Archaeology at the University of Reading

Many congratulations to Kathryn Price (in the middle! 😊), who successfully passed her PhD viva last week. Many thanks also to her external and internal examiners, Matt Pope from UCL, and Roger Matthews.🥳

Summer marks the end of the academic year and the start of summer conference season for many researchers, and earlier this month, the School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science (SAGES) launched proceedings with its annual Postgraduate Research Conference.

This two-day event brings together PhD researchers from across Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science to share their work, exchange ideas, and showcase the range of research emerging from the School. It’s a valuable platform for all our PhD students to present their research as they start out in their academic careers, and an opportunity for the wider SAGES community to engage with new and diverse perspectives.

To celebrate a successful year, the conference concluded with a well-earned social, complete with pizza and some football fun for the FIFA World Cup!

A huge thank you to our Postgraduate Reps, whose hard work brought the conference together and congratulations to our Archaeology prize winners, Amanda Hart, Morwen Thomas and Tasha Fullbrook, who received Best Presentation awards for their respective year groups 🎉We also extend our congratulations to Baneet Kaur, Isaac Afram and Beth Gifford (Geography and Environmental Science) on their awards. A fantastic achievement for all!

We are proud to announce that FIVE Archaeology staff members were nominated by students this year for the Reading Students' Union Excellence Awards!

These awards go to staff an academic reps who go 'above and beyond' to deliver exceptional teaching, champion diversity, and significantly improve the overall student learning experience. They are nominated by students.

Our wonderful staff nominees are:

Duncan Garrow, Professor teaching later European prehistory (with a particular focus on Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain) and archaeological theory. Duncan is also currently the Head of the department.

Hella Eckardt, Professor teaching provincial Roman archaeology and material culture studies and the departments Impact lead.

Annemieke Milks, Researcher on a British Academy funded project: Reverse Engineering Pleistocene Spears: interdisciplinary perspectives on raw materials and performance.

Wendy Matthews, Associate Professor and Masters Archaeology Programme Director. Wendy specialises in Neolithic and Bronze Age Near Eastern Archaeology and Geoarchaeology.

Alanna Cant, Associate Professor in Social Anthropology. Alanna is the programme director for the BA Archaeology & Anthropology programme. As well as being the director of recruitment and admissions and an admissions Tutor.

Congratualtions to all nominees. 🥳

📸photos from staff profiles. Left to Right, top to bottom: Annemieke Milks, Alanna Cant, Wendy Matthews, Duncan Garrow, Hella Eckardt.

As crowds gather at Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice, we’re celebrating with some exciting news- you can now explore it virtually.

The World of Stonehenge: Virtual Exhibition brings the British Museum’s acclaimed 2022 exhibition online. Co-curated by our own Professor Duncan Garrow, this immersive experience lets you step inside Stonehenge, watch its transformation over time, explore Neolithic flint mines, and discover rarely seen prehistoric objects through animations, soundscapes and interactive content.

The original exhibition welcomed over 190,000 visitors and showcased more than 400 objects from 36 European institutions. Now, thanks to a collaboration between the British Museum, the University of Reading, the University of Southampton, and digital heritage specialists ArtasMedia, supported by UK Research and Innovation, the opportunity to step inside is back and accessible to everyone. It works across desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones and is completely free to access! see the exhibition online: https://www.cloudtour.tv/the-world-of-stonehenge/

Friday Featured Site: Cueva Palomera, Burgos, northern Spain

The Cueva Palomera cave system in northern Spain, specifically the Sala Keimada chamber (a hard-to-reach chamber), has been found to have over 11,500 years of human activity, with evidence of repeated visits from the Upper Paleolithic to the Iron Age.

New radiocarbon dates from Sala Keimada suggest that generations of people returned to the sacred space from the end of the Ice Age through the Iron Age, leaving behind art, structures and offerings.

To read more about this fascinating site, go to the Science News website: https://www.sci.news/archaeology/sala-keimada-14831.html

Instagram: Link In Bio

📸Photograph of the Sala Keimada cave from the Science News website

Open days are happening this weekend! Friday the 19th or Saturday the 20th of June.

The archaeology department is putting on several activities, so you can get a taster of what it's like studying archaeology with us.
This is what we have on offer:

Department Tours (09:30 & 13:30) – Explore the department and its facilities.

Q&A Sessions (10:00 & 14:00, 55 mins) – Learn about course content, field school, placements, study abroad opportunities, and ask questions.

Taster Seminar (11:00, 25 mins) – Experience an archaeology seminar. Friday's topic covers ancient Mesopotamia and archaeology in the modern Middle East; Saturday focuses on Vikings and the motivations behind their raids.

