaeology through the Understanding Landscapes Project.

My current major externally funded project is Hidden Kingdoms: an exploration of what happened to landscape and society on South West England at the end of the Roman period.

I have served as the University's Dean of the University's Faculty of Graduate Research, President of the Medieval Settlement Research Group, Treasurer of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, and Chairman of the Severn Estuary Levels Research Committee and the Council for British Archaeology South West Region. I am currently President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology.

At undergraduate and masters level I teach on the landscapes of Roman and medieval Britain. I supervise research students (PhD, MPhil, MA by Research, and research degrees by Publication) across a wide range of topics in the fields of medieval and landscape archaeology.

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Research

I have research interests across the Roman, medieval and post-medieval periods, particularly in the area of landscape archaeology.

I have a particular interest in the Roman-medieval transition, with some of my earliest research examining landscapes South East and South West Britain (eg Essex Archaeology and History 22 (1991) and in The Severn Estuary: the Evolution of a Wetland Landscape (1997). More recently, a Leverhulme Trust grant funded a major overview of the palaeoenvironmental  analyses that cover the Roman to early medieval periods, and the relationship between excavated Romano-British and medieval field systems (The Fields of Britannia project). Long-term continuities in territorial structures across eastern England were explored in Kingdom, Cvitas and County (2021), and I am currently exploring the Roman to medieval transition across the South-West of England in the Hidden Kingdoms project.

The exploitation of physically 'marginal' landscapes is another major research theme, which has been explored in the contrasting landscapes such as the uplands of the Greater Exmoor region, and wetlands such as the North Somerset Levels (see Landscape, Community and Colonisation, 2006) and Glastonbury Abbey's manor at Meare in the Somerset Levels. My early work focused on the history of wetland reclamation and explored how human communities changed from simply exploiting the rich natural resources that wetlands have to offer, through modifying these environments to make them more suitable for agriculture, to fully transforming them through reclamation. My initial projects were in and around the Severn Estuary in SW Britain and were published in The Gwent Levels: The Evolution of a Wetland Landscape (1996) and The Severn Estuary: Landscape Evolution and Wetland Reclamation (1997). This was followed by a major comparative study of NW Europe, published in The Transformation of Coastal Wetlands (2000). Major fieldwork projects include Landscape, Community and Colonisation: The North Somerset Levels During the 1st to 2nd Millennia AD (2006). More recently I have worked on the South Essex Marshes (that included an AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship) the results of which have been published in the journal Landscape Research vol 38.ii (2013).

I also have a long standing interest in the characterisation of historic landscapes, having undertaken the Gwent Levels Historic Landscape Study for Cadw and the Countryside Council for Wales (published in 1996 as The Gwent Levels: The Evolution of a Wetland Landscape), with fiuther work on that landscape published in Beyond the Medieval Village (2008). I have supervised numerous PhD students who have carried out characterisation-based research in Devon and elsewhere, and advised the English Heritage historic landscape characterisation of Somerset. I have published a revised second edition of the Council for British Archaeology Handbook on Historic Landscape Analysis: Deciphering the Countryside. I was awarded an AHRC KTF grant in 2009 for a project called Our Wetland Heritage, working with Essex County Council and the RSPB in the development of a new nature reserve in southern Essex (a paper from which has recently been published in the journal Landscapes (vol 38.ii, 2013).

Along with Research Fellows Peter Claughton and Chris Smart, I have also also undertaken research into medieval silver mining in Devon, notably at Bere Ferrers by the Tamar Valley. This strongly inter-disciplinary project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, and was published as Mining in a Medieval Landscape: the Royal Silver Mines of the Tamar Valley (2009). An exciting but unexpected discovery at Calstock was only the third fort to be found in Cornwall,and more fieldwork there is being carried out as part of he Understanding Landscapes project funded by the Hertitag Lottery Fund..

I was co-director of a major collaborative project, funded by a substantial Arts and Humanities Research Board grant, looking at the origins and development of dispersed medieval settlement patterns in the Whittlewood region of the West Midlands. Since then I have broadened my interest in the origins and development regional variation in landscape character to consider why villages and open fields were only found in a broad swathe of central England (running from the Dorset coast, up through the East Midlands, to the North East), and how landscape developed in areas to the east and west of this. These ideas are published in ‘Beyond the Medieval Village’ (2008) and Making Sense of a Historic Landscape (2013). The latter is part methodological – exploring how a landscape archaeologist and historian goes about their trade – and partly thematic, in investigating when and why a major boundary in landscape character – the Blackdown Hills on the Devon/Dorset/Somerset borders – came into being.

