Dr Susanna Harris

  • Lecturer (Archaeology)

Research interests

My research investigates the material culture of past societies. I specialise in the analysis of textiles, leather and basketry using scientific, theoretical and experimental approaches. In summary:

  • Artefacts and material culture
  • Bronze to Iron Ages
  • Northwest Europe and central Mediterranean
  • Textile specialist
  • Cloth and clothing

I gained my first degree in archaeology at the University of Durham, masters and PhD at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. I have held research positions in Italy, Germany and the UK. Since 2008 my research has been funded by the British Academy, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, SYNTHYSES, and Carnegie Trust for the University of Scotland.

My publications include co-edited volumes ‘Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Approaches’ and ‘Why Leather? The material and cultural dimensions of leather’. I share my research through academic publications, broadcasts and social media channels such as Youtube.

Current activities

I am co-investigator of the AHRC funded project ‘Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard’, and lead investigator for ‘Fibres and Fabrics from Must Farm Bronze Age Pile-Dwelling’. I am writing up ‘Dressing Cities’ as part of PROCON, a European Research Council project on the Production and Consumption of textiles in early urban centres of the Mediterranean (Greece, Italy, Spain) from 1000-500 BC. 

I lead the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) Archaeology and Classics Discipline+ Catalyst.

Collaborations

I work with museums, commercial archaeology units and government bodies to analyse textiles, basketry and leather from archaeological sites. In practice, my research involves the identification, recording and sampling of artefacts across a wide network of museums and archives in Europe and the Mediterranean.

Articles on the University News pages

Unearthed Bronze Age textiles shine light on life 3,000 years ago

Dr Susanna Harris

Enduring love affair with textiles and fashion goes back 2500 years in the Mediterranean

Research project to unwrap secrets of the Galloway Hoard

 

 

 

 

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2020 | 2019 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2012 | 2011 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2003
Number of items: 35.

2020

Dimova, B., Gleba, M. and Harris, S. (2020) Naval power and textile technology: sail production in ancient Greece. World Archaeology, (Accepted for Publication)

2019

Harris, S. (2019) The sensory archaeology of textiles. In: Skeates, R. and Day, J. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. Routledge: Abingdon, pp. 210-232. ISBN 9781138676299

Harris, S. (2019) The challenge of textiles in early bronze age burials: fragments of magnificence. In: Sabatini, S. and Bergerbrant, S. (eds.) The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe. Cambridge University Press, pp. 154-196. ISBN 9781108493598

Gleba, M. and Harris, S. (2019) The first plant bast fibre technology: identifying splicing in archaeological textiles. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11(5), pp. 2329-2346. (doi: 10.1007/s12520-018-0677-8)

Hopewell, P. and Harris, S. (2019) Blue dyed textiles in Early Iron Age Europe: accessible or exclusive? Archaeological Textiles Review, 61, pp. 24-37.

2017

Harris, S. , Haigh, S., Handley, A. and Sampson, W. (2017) Material choices for fibre in the Neolithic: an approach through the measurement of mechanical properties. Archaeometry, 59(3), pp. 574-591. (doi: 10.1111/arcm.12267)

Harris, S. (2017) From value to desirability: the allure of worldly things. World Archaeology, 49(5), pp. 681-699. (doi: 10.1080/00438243.2017.1413416)

Harris, S. and Jones, A. M. (2017) Beautiful Things: Textiles and Fibre Artefacts from an Early Bronze Age Cremation, Whitehorse Hill, England. In: North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles: NESAT XIII, Liberec, Czech Republic, 22-26 May 2017, ISBN 9788074943973

2016

Cameron, E., Harris, S. and Mould, Q. (2016) The textile and animal-skin object. In: Jones, A. M. (ed.) Preserved in the Peat: an Extraordinary Bronze Age Burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its Wider Context. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 148-156. ISBN 9781785702600

Harris, S. (2016) The charred textiles from the cremation deposit. In: Jones, A. M. (ed.) Preserved in the Peat: an Extraordinary Bronze Age Burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its Wider Context. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 49-51. ISBN 9781785702600

Melton, N. D., Montgomery, J., Roberts, B. W., Cook, G. and Harris, S. (2016) On the curious date of the Rylstone log-coffin burial. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 82, pp. 383-392. (doi: 10.1017/ppr.2016.5)

Sheridan, A. et al. (2016) The composite braided hair armband or bracelet. In: Jones, A. M. (ed.) Preserved in the Peat: an Extraordinary Bronze Age Burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its Wider Context. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 75-87. ISBN 9781785702600

2015

Harris, S. and Gleba, M. (2015) Bronze Age moss fibre garments from Scotland – the jury’s out. Archaeological Textiles Review(57), pp. 3-11.

