Profile

Biography

I took my undergraduate and postgraduate training in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, specialising in prehistory and bioarchaeology (BA 1970, MA 1974, PhD 1975).

In Cambridge, I stayed on after my PhD as Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University Lecturer and Senior Tutor of my College (Clare Hall) until 1996, when I moved to be Chair and Head of Department of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

In 2004 I moved to take up my present position at the University of York as the holder of a new Anniversary Chair created to mark the University's 40th anniversary.

I am primarily a field archaeologist, with experience in many parts of the world, across Africa, the Americas, Australia, Europe, the Far East and SW Asia, and have led major projects in Australia, Greece, Saudi Arabia and the UK, with particular interests in coastal prehistory and the evolution of terrestrial landscapes.

In the past decade I have combined these interests in the exploration of the submerged landscapes of the continental shelf, which made available as much as 20 million square kilometres of new territory during the periods of low sea-level that have persisted for most of human history on this planet, research which is now emerging as a new and pioneer field of archaeological investigation.

I have run field projects on these themes in many parts of the world and have currently active fieldwork interests and engagement in the Arabian Peninsula, Australia, East Africa, and various parts of Europe. 

These projects have led me to work across the boundaries between Archaeology and the Life, Earth and Marine Sciences, and to engage in collaborative projects with many specialists across a wide intellectual spectrum both in the field, in the laboratory, and in the development of interpretive models.

See also project websites at:

http://www.disperse-project.org/

http://www.splashcos.org/

Career

Employment

2017 Visiting Professor of Archaeology, Flinders University, Australia

2004 Anniversary Chair of Archaeology, University of York 

1996 Chair of Archaeology and Head of Department, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

1990 Senior Tutor, Clare Hall, Cambridge

1981 Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

1976 Assistant Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

1974 Research Fellow (Early History of Agriculture Project), University of Cambridge

Honorary and Professional Memberships

2016 Anniversary Professor of Archaeology Emeritus, University of York 

2015 President, UISPP Commission on Coastal Prehistory and Submerged Landscapes

2014 Member of the Academia Europaea

2010 Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute (Römisch-Germanische Kommission)

1997 Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne

1996 Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge

1989 Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge

1987 Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (FSA)

1986 Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA)

Visiting Positions

2016 Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany 

2016 University of Auckland, New Zealand

2012 Institute of History and Philology, Academica Sinica, Taiwan, Republic of China (Fu Ssu-nien Memorial Lectures)

2010 University of Crete, Rethymnon Campus, Greece (Erasmus Exchange) 

2009 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain 

2003 International Center for Japanese Studies, Nichibunken, Kyoto, Japan (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) 

1993 University of Cape Town, South Africa

1992 Australian National University, Australia  

1972 University of Sydney, Australia 

Research Positions and Awards

2016 Hood Fellow, University of Auckland

2011 Principal Investigator, European Research Council Advanced Grant 269586 DISPERSE

2009 Chairman, European Union Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Trans-domain Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS 

2001 Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellow, University of Newcastle upon Tyne

1992 Sir Robert Menzies Trust Australian Bicentennial Fellow, Australian National University

1986 Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

1974 British Academy Research Fellow, University of Cambridge

1973 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Senior Research Student

1971 Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Studentship in Overseas Research, University of Sydney

1970 Major State Studentship for Postgraduate Research, University of Cambridge

1967 Open Scholarship in Classics, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge

Departmental roles

Member: Departmental Research Committee  

Earlier History

I was born and brought up in London, in the featureless suburb of Ilford, which lies on the eastern borderland between the great metropolis and rural Essex, where one was constantly beckoned towards a more exciting world beyond the immediate horizon. It was later renamed Redbridge, a fact that I am reminded of whenever I use the London Underground and look at the map of the Central Line heading East.

When I was 10, my family moved to Bristol, and I spent my teenage years at Bristol Grammar School and came to know a very different part of England, with some of the finest and most varied landscapes in the country on all sides of a great city with a colourful maritime history, and a very fine combination of Georgian architecture and the Downs and its green spaces overlooking the Avon Gorge and Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge.  

