Michael Bamforth

I’m a field archaeologist with over 20 years’ experience across the commercial and research sectors. I specialise in the excavation, recording and analysis of archaeological wood, with a strong interest in woodland exploitation and management as well as prehistoric woodworking technology. I hold a BSc (Hons) in Archaeology from UCL (2006), an MA by Research in Archaeology from the University of York (2018), as well as honorary research positions at the University of York and the University of Sheffield. I’ve been a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists since 2015 and serve on the ICOMOS-UK Wood Committee.

I started my career as a field archaeologist in 1997 at the Bronze Age site of Flag Fen, which led into a career in commercial archaeology and laid the foundations for my work as a wood specialist. I worked for a variety of units in East Anglia and London, latterly in project manager roles. During this time, I continued to work as a specialist on waterlogged wood assemblages and stayed involved with research at Flag Fen (co-editing the 2010 monograph for the site).

Since 2011, I’ve worked as a freelance archaeological wood specialist, undertaking work for a broad range of commercial units and university departments. Recently this has included excavation and analysis of the structural and artefactual wood assemblages at the Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr (University of York), and the Late Bronze Age site of Must Farm (Cambridge Archaeological Unit).

My time as an archaeologist started in the waterlogged environment of the East Anglian Fens and has continued to be focused around wetland environments and waterlogged burial contexts. I maintain my own research interests outside of my commercial contracts, exploring human–plant relationships within the woodlands that were so key to their way of life and their understanding of the world they inhabited.

I am a senior lecturer in zooarchaeology at Groningen University (the Netherlands), where we host a 5000+ specimen reference collection and a thriving body of postgraduates in zooarchaeology. Before this, I studied and worked in five other countries (Turkey, Lebanon, Germany, US, and Belgium). I like exploring relatively less well-known types of human–animal interactions: I wrote my PhD on Trojans and the cockles in the Trojan Bay, and most of my post-doctoral work on early farmers and animals in a region (as large as the UK) between Catalhoyuk and Franchthi. I am currently working on the Hidden Hybrids project (hybridcamels.com) with an international, interdisciplinary team, looking for the origins of the enigmatic hybrid camels in the Near East.

Although I feel most at home with a visible piece of bone or shell in my hand and a reference collection, I integrate a suite of molecular methods and 3D technologies into my research and teaching. I actively promote publishing open-access data and using these in teaching and outreach. I am passionate about mentoring anyone who is even remotely interested in zooarchaeology. I serve the ICAZ International Committee. I hope to support the AEA with its goals in internationalisation.

I am Head of Fort Cumberland Laboratories at Historic England, managing a team of ten archaeological scientists.  Our team provides advice on good practice in environmental archaeology and undertakes and commissions collaborative research. We also carry out a range of training and public engagement activities. My current projects include the Tintagel Castle Research Project, investigations at Marble Hill House, London, and a 3rd edition of Environmental Archaeology: Guidelines for Good Practice.

I am convenor of the joint English Heritage and Historic England Science Network and a trustee of the National Heritage Science Forum (NHSF), co-chairing the working group on resources.  Work for this group has included establishing grants to fund Gold Open Access publication, setting up the NHSF kit catalogue to aid sharing of scientific equipment and facilities and the publication of a checklist for writing memoranda of understanding to aid organisations wishing to collaborate on projects and programmes (http://nhsf.kit-catalogue.com/ ).

I started my career as environmental archaeologist with a degree in environmental archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London (now part of UCL). After finishing by BSc I took an MSc in ‘The Utilisation and Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources’ at the University of Birmingham to strengthen my botanical skills and knowledge before moving on to work as an on-site environmental archaeologist and project archaeobotanist on various sites in the UK.  I started working for English Heritage (now Historic England) on contract in 1988 based at Oxford University Museum, before joining the organisation as senior archaeobotanist in 1999.

I obtained my first degree, a BSc in Environmental Biology and Anthropology, way back in 1985, from the then Oxford Polytechnic. So I have an established background in many things environmental!
After working part-time for 18 months on the natural history collection in a small museum in London, I became a scientific, technical and medical (STM) copy-editor for Blackwell Scientific Publications. After working in Oxford and Edinburgh I moved to York in 1991 as a desk editor for the National Curriculum Council. After being made redundant in 1993, I have been a freelance copy-editor ever since, working on a wide range of subjects and media, including archaeology and heritage texts. I am currently the newsletter editor for the International Council
for Archaeozoology (ICAZ; https://www.alexandriaarchive.org/icaz/publications-newsletter).

