Research Themes

My research interests centre on social change in Iron Age Britain and the Western Roman provinces through study of their rural landscapes, as well as on the interrelationship between theory and method in survey-based archaeological research (e.g. geophysics, geochemistry and aerial survey).

Much of my work has focussed on the role and significance of rural social interaction and agency on the development of wider Late Iron Age and Roman society in Britain. This is part of a longer term interest in the significance of rural communities in determining broader trajectories of social change during and after their incorporation within the Roman World.

One aspect of this work has recently seen the publication of a monograph characterising broad patterns in rural settlement, land use and industry in Roman Britain. This is currently extending into an interest in the role of rural communities in the foundation, developing topography and economic and social isolation or integration of urban settlements in Roman Britain and the near continent, which builds upon earlier field research on the topography of urban and smaller roadside settlements in Britain, Spain and Italy. I am currently engaged in fieldwork investigating the inter relationship between Roman roadside settlements and their immediate rural landscapes in the Midlands of England.

A further aspect of my work has been on the adaptation of common survey strategies to novel archaeological challenges. This has ranged from large scale survey of green field urban sites to geochemical survey of Iron Age and Roman rural landscapes to the use of geophysics in characterising pre-contact period archaeological sites in North America.

Topics available for supervision

• The archaeology later prehistoric and Roman landscapes
• The archaeology of the Western Roman provinces, especially urban rural inter-relations
• The relationships between theory and method in landscape based research