[Photo of James Barrett]

James H. Barrett

Deputy Director, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Office: Courtyard Building
Phone: +44 (0)1223 339287
Fax: +44 (0)1223 333536
Email: jhb41@cam.ac.uk

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Current research interests

I specialise in medieval archaeology and historical ecology, with particular interests in the Viking Age, political economy, migration and the comparative study of maritime societies. Much of my research has involved the application of archaeological science to Medieval Archaeology, with the ultimate aim of reconciling archaeology's divergent scientific, theoretical and historical paradigms. Additional strands of my work are humanistic in focus, including studies of power and ideology in the context of the Viking Age diaspora.

Current research projects

Having completed excavations at the Viking Age and medieval settlement of Quoygrew, Orkney, I am now finalising the results for publication as a McDonald Institute Monograph. Concurrently, I am writing up a research project on the Medieval Origins of Commercial Sea Fishing using zooarchaeological and biomolecular methods (funded by the Leverhulme Trust). I have started a new excavation at a Viking Age chieftain's stronghold in Orkney known as the Brough of Deerness, and am the leader of a Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar series on crises and 'dark ages' in comparative perspective.