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Staff Profiles

Dr David Walsh

Lecturer in Roman Archaeology

  • Email: david.walsh@ncl.ac.uk
  • Address: Armstrong Building 2.48c
    Drop-in Hours for Spring Term 2024 are Monday 2pm-4pm or Thursday 11-12pm (or by appointment)
Background

Before joining Newcastle, I spent three years as Lecturer in Classical and Archaeological Studies at the University of Kent. I have also worked for several archaeological field units, including Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Museum of London Archaeology and Oxford Archaeology, and been involved in fieldwork projects in Italy, Cyprus and Kosovo. In 2019-2020 I hosted a podcast Coffee and Circuses in which I discussed with guests their research and how they came to study the Roman World.

Education

  • PhD University of Kent (2017) Development, Decline and Demise: The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity
  • MA University of Leicester (2011) Rome and Its Neighbours
  • BA (Hons.) University of Reading (2009) Ancient History and Archaeology

Areas of Expertise

  • Cult and ritual (particularly the Cult of Mithras) in the Roman Empire
  • The archaeology of early Christianity
  • Roman Britain
  • The reception of Roman Britain (particularly Rudyard Kipling and Rosemary Sutcliff)
  • Fieldwork methods

Affiliations

  • Honorary Research Fellow, University of Kent
  • Practitioner, Chartered Institute for Archaeologists 
  • Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy
Research

I have published several of outputs on the Roman Cult of Mithras, including a monograph based on my PhD thesis The Cult of Mithras in Late Antiquity: Development, Decline and Demise. I am also interested in cult and ritual in the Roman World more broadly, particularly in the northwest provinces from the third century onward, and have published a couple of articles on temple patronage in these regions. Most recently, I was awarded a small grant from the Deutsches Archaeologisches Institut to research an article on temples built under the Tetrarchic emperors, which will be published in a forthcoming edition of Late Antique Archaeology.

My other main area of research is the reception of Roman Britain in 20th century media, particularly literature. This interest began with my article discussing the portrayal of the cult of Mithras in the short stories of Rudyard Kipling. Since then my attention has shifted increasingly toward the works of Rosemary Sutcliff, most well known for her novel The Eagle of the Ninth. To mark the 100th anniversary of Sutcliff's birth, I put together an audio documentary about her life and works. I also contributed to the Our Mythical Childhood Survey, and AHRC funded project looking at the influence of Classical culture on children's media, for which I provided analyses of the works of Sutcliff, Kipling, Henry Treece and others.

Teaching

For the 2023/24 academic year I will be contributing to the modules:


CAC1012 Greek and Roman Art and Archaeology
HCA1008 Global Ancient Histories
ARA3114/8222 Regionality and the Fall of Rome
ARA1030 The Archaeology of Britain from the Romans to the Present (Module Leader)
ARA2091 Archaeologies of the Roman Empire from Augustus to Justinian (Module Leader)
Publications