Biological Remains Session (11:30, 25 mins) – A practical introduction to osteoarchaeology using real human and animal skeletal remains (plastic replicas available). Please be aware that you will be expected to treat the remains with care and respect.

Artefact Session (15:00, 25 mins) – Handle and study archaeological finds, with a focus on Medieval coins on Friday and Roman pottery on Saturday.

Meet our staff and students all day in the Archaeology Building Atrium to ask questions and hear about student experiences.

For those interested in Museum Studies, staff will also be available throughout the day outside the Van Emden Lecture Theatre, first floor of the Edith Morley Building.

To book your space and get more information, go to: https://www.reading.ac.uk/ready-to-study/visiting-and-open-days/opendays

Instagram: LinkInBio

In 2025, S. K. Marley presented Our Transcapes at the Council for British Archaeology and CIfA Early Careers online conference, held during Youth Day of the Festival of Archaeology.
This fascinating talk is available to watch on YouTube!

Talk summary:
The project explores how q***r approaches to prehistoric archaeology can contribute to trans wellbeing and senses of belonging. Drawing on archaeological evidence that challenges modern binary understandings of gender, nature, and spirituality, Our Transcapes combines guided landscape walks, storytelling, and creative practice to investigate the therapeutic potential of engaging with q***r prehistories.
Bringing together q***r archaeology, q***r ecology, psychogeography, and ecotherapy, the project examines how alternative interpretations of the past can inform contemporary experiences of identity, place, and mental health.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRlPX8pkPEA&t=3s
Instagram: Link In Bio

Sneak peak from French film director Emma Baus' film Children of Ice!

Part of it is being filmed with us at the archaeology department.

Emma is showcasing Prof. Mary Lewis’s research on Palaeolithic adolescence and Dr Annemieke Milks’s experimental research about children learning to make stone-tools!

Emma Baus is an award winning film director and writer. Her films nature, science and animal behaviour and she films all over the world.

To learn more about her and her films go to: https://www.emmabaus.com/en/biography/

Instagram: Link In Bio

📸First Image of students practicing flint knapping for Dr Annemieke Milks’s experimental research, Second Image of human remains that are part of Prof. Mary Lewis’s research on Palaeolithic adolescence.

Friday Featured Site: Bacon Hole, Gower, Wales

This Friday, we’re exploring Wales’ Gower Peninsula, and a cave site that is home to Britain’s earliest known rock art.

Bacon Hole cave has long been a site of importance, with excavations throughout the 18-1900s revealing Pleistocene-era animal bones, including elephant and rhinoceros remains, and signs of human habitation ranging from pre-Roman potsherds to medieval cooking pots, and finally some modern graffiti created in 1894 by local fisherman Jonny Bates.

It was the discovery of cave art that really sparked interest in the site. Excavations in 1912 revealed that a section of the cave wall had been covered with 11 horizontal red lines, which archaeologists believed were Upper Palaeolithic cave art, dating to 50,000 to 12,000 years ago. By 1928, this claim had been disputed, with many believing the red markings were instead naturally occurring.

After nearly a century, interest in the Bacon Hole markings was renewed, and a team of international researchers, led by Dr George Nash of Liverpool University, confirmed the original interpretation. By using a combination of archaeological science techniques, including uranium-series dating and Ramn spectroscopy, the team was able to determine the composition and age of the markings. Deliberately made using red iron oxide (haematite), the markings were found to be 17,000 years old, predating identified rock art sites in north-western Europe by at least 1,500 years.

Bacon Hole is now recognised as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and is cared for by National Trust Cymru. For safety reasons, the site is not accessible to the public, as it holds a rather precarious position on a coastal cliff and is now home to a rare bat population that roosts within.

Instead of visiting, why not learn more about this amazing site and its research by reading the Quaternary journal article by Nash et al. 2026 linked below

📸https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/9/3/43

Congratulations to Professor Mary Lewis on the publication of the fourth edition of ‘The Archaeology of Disease’ by Cornell University Press! This new edition focuses on reconstructing the origin, evolution, and history of disease seen through human skeletons from archaeological sites, and explores the challenges faced by individuals and populations, including their children.

Mary says: ‘The Archaeology of Disease’ by Charlotte Roberts and Keith Manchester was the first book that inspired me to study palaeopathology when I was a Masters student. I was incredibly lucky to have been taught by them both and so honoured and excited (and intimidated) to be asked to join them and the wonderful Jackie Duffin (Queens University Canada) to write the fourth edition of this classic!