Staff Profiles

To get in touch, please send your message request to our school office: historical@ncl.ac.uk

New book! The Great British Dig: History in Your Back Garden  

Research Bio 

After graduating with my PhD from the University of Nottingham, and following a period of precarious employment, I was employed as a research associate investigating desert technologies on the ERC-funded Trans-SAHARA Project. In 2015, I was awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship for a project on Roman and early medieval glass recycling. 

I came to Newcastle University in 2016, and enjoy teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students about archaeological science, experimental archaeology, past technologies, and archaeology in the media. I have directed archaeological fieldwork at two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Spain: The Alhambra (Granada) and Madinat al-Zahra (Cordoba). I am also a public speaker and television presenter, currently co-presenting More 4's 'The Great British Dig' with Hugh Dennis. 

I'm excited by too many things to list here, but they include: archaeological science, the history of glass, Islamic Spain, experimental archaeology, the philosophy of science and technology, science communication and public engagement, and the archaeology of pyrotechnology and industrial production (I like fire). 

Research Pages (PEGG) 

External Appointments and Honours 

• Member of the Editorial Board for World Archaeology
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
• Professionally accredited archaeologist (MCIfA grade) 
• BBC Expert Woman (2017 cohort) 
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
• External Examiner (University of Oxford) 
• Shortlisted for the CBA's Outstanding Archaeological Achievement Award (2021) 

Current Postdoctoral Fellows 

• Dr Camilla Bertini, MSCA Fellow, "Opening a new window onto medieval glass trade and technology" 

Current PhD Students

• Eleonora Montanari, NBDTP funded PhD, "Gendered stories: constructing identities through glass beads in Iron Age Italy and Iberia"
• John Pearson, NBDTP funded PhD, "Experiencing medieval craft practice: archaeological, historical, ethnographic and experimental approaches to glass production from Islamic al-Andalus to Christian Spain”
• Jose Alberto Retamosa, Universidad de Cadiz, "El vidrio en la industria conservera romana: analisis arquologico y arqueometrico de las ceariae de Baelo Claudia e Iulia Traducta" (main supervisor: Dario Bernal de Casasola) 

Introduction to Archaeology (Stage 1) 

An essential starting guide to archaeology in the UK and the world. This module takes you through everything you need to know via lots of fascinating case studies, and offers a critical look at the history and current practice of archaeology. 

The module is also designed to help you adapt to writing coursework at university-level. You will submit an initial draft essay, upon which you will receive extensive constructive feedback, and which only counts for a small proportion of the module's marks. You will then re-submit the essay following corrections based on the feedback. 

Cold Case: Archaeological Science in Action (Stage 2) 

Open to everybody and designed to accommodate all levels of scientific understanding, in this module we explore fascinating high profile archaeological case studies from around the world. You will learn how archaeologists use scientific techniques to investigate the lives and deaths of people in the past, critically analyse how archaeology and science more broadly are reported in the media, and develop public engagement skills through creation of educational materials aimed at school children. 

Case studies include: the Iron Age bog bodies of northwest Europe; Richard III ('the king under the carpark'); the tomb of China's first emperor; the Mary Rose and Vasa shipwrecks; Inca child mummies; and many more! The seminars are active and engaging, and frequently include challenge activities to be undertaken as a group, such as solving a cold case, working for 'BS Publications Ltd' to invent a pseudoscientific news story, and debating the legal aspects of a complex case involving the repatriation of human remains). 

You Are What You Make (Stage 3 / Master's) 

Ever wondered whether you would survive a zombie apocalypse? Or why we imagine invention as something practised by lone, male, mad inventors? This module explores - and helps you to learn - the skills and techniques humans have used for millennia to control, manipulate, and construct the world around us. 

In practical classes, you will knap flint, make your own glass beads, learn to smelt metal from its ores, and more. In lectures, we will explore the methods used to reconstruct ancient technologies, and look at the 'how' and the 'why' of human invention. You'll never see the world in the same way again! 

I have many and diverse research interests, but they mostly centre around the archaeology and history of glass, the human relationship to technology, and generally just doing things a bit differently (new research methods and tools; interdisciplinary collaboration). 

For my PhD, I combined cutting edge science with archaeological theory to investigate why people first invented glass, and the links between technological knowledge and the maintenance of real and ideological power. I have worked to foster research networks around technological innovation in the Sahara Desert, and recycling practice in Roman and medieval glass production. 

My research on glass production in medieval Spain has blossomed into several separate, but related strands, involving an exciting, dynamic group of researchers based in the UK and Spain. I am the PI of the Madinat al-Zahra Survey Project (funded by the Society of Antiquaries, and the British Academy), which uses innovative survey methodologies to reconstruct the buried city that was the tenth century capital of the Umayyad caliphate at this UNESCO World Heritage site. I have previously co-directed excavation and chemical survey at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain (another World Heritage site). 

