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Staff Profiles

Professor Sam Turner

Professor of Archaeology

  • Email: sam.turner@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +441912088110
  • Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology
    Newcastle University
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    NE1 7RU United Kingdom
Research

Research Interests

My research interests focus on how landscapes have developed from ancient times onwards, and on medieval archaeology


Research Roles

I am Co-Director of the Newcastle University Centre for Landscape (which includes the McCord Centre).

My other roles include the following:

• Co-Editor, Landscapes

• General Editor, The Archaeology of Northern Europe (Brepols)

• Programming Committee, International Medieval Congress

• Chair of Management Committee, Archaeology Data Service

• Chair of Chartered Institute for Archaeologists Landscape Special Interest Group


Current Research Projects

Key projects involving colleagues at Newcastle and beyond include:

• Apalirou Environs Project, Naxos

• CaDHoKUHL: Characterising and Dating Hong Kong’s Upland Historic Landscapes

• Devastation, dislocation and (re-)settlement: breaking/replacing the people-place connection in landscape

• HERILAND: Cultural heritage and the planning of European landscapes

• HydroMedie: Medieval hydrotechnology: water management in Messenia, southern Greece

• Pollentia Survey Project, Mallorca

• TerraSAgE: terraces as sustainable agricultural environments


Recent Research Projects

• Bogsak in Isauria: new approaches to historic landscapes

• CHeriScape - Cultural Heritage in Landscape

• CHiLaT - Cultural Heritage in Landscape: Planning for Development in Turkey

• ChroMoLEME - Character of Monastic Landscapes in Early Medieval Europe

• Cultural Heritage through Time

• Hadrian's Wall Community Landscape Archaeology Project (WallCAP)

• HilSS: Historic Landscape and Soil Sustainability

• LoCuLanD: Long-term cultural landscape development

• RESCOPART: Research consultation and participation

• RESTOMO: Reintroducing Stone and Mortar

• SLLB: Sacred Landscapes in Late Byzantium

• Unlocking the Ionian landscape 


Recent conferences and symposia I have (co-)organised at Newcastle and elsewhere include:

• Landscape Character, Past, Present, and Future, Newcastle, May 2022 (co-organiser with Dr C. Sevara, Dr F. Carrer)

• Space, Sound and Senses: International Workshop, University of Bologna, Ravenna, October 2021 (co-organised with Dr G. Foschi, Prof. M.C. Carile and Dr E. Fiori)

• Wall-to-Wall conference, 2020 Beijing Great Wall Cultural Festival, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, October 2020 (co-organised with Prof. J. Zhang, Prof. Y. Tang, C. Smith and Dr R. Collins)

• Cultural heritage in landscape: planning for development in Turkey, 12-14 September 2019, Izmir (with Prof. Engin Nurlu)

• Abandonment and loss: changing societies and landscapes, 2-3 May 2019, Istanbul (with Dr Elif Koparal, Dr Volkan Demirciler, Dr Günes Duru)

• Society for Landscape Studies Conference, 22 September 2018, Newcastle (with Dr Caron Newman)

• Fifth international Landscape Archaeology Conference (LAC2018), 17-20 September 2018, Newcastle and Durham


Industrial relevance

The McCord Centre undertakes consultancy and applied research projects relating to landscapes, seascapes and historic buildings. Examples include The Historic Landscape: assessing opportunity for change; the Tyne and Wear HLC; the Irish Sea HSC; the North Sea (East Yorkshire to Norfolk) HSC; and Forestry and Woodland Futures


ORCID id

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3257-0070


Teaching

In recent years my teaching has included the module ARA8234 Landscape Archaeology, as well as supervising dissertations and research projects


Postgraduate Supervision

I am currently supervising PhD students on topics including early medieval archaeology, rural landscapes in the medieval and post-medieval periods, and landscape and heritage management. Please contact me if you are interested in studying for a research degree at Newcastle in any of these areas:

