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Prof Michael Parker Pearson
Professor of British Later Prehistory
Institute of Archaeology Gordon Square
Institute of Archaeology
- Joined UCL
- 1st Aug 2012
Research summary
Research Interests:
- Stonehenge: its purpose and people
- The Beaker people: diet and mobility in Britain 2500-1700BC
- The Outer Hebrides: settlement and society from prehistory to the post-medieval period on the island of South Uist
- Death and burial: funerary archaeology
- Madagascar: society and change in the Indian Ocean
- Prehistoric Britain and Europe in the 1st millennia BC and AD
- Identifying mummification from skeletonised remains: soft tissue preservation in prehistoric Europe
- Public archaeology and heritage
- Ethnoarchaeology and material culture
Research Projects:
- The Archaeology of the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides)
- The Beaker People
- Feeding Stonehenge
- The Stones of Stonehenge
- Supply and Demand in Prehistory? Economics of Neolithic Mining in NW Europe
Teaching summary
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0076 Iron Age Europe
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0078 The Age of Stonehenge
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0146 British and European Prehistory: Neolithic to Iron Age
- Course Co-ordinator: ARCL0156 Funerary Archaeology
Biography
- BA, PhD, FBA, FSA, FSA Scot, MIFA
- Professor of British Later Prehistory
- Winner of Antiquity's Ben Cullen Prize 2013
Prizes and Awards:
- 2012 Visiting Professorship, Aarhus University, Denmark
- 2012 AIA's Samuel H. Kress Lecturer in Ancient Art
- 2010 UK Archaeologist of the Year
- 2010 UK Archaeological Research Project of the Year (Stonehenge Riverside Project)
- 2009 Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries Award (Stonehenge Riverside Project)
- 2008 Andante Travels Archaeology Award (Stonehenge Riverside Project)
Educational Background:
- PhD, King's College, University of Cambridge, 1985. Thesis title: Death, society and social change in the Iron Age of southern Jutland
- BA Single Honours (1st Class) in European Archaeology, University of Southampton, 1979