PhD Student (Recently completed!)

Title of PhD study:
In search of "The people of La Manche". A comparative study of funerary practices on either side of the Dover Straits during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age

John's study has looked at burials and funerary monuments in north-eastern France, Flanders and Kent dating from the late third millennium through the second millennium BC. His study explored whether such material evidence is of sufficient quality to help clarify recent ideas about cultural/social cohesion on both sides of the Channel during a period which spans what is traditionally referred to as the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. His study looked at the incidence of barrows, beakers and burials of the era employing GIS and topographic approaches, combined with qualitative and quantitative methods.

Supervisors: Dr A. H. Ward and Dr S. H. Willis

Update, April 2010: John's thesis was examined by Prof. Richard Bradley and Dr Ellen Swift and he had a successful viva on 31 March (2010). John will Congregate at the summer ceremony at Canterbury Cathedral.

John is a non-executive director and trustee of Canterbury Archaeological Trust and a past member of the Lemba Archaeological Research Centre (Edinburgh University), Cyprus.

He is now the Business Development and Contracts Manager for Canterbury Archaeological Trust.

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'How Kent's recently discovered Causewayed Enclosures impact on our understanding and interpretation of the Early Neolithic in the Region', in Archaeologia Cantiana, vol. 127, 2007, 357-82.

'The archaeological schism: how developer-funded fieldwork and academic research are being forced apart', in British Archaeology, vol. 87, March/April 2006

'The Beaker Age in Kent - appraising the latest evidence' Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, in preparation

Conference Paper:
'Continuités spatiale et chronologique des cimetiéres de l'age du Bronze en Europe nord-occidentale', paper presented to the International Kalloquium zur Bronzezeit, Association pour la Promotion des Recherches sure l'Age du Bronze (APRAB) Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe - Archaologie fur Westfalen, LWL Museum fur Archaologie Herne, 15-18 October 2008

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John teaches 'Archaeology: Its History, Themes and Personalities' on the part-time Archaeology programme and 'Introduction to Archaeology' on the full time Classical and Archaeological Studies degree programme. He also occasionally contributes to the teaching of the taught MA in Archaeology and to the 'Fieldwork Methods and Techniques' module.

John is participating in the teaching of the MA in the Archaeology of the Transmanche.

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