Alongside historian Professor John Blair at the University of Oxford, I have researched the extent and significance of Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape (2020). This project was supported by another major grant from the Leverhulme Trust.

Three projects show the impact that my research is having on the management of historic landscapes and their presentation to the public. An Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellowship allowed me to work with Essex County Council and the RSPB to study the historic landscape of a new nature reserve on the South Essex Marshes, on the north back of the Thames Estuary east of London. Interest in that project led Southend-on-Sea Borough Council to commission a similar study of the Stonebridge area where there are plans to enhance public access to the countryside. I also advised the Olympic Legacy Company, Essex County Council and Wessex Archaeology on future plans for one of the Olympic venues (the Mountain Biking venue at Hadleigh Farm in Essex). I currently hold a major National Lottery Heritge Fund grant to support public engagement in archaeology at Ipplepen in South Devon and Bere Ferrers and Calstock in the Tamar Valley through the Understanding Landscapes project.



Research collaborations

I have had interdisciplinary research collaborations with geographers, palaeoenvironmentalists, and historians: recent such project include:

Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape -  a collaboration with Professsor John Blair at the University of Oxford.

Exeter: A Place in Time: a collaboration with the University of Reading, Cotswold Archaeology, Historic England, Exeter City Council. and the Royal Abert Memorial Museum.

Manifestations of Empire: a collaboration with Dr Andy Seaman of Cardiff University.

Understanding Landscapes: in partnership with the British Museum/Portable Antiquities Scheme, Cotswold Archaeology, Devon County Council, the Devon Learning Recobery Community, Calstock Parish Council, the National Trust, and local community groups supporting assylum seekers and refugees based in Plymouth.

Hidden Kingdoms: a collaboration with Dr Andy Seaman of Cardiff University, and Dr John Naylor (Portable Antiquities Scheme).

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Supervision

I supervise research students studying a range of topics across a broad range of fields including:

  • Romano-British, medieval and post medieval landscapes
  • The archaeology of South West Britain
  • The Roman to medieval transition
  • Wetland archaeology and landscapes
  • Historic landscape characterisation

Please contact me on s.j.rippon@ex.ac.uk if you are interested in undertaking research.

To find out more about studying for a research degree with us, please see our Graduate School pages at http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/graduateschool/’. 

Research students

1996 – 1999: David Musgrove, PhD, The Medieval Exploitation of the Peat Moors of the Somerset Levels (co-supervised with Prof Bryony Coles)

1998 – 2002: Martin Gillard, PhD, (co-supervised with Dr Bob Higham) The Medieval Landscape of the Exmoor Region: Enclosure and Settlement of an Upland Fringe

2001 – 2005: Judith Cannell, PhD, The Archaeology of Woodland Exploitation in the Greater Exmoor Area in the Historic Period

2002 – 2006: Adam Wainwright, PhD, Created Landscapes: Using the Past in Post-medieval Designed Landscapes (AHRC studentship, co-supervised with Dr Oliver Creighton)

2001 – 2006: Brynmor Morris, PhD, The Roman-Medieval Transition in the Essex Landscape: A Study of Persistence, Continuity and Change

2001 – 2007: Lucy Ryder, PhD, Change and Continuity: A Study in the Historic Landscape of Devon (co-supervised with Prof Tony Brown in Geography)

200 2 – 2008: Chris Smart, PhD, Continuity over Crisis: The Landscapes of South Gloucestershire and South East Somerset in the Late and Post-Roman Periods (AHRC studentship)

2004 – 2008: Alan Lambourne, PhD: A Puzzle Indeed: A Study of the Incidence and Origins of Regional variation within the Historic Landscape of Southern England

2011 (June-November): Robert van de Noort, PhD by Publication: North Sea Archaeologies

2008 - 2012: Richard Sandover, PhD: The Evolution of the Historic landscape of Devon

2009-2013: Duncan Wright, PhD (AHRC BGP studentship) The landscape of Middle Saxon England

2011 – 2012: Bob Silvester (PhD by Publication): Landscape Archaeology in Wales

2007 – 2014 (part time: Lesley Harding, MPhil: Water as a Resource: The Significance of Milling in the Early Medieval Landscape of the South-West Midlands of England (co-supervised with Prof M Aston)

2009 (April) – present (part time) Jo Pye, PhD: The Landscape of Place-names in Cornwall