The postgraduates and PhD students who are members of my research cluster (post-disciplinary and experimental glass group, or 'PEGG') are currently applying as many different approaches as we can to the understanding of ancient and historical glass production; everything from the use of historical archives (for which I was recently awarded a Humboldt Yale History Network Grant) and the experimental reconstruction of medieval glassmaking recipes (with historian Javier Lopez Rider), to a comprehensive survey of medieval glass in southern Spanish museums (conducted by Almudena Velo Gala), and a full-scale programme of chemical analysis, building a database of over 500 samples (analysis conducted at British Geological Survey). 

Along with David Govantes-Edwards, I have developed a network of researchers investigating the politics and archaeology of Islamic(ate) cultural heritage in Europe, who meet annually at the EAA conference in September. Several of them have contributed to a forthcoming book that will be unique in dealing with this complex subject and the many different ways in which it is manifested in countries ranging from Spain, to Greece, to Russia. 

I'm endlessly fascinated by the way archaeology is presented to the public, and how members of the public can also influence professionals and academics, a process I actively engage in via work with TV networks and production companies, both behind the scenes and as a presenter. 

• Velo-Gala A, Govantes-Edwards D, Duckworth CN. Islamic gold sandwich glass vessels: evidences from al-AndalusRecipientes islámicos de vidrio dorado encapsulado: evidencias en al-Andalus. Archivo Espanol de Arqueologia 2022, 95, e13.
• Pearson J, Duckworth CN, Lopez-Rider J, Govantes-Edwards D. Text, practice, and experience: an experimental approach to the archaeology of glassmaking in medieval Iberia. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2021, 13(1), 119-144.
• Govantes-Edwards DJ, López Rider J, Duckworth CN. Glassmaking in medieval technical literature in the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2020, 12(2), 267-291.
• Velo-Gala A, Duckworth CN, Govantes-Edwards DJ. La presencia del vidrio en la necropolis de Llanos del Pretorio. In: D. Vaquerizo, A. Ruiz and M. Rubio, ed. El Sepulcretum de Llanos del Pretorio (Córdoba – España). Bari: Edipuglia, 2020.
• Duckworth CN, Cuénod A, Mattingly DJ, ed. Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
• Duckworth CN, Wilson A, ed. Recycling and Reuse in the Roman Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020.
• Duckworth CN. Sensory perception and experience of glass. In: Jo Day and Robin Skeates, ed. Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2020, pp.233-247.
• Govantes-Edwards D, Duckworth C, Gómez de la Torre Verdejo A, Olmo L. Smoke signals: the social dimension of glass production in Visigothic Iberia. In: Hodgkinson AK; Lelek Tvetmarken C, ed. Approaches to the Analysis of Production Activity at Archaeological Sites. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020, pp.50-64.
• Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Gomez A, Olmo L. Smoke Signals: The Social Dimension of Glass Production in Visigothic Iberia. In: Anna K. Hodgkinson and Cecile Lelek Tvetmarken, ed. Approaches to the Analysis of Production Activity at Archaeological Sites. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020, pp.50-64. In Preparation.
• Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, ed. Archaeology, Politics, and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe. Equinox, 2019. In Preparation.
• Duckworth CN. Latest advancements in the application of analytical science to ancient and historical glass production. UISPP Journal 2019, 2(2), 99-110.
• Duckworth C, Govantes-Edwards D. Producción y tecnología del vidrio en al-Andalus. In: Economía y trabajo. Las bases materiales de la vida en al-Andalus. Seville: Alfar, 2019, pp.235-262.
• Duckworth CN, Sassin AE, ed. Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art. London: Routledge, 2018.
• Duckworth CN, Mattingly DJ. Into Africa: The biography of Roman vessel glass in the Sahara Desert. In: Daniela Rosenow, Matt Phelps, Andrew Meek, Ian Freestone, ed. Things that Travelled: Mediterranean Glass in the First Millennium AD. London: UCL Press, 2018, pp.134-158.
• García A, Duckworth CN, Welham K, Govantes-Edwards DJ, Pitman D, Alonso M, Ríos JM, Jiménez MC, Montanari E, Moore B. La producción cerámica en Granada entre la época medieval y moderna. Los talleres del secano de la Alhambra. In: Glaze Technology in the Western Mediterranean: Islamic and Christian traditions. 2018, Valencia, Spain: Museo Nacional de Cerámica y Artes Suntuarias de Valencia.
