Professor Robin Skeates

Professor

Affiliations
Affiliation	Telephone
Professor in the Department of Archaeology	+44 (0) 191 33 41156

Biography

My research and publications explore a wide variety of themes within the overlapping inter-disciplinary fields of material, visual and sensual culture studies, and museum and heritage studies.

I was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2005 in recognition of my long-term work on Central Mediterranean prehistoric archaeology, and am currently writing a book on Prehistoric Italy. In 2019, I was made an Honorary Member of the European Association of Archaeologists, having served as General Editor of the European Journal of Archaeology for 9 years; I was also made a Guest Professor in the School of Archaeology at Jilin University, China, having helped to develop collaboration between Durham University, the Palace Museum in Beijing, and Jilin. I am now Associate Editor of Antiquity.

My book, An Archaeology of the Senses: Prehistoric Malta, has led to keynote lecture invitations at home and abroad, a pioneering AHRC-funded collaboration with philosophers on the aesthetics and ethics of archaeology, and commissioning of the Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology (co-edited with Jo Day).

Another volume, Caves in Context (co-edited with Knut-Andreas Bergsvik), has been complemented by two successive British Academy- and other-funded, collaborative, field-projects on the ritual uses of caves in prehistoric Italy, related publications and television interviews, postgraduate student research, and visiting researchers.

In recent years, I have also participated in collaborative work with a variety of archaeological scientists, including post-docs and PhD students, on human bioarchaeology (aDNA and stable isotope analyses) and archaeometry (physical and chemical analyses of ceramic fabrics and of pigments) applied to Central Mediterranean prehistory, adding to my long-standing commitment to radiocarbon dating in this region.

My impact on public archaeology has been enhanced by my work as an archaeological advisor to the National Trust, my related Durham and NT-funded ‘Archaeological Wows’ research project, an AHRC Newton-Khalidi-funded museum modernization project in Jordan (Co-I Shatha Abu-Khafajah), associated publications such as my edited volumes, the Oxford Handbook of Public Archaeology and Museums and Archaeology, and postgraduate student research.

I welcome expressions of interest from prospective new post-docs and PhD students.

Research interests

archaeological collecting
archaeological theory
artefact studies
cave archaeology
cultural representation
ethics
heritage studies
material culture studies
museum studies
politics of the past
prehistoric art
prehistory of the central Mediterranean
public archaeology
sensual culture studies
visual culture

Esteem Indicators

2024: Trustee and Director, Wessex Archaeology: Trustee and Director, Wessex Archaeology
2020: Deputy Editor, Antiquity:
2012: Member National Trust Archaeology Advisory Panel:
2010: General Editor, European Journal of Archaeology:
2008: External Examiner, University of Leicester: External Examiner, Archaeology undergraduate programmes, School of Archaeology and Ancient History
2007: British School at Rome Faculty Member: Member of the Faculty of Archaeology, History and Letters of the British School at Rome, from 2007-2011.
2007: AHRC Peer Review College Member: Member of AHRC's Peer Review College (2007-)
2005: Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries: Elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London