Dr Rachel Pope BA, MA, PhD (Dunelm), FSA, FSA Scot.

Objective: Discovering social norms in Europe before Rome, from the mortuary evidence.Latest: Pope, R. 2022. Re-approaching Celts: Origins, Society, and Social Change. J. Archaeol Res. 30, 1–67.

Specialising in the fields of:
• Celts
• Iron Age gender and social organisation
• developing method for an applied gender archaeology

I have published on the following:
• the origins of the Celts
• the nature of Early Iron Age society in Europe
• British Middle Iron Age mortuary traditions

You can see me talk about this work on YouTube

Objective: Understanding communal social architecture in the pre-Roman Iron AgeLatest: Pope, R., Mason, R., Hamilton, D., Rule, E., and Swogger, J. (2020) Hillfort gate-mechanisms: a contextual, architectural reassessment of Eddisbury, Hembury, and Cadbury hillforts. Archaeological Journal 177:2, 339-407.

Specialising in the fields of:
• Palisaded enclosures and hillfort origins
• Building hillfort chronology via architectural phasing
• Reconstructing hillfort gates
• History of hillfort studies

Research projects in this area include:
• CaerConnected: connecting the three modern hillfort communities of Caerau, Pen Dinas, and Old Oswestry (funded by the AHRC) in collaboration with Ollie Davies (University of Cardiff)
• Excavations at Penycloddiau Hillfort (Flintshire) (2012-2019): excavation of six separate construction phases to the 19 ha hillfort, dating the type to the Late Bronze Age-Middle Iron Age, with 12th century BC origins (funded in partnership with IFR Global, to press 2026).
• Excavations at Eddisbury Hillfort, Merrick’s Hill (Cheshire): excavation of a Late Bronze Age palisaded enclosure, C-14 dating the developed hillfort phase, and resolution of hillfort phasing (funded by the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Archaeological Institute; bringing to press across 2024)
• W.J. Varley Archive Project: re-evaluating 1930s excavation practice in the analysis of Bill Varley's 'lost' excavation archive, including the analysis and publication of the rare hillfort gate-mechanisms (funded by Historic England, to press 2020; 2024)

Objective: Understanding prehistoric architecture and social organisationLatest: Creighton, T., Osgood, R., and Pope, R.E. 2021. An experiment in earthen walls: Operation Nightingale, Butser Ancient Farm, and the Dunch Hill roundhouse. Current Archaeology (December 2021).

Specialising in the fields of:
• roundhouse architecture
• land use/agriculture and settlement temporality
• human-land-climate interactions

I have published on the following:
• use of domestic space
• C-14 dating the Bronze Age settlement record

Research projects in this research area include:
• Dunch Hill and Danebury roundhouse reconstructions: experiments in earthen-walled roundhouses at Butser Ancient Farm, with MOD Operation Nightingale (2021) in collaboration with Richard Osgood and Trevor Creighton
• Kidlandlee Dean Cheviot Landscapes Project: excavation of an Early Bronze Age settlement and its associated field system (post-ex funded by the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Archaeological Institute)