Members of the Durham Centre for Roman Cultural Studies

Dr Tom Moore, BA, MA, PhD, FSA

Contact Dr Tom Moore (email at t.h.moore@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

I completed my PhD on Iron Age societies in the Severn-Cotswolds at the University of Durham in 2003. Between 2004-2006 I was employed as a Lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Newcastle before moving to Durham in January 2006. I have been a key member of a variety of field projects in Britain and Europe and worked for two years in contract archaeology for Cotswold Archaeology.

My research interests focus mainly on the British and French Iron Age, particularly the late Iron Age-Roman transition. I recently completed a co-edited volume which outlines new perspectives on the Later Iron Age in NW Europe, including a co-authored paper assessing the current state and future direction of Later Iron Age studies in Britain and beyond. I am particularly keen on breaking down the theoretical and methodological barriers between different approaches to the European Iron Age and recently co-organised an international conference addressing these issues (Western Europe in the first millennium BC: Crossing the divide) with leading specialists from France, Iberia, USA, Ireland and the UK.

My current research focuses on new approaches to understanding social systems and social networks in Later Prehistory. As part of this, I am currently reassessing how archaeologists and Roman historians have understood the nature and meaning of tribal identities in the Iron Age and Roman period. Current research is also focusing on the role of polyfocal complexes (or 'oppida') in Britain, this has involved a new geophysical survey near Stanwick, North Yorkshire and a major fieldproject at Bagendon, Gloucestershire. 

I am also interested in practical and theoretical approaches to archaeological resource management, particularly the impact of PPG 16. My teaching covers courses on the British and European Iron Age, field archaeology, geophysics and legisaltion.

Developing from my previous work on landscape and social change in the Iron Age of the Severn-Cotswolds, my current research projects in Britain and France are exploring similar themes: the relationship between the development of oppida and Late Iron Age and early Roman social change, and the reconstruction of Later Iron Age societies. Both use a variety of landscape archaeology techniques:

(1) Aristocratic or sacred landscapes? L’habitat rural à la transition âge du Fer/époque Romaine

This is a collaborative project affiliated to, and funded by, the Centre archéologique européen at Bibracte and the British Academy, led jointly by myself and Dr. Peter Haupt from the Johannes Gutenberg-Universtat Mainz in collaboration with Dr. John Creighton (Reading). Building on the previous Arroux Valley Survey, which examined late La Tène and Gallo-Roman settlement between Bibracte and Autun (Creighton et al. 2008), this new project is using survey and excavation to investigate the immediate environs of the late La Tène oppidum at Bibracte. It aims to understand the nature of landscape development in the later La Tène and Gallo-Roman period, particularly focusing on the development of a major late La Tène/ early Gallo-Roman complex at Les sources de l’Yonne period and its role in social change at the end of the Iron Age. Trial excavations to determine the nature of late La Tène activity at the complex at l’source de l’Yonne took place in 2007 with further excavations in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

(2) Bagendon: The Birth of a capital?

This project is exploring the changing nature of power and identity in the later Iron Age of the Severn-Cotswolds focusing on the development of the so-called 'oppidum' at Bagendon and early Roman town of Cirencester, Gloucestershire. The project involves writing up earlier excavations alongside desktop research and new fieldwork.

This includes publication of the late Iron Age enclosure and exceptionally early Roman villa at Ditches, with Dr. Simon James (Leicester) and Dr. Steve Trow (English Heritage), funded by the Hedley Trust/Society of Antiquaries (Trow et al. 2009. also see Current Archaeology Vol. 271: 32-37 April 2008). Current work, led by myself, includes publication of earlier excavations at Bagendon late Iron Age oppidum and further fieldwork on this complex as well as placing these and other late Iron Age and early Roman sites in the region in context. Excavations in 2012 revealed a middle Iron Age 'banjo' style enclosure, whilst further geophysics has revealed numerous additional elements to the complex. Fieldwork and post-excavation at Bagendon is being funded by the British Academy Roman Research Trust, Royal Archaeological Institute,Society of Antiquaries and the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society.