As I prepared to go to University, my family returned to the London area, and I went on a year of travels before going up to Cambridge, where I had been offered a College Scholarship largely on the strength of my ability to translate Latin prose and convert the second leader of the Times editorial into Greek verse.

My archaeological interests have a mixed genealogy, an early enthusiasm for solving jigsaw puzzles and making clay models of dinosaurs almost before I could read and write, regular cycling trips during my Bristol years into the surrounding countryside in search of geological and archaeological sites – most memorably the Triassic fossils at Aust Cliff on the River Severn, the caves of Cheddar Gorge and the Iron Age hillforts of Somerset – a sixth-form specialisation in Ancient History and Classical languages, which offered an entry into a different universe beyond the seemingly rather claustrophobic confines of the modern world, and a youthful interest in human evolution and the writings of Charles Darwin.  

In 1967, before going up to University, I invited myself onto a Palaeolithic cave excavation in northern Greece with Eric Higgs, after seeing a BBC television programme 'The Springs of St. George' about his work. This, I thought, would be a good way of hitching a ride to see some of the places I had learned about in my classical education, and also of discovering if archaeology involved anything more than the study of rather dull and dusty objects and holes in the ground – social anthropology was then my first choice of University subject. That experience opened up a new vista of different ideas, peoples, times and places, which has informed my world view, interests and career ever since.

In Cambridge, I stayed for 29 years, as Undergraduate, Research Student, Research Fellow, University Lecturer, College Fellow, and College Senior Tutor, except for spells of overseas fieldwork including a year in Australia during my PhD research, until I decided it was time to take up a new challenge, moving to the Chair of Archaeology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1996.

Newcastle is a distinctive northern city with its own proud traditions and identity, reminding me of my Bristol days with its unique city-scape and Town Moor, its Tyne bridges marking a famous history of engineering invention associated with the names of Stephenson and Armstrong, and its magnificent countryside on every hand including the hidden gem of the Northumberland coast. In 2004 I moved to take up my present position at the University of York but Newcastle continues to be my home base.

Research

Overview

I have world-wide interests in the evolution of terrestrial landscapes and the ways in which geological instabilities resulting from sea-level change and active tectonics at plate margins and in rifts have shaped human lives, livelihoods and long-term evolutionary trajectories. 

I have particular interests in coastal prehistory, in mounded shell middens, which occur in their hundreds of thousands around the coastlines of the world as the most durable archaeological expression of past coastal settlement, in the biomolecular analysis of marine mollusc shells and other midden contents for information on palaeodiet and palaeoclimate, in the relationship between coastal archaeology and changes in sea-level and coastal geomorphology, and in the contribution of coastal environments and marine resources to developments in world prehistory.

These interests have led me on an intellectual and fieldwork Odyssey from the Mesolithic shell mounds of NW Europe to those of tropical Australia, to excavation of Palaeolithic caves in the mountains of NW Greece, to an interest in the role of active tectonics in shaping human landscapes in the Mediterranean, the Near East and Africa, and most recently to explorations of Palaeolithic archaeology, shell mounds and submerged landscapes in SW Arabia, the Farasan Islands and the southern Red Sea. 

I have published 21 books and over 200 scientific papers on these themes, raised over £5 million of external peer-reviewed research funding, and coordinated major field projects, in particular the Klithi Project on the Paleolithic landscapes of NW Greece, the Africa-Arabia Connections Project and the Southern Red Sea Project.  I have also engaged in many smaller projects across the world on these and related issues, notably the Howick and Northumberland Rock Art Projects in Northumberland during my time at Newcastle, laboratory-based projects on the development of stable-isotope and biomolecular methods of analysis, most recently in the Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origins Project, and renewed work on the Weipa shell mounds of the Cape York Peninsula.  

These projects have given me considerable experience of and insight into the problems of integrating long-term archaeological, geological, palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic records within a spatial and geographical framework, and the challenges of mounting large-scale research programmes that facilitate international and interdisciplinary collaboration, especially across the science-humanities boundary. 

