Dr Nicky Garland
Project Manager - Training and Communications

Profile

Biography

Nicky is the Training and Communications Manager for the Archaeology Data Service (ADS). His main role is to design and deliver training for ADS depositors and end-users of ADS data resources and to oversee the ADS Communications group.

Nicky completed his doctoral research in 2017 at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on the archaeology of Iron Age and Roman Britain. His research interests focus on the landscapes of Iron Age and Roman north-western Europe, specifically understanding the origins, development of role of Iron Age settlements known as ‘oppida’. Nicky’s doctoral research used a multi-scale analysis of these complex settlements to better understand their function, social structure and transformation across the Iron Age-Roman transition.

Career

Since 2017 Nicky has worked on numerous research projects across several different Universities. These include the National Lottery Heritage Funded project ‘Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology (WallCAP)’, at Newcastle University and the AHRC/English Heritage funded 'Exeter: A Place in Time' project, with Cotswold Archaeology.

Prior to this Nicky spent twelve years working in numerous roles in developer-funded archaeology (2005-2017). This included several years leading fieldwork projects in the Republic of Ireland (Eachtra Archaeological Projects) and Southern England (Archaeology South-East) and as an Archaeological Consultant as part of a wider heritage team (Heritage Collective) and a solo practitioner.

Most recently, Nicky was a Senior Publications Officer at Cotswold Archaeology, where he managed and undertook the post-excavation analysis and publication of archaeological excavations across southern Britain. He also trained junior members of staff in report writing and post-excavation analysis..

Nicky has a deep interest in digital approaches to the past. Much of his research utilises spatial analysis to explore past landscapes and as such has a detailed knowledge of ArcGIS and QGIS. He utilises scripting languages, namely R, to explore statistics and identify trends in archaeological data. He has undertaken an analysis of learner satisfaction scores for the FutureLearn MOOC, Hadrian's Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier, as part of a REF impact case study.

Nicky conducted a bibliometric analysis of publications for the Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC) to explore the research trajectory of this institution over the last 30 years. The data and code written is available via his GitHub account. His recent research explored mobility surrounding linear earthworks based on high resolution digital elevation models and utilises the high performance computing service at Durham University.

Research

Overview

Connect with Nicky on Orcid

Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain Project

MAL (Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain Project) is a research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust and hosted by the Institute of Archaeology, UCL and Department of Archaeology, Durham University.

The MAL project seeks to understand how and why human societies choose to delineate landscape in monumental form. This project compares, for the first time, the two periods when tangible large-scale territoriality emerged in the British landscape: The Iron Age and the early middle ages. The project began in March 2020 and is currently ongoing

Nicky acted as a Research Associate on the project and was instrumental in the design and population of a nationwide database of linear earthworks from 800 BC to AD 800. The database utilised national and local HER data to provide for the first time a full dataset of known linear earthworks across the UK. The database was created using postgresql and PostGIS and was analysed using QGIS and the R scripting language.

WallCAP: Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project

The Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP) examined the landscape heritage of the Hadrian’s Wall corridor and World Heritage Site (WHS) by building a community-based network, guided and trained by professionals.

The project aimed to foster local engagement and social investment in heritage landscapes. WallCAP was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and was hosted by Newcastle University. The project ran from January 2019 to the end of September 2022.

On this project Nicky acted as a Research Associate and spatial analyst including the initial design and population of the first Hadrian’s Wall GIS database. Part of NIcky’s role included training community volunteers and undergraduate students in digital recording (GNSS, Total Station, Laser Scanning, Structure from Motion) and the design and delivery of training for volunteers in GIS analysis.

Nicky also acted as a Project Support Officer for other team members including fieldwork preparation, community liaison and geological training. As part of the project Nicky produced a series of open access resources for researchers interested in the archaeology of Hadrian’s Wall. This included maps and shapefiles associated with the Hadrian’s Wall Frontier, Stanegate and the Coastal System.

Crisis or Continuity. Hoarding in Iron Age and Roman Britain

The ‘Crisis or Continuity. Hoarding in Iron Age and Roman Britain’ project was funded by the AHRC and was run jointly by the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Leicester University and the British Museum.

This three year project explored the deposition and hoarding of coins and other artefacts in later prehistoric and Roman Britain. The project drew from finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme and critically re-examined the evidence for social, economic and political activity associated with hoarding across these periods.

Nicky joined the project as a Research Associate in the last months to liaise with project members and authors to complete the final publication to a specific timeframe. This role included edited chapters for the final monograph including research and reference checking, the preparation of table and figure lists and the final bibliography.

