Profile

Biography

Steve Ashby BSc (Birmingham), MSc Ph.D (York) is a medieval archaeologist with specialism in the archaeology of portable material culture and the use of animal products in craft and industry. He is particularly interested in the relationship between the various regions of Britain and Scandinavia before, during, and after the Viking Age.

Before starting up at York, Steve was employed by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, as Finds Liaison Officer for Northamptonshire, a role that involved working closely with local communities, amateur archaeologists, and metal detectorists in order to preserve by record the vast numbers of chance finds recovered by members of the public. Steve continues his association with the PAS, and is interested in exploiting the potential of the data it produces, particularly regarding early medieval craft, trade, and identity, and battlefield archaeology.

Steve teaches in a range of medieval subjects, as well as in the practical aspects of artefact studies, and isalso Chair of the Board of Studies, which means that he oversees all the teaching in the department, and will be one of the members of staff that new students will get to know quite well.

Steve’s blood is Sky Blue, which is as unhealthy as it sounds, because it means he supports Coventry City.

Departmental roles

• Chair of the Board of Studies (2011-)
• Chair of the Archaeology and History Combined Honours Executive Committee
• Previously (2008-10) Chair of the Board of Examiners, Centre for Medieval Studies

Research

Overview

Steve’s PhD thesis focused on bone and antler hair combs in Britain and Scandinavia between c.AD 800 and 1400. It used novel archaeological and scientific techniques to examine the manufacture, exchange, and use of these often overlooked items, and considered their role as dress accessories in the construction of identity.

His wider research interests include dress and identity, medieval craft and industry, and the articulation of human and animal worlds in the Middle Ages. Steve's work also intersects with the archaeologies of appearance and self-representation, and of the social role of technologies.

In general terms, he is interested in the integration of scientific techniques with contemporary theory, in order to ask questions about society, trade, and identity. He would be interested in supervising research students working in any of these areas.

Current projects

• Combs and Communities in Viking-Age Britain: Biography and Ecology
• Crafting Networks in Viking Towns
• Entrepot
• BoneWorX: Proteomic Analysis and the Comb Trade
• An Atlas of Viking and Medieval Combs from Northern Europe
• Combmaking and mercantile identity in early medieval Europe
• The TASTE Group: Technologies of Adornment, Strategies of Transformation and Enchantment
• The Archaeology of Human-Cervid Relations
• Inhabiting the Viking Age: Travel, Tradition, Technology

Research group(s)

• People and Animals
• CMS Viking Studies Research Group

Grants

 British Academy Small Grant 2010 for Crafting Networks in Viking Towns (with Soren Sindbaek)

Awards

Runner-up  Martyn Jope award 2010 for best paper in Medieval Archaeology

University of York/YUSU Supervisor of the Year 2010.

Collaborators

Joann Fletcher (TASTE)

Soren Sindbaek (CNVT)

Gitte Hansen and Irene Baug, Bergen Museum (Actors and Affordable Crafts)

Publications

Selected publications

• Ashby, S.P. 2010.  "Spot-Identification of Medieval Bone/Antler Combs from the British Isles and Northern Europe".  Handguide produced for the ICAZ Worked Bone Research Group.  Comb typology (PDF , 993kb).  Also available at www.wbrg.net.
• Ashby, S. P. 2009. "Combs, contact, and chronology: reconsidering hair combs in Early-historic and Viking-Age Atlantic Scotland." Medieval Archaeology 53: 1-33.
• Ashby, S. P. 2007: Bone and Antler Combs, Finds Research Group Datasheet 40.  Available online via the FRG website.
• Ashby, S. P. 2004: 'Understanding human movement and interaction through the movement of animals and animal products', In M. Mondini, Muñoz, S. and Wickler, S. (Eds), Colonisation, Migration,and Marginal Areas: A Zooarchaeological Approach. Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference, Durham, 2002, Oxford: Oxbow, pp.4-9.
• Ashby, S. P. 2002: The role of zooarchaeology in the interpretation of socioeconomic status: a discussion with reference to medieval Europe, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 18: 37-59.

Full publications list

2012 and forthcoming

• Ashby, S. P. in press. 'A Study in Regionality: Hair Combs and Bone/Antler Craft in the Northern Danelaw'. In D. Petts and S. Turner (Eds), Early Medieval Northumbria. Turnhout, Brepols.
• Ashby, S.P. in press.  'Making a Good Comb'.  In L. Ten Harkel and D.M. Hadley (Eds), Social Approaches to Viking Towns.  Oxford:  Oxbow.
• Ashby, S.P. in press.  'Disentangling trade: combs in the North and Irish Seas in the Long Viking Age".  In J.H. Barrett and S.-J. Gibbon (Eds), Maritime Societies of the Viking and Medieval World.  London: Boydell.
• Ashby, S. P. and C. E. Batey in press. Worked Antler and Bone. In J. H. Barrett (ed.), Quoygrew: Being an Islander in Late Viking Age and Medieval Orkney. Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

2011

• Ashby, S.P. 2011.  An Atlas of medieval combs from northern Europe, Internet Archaeology 30.
• Ashby, S.P. 2011.  'The Language of the Combmaker: Interpreting Complexity in Viking-Age Industry", In J. Baron and B. Kufel-Diakowska (eds), Written in Bones.  Wroclaw: University of Wroclaw, pp.9-24. Available online.