This in its turn has led me into a deeper interest in archaeological theories of time and the influence of time scale, time resolution and time perspective on archaeological data, observations and interpretation, the nature of the relationship between what we call the 'present' and the 'past', and the relationship between archaeology and other historical and scientific disciplines.  

I am currently Principal Investigator of the ERC DISPERSE Project, and Chairman of a European network (COST Action TD0902 SPLASHCOS), which has brought together archaeologists, marine geoscientists, heritage managers and industrial interests from across Europe to promote research and training on the submerged landscapes of the continental shelf, their importance in the larger picture of world prehistory, their potential for providing new information about sea-level change and its past and future human impact, and the need to better manage the underwater cultural heritage in the face of rapidly expanding natural and man-made threats to its survival.

Select Publications

Books

Bailey GN, Harff J, Sakellariou D (eds) 2017. Under the Sea: Archaeology and Palaeolandscapes of the Continental Shelf. Springer, Cham, ix+436 pp

Flemming N, Harff J, Moura D, Burgess A, Bailey GN 2017. Submerged Landscapes of the European Continental Shelf. Wiley Blackwell, Chichester, xvi+533 pp

Harff J, Bailey G, Lüth F (eds) 2016. Geology and Archaeology: Submerged Landscapes of the Continental Shelf. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 411, v+294 pp

Alsharekh, A.M., Bailey, G.N. (Eds). 2014. Coastal Prehistory in Southwest Arabia and the Farasan Islands: 2004–2009 Field Investigations. Riyadh: Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (ISBN 978-603-8136-01-0). v+215 pp

Bailey GN, Hardy K, Camara A (eds) 2013. Shell Energy: Mollusc Shells as Coastal Resources. Oxford, OxBow, x+320 pp

Bailey GN, Spikins P (eds). 2010 (2nd ed, 1st ed, 2008). Mesolithic Europe. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, xi+479 pp. 

Bailey GN (ed) 1997. Klithi: Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece: 2 vols. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, xxxii+682 pp

Bailey GN, Parkington JE (eds). 1988 (Re-printed 2009). The Archaeology of Prehistoric Coastlines.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, vi +148 pp 

Journal Papers

Bailey GN, Devès MH, Inglis RH, Meredith-Williams MG, Momber G, Sakellariou D, Sinclair AGM, Rousakis G, Al Ghamdi S, Alsharekh AM 2015. Blue Arabia: Palaeolithic and underwater survey in SW Saudi Arabia and the role of coasts in Pleistocene dispersal. Quaternary International 282: 42–57

Winder I, King GCP, Devès M, Bailey GN 2013. Complex topography and human evolution: the missing link. Antiquity 87: 333–49

Bailey GN, Reynolds SC, King GCP. 2011. Landscapes of human evolution: models and methods of tectonic geomorphology and the reconstruction of hominin landscapes. Journal of Human Evolution 60 (3): 257–80, 2011

Bailey GN, Galanidou N. 2009. Caves, palimpsests and dwelling spaces: examples from the Upper Palaeolithic of south-east Europe. World Archaeology 41 (2): 215–24 

Bailey GN, Flemming N. 2008. Archaeology of the continental shelf: marine resources, submerged landscapes and underwater archaeology. Quaternary Science Reviews 27, 2153–65

Bailey GN 2007. Time perspectives, palimpsests and the archaeology of time. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26: 198–223

Bailey GN, Flemming N, King GCP, Lambeck K, Momber G, Moran L, Al-Sharekh A, Vita-Finzi C 2007. Coastlines, submerged landscapes and human evolution: the Red Sea Basin and the Farasan Islands. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 2 (2): 127–60

King GCP, Bailey GN 2006. Tectonics and human evolution. Antiquity 80: 265–86. (Winner of the Antiquity prize for best paper).