In 2002 I returned to higher education at the University of York, obtaining an MSc in Zooarchaeology in 2003 and then, after c. 7 years as a part-time student, a PhD in Zooarchaeology in 2012. Since 2012 I have been a part-time collections technician for Historic England (HE), curating the specimens and their associated data in HE’s zooarchaeology reference collection and preparing new specimens. I have retained an association with the Department of Archaeology at York, for example teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students, helping curate York’s reference collection, and working on an HE-funded project with David Orton that resulted in the National Zooarchaeological Reference Resource (NZRR; https://doi.org/10.5284/1043267).

My main areas of interest include: the biogeography and human use of fur-bearing animals; skeletons and taxidermy; and the collation and dissemination of data to increase accessibility and synthesis. I believe in interdisciplinary collaboration, and have helped organise workshops and conferences to that effect. I would welcome the opportunity to contribute to the work that the AEA does. 

 Originally from Scotland and having grown up between inner-city Glasgow and the crofts of the Northwest Highlands, I am currently resident in Edinburgh and work as an Ancient Monuments Officer in Historic Environment Scotland (HES). I am also an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh (2020) and a freelance consultant geoarchaeologist specialising in geochemistry and thin section micromorphology. I previously undertook academic study, field research, and field archaeology, mainly across Scotland and Northern England, and ran the wetland excavations at the Bradford Kaims with the Bamburgh Research Project from 2014–2018.

I undertook an MA in Archaeology and an MSc by Research in Geoarchaeology at the University of Edinburgh, finishing in 2014, before being offered a Carnegie Trust PhD Fellowship to undertake a PhD at the University of Edinburgh entitled ‘The Geoarchaeology of Burnt Mounds in Northern Britain’ (2015—2018), which will see publication this year.

My current research interests have expanded from the purely geoarchaeological, and now include both geoarchaeological work on the Earthen Empires Project (2019–2021) at the University of Edinburgh, advice to HES on environmental science and soil erosion, work with Peatland ACTION and Scottish Natural Heritage assessing the impacts of peatland restoration on historic assets and palaeoenvironmental records, environmental sustainability in prehistory, and my role on the National Peatlands Group providing specialist advice to the Scottish Government. I am also currently leading a research stream within HES investigating how Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital Accounting can be integrated with the historic environment for use within the planning system and policy decision making at a national level.

I have been a member of the AEA since 2016, and aim to better integrate the core aims of the AEA with heritage management and environmental and scientific advice across Scotland through my role within HES and the National Peatlands Group. In my spare time, I am an avid rock climber and gardener, and play traditional music.

I have been a member of the Association for Environmental Archaeology since I was student at the University of Bradford in the late 1990s. Very much inspired by my undergraduate tutors, Terry O’Connor and Jill Thompson, I went on to pursue postgraduate qualifications in Environmental Archaeology at UCL. I graduated in 2006 with a PhD in Archaeobotany, in which I combined macro-botanical and phytolith analyses to address questions of the development of agricultural communities in Northern and Eastern India. I have publications concerning my PhD research in India, subsequent work in China but also on methodological aspects of phytolith analysis and the identification of macro-botanical remains.

I have been working out of Archaeology for some time, as a science teacher, but over the last year I have been actively developing a new research project – the application of phytolith analysis on British Archaeological sites. As well as working on this new project, my other research interest is open science and I have been conducting a research project concerning open science practices in phytolith research. This has involved a review of articles in 16 prominent archaeological and palaeoecological journals to extract those with primary data (341 articles). I have then assessed the state of open access, data and meta data sharing in these articles and evaluated the next steps needed to move forward as a discipline to become more open.

I have recently received two small research grants (AEA and BSBI) and I am working on an application for a larger grant. My work is also being kindly supported by colleagues at Historic England’s Scientific Lab, who are offering much encouragement to develop a phytolith reference collection for the British Flora. I am trying to be as active as possible with my research pursuits; I have recently presented a poster at the IMAA workshop at the University of Reading and I am working with PalaeoSIG on their lay summary blogs as a copy-editor. 

I am a graduate and post-graduate in Archaeology and Anthropology from different Brazilian universities. I believe that I can collaborate as a representative or collaborating researcher acting and helping other students who are entering the careers of archaeological and anthropological sciences. I believe that there is a need for greater visibility for AEA researchers and students, especially Latin Americans.