• Landscape archaeology and landscape history

• Early medieval and medieval archaeology

• Heritage management and planning, particularly for historic landscapes

• Interdisciplinary studies involving archaeology and other disciplines


My current research students include [with funding source indicated where applicable]:

• Zoe Ainsworth, 'Historic landscape change in Northumberland's upland valleys' [AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with Northumberland National Park Authority]

• Hazel Barron-Cooper, ‘Significance of place: walking to the past’ (co-supervision led by Fine Art)

• Miriam Cooke, ‘Teesdale and High Force: connected landscapes through prehistory’ [AHRC, co-supervision with Durham University]

• Arzu Güler, ‘Alaca Höyük: characterising an historic landscape’ (external co-supervisor, based at Istanbul Technical University)

• Megan Leake, 'Bones of the Northumbrian landscape' [AHRC, with Jarrow Hall Museum and Durham University]

• Shaun Macdonald, 'Understanding regional patterns of stone-built churches in Anglo-Saxon England'

• Rusudan Mirzikashvili, ‘Making transsectoral connections in governance, regulation and legislative frameworks’ [H2020 MSCA ITN Heriland]

• Guillem Ribas, 'Pastoral landscapes and sustainability' [NUAcT PhD fellowship, Newcastle University]


My previous research students include:

• Mareike Ahlers - PhD (2018) 'Assembling the dead: early Neolithic non-megalithic mortuary structures in Britain, Denmark and northern Germany' [AHRC]

• David Astbury - PhD (2021) 'Long-term landscape development in south-east Northumberland' [AHRC] 

• John Bowman - PhD (2017) 'Iron and steel in the Derwent valley'

• Niels Dabaut - PhD (2021) 'Cultural heritage and landscape identity in the Tyne Valley' [AHRC, co-supervision with Queen's University, Belfast] 

• Maria Duggan - PhD (2015) 'Links to Late Antiquity' [AHRC] 

• Gianluca Foschi - PhD (2021) 'The role of musical proportions in early churches'

• Katie Green - PhD (2012) 'Rural Byzantine landscapes and societies: new approaches to characterisation and analysis' [AHRC]

• Dulma Karunarathna - PhD (2014) 'The female in changing social contexts in historical societies of ancient Sri Lanka' [Commonwealth Commission] 

• Janet Lambert - PhD (2010) 'Experiencing landscape' [AHRC]

• Sophie Laidler - PhD (2019) 'The impact of archaeology in the north-east of England, 2005-15' [AHRC, co-supervision led by Durham University] 

• Victoria Lucas - PhD (2021) 'Why recycle glass? The answer is clear? Glass recycling in the 7th-10th centuries in England' [AHRC, co-supervision with Durham University]

• Ben Morton - PhD (2021) 'The dynamics of medieval landscape change in the Warwickshire Arden and middle Avon Valley' [AHRC]

• Caron Newman - PhD (2014) 'Mapping the late medieval and post medieval landscape of Cumbria' [Newcastle University]

• Andrew Newton - PhD (2009) 'The location of early medieval churches in Northumbria: conversion to a Christian landscape in northern England'

• Sheila Newton - PhD (2014) 'Landscape change: the case of two Pennine parishes'

• Vicky Manolopoulou - PhD (2016) 'Processing Constantinople: understanding the role of lite in creating the sacred character of the landscape' [Holy Synod of Greece]

• Jonathon Shipley - PhD (2010) 'Concealed communities: the history and archaeology of upper Coquetdale and the College Valley during the late medieval and post-medieval periods' [AHRC]


Visiting Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Researchers

I am also pleased to mentor/supervise international postgraduate students and other researchers for secondments, work placements or short visits in Archaeology, Landscape Studies and related areas. In recent years I have been privileged to supervise over twenty visiting researchers from countries including Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Turkey. Please contact me if you would like to find out more about spending a visiting period in Newcastle.

Publications