Milner N, Craig OE, Bailey GN, Pedersen K, Andersen SH. 2004. Something fishy in the Neolithic? A re-evaluation of stable isotope analysis of Mesolithic and Neolithic coastal populations. Antiquity 78: 9–22

Projects

For additional details on my recent research projects, publications and activities, click on 'View my profile in the York Research Database' at the top of this page 

• 2016–2019 Human-Landscape Interactions and Global Dispersals: the SURFACE Record of Palaeolithic Arabia (SURFACE), funded by an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Outgoing International Fellowship, with Robyn Inglis and Patricia Fanning (Macquarie University, Australia).

• 2015–2018 Integrating Archaeological and Climatological Datasets: Investigating Global Human-Environmental Interactions (INTERACT), funded by an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action Outgoing International Fellowship, with Matthew Meredith-Williams and Simon Holdaway (University of Auckland, New Zealand).

• 2011–2016 Dynamic Landscapes, Coastal Environments and Human Dispersals (DISPERSE), funded by the European Research Council (ERC) through its Advanced Grant scheme for frontier research under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, with Geoffrey C.P.King (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris)

• 2011–2013 Enhancing Cultural Heritage for Mining Operations, with Patricia Fanning (Macquarie University), Simon Holdaway (University of Auckland), and Justin Shiner (Rio Tinto Alcan), funded by the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects Program and Rio Tinto Alcan Proprietary Limited

• 2011–2013 Climatic Change and Coastal Settlement in Northern Spain, funded by the Royal Society (Newton International Fellowship, with Igor Gutierrez Zugasti)

• 2009–2013 Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology and Landscapes of the Continental Shelf (SPLASHCOS), funded by EU COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Trans-Domain Action TD0902, Chair, with Dimitris Sakellariou (Hellenic Centre for Marine Research) as Vice-Chair, and a management committee of 56 specialists from 25 European countries.

Previous Major Projects

• 2008 British Academy: The Southern Red Sea Project (with Abdullah Alsharekh, Garry Momber)

• 2007 Leverhulme Trust: Submerged Landscape Archaeology of the Continental Shelf (with Penny Spikins, Garry Momber)

• 2007 AHRC: Underwater Cave Excavation in Gibraltar (with Clive Finlayson, Geraldine Finlayson, Darren Fa, Joaquin Rodriguez-Vidal, Jose Carrion, Garry Momber)

• 2003 NERC: Africa-Arabia Connections, Coastal Environments, Tectonics and Human Dispersals (with Nic Flemming, Geoffrey King, Kurt Lambeck, Claudio Vita-Finzi, Abdullah Alsharekh)

• 2003 British Academy Exchange with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

• 2002 AHRB: Northumberland Rock Art, the Beckensall Archive (with Clive Waddington, Horacio Ayestaran, Glyn Goodrick, Aron Mazel)

• 2002 AHRB: Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origins in Atlantic Europe (with Nicky Milner and Oliver Craig)

• 2000 HLF and English Heritage: Howick Coastal Archaeological Project (with Clive Waddington and Nicky Milner).

• 1999 Leverhulme Trust: Late Stone Age Hunter-Gatherer Exploitation of Riverine Resources in the Lesotho Highlands (with Peter Mitchell, Ruth Charles and Ina Plug).

• 1995 NERC: Palaeopathology and the Origins and Consequences of Horse Domestication (with Leo Jeffcot, Marsha Levine, Katherine Whitwell) 

• 1995 Leverhulme Trust: Aquatic Ecosystems and Complex Societies, the Nile and its Floodplain (with Rosemary Luff)

• 1993 AIATSIS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies), Menzies Trust: Geoarchaeological Exploration of the Weipa Shell Mounds (with John Chappell, Roger Cribb)

• 1992 British Academy, EC Directorate XII (Archaeomedes): Palaeoenvironmental and Landscape Change in NW Greece (with Sander van der Leeuw, Geoffrey King, Sarah Green, Charles Turner, Maria-Fernanda Sánchez-Goñi)

• 1992 Leverhulme Trust: Non-Linear Dynamic Modelling of Human Ecology in NW Greece (with Nic Winder)   

