Dr Joshua Pollard
BA, PhD (Cardiff)
Reader in ArchaeologyDepartment of Archaeology and Anthropology |
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Joshua Pollard obtained his first degree and PhD at the University of Wales, Cardiff. He subsequently worked for the Cambridge Archaeological Unit as a Project Officer before securing academic posts at the University of Newcastle, Queen's University Belfast and the University of Wales College, Newport. Josh joined the Department in October 2003 as Lecturer in Archaeology. He was Head of Subject for Archaeology & Anthropology between 2006-8.
Although he has published on a range of archaeological topics, much of his research is focused on the British and north-west European Neolithic. The latter has included work on depositional practices, materiality, aspects of monumentality, cultural perceptions of the environment, and approaches to the study of Neolithic settlement and routine.
Over the last few years he has been involved in fieldwork around the Neolithic monument complexes of Avebury and Stonehenge. The Longstones Project, co-directed with Dr Mark Gillings (Leicester) and Dr Dave Wheatley (Southampton), seeks to understand the sequence and context of monument construction in the later Neolithic of the Avebury region. The first full field season of excavation led to the re-discovery of a second megalithic avenue (the "Beckhampton Avenue") leading from the Avebury henge and an unusual later Neolithic enclosure. Worked has also focussed on other key elements of the complex, such as the West Kennet Avenue, Falkner's Circle and the Avebury Cove. The project received research funding and support from the AHRB, the Society of Antiquaries, the National Trust, English Heritage and the Prehistoric Society. The results of this work are published in Landscape of the Megaliths (Oxbow, 2008).
He is currently involved in the "Stonehenge Riverside Project", jointly directed with Dr Mike Parker Pearson, Dr Colin Richards (Manchester), Dr Julian Thomas (Manchester), Dr Chris Tilley (UCL) and Dr Kate Welham (Bournemouth). The project's aim is to understand the local and regional context of Stonehenge, not as a monument in isolation, but as part of a more extensive 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC ceremonial complex focused on the River Avon. Work has taken place at the henge enclosure of Durrington Walls, in the environs of Woodhenge, on the Stonehenge Cursus and at the Cuckoo Stone. The results are set to significantly transform our understanding of Stonehenge, its environs, and the British later Neolithic.
Selected Publications
Books
Gillings, M., Pollard, J., Wheatley, D. & Peterson, R. 2008. Landscape of the Megaliths: excavation and fieldwork on the Avebury monuments, 1997-2003. Oxford: Oxbow Books
Pollard, J. (ed.), 2008. Prehistoric Britain . Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell
Pollard, J., Howell, R., Chadwick, A. & Leaver, A. 2006. Lodge Hill Camp, Caerleon, and the Hillforts of Gwent. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports
Gillings, M. & Pollard, J. 2004. Avebury. London: Duckworth
Cleal, R. & Pollard, J. (eds). 2004. Monuments and Material Culture: essays on Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. East Salisbury: Hobnob Press
Pollard, J. & Reynolds, A. 2002. Avebury: the biography of a landscape. Stroud and Charleston, SC: Tempus
Whittle, A., Pollard, J. & Grigson, C. 1999. The Harmony of Symbols: the Windmill Hill causewayed enclosure . Oxford: Oxbow Books
Papers
Pollard, J. 2008. Deposition and material agency in the Early Neolithic of southern Britain. In B.J. Mills & W.H. Walker (eds), Memory Work: archaeologies of material practices, 41-59. Santa Fe: SAR Press
Pollard, J. 2008. The construction of prehistoric Britain. In J. Pollard (ed.), Prehistoric Britain, 1-17. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell
Pollard, J. & Robinson, D. 2007. A return to Woodhenge: the results and implications of the 2006 excavations. In M. Larsson & M. Parker Pearson (eds), From Stonehenge to the Baltic: living with cultural diversity in the third millennium BC, 159-168. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports
Pollard, J. 2006. A Community of Beings: animals and people in the Neolithic of southern Britain. In D. Serjeantson & D. Field (eds), Animals in the Neolithic of Britain and Europe, 135-48. Oxford: Oxbow Book
Pollard, J. 2006. Solid nature and ephemeral architecture? Understanding the architecture of earlier Neolithic occupation in southern Britain from a dwelling perspective. Journal of Iberian Archaeology 8, 41-51
Parker Pearson, M., Pollard, J., Richards, C., Thomas, J., Tilley, C., Welham, K. & Albarella, U. 2006. Materializing Stonehenge: the Stonehenge Riverside Project and new discoveries. Journal of Material Culture 11, 227-61
