Dr John Crowther MA (Cambridge), PhD, (Hull)

Contact Details

School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology
E-mail: j.crowther@trinitysaintdavid.ac.uk

Campus

Lampeter Campus

Job Title

Reader in Environmental Science and Director of UWLAS Archaeological Services

Role in the University

Reader in Environmental Science and Director of UWLAS Archaeological Services

Academic Interests

Main research interests:

Use of chemical and magnetic properties of soils in archaeological site investigation
Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
Environmental science

John Crowther undertakes research consultancy work for UWLAS Archaeological Services. His research is currently focused on the use of soil analytical data (soil phosphate, magnetic susceptibility and a range of other soil properties) and soil micromorphology in archaeological site investigation. He has undertaken Soil - sediment analysis on more than 100 sites in Britain (e.g. Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Boxgrove; the late-Mesolithic to Iron Age sediment and occupation sequence at Goldcliff on the Severn Estuary Levels; medieval depositional sequences in the Tower of London moat; William III’s Privy Garden, Hampton Court Palace; prospection surveys at Strata Florida Abbey, Ceredigion; and the NERC-funded Experimental Earthworks projects at Overton Down and Wareham), including major development sites (e.g. Heathrow Terminal 5, Second Severn Crossing and Stansted Airport); across Europe (e.g. early Neolithic settlement at Ecsegfalva, Hungary; Neolithic occupation/stabling deposits from Ramon IV rock shelter, Makhtesh Crater, Negev, Israel; houses and yards from Regio I, Insula 9, Pompeii, Italy; early medieval stratigraphy, St Julien, Tours, France and Buraberg, Germany; medieval and later agricultural landscapes of the Plateau de Callerne, Alpes Maritimes, France; Roman-age field ditch sequences near Montpellier, France) and world-wide (e.g. pit fills, dated c. 2.36 million years, from the Maka’alitalu Basin, Hadar, Ethiopia; pre-historic pits, Nkang, Cameroon; excavations of enclosed hilltop site at Fiva, Central Madagascar Highlands; pit fills and old ground surfaces of Middle Neolithic Yangshao period occupation, Yilou, Huizui, China; and Indian burial site at Itapeva, southern Brazil).
Publications include articles in Archaeological Journal, Archaeological Prospection, Archaeometry, Britannia, Geoarchaeology: An International Journal and Journal of Archaeological Science and Palaeogoegraphy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Publications

Recent archaeological publications:

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2009) Illustrations from soil micromorphology and complementary investigations. In: Thiemeyer, Heinrich (Ed) Archaeological Soil Micromorphology – Contributions to the Archaeological Soil Micromorphology Working Group Meeting 3rd to 5th April 2008, Frankfurter Geowiss. Arbeiten, Serie D – Physische Geographie, Bd. 30: 81-87.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2009) Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility. Pp. 84-85, 122-123 and 162-163 in Four millennia of human activity along the A505 Baldock bypass, Hertfordshire (Ed. M. Phillips). East Anglian Archaeology, Report No. 128.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2008) Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility. Pp. 17-18 and 57 in Archaeology on the A303 Stonehenge Improvement (Eds M. Leivers and C. Moore). Wessex Archaeology: Salisbury.

Macphail, R.I., Crowther, J. and Cruise, G.M. (2008) Microstratigraphy. In: London’s Roman Amphitheatre: Guildhall Yard, City of London (Eds N. Bateman, C. Cowan and R. Wroe-Brown). Museum of London Archaeological Service, London, pp. 16, 95 and 160-164.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2008) Soil micromorphology and chemistry. Pp. 125-132 in An Iron Age Settlement outside Battlesbury Hillfort, Warminster and sites along the Southern Range Road (C. Ellis, A.B. Powell and J. Hawkes, eds). Wessex Archaeology Report 22.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2008) Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility. Pp. 101-102 in Prehistoric activity at Westwood, Broadstairs (K. Poole and L. Webley, eds). Archaeologia Cantiana, CXXVIII, 75-106.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2008) Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility. Pp. 30.1-30.27 (CD-Rom) in From hunter gatherers to huntsmen: a history of the Stansted landscape (Framework Archaeology, eds). Framework Archaeology Monograph No. 2.

