About
I am a Quaternary palynologist with a particular interest in prehistory and human impact on early Holocene environments. I joined Archaeology as a Research Assistant, University of Birmingham in 2007. I have since worked on the palaeoenvironmental component for a variety of research projects.
Qualifications
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B.Sc. (Plymouth)
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M.Sc. (Birmingham)
Teaching
Research
Environmental Change
This has mainly focused on the palynological analysis of cores from the UK as well as Europe and the Middle East.
This has primarily focused on the pollen analysis from peat deposits associated with late prehistoric timber alignments at Barsham and Beccles Marshes, Suffolk, as part of English Heritage funded excavations carried out by staff from Archaeology
The analysis of early Holocene deposits associated with the pre-inundation landscape of the southern North Sea (‘Doggerland’) as part of the Humber Regional Environmental Characterisation project in collaboration with the British Geological Survey.
Other activities
Conference papers
2012 – East Midlands Heritage Conference, Derby:
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Emma Hopla, Ben Gearey, Simon Fitch and Vince Gaffney ‘Investigating Doggerland: Submerged Mesolithic Landscapes of the Humber Estuary and North Sea’
2012 – Association of Environmental Archaeology Spring Conference, Plymouth:
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Emma Hopla and Ben Gearey ‘Rough Tor Re-Visited: Re- assessing the palaeoecological evidence for prehistoric human activity on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall’
Publications
Recent publications
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E.Hopla and B.R.Gearey (2012) Mesolithic-Neolithic anthropogenic impacts on the upland environment of Bodmin Moor, south-west England: A re-investigation of the pollen record from Rough Tor South. Cornish Archaeology.
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Krawiec, K., Gearey, B.R., Chapman, H., Hopla, E., Bamforth, M., Griffiths, C and Tyers, I. (2011) A Late prehistoric timber alignment in the Waveney Valley, Suffolk: Excavations at Barsham Marshes. Journal of Wetland Archaeology.
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Tappin, D R, Pearce, B, Fitch, S, Dove, D, Gearey, B, Hill, J M, Chambers, C, Bates, R, Pinnion, J, Diaz Doce, D, Green, M, Gallyot, J, Georgiou, L, Brutto, D, Marzialetti, S, Hopla, E, Ramsay, E, and Fielding, H (2011) The Humber Regional Environmental Characterisation. British Geological Survey Open Report OR/10/54. 357pp.
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B.R.Gearey and E.Hopla (in press) Prehistoric Boglands and Life in the Peatlands. In P.Stevens and V.J.Keeley (Eds.) Archaeological Excavations on the M8/N8 Culahill to Cashel Road Scheme. NRA Monograph.
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Gearey, B., Fitch, S., Hopla, E and Tappin, D (submitted) ‘From Small Things to Big Pictures? Possibilities and Problems in Studying the Environmental Archaeology of the Southern North Sea’ in Adams, R and Grattan, J (eds) Keys to the Future: Geoarchaeology in the 21st Century.