2009-2016 (part time): Gill Cobley, PhD: The history of archaeology in Devon

2009-2013: Fiona Fleming, Field of Britannia Project studentship, PhD: A Persistence of Place: A Study of Continuity and Regionality in Roman to Early Medieval Settlement Transition across the Rural Provinces of Britannia

2010-2014: Kate Mees (AHRC BGP studentship), PhD: The The early medieval funerary reuse of prehistoric and Romano-British landscapes in Wessex

2010-2014: Owain Connors, PhD: The landscapes of lordship in Wales

2011- 2018 (part-time): Maddy Knibb, PhD: Field-names in Somerset

2012-2020 (part-time): Phil Treveil, PhD: Local and regional variation in landscape character: the significance of the Tamar Valley.

2013-2020 (part time): Andy Margetts, PhD: Specialist Grazing Settlements

2015-2019: Eddie Procter, PhD: Monastic Landscapes in the Welsh Marches

2016-2022: Nikki Vousden: The Early Medieval Church in SW Wales and SW England

2016-present: Peter Northover, Landscapes of Late Enclosure in Dorset

2021-present: Wil Partridge: Romano-British pewter

2022-present: Kelly Wetherick: Historic landscape character and agricultural buildings on the Isle of Wight

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Publications

Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.

| To Appear | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2003 | 2001 | 1998 | 1997 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 |

To Appear

  • Rippon SJ. “Uncommonly rich and fertile” or “not very salubrious”? The Perception and Value of Wetland Landscapes’, Landscapes, volume 10, pages 31-60.

2023

  • Rippon S. (2023) Dengie, Ythancaestir and Othona: the early medieval landscape context of St Peter-on-the-Wall, St Peter-on-the-Wall, UCL Press, 78-109.

2022

2021

  • Rippon S. (2021) Battling the tides: the Severn Estuary wetlands during the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods, Martin’s Environment: Archaeology and Landscapes. Papers in honour of Professor Martin Bell on the occasion of his retirement and 68th birthday, pages 9-17.
  • Rippon S. (2021) Communities, continuity, and change: territorial identities in early medieval southern Britain, European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies, volume 11, pages 25-58.
  • Rippon S, Holbrook N. (2021) Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter Exeter, A Place in Time Volume II, Oxbow Books.
  • Rippon S, Holbrook N. (2021) Roman and Medieval Exeter and their Hinterlands From Isca to Escanceaster: Exeter, A Place in Time Volume I, Oxbow Books.

2020

  • Rippon S. (2020) Landscape analysis, The Routledge Handbook of Global Historical Archaeology, Routledge, 536-552.
  • Rippon S, Morton B. (2020) Review of medieval settlement research 2007-16, Medieval Settleent Research, volume 35, pages 1-13.
  • Treveil P. (2020) Local and Regional Variation in Landscape Character: The Significance of the Tamar Valley to the Historic Landscape of East Cornwall and West Devon.
  • Margetts A. (2020) The wandering herd: The medieval cattle economy of South-East England c.450−1450.
  • Rippon S. (2020) Exeter: A Place in Time. [PDF]
  • Rippon SJ, BLair J, Smart C. (2020) Planning in the Early Medieval Landscape, Liverpool University Press.

2019

  • Rippon S, Fyfe R. (2019) Variation in the Continuity of Land-Use Patterns through the First Millennium AD in Lowland Britain, Environment and Society in the Long Late Antiquity, 135-154, DOI:10.1163/9789004392083_010.
  • Griffiths C, Hooke D, Peterken G, Silvester B, Rippon S, Hooke D, Stamper P, Shannon WD, Hawkins H, Hodgson J. (2019) Reviews, Landscape History, volume 40, no. 1, pages 110-124, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2019.1600948.
  • Rippon S. (2019) The Fields of Britannia: continuity and change within the early medieval landscape, Living Off the Land, Oxbow, 15-37.
  • Rippon S. (2019) Continuity and change: The field systems and patterns of land-use in early medieval England, Studia Historica, Historia Medieval, volume 37, no. 1, pages 7-27, DOI:10.14201/shhme2019371727.
  • Lauritsen ML. (2019) Exeter from Fort to City: a faunal perspective.
  • Procter E. (2019) The topographical legacy of the medieval monastery: evolving perceptions and realities of monastic landscapes in the southern Welsh Marches.
  • Pye J. (2019) Cornish Place-Names in the Landscape.

