Research Interests

Mesolithic and Neolithic of western Europe; North American Northwest Coast and Plateau archaeology and ethnography; Siberian steppe hunter-gatherers and pastoralists; Caribbean prehistory; Japanese prehistory; complex hunter-gatherers; transition to agriculture; mortuary analysis; stable isotope analysis and dietary reconstruction; strontium isotopes and provenance/mobility; skeletal evidence of interpersonal violence; radiocarbon dating; Bayesian modelling; marine and freshwater radiocarbon reservoir corrections, especially in Europe, Siberia, the Caribbean and northern Chile. 

Mark's research interests are the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire, especially the Middle East, and the Romano-British context, notably the Cherwell valley, Oxfordshire, and west Wales.

I am currently the Curator for Later European Prehistory at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford. My research focuses on rock art and portable art in Europe; Bronze Age and Iron Age archaeology in Northern, Central, and Western Europe; coastal and intertidal archaeology; effects of environmental change on art production; and the intersections of archaeological and anthropological theory in prehistoric art studies.

I am currently leading and collaborating on four grant-funded projects: NoMAD: Non-destructive Mobile and imaging Device at the University of Exeter (funded by UKRI); LINXS: Heritage Science theme at the University of Lund; Sir John Evans and the Hallstatt Collection at the Ashmolean Museum; and the Iron Age Coins in Britain and Celtic Coin Index Digital projects at the Ashmolean and School of Archaeology. I recently led the Leverhulme-funded project Ebb & Flow: Exploring rivers in later prehistoric Britain and BALMS: Bronze Age Landscapes and Metalwork in Sweden.

From 2017–2018, I was a Research Fellow at the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit at Griffith University (Australia) on the Australian Research Council Laureate project: Australian Rock Art History, Conservation and Indigenous Wellbeing. From 2015–2017, I was a researcher on the Leverhulme-funded project 'European Celtic Art in Context' at the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford (http://ecaic.arch.ox.ac.uk/) and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.

I have a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Reading, for which I created a Scandinavian-wide GIS survey of prehistoric rock art and used this to discuss maritime rock art and human responses to environmental change. The monograph of this research was published in 2015 (http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/prehistoric-rock-art-in-scandinavia.html). I have an MA Distinction in Maritime Archaeology from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Prior to my settlement in the UK, I worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (USA) in Conservation and Collections Management. I completed my BFA (University of California, Santa Cruz) and MFA (Tufts University, SMFA) in fine art, art history and museum studies.

The edge of the Roman empire at its fullest extent ran from Scotland to the Black Sea, down to the Red Sea, and across northern Africa. On 1 June 2016, Penny Coombe set out to cycle solo the first leg of a complete circuit, from the coast of the Netherlands to Bratislava via the Rhine, Moselle, and Danube, and along Hadrian's Wall: around 2300km of cycling with visits to dozens of Roman sites and museums. This talk is part travelogue, but also considers what this kind of journey brings to academic research. Her travels were supported by the AWRC Lorne Thyssen Research Fund.

Dr Bob Bewley has worked in Britain, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa on aerial and field surveys, excavations and aerial archaeology training workshops, and is the Co-founder and Project Director of the EAMENA project (Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East & North Africa). He will be talking about his recent work in the Middle East.

Join on Teams

Join us for the second after lunch talk of the term on Teams. Link on the Further Information URL box.

The Meroitic Kingdom of Kush flourished in Sudan throughout the equivalent Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods of Mediterranean History.

Using the elephant art as a lens, the talk will invite an evaluation of ancient sources for this African Kingdom and their reception in modern scholarship.

This is the first after lunch talk of the term organised by the Ancient World Research Cluster.

To join the talk on Teams, click here. If you encounter any problems, please contact Dr Diana Rodríguez Pérez at ancient.world@wolfson.ox.ac.uk

 

To celebrate the 2500 anniversary of the Battle of Salamis, Professor Paul Cartledge, among the most distinguished living historians of Ancient Greece, will speak on the democratic implications of the battle for Greece and for democracy down the ages.