ANGELA BOYLE
BURIAL ARCHAEOLOGIST
ABOUT ME
QUALIFICATIONS:
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PhD, University of Edinburgh 2013-2021. ‘Cowboys and Indians? A biocultural study of violence and conflict in south-east Scotland c. AD 400 to c. AD 800.’
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Master of Arts (Honours) in Archaeology, University of Glasgow, 1983-87
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Master of Arts in Palaeopathology and Funerary Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 1987-90
MEMBERSHIPS:
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Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London
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Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
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Member of BABAO (British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology)
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Member of CIfA (Chartered Institute for Archaeologists)
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Member of APABE (Advisory Panel on the Archaeology of Burials in England). I was secretary from 2012-16.
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Member of Archaeology Scotland
EXPERIENCE:
I have worked as a professional archaeologist and osteoarchaeologist across Britain for almost 35 years. I have also excavated at Demouville in France, Landshut in Germany and Al Ula in Saudi Arabia. I worked at Oxford Archaeology from 1990-2005 where I performed a wide variety of tasks ranging from excavation, through osteoarchaeological and artefactual analysis, report writing and editing, to project management. When I left OA in 2005 I was running my own department which specialised in burial archaeology and osteoarchaeology. I spent 3 years from 2005-2008 as Contracts Manager at GUARD (Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division). Since leaving GUARD I have been self-employed.
My experience is wide-ranging and includes cemeteries and skeletal assemblages of all periods from the Neolithic to the 19th-century. Significant projects include the excavation of an intact Iron Age chariot at Ferrybridge, West Yorkshire and a Viking mass burial at Ridgeway Hill in Weymouth. The work at Ridgeway Hill led to my interest in peri-mortem trauma which is the focus of most of my current research. Other highlights include a probable plague pit and two Roman gravestones from the cemetery at London Road, Gloucester and the Roman cemetery at Lankhills in Winchester.
Since 1993 I have had a keen interest in post-medieval burial archaeology and my publications include several contributions to this field. From 2013 to 2016 I worked as a senior editor and abstractor for the Council for British Archaeology.
I was awarded a PhD from the University of Edinburgh in December 2021. My research focussed on the evidence for violence in early medieval Scotland.
Read more about some of the projects I have worked on here.
PUBLICATIONS:
In addition to numerous grey literature reports which can be accessed through the Archaeology Data Service (https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/greylit/) and the Oxford Archaeology library (https://oxfordarchaeology.com/library), I have contributed to many monographs, specialist and county journals. A significant number of my publications have been peer reviewed. A recent co-authored publication on the rediscovery of a Beaker burial from Achavanich in Highland region was the winner of the RBK Stevenson Award for 2018. This award is offered annually for the article published in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on a topic that best reflects the scholarship and high standards of this distinguished archaeologist. See my full publication list here.
