Professor Niall Finneran

Biography

I am Professor in Historical Archaeology and Heritage Studies. I have directed archaeological fieldwork in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas, and my main academic interests lie in historical archaeology, maritime archaeology, anthropological archaeology and community heritage projects, particularly in the eastern Caribbean, Brazil, south-western England and East London. I studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Rothberg School for Overseas Students), University College London Institute of Archaeology and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University. I also worked briefly as an archaeologist in Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia as a British Institute in Eastern Africa Graduate Scholar.

My PhD focussed on the landscape archaeology of Aksum, northern Ethiopia at the University of Cambridge (supervised by Professor David W. Phillipson FBA; funded by the British Academy, Perse Scholarship and Isaac Newton Fund). Upon completion in 1999 I was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Department of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London). From 2003-6, I taught in the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton and additionally as an associate lecturer for the Open University.

I came to Winchester in 2007 and am currently Programme Leader for the MA in Cultural Heritage and Resource Management (CHaRM). I teach undergraduate modules on archaeological and anthropological theory, Caribbean archaeology and material culture, African archaeology and material culture, maritime archaeology and social anthropology.

Although an Africanist archaeologist by training, my research now focusses upon Caribbean historical archaeology, specifically the archaeology of social and religious identity (especially creolisation in the Caribbean) and maritime archaeology and ethnography (particularly traditional Caribbean wooden boat building). Find out about my Caribbean research projects. Recent Caribbean work has included archaeological and anthropological studies of the Garifuna of St Vincent and issues around indigenous plant use (ethnobotany), community heritage and memory of resistance and warfare.  I have also begun work studying the material culture of Afro-Brazilian interaction in north-eastern Brazil (Pernambuco state: Recife and Olinda). 

Knowledge Exchange and outreach projects include: a collaboration with CITIZAN (Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeology Network) on the South Devon Rivers Discovery Project, HEIF-funded projects studying sense of place among school children in East London (with Dr Christina Welch), children's interpretive resources for the National Trust (with Dr Joe Flatman) and an EUDIF-funded project with Dr Jen Dickinson looking at the use of digital technologies in diaspora heritage tourist initiatives among Brazilian, Rwandan and Barbadian diaspora communities. 

I have previously directed landscape archaeology fieldwork projects in Ethiopia at Aksum (1995-7), Shire (2001) and Lalibela (2008-9), as well as undertaking work on urban and rural medieval Christian topographies in Syria (2003-4) and Alexandria, Egypt (2005). 

Higher Education Teaching Qualification: I was awarded Senior Fellow status of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2017.

Areas of expertise

• Historical and contemporary archaeology in the Caribbean, Brazil and south-western England
• Maritime/nautical archaeology and ethnography
• Anthropologcal Archaeology
• Cultural heritage management

Publications

Books, (co-)authored

• Finneran, N. and Christina Welch (2023) Materialities of Religion: Spiritual Traditions of the colonial and post-colonial Caribbean. London: Routledge.
• Finneran, N. (in prep) Shifting Seascapes: a maritime archaeology of Devon
• Finneran, N. (2007) The Archaeology of Ethiopia. London: Routledge.
• Finneran, N. (2005) Alexandria: a city and myth. Stroud: Tempus.
• Finneran, N. (2002) The Archaeology of Christianity in Africa. Stroud: Tempus.

(Co-)Edited volumes

• 2019. With Doug Armstrong, Kevin Farmer, Matthew Reilly and Maaike de Waal. The Archaeology of Barbados. Leiden: Taboui/Sidestone Press.
• 2015. With Paul Everill and Joseph Flatman. Twenty-First Century Archaeologists: collected papers of the first University of Winchester Archaeological Pedagogy day 2012. Historic Environment Policy and Practice.
• Finneran, N. (2006) Safeguarding Africa's Past: Papers from the one-day conference, London, March 17th 2001. Oxford: Archaeopress, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, British Archaeological Reports International Series 1454.