• 1983 British Academy, SERC: the Klithi Project, Greece (with Clive Gamble, Pat Carter, Helen Higgs, Colette Roubet, Geoffrey King, Mark Macklin, Charles Turner, Jamie Woodward, Kathy Willis and 22 others)

• 1983 SERC: Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Coastal Palaeoeconomies (with Nicholas Shackleton, Roy Switsur and Margaret Deith)

• 1979 British Academy: Palaeolithic Investigations in Northern Greece (with Clive Gamble, Pat Carter and Helen Higgs)

• 1979 SERC: Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis of Molluscs (with Nicholas Shackleton and Margaret Deith)

• 1977 British Academy: Midden Analysis of the Norsminde Shell Midden Denmark

• 1972 Royal Society and AIAS (Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies): The Weipa Shell Mounds

Research Panel Membership

• 2009 Member of the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant Panel SH6 ‘The study of the human past: archaeology, history and memory’

• 2006 AHRC Convening Panel for research applications to the Landscape and Environment Strategic Programme, Member

• 2004 AHRC Peer Review College, Member

• 2000 AHRB Postgraduate Studentships Panel for Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology, Member

• 2000 NERC consortium on the EFCHED thematic programme, Member

• 1987 SERC (SBAC) Programme Advisory Panel on the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Member

• 1985 Science-Based Archaeology Committee (SBAC) of the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), Member

Research group(s)

The DISPERSE team is a seven-strong group located in York and the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, with a wider membership of external specialists and advisors. See the DISPERSE website for full details

The SPLASHCOS network comprises a Management Committee of 58 archaeologists, marine geoscientists and heritage specialists from 25 European States, and a wider participating membership 

Grants

(Since 2000)

• 2016–2019 EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Human-Landscape-Interactions and Global Dispersals: The SURFACE Record of Palaeolithic Arabia (SURFACE)
• 2015–2018 EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Integrating Archaeological and Climatological Datasets: Investigating Global Human-Environmental Interactions: INTERACT
  
• 2011–2016 ERC. Dynamic Landscapes, Coastal Environments and Human Dispersals: DISPERSE
• 2011–2013 Royal Society. Climatic Change and Coastal Settlement in Northern Spain
• 2009–2013 EU RTD/ESF COST. Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology and Landscapes of the Continental Shelf: SPLASHCOS  
• 2009–2011 National Geographic Society. Coastal and Underwater Archaeology of the Farasan Islands
• 2007–2009 British Academy. Southern Red Sea Project Farasan Islands
• 2007–2009 Leverhulme Trust. Submerged Landscape Archaeology of the Continental Shelf
• 2007–2008 AHRC. Underwater Cave Excavation in Gibraltar
• 2003–2006 NERC. Africa-Arabia Connections: Coastal Environments, Tectonics and Human Dispersals
• 2003–2005 British Academy. Coastlines, Human Dispersals and the Palaeolithic of the Arabian Peninsula 
• 2002–2004 AHRB Northumberland Rock Art: Web Access to the Beckensall Archive
• 2002–2005 AHRB Coastal Shell Middens and Agricultural Origins in Atlantic Europe
• 2001–2004 Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship
• 2000–2005 HLF, EH. Howick Archaeological Project
• 2003 British Academy Exchange with the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science
• 1999–2003 Leverhulme Trust. Late Stone Age Hunter-Gatherer Exploitation of Riverine Resources in the Lesotho Highlands

Collaborators

Abdullah Alsharekh, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Saud Al Ghamdi, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

Oliver Craig, Department of Archaeology, University of York

Patricia Fanning, Macquarie University, Australia

Nicholas Flemming, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton

Nena Galanidou, University of Crete, Greece

Igor Gutierrez Zugasti, University of Cantabria, Spain

Yvette Hancock, Department of Physics, University of York

Karen Hardy, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain

Niklas Hausmann, Foundation for Research Technology, Crete and University of York 

Simon Holdaway, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Geoffrey C.P. King, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France

