UCL Institute of Archaeology

• BA, PGD Till, MA, PhD, FSA
• Honorary Senior Lecturer
  
• Leverhulme Trust Research Associate 2009-12
  
• Assistant Editor, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine
• Course Co-ordinator (2012-13): ARCLG116 Archaeological Approaches to the Human Use of Space
  

Research Interests

• Landscapes of Governance: a three-year interdisciplinary research project bringing archaeology, place-names and written sources together in a national study of early medieval assembly sites

OVERVIEW

My research is mainly concerned with early medieval state formation as seen in landscape evidence, burials and their associated artefacts, buildings and settlements. In recent years I have written on Anglo-Saxon civil defence in the Viking age, examining evidence for military geographies (fortifications, communications, battlefields, logistics), as well as the links between militarism, civil organization and statehood. I have also looked at the socio-economic organization of early states by analyzing comparatively the consumption of objects/raw materials in cemeteries, and the evolution of settlement hierarchies. I am currently exploring landscape evidence for civil organization and governance, addressing in particular the ways in which communities become distributed in space and the evolution of cooperative systems between them, including the emergence of fora for dispute settlement and punishment.

CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Geographical approaches to state formation. Spatial manifestations of culture. Border and frontier formation. Heterarchies and hierarchies. Analysis of territories, especially hundreds, parishes, shires, kingdoms. GIS approaches to modeling communications and settlement patterns
• The development of towns, particularly ports and strongholds. Plan-form analysis of towns and fortifications. Linking urban development to coastal reconstruction.
• Databasing and quantitative analysis of inter-disciplinary data. I have been compiling large datasets of burial evidence; settlement data; place-names and historical data, and am interested in ways of compiling, interrogating and disseminating large datasets.
• Social organization as interpreted from burial. Chronological and spatial patterns in intra- and inter- cemetery assemblages. Statistical and macro-economical approaches to cemetery data.
• Nails, clench-nails and bolts, and their use in boats, doors, beds, coffins, etc (!)
• Phenomenological approaches to landscape. How to characterize and document ‘places’. Viewshed and soundshed analysis.
• Archaeology of Kent, London, southern England, Germany, Scandinavia

Research Directory Records

• Beyond the Burghal Hidage
• Landscapes of Governance

Research Projects

• Civil Defence in the Viking Age: a multidisciplinary project investigating the nature of visual and physical networks of military communications and fortifications in Anglo-Saxon England.
• Foundations of European Space Project 2, see link
• Kentish Anglo-Saxon Emporia Project: Excavation, quantification of survey data and analysis of key Anglo-Saxon trading settlements.
• Reflective Pedagogies: Promoting reflexive practice in archaeological fieldtrips: An empirical survey of the learning environment and use of archaeological fieldtrips to promote critical reflection.

Collaborations

• Prof Iñaki Martín Viso, University of Salamanca, 'Local territories and identities in the early medieval centre of Iberian Peninsula: a spatial analysis of rock-cut graves', see link
• Dr Sue Harrington, UCL Institute of Archaeology Beyond the Tribal Hidage
• Dr Mark Pearce, The University of Nottingham Trent Valley GeoArchaeology
• Prof Iñaki Martín Viso, University of Salamanca 'Local territories and identities in the early medieval centre of Iberian Peninsula: a spatial analysis of rock-cut graves'
• Thames Discovery Programme
• Birkbeck, University of London, Archaeology
• Oxford University Department for Continuing Education
• Friends of Thynghowe

Educational Background

• 2008: PGD in Teaching in Lifelong Learning, Birkbeck, University of London
• 2003: PhD Archaeology – Institute of Archaeology, UCL
• 2003: PGC in Teaching in Lifelong Learning, Birkbeck, University of London
• 1998: MA Research Methods for the Humanities – Institute of Archaeology , UCL
• 1996: BA Medieval Archaeology – Institute of Archaeology , UCL

Books

• Baker, J., Brookes, S. and Reynolds, A. eds. (in press). Landscapes of Defence in Early Medieval Europe, Studies in the Early Middle Ages series. Turnhout: Brepols
• Brookes, S.J., Harrington, S. and Reynolds, A. eds. (2011). Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology: Papers in Honour of Martin G. Welch. British Archaeological Reports, 156-70
• Brookes, S.J. and Harrington, S. (2010). The Kingdom and People of Kent AD 400-1066. Their history and archaeology. The History Press
• Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 99-104 (2006-2011). Assistant Editor
• Brookes, S.J. (2007). Economics and Social Change in Anglo-Saxon Kent AD 400-900: Landscapes, Communities and Exchange. British Archaeological Reports 431