Book chapters

• Finneran, N. and Philipson, L. (2000) The Antecedents of Aksum’. In: D. Phillipson (ed.) In: Archaeology at Aksum, 1993 - 1997. London: Memoir of the Society of Antiquaries of London/British Institute in Eastern Africa, pp 22-26.
• Finneran, N. and Tribe, T. (2004) 'Towards an archaeology of kingship and monasticism in medieval Ethiopia'. In: T. Insoll (ed.) Belief in the Past. The Proceedings of the Manchester Conference on Archaeology and Religion. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 1212, pp 63-74.
• Finneran, N. (2004) 'The Shire archaeological landscape, northern Ethiopia. Towards a workable sites and monuments register'. In: P. Mitchell et al. (eds) African Archaeology in Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxford Archaeological Monographs, pp 139-44.
• Finneran, N. (2006) ‘Introduction’ (pp 1-6) and ‘Epilogue’ (pp 55-6). In: N. Finneran (ed.) Safeguarding Africa’s Past: Papers from the one-day conference, London, March 17th 2001. Oxford: Archaeopress/Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology.
• Finneran, N. (2006) ‘Problems and possibilities in the protection of archaeological landscapes: an Ethiopian perspective’. In: N. Finneran (ed.) Safeguarding Africa’s Past: Papers from the one-day conference, London, March 17th 2001. Oxford: Archaeopress/ Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, pp 11-16.
• Finneran, N. (2007) 'Globalising Ethiopian Christian material culture: Ethiopia and the Syriac world in the 6th century'. In: A. Harris (ed.) Globalising Late Antiquity. Reading: Reading Medieval Studies, pp. 75-90.
• Finneran, N. (2009) ‘Holy waters: Pre-Christian and Christian water association in Ethiopia. An archaeological landscape perspective’. In: T. Ostegaard (ed.) Water, Culture and Identity in the Nile Basin. Bergen: University of Bergen Press, pp 165-87.
• Finneran, N. (2010). ‘Protecting Egypt’s Christian Heritage’. In: F. Hassan and G. Tassie (eds) Managing Egypt’s Heritage: Proceedings of the First International Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organisation Conference, London 2004. London: ECHO, pp 7-14.
• Finneran, N. (2010). Protecting Egypt's Christian Heritage'. In: F. Hassan and G. Tassie (eds) Managing Egypt's Heritage: Proceedings of the First International Egyptian Cultural Heritage Organisation Conference, London 2004. London: ECHO, pp 7-14.
• Finneran, N. (2010). 'Syncretism of space? The Christianisation of the Ethiopian landscape'. In: H. Lewis and S. Semple (eds) Landscape Archaeology. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, pp 12-23.
• Finneran, N. (2010). 'Not Quite Being Byzantine. Byzantium and its Neighbours. The Monophysites: Syria, Egypt, the Holy Land, Ethiopia, Armenia, Georgia, Nestorians'. Chapter for Blackwell Companion to Byzantium, (E. James ed.). Oxford: Blackwell, pp 199-223.
• Finneran N. (2011). ‘The invisible archaeology of slavery in the Horn of Africa?’. In: P. Lane and K. MacDonald (eds) Comparative Dimensions of Slavery in Africa: Archaeology and Memory, Proceedings of the British Academy Special Volume 168. London: British Academy, pp 223-49.
• Finneran N. (2013). ‘Tsebels, hot springs and royal baths: water and socio-cultural developments in Ethiopia AD1200-1900’. in: T. Tvedt and T. Oestigaard (eds) A History of Water, Series 3, Vol. 1. From Jericho to Cities in the Seas: A History of Urbanization and Water Systems. London: I. B.Tauris, pp 262-82.
• Finneran, N. (2019) ‘Where have all the wrecks gone? Maritime heritage and archaeology in Barbados’. In: D. Armstrong, K. Farmer, N. Finneran, M. Reilly and M. de Waal (eds). The Archaeology of Barbados. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
• Finneran, N. with Alexander Gray and Rachel Lichtenstein (2019). ‘A free prospect to the sea: framing an archaeological biography of Speightstown (St Peter Parish)’ In: D. Armstrong, K. Farmer, N. Finneran, M. Reilly and M. de Waal (eds), The Archaeology of Barbados. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
• Finneran, N. with L. Hampden and A. Lathbury (2019). ‘Participation, democratisation and digitisation : a post-modern approach to Barbados’ heritage in the 21st Century’. In: D. Armstrong, K. Farmer, N. Finneran. M. Reilly and M. de Waal (eds), The Archaeology of Barbados. Leiden: Sidestone Press.

