Ewch i’r prif gynnwys
Niall Sharples

Yr Athro Niall Sharples

Professor in Archaeology

Ysgol Hanes, Archaeoleg a Chrefydd

Trosolwyg

Research interests

  • Monumentality
  • Material Culture
  • British Prehistory
  • The Norse settlement of the North Atlantic
  • The history of Archaeology in the 20th Century

Cyhoeddiad

2024

2023

2021

2020

2019

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

  • Sharples, N. M., Parker Pearson, M. and Symonds, J. 2004. The archaeological landscape of South Uist. In: Housley, R. A. and Coles, G. eds. Atlantic Connections and Adaptations: Economies, environments and subsistence in lands bordering the North Atlantic. Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology Vol. 21. Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 28-47.
  • Parker Pearson, M., Sharples, N. M. and Symonds, J. 2004. South Uist: archaeology and history of a Hebridean island. Stroud: Tempus Publishing Ltd.

2003

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1991

1990

1985

1981

Adrannau llyfrau

Cynadleddau

Erthyglau

Gwefannau

Llyfrau

Monograffau

Ymchwil

Projects

Hillforts

2007-ongoing. I am currently involved in a number of projects which are attempting to understand the role of hillforts in Later Prehistoric Britain.

  • I am co-manager of the excavations at Ham Hill a joint University of Cardiff and Cambridge Archaeological Unit project that is excavating a large area in the interior of Britain's largest hillfort.
  • I am a consultant for Herefordshire County Council working in particular on the excavations at Credenhill Camp in 2007 and 2008 and in their current project "An assessment of the Archaeological and Conservation Status of Major Later Prehistoric Enclosures in Herefordshire and Shropshire".
  • I am academic leader for the University of Cardiff involvement with the CAER heritage Project, which is designed to understand the hillfort of Caerau, Ely, Cardiff.

These projects will provide an invaluable addition to our knowledge of the large hillforts of western Britain and have the potential to transform our understanding as previous explorations in these areas have been minimal. They build on my work at Maiden Castle in the 1980s and the reconsideration of the hillforts of Wessex in my book Social Relations in Later Prehistory.

 

South Uist

1995-ongoing. In the 1990s I co-directed a large fieldwork project on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides in collaboration with the University of Sheffield and others. This was designed to explore the history of settlement on the island from its initial occupation through to the clearences.  A detailed account of the project is available on the project web site.

My principal excavations were at the site of Bornais and were undertaken between 1994 and 2004. These revealed one of the largest known Norse settlements in Scotland and a sequence of occupation dating from the 3rd century AD to the 14th century AD at Bornais, South Uist. Two volumes have now been published on these excavations and work is ongoing to complete the final volumes.

The site provides crucial evidence for the development of commercial fishing, the organisation of craft activities and the use of domestic space in the Norse period. The quantity of artefacts and the quality of the stratigraphy provide an unparalleled opportunity for understanding chronological changes during this period.

The project aims:

  • To understand the nature of the Norse settlement of the North Atlantic.
  • To understand the development of domestic architecture in the Atlantic fringe of Scotland.
  • To understand the change nature of agricultural practice in a marginal and fragile ecosystem.

This project is funded by Historic Scotland and Cardiff University, and has a value of £240,000.

 

Middens and Whitchurch

2006-ongoing. I am working with Kate Waddington (University of Bangor) and Richard Madgwick on the problem of the large middens that appear in southern England in the first half of the first millennium BC. The project aims include:

  • Understanding the conspicuous consumption required to create the large middens that are found at the beginning of the first millennium BC.
  • Reconsidering the social role of metal production, us and deposition at the beginning of the first millennium BC.
  • Examining the taphonomic processes that inform the accumulation of material in these extraordinary sites.

The principal field element of the project was the excavation of the midden at Whitchurch in Warwickshire, an unusual site that lies on the periphery of the distribution. The excavations should provide an important framework for the Late Bronze Age early Iron Age transition in the West Midlands. The project has also obtained a large number of radiocarbon dates from the midden at East Chisenbury which should provide an unparalleled opportunity to precisely date these sites.

This project is funded by the Archaeological Society, the Prehistoric Society, NERC and Cardiff University.

Addysgu

Bywgraffiad

Rwyf wedi graddio o Brifysgol Glasgow lle gwnes i radd archeoleg gyda thraethawd hir ar y cloddiadau ym meddrod siambr Ord North yn Sutherland. Ar ôl graddio, treuliais bum mlynedd yn gweithio yn Uned Ymchwil Arteffact o'r hyn a elwid bryd hynny yn Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Hynafiaethau'r Alban. Gwariwyd y rhan fwyaf o fy egni ar gyfarwyddo a goruchwylio gwaith maes yn Orkney ac Ynysoedd y Gorllewin ar safleoedd gan gynnwys Chwarel Pierowall a Chysylltiadau Noltland ar ynys Westray a Dalmore, ar Ynys Lewis.

Yn 1985 cefais fy nghyflogi i gyfarwyddo'r cloddiadau yng Nghastell Maiden yn Dorset. Cwblhawyd y prosiect hwn gyda chyhoeddi'r adroddiad cloddio a'r llyfr poblogaidd ym 1991. Yna dychwelais i'r Alban a chefais fy nghyflogi gan Historic Environment Scotland (Historic Environment Scotland erbyn hyn) i oruchwylio eu Cynllun Wardeiniaid Henebion, a oedd yn caniatáu imi ymweld â llawer o henebion aneglur a diddorol ledled y wlad. Yn 1995 cefais fy nghyflogi gan Brifysgol Caerdydd a phob un ers hynny rwyf wedi bod yn gweithio yn yr Adran Archaeoleg yn yr Ysgol Hanes, Archaeoleg a Chrefydd. Yn 2012 fe ddes i'n Athro ac yn 2013 roeddwn i'n Bennaeth yr Ysgol am gyfnod byr.

Yn ystod fy nghyfnod ym Mhrifysgol Caerdydd, rwyf wedi parhau i ymchwilio'n weithredol i gynhanes Prydain drwy wneud gwaith maes ar amrywiaeth o henebion archeolegol cyffrous; gan gynnwys y fryngaer ysblennydd yn Ham Hill, Gwlad yr Haf; y gaer a'r fryngaer sarnog yng Nghaerau, Caerdydd; yr Oes Efydd Diweddar/Oes Haearn Gynnar Midden yn yr Eglwys Newydd, Swydd Warwick; a'r anheddiad Oes Haearn ar Orosay, De Uist. Fodd bynnag, y prif ffocws ar gyfer fy ngweithgareddau gwaith maes fu'r anheddiad hanesyddol a Llychlynnaidd cynnar pwysig yn Bornais yn Ne Uist. Gwnaed gwaith cloddio ar y safle hwn rhwng 1995 a 2004 a daeth y gyfrol derfynol sy'n cwblhau cyhoeddi'r cloddiadau allan yn 2020.

Contact Details

Email Sharples@caerdydd.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29208 74246
Prosiect cymunedol £1.65m am ddatgelu safle hanesyddol 'cudd' 6,000 o flynyddoedd oed yng Nghaerdydd

Prosiect cymunedol £1.65m am ddatgelu safle hanesyddol 'cudd' 6,000 o flynyddoedd oed yng Nghaerdydd

22 March 2019

Hebridean Norsemen

Hebridean Norsemen

13 June 2017