Kurt Lambeck, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University

Nicky Milner, Department of Archaeology, University of York

Garry Momber, Maritime Archaeology Trust, Southampton

Eelco Rohling, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University

Dimitris Sakellariou, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece

Anthony Sinclair, Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool

Penny Spikins, Department of Archaeology, University of York

Claudio Vita-Finzi, Natural History Museum, London

Supervision

Current PhD students

Teaching

Undergraduate

As I am now on a full-time research contract, I no longer contribute to undergraduate teaching 

Postgraduate

MSc in Coastal and Marine Archaeology 

(Note that this Programme is currently suspended, pending re-organisation)

External activities

Memberships

• President of UISPP (Union Internationale des Sciences Préhistoriques et Protohistoriques) Commission on Coastal Prehistory and Submered Landscapes, 2015
• Member, Academic Appointments Committee, University of Gibraltar, 2015-
• Member, International Research and Conservation Committee for the Gibraltar Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site, 2014 
• Member of the Academia Europaea, elected 2014
• Advisory Member, AHRC Project on Early Urbanism in Europe: the Case of the Tripillia Mega-Sites of Ukraine, 2013–16  
• Corresponding Member of the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (Römisch-Germanische Kommission), elected 2010 
• Chair of EU COST Action TD0902 Submerged Prehistoric Archaeology and Landscapes of the Continental Shelf (SPLASHCOS), elected 2009, and Vice Chair of the Deukalion Planning Group
• Joint Chair of the Palaeolithic Working Group of the English Heritage Maritime and Marine Historic Environment Research Framework, 2009
• Member of the European Research Council Advanced Grant Panel SH6 ‘The study of the human past’, 2009–
• Member of the AHRC Convening Panel for the Landscape and Environment Strategic Programme, 2006
• Member of the AHRC Peer Review College, 2004–2009
• Member of the AHRB Postgraduate Studentships Panel for Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology, 2000–2003
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, elected 1997
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, elected 1987
• Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, elected 1986

Editorial duties

Membership of Editorial Boards:

• Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology
• Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in History and Archaeology
  
• Open Quaternary

Invited talks and conferences

International Lectures (by special invitation)

• 2016  Hood Fellowship Lecture, University of Auckland, New Zealand
• 2012  Fu Ssu-nien memorial lectures, Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, Republic of China
• 2011  Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Athens
• 2007  Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France. Advanced Seminar.
• 2004  King AbdulAziz University, Jeddah
• 2003  Nara Cultural Properties Research Institute, Japan, Universities of Okayama, Sendai and Tokyo
• 2002  King Saud University, Riyadh