2010

• Ashby, S. P. and Bolton, A. 2010: 'Searching with a fine-toothed comb: combs for humans and horses on the PAS database', In H. Geake, Lewis, M. J. and Worrell, S. (Eds), A Decade of Discovery, Proceedings of the Portable Antiquities Scheme Conference 2007, British Archaeological Reports British Series 520, Oxford: Archaeopress, 235-240.

2009

• Ashby, S. P. 2009. "Combs, contact, and chronology: reconsidering hair combs in Early-historic and Viking-Age Atlantic Scotland." Medieval Archaeology 53: 1-33.
• Ashby, S. P. 2009. 2.2.18 Comb fragment. In K. Hardy and C. Wickham-Jones (eds), Mesolithic and later sites around the Inner Sound, Scotland: the work of the Scotland’s First Settlers project 1998–2004, Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports 31.

2008

• Ashby, S. P. 2008. "The Northamptonshire Portable Antiquities Scheme, 2007." Northamptonshire Archaeology 35: 288-291.
• Ashby, S. P. 2008. "An Eleventh-Century copper alloy stirrup-strap mount from Overstone, Northamptonshire." Northamptonshire Archaeology 35: 287-288.

2007

• Ashby, S. P. 2007: Bone and Antler Combs, Finds Research Group Datasheet 40.
• Barrett, J. H., Hall, A., Johnstone, C., Kenward, H. K., O'Connor, T. P. and Ashby, S. P. 2007: 'Interpreting the Plant and Animal Remains from Viking-age Kaupang', In D. Skre (Ed.) Kaupang in Skiringssal, Kaupang Excavation Project Publication Series, Volume I, Norske Oldfunn XXII, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, pp.283-319.

2006

• Ashby, S. P. 2006. "Northamptonshire Portable Antiquities Scheme 2006." Northamptonshire Archaeology 34: 153-154.
• Ashby, S. P. 2006: 'Trade in Viking Age Britain: identity and the production and distribution of bone and antler combs', In J. Arneborg and Grønnow, B. (Eds), Dynamics of Northern Societies. Proceedings of the SILA/NABO Conference on Arctic and North Atlantic Archaeology, Copenhagen, May 10th-14th, 2004, Copenhagen: Publications from the National Museum, Studies in Archaeology and History Volume 10, pp.273-279.

2005

• Ashby, S. P. 2005: 'Combs', In T. Muir (Ed.) Orkney in the Sagas, Kirkwall: Orkney Museums and Heritage, pp.134-136.
• Ashby, S. P. 2005: 'Zooarchaeology, artefacts, trade and identity: the analysis of bone combs from early medieval England and Scotland', In A. Pluskowski (Ed.) Just Skin and Bones? New Perspectives on Human-Animal Relations in the Historical Past, Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1410, pp.41-43.
• Ashby, S. P. 2005: 'Bone and antler combs: towards a methodology for the understanding of trade and identity in Viking Age England and Scotland', In H. Luik, Choyke, A. M., Batey, C. E. and Lougas, L. (Eds), From Hooves to Horns, from Mollusc to Mammoth. Proceedings of the 4th Meeting of the Worked Bone Research Group, Tallinn, Estonia, August 2003, Tallinn: pp.255-262.
• Ashby, S. P. (trans) 2005: Craft & Industries: Bone, antler and horn-working, Blue Bridge Lane & Fishergate House, York. Report on Excavations; July 2000 to July 2002, Electronic Publication.
• Ashby, S. P. and Spall, C. 2005: 'Artefact and Environmental Evidence: Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn Objects', In C. Spall and Toop, N. (Eds), Blue Bridge Lane & Fishergate House, York. Report on Excavations; July 2000 to July 2002, Electronic Publication.

Pre-2005

• Ashby, S. P. 2004: 'Understanding human movement and interaction through the movement of animals and animal products', In M. Mondini, Muñoz, S. and Wickler, S. (Eds), Colonisation, Migration,and Marginal Areas: A Zooarchaeological Approach. Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference, Durham, 2002, Oxford: Oxbow, pp.4-9.
• Ashby, S. P. 2002: The role of zooarchaeology in the interpretation of socioeconomic status: a discussion with reference to medieval Europe, Archaeological Review from Cambridge 18: 37-59.

External activities

Memberships

• Steering Committee Member, 'Researching Ivory' AHRC/EPSRC Research Cluster
• Fellow, Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
• Member, ICAZ Worked Bone Research Group

Editorial duties

• Committee member and Datasheet Editor Finds Research Group

Invited talks and conferences

Session Chair, Early Medieval Archaeological Students Symposium, 2009

Session Chair and Invited Speaker, Researching Ivories workshops 2009.

Invited Speaker, Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2010

Invited Speaker, Early Medieva Finds from the British Isles conference, University of Oxford, 2010

Media coverage

Radio: Appearances on BBC Radio Orkney, BBC Radio Northamptonshire.

TV: BBC 1's 'The One Show' , ITV local news, forthcoming Channel 4 Time Team special.

Teaching

Undergraduate

First year

• Accessing Archaeology - Module leader

Second year

• Themes in Historical Archaeology - Lecturer
• Practical Option (artefacts) - Lecturer
• Team Project (artefacts) - Lecturer
• Dissertation Workshops - Module leader

Third year

• Special Topic: Landscape and Community in Viking-Age Britain and Ireland - Module leader
• Assessed Seminar: Viking-Age Britain and Ireland - Module leader

Postgraduate

• Age of the Vikings - Module leader (with Soren Sindbaek)