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- © 2002-2012 University of Bristol
Emeritus ProfessorDepartment of Archaeology and Anthropology |
I study later European Prehistory, especially that of Spain, Portugal and western and central Europe, and began with an enthusiasm for Bell Beaker problems. I am especially interested in the links between the Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds, but I am still fascinated by Beaker matters, and continue to do research on them, but have expanded my range a lot since the 1970s.
For many years my research has centred on field projects and excavations designed to obtain first class data to model palaeo-economic changes and patterns of intensification in the Copper and Bronze Ages of Spain and Portugal. This work established the dynamism and local autonomy of societies with a low population density and shows unexpected routes to stability, through specialised horse breeding, for hunting, and secondary products exploitation. I have completed and published excavations of the Bronze Age villages of Moncín, Zaragoza in 1994 (released in 1996), of Siete Cabezos, Zaragoza in 1994, Frías de Albarracín, Teruel 1998, and I am currently finishing work at a fourth village at Majaladares, Zaragoza. These field projects all took place in the region of Aragon, NE Spain, in collaboration with specialists in the Departamento de Ciencias de Antigüedad, University of Zaragoza.
The work is extended to study extensive modes of exploitation through dehesa systems. Pastoral economic modes are another current research focus, but I think monuments and artefacts are just as interesting as the processual models used to understand them.
My work on the iconographic and social systems of Bronze Age Europe, and the intricate relationship between the Mediterranean world and the Atlantic regions after 1200 BC, gave rise to book on Symbols and Warriors (2004).
Further projects in collaboration with Professor F. Bertemes of the University of Halle (Germany) and Dr. Volker Heyd, and Professor K. Brown of UMIST, will explore other aspects of prehistoric society, using the aDNA preserved in ancient skeletons to determine patterns of kinship, immigration and residence. We have just been awarded a substantial research grant by the Von Thyssen Stiftung for a 3 year study of Beaker cemeteries in Bavaria.
Finally, I have established a local archaeology project centred around the Late Neolithic megalithic circles of Stanton Drew (Somerset) with my colleague Dr. Joshua Pollard, and have formed the Stanton Drew Steering Committee which aims to co-ordinate investigation, and will be submitting proposals for survey and exploratory excavation. Collaborators will include English Heritage, the Bath and North East Somerset Authority, local landowners and the Avon Archaeology Unit.
Much of my field work has been collaborative, always with local groups and scholars in Spain and the UK, and for many years I worked with Earthwatch as a means of encouraging public involvement in research.
European Prehistory, Bell Beakers, Beaker kinship and residence patterns, Bronze Age, Pastoralism, Palaeo-economics, Palaeo-metallurgy, Origins of Horse-Raising, Dehesas, Bronze Age Social Systems, Bronze Age Stelai, Spain, Portugal, Stanton Drew.
Majaladares, Dehesas and Bronze Age Pastoralism Kinship and residence patterns in Copper Age Europe Stanton Drew stone circles (Somerset, England)
Harrison, R. J.; G. Moreno López and A. J. Legge. 1994 (1996) Moncín; un poblado de la Edad del Bronce (Borja, Zaragoza). Colección Arqueología No. 16. (Cometa, Zaragoza). ISBN 84 7753 468 3
Harrison, R. J.; M. T. Andrés Rupérez and G. Moreno López 1998. Un Poblado de la Edad del Bronce en El Castillo (Frías de Albarraín, Teruel). British Archaeological Reports, International Series 708. ISBN 0 86054 889 9
Harrison, R. J. 2004. Symbols and Warriors. Images of the European Bronze Age. Western Academic and Specialist Press. ISBN 09535418 7 8