Research Students

Aki Nishitani (PhD) A reanalysis of Iron Age pottery typologies and chronologies in central southern Britain [graduated 2012]

Arthur Anderson (PhD)  [graduated 2012]

Ian Colquhoun (PhD) The Bronze Age swords of Ireland

Elizabeth Schech (PhD) Iron Age glass beads in Britain

Paul Murtagh (PhD) Iron Age societies in western central Scotland

Jo Matias (PhD) Gender in the Western European Iron Age

Sam Wilford (PhD) Cave use in the British and western European Iron Age

Côme Ponroy (MA by Research) Challenging Models of Late Iron Age Urbanism and State Formation in Gaul: The Segusiavi Territory between 300BC and AD50

Tom Crowther (PhD - AHRC) An exploration into the relationship between Orientation, Landscape and Lightscapes within Iron Age Scotland

Research Groups

Department of Archaeology

• Landscapes of Complex Society Research Group
• Prehistory of Eurasia Research Group
• Ritual, Religion, Belief and Place Research Group

Research Projects

Department of Archaeology

• Bibracte environs and agglomeration of ‘Sources de l’Yonne’
• Understanding the birth of a capital: Bagendon ‘oppidum’ and the Late Iron Age-Roman transition

Research Interests

• Approaches to Cultural Resource Management (particularly the impact of PPG16)
• Artefact biographies
• Iron Age Britain and France
• Landscape archaeology
• Late Iron Age/Roman transition
• Social systems and social networks

Selected Publications

Books: authored

• Greene, K. & Moore, T. (2010). Archaeology: an introduction. London: Routledge.
• Trow, S., James, S. & Moore, T. (2009). Becoming Roman, Being Gallic, Staying British. Research and excavations at Ditches 'hillfort' and villa 1984-2006. Oxford: Oxbow.
• Moore, T. (2006). Iron Age societies in the Severn-Cotswolds: developing narratives of social and landscape change. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Books: edited

• Moore, T. & Armada, X-L. (2012). Atlantic Europe in the first millennium BC: Crossing the divide. Oxford University Press.

Books: sections

• Moore, T. & Armada, X-L. (2012). Crossing the divide: opening a dialogue on approaches to Western European first millennium BC studies. In Atlantic Europe in the first millennium BC: Crossing the divide. Moore, T. & Armada, X-L. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 3-77.
• Moore, T. (2009). La construction des communautés Nouvelles perspectives sur l’habitat, le monde rural et la société de l’Âge du Fer en Grande-Bretagne occidentale. In Habitats et paysages ruraux en Gaule et regards sur d'autres régions du monde celtique. Actes du XXXIe colloque international de l'Association Française pour l'Etude de l'Âge du Fer 17-20 mai 2007, Chauvigny (Vienne, F). Bertrand, I., Duval, A., Gomez de Soto, J. & Maguer, P. Chauvigny: Association des Publications Chauvinoises (Mémoire XXXV). II: 363-382.
• Fitzpatrick, A. with contributions from, Brunning, R., Johns, C., Minnit, S., Moore, T. & Mullin, D. (2008). Later Bronze Age and Iron Age. In The Archaeology of South West England: South West Archaeological Research Framework Resource assessment and Research Agenda. Webster, C. Taunton: Somerset County Council.
• Moore, T. (2007). Life on the edge? Exchange, community and identity in the later Iron Age of the Severn-Cotswolds. In The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond. Haselgrove, C. & Moore, T. Oxford: Oxbow Books. 41-61.
• Haselgrove, C. & Moore, T. (2007). New narratives of the Later Iron Age. In The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond. Haselgrove, C. & Moore, T. Oxford: Oxbow. 1-15.
• Moore, T. (2007). The early to later Iron Age transition in the Severn-Cotswolds: enclosing the household?. In The Earlier Iron Age in Britain and the Near Continent. Haselgrove, C. & Pope, R. Oxford: Oxbow Books. 259-278.
• Moore, T. (2006). The Iron Age. In Twenty-five years of Archaeology in Gloucestershire: A review of new discoveries and new thinking in Gloucestershire, South Gloucestershire and Bristol 1979-2004. Holbrook, N. & Jurica, J. Cirencester: Cotswold Archaeology BGAR 3. 61-96.
• Moore, T. (2003). Rectangular Houses in the British Iron Age - Squaring the Circle? In Re-Searching the Iron Age. Humphrey, J. Leicester: Leicester University Monograph 11. 47-58.

