Dr Seren Griffiths

Academic and professional qualifications

Seren is a heritage specialist and archaeologist. She researches public archaeology and heritage practice using interdisciplinary methods, she has period specialisms in European prehistory, with methodological specialisms in archaeological science. She is a 2020 BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker.

She is PI on the AHRC-funded £937, 000 project ‘TIME’, leading an international team.

Though still an Early Career Researcher, she has over 52 peer-reviewed (since 2011) and 85 ‘grey literature’ publications (since 2007).

In 2018, she was the youngest person to deliver the Golson Lecturer at Australian National University, spoke at the Hay Literary Festival, and delivered two conference plenary papers. In 2020, she delivered a prestigious research colloquium at Kiel University, Germany.

She was educated at Oxford University (MA (Oxon) and MSc) and Cardiff University (PhD).

She was CoI on an AHRC/EPSRC-funded project producing an immersive augmented reality and virtual reality app about the public archaeology landscape project I direct at Bryn Celli Ddu.

She has current research collaborations in Europe in Norway, France, Belgium, Germany, Albania and Spain, as well as in America and Australia.

She has worked in the field in Iran, South Africa, Albania, Ireland, and France, and in post-excavation in Germany, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Romania and Serbia. Her scientific dating research, has worked on sites spanning from the Late Upper Palaeolithic to Medieval. In commercial practice in the UK, she worked on major infrastructure projects in the field and in post-excavation including Cross Rail, the South Wales Gas Pipeline, road schemes including the A2 and A30, and major urban projects in Oxford, Stafford, Winchester, Bristol, Southampton and London as well as on commercial projects in France and Ireland.

Publications

• Books (authored/edited/special issues)

  S. Griffiths (2025). From Newgrange to Stonehenge: the times of people, places and practices 3500–1500 BCE/BC in Britain and Ireland. Bloomsbury.

  S. Griffiths (2022). Scientific Dating in Archaeology. Studying Scientific Archaeology.

• Journal articles

  P. Blinkhorn, S. Griffiths (2023). The Vikings and the origins of wheel-thrown pottery production in ninth century England. Archaeological Journal. 180(1), pp.104-136.

  S. Griffiths, L. Brown, N. Carlin, T. Evans, B. Gaydarska, et al. E. Hannah, P. McKeague. (2023). RADIOCARBON, BIG DATA AND INTERNATIONAL HERITAGE. Radiocarbon. pp.1-10.

  S. Griffiths (2022). A Cereal Problem? What the Current Chronology of Early Cereal Domesticates Might Tell Us About Changes in Late Fifth and Early Fourth Millennium cal BC Ireland and Britain. Environmental Archaeology. 27(1), pp.73-79.

  B. Edwards, BB. Edwards, S. Griffiths, FF. Reynolds, A. Stanford, et al. M. Woods. (2021). The Bryn Celli Ddu Minecraft Experience: A Workflow and Problem-Solving Case Study in the Creation of an Archaeological Reconstruction in Minecraft for Cultural Heritage Education. ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. 14(2), pp.1-16.

  . Gearey, . Becker, . Everett, . Griffiths (2020). On the brink of Armageddon? Climate change, the archaeological record and human activity across the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition in Ireland. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature. 120C, pp.105-105.

  F. Reynolds, S. Griffiths, B. Edwards (2019). Bryn Celli Ddu: Hannes heneb Neolithig fwyaf tradiadol Cymru. Y Naturiaethwr. 3, pp.28-35.

  B. Elliott, S. Griffiths (2018). Living Mesolithic Time: Narratives, Chronologies and Organic Material Culture. Journal of World Prehistory. 31(3), pp.347-365.

  D. Borić, B. Hanks, D. Šljivar, M. Kočić, J. Bulatović, et al. S. Griffiths, R. Doonan, D. Jacanović. (2018). Enclosing the Neolithic World: A Vinča Culture Enclosed and Fortified Settlement in the Balkans. Current Anthropology. 59(3), pp.336-346.

  S. Griffiths, E. Robinson (2018). The 8.2 ka BP Holocene climate change event and human population resilience in northwest Atlantic Europe. Quaternary International. 465, pp.251-257.

