Newcastle Material Culture Analytical Suite
Since joining Newcastle in 2015, a major focus of mine has been in developing our archaeological science provision. Newcastle was unusual in being one of the only archaeology departments (and certainly in the Russell Group) to only offer a BA degree, rather than having a BA and BSc pathway, and I have been very keen to develop both our facilities and teaching in this area. From the first small step, convincing the School to purchase a set of teaching microscopes for my modules in Environmental Archaeology and Geoarchaeology, to setting up the BSc programme (first intake 2019), to making the case to prioritise new hires in archaeological science, we have gradually expanded our staff and capabilities in this area. A major change was 2018 when we had a major investment from the University in the Earthslides facility . All of this has enabled us to attract and train PhD and postdoctoral researchers, many of whom have been funded by the AHRC Northern Bridge training partnership. We ha...