Dr Keith Wilkinson 

Reader in Environmental Archaeology 

 

Keith.Wilkinson@winchester.ac.uk 

+44 (0)1962 827444 

+44 (0)1962 827103 

Department of Archaeology  University of Winchester  Winchester  SO22 4NR

Biography

I have been a Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer and now Reader in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Winchester (and its forebears) since 1997, before which I was in charge of environmental archaeology at Cotswold Archaeology. I obtained my undergraduate degree (1989) from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, and went on to complete a PhD (1993) at the same institution entitled The influence of local factors on palaeoenvironment and land-use: evidence from dry valley fills in the South Downs. At the University of Winchester I teach on BA, BSc, MA and MRes programmes in archaeology, as well as supervising research students. I lecture on environmental archaeology, geoarchaeology, GIS, archaeological field techniques, CRM and Lower Palaeolithic archaeology.
In 2004, together with Dr Phil Marter I set up the Department of Archaeology's consultancy arm, ARCA, and now run ARCA's geoarchaeology programme.

Expertise

Geoarchaeology
Palaeoenvironmental Reconstruction
Field Survey Techniques
GIS
Remote Sensing
Geomatics

Publications

Books: authored (since 2000)
Sidell, E.J., Wilkinson, K.N., Scaife, R.G. and Cameron, N. (2000) The Holocene evolution of the London Thames. Museum of London Archaeology Service Monograph 5, London.
Wilkinson, K.N. and Stevens, C.J. (2003) Environmental archaeology: approaches, techniques and applications. Tempus, Stroud (revised edition published 2008).

Edited works: contributions (since 2000)
Wilkinson, K.N. and Bond, C.J. (2001) Interpreting archaeological site distribution in dynamic sedimentary environments. One land, many landscapes: papers from a session held at the European Association of Archaeologists fifth annual meeting in Bournemouth 1999 (ed. by T.C. Darvill and M. Gojda), pp 55-66. British Archaeological Reports International Series 987, Oxford.
Wilkinson, K.N. (2002) Prospecting the Palaeolithic: strategies for the archaeological investigation of middle Pleistocene deposits in southern England. Palaeolithic archaeology of the Solent river (ed. by F. Wenban-Smith and R. Hosfield), pp. 99-109. Lithic Studies Society Occasional Paper 7, London.
Wilkinson, K.N., Barber, L. and Bennell, M. (2002) The examination of six dry valleys in the Brighton area: the changing environment. Downland landscape and settlement: the archaeology of the Brighton by-pass (ed. by D. Rudling), pp. 203-238. Archetype and English Heritage, London.
Wilkinson, K.N. and Pope, R.J.J. (2003) Quaternary alluviation and archaeology in the Evrotas Valley, southern Greece. Alluvial archaeology in Europe (ed. by A.J. Howard. Macklin, M.G. and D. Passmore), pp 187-202. Balkema, Lisse.
Allison, E., Branch, N., Cameron, N., Dobinson, S., Ellis, I., Ellison, P., Fairbairn, A., Green, C., Hunter, R., Lee, J., Locker, A., Lowe, J.J., Palmer, A., Robinson, E., Stewart, J. and Wilkinson, K.N. (2004) The environmental evidence. The Dover Bronze Age boat (ed. by P. Clark), pp. 229-255, English Heritage, London.
Sidell, E.J. and Wilkinson, K.N. (2004) The central London Thames: Neolithic river development and floodplain archaeology. Towards a new Stone Age (ed. by J. Cotton and M. Field), pp. 38-49, Council for British Archaeology Research Report 137, London.
Pope, R.J.J. and Wilkinson, K.N. (2005) Reconciling the roles of climate and tectonics in late Quaternary fan development on the Spartan piedmont. Alluvial fans: geomorphology, sedimentology, dynamics (ed. by A.M. Harvey, A.E. Mather and M. Stokes), pp. 133-152, Geological Society Special Publication 251, London.
Wilkinson, K.N. and Sidell, E.J. (2007) London, the backwater of Neolithic Britain? archaeological significance of middle Holocene river and vegetation change in the London Thames. Neolithic archaeology in the intertidal zone (ed. by E.J. Sidell and F. Haughey ), pp 71-85, Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 8, Oxbow, Oxford.
Wilkinson, K.N. and Straker, V. (2008) Neolithic and Early Bronze Age environments in South-west England. In Webster, C.J. (ed.) The archaeology of South-west England. South-west Archaeological Research Frameworks: resource assessment and research agenda. Somerset County Council, Taunton, 63-74.

