Dr Ben Edwards

Reader in Heritage & Archaeology

My profile

Biography

Academic and professional qualifications

Ben undertook a BA (Hons) in Archaeology at Durham, followed by an AHRC-funded MA and PhD in archaeology at the same institution. His MA focused upon the landscape analysis of Bronze Age burial traditions, whilst his PhD concerned the nature of social reproduction during the Neolithic of northern Britain, expressed through changing traditions of deposition and their associated architectures. His PhD, Pits and the Architecture of Deposition, was completed in July of 2009. Alongside this PhD research Ben has been active in field research and excavation, particularly focused on archaeological survey techniques, digital recording, and the metric analysis of artefacts using laser scanning. He has directed three recent community excavation projects at Duddo Stone Circle, and Milfield, both in Northumberland, and Bryn Celli Ddu on Anglesey in collaboration with UCLan and Cadw.

Other academic service (administration and management)

Ben is departmental VLE administrator, and departmental Academic Enterprise coordinator. He also supervises the MMU International Archaeological Fieldschool.

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

Editor: Open Archaeology Journal

Grant reviewer: AHRC Peer-Review College

Grant reviewer: Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research

Peer reviewer:

Holocene
Remote Sensing
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
American Journal of Archaeology
European Journal of Archaeology

Heritage Pathway Lead: AHRC North-West Collaborative Doctoral Training Partnership

Expert reviewer for external funding bodies

Member of the AHRC Peer Review College

Editorial Board membership

Editor of the Open Archaeology journal

Get in touch

0161 247 3875
312 Geoffrey Manton Building

Teaching

Postgraduate teaching

MA Public History and Heritage

Professional Heritage Practice

Subject areas

Archaeology, Ancient History and Heritage

Supervision

Michael Woods: The Archaeology of the Afon Brian, Anglesey

Research outputs

My current research is highly multidisciplinary, and covers two main areas: the use of advanced digital technologies in heritage management and public engagement, and the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Britain. My AHRC funded research, the 2013, 2017 and 2019 bid successes, have been syntheses of these two areas. The first involved crowd-sourcing images of heritage assets from members of the public, and using these images to create detailed and interactive web-hosted 3D models derived from photogrammetry. The second bid concerns taking one of these models, of Bryn Celli Ddu Neolithic burial chamber, and creating an AR-enriched environment in which the public can experience new engagements with archaeology, art and soundscapes. This has had research implications but also addresses concerns about public access to heritage and the management of a threatened resource. The final and most recent bid sees me managing the digital data on a project worth nearly one million pounds, set to completely revolutionise the dating of the British Neolithic.

My Neolithic and Early Bronze Age research focuses on ceremonial and burial monuments. I am leading two field projects: in the landscape around Bryn Celli Ddu burial chamber, Anglesey; and into the henges of the Milfield Basin, Northumberland. The work on AR and VR experiential technologies links to my second major area of research: digital technologies in heritage management. In addition to the AHRC-funded research, above, I am actively developing a cross-disciplinary research portfolio, with work undertaken in Myanmar on satellite remote sensing and digital recording, and an invitation to work in Cameroon with sustainable tourism specialists to capture data from drone overflights. I also lead in the field of open-access archaeology, publishing an edited volume on the subject, and being invited to edit digital archaeology contributions to the journal Open Archaeology. My research combines detailed metric and digital survey and modelling, with open-data and advanced visualisation techniques.