Professor Henry Chapman FSA

Professor Henry Chapman

Classics, Ancient History and Archaeology
Professor of Archaeology

Contact details

Address
ERI Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Henry’s research interests centre on the later prehistoric period, and particularly the relationships between human activity and environmental change within past landscapes and focusing on wetland sites. He specialises in the use of digital technologies to enable the modelling and analysis of the wide range of information required for such study to engage with past sites and landscapes.

This interest in the potential of digital technologies within heritage has also expanded to research into the use of these within galleries, museums, libraries and archives. 

Qualifications

  • BA (Exeter)
  • PhD (Hull)

Postgraduate supervision

Henry can supervise postgraduate study in the areas of later prehistory, wetland archaeology, landscape archaeology and the application of digital and spatial technologies within heritage.

He currently supervises students researching digital approaches to conflict archaeology, the landscape archaeology of European bog bodies, predictive modelling of centres of power in Bronze Age Anatolia using GIS, valuing archives in the 21st century, the landscape archaeology of Neolithic causewayed enclosures, and the archaeology of Iron Age marsh-forts.


Find out more - our PhD Classics and Ancient History  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Currently, Henry is involved in a range of projects that combine his research interests and expertise. Specific projects include:

  • The Stonehenge hidden landscapes project
  • The landscape archaeology of European bog bodies
  • Iconoclasm and European later prehistory
  • Causewayed enclosures on the edge of Europe

Henry has recently completed a project that focused on the investigation of landscape archaeology within the ‘hidden’ landscapes of peatlands, combining palaeoenvironmental analyses, chronological modelling, excavation, and GIS analysis, and a second project that investigated the later prehistory of the Waveney valley in East Anglia (both funded by Historic England). Previously, Henry has led projects focusing on the application of digital technologies within museums, for example, through the generation of a virtual museum of the Eton Myers Collection of ancient Egyptian art (funded by JISC).

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Ch’ng, E, Chapman, H, Gaffney, V & Wilson, A (eds) 2022, Visual heritage: digital approaches in heritage science. Springer Series on Cultural Computing, 1 edn, Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77028-0

Chapman, H 2018, Iconoclasm and later prehistory. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315177236

Gearey, B, Chapman, H & Howard, A 2016, Down by the River: Archaeological, palaeoenvironmental and geoarchaeological investigations of the Suffolk river valleys. Oxbow, Oxford.

Paul, S, Colls, K & Chapman, H 2015, Living with the Flood: Mesolithic to post-medieval archaeological remains at Mill Lane, Sawston, Cambridgeshire- A wetland/dryland interface. Oxbow, Oxford.

Article

De Smedt, P, Garwood, P, Chapman, H, Deforce, K, De Grave, J, Hanssens, D & Vandenberghe, D 2022, 'Novel insights into prehistoric land use at Stonehenge by combining electromagnetic and invasive methods with a semi-automated interpretation scheme', Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 143, 105557. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2022.105557

Gaffney, V, Baldwin, E, Bates, M, Bates, CR, Gaffney, C, Hamilton, D, Kinnaird, T, Neubauer, W, Yorston, R, Allaby, R, Chapman, H, Garwood, P, Löcker, K, Hinterleitner, A, Sparrow, T, Trinks, I, Wallner, M & Leivers, M 2020, 'A massive, late Neolithic pit structure associated with Durrington Walls henge', Internet Archaeology, vol. 55, 4. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.55.4

Chapman, H, Van Beek, R, Jennings, B, Smith, D, Helt Nielson, N & Zein - Elabdin, Z 2020, 'Bog bodies in context: developing a best practice approach', European Journal of Archaeology, vol. 23, no. 2. https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2019.54, https://doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2019.54

Chapman, H 2020, 'Heritage Under Pressure – Threats and Solutions. Studies of Agency and Soft Power in the Historic Environment: edited by Michael Dawson, Edward James and Michael Nevell, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2019, 336 pages, £38.00 ISBN: 9781789252460', The Historic Environment: policy & practice. https://doi.org/10.1080/17567505.2020.1712879

Stevens, J & Chapman, H 2020, 'Regional patterns in bog body distribution - a case study from the UK', Journal of Wetland Archaeology, vol. 19, no. 1-2, pp. 131-153. https://doi.org/10.1080/14732971.2019.1707402

Chapman, H & Gearey, B 2019, 'Towards an archaeology of pain? Assessing the evidence from later prehistoric bog bodies', Oxford Journal of Archaeology, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 214-227. https://doi.org/10.1111/ojoa.12165

