Biography
I have a deep and abiding interest in the archaeology of Cambridgeshire and Eastern England, with over twenty years’ experience of working in the region, both directly within the commercial sector and in research on material generated from development-led archaeology.
I first entered professional archaeology with the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) in 2001, following the completion of my degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge. In 2012 I finished a PhD at the University of York and returned to work within the commercial sector. In my various roles I have been a field archaeologist, prehistoric pottery specialist, researcher, curatorial archaeologist, and project manager.
I returned to the CAU as Director in 2021. I am now responsible for the operational leadership of the organisation and the shaping of its strategic direction, both in terms of its commercial endeavours and research objectives.
Research
My primary research interests lie in the archaeology of the Cambridge region and the later prehistory of Eastern England, specifically the Later Bronze Age and Iron Age. My research focusses on ceramics, settlements, landscapes and the practical engagements between people, things, and places. In my work I have explored how pottery was implicated in the constitution of identities at multiple scales of social resolution, examining the articulation of broad regional patterns and basic technological traditions, such as the ways pots were made, used and deposited.
I am also interested in synthesising the wealth of regional data from commercial archaeology, to better understand how broader processes unfolded in different ways in different parts of Brittan. For example, how regional sequences combine and diverge at different points and places in prehistory, and what this means in social terms.
Key Publications
Monographs
Knight, M., and Brudenell, M. 2020. Pattern & Process. Landscape Prehistories from Whittlesey Brick Pits, The Bradley Fen & King's Dyke Excavations (Flag Fen Basin Depth & Time Series Volume 1). Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs
Evans, C., and Lucy, S., with Appleby, G., Appleby, J., and Brudenell, M. 2016. Lives in Land. Mucking Excavations by Margaret and Tom Jones, 1965-1978: Prehistory, Context and Summary. Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Unit Monograph
Evans C., with Brudenell, M., Patten, R., and Regan, R. 2013. Process and History: Prehistoric Fen-edge Communities at Colne Fen, Earith (The Archaeology of the Lower Ouse Valley/Volume I). Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monograph
Evans, C., Beadsmore, E., Brudenell, M., and Lucas, G. 2009. Fengate Revisited: Further Fen-edge Excavations, Bronze Age Fieldsystems & Settlement and the Wyman Abbott/Leeds Archives (CAU Landscape Archives: Historiography and Fieldwork (1)). Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Articles
Brudenell, M., Billington, L., and Mason, N. 2020. Above the Fen Edge: Prehistoric activity on land west of Newark Road, Fengate, Peterborough. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 109, 25-40
Billington, L., and Brudenell, M. 2019. Investigation of a cropmark complex at Limes Farm, Landbeach. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 108, 33-50
Clarke, G., and Brudenell, M. 2019. Later Prehistoric settlement and ceramics from the Downland fringes at New Thanington, Canterbury. Archaeologia Cantiana 140, 111-123
Rees, G., and Brudenell, M. 2019. Early and Middle Iron Age settlement at Glinton, Peterborough. Northamptonshire Archaeology 40, 87-105
Brudenell, M. 2018. Earlier Iron Age Enclosures at Elton-on-the-Hill, Nottinghamshire. Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottingham 122, 81-98
Billington, L., Brudenell, M., and Clarke, G. 2018. Beaker pits and Iron Age settlement at Warren Hill, Saxmundham, Suffolk. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History 44, 187-193
Brudenell, M., Herring, V., and Horne, D. 2016. Vessel volumes and Visualisation: Innovative Computer Applications for Ceramicists, 199-220. In E. Sibbesson, B. Jervis and S. Coxon (eds), Insights From Innovation: New Light on Archaeological Ceramics. Oxford: Oxbow
Brudenell, M., and Hogan, S. 2014. Refining Suffolk’s Later Prehistoric Ceramic Sequence: Iron Age pottery and settlement remains at Morland Road, Ipswich. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History 43, 207-218.
Brudenell, M., and Plouviez, J. 2014. Archaeology in Suffolk 2013. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History 43, 263-290
Brudenell, M. 2011. Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age pottery in Norfolk - A review. In J. Davies (ed.), The Iron Age in Northern East Anglia: New Work in the Land of the Iceni, 11-24. Oxford: British Archaeology Reports, British Series 549
Brudenell, M. 2008. Reclaiming the Early Iron Age in eastern England. In O. Davies, N. Sharples and K. Waddington (eds), Changing perspectives on the first millennium BC, 185-189. Oxford: Oxbow
Brudenell, M., and Cooper, A. 2008. Post-middenism: depositional histories on Later Bronze Age settlements at Broom, Bedfordshire. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 27, 15-36
Specialist contributions
Brudenell, M. 2020. Prehistoric Pottery. In C. Evans and G. Lucas, Hinterland & Inlands. The Archaeology of West Cambridge and Roman Cambridge Revisited (CAU Landscape Archives: New Archaeologies of the Cambridge Region (3)), 447-449. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs
Brudenell, M., and Knight, M. 2020. Prehistoric Pottery. In R. Wiseman, Early to Middle Iron Age settlement and re-used Middle Bronze Age field systems at Knobb’s Farm, 18-19. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 109
Brudenell, M. 2019. Later Prehistoric pottery. In T. Havard, M. Alexander and R. Holt, Iron Age Fortification Beside the River Lark: Excavation at Mildenhall, Suffolk, 61-75. Cirencester: East Anglian Archaeology 169
Brudenell, M. 2018. Pottery. In C. Evans, S. Lucy, and R. Pattern, Riversides. Neolithic Barrows, a Beaker Grave, Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon Burial and Settlement at Trumpington, Cambridge (CAU Landscape Archives: New Archaeologies of the Cambridge Region (2)), 192-216. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs
Brudenell, M. 2016. Late Bronze Age Pottery. In C. Evans with J. Tabor, and M Vander Linden, Twice-crossed river. Prehistoric and paleoenvironmental investigations at Barleycroft Farm/Over, Cambridgeshire (Cambridge Archaeological Unit Landscape Archives Series: The Archaeology of the Lower Ouse Valley, Volume III), 166-172. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Brudenell, M. 2016. Later Iron Age Pottery. In C. Evans with J. Tabor, and M Vander Linden, Twice-crossed river. Prehistoric and paleoenvironmental investigations at Barleycroft Farm/Over, Cambridgeshire (Cambridge Archaeological Unit Landscape Archives Series: The Archaeology of the Lower Ouse Valley, Volume III), 525-530. Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monographs.
