Research groups and themes

The department is engaged in a wide range of research, much of it taking advantage of the strong interdisciplinary ethos at York. Recent appointments have added to our established reputation as an international centre of excellence for Medieval and Post Medieval archaeology, and have extended our profile to encompass Prehistory and Bioarchaeology.

Our current research structure is organised around the following themes:

AIS

  • The impact of internet and digital technologies on communications
  • The ordering of knowledge within archaeology and related disciplines

Conservation & Heritage

  • Conservation
  • Heritage Management
  • Community Archaeologies
  • Managing change

Material cultures

Border of vine-scroll ornament containing part of an unidentified figurative scene
  • The inhabitation of religious and secular architectures
  • The role of artefacts in the construction of social identities
  • Object-person networks

Bioarchaeology


  • Human palaeoecology
  • Environmental archaeology
  • Ancient proteins (ZooMS)
  • Amino acid geochronology
  • Food Residue analysis

Early prehistory


  • Subsistence and shell middens
  • Taphonomy
  • Cognitive and social evolution
  • Soils

Historical archaeology


  • Medieval & post-medieval buildings
  • Settlement & estate landscapes
  • Death & commemoration
  • Humans, animals & their products
  • Archaeology of recent conflict
  • Archaeology of the contemporary past

Coastal and submerged prehistory


  • Early coastlines
  • Human use of coastal and marine resources
  • Colonisations and migrations

Landscape and society


  • Tectonics and sea-level change
  • High altitude/upland landscapes
  • Medieval and Post Medieval social geographies

Theory and Practice


  • Curation of the historic environment
  • Recording the archaeological process
  • Innovative approaches to fieldwork