Professor David Austin BA (Southampton), DipArch (Durham), FSA

David Austin

Contact Details

Tel: 01570 424756 (256)
E-mail: d.austin@trinitysaintdavid.ac.uk

Campus

Lampeter Campus

Job Title

Professor of Archaeology

Role in the University

David is the current holder of the established chair in Archaeology at Lampeter and was the first appointment to the subject in 1976. 

He is a specialist in historic settlements and landscapes with a broad spread of interests within those two related domains.  He is a founder member of the Society for Landscape Studies and served on its executive in a number of roles for several years; he served also on the executive of the Medieval Settlement Research Group, and has been a Council Member of the Society for Medieval Archaeology.  Currently he is serving on the Advisory Committee of the AHRC’s major project in Landscape and Environment.  He is also co-editor of the journal Landscapes with Dr. Paul Stamper.

Background

All of David’s fieldwork has been undertaken in either the British Isles or France, but with an understanding of the European and world context of these studies.   Major excavation and landscape projects have included: the medieval settlements of south-east Durham, including the medieval borough of Hartlepool; the deserted medieval village of Thrislington in Co. Durham; the castle and landscapes of Barnard Castle in Teesdale; the landscapes of Okehampton Park and their context in Dartmoor and North Devon; tin and agriculture on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall; a rabbit warren and its landscapes at Bryn Cysegrfan; the landscapes of the Central Teifi valley in association with the Caer Cadwgan hill-fort project; the castle and landscapes of Carew in south Pembrokeshire; the Cipières landscape project in south-eastern France; and, currently, the Cistercian monastery of Strata Florida and its landscapes in central Ceredigion, Wales. 

David has also had a strong interest in theory and its application to historic archaeology and wrote early seminal articles, for example, on castles in their landscapes and the place of social interpretation in medieval archaeology.  He has organised and chaired sessions at Theoretical Archaeology Group conferences and at two World Archaeological Congresses.  He was invited to become a founder member of the Executive Board of the Contemporary and Historical Archaeology and Theory Group.

He has been an advocate of local, community narratives and the use of the historic heritage in sustainable economic development, especially in rural upland Wales.  He has been instrumental in establishing community action and development groups in the region and has taken leadership in several projects including, most recently the Transition Town movement in Lampeter and within Wales.  He has also played a role in the politics and administration of heritage and archaeology in Wales, serving on a variety of committees, such as Dyfed Archaeological Trust, the Uplands Initiative Advisory Committee of the RCAHMW and the Forestry Commission Advisory Committee for Wales, and has served as Parliamentary Advisor to the Welsh Affairs Select Committee in its examination of Cadw and related bodies.

David has also been a champion of the role of archaeology within the Higher Education system and more broadly in education as a whole, serving as both a founder member and secretary of the Standing Committee of Professors and Heads of Archaeology.  He has chaired the CBA’s Higher Education Committee and served on both its Education and its Research committees; he also served on the committee developing a new ‘A’ Level in Archaeology.  While working with the CBA he also served on the committee reviewing and reforming its functions under the chairmanship of Professor Rosemary Cramp.  He has also been a member of the Archaeology Assessment Panel for the HEFCE Research Assessment Exercise.  At Lampeter David has served on a large number of committees and been Head of School and a member of the University’s Senior Management Team.

Publications

2007 ‘A new project at Strata Florida, Ceredigion, Wales’ Monastic Research Bulletin, 13, 13-19
2007 ‘Characterisation or caricature? Concluding discussion’ Landscapes, 8.2, 92-105
2007 Co-editor (with P. Stamper) of Landscapes vol. 8:1; 8:2, including editorials.
2007 ‘The presence of poverty: archaeologies of difference and their meaning’ pp. 19-41 in Jaritz, G. Die Zeichensprachen der Armut, Wien: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
2007 Acts of Perception; Barnard Castle, Teesdale, 2 volumes, Durham: Durham Archaeological Society Monographs no. 6 and English Heritage, 706 pages and 369 figures.
2006 Co-editor (with P. Stamper) of Landscapes vols. 7:1; 7.2, including editorials
2006 ‘The autumn meeting of the Cambrians, September 6th to 8th, 2003’ Archaeologia Cambrensis, 153,
2006 ‘The future: discourse, objectives and directions’, pp. 193-205 in Roberts, K (ed)  Lost Farmsteads: deserted rural settlements in Wales, CBA Research Report 148
2005 Co-editor (with P. Stamper) of Landscapes vols. 6:1 and 6:2, including editorials
2005 ‘Little England Beyond Wales: re-defining the myth’, Landscapes, 6.2, 30-62
2002 'Archaeology, funding and the responsibilities of the University' in Pluciennik, M. The Responsibilities of Archaeologists  Oxford: BAR
2001 '"Response" to Barker et al. Bench-marking statement for archaeology' pp. 75-77 in Rainbird and Hamilakis, Interrogating Pedagogies: archaeology in Higher Education  BAR Int Ser 948
1999 'Archéologie de communauté et résistance: les habitats dispersés en Angleterre et au Pays de Galles au Moyen Age', pp. 39-64 in Cursente, B. (ed) L'Habitat Dispersé dans l'Europe Médiévale et Moderne  Toulouse: Presses Universitaires du Mirail

1998

 'Private and public: an archaeological consideration of things', in Die Vielfalt der Dinge: Neue Wege zur Analyse Mittelalterlicher Sachkultur. ed. H. Hundsbichler. Krems: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 163-206.

Additional Information

In his time, in contributing to the development of the department at Lampeter, David has taught every period of archaeology from the Palaeolithic to the modern, but nowadays he focuses on the practical courses of survey and excavation which are centred on the project at Strata Florida.  He also teaches an option on Castles in the Landscape.  He has also initiated and taught, with Andrew Fleming, a masters course in landscape archaeology and management. 

Recent PhD graduations include work on early medieval Ireland, modern ceramics, the historic archaeology of the Central Teifi Valley (AHRB funded) and the iconography of the city of Braga in Portugal.  Current research students are working on the medieval archaeology and social landscapes of north-east Wales, the historic building techniques of the Black Mountains, the history and archaeology of the Cluniacs, the history and organisation of certain Strata Florida granges in the context of recent theory, public policy on historic buildings in Wales (AHRC funded), and medieval castles in central Wales.