Contact
Biography
ORCID: 0000-0001-9063-6851
Professor of Medieval European Archaeology, August 2017-present.
Chercheur Associé, Equipe UMR 7041 TranSphères. Du local au global et de la courte à la longue durée en Europe tempérée. Université de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, 2018 - present..
Research Associate, Department of History, Harvard University, July 2016 - February 2022..
Site Director, Midlands-3-Cities AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership for the University of Nottingham, August 2016- end July 2018.
Head of Department, Department of Archaeology, August 2016 - end July 2017
Visiting Associate Professor in Medieval History, Department of History, Harvard University, Mass, USA, 2015 - 2016
Site Director for University of Nottingham, Midlands-3-Cities AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership, 2013-14
Director of Research, School of Humanities, 2013-14
Associate Professor and Reader in Medieval Archaeology, 2009 - July 2017
Archaeology Editor, Early Medieval Europe, 2009- 2011
Visiting Professor of Medieval History and Archaeology, Department of History, Harvard University, Mass., USA, September 2007 to February 2008.
Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham, UK, 2004 - 2008.
Chercheur (temp.), CNRS, University of Tours, France, February to April 2004.
British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK, October 2000 to February 2004.
Director of the Flixborough Anglo-Saxon settlement post-excavation and publication project (funded by English Heritage), Humber Field Archaeology, September 1995 to October 2000.
PhD in Archaeology (University of Durham), July 1995.
BA (Hons) in Archaeology (University of Durham), June 1990.
Expertise Summary
The development of societies in Europe and the Mediterranean between Late Antiquity and the Central Middle Ages (c. AD 400 - 1350), with particular reference to coastal communities and trade, landscape and settlement dynamics, and inter-disciplinary approaches to exploring the impacts of climate change and human action on the environment (metal economies, pollution).
Teaching Summary
The range of my undergraduate teaching covers the archaeology of Europe and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages, between c. AD 400 and 1500, and teaching aspects of theoretical and methodological… read more
Research Summary
Over the last twenty-five years my research has focussed on exploring the dynamics of the social and economic development of the societies of Europe from archaeological and inter-disciplinary… read more
The range of my undergraduate teaching covers the archaeology of Europe and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages, between c. AD 400 and 1500, and teaching aspects of theoretical and methodological approaches. I convene and teach on the following modules:
CLAR1019 Rome to Revolution: Historical Archaeology of Britain.
CLAR1020-CLAR1021 Understanding the Past 1 & 2.
CLAR1023 Great Discoveries in Archaeology.
CLAR2011 Archaeology: Theory and Practice.
CLAR3091 Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, c. AD 500-1500.
CLAR3004 The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England.
At MA level I offer special topic modules tailored to student interests related to themes on Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean from c. AD 350-1350.
Teaching prizes and commendations:
Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching for academic year 2007-8, from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning
Harvard University Teaching Commendation for course, 'Material Cultures: England and France, AD 600-1200', in Fall semester 2007 -8, from the Dean of Social Sciences (D. Cutler) and the Dean of Harvard College (D. Pilbeam).
Current Research
Over the last twenty-five years my research has focussed on exploring the dynamics of the social and economic development of the societies of Europe from archaeological and inter-disciplinary perspectives, between Late Antiquity and the High Middle Ages, c. AD 400 - 1350.
Principal themes of my research have included:
- Rural settlement hierarchies and associated lifestyles, between the seventh and twelfth centuries in northwest Europe, especially Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, northern Germany and Jutland (Denmark).
- Coastal and maritime-oriented societies of the North-Sea-, western Baltic-, Channel- and increasingly, the Atlantic coasts of western Europe and northwest Africa. Themes have focussed on their nature, networks and roles as catalysts of change.
- Integrated use of geoarchaeology, geophysical and geochemical survey, and ground-penetrating radar with archaeological excavations in the social analysis of settlements and landscapes.
- The role of exchange and specialist production of raw materials (especially of metals) in early medieval societies.
- The development of different forms of town in the early and central Middle Ages (c. AD 600 - 1200), from major port-cities to rural villages holding the judicial status of towns, and their associated societies and networks.
- Exploration of the impact of historic climate change on human societies and markers of human macro-economic/societal impact on the environment from metal pollution proxies, through ice-core and other palaeo-environmental/geo-archaeological records.
My current research themes/projects comprise:
- Atlantic Europe from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages, c. AD 400-1100 and research on production and trade of metals and salt along the Atlantic seaboard.
- Long-distance connections between northwest Europe, Iberia and the Islamic western Mediterranean, c. AD 900-1250.
- The role of peasant- and specialist (merchant/artisan) group agency in the social changes of the early medieval period in Europe.