  D. Garrow, S. Griffiths, H. Anderson-Whymark, F. Sturt (2017). Stepping Stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon Dating the Early Neolithic on Islands Within the ‘Western Seaways’ of Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 83, pp.97-135.

  S. Griffiths, BR. Gearey (2017). The Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of the “elm decline”: A Case Study from Yorkshire and Humberside, United Kingdom. Radiocarbon. 59(5), pp.1321-1345.

  S. Griffiths (2017). We’re All Cultural Historians Now: Revolutions In Understanding Archaeological Theory And Scientific Dating. Radiocarbon. 59(5), pp.1347-1357.

  A. Bayliss, P. Marshall, C. Tyers, C. Bronk Ramsey, G. Cook, et al. SPHT. Freeman, S. Griffiths. (2017). Informing Conservation: Towards ¹⁴C Wiggle-Matching of Short Tree-Ring Sequences from Medieval Buildings in England. Radiocarbon. 59(3), pp.985-1007.

  S. Griffiths, NJ. Saunders Forged in Conflict: Francis Buckley, the First World War, and British Prehistory. International Journal of Historical Archaeology.

  S. Griffiths “Humming with cross-fire and short on cover”. Internet Archaeology.

  C. Richards, AM. Jones, A. MacSween, A. Sheridan, E. Dunbar, et al. P. Reimer, A. Bayliss, S. Griffiths, A. Whittle. (2016). Settlement Duration and Materiality: Formal Chronological Models for the Development of Barnhouse, a Grooved Ware Settlement in Orkney. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 82, pp.193-225.

  HC. Miles, AT. Wilson, F. Labrosse, B. Tiddeman, S. Griffiths, et al. B. Edwards, PD. Ritsos, JW. Mearman, K. Möller, R. Karl, JC. Roberts. (2016). Alternative Representations of 3D-Reconstructed Heritage Data. Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. 9(1), pp.1-18.

  S. Griffiths, C. Bonacchi, G. Moshenska, L-J. Richardson (2015). OK computer? Digital community archaeologies in practice. Internet Archaeology.

  A. Macsween, J. Hunter, A. Sheridan, J. Bond, CB. Ramsey, et al. P. Reimer, A. Bayliss, S. Griffiths, A. Whittle. (2015). Refining the Chronology of the Neolithic Settlement at Pool, Sanday, Orkney: Implications for the Emergence and Development of Grooved Ware. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 81, pp.283-310.

  S. Griffiths, B. Edwards, A. Wilson, R. Karl, F. Labrosse, et al. E. LaTrobe-Bateman, H. Miles, K. Moeller, J. Roberts, B. Tiddeman. (2015). Small Works, Big Stories. Methodological approaches to photogrammetry through crowd-sourcing experiences. Internet Archaeology.

  D. Borić, S. Griffiths (2015). The Living and The Dead, Memory and Transition: Bayesian Modelling of Mesolithic and Neolithic Deposits from Vlasac, the Danube Gorges. Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 34(4), pp.343-364.

  S. Griffiths, F. Sturt, JK. Dix, B. Gearey, MJ. Grant (2015). Chronology and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the sub-tidal zone: a case study from Hinkley Point. Journal of Archaeological Science. 54(1), pp.237-253.

  S. Griffiths (2015). Peer Comment. Internet Archaeology.

  HC. Miles, AT. Wilson, F. Labrosse, B. Tiddeman, S. Griffiths, et al. B. Edwards, K. Moller, R. Karl, JC. Roberts. (2014). Crowd-Sourced Digitisation of Cultural Heritage Assets. 2014 International Conference on Cyberworlds. pp.361-368.

  S. Griffiths (2014). Points in Time: The Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition and the Chronology of Late Rod Microliths in Britain. Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 33(3), pp.221-243.

  P. Bickle, RA. Bentley, M. Dočkalová, L. Fibiger, S. Griffiths, et al. J. Hamilton, R. Hedges, D. Hofmann, I. Mateiciucová, A. Whittle. (2014). Early neolithic lifeways in Moravia and Western Slovakia: Comparing archaeological, osteological and isotopic data from cemetery and settlement burials of the linearbandkeramik (LBK). Anthropologie (Czech Republic). 52(1), pp.35-72.