Macphail, R.I., Crowther, J. and Cruise, G.M. (2007) Micromorphology and post-Roman town research: the examples of London and Magdeburg. Pp. 303-317 in Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium. Millennium Studies in the culture and history of the first millennium C.E., Vol 5/1 (J. Henning, ed.). Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2007) Parnwell Way, Peterborough PETPAR04 (pit fill 2289): Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility. Contribution to: Prehistoric, Roman and Saxon activity on the Fen hinterland at Parnwell, Peterborough (L. Webley, ed.), Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, XCVI, 79-114. (published in full on Oxford Archaeology website)

Crowther, J. (2007) Chemical and magnetic properties of soils and pit fills. Chap. 12 in The Early Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain: investigations of the Körös culture site of Ecsegfalva 23, Co. Békés (A. Whittle, ed.). Budapest: Institute of Archaeology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Varia Archaeologica Hungarica, XXI.

Macphail, R. and Crowther, J. (2007) Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility studies at Huizui (Yilou Region, Henan Province, Northern China), with special focus on a typical Yangshao floor sequence. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin, 27, 103-113

Oldfield, F. and Crowther, J. (2007) Establishing fire incidence in temperate soils using magnetic measurements. Palaeogoegraphy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 249, 362-369.

Crowther, J. (2007) Assessment of loss-on-ignition, phosphate and magnetic susceptibility of soils from the A120 project. Pp. 4 in CD-ROM A slice of rural Essex: archaeological discoveries from the A120 between Stansted Airport and Braintree (J. Timby, R. Brown, E. Biddulph, A. Hardy and A. Powell, eds). Oxford Wessex Archaeology, Monograph 1.

Crowther, J. (2007) Soil phosphate studies (Chap. 9), Soil thin sections (Chap. 10), Soil phosphate studies at Holywood and Pict’s Knowe – soil analyses (Appendix 3). Pp. 120-122, 123-125, 230-232 and 286-290 in Place and Memory: Excavations at Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm Farm, Dumfries and Galloway, 1994-8 (ed. J.S. Thomas). Oxford: Oxbow Books. 320 pp.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2006) Soil micromorphology, chemistry and magnetic susceptibility. In: Excavations on the site of Norwich Cathedral Refectory 2001-2003 (Ed H. Wallis). East Anglian Archaeology, Report #.

Crowther, J. (2004) Magnetic susceptibility and phosphate studies of sediments from the burnt timber building. Pp. 149-153 in Excavations at Pumsaint (B.C. Burnham and H.B. Burnham, eds). Oxbow.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2004) Tower of London moat: sediment micromorphology, particle size, chemistry and magnetic properties. Pp. 41-43, 48-50, 78-79, 82-83, 155, 183-186, 202-204 and 271-284 in Tower of London Moat Excavation. (G. Keevill, ed.). Historic Royal Palaces, Monograph 1. Oxford: Oxford Archaeology.

Crowther, J. (2003) Sediments from ditch 10,337, Roman Fort site, Spilman Street. Pp. 370-374 in Roman Carmarthen: Excavations 1978-1993 (H. James, ed.). Britannia Monograph Series, 20.

Crowther, J. (2003) Potential magnetic susceptibility and fractional conversion studies of archaeological soils and sediments. Archaeometry, 45, 685-701.

Macphail, R.I., Crowther, J., Acott, T., Bell, M.G. and Cruise, G. (2003) The Experimental Earthwork at Wareham, Dorset after 33 years: Changes to the buried LFH and Ah horizons. Journal of Archaeological Science, 30, 77-93.

Macphail, R.I. and Crowther, J. (2002) Microstratigraphy. Pp. 93-98 in Mesolithic, late Bronze Age and Medieval activity at Katherine Farm, Avonmounth, 1998 (M.J. Allen, D. Godden, C. Matthews and A.B. Powell, eds). Archaeology in the Severn Estuary, 13, 89-105

Crowther, J. (2002) The Experimental Earthwork at Wareham, Dorset after 33 years: Retention and leaching of phosphate released in the decomposition of buried bone. Journal of Archaeological Science, 29, 405-411.