• Duckworth CN. Shattering illusions: using analytical evidence to establish clearer pictures of glass production and trade within Africa. In: A Cuenod, CN Duckworth, and DJ Mattingly, ed. Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge University Press, 2018. In Preparation.
• Leitch V, Duckworth CN, Cuenod A, Mattingly DJ, Sterry M, Cole F. Early Saharan trade : the inorganic evidence. In: Mattingly DJ; Leitch V; Duckworth CN; Cuenod A; Sterry M, ed. Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, pp.287-340.
• Duckworth CN. Glass in medieval Spain: a long-term perspective on knowledge transfer. In: Wolf S; Pury-Gysel A de, ed. Annales du 20e Congres de l'Association Internationale pour l'Histoire du Verre. Rahden/Westfalen: VML Verlag Marie Leidorf, 2017, pp.385-390.
• Duckworth CN, Sassin AE. On colour and light. In: Duckworth, CN; Sassin AE, ed. Colour and Light in Ancient and Medieval Art. London, UK: Taylor and Francis, 2017, pp.1-8.
• Schibille N, Gomez A, Duckworth C, Govantes D, Ares J, Olmo L. The glass from Recopolis: an analytical approach. In: Glass Science in Art and Conservation 2017: Proceedings of the 5th GLASSAC International Conference. 2017, Lisbon: NOVA, FCT Editorial.
• Mattingly DJ, Leitch V, Duckworth CN, Cuénod A, Sterry M, Cole F, ed. Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
• Govantes Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Córdoba de la Llave R, Aparicio Sánchez L, Camacho Cruz C. El estudio del vidrio andalusí y las posibilidades de estudio en su composición química: primeros resultados y posibilidades. Boletín de Arqueología Medieval 2016, 18, 31-50.
• Duckworth CN, Mattingly DJ, Chenery S, Smith VC. End of line? Glass bangles, technology, recycling and trade in Islamic North Africa. Journal of Glass Studies 2016, 58.
• Duckworth CN, Mattingly DJ, Smith VC. From the Mediterranean to the Libyan Sahara. Chemical analyses of Garamantian glass. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2016, 7, 633-639.
• Duckworth CN. Glass in Egypt. In: Helaine Selin, ed. Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Dordrecht: Springer, 2016, pp.2086-2092.
• Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth C, Cordoba R. Recipes and experimentation?: the transmission of glassmaking techniques in medieval Iberia. Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2016, 8(2), 176-195.
• Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN. El analisis quimico de vidrios y vedrios de la Malaga islamica. Estudios en technologia medieval. Mainake 2015, XXXIV.
• Duckworth CN, Cordoba de la Llave R, Faber EW, Govantes-Edwards DJ, Henderson J. Electron Microprobe Analysis of 9^th-12^th Century Islamic Glass from Cordoba, Spain. Archaeometry 2015, 57(1), 27-50.
• Duckworth CN, Govantes-Edwards DJ. Medieval glass furnaces in southern Spain: AHG Grant Report. Glass News 2015, (38), 9-12.
• Duckworth CN, Cuenod A, Mattingly DJ. Non-destructive µXRF analysis of glass and metal objects from sites in the Libyan Pre-Desert and Fazzan. Libyan Studies 2015, 46, 15-34.
• Molloy BPC, Duckworth CN, ed. A Cretan Landscape through Time: Priniatikos Pyrgos and environs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014.
• Govantes-Edwards DJ, Duckworth CN, Cordoba de la Llave R, Camacho C, Aparicio L. El vidrio andalusí y su composición química: primeros resultados y posibilidades de estudio. Boletín de Arqueología Medieval 2014, (18), 31-50.
• Duckworth CN. Late antique glass in domestic and ecclesiastical contexts at Priniatikos Pyrgos. In: BPC Molloy and CN Duckworth, ed. A Cretan Landscape through Time: Priniatikos Pyrgos and Environs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014.
• Molloy BPC, Day J, Klontza-Jaklova V, Duckworth CN. Of what is past, passing, or to come. Five thousand years of social, technological, and environmental transformations at Priniatikos Pyrgos. In: BPC Molloy and CN Duckworth, ed. A Cretan Landscape through Time: Priniatikos Pyrgos and Environs. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2014.
• Duckworth CN. Imitation, artificiality and creation: the colour and perception of the earliest glass in New Kingdom Egypt. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2012, 22, 309-27.
• Duckworth CN, Henderson J, Rutten FJM, Nikita K. Opacifiers in Late Bronze Age glasses: the use of ToF-SIMS to identify raw ingredients and production techniques. Journal of Archaeological Science 2012, 39, 2143-52.
• Duckworth CN, Rutten FJM, Henderson J. Time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry examination of ancient and historical opaque glasses. Proceedings of SPIE 2012, 8422.