EAPIT: Exeter: A Place in Time Project

The Exeter a Place in Time Project (EAPIT) was a collaborative project between Universities of Exeter and Reading, Exeter City Council, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) and Cotswold Archaeology and funded by the Arts Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Historic England.

The project ran from 2016 to 2020 and sought to explore the archaeology of the city of Exeter and its wider hinterland between AD 50 – 1550. The project involved the stratigraphic analysis of four key sites from Exeter that were excavated in the 1970s and 80s, as well as a programme of radiocarbon and tree-ring dating, isotope analysis of animal bones, and further research into pottery and metallurgical debris. The project resulted in the publication of two open access volumes available via Oxbow Books.

Nicky’s role on the project was to lead the review of the archival materials of the 1970s and 80s excavations and undertake a stratigraphic analysis of three different sites. This research included a review of the original context sheets and partial post-excavation analysis and overseeing the digitization of site drawings in ArcGIS, to produce the first fully digital plan of each of these excavations. The grey literature reports, plans and archival lists for these sites are available online via the Archaeology Data Service.

Publications

Selected publications

For a full list of Nicky's current publications, please see his ResearchGate profile.

Garland, N. 2022. ‘Magical Places: An Archaeological exploration of Magic and Time at Stanway, Essex’. Preternature: Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural. 11(1), 151-177. https://doi.org/10.5325/preternature.11.1.0151

Garland, N., Harris, B., Moore, T. and Reynolds, A. 2021. ‘Exploring Linear Earthworks across Time and Space - Introducing the Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain project. Offa’s Dyke Journal 3, 129-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.23914/odj.v3i0.316

Garland, N. 2021. TRAC at 30: A Bibliometric Analysis of the TRAC Community. Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal, 4(1): 1, pp. 1–37. https://doi.org/10.16995/traj.4344

Garland, N., Allan, J. and Holbrook, N. 2021. Excavations at Trichay Street and Pancras Lane, 1972–3 In Rippon, S. and Holbrook, N. (eds). Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter. Exeter: A Place in Time, volume 2. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.139-188

Allan, J., Garland, N., and Holbrook, N. 2021. Excavations at 196–7 High Street, 1972–4. In Rippon, S. and Holbrook, N. (eds). Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter. Exeter: A Place in Time, volume 2. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.213-240.

Garland, N., Holbrook, N. and Allan, J. 2021. Excavations at Rack Street, 1974–5 and 1977–8. In Rippon, S. and Holbrook, N. (eds). Studies in the Roman and Medieval Archaeology of Exeter. Exeter: A Place in Time, volume 2. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp.241-270.

Garland, N. 2020. The Origins of British Oppida: Understanding Transformation in Iron Age Practice and Society. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 39(1), 107-125. https://doi.org/10.1111/ojoa.12184

Bland, R., Chadwick, A., Ghey, E., Haselgrove, C. and Mattingly, M. with contributions by Garland, N. 2020. Iron Age and Roman Coin Hoards in Britain. Oxford: Oxbow Book.

Garland, N. 2018. Rethinking the dichotomy: ‘Romans’ and ‘barbarians’. Antiquity, 92 (362), 538-540. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2018.23

Garland, N. 2018. ‘Linking Magic and Medicine in Early Roman Britain: The ‘Doctor’s’ Burial, Stanway, Camulodunum’ In Parker, A. and McKie, S. (eds) The Materiality of Roman Magic: Theories, Approaches and Material Culture. TRAC Themes in Roman Archaeology vol 2. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 85-102.

Garland, N. 2016. ‘New perspectives on British territorial oppida: the examination of Iron Age landscapes in time and space.’ In: Erskine, G., Jacobsson, P., Miller, P. and Stetkiewicz, S. (eds) Proceedings of the 17th Iron Age Research Student Symposium, Edinburgh 29th May - 1st June 2014. Archaeopress: Access Archaeology, 108-119.

Garland, N. 2016. “Agency, Structure, and Place: Finds in the Landscape in the Late Iron Age / Early Roman Transition”, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 2015, p.76–91. https://doi.org/10.16995/TRAC2015_76_91

Garland, N. 2013 “Ritual Landscapes of Pre-Roman Britain: The Margins of Practice on the Margins of the Empire”, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 2012, p.183-198. https://doi.org/10.16995/TRAC2012_183_198

Garland, N., 2012. “Boundaries and Change: The Examination of the Late Iron Age-Roman Transition”, Theoretical Roman Archaeology Journal 2011, p.91-104 https://doi.org/10.16995/TRAC2011_91_104

External activities

Overview

Peer reviewer for the Archaeological Journal, Britannia, Journal of Social Archaeology and Archaeologia Aeliana.