 I have been a member of the AEA since 2004, and currently divide my time between commercial  work as the environmental archaeology manager for L - P : Archaeology, a medium-sized  archaeology company in the UK with offices in London, Essex, Chester and Bristol; and teaching  and research as Senior Lecturer in Environmental Change & Sustainability in the Geography  department at Bath Spa University. My primary specialism is the identification and interpretation of  mollusc shell assemblages, although I have fairly broad interests in ecological change, Quaternary  sciences, site formation processes, environmental sustainability and past human health and  lifestyles. I am especially interested in mentoring, training and wellbeing within the discipline, and  working to ensure the sustainability of the specialisms, especially primary identification skills, that  we rely on.  

 I am an archaeobotanist based at the University of Sheffield. I am interested in food and identity  (both archaeological and modern), agricultural decision-making, crop choices and risk management  in ancient societies. I’ve been a member of the AEA since 2004 when I was an undergraduate at  the University of Melbourne, Australia. I completed my MSc in Environmental Archaeology and  Palaeoeconomy and PhD at Sheffield. Following my PhD I worked for Headland Archaeology as a  post-excavation supervisor before returning to Sheffield as a post-doctoral researcher on the  ADAPT project for Glynis Jones investigating the spread of crops across Europe in the Neolithic.  Currently I am a British Academy post-doctoral fellow researching cultural connections through  crop choices and cultivation strategies in the Bell Beaker period. I have taught archaeobotany at  the University of Nottingham and I am currently teaching MSc courses in archaeobotany at  Sheffield. I’ve worked as an archaeobotanist on research projects in Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel,  Georgia and the UK and commercially as part of the Sheffield Archaeobotany Consultancy. In  2019 I was on the organising committee of the 40th AEA autumn conference held at Sheffield and I  would like contribute more to the AEA by joining the committee as an ordinary member.  

 I am currently a Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the Catalan Institute of Classical Archaeology in Tarragona, Spain. I moved there in June 2019 after many years of work as a Lecturer at the University of Nottingham in the UK, which followed postdocs in UK institutions as well as work at the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) and as a freelance archaeobotanist. My rich work experience in the academic but also in the contract world has allowed me to gain a good understanding of the advantages and, importantly, the problems each sector faces. I am specialised in archaeobotany having completed a Masters at the University of Sheffield and a PhD at the University of Leicester, UK. 

My research interests include a variety of topics, such as the archaeology of food, cuisine and taste, ritual practices, the development of horticulture and arboriculture, Aegean archaeology but also Roman and medieval food trade. 

 I am currently a freelance geoarchaeologist and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bradford. Alongside geoarchaeology and all things environmental, my focus is British prehistory. My last postdoctoral position was project managing and co-authoring the publication of the Broxmouth hillfort excavations, East Lothian, as a joint project between the University of Bradford and Historic Scotland. I’m currently co-authoring the publication of the excavations at the Iron Age site of High Pasture Cave, Skye, with the support of Historic Scotland, am involved in a range of projects (mainly geoarchaeological) with my colleagues at Bradford and beyond, and am lucky enough to spend some of the summers at the Ness of Brodgar excavations in Orkney, undertaking geoarchaeological sampling within this incredibly preserved complex of Neolithic structures.

I gained a BA Joint Honours in Archaeology and Classics at Nottingham (1994), after which I spent several years as a field archaeologist, mainly based in London. My interest in environmental archaeology was stimulated through my Archaeological Sciences MA at Bradford (2000), after which I travelled north to the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Stirling and a PhD in geoarchaeology, focusing on cultural soils in Scotland. After this, I worked from the University as a geoarchaeological specialist for a diverse range of projects, such as the Papar Project (Scotland), The Viking Unst Project (Shetland), the Landscapes Circum Landnam Project (Faeroe Islands), The Anuradhapura Hinterland Project (Sri Lanka) and the investigations at the First World War site of Fromelles (France). I’ve been a member of the AEA since 2005, and hope that my range of experience in both the commercial and academic sectors will make me a useful member of the Committee.

 I have served as Treasurer on the AEA committee since 2017. My archaeological career began in Oxford in 2005 with a degree in classical archaeology, then segued into archaeobotany and early medieval archaeology, culminating in a thesis about Anglo-Saxon agricultural innovation. Since 2017, following work in project management and software development, I have worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, specialising in archaeobotany, quantitative analysis and information technology on the "Feeding Anglo-Saxon England" (FeedSax) project. FeedSax is using a suite of bioarchaeological methods to address longstanding questions about the development of early medieval field systems, in a pioneering interdisciplinary approach. I have also undertaken freelance archaeobotanical work for academic, commercial and community projects, served as organizer of Oxford's Archaeobotany Discussion Group, and from 2021 as editor of the journal Medieval Settlement Research.

