Simon Maddison - Honorary Research Fellow

Simon’s dissertation, completed in 2016, explored the spatial distribution of British and Irish Hillforts. Since then, he has been collaborating with Mark Lake on the development of Percolation Analysis, a spatial clustering technique, which they are applying to archaeological datasets. They are using this and other spatial techniques to explore the relationships between the hillfort and other historic and prehistoric spatial datasets, including the People of the British Isles DNA database. The aim of this is to identify, analyze and understand patterns of continuity and how they reflect social and territorial organization through extended periods of time.

Selected recent publications

• Maddison, S. (2019) Using Atlas data: the distribution of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland. In: Lock, G. & Ralston, I. (Eds.) Hillforts: Britain, Ireland and the Nearer Continent: Papers from the Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland Conference, June 2017. Oxford, Archaeopress Archaeology:
• Maddison, S. (2020) Percolation Analysis. In: Gillings, M., Haciguzeller, P. & Lock, G. R. (Eds.) Archaeological Spatial Analysis: A Methodological Guide. London and New York, Routledge:
• Maddison, S. & Schmidt, S. C. (2020) Percolation Analysis – Archaeological Applications at Widely Different Spatial Scales. Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology 3(1): 269-287; R code for Percolation Analysis, DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/7EXTC
• Maddison, S. (forthcoming-a) The Spatial Distribution of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland. 43e colloque international de l’AFEAF, 2019. Le Puy-en-Velay.
• Maddison, S. (forthcoming-b) Using Atlas data: the recognition and significance of selected clusters of hillforts in Britain at different scales. In: Ralston, I. & Lock, G. (Eds.) The Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press.