The University of Sheffield

Graduate Student, Archaeology

About

After a career as an independent jeweller I returned to academic studies to pursue a degree in anthropology. During my undergraduate work, I had the opportunity to work with an assemblage of Bronze Age axes at the University of Minnesota. I and my colleague, Joseph Zarr catalogued the collection and authored a report supported by a UROP grant. I was hooked immediately on archaeometallurgy and soon found that my skills as a metalworker gave me a unique perspective and a knowledge that would be an asset.

While working with the university’s collection, I developed an interest in corrosion processes and deterioration of metals. I was awarded a second grant to study museum conservation at the Science Museum of Minnesota where I worked under Gretchen Anderson and Ed Fleming. In addition I worked with the museum’s collection of Native American copper, and authored a paper on A Study of the Manufacture of Copper Spearheads in the Old Copper Complex that was published in the 2009 issue of The Minnesota Archaeologist. The study gave me the opportunity to work with 3D scanning and imaging equipment that allowed me to take accurate measurements of the spearheads and examine wear.

For my postgraduate career, I relocated to Britain to work under Dr. Roger Doonan. I completed my MSc in archaeomaterials, with a dissertation on the Iron Age metalworking assemblage of the Meare Villages in Somerset. The analysis for the dissertation involved operating a portable XRF, and using it to analyse metal, slag, and ceramic materials. In addition, I did experimental work on the effects of recycling bronze. The work was done entirely in a Bronze Age context in order to recreate the original conditions. The results were presented at the 2009 Historical Metallurgy Society Research in Progress Conference, with a publication to follow.

My interest in metalworking tools forms the basis of my PhD work, where I am taking a holistic approach to understand British Bronze Age smiths and their place in their community. The work not only includes examining tools, but also looking at the physical remains of metalworking in relation to settlements, understanding the changing economics of prehistoric Bronze Age Britain, and the importance of metal in ritual practices.
My research has taken me from Inverness to the Isle of Wight, travelling to museums to examine metalworking tools in museum collections.
The experimental component of my thesis calls on my previous experience in metalworking, and I am casting duplicates of Bronze Age socketed hammers to understand how they would perform and compare the wear analysis to hammers in museum collections.

In addition, I have given presentations on the topics of museum conservation practice, Bronze Age metallurgy, and representation of heritage.

I am a member of The Society for the Preservation of Historical and Natural History Collections (SPNHC), The Historical Metallurgy Society, The Prehistorical Society, and the United Kingdom Facet Cutters Guild.