Refereed journal papers

• 1996. ‘Survey’. In: Davis Phillipson, Andrew Reynolds et al., ‘B.I.E.A. excavations at Aksum, northern Ethiopia, 1995’ Azania 31: 99-147.
• 1998. ‘Investigating the earliest food producing communities of the northern Ethiopian highlands: a case study from Aksum, Tigray’ Nyame Akuma 49: 35-43.
• 1999. ‘The later prehistory of Aksum’ in D. Phillipson and J. Phillips, ‘B.I.E.A. excavations at Aksum 1993-1996: a preliminary report’ Journal of Ethiopian Studies 31/2: 1-56.
• 2000. ‘New perspectives on the Late Stone Age of northern Ethiopia: excavations at Anqqer Baahti, Aksum, 1996’ Azania 35: 21-51.
• 2000. ‘Excavations at Baahti Nebait, Aksum, northern Ethiopia, 1997’ Azania 35: 53-73.
• 2001. ‘The Aksum Long-blades: a late Pleistocene/early Holocene mode 4 lithic industry from northern Ethiopia’ Nyame Akuma 55: 23-31.
• 2002. (with Asamerew Desie, Chester Cain, Michael Harlow and Jacke Phillips). ‘Combating the destruction of Ethiopia’s archaeological heritage’ Antiquity 76: 955-6.
• 2003. ‘A Divine Purpose? The legacy of T.C. Lethbridge’ Folklore 114/1: 107-14. 
• 2003.  ‘The persistence of memory: national identity and migrationism. A case study from African and Ethiopian archaeology’ Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 3.1: 21-37.
• 2003. ‘Evil eye belief in Ethiopia and the magical symbolism of iron working’ Folklore 114/3: 427-36.
• 2003. ‘The monasteries of Shire, northern Ethiopia’ Ecclesiology Today 30: 3-9.
• 2003. (with Jacke Phillips). ‘The prehistoric settlement of the Shire region, western Tigray, Ethiopia. Some preliminary observations’ Nyame Akuma 57: 26-33.
• 2003. (with Jacke Phillips). ‘The Shire region archaeological landscape survey 2001: a preliminary report’ Azania 37: 139-47.
• 2003. (with Sam Turner). ‘The archaeological landscape of Little Haldon, near Teignmouth, South Devon’, Transactions of the Devonshire Association 135: 235-260.
• 2004. ‘Two eastern Christian churches in London’ Ecclesiology Today 33: 9-14.
• 2005 (with Emma Loosley). ‘Monastic archaeology in Syria: Excavations at the monastery of Mar Elian esh-Sharqi, Qaryatayn, Syria, 2001-2003: an interim report’. Levant 37: 48-56.
• 2005 (with Jacke Phillips). ‘The Shire Archaeological Landscape’ Annales d’Ethiopie 21: 7-29.
• 2008. (with Nick Hanks, Joe Parsons and Geoffrey Tassie). ‘(Middle) East meets (South) West. Reflections on the Abu Dhabi archaeological training programme, Slaughterbridge, Cornwall, May 2007’ The Archaeologist: Journal of the Institute of Field Archaeologists 67 Spring 2008 20-22.
• 2009. ‘Built by angels? Towards a buildings archaeology context for the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia’ World Archaeology 41/3: 415-429.
• 2009. ‘Settlement archaeology and oral history in Lasta, Ethiopia’, Azania 44/3: 281-291.
• 2009. (With Raf Aerts, Mitiku Haile and Jean Poesen) ‘The Accumulation of Stone Age Lithic Artifacts in Rock Fragment Mulches in Northern Ethiopia’, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 25/1: 137148
• 2011. ‘Lalibela in its landscape: archaeological survey at Lalibela, Lasta, Ethiopia, April to May 2009’ Azania 47/1: 81-98.
• 2012. ‘Hermits, saints and snakes. Ethiopian monasticism: an archaeological context’. International Journal of African Historical Studies 45/2: 1-26.
• 2012. ‘Lucy to Lalibela: heritage and identity in Ethiopia in the twenty-first century’. International Journal of Heritage Studies 19/1: 41-61.
• 2012. 'Community Archaeology at Speightstown, Barbados 2010-2012: retrospect and prospect'. Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 58: 110-136.
• 2013. ‘This islande is inhabited with all sortes’ Creolising the townscape: towards an archaeological biography of Speightstown Barbados'. Antiquaries Journal 93: 319-51.
• 2016. 'Slaves to sailors: the archaeology of traditional Caribbean shore whaling c. 1850 - 2000'. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 45 (2) 388-405.
• 2017. ‘Beside the seaside: a phenomenological approach to the archaeology of the twentieth-century English seaside resort experience’. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 21/3: 533-557.
• 2017. ‘The materiality of human-water interaction in the Caribbean: an archaeological perspective’. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water Volume 4/5 (online)
• 2017. ‘The Island of the Clouds: Landscape ordering and socio-economic change in a small-scale Caribbean island setting (Bequia, St Vincent Grenadines c. AD 1700 - 1900)’ International Journal of Historical Archaeology 22/4: 702-727.
• 2018. (with Rachel Lichtenstein and Christina Welch). 'Place, space and memory in the old Jewish east End of London: An Archaeological Biography of Sandys Row Synagogue, Spitalfields, and its wider context'. International Journal of Historical Archaeology (online 2018).
• 2019. (with Christina Welch). 'Barbadian Gothic: the moving coffins of the Chase Vault in socio-cultural context'. Folklore.  
• 2020 (with Christina Welch). 'Out of the Shadow of Balliceaux: From Garifuna Place of Memory to Garifuna Sense of Place in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Eastern Caribbean'. Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 8.