2018

  • Rippon S. (2018) The early medieval territory associated with Cannington, Cannington Bypass, Somerset Excavations 2014: Middle Bronze Age Enclosure at Rodway Lane and Roman Villa at Sandy Lane, 140-142.
  • Rippon S, Armstrong S, Gould D. (2018) The Sandy Lane villa: its wider context, Cannington Bypass, Somerset Excavations 2014: Middle Bronze Age Enclosure at Rodway Lane and Roman Villa at Sandy Lane, Cotswold Archaeology, 133-137.
  • Rippon S. (2018) Changing Landscapes? Land, People and Environment in England AD350-600, Interpreting Transformations of Landscapes and People in Antiquity, Oxbow, 95-112.
  • Rippon SJ. (2018) Changing Landscapes? Land, People and Environment in England, AD 350–600, Interpreting Transformations of Landscapes and People in Late Antiquity, Leicester, 5th - 5th Nov 2016.
  • Rippon SJ. (2018) The Romano-British small town and temple complex at Harlow, Essex: a liminal community on the Catuvellaunian-Trinovantian border, Transactions of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History, volume 7, pages 142-162.
  • Rippon SJ, Fyfe R. (2018) Variation in the continuity of land-use patterns through the first millennium A.D. in lowland Britain, Late Antique Archaeology, volume 11, pages 135-154, DOI:10.1163/22134522-12340057.
  • Rippon S, Dixon P, Silvester B. (2018) Overview: The form and pattern of medieval settlement, The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain, 171-192, DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198744719.013.8.
  • Rippon S. (2018) Kingdom, Civitas and County, Oxford University Press.
  • Rippon SJ. (2018) Marshlands and other wetlands, Water and the Environment in the Anglo-Saxon World, Oxford University Press, 89-106.
  • Rippon S, Silvester B, Dixon P. (2018) The form and pattern of medieval settlement, The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Oxford University Press, 171-192.

2017

  • Rippon S. (2017) Romano-British coarse ware industries and socio-economic interaction in eastern England, The Rural Economy of Roman Britain New Visions of the Countryside of Roman Britain, Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies, 337-352.
  • Rippon S, Smart C, Pears B. (2017) The Fields of Britannia: continuity and change in the late Roman and early medieval landscape, Oxford University Press.
  • Creighton OH, Rippon S. (2017) Conquest, colonisation and the countryside: archaeology and the mid-11th- to mid-12th-century rural landscape, Archaeology and the Norman Conquest, Society for Medieval Archaeology.

2016

2015

  • Pears B. (2015) The Fields of Britannia, Oxford University Press, USA.
  • Rippon SJ. (2015) The South Essex Marshes in the medieval and post medieval periods, Lives in Land - Mucking Excavations Volume 1. Prehistory, Context and Summary, Oxbow Books Limited, 496-498.
  • Rippon SJ. (2015) The past in the present: understanding the origins of our historic landscapes, Detecting and Understanding Historic Landscapes, SAP Societa Archeologica, 153-172.
  • Rippon SJ. (2015) Historic Landscape Analysis: understanding the past in the present, Detecting and Understanding Historic Landscapes, SAP Societa Archeologica S.R.L, 153-172.

2014

2013

2012

  • Harvey D, Hooke D, Hooke D, Smith RT, Sharples N, Higham N, Rippon S, Wigley A, Chambers FM, Waller M. (2012) REVIEWS, Landscape History, volume 32, no. 2, pages 67-86, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2011.10594660.
  • Watkins C, Hooke D, Rogerson A, Taylor M, Fairclough G, Faull ML, Christie N, Christie N, Dransart P, Matthews R. (2012) REVIEWS, Landscape History, volume 28, no. 1, pages 89-140, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2006.10594583.
  • Rippon S, Rich B, Proudfoot B, Whittle A, Collis J, Lewis J, Stamper P, Silvester B, Hey D, Liddiard R. (2012) REVIEWS, Landscape History, volume 31, no. 1, pages 73-92, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2010.10594616.
  • Whyte I, Driver T, Everson P, Faull ML, Barker G, Sterry M, Finneran N, Hawkins H, Bowden M, Banks I. (2012) REVIEWS, Landscape History, volume 30, no. 1, pages 75-112, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2008.10594601.
  • Bowden M, Cowley D, Faull ML, Fairclough G, Turner S, Christie N, Rippon S, Dransart P, Fleming A, Gruffudd P. (2012) REVIEWS, Landscape History, volume 29, no. 1, pages 101-133, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2007.10594593.
  • Fleming A, Hooke D, Dyer C, Driver T, Barker G, Padley T, Whittle A, Powlesland D, Mason DJP, Rogerson A. (2012) REVIEWS, Landscape History, volume 32, no. 1, pages 79-102, DOI:10.1080/01433768.2011.10594653.

