Skip to main content

Staff Profiles

Dr Chloe Duckworth

Reader in Archaeological Science & Public Engagement

  • Telephone: 0191 208 7979
  • Address: School of History, Classics & Archaeology
    Newcastle University
    NE1 7RU
Background

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

For queries about TV and media work, please see my website: chloeduckworth.co.uk


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, craft and sustainability, 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 Channel 4's 'The Great British Dig' with Hugh Dennis (my book of the same title was published in 2022). 


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). 


External Appointments and Honours 


Current Postdoctoral Fellows 

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


Recent PhD Graduates 

  • Victoria Lucas, NBDTP funded PhD, "Looking through the glass: glass chemistry as a window on Anglo-Saxon innovation, recycling, trade and contact, AD 700-1000" 
  • 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) 


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”
Teaching

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). 


How to Survive the Apocalypse (Stage 3 / Master's) 

Look around you. We live in a world in which almost everything has been made, modified, and adapted by humans. From the chair you are sitting on, to the window you look out of, to the field that you see in the distance: all were constructed thanks to a web of knowledge and skill that is known as technology. Almost all were constructed from materials that have made multiple long-distance journeys in shipping containers, thanks to globalisation. 


But what would happen if all that were to end tomorrow? Would you know how to find and cook food? How to modify materials to make tools, or to construct a shelter? And if you did know any of these things in theory, would you be able to carry them out in practice? 


This is not your typical lecture and seminar format. In this module, we work together as a team to reconstruct a complex object completely from scratch, using a wide range of raw materials that were available to our ancient ancestors. You may find yourself processing raw wool and dying it with wild plants one week, smelting metals from their ores in the next, and making glass beads in another. Every year the particular activities will differ depending on what object we choose to reconstruct, but there will always be a focus on multiple different materials and processes. 


You will never see the world in the same way again ... and if there IS an apocalypse, you might just be the one to re-build it.

Research

I have many and diverse research interests, but they mostly centre around traditional craft and sustainability, 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). 

Publications