Journal papers: academic (since 2000)
Bates, M.R., Bowen, D.Q., Gibbard, P.L., Irving, B., Macphail, R.I., Parfitt, S.A., Preece, R.C., Roberts, M.B., Robinson, J.E., Whittaker, J., and Wilkinson, K.N. (2000) Late Middle Pleistocene deposits at Norton Farm on the West Sussex coastal plain, Sussex, southern England. Journal of Quaternary Science 15, 61-89.
Wilkinson, K.N., Scaife, R.G. and Sidell, E.J. (2000) Environment and sea level in London from 10,500 BP to the present: a case example from Silvertown. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 113, 41-54.
Pope, R.J.J., Wilkinson, K.N. and Millington, A.C. (2003) Late Quaternary deposition on the Sparta Basin piedmont: evidence from a geoarchaeological investigation of alluvial fan systems. Geoarchaeology 18, 685-724.
Wilkinson, K.N. (2003) A matter of scale: dry valley fills as proxy indicators of palaeoenvironment, climate and land-use change in southern England. Geoarchaeology 18, 725-755.
Wilkinson, K.N., Gerrard, C.M., Aguilera, I., Bailiff, I. and Pope, R.J.J. (2005) Prehistoric and historic landscape change in Aragón, Spain: some results from the Moncayo Archaeological Survey. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 18.1, 31-54.
Wilkinson, K.N., Beck, A.R. and Philip, G. (2006) Satellite imagery as a resource in the prospection for archaeological sites in Central Syria. Geoarchaeology 21, 735-750.
Wilkinson, K.N., Tyler, A., Davidson, D. and Grieve, I. (2006) Quantifying the threat to archaeological sites from the erosion of cultivated soil. Antiquity 80, 658-670.
Pope, R., Wilkinson, K.N., Skourtsos, E., Triantaphyllou, M., and Ferrier, G. (2008) Clarifying Stages of alluvial fan evolution along the Sfakian piedmont, southern Crete: new evidence from analysis of post-incisive soils and OSL dating. Geomorphology 94, 206-225.
Pinhasi R., Gasparian B., Wilkinson K.N., Stephens M., Nahapetyan S.,. Bailey R., Hoffmann, D., Pike A.W.G., Bar-Oz, G., Chataigner C., Bruch, A., Schreve D. and Hovsepyan, R. (2008) Hovk 1 and the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of Armenia: a preliminary framework. Journal of Human Evolution 55, 803-816.

Research Interests

My main research focus is the sub-discipline of geoarchaeology, i.e. the application of earth science methodologies to archaeological problems. I have four particular interests in this field:
i. The evolution of Mediterranean landscapes and the role of people in it.
ii. The application of airborne and satellite remote sensing systems to archaeological prospection.
iii. Development of methods for the investigation of thick stratigraphic sequences.
iv. Reconstructing environments associated with Palaeolithic sites.

Current Research Projects
La Balagne Landscape Project, Corsica [co-director with Dr Marcos Llobera (University of Washington, Seattle) and Prof M.C. Weiss (Univerità di Corsica)].
Moncayo Archaeological Survey, Spain [co-director with Dr Chris Gerrard (University of Durham)]
Southern CaucasusProject, Armenia and Georgia[co-director with Dr Ron Pinhasi (University College Cork), Dr Dan Adler (University of Connecticut)and Boris Gasparian (Armenian Institute of Archaeology)]
Settlement and Landscape Development in the Homs Region, Syria [directed byProf Graham Philip (University of Durham)]
Southern Quantock Archaeological Survey (SQAS), Somerset (co director with Prof Tony King and Dr Nick Thorpe)

Funding Awards and Professional Membership

1989: SERC Research Studentship
1998-1999: British School at Athens for Evrotas Valley Project.
1999-2004: Hampshire County Council for study of Pleistocene deposits and the Palaeolithic archaeology of Hampshire.
2002: AHRB Research Exchange to research geoarchaeology of Roman and medieval waterfronts in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
2002-2004: English Heritage for 137Cs study of post-World War II erosion of archaeological sites (Recent Erosion of Archaeological Sites [REAS] project).
2004: NERC for remote sensing flights over Sphakia area of Crete by NERC aircraft (with Dr Graham Ferrier [University of Hull] and Dr Richard Pope [University of Derby]).
2005: Royal Geographic Society to undertake final phase of field ground truthing of airborne imagery in Sfakia, southern Crete (with Dr Richard Pope University of Derby).
2006: British Academy to undertake pilot palaeoenvironmental work in four lagoons in northern Corsica as part of La Balagne Landscape Project (with Dr Nick Branch, Royal Holloway, University of London).
2006: British Geomorphological Research Group to undertake final phase of field ground truthing of airborne imagery in Sfakia, southern Crete (with Dr Richard Pope University of Derby).
2006: British Academy for pilot study survey of Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Vayotz-Dzor region of southern Armenia (with Dr Ron Pinhasi [University of Roehampton], Dr Nick Branch and Dr Danielle Schreve [Royal Holloway, University of London]).
2007: English Heritage, to write a review of the geoarchaeology of colluvial environments in the Southern Region.
2008: English Heritage, to write a review of Mollusca as a palaeoenvironmental proxy in the Southern Region.