Harris, S. (2015) Folded, layered textiles from a Bronze Age pit pyre excavated from Over Barrow 2, Cambridgeshire, England. In: Grömer, K. and Pritchard, F. (eds.) Aspects of the design, production and use of textiles and clothing from the Bronze Age to the early modern era : NESAT XII : the North European Symposium of Archaeological Textiles 21st-24th May in Hallstatt, Austria. Series: Archaeolingua Main Series (33). Archaeological Alapítvány: Budapest, pp. 73-82. ISBN 9789639911673

Harris, S. (2015) Flax fibre: innovation and change in the early Neolithic: a technological and material perspective. In: Svenson, A. (ed.) Textile Society of America 2014 Biennial Symposium Proceedings: New Directions: Examining the Past, Creating the Future, Los. University of Nebraska Digital Commons: California, pp. 1-10.

2014

Douny, L. and Harris, S. (2014) Wrapping and unwrapping, concepts and approaches. In: Harris, S. and Douny, L. (eds.) Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Series: Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (64). Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, California, pp. 15-40. ISBN 9781611328875

Harris, S. and Douny, L. (Eds.) (2014) Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Series: Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, California. ISBN 9781611328875

Harris, S. (2014) Sensible dress: the sight, sound, smell and touch of Late Ertebølle Mesolithic cloth types. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 24(1), pp. 37-56. (doi: 10.1017/S0959774314000031)

Harris, S. and Veldmeijer, A. (Eds.) (2014) Why Leather? The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. Sidestone: Leiden. ISBN 9789088902611

Harris, S. (2014) Cloth culture in the Middle Neolithic of northern Italy with special reference to basketry (c.4900-4250 BC). In: Pearce, M. and Whitehouse, R. D. (eds.) Rethinking the Italian Neolithic. Series: Accordia Research Papers, 13 (13). Accordia Research Institute, University of London, pp. 103-130. ISBN 9781873415405

Harris, S. (2014) Introduction: leather in archaeology, between material properties, materiality and technological choices. In: Harris, S. and Veldmeijer, A. (eds.) Why Leather? The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. Sidestone Press: Leiden, pp. 9-21. ISBN 9789088902611

Harris, S. (2014) Wrapping the dead: an investigation of the Bronze Age burial mounds of southern Scandinavia through a wrapping analysis. In: Harris, S. and Douny, L. (eds.) Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Series: Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (64). Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, pp. 115-134. ISBN 9781611328875

Harris, S. and Hoffmann, K. P. (2014) From stones to gendered bodies: regional differences in the production of the body and gender on the copper age statue-Menhirs of Northern Italy and the Swiss Valais. European Journal of Archaeology, 17(2), pp. 264-285. (doi: 10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000054)

Lelong, O. et al. (2014) Wrappings of power: a woman's burial in cattle hide at Langwell Farm, Strath Oykel. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 144, pp. 65-131.

2012

Harris, S. (2012) From the parochial to the universal: comparing cloth cultures in the Bronze Age. European Journal of Archaeology, 15(1), pp. 61-97. (doi: 10.1179/1461957112Y.0000000006)

2011

Higgitt, C., Harris, S. , Cartwright, C. and Cruickshank, P. (2011) Assessing the potential of historic archaeological collections: a pilot study of the British Museum’s Swiss lake village textiles. British Museum Technical Research Bulletin, 5, pp. 81-94.