Encyclopaedia contributions

• Finneran, N. (2004) Entries for the Encyclopaedia of African History (K. Shillington ed.), London: Routledge/ New York: Taylor and Francis (three entries).
• Finneran, N. (2006) Entries for the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (S. Uhlig ed.), Hamburg: Asien-Afrika Institut (Volume II) (eight entries)
• Finneran, N. (2007) Entries for The City and Urban Life (J. Rogozinski ed.) New York: M. E. Sharpe inc. (Section 12: urbanism in the Horn of Africa: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia).
• Finneran, N. (2007). Entries for New Encyclopaedia of Africa (second ed.), (K. Wachsberger ed.) Scribner: Farmington Hills, Mo. (four entries).
• Finneran, N. (2009). Entries for the Encyclopedia of African Thought (Abiola Irele ed.), New York: Routledge. (three entries)
• 2006-11. Entries for the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica (S. Uhlig ed.), Hamburg: Asien-Afrika Institut (Volumes I-IV) (nine entries)
• 2012. 'Yekunno Amlak’. Entry for The Encyclopaedia of African Biography (Abiola Irele ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• 2012. The Jews of Alexandria: a question of identity. In: K. Savvopoulos (ed.) Alexandria, the eternal cosmopolis of the Mediterranean: from Alexander the Great to Hypatia. Athens: Kapon Editions.
• 2013. Islam in Alexandria. In R. Martin (ed.) New Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim World. Macmillan Reference.
• (In press) Entries on Barbados, St Vincent and Grenadines, St Lucia, British Virgin Islands. In A. Cummins and T. Inniss (eds) Slave Routes of the Caribbean. Macmillan Caribbean/UNESCO.

Professional journal papers and shorter notes

• 1998. ‘Investigating the earliest food producing communities of the northern Ethiopian highlands: a case study from Aksum, Tigray’ Nyame Akuma 49: 35-43.
• 2001. ‘The Aksum Long-blades: a late Pleistocene/early Holocene mode 4 lithic industry from northern Ethiopia’ Nyame Akuma 55: 23-31.
• 2003. ‘The monasteries of Shire, northern Ethiopia’ Ecclesiology Today 30: 3-9.
• 2003 (with J. Phillips). ‘The prehistoric settlement of the Shire region, western Tigray, Ethiopia. Some preliminary observations’ Nyame Akuma 57: 26-33.
• 2004. ‘Two eastern Christian churches in London’ Ecclesiology Today 33: 9-14.
• 2008. (with N. Hanks, J. Parsons and G. Tassie). ‘(Middle) East meets (South) West. Reflections on the Abu Dhabi archaeological training programme, Slaughterbridge, Cornwall, May 2007’ The Archaeologist: Journal of the Institute of Field Archaeologists 67 Spring 2008 20-22.