  S. Griffiths (2014). A Bayesian Radiocarbon Chronology of the Early Neolithic of Yorkshire and Humberside. Archaeological Journal. 171(1), pp.2-29.

  S. Griffiths (2014). Simulations and Outputs. Radiocarbon. 56(2), pp.871-876.

  M. Wysocki, S. Griffiths, R. Hedges, A. Bayliss, T. Higham, et al. Y. Fernandez-Jalvo, A. Whittle. (2013). Dates, Diet, and Dismemberment: Evidence from the Coldrum Megalithic Monument, Kent. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 79, pp.61-90.

• Chapters in books

  S. Hijazi, C. Mainprize, M. Wareham, S. Bramble, B. Edwards, et al. S. Griffiths. (2019). Public Archaeology at Bryn Celli Ddu: Sharing Prehistory. H. Williams, C. Pudney, A. Ezzeldin. In: Public Archaeology. Arts of Engagement. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp.81-90.

  S. Griffiths (2019). Afterword: public archaeology, arts of engagement. H. Williams, C. Pudney, A. Ezzeldin. In: Public Archaeology: Arts of Engagment. Oxford: ArchaeoPress, pp.268-269.

  S. Griffiths (2018). Time and Temporality. In: The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences. Wiley, pp.1-5.

  A. Bayliss, C. Cartwright, G. Cook, S. Griffiths, R. Madgwick, et al. P. Marshall, P. Reimer. (2017). Rings of fire and Grooved Ware settlement at West Kennet, Wiltshire. P. Bickle, V. Cummings, D. Hofmann, J. Pollard. In: The Neolithic of Europe: Papers in Honour of Alasdair Whittle. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.249-278.

  S. Griffiths (2016). Beside the ocean of time: a chronology of Neolithic burial monuments and houses in Orkney. In: The development of Neolithic house societies in Orkney. Oxford: Windgatherer, pp.254-301.

  A. Bayliss, F. Healy, A. Whittle, M. Germany, S. Griffiths, et al. D. Hamilton, T. Hingam, J. Meadows, G. Shand, S. Jones, M. Allen, MP. Wysocki. (2011). The Greater Thames estuary. A. Whittle, F. Healy, A. Bayliss. In: Gathering Time: dating the Early Neolithic enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.348-346.

• Conferences

  PD. Ritsos, AT. Wilson, HC. Miles, LF. Williams, B. Tiddeman, et al. F. Labrosse, S. Griffiths, B. Edwards, K. Möller, R. Karl, JC. Roberts. (2014). Community-driven generation of 3D and augmented web content for archaeology. In: 12th Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage, GCH 2014 - Short and Project Papers. pp.25-28.

Invited roundtable discussions

Invited conference presentations and talks (since 2015)