2011

  • Rippon S. (2011) Deserted Villages Revisited, MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, volume 55, pages 416-417. [PDF]
  • Rippon S. (2011) Where Rivers Meet. The Archaeology of Catholme and the Trent-Tame Confluence, MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY, volume 55, pages 414-415. [PDF]
  • Rippon S. (2011) Water and land, A Social History of England, 900-1200, Cambridge University Press, 38-45.
  • Fulford M, Rippon SJ. (2011) Pevensey Castle, Sussex: Excavations in the Roman Fort and Medieval Keep, 1993-5, Wessex Archaeology.

2010

2009

  • Gardiner M, Rippon SJ. (2009) Looking to the future of medieval archaeology, Fifty Years of Medieval Archaeology, Society for Medieval Archaeology, 65-78.
  • Rippon SJ. (2009) Understanding the medieval landscape, Fifty Years of Medieval Archaeology, Society for Medieval Archaeology, 227-255.
  • Rippon SJ. (2009) ‘“Uncommonly rich and fertile” or “not very salubrious”? The Perception and Value of Wetland Landscapes’, Landscapes, volume 10, pages 39-60, DOI:10.1179/lan.2009.10.1.39.
  • Rippon SJ, Claughton P, Smart C. (2009) Mining in a Medieval Landscape: the royal silver mines of the Tamar Valley, University of Exeter Press.

2008

  • Rippon SJ, Croft RA. (2008) Post-Conquest Medieval, The Archaeology of South West England. South West Archaeological Research Framework: Resource Assessment and Research Agend, Somerset County Council, 195-208.
  • Rippon SJ. (2008) Coastal trade in Roman Britain: the investigation of Crandon Bridge, Somerset, a Romano-British trans-shipment port beside the Severn Estuary’, Britannia, volume XXXIX, pages 85-144.
  • Rippon SJ. (2008) Beyond the Medieval Village: The Diversification of Landscape Character in Southern Britain, Oxford University Press.

2007

  • Rippon SJ. (2007) Waterways and water transport on reclaimed coastal marshlands: the Severn Estuary and beyond, Early Medieval Water Management, Oxford University Press, 207-227.
  • Rippon SJ. (2007) Emerging regional variation in historic landscape character: the possible significance of the “Long Eighth Century”, Medieval Landscapes, Windgather Press, 105-121.
  • Gardiner M, Rippon SJ. (2007) Medieval Landscapes, Windgather Press.
  • Rippon SJ. (2007) Historic Landscape Characterization: its role in contemporary British archaeology and landscape history, Landscapes, volume 8(ii), pages 1-14.
  • Gerrard, C., Rippon SJ. (2007) Artefacts, sites and landscapes. Archaeology and medieval studies, Medieval Studies, British Academy, 525-555.

2006

2004

2003

2001

1998

1997

1995

  • Rippon S. (1995) Human-environment relations in the Gwent Levels: Ecology and the historic landscape in a coastal wetland, International Conference on Wetlands - Archaeology and Nature Conservation, Univ Bristol, Bristol, England, 11th - 14th Apr 1994, Wetlands: Archaeology and Nature Conservation, pages 62-74.

1994

1993

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External impact and engagement

I am the University's lead on the Ipplepen Project that is a partnership between the University of Exeter, British Museum, Portable Antiquities Scheme, Cotswold Archaeology, and Devon County Council, and is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The annual community excavation (2012-19) had places available for local volunteers and for the duration of the excavation had an information centre in Ipplepen village. There was also an annual Open Day that attracted 1,000+ visitors, and a temporary exhibition at Torquay Museum attracted 11,000+ visitors. I am currently writing up the fieldwork for publication.

I have held an Arts and Humanities Research Council Knowledge Transfer Fellowship to work with RSPB and Essex County Council of the development of an extensive new nature reserve on the South Essex Marshes. This has led to further contract research for Essex County Council, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council, Wessex Archaeology and the Olympic Legacy Company in projects that aims to increase understanding of the history of the countryside on the part of planners, countryside managers and the public. This included writing the Urban Habitat Historic Landscape Character Assessment for Southend-on-Sea Borough Council.