Edited works: conference proceedings

• Moore, T. (2006). Following the digger: the impact of developer-funded archaeology on academic and public perceptions of cultural landscapes. Cultural Landscapes in the 21st century. Forum UNESCO University and Heritage 10th International Seminar, International Centre for Cultural Heritage Studies. Newcastle, UK.

Essays in edited volumes

• Creighton, J. & Moore, T. (2008). Sondages au site des sources de l'Yonne, commune de Glux-en-Glenne. In Rapport Annuel d'activite 2007. Guichard, V. Glux-en-Glenne: Bibracte. 211-218.
• Creighton,J., Haupt, P., Klenner,I., Moore,T. & Schoenfelder,M. (2007). Prospections autour de Bibracte: Sites des sources de l'Yonne, commune Glux-en-Glenne. In Rapport annuel d'activité 2006. Guichard, V. Glux-en-Glenne: Bibracte. Centre archeologique europeen. 193-201.

Journal papers: academic

• Moore, T. (2012). Beyond the Oppida: Polyfocal Complexes and Late Iron Age Societies in Southern Britain. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 31(4): 391-417.
• Moore, T. (2011). Detribalizing the later prehistoric past: concepts of tribes in Iron Age and Roman studies. Journal of Social Archaeology 11(3): 334-360.
• Creighton,J., Haselgrove, C., Lowther, P. & Moore, T. (2008). Becoming Roman in southern Burgundy: A field survey between Autun and Bibracte in the Arroux Valley (Saône-et-Loire), 2000-2003. Internet Archaeology (25).
• Moore, T. (2007). Perceiving communities: exchange, landscapes and social networks in the later Iron Age of western Britain. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26(1): 79-102.
• Creighton,J., Haupt, P., Klenner, I., Moore, T., Nouvel, P., Petit, C. & Schönfelder, M. (2007). Prospections autour de Bibracte Nouvelles méthodes et nouveaux résultats. Bulletin de l'Association Française pour l’Étude de l’Âge du Fer 25: 17-20.
• Moore, T. (2001). An archaeological assessment of Hailey Wood Camp, Sapperton, Gloucestershire: a Roman temple complex in the Cotswolds?. Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 119: 83-93.

Journal papers: popular

• Moore, T. & Reece, R. (2001). The Dobunni. Glevensis 34: 17-26.

Show all publications

Related Links

• A Howard CC student produced video of season 2010 at Sources de l'Yonne
• Archaeology: an introduction companion website
• Bagendon - RAI newsletter
• Bibracte
• Conference 'Western Europe in the First Millennium BC: Crossing the divide'. Department of Archaeology, Durham University. November 23-25th, 2007

Grants Awarded

• 2012: Excavations of a banjo enclosure within the Late (£1000.00 from Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological society)
• 2012: Post-excavation analysis of Bagendon ceramics (£3000.00 from The Roman Research Trust)
• 2012: Post-excavation of ceramics from Bagendon (£5000.00 from Society of Antiquaries of London)
• 2012: Understanding the Birth of a Capital (£5580.00 from The British Academy)
• 2010: Late Iron Age and Early Roman Bagendon (£700.00 from Royal Archaeological Institute)
• 2009: UNDERSTANDING THE BIRTH OF A CAPITAL (£3020.00 from Royal Archaeological Institute)
• 2009: late iron age and early roman bagendon (£640.00 from Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological society)
• 2008: Institute of Advanced Studies (Durham University)
• 2008: UNDERSTANDING THE BIRTH OF A CAPITAL (£2210.00 from The Roman Research Trust)
• 2007: ARISTOCRATIC OR SACRED? (£3618.00 from The British Academy)
• 2007: WESTERN EUROPE IN THE FIRST MILLENNIUM (£797.00 from The British Academy)

Supervises

• Mr Ian Colquhoun
• Miss Elizabeth Schech
• Mr Paul Murtagh
• Mr Thomas Crowther
• Ms Jo Zalea Matias
• Mr James Bennett
• Mr Sam Wilford
• Mr Come Ponroy

For details of research postgraduates associated with the Roman Centre, please see our Postgraduates page.

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