Harpster, M & Chapman, H 2019, 'Using polygons to model maritime movement in antiquity', Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 111, 104997. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2019.104997

Gaffney, V, Neubauer, W, Garwood, P, Gaffney, C, Löcker, K, Bates, R, De Smedt, P, Baldwin, E, Chapman, H, Hinterlietner, A, Wallner, M, Nau, E, Filzwieser, R, Kainz, J, Trausmuth, T, Schneidhofer, P, Zotti, G, Lugmayer, A, Trinks, I & Corkum, A 2018, 'Durrington Walls and the Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project 2010-2016', Archaeological Prospection, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 255-269. https://doi.org/10.1002/arp.1707

Wagstaff, S, Cheetham, J, Davis, A, Williams, J, Outram, Z, Priddy, D & Chapman, H 2016, 'Hydrological modelling of water-level changes in an area of archaeological significance: a case study from Flag Fen, Cambridgeshire, UK', Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites, vol. 18, no. 1-3, pp. 156-169. https://doi.org/10.1080/13505033.2016.1182753

Commissioned report

Acton, J, Anderson, P, Andres, L, Angus, M, Amor, P, Arrowsmith, J (ed.), Asmelash, H, Bartington, S (ed.), Bengtsson, F, Bhullar, L, Bloss, W, Bonet, B, Börner, S, O Bonsu, N, Bryson, JR, Burns, V, Burrows, A, Calvert, C, Cassidy, N, Cavoski, A, Chadyiwa, M, Chapman, H, Chapman, L, Cockram, M, Degendardt, L, Dickinson, D, Ding, Y, Dobrzynski, D, Dolo, M, Dora, J, Ercolani, M, Ersoy, A, Farag, H, Ferranti, E, Fisher, R, Freer, M, Goldmann, N, Goode, CE, Greenham, S, Gulati, S, Hadfield-Hill, S, Harper, G, Hegerl, G, Hillmansen, S, Holmes, J, Huang, JJ, Huser, C, Jackson, R, Jaroszweski, D, Jefferson, I, Johnson, J, Kaewunruen, S, Kelly-Akinnuoye, F, Kettles, G, Kraftl, P, Krause, S, Leckebusch, GC, Lee, R, Lockwood, B (ed.), Lohse, J, Luna Diez, E, Lynch, I (ed.), MacKenzie, R, Maddison, D, Makepeace, J, Mann, V, Marino, R, Mavronicola, N, McDonald, M, McGowan, K (ed.), Metje, N, Ng, K, Nicol, J, O'Sullivan, C, Phalkey, N, Prestwood, E, Pyatt, N, Quinn, A, Radcliffe, J (ed.), Ravi, M, Reardon, L, Reeder, T, O’Regan, P, Remedios, L, Roberts, J, Rogers, C, Rungskunroch, P, van Schaik, W, Swan, J (ed.), Thomson, I, Toft, H (ed.), Tong, J, Botello Villagrana, F, Walton, A, Wason, C (ed.), Weir, C, Wood, R & Zhong, J 2021, Addressing the climate challenge. University of Birmingham. https://doi.org/10.25500/epapers.bham.00003451

Conference contribution

Garwood, P, Ch’ng, E, Gaffney, V, Chapman, H, Bates, R & Neubauer, W 2017, Merging the real with the virtual: crowd behaviour mining with virtual environments. in 2016 22nd InternationalConference on Virtual Systems& Multimedia (VSMM 2016). ACM/IEEE, 2016 22nd International Conference on Virtual System & Multimedia , Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17/10/16. https://doi.org/10.1109/VSMM.2016.7863209

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

  • Archaeology, particularly prehistory;
  • New technologies for archaeology,
  • GPS, laser scanning, geophysics, GIS;
  • Archaeology in the media

Media experience

Henry has extensive experience in the media having worked on Channel 4's Time Team. He has experience in broadcast and print media, communicating his work on digital heritage, the North Sea mapping project and most recently the extensive new survey of the Stonehenge landscape. Henry has also appeared on a range of archaeology programmes as a presenter and expert contributor for Discovery, BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, and National Geographic. 

Alternative contact number available for this expert: contact the press office

Expertise

  • Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes
  • Development
  • Environment
  • Wetlands
  • Heritage and conservation
  • Innovation, digital and communications 
  • Museums