Harris, S. (2011) Preparing skins in prehistory: a review of evidence and approaches. In: Thomson, R. and Mould, Q. (eds.) Leather tanneries: the archaeological evidence. Archetype Press for the Archaeological Leather Group: London, pp. 57-67. ISBN 9781904982616

2009

Harris, S. , Rösel-Mautendorfer, H., Grömer, K. and Reschreiter, H. (2009) Cloth cultures in prehistoric Europe: the Bronze Age evidence from Hallstatt. Archaeology International, 12, pp. 22-26. (doi: 10.5334/ai.1206)

Harris, S. (2009) Smooth and cool or warm and soft, investigating the properties of cloth in prehistory. In: Andersson Strand, E., Gleba, M., Mannering, U., Munkholt, C. and Ringgaard, M. (eds.) North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X. Series: Ancient textiles series (5). Oxbow Books: Oxford, pp. 140-112. ISBN 9781785701566

2008

Harris, S. (2008) Textiles, cloth and skins: the problem of terminology and relationship. Textile, 6(3), pp. 222-237. (doi: 10.2752/175183508X377645)

Harris, S. (2008) Exploring the materiality of prehistoric cloth types. In: Cunningham, P., Heeb, J. and Paardekooper, R. (eds.) Experiencing Archaeology by Experiment: Proceedings of the Experimental Archaeology Conference, Exeter 2007. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 81-102. ISBN 9781842173428

2007

Harris, S. (2007) Investigating social aspects of technical processes: cloth production from plant fibers in a Neolithic lake dwelling on Lake Constance, Germany. In: Beugnier, V. and Crombé, P. (eds.) Plant Processing From A Prehistoric and Ethnographic Perspective. Series: BAR international series (1718). Archaeopress: Oxford, pp. 83-100. ISBN 9781407302010

2006

Harris, S. (2006) A report on the examination of animal skin artefacts from the Bronze Age salt mines of Hallstatt, Austria. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 17, pp. 69-76. (doi: 10.5334/pia.270)

2004

Harris, S. (2004) I tessuti nelle composizioni monumentali della Valcamonica nell'età del Rame. Bollettino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, 34, pp. 222-228.

2003

Harris, S. (2003) Representations of woven textiles in Alpine Europe during the Copper Age. In: Herring, E. and Wilkins, J.B. (eds.) Inhabiting Symbols: symbol and image in the ancient Mediterranean. Series: Accordia specialist studies on the Mediterranean (5). Accordia Research Institute, University of London: London, pp. 43-84. ISBN 9781873415252

This list was generated on Tue Jun 15 14:38:09 2021 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Book Sections | Edited Books | Conference Proceedings
Number of items: 35.

Articles

Dimova, B., Gleba, M. and Harris, S. (2020) Naval power and textile technology: sail production in ancient Greece. World Archaeology, (Accepted for Publication)

Gleba, M. and Harris, S. (2019) The first plant bast fibre technology: identifying splicing in archaeological textiles. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11(5), pp. 2329-2346. (doi: 10.1007/s12520-018-0677-8)

Hopewell, P. and Harris, S. (2019) Blue dyed textiles in Early Iron Age Europe: accessible or exclusive? Archaeological Textiles Review, 61, pp. 24-37.

Harris, S. , Haigh, S., Handley, A. and Sampson, W. (2017) Material choices for fibre in the Neolithic: an approach through the measurement of mechanical properties. Archaeometry, 59(3), pp. 574-591. (doi: 10.1111/arcm.12267)

Harris, S. (2017) From value to desirability: the allure of worldly things. World Archaeology, 49(5), pp. 681-699. (doi: 10.1080/00438243.2017.1413416)

Melton, N. D., Montgomery, J., Roberts, B. W., Cook, G. and Harris, S. (2016) On the curious date of the Rylstone log-coffin burial. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 82, pp. 383-392. (doi: 10.1017/ppr.2016.5)

Harris, S. and Gleba, M. (2015) Bronze Age moss fibre garments from Scotland – the jury’s out. Archaeological Textiles Review(57), pp. 3-11.

Harris, S. (2014) Sensible dress: the sight, sound, smell and touch of Late Ertebølle Mesolithic cloth types. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 24(1), pp. 37-56. (doi: 10.1017/S0959774314000031)

Harris, S. and Hoffmann, K. P. (2014) From stones to gendered bodies: regional differences in the production of the body and gender on the copper age statue-Menhirs of Northern Italy and the Swiss Valais. European Journal of Archaeology, 17(2), pp. 264-285. (doi: 10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000054)

Lelong, O. et al. (2014) Wrappings of power: a woman's burial in cattle hide at Langwell Farm, Strath Oykel. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 144, pp. 65-131.