Anderson, K., with Brudenell, M. 2015, Later Prehistoric and Roman Pottery. In S. Paul and J. Hunt, Evolution of a Community: The Colonisation of a Clay Inland Landscape. Neolithic to Post-Medieval remains excavated between 1995 and 2011 at Longstanton in Cambridgeshire, 44-46. Oxford: Archaeopress
Brown, L., Brudenell, M., and Perceval, S. 2015. The Prehistoric Pottery. In T. Philips, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement and land-use at the Milton Landfill and Park & Ride Sites, Cambridgeshire, 17-22. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 104
Brudenell, M. 2014. Later prehistoric pottery. In J. Tabor, Later Prehistoric Settlement at Days Road, Caple St Mary, 186-195. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology & History 43
Brudenell, M. 2013. The Prehistoric Pottery. In A. Lyons, High living at Marks Warren: A North-East London landscape from the Mesolithic to the Modern Period, 24-31. The Essex Society for Archaeology and History 2
Anderson, K., with M. Brudenell. 2012. The Prehistoric and Roman Pottery. In R. Patten, An Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Summersfield, Papworth Everard, 126-129. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 101
Brudenell, M. 2012. Early Iron Age pottery. In A. Pickstone and R. Mortimer, War Ditches, Cherry Hinton: Revisiting an Iron Age Hillfort, 44-45. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 101
Brudenell, M., and Anderson, A. 2012. Pottery. In C, Evans, J. Hutton, and S. Timberlake, Addenbrooke’s Hospital Excavation, 2007 & 2010: The Last of the Cr’aster’s Enclosure, 108-109. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 101
Brudenell M. 2011. Late Bronze Age pottery. In C. Evans and R. Patten, An Inland Bronze Age: Excavations at Striplands Farm, West Longstanton, 19-26. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 100
Brudenell M. 2011. Prehistoric Pottery. In A. Dickens and M. Collins, Down the Line: Archaeological investigations on the route of the Cambridge Guided Busway, 118-121. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 100
Brudenell, M. 2011c. Bronze Age and Iron Age pottery. In K. Waddington and N. Sharples, The excavations at Whitchurch 2006-2009, An Interim Report, 47-51. Cardiff: Cardiff University/Cardiff Studies in Archaeology, Specialists Report number 31
Anderson, K., with Brudenell, M. 2010. Pottery. In C. Evans and L. Ten Harkel, Roman Cambridge’s Early Settlement and Via Devana: Excavations at Castle Street, 46-49. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 99
Brudenell, M. 2009. Iron Age Pottery. In D. Mackay, Excavations at Scotland Road/Union Lane, Chesterton, 81-82. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 98
Brudenell, M., with Hill, J.D. 2009. The later prehistoric pottery. In C. Evans, E. Beadsmore, M. Brudenell, and G. Lucas, Fengate Revisited: Further Fen-edge Excavations, Bronze Age Fieldsystems & Settlement and the Wyman Abbott/Leeds Archives (CAU Landscape Archives: Historiography and Fieldwork (1)), 188-192. Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Brudenell, M. 2008. Late Bronze Age pottery. In C. Evans with D. Mackay and L. Webley, Borderlands. The Archaeology of the Addenbrooke’s Environs, South Cambridge, 35-9. Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Brudenell, M. 2007. The Later Prehistoric Pottery. In A. Cooper and M. Edmonds, Past and Present, Excavations at Broom, Bedfordshire, 1996-2005, 241-64. Oxford: Oxbow
Publication
2024 (Published online)
Doi: 10.1017/ppr.2024.5
2024 (Accepted for publication)
2023 (Accepted for publication)
2023
Doi: 10.5284/1116736
2022 (Accepted for publication)
2022
Doi: http://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2022.94
2009
2008
Doi: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2007.00293.x
2024
Doi: 10.17863/CAM.106697
2020
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55585
2019 (No publication date)
2009
2024
Doi: 10.17863/CAM.107061
2020
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55584
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55581
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55680
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55582
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55579
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55580
Doi: http://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.55583
Teaching and Supervisions
Occasional/guest lecturing
Other Professional Activities
Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists
