Dr George Harold Nash BA (Hons), MPhil., DPhil., PGCE, MIFA

Research Overview

George has been associated with several British and European university institutions and is a full member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA). Currently, George has academic associations within the Geosciences Centre and the University of Coimbra and within the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool. In terms of fieldwork, George is an active member of the First Art and Origins teams.
In addition to his academic career, George has over 30 years’ experience within the commercial heritage sector; past employers include Babtie (now Jacobs), Gifford & Partners, Pre-Construct Archaeology, and SLR. He also has an extensive publishing career with 48 sole-authored, edited, and co-edited books and 160 peer-reviewed academic published papers; focusing on the palaeoanthropology of art and gesture, contemporary street art, prehistoric and contemporary mortuary architecture.

George currently lectures part-time at the Geosciences Centre, IPT, at the University of Coimbra in Portugal (grade: Associate Professor) and is a member of the academic team. At IPT, George lectures on landscape theory, prehistory and art, and intangible archaeology [anthropology]. At IPT, George is also responsible for MA/Ph.D. supervision. He also serves on several editorial boards for selective and specialised academic journals, including Time & Mind (Taylor and Frances). Before joining IPT, George lectured at Bristol University, between 1998 and 2016. Here, George ran the final two years of a part-time degree, with also input to the full-time BA and MA in Landscape programmes, as well as supervising Ph.D. students. In early 2022, George joined the Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool as an Associate Researcher.

George has directed and project-managed many high-profile heritage projects including Westminster Hall, the Palace of Westminster (London) and the Neolithic burial-ritual monuments of La Hougue Bie and Delancey Park in the Channel Islands and Arthur’s Stone, Perthi Duon, Trefael and Trellyffaint in Wales. His commercial experience includes the project management of the A 465 Abergavenny to Hirwaun Road Dualling, large medieval open area excavations in Salisbury and Southampton and further road schemes in central and northern Wales. In 2008 he was appointed Priory Archaeologist at St Mary's Priory Church, Abergavenny where he undertook three major excavations within the transept and nave areas of the church (George still holds this post). Since 2000, George has managed projects specifically historic buildings/structures, with an emphasis on ecclesiastical and military sites (Clients include BAE Systems and the MoD [DIO]).

George has also undertaken many projects outside the UK including the Vâdastra Fragmentation and Experimentation Project in southern Romania (funded by the World Bank in the early 2000s) and has recently been involved in projects in central-northern Chile (Funded by the Academy of Sciences, Chile), fieldwork Northern and Southern Israel (Funded by Ben Guion University), NE Brazil (Funded by IFRAO), central Portugal (Funded by FCT), Malaysia (Funded by the University of Nottingham) and Sardinia. George has also undertaken a number of projects in Europe, including litigation work in Ireland. In 2017-18, George undertook fieldwork in Namibia for NamPower in advance of the installation of a biomass encroacher (working with SLR Consulting). This project considered the sensitive issues of intangible elements associated with living traditions and potential impacts on sacred landscapes. In 2022 (and ongoing) George is one of the project organisers involved in rock art prospection in the UAE – referred to as the Origins Project.

Between 2014 and 2018, George co-directed one of Britain’s largest dendrochronology projects – The Tilley Timber Project - funded by the HLF (a study of the chronological development of 35 timber-framed buildings). This is one of several heritage projects where George has successfully obtained external grant assistance (prepared the bid and then project managed its delivery).

In May 2018, George published through Routledge the book Archaeologies of Rock Art: South American Perspectives, which received favourable reviews. Recently, George has co-published books Las manifestaciones gráficas prehistóricas en el dolmen de Soto (Trigueros, Huelva) (2022) and Signalling and Performance: The Prehistoric Rock Art of Britain and Ireland (2022). Go to: https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803272450 and https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Products/9781803272511
The Prehistoric Rock Art of Portugal (edited by Garces and Nash) will be published by Routledge in late 2023.

Since 2001, George has advised, written and presented programmes for ITV and BBC including Marking Time (three episodes), Monsters We Met, Talking Landscapes and The Natural History of Britain. In 2008 he researched and presented five programmes for BBC Radio 4 entitled: The Drawings on the Wall, and more recently, providing interviews for BBC’s Art in Wales (2021).

In March 2020, George was invited to join the Rock Art Network (RAN) (sponsored by the Getty Museum and the Bradshaw Foundation). The RAN group is administered through the Bradshaw Foundation; Go to: (http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/rockartnetwork/george_nash.php). George’s current research work includes intangible archaeologies associated with prehistoric and contemporary art (e.g., identifying underlying social and political mechanisms that provide meaning to artistic endeavor), along with applying geoscience to securely date rock art sites.