Pollard, J. 2005. Memory, Monuments and Middens in the Neolithic Landscape. In G. Brown, D. Field, & D. McOmish (eds), The Avebury Landscape: aspects of the field archaeology of the Marlborough Downs, 103-14. Oxford: Oxbow Books
Pollard, J. 2004. The art of decay and the transformation of substance. In C. Renfrew, C. Gosden & E. DeMarrais (eds), Substance, Memory, Display: Archaeology and Art, 47-62. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs
Pollard, J. 2004. A "movement of becoming": realms of existence in the early Neolithic of southern Britain. In A. Chadwick (ed.), Stories from the Landscape: archaeologies of inhabitation, 55-69. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 1238
Pollard, J. & Cleal, R. 2004. Dating Avebury. In R. Cleal & J. Pollard (eds), Monuments and Material Culture: essays on Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, 120-9. Salisbury: Hobnob Press
Peterson, R. & Pollard, J. 2004. The Neolithic: the first farming societies. In M. Aldhouse-Green & R. Howell (eds), The County History of Gwent. Volume 1, Prehistory to the Norman Conquest , 56-83 Cardiff: University of Wales Press
Gillings, M, Peterson, R. & Pollard, J. 2004. The Destruction of the Avebury Monuments. In R. Cleal & J. Pollard (eds), Monuments and Material Culture: essays on Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain , 139-63. Salisbury: Hobnob Press
Pollard, J. 2003. WANHS and archaeological research in Wiltshire, 1853-2003. In J.H. Thomas (ed.), Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society: the first 150 years, 183-205. Devizes: WANHS
Pollard, J. 2002. The Nature of Archaeological Deposits and Finds Assemblages. In A. Woodward & J.D. Hill (eds), Prehistoric Britain: The Ceramic Basis, 22-33. Oxford: Oxbow Books
Pollard, J. 2002. The Ring-Ditch and the Hollow: The excavation of a Bronze Age "shrine" and associated features at Pampisford, Cambridgeshire. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 9, 5-21
Pollard, J. 2001. The Aesthetics of Depositional Practice. World Archaeology 33.2, 315-333
Pollard, J. & Ruggles, C. 2001. Shifting Perceptions: spatial order, cosmology, and patterns of deposition at Stonehenge. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 11.1, 69-90
Pollard, J., Hall, D. & Lucas, G. 2001. Excavation of a Medieval Saltern at Parson Drove, Cambridgeshire. In T. Lane & E.L. Morris (eds), A Millennium of Saltmaking: Prehistoric and Romano-British Salt Production in the Fenland, 426-55. Heckington: Heritage Lincolnshire
Evans, C. & Pollard, J. 2001. The dating of the Storey's Bar Road fields reconsidered. In F. Pryor, The Flag Fen Basin: Archaeology and environment a Fenland landscape, 25-6. London: English Heritage
Pollard, J. 2000. Ancestral places in the Mesolithic landscape. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 17.1, 123-138
Pollard, J. 2000. Neolithic Occupation Practices and Social Ecologies from Rinyo to Clacton. In A. Ritchie (ed.) Neolithic Orkney in its European Context , 363-369. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs
Pollard, J. 1999. 'These places have their moments': thoughts on settlement practices in the British Neolithic. In J. Bruck & M. Goodman (eds), Making places in the prehistoric world: themes in settlement archaeology, 76-93. London: UCL Press
Evans, C., Pollard, J. & Knight, M. 1999. Life in Woods: Tree-Throws, "Settlement" and Forest Cognition. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 18:3, 241-254
Gillings, M. & Pollard, J. 1999. Non-portable stone artefacts and contexts of meaning: the tale of Grey Wether (musuems.ncl.ac.uk/Avebury/stone4.htm). World Archaeology 31:2, 179-193
Evans, C. & Pollard, J. 1999. The Institutional Facade: Architectural Recording at The Old Schools, University of Cambridge. The Antiquaries Journal 79, 213-243
Pollard, J. 1998. Prehistoric settlement and non-settlement in two southern Cambridgeshire river valleys: The lithic dimension and interpretive dilemmas. Lithics 19, 61-71
Pollard, J. & Gillings, M. 1998. Romancing the Stones: towards a virtual and elemental Avebury. Archaeological Dialogues 5:2, 143-164
Whittle, A. & Pollard, J. 1998. Windmill Hill Causewayed Enclosure: the Harmony of Symbols. In M. Edmonds & C. Richards (eds), Understanding the Neolithic of North-Western Europe, 231-247. Glasgow: Cruithne Press
Pollard, J. 1996. Iron Age Riverside Pit Alignments at St. Ives, Cambridgeshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 62, 93-115
Pollard, J. 1995. Inscribing Space: Formal deposition at the Later Neolithic monument of Woodhenge, Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 61, 137-56
Pollard, J. 1992. The Sanctuary, Overton Hill, Wiltshire: A Re-examination. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58, 213-26