Adrian started following the work of Paul Tubb, University of Bristol, Archaeology and Anthropology.
Adrian started following the work of Mara Vejby, University of Reading, Department of Archaeology.
Adrian started following the work of Olaf Bayer, University of Central Lancashire, Archaeology.
Adrian Why the use of fish traps and fish baskets in Britain seems to have largely disappeared during the Iron Age and Roman periods, but re-emerged once more in the post-Roman/early medieval period.....
About
I am an archaeologist currently based in Oxford. The physical engagement with remnants of the past is one of the main sources of my fascination with archaeology, along with the exercise of imagination necessary to try and understand past lives. I am especially interested in landscape archaeology, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British field systems and rural communities. My research also explores coastal communities and upland areas, depositional practices, human-animal relations, embodiment and identity; and processes of acculturation. I am also interested in the relationships between archaeological theory and practice.
I studied for a single honours degree in Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Sheffield during 1987-1990, where I spent as much of my summertime as possible working for Professor John Collis on a series of wonderful Iron Age and Gallo-Roman sites located around Clermont-Ferrand in south-central France. I also spent a particularly wet and windy Easter surveying on Dartmoor with Professor Andrew Fleming.
I was fortunate enough to begin work almost immediately after graduating with the South Yorkshire Archaeology Unit. During this time I also worked on several South Yorkshire sites that were part of later Iron Age and Romano-British enclosure or field system complexes; and which were to inspire my later PhD research. For the next six years I worked for several different field units on a variety of developer-funded rural and urban sites, mostly in northern England and the midlands. During my career I have also been able to take advantage of opportunities to work abroad on many archaeological ‘rescue’ and research projects in Bavaria, Germany; Beirut, Lebanon; Çatalhöyük, Turkey; and Iceland.
I was able to become a site supervisor and then a project officer, and I applied to do a Masters in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. The course tutor Professor Mark Edmonds was able to secure me a bursary that paid my fees and by doing the MA part-time I was able to supplement my income with additional archaeological work. Those years were amongst the most intellectually stimulating of my life.
When I finished my Masters in 1999, I had to return to contract archaeology to earn some much-needed money. I was a project officer for Wessex Archaeology; but then a unique joint post come up at the University of Wales, Newport, whereby I taught archaeology to undergraduates for six months at UWN in Caerleon; and for the rest of the year continued as a PO for Wessex. After several years of this split existence, Professor Miranda Aldhouse-Green and Dr Joshua Pollard were able to secure a PhD studentship and bursary for me, allowing me to work on my PhD research whilst continuing to be a lecturer.
The regrettable decison to close the archaeology department at Caerleon meant that I had to return to commercial archaeology full-time once again as a project officer in order to earn money whilst I finished my PhD, first with Archaeological Services West Yorkshire Archaeology Service (AS WYAS); and then with Gloucestershire County Council Archaeology Service. My PhD was awarded in November 2008.
I produced the Later Iron Age and Romano-British Research Agenda for West Yorkshire; and I was then involved with the Severn Estuary Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Survey project (RCZAS). The latter was a large-scale coastal survey of an enormous area from Beachley up to Maisemore just north of Gloucester, and back down to Porlock Weir in Somerset. Our team spent many months engaged in intertidal survey which was physically demanding but absolutely fascinating. The insights into the past lives and taskscapes of fishing communities was an especially rewarding aspect of this project. I was lucky enough to teach two undergraduate modules at the University of Bristol earlier in 2011, but with the ending of the RCZAS project I had to find work elsewhere; and I am now back in full-time developer-funded archaeology for the time being.
I have served on the council of RESCUE - The British Archaeological Trust; and I am a member of the Prehistoric Society and the Council for British Archaeology. I am also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