Conference Organisation

• 2013. Diversity and Dynamics in the Human-Sea Relation. Trondheim, Norway, 2–7 October 2013. Marine Ventures International Symposium, 2013 (Member of Scientific Committee).
• 2013. Under the Sea: Archaeology and Palaeolandscapes. SPLASHCOS final open conference. University of Szczecin, Poland. (23–27 September, co-organiser with Jan Harff, Andrzej Witkowski and others.
• 2013. Offshore Industry and Archaeology: a Creative Relationship. SPLASHCOS open meeting. University of Southern Denmark and the Offshore Center, Esbjerg, Denmark (14–16 March, coorganiser with Thijs Maarleveld).  
• 2012. SPLASHCOS: Progress Meeting and Workshop on Sea-Level Change. University of Rome 'La Sapienza' (26–28 September, coorganiser with Francesco Latino Chiocci)
• 2012. Geology and Archaeology: Submerged Landscapes of the Continental Shelf. Symposium 3.2 of the 34th International Geological Congress, Brisbane, Australia (5–10 August, coorganiser with Jan Harff and Friedrich Lüth).
• 2012. SPLASHCOS: Research Funding and Planning, Netherlands Cultural Heritage Agency, Amersfoort, the Netherlands (24-25 April, coorganiser with Henk Weerts)
• 2011. SPLASHCOS: Progress Meeting. University of Zadar, Croatia (3–4 October 2011, coorganiser with Irena Radic Rossi)
• 2011. SPLASHCOS: Archaeological and Geoscientific Approaches to Submerged Landscapes. Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin (11–12 April, coorganiser with Friedrich Lüth), 
• 2010. SPLASHCOS: Review and Research Planning. Hydrobiological Station of Rhodes, Greece (4–5 October, co-organiser with Dimitris Sakellariou)
• 2010. SPLASHCOS: Introductory Meeting and Overview. York (10–11 March, organiser) 
• 2009. SPLASHCOS: Kick-off Meeting. Brussels (4 November)
• 2008. Shell Energy: Prehistoric Coastal Resource Strategies. International workshop, Dakar, Senegal (coorganiser with Karen Hardy and Abdoulaye Camara)
• 2006. Coastal Geoarchaeology: the Research of Shell Mounds. UISPP, XV World Congress, Lisbon, Portugal (session coorganiser with Marisa Afonso Coutinho)
• 2005. Shell Middens and Coastal Resources along the Atlantic Façade. International workshop, York, UK (coorganiser with Nicky Milner and Oliver Craig)
• 2004. Archaeology of Coastlines and Shell Middens in Europe. European Association of Archaeology Conference, Lyon, France (session coorganiser with Nicky Milner and Oliver Craig)
• 2001. Archaeological Sciences 2001, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (coorganiser with Matthew Collins and Rob Shiel)
• 2001. Host and co-organiser in Newcastle of the annual conference of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, April 2001
• 1998. Co-organiser of Human Ecodynamics, AEA (Association for Environmental Archaeology) annual conference, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, with Ruth Charles & Nick Winder
• 1995–96. Joint organiser of Garrod Research Seminars, Cambridge, international and interdisciplinary series on Natural & Social Landscapes, with Sander van der Leeuw.
• 1994. Co-organiser of First International Conference on the Palaeolithic Archaeology of Greece and Adjacent Areas, Ioannina, Greece, with Eugenia Adam, Eleni Kotzambopoulou, Catherine Perlès, Eleni Panagopoulou & Kostas Zachos
• 1979. Economic Archaeology Conference, Cambridge, with Alison Sheridan.

Keynote Speaker

• 2016 Opening speaker, International Conference on the Red Sea, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
• 2011 UNESCO Scientific Colloquium on Factors Impacting Underwater Cultural Heritage, Brussels. 
• 2011 International Conference on Archaeology and Predictive Modelling, Centre for Underwater Archaeology, Ahtopol, Bulgaria.
• 2010 IGCP 521-INQUA 501 Black Sea-Mediterranean Corridor during the Last 30 ky: Sea level Change and Human Adaptation: Sixth plenary meeting, Rhodes, Greece. Plenary speaker
• 2009  Association of Australian Archaeologists Annual Conference, Adelaide, Australia. Plenary speaker
• 2009 European Association of Archaeology Annual Conference, Riva del Garda, Italy. Underwater Archaeology and the Future of Submerged European Prehistory. Session keynote 
• 2008  First International Workshop on Prehistoric Research in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
• 2007  Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference, Austin, Texas, Archaic and Mesolithic across the Atlantic Divide. Session discussant
• 2006  Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Shell Mounds in America. Session discussant
• 2003  Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference, Milwaukee, USA Time Perspectivism and Archaeology. Session discussant
• 1997 Tectonics and the Ecology of Human Evolution. International Symposium on Flood Basalts, Rifting and Paleoclimates in the Ethiopian Rift and the Afar Depression, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9th February.
• 1993. The Weipa Shell Mounds: Cultural or Natural? Guest speaker, Australian Archaeological Association, Annual Conference, Darwin.
• 1988. British School at Athens Archaeological Science Symposium, guest speaker and discussant, Athens, Greece.

Invited Speaker

Media coverage

• BBC4 Around the World in 60 Minutes, 2011
• Winner of the Channel 4 award in the IT category of the British Archaeology Awards (2006) for Web Access to Northumberland Rock Art
• Winner of the Antiquity prize for best article in 2006