Themes

Broad research interests include public archaeology, archaeological anthropology, ethnographies of archaeology, excavation methodologies, urban archaeology, origins of towns, archaeology of rivers, medieval landscapes and contemporary material culture.

Books include the edited volume Ethnographies of Archaeological Practice (Altamira 2006) and Acts of Discovery (Archaeopress 2003), with numerous papers published on both theoretical topics and fieldwork results.

For details of recent and forthcoming papers at conferences, in Britain and abroad, see Presentations or visit Matt's external Home Page

Follow these links for online papers on Rivers as Artefacts and The Practice of Excavation  

Projects

excavating beam-slots of a large 12th century building

Wallingford Burh to Borough Research Project

Matt is Project Officer for the Wallingford Burh to Borough Research Project - an AHRC-funded collaboration between the Universities of Leicester, Exeter and Oxford, working together with Wallingford Museum. It explores the urban origins and early development of one of the best preserved of English medieval towns. In 2008 and 2009 six large trenches and numerous test pits were excavated, with more to come in 2010.

Visit the website or read about the recent investigations in Wallingford in the British Archaeology magazine.

a watery landscape

The Tempsford Project

Somewhere near the confluence of the Rivers Great Ouse and Ivel at Tempsford is the lost site of the Viking fortress mentioned in the entry for the year AD917 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Through earthwork survey, geophysical survey, the study of maps and aerial photos, this project sets out to locate the site and to understand it in terms of the shifting river systems and numerous palaeochannels that characterise this remote part of Bedfordshire.