• May 2020. Griffiths, S. Cataclysmic events, long-term processes and human responses: identifying causal relationships in Holocene human-environment interaction (Society of American Archaeology; Texas).
• February 2020. Griffiths, S. History, Narrative, Big Data and Prehistory (Manchester University research seminar).
• November 2019. Griffiths, S. History, Narrative, Big Data and Prehistory (Chester University research seminar).
• November 2019. Griffiths, S. Bryn Celli Ddu 2019: recent work in the field and archives (Gwynedd Archaeological Trust seminar).
• May 2019. Griffiths, S. Iron Age henges and other stories or ‘the application of Bayesian modelling the Iron Age’. Iron Age Research Student Symposium (Cardiff University).
• February 2019. Griffiths, S. Bryn Celli Ddu 2018: recent finds and fieldwork (Gwynedd Archaeological Trust seminar).
• December 2018. Griffiths, S. Bryn Celli Ddu 2018: recent finds and fieldwork (Cornwall Archaeological Society seminar).
• November 2018. Griffiths, S. Invited plenary conference speaker (Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Research Student Symposium; Manchester University).
• September 2018 Griffiths, S., Edwards, B., Reynolds, Ff. and Stanford, A. Material pasts: the earlier prehistoric monument complex of Bryn Celli Ddu. Invited speaker at the Brodgar-Boyne Session European Archaeology Association.
• June 2018. Griffiths, S. Invited speaker at the Hay Literary Festival, Hay-on-Wye.
• March 2018. Griffiths, S. The Golson Lecture at Australian National University, Canberra.
• March 2018. Griffiths, S. Conference plenary speaker at the History of Pacific Archaeology annual conference Australian National University, Canberra.
• November 2017. Griffiths, S and Reynolds, Ff. Digital public archaeology (Glasgow University research seminar).
• September 2017. Griffiths, S. Bryn Celli Ddu landscapes in transition (Bangor University research seminar).
• April 2017. Griffiths, S. We’re all culture historians now; radiocarbon revolutions and archaeology (Society of American Archaeology; Vancouver).
• November 2016. Griffiths, S. Landscapes revisited: recent work on multiperiod prehistoric sites in Anglesey and Northumberland (Bournemouth University research seminar).
• November 2016. Griffiths, S. An everyday story of country folk: the domestication of dwelling in early Neolithic Britain, new evidence from the Milfield Basin, Northumberland (Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Research Student Symposium; University College London).
• November 2016. Griffiths, S. A cereal problem.(Neolithic Studies Group; London).
• October 2016. Griffiths, S. The last hunter gatherers (The Royal Archaeological Institute annual conference; Carlisle).
• September 2016. Griffiths, S. Public archaeology in practice (Manchester Metropolitan University Research Seminar).
• June 2016. Griffiths, S. We’re all culture historians now; radiocarbon revolutions and archaeology (Radiocarbon and Archaeology; Edinburgh).
• April 2016. Griffiths, S. et sl. The 8.2ka event. Evidence for human-environment interaction in north west Atlantic Europe (Society of American Archaeology; Orlando).
• November 2015. Griffiths, S. and Edwards, B. World enough and time
• Variability in earliest British Neolithic ‘houses’ (Neolithic Studies Group; London).
• August 2015. Griffiths, S. et al. The 8.2ka event. Evidence for human-environment interaction in north west Atlantic Europe (Society of American Archaeology; Orlando).
• September 2015. Griffiths, S. The long and the short of it; chronological models as prescriptive approaches in earlier prehistory (Meso2015; Belgrade).
• September 2015. Borić, D., Griffiths, S. et al. Dating boulder artworks and transition to farming at Lepenski Vir: Bayesian statistical modeling (Meso2015; Belgrade).
• April 2015 Griffiths, S. et al. The tempo of cultural change in Neolithic Alsace (Society for American Archaeology; San Francisco).
• February 2015. Griffiths, S. Trackways; traversing environmental change in late Neolithic Ireland and Britain (Bradford University Archaeology Society).

Conference organisation

Conference sessions organised since 2015

• December 2018 “Public heritage: negotiating best practice” session at TAG (Chester University) with Dr Ffion Reynolds and Cat Reece
• December 2018 “Creative practices” session at TAG (Chester University) with Dr Jim Dixon and Dr Chris Hughes
• December 2017 “Time and Temporality” session at TAG (Cardiff University) with Prof Julian Thomas
• November 2017 Neolithic and Early Bronze Age research student symposium University of Central Lancashire
• December 2015 “Humming with cross fire and short on cover…”? Revisiting and reflecting on Environmental Archaeology: Meaning and Purpose” session at TAG (Bradford University) with Dr Ben Gearey, Dr Suzi Richer and Dr Michelle Farrel
• September 2015 ‘Time and temporality in Mesolithic Europe’ session at Meso2015 (Belgrade) with Dr Dušan Borić and Dr Erick Robinson

Expert reviewer for journals and publishers

Peer review and editorial

I have peer-reviewed for journals including PLoS ONE, Antiquity, European Journal of Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Archaeological Journal, Environmental Archaeology, Quaternary International, Quaternary Geochronology, Journal of Archaeological Science, Radiocarbon, Internet Archaeology, and AP: Online Journal in Public Archaeology.

Exhibitions

Museum exhibitions co-curated

• 2019 Jan-June Darganfyddiadau Archeolegol/Archaeological Discoveries, Oriel Môn Museum, Anglesey.
• 2018 June Archaeoleg Bryn Celli Ddu Archaeology, temporary exhibition to accompany the public engagement programme for the 2018 excavation season, Oriel Môn Museum, Anglesey.