Melanie Giles
Melanie Giles in a Panel Discussion
OccupationArchaeologist
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Sheffield
ThesisOpen-weave, Close-knit: archaeologies of identity in the late prehistoric landscape of East Yorkshire (2000)
Academic work
InstitutionsUniversity of Manchester

Melanie Giles FSA FBA is a British archaeologist and academic, specialising in Iron Age Britain. She is a Professor in European Prehistory at the University of Manchester.[1]

Education

Giles completed her BA in Archaeology and MA in Landscape Archaeology at the University of Sheffield.[1] Her PhD, undertaken at the University of Sheffield was supervised by Mike Parker Pearson and John Barrett.[2] She investigated the Iron Age landscapes of East Yorkshire. The thesis was titled 'Open-weave, close-knit' : archaeologies of identity in the later prehistoric landscape of East Yorkshire.[3]

Career

Giles' initial research looked at British Iron Age communities, especially the square barrow burials of East Yorkshire, resulting in her major monograph A Forged Glamour. The book combined evidence for landscape management and mobility, aspects of community, power and personal biography, approached through the study of material culture including Iron Age mirrors, swords, shields and jewellery. The book was described as "a model of how big questions can be addressed by close attention to the archaeological data".[4] More recent work has addressed disease and violence in Iron Age Britain, and their relationship with funerary behaviour and mortuary treatment.[5] Giles is a member of the Bog Body network,[6] and has undertaken research on Iron Age bog bodies.[7] She has also undertaken the study of material culture, including the aesthetics of martial objects,[8] and the symbolic aspects of ironworking technology.[9] Giles has also undertaken research on industrial archaeology, including horse lads in East Yorkshire,[10] and the Whitworth Park Community Archaeology and History Project.[11]

Giles joined the University of Manchester after having taught at University College Dublin and the University of Leicester.[1]

In 2016, Giles was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).[12] In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.[13] She was promoted to Professor in European Prehistory in January 2023.<ref name=":0">

Selected publications

  • (2007) Making metal and forging relations: Ironworking in the British Iron Age. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26(4): 395-413.
  • (2009) Iron Age bog bodies of north-western Europe. Representing the dead. Archaeological Dialogues 16(1): 75-101.
  • (2012) A Forged Glamour: Landscape, Identity and Material Culture in the Iron Age. Oxford: Windgather Press.
  • (2015) Performing pain, performing beauty: dealing with difficult death in the Iron Age. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 25(3): 539-550.
  • (2020) Bog Bodies: face to face with the past. Manchester, Manchester University Press.
  • Cooper, Anwen; Garrow, Duncan; Gibson, Catriona; Giles, Melanie; Wilkin, Neil (2022). Grave goods: objects and death in later prehistoric Britain. Oxford: Oxbow Books. ISBN 978-1789257472.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Professor in European Prehistory Melanie Giles | The University of Manchester". www.research.manchester.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  2. ↑ Giles, Melanie. (2013). A Forged Glamour : Landscape, Identity and Material Culture in the Iron Age. Windgather Press. pp. xii. ISBN 978-1-909686-03-8. OCLC 1048404541.
  3. ↑ Giles, Melanie C. (2000). 'Open-weave, close-knit' : archaeologies of identity in the later prehistoric landscape of East Yorkshire (phd thesis). University of Sheffield.
  4. ↑ Wells, Peter (2013). A FORGED GLAMOUR: LANDSCAPE, IDENTITY AND MATERIAL CULTURE IN THE IRON AGE BY MELANIE GILES Windgather Press, Oxbow Books, 2012. 270 pp, 55 illus incl 15 colour, 4 tables, ISBN 978-1-905119-46-2, pb, £30.00/$60.00 (PDF). Prehistoric Society Book Reviews.
  5. ↑ Giles, Melanie (2015). "Performing Pain, Performing Beauty: Dealing With Difficult Death in the Iron Age". Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 25 (3): 539–550. doi:10.1017/S0959774314001036. ISSN 0959-7743.
  6. ↑ "Bog Body Network". Bog Body Network. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  7. ↑ Giles, Melanie (2009). "Iron Age bog bodies of north-western Europe. Representing the dead". Archaeological Dialogues. 16 (1): 75–101. doi:10.1017/S1380203809002815. ISSN 1478-2294. S2CID 145448423.
  8. ↑ Giles, Melanie (2008). "Seeing red: the aesthetics of martial objects in the British and Irish Iron Age". In Garrow, Duncan (ed.). Rethinking Celtic Art. Oxford: Oxbow Books. pp. 59–77.
  9. ↑ Giles, Melanie (2007). "Making Metal and Forging Relations: Ironworking in the British Iron Age". Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 26 (4): 395–413. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.2007.00290.x. ISSN 1468-0092.
  10. ↑ Giles, Kate; Giles, Melanie (2007-12-01). "The Writing on the Wall: The Concealed Communities of the East Yorkshire Horselads" (PDF). International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 11 (4): 336–357. doi:10.1007/s10761-007-0037-3. ISSN 1573-7748. S2CID 143288570.
  11. ↑ "Whitworth Parklife". Whitworth Parklife. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  12. ↑ "Fellows Directory - Society of Antiquaries". www.sal.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  13. ↑ "Dr Melanie Giles FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
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