Dr Neil Christie is a British archaeologist and historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

, and a Reader in Archeology at the University of Leicester

University of Leicester

The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....

.

Biography

Prior to joining the Archeology and Ancient History team at the University of Leicester in 1992, Dr Christie was both an undergraduate and doctoral student in Archeology at Newcastle Upon Tyne; subsequently gaining a Rome Scholarship at the British School at Rome before being employed there to prepare a major excavation report (Santa Cornelia). Returning to Newcastle as Sir James Knott Fellow, he then held a British Academy Postdoctoral Research fellowship with the Institute of Archeology, Oxford. At Leicester he rose in the ranks to Senior Lecturer and now Reader.

Current research interests & projects

In his own words..
"My principal research interests have focused on the history and archaeology of Italy and the Western Mediterranean between c. AD 300-1000, examining in particular the transition period from Roman to medieval and the evolution of settlement patterns. Central to this was my in-depth analysis of the Lombard tribe, whilst a major survey of the period (An Archeology of Italy, AD 300-850) was published in 2006. Core themes in this research include the evolution of towns and the role of defence. An additional research field relates to castle origins and growth, with Italy again the main zone of interest."

"Archaeological fieldwork forms an important component in my research profile: I directed the Cicolano Castles Project in central Italy (1991–94) centring on excavation and survey work on medieval castles and villages in the high Apennines; I co-directed the Sangro Valley Research Project (1995–2000), assessing evolving settlement patterns in eastern central Italy and excavating a medieval watchtower site; and I co-directed a project in eastern Spain (1994–96), examining post-medieval and early modern upland rural exploitation. My current project is centred on the study of the town and setting of Wallingford in south Oxfordshire and its transition from Saxon burh

Burh

A Burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site, sometimes centred upon a hill fort though always intended as a place of permanent settlement, its origin was in military defence; "it represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the...

to Norman town. This includes geophysical and topographic survey, targeted excavations, and re-evaluations of previous watching briefs and unpublished excavations to build an image of urban emergence and development from c. AD 800-1300. A pilot project ran in 2001-4; major AHRC funding enables an extended three-year project (organised with Exeter and Oxford Universities) from 2008-10."

Selected publications

The Lombards. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1995. (256pp). Paperback: 1998.

Towns in Transition: Urban Evolution in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, (edited with S. Loseby), Scolar Press, London 1996. (318pp)

Ethnography and Archaeology in Upland Mediterranean Spain. Manolo’s World: Peopling the Recent Past in the Serra de L’Altmirant, 1994–98,(with P. Beavitt, J. Gisbert Santonja, J. Segui, V. Gil Senis) Leicester Archaeology Monograph, 12, Leicester 2004.(194pp)

Landscapes of Change.(ed).Rural Evolutions in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Ashgate, Aldershot 2004.(324pp)

From Constantine to Charlemagne: An Archaeology of Italy, AD300-800. Ashgate, Aldershot, 2006 (598pp)