Journal Articles

• Baker, J. and Brookes, S.J. (forthcoming). Some Hwiccan Meeting-Places.
• Baker, J. and Brookes, S.J. (forthcoming). Explaining Anglo-Saxon military efficiency: the landscape of mobilisation.
• Brookes, S.J. (forthcoming). 'Pseudo-boat-burials' in pre-Viking England: some recent discoveries. In Sjövold, T. et al. (eds.) Valsgärde Uppsala: Museum Gustavianum
• Brookes, S.J. (forthcoming). The View from the Sea: maritime migration and the colonised landscapes of Early Anglo-Saxon Kent. In Stevens, F. and Whitehouse, R. (eds.) The Archaeology of Water. London: UCL/Left Coast Press
• Brookes, S.J. (forthcoming). Viking-age Kent, c. 800-1042. In Weekes, J. (ed.) Early Medieval Kent. Woodbridge: Boydell
• Brookes, S.J. (forthcoming). Settled Landscapes - a regional perspective of Early Anglo-Saxon settlement in Kent. Relicta 6
• Baker, J. and Brookes, S.J. (in press). Overseeing the sea: some West Saxon responses to waterborne threats in the South-East. Proceedings of the ISAS Conference 2009
• Brookes, S.J. (in press). Mapping Anglo-Saxon Civil Defence. In Baker, J., Brookes, S.J., and Reynolds, A.J (eds.) Landscapes of Defence in Early Medieval Europe. Turnhout: Brepols
• Brookes, S. and Reynolds, A. (in press). The Origins of Political Order and the Anglo-Saxon State. Archaeology International
• Reynolds, A. and Brookes, S. (in press). Anglo-Saxon civil defence in the localities: a case study of the Avebury region. In Reynolds, A.J. and Webster, L. (eds.) The Northern World in the Early Middle Ages: Studies in Honour of James Graham-Campbell. Turnhout: Brepols
• Baker, J. and Brookes, S.J. (2011). From frontier to border: the evolution of northern West Saxon territorial delineation in the ninth and tenth centuries. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 17, 104-19
• Baker, J., Brookes, S.J. and Reynolds, A. (2011). Landscapes of Governance: Assembly sites in England, fifth-eleventh centuries. Post-Classical Archaeology 1, 499-502
• Brookes, S.J. (2011). The lathes of Kent: a review of the evidence. In Brookes, S.J., Harrington, S. and Reynolds, A. (eds.). Studies in Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology: Papers in Honour of Martin G. Welch. British Archaeological Reports, 156-70
• Brookes, S.J. (2008). Archaeology in the Field: enhancing the role of fieldwork training and teaching. Research in Archaeological Education 1
• Brookes, S.J. (2007). Boat-rivets in graves in pre-Viking Kent . Medieval Archaeology 51, 1-18
• Brookes, S.J. (2007). Walking with Anglo-Saxons: Landscapes of the Living and Landscapes of the Dead in Early Anglo-Saxon Kent. In Semple, S. & Williams, H. (eds.) Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 14, 143-153
• Brookes, S.J., Harrington, S. and Welch, M. (2006). Documenting the dead: creating an on-line census of Anglo-Saxon burials from Kent. Archaeology International 2005/2006, 28-31
• Brookes, S.J. and Milne, G. (2006). Towns and trade on an unkind coast: rewriting the history and maritime archaeology of the Cinque Ports. The Romney Marsh Irregular 28, 5-13
• Brookes, S.J. (2003). ‘The Early Anglo-Saxon Framework for Middle Anglo-Saxon Economics: the case of East Kent ’. In Pestell, T. & Ulmschneider, K. (eds.) Markets in early medieval Europe : trading and 'productive' sites, 650-850. Windgather Press, 84-96
• Brookes, S.J. (2000). ‘Fieldwork Diary: The Kentish Anglo-Saxon Emporia Project’. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 11, 77-79

Databases

• Brookes, S.J. and Harrington, S. (2008). The Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database
• Brookes, S.J. (2004). Trent Valley 2002: Trent Valley GeoArchaeology Bibliographic Database

Reviews

• Brookes, S.J. 2010. Monuments and Minds: Monument Re-use in Scandinavia in the Second Half of the First Millennium A.D by Eva S. Thäte. European Journal of Archaeology 13.1, 130-1
• Brookes, S.J. 2008. A Medieval Royal Complex at Guildford: Excavations at the Castle and Palace by Rob Poulton. London Archaeologist 11.12, 334
• Brookes, S.J. 2007. General Issues in the Study of Medieval Logistics. Edited by John F. Haldon. Medieval Archaeology 51, 396-7
• Brookes, S.J. 2006. The Grubenhaus in Anglo-Saxon England by Jess Tipper. Medieval Archaeology 50, 426-7
• Brookes, S.J. 2005. Roman burials, medieval tenements and suburban growth: 201 Bishopsgate City of London by Dan Swift (MoLAS Archaeology Studies Series 10). London Archaeologist 11.2, 53
• Brookes, S.J. 2001. Reflections on ‘The Archaeology of Inland Markets, Fairs and ‘Productive Sites’. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology 12, 124-2