An unexpected discovery during his investigation of medieval silver mining in the Tamar Valley was a Roman fort at Calstock. This has since become the focus for a community based excavation that is part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund-funded Understanding Landscapes project.



Contribution to discipline

I am currently President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, and a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) National Environment Isotope Facility Peer review Panel A - Radiocabon.

I have served as President of the Medieval Settlement Research Group, chairman of the Severn Estuary Levels Research Committee and CBA South West, Treasurer of the Society for Medieval Archaeology, secretary of the Society for Landscape Studies, and as a member of the AHRC's Peer Review College.


Media

Medie appearances include:

September 2012: interviewed on ITV Westcountry News about Making Sense of an Historic Landscape

       http://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2012-09-12/fears-natural-regional-lanscapes-could-be-lost/

January 2008: interviewed on BBC Radio Devon morning news and ITV Westcountry News about the discovery of a Roman fort at Calstock

September 2007: Great British Journeys, BBC2 [discussing John Leland’s travels in  Somerset]

May 2006: How the West Was Made: The Nation Conquered, ITV1 [discussing drainage of the Somerset Levels]

November 2003: Landscape Mysteries (The Terraces of Avalon), BBC 2 [discussing the impact of Glastonbury Abbey on its surrounding landscape]

February 14th 2000: Breaking the Seal: Domesday, BBC2 [discussing the Devon landscape in the 11th century]

July 1999: Fruitful Earth (Seeds of Power), BBC2 [discussing Romano-British landscape and the Gwent Levels]

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Teaching

My teaching covers landscape archaeology in the Roman and medieval periods, and is characterised by its interdisciplinarity. I currently contribute to the Level 1 module ARC1030 Investigating British Archaeology, Level 2/3 options ARC2400/3400 Understanding the Landscape of Roman Britain and ARC2401/ARC3401 Understanding the Landscape of Medieval Britain, and ARCM200 Field Study. 

Modules taught

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Biography

I studied for my BA(hons) in Archaeology at the University of Reading where I stayed to undertake my PhD under the supervision of Professors Grenville Astill and Michael Fulford. The title of my thesis was "Landscape evolution and wetland reclamation around the Severn Estuary" (which was published in 1997 as The Severn Estuary: Landscape Evolution and Wetland Reclamation). I then became a Research Fellow in the Department and completed the pioneering Gwent Levels Historic Landscape Study (published in 1996 as The Gwent Levels: Landscape Evolution and Wetland Reclamation). I then took up a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship which entailed a comparative study of the changing ways in which human communities first exploited, then modified, and ultimately transformed (through reclamation) wetland landscapes in southern Britain and mainland North West Europe (published in 2000 as The Transformation of Coastal Wetlands).

I was appointed to a lectureship in Archaeology at the University of Exeter in 1996, and am now Professor of Landscape Archaeology. I have been a member of the University Senate and Council, and Dean of Graduate Research.

Advisory Appointments:

Panel member of for the Uk Natural Environment Research Council (Isotopes Panel) (2020-present)

Panel member for the Polish National Science Centre (2021-present)

Former positions:

Chair the advisory board for the Leverhulme Trust/English Heritage funded Roman Rural Settlement Project at the University of Reading (2012-15)

Peer Review College Member, Arts and Humanities Research Council (2004 to 2013)

Editorial Positions:

Member of the editorial committee of Medieval Archaeology

Previous editor of Archaeology in the Severn Estuary

Member of the editorial board of Landscape History

Member of the editorial board for the Brepols Monograph Series Environmental Histories of the North Atlantic World, c.500-1900

Memberships of Societies and Professional Bodies:

Fellow of the Higher Education Acdemy

Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

President of the Society for Medieval ARchaeology (2020-22)

Previous positions have included:

President of the Medieval Settlement Research Group (2012-14)

Chairman of the Council for British Archaeology South West

President of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (2010-11)

Chairman of the Severn Estuary Levels Research Committee

Treasurer of the Society for Medieval Archaeology (2008-14)

Secretary of the Society for Landscape Studies,

Council member and Treasurer of the Society for Medieval Archaeology,

Society memberships

Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society

Cambridge Antiquarian Society

Cornwall Archaeologoical Society

Devon Archaeological Society

Essex Archaeological Society

Medieval Settlement Research Group

Norfolk Archaeological Society

Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society

Society for Landscape Studies

Society for Medieval Archaeology

Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History
 

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