Papers in popular journals

• 2000. ‘A little corner of Devon: the hidden archaeology of Little Haldon, Teignmouth’ Devon Life, February 2000: 128-131.
• 2006. ‘Archaeology and the Oriental Orthodox Churches: a question of responsibility’ Glastonbury Review 12/312-321.
• 2009. ‘The Copts and the Cornish: the eastern Mediterranean and the formation of a Christian identity in post-Roman south-western Britain’ Glastonbury Review Special Edition Festchrift for Abba Seraphim, Metropolitan of Glastonbury 117: 46-79
• 2010. ‘Extending the Christian Frontier in late antiquity:  Monks, missions, monasteries and the Christianisation of space. Towards a wider chronological and geographical context for the archaeology of mission’ Glastonbury Review 118: 217-237.
• 2012 ‘The landscape of early African Christianity’ Christian History Magazine.
• 2013. ‘Speightstown: a historic Barbadian town’ Echoes Caribbean.
• 2014. ‘De Sea ain’t got no back door: water symbolism in the Caribbean’. Echoes Caribbean.

Book reviews

• 2000. An African Classical Age by C. Ehret. Archaeological Review from Cambridge
• 2000. Ancient Ethiopia and The Monuments of Aksum by D. Phillipson. The Antiquaries’ Journal
• 2001. Arabia and its Neighbours: essays in Prehistorical and Historical Developments eds. C. Phillips, D. Potts and S. Searight. The Antiquaries’ Journal
• 2003. Nyanga: Ancient Fields, Settlements and Agricultural History in Zimbabwe by R. Soper. Landscape Studies
• 2004. Figuring It Out: The Parallel Visions of Artists and Archaeologists by C. Renfrew. Art History
• 2005. Africa’s Forgotten Past by G. Connah. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 
• 2005. The Archaeology of Islam in Sub-Saharan Africa by T. Insoll. Material Religion: Journal of Objects, Art and Belief
• 2005. Egypt in Africa edited by D. O’Connor and A. Reid. African Archaeological Review
• 2005. The Nubian Past: The Archaeology of the Sudan by D. Edwards. Azania
• 2005. Ancient Ethiopia by D. Phillipson. Annales d’Ethiopie
• 2006. Changing Settlement Patterns in the Aksum-Yeha Region of Ethiopia: 700 BC-AD 850 by J. Michels. Annales d’Ethiopie
• 2008. The Tihamah coastal plain of South West Arabia in its regional context: c.6000 BC-AD 600 by N. Durrani. Journal of Arabian Archaeology.
• 2009. The Silence of Great Zimbabwe by J. Fontein. Landscape Studies.
• 2009. The Ancient Churches of Ethiopia by D. Phillipson. Azania.
• 2010. Les Iles de Memoire by C. Bosc-Tiesse. Journal of African History.
• 2010. Culture, History and Identity: landscapes of inhabitation in the Mount Kilimanjaro area by T. Clack Landscape Studies.
• 2011. The Global Origins of Seafaring, A. Anderson et al. eds. Antiquaries Journal.
• 2011. The Field Archaeology of Dartmoor, by P. Newman. The Archaeological Journal.
• 2012. Reinventing Africa, by R. Derricourt. Antiquaries Journal.
• 2012. Recent Archaeological Work in South-Western Britain: Papers in Honour of Henrietta Quinnell, ed. S. Pearce. The Archaeological Journal.
• 2012. Infernal Traffic: excavation of a liberated African Graveyard at Rupert’s Valley, St Helena, ed. A. Pearson et al. The Archaeological Journal.
• 2013. Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn 1000 BC-AD 1300, D, Phillipson, Antiquaries Journal.
• 2014. The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology, P. Lane and P. Mitchell (eds), Antiquaries Journal.