I am archaeobotanist, and started my ‘Cinderella adventure’ in the early 1990s. I studied environmental biology at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków and then I worked in W. Szafer Institute of Botany PAS. I was taught by Krystyna Wasylikowa, who supervised my masters and doctoral thesis in classical archaeobotany. Now I am employed as a professor in the Polish Academy of Science but I hope there is still a long and interesting way ahead. I work mostly with samples derived from dry sites but I am also familiar with waterlogged remains from medieval towns and from natural sediments. During these years I also identified wood charcoal and plant imprints in daub and pottery. I like that part of the work that is connected with time consuming observations of plant macroremains but I am mostly interested in answering some questions using all accessible and reliable sources of information; research that needs good collaboration and understanding with other specialists. Last time I started to study the possibilities of stable N and C isotopic analyses as a source of information about past environment and diet. I have published several scientific papers, participated in some projects (four as PI), and I am a secretary in the Commission on Quaternary Palaeogeography, Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Despite working in a scientific unit I also have some experience of commercial archaeology, including participation in some projects of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, with most of these studies published in international scientific journals. I work in the Institute of Botany and I’ve always collaborated with other archaeologists and archaeological institutions. I have participated in several excavations in Poland and abroad, including Egypt, Georgia and Greece.

Although with some breaks I have been an AEA member since 2005. I am very well experienced in archaeobotany but I can see that when we try to solve any scientific problem then we need to join information obtained by several specialists. On such occasions a good cognition and interdisciplinary understanding is crucial for performing any valuable discussion. In practice this is not so easy.

I was first on the AEA committee between 2011 and 2015 as an Ordinary Member, and was elected at Secretary in November 2018 at AGM during the AEA conference in Aarhus, Denmark.

I am originally from Cork, Ireland but am currently living in Newcastle, in northern England. I initially studied History and Archaeology in University College Cork. I later undertook postgraduate study at Durham University in the Department of Archaeology, and have been based in northern England for the last 10 years.

I work for Historic England as the North-East and Hadrian’s Wall Science Advisor. My work involves engaging with the archaeological sector in my region and working to improve practice, foster new techniques of analysis, and advise both commercial companies and local authority archaeologists on the use of archaeological science in their work. Previous to this I worked in the British commercial archaeology sector as an environmental archaeologist, primarily undertaking archaeobotanical work. During this time I had the opportunity to work on a range of projects, from Caithness to Cornwall, Wales to East Anglia, giving me a broad appreciation of the range of archaeological sites, material and local approaches to archaeology across Britain.

As well as AEA secretary I am also the editor of Archaeologica Aeliana, the journal of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne.

I am a pollen specialist and environmental archaeologist with a research focus on prehistoric Britain and Ireland, specifically Neolithic to Bronze Age human–environment interactions. I obtained a doctorate from the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 2019, in which I linked multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental data obtained from lake sediments to the archaeological record of Co. Clare in western Ireland. The use of pollen analysis, in addition to a range of palaeolimnological techniques (chironomid, organic/inorganic geochemistry) allowed me to identify anthropogenic indicators relating to pastoral and arable agriculture throughout prehistory. My environmental claim to fame is taking the deepest core in Ireland through 30m of water at Lough Inchiquin in Co. Clare! 

I previously completed a BSc (Hons) in Archaeology at the University of Durham, graduating in 2011, and went on to complete a research MPhil at the University of Cambridge the following year. My research has been varied in terms of the techniques involved but has always been firmly grounded in the realm of environmental archaeology. I enjoy spending my time digging holes, floating on a raft taking lake sediment cores and staring down a microscope.

I currently work in the commercial sector in Ireland where I am based primarily in post-excavation and manage the processing of environmental samples as well as specialist pollen work. Occasionally I manage to escape the warehouse and work on site and have commercial experience both in Ireland and the UK. I have carried out fieldwork in the UK, Ireland, Greece and Libya, and also worked as an archaeobotanist in Egypt. I have been involved in the AEA since 2016 and enjoy being part of this supportive and productive community! 

 Dr Shyama Vermeersch has a broad archaeological background thanks to her master’s degrees in  both Egyptology and archaeological sciences. She obtained her dissertation titled 'Developments in  Subsistence Practices from the Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age in the Southern Levant' in  2021 at the University of Tübingen (DE). Now, Dr Vermeersch is a research and teaching assistant  in zooarchaeology at the University of Groningen (NL). Her research interests include  reconstructing past farming and provisioning systems in their cultural and environmental context by  integrating both faunal and botanical lines of evidence. Dr Vermeersch has been a member of  various excavation projects, and her work has been presented in international conferences and first -authored publications. Last but not least, she is also actively engaged in promoting gender equity,  women in science, and making our archaeological results accessible to the general public.