Personal

I joined UCLan in 2004 from the University of Newport and so have been here almost from the beginning of the archaeology degree. I did my PhD at the University of Southampton, graduating in 2000, and prior to this had a chequered career in commercial and museum archaeology. I was at Cardiff for my first degree, graduating in 1989, which is where my interest in the Neolithic and Bronze Age was first encouraged.
My primary research interests are in trying to understand the non-monumental parts of later Prehistory; hence my interest in material culture and particularly pottery and in the archaeology of caves and other natural places. At the moment I am particularly interested in the agency of natural places and the environment. This is reflected in my recent and current fieldwork projects at Goldsland and in the Ribble Valley. I have a number of hobbies and interests: I make pottery – wheel thrown generally so it doesn’t get too much like work – and I seem to spend a lot of my time watching sport. I used to play cricket very badly and I’m learning to sail at the moment.

Research

My current research includes:  Pontnewydd and the Elwy Valley Caves: a joint project with colleagues from University of Wales, Cardiff and the National Museum of Wales investigating middle and upper Pleistocene Hominid activity in north east Wales – fieldwork completed and final monograph due for publication in 2010. Goldsland Cave Research Project: a joint project with colleagues from the University of Wales, Cardiff to examine the archaeological potential of newly discovered caves on the Vale of Glamorgan – fieldwork completed, post-excavation analysis is underway. The caves appear to have been used in the Neolithic for the exposure of human remains; probably part of a multi-stage rite which may have included nearby chambered cairns such as Tinkinswood and St Lythans.
Prehistoric Occupation of the Ribble Valley: a new project looking at evidence for human and environmental interactions in the Ribble Valley and surrounding uplands. Fieldwork began in 2009 with excavations around the ring cairn at Mosely Heights, Cliviger.
Other research interests of mine inclde: Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain; cave archaeology; prehistoric ceramics; small scale and mobile societies

Module Contributions

Module tutor for FZ1202 Introduction to Archaeology
Module tutor for FZ2203 and FZ3207 Later Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain
Module tutor for FZ2201 Archaeological Fieldwork I
Module tutor for FZ3201 Archaeological Fieldwork II
Module tutor for FZ2202 Archaeological Research and Study
Module Tutor for FZ3206 Introduction to Professional Practice
Contribute to FZ1201 Archaeology of Britain; FZ1204 Study Skills and IT and FZ2206 Thinking About the Past: Archaeological Theory

Featured Publications

Books, Book chapters and Reviews
Aldhouse-Green, S., R. Peterson and E. Walker (in preparation) Pontnewydd and the Elwy Valley Caves. Oxford: Oxbow.
Gillings, M., R. Peterson and J. Pollard 2004 The destruction of the Avebury monuments. In R. Cleal & J. Pollard (eds) Monuments and material culture: essays on the Neolithic and Bronze Age for Isobel Smith. East Knoyle: Hobnob Press, 139-163
Gillings, M., J. Pollard, R. Peterson and D. Wheatley 2008 Landscape of the Megaliths: excavations in the Avebury Landscape 1998-2003. Oxford: Oxbow.
Peterson, R. 2002 Review of F. Olding The prehistoric landscapes of the eastern Black Mountains. Monmouthshire Antiquary 18, 113-4
Peterson, R. 2003 Neolithic Pottery from Wales: Traditions of Construction and Use. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports British Series 344 (Archaeopress)
Peterson, R. 2004 Away from the numbers: diversity and invisibility in late Neolithic Wales. In V. Cummings & C. Fowler (eds) The Neolithic of the Irish Sea: materiality and traditions of practice. Oxford: Oxbow, 191-201
Peterson, R. 2007 What were you thinking of? round barrows and the dwelling perspective. In J. Last (ed) Beyond the Grave: new perspectives on round barrows. Oxford: Oxbow, 129-142.
Peterson, R. and J. Pollard 2004 The Neolithic period. In M. Aldhouse-Green & R. Howell (eds) County History of Gwent: Volume 1, foundations – Gwent in prehistory and early history. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 56-82

Refereed Publications
Leivers, M., J. Roberts & R. Peterson 2000 The cairn at East Finnercy, Dunecht, Aberdeenshire. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 130 (2001), 183-95
Leivers, M., J. Roberts & R. Peterson 2001 Bryn yr Hen Bobl, Anglesey: recent fieldwork and a reassessment of excavations in 1935. Archaeology in Wales 41 (2002), 3-9
Peterson, R. 2003 William Stukeley: an eighteenth-century phenomenologist? Antiquity 77/296, 394-400

Unrefereed Publications
Aldhouse-Green, S. & R. Peterson 2006. Goldsland Caves, Wenvoe, ST112718. Archaeology in Wales 45.
Aldhouse-Green, S. & R. Peterson 2007. Goldsland Caves, Wenvoe, ST112718. Archaeology in Wales 46.
Driver, T., M. Hamilton, M. Leivers, J. Roberts & R. Peterson 2000 New evidence from Bryn yr Hen Bobl, Llanedwen, Anglesey. Antiquity 74/286, 761-2
Peterson, R. 2003 Thomas Twining’s Roman Avebury. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 96, 210-3