Conferences

?Selected lectures, conference papers and presentations

• Balliceaux:  a Garifuna Place of Memory (with Christina Welch). Paper presented at the African Archaeology Research day, MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, 24 November 2018. 
• Heritage Training workshops held at Kingstown and Greiggs, St Vincent, on behalf of the Bequia Heritage Foundation and St Vincent National Trust, September 2018. 
• Historical Archaeology of Bequia. Paper presented to the Bequia Heritage Fund, Bequia, St Vincent Grenadines, 16 March 2018. 
• Balliceaux: a Garifuna Place of Memory (with Christina Welch). Paper presented at the Fifth International Garifuna Conference, Kingstown, St Vincent, 13 March 2018. 
• Tintagel in its Landscape. Paper presented at the Late Antiquity study group, University of Kent 14 June 2016.
• My digital heritage Barbados 2016. Presentation at the meeting of the Barbados National Trust, Arlington House, Speightstown (with others). July 23 2016.
• Bush tea as unspoken Caribbean heritage/Empire Remains Shop. Colloquium and round table discussion with Janice Cheddie and Annalee Davis, London, August 4 2016.
• The Archaeology of the Estuary. Paper presented at the Thames Estuary Festival, 2016, Tilbury, Essex, September 17 2016.
• Slaves to Sailors: Afro-Caribbean maritime archaeology. University of Exeter, African Archaeology Research Day 30 November 2016.
• The Speightstown Community Archaeology Project: Retrospect and Prospect. Barbados Museums and Barbados National Trust lecture, September 14 2015.
• Creolisation in Barbados. University College London, African Peoples and Pasts seminar, 4 March 2013.
• Recent archaeological fieldwork in Barbados. Petroc College, Barnstaple, Devon, 26 April 2013.
• The Archaeology of the Post-Emancipation Experience, Barbados and Bequia. University of York EUROTAST seminar, May 1 2013.
• Barbados and Bequia: shared elements of historical archaeology. University of Winchester Centre for Applied Archaeology and Heritage Management research day, May 2 2013.
• Recent research in Speighstown Barbados. University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Research Seminar, September 16 2013.
• Becoming and being ‘creole’: recent work at Speightstown, Barbados. Seminar in the arts and archaeology of Africa and the Americas. SOAS, London, November 1 2012.  
• Tintagel in Dumnonia. Wadebridge Old Cornwall Society February 16 2012.
• Tsebels, hot springs and royal baths. Water and the socio-cultural formation of Ethiopia from c. AD 1200-1900. Nordic Afrika Institut, Uppsala, Sweden, March 2 2012.
• The Speightstown Community Heritage Project. University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Faculty Research Seminar September 13 2011.
• Recent Survey Work at Lalibela. Paper presented at the African Archaeology Research Group, University of Cambridge January 20 2010.
• Alexandria as a ‘mega city’. Paper presented at a one-day conference on Ancient mega cities of the Mediterranean, Centre for Performance Management/ Centre for Late Antiquity and Byzantine Studies, University of Reading, May 12 2010.
• Subterranean Memories: the Ethiopian rock-cut church in wider context. Paper presented at the International Congress of Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, July 17 2010.
• The Ethiopian monastery: an archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspective. Paper presented at the monastic archaeology research group, University of Durham, November 30 2010.
• Towards a buildings archaeology context for the rock-cut churches of Ethiopia. Paper presented at the Institute For Archaeologists’ conference, Torquay, April, 2009
• Lalibela in its Landscape. Paper presented to the Anglo-Ethiopian Society, SOAS, London June 18 2008.
• Lalibela: recent work. Paper presented at postgraduate-research seminar, University of Newcastle, October 30 2008.
• Lalibela: landscape archaeological contexts. African Archaeology in Britain and Ireland Research day, University of York, November 29 2008.
• Memory, space and place. A hermeneutic of the medieval Ethiopian landscape. Paper presented at the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference, University of Exeter, December 17 2006.
• An uncloistered existence? Monastic archaeology and the Oriental Christian Churches in global medieval perspective. Paper presented at a seminar in the department of art history and archaeology, SOAS, London, May 14 2007.
• The Archaeology of Medieval Ethiopia: new methodological and thematic approaches. Paper presented at the Materialities of Medieval Ethiopia research day, August 25 2007.
• Lalibela: the development of a medieval Ethiopian capital. Paper presented at the African Archaeology research day 4, St Hugh’s College, Oxford, November 24 2007.