Professor Bob Johnston

School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities

Professor of Landscape Archaeology

Director of Recruitment

Dr Bob Johnston
Profile picture of Dr Bob Johnston
r.johnston@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2941

Full contact details

Professor Bob Johnston
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
Room D08
Minalloy House
10-16 Regent Street
91̽»¨
S1 3NJ
Research interests
  • Landscape archaeology
  • Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
  • The archaeology of upland landscapes, particularly in western Britain
  • Prehistoric land enclosure in north-west Europe.
  • Community heritage
Research group

I would welcome applications from students interested in pursuing research into:

  • Landscape archaeology
  • Bronze Age archaeology of Britain and Ireland
  • Social and cultural aspects of later prehistoric agriculture
  • The archaeology of highlands, uplands and mountains
  • Theoretical approaches to human-environment relations.
  • Community and public archaeology

Current Research Students

  • Chris Dwan - Landscape stability and the formation of social memory in prehistoric Britain
  • Siân Evans - A woman in the forge: experiences, mythology and history
  • Barry Heafield - A comparative study of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monumentality in the Peak District, Derbyshire, UK
  • Rebecca Hearne - Archaeology as therapeutic practice: a narrative investigation
  • Emily La Trobe-Bateman - Snowdonia's Early Fieldscapes
  • David Inglis - The impact of Roman lead production on the formation of the militarised and rural landscapes of the Derbyshire Peak District
  • Caitlin Nagle - A multi-proxy investigation of Late Holocene coastal landscapes in North Wales: modelling impacts of past and future climate change
  • Colombine Neal - Water takes land: interactive deep maps of England's lost villages
Teaching activities

Undergraduate

  • Archaeology Matters (co-ordinator)
  • Later Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland (co-ordinator)
  • Work-based Learning (co-ordinator)
  • Human Origins, Migrations and Identities
  • Archaeology of Britain: from Prehistory to the Industrial Revolution
  • Thinking Through Archaeology

Postgraduate

  • Heritage, Place and Community (co-ordinator)
  • Landscape Survey Project (co-ordinator)
  • Later Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland (co-ordinator)
  • Rethinking Archaeology (co-ordinator)
Selected and Recent Publications
  • Hincks, S. and Johnston, R. 2022. . Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 67. doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2022.101423
  • Arnoldussen, S., R. Johnston, and M. Løvschal (eds). 2021. . Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. London: Springer.
  • Johnston, R., R. May and D. McOmish. 2021. Understanding the chronologies of England’s field systems. In S. Arnoldussen, R. Johnston, and M. Løvschal (eds). . Themes in Contemporary Archaeology. London: Springer, 185-207.
  • Griffiths, S., Johnston, R., May, R., McOmish, D., Marshall, P., Last, J., and Bayliss, A. 2021. . European Journal of Archaeology, 1-22.
  • Johnston R. 2021. Bronze Age Worlds: a social prehistory of Britain and Ireland. London: Routledge.
  • Cook, I., Johnston, R. and Selby, K. 2021. . Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 16 (2-4), 553-571.

  • Levene, R., Nesbitt, I., and Johnston, R. 2019. The Boundary. In E. Speight (ed.) Practising Place. Preston: InCertain Places.

  • Marwood, Kimberley, Esme Cleall, Vicky Crewe, David Forrest, Toby Pillatt, Gemma Thorpe and Robert Johnston. 2019. From researching heritage to action heritage. In Jo Vergunst and Helen Graham (eds). Heritage as Community Research: Legacies of Co-Production. Bristol: Policy Press.

  • Pillatt, T., Thorpe, G., Johnston, R. and Marwood, K. 2018. . Journal of Contemporary Archaeology 5(2), 117-134.

  • Smith, George, Astrid. E. Caseldine, David Hopewell, Robert Johnston and Richard I. Macphail. 2018. , Internet Archaeology 47.

  • Johnston, R, and K. Marwood. 2017. . International Journal of Heritage Studies 23(9), 816-831.

  • Vergunst, J., Curtis, E., Davis, O., Graham, H. Johnston, R., and Shepherd, C. 2017. Material Legacies: shaping things and places through heritage. In K. Facer, and K. Pahl (eds). Valuing Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Beyond Impact. Bristol: Policy Press.

  • Johnston R. 2013. Bronze Age field and land division. In H. Fokkens and A. Harding (eds). Handbook to the European Bronze Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 307-323.

  • Badcock, A and Johnston R. 2013. Protest In P. Graves-Brown, R. Harrison and A. Piccini (Eds) The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of the Contemporary World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 321-335.

  • Barker, L., Driver, T., Johnston, R., and Davis, O. 2012. Puffins amidst prehistory: re-interpreting the deep chronology of Skomer Island. In W. Britnell and R. Silvester (Ed.) Reflections on the Past: essays in honour of Frances Lynch. Welshpool: Cambrian Archaeological Association, 280-302.

  • Badcock, A. and Johnston, R. 2009. . Archaeologies 5(2), 306-322.

  • Ghey, E., Edwards, N., and Johnston, R. 2008. Categorising roundhouse settlements in Wales: a critical perspective. Studia Celtica 42, 1-25.

  • Fyfe, RM, Roland, T, Brück, J, Johnston, R, Lewis, H and Wickstead, H. 2008. . Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 2250-2261.

  • Johnston, R. 2008. . Journal of Social Archaeology 8(2), 190-213.

  • Johnston, R. 2008. Later prehistoric landscapes. In J. Pollard (ed.) Prehistoric Britain. Oxford: Blackwell, 268-287.

  • Cummings, V. and Johnston R. (eds) 2007. Prehistoric Journeys. Oxford: Oxbow.

  • Ghey, E., Edwards, N., Johnston, R. and Pope, R. 2007. Internet Archaeology 23.

  • Johnston, R. 2005. A social archaeology of garden plots in the Bronze Age of northern and western Britain. World Archaeology 37(2), 211-223.

  • Johnston, R. 2005. Pattern without a plan: rethinking the Bronze Age coaxial field systems on Dartmoor, south-west England. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 24(1), 1-21.

  • Harding, J. and Johnston R. (eds) 2000. Northern Pasts: interpretations of the prehistory of northern England and southern Scotland. BAR (Brit Ser), Oxford.

  • Johnston, R. 1998. The paradox of landscape. Journal of European Archaeology 1 (3), 313-325.

  • Johnston, R. 1998. Approaches to the perception of landscape: philosophy, theory, methodology. Archaeological Dialogues 5(1), 54-68.