Crowther, J. (2000) Other environmental evidence from Goldcliff, mainly concerning the setting and activities in and around buildings of the later 1st millennium Cal BC: Soil phosphate and magnetic susceptibility studies. Pp. 270-272, and pp. 15.20-15.27 on CD, in Prehistoric Intertidal Archaeology in the Welsh Severn Estuary (M.G. Bell, A. Caseldine and H. Neumann, eds). Council for British Archaeology Research Report 120.

Crowther, J. (2000) The Goldcliff late-Mesolithic site, 5400-4000 Cal BC: Soil phosphate and magnetic susceptibility studies. Pp. 57-58, and pp. 4.16-4.18 on CD, in Prehistoric Intertidal Archaeology in the Welsh Severn Estuary (M.G. Bell, A. Caseldine and H. Neumann, eds). Council for British Archaeology Research Report 120.

Crowther, J. (1999) Report on soil thin sections from Upper Ninepence. Pp. 131-141 in The Walton Basin Project: Excavation and Survey in a prehistoric landscape (A.Gibson, ed.). Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 118

Crowther, J. (1999) Phosphate and magnetic susceptibility studies of buried soils and ditch sediments from the Upper Ninepence excavations. Pp. 127-131 in The Walton Basin Project: Excavation and Survey in a prehistoric landscape (A.Gibson, ed.). Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 118

Crowther, J. (1998) Soil studies. Pp. 118-121 in Llawhaden, Dyfed: Excavations on a group of small defended enclosures, 1980-4 (K. Blockley, ed.). British Archaeological Reports: British Series, 275.

Crowther, J. (1997) Soil phosphate surveys: critical approaches to sampling, analysis and interpretation. Archaeological Prospection, 4, 93-102.

Crowther, J. (1996) Report on sediments from Building 5, Old Market Street '86'. Pp. 92-99 in Excavations at Usk 1986-88 (A.G. Marvell, ed.), Britannia, XXVII,51-110.

Crowther, J., Macphail, R.I. and Cruise, G.M. (1996) Short-term, post-burial change in a humic rendzina soil, Overton Down Experimental Earthwork, Wiltshire, England. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 11,95-117.

Crowther, J. (1996) Phosphate migration around buried bones. Pp. 195-198 in The Experimental Earthwork Project, 1960-1992 (M.G. Bell, P.J. Fowler and S.W. Hilson, eds). Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 100.

Crowther, J. (1996) Soil chemistry. Pp. 107-118 in The Experimental Earthwork Project, 1960-1992 (M.G. Bell, P.J. Fowler and S.W. Hilson, eds). Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 100.

Crowther, J. (1996) Characterization of ditch sediments. Pp. 93-95 in The Experimental Earthwork Project, 1960-1992 (M.G. Bell, P.J. Fowler and S.W. Hilson, eds). Council for British Archaeology Research Report, 100.

Crowther, J. (1995) Ditch sediments. Pp. 266-271 in Wavendon Gate: A Late Iron Age and Roman Settlement in Milton Keynes (R.J. Williams, P.J. Hart and A.T.L. Williams, eds). Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society Monograph Series, 10.

Crowther, J. and Barker, P. (1995) Magnetic susceptibility: distinguishing anthropogenic effects from the natural. Archaeological Prospection, 2, 207-215.

Macphail, R.I., Crowther, J., and Cruise, G.M. (1995) The soils. Pp. 116-118 in The King's Privy Garden at Hampton Court Palace, 1689-1995 (S. Thurley, ed.). Apollo.

Crowther, J. (1995) Soils and ditch sediments from excavations at Westbury. Pp. 454-61 in Tattenhoe and Westbury: Two Deserted Medieval Villages in Milton Keynes (R.J. Ivens, P. Busby and N. Shepherd, eds). Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society Monograph Series, 8.