Profile

Biography

Penny studied her first degree and PhD at Cambridge University, specialising in Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archaeology, and her Masters degree (in GIS) at Leeds University. She carried out research in Argentina, and had a lectureship at Newcastle University before coming to York in 2004.

She is fascinated by many issues in early prehistoric archaeology and small scale ethnographic societies, particularly those concerned with social and cognitive evolution and prehistoric social dynamics - broadly speacking how everyone managed to 'get on' (or not) with each other in prehistory.

Her recent research includes The Prehistory of Compassion (PDF , 605kb), the role of autism in prehistoric societies, the evolution of emotions and the maintenance of egalitarian hunter-gatherer communities.

She has directed an excavation project at Mesolithic sites in the Pennines, and underwater archaeological fieldwork in the North-East, and has directed projects funded by English Heritage, AHRB, The British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust.

Research

Overview

• Early Prehistory
• Cognitive and Social Evolution
• Hunter-gatherer populations (Archaeology of north-west Europe and southern South America in the early Holocene, Ethnographic approaches)

Penny's recent and upcoming publications reflect her interest in social-emotional dynamics in past societies. She has a recent paper in Cambridge Archaeological Journal on autism in prehistory, a recent paper in Journal of World Prehistory on the role of prestigious leaders in mesolithic societies and has recently completed a large piece of research on the evolution of compassion and its identification in the past.

Penny has also pioneered research on GIS based landscape interpretation, extending this to incorporate site based stratigraphic modelling. Using material from her work at March Hill, she has been a leader in the development of new analytical and interpretative approaches to hunter-gatherer sites, a role reflected in her co-editing (with Geoff Bailey) of a major new volume on the Mesolithic in Europe.

Current projects

Penny’s work on prehistoric cognition will continue alongside other projects, among them British Academy funded work on ethnographic models of Hunter-gatherer settlement in Argentina, and Leverhulme/AHRB funded research on the identification and recording of submerged landscapes in Britain.    

• 2007–2009 Submerged Landscape Archaeology of the Continental Shelf, Leverhulme Trust
• 2007-2008 Lithics analysis and social dynamics (microwear and detailed reconstruction of lithic distribution patterns at March Hill), with Ivan Briz (Barcelona, Spain) and Myrian Alvarez (Ushuaia, Argentina)
• 2004-2006, Models of hunter-gatherer settlement patterns: Analysis of ethnohistorical records of hunter-gatherer settlement in Tierra del Fuego, with Liliana Manzi (Argentina), funded by the British Academy
• 2003-ongoing, SALT (Submerged Archaeological Landscapes Team). AHRB and School of Historical Studies (Newcastle University)
• 2001-2002, Early Colonisation of South America: a preliminary assessment of the Serra da Capivara National Park region ( Brazil ). British Academy
• 1993-1996 (fieldwork), West Yorkshire Mesolithic Project. English Heritage, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service (Wakefield Metropolitan District Council), The National Trust
• 1998 - Central Patagonian hunter-gatherers. Leverhulme Trust (1998-2000)

Research group(s)

• Bioarchaeology
• Landscape and Society
• Coastal Prehistory

Publications

Selected publications

Books

• Bailey, G. & Spikins, P. eds. (2008) Mesolithic Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Spikins, P.A. (2003) Nomadic People of the Pennines : Reconstructing the Lifestyles of Mesolithic People on Marsden Moor. West Yorkshire Archaeology Service and English Heritage.
• Spikins, P.A. (2000) The Mesolithic of Northern England : Environment, Population and Settlement. British Archaeological Reports British Series.
• Spikins, P.A. (1998) Re-thinking the Mesolithic: Changes in Environment, Population and Settlement in Mesolithic northern England . PhD dissertation, University of Cambridge.

Recent Journal Articles

• Spikins, P. A. and Kelly, R. (2011) Mesolithic hearths and the role of fires, Quaderni Di Thule, International Americanistic Studies Congress, Perugia, Italy. Centro Studi Americanistici 'Circulo Amerindiano' Onlus. 
  
• Spikins, P.A., Rutherford, H., and Needham, A. (2010) From hominity to humanity: compassion from the earliest archaics to modern humans, Time and Mind 3 (1) see also
• Spikins, P.A., Rutherford, H. E., & Needham, A. P. (2010). The Prehistory of Compassion. Blurb Publishing. For text summary see The Prehistory of Compassion (PDF , 605kb)
• Briz y Godino, I., Alvarez, M., Spikins, P and Needham, A. (2009) 'Durable Residues': Addressing the use of microwear, a case study from March Hill, Internet Archaeology 26.
• Spikins, P. A. (2009) Autism, the integration of difference and the origins of modern human behaviour, Cambridge Archaeological Journal 19:2. 179-201
• Spikins, P. A. (2008) The Bashful and the Boastful: Prestigious leaders and social change in Mesolithic Societies, Journal of World Prehistory 2008 (3-4): 173-193
• Manzi, L and Spikins, P. A. (2008) El fuego en las altas latitudes: Los Selk'nam de Tierra del Fuego como referente ethnográfico para el Mesolítico europeo, Complutum 19 (1): 79-96
• Engen, M and Spikins, P.A. (2007) ‘A Needle in a Haystack’?: Perspectives on prospection for submerged Mesolithic sites, in C. Waddington and K. Pedersen (eds.) Mesolithic Studies in the North Sea basin and beyond, Oxford: Oxbow books
• Spikins, P.A., Conneller, C.J , Ayestaran, H. and Scaife, B. (2002) 'GIS based interpolation applied to distinguishing occupation phases of hunter-gatherer sites', Journal of Archaeological Science. (abstract)
• Spikins, P.A. (2000) 'Ethno-fact or ethno-fiction? Searching for the 'Structure' of settlement patterns', in R. Young Current Research on the British and Irish Mesolithic. Leicester University Press, Leicester, p105-118. (abstract)
• Spikins, P.A. (2000) 'Go forth and multiply? Gradual population growth re-assessed - a case study from Mesolithic Northern England', in C. Conneller New Approaches to the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, ARC vol 17:1. p99-121. (abstract)

Full publications list

Teaching

Undergraduate

Yr 1: contributor to British Archaeology (Palaeolithic)

Yr 2: Themes in Prehistory: Palaeolithic

Yr 3: Assessed Seminars: Neanderthals and contributor to Human Evolution

Postgraduate

MSc in Early Prehistory

External activities