- The Georgia Historical Ice Core Project (2020-present): This project is exploring historic Climate/Environmental Change and Macro-economic/societal change proxies from metal pollution in ice and other palaeo-environmental and archaeological records from the Greater Caucasus in Georgia. The project is being co-led with Prof Mikheil Elashvili (Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia) and Prof. Andrei Kurbatov (Climate Change Institute, University of Maine, USA). The project has been funded by the University of Nottingham; Research England Global Challenges Research Funding and the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine. It is hoped that this research will provide comparable data for the eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea region to compare against the historic climate and pollution (human macro-economic/societal) markers from other mountain glaciers in mid-latitude regions of the planet (e.g. Colle Gnifetti in the western Alps - see The Historical ice Core project below; the Himalayas and other Asian mountain ranges).
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/classics-and-archaeology/research/research-projects/current-projects/loveluck-ice-cores-caucasus.aspx
- 'Of Fire, Ice and People: Peak District lead production, human health and the environment over the last two millennia' (with Hannah O'Regan, and colleagues from the School of Geography, UoN, and the British Geological Survey). This project explores the lead pollution record and environmental change in the Peak District, Derbyshire (the largest lead-producing region of Britain from the Roman to modern periods) from peat cores, speleothems and the human remains of the historic population of the Peak District, from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern period. The lead pollution record is being explored as a proxy for lead and silver production in the Peak District through time, and for its long-term impact on human health (funded through the University of Nottingham Research Priority Area - 'Sustainable Environments/Life in Changing Environments').
The Aldborough-Boroughbridge Historical Pollution Project, 2021 - present (funded by the British Academy, Loveluck CoI): The project is being undertaken with Prof Martin Millett (University of Cambridge), Professor Charles French (University of Cambridge) and Dr Simon Chenery (British Geological Survey). This project explores patterns of historic metal pollution from a palaeo-channel sediment core adjacent to the Roman town of Aldborough and its medieval successor, Boroughbridge, in North Yorkshire (UK). The core is located adjacent to an excavated metalworking complex of the Roman period and in the immediate vicinity of Boroughbridge, which was the administrative and shipping centre (and likely smelting centre) of the medieval lead-producing 'Mine of Yorkshire' at latest from the mid 12th century CE onwards. The project aims to explore levels of metal production in the locality/region from the Roman to modern period.
Supervision of PhD students:
I supervise PhD students on a range of themes in relation to early medieval northern Europe, between c. AD 400 and 1400. These themes have included, rural settlement dynamics, trade and exchange, the development of ports and urban centres, coastal societies, and aspects of representation of the past. My PhD students have focused their studies geographically on England, Wales, Flanders, northern France, Spain, the North Atlantic and Saudi Arabia. I have supervised/supervise 24 PhD students since 2006 (20 have successfully graduated, and 4 continue their studies).
My current PhD students are Fiona Moore, Catrin Fear, Wendy Scott, Hillery Harrison.
Past Research
Selected past research projects include the following:
2015-2020: The Historical Ice Core project: exploring climate change and macro-societal, economic and demographic changes over the last two millennia in western Europe (northwest and western Mediterranean Europe), using pollution and climate proxies from an Alpine ice core at ultra-high chronological resolution. This inter-disciplinary project is led jointly by the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, Harvard University; and the Climate Change Institute, University of Maine (funded by the Arcadia foundation). My work focussed on the late antique, medieval and early modern archaeology, geoarchaeology and medieval to early modern history components of the project (funded by Harvard College (70%) and the University of Nottingham (30%) in 2015-16 and the University of Nottingham, 2016-19).
https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/humanities/departments/classics-and-archaeology/research/research-projects/current-projects/loveluck-ice-cores-.aspx
2011-2015: Participant in the international Research Network, 'La Competition dans les societes du haut Moyen Age', with French, Italian, Belgian, German, Spanish, British and American colleagues (Directed by the University of Paris 1 - Pantheon-Sorbonne).
2005-2014: The Stavnsager pre-Viking and Viking-age harbour settlement survey and excavation project (Co-director with Reno Fiedel and Karen Hoilund Nielsen, funded by the British Academy, East Jutland Museum, Randers, Denmark, and the University of Nottingham NLF).
2010-2013: Co-Chair (with Prof Martin Carver) of the 'Early Medieval Working group' of the Maritime and Marine Historic Environment Research Agenda for England (funded by English Heritage).
2003-2011: Participant in International Research Network, 'Les Elites du haut Moyen Age', with French, Italian, Belgian, German, Spanish, British and American historians and archaeologists (Directed by the University of Paris 1 - Pantheon-Sorbonne)..
2000-2013: Northwest Europe in the Early Middle Ages, c. AD 600-1150. A Comparative Archaeology (Comparative analysis project of the societies of early medieval Britain, France, Belgium, the southern Netherlands and Rhineland Germany, funded by the British Academy and the Arts & Humanities Research Council).
2002-2005: Leffinge Pilot Project (archaeological survey project) - early medieval settlement in the coastal plain of West Flanders, Belgium (Co-Director with Dries Tys, Free University of Brussels, funded by the British Academy, the University of Southampton, The Free University of Brussels, The Provincial Government of West Flanders and the Community of Middelkerke).
1995-2009: The Flixborough Anglo-Saxon settlement post-excavation and publication research project (Director, editor and principal author, funded by English Heritage).
Future Research
.