Harris, S. (2012) From the parochial to the universal: comparing cloth cultures in the Bronze Age. European Journal of Archaeology, 15(1), pp. 61-97. (doi: 10.1179/1461957112Y.0000000006)

Higgitt, C., Harris, S. , Cartwright, C. and Cruickshank, P. (2011) Assessing the potential of historic archaeological collections: a pilot study of the British Museum’s Swiss lake village textiles. British Museum Technical Research Bulletin, 5, pp. 81-94.

Harris, S. , Rösel-Mautendorfer, H., Grömer, K. and Reschreiter, H. (2009) Cloth cultures in prehistoric Europe: the Bronze Age evidence from Hallstatt. Archaeology International, 12, pp. 22-26. (doi: 10.5334/ai.1206)

Harris, S. (2008) Textiles, cloth and skins: the problem of terminology and relationship. Textile, 6(3), pp. 222-237. (doi: 10.2752/175183508X377645)

Harris, S. (2006) A report on the examination of animal skin artefacts from the Bronze Age salt mines of Hallstatt, Austria. Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, 17, pp. 69-76. (doi: 10.5334/pia.270)

Harris, S. (2004) I tessuti nelle composizioni monumentali della Valcamonica nell'età del Rame. Bollettino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, 34, pp. 222-228.

Book Sections

Harris, S. (2019) The sensory archaeology of textiles. In: Skeates, R. and Day, J. (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Sensory Archaeology. Routledge: Abingdon, pp. 210-232. ISBN 9781138676299

Harris, S. (2019) The challenge of textiles in early bronze age burials: fragments of magnificence. In: Sabatini, S. and Bergerbrant, S. (eds.) The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe. Cambridge University Press, pp. 154-196. ISBN 9781108493598

Cameron, E., Harris, S. and Mould, Q. (2016) The textile and animal-skin object. In: Jones, A. M. (ed.) Preserved in the Peat: an Extraordinary Bronze Age Burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its Wider Context. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 148-156. ISBN 9781785702600

Harris, S. (2016) The charred textiles from the cremation deposit. In: Jones, A. M. (ed.) Preserved in the Peat: an Extraordinary Bronze Age Burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its Wider Context. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 49-51. ISBN 9781785702600

Sheridan, A. et al. (2016) The composite braided hair armband or bracelet. In: Jones, A. M. (ed.) Preserved in the Peat: an Extraordinary Bronze Age Burial on Whitehorse Hill, Dartmoor, and its Wider Context. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 75-87. ISBN 9781785702600

Harris, S. (2015) Folded, layered textiles from a Bronze Age pit pyre excavated from Over Barrow 2, Cambridgeshire, England. In: Grömer, K. and Pritchard, F. (eds.) Aspects of the design, production and use of textiles and clothing from the Bronze Age to the early modern era : NESAT XII : the North European Symposium of Archaeological Textiles 21st-24th May in Hallstatt, Austria. Series: Archaeolingua Main Series (33). Archaeological Alapítvány: Budapest, pp. 73-82. ISBN 9789639911673

Harris, S. (2015) Flax fibre: innovation and change in the early Neolithic: a technological and material perspective. In: Svenson, A. (ed.) Textile Society of America 2014 Biennial Symposium Proceedings: New Directions: Examining the Past, Creating the Future, Los. University of Nebraska Digital Commons: California, pp. 1-10.

Douny, L. and Harris, S. (2014) Wrapping and unwrapping, concepts and approaches. In: Harris, S. and Douny, L. (eds.) Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Series: Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (64). Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, California, pp. 15-40. ISBN 9781611328875

Harris, S. (2014) Cloth culture in the Middle Neolithic of northern Italy with special reference to basketry (c.4900-4250 BC). In: Pearce, M. and Whitehouse, R. D. (eds.) Rethinking the Italian Neolithic. Series: Accordia Research Papers, 13 (13). Accordia Research Institute, University of London, pp. 103-130. ISBN 9781873415405

Harris, S. (2014) Introduction: leather in archaeology, between material properties, materiality and technological choices. In: Harris, S. and Veldmeijer, A. (eds.) Why Leather? The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. Sidestone Press: Leiden, pp. 9-21. ISBN 9789088902611

Harris, S. (2014) Wrapping the dead: an investigation of the Bronze Age burial mounds of southern Scandinavia through a wrapping analysis. In: Harris, S. and Douny, L. (eds.) Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Series: Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (64). Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, pp. 115-134. ISBN 9781611328875

Harris, S. (2011) Preparing skins in prehistory: a review of evidence and approaches. In: Thomson, R. and Mould, Q. (eds.) Leather tanneries: the archaeological evidence. Archetype Press for the Archaeological Leather Group: London, pp. 57-67. ISBN 9781904982616

Harris, S. (2009) Smooth and cool or warm and soft, investigating the properties of cloth in prehistory. In: Andersson Strand, E., Gleba, M., Mannering, U., Munkholt, C. and Ringgaard, M. (eds.) North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles X. Series: Ancient textiles series (5). Oxbow Books: Oxford, pp. 140-112. ISBN 9781785701566

Harris, S. (2008) Exploring the materiality of prehistoric cloth types. In: Cunningham, P., Heeb, J. and Paardekooper, R. (eds.) Experiencing Archaeology by Experiment: Proceedings of the Experimental Archaeology Conference, Exeter 2007. Oxbow: Oxford, pp. 81-102. ISBN 9781842173428

Harris, S. (2007) Investigating social aspects of technical processes: cloth production from plant fibers in a Neolithic lake dwelling on Lake Constance, Germany. In: Beugnier, V. and Crombé, P. (eds.) Plant Processing From A Prehistoric and Ethnographic Perspective. Series: BAR international series (1718). Archaeopress: Oxford, pp. 83-100. ISBN 9781407302010

Harris, S. (2003) Representations of woven textiles in Alpine Europe during the Copper Age. In: Herring, E. and Wilkins, J.B. (eds.) Inhabiting Symbols: symbol and image in the ancient Mediterranean. Series: Accordia specialist studies on the Mediterranean (5). Accordia Research Institute, University of London: London, pp. 43-84. ISBN 9781873415252

Edited Books

Harris, S. and Douny, L. (Eds.) (2014) Wrapping and Unwrapping Material Culture: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Series: Publications of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Left Coast Press: Walnut Creek, California. ISBN 9781611328875

Harris, S. and Veldmeijer, A. (Eds.) (2014) Why Leather? The Material and Cultural Dimensions of Leather. Sidestone: Leiden. ISBN 9789088902611

Conference Proceedings

Harris, S. and Jones, A. M. (2017) Beautiful Things: Textiles and Fibre Artefacts from an Early Bronze Age Cremation, Whitehorse Hill, England. In: North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles: NESAT XIII, Liberec, Czech Republic, 22-26 May 2017, ISBN 9788074943973

This list was generated on Tue Jun 15 14:38:09 2021 BST.

Grants

  • 2021-2024 Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Co-investigator with National Museums Scotland 
  • 2018 Looking inside the past: CT scanning ancient textiles, Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies, Major Research Grant
  • 2017-2018 Micro-Tracing British Bronze Age textiles (2200-900 BC), Carnegie Research Incentive Grant.
  • 2015 The Representation of Clothing on Iron Age Situla Art, Vienna National History Museum, Synthesys award.
  • 2008-2011 Cloth Cultures of Prehistoric Europe, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship.
  • 2009  Wrapping and Unwrapping the Body – Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, UCL Institute of Archaeology Conference Competition.
  • 2008-2009  Cloth Cultures of Europe and Egypt in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, Alwyn Cotton Research Fellowship.

Supervision

I welcome enquiries to supervise research students with interests in:

  • Archaeological Textiles
  • Dress and Clothing
  • Experimental Archaeology
  • Archaeological Material Culture

I currently supervise:

  • Neill, Rebecca
    How Powerful Materials Shaped the Gupta Empire of India
  • Prew, George
    The Archaeology of Fashion in the Central Italic Iron Age

Teaching

Undergraduate

Post Graduate

